Tilt

I would be lying if I didn't say I was disappointed with the TV series, "Tilt". I thought Rounders was a brilliant movie, and expected the TV show to be at least close to as good as the movie. My impression after watching the first few episodes was that a lot of the acting was bad (except for Madsen, of course), the writing was cheesy, and there wasn't that much actual poker playing involved. Tha being said, however, I watched the whole series without missing an episode. Despite its flaws, the show is interesting, and makes sure that you want to watch the next episode to see what happens. If you haven't seen it yet, don't expect "Rounders: The Series", but expect a show that is fun to watch, and will have you quote lines from it with your friends.

After watching the first four episodes of Tilt it's pretty easy to gather that the show is far fetched and promotes the idea of cheating. If you're looking for REAL poker, go watch re-runs of the WSOP on ESPN Classic or World Poker Tour on Travel Channel, but if you just want a fun show with a poker theme embedded into it, then give Tilt a try. Michael Madsen's character is laugh out loud funny with some of his one liners, and granted the acting from the others is below par, you can't really set the bar high for ESPN shows, especially after Playmakers. So again, if you want a few cheap laughs and just enjoy poker in general, give this show a shot. If you're looking to brush up on your skills and try to play in next years WSOP, then save the criticism and go read Super System! :)

I haven't been real impressed with many of ESPN's ventures into original movies or programming. I saw a couple of episodes of "Playmakers" but it didn't keep me coming back. "3" wasn't bad...neither was "The Junction Boys" but I absolutely hated "Hustle" and the "Season on the Brink". That said, I watched "Tilt" with guarded optimism.

What I came away with after the first episode is the interest to at least see the second. The character development seems very good and, already, you want to see the "Matador" (Michael Madsen's character) fall and fall hard.

Lots of casino action, suspense, even a bit of flesh appear to be the ingredients here...and my wife probably said it best when she said, "You definitely won't see this on Lifetime"...

I was going to wait until this series ended to review it, but why bother? This is simply a killer series. The story is pretty complicated, with subplots galore surrounding each character, but that's not why I watch it. Michael Madsen is perfect as poker baddie Don Everest- ruthless, conniving, and dressed to kill in those 80s collars and vests. And best of all is the assortment of characters, dialog, and voice-over narration that you get during the poker sequences. As if that weren't enough, they added one of my favorite actors, Robert Forster, in the last episode. The only unfortunate part is that it's hard to get up to speed if you missed the first few episodes, due to all the different plot aspects. At this point it's better to wait for a catch-up night, or buy the full DVD set when it comes out.

To sum up, the story is contrived, but who cares? The cast is great and the poker sequences alone are worth watching it for. Kudos to ESPN for their best series yet!!! Like MM says before the deal, "Let's rock and roll, baby".

What can you say about this show? Nothing good, except that the levels of terrible this show achieves are so complete it is impossible to look away. Its a train wreck of bad lighting, stilted dialog and ridiculous plot. The narration from our main character comes off as completely lame. When we are not being treated to the inner monologue of, some other character is spouting off "quality" lines such as "You play cards; you're not a card-player." The non-stop barrage of poker jargon, perhaps with some demented eye towards establishing "street cred" with the poker world is so bad it borders on self-parody.

This show is mind-bogglingly bad. But, it is one of those monumental failures that you just can't stop watching. You will sit there, in a dazed stupor, wondering if there were any way the show could possibly be worse, but everything you come up with will invariably make the show better.

The producers of "Tilt" have helpfully placed a warning at the beginning of each airing, presumably to prevent young people from taking up poker. I can think of no better way to ensure that a child will never want to play poker than by having them watch this show.