Judging Amazon’s comedy pilots
An upstart in original programming, Amazon has selected comedies that tease the status-quo
Topics: amazon, web tv, Television, TV, garry trudeau, betas, browsers, john goodman, Arianna Huffington, bebe neuwirth, Entertainment News
On Friday, Amazon made the pilots for eight sitcoms (and six kids shows) available to be streamed for free. After watching, viewers can opine and check boxes about the series in a survey, similar to a course evaluation form. Based on the responses, as well as focus group information and viewing data, Amazon will give some of these shows a 13-episode order. When ABC picks up a sitcom about two working-class guys who start to dress in drag to secure jobs, one wonders what on earth ABC executives were thinking. If Amazon picks up a musical comedy set at a faux-Huffington Post where Bebe Neuwirth plays Arianna Huffington and sings about how she is “someone with whom not to fuck,” we will only have ourselves to applaud.
That particular pilot, “Browsers,” about a batch of interns working at a site called the Daily Gush, at least lampoons its setting in an original, tech-savvy “Cop Rock” kind of way. (One song is about the power of tweeting: “When I Tweet I am Free.” Another, “Going Viral,” is about locating viral videos. Sample lyric: “Everywhere I look I see a chipmunk on a water ski/a fat baby dance amusingly.”) The rest of the pilots — six live-action, two animated — lampoon in a more predictable fashion. They’re all satirical, filthy-mouthed and high-concept. Amazon may be letting us “choose” among the pilots, but it has already done some assiduous pre-selection. An upstart in original programming, it has selected shows that tease the status quo. Not a bad brand strategy.
The sitcoms vary in prestige — “Alpha House,” about D.C. politicians, comes from Garry Trudeau, stars John Goodman and features a cameo from Bill Murray — but not much in tone. They all have a frenetic pace, lots of curses and pop-culture references, and point out the foolishness of seemingly cool or important workplaces, be they Congress, a news site, a tech start-up, a cable news show, a high school, a space station. There are no simple sitcom premises here, no groups of friends, no families. The most low-key workplace is a high school, but the main characters of “Those Who Can’t” are three unhinged teachers who seem to hate their jobs and the kids so much it barely resembles a normal educational facility.
Willa Paskin is Salon's staff TV writer. More Willa Paskin.




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