Amazon's current CEO, Andy Jassy, wants to make sure he doesn't have unnecessary expenses. He may be responsible for one of the companies with the highest turnover on the planet, but he does not want the streaming platform to be a waste. It doesn't make sense that Citadel, a spy thriller, would have a first season with a tag of more than $200 million, or that The Rings of Power, after an unprecedented investment, would not have the pull capacity of a true television phenomenon. .
But, as we indicated, it should not be overlooked that the producer and distributor Amazon Studios and the Amazon Prime Video platform have a virtue that is not sufficiently recognized: their commitment to rarities, genius or, at least, series with the capacity to surprise the viewer. In a context in which Netflix arouses less and less confidence, because it gives so much priority to the accessibility of its content and not so much to its quality, the fiction bets of the transport company are striking.
Perhaps Jeff Bezos, the founder, is obsessed with having his Game of Thrones, that phenomenon that can be the backbone of the entire television conversation and attract a massive audience, as HBO achieved again in January with the adaptation of The last of us. Perhaps he considered that the era of author works such as Transparent, I love Dick or Forever should end due to lack of public. But, be that as it may, it should be applauded that Amazon Prime Video has released these four series in recent months.
Multi-talented artist Boots Riley signed I'm a Virgo in June. Jharrel Jerome is Cootie, a four-month-old teenager who was raised in captivity by his uncles, afraid that society would not accept him as he is. When he comes into contact with the outside world and listens to political speeches, Cootie becomes socially conscious, deciding to use his stature as if he were a superhero.
Riley conceives a surreal, critical, black and socialist work that has one of its incentives in his commitment as director: instead of using special effects to turn Jerome into a giant, he opts for camera effects, which contributes to creating the atmosphere nondescript. I'm a Virgo clearly falls into the weirdness category, having that whiff of creative freedom offered by TV creators like Donald Glover (Atlanta).
And, speaking of Donald Glover, one of his projects: Swarm, which he created with Janine Nabers, and which moves between psychological terror and black comedy. Dre (Dominique Fishback) doesn't have many social skills. He often relies on Ris (Chloe Bailey), her best friend, who helps him fit in with her surroundings and who shares a passion with her: Ni'jah, a singer unmistakably inspired by Beyoncé. But when a bad night ends in tragedy, Dre unleashes his darkest impulses.
Dominique Fishback, nominated for an Emmy, perfectly conveys Dre's character, confused, at times impassive, always on the verge of extreme madness, while Nabers and Glover design a dirty, crude aesthetic bet, with a visual and sound montage that contributes to a state of paranoia, and is always ready to criticize the entertainment industry and its exploitative attitude towards fans.
This production does not fall into the category of "so interesting or so good that you have to see it" like the other series on the list. But you have to recognize an original premise when you come across one: The Horror of Dolores Roach is a horror comedy about a woman who, after being released from prison, becomes a serial killer who, with the help of an acquaintance, turns the corpses in ready-to-eat dumplings in Washington Heights.
This collaboration between Amazon Studios and Blumhouse, the production company behind horror franchises such as The Purge, Halloween or Insidious, stands out because television usually has trouble delving into terror and, even though it is a work accessible to all audiences, it is strives to highlight the meat aspect, not even by introducing planes of any type of meat.
Comedy is also used to criticize the gentrification of New York while Justina Machado, who was associated with the pure sitcom for One day at a time, has fun with the fits of anger that she combines with her comic vision. The constant references to cannibalistic works such as Titus Andronicus or Sweeney Todd suggest that it only seeks to be entertainment that, let's face it, moves through the common places of cable comedy on television.
And, since it seems that the links between series are the order of the day among these television exceptions, another proposal with a meat component and that already causes almost the fatigue of the fingers of a server, from so many times that it has been recommended. Inseparable, which adapts David Cronenberg's film, is directly a treasure about two twin sisters, the doctors Beverly and Elliot Mantle, with a dependent relationship that cries out for sessions with an entire team of psychiatrists and an obsession to revolutionize gynecology and obstetrics.
Screenwriter Alice Birch takes the material and passes it through a filter of femininity that abandons any sense of duty to both delve into the injustices of patriarchy and challenge the idea of the default goodness of the feminine. It is a total work due to its way of approaching photography, sound, costumes, locations, props, interpretation, the camera, always to benefit Birch's visceral gaze.
That Rachel Weisz was ignored by the Emmy Awards can only be understood from a discrimination for the sophistication of the proposal, perhaps not intended for the general public but for those who seek to be questioned by such a well represented thematic proposal.
