St Patrick’s Day was not the only exciting happening last Friday. On Friday, Amazon released a batch of new pilot episodes, as they do a few times throughout the year. These five pilots could be 1) ordered straight to series, 2) have a few more episodes ordered, or 3) not be picked up at all. It is their way of testing out television series ideas with their audiences (or as some say, just a publicity stunt and Amazon decides themselves which shows to commit to series).
Usually two one-hour drama episodes, and three half-hour comedy episodes are released in an Amazon pilot season. Shows that have made it to series from this process include Bosch (2014 – present), Mozart in the Jungle (2014 – present), Transparent (2014 – present), and The Man in the High Castle (2015 – present).
Here’s what you need to know about the five tv pilots that premiered on Friday on Amazon Prime.
1. Oasis
Genre: Drama/Sci-Fi
Episode Length: 60 min
An English priest embarks on a journey through outer space to seek out a space colony that is earth’s last hope.
When a pastor named Peter is approached by a corporation called USIC, who want him to travel to a human colony on the planet of Oasis, he leaves his terminally-ill wife behind on earth to seek to bring Christianity to this religion-free colony. But when Peter arrives on Oasis, he finds much distress than he anticipated: dangerous weather conditions, crops are failing, citizens are having disturbing visions, the colony’s leader has disappeared, and people are killing themselves. The events that unfold force him to question his own sanity, as well as his faith.
- Matt Charman (writer of Bridge of Spies) wrote the pilot episode
- Game of Thrones actor Richard Madden plays the lead role
- Sixth Sense actor Haley Joel Osmond plays a supporting role
- Slumdog Millionaire actor Anil Kapoor plays a supporting role
- based on Michel Faber’s 2014 book The Book Of Strange New Things
2. The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Episode Length: 60 min
A 1950s Jewish housewife decides that she wants to become a standup comic.
It’s 1958 Manhattan, on the Upper West Side, and Mrs. Miriam (Midge) Maisel has a doting husband and two lovely children, and is actually quite content with her domestic life. But when her husband leaves her, and someone sees her potential, this outgoing Jewish woman finds that she can’t stifle her unrealized dreams of being a comedian (ironically, the very profession that her husband was pursuing unsuccessfully on the side).
- Gilmore Girls Amy Sherman-Palladino wrote the pilot episode
- House of Cards actress Rachel Brosnahan play the lead role
- Monk actor Tony Shalhoub plays a supporting role
3. The New V.I.P.s
Genre: Comedy
Episode Length: 30 min
A group of low-level employees, team up and take control of a major corporation after they accidentally kill their boss.
In Amazon’s first animated adult comedy, a group of underachieving employees find themselves in a sticky situation when they accidentally kill an executive at their company (in a bathroom of all places). After already being no longer content with the direction their company is taking, the four of them decide this is their chance to change how their company is run, all while trying to make sure no one discovers their role in their executive’s demise. They use plastic surgery to make a security guard look identical to their boss, and begin to change everything.
- Missi Pyle (Gone Girl, Captain Fantastic), Stephanie Beatriz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), and Ben Schwartz (Parks and Recreation) are all part of the cast
4. Budding Prospects
Genre: Comedy
Episode Length: 30 min
A group of friends depart San Francisco for the wilderness of Northern California in 1983 to start their own marijuana enterprise in a cabin.
At a place they called ‘The Summer Camp’, three boys from the city embrace the country life just North in Medocino County in hopes that their gamble will pay off big. With an idea to make money off a large marijuana farm, the three characters are on their own in 1983. What they don’t anticipate is flooding, rain, wildlife, rude neighbors, and suspicious local law enforcement, which pose obstacles to achieving success with their illegal business adventure in their new rural home.
- based on the 1990 novel of the same name by TC Boyle
- Parks and Recreation actress Natalie Morales is in the cast
5. The Legend of Master Legend
Genre: Comedy/Dark Comedy
Episode Length: 30 min
A real-life middle-aged ‘superhero’ named ‘Master Legend’ fights bad guys, gives homeless people food, poses for pictures with fans, all while living in a shed and trying to reconcile his relationship with his family.
Frank is your average man, except for that he is a local ‘superhero’ in his free time. But although he has high dreams, he lives in a storage unit, and works as a handyman during the day. But while Frank is trying to find his place in the world, his daughter is struggling with her sexual identity, and his ex-wife is going through her own personal crisis, as she works as a buffet host/parking lot operator.
- based on ‘Master Legend’, a real-life superhero who lived in Orlando, FL (but in the series lives in Las Vegas, NV)
- Transparent writers Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster wrote the pilot episode
Go check out these episodes on Amazon, and stay tuned to see if any of these pilot episodes are picked up to series.