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Amazon Pilots: Powered By Democracy


starri
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I'm hoping this is an appropriate place to discuss this, since we've just entered into another Pilot Season.

 

I've only watched The New Yorker Presents (which seemed more like a slightly more elitist This American Life than the actual magazine, but I did really like), Salem Rogers (which was funnier than I was expecting), and The Man in the High Castle (which was incredibly solid, but would be a difficult show to binge-watch because the subject matter is so dark), and if they end up taking three series, I'm betting it'll be those three because those have gotten the most solid reviews.  I don't know if my universe would be emptier if they don't make it, but I think I'm pulling for them.

 

I was very disappointed to learn that after picking up Chris Carter's The Afters last year, they announced a few weeks ago that they weren't going to move ahead with it after all.

 

Point of Honor, the Civil War series that was developed for ABC and then dropped like a hot potato is apparently awful, and I might give that a look just for the trainwreck factor.

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I watched all of the drama pilots this go round.

I liked Point of Honor, I had some trouble with the costumes and accents(I am from GA so I know southern accents) but I liked the idea of the story.

Cocked was ok, liked the actors, but I don't know where they are going to go with the story, how many times can a man be almost killed.

Salem Rogers was hysterical in a horrible way, I laughed, but felt bad about myself after. I would watch more of this one.

Man in the High Castle was awesome! I am jewish and had a large number of my family killed in the Holocaust so this show evoked some powerful emotions. I didn't hear any mention of Jews(except the boyfriend) so I was a little disappointed. I would like some clarification on where jews ,homesexuals, gypsys, might be.  the show was gripping and the ending caught me by surprise so I hope it makes the cut.

Down Dog was stupid but I thought it was mildly funny, I might watch

Mad Dogs I really liked, the characters were interesting and I liked the story and would like to find out what happens

 

I really liked The After and was totally bummed that it was cut months after it was picked up. I was looking forward to it.

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Salem Rogers worked in a very over the top way.

 

Man In The High Castle is soon on my watch list (so far all I've heard are raves about it--and of course it's based on a great great book).

Edited by Kromm
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Man in the High Castle was awesome! I am jewish and had a large number of my family killed in the Holocaust so this show evoked some powerful emotions. I didn't hear any mention of Jews(except the boyfriend) so I was a little disappointed. I would like some clarification on where jews ,homesexuals, gypsys, might be.  the show was gripping and the ending caught me by surprise so I hope it makes the cut.

When Juliana was on the bus going to the Neutral Zone, the woman who sat down beside her and ended up robbing her made mention that the Japanese didn't care if you had "the wrong color, the wrong religion, or the wrong bed-mate."

 

The only additional pilot that I watched was Cocked, which I *hated*.  I get that they were going for a Justified/Sons of Anarchy kind of vibe, but it didn't quite get there, and Jason Lee's character was so despicable, I don't think I could follow his continuing adventures.  When I filled out the survey, I said that I knew I wasn't its target audience, but that I thought it was the wrong kind of polarizing in the current political landscape and that if they do end up picking it up, it would probably affect my overall opinion of Amazon.

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The pilot that impressed me the most was The Man in the High Castle. I was always a fan of alternate history stories, and it didn't hurt that the show was based on a great book. Really enjoyable, very impressive visually and good acting.

I didn't really care about Point of Honor. It was well made and the acting was decent, but nothing was really that interesting to me.

Mad Dogs was great. Good acting and an interesting mystery. I only found out afterwards that it's a remake of a British show.

Cocked was alright. Not the most original concept, but well executed.

Salem Rogers was more fun than I imagined, and while I don't like shows where the protagonist is a complete asshole, I might just keep watching.

Down Dog was just utterly boring and uninteresting.

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Point of Honor is supposed to take place in my hometown, and all I could think was how amazingly historically and geographically inaccurate it was.  I'm assuming their research was limited to reading a Wikipedia article.

 

The cast, who were all CW-ready and were certainly trying, couldn't do much with the dialog and the accents were atrocious.

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I loved Man In The High Castle, but am a little worried it will go in a parallel universe/portal direction (the newsreel, for example, for those who have seen the pilot) which will seem derivative to all us Fringe fans.

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That's from the book, though.  It's not newsreels though; the Maguffin is a novel called The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, which describes a history that's very different from what the characters know.  It's also very different from our actual history.  It's left very ambiguous about what's real and what isn't.  I think the show (should it move forward) would probably build toward a more definitive answer.

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It's quite possible that the book was the origin of the concept of parallel universe plots that have been used since its publication. "Derivative" is not exactly the right word, my point being we have seen it used quite often so it is not original to TV or movies any more.

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So It looks like Amazon picked up Mad Dogs, Man in the High Castle and The New Yorker Presents. I wish they had picked up the model show, it was hysterical, but overall I like the choices.Man was amazing and I think Mad Dogs has potential.

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2015/02/18/amazon-greenlights-full-seasons-of-mad-dogs-the-man-in-the-high-castle-the-new-yorker-presents-and-childrens-shows-just-add-magic-and-the-stinky-and-dirty-show-169403/20150218amazon02/

 

I cant do hyperlinks well so, sorry. This is from The Futon Critic.

