Alpha House, Amazon's first original series, will release its 11-episode first season sometimes this November.
The pilot was released on the internet last May, as were 7 other pilots, and it was one of Amazon's two pickups, the other one being Betas (what better to follow Alpha?), which will also launch in the coming month.
John Goodman stars in this political satire as Gil John Biggs, a North Carolina Republican senator who lives with three other GOP senators in a DC house. The main cast includes John Goodman (Tremé), Clark Johnson (The Wire and great director), Matt Malloy (Six Feet Under) and Mark Consuelos (American Horror Story).
Betas stars Ed Begley Jr, Jon Daly, Joe Dinicol, Charlie Saxton, Karan Soni and is set into the world of informatics.
If I may say my opinion, the pilot of Alpha House was very good, the people have chosen well (it certainly helped to have someone like John Goodman starring), this series pickup is well deserved. Betas was okay, not the best but certainly not the worst of the crop. Too bad The Onion News Network show wasn't greenlit, as I thought it was the funniest pilot and the only one close to Alpha House's potential.
Here's a quote from Alpha House executive producer Jonathan Alter on Amazon's process (putting the pilots online and let people decide, in theory) : "It was a little bit startling. We thought, "We'll post it online, and every Internet troll is going to come along and pick it apart before we even get going'". The positive reaction followed by the pickup proved him wrong.
The whole article about Amazon's entry in the market of original series is on Variety's website. interesting read.
Amazon pilots for 2014 (not at all ranked based on my interest in them) :
1 — The After, from Chris Carter (The X-Files) : apocalyptic thriller.
2 — Mozart in the Jungle, from Roman Coppola (Wes Anderson stuff like the amazing The Darjeeling Limited & Moonrise Kingdom), Jason Schwartzman (Wes Anderson stuff & the beloved Bored to Death) & Alex Timbers : sex & drugs in NYC's classical music scene.
3 — Transparent, from Jill Soloway (Six Feet Under) : dark comedy about an LA family.
4 — The Outlaws, from Jeremy Garelick & Jon Weinbach : a pro football team and its internal hijinks.
5 — Bosch, based on Michael Connelly's novels : cop procedural about an LAPD detective.
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