TV series ‘Get Shorty’ partially set in Pahrump
What are the odds of two premium cable dramas partially set in Pahrump airing on the same night?
An hour after “Ray Donovan” (9 p.m. Sunday, Showtime) spends some time inside the city’s very real Sheri’s Ranch, the 10-episode “Get Shorty” (10 p.m. Sunday, EPIX) begins operating out of its very fake Silver Dust Casino.
A very loose interpretation of the 1995 movie and the Elmore Leonard novel on which it was based, “Get Shorty” follows Miles Daly (Chris O’Dowd), an enforcer for a Pahrump crime boss named Amara (Lidia Porto). When his partner (Sean Bridgers) kills a screenwriter who owed Amara $25,000, Miles takes the man’s blood-soaked script and tries to break into the movie business, where he connects with a straight-to-DVD producer (Ray Romano).
Pahrump is a long way from Miami, which Chili Palmer called home in both the book and the movie. Series creator Davey Holmes, a writer on Showtime’s “Shameless,” has said he was inspired to set the drama in Pahrump after Lamar Odom nearly died in a brothel there in 2015. Odom, though, was found unconscious at the Love Ranch, 20-something miles away in Crystal.
Miles Daly also is a long way from Chili Palmer, but he’s not that far from a Chili’s. There’s an outpost of the chain restaurant in Holmes’ version of Pahrump. It’s right across the parking lot from the movie theater.
Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @life_onthecouch on Twitter.