To be honest, I wasn't as excited about the debut of "Vinyl" as some people were. I am a 90s baby. I was born into the boom of the 21st century pop culture. The biggest music executives I know are Diddy and Dr Dre. Destiny's Child, TLC and Spice Girls are my definition of vintage music. I know nothing about punk or disco; and I often hear people talk about (or sing about) having moves like Jagger, but in all truth, I don't know what they are really talking about. So the idea of "Vinyl" wasn't quite relatable to me ( I don't even know how a vinyl works) and I was only eager to see it because, like the self professed 'TV junkie' that I am, I will pretty much watch anything that lands itself on my screen. With all that said, it is to be noted that "Vinyl" is not just a show based on the 70s, it is a Martin Scorsese production based on the 70s!!! So then again, yes, I had to see it!
In the 2 hour pilot episode (the darn longest I have had to sit for a TV show. It almost felt like a movie.), it's 1973 and we meet Richie Finestra, played by Bobby Cannavale, who is trying to save his music company while caught up in an erratic life of cocaine addiction and secrets from the past. Then one night, he discovers the 'New York Dolls' as they perform “Stranded in the Jungle” in a village dive. Later, his assistant Jamie (Juno Temple) brings in a demo of a punk band called the Nasty Bits. The two bands become a beacon of hope for the music executive in saving his company. Olivia Wilde plays Devon, Richie's wife; and Zak Yankovich (Ray Romano), the label’s head of promotions, and Skip Fontaine (J.C. MacKenzie), head of sales, are his business partners. His top boss, Maury Gold (Paul Ben-Victor), is mobbed up and a deranged radio station owner, Frank “Buck” Rogers (Andrew Dice Clay), is driving him nuts.
In true Martin Scorsese fashion, "Vinyl" explores the concept of the music business in the 70s rather than the music itself. We know how Scorsese is a big fan of organized crime or power hungry men going at each other, and we see this in most of his previous work ("Wolf Of Wall Street", "Mean Streets", "Goodfellas" and "Casino"). It is also very much reflected in "Vinyl" which I am not quite sure if that is a good thing or not. It might still be an acceptable concept in movies, but it is an exhausted formula when it comes to TV if you ask me. Looking at the title of the show itself, you might expect "Vinyl" to be a song filled production with all the greatest hits of the 70s playing in background and in performance. For a 90s kid like me, you might expect to get schooled in what the birth of punk, disco and hip-hop really meant. But that is not the case as not much of the music is really showcased in "Vinyl".
Instead we are taken on a ride through the sex- and drug-addled alleys of 1973. It seems that everyone in this era was crazed by the addiction of snorting coke and sleeping with showgirls, and had absolutely no depth or substance in life (totally tarnishing any of the trust in me for people born in 'nineteen-seventy-what what').
From what I've researched, even though punk, disco and hip-hop pretty much triggers the thought of obsession with sex and drugs, the 70s was a rich period of amazing music, fashion and culture. That is what would have been a great selling point for "Vinyl", pretty much like what "Empire" did with the '90s and 2000s'. It would have been lovely to get a sneak peek into the world of the 70s instead of the mediocre that "Vinyl" has tried to sell to us. I guess it is not always that sex sells and and drugs are addictive. James Jagger's appearance in the show, (Mick Jagger's son who strikingly looks exactly like him), can be a bit of a mind fuck because we are supposed to see him as a totally different singer and not as Jagger. Jagger was not even part of this era.
"Vinyl" is a great concept with great potential. I hope the writers were able to get the nitty gritty out of the way in the first (extra looong) episode and will now gear us up for the best parts. I really hope they managed to find their feet (considering that I only started to really enjoy "Empire" on episode 6, so maybe I am being a bit too hard).
"Vinyl" airs on Mnet Edge (DSTV channel 102) every Thursdays at 9:05pm.
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