Vinyl season 1, episode 10
Richie Finestra is not all that likable a character. A lot of people probably turned off Vinyl show because of that. But he wasn’t designed for the kind of easy sympathy or empathy most TV watchers look for in prime time viewing. Finestra screws his enemies, he screws his friends, he screws his wife, he’s probably screwed his friends’ wives. But there’s something about him that has kept his office running and the workers, for the most part, loyal. To the degree that record people from that time period in that setting could be loyal. But Ray Romano has a field day in this episode. This is Bobby Cannavale’s show, sure, but Romano commits grand theft here. He gives a virtual tour de force. There isn’t an emotion he doesn’t get to feature. That first scene where he goes in for a mano a mano conversation with Gallasso, he comes in a supplicant and walks out a partner. He even gets to strut with that who “those who say don’t know, and those who know don’t say” shit. He’s absolutely on top of the world and he’s barely hiding it. Romano gets to riff a comic bit in the recording studio. Then he gets shattered and he plummets down a whole staircase of intricate emotions, a couple of floors at least. The scene in the warehouse, after the chop shop gets busted, is very telling. There’s a look Ray and Richie share that gives a whole backstory. They have a conversation with their eyes and that silent chat covers their whole relationship. Richie explains that he’s been up to his neck in shit that goes deeper than any trouble he got into for putting shit up his nose and Zak is both appalled and appeased, maybe even a little aroused, I wasn’t checking. Cannavale may not have called the cops about the stolen car thing in the Bronx but his move to blow the whistle on The Nasty Bits opening slot for the New York Dolls at the Academy is brilliant enough to earn respect from the jaded Julie Silver (Max Casella) and yet it’s also ballsy enough to almost get Kip (James Jagger) busted for more than scuffing Lenny Bruce’s shoes, to paraphrase Jello Biafra. It comes mere minutes after a slip of a needle turned the Nasty Bits singer into a walking eightball ready to drop in a corner pocket. Jamie (Juno Temple) is kicked back to the curb, but keeps her gig in spite of running afoul of the office moral monitor Andrea Zito (Annie Parisse). Clark (Jack Quaid) and Jorge (Christian Navarro) finally make a delivery that the company can appreciate. They even make the presentation properly, it almost comes C.O.D. It pure insubordination against Scott Levitt (P.J. Byrne), but he’s too busy pulling a Judah Friedlander bit from 30 Rock on how far a man crush can go.
