TiVo Community Forums Archives - The Casino 6/21/04

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The Casino 6/21/04 - Spoilers
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Posted by: scottjf8

Wow, no thread yet?

I thought this show is interesting - not as great as I hoped it would be, but still interesting...

I didn't know you could bend/tear baccarat cards like that....

It was interesting how the black girl called her boyfriend a pervert, but yet she was the one that wanted to watch those people get it on... what a b*tch!

I wish this show would follow up stories from the previous week - what happened to that one high roller who picked up that girl that was really a guy??

Posted by: mwhip

This show is so staged, MB should be ashamed of himself. I have no idea how this cold be his show, it has glimpses but then you can see the FOX influence.

Posted by: DVDerek

I agree about the staged feeling. You can tell the owners are acting. Despite feeling staged, I still find it SLIGHTLY interesting. I'll keep it as a SP for a bit.

Posted by: cpalma

I think it is totally scripted!!

I don't think that the high roller's girlfriend lost her purse. She was too calm, first of all. Second, no one would help her find it? She was shown walking away from the table with it. If they were VIP's, all they would have had to do is look at surveillance tapes to see where she left it last [if she walked into the LR with it and walked out without it, that would have solved that mystery.] That's not to say if they found it it would have been found with the money in it, but it seemed a little off to me.

I also doubt very much the owner of a casino is walking his own dog. OTOH, why is he bringing his dog to work?

What a difference a show makes. American Casino (Discovery) is so much more enjoyable. Is anyone else watching that?

Posted by: zyzzx

Yep, cpalma, I'm watching American Casino. In fact, after last's nights awful The Casino, I'm ditching my SP and will be watching American Casino from now on.

Posted by: pmyers

I too am surprised it has MB's name on it, but it is slightly entertaining (then again anything with a Vegas subject is, to me). I'll keep it around and see where it goes.

Posted by: InterMurph

I agree with the comments about this show being staged.

Last week, it was pretty obvious. The jerk-ass jerks who threw a party for their "buddy" gathered some women in their hotel room. Some of them must have been strippers, but it was unclear. At any rate, later on we see the jerk-ass "high roller" is later seen gambling, with at least two of the self-same women!

The other moment that stood out for me last week: when the two owners of the hotel are walking down a hallway, and they overhear the raucous party going on inside. Both owners, walking down a random hall at the same time...

This week was just slightly less obvious, but when they have cameras capturing the arrival of every key character, usually from inside their limo, you know something is up. The swingers just happened to show up? The degenerate gambler, who always gambles at Mandalay Bay, just happens to stop by the Nugget, and who knew there would be cameras there?

I hate everybody on this show, except Matt Dusk. He's just clueless.

Posted by: jschuur

quote:
Originally posted by InterMurph
I hate everybody on this show, except Matt Dusk. He's just clueless.

I disagree. Matt went about the whole situation with the head of entertainment ('You don't tell me what to do!') pretty smart. He could have just gotten up and quit then and there, but instead, he remained composed and went to the owner to make sure they shared the same vision.

Posted by: pmyers

I told my wife that Matt Dusk is going to benefit the most from this show. That reminds me....I need to go see if he has an album out yet.

Posted by: JFriday

quote:
Originally posted by InterMurph
I agree with the comments about this show being staged.

Last week, it was pretty obvious. The jerk-ass jerks who threw a party for their "buddy" gathered some women in their hotel room. Some of them must have been strippers, but it was unclear. At any rate, later on we see the jerk-ass "high roller" is later seen gambling, with at least two of the self-same women!

I caught that too, I rewinded to see if some of the girls were the same and sure enough they were.

Posted by: mwhip

quote:
Originally posted by pmyers
I told my wife that Matt Dusk is going to benefit the most from this show. That reminds me....I need to go see if he has an album out yet.

Matt Dusk

Posted by: Ebenezer

quote:
Originally posted by mwhip
Matt Dusk

His album is available through Amazon too.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...=music&n=507846

The one time I did watch the show, I remember seeing a "this episode contained music by..." shots at the end and his album was shown.

