As you may have noticed, Netflix and Amazon have pretty much revolutionised concepts of quality and Internet TV over the past two or three years. No longer do you hear the words “Internet” and “TV” together and think “made by two teenagers with a camcorder and iMovie”. Now, we have the likes of Netflix’s House of Cards being put together for $5-6m an episode and receiving no fewer than 13 Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
It’s no wonder other companies have been trying to get in on the act, too, some more successfully than others. Sony’s Playstation network is an example of how not to make good TV, with its first effort, Powers, being a notable false start.
Yahoo! – or to be more accurate Yahoo! Screen – has been ploughing a slightly more sturdy course than Sony over the past couple of months. Its first move into proper “broadcast-worthy” programming was to save the always-wonderful Community from execution at the hands of NBC, giving us a sixth season and who knows, maybe a movie, too.
Now we have another comedy, the eight-episode long Sin City Saints, about a Las Vegas basketball franchise owned by an arrogant tech billionaire (Andrew Santino) that runs into trouble when its star player is run over by a golf cart. That means basketball league executive Malin Åkerman (Trophy Wife) has to come in to give the team some help – as well as come to terms with the excesses of Las Vegas.
On the plus side, the show looks good and “broadcast-worthy”, and also features a host of cameos familiar to those of us who frequent Vegas (Penn and Teller, Carrot Top). Plus Åkerman’s always fun to watch.
On the minus side, it’s all about basketball.
On the double double minus side, despite this being Internet TV n’all, in common with Community – which airs in the UK on the Sony Entertainment Channel and isn’t available on Yahoo! Screen here – Sin City Saints is a US-only affair and while you can watch the trailer below in the UK, the episodes will be a bit trickier for you to take a gander at. Oh well – maybe it’ll end up on TV over here, too, some day.
