'Luck' Renewed For Second Season By HBO

HBO has renewed its horse-racing drama "Luck" for a second season, the network announced Tuesday. The decision comes only a few days after the show's premiere.

"Luck," which stars Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte, was created by "Deadwood" architect David Milch and is produced by Michael Mann. The series focuses on the dark underworld of the horseracing industry, and tells the story of gamblers, jockeys and horse-owners at California's Santa Anita Racetrack.

"We couldn't be more thrilled with the critical response to this beautiful piece of work," Michael Lombardo, HBO's president of programming said in a statement. "And we are very excited about where David and Michael plan to take these incredible characters."

Hoffman plays Ace Bernstein, an organized crime figure who's just been released from federal prison after a three-year sentence. The character is on a quest to wrestle control of the racetrack and use it to spark his business comeback. The legendary actor told HuffPost that although he doesn't "know anything about television," he was so impressed with the script that he signed on anyway.

The renewal order is for 10 episodes to air in 2013. HuffPost TV Critic Maureen Ryan warned that while the show starts slow and was difficult to follow at first, it was well worth sticking with. "You're likely to feel a little lost at first, but, having seen seven of "Luck's" nine episodes, I can say that this impressively directed drama is very much worth sticking with," she wrote.

Now the drama will have even more time to develop and mature.

Related on HuffPost:

Comments

[mmc0050]

02:28 PM on 02/02/2012

Great article! Im extremely excited about this show! Its good to hear you mention that Hoffman was so excited about the script. I didnt know he had turned down so many opportunities! Its good to see him in a tough guy role like this! http://www.hbomax.tv/luck/

[mattnewman2005]

09:41 PM on 01/31/2012

This is a review of Episode 2 from HBO's Luck, starring Dustin Hoffman,
http://www.thedesplainescasino.com/?p=1827.

[johnnybic]

04:01 PM on 01/31/2012

I will give Maureen Ryan the benefit of the doubt here. I watched the first two episodes back-to-back last night and couldn't understand a thing that was going on. I was also put off by the strange verbiage from many of the characters. I kept asking my friend, "What did he say?" as if we were watching a foreign language film with no subtitles.