Vinyl Season 1 Episode 1 Recap

Vinyl (2016-)

Created by:  Mick Jagger, Terence Winter, Rich Cohen, Martin Scorsese
Starring:   Bobby Cannavale, Olivia Wilde, Ray Romano, Juno Temple, James Jagger

It's got potential, but the first episode is all setup.

HBO delves into the '70s music scene with the newest series from Martin Scorsese and Terrence Winter who brought us the acclaimed HBO series Boardwalk Empire, transforming a project Mick Jagger first pitched decades ago.
Mick's son James Jagger stars as a want-to-be rock star. Bobby Cannavale is the lead as a record executive, joined by Olivia Wilde as his wife and Ray Romano as his partner among others.
Check out my Vinyl season 1 recaps.

Plot: 
Richie Finestra (Bobby Cannavale) is a New York record executive in 1973, endeavoring to sign the biggest and best talent.

Verdict:
The HBO quality is apparent, but where this show is going is more interesting than where it is after a two hour introduction that was longer than it needed to be. The few scenes that focus on the music and '70s New York are good, but there are too many instances of name dropping and cutting to a still. The story isn't focused yet, but it's set up multiple story lines. More episodes will determine if this is worth watching.
It depends.

Review: Episode 1 Pilot
The two hour premiere directed by Martin Scorsese opens with Richie (Bobby Cannavale) buying drugs. It's the '70s right? He's a music executive driving a late model car, and he has the business card of a detective. When he sees a crowd form at a music venue, he goes inside to hear the band. We see them perform the song for quite a while with plenty of indulgent shots and even some slow motion.

Then it cuts back to present day. It's my pet peeve when media does this. It starts with the final scene then cuts back and works towards that last scene. If your story's beginning isn't interesting enough, don't use this trope, pick a better starting point.
Richie is in a German conference room five days earlier, thinking about how the music business used to be. He worked his way up from the bottom to create a music label, American Century Records (ACR). Drugs and a few bad signings precipitated the sale. Ray Romano plays one of his business associates, Zak. They are looking to sell their struggling record label, which just signed Led Zeppelin.

This jet is one of the reasons the record label is struggling.

This is Richie's story, and he admits he's lost a few brain cells along the way. It's a good way to create a break from reality while still being firmly rooted in reality. It looks like the '70s and New York looks great, though it does feel like it's picking up where Mad Men left off after that carried us through the '50s and '60s..

Jamie (Juno Temple) works at ACR. On her way into the office, she picks up the demo tape of Kip Stevens (James Jagger), the front man for Nasty Bits. She relays to Richie that she discovered them on the subway and checks out their show. Nasty Bits is terrible. Their set ends in a fight with the crowd. Business becomes pleasure with Jamie and Kip as she hopes to mold him into a band that she can sign.

James Jagger, son of Mick Jagger.

There is a lot of name dropping in this episode, to the point of it feeling forced. Some of the name drops even cut to a still of the lesser known people. It's incredibly distracting. I know the time period, and I like it. The still images add to the bloat, making it feel like a gimmick. This episode could be trimmed down quite a bit. It has a lot of indulgent shots and extended music sequences, making it too long.

The Led Zeppelin deal isn't done. Richie's talk with Robert Plant leaves him uneasy. The episode sets a great mood when it showcases vintage New York against music, but more times than not it tries too hard. This episode contains a lot of  really good licensed music.

Is that Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin?

Richie stops at an apartment building, intrigued by hip hop music, but is persuaded by a guy with a gun to move on. He recognizes one of the men, but says nothing. Richie goes back to his apartment and plays a Lester Grimes (Ato Essandoh) track, remembering when he worked in a bar and saw Lester perform. Richie and Lester chat after the performance, and Richie becomes his manager. Richie gets Lester to dumb down his music to make a few hits, though Lester wants to sing the blues, real music. Richie manages to get a share of a record label and cashes out. He had hoped, and even told Lester that he'd bring him along, but it doesn't work out. Lester can't get out of his contract and ends up in an altercation with the mobster that now owns the label. We get a strong hint, though no confirmation that his vocal cords were injured in the fight. It would explain the hate we saw on his face when he saw Richie at the apartments. Guaranteed this story will be developed throughout this season.

Richie is juggling a wife at home (Olivia Wilde), the failed Zeppelin signing that puts his deal with the Germans in jeopardy, and a radio mogul, Buck Rogers, that is threatening to boycott ACR records.

Richie tries to smooth over the issue with Buck Rogers. Donnie Osmund stood him up. Remember Richie buying drugs in the first scene? He's been clean and stays clean throughout most of the episode. Two days later, still high, Buck Rogers calls Richie. Despite reservations, Richie goes and the visit ends in them strangling each other. Richie's friend whacks Buck in the head and kills him. The next day a detective wants Richie to call him. We're supposed to assume it's about dumping the body, but I'm guessing it's misdirection or goes nowhere. It's an added detail that shows how unscrupulous Richie is, but it's also unnecessary. He covered up a murder, and it's anything but subtle. We already know Richie is unscrupulous based on his scenes with Lester Grimes.

Don't mind them, they're just throwing a rug in the swamp.

The Germans are checking ACR's financial records which are anything but honest. Richie spins a story about their books and the racist Zeppelin manager. The deal with the German's goes through, but Richie doesn't share in the excitement. He's freaking out about the murder, cover-up, and the cops. He falls off the wagon, which we knew was coming. We end in the same scene that started the episode. The dive Richie entered is literally falling apart with lights falling from the ceiling and the walls cracking. Is this happening or is Richie having a hallucination? No one else seems to notice.

The building crumbles, though neither of the adjacent buildings were harmed. Richie, defying every shred of logic seems to be okay. Apparently he was standing in the one spot that avoided debris from the entire building falling down. I'd call it a death dream, but Cannavale is the star of the show so I assume he lives. I don't think HBO is going to pull a Sean Bean Game of Thrones surprise this early.

Either he's Superman or we have a plot contrivance.

This episode is a good introduction to the music in the '70s and the focus of the series, but it is definitely bloated despite glimmers of compelling stories. The Lester Grimes story has the most potential so far. I'm guessing the Juno Temple and James Jagger story line will have them fall for each other and start down a path of self destruction.

I'm interested to see more and to figure out where this is going. Is Richie going to start a new label? It seems like one of the few options. I'm not sold yet. Where it could go is more interesting than where it is. It definitely has potential. It's not worth watching based on this episode alone, but future episodes can easily change that.