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Amazon released the pilot episodes of their potential new series this week, including Edge, a post-Civil War Western co-starring Yvonne Strahovski.
Missouri, 1865. Josiah Hedges aka “Edge” returns home from the Civil War to discover his closest comrades-in-arms have betrayed him, sparking a bloody reign of vengeance. A mysterious beauty crosses Edge’s path, and together they will uncover a dark conspiracy that extends to the highest ranks of American power. From Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Iron Man 3).
Edge isn’t a subtle show- it’s dusty, dirty, violent, and, yes, cheesy. I think Yvonne’s acting might be the most refined of the bunch as the men and the other prominent woman all chew the scenery with glee.Yvonne is the “mysterious beauty” mentioned in the synopsis above, and she has some interesting character revelations throughout the pilot, despite not having a lot of screentime. If the pilot is picked up to series, I suspect her character will have a lot more to do than we see here. We also get to hear Yvonne’s take on a Western drawl, which sounds pretty authentic to my born-and-raised-in-Kansas ears.
I’ll refrain from going into too much detail about the plot as there are several twists and turns, but I must call out the producers for setting the show in Kansas and then havingmountains in the background of several shots. I’ve lived in Kansas my entire life, and nowhere are there mountains. Even my beloved Flint Hills couldn’t be mistaken for mountains. Get it together, people.
Amazon’s Fall 2015 “Pilot Season” is viewablein the US, UK, and Germany. The way it works is that those with Prime memberships can stream the new pilots for free, and the ones that wind up getting the best audience feedback have a chance of getting a first season pick up for additional episodes. You can check out the current Pilot Season episodes, including Edge, here.
Watched it nd it was quite hard to get though the violence was too much in my opinion I managed to watch the whole episode (only because Yvonne was in it) and could just about watch more if it got picked up as a series but it really need more Yvonne in it.
Yvonne as normal was really good and really made the use of what screen time she had but she is capable of so much more, if they expand her role. the actor who plays Edge was ok but the character has nothing to offer and is fairly unlikeable, I would be far more interested if it concentrated on her character rather than Edge.
I did try to warn people about the violence. It’s not to my taste, either. While Yvonne doesn’t have a lot of screentime in the pilot, the narrative does seem to be setting her up for a significant role if the show is picked up. The big reveal about her character toward the end opens a lot of narrative doors.