What would you do, if you could control Luck?
This is the question given to Detective Inspector Harry Clayton in this first episode of the 2016 series, Lucky Man. Brought to us by the legendary comic book author, Stan Lee, this series explores the drama and intrigue of a man given that very power, and the consequences of that gift.
We open with a shot of a crime scene, the dead body of a local stripper who was killed and unceremoniously dumped into the Thames. We then immediately switch tacks to a celebration, the birthday of a hot-shot financier, gathered around his family. After wishing them well, and telling them “you are only as rich as you feel”, he excuses himself from the party, climbs out onto his penthouse balcony and cryptically looks at his bracelet. “Save me from this,” he says, as he dives headfirst into the streets below. A figure dressed in black motorcycle gear rushes to the scene.
We cut again to meet our protagonist, D.I. Harry Clayton, who is losing his shirt at the poker tables. He plays at the Green Dragon Casino, where he has just gone all-in on what he thought was a good hand, but luck wasn’t with him today. Or any day, so it seems. The owner of the casino, Freddy Lau, is calling in his debt of 140,000 pounds, and given him 3 days to pay, saying the debt is worthless, since he can’t sell it off.
Promising to pay, Clayton returns to work, where he learns that an old rival is the new head of his division. He almost immediately goes to see an informant, Kalim, the owner of a local strip club, who suggested that Freddy Lau was calling in the debt so suddenly because he was threatened into leaving London. During this conversation, Clayton mentions the stripper and Kalim hopes that it wasn’t one of his girls, Kayleigh Fenchurch.
In another establishing scene, Clayton goes to the local courthouse, where his wife, Anna, is serving as a barrister, defending a man at trial. The case at hand is not remarked upon in detail, but the scene serves to show Anna’s competence and caring, a stark difference to the Detective. He feigns just running into her, talks about his scheduled visitation with their daughter, and asks her out for dinner. He’s obviously using it as a pretense to see her, and she refuses. They don’t go into why they’re split at this point, but it’s obviously strained, and his fault.
Back at the Green Dragon, Harry is spending his anniversary with a glass of scotch. Freddy Lau confronts him, suggesting he shouldn’t be there, and Harry says he intends to win his money back to clear off the debt. He tries his hand at Blackjack, but with no luck. During his hands, he sees a man getting taken off by the casino security, yelling to speak to Freddy because Kayleigh has gone missing. Clayton notices but doesn’t respond, moving instead to the roulette wheel.
Still losing, Clayton is approached by a young woman in a black dress and a bronze bangle, who suggests he changes his bet at the last second. She touches his shoulder as the ball lands for a win. Finally, something good happening for him. She sits next to him, and directs him to make outlandish bets. Table Maximum on 10, winning him 35,000 Pounds. And again, repeating the same bet for the same result, but letting slip that she knows who he is. Now up 70k, and she seems flustered, he takes her home for the obvious post-win entertainment.
As he wakes from the post-coital slumber, he finds himself alone in the bed. He has the bangle on his wrist now, with two words scrawled on his mirror…
Driving toward a crime scene to meet with his partner, D.S. Suri Chohan, he texts Freddy that he has half of the money he owes, and will deliver it later. But as soon as he arrives, Suri informs him that she intercepted that text and deleted it, as she didn’t want her partner implicated in the death of Freddy Lau. He’s been strangled and dumped in an alley, hidden away from security cameras.
Reassuring Chohan that he was definitely not involved, Clayton suggests finding Lily Ann Lau, Freddy’s daughter and heir.
Clayton then turns to his half-brother, Rich, a purveyor of antiquities, to hold onto the money that he won, to keep it safe until he figures out what to do with it. He figures that Lily Ann won’t let him off lightly. While there, he also asks about the strange bangle, noting that he can’t take it off. Rich takes scrapings from the metal to examine it, but has little idea where it comes from. The only clue is the markings on the side.
