Now, here’s an example of a show that I expected not to like that turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The premise of a show about a group of co-workers who win the lottery sounds boring and predictable. While there are some predictable situations, there’s a freshness to the story that took me by surprise. By the end of the first episode, I wanted to visit with these characters again, which is the best compliment you can pay any show.
Based on the British series, The Syndicate, Lucky 7 is about seven co-workers at a gas station who really need the money. When they win the lottery, it’s clear that winning all of that money is not necessarily going to solve all of their problems. Yes, that does sound predictable, doesn’t it? However, it’s all in the execution, and the situations set up for each of the winners are less so.
A struggling couple wants to move out of his mother’s house before their baby is born. A downtrodden wife worries about losing weight and worries more about losing her philandering husband. There’s the shady guy who owes money to a loan shark. A young single-mother tries to stretch her take home pay to cover whatever she can for her young daughter. Another young woman is being pressured by her father to find a man, even if he has to arrange a marriage for her. Everyone has a reason why a lottery win would change their lives, and it does. The question is: will it change their lives for better or worse?
Just before their lottery numbers come up, brothers Matt and Nicky decide (Matt begrudgingly) to stage a robbery at the gas station, but things don’t go as smoothly as planned. One of the winners worries that a secret from her past will be uncovered. One of the more pragmatic workers kept a secret from his wife, too. He hasn’t been playing the lottery, after all. Instead, he’s been squirreling the money away, thinking they would never win, but at least they’d still have their little nest egg.
All of these situations set up a microcosm of moral dilemmas and lead to more ups and downs, just not the ones they ever expected. Again, it all does sound fairly predictable in the description of it, but it doesn’t feel so predictable on screen. There are characters to root for and there are others that you want to shake or slap upside the head. Either way, they are characters I’d be interested to follow as they embark on a game-changing journey from rags to riches to whatever comes after that.
How Lucky 7 will do in its time slot is a toss up. This ABC show faces NBC’s Chicago Fire, which has built a relatively small but loyal audience over its first season, and CBS’s Person of Interest, which also has a fiercely loyal fanbase, but which is moving from its cushy slot on Thursday nights. It’s anybody’s game, and—quality-wise—Lucky 7 is just as likely to come up a winner as either of the other two.
TV Gord’s verdict: One of my personal favourites.