Vegas

I watched the debut of the new CBS show Vegas last night. With a cast led by Dennis Quaid and Micheal Chiklis and the full on promotion of CBS the show has a strong chance of success and after watching the first episode if that success is forthcoming it will be well deserved.

The show is based on the real life story of Ralph Lamb,a sheriff in the early sixties, during the transformation of Las Vegas from sleepy gambling town to full on neon lights and gambling mecca. In the debut episode we have learned quite a bit about the direction of the show.

Quaid as Lamb is asked by the town's mayor to solve the murder of the Governor's niece. As a rancher who is mostly concerned with airplanes flying over his cattle and spooking them he agrees to this one time favor for the mayor.

Chilkis plays mobster Vincent Savino. He has been brought in to take control of an under performing casino. What we know, but Lamb does not is that the Sheriff he is replacing has run afoul of the Mob and that the District Attorney is on the take as well.

In the first episode the murder is solved but we all see that the show is going to run parallel tracks. We might well have weekly crimes to be solved but the ever present back story is going to be the developing antagonism between Savino and Lamb. At the end of the first episode Savino, who had earlier been deferential to the Sheriff, shows his teeth when ordering Lamb out of his casino.

Quaid turns in a strong performance but his earnestness and macho swagger is perhaps a bit overdone. Seeing him stride down an airport runway in a walk not run with a rifle over his shoulder makes him a bit campy but it is always hard not to like a Dennis Quaid performance. The show's star however will be Chiklis. The man oozes personality in every scene. Those who remember him on The Shield will not be surprised at how much he dominates every scene he is in. His portrayal of a gangster who wishes to be more nuanced than the straight ahead brutality that has preceded him is as good as it gets.

This show will be on my weekly lineup for a few weeks. I would like it to stay there, the question is can they develop the long term story line in a way that will satisfy me while keeping networks viewers who tend to like fully enclosed story lines. tuning in.