Inside Out, Wayward Pines, and The Man in the High Castle (as well as Entourage, Halt and Catch Fire, Hannibal, and other recent stuff on screens). Paul and Elgin talk about
- Pixar’s Inside Out, directed by Pete Docter and Ronaldo Del Carmen. Does the latest animated feature from Pixar (with voice work by Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, and Mindy Kaling, among others) reach the emotional and technical heights of Up and the Toy Story trilogy (soon to be tetralogy) or merely the amusements and craft of Cars 2? Are the film’s storytelling devices–for instance, personifying the five emotional states within the 11-year-old white female protagonist–fresh or inventive enough to make the film compelling for both adults and children? What does it say about parenting and growing up in America today?
- Fox’s Wayward Pines, based on the novels of Blake Crouch and produced by Chad Hodge and M. Night Shyamalan. With an intricate twisting plot (Shyamalan’s trademark) and an impressive cast (including Matt Dillon, Melissa Leo, Juliette Lewis, Toby Jones, and Terrence Howard), this summer miniseries has been likened to Lost and Twin Peaks, where the characters find themselves in alternative “realities.” But does it do enough things differently to warrant watching more episodes beyond the first two or three?
- Amazon Studio’s The Man in the High Castle, produced by Frank Spotnitz and Ridley Scott and based on Philip K. Dick’s book about a counterfactual United States, ruled by the victors of WWII, Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. This pilot is now the most watched among all four waves of pilots from Amazon and has been green-lit to series. But would we recommend you keep watching when the rest of the episodes come on line? Is Amazon’s pilot-to-the-public model too democratic? Is it yielding the kind of shows on par with premium or basic cable?
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