Review: ‘The Art of More’ on Crackle might leave a viewer caring less

If you somehow are not getting enough Donald Trump this fall, you can catch Dennis Quaid doing a quasi-impression of the bumptious presidential candidate in a new drama, “The Art of More.” Premiering in its 10-episode entirety Thursday on Crackle (the Web-based home of Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee”) and requiring no subscription fee, it’s a story of New York auctioneers and the black market in art.

Well produced and not unwatchable — you can take that as strictly as you like — the show centers on Graham (formerly Tommy) Connor (Christian Cooke), who grew up working class in Brooklyn, joined the Army, went to Iraq, got involved in the illegal antiquities trade, came home and worked his way into a high-end auction house where he is now an aggressive junior account executive. Quaid, clearly enjoying himself, plays Sam Brukner, a large-living real estate developer with a brusque manner and political ambitions, whose collection is about to go on sale.

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Brukner is given a “dirt-poor” background and good hair and taste to distinguish him from Trump. But the writers seem to acknowledge the resemblance: “I am extremely good at reading people,” he says. “In fact I’m so good at it a TV exec friend of mine said I should have my own show.”

But he is only one of Graham’s concerns.

There is his mentor and client, collector Arthur Davenport (Cary Elwes, making a louche sound somewhere between Anthony Hopkins and Malcolm McDowell). It’s implied that Davenport is gay, in a way weirdly coy for 2015.

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There is Roxana (Kate Bosworth), whose father owns a rival firm and is after all the same clients.

And there is Hassan (Patrick Sabongui), Graham’s old Iraqi partner-in-crime suddenly arrived in New York (played by Montreal) with a favor to ask. “He thought he was out, but they pulled him back in” — have you ever heard that phrase?

The characters manage to get themselves into a lot of trouble, and the show is genuinely suspenseful at times, as shows will be when guns start to wave. But it’s hard to care, even after having seen six out of 10 episodes, about anyone’s fate. Neither their tales of early or current sorrows nor their displays of aesthetic sensibility nor even their expressions of shame quite balance out the fact that most are kind of bad people, mostly out for themselves.

Art facts are scattered through the text: “Amedeo Modigliani — one of his early pencil sketches; these are hard to find, he destroyed a lot of them”; “‘The Battle of Alexander at Issus’ — painted in 1529, one of the first great battle paintings using the aerial point of view.” (I can easily hear Alex Trebek reading those lines after a “Jeopardy!” question is answered, in the form of a question.) But mostly this is a story about money.

Each episode deals, either substantially or in passing, with the sale of a particular artifact, with scenes flashing back toward its origin — Sally Ride’s flight suit, Napoleon’s hat, Scott’s Antarctic notebook.

Does it matter that one is built around a man who replaced the keyboard player for the Who one night in 1969, when the Who didn’t carry a keyboard player in 1969? Does it matter that the piano is not miked? Well, it will matter a little to some of us.

Accuracy does count, given that this is the sort of show that, in purporting to show the real story behind the respectable facade, encourages you to ask “Is this actually true?” At the same time, it’s also a melodrama in which nothing really matters but “Is he going to shoot?” and “Are they going to kiss?”

And it doesn’t matter that much.

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‘The Art of More’

Where: Crackle

When: Any time, starting Thursday

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