User reviews

Cop drama is a crowded genre and audience might be reluctant to invest on a new one if there's no instant hook. While "Lucky Man" has Stan Lee advertised on its title, it's not a superhero series, it's borderline investigation thriller with a pinch of supernatural gimmick. It doesn't take the genre by storm, but what it does have is nifty stylish approach sufficient to create a different tone.

Harry (James Nesbitt) is a detective with vices, he has problem with gambling, among others. One night she meets a lady, and thus his luck changes. The good point about Harry is he's not created to pander the audience. He's not a single parent or other sympathy-grabbing character, he's rude in a anti-hero kind of way. This is not a buddy cop drama either, at least not entirely since the main focus remains on Harry while any aide takes largely supportive role.

The more unworldly aspect is done with care, it's far from Supernatural or Constantine, yet manages to put surreal ambiance to the plot. Events occur both in the favor or disfavor of the main lead, so in more way than one it affects his personal and work life. The case in hand is approachable and kept in check in steady flow, which is proper since it has to cater for different elements.

Location is presented nicely, there's ample visual cue for each important set-piece and they are shown quite stylishly. Script also does a fine job in creating tension and intrigue or effectively introducing characters. However, the show does have a bit of problems. The slow pace at some scene might not be appealing and those seeking for more colorful spectacle might find little heroism or spark here. The case itself needs time to gain momentum, this is not Agatha Christie style that can immediately grasps people's attention.

While some flaws still remain, "Lucky Man" might just roll the right number of mystery and thriller to at least have the chance to hit the jackpot.

Reading the other reviews, I believe that most people expected to see a spandex-dressed superhero series. Stan Lee's name in the very title of the series would cause that.

This is a police story. Police detectives who have to deal with something seemingly impossible. It is the concept of ordinary people who have to deal with extraordinary situations.

It is closer to "Fringe" than anything else. Not much action, but plenty of mystery. It has an intriguing plot (with a few minor flaws) that keeps interest quite high. Acting is OK, nothing exceptional, but nothing disappointing either.

Overall this is a great story, told in a satisfying way. As I am a fan of the genre, I consider "Lucky Man" to be one of the top 3 series of 2016.

This is exactly the type of TV show that has an great first season, but due to lack of initial momentum does not get picked up for a second. That is why I urge anyone who is thinking about watching this show to take a chance with the first two episodes, and go from there. Odds are, you'll appreciate the gamble, and eagerly await the next chapter.

On the surface is a very well produced detective/mystery show with episodic, seasonal, and perhaps even a series arc. The main character is a very colorful fellow at the outer edge of middle age. He's clearly a man of contradiction - experienced, good at his job, but also an addict with his personal life spinning out of control.

The surrounding characters are very well cast, and there really are not any weak links to the ensemble. Everyone comes off as well thought out, with their own lives, history, goals and desires.

This isn't your typical comic book hero, or comic book realm. By all accounts this is the same reality we inhabit, but with a touch of magic in the form of an enchanted object. Once the power can't be denied, it becomes a question of what to do with this yin yang ability involving the positive and negative qualities of luck.

Perhaps the number one quality on display here is the writing. The dialog comes off as believable, the deliveries are well performed. This says something about experience, and the actors we are dealing with. It's refreshing to watch a new show with no gimmicks, just rock solid writing, production, acting, and premise.

Lucky man has gotten off to a great start, and deserves a following to ensure not only a first good season, but a complete series run.

An excellent start - 8/10

I felt obliged to write something as the review showing on the main page was written by such a Negative Nelly and needs displacing as quickly as possible. So far only the pilot has been released so no rating but it shows early signs of promise.

Harry is a detective, played by the seemingly ageless James Nesbitt, who becomes imbued with the ability to bend luck in his favour after he inherits an ancient-looking trinket. However the person he gets this from did not seem at all happy with it and the show begins to hint at an early stage that all this good luck has a Newtonian counterpart that must be suffered others.

Investigating a series of deaths seemingly linked to the item and dogged by his new, straight-arrow boss, Harry must try to get to the bottom of the mystery of his new-found amulet, the mysterious and gorgeous woman who forced it upon him and the as yet unknown character trying to get it back again.

It's early days as yet but the plot is intriguing, the acting of British quality and the main character is most certainly an anti-hero, which I personally find quite appealing. Worth a look.

I was delighted to see that "Stan Lee's Lucky Man" was not yet another interminable '~man' (Bat/Ant/Super/X- etc etc ad nauseum) comic on screen. Instead we are treated to a show for adults rather than teens/YAs. Remarkably, the drama is set in London and features as the eponymous character a rather flawed and somewhat insular copper. We soon see that "Lucky Man" may not be that lucky at all, and that his luck is rather double edged. The characters are believable, often unlovable, and well portrayed; the roles are quickly fleshed out and we easily grasp the character of each participant. The background of London does not distract, as say New York might, instead it provides a gentle and interesting canvas against which the story rapidly, and often brutally, unfolds. Well written, well acted, and tightly edited, I haven't felt that the show slackens at any point. Excellent and believable drama despite the 'comic book' premise.

