(swipe)

Amazon has given a series order to “I’m a Virgo” from Boots Riley with Jharrel Jerome attached to star.

The half-hour series is a co-production between Amazon Studios and Media Res. It is described as an absurdist, coming of age story about a 13-foot-tall Black man (Jerome) who lives in Oakland, CA.

Riley wrote the series and will also direct. He serves as executive producer along with Michael Ellenberg of Media Res, Tze Chun, and Jerome.

“I’m thrilled to be working with Amazon on this project,” said Riley. “This show will either have me lauded or banned, and as such, I have demanded payment up front.”

I'm in on whatever he makes next.

And the strength of Sorry to Bother You

They have boosted wages since Sorry to Bother You dropped tho

Peace,

Spirit (Alan)
http://wutangbook.com

Boots can do no wrong....TEASER:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYfpWY330mM

His brain just works differently.

I'm in.

I feel like TV shows, especially on streaming, get lost in the sauce so easily.

This seems like an incredibly fucking cool project.

nod in the next 10 years. Not even saying he is a good actor, but if he finds the role that lets him be himself.... Someone is going to give him that perfect script for him and he is going to kill it. Not saying this is it, but it is just a matter of time.




**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

He was amazing in Survivor's Remorse.

that quibble aside, I'm in!

Wild seeing Olivia Washington ("your order is ready, Big Man") laying on him in one still.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSyKhFwEo7c

I am sure that's an easier way to lure people in. I'm psyched either way.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

Really interesting premise and they got my dude Walt Goggins in it too.

More thoughts after I finish it later on today.

There are some goofy shots due to scale but much less than you would expect and somehow much better than what Marvel does lol

Excited to see where it goes.

There is one shocking moment that I wish didn’t have to happen but we will go into that when more of y’all have seen the series

It's a very Boots Riley show.

It's unpolished with rough edges. But in a good way. Boots leans in to a lot of fantastical elements, and never attempts to explain why they've happened/are happening, which is good. It's also got big ideas that it often tackles in a complex way.

As others have said, it's fucking amazing that a show this anti-capitalist and straight up communist made it out there, much less on Amazon. It's also amazing that it never seems like they made Boots modulate his message to make it more palatable (Word to the final episode).

It also helps that the acting is very good and it's often very funny with a lot of heart. Jharrel Jerome is very good, as is Olivia Washington, and Carmen Ejogo and Michael Epps. Epps is particularly hilarious. Boots continues his obsession with cheaply drawn, existential cartoons, which continues to be entertaining.

There's a lot of great Bay Area references: PG&E (the electric company) not being shit. Clowning people from Marin County. A few of the Raiders' references are dated, but the Marshawn Lynch shout-out was cool.

Just a couple of issues:

1. I wish there was more of Walton Goggins. He's awesome in everything he's in, and pretty much owns whenever he's on the screen here. He's a fascinating villain, and the episode where they spotlight him is probably the best of the series. They only really scratch the surface with a lot of the interesting stuff about him. His "moving" headquarters is great, and the best running gag on the show is his AI talking and sounding like Bill Cosby.

2. They really should have shot this in Oakland. They obviously shot some of the interiors in Oakland restaurants or bars, and they used establishing and overhead shots of Oakland and San Francisco landmarks, but it was mostly shot in New Orleans. The show is very much drenched in Bay Area lore, so it feels strange that they didn't film there, presumably to cut costs. Which underlies the other minor issues in that some of the show look like it was shot on the cheap. But that's more of an Amazon problem, as they should have given Boots the money to shoot on location in the Bay and use actual crowds of extras.

But overall, very good offering. I don't know if this is a one and done, or they're setting up for another season, but it works both ways.

Boy-yoy-yoy-yoy-yoyng.

this is the second black dramatic streaming show that Walton Goggins has appeared in. I don't want to go too off tangent with this response since this thread is all about I'm A Virgo, but if you haven't, please check out The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey. Goggins plays somewhat of an antagonist role on that show as well, but he isn't a villain persay as much as he was in I'm A Virgo.

Back I'm A Virgo itself, this show didn't suffer from the more fantasy/sci-fi story telling aspects like torpedoing the show like Sorry To Bother You did; I'm specifically referring to the last third act of Sorry to Bother You that just go way to silly despite how stellar the world building was in the first two-thirds of the movie. This show was much more balanced in the storytelling and character building despite how over the top some of the aspects were; it reminded me a bit of Everything Everywhere All At Once in being able to get the view to believe in the more abstract themes of the show early on.