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There's another round going on.  Just two shows, Casanova with Diego Luna, and Sneaky Pete with Giovanni Ribisi.

 

Sneaky Pete is terrific.  Ribisi's ex-con pretends to be his cellmate and goes to hide out with the cellmate's family (who haven't seen him in twenty years) and starts working for the family bail bonds business.  Not only do you have the tension about whether or not he's going to be discovered (the family matriarch, played by the awesome Margo Martindale, is probably too sharp to be fooled for long), but there are also bad dudes who are after him for money he stole.  I may have liked this more than any other show Amazon has tried.

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Sneaky Pete was awesome. I hope it gets picked up.

Mad Dogs was all kinds of messed up.

How exactly does this Amazon thing work? They air the pilots and then we are supposed to fill out a survey (where??) and then 6 months or so later we get the first season?

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Go here and click on "Take Survey."

 

Whatever gets the best ranking makes it to series.  There's usually about a year between the voting and the full series coming out.  The next one--Hand of God with Dana Delany and Ron Perlman--is going to come out in September, and it got past the voting in August 2014.  

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I'm not sure what think of the new Casanova on Amazon. One the one hand it's fine, if a little "hey look we're being risqué!" on the other it's like every other slightly risqué period drama out their. It disappointingly reminded me of Da Vinci's Demon's too much, which I don't really like and I wasn't a fan of the "take down Madame du Pompadour"/get a virgin for the king spy plot (which whilst not necessarily linked to Casanova in history is valid (although I don't think it was the British France was fighting at this particular point). The alchemy was again a reasonable plot point given historical Casanova's stated interest in it, but I'm only interested in it for Miranda Richardson. Deigo Luna was ok, but I thought his accent needed work. But I would be interested to see the direction they might go in.

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I did not see a 2016 version of this thread.

Re: The Last Tycoon

Matt Bomer makes almost anything better, and I loved that this is a period piece.  I also liked that this is set as Hitler is taking power, but World War II is still a bit far off.  Historically, the audience knows what will eventually happen, and it is eerie to see how that began to unfold in the movie industry at that time.  I hope this pilot gets a series order.

Re: The Interestings

Liked it, but didn't love it.  I sensed that the viewer is supposed to want to root for or follow Jules, and I disliked her.  Felt for Dennis, and I liked Ethan.  Am somewhat interested in the Goodman situation.  Kind of felt like Dead Poets' Society (the summer camp scenes) meets thirtysomething meets Quantum Leap.  I've felt like I've seen variations of this done before.

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Oh my God, you guys, please watch Love You More and tell Amazon to greenlight it. I don't know how effective that is. I think sometimes they just do what they want even if they put something through the pilot process but I really really want to see more of this show. 

I'm aware of Bridget but I've never seen her act, just clips here and there. But I heard the song she sings in the pilot before and I have a sense of her vibe as a cabaret performer. I thought she was wonderful here and I really want to see what she can do with an entire season. She conveys so much in the way she interacts with the other characters, particularly the people at the home. You don't need to be told that she's smart or empathetic or good at her job. You SEE it so clearly. 

It made me think of an HBO show. Not just because there's a lot of nudity and sexual content, though that is there. But it has that HBO vibe of trying to be edgy but unlike HBO, to me it already has a strong sense of self... it's not figuring itself out. 

The actors with Down Syndrome are fantastic. Again, without them announcing their character types, you can already see who they are. The pretty one with the boyfriend... The uptight "success story"... The class clown type... His sidekick... 

And even though I'm not that excited about his stage work, it was fun to see Brooks Ashmankas and I loved Karen Pittman's character already. I have seen her in one play and I enjoyed it enough that I saw it twice. 

The Australian guy from Mistresses is in it. I hated him in that show. And I also hated that show. But I feel like his character works here because you're not supposed to like him. 

Loni Anderson also seems really well cast as Bridget's roommate. I want to know more about her too. 

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I just got Amazon Prime, and have been watching a foreign language show using my Roku. However, I couldn't find the subtitles option. My only choice was closed captioning, which isn't the same thing. Is there a way to get subtitles on Amazon Prime, or closed captioning the only option?

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On 1/19/2018 at 8:08 PM, Captain Carrot said:

I just got Amazon Prime, and have been watching a foreign language show using my Roku. However, I couldn't find the subtitles option. My only choice was closed captioning, which isn't the same thing. Is there a way to get subtitles on Amazon Prime, or closed captioning the only option?

It depends on the show and device I believe, and I can't remember how to access them through Roku so sadly I'm not much help, other than to say it depends. Sorry! That being said I know I've seen subtitles on Amazon Prime shows on a Roku, so they do exist, but it also does depend on the show/device. 

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On 1/19/2018 at 7:08 PM, Captain Carrot said:

I just got Amazon Prime, and have been watching a foreign language show using my Roku. However, I couldn't find the subtitles option. My only choice was closed captioning, which isn't the same thing. Is there a way to get subtitles on Amazon Prime, or closed captioning the only option?

I found these today.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201480600

Edited by Jaded
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Thanks Lisin and Jaded, I saw similar replies from Amazon in my search for a fix. It appears that part of the problem is that they consider CC to be equivalent to subtitles. (Despite CC adding a black bar to the screen for the lettering and describing sounds).

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