Viva Laughlin

Viva Laughlin is perhaps the most strange new show to come along in quite some time. Lloyd Owen, who was excellent in Monarch of the Glenn is terrible in this role. He does perhaps the worst job ever for an English actor attempting to do an American accent. Close on his heels is executive producer/ actor Hugh Jackman. Both come off sounding totally flat and could do to take some voice lessons. While they're at the lessons, perhaps some singing lessons would also be in order. The show has an annoying habit of the actors spontaneously launching into song at totally irrelevant times. Thus far all the singing has been terrible with the only bright spot being Elvis singing back-up. Think of the t.v. show Las Vegas on a really bad hair day combined with Grease and High School Musical. It's not a pleasant combination.

The overall plot is generally interesting and there are some big name actors involved but the package as a whole probably appeals to far few people to be viable.

Viva Laughlin is fun to watch, but only in the same way that the movie "Plan 9 From Outer Space" is fun to watch: It's such a train wreck, you can have fun seeing how bad it gets: The premise is uninteresting. The characters are uninteresting. Most of the musical numbers are lamely choreographed without flair or style. The dialogue is hilariously bad, replete with clichés and bizarre mixed metaphors.

The one bright note (pun intended) in Viva Laughlin is Hugh Jackman's delightfully cheesy interpretation of a gangster-businessman and his rendition of "Sympathy for the Devil." Unfortunately, that character is not a regular character so he would not appear that often.

The other major actors are just awful--and so is the show.

Lambast the singing all you want, but that's exactly what makes this show something different to watch. I applaud the execs who had the guts to try something off the mainstream. Everyone knows Las Vegas is hot, and NBC already has that cornered.. so why try to compete with the same format? All of you who complain about the singing are missing the point, totally. I expect that every person (men usually) who say they can't stomach musicals have deep down inside, in that dark closet, a soft spot for song in a movie. Or a TV show in this case.

Yeah, it didn't work in Cop Rock, because WE ALL know what cops are supposed to be like. And singing cops is just plain weird.

But the characters in Viva are meant to be cartoonish- almost larger than life... I mean, how many Nevada casino owners do you know? And who says what they're supposed to be like? Most casino owner stereotypes are built of fiction. So why is it so far fetched that they break out into a number once in a while? It's a refreshing change of pace in a TV show, and for that reason alone, I say it deserves a FAIR shake!

This may be the WORST television show EVER made!!! Forget the bad acting. Forget the bad plot and story. It's a television musical! How much worse can it get? Melanie Griffith looks like a jack-o-lantern with all of the surgery she has had. The rest of the cast is a bunch of nobodies you have never heard of and should never have to hear from again. I mean really, breaking into song after almost every scene? What a nightmare! This show has to go!! I can't believe they pre-empted "Without a Trace" for this garbage. Who wrote this garbage? CBS should be ashamed of themselves for airing this junk! Is CBS really this desperate? It is AWFUL! Cancel, cancel, cancel, PLEASE!

I live close enough to the real Laughlin to be able to spend lots of time there, and so I was looking forward to this series. But what a joke! It was obvious that nothing was filmed there, except a few establishing shots of the Colorado Belle. I also laughed at references to 'Laughlin PD' (the town is considered a rural area and is served by Las Vegas Police) and especially the aged boyfriend introduced as 'a professor at the University'. Um...would this be Bullhead Community College, the closest thing to higher learning and a considerable distance across the river? It follows that I was so very disappointed at the lack of realism. This is Laughlin! Where are the queues of old people waiting for the buffet to open? Where are the chain-smoking old ladies with their key rings full of players cards? The folks hooked both to their oxygen and their slot machines dropping their dollars? The man arguing that his two-for-one should be valid at weekends? Thinking about it, I lament the show's cancellation; sometimes something so bad is actually quite good - for laughs.