Vagabond Prime checked out the latest from Amazon Originals and shares his thoughts with us.
Sometime in the last year, the venerable Scott Pierce told me I was out of my freaking mind on an episode of the Geekshow Podcast. I was really intrigued about Netflix, and how it was going to create all new content exclusively for its own subscribers. It’s not an entirely new idea, since cable networks have been doing the same for decades. What was intriguing to me was that Netflix was going to do this without a network at all. All you needed was a subscription, at less than ten dollars a month, and you can watch the new shows. No cable needed, no garbage channels that you can’t stand. The verdict is still out, but I have enjoyed the new Netflix shows; House of Cards is great, and Hemlock Grove couldl be Twin Peaks and Dark Shadows kinky little love child.
Amazon has entered the original programming game with their “Amazon Originals” on Instant Video. It’s pretty simple: Amazon has developed a number of pilots. Amazon customers can watch the pilots, free of charge. If the customer likes the show, they can vote for it to go to series. Wow. Power of the People, indeed!
The first show I picked to watch was Zombieland: The Series. I loved the movie, so watching a tamed-down series was a no-brainer (badump-bump). Within two minutes of opening the show, I realized one critical error in my thinking… this show is in no way tamed-down for television. In places, I’m willing to bet that it is gorier than the movie it is based on!
The pilot starts with two snotty cubicle jockeys complaining about the burdens of their lives. Within a few moments of the opening, the Zombie Apocalypse unfolds through the window behind them. A cafeteria worker is delivering them their lunch, a zombie flies through the window and starts munching on the snotty wage slaves. The cafeteria worker goes full-on Ash at that point, and we cut to the opening titles.
Zombieland: The Series takes place about a month after the events of the movie. Tallahassee (Kirk Ward), Wichita (Maiara Walsh), Little Rock (Izabela Vidovic), and Columbus (Tyler Ross) are still making their way through Los Angeles. The group is adrift, and needs something to unite them.
Enter Detroit (Kendra Fountain), an OnStar operator who helps the crew hatch a plan to find other survivors and start a settlement. The group sets out on their new mission and triggers a series of events that were both morbid and horribly entertaining.
The show continues a few themes from the movie, including the List that Columbus thought up to survive the zombie hordes. There is a good deal of dark humor, and a lot of creative profanity. The gore is excellently executed, with some fantastic zombie snack scenes peppered throughout the show.
There are a few rough spots, but they seem to have worked themselves out by the end of the pilot. The actors are doing their best to inhabit these iconic characters without aping the originals, which is jarring at first, but appreciated. Ward has it the hardest, trying to play Tallahassee without in any way emulating Woody Harrelson. For the first 10 minutes of the show he really bothered me, but finally won me over with a running gag inspired by another survivor.
I think the show has a lot of promise, and you can check it out for yourself, for free. Just click here, watch the show, then put your verdict in action. There are plenty of other shows with pilots, with some top-notch talent attached. The survey for the shows lets you isolate what you liked and what you thought could be stronger for each show, so you are in effect acting as Amazon’s focus group for the new programs.
The whole process was very immersive. I liked the show I watched, I liked how my feedback is being used, and I really like that my voice is being used to create new content. This new project, and the new content being offered by Netflix, may just be the future for new, original programming as we know it!
And if you are the creative type, check out Amazon Studios. This is the creator’s page for Amazon, and you never know: Someday, we might be voting for something YOU created!