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The backlash to the backlash to one of Amazon's comedy pilots is proving how letting fans on the Internet choose what they want to watch can backfire for the creative minds behind projects.
Amazon put all their pilots online allowing people to watch and review them and factoring in data from that in their decision-making process. So when Zombieland's Rhett Reese got the bad news that the episodic adaptation of his 2009 movie would not be moving forward. He went on Twitter and lashed out at the little people:
I'll never understand the vehement hate the pilot received from die-hard Zombieland fans.You guys successfully hated it out of existence.
— Rhett Reese (@RhettReese) May 17, 2013
Now Zombieland wasn't the lowest rated show among those meant for adults, but it was close to it, with the Huffington Post-parody musical Browsers coming in last. Zombieland scored three and a half stars out of five. Browsers got three. Critical comments about the show often focused on how the made-for-Amazon version wasn't as good as the movie starring Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson. For instance:
And:
We don't doubt that this must have seemed harsh for Reese, who is responsible for co-writing both versions of Zombieland. But his cruel accusation toward "fans" is a nasty little glimpse into what Amazon's experiment hath wrought, and says something broader about how the television model is changing.