Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
Amazon's "Pilot Season" is here once again and we're taking a look at all the new offerings. The pilots, which you can see here are presented to everyone, for voting and feedback purposes, and then Amazon picks up the ones they feel are received the best to series.
From Ghost World and Bad Santa director Terry Zwigoff, Amazon's new half hour comedy pilot Budding Prospects focuses on a trio of pot-smokers as they embark on a journey to grow marijuana on a remote farm in 1980s Northern California. Based on a book by T.C. Boyle, the premiere episode introduces interesting characters in a world we grow to believe in while simultaneously feeling like the real story never quite gets started.
By the end of the first episode, directionless Felix (Adam Rose), wannabe entrepreneur Phil (Joel David Moore), and skeptical Gesh (Will Sasso) leave their established world in San Francisco to start a lucrative marijuana farm in remote and unknown circumstances. Although we never actually get to see this new world in the pilot - perhaps the greatest downfall of the episode. The eclectic, wealthy man Vogelsein (Brett Gelman), who is creepy in a non-threatening way, brings an understated comedy to the show and is the catalyst for the move. The ultimate hippy, Vogelsein and his lady friend, Aorta (Natalie Morales), may be the driving force behind the marijuana farm but by the end, it becomes apparent that Felix, Phil, and Gesh are the ones who will push the story forward as they embark on their new money-making venture.
The pilot takes too long to set up the premise considering it’s only a half hour. By a third of the way through I was left wondering exactly what this show would be and even starting to hope the unique cast of characters would remain where they are. Tonally more like an indie film than what you expect from a half hour comedy (potential) series, the authentic-feeling portrait of 1983 in the Mission district of San Francisco is well-drawn but ultimately we find out it will be abandoned just when it starts to grow on you (no pun intended).
The opening shots of the neighborhood set the scene appropriately as a nostalgic look back on “simpler” times. The show feels decades away yet strangely pertinent, with "then or now?" references that could be a staple of upcoming episodes - feeling slyly relevant while literally placed in another time. The lazy group of directionless 20-somethings just “trying to get by” and milling around doesn’t feel too far from a show like Love on Netflix - even if it's set in the 1980s.
The comedy is occasionally crass but ultimately feels more understated. The awkwardness and delivery bringing the small laughs rather than over-the-top physical comedy often expected by a group of guys just getting silly while trying to smoke pot. The meandering lives of the characters fit solidly with the tone of the pilot and how the plot ultimately moves forward—randomly and unexpected.
It’s easy to envision the trouble the trio will get into at their remote marijuana farm but they haven’t even arrived there by the end of the pilot. It feels too short somehow as if the direction-lessness of the characters slowed down the episode as a whole. By the time they’re in the car (and hitting a trouble spot), it seems like a different show than it began. However, the world created delivers a nostalgic feel that leaves us wanting more - even if we aren’t sure what that will look like.
The Verdict
The Budding Prospects pilot is mostly set up but the chemistry of characters plus their guaranteed shenanigans could make for an interesting season... Even if we are left with little idea of what that season would be.
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