Las Vegas review journal article

 

LIFE ON THE COUCH: New season to reflect changing face of 'Las Vegas'

On the surface, the bloody, double-crossing crime saga "The Departed" doesn't seem to have much in common with the sunny, every-day's-a-party "Las Vegas." But the gangland drama's success at last week's Academy Awards may have been responsible for the NBC series losing its biggest name.

James Caan, who stars as casino boss Ed Deline, had been wanting to go back to making movies for a while, says "Las Vegas" creator Gary Scott Thompson. "I just think it was when he saw (his 'Godfather' director Francis Ford) Coppola up there with Martin Scorsese getting his Oscar, and all these guys in this business he'd been in for so long on Oscar night, it revived it."

Two days later, Caan quit the series.

Nikki Cox, who co-starred as Mary, also won't be returning, although the reasons for her departure aren't as clear.

But while fans lost two characters, they could have lost the entire series.

"Las Vegas" is averaging 1.7 million fewer viewers since moving to Fridays a year ago, and this season was cut to 17 episodes from the standard 22. For the first time in its four seasons, the series was in danger of cancellation. But Thompson wasn't above stacking the deck in his favor.

"Oh, there's going to be all kinds of things going on," he says of Friday's season finale (9 p.m., KVBC-TV, Channel 3). "It's not just one cliffhanger. There's, like, multiple cliffhangers going on. There's some gunplay, there's an explosion, a bomb, a pregnancy. There's all kinds of stuff.

"My intention was to, and I told the network this, 'I'm gonna make this the biggest cliffhanger anyone's ever seen. And if you cancel us, you're gonna have 15 million fans pissed off at you, not me.' "

The ploy worked. "Las Vegas" was renewed last week for 22 more episodes, although viewers shouldn't expect the same series when it returns in the fall.

"Everything changes in Vegas," Thompson says, "and we need to do that as a show as well."

His goal is the type of renaissance "ER" has had this season since adding John Stamos and the way Dick Wolf keeps his "Law & Order" franchise from feeling tired by routinely swapping out actors.

"We're on the air because of our young viewers," Thompson says. But after four years, cast members are going from their 20s to their 30s, and those young viewers want characters they can identify with.

As a result, "Las Vegas" is expected to include some fresh new faces when production resumes next month. (I'm pulling for Olivia Wilde, of NBC's grim new mob tale "The Black Donnellys," and Alexa Davalos, from Fox's short-lived "Reunion" and the March 15 premiere of "Raines," NBC's quirky Jeff Goldblum detective series.)

The youth wave isn't the reason Caan is moving on, and Thompson, while already feeling the loss, couldn't appreciate the actor more. "He's an Academy Award nominee, and I got him on a TV show for four years," he says. "That's pretty incredible. We're blessed here that we had him for four years."

Thompson says Caan has offered to come back at the beginning of next season to tie up any loose ends and may return for occasional episodes.

He also hopes Cox will appear for an episode or two to wrap up her character, although that may be a tougher sell. The actress told the Hollywood Reporter she was "very sad and shocked" that she's no longer part of the cast, but Thompson says it wasn't a one-sided decision. "She mentioned all season long last season, 'Maybe it's time for me to move on.' "

"I said, you know, however you want to deal with this is fantastic," he says he told the actress about Mary's departure. "You wanna go out in a blaze of glory, let me know. You wanna just get on a plane and say 'I'm leaving Vegas,' (that's) cool by me, too."

The rest of the cast seems to be staying put for now. "Everyone else is very excited to come back," Thompson says. "Josh Duhamel is really looking forward to it and really excited about the changes that are going to happen."

Now, the challenge will be shaking up the series without shaking up viewers.

"I'm just hoping that the audience stays with us and doesn't think that these people leaving is reason to abandon," Thompson says, "because we're still going to have great, fun shows."