Amazon announced today that six more shows from its Amazon Originals program will be made into full series, following viewer input on the pilot episodes the company released last month. The big surprise? That the right shows made the cut.
The six shows to get a full season are Chris Carter's The After, Bosch (based on the Michael Connelly novels), Roman Coppola's comedy Mozart in the Jungle, the wonderful Transparent, and two kids' series: Gortimer Gibbon's Life on Normal Street and Wishenpoof! Also officially announced today, although known for some time: Alpha House, the political comedy from Doonesbury creator Gary Trudeau, is getting a second season on Amazon.
With the arguable exceptions of the overly-polite Wishenpoof! and uneven The After—and in that latter case, Carter's involvement doubtlessly carried some amount of cache, not to mention likely X-Files-led fan engagement—this is the rare case of a network (well, quasi-network) making the right choices for once. In particular, Transparent and Mozart are shows that feel as if they could thrive online in a way in which they couldn't manage even on cable television, which is something Amazon needs in order for its Originals programming to succeed.
Whether or not this makes up for not picking up Zombieland and Onion News Empire from the first round of pilots remains to be seen, but it's a good sign for the future of Amazon's attempts to be the next Netflix, which was of course the next HBO, which itself used to be the next TV. Evolution is a strange thing.
