Amazon 2015 Pilot Season: THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE Stands Out

Peter Martin, Managing Editor; Dallas, Texas (@peteramartin)

Fresh off winning two Golden Globes for the comedy/drama (aka "dramedy") Transparent, Amazon's annual pilot season is in full bloom, with 13 new pilot episodes debuting in the past few days. Of those, six are aimed at children, so I focused on the seven shows meant for adults. 

 
This is the third year that Amazon has featured "pilot season" on their streaming service. I've watched all the 'adult' episodes; for comparison's sake, I looked back at their 2013 season, out of which two shows went to series, and only one survives -- Garry Troudeau's congressional comedy Alpha House -- it's fair to say that this year's batch is another grab-bag of ideas, with a leaning toward more "dramedies." Only one pilot stands out this year, though. 
 
Click through the photos to read more about the individual shows.
 
 

Amazon's 2015 Pilot Season
Listed in order of preference

  1. The Man in the High Castle. Drama.
  2. Mad Dogs. Drama.
  3. The New Yorker Presents. Newsmagazine.
  4. Cocked. Comedy/drama.
  5. Down Dog. Comedy/drama.
  6. Point of Honor. Drama.
  7. Salem Rogers: Model of the Year 1998. Comedy.

Click the photo to read more. Rather than full-blown reviews, I've included my tweets about the shows and then added a few more details, in case you want to check the shows out at Amazon for free.

The Man in the High Castle (Written by Frank Spotnitz and Howard Benton; directed by David Semel)

Premise: Germany and Japan won World War II and divided up the United States of America between them.

The Story: All I remember from reading Philip K. Dick's novel as a teen is the great premise --- and that I loved it.

Dick's novel was published in 1962, and keeping it in that year is smart because it requires less extrapolation, time-wise, and also gives the show a very different setting, even if it is achieved by visual effects. It's the small things, though, that help catapult viewers back in time, and the show does that very effectively.

In this scenario, Japan rules the Pacific seaboard and Germany rules the Midwest and Eastern seaboard, with a neutral zone running through certain former states in the West. Starting off, the lead characters appear to be Juliana Crain (Alexa Davalos) in San Francisco and Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank) in New York, which allows the hour-long show just enough opportunity to establish those settings and life under the different, repressive regimes.

This is a smart show that sets off slowly-ticking plot bombs all over the continent, which sets up plenty of intrigue that could be explored in a full-season -- or two or three. Writer/producer, Frank Spotnitz, best known for his work on The X-Files, has a consistent record of quality in his work over the years, so I have high hopes that this will be ordered to series.

As a side note, Spotnitz was born in Japan, which should ensure an extra layer of authority to the speculative fiction on display here.

Mad Dogs (Written by Cris Cole and Shawn Ryan; directed by Charles McDougall)

Premise: Four middle-aged friends are invited to visit a fifth mate in Belize, where the lucky fellow has just sold his business and retired to his beachfront estate. But things quickly go sour.

The Story: It's steadily revealed that the friends have had their differences over the years, each choosing a different path and ending up not terribly happy. What happens in Belize gives them opportunity to reevaluate their life choices and contemplate their future.

Further reactions: The four friends are played by Michael Imperioli, Romany Malco, Steve Zahn, and Ben Chaplin, which ensures a good level of performance in this pilot episode. Chaplin is the most outwardly disagreeble one, and Zahn the most fun-loving bloke, but there are good hints at further character development to come. Billy Zane is the one who's struck it rich, and his cocky, smug demeanor is used to its fullest capacity.

This is an adaptation of the recent British series, which I've not seen, but on the basis of this pilot, it certainly is very promising.

The New Yorker Presents

Premise: Short bits and bobs adapted for the small screen, taken from the pages of the magazine.

The Story: True or false: When I reach for an issue of The New Yorker, I always look for the funny stuff first.

The producers of the show must assume that the answer is "true," because they begin with a short film that is intended to be a "comedy," apparently, with Alan Cumming as God sitting on a bench in New York City and he ...

Oh, it's not even worth recounting. And then we see an artist drawing a cartoon, and so my first impression of the show is that the producers must think that people who would watch something called The New Yorker Presents are rubes who just want a few jokes.

