Amazon Studios produced this pilot.
I was expecting a comedy with some dramatic elements as the plot synopsis claims. What I got, and was highly surprised by, was more drama with light-hearted elements. This is not a gut buster comedy and it never pushed the funny button that hard on me. Having seen it now, I would not want it to be that comedy show. Sure, the prat falls were funny and the interplay between the brothers is your typical dysfunctional family fare, but it was also real in how the brothers sort of hate each other as only family can.
** Spoilers of plot and character follow below ** Jason Lee plays the ne'er-do-well brother Grady Paxson is a firearms engineering genius who just cannot keep from disappointing the family with his playboy, drug addicted lifestyle. He will screw anyone in the bedroom or the boardroom. "You're either a mouse or a snake," he says to his nephew as he feeds a mouse to a python. That is his philosophy. He is as right wing as General Patton, yet ill prepared to grow up and lead. Grady wants to save their family business -- a foundering gun company run by his aging, though tough-as-nails, father Wade (Brian Dennehy) -- but can't keep his pants on or stay away from cocaine long enough to make the real decisions that will keep the business from a rival firearms manufacturing company run by Wade's brother, Rayburn. Rayburn and Wade have been feuding for years. Because of some corporate espionage Rayburn is in a position to force a hostile takeover of Paxson Firearms.
Richard Paxson (Sam Trammell) is the prodigal son who left the family he never fit in with and doesn't want to try to anymore. He is the polar opposite of Grady. Richard is a ultra-responsible touchy-feely guy who married a touchy-feely, gun hating psychologist and lives in Denver with his kids and labradoodle as he drives his Prius to his job where he is a corporate flunky. Richard is at a low point in his career. You can see there are tensions in his marriage. His kids do not really respect him. Richard does not even seem to respect himself.
Richard comes to the aid of the family business because of a threat on his life if his father does not sell the company. Tensions and old angers rise up on his return. Richard versus Grady. Wade versus Rayburn. Brother against brother times two.
The twist at the end of the pilot episode came unexpectedly and made it much more interesting.
I would like to see a little more comedy as he series develops (assuming Amazon picks this up for a full run). The series is rated TV-Mature for explicit language, drug use, female nudity and sex. Add to that the stereotypical right wing gun nut characters the writers portray throughout and some audience members may be either amused or offended, or even disgusted. Being a gun friendly person it took me a moment to realize that they were actually poking fun at us. Good job! It was all for laughs and it was not so overboard that as to be a slap in the face to the gun community. There are even some cameo appearances by NRA spokespeople.
This show was excellent in casting, production values and story line. It is a series that I am anticipating much more from and would have easily seen this as a major network or basic cable series.
I was expecting a comedy with some dramatic elements as the plot synopsis claims. What I got, and was highly surprised by, was more drama with light-hearted elements. This is not a gut buster comedy and it never pushed the funny button that hard on me. Having seen it now, I would not want it to be that comedy show. Sure, the prat falls were funny and the interplay between the brothers is your typical dysfunctional family fare, but it was also real in how the brothers sort of hate each other as only family can.
** Spoilers of plot and character follow below ** Jason Lee plays the ne'er-do-well brother Grady Paxson is a firearms engineering genius who just cannot keep from disappointing the family with his playboy, drug addicted lifestyle. He will screw anyone in the bedroom or the boardroom. "You're either a mouse or a snake," he says to his nephew as he feeds a mouse to a python. That is his philosophy. He is as right wing as General Patton, yet ill prepared to grow up and lead. Grady wants to save their family business -- a foundering gun company run by his aging, though tough-as-nails, father Wade (Brian Dennehy) -- but can't keep his pants on or stay away from cocaine long enough to make the real decisions that will keep the business from a rival firearms manufacturing company run by Wade's brother, Rayburn. Rayburn and Wade have been feuding for years. Because of some corporate espionage Rayburn is in a position to force a hostile takeover of Paxson Firearms.
Richard Paxson (Sam Trammell) is the prodigal son who left the family he never fit in with and doesn't want to try to anymore. He is the polar opposite of Grady. Richard is a ultra-responsible touchy-feely guy who married a touchy-feely, gun hating psychologist and lives in Denver with his kids and labradoodle as he drives his Prius to his job where he is a corporate flunky. Richard is at a low point in his career. You can see there are tensions in his marriage. His kids do not really respect him. Richard does not even seem to respect himself.
Richard comes to the aid of the family business because of a threat on his life if his father does not sell the company. Tensions and old angers rise up on his return. Richard versus Grady. Wade versus Rayburn. Brother against brother times two.
The twist at the end of the pilot episode came unexpectedly and made it much more interesting.
I would like to see a little more comedy as he series develops (assuming Amazon picks this up for a full run). The series is rated TV-Mature for explicit language, drug use, female nudity and sex. Add to that the stereotypical right wing gun nut characters the writers portray throughout and some audience members may be either amused or offended, or even disgusted. Being a gun friendly person it took me a moment to realize that they were actually poking fun at us. Good job! It was all for laughs and it was not so overboard that as to be a slap in the face to the gun community. There are even some cameo appearances by NRA spokespeople.
This show was excellent in casting, production values and story line. It is a series that I am anticipating much more from and would have easily seen this as a major network or basic cable series.