Cyclone

You gotta hit rock bottom before you can come back and here we see the lows of a ruined family, a crumbling business and a life spiralling out of control on drugs and booze to the sounds of Bowie and a Buddy Holly fadeout. Rivetting.

An episode dedicated to David Bowie and an appearance by an eerie lookalike of the thin white duke. Richie is hitting rock bottom, he has gone on a coke fuelled bender as Devon has gone on a retreat with friends of Andy Warhol which has give the director an excuse to show the actress full frontal naked.

Richie is accompanied by a hot dog loving German companion Ernst who seems to be him everywhere so we figure quickly that he must be a figment of Richie's alcohol and drug frazzled imagination.

Andrea Zito joins the record company and her business acumen might be the record company's best hope for survival. Kip Stevens finally figures out that there is more to music than attitude if you are to survive.

By the end Richie is alone, Devon has left him and taken the kids, Zak at his daughter's Bat Mitzvah has told Richie to get lost and we see what happened to Ernst many years earlier in an open-top joyride. The best part of the entire series so far, as Richie gazes at the wooden coaster called 'Cyclone', emerging from the mist is Buddy Holly serenading him.

I was devastated when they decided not to do a second season. Whoever said this was terrible obviously did not live during those days. The acting was extraordinary, the stories were great and the people who portrayed real music icons were amazing. I bought the season and I watch it over and over. Bobby Cannavale is mind-boggling good in his role as Ritchie Finestra. I also learned a lot about the underground music in New York City back then. As well as some true events that happened that I was unaware of. I just turned 70 and I am a child of the 60's and 70's music. This brought me back.