Luck

[Kasept]

Originally Posted by Left Bank

Showing animals getting injured (twice now) is not a good thing. The show needs to do something because it is losing my interest also.

It may lose your interest but I'm confused as to citing the concept of showing animals getting injured as an issue. Horses, and riders, don't get injured as a matter of course in the game? There's was a fatal breakdown in the first episode as a vehicle to establish in unaware viewers the legitimate concern that horse and rider are at risk every trip. It was done to establish the 100% real tension that accompanies every single race at every single oval in the world.

And in fact, I've read on TV critique boards that people were subsequently concerned in the races and training sequences since that the horse focused upon might get hurt... Right! You're supposed to be concerned that they could get hurt... Every morning they work out. Every race. Every afternoon in their stall. The thrown shoe that cut Pint o' Plain is a minor injury but another example of the myriad of bizarre mishaps that imperil horse and rider. That's an underlying reality of the game. Your heart is in your throat every waking minute. About EVERYTHING.

Milch is delivering the message in one way or another, on track and off, that involvement in the sport is an endless high wire act. I get the complaints that it isn't moving fast enough for those that are close to the sport. Those of us that follow the game closely are less likely to see the show as a spectacle and assault on the senses because we're all immersed in the assault. But there are a great number of people that had no idea of what goes on at the racetrack going in to the series, that are already fascinated but what they're watching.

What I've enjoyed most is the way the show was billed before debuting as not really being about horse racing, but about 'people with the racetrack as a backdrop'... Bullschit. It's turned out to be 100% about horse racing and nothing else. It's Milch trying to show to people that look quizically at the sport what being involved in the game is like. And why it's like no other sport, business or lifestyle.