Awesome Music: The first episode opens with Paul Okenfield's "Ready Steady Go" during a fly by of Vegas, and the intro is crowned with the Junkie XL remix of Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation".
Complete Monster: "Bare Chested in the Park" through "A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich": On a show whose antagonists are composed mostly of gambling cheaters, thieves, or con artists, Vince Peterson stands out as the most depraved villain to appear. He's a billionaire gambler who travels around the world to have a good time, which includes kidnapping, raping, and killing women. He uses his money to get away with his crimes, cheery that it allows him to do whatever he wants. He asks Sam Marquez to marry him and sweetens the deal by agreeing to buy the Montecito... before drugging her, tying her up, stuffing her into a trunk case and taking her with him onboard his private plane. He takes way too much pleasure in letting Sam know that she isn't even close to the first woman he's done this to and looks forward to his victim pissing herself in fear because it will turn him on more. He further beats Sam up with his belt and prepares to rape her before she manages to kill him by throwing him off the plane. Sam spends the rest of Season 5 trying to cope with the trauma.
Designated Villain: In season 3, the new owner Monica brings in a supervisor with completely reasonable criticisms of the main cast and their job performances (Sam gives away so many freebies to her "high roller" that the casino only made 81 dollars off his stay, Delinda completely flips out over a suggested wardrobe change in her restaurant, and Ed quits because Monica, the owner, isn't running "his" casino the way he would prefer). The cast never brings any counterpoints to justify their management decisions, they immediately run to Ed to overrule her. Ed himself only offers half-assed "that's how we do things" excuses and complains that the supervisor is creating problems for him to fix instead of telling his staff to stop acting like children and take it up with her. All of this just highlights that the staff are way too tightly knit and think of the casino as their personal fiefdom.
Die for Our Ship: The people who did watch the show can argue whether Mary or Delinda were right for Danny. In the end, it didn't matter anyway, as Mary was Put on a Bus and Delinda and Danny became the Official Couple.
Hollywood Pudgy: There was a rather grating example of this in the season 5 episode "Three Babes, 100 Guns, and a Fat Chick" with the downright skinny Danny McCoy (Josh Duhamel) and Delinda Deline (Molly Sims), where both characters were repeatedly derided for their sudden weight gains. Delinda was simply pregnant so it's obvious she'd naturally gain a pregnancy belly, but even in this state she looked surprisingly thin. The lightly-build Danny seemingly had a bit of padding tucked underneath his shirt coupled with a suit jacket that's obviously too tiny even for his build, both of which were completely gone by the next episode. Both characters were suddenly treated as if they were grossly overweight.
Tear Jerker: At the end of season 1, Danny is called back into service, and Ed privately asks his military contacts where he's shipping out to. We only hear Ed's side of the phone conversation, but wherever Danny's going, it's clear from how James Caan seems to age ten years at the reply that Ed expects his protege will be coming home in a casket.
In 'My Uncles A Gas' Danny's estranged Uncle Luke arrives to try to re-connect and make amends with him, delighted that with Melinda pregnant their family will continue. But Danny resists all attempts at re-establishing their relationship, still bitterly resentful towards him for missing his mother's funeral due to his alcoholism. In 'The High Price Of Gas' the pair work together to solve the robbery of the Montecito but Luke ends up taking the bullet meant for Danny, the pair only finally reconciled as he dies in Danny's arms.
Visual Effects of Awesome: Season 3, episode 9 centered around a comic convention. Before and after each shot we would get a comic panel that was so realistic to the scene it cuts from and to it would rival the legendary Jack Kirby.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Mary in regards to Danny and Delinda. After being the last to find out about the two, she begins acting cold and outright hostile to the rest of her friends. However as everyone else points out, she was the one that turned down Danny's proposal, and that his relationship with Delinda wasn't her's, or, for that matter, anybody else's business.
Values Dissonance: in one episode the Montecito staff encounter a male guest who is being repeatedly beaten up by his karate expert wife. They treat it as a big joke and spend most of the story trying to get the pair back together, female-on-male domestic abuse not taken as seriously as it is today
