Showtime 1.1 - Pilot

Showtime : Pilot
Genre : Drama / Comedy / Sports
Showrunner: Steven Soderbergh
Writer : Chad Taylor & Mo Buck

Cast: Barry Keoghan, Joe Manganiello, Stephen Root, Dacre Montgomery, Nick Offerman, Cooper Andrews, Paul Walter Hauser, Zoey Dutch, Clayne Crawford, Tom Hopper, Alan Ritchson, Paul Rust, Freddie Stroma and David Bradley

Plot: Smells of blood, sweat and tears are in the air in the Texas Championship Wrestling locker room following another successful event. Wrestlers high-fiving each others and the alcohol flows generously. The promotion's top heel, Loto the Evil Islander (Cooper Andrews) comes back in the locker room with his manager "Loudmouth" Dicky Ray (Paul Rust) on his shoulder after the latter sold an injury in the ring. As soon as he enters the locker room, he drops the act and he celebrates with his co-workers as we hear the crowd still roaring from the crowd-favorite moral victory over the evil Loto. The promoter, Roy Brown (Stephen Root) runs out of his office and into the arms of his biggest star, Ricky Santana (Joe Mangianello). He congratulates him on a succesful night and asks everyone to behave nicely and accordingly, a new employee will arrive shortly. The celebration resumes as Roy Brown looks happy and satisfied.

At a small events hall in England, Pro Wrestling from London puts on a show for a rowdy crowd. Ben Carr (Barry Keoghan) watches from afar as his older brother Andrew (Freddie Stroma) is adored by the crowd. Afterwards, he must do the ring-rat work of dismantling the ring and cleaning up the arena. When he’s done, his father Roland (David Bradley) tells him he can go.

Roy Brown shakes "The Superior" Brad Wolfe's hand and he kisses Wolfe's sister. He tells her she'll work under the name Sweet Tea (Zoey Dutch) and he's sure she's going to be a star. He asks Wolfe to show her around and introduce them to the wrestlers as he has a plane to catch. Wolfe asks him where he's going and Brown, with a huge grin of his face, says he's going to find their next big star and he rubs his two hands together as he walks away. Wolfe gets everyone attention and everybody’s eyes are glued on him, thanks to his commandeering voice and charisma. He presents his sister, known as Sweet Tea to everyone. He warns them that if they hurt her, he’s going to beat them until they die. Dicky Ray whispers to Loto that he would like to see him try to beat Loto and Wolfe heard it. He grabs him by the arm and he asks again if they understood him. Dicky shakes his head, he sure did.

The next day, at his father’s training school, Ben is busy doing various grueling drills and doing them best among the trainees. Mid-way through, he throws in his towel and tells Roland that he is done with this. He is ready to fight and he knows his dad knows it. He’s better than the rest of the students and Roland’s entire PWL roster. Roland is stubborn and says that Ben is in need of more training.

Roy has landed in California and is entering a bodybuilding contest in the hopes to find his next young and muscular superstar. He seems particularly uninterested by the competitors and he argues with the organizers to know if they have more charismatic competitors because they ones who parade in front of the judges are nothing more than a piece of cardboard for him. He needs pizzazz, he needs panache, not just muscles. The jock in charge reminds him that it isn’t a personality contest and they focus on the body here. If he wants to see personality, he should go check out Broadway or something. Roy walks out, saddened that he wasn’t able to find TCW’s next star. As he heads out, he notices the beach is across the streets and he sees a bunch of attractive ladies, so he decides to head to the beach for the rest of the day, catcalling a group as he crosses the street. He gets a disgusted reaction in return, which saddens him even more.

In his apartment, Ben reads various wrestling magazines, taking notes as he does. Afterwards, he studies his notes and starts to make a ranked list. Later that day, he confronts his family and tells them he is moving to America to wrestle. Andrew laughs at this while their mother wants him to stay close. Roland insists that Ben need more size and training in order to succeed in wrestling. He disagrees. He has already bought his plane ticket. He tells his family goodbye and that he will keep in touch.

