Pilot Review: Sea Oak

Sea Oak (Amazon)
Premiered November 10

Why is this possibly what Glenn Close wants to be doing with her career right now? This is an actress who has been nominated for six Oscars and won three Emmys, and I can’t imagine what possessed her to think this was a good idea. There are more than enough shows about zombies, including something like “iZombie” which deals with its dead as passable members of society, and the need for this one just puzzles me completely. I thought to myself midway through this pilot that this show was killing off Close, which made no sense since that was just about the only thing it had going for it, but then it went and brought her back from the dead. Since I barely have anything positive to say about this show, I should note that Jane Levy from “Suburgatory” is terrific as one of Bernie’s nieces, though I worry that she’s much, much better than this role and certainly than this show. The stupidity that both great-nieces express when testing each other with trivia questions and just having everyday conversation is similar to the stupidity of this show in general, one that doesn’t have much going for it yet still, inexplicably, attracted Close as its marquee star for a role that might be fun for her but is surely not going to be the high point of her career. I’d sooner suffer through numerous repetitive, cyclical hours of the first season of “Damages” again before subjecting myself to any more of this.

How would it work as a series? What we have here is three remarkably unaccomplished young adults who are now going to be pushed to actually do things by their tyrannical new zombie great aunt. There’s comedy to be found there somewhere, though I’m not sure it will be very funny, and also a huge range of possibilities for what her new state means and enables her to do. I’m not at all optimistic based on this pilot.
Will it make it to series? Of Amazon’s three new offerings, I’d say this is the likeliest to get picked up if only for the involvement of Close. I’m not sure it merits it, but her affiliation means that it has a draw for a certain audience. I’m not holding my breath, but I think this one may be picked up.

Pilot grade: F