Las Vegas Uncut and Uncensored: Season Two DVD Review:

Although Las Vegas may share some of the camera angles of Scorsese’s Casino, don’t let that small detail be misleading. Las Vegas may show the details of running a Casino in as realistic way as possible, but it also has the lightness and humor of real life. At times this humor is the saving grace of the show, but when it involves the female characters on the show instead of saving the show it adds an element of cheese. If it weren’t for these scenes Las Vegas would rise easily from B-level status. Perhaps the biggest problem is that the scenes with James Caan and Josh Duhamel, a veteran pro and a great new talent, are far too difficult to match.

Las Vegas centers around the happenings of the Montecito casino, primarily focusing on the surveillance team which is run by Ed Deline (James Caan). At the end of season one Ed’s right hand man, Danny McCoy (Josh Duhamel) left for military service, but he is back rather quick by the first episode of season two. Although Danny has some trouble adjusting in the first episode, this will quickly pass as everything seems to on Las Vegas.

As side plots to the security department, Las Vegas also has sub-plots with the casino hosts and the nightclub manager, but these usually aren’t that interesting unless they involve a guest star or are related to the security issues. Basically, any of the stories involving the female characters on the show are not nearly as interesting as the stories with the security.

The lightness of the show doesn’t allow for anything to remain constant in the plot. Each episode may have interesting twists in character development, but this never remains at the beginning of the next episode. No matter how serious things may get, it is all perfectly wrapped up before the hour is complete. This can get a little bit tiring, and it doesn’t inspire any need to watch the show consecutively. As well as that, it makes it impossible to think that any of the twists are real, because it is known that it will be solved quickly at the end.

Season two has all twenty-four episodes on three double-sided discs, which are fit into slim disc cases and all packaged together in a great box with 3D looking dice on the cover. Each episode is shown in anamorphic widescreen, which looks great, and they each have their own menu as well. The bonus features include a gag reel from both seasons to date, and a tour through the Palms Casino, showing how high rollers really are treated.



Ryan Izay