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Amazon Prime’s new animated series has a zany, anything-could-happen sensibility. Which makes it a little disappointing that what usually does happen is a bleeding-edge cultural reference. To be clear, “Fairfax,” about a group of middle-school hypebeasts (which is to say, streetwear obsessives) coming of age in image-obsessed Los Angeles, is often very funny in how far it’s willing to push its media-saturated sensibility.
Skyler Gisondo voices Dale, a new student at an Instagram-crazed school, one whose principal holds pep rallies to celebrate pupils getting IG-verified. His new friend group, made up of characters played by Kiersey Clemons, Peter S. Kim, and Jaboukie Young-White, quickly inculcate him into their grail-seeking universe, in which looking cool — particularly for one’s online audience — is all. There’s plenty to mock here, and the show can go in for the kill — generally when depicting grasping and desperate adults, from that school administrator to Dale’s parents, kindly but cluelessly trying to be a part of his new world.
The school has, for instance, a red carpet step-and-repeat for characters to show off their looks. Yes, this is approached with some ironic distance, but the show is at its most playful and insouciant when setting up scenarios that frankly seem depressingly similar to the way image defines life for people young and old today. “Fairfax” is all about the struggle to be cool.
After several episodes, the pursuit of impressing others came to feel insufficient as a guiding principle. Because the characters’ relationships are minimally developed — Dale’s effectively plopped into a pre-existing friend group and immediately adopts their interests — the quest for status is the guiding light, and the bond that unites.
What Is The Name Of The New Series From Amazon Prime Video?
Fairfax, the new original series from Amazon Prime Video, is an animated comedy starring Skyler Gisondo, Kiersey Clemons, Peter S. Kim and Jaboukie Young-White as four middle school best friends on a passionate quest for clout on Los Angeles’ famous Fairfax Avenue, a block known for its winding lines of young streetwear aficionados waiting to buy the newest sneaker release. THR spoke to Hausfater, Buchsbaum, and Riley about the Los Angeles that raised them and inspired the site-specific series. Matthew Hausfater, Aaron Buchsbaum and Teddy Riley Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Amazon Studios) What role has Fairfax Avenue played in broader Los Angeles culture?
Why does Amazon Prime feel like a good home for the show and your audience? Whether you’re 13 or 35 or older, you’ll find something to connect with, whether it’s a joke, or an emotion, or a storyline. We wanted to find that balance between making a really specific show that felt contemporary, while also telling stories that you could connect with whether you’re from Fairfax or not.
MH: I don’t know if it is for these two guys, but it is a dream come true for me to work with them. TR: We wanted to cast people that felt new and different for an animated show, people that weren’t your regular usual suspects of voiceover actors. It was all about actors that could bring authenticity and a voice and a personality to these characters, and everybody else was a combination of people that we’ve long admired or people we thought could bring just a hilarious voice to the show.
AB: Somehoodlum is an incredible artist that we had been a fan of just through the internet; we really connected with their color palette and felt like it spoke to Los Angeles, and their visual style was just something that felt really unique and felt different from the other animated shows that we were familiar with. The process working with them was incredible. They’re incredibly collaborative and a dream to work with and just have such an understanding of the world of Fairfax.
So tonally it really spoke to the voice of the show as well. I just think Animal was one of the best restaurants in Los Angeles. I love eating there.
What Is The Fairfax District Known For?
During the two decades I’ve lived in Los Angeles, the Fairfax District has undergone a transformation from being known primarily as the center of the city’s