Viva Laughlin

It is amazing how terrible this show is. The original series, the BBC's Viva la Blackpool is well acted, original, and surreal. It is a joy to watch. I would highly recommend it.

There have been a lot of British shows that have been butchered by their American adaptations, but none have missed the mark as badly as Viva Laughlin. The original works because the music punctuates the feelings of an otherwise very serious and dark story. The result is surreal and edgy.

Laughlin is a painful over the top Broadwayisation of the original. Laughlin's horrible acting and reworked script makes it impossible for you to connect to any of the characters.

Laughlin fails miserably at capturing any of the emotion or beauty of the BBC version.

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!

Attention, there will be no talent! This is what should be played before the show starts. I haven't seen "Blackpool" but if it's anything like Viva Laughlin then i don't really care. Not only was this show hard to watch but it was incredibly presumptuous. With annoying, unrelatable stock characters trying to slip smoothly into likable characters was like watching the proverbial grass growing. And just when you think that maybe halfway through the show they might have a twist to interest you in seeing the next episode.. well there isn't! No one wants another compulsively suspicious detective chasing thin air or a family who is so boring and cliché that you'd rather go to sleep because that'd be more entertaining than watching this show! And what on earth is with the singing(miming)? And who wants yet another casino show? HUH? SERIOUSLY??!! ARGH!! Can I be the first but hopefully not the last to say, "What the hell Hugh Jackman!" I mean talk about cringe-worthy experiences! I am all for a new series, i'm very open to new ideas and even old ideas made better but this "Viva Laughlin" is garbage, maybe worse because some garbage can be recycled into something better.

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.

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.