Vegas’ Season 1, Episode 4 Recap

• CBS
• Kiss Me, Kate!

In case you hadn’t heard, “Vegas” has been picked up for a full season by CBS, so for now everyone can rest easy about cancellation. It wasn’t likely, anyway — the show has been winning its Thursday-night timeslot with a hefty viewer load, which I (obviously) think it deserves. There’s something almost quaintly lovable about the series — it’s not loud or a whirlwind or chock-full of violence and gore and shock, but it’s good. Not great, not yet, but it’s solidly good.

“Vegas” came out of the box establishing some great characters, but hasn’t done much with them yet outside of Vincent Savino (Michael Chiklis). “(Il)Legitimate” (a complicated title to pull off, text-wise) illustrated more clearly than ever before that Savino is a business man who’s motivated by money, but his mob connections, which should be helping him, continuously bring him back into the muck. I feel for Savino for two reasons - one, because Chiklis is fantastic in portraying him, and two because his arc so far reminds me a great deal of my (second) favorite character from “The Wire,” Stringer Bell, the street gangster who wanted to become a legitimate business man but kept being brought back down to the violence and dealings of the street because of his best friend and his past. Both characters long to go legit, but shaking their gang affiliations seem to prove insurmountable.

As for the other characters, ask and ye shall receive regarding Jack Lamb, at least.