Mad Dogs

Judging a show off of just seeing the pilot is usually tough (some quality series have started out with a mediocre pilot emerging into an awesome show...)

However-Mad Dogs nailed it!!

Intriguing plot kept my attention throughout the entire episode, while trying to figure out what might be coming next/what direction they might go with the series.

Fantastic cast!!! Owning their roles in the first episode.

When can we expect the full first season to be released?!

Leaving us hanging, Amazon!

Must see more - STAT!! :)

<> This Pilot show is excellent. The acting is top notch and the tension built to an incredible crescendo, all whilst set in a stunning location. I have to admit the show was slow to get going, but that is something that is missing from T.V and film these days. Rather than jumping straight in to mindless action, the script writers, directors/producers took the time to introduce the characters, allowing you to connect with them and ultimately care about their situation. It's a risky roll of the dice, for a pilot episode, and the production team deserve to be commended for that. I hope this show gets picked up!

I was not expecting the end sequence of events at all, what the heck was with the head mask? Who is the lady introduced at the end? These questions need answering! I don't think I have been so gripped by a pilot episode since the first episode of Breaking Bad or Dexter, and look how great those shows turned out! :)

The only thing I knew about this show was that it starred Romany Malco and Billy Zane and it was about some guys in Belize.

After seeing the pilot...I was blown away. The quality of the show is excellent! Drama, Comedy, Sex, Mystery, Intrigue and more!

• It is well filmed - The sound is great - The actors on spot on! Nothing seems fake, it all seems very real.

The story is easy to follow yet mysterious and intriguing. You want to know more and more as it progresses.

This pilot gives you that feeling you had when you first watched a show and were instantly hooked after one episode. We all have shows like that, this is one of them.

WATCH THE PILOT and I guarantee you that your jaw will drop and you will say, WHAT just happened?!?

I reviewed the US version of Mad Dogs after seeing the first, pilot episode, and what I wrote then still more or less stands and this is it. But I have added a few more comments at the end after watching another six to qualify that.

I'm rather baffled why the U.S. has a compulsion to remake films and, as here, series and doesn't just present its audiences with the original. The remakes are often quite good, but why remake them? But anyhow...

I've seen all three seasons of the original Brit version of Mad Dogs and I can't recommend it highly enough for often very funny sly humour, suspense, intrigue and sheer entertainment. And I'm happy to report that this remake is almost as good - at least in the first few episodes - most probably because the Brit creator, Cris Cole, is again at the helm. That is a relief after seeing so many films (from all around the world) which eventually let you down. As I say the humour, very British humour I have to say, does travel well, and might have you laughing out loud on occasion, but it is far more than just a black comedy. The first episode starts off slowly and quietly, then 42 minutes in . . . I can recommend this. The casting is excellent, the dialogue natural and the story quite bizarre. Don't hesitate, please, treat yourselves.

POSTSCRIPT: For the US market, the producers have tinkered a little - well, tinkered quite a lot - syncopating the original plots and expanding the story, introducing new characters and, it has to be said, in the process they created something of a different animal. Whereas in the original British version the humour - very black and often unobtrusive - was a continual thread throughout (until the two- episode finale which was something of a letdown) and formed the series backbone, for the US the humour is more or less abandoned as a central trope and the series becomes more of an action piece. There's nothing wrong with that, but it does lose a little of its edge as a result. But then it is intended for a different market and culture.

Another difference is that despite the utterly bizarre plot twists and very silly situations the four characters find themselves in, in the original version it all somehow holds together well - it's as though they are caught in a one-way system and there's no turning back. Conversely the new version increasingly doesn't quite hold together: there are several points where the four could all have disentangled themselves quite well by a word here and there, and that they didn't has more to do with making a TV series than anything else.

The twists don't grow out of the situations the four find themselves in - and their very stupid decisions - but from the necessity to keep the story going and interesting. That's rather a shame, as it loses something rather neat. It also becomes as it goes on, plotwise, something of a mess - folk get around Belize with an ease and at a speed which is only possible on TV. But such quibbles won't, I'm sure, disturb your average US viewer. The Brit version, though didn't take the easy way out and just kept it all going, following its own logic, which was some achievement. The final episodes here see everything tied up a little too neatly which is a shame and out of keeping with the original wackiness. Sad to say the US version doesn't quite convince

However, despite those drawbacks your average viewer should enjoy this, but I must stress that for a real treat and a rather tighter piece of work you should seek out the British version which doesn't quite cut corners so easily.

I expected the show to be side cracking funny but what I saw was 5 super talented actors who were still funny at times but were able to keep it interesting in this dark comedy. I love all the actors and wish them success when this series is picked up!! It was both funny and serious at times. I felt like all the actors that had done comedy was able to switch into different characters for this show. The setting for the show was perfect, the plot making us think they were just going to have a lot of fun and then Billy Zane flipped the script was awesome and I never expected it to turn out the way it did. This was a great start to a even greater series!!!