In the latest sign of networks being willing to experiment with new forms of distribution, AMC Networks will make all 10 episodes of the new AMC series Lodge 49 available on its ad-free service AMC Premiere. The drama (check out a review HERE by Deadline’s Dominic Patten) stars Wyatt Russell and is executive produced by Paul Giamatti and Jim Gavin. AMC Premiere customers will be able to see all 10 episodes of Lodge 49, as of its linear premiere on AMC on August 6. AMC Premiere is available as an upgrade option for Comcast Xfinity and YouTube TV subscribers for an additional $4.99 per month. Past AMC shows The Terror and McMafia were made available for full-season binges timed to their network TV premieres earlier this year. The company said those moves spurred strong subscriber gains and usage. Every programmer is in the midst of a historic recalculation of the norms of distribution as the TV ecosystem undergoes tech-fueled evolution. Viewers with ready access to streaming services and online content hubs grow accustomed to on-demand, ad-free options. Earlier today, FX Networks announced that it was widening out its ad-free premium service, FX+, to allow all 90 million FX subscribers to sign up, as opposed to only Xfinity and Cox cable customers. Xfinity itself has been moving to integrate streaming options such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and YouTube into its cable environment. This latest wave of innovation follows a stretch of years when the traditional TV industry’s answer to the bundle dilemma was to promote authenticated “TV Everywhere” apps. Those largely failed to gain traction, in part due to their commercial loads and the simultaneous rise of new subscription services.<doc-sep>AMC has leaned on antihero characters during its 11 years as a purveyor of original programming. But with Lodge 49, it’s going in a bit of a different direction, towards a hero that’s optimistic and tries to do the right thing. Does it make for a show that people will want to watch? LODGE 49: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? Opening Shot: A long shot of a beach, then from the right side of the screen, a guy with a metal detector is seen walking along the sand. The Gist: Sean “Dud” Dudley (Wyatt Russell) seems like he’s just a Lewbowski-esque ne’er-do-well who pawns things he finds on the beach to get money, pays for gas with change, hangs out at the local donut shop next to his family pool store, and crashes at his old apartments in order to sleep. But, in reality, he’s a bit lost, as we find out later in the pilot. He owes his twin sister Liz (Sonya Cassidy) money, and is afraid to ask her if he can crash on her couch. Their father, who owned the pool business, left them with nothing after surfing out into the deep blue and never being found. On top of that, Dud suffered a snake bite that he has never quite recovered from, and he can’t surf anymore. He finds a ring in the sand that he discovers is from the Ancient and Benevolent Order of the Lynx, and when his car runs out of gas in front of the Lynx’s local Lodge 49, he thinks it’s fate. Meanwhile, Ernie Fontaine (Brent Jennings) is a 59-year-old plumbing salesman whose business had cratered to the point where he made bets to keep things afloat, he has to meet his new girlfriend Connie (Linda Edmond) at a hotel because she’s married, and he just wants to become the “Solemn Protector” of the Lodge, especially after the current leader, Larry Loomis (Kenneth Welsh), has his umpteenth heart attack. Dud runs into Ernie at the lodge and finds out how to join. He thinks this will really help him out in life, knowing all these upstanding citizens of Long Beach, and when he tells the members his story at the lodge’s tavern, Larry punches him… And has another heart attack. Our Take: If you watched the first 2/3 of the first episode of Lodge 49, you’d likely think the same way we did: It’s not a bad show, it’s just weird. Dud seems like a good guy, just aimless. He’s smarter than his circumstances indicate, he likes to spew “research” that’s equal parts informative and bullshit, and he knows that the guy who runs the pawn shop is going to die alone. We also know that Ernie is being kept awake by crows and that he really wants to make his mark in some way, even at this later stage in life. But it just seems like vignettes of two lives that aren’t going the way the people living them expected. But when Dud spends his first night getting to know everyone at the Lynx lodge, and especially when he finally