I like James Nesbitt so that is always a good start. I am a 38 year old female and I never thought I would be watching this many comic book based shows. I also love sci-fi, so those are the type of super hero shows I will watch. The Flash, Marvels Agents of Shield, Legends of Tomorrow and now this one. That is a lot of comic book super heroes for a 38 year old. My teenage son does not even watch these shows. He just likes the big movies with the characters. This one could be a good one. Need to see more episodes. They did the set up in the pilot well. We get the premise and it was fun to see James Nesbitt get to be flash and daring. The boat chase at night on the water was beautiful. I am not sure where they actually shot that, but it looked great, except the really obvious tacky green screen shots with James and the other cop in the boat, that was bad. Worth checking out for sure so far. Update-2018- We are now on Season Three. This show has met my expectations and is one of my favorites. Interesting stories and great cast. Season three is my favorite so far. Watch this is you can get it where you live. Hopefully it will go to a streaming service where more people can see it eventually.

I am not a huge fan of cartoon animation of good versus evil. However I am a huge fan of suspense thrillers and murder mystery. I absolutely love this show and surprised at the casting of these actors whom I find wonderfully cast in these roles. Kudos. I'm hooked on this show on many levels. Very macabre. Excellent!

Being honest I watched 2 episodes then said Meh, and stopped. Not because it wasn't good but perhaps there was just more to catch up on. having said that and weeks later having run out of things to watch I gave this series another shot and boy am I glad I did! Each episode delivered and raised the stakes to another level. I rarely yell at my monitor screen but I did a few times near the end there. What a great freak'in show! Can't fault any of the performances. Can't fault who's bad or good or both because it was all great! One of the best series I've seen in a long while and quite unexpected!

Though there is a premise of a magical Bracelet, this series did not fully rely on it. Character driven and who knows what comes next is the base of this delicious show. Give it a chance and you might be as blown away as I was. Wonderful TV!

For crying out loud! Why can't people grow up and stop being sanctimonious, nit-picking morons? It's not perfect, but it is pretty good. It's fast paced, has interesting characters and plot lines and James Nesbit's acting is bloody brilliant. The rest of the cast do a great job, too. The story has a nice supernatural twist with the bracelet, but if you don't like that kind of thing I wouldn't watch it, and don't leave a negative review because of it. As well as that, it's a pretty good and gritty crime drama. I've reached episode nine so far and I'm looking forward to a second season if they choose to keep this series going. There are some really bad films and programs being churned out these days, but this isn't one of them and I think its 7.2 rating is pretty close. Go with that and give it a shot...unless you think you might have sanctimonious, nit-picking tendencies, then you might want to give it a miss to save yourself the stress and frustration of it all.

Season 1 & 2 were great. Season 3? What utter dross. Bad acting, terrible story line, a monkey could direct better. What went wrong? It's like they decided to do a season 3 at the last minute, and only had 2 days to finish it all. Really, really disappointed. As in the story line, for every piece of good luck, there has to be bad. For every decent series, there has to be a bad one.

James Nesbitt stars in this crime oriented supernatural drama. Let me preface this review with point that It is hard for me to fully explain the successes of this TV show, since usually I do not write reviews for TV shows (I just felt this was worth one). Now let's get straight into it.

The cast's performance is astonishing; James Nesbitt creates one of the most believable characters in recent history... whilst wearing a magic bracelet? That may sound oxymoronic, but what this show does so impressively is incorporate the supernatural with, an impressive on its own, crime drama. Nesbitt's performance makes the supernatural utterly believable, even more so his reaction to it. It would be easy to write about every member of the cast, but my personal favourites are Nesbitt Karan. Karan always delivers in her roles and this is no exception. Her character's relationship with Hagan (Nesbitt's character) really highlights the realities of working with a friend in the criminal justice system whilst providing us with a solid friendship that the viewer is always rooting for.

The writing itself is so maturely done, in ways that much of TV fails to do. As stated earlier, the supernatural is implemented impeccably. And although the premise may seem far-fetched it is done in a way where you never think "yeah, well that would never happen in real life", as the rest of the show and the characters truly immerse you deeply.

The show is consistent, enjoyable and emotional. I highly recommend this to anyone and believe, well certainly hope, that this will continue for many seasons to come.

As other reviewers indicated, it had a lot of potential at the start but the suspension of disbelief gets more and more as episodes progress. I started off with 7/10 rating but this has dropped to 4/10. I managed to stick with it until episode 6 but really can't stand to watch anymore. The contrivances have turned it into a humourless pantomime. Whoever wrote and directed this lives in cloud cuckoo land as far as policing (and even common sense goes) - possibly the way things were done in '60s popular shows (when the public knew no better). The method of policing we see is: find some hearsay, arrest and accuse the alleged perpetrator very loudly, run into things without any backup and collect no evidence, get shouted at by horrible boss for there being no evidence, alleged perpetrator (who we really hate) gets released by horrible possibly evil boss, we are all supposed to be sympathetic with the heroes.

