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Amazon's new pilot season of 5 TV shows just came out — here they are
As Amazon and Netflix battle over which company makes the best original streaming shows, one big difference is in their respective processes for making them.
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While Netflix has totally abandoned the traditional TV "pilot" system, and commissions full seasons of shows at once, Amazon has a "pilot season" where the company lets Prime members give feedback on which shows they want full seasons of.
Amazon's spring pilot season debuted March 17th. The pilots range from a superhero comedy set in Las Vegas, to a housewife trying to make it as a stand-up comic, to a chaplain sent into space.
Amazon has been ramping up its investment in video over the last few months, and previously said it was doubling its spending on video content in the second half of 2016, compared with the year prior. One expensive item was "The Grand Tour," a new show by Jeremy Clarkson and the "Top Gear" crew, which cost Amazon a reported $250 million.
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That show was meant to supercharge Amazon's expansion into 200 countries, and proves Amazon isn't averse to spending big for quality shows.
Here are the 5 pilots Amazon has released, which you'll be able to give your stamp of approval (or disapproval) on:
Length: 30 minutes
Amazon Description: "The Legend of Master Legend" is a dark comedy about the life of Frank Lafount, a.k.a. Master Legend — a homemade superhero whose mission is to protect the people of Las Vegas from evildoers. Master Legend juggles the demands of justice with the even more complicated demands of his real family, who don’t see him as a hero at all.
Length: 30 minutes
Amazon Description: In 1983, three hapless city boys move from their comfort zone of the San Francisco counter-culture to Mendacino to grow marijuana. Their expectations of the experience being a back-to-the-land, nurturing adventure in a beautiful rustic setting run up against the harsh truth prior to their arrival at "The Summer Camp" – a miserably run-down shanty out in the middle of nowhere, where they are bedeviled by rats, snakes, mosquitoes, and harsh, unfriendly growing conditions, noisy neighbors, dangerous locals, and menacing law enforcement. The pilot stars Adam Rose ("Veronica Mars"), Joel David Moore ("Bones"), Will Sasso ("MADtv") and Brett Gelman ("Fleabag").
Length: 30 minutes
Amazon Description: Amazon’s first adult animated comedy show, "The New V.I.P.’s" follows a group of low-level employees who seize control of a major corporation after accidentally murdering their boss. The pilot stars Matt Braunger ("Agent Carter"), Ben Schwartz ("Parks and Recreation"), Missi Pyle ("Gone Girl") and Jonathan Adams (Last Man Standing).
Length: Hour
Amazon Description: It’s 1958 Manhattan and Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan, "House of Cards") has everything she’s ever wanted — the perfect husband, two kids, and an elegant Upper West Side apartment perfect for hosting Yom Kippur dinner. But her perfect life suddenly takes an unexpected turn and Midge discovers a previously unknown talent — one that changes her life forever. She charts a course that takes her from her comfortable life on Riverside Drive, through the basket houses and nightclubs of Greenwich Village as she storms the world of stand-up comedy…a course that will ultimately lead her to a spot on Johnny Carson’s couch.
Length: Hour
Amazon Description: Based on the cult-hit novel The Book of Strange New Things from Michel Faber, "Oasis" follows a chaplain (Richard Madden, "Game of Thrones") who is sent into space to help establish a colony on a distant planet. What he ends up discovering not only puts his faith to the test, but life as we know it.
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