relates his story to them, the episode comes together and you get the idea of what Lodge 49 is about. It’s definitely not high drama; there are plenty of moments that are amusing, albeit not really laugh-out-loud funny. And there’s a fantasy element there, especially in Dud’s brain; he thinks fate is drawing him to this dusty old lodge, and he thinks he’s been there before. So even though it takes a while for things to come together, the effort by creator Jim Gavin and showrunner Peter Ocko to paint the picture of how Dud’s and Ernie’s lives are in disarray should help later on as we see Dud try to get back to the life he once loved with the help of the people in the lodge. Sex and Skin: Nothing in this show. Parting Shot: After Larry is carted out, Ernie invites Dud to have one last drink before he locks up. The two of them look at themselves in the mirror behind the bar. We then pan up to a drawing of a knight and his apprentice fighting a snake. Hm. Older and younger, the snake imagery… not exactly subtle, is it? David Pasquesi is one of those “that guy” character actors who always distinguishes himself, and he does so here as Blaise St. John, a pot apothecary and the lodge’s bartender/philosopher. Most Pilot-y Line: When Dud gets caught crashing in his old pad, one person in the couple who happens to be looking at it was a former classmate of his and, apparently, still mildly attracted to him. It was awkward just for the sake of being awkward. Our Call: Stream It. Lodge 49 is definitely quirky. But now that some of the exposition is out of the way, it should be a fun ride. Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere. Where to stream Lodge 49<doc-sep>
Most TV series can be dribbled down to a sentence or less. Women in prison: “Orange Is the New Black.” A vigilante archer fights crime: “Arrow.” Zombies make life hell for everyone: “Will & Grace” — oops, “The Walking Dead.” You get the idea. AMC’s new series “Lodge 49,” from executive producer and actor Paul Giamatti, can’t be distilled in such a way — you can’t even classify it as a drama or a comedy. That kind of ambiguity should work in its favor. It does not. Sean Dudley (Wyatt Russell) — who goes by the just-too-on-the-money nickname Dud — is using a metal detector to find something to pawn for living money on Long Beach, Calif. Dud worked for his dad’s pool cleaning business and was a surfer as well. A snake bite in Nicaragua ended his surfing; his dad’s drowning death (the body was never found) has effectively frozen Dud in a state of poverty, emotional and material. “I guess you could say this year has been kind of a bum ride,” he says. Dud spends his days chilling at a doughnut shop, ruining chess games for the customers and harassing the new owners of his family home. But on the beach that day he uncovers a ring bearing the sigil of the Order of the Lynx — a token given out to members of the nearby Lodge 49. And when his car runs out of gas in front of said establishment, Dud thinks it’s a sign. He must join. As the lodge’s second-in-command, Ernie Fontaine (Brent Jennings) doesn’t think much of the aspiring “postulant” (yes, that is the term the lodge assigns to new members). Ernie is a plumbing supplies salesman closer to retirement age than he’d like to consider and has less than he should to show for it. He’s been seeing a fellow lodge member, Connie (Linda Emond, “Madam Secretary”), who should definitely be off limits. Because of his gambling debt, Ernie impulsively decides to ask the new guy for a $2,000 membership fee, sure he’ll never see Dud again. He doesn’t know Dud. Dud’s twin sister, Liz (Sonya Cassidy, “Humans”), offers a helping hand to Dud as much as she can, but just because she seems to be functioning like an adult only proves how well she is able to mask her own despair. She grieves for her father as much and is furious he left her on the hook for an $80,000 debt. She waitresses at Shamroxx, which might be charitably described as an Irish bar by way of Hooters. Dud’s fascination with the lodge — it rapidly seems like his reason for existing — seems inexplicable. The lodge looks like some sad, decrepit hovel from the ’70s, with the kind of dank interiors — and members to match — to inspire drinking binges that linger for days. Russell, the son of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, brings the kind of magic you might expect to every interaction. You may wonder what the enthusiasm is about. “Lodge 49” is different. That alone isn’t enough reason to book a visit.