Here's an example of disbelief: cops raid container yard; one cop runs off chasing bad guy; isn't seen or heard from since for 12 hours; no-one bothers to do anything, his partner apparently tried to get him on his cell and thats all. By the way, he was kidnapped by a baddie from the container yard. This is a senior police officer going missing during work and no-one bats an eyelid - very convenient. If only this was an isolated incident, those of us who actually have a working brain could get into the fantasy.

Another issue I have is that all the actors/cops seem to be playing characters from children's TV, apart from Nesbitt. Especially his partner played by Karan. Its very difficult to imagine a children's TV presenter as a cop. The baddies on the other hand are well played, as are the side characters, especially Jing Lusi and Omid Jalili. The side characters are played with a lot of real-life angst - like the waiter whose family is being threatened by crooks. Nesbitt plays himself as usual and for some reason that always works well.

Its a shame because the novelty is that its a Marvel Hero based in London. Its refreshing; the city, the stories, the characters, and the British production.

It's early days, but the pilot episode shows real promise. Played out as a proper British cop show/gangland drama, with characteristic British tropes, the excellent London setting and some fine actors, but with Stan Lee influence. What's not to love as a concept!

There is a danger that it may over play the clichés and tropes - court room, marriage drama, mysterious strangers, corrupt cops, hard arse bosses and instantly dislikable colleagues all make an appearance (not spoilers!). That's fine as long as the writers continue to keep them balanced.

But if they can maintain this balance and keep it dark and true then it bodes well.

This series started with great potential, but they really missed the opportunity to end on a high note at the end of series two. Series three was a mistake, a big mistake. By the time I was watching the third last episode of series three it had become so repetitive and boring that I threw the towel in and fast forwarded to the final episode. Loved the first two series, but series 3 was utter tosh and heaven forbid they ever make a series 4!

Love this show, so glad its returned for the 3rd series. James Nesbitt excels in his character in the main role. The concept of a magic bracelet may seem cheesy but the stories are complex as the plot thickens.

This show will grow on you, it just goes from strength to strength. Don't be put off by a 'magic bracelet', its a fabulous bracelet with a big history as we find out. As another reviewer says, it may seem far-fetched but so cleverly done it hooks you in.

Just watched the premiere episode of this show and I do not feel excited about it. The story revolves around detective Harry of London who has been handed over a bracelet by a complete stranger that has the power to bend LUCK into favor of the person wearing it.

Harry has been shown as a gambling addict who has lost control over his life due to it. All of a sudden he meets a stranger who hands over this LUCKY bracelet that can change his life which is the gist of the whole series.

There are certain things in this pilot which do not impress me at all like there is no proper character introduction or building of character, we do not get any idea as to who would be the important characters in this series. Things are happening too fast within a span of one episode and writers have not focused on the how exciting it can be to bend luck in your favor.

Hope coming episodes are good enough and story evolves better to keep you glued to it.

OK, as others have pointed out, there's some elements in this that stretch belief, but, come on, he's wearing a magical bracelet; surely once you've accepted that, it isn't hard to overlook some of the show's flaws.

I actually found the show got better as the series went on. By the time the final episode comes around it had me truly hooked.

Production is very good and setting it in London gives it more of an air of reality. The cast is full of good actors with Nesbit, as always, very watchable, especially as his life and career appear to be getting out of control.

There are some parts that don't make sense, but, overlook those and it's a really enjoyable thriller, just far enough off the normal cops and robbers model, to make it novel.

Looking forward to the next series - just a shame we have to wait until 2017.

SPOILER: So far - so good.

Having only watched the first episode, it's difficult to write a sensible review.

So far so good, though. The first episode moves swiftly along and introduces a pretty good plot with some interesting characters. The normally annoying James Nesbitt seems to have matured into a good looking (and better) actor these days.

It's unusual to have such an icon (Lee) doing his thing in somewhere outside the USA. But so far, the London locales work well, even if the accents aren't always easy to understand.

For older people like me - who judge movies and TV by how annoying it is - you are in for a pleasant surprise.

It's almost not annoying at all.

Best of all - nobody cried. (That's how you can tell it's not an American TV program.)

So, based on the first episode only, it's a winner. If that changes in the future, I'll update this review.

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UPDATE: OK, just finished the second episode. The 'blub' count is up to 3. Yes, the writers found good reasons for 3 women to start blubbing before the end of the second episode.

It looks like this is another IROBOT series, where everything is crammed in to the first episode and the remainder is just people in the entertainment business shamelessly urinating in your face.

Will be interesting to see how many people burst into tears next week - stay tuned... I think I'm gonna be one of them!

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After THREE episodes...

The most shameless, overused and lazy cliché in history has been dragged out of mothballs in an effort to lift this awful rubbish - the cop has an ex-wife who's a lawyer and guess what? Yes, you did guess correctly, she's assigned the very case that puts her opposite the 'Lucky Man! Brilliant writing - who comes up with these inventive twists? Ha ha!

This week it's ME that's crying.

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After FOUR episodes...

This is now just bloody stupid. I'm done.