DAVID BIANCULLI

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MOZART IN THE JUNGLE
December 23, 2014  | By David Bianculli

Amazon Prime Video, 12:00 a.m. ET

 

SERIES PREMIERE: Amazon Prime allowed its subscribers to sample, and vote on, this new series back in February, when its pilot was streamed for viewers to sample and, potentially, support with positive votes – which they did, for good reason. Based on the book Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs and Classical Music, by Blair Tindall, this comedy-laced drama, or vice versa, features Lola Kirke as Haley, an ambitious and talented young oboist who tries out for the fictional New York Symphony. Saffron Burrows plays a veteran cellist, Bernadette Peters an arts patron, Malcolm McDowell the retiring maestro, and Gael Garcia Bernal, last seen in Jon Stewart’s Rosewater, plays the “rock star” young maestro who is handed the reins in the show’s opening installment. It’s an interesting show set in a little-explored arena, and the first season’s 10 episodes are available beginning today. This is a big year for Amazon: Between this and Transparent, it’s grabbed the attention and acclaim that Netflix, with such recent efforts as the clunky Marco Polo, has let slip.

 
 
 
 
 
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