Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Here at Decider, we’ve committed ourselves to watching the fall pilots for you and reporting back to help you prioritize your viewing using our super-scientific rating system. Below, we tell you everything you need to know about Amazon’s new fall pilot Z.
A Guide to Our Rating System
Opening Shot: The opening of a pilot can set a mood for the entire show (think Six Feet Under); thus, we examine the first shot of each pilot.
The gist: The “who, what, where, when, why?” of the pilot.
Our take: What did we think? Are we desperate for more, or engaging in a desperate, Faustian bargain to get those 43 minutes back?
Sex and Skin: That’s all you care about anyway, right? We let you know how quickly the show gets down and dirty.
Parting Shot: Where does the pilot leave us? Hanging off a cliff, or running for the hills?
Sleeper Star: Basically, someone in the cast who is not the top-billed star (Sorry, Rob Lowe!) who shows great promise.
Most Pilot-y Line: Pilots have a lot of work to do: world building, character establishing, and stakes raising. Sometimes that results in some pretty clunky dialogue.
Our call: We’ll let you know if you should, ahem, Stream It or Skip It.
Z
Opening Shot: A single pink satin high-heeled shoe is surrounded by wreckage. The camera pans back to reveal firefighters cleaning out a house burnt to the ground. Christina Ricci purrs in a Southern drawl in a voice over: “Things are sweeter when they’re lost. I know. Because once I wanted something and got it. It was the only thing I ever wanted badly and when I got it, it turned to dust in my hands. He had some character, I’ll say that. It was the way he always looked at things…tragically.”
The gist: Z is a new half hour “comedy” pilot about the life and loves of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald. She was one of the most iconic characters of the Roaring 20s, an inimitable woman who inspired most of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpieces. She was also a talented writer in her own right, but she was plagued by mental illness, addiction, and a tumultuous relationship with her husband. Some believe he exploited her for his own gain, while others think she held him back. Either way, Amazon is hoping to capture the romance and drama of Zelda with this show that takes us back to the time when Scott met Zelda.
Our take: Christina Ricci is one of the most underused actresses in Hollywood and Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is an anti-heroine who deserves a prestige project. This, sadly, doesn’t seem to fit the bill. While the costumes are exquisite and the settings are sumptuous, there’s something a little half-baked about the show. It’s a little too cheesy to capture the chic allure of the Fitzgeralds and every bon mot feels slightly clunky coming from Ricci. The show’s biggest problem though? Per the Emmys’ new “all half hour shows are comedies,” IT’S BEING BILLED AS A COMEDY. This show is a lot of things, but it’s certainly not funny on purpose.
Sex and Skin: The episode opens with a frisky Zelda shimmying off her constricting 1920s swimsuit — which just looks like a fun-patterned Spanx — until she’s fully nude. She then dives into an idyllic Southern pond, much to the giddy shock of her prudish friends. Besides Zelda’s skinny-dipping, there are only allusions to sex and a chaste kiss between Miss Sayre and a soldier probably headed for doom.
Parting Shot: As a handsome suitor tries to pull Zelda from a party, we hear Scott (Gavin Stenhouse) stop him, saying, “Sorry, old man, I believe this is my dance.” An intrigued Zelda turns around and lays eyes on F. Scott Fitzgerald for the very first time.
Sleeper Star: No one really gets a chance to stand out save for the man who would be F. Scott Fitzgerald. Gavin Stenhouse has a golden boy’s face, but isn’t given much of an opportunity to show off in the pilot. Time will tell if he can live up to Tom Hiddleston.
Most Pilot-y Line: Whoo, boy… It’s hard to pick, but I have to give the prize to: “That’s Zelda Sayre and she’s no saint, Goldilocks.”
Our call: It’s okay. It’s not great, but it is okay. So, unless you are an avid fan of Christina Ricci or of anything Jazz Age-related, you should probably skip it and watch Allison Pill’s gloriously daffy (and yet deeply sad) take on Zelda in Woody Allen’s Midnight In Paris instead.
RELATED:
Stream It Or Skip It? ‘Edge’
Stream It Or Skip It? ‘Good Girls Revolt’
Stream It Or Skip It? ‘Highston’
Stream It Or Skip It? ‘One Mississippi’
Stream It Or Skip It? ‘Patriot’
