If you miss Madchen Amick on Freddie, which I do, you'll be happy to see her again on Viva Laughlin. In the gambling murder mystery with music, she plays Natalie Holden, wife of gambler and hopeful casino owner Ripley Holden (Lloyd Owen). With the family issues dealt with on the show, Amick believes it is appropriate for all ages.
Madchen Amick Gambles in Laughlin
"I actually have two teenage kids myself, and they've seen the pilot and they were really entertained by it," she said. "I think that it's smart enough where these preteens who are very clever now and they don't want to be given something too bubble-gummy or too perfect, they really enjoyed it. And then, many other ages have seen it and loved it as well. So I think it reaches a really broad audience."
Set in the gaming world outside of Vegas, if most audiences are not familiar with Laughlin, Amick can fill you in. "I'm from Reno, Nevada so I know Nevada very well. I know Laughlin well. I know Vegas well. I know it all. My father played music in the casinos, and my mom ventured there to get a quick divorce. They fell in love, and so I was raised in Reno, Nevada. It's odd to grow up in a gaming town because people come to that town to gamble specifically, but the people who live in those towns are sort of always on the outskirts of it. We see it sort of in a skeleton form, and people who live in the community work in the casinos. So we know all of the tricks that are going on behind the scenes in the casinos and in the gambling. So it's a little surreal in a way to grow up in a town that actually is dedicated to gaming."
Now shooting Laughlin locations on sets in Los Angeles, it is surreal for Amick. "When I first read the script, I immediately got it. I got the idea behind it. I sort of got the tongue-in-cheek that it's Viva Laughlin and not Viva Las Vegas. It's actually fun to go back. This show feels very much like home to me as well as when I did a show years ago Twin Peaks. That was very much like my home town as well."
There you have it. Laughlin = Twin Peaks. "My home town was like Twin Peaks because it's a small, Northwest town, and what you see on the surface isn't always what's really going on underneath. So it felt very much like home to me. It was the first series I had done, and I just related to it."
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