Posted by: TiVangelist

I agree that the girlfriend didn't really lose her purse. She was just trying to keep her boyfriend from losing the $25K she slipped in there.

This felt like a cheap version of lifestyles of the rich and famous.

Posted by: pmyers

oh.....and what Casino would let that happen? There is no way that they would let anybody scoop up $25k while a player has his back turned even if it is his girlfriend.

Posted by: JPinAZ

quote:
Originally posted by pmyers
I told my wife that Matt Dusk is going to benefit the most from this show. That reminds me....I need to go see if he has an album out yet.

I agree. I think hearing his songs is probably the best part of the show.

Posted by: dr_mal

Blech. With Mark Burnett's name on it, and Fox showing the commitment to the series by doing it all in HD (of course, it's Fox Digital Widescreen until later this summer), I thought it had a chance. This admitted reality junkie cancelled the SP after last night's show. It's mildly interesting, but where's it going? At least with Survivor/The Mole/Big Brother/most other reality shows, there's a big prize at the end for the winner. The viewers get to play along at home by rooting for someone, and we're rewarded with some finality at the end.

:down: :down: (not quite bad enough for 3 thumbs down)

Posted by: Turtleboy

I agree that if you are interested in casinos and gambling (like I am), American Casino is far superior.

Posted by: jsmeeker

quote:
Originally posted by Turtleboy
I agree that if you are interested in casinos and gambling (like I am), American Casino is far superior.

How did you like thier "research trip" to find out abotu clubs with bottle service?

:D

Posted by: MarkofT

quote:
Originally posted by InterMurph
This week was just slightly less obvious, but when they have cameras capturing the arrival of every key character, usually from inside their limo, you know something is up. The swingers just happened to show up? The degenerate gambler, who always gambles at Mandalay Bay, just happens to stop by the Nugget, and who knew there would be cameras there?

Did you miss the part at the beginning where the owners call the gambler up and invites them to the Golden Nugget? They knew they were coming so why not send out a camera crew and show a bit of that high roller excitement. That they happened to get a bit of extra drama was a bonus.

I've liked both shows so far and the scenery is pretty hot. The girlfriend of the swinging couple looked a lot like Angie Everhart at times.

Posted by: smak

I like American Casino better as well.

The Casino is funny, because around 90% of the shots are of the strip, and all the beautiful hotels, and then they do a zip over to the drab Golden Nugget

I'll still watch The Casino because of course I love gambling and Vegas, but the show definately needs a lot of work, it seems every shot is set up in advance, and that's not what it was supposed to be.

-smak-

Posted by: DreadPirateRob

What was up with all the Mandalay Bay shots and mentions? If I were the new owners of the Nug, I'd be a little bitter at the free promotion that Mandalay was getting.

Otherwise, I'd pretty much echo the rest of the comments. Very scripted, yet oddly entertaining. It's hanging on, but by a thread.

Posted by: scottjf8

Never seen American Casino - wonder what i'm missing out on...

Oh well, I setup a SP for it last night so I'll check it out and compare...

Posted by: jeff125va

I think the fact that this show is set in Vegas is about the only thing keeping it alive. The lighting and camera shots give it the look and feel of a scripted show, which takes away from any "reality" aspect that might otherwise be there. The people always seem to be performing. The grand entrances when the people arrive at the casino, the couple who went out with the swingers obviously knew what was up when the wife came over to their table, etc.

I haven't cancelled it yet, but it needs to get better, especially if I check out American Casino and that one is better.

Posted by: dschwab

quote:
Originally posted by smak
I like American Casino better as well.

The Casino is funny, because around 90% of the shots are of the strip, and all the beautiful hotels, and then they do a zip over to the drab Golden Nugget

They're doing similiar things with American Casino as well. We're seeing mostly shots of the Vegas Strip, yet the actual casino is in Henderson, pretty far off the strip.

And I agree with many others, American Casino is the superior show, although the 2 are blending together for me. During a kitchen shot on the Fox show, I was wondering when the bald head chef would come in screaming at someone.

Posted by: smak

quote:
Originally posted by DreadPirateRob
What was up with all the Mandalay Bay shots and mentions? If I were the new owners of the Nug, I'd be a little bitter at the free promotion that Mandalay was getting.

