Did you know this streams on Amazon Instant Video?

[Blueintheface]

Finally finished Southland last night. Man, what a horrifically depressing final two episodes. It will be a few weeks before I muster up the courage to finish Breaking Bad.

I haven't finished BB either. I'm not sure why as it has been one of my favorite series I've ever watched. 7 left to go but I can't muster the strength.

[MarkGrace]

Seems like Transparent is the first original series to generate some real buzz.

[falafel]

Seems like Transparent is the first original series to generate some real buzz.

I hope so, the pilot was very good. Will be fun to watch another Duplass on screen.

[Commando]

Timely thread since I've been checking out Amazon Instant the past few days. What I like is their lineup of Comedy Central shows. I am pleasantly surprised by Kroll Show. (you know- Ruxin from The League) The previews looked really dumb but it was pretty consistently hilarious skit after skit. Check it out if you're so inclined.

[BigPiney]

Timely thread since I've been checking out Amazon Instant the past few days. What I like is their lineup of Comedy Central shows. I am pleasantly surprised by Kroll Show. (you know- Ruxin from The League) The previews looked really dumb but it was pretty consistently hilarious skit after skit. Check it out if you're so inclined.

I watched some Drunk History the other night. Some was pretty funny.

[Commando]

I watched some Drunk History the other night. Some was pretty funny.

That's one of my favorite shows. The originals (pre-comedy central) are up on youtube for your enjoyment as well. Hulu+ does a good job of keeping them updated about a week after each one shows. They have both seasons.

[MarkGrace]

Playing catch-up with Netflix is grueling business. Amazon posted five new online pilots aimed at adults in February and ordered full seasons of four of them in March. Now, before any of those shows have arrived, five more pilots are being posted Thursday on Amazon Instant Video.

Like the February batch, this group consists of two hourlong dramas and three half-hour comedies and involves major names like Whit Stillman, Marc Forster and David Gordon Green. And again, over all, the comedies are better. Perhaps the prestige associated with outlets like HBO, AMC and Netflix still draws better dramatic projects. Here’s a rundown of the latest Amazon pilots, from best to worst.

RED OAKS Set at a suburban New Jersey country club in 1985, Mr. Green’s pilot is not a sendup of 1980s coming-of-age comedies or even a tribute to them, but a surprisingly straightforward extension of the genre. It’s as if the spirits of John Hughes, Harold Ramis and the young Richard Linklater had all gotten together to consult. Craig Roberts stars as David, a college student spending his summer as the assistant tennis pro under the tutelage of the club’s paunchy stud, Nash (a funny Ennis Emmer). Providing some ’80s flavor are Jennifer Grey, as David’s mom; Paul Reiser, as the club’s alpha male; and an abundance of female toplessness.
Photo
Dana Delany and Ron Perlman in “Hand of God.” Credit Amazon Studios

THE COSMOPOLITANS Mr. Stillman’s first television-length project stars Adam Brody (“The O.C.”) and the newcomer Jordan Rountree as Americans living in Paris whose only discernible occupations are falling in love and crashing high-class parties. It’s Henry James with the nutritional value of a Ladurée macaron: Evanescent or perhaps just wispy, it seems to melt out of your mind as you’re watching it, and it’s hard to imagine that it could be turned into a series. But it’s quite amusing, especially at the beginning, and not as arch as you might expect.

HAND OF GOD Ranking this as the better of the two dramas is a coin flip. Mr. Forster (“World War Z,” “Quantum of Solace”), also going short-form for the first time, directed from a script by Ben Watkins (“Burn Notice”) that’s almost comically overheated. Ron Perlman plays a corrupt judge who goes off the deep end after his son attempts suicide. He starts to believe that God is leading him to the people who drove his son to desperation, and, of course, he may be right. There are also an unsolved rape and a shady construction project involved in this Southern California noir, which recalls the novels of Ross Macdonald but primarily plays like an attempt to pack every cliché of the grim, cable crime drama into one hour.

HYSTERIA The veteran television producer Shaun Cassidy (“Invasion”) is behind this drama that combines the contagion thriller with the Internet paranoia thriller. When girls in Austin, Tex., have unexplained seizures that then spread to the general population, a neurologist (Mena Suvari) working on the case begins to suspect that the affliction is being spread through social media. Yes, that viral video could actually be viral. With references to witch hunts (the opening titles include images of Joseph McCarthy) and earnest dialogue like “What if, because of the way we communicate now, you don’t need to know someone to feel their pain?,” it’s too contrived and on-the-nose to be particularly scary or entertaining.

REALLY Written and directed by and (unfortunately) starring Jay Chandrasekhar, this noncomedy feels like a laboratory experiment: Just how off-putting can a show be and still maintain the semblance of entertainment? To Mr. Chandrasekhar’s credit, you can recognize and acknowledge the truths he presents about the compromises, routines and animosities of 30-something married life — the seriousness of snoring has probably never been presented this baldly in a sitcom — but the glumness and suppressed anger outweigh the realism. When Neil LaBute seems fun in comparison, you’ve got a problem. Sarah Chalke, Selma Blair and Luka Jones do good work playing members of the show’s four entwined suburban Chicago couples.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/ar...ills.html?_r=0

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/28/ar...ills.html?_r=0

Sometimes I feel like there are too many good shows to watch, it gets very overwhelming trying to keep up.

[MarkGrace]

I'm particularly interested in Red Oaks. This line is enough to sell me:

It’s as if the spirits of John Hughes, Harold Ramis and the young Richard Linklater had all gotten together to consult.

And of course David Gordon Green and Soderbergh are involved, so that has me interested.

[smokymountainrain]

Sometimes I feel like there are too many good shows to watch, it gets very overwhelming trying to keep up.

You should do what I do and don't watch any of them.

[falafel]

I'm particularly interested in Red Oaks. This line is enough to sell me:



And of course David Gordon Green and Soderbergh are involved, so that has me interested.

I just watched this. Its very good. The Nash character is great. They really nailed it with that description. Its an 80s movie in television form.

[falafel]

I've watched the three comedies (Red Oaks, the Cosmopolitans, Really). Red Oaks was by far the best. I liked Really second, although for the first 20 minutes i felt like I couldn't connect with any of the characters. It wasn't until the last 10 or so that I found myself wanting to watch a second episode.

I thought the Cosmopolitans was horrible. I guess its just not my kind of show, because there are plenty of good reviews of it. I have never seen any of Stillman's movies, but apparently if you like them, you'll love this. I have a feeling I won't like those movies.

[MarkGrace]

Cosmopolitans seems to be emerging as one of the favorites. EW gave it the highest grade.

The Cosmopolitans
Creator: Whit Stillman (Damsels in Distress)
Premise: Young American expats (Adam Brody, Chloë Sevigny) look for love in Paris.
Prospects: This is the best of the bunch, especially if you’re partial to laughing at (or with) rich kids who have way too much time to ponder what’s on their prep-school-educated minds. It’s funny, and tender, and brimming with sharply observed conversations that cement Stillman’s rep as “the WASPy Woody Allen.” He really *understands the loneliness of expat life—he lived in Paris for years—and it can’t be a coincidence that he cast Dree Hemingway, whose great-grandfather once roamed the same streets. It’s a preppy twist on A Moveable Feast. A

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/08/28/am...ilots-reviews/

[MarkGrace]

Please see the Netflix thread for my most recent post about Transparent.

[MarkGrace]

Red Oaks and Hand of God picked up. Cosmopolitans still might be. I'm looking forward to Red Oaks. The pilot was great.
http://deadline.com/2014/10/hand-of-...cripts-845369/