Like you said in your review, it's a trip and a half that this show ended up on Amazon given how the heavy anti-Capitalism slant the show has. I suppose all the streaming platforms sadly enough are Big Business with a capital B, so it wouldn't have mattered which streaming platform Boots Riley partnered up with; I would argue that Amazon is the worst of the bunch, but that's for another post altogether.

I did a brief web search for rolling blackouts and I had no clue they were still a thing as recent as last year. I very very vaguely remember hearing about them either in the 90's or early 2000's. I had assumed they were a thing of the past; most unfortunate to hear they are still a recent occurrence. California or parts of California having a shoddy power grid makes me somewhat question to decision to do away with gas powered combustion cars since EV cars will have to use the same shoddy power grid to charges their cars. To be clear, I'm all for EV car usage as that will lessen the dependence on oil and help to somewhat clean up green house gases, but seems a bit odd to go that hard in the paint with EV cars if the power grid needs upgrade in a general sense. That subject definitely doesn't have much relevance with the show, so pardon me if that leads to this thread going too off the rails.

Lastly, I wonder if this will garner enough attention in terms of ratings to merit a second season. I'd love to see what else Boots Riley has in the pipe.

I thought there would be more to it. I guess I thought the power plant plan was just the first step and there would be another big plot that they would do this season. No idea if there are plans for future seasons but I could see it going either way.

I did binge most of it and I wish I didn't. I was pretty tired so I dozed off in a couple spots. My main question is when did those people get shrunk down??? lol I remember seeing it in a scene where I thought it was just a dream but then when they showed up again and were tiny I was lost. I think the leader of them was my favorite character.

Overall the show was pretty funny but kind of muted. Its not a nonstop comedy but it does keep hitting you with some pretty unique humor.

I do agree with the below poster that they balanced the surreal aspects on this much better than they did on Sorry to Bother You.

I wonder if the anti-capitalist scenes are going to be too preachy for some. I kind of wish he could have been more subtle about that but at the same time I get the point of being straight up with it instead. I think to me it made it seem a bit disjointed. Without those scenes it would be similar to many other recent (anti?) super hero shows but with a black perspective. I'm probably off base but it made me wonder if that was the compromise he made.

The building thing was golden. I took it at as a statement on how the ultra rich and even many of us are willing to do so much damage to the world for our convenience.

The AI voice was hilarious. I use CC because of how low some dialogue can be and they even called it Bill Cosby voice. It was funny when he mentioned it was just a recent thing.

I'm going to try to yell Raiders next time lol

I cannot believe Amazon greenlit this. Especially when one could even say that Goggins character could even be interpreted as a Bezos type.

the skewering of the Batman mythos

The critique of he health care system

The power plant

My only gripe is I think they got some of he forced perspective stuff off.

At times he seemed way bigger than 13ft tall, other times he seemed right on.

..enjoyed the series.

A bit preachy at times, but no more than anything else Riley has done.


*skatin' the rings of saturn*


..and miles to go before i sleep...

It was surreal watching it in NOLA.

Recognized some shots from Oakland, but I can definitely see the NOLA

Jharrel Jerome and Olivia Washington are marvels, for a myriad of reasons we'll run down later.


Mike Epps is understated, and that makes his jokes hit the mark.


Walton Goggins is incredible too.


I don't know how Boots will get a second season, but even so, hit every target he wanted to hit in this one.

Its bombastic by design and does it in a way that from a story perspective, its a step up from Sorry to Bother you. Visually, the gag of Cootie being 13 ft tall does vary at times, but it works for comedic effect most of the time.

Some of the cameos are funny as shit....can't wait to watch it again.

Big fan of 'Sorry to Bother You' (like, saw it in the theater three times-level fan).

In many ways this felt like a great companion piece to that film. The cinematography and world-building was really fun and creative. Jharrel Jerome and Olivia Washington were great. And I enjoyed a lot of the nods that you would expect from the creator being in the Coup (loved hearing Hiero's "Oakland Blackouts" playing in one of the scenes).

That said, after the first few episodes I really felt like this thing went off the rails. The pacing started getting really tedious, I had zero interest in the episode centered on the Hero (whole thing felt like it totally fucked up the arc of the story and seemed pointless), and the last episode just didn't do it for me.

Mind you, I love Boots' anti-capitalist stance and really enjoyed how so much of that informed STBY and the first half of this series...but the way that it was so spelled out in that final monologue just felt tone-deaf to me. It totally took me out.

I will see whatever Boots Riley does and I remain a fan. But by the time this season ended, I found myself really puzzled by how something that started so strong went awry so quickly.