Then comes a brief interview with performance artist Marina Abramovic that makes sure to feature as much nudity as possible -- because, again, that's what The New Yorker is known for, right? -- and makes merry with what "people" must think of her.

Then another cartoon.

Then comes the Jonathan Demme doc, about a scientist falsely accused by a corporation, and it's evocative and beautiful and sensitive and makes me want to see more about that.

Then another cartoon.

Then a short poem, read by Andrew Garfield in extreme close-up, because we all want to see movie stars reading poetry in extreme close-up.

And then the credits.

So, other than feeling insulted by the sequencing and the evident intent to appeal to the uneducated masses -- like me, duh! -- the show was OK.

Cocked (Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts)

Gut Reaction: The pro-gun stance of this "dramedy" is entirely unappealing to me, so despite a very good cast, I have little to no interest in what happens next.

Premise: The liberal son (Sam Trammell) of a gun-loving father (Brian Dennehy) must return home to save the family business from his reckless brother (Jason Lee) and ambitious stepsister (Dreama Walker).

The Story: Richard Paxson (Trammell) is a harried, mid-level, white-collar businessperson with a demanding wife (Laura Fraser) and two children in their early teens. They live comfortably enough in Denver, Colorado, though Richard is hoping to become partner at his company. One night he is threatened by an assailant who mutters vague demands, leading Richard to return to his family home some 200 miles away.

There he is reunited with his brother Grady (Lee) and father Wade (Dennehy). The family business -- firearms manufacturing -- is in crisis, since Grady convinced his father to invest a huge sum of money into a new gun that has just been bested by a competing business, which is owned by Wade's brother. Eventually, Wade, realizing that the company needs fresh ideas to survive, tells Richard that he is leaving the business to him.

Down Dog (Written by Robin Schiff; directed by Brad Silberling)

Premise: Logan Wood (Josh Casaubon) has skated through life on his good looks, but when his longtime girlfriend Amanda (Paget Brewster) breaks up with him because he refuses to commit to marriage, he must confront his future.

The Story: Hampered by a "voice of God" narrator, the pilot races through Logan's early life as the son of drug-dealing family before arriving at his current station in life as a yoga instructor. His girlfriend is also his business partner at the yoga studio, where he is the main draw, with all the women in class staring at him with sexual desire in their eyes. He maintains his faithfulness to his girlfriend until she breaks up with him over the telephone, and he is so disturbed that he has sex with a needy fellow instructor (Lyndsy Fonseca) the next day. Of course, his now ex-girlfriend catches him in the act.

Logan decides that he will run the studio on his own, although he has no idea how to run a business. But women love him, so he should be fine!

Further reactions: The show resembles a beached whale. I feel bad for the participants, but not sure what could be to resuscitate it. Do we really need another show exploring how shallow Los Angeles is? It seems like a very played-out field, and there's little here to suggest new avenues are opening up. On a positive note, Kris Kristofferson plays Logan's pot-dealing father, and it's always a pleasure to see the gruff-sounding Mr. Kristofferson.

Point of Honor (Written by Carlton Cuse and Randall Wallace; directed by Randall Wallace)

Premise: A politically-correct retelling of the Civil War, featuring sympathetic Southerners, villainous Northerners, and loyal slaves.

The Story: It is 1861, and the United States is divided. As the Civil War breaks out, a large family in Virginia must take sides: brother against brother, sister against sister, slave against slave...

The hour-long show plays out like a dramatized junior high school history lesson, with a lot of huffing and puffing and very obvious points being made left and right. This is a middle-of-the-road type of show that seeks to offend no one, and it quickly fades from memory.

Salem Rogers: Model of the Year 1998.(Written by Lindsey Stoddart; directed by Mark Water)

Premise: A former supermodel (Leslie Bibb) who has been in rehab for 10 years finally emerges, and fully expecting to resume her place at the top of the world.

Further reaction: Both Bibb and Rachel Dratch (as the model's former assistant turned self-help author turned assistance once again) do their best and really sell their roles, but to little effect. I realize that comedy is extremely subjective, but I didn't find anything in the show to be funny. Maybe that's just me. Lindsey Stoddart quit modeling in 2000 and became an actress; this is her first writing credit.

Do you feel this content is inappropriate or infringes upon your rights? Click here to report it, or see our DMCA policy.