The Casino and Next Action Star



It’s summer, so it’s time for the networks to roll out their new reality shows, which are naturally slight variations on recently successful reality shows. I chose the two last week that looked most interesting to me, The Casino (FOX, Mondays at 9) and Next Action Star (NBC, Tuesdays at 8).

The Casino follows two dot com millionaires, Tim and Tom, who buy the Golden Nugget casino in downtown Vegas. Their stated aim is bring old time glamour back to Las Vegas. My question: Is there such a thing? Considering that the first thing the owners do is hire a lounge singer who evidently thinks that covering Sinatra (and ONLY Sinatra) makes him a serious artiste, you couldn’t prove it with this show. It’s cheesy and pathetic, and only gets cheesier and more pathetic the more the people on a show fail to realize how cheesy and pathetic it all is.

A show about the inner working of a casino could be interesting, but watching while The Casino I couldn’t get past how much of the action on the show was staged for the camera. The most obvious examples of this had to do with card counter Big Chuck. He’s been blacklisted at every casino in town, and the owners of the Golden Nugget spot him immediately, but they let him play anyway. What? Then there’s the self described “most shocking twist in any reality show ever.”  Big Chuck is so obnoxious and pathetic that he has an overwhelming need to hit on every even vaguely attractive woman he sees. This I believe, I’ve seen people like that. The fact that he gets rejected by 150 women a day doesn’t matter so long as he finds those few women with so little self esteem that they’ll actually sleep with him. In any case, we see him enter the casino with a blonde woman on his arm and head to the tables when he spots a “sexy brunette,” who he begins obnoxiously hitting on despite the fact that he already has a date, and so does the brunette. Long story short, the brunette (wait of the twist…) is actually a man. It’s pretty obvious, and there’s no apparent reason Big Chuck would be attracted to the brunette in particular. S/he’s so obviously a plant, I expected someone to come by and water him/her.

Next Action Star is a little bit more interesting. I’ve complained in this space before that talent contests don’t find stars, because star quality is ineffable, so I’m sorry to say that the whole concept of the show is flawed. The winners (one of each sex) are going to allegedly play the leads in an action film produced by Joel “Did I mention I made The Matrix?” Silver, presumably to be aired on NBC, but that won’t make them stars. I tuned in anyway for two reasons:

- Can they possibly find worse action stars than Steven Seagal or Jean Claude Van Damme? I really need to see if they can rise to the challenge.

- The show may give some insight into the casting process for movies.

So how do the potential action stars look? Pretty shabby. Of the thirty in the first round I’d say maybe four have the looks to be professional actors, and maybe half of them have the minimal acting talent needed.


Next Action Star or Next Stepford Wife?

The first real episode (after the audition episode) concentrated on two particular contestants more than the other. One was Reggie, an articulate struggling actor who is just about the only contestant who shows any camera presence – He’s eliminated in the first round. And then there’s Viviana, a woman who seems absolutely convinced she is mere days away from Tom Cruise levels of stardom. This despite the fact that she isn’t very good looking, she’s physically graceless, and her idea of acting is to real acting as lighting someone on fire is to lighting a cigarette. The judges on the show pass her to the next round, just because she wants to win so badly.

That’s the problem with this show. Most of the contestants see the contest as a way to become stars without having to pay their dues in the industry. But dues paying is where those with star quality are
found among all those who have talent. Someone like Viviana wouldn't get past the secretary at a real casting agent, but to make a more interesting show she's advanced. This isn't about finding a star, it's just a freak show.

Posted: Tue - June 22, 2004 at      

©