TV Reviews : ‘The Neon Empire’ Wears Cement Shoes

Showtime says its two-part drama “The Neon Empire” is “loosely fashioned on the real-life figures who transformed Las Vegas from a dusty, roughly hewn desert outpost into a sophisticated hotbed of gambling, glamour and glitter.” Lots of words.

But the key word is loosely .

Airing at 9 p.m. Sunday and Monday, “The Neon Empire” has credibility problems even as it begins, in showing three white motorists picking up a black hitchhiker on a deserted Nevada highway in 1940.

In the back seat of the car is Junior Moloff (Ray Sharkey), organized crime’s soon-to-be man out West, a crazed but visionary mobster who looks at tiny, obscure Las Vegas and dreams of Wayne Newton. Driving the car is Junior’s protege Vic Rothman (Dylan McDermott). Soon we’ll meet Max the mobster (Martin Landau), Nick the mobster (Harry Guardino), Vito the mobster (Andreas Katsulas) and mob-hating Las Vegas cowboy/bar owner Frank Weston (Gary Busey).

Written by Pete Hamill and directed by Larry Peerce, “The Neon Empire” gives you an interesting performance by Sharkey, a nice period look and plenty of dust. It is also slow, swollen and more than a little bit stupid.

Among the inanest of scenes is one in which merely a few well-chosen inflammatory words from Junior provoke a race riot, as blacks are shown mindlessly following his lead and running downtown to crack white heads.

Violence is endemic here, whether its Junior beating up his wife or, much later, when there’s a wave of simultaneously attempted assassinations, “Godfather” style.

Actually, this is less a history of Las Vegas than a sort of Cowboys ‘n’ Mobsters, culminating in a shoot-out in the desert with the locals that is just a hoot.

“The Neon Empire” features good bad guys (Max, Vic and Nick), bad bad guys (Vito and his boys) and a bad bad guy (Junior) who, despite being a total maniac and admitted killer, turns out to be a good bad guy.

But the key word is bad .