An Amazon Future Hit: The Last Tycoon

I have recently stated that streaming media is the way forward and one of the companies that are capitalising on the phenomenon is Amazon. The way they're doing it is more ingenuous than the others, by giving viewers the options of watching all the pilots they order and asking them to leave feedback so essentially they choose what the viewers want. This is great because the studio manages to engage viewers even before a show officially launches and if a show is a dud then they find out before they waste time and resources on it. Its such a simple idea and I find myself wondering why more studios and television networks don't do this. This first look is one of the reasons I enjoy using Amazon Instant Video, even more so than Netflix. Yes, I said it. Flame me.

One of the latest offerings the service has is The Last Tycoon which is based on an unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Last Tycoon follows Monroe Stahr (Matt Bomer), a film producer, as he tries to make creative and innovative cinema following the death of his actress wife Minna (Jessica De Gouw). The only issue is that it's 1941 and around then there was a little movement called the Third Reich, and during this period they made attempts to interfere with Hollywood productions. As Hollywood was in the midst of it's golden age and other countries weren't focusing on output in entertainment because they were suffering through a war. Hollywood films were what the majority had access to so of course the Nazi's attempted to filter it by making sure nothing defaming about them and their 'cause' was put in the films. They also wished to cleanse the work force in Hollywood of Jews and a lot of studios relented, including Monroe's.

UnREAL: Addictive Behind The Scenes Drama

In my adolescence I ingested various different reality television series like Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! but I've matured over time and that type of drama doesn't appeal to me, the only reality-eqsue show I watch avidly is The Apprentice. Due to this I found it surprising just how much I enjoyed UnREAL. First of all it's on Lifetime and in England the only exposure we usually get of their offerings is television films that are on weekdays on Channel 5. Nobody watches Channel 5. Secondly, it follows the cast and crew of a reality dating television show that is eerily similar to The Bachelor (so I've heard). Lifetime/Channel 5 and The Bachelor were never even on my radar, the closest I had ever gotten to a dating show was Beauty And The Geek, and even then it was just a few moments, yet UnREAL has become must see television for me.

The show follows Rachel Goldberg (Shiri Appleby) who is a producer on the fictional reality television show called Everlasting. Rachel previously had a breakdown whilst working on previous seasons of the show due to the pressure placed on her to create drama for the series, exposing the truth of what sane human beings already knew. Reality television is fiction. Rachel works under Quinn King (Constance Zimmer) and Chet Wilson (Craig Bierko) who are the executive producers and show runners of the series and has to deal with the demands from the two as well as their constant bickering and struggle for control. She works alongside (more like competing against) other producers including Jay (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman) as they each manage a group of contestants, manipulating them into following Quinn's story for the season, making them become a "villain" or "wifey" for the male suitor.

The Pill: Unlikable, Yet Likable

A few years ago I found myself watching The Pill, a romantic comedy that was released in 2011 starring Noah Bean and Rachel Boston. The film followed Fred (Bean) and Mindy (Boston) as they engage in unprotected sex on the night of their meeting and the following morning Fred has to convince Mindy to take the morning after pill. As the morning after pill consists of two pills, the second to be taken 12 hours after the first, Fred has to spend the day with Mindy to ensure she takes the second pill. I bet you all think you know what will happen. In my initial viewing of it I thought it was a fairly decent film, I didn't hate it but I also didn't believe that I would make an effort to watch it again. That was until Z Nation planted a sour taste in my mouth and I found The Pill on Netflix and decided that a second viewing of that might make me feel better. It did, but not because I was watching idealistic characters play out a love story that we'd all dream of.