I've stuck with Love Film through a lot - I tried to leave them several times over the course of my contract but find it a lot like trying to dump a needy girlfriend. The excuses to stay range from: all your stuff is at ours, we can do better I promise to please stay with us *sobbing on the other end of the phone* eventually every time that I've spoken to the "breaking up" department I seem to have been given a free month to try again and we've just carried on like nothing has happened. Their selection of films online is still terrible and I find myself with two rented DVD's that I have had for nearly 6 months that I haven't watched and probably won't ever get round to.
When Netflix released the amazing House of Cards I watched most of the episodes on a friends account and then set up a free one on my Xbox that I immediately cancelled allowing me to watch the remaining episodes. However, with their promise to find new original shows to broadcast in the near future I was very tempted to once again jump ship and become a paying customer of Netflix - dumping Love Film in the process.
However, when browsing the limited selection of features last night on Love Film I was shown an advert for Vikings (Cheaper looking Game of Thrones hoping to cash in on the aforementioned shows popularity) a Love Film original series. I was intrigued but that's as far as I've gotten with it (possible blog to follow) but it then lead me to Amazon/Love Film Pilot season which got me sidetracked. Could it be that Love Film are seeing the success of Spacey and co on their rivals service and see this as the way to go?
The main problem I have is that I have had no idea that this has been going on. With House of Cards you couldn't move in London for seeing Spacey's face on the underground and even well established film magazines and websites were talking the series up. As of yet I have heard nothing about either Vikings or the mentioned Pilot season. What exactly is going on at Love Film towers and is this something for wannabe TV producers to be getting excited about, other possible avenues to get their ideas made? Or is everything so shrouded in secrecy because Love Film don't want to be drawing to much attention to themselves in case this is a flop?
Right so "Pilot Season" basically is a 14 pilots for new original TV shows (8 adult comedies, and I'm guessing 6 children's shows) that will be voted on by the general public in a democratic fashion with the winner becoming a series on Love Film for all subscribers to enjoy. The only issue with this is that people are idiots when it comes to democracy; how else would you explain George Bush, David Cameron or the Liberal Party? Basically I think that all this is a bit of a faff and we should just let the winner of the Amazon/Love Film pilot season green-light belt be decided by royal rumble. Let it begin!
So I started with Alpha House with a heavy hitting cast including John Goodman (weight advantage) showing a bunch of bumbling Republican senators who have to share a house together in DC with much hilarity ensuing. The "jokes" here are at the expense of conservative politics but are often not as funny as some of the actual sound bites that you can get from American politicians, or the Daily Show putting a spin on them. Ultimately just lazy writing that we've all seen before but might be good if there's money thrown at it as there's some talent attached. Being the first in the ring it only has to posture around the place to look slightly alright.
But what's that? In comes Dark Minions a cheaper version of something that you might see on Adult Swim where two average joes find themselves aboard an intergalactic warship in order to try and make ends meat. Not only can it not stand toe to toe with Alpha House but it's the kind of show that trips on it's way to the ring and is disqualified on a medical technicality.
Next comes Browsers, I might be one of the only straight men of my generation who likes, nay loves, Glee and Browsers is desperately trying to be Glee and it needs to take a lesson from the show - don't try and be something your not. Browsers is a good premise set in a Huffington Post like publication it could attract a good audience of those interested in the world of online journalism. However, every so often the cast insist on breaking into songs that have me awkwardly twisting in my seat to try and escape the noise. Glee works because of the characters, there are none I care about here. Goodman eats them all one by one in the ring and spits them back out where they came from.
With so much time taken on poor mans Glee *COUGH* I mean Browsers. Alpha House is now tired and on the ropes so as Onion News Empire snakes under the ropes it doesn't need much to push Goodman et al over and slide them out. Set in the offices of the Onion News Network it's pretty much if Sorkin had decided that he was going to smoke Mary Jayne rather than sampling the white powder when writing The Newsroom, and try his hardest to write something that isn't funny - at all.
By this time in the evening now I'm tired and Betas (another great idea poorly, so poorly, executed) and Supra-Natural (terrible, terrible) barely make it past the opening 5 minutes before I turn them off frustrated that they were included in the line-up. Onion News Empire tosses them both aside one by one and looks dead a-head for the next challenge.
And it comes in the form of Zombieland that struts to the ring with a swagger that only a toddler in a tiara knows how. It's crass, it's boring and it's not the movie of the same name by any stretch of the imagination. Where Eisenberg and his band of merry men and women brought charm and character to the end of the world after the first, overly long, "joke" finishes clanging you're left with what is now just flat characters and a painful remake of what was one of my favourite movies of 2009. It's not very often that I'm on the zombies side, but this time I'm actively rooting for them!