As TCW is gearing up to run another show, Wolfe introduces Sweet Tea around to the other wrestlers. Of course, she knows Ricky Santana, everyone does. There’s Bill Gundy (Nick Offerman), the old grumpy and discouraged old man who’s putting on his knee pads. Wolfe tells him he should get rid of the mustache if he wants to get over and Bill tells him to go fuck himself. There’s Loto the Evil Islander. Sweet Tea says he’s ruthless in the ring but a sweetheart backstage. Wolfe says he’s the worst, he’s always happy and it infuriates him. Loto says Wolfe is just jealous that he isn’t at peace with himself as he is. There’s “Slim” Clem Sanders, the perennial jobber who has gained as much pounds since he started than different gimmicks he tried. Wolfe asks him what he’s trying this time around and Clem says he’ll try being a taxi driver tonight, because everybody loves taxi drivers. Wolfe says everybody hates taxi drivers and that’s a fact. Sweet Tea says she pities him, you almost feel sorry for him at this point. There’s the Jackson brothers, Tom (Tom Hopper) and Don (Alan Ritchson), otherwise known as the Bruiser Brothers. He whispers to Sweet Tea that she should avoid them for a while, they just lost their other twin a couple months ago and they aren’t over it. Tom confronts Wolfe because he heard what he said and the Bruiser Brothers want to start a fight with Wolfe. “Loudmouth” Dicky Ray waltzes in an puts out the fire. Wolfe who was just hit right in the face by Tom introduces Sweet Tea to Dicky Ray, a sleazy manager who wants to act like he matters here, but everyone else is wondering why he has a job. He smiles at her with his bloodied teeth and he says “look! I told you you’d like it here” and she nods uncertainly.

Roy Brown is looking at women and teens at the beach and he starts to feel dizzy. He gets up and walks up to an attractive woman and he asks her out. She tells him to get lost, she doesn’t deal with married men, pointing towards his wedding ring. He brushes off another refusal and he out the TCW contract he was supposed to use today and he vents himself with it. He starts to feel weird and he grabs his chest in pain. Not for away from him, a lifeguard (Dacre Montgomery) - chiseled like a Ken doll with perfect golden locks to match - sees him and runs to his aid. His colleagues call for an ambulance.

At the Houston airport, Ben steps off the plane and breathes in the Texas air. He looks down at his notes and circled at the top is the address for Texas Championship Wrestling.

Roy gets in the ambulance with the lifeguard. As they put the oxygen mask on, he whispers to the lifeguard that he’s the one - the next wrestling superstar - and he gives him the contract and a pen. Roy takes off the oxygen mask as they try to stabilize him and he tells him his name will be Thunderjack Haynes and he’s going to be a star. The lifeguard has no idea what the man is talking about or who he is. Roy takes his hand and promises "you're the one". As the lifeguard looks over the contract, Brown has another heart attack and passes away. Thunderjack sees that he would have to move to Texas but looks at the insane amount of money being offered and looks happily impressed. He feels like he owes it to the mysterious little man who just died, but also for the hefty salary is enticing. He figures "why not?" and signs the contract.

I really like the premise of this series as a whole, especially with the team behind the camera and the ensemble in front of it, but as long as the pilot goes as a standalone episode, I think character development went through the door in favor of shock value and a quick laugh, which I hope won't be a recurring trend in Showtime !

The premiere episode introduces us to all the major players, but that's about all it does. The show has enough interesting characters and humor to give me hope, but it still has a lot of work to do to live up to the creative team's previous effort, Doctor Love.

The pilot is a little fad, but I have enough confidence in Soderbergh, Taylor and Buck to take it to the next level in subsequent episodes. The introduced characters seem interesting and there's a fun dynamic in the locker room that makes me optimistic about this series