Vinyl: A Musical Mess

What went so wrong?
"Will you just– just leave us alone? You asshole. Why are you still alive? Why don’t you just– just die already? Just– just die." - Walter White Jr, Breaking Bad, S05E15




Last night, HBO's rock drama, Vinyl, concluded a messy freshman season.

Throughout the first 10 episodes of the show, there was a mob boss named Corrado Galasso. In many ways, I believe Corrado is a physical representation of my thoughts on this show. I really wanted to like Corrado - he was cool, well dressed, well acted, and in an overall sense, an on-paper grade A villain. However, he was essentially a walking cliche; a man ostensibly ripped out of the cheesiest mobster movies without any real development beyond a shot of espresso, a heavy accent, and a smoky room. Beyond that, Corrado really had no place in the show, being a side plot that took up way too much time in the overall context of the show. All of this directly represents Vinyl itself.

Like Corrado, I really really wanted to like Vinyl. The collaboration of Martin Scorsese and Terence Winter should have been nothing short of amazing - two literal masters of their craft coming together on the most reliable network for one hour drama. The time period and the characters, on paper at least, were fascinating. In many ways, it felt like the show to lead HBO into the future - a weird blend of Mad Men, Treme, and The Sopranos. However, just as Corrado Galasso was, Vinyl seemed to be a collection of cliches - a show that was so aesthetically pleasing it tries to cover up stupid characters, lazy writing, and downright poor plotting.

What is Richie bringing  that these guys haven't already?
Vinyl never seemed to know what it wanted to do. Richie Finestra, the main character, was yet another anti-hero on TV, but one that seemed to have nothing to make him stand out. Despite a great performance by Bobby Cannavale, he fell terribly flat. Sure, Richie was self destructive and drug addicted, but nothing about him was actually bad enough to make him loathsome or good enough to make him heroic. Instead, he was left in a sort of gray area, lost of intrigue. Furthermore, unlike Tony Soprano or Don Draper, most of Richie's actions just didn't make sense. His psyche was rarely explored save for cocaine-fueled adventures that led no where, and really, most of the decisions he made were more dumb than they were villainous. A character that makes bad decisions while acknowledging them is interesting. A character that's too stupid to see what lies directly in front of him is just boring.

A poor lead has been seen before on TV, though. Arguably, the biggest problem with most of Lost was a weakness in Jack. However, in Vinyl, almost every character follows the path of Richie: making stupid decisions with the expected consequence staring them right in the face. Juno Temple's lame Peggy Olson type character, Jamie Vine, sleeps with the band she's in charge of managing's lead singer and later has a threesome with the guitarist as well. Then, not only do the band-members start a silly rivalry over Jamie, a plotline that only developed in the last fifteen minutes of episode nine and carried over to the finale, but Jamie seems actively confused as to why this happened.

Likewise, Zak Yankovich, played by Ray Romano, is supposed to be the voice of reason in the show. However, most of what we see him do is either complain or dig himself deeper into a hole. At first, he's the victimized party, his entire future depending on Richie selling the company. Of course, when Richie ruins the deal, we sympathize with Zak. Over the course of the season though, he either wines to Richie instead of trying to change things, or just makes irrational decisions like trying to become an A&R executive rather than focusing on his real job. By the end, as good as Ray Romano was, I found myself annoyed at the entire situation - both parties being as ridiculous and wrong as the other.

Pictured above: most scenes in Vinyl
There were a plethora of story lines created and forgotten about in this season of television as well. For instance, in the first bunch of episodes, Richie's wife, Devon (Olivia Wilde) was a major focus. Once again, Wilde gave a committed performance, but due to poor story upkeep and limited time, her character was never able to grow into a three-dimensional human. Instead, the show gave us yet another put-upon wife without the involvement of Skylar White or the layers of Carmella Soprano.

Building off of Devon, plots like Clarke, the young A&R rep who is forced back to the copy room and popularizes disco, Skip Fontaine, one of the partners at the company dealing with record sales, or Lester, the new manager of the Nasty Bits and Richie's fractured relationship had to take a backseat. All of these certainly had potential, but due to the ridiculous amount of screen-time wasted on Richie's accidental murder of Buck Rodgers or his involvement with the mafia, none had any time to really drive the show forward. It was an example of poor plotting and time distribution.

The really interesting thing about Vinyl is that despite the problems I've just laid out, there's still a lot to marvel at. For instance, on the visual side of the show, it's gorgeous. Directors like Allen Coulter certainly gave it their all, replicating Scorsese's style and reveling in the rich colors and costumes of 1973. In addition, those in the costume and set department deserve huge kudos. As with other HBO historical projects, (Rome, Boardwalk Empire, Carnivale, etc) Vinyl is able to transport viewers to another time effortlessly. And finally, there's the soundtrack. While the show may do a lot wrong, for being a show about music, it is able to load every episode with song after song, each perfectly fitting the scene and the mood of the current happenings. In this way, the show channels Treme, giving viewers the sense of the culture and customs of the place and time.

Who is the real culprit behind the failure?
It's obvious that the Vinyl experiment didn't work, and even HBO has seen it. Recently, it was announced that showrunner Terence Winter has been fired from the show, being replaced by Scott Z. Burns. However, this doesn't seem like the correct move for a potential fix. Putting aside the fact that Winter is one of the best writers on television, he's also the one in charge of the original direction. If Winter isn't working out, it's unlikely that anyone, save for maybe Vince Gilligan, could take over and steer this ship toward treasure.

If you ask me, it should be back to the drawing board for Scorsese, Winter, Cannavale, and co. Even the best writers have their hiccups (David Milch on Luck) and if this idea didn't work, there's no use to prolong an inevitable cancellation. If ratings never improve and even a television addict such as myself quit watching the show, who's left?


It's not all about the music. Unfortunately, it's all about the writing, the plotting, and the characters. Vinyl has music in spades. The others? Not so much.

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