After a rousing speech from the incoming Chief Inspector, Clayton and Chohan make way to the coroner’s office, where they are presented with the bodies of both Kayleigh Fenchurch and Freddy Lau. There are similarities in their deaths, specifically that they were strangled, that suggests the killer of each may be the same man.
While there, a third body is wheeled past, with a suspiciously pale spot on his left arm, as if he had been wearing a large bracelet. Clayton asks who he was. A bullion dealer, named Vincent, who died recently by jumping off his balcony.
Clayton and Chohan then begin to piece together the parts of the crime. Kalim had told him that someone was threatening Lau, but differences in the body disposal cause Clayton to think that they’re not as connected as it seems. Kayleigh’s body was dumped in the river, leaving no usable evidence, but Lau was left in public.
Clayton tells Chohan to look for any CC footage of Lau, while he goes and confronts the casino employee that was yelled at, that heard that Kayleigh was missing, JC. After an unusual physical training interrogation, JC gives up the name of the man who was thrown out, Kevin Gray, who works for Lily Ann’s karaoke bar.
Meanwhile, at a local bar, Kalim is drinking with our suspect, Kevin Gray. Gray is trying to get in contact with Lily Ann Lau, that she might help him get out of London, as he is now the prime suspect in two murders. Kalim is hesitant, and Gray forcefully tells him that he doesn’t intend of keeping his mouth shut if he’s captured.
Harry picks up Lily Ann Lau from her karaoke bar, who was using karaoke as a type of wake for her father. She denied any dispute between Freddy and Kevin, even though sources said that they had fallen out over Kayleigh Fenchurch. After pressing Lily Ann for more details, suggesting that Freddy knew his death was near, she reminds him of the fact that Freddy died soon after he called in Clayton’s large debt. A fact that would make Harry a suspect in the murder. But just at that moment, as if by luck, the power to the CC feed of the interview room is cut, and the Chief doesn’t hear these damning words.
After nearly blowing the case in the interview, we cut to Clayton’s daughter, riding her bicycle on the street. At the same time a businessman is getting ready to leave for work. Daisy cuts behind the man’s car as he backs out and his struck, breaking her arm. Clayton and Anna meet at the hospital, where they air out their issues while waiting for news.
Anna left Harry because of his gambling, and has been seeing a divorce lawyer to make the split permanent. She obviously cares about him, but is pained when she sees that he is still gambling.
While at the hospital, he sees the woman that he met at the bar and confronts her. The woman has been following him around for some time, and confides in him that she was supposed to give the bracelet to someone else. “Whoever wears it is endowed with immense luck…. Luck like this has its own unique price.”
Clayton and Chohan next confront Kalim, who was seen with Lau drinking the night Lau died, with Kevin Gray following Lau out the door. Kalim denies all involvement but gives up information on Gray after being threatened with arrest.
Gray will be taking a small boat out to a local air strip, where he will jump onto a nearby private plane and escape. Clayton and D.C. Orwell head to the docks to follow the lead.
Waiting for Gray at the docks, Orwell’s sergent, Ben jumps the gun and calls out for Gray to stop long before he gets surrounded by the police. Gray pulls a gun and shoots at Ben, then runs back to the speedboat to get away. Chohan calls for air support and follows in the car, while Ben (unharmed from the shot) and Harry follow in a second boat that was nearby.
During the chase, Gray manages to double back, causing Harry to flip the boat, dumping himself and Ben in the river. Ben is covered by the flipped boat, and Harry is tangled in the mooring rope.
Fighting for his life and only able to get his left hand above water, Clayton reaches out for hope as another boat comes close. Only this is no friend. A bald man with a Russian accent calls for his compatriot to give him a machete, which he raises menacingly before the film cuts to black.
The takeaway.
This show is a lot deeper than some of the superhero work that Stan Lee is more known for, taking the idea of his favorite superpower, luck, and how that would be used in a crime-fighting sense, as well as how it would change you.
Are you hooked and ready to binge watch?
You can watch the entire show, as of this writing on Amazon Prime