Direct from the pages of our brand new, just released, first annual, Fall TV Preview eBook appropriately titled “Thank Goodness It’s Fall” comes a closer look at CBS’ latest procedural with a twist, VEGAS.
In A Nutshell: A good man tries to prevent his town and his family from being corrupted by the growing influence of money and the Mob in his community. Unfortunately for him, his community happens to be Las Vegas, circa 1960.
Names You’ll Know: Dennis Quaid (In Good Company) and Michael Chiklis (THE SHIELD) are perfectly cast as local sheriff Ralph Lamb and gangster Vinnie Savino, respectively. Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix) is the assistant district attorney you just know is gonna get caught between them.
What They Say: Addressing the question of whether VEGAS is or isn’t a procedural, executive producer Cathy Konrad says, “Although I enjoy a procedural now and then, we paint with a bigger palette.” Fellow executive producer Greg Walker adds, “We have, I don’t want to say the crime of the week, [but] we have an investigation for the team… interwoven with this larger canvas.”
What Others Say: According to Brian Ford Sullivan of TheFutonCritic.com, “It just doesn’t feel like the home run that it should be considering the auspices involved in front of and behind the camera.”
What We Say: Like fellow CBS newbie SHERLOCK, VEGAS does a great job of immediately setting up its premise. A low-flying plane carrying visitors to Sin City upsets the herd of cattle being handled by Lamb and his boys. There are fantastic performances all around, but for a show that’s supposedly not a procedural we dive into the first case awfully quickly. BOARDWALK EMPIRE comparisons are tough to avoid, and that show captures its environs far better than does VEGAS. Then again, given CBS’ notoriously-older-skewing audience, what doesn’t work so well might not matter. The combination of pre-technology crime scene investigations and nostalgia may be exactly what those viewers are looking to fall asleep in front of. 
For more great reviews, exclusive interviews with some of your favorite showrunners and actors, as well as printable calendars and Emmy ballots, please consider supporting theTVaddict.com by checking out our First Annual Fall TV Preview eBook.>>
