Roadies (Showtime) (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

Cameron Crowe returns to his bread and butter with "Roadies", a new Showtime series about the the backstage lives of the road crew for a rock band. The show stars Luke Wilson, Carla Gugino, Imogen Poots, Keisha Castle-Hughes and Ron White. Crowe wrote and directed the pilot and will serve as the producing director, while Winnie Holzman ("My So Called Life") will serve as showrunner. J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk executive produce for Bad Robot Productions.

The first trailer is out now:

 

[ScottH]

Like the premise, but that trailer doesn't do it any favors.

Is there anything JJ Abrams is NOT involved in these days?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Showtime has put the entire pilot up on YouTube:

 

[MarkMel]

Not horrible, the reviews are saying it was much worse than I thought it was. Definitely had an Almost Famous vibe. Makes sense seeing as Cameron Crowe is involved.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Yeah, I liked it too. It didn't blow my mind or anything, but it was a pleasurable way to spend an hour.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I enjoyed the Winnie Holzman-scripted second hour more than the first. Imogen Poots makes for a winsome protagonist as Kelly Ann. It's hard these days to have a sincere protagonist, so it's nice to see with this show. The scene with Reg interviewing everybody on the tour to get an understanding of what they do and getting everything but -- the full range from self-mythologizing bullshit to completely off-topic non sequiturs -- was delightful. I was happy we got more of Keisha Castle-Hughes as Donna.

Kelly Ann's brother allowing his young charge to entertain himself with a butterfly knife, and then eventually losing him, was an amusing background diversion.

It's interesting how the show's centered around a fictional band but both opening acts so far have been real bands, with the real members appearing as themselves.

 

[MarkMel]

Still watching, the replacement opener was good. Not sure I like Luke Wilson in this role. At this point if someone just cut Imogen Poots scenes and put them on one reel I might be happier watching that. ;-)

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Is there anything JJ Abrams is NOT involved in these days?

He loans his name out a lot for projects he doesn't have a lot of involvement in. He probably gave notes during the pilot and stepped away after that.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Once I accepted that we're basically getting sitcom plots accompanied by better music, I made my peace with the show.

The stellar cast continues to carry it. And I loved that Jim James just ended up tagging along on their curse-breaking expedition by virtue of happening to be on the bus at the time.

Imogen Poots continues to do a particularly great job as the POV character. Kelly Ann isn't nearly as flashy as the other characters, but she has the burden of reacting to everything. And Poots does a really great job conveying what's going on in her headspace, often without any dialog.