While comedies “Transparent” and “Mozart in the Jungle” have
been award-winning successes, Amazon is still in search of a similar
breakthrough on the dramatic side of the party aisle. While “Bosch” and “The
Man in the High Castle” have fans, and several other shows are in various
stages of production, the service is bringing out the big guns with the two new
hour-longs in their slate of original programming known as pilot season.
Accompanied by a large number of children’s offerings this year, these are the
only two programs for adults. It’s almost as if Amazon has focused all of its
energy on these two programs, both of which are based on bestselling novels,
both of which are period pieces, and both of which feature A-list casts and
Hollywood directors. Has the effort paid off? Have they found their “House of
Cards” and “Orange is the New Black”? Sadly, not yet.
“The Interestings” is the better of the two pilots if one
merely judges them as hour-long short films, but it seems likely that “The Last
Tycoon” will be the better program overall, largely due to the fertility of its
setting and the talent of its cast, including a leading man who would have been
a gigantic star in the era in which the show is set.
Let’s start with “The Interestings,” based on Meg Wolitzer’s
best-selling novel. The show jumps (and I mean jumps) across three time periods, taking place in the mid-‘70s,
mid-‘80s and mid-‘90s—all of which are overly defined by the use of pop music (“It’s
Blind Melon, must be the ‘90s!”) In 1974, we meet a group of young, smart,
artistic people who get together at a summer camp. Directed by the excellent
Mike Newell (“Four Weddings and a Funeral”), the opening scenes of “The
Interestings,” while somewhat clichéd, play to the director’s skill with
character and witty dialogue. This is a show about people who aren’t just
smarter and more creative than most of their peers, but about how much they’re
aware of that difference. It is only with a slight tinge of self-awareness that
they dub themselves “The Interestings.”
Of course, no one’s life is as interesting as they expect it
will be when they’re a teenager. And that’s the main theme of “The
Interestings,” checking in with characters in their teens, twenties and
thirties—noting the differences along the way. The center of the show is Jules
Jacobson (Lauren Ambrose of “Six Feet Under”), an aspiring actress with a bit
of an attitude problem. Ambrose is good, and I imagine the character is deeper
in the novel, but Jules is pretty awful on this show, sour to almost everyone
around her, including a husband to whom she clearly considers herself superior.
More interesting are Jules’ friends Ash (Jessica Pare) and Ethan (David
Krumholtz).
Newell is great with character but he’s saddled with a
script that doesn’t play to his talents as a director. The biggest problem is
one that it sounds like the book didn’t have in that the show jumps around in
time whereas the novel was more chronological. This bounces around more than “Memento.” What’s interesting is that the
show works in moments or beats within that structure. There are scenes that are
very strong—all of the actors are good, especially Pare and Ambrose—and it’s
undeniably biting of a lot thematically. These people are approval junkies, the
kind who loudly verbalize their intellectual superiority but are desperately in
need of confirmation of their political, sexual and moral beliefs. And how
those people change from the optimism of the ‘70s to the cynicism of the ‘90s
clearly makes for interesting fiction. If anything, this pilot made me want to
go read the book. It just didn’t get me too excited to see another episode.
I had a similar response after the end of “The Last Tycoon,”
also a high-profile period piece based on a novel, this one by F. Scott
Fitzgerald, and written and directed by Billy Ray (“Shattered Glass,” “Captain
Phillips”). “Tycoon” has the sheen of a feature film immediately, from the
score by Mychael Danna (“Life of Pi”) to the sexy opening credits. Matt Bomer plays
Monroe Stahr, the king of the Hollywood back lot. Kelsey Grammer plays his
boss; Lily Collins is the boss’s daughter, who wants to be a producer and may
become a love interest; the great Rosemarie DeWitt plays the boss’s wife.
Monroe is a studio executive at a fascinating time in history as the Great
Depression is unwinding and World War II is just beginning. Too much of “The
Last Tycoon” pilot feels slow and thin—like modern actors playing dress up on a
backlot. And yet it often feels like there’s more here to play with long-term
and that Ray is just setting up the pieces to knock them down. Whereas “The
Interestings” has WAY more going on in its pilot, that hour feels rushed and
eager to please. If that’s the whole novel, “The Last Tycoon” is just an
introduction. With the star power of Bomer and Collins, I’m eager to see where
it goes.
