Maybe in principle, but my problem is that Tony's way of dealing it (both before and after Guza left, and during the intervention story no less) was to loudly and repeatedly proclaim in interviews that Luke was not an alcoholic and had full control of his drinking, even after the character had been drinking to abusive excess for years and had just drunkenly mowed down his own grandson. That's just ridiculous. Luke was unavoidably an alcoholic by that point onscreen, and FV/RC had planned to directly address it per his illness. Tony's response was to ad-lib Luke continuing to drink, betting that Valentini would bend the knee and not stop him. He was right and the storyline was changed (along with any LNL plans) to say oh no, Luke isn't dealing with the consequences of his alcoholism, he's just got radiation poisoning from the bad guys.
I could get behind the family reveal, but not as part and parcel of Fluke which was unbelievably bad. I also thought Tony's performance as Evil Tim Spencer, the ghost jabbering away at Luke, was honestly hilarious. The Soup perfectly captured him in their impression of him, right down to the hysterical dialogue. "You're oooollddd Luke! Come join Daddy in hell!"
I will say that Joey Luthman was excellent as young Luke, and that I thought Tony was absolutely right about the terrible Frank Smith revisit. That whole 'final adventure' was cheap and bad. I do wish Luthman had gotten a contract role as Cameron or something, the same way Chloe Lanier got Nelle (which was squandered).
By
Vee ·
