Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I'm in Los Angeles so I can make an absolute spectacle of myself at the launch party for Fallout 4, but while here I managed to get invited to an early screening of the pilot for Edge, which is Shane Black and Fred Dekker's violent revenge western show they're hoping to make for Amazon.
Black and Dekker (yuk-yuk-yuk) make a hell of a team and have since their early days. They started out together, penning the script for what would become one of my favorite movies of the '80s: The Monster Squad before Shane went and got crazy successful with his Lethal Weapon script.
They've recently re-teamed to write a Predator reboot that Black is supposed to direct sometime soon and while their particularly awesome mojo was cooking on that they decided to try out a crazy violent western series based on the pulp books of George G. Gilman (aka Terry Harknett).
I love that these guys kinda did this under the radar. It's rare you can be surprised by a project by someone you really admire in this industry. And it's good!
The pilot was around an hour long and honestly felt like a mini-movie more than your average cliff-hanger pilot, thanks in large part to the great photography of brilliant DP Dante Spinotti (LA Confidential, Manhunter, Last of the Mohicans and The Quick and the Dead, to name a few).
We're introduced to the main character, a kind of Daryl Dixon quiet badass type named Josiah Hedges, who is nicknamed Edge by a one-armed small town simpleton and it kinda sticks. The man is a Civil War hero who gives exactly no shits about anyone or anything that doesn't help him get to the men who tortured and killed his younger brother.
Max Martini (Pacific Rim) plays Edge like a pit bull that occasionally spits out James Bondian quips as he fucks up some poor bastard's day. It's a testament to the pilot that Edge doesn't feel invincible considering how intimidating Martini is in the role.
The bad guys are quite theatrical, but super mean. It helps that one of the big threats of this first episode is the crooked sheriff of a small town with a dark history is played by the great William Sadler.
Black and Dekker also aren't afraid to mess up their lead. Edge gets beat to hell and back by the time the pilot ends. And this is just the first one!
My favorite thing about the whole pilot was how they nailed a darkly humorous tone. The gore is ridiculously over the top. In this very first episode you get impalements, hangings, dozens of bloody exit wounds, dynamite-related deaths and a great nonchalant gushing neck slash.
Ryan Kwanten is being set up as the series' main villain and it's hard to get a grasp on how he'll settle in on the character. In the pilot he plays Harknett as a super slimy piece of shit that enjoys causing pain just a little too much. I dig that they're not trying to ground him in much reality. Instead of coming across as one-dimensional he comes off as crazy and unpredictable.
Black really gets to have fun in the second half of the episode, staging a massive shoot out that is shot with so much energy it ended up feeling like The Wild Bunch mixed with The Raid. This thing is just flat out fun and I hope we get to see it go to series.
And you can have a voice in that decision. I was told at the screening that Amazon is going to be putting up Edge as well as their other pilots for vote from viewers like you this Friday. That means you can watch them all and vote for what you like. The more popular shows will be taken to series.
Click here to visit the page where they'll list the shows!
Bookmark that shit and you can watch this crazy piece of pulp insanity for yourself and actually get a chance to influence whether or not it'll go to series.
Alright, gotta catch some sleep so I can be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for tomorrow's Fallout 4 launch event. I'm ridiculously excited to get a chance to nerd out on all the Bethesda folks there. If I get a chance to play some of the game I'll make sure to write up a little something with my impressions!
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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