betsthe Max show centered around the sports betting life, returns to the streamer for its second season. The cast and creators say they’ve upped the antics of the storytelling in the dark comedy that can serve as a cautionary tale about the dangers of sports betting.
bets follows veteran Los Angeles bookie Danny (Sebastian Maniscalco) as the potential legalization of sports gambling in California threatens to turn his business upside down for good. Maniscalco returns as Danny in the long-awaited Max Season 2, and said the character continues to dispel the stereotype associated with a person responsible for determining game odds.
Danny’s compassionate side
“Sometimes … he has a compassionate side, which you don’t usually see in a stereotypical gambling house,” Maniscalco told Blavity’s Shadow and Act. “A bookie is usually collecting money and threatening people if they don’t pay, and here in this season, I think Danny is a little bit…gullible, and that gets him in trouble this season. So, in the no being a hardened criminal like you have to be in this business, I think Danny’s sensitivity and compassion might get him in a bit of trouble this season, and he and Ray (played by Omar J. Dorsey) are in a bit of a bind “.
For Dorsey, when it comes to his character in this second installment of bookie, the word that comes to mind is caregiver. The first season focused on the relationship between Danny and Ray. In Season 2, the pair find themselves navigating a pretty dangerous world without each other’s usual support and guidance.
“We didn’t see that last season, but we’re going to see a lot of that this season, especially with Frank and the other people coming to live in his house where he thought he was just living with his grandmother.” Dorsey said his character’s compassionate side will be on full display betssecond season of “I think his evolution this season… is born from that. … My grandmother’s husband or fiance or whatever, now the husband, has a heart attack in the finale of last season, so now he’s in a position to be the person to help his grandmother and to help her husband that he had never been there before. … You have to kind of take a back seat to start taking care of others.”
Creators in the gray area of the program
For bets Creators Chuck Lorre and Nick Bakay, the idea of working in a moral gray area was the driving force behind the new season.
“For many years now, I’ve really wanted to work in that gray area where people aren’t necessarily, you know, good citizens,” Lorre said. “I didn’t really know how to do it, but the stakes are higher in this world. You know? It’s not, ‘Did Jimmy do his homework?’ That’s not the story. There are many more consequences when people live off the grid and are involved in even mild criminal activity. And I never knew how until I saw Sebastian the irish I saw him in a scene with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, where he plays a psychotic gangster based on the character, the real-life Crazy Joe Gallo, and “OK, this guy’s got some serious numbers.” … He’s a stand-up comedian, but he’s good as an actor. … But I didn’t feel I had the resources or the strength of character to write about a killer. It is better to leave it to other people. … I don’t want to do that, and I presented this problem to Nick, and Nick said, “How about a bookie?” and we’re running.”
Opportunity with the changes in sports betting
With sports betting legislation changing dramatically across the country, Bakay said the timing for a show like pointer it’s almost perfect.
“We’ve been watching, as everyone has, how the recent legalization of sports gambling is affecting everyone, and it’s fascinating,” Bakay said. “It’s kind of ruinous. Look what it’s doing to the athletes; they’re getting suspended. The (Shohei) Ohtani thing was kind of crazy — there’s a performer in the hole for $6 million. … So, it’s developing every week and not to mention what it’s doing in every citizen’s life you know I think the timing of the show is going over a really interesting zeitgeist we’re just trying to tell from the human angle. We found these characters … we developed them. We’re just trying to take care of them.”
bets Season 2 premiered Thursday, with new episodes weekly until the season finale on January 30.
