Tilt

I was going to wait until this series ended to review it, but why bother? This is simply a killer series. The story is pretty complicated, with subplots galore surrounding each character, but that's not why I watch it. Michael Madsen is perfect as poker baddie Don Everest- ruthless, conniving, and dressed to kill in those 80s collars and vests. And best of all is the assortment of characters, dialog, and voice-over narration that you get during the poker sequences. As if that weren't enough, they added one of my favorite actors, Robert Forster, in the last episode. The only unfortunate part is that it's hard to get up to speed if you missed the first few episodes, due to all the different plot aspects. At this point it's better to wait for a catch-up night, or buy the full DVD set when it comes out.

To sum up, the story is contrived, but who cares? The cast is great and the poker sequences alone are worth watching it for. Kudos to ESPN for their best series yet!!! Like MM says before the deal, "Let's rock and roll, baby".

I've just seen the final episode of Tilt and have to say enjoyed the series. It was by no means perfect, some of it was a shade predictable, some of the acting and dialogue was a little below par. But overall if you're the kind of person that likes watching poker and enjoyed the movie Rounders you're probably going to enjoy this offering from ESPN.

My only complaint was the horrible scheduling of ESPN. If it wasn't for DVR I never would have seen every episode, which sucks as the storyline is sequential from one episode to the next. Even with DVR you'd have run into problems since three weeks running ESPN were over 30 minutes late showing an episode because of some ball game. Then they decided to move the finale to an entirely different day. It was almost like they were trying to kill the ratings. If ESPN want to make another season or indeed another series like this they need to schedule it properly or sell it to another network.

If you can actually see all the episodes in order, and you're a poker fan, I think you'll enjoy. If you are a 'poker is not a sport' kind of person who doesn't think mental games of skill are interesting, stay clear. Oh and it has some adult themes, if you dislike such things don't watch.

*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!

After watching the first four episodes of Tilt it's pretty easy to gather that the show is far fetched and promotes the idea of cheating. If you're looking for REAL poker, go watch re-runs of the WSOP on ESPN Classic or World Poker Tour on Travel Channel, but if you just want a fun show with a poker theme embedded into it, then give Tilt a try. Michael Madsen's character is laugh out loud funny with some of his one liners, and granted the acting from the others is below par, you can't really set the bar high for ESPN shows, especially after Playmakers. So again, if you want a few cheap laughs and just enjoy poker in general, give this show a shot. If you're looking to brush up on your skills and try to play in next years WSOP, then save the criticism and go read Super System! :)