Thoughts on Some of Amazon’s & Netflix’s Exclusives

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After a stressful week preparing for finals and a big internship interview, I decided to spend an afternoon browsing through some of the original content offered by Amazon and Netflix. I really loved “House of Cards” from Netflix, so I was looking forward to watching more of their shows. I was more than pleased to hear about Eli Roth producing a show called “Hemlock” Grove since I was a fan of his Hostel films. On the other hand, Amazon is releasing a web series based on the hit film Zombieland. In addition, I also checked out some of their pilots like Alpha House and Betas. Unlike Netflix, Amazon releases their episodes gradually instead of dropping one whole season at a time.

In short, were these shows great? Well, I’ve watched a couple of them and here’s my brief thoughts on them. Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments!

1. Alpha House

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If Netflix has “House of Cards” to show viewers a grim and serious perspective of politics, Amazon responds with a humorous take on politics with “Alpha House.” Some critics are actually calling it the best pilot from Amazon’s lineup so far. John Goodman is absolutely fun to watch and it’s hard to hate his character even if he’s not such a model politician. Yet, my favorite would have to be Matt Malloy out of all the Alphas. It’s funny how his friends tease him about being gay and how he deals with topics related to that. Out of all the pilots Amazon has to offer, I think this show is a real winner and I’m definitely looking forward to the next one.

2. Zombieland

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I was really looking forward to this show, but I was really skeptical about using the same characters from the movies with different actors. This show has its funny moments and I don’t doubt the talent of the new cast, but I think that they could have shined more if they played fresh characters. I mean if Harrelson, Breslin, Eisenberg, and Stone weren’t so cool in the movie, this wouldn’t have been a problem. Maybe I just need to get used to them in these roles. I’m willing to watch two or three more episodes to give it a chance.

3. House of Cards

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I know Paul already has a review of this show, but let me just give my brief thoughts on House of Cards. I certainly think that this show is the best one I have seen from both Amazon and Neflix so far. It’s not perfect, but I love how complex most of the characters are. My favorites would have to be Spacey, Wright, and Stoll. I was gripped by how the show still makes me want to root for Spacey despite his cold and conniving nature. Quite recently, the White House Correspondent’s dinner opened with a funny “House of Cards” spoof starring the majority whip himself- Frank Underwood. Lastly, Paul and I did a podcast on House of Cards so here’s a link if anyone is interested.

4. Hemlock Grove

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As a fan of shows like Spartacus and American Horror Story, this show seemed like it was just right up my alley. However, I’m not sure what this show really is and I’m already halfway through the series. When a show is ridiculous, I usually defend it from critics when I know it’s not trying to take itself seriously. The sad part is I think Hemlock Grove does strive to be a serious and dark show. Yet, I find it hard to see it that way since it felt like I was watching a show aimed at teenagers from the CW at times. Mind you, Vampire Diaries is a better show than this. In summation, this show isn’t terrible… it’s simply okay.


As for the other pilots…

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I also watched Betas and Browsers from Amazon, but they weren’t particularly engaging. The former was about a group of guys in Silicon Valley, and the latter is a show about young idealistic interns in a company similar to Mashable told in a musical format. These two shows definitely has some funny moments that nerds and interns can relate to, but nothing that’s consistently engaging.

So far, I personally think Netflix has the advantage with House of Cards mostly because it has great talent and writing. Hemlock Grove might be a mixed bag, but I’m hoping Arrested Development won’t disappoint. Alpha House from Amazon is great too, but I think they need to produce more shows that evokes a more “blockbuster” if they really want to compete with all the other shows out there.

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6 Comments

  1. I watched Alpha house and laughed my ass off for most of the episode mostly because of what a treat John Goodman is and the Bill Murray cameo opening was hilarious.

    I also watched the rest of the amazon pilot and I have to say they were all bitterly disappointing low budget, low talent affairs. Ignoring Alpha house, they could have scrapped the other 7 adult orientated pilots they produced and created 2 fully realised series that might have had more potential.

    Amazon and Netflix are changing the TV game and one thing I had hope Amazon do not carry over from the current network TV model is the “throw enough shit at the wall and see what sticks approach” to debuting new TV pilots (Looking at NBC in particular for this one).

  2. Hemlock Grove has some definite consistency and pacing issues, but not as good as The Twilight Diaries? That’s a terrifying statement to make. HG has some great damn characters (which is all that’s needed, really), easily the best werewolf transformation since American Werewolf in London (maybe better than that, even), some serious gore, and a lot of mysteries that aren’t “OMG, is she going to choose the good guy vampire or the bad guy vampire?” going for it. At least be kind enough to compare it to True Blood, which is similarly adult-oriented, wildly inconsistent, and begging for slash fiction. The last episode of HG is a damn mess, though. Brace yourself for that.

    Is it weird that I just don’t care about Zombieland? I just can’t foresee that not being terrible. Maybe if they’d not thought replacing Woody Harrelson with another actor playing the same character (impossibru!) was a good idea, I’d have more confidence, but as it is I’m in no rush.

    Nice work checking all of these out. There is so much to watch right now I haven’t even seen any of these except HG out and I watched that one on the strength of Roth’s horror cred. Such an underrated and misunderstood director. He needs to get his ass back to work.

  3. i watched hemlock grove based on the short plot synopsis sounding so much like twin peaks (teenage girl murdered in a small town, when trying to find the killer in a town where everyone has secrets, what will they find).

    the first episode was good, and actually reminded me of twin peaks a bit. but then they got too into the whole werewolf/vampire thing and it started to get really bad.

    by the last few episodes i was just watching them to see how it was gonna end as opposed to watching it because it was interesting

  4. I loved Amazon’s Onion News Empire, which no one seems to be talking about. It looked to me like a ZAZ-written episode of The Newsroom, as crazy and balls-to-the-wall as true to the disinforming news some networks run.

    Alpha House is definitively gold. John Goodman is great as usual, but the great writing with all those selfish and dumb-ass Congressists is the best selling point for the show. A great way of playing the sad reality for some good laughters.

    Zombieland was quite disappointing. low-budget looks sure were a problem, but what killed the show for me were the poor writing and casting. Woody Harrelson’s Tallahassee was a badass crazy hilbilly, and now all we got for the series was a dumb, Dave Coullier lookalike.

    Still need to watch House of Cards and Hemlock Grave, though. Hopefully I’ll have time for that before Arrested Development returns.

  5. Well, I admit that The Vampire Diaries is really cheesy and I feel that 40% of the episode includes characters making out with each other lmao. However, I do believe that there are a couple of well-developed characters in that series. There are twists and turns I don’t expect, and the story was quite compelling for the most part. I just didn’t feel the connection with Hemlock Grove. It felt slow but watching Dualla and Chief Tyrol from Battlestar Galactica made me stick around for a bit. Probably just a personal preference.

    Yes, I think we can universally agree that they should have just written up new characters for Zombieland.

    Hmm, will check out Supantural and Onion News Empire

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