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| Ray Ramono on HBO's Vinyl. |
Ray Romano plays a coke-snorting, foul-mouthed, scene-stealing schmo on HBO's Vinyl, and I could scream with joy. Joy, I tell you!
It's not just that it's hilarious to see him play a record company promo guy in full-on '70s finery and facial hair, it's that he's a riot at it. He gets the funniest lines, he knocks 'em out of the park, and he absolutely rocks being a bit of a d-bag/loser with a fancy job title. He kind of makes it look badass. Ray Romano! Badass! Just by being so damn awesome in the role!
Last night's episode ("The King and I") featured Ray getting down and dirty with some lovely ladies in Vegas. And, I mean, on my god, he was being a coked-up douche without a thought to the family back home, and I realized: This is the "Ray Barone" we could never see on Everybody Loves Raymond. He was not the world's greatest father or husband on that show, but you loved him anyway, because how could you not? And now it's like seeing how dark things really got on his out-of-town trips for the sports column. It's like stepping through the looking glass, and it is way messed up on the other side.
