YMMV / Vinyl

• Audience-Alienating Premise:
  • It's a better production and with a higher degree of artistic ambitions, but it makes the same error that United Passions did, a story about entertainment where the heroes are executives and not the performers. Critics noted that the series would have worked better had it focused on the perspective of the musicians, especially Lester Grimes' character.
  • The combination of music story and mob drama is inelegantly welded together, while not being a superlative example of either genre. Especially towards the end, where the only attractive feature was the music, the sub-plot of the mob's encroachment into the music business seemed like a distraction.
• Awesome Music: Say whay you will about the show, but "Sugar Daddy" by Sturgill Simpson perfectly captures the feel of the 70's.
• Crazy Is Cool: Richie Finestra on a drug bender. Julie who loves his boss is so happy that his boss is back that he immediately cheers and joins in when Richie starts snorting again.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Ato Essandoh's Lester Grimes, not only for his acting performance but also his singing performance, and the fact that he's the Only Sane Man in the entire cast of self-destructive types, makes him very relatable to viewers.
• Growing the Beard: The eighth episode, "E.A.B.", is perhaps the best received by audiences and critics, who praised its greater focus on the music, and less on the murder sub-plot and Richie's drug mania. The positive reception for the ninth episode has led some to wonder whether the show, beleaguered by negative press, might actually turn out for a strong season finish.
• Just Here for Godzilla: After a while, people stuck around less for the narrative and characters then for the soundtrack and the imagine spot covers.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Andrew "Dice" Clay's Frank "Buck" Rogers appears in just one episode and yet all the critics note that he was the best performance in the entire show and the most memorable character.
  • Noah Bean as David Bowie is cited as the best celebrity impersonation, especially since Bean looks like young Bowie a great deal.
  • The famous Elvis Impersonator Shawn Klush gives a surprisingly poignant and dramatic portrayal of Elvis in his final years.
• Questionable Casting: The casting and performance of various cover bands as classic rock acts is eventually going to have to compare against the originals. The Casablancas' substitution for The Velvet Underground has not been well received.
• So Okay, It's Average: While the underwhelming landing after an insane amount of hype led to a critical tongue-lashing, it was generally agreed after the dust settled that it was fairly average, and the series holds an adequate 77% on Rotten Tomatoes.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The most common complaint of the show is that its intriguing premise of running a record label and exploring the cultural landscape of the 70s often takes a backseat to the murder and Richie's drug problems, with Devon's character arc coming off as a lazy rehash of Betty Draper's as well as a noticeable reliance on name-checking celebrity cameos without giving enough time to the musicians that the plot actually centers on.
• Unexpected Character: Absolutely no one expected Elvis Presley to show up.

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