A group of compelling, well-drawn characters and a willingness to show different perspectives on the American Civil War make Point of Honor one of the more promising pilots in Amazon’s latest selection.
For fans of Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle will have undoubtedly already been on their radar for quite some time. Dick’s fiction has been adapted into several acclaimed films, including Blade Runner, Minority Report and A Scanner Darkly. In this recent batch of Amazon pilots, Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files) adapts The Man in the High Castle with the vision of turning the source material into a full television series. Those unfamiliar with Dick’s written work need only know that his interest is in science-fiction and that the worlds he creates are generally immersive, vast, and intricately planned-out.
Despite some thinly sketched characters and poor exploration of Belize, where the show is set, Mad Dogs sets up an intriguing show by moving at a quick pace and successfully portraying the frayed nature of the relationship amongst the group of friends at its core.
Rather than examining its main characters, Cocked settles for glorifying or mocking them, compounding the problem by poor characterisation and a lack of development of the storylines presented, resulting in a pilot that presents an unappealing show.
Unsure about how it feels about its protagonist, and filled with supporting characters who barely make an impression at best, the Down Dog pilot shows very little in the way of potential for an interesting show, and would be better off rejected by Amazon.
Of all the recent pilots released by Amazon, The New Yorker Presents is easily the most interesting. A half hour smorgasbord of content, this first episode is completely fascinating in terms of its form and what that could mean for both Amazon’s original series and television in general going forward.
The conceit of The New Yorker Presents is simple: a little bit of this, a little bit of that. This first episode contains a short film, a conversation/interview with an artist, a short documentary and a recorded performance of a poem. The ultimate success of a series like this is similar to that of a sketch comedy in that episodes and individual segments will be hit or miss week-to-week. Obviously, the goal becomes bringing together a collection of talent that is of a high quality and that mesh well within any given episode.
The pilot’s inability to commit to what tone its going for greatly hinders Salem Rogers, but the possible avenues it could go down do show some possibility for rich comedy. The episode’s saving grace, however, is its talented cast, whose performances elevate it.
Filmmaker Steven Soderbergh recently made a new foray into television following his announced retirement from filmmaking to helm all episodes of the first season of Showtime’s The Knick. That’s not the only tv project Soderbergh is involved in, however, as he has also teamed up with filmmaker David Gordon Green, among others, as a producer for the potential series Red Oaks. Following a university student in 1985 New Jersey as he tries to figure out the next stage of his life while working at a tennis club, Amazon and the creators have released the pilot online in hopes of getting a series order. The pilot, while not touching on the full potential of the show, is nonetheless an entertaining episode with a lot of promise for the series.
A veteran of television writing, and known mostly for having created the ABC science fiction drama Invasion, Shaun Cassidy’s next foray to the small screen comes courtesy of Amazon. Titled Hysteria, the series follows a medical investigator in Austin as she attempts to understand the cause behind a series of seizures and spasmic movements affecting a group of largely unrelated individuals. With Mena Suvari in the lead role, Amazon and the creators have released the pilot online in an attempt to get a series greenlight. Unfortunately, poor characterisation and a simplistic mystery at its core dooms this pilot by seemingly promising a dull series.
While the Broken Lizard comedy troupe were behind four movies from 1996 to 2006, recent years have seen the group members branching out individually. One particularly prominent member of the group has been Jay Chandrasekhar, who has directed episodes of shows such as Happy Endings, Chuck, and Community. His newest foray into television is the pilot for Really, a show that takes a look at couples and people in various stages of relationships. Looking for a series greenlight, Amazon and the creators have released the pilot online for voting, and it paints the picture of a show that could either be a success or a failure, depending on whether it chooses to focus on its comedic elements or its dramatic ones.
As Amazon continues to attempt to expand into original programming with their pilot season, they are promoting many of their pilots as the work of a distinct, well-known voice: “produced by Steven Soderbergh” or “created by Jay Chandrasekhar.” For The Cosmopolitans, that distinct voice is Whit Stillman, the writer-director-producer behind movies like Metropolitan and Damsels in Distress. It’s billed as a comedy about modern American ex-pats in Paris, a sort of twist on Hemingway’s classic A Moveable Feast. It’s got the same tone and slice-of-life feel as Stillman’s other works, or an HBO comedy like Girls or Looking.
While Ron Perlman is known for his roles in movies such as Hellboy and Pacific Rim, he’s no stranger to television, having risen to prominence as the titular Beast in the 80s tv series Beauty and the Beast, as well as playing a prominent role in the FX series Sons of Anarchy. The Amazon pilot Hand of God is his newest small screen role, as he plays Judge Pernell Harris, a man suffering from a mental ailment brought about by the attempted suicide of his son, one that causes him to hear voices and see visions. In an attempt to get a series greenlight, Amazon and the creators have released the pilot online, and while the episode is not without its flaws, it nonetheless points towards a potentially engaging show, both due to its cast of characters and the stories it could tell.