Eighth Set of Amazon Originals

Okay, it appears we are on our eighth release of Amazon pilots, though this time it is only three comedies with no dramas. That works since I'm sure a ninth set of pilots are being planned and many past pilots have yet to be released as full series. 

Most of the attention to date has gone to I Love Dick.  However, I was not impressed with the pilot, no matter how hard Jill Soloway (Transparent) tried with this material.  Here is the Amazon summary: 

Adapted from the lauded feminist novel, I LOVE DICK is set in a colorful academic community in Marfa, Texas. It tells the story of a struggling married couple, Chris and Sylvere, and their obsession with a charismatic professor named Dick. Told in Rashomon-style shifts of POV, I LOVE DICK charts the unraveling of a marriage, the awakening of an artist and the deification of a reluctant messiah. 

Kevin Bacon played an interesting Dick, but the couple traveling to the Texas program was not all that interesting nor believable. And there was clearly a substory with the character living in the trailer and watching over the house, but we never learned enough for it to really matter.  

Now The Tick was a different story altogether.  Here are the basics:

In a world where superheroes have been real for decades, an accountant with mental health issues and zero powers comes to realize his city is owned by a global super villain long-thought dead. As he struggles to uncover this conspiracy, he falls in league with a strange blue superhero. 

With bugs and bats already claimed by superheroes, a tick was just right. Just when I was tiring of this genre we get a spoof that makes it fun again. And who cannot like a tick that talks like Sam the Eagle on the Muppet Show?  I hope this pilot makes it into a full series, but I will drop it immediately if I see a crossover episode with Super Flea.

Update: All three pilots have been picked up by Amazon for a full series. I am surprised there is an audience for each of them, but that appears to be good news for Amazon and those voting for these shows. I will stick with The Tick.

And finally, we get a washed up Jean-Claude Van Damme as a washed up Jean-Claude Van Damme.  Here is the plot:

JEAN-CLAUDE VAN JOHNSON stars global martial arts & film sensation Jean-Claude Van Damme playing "Jean-Claude Van Damme", a global martial arts & film sensation, also operating under the simple alias of "Johnson" as the world's best undercover private contractor. Retired for years, a chance encounter with a lost love brings him back to the game. This time, he'll be deadlier than ever. Probably. 

Perfect, but for one episode only. It was fun to see him spoofing himself, but a whole series of this?  Sorry, but that's a little too much.