Otherwise, I'd pretty much echo the rest of the comments. Very scripted, yet oddly entertaining. It's hanging on, but by a thread.

Well in that episode the high roller usually stayed at Mandalay, so they kept on doing that shot.

It certainly doesn't help the nugget to compare it to Mandalay.

Half the fun of Vegas is all the cool buildings and lights, and the Nugget isn't going to look great in comparison.

-smak-

Posted by: newsposter

quote:
Originally posted by cpalma
I think it is totally scripted!!

I also doubt very much the owner of a casino is walking his own dog. OTOH, why is he bringing his dog to work?

is there any chance he lives there? I don't remember if they showed us their houses. heck if I owned the place, I'd live there LOL

And isn't it true they really don't own it totally? I thought they put up 50 out of 215 million and a few other corps put up too.

Posted by: marksman

My problem with the show, besides the obvious staging of it, is the bad acting.

I don't really give actors much respect for their craft. But when you watch the owners try to "Act" in this reality show it makes me cringe. They make Rocco Dispirito look like a Master Thespian.

It is painfully obvious that so much of this is contrived, and it is annoying. I think there could actually be an interesting show there... but probably just cable-tastic and not network primetime ratings draw.

When you watch reality shows that follow people around and who aren't pandering to the camera, The Osbournes are fairly good at this, as are some other shows, you can still have some entertaining times.

I just think the production team has no stomach for the risk involved in waiting for the story to come to them so they just manufacture it.

I will probably keep my season pass a bit longer, but it is fairly hard to watch at this point.

Posted by: smak

I'm not sure it's scripted, but rather re-staged after the fact...

-smak-

Posted by: jsmeeker

quote:
Originally posted by smak
Well in that episode the high roller usually stayed at Mandalay, so they kept on doing that shot.

It certainly doesn't help the nugget to compare it to Mandalay.

Half the fun of Vegas is all the cool buildings and lights, and the Nugget isn't going to look great in comparison.

-smak-

There is a lot of truth to this, but for a guy that really like to gamble, higher odds and higher maximums at the craps tables can draw him to a place like the Golden Nugget.

Posted by: LlamaLarry

quote:
Originally posted by pmyers
oh.....and what Casino would let that happen? There is no way that they would let anybody scoop up $25k while a player has his back turned even if it is his girlfriend.

I just watched this episode and that was definitely a problem for me as well. No chance would they let ANYONE take money from another players "stash" (which I am not sure why he hauled cash around when they could have done it on "paper") and stick it in her purse. I doubt a wife could get away with taking a chip at a $25 table much less $25K in cash when he is not even there.

Posted by: pmyers

I assumed the money was just for looks. They also won't let you have money on the table as well. You can play a hand for money but you can't have money just laying on the table.

Posted by: cpalma

quote:
Originally posted by pmyers
I assumed the money was just for looks. They also won't let you have money on the table as well. You can play a hand for money but you can't have money just laying on the table.

That actually depends on where you play. I haven't played at the Golden Nuggest in years, but I have played at numerous casinos on the strip. In playing poker (again depending on the casino) you play with chips, but you are allowed to have paper money in front of you. If you do have it on the table, however, it is considered money you entered the game with and you will need to use it if you go "all in".

Casinos each make up their own rules for paper money on the tables.

Posted by: smak

I've seen it done differently. Sometimes you see somebody walk up and bet $100 in Blackjack.

Some places will put the hundred in the betting circle, and some will give you a $100 chip.

But yah, her taking that money from him was ridiculous. It just confirms the phoniness.

-smak-

Posted by: smak

quote:
Originally posted by jsmeeker
There is a lot of truth to this, but for a guy that really like to gamble, higher odds and higher maximums at the craps tables can draw him to a place like the Golden Nugget.

You are right, but i was talking about for the audience.

Golden Nugget gets a free 1 hour plug every week, and then they gotta go and show them compared to all the other newer casinos.

-smak-

Posted by: mask2343

Did anyone else feel that the head swinger guy (with the white hair) was the Devil himself? Creepy.

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