Amazon Streams 14 Original Pilots - Which Would You Pick Up?

 Amazon's streaming service is now in the original programming game. In a bold move, they've posted all 14 of their pilots on Amazon Instant Video for free. After you watch, you can choose to take a survey about the shows you've viewed. Which pilots are picked up to series will be partially based on feedback provided by freaks like me and those of you that I can convince to do this too.

I'm not sure if this is a brilliant strategy or a horribly bad idea. It's kinda cool that I could be responsible (however infinitesimally so) for choosing a pilot that's made into a series. On the other hand, it's just giving people what they want. No surprises. Who knows what coming episodes of the pilots that don't make the cut would have brought. Executives are given the full pitch with season long arcs and major plot points. We're just rating one episode. I'm very curious about the weight that will be given to audience feedback.

Anyway, this is an interesting experiment that I encourage all you TV lovers to try out. To give you an idea of what you're in for, here are some thoughts on the 8 adult comedy pilots. Sorry I don't have the patience to sit through 6 children's shows, nor any reason to.

"Alpha House" - Four senators share a house in Washington D.C. Yep, that pretty much covers it. John Goodman's in it. Need I say more? This one is a slam dunk. Amazon would be stupid not to pick this up to series.

"Betas" - Four dudes living in Silicon Valley try to get rich by making a social networking app, because there just aren't enough of those. But this one is revolutionary, they swear. I like it. You've got your antisocial developer guy, the shy dorky kid, the old weird guy and the ace who leads this gang of misfits. Plus Ed Begley Jr. is in it and Moby guest stars. Awesome.

"Browsers" - Four fresh faced college graduates intern at a news website....and they sing. It's a musical. Really? We're still on this musical kick? I wasn't crazy about it, but if you like this sort of thing, give it a try. Bebe Neuwirth is the boss and she repeatedly sings the lyrics "I'm someone with whom not to f*ck". That right there was my favorite part of the show, but also the only part.

"Dark Minions" - A divorced guy and a pot head work on a galactic warship. Yes, you read that right. If it gets picked up to series it will be stop motion, since they didn't have a real budget, the pilot is mostly bad animation with a few shots of stop motion. Although there was some funny dialogue, the story wasn't that great. I'm not a huge fan of adult animated series. I find it hard to get into them.

"Onion News Empire" - Imagine Aaron Sorkin's "The Newsroom" and The Onion had a baby. This would be that baby. Journalists, producers and anchors all putting it on the line for the story. William Sadler is fantastically funny as the serious head producer. Just in case Netflix's resurrection of "Arrested Development" doesn't give you enough Jeffrey Tambor, try this out for size.

"Supanatural" - Not to be confused with one of my favorite shows "SUPERnatural". Amazon says this is about "two outspoken divas who are humanity's last line of defense against the supernatural". I wouldn't know. I turned it off after one minute and seventeen seconds. It was that bad. Please, don't bother watching this one. If you do, don't bother telling me about it. I don't care.

"Those Who Can't" - Teachers that are as immature as their high school students. Just in case you hadn't guessed already, they're all dudes. I liked this one. It's got potential. Unfortunately, it's one of those shows that will need a few eps before it'll hit it's stride. Hopefully, Amazon will give it a go. Think FX's "The League". They need a Jenny.

"Zombieland" - Based on the movie, this show follows four survivors of the zombie apocalypse. This is not "The Walking Dead" zombie apocalypse. This one still has electricity and running water and very bad dialogue. I don't really remember the movie very well, but I think it had to have been better than this. One thing it does have going for it is the young actress playing Little Rock. She's great.

All in all, I was pretty impressed. Not only did Amazon greenlight 14 pilots at once, but they aren't pulling punches. This isn't network censored television. The rules don't apply. It sort of surprised me that every one of these pilots took advantage of bad language and some of them partial nudity. Nice to know they aren't afraid.

You need an Amazon account to watch. If you've been living under a rock and have never ordered anything from them, it'll only take a few mins to sign up.

Check out the pilots HERE and when you're done, take the survey and be heard!

My New Obsession is Hulu Plus (and I May Need a Support Group)

 As a devoted television fan, I watch most of my new content on the good ol' boob tube and have been discovering older series through Netflix streaming....until now. Recently, I signed up for Hulu Plus and let me tell you, it's A-Frakin'-Mazing! *Before you think to yourself, this girl must be getting paid by them, the answer is NO WAY JOSE! I'm just a TV fan whose eyes were opened.* Hulu Plus has got a handful of original series and about thirty that are exclusively streaming in the U.S. on Hulu.com (many of them British, so ya know I'm in heaven) on top of shows that are currently airing on television.  I've used the site before to catch up on things that I've forgotten to DVR, but I had no idea the extent of their collection. It's quite impressive. In addition to the plethora of television episodes, they've got movies which I hadn't realized, including the entire Criterion Collection. That's over 800 films alone!

I've spent the last couple of weeks holed up marathoning some really great series, which I'd like to share with you fine folks. Kicking it off,  Hulu's first incursion into original programming - Battleground.

This mockumentary follows the staffers of a U.S. Senate campaign in Wisconsin. Some say that mockumentaries are overdone and stale, but I think that it's become a style in its own.  It's no knock off. This show really grabbed me. Campaign manager, Tak Davis is wonderfully cast in Jay Hayden (that guy from the AT&T commercial that sees his life flash before his eyes). Tak is aided by his head of media strategy (it's complicated), speechwriter (best friend), social media specialist (jaded w/ a mean sense of humor) &  volunteers (fresh meat) and burdened with the candidate's stepson (a man stupider than Dwight Shrute). There are talking head interviews with some of the staffers as we look back to the four weeks preceding the election, with Democratic candidate Samuels as the underdog. In the course of thirteen episodes, I really connected with these characters, some of which have history and some that are beginning new relationships. The description "dramedy" is not one that I like to use, but this kinda of is. There are some very tender moments, but not to be overshadowed by the witty ones. Don't worry, no dead bodies. It's not that kind of drama. I know, it's rare for me to watch a show without corpses, but hey, gotta change it up now and then. Most of all, it felt hopeful. Obviously with a show about an election, there's a clear goal. I was rooting our rag tag team of misfits the whole way through, mostly due to the strong writing and performances. Even the score was great. As someone that doesn't get into politics all that much, I sure liked watching a show about it and can't wait for season two (fingers crossed they get one).  I highly recommend Hulu's first Original Series - Battleground.

Check out the Trailer.

Watch all thirteen episodes on Hulu Plus. They offer one free week to try it out. If you're still not sure, just wait until I tell you about the other shows I've been watching on Hulu Plus.

Stay tuned....