In the end, after a hard slog of a battle the champion of the "Pilot Season" has to be Zombieland. It has the following from the film and people are going to want to see what happens to Tallahassee, Columbus, Wichita and Little Rock in the future. Even if it is that they are doomed to star in a bad sitcom.
The main question though that I have to ask is not the winner of this round but what is next for the winning show and how is it that Love Film have managed to produce 8 terrible shows all at once whereas Netflix has managed with House of Cards to create a gripping TV series that rivals anything that even the likes of HBO are churning out at the moment! Maybe I might have to look at new ways to let them know at Love Film that: "It's not you it's me." unless Vikings can save my subscription.
UPDATE - The Guardian reports that Amazon have picked two pilots to greenlight Alpha House and Betas - http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/may/22/zombieland-tv-show-axed-fan-power
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| *Aside* "Come join Netflix Ted, you know you want to. |
However, when browsing the limited selection of features last night on Love Film I was shown an advert for Vikings (Cheaper looking Game of Thrones hoping to cash in on the aforementioned shows popularity) a Love Film original series. I was intrigued but that's as far as I've gotten with it (possible blog to follow) but it then lead me to Amazon/Love Film Pilot season which got me sidetracked. Could it be that Love Film are seeing the success of Spacey and co on their rivals service and see this as the way to go?
The main problem I have is that I have had no idea that this has been going on. With House of Cards you couldn't move in London for seeing Spacey's face on the underground and even well established film magazines and websites were talking the series up. As of yet I have heard nothing about either Vikings or the mentioned Pilot season. What exactly is going on at Love Film towers and is this something for wannabe TV producers to be getting excited about, other possible avenues to get their ideas made? Or is everything so shrouded in secrecy because Love Film don't want to be drawing to much attention to themselves in case this is a flop?
Right so "Pilot Season" basically is a 14 pilots for new original TV shows (8 adult comedies, and I'm guessing 6 children's shows) that will be voted on by the general public in a democratic fashion with the winner becoming a series on Love Film for all subscribers to enjoy. The only issue with this is that people are idiots when it comes to democracy; how else would you explain George Bush, David Cameron or the Liberal Party? Basically I think that all this is a bit of a faff and we should just let the winner of the Amazon/Love Film pilot season green-light belt be decided by royal rumble. Let it begin!
 |
| Fake Republicans, not as funny as the real ones. |
But what's that? In comes Dark Minions a cheaper version of something that you might see on Adult Swim where two average joes find themselves aboard an intergalactic warship in order to try and make ends meat. Not only can it not stand toe to toe with Alpha House but it's the kind of show that trips on it's way to the ring and is disqualified on a medical technicality.
Next comes Browsers, I might be one of the only straight men of my generation who likes, nay loves, Glee and Browsers is desperately trying to be Glee and it needs to take a lesson from the show - don't try and be something your not. Browsers is a good premise set in a Huffington Post like publication it could attract a good audience of those interested in the world of online journalism. However, every so often the cast insist on breaking into songs that have me awkwardly twisting in my seat to try and escape the noise. Glee works because of the characters, there are none I care about here. Goodman eats them all one by one in the ring and spits them back out where they came from.
With so much time taken on poor mans Glee *COUGH* I mean Browsers. Alpha House is now tired and on the ropes so as Onion News Empire snakes under the ropes it doesn't need much to push Goodman et al over and slide them out. Set in the offices of the Onion News Network it's pretty much if Sorkin had decided that he was going to smoke Mary Jayne rather than sampling the white powder when writing The Newsroom, and try his hardest to write something that isn't funny - at all.
By this time in the evening now I'm tired and Betas (another great idea poorly, so poorly, executed) and Supra-Natural (terrible, terrible) barely make it past the opening 5 minutes before I turn them off frustrated that they were included in the line-up. Onion News Empire tosses them both aside one by one and looks dead a-head for the next challenge.
 |
| That's not Woody Harrelson |
In the end, after a hard slog of a battle the champion of the "Pilot Season" has to be Zombieland. It has the following from the film and people are going to want to see what happens to Tallahassee, Columbus, Wichita and Little Rock in the future. Even if it is that they are doomed to star in a bad sitcom.
The main question though that I have to ask is not the winner of this round but what is next for the winning show and how is it that Love Film have managed to produce 8 terrible shows all at once whereas Netflix has managed with House of Cards to create a gripping TV series that rivals anything that even the likes of HBO are churning out at the moment! Maybe I might have to look at new ways to let them know at Love Film that: "It's not you it's me." unless Vikings can save my subscription.
UPDATE - The Guardian reports that Amazon have picked two pilots to greenlight Alpha House and Betas - http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/may/22/zombieland-tv-show-axed-fan-power
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