With just one, lonely screenwriting credit to his name — 1938’s Three Comrades — F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Hollywood career was a humiliation but the barren undergo fed some of his richest fiction: the tragic-comic Pat Hobby stories and, most notably, his final novel, The Last Tycoon, a disguised biography of legendary MGM “Boy Wonder”, Irving Thalberg. Fitzgerald never finished the reserve . Amazon’s series goes ahead and fills in the gaps but it’s all cement and no bricks.###Beautiful to look at but weirdly lifeless.###The dynamic pilot, released last year, suggests a feisty ride into a parallel 1930s universe. Pincered by corporate vultures and rabid unions, we follow underdog studio Brady-American as it scrabbles in/with regard to’concerning’regarding a hit while trying to contain its own internal power-struggles. On one side: Kelsey Grammer’s ruthless mogul, Pat Brady. On the other, Monroe Star, his Jewish wunderkind creative director played by Matt Bomer. Much like Thalberg, Stahl is a prolific Mr Fix it, a Hollywood Midas who turns turkeys into gold, but his control over Brady goes beyond the movies. Not merely’barely is Brady’s daughter (Lily Collins) infatuated with him – he’s also fucking his wife (Rosemarie DeWitt). When Stahl starts another affair with Dominique McElligott’s two-faced Irish waitress, you’re primed in/with regard to’concerning’regarding a stew of scandalous period soap and Machiavellian studio politics.###Three episodes in, it soon becomes apparent you’re not really watching a Fitzgerald adaptation at all. You’re watching Amazon’s punt at a 1930s Mad Men — an industrial saga of professional ambition and personal anguish, filmed in lush amber tones that echo a Golden Era turning to rust. It looks gorgeous but it’s all surface. “Ordinary is the enemy,” goes Stahl’s motion-picture mantra and, ironically, ordinary is exactly what The Last Tycoon turns out to be.###Monroe Stahr is the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue ’s Jupiter – a Golden Age gas giant the rest of the cast orbit around. Ghosted by the death of his starlet wife, Bomer crafts a brittle anti-hero whose bluster acts as cover in/with regard to’concerning’regarding internal turmoil but the longer the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue wheezes on, the weaker his pull acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure s and Stahr’s decrease’lessen’cut’allay d to a bit part in his own reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue . This never would’ve happened if The Last Tycoon was detoken ed as a compact mini-series but padded out to nine episodes, the pace dries up and dreaded reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue -bloat sets in. Pretty soon, e grossly minor character is monologuing a back-story or over-inflated with an inert subplot. Entire episodes feel like 50-minute longueurs. No cliff-hangers. Just mild dramatic dangling.###There are some colourful characters, not least the underused Annika Marks as a venomous diva who demands to see her director’s cock bein/with regard to’concerning’regarding e shooting a movie. But the misjudged beats are countless: insufferable musical numbers featuring a helium-voiced Shirley Temple clone; Fritz Lang reimagined as a monocled tyrant with an S&M fetish; and Stahl momentarily coming over all Oskar Schindler when he ships over a Viennese orchestra marked in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Nazi processing (an anti-Semitism plot thread introduced in the pilot just vaporises).###Draw a graph off the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue ’s run and you end up with a capital N. It starts on a high, enters a slow-sliding decline, then jolts back up in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the final episode. Bingers braving the slog will be rewarded with a crescendo of murder, cover-ups, hostile splits, and Stahl trapped in a tragic, sham reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue mance but you wonder how many will stick around in/with regard to’concerning’regarding it.###Ultimately, you’re left asking: who is this reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue aimed at? The Fitzgerald faithful will flinch at the infinite artistic liberties taken with the novel; those seeking romance will find its heart doesn’t beat hard or fast abundant’ample’plentiful ; and those craving a Hollywood exposé will find its apocryphal scandals intensely beige. Will The Last Tycoon acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure a second-series? An open-ended conclusion gambles on a definite-maybe but you suspect the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue will wind up echoing the fate of its source material– it’ll be left unfinished.###Strong pilot, intense’fierce’exquisite finale but in-between? Hours and hours of luscious mediocrity. Bomer and Collins are dramatically’drastically cast but this ’30s Hollywood saga is prestige drama as period exhibit: eye-catching’good-shaped’appealing’charming’fascinating’gorgeous to look at but weirdly lifeless.