Tilt

What can you say about this show? Nothing good, except that the levels of terrible this show achieves are so complete it is impossible to look away. Its a train wreck of bad lighting, stilted dialog and ridiculous plot. The narration from our main character comes off as completely lame. When we are not being treated to the inner monologue of, some other character is spouting off "quality" lines such as "You play cards; you're not a card-player." The non-stop barrage of poker jargon, perhaps with some demented eye towards establishing "street cred" with the poker world is so bad it borders on self-parody.

This show is mind-bogglingly bad. But, it is one of those monumental failures that you just can't stop watching. You will sit there, in a dazed stupor, wondering if there were any way the show could possibly be worse, but everything you come up with will invariably make the show better.

The producers of "Tilt" have helpfully placed a warning at the beginning of each airing, presumably to prevent young people from taking up poker. I can think of no better way to ensure that a child will never want to play poker than by having them watch this show.

*spoilers if you haven't seen the finale...read at your own peril...*

Okay, so how predictable was that??

All the good guys won; all the bad guys got what they deserved; and the guy who straddled the line between the two got the brass ring because he (pardon the horrible pun) played his cards right.

And so we drink a final toast to Seymour...the cop goes home to Iowa...our three young heroes leave the field of battle vindicated and much, much richer.

What can they do for a season two?? A new bad guy for us to hate?? New unknown card players for us to cheer on to victory? And Lowball making another interesting visit to the house of ill repute?!?!?!?

It was interesting and novel for one go-round...sort of the way Survivor was for the first season...but won't this get predictable if they try it again?

I did enjoy the poker scenes, although there were certainly blatant errors (I even saw one tonight...when you watch the finale, look at the screen closely on Clark's last hand and see if you spot what I did). It was nice to see the sprinkling of the well-known players throughout the series. But I'd much rather watch the reruns of the WSOP if it came down to a choice between that and another season of this show.

I'll give the season a 6 out of 10...good acting for the most part (although Michael Madsen did seem a bit flat to me most of the time...but maybe that was the jaded part of his character). Points off for such a predictable plot and finale. There was just one more cliché they could have thrown in to make the fairy tale complete...reveal that Miami was Seymour's long lost granddaughter or niece or some distant relative (I thought about daughter, but that kind of destroys the part of the storyline that she was playing to raise money for her father's bail with Seymour's assistance).

But, of course, I will tune in for at least the first episode of another season...if nothing else to see the real-life pros wander in and out of that very realistic-looking set.

P.S. (added after second viewing a few minutes ago): ACK! I just caught the final scene...which I somehow missed the first time. That changes everything...and potentially changes the cast for next season (if there is one). Not quite such a tidy ending as it first appeared. Hmm....

After 2 episodes, I have to say I'm already a fan of this show.

A couple of haters here, who probably don't know anything about poker and were too slow to understand what was going on, are talking badly about the show.

Don't listen to them. This show has a very nice cast, is well written, and it has all the elements you'd want from an action series. Michael Madsen kicks ass as The Matador - but right away, the intrigue of seeing him fall to Eddie, Miami and Clark is too much, and you just wanna see how it will all develop.

Add to this a lot of danger surrounding a cop who is after the Matador himself, trying to avenge his late brother, who was killed by the Matador, and you got a big hit! I never watched Playmakers. I heard it was good, but it turned out to be a good thing I didn't watch since ESPN's affiliation with the NFL forced that show to get cancelled.

That won't happen to Tilt - this show will be a success!

I have to say I wasn't originally going to watch the show, but my friend came over the day the series premiered so I was forced into it. I'd have to say though it is definitely a must see.

Its the only show during the week I block out time for. I've seen all 9 episodes the day they aired. Way better than the last ESPN drama Playmakers.

It's like a weekly soap opera. It involves way more than just poker. Can't wait until it comes out on DVD. Before season two starts I'd recommend watching the re-runs of episode one and getting the story down before the 2nd season starts. Watch them in order or you'll get lost.

Network: ESPN; Genre: Drama, Crime; Content Rating: TV-14 (language, strong sexual content, brutal violence); Available: DVD; Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

Seasons Reviewed: Complete Series (1 season)

Following in the footsteps of their first drama series, the controversial "Playmakers", ESPN's "Tilt" takes an unflattering look at the world of high stakes Las Vegas poker. "Playmakers" was an admirable failure, riddle with as many accomplishments as clichés. "Tilt" takes advantage of the national surge in interest for Texas Hold'Em, then turns around and bites the hand that fed it that opportunity. How dare the public not have recognized a game that has been around since the old west until now. There was some cynical fun in "Playmakers" take on football, but "Tilt" is an angry, bitter, relentlessly soul-sucking experience that is so single-minded in its attempt to demonize Vegas that the city could consider a defamation suit.

When family man and cop Lee (Chris Bauer, "The Wire") sits down at the high stakes table he gets cleaned out by Don "The Matador" Everest. It turns out that Don is not only a legend in the poker world, but a strong arm of the casino sent to make sure that the house wins at all costs. If Lee wasn't enough of a pit bull bent on bringing down Everest, three pro poker players (Eddie Cibrian, Kristin Lehman, and Todd Williams), who were also at one time ruined by The Matador, team up to bring him down during the national poker championships.

The poker action is as exciting as poker action gets. But creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien don't trust that poker will hold the narrative (a more talented team could have made it work), so they fill the stories with mobster, FBI agents, scam artists and a little murder mystery. Their Vegas is a full-on sadistic nightmare of a city, more "The Sopranos" than "Las Vegas", that sucks people in and eats them alive like a big neon monster. If the casino owners aren't crooked enough, the cops and judges are. Every few minutes somebody is being brutally beaten, casually murdered or tortured all set to trashing rock music. Nothing wrong with being loud, except when it is used as a transparent attempt to cover up a thread-bare nonsensical story.

None of the characters are the slightest bit likable. Everybody growls and snarls either out of revenge or detachment or sheer black-and-white evil for the sake of evil. B-movie staple Michael "pardon me while I never clear my throat" Madsen is the worst as Everest. This unconvincing tough guy has 2 purposes: threatening in a gruff voice and beating while yelling in a gruff voice.

The show is filled with monologues relating poker to life while saying nothing at all. On paper, on HBO or FX, this might not be a recipe for disaster, but Koppelman and Levien have a Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay sense of subtlety and ESPN doesn't have the experience or sense of quality control to rein them in. Under their eye a simple poker revenge drama becomes a loud, tacky, empty-headed, testosterone-fueled piece of punishment. "Tilt" is cheesy, B-movie stuff – and not the fun kind either.

* / 4