Round Two: Vinyl

Vinyl: Season 1, Episode 2 “Yesterday Once More” (B-)

This isn’t exactly what I had in mind for this show’s second episode, which leads me to think that maybe I was too quick to pledge my allegiance to a show that I’m not sure enthralls me. The craziness of the first episode, which included a murder and the complete collapse of an entire building during a concert, was only amplified in this hour. In “Mad Men,” Don Draper made an impression with his quiet but firm nature, eviscerating people with a carefully-worded takedown. On this show, Richie Finestra shows up all bloody to the office and proceeds to scream as loudly as he can while he ruins deals that have taken considerable time and effort to prepare and literally punches his colleagues to ensure that he gets his way. Yelling at an employee for strolling in late after he came in straight from a redeye back from a work trip was an important wake-up call that he’s gone off the deep end. He’s in serious trouble, and Zak’s Bat Mitzvah estimate is proof that they’re going to need to dig themselves out of a hole that Jamie’s new discovery probably won’t be able to help fill. It’s less intriguing to find out that this show is not actually based on real people but rather inspired by a number of events, and that makes me less inclined to watch it, even though most of the series that I regularly follow star fictional characters. I’ll give it a third shot, but the pace needs to pick up and the crazy could use a little toning down.