It feels good to experience a great new TV show from the pilot onward. The same way it might mean more to invest in a company before the whole world knows about it, well, that’s roughly the way I feel when I watch a show like Breaking Bad or Arrested Development from the pilot episodeĀ the night it airsĀ instead of a year after it’s been cancelled or ended.
And now you can feel that same sensation by watching FX’s terrific new drama, “Tyrant.” It’s set in a fictional but highly realistic Middle Eastern dictatorship where the second-born son of the “President” has been living in America for 15 years, but agrees to return “home” for his cousin’s wedding. His older brother is a psychopath (think Udai Hussein) being groomed to succeed their aging father, but something tells me it’s the more layered younger brother who’ll be the Michael Corleone of this show.
Watching a Godfather-meets-Middle Eastern narrative where a seemingly mild-mannered doctor takes over the “family business” is a fantastic idea for a show, nearly as good as Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan’s pitch of watching a teacher turn into Scarface. [It may also be fairly realistic, as certain shades of this dynamic seem like Syria’s Assad.]
This show deserves your attention. Don’t wait until everyone else knows it. Grade for pilot: A
So far, so good on this show. You are right on the money.