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HBO flashes back to decadent '70s with 'Vinyl'

Anyone who lived through the disco and punk eras of 1970s and '80s New York no doubt remembers the time well — or at least as well as their compromised brain cells will allow. A new limited series on HBO will bring back some of those memories — for better and for worse.

“Vinyl,” a period drama from executive producers Martin Scorsese, Terence Winter and Mick Jagger that debuts Sunday, Feb. 14, tells the story of the sex- and drug-addled New York music scene through the travails of Richie Finestra (Bobby Cannavale), the founder and president of American Century Records, who is trying to save his struggling company without destroying himself or those around him.

That includes his spouse, Devon (Olivia Wilde), a bored suburban housewife and fellow addict in recovery who longs for her days as one of Andy Warhol's Factory Girls; Zak Yankovich (a bearded Ray Romano), Richie's business partner; Lester Grimes (Ato Essandoh), Richie's first client; Julius “Julie” Silver (Max Casella), the head of artists and repertoire at American who struggles to stay hip in a young man's game; and Jamie Vine (Juno Temple), an ambitious A&R assistant.

Fans of '70s music will be in their glory, as tunes by Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, to name a few, are sprinkled liberally throughout the 10 episodes. But at the heart of the story is the relationship of Richie and Devon. Though a devoted family man, Richie is an addict with an affinity for booze and cocaine who is trying hard to stay sober. But an event in the pilot changes all that and tests their marriage.

“They've got two kids, they've got the house, and that relationship's going to be challenged ... But hopefully we set up from the beginning that these are two people who were meant to be together,” Cannavale says.

Also pulling at the seams of their relationship are Devon's frustrations. With the challenges of early motherhood having subsided, the former actress is left to wonder what might have been had she not given up her life to be part of Richie's.

“There is a devotion to this family but a sense that she's aching for her past, and it's hard to acknowledge that that world, the Warhol world, is still existing,” Wilde says. “She's just opted out of it.”

Wilde says Devon's feelings were common during that era.

“I think women who were part of the Cultural Revolution of the '60s, settled down in the early '70s and then found themselves really wanting for their identities, a lot of women ended up leaving their families, falling back into addiction,” she says. “It was fascinating to do the research for Devon because I found out how common her situation really was.”

“Vinyl”

Premieres at 8 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 14

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