Amazon is doing this thing where you can watch pilot episodes for tv shows and then give feedback...so I watched one for a show called "Browsers."
Basic plot: Set at the office of a gossip/news amalgamation website, the main characters are unpaid interns whose job is to browse the Internet all day for links. Preceding the show is a warning that it contains musical numbers, which is always a good sign [/sarcasm].
Main characters:
(1) Bright, perky chick who talks to herself (and does musical numbers with her conscience). Think J.D. from Scrubs but...no, exactly like J.D. from Scrubs.
(2) Skinny white-bread guy who lives off his parents. Has a Twitter account (@modernvaljean...which they've already reserved with his name and picture I kid you not), which he loves to talk about as if it's something big (even though nobody's heard of it).
(3) Nerdy gay black male who loves to let everyone know about the second word there. "Accidentally" spills coffee on an ersatz Ann Coulter and gets fired before Female J.D. persuades the boss to give him a second chance. His name is Gabe.
(4) Stoner asian girl (I think her name was Prudence, so Beatles reference) who's actually hyper-focused and a pro at browsing (there's a psychedelic scene showing her using her skills, to the amazement of the others).
(5) Their supervisor (I think?) who tells them that at the end of the week one of them is going to be "let go," a practice called "Winnowing Week." Annoying, kiss-up to the boss, but blander than Bill Lumbergh.
(6) The boss. Indeterminate European accent, very strict, likes to put out a face of being progressive, socially conscious, etc. (Gabe worships her), but also has lunch with ersatz Ann Coulter. Has a corny, Fiddler-on-the-Roof-esque musical number with where she drops multiple f-bombs.
(7) Other chick upon whom @modernvaljean hits.
So this show is basically what would happen if you took Scrubs, Glee, and The Office and put them in a media blender...and that's really all I can say about it. The characters have about 1.5 dimensions at best, the jokes are incredibly corny, and the musical numbers are even more so. It feels like something that came out of a marketing meeting (and almost certainly was). It's unoriginal, bland, and the only reason I watched it through was just to see if there was something I could find interesting about it.
...so yeah, watch it if you get a chance...you may agree with me, or you may not. I don't think you have to be a Prime subscriber, and it's free. []
