Amazon Television: Alpha House and More

Of the first Amazon proposed season of homemade shows for adults, only Alpha House made it to a second season.  It returns to Amazon tomorrow (October 24), and it has been missed.  And from the second season of approved shows, only Transparent has made it to the television screen so far (but three more shows are to follow), and it has already been granted a second season.

So what about the third season of shows? I saw promise in only one show, Red Oaks about a teenager in the 1980s finding his way as a summer hire among "successful" people at a ritzy country club, whereas the remaining group were either depressing (Hand of God, Hysteria, and Really) or did not really work as a television series (The Cosmopolitans). And it was a nice change seeing Paul Reiser play a wealthy racket-swinging monster in Red Oaks.  It is strange that I liked four out of five last year and only one out of five this year.  Either the Amazon pilots have changed or I have.  Maybe all the great new shows over the last year make me less likely to settle for an okay show.

Fortunately, Amazon picked up Red Oaks, while it also found merit in Hand of God and picked it up as well. Here is Amazon's full story on both shows if you are interested:

Red Oaks
 
Directed by Sundance award-winner David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express, Eastbound and Down) and executive produced by Academy Award winner Steven Soderbergh (Behind the Candelabra, Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven), Red Oaks stars Craig Roberts (Submarine) as David Myers, an assistant tennis pro at the Red Oaks Country Club in suburban New Jersey in 1985. David is both reeling from his father’s heart attack and conflicted about what college major to declare in the fall; his father Sam Myers is played by Richard Kind (Luck). While there, David meets a colorful cast of misfit co-workers and wealthy club members including an alluring art student named Skye, played by Alexandra Socha, and her corporate raider father Getty played by Paul Reiser (Mad About You) and Ennis Esmer as Nash. A coming-of-age comedy set in the “go-go” 80s that is equal parts hijinks and heartfelt, Red Oaks is about enjoying a last hurrah before summer comes to an end—and the future begins. Red Oaks also stars Jennifer Grey (It’s Like, You Know) as Judy Myers, Oliver Cooper (Californication) as Wheeler and Gage Golightly as Karen. Red Oaks is written by Gregory Jacobs (The Knick) and Joe Gangemi (Eliza Graves). Soderbergh, Green, Jacobs, and Gangemi are Executive Producers. 

Hand of God
 
Created and written by Ben Watkins, and marking the television debut of renowned filmmaker Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland, World War Z), Hand of God stars Golden Globe winner Ron Perlman in his first lead television role since Sons of Anarchy as the honorable justice Pernell Harris. The show centers on Judge Harris, a hard-living, law-bending married man with a high-end call girl on the side, who suffers a mental breakdown and goes on a vigilante quest to find the rapist who tore his family apart. With no real evidence to go on, Pernell begins to rely on “visions” and “messages” he believes are being sent by God through Pernell’s ventilator-bound son. Hand of God also stars Dana Delany as the Judge’s protective wife Crystal Harris, Garret Dillahunt as KD, the born-again sociopath whose violent tendencies are exploited by Pernell, Andre Royo as the slick, smart, gregarious, and greedy mayor Robert ‘Bobo’ Boston, Alona Tal as Pernell’s grieving daughter-in-law Jocelyn Harris, Julian Morris as the questionable preacher Paul Curtis, Elizabeth McLaughlin as the preacher’s sultry girlfriend Alicia, and Emayatzy Corinealdi as Pernell’s call girl and confidante Tessie. Forster, Watkins, Perlman, Brian Wilkins and Jeff King are Executive Producers, and Jillian Kugler is co-Executive Producer.