More Amazon Pilots

Amazon had fewer non-animated pilots on display this year, yet I enjoyed both of them and hope to see full series in the future. 

The first pilot, The Last Tycoon, is based F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished last novel.  The pilot involves 1930s Hollywood dandy Monroe Stahr (Matt Bomer from White Collar) who, also being Jewish, faces antisemitism as the Germans start to decide which of his productions can be shown their country.  The head of the studio, Pat Brady (Kelsey Grammer from Boss), is more willing to compromise with the Germans to keep his business running during the Great Depression. Throw in a few woman flinging themselves at Monroe as he continues to mourn his dead wife and you have quite a period piece as well as an intriguing series. 

The second pilot,The Interestings, is based on a more recent novel by Meg Waltzer. The series follows a group of teens who meet at camp in the mid-1970s and shows how their lives unfold over the next 20 years. If you did not already know this, the dreams of teenagers are often poor forecasts of the future. Oh, and old flings stay with you. A better name for the series, muttered by one of the teens, would have been "Great Expectations Suck."

I was recently watching Red Oaks and Bosch, two earlier pilots that made it into full series, and thought that we are fortunate Amazon is producing some great shows. These new pilots show that Amazon aims to maintain this trend.