Couch Potato: HBO's 'Luck' struggles out of the gate

I think there is a very good show hiding somewhere within HBO’s new series “Luck.” I really do.

But the first episode, which aired last weekend, didn’t do a very good job of introducing it.

I like to think of myself as a pretty sharp gal, and I’m all for shows not spelling out every single thing in the beginning. But “Luck,” set at a horse racing track, jumped right into the action, to somewhat jarring effect, and offered very little background on any of the characters.

I had the most trouble following what was going on with four gamblers (led by “Iron Eagle’s” Jason Gedrick, all grown up) who practically live at the racetrack and pool their money to try to win the seemingly unattainable “Pick 6” bet (basically betting on six horses to win six consecutive races).

Now I’ve been known to bet on a horse race or two, but all the lingo they were throwing around went right over my head.

By the end of the first episode, though, the guys had attained the unattainable and won a cool $2 million on their Pick 6. But for some reason — drama, I guess — they waited to cash in their winning ticket.

Dustin Hoffman also stars as Chester “Ace” Bernstein, who is just out of jail after a three-year stint for a crime he didn’t commit (he took the fall to protect someone else, and it appears he’s involved in some kind of mob-like underworld). Because Ace is now an ex-con and can’t be involved in gambling, he has his right-hand man, played by Dennis Farina, act as a front man for him in owning a race horse.

That horse is trained by a man named Escalante. When we first meet him, he’s annoyed at a new jockey for boasting about how good another one of his horses is; Escalante apparently bets on the horses he trains (is this even legal?) and doesn’t want anyone to know how good they are so they’ll remain long shots.

Then there’s Nick Nolte as a washed-up trainer who is trying to groom a new horse for glory; Richard Kind as a stuttering, easily excitable agent; and real-life retired jockey Gary Stevens as an alcoholic jockey who may or may not be past his prime.

Stevens had one of the best lines of the night: “You never get used to it,” he told a younger jockey after a horse broke its leg in the middle of a race and had to be put down (I cried). “That’s why they make Jim Beam.”

The first episode may have been uneven, but I have faith that a show with such a rich setting and great group of actors will get better. I’m sticking with this long shot for now.