With his American Century Records on the verge of being sold, a life-altering event rekindles Finestra's professional fire, but it may leave his personal life in ruins.
In the episode, Richie and Zak travel to Los Angeles to sell the company jet, before heading for Las Vegas to sign Elvis Presley.
A sober Richie (Bobby Cannavale) travels to Los Angeles to sell the company jet to another executive, accompanied by Zak (Ray Romano).
At the party, Richie and Zak discover that Elvis Presley (Shawn Klush) plans to leave RCA Victor following a gig in Las Vegas.
In March 2016, HBO announced that the seventh episode of the series would be titled "The King and I", and that it would be written by David Matthews, and directed by Allen Coulter.
Club gave the episode a "B–" grade and wrote, "After the credits are phased out by the static and heavenly chords of the Home Box Office logo, Terence Winter refers to 'The King And I' as 'Richie's experiment with sobriety' in the post-show interview.
Maybe it's unfair to read so far into Winter's words, but I can't help but think it's just more proof that he and the writers of Vinyl are aggressively trying to make their protagonist as horrible as possible.
"[6] Noel Murray of Vulture gave the episode a 3 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Still, after two straight weeks of Vinyl repeating the same flat, shrill notes, it's reinvigorating to see a plot with an arc that actually goes places.
"[7] Gavin Edwards of The New York Times wrote, "This episode suggests that Vinyl is at its best when it's unencumbered by Richie's substance abuse and domestic drama — and when it doesn't take itself too seriously.
"[9] Tony Sokol of Den of Geek gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "Richie Finestra would have found them a perfect fit for Alibi Records.
"[10] Robert Ham of Paste wrote, "For most TV series, it usually takes a few seasons before they toss in a jump to another setting in hopes of catching viewers off-guard and drumming up some inspiration in the writers' room.