The Columbus Dispatch

3 Amazon pilots might be the last of a (dying) breed

- By Mike Hale

on-screen, at least in this initial half-hour.

‘ The Climb’

The most jumbled yet most distinctiv­e of the pilots is this piece about an office drone who dreams of being a social-media star.

“The Climb,” set and filmed in Detroit, is like a more-profane but also more buttoned-up — and no less cerebral — companion to the Issa Rae HBO comedy “Insecure.”

Nia, played by show creator Diarra Kilpatrick, appreciate­s the “genius” of a rival influencer — that she has “figured out how to be Barbie, how to be sexy for a living” — but what Nia really wants is to be fulfilled.

When she’s told that that’s a white-girl problem, she replies, “Isn’t that why Martin Luther King died — so that I could someday have white-girl problems?”

‘Love You More’

It’s easy to see how this collaborat­ion of comedian and cabaret star Bridget Everett and showrunner Michael Patrick King (“Sex and the City”’) could translate into a fairly convention­al series, even though some of its elements push boundaries.

Much of the half-hour — during which Everett’s character, Karen, works with the young residents of a home for people with Down syndrome — is standard sitcom stuff (even with an A plot that involves a teenager with a propensity for touching Karen’s breasts).

The show serves as the biggest showcase so far for Everett’s knowing, tough but vulnerable persona, and it gives her occasions to sing, including a production number about buying a bra.

In a supporting role as Karen’s guileless older roommate, Loni Anderson manages to steal attention from Everett.

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