Post: #1

Following Netflix success with House of Cards and Orange is The New Black, Amazon is entering the downloadable TV series business.

Their first two shows are Alpha House and Betas, which are advertised jointly with the tag line "Are you Alpha or Beta"?

I haven't seen the show yet but I find it surprising how the mainstream has now not only fully integrated game terminology but making it the premise of TV shows.

I'm going to make a point of watching these series this weekend. Anyone else had a go?

Post: #2

They are only joined because they were polled against one another.

From what I see, they don't look like what we would define as Alpha and Beta.

Quote:Alpha House stars Goodman and was written by Academy Award nominee and Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury, Tanner ’88). The comedy, which features Goodman (Roseanne, Argo, Treme), Clark Johnson (The Wire), Matt Malloy (Six Feet Under, Law & Order) and Mark Consuelos (American Horror Story: Asylum, Guys With Kids), follows four senators who live together in a rented house in Washington.

For its part, Betas, set in the land of Silicon Valley start-ups, was written by Evan Endicott and Josh Stoddard. The half-hour effort follows four friends as they attempt to strike it rich with a mobile social networking app. Ed Begley Jr., Jon Daly, Joe Dinicol, Margo Harshman, Charlie Saxton and Karan Soni star, with Michael Lehmann (Heathers, True Blood, Dexter, American Horror Story) directing and producing the pilot along with Emmy winners Alan Freedland and Alan Cohen (King of the Hill, Due Date, American Dad) and Oscar nominee Michael London (Sideways, The Visitor, The Informant).

Post: #3

(11-08-2013 10:15 AM)Vicious Wrote:  I find it surprising how the mainstream has now not only fully integrated game terminology but making it the premise of TV shows.

Has the mainstream integrated "game" terminology, or was it the other way around?

Oh, I dont know, lets ask my wingman...

Post: #4

TV follows culture.

The times could be changing....

Post: #5

smh

Post: #6

These netflix series are great, they really know what they're doing.

Are Alpha House and betas out yet?

Post: #7

I found all of the amazon pilots to be infuriatingly bad. Just watch the Zombieland one to see the difference between what good filmmakers do and what low-budget hackery amazon is putting together. It doesn't make sense given their budget - the first episode of betas has some good actors and a cameo by Moby. Alphas has John Goodman. But the writing... by god, it's so terrible. It doesn't even resemble TV. Even the premise of alphas - why would a bunch of Congressmen bunk up in the same house and get into frat boy like antics? Don't these people have money and power?

If someone can explain to me how these shows got made, please do. Otherwise, don't watch.

Post: #8

Yeah the Alpha House series was let down from the start by the very strange premise. You really can't take it seriously because of that. It does have a couple of good gags though.

Post: #9

The problem with a lot of these tv and movie writers is they are very smart on paper but rarely have any real life experience doing anything cool. (They're fucking nerds.)

Post: #10

(11-24-2013 12:46 AM)crunkpopeye Wrote:  

smh

The character pictured on the far left is hilarious, and the only redeeming quality of the show. I think you guys would highly enjoy his scenes.

The gay IRT, not so much...