Old Hollywood has a dark side.
Note: this is a spoiler-free review for all nine episodes of The Last Tycoon, now available on Amazon Prime Instant Video.
For those who have finished the season and want to read my thoughts on the ending and some of the other major story developments, head over to our Last Tycoon: Spoiler Discussion.
The Last Tycoon clearly wants to establish itself as the Mad Men of its particular era. It too flashes back to a distinctive period in American history and revolves around a driven, tortured, fedora-clad creative genius trying to hide from his troubled past while working to make his uncompromised artistic vision a reality. But without the same level of depth and nuance that characterized Mad Men, The Last Tycoon settles for being a pretty, largely empty look back at Hollywood's Golden Age.
The Last Tycoon is loosely based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's final, unfinished novel and developed by Captain Phillips and The Hunger Games writer Billy Ray. Matt Bomer (White Collar) stars as Monroe Stahr, a young, handsome film producer and the toast of Hollywood circa-1936. Stahr seems to have it all in an era when most have far too little until it's revealed early on that he's both mourning the death of his wife/muse Minna Davis (Arrow's Jessica De Gouw) and dealing with health problems of his own.
Kelsey Grammer (Frasier) also stars as Pat Brady, head of struggling studio Brady American Pictures and the Roger Sterling to Stahr's Don Draper. The two enjoy a tumultuous relationship at best, with Brady showing a fatherly affection for his young partner even as the two frequently butt heads over financial and creative matters and the career ambitions of Brady's daughter, Cecilia (Mirror Mirror's Lily Collins).
It's little surprise that The Last Tycoon is based on unfinished source material because the show's most glaring flaw is its inability to maintain focus. The show dabbles in a great many conflicts over the course of these nine episodes. There's the friction between Brady American Pictures and the government of Nazi Germany, who closely scrutinize all American films imported into their country. There's the more general emphasis on BAP's financial struggles and Brady's Herculean efforts to keep his company afloat. There's Stahr's quest to craft his magnum opus, a process made all the more complicated when Moore wanders into his life and reawakens old passions. There's Miner's (Halt and Catch Fire's Mark O'Brien) efforts to find a job at BAP and provide for his starving siblings. All this, plus plenty of subplots involving romantic affairs, Hollywood intrigue and even one particularly half-hearted subplot about Stahr attempting to assist artists fleeing Nazi oppression.
It's all a little much to cram into one season of such modest length. It's never entirely clear what the main thrust of the season is supposed to be. Too many story threads are left dangling or abandoned without proper resolution. It's clear by the finale that Ray and his crew are leaving room for a second season, so why not trim the fat now save some of these threads for later?
There's also a very weird tonal inconsistency to the series. Early on, it feels like Ray is striving for a sentimental Old Hollywood feel, with a slightly sappy and melodramatic approach to character relationships and major plot points. But that sentimentality is rudely interrupted every now and then by sudden glimpses of the darkness and depravity beneath the glamorous veneer of Hollywood. That actually wouldn't be such a bad dynamic if the juxtaposition of light and dark were more consistent. If anything, the show feels more true to itself in the final few episodes, as the plot veers in a generally darker, more tragic direction. It's there that The Last Tycoon reminds us more of the Fitzgerald who penned the great American tragedy that is The Great Gatsby.
Because of that scatterbrained focus, it becomes difficult to connect with many of the main characters. Nowhere is this problem more glaring than with Stahr himself. As much as he comes across as the Don Draper of the series, he lacks most of the qualities that made Draper such a fascinating character. There's no sense of mystery to Stahr, and little in the way of personal foibles. Bomer is charming enough, and it's clear why every woman in Stahr's orbit is inexorably drawn to him, but he's too squeaky clean and unblemished to truly emerge as a memorable protagonist. Only rarely does Bomer have the opportunity to break the mold and explore the turmoil beneath Stahr's chiseled good looks.
Brady at least benefits from Grammer's gravelly baritone and commanding presence. It's a safe role for Grammer in many ways, but one he does well. The problem here is again the show's lack of consistent focus. The Last Tycoon never seems sure of whether it wants to portray Brady as a beleaguered businessman trying to do right by his family and company or a sinister villain stifling Stahr's creativity and valuing money over art. And rather than simply accepting that people can be more than one thing simultaneously, the show simply bounces between one or the other in different episodes. It's frequently pointed out that Brady is a man with two very different faces, but it never feels as though there's a cohesive character beneath those faces.
If anything, I found myself wishing that the show had been framed more directly around Collins' Cecelia. She seems like the ideal character with which to confront the clash between Hollywood's glamorous allure and its seedy reality. And there's certainly a decent amount of that in Cecelia's character arc this season, but there's a nagging sense that more could have been done. But if nothing else, she's about the only character whose story reaches a satisfying conclusion in the finale. McElligott's Kathleen Moore also begins to stand out more and more over the course of the season as her character's past is established and Moore's versatility is established, but Kathleen suffers as much as any character from the lack of resolution in the end.
One area The Last Tycoon does find unqualified success is in recreating the look and feel of 1930's Hollywood. The lavishly decorated sets and impeccable costumes are a loving throwback to the period, while also frequently highlighting the divide between the swanky Hollywood elites and the downtrodden masses living in squalor literally yards away from the studio. Every so often, the show takes a break to explore the actual production process and celebrate the magic of movie-making. There are a handful great movie-within-a-movie scenes that bring to mind 2016's Hail, Caesar! I only wish there was a little more of that here.
The Verdict
You certainly can't fault The Last Tycoon for its production values, as Golden Age Hollywood comes alive in this F. Scott Fitzgerald adaptation. But while it has the look down, the story needed a lot more fine-tuning. This season is simply too scatter-brained in focus and not very successful in molding its cast of characters into compelling, fully realized individuals.
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