Remember those disclaimers of “no animal was harmed in the making of this movie/show?” Well, the HBO show Luck could not slap that on the screen in the beginning. Deadwood co-creator David Milch‘s other series featured a star-studded cast led by Dustin Hoffman and Nick Nolte, and the first season earned a Rotten Tomatoes score of 82%. Understandably, HBO renewed the series for a second season, but due to shocking deaths on set, Luck was cancelled. In fact, this was the third horse that was injured and euthanized from the show, with the first two passing away during the production of the first season. If there was ever a reason to cancel a show, three deaths would be more than enough. So what happened here?
What Is HBO’s Controversial ‘Luck’ Series About?
Horses are at the center of Luck, as it follows a revenge and drama plot taking place on Santa Anita racetrack. Chester “Ace” Bernstein (Hoffman) is a horse-racing gambler who is released from prison and armed with a revenge plan as he returns to the racetrack. The show is also split between other characters, where the lives of other gamblers, jockeys, and trainers intersect in this glamorous yet gritty world. Exploring the underbelly of horse racing, naturally, horses are a huge part of the show, but unfortunately, they are also the ones most negatively impacted by it.
Luck was canceled in 2012, when HBO released a statement, reported by The Hollywood Reporter, that cited the death of the horses as the reason. However, they explained that “safety is always of paramount concern” to them, as they stuck closely with safety regulations and liaised constantly with the Animal Humane Association and industry experts throughout production. “We maintained the highest safety standards throughout production,” HBO explains. “Higher in fact than any protocols existing in horseracing anywhere with many fewer incidents than occur in racing or than befall horses normally in barns at night or pastures.” But, with the third accident occurring, they decided to avoid future fatalities by ceasing production.
Throughout these two seasons, there was public outrage because of the horses’ deaths and PETA was frequently outspoken. Upon the show’s cancellation, PETA released their own statement, praising the show’s decision and the whistleblower to shed light on the horse’s injuries and subsequent deaths. PETA also said that they had been contacting the show since the start about their treatment of horses, imploring them to use stock footage instead of the animals. One of the earlier statements just before the cancellation by PETA included the following: “Three horses have now died, and all the evidencewe have gathered points to sloppy oversight, the use of unfit or injured horses and disregard for the treatment of racehorses.”
However, the show’s cancellation did not mark the end of the controversy, as a year later, Hoffman spoke about his disappointment during an interview with Fox News. He claimed that horses dying during races were part and parcel of the industry, and that TMZ — one of the most outspoken platforms at the time — teamed up with PETA in an extreme, sensationalized campaign against the show. “If you Google ‘Paulick Report,’ it’s a site for horse racing, and in that report is the real reason why the show was canceled,” Hoffman said. “It was a collaboration between PETA and TMZ. It’s interesting, sites like TMZ, they’re mistaken for news… Anyone who raises horses knows they break their legs. The accusations they made were distorted. Every time we’d race the horses, we’d rest them. They’d race 20 seconds, then we’d rest them for an hour.”
Related
Unfairly Cancelled 79% Rotten Tomatoes HBO Max Original Sets New Netflix Release Date
The series was cancelled after two seasons.
The owner of the website, Ray Paulick, also agreed with this sentiment, as he released his own statement that condemned TMZ and PETA. “It wasn’t until the news cycle was several days old that PETA’s outrageous claims of Luck using unfit, sore, drugged horses was brought into question by anyone,” he said. “By then, however, the lies had been repeated often enough that people believed them.” There hasn’t been an update to the controversy since then, but by the time Hoffman and Paulick directly addressed the comments, Luck was well and truly in the past without any hope of having a future.
‘Luck’ Was Cancelled During the Production of Season 2
Three deaths make axing the show feel like the right call, and maybe the only conceivable one. Additionally, with the rate of deaths per season, assuming they stay below the industry rate like HBO said, it doesn’t feel like a sustainable show anyway. The optics weren’t hopeful for the show either, as news of the horses’ deaths — even without PETA’s comments — isn’t the most positive association to have. But, even without the deaths, Luck may not have had a future anyway, as it struggled to reel in viewers, unlike Milch’s previous successful series.
The first season may have had a positive critical reception, mainly around its exploration into the sub-culture of horse-racing, but it seems like viewers didn’t connect with this material. According to the first THR article mentioned, Luck was averaging 625,000 viewers per episode throughout its run. It garnered a modest 1.1 million during its premiere, but slowly dipped into around 500,000 viewers for the rest of the episodes, unable to maintain the initial intrigue likely due to the big names associated with the project. Luck was a passion project for Milch, delving deep into the intricacies of horse-racing with a slow-burn feel, which wasn’t able to hook viewers in immediately. Ironically, it looks like luck wasn’t on Luck’s side, between its failure to maintain viewership to the heartbreaking deaths on set.
Luck
- Release Date
-
2012 – 2012
- Network
-
HBO
- Directors
-
Allen Coulter, Brian Kirk, Michael Mann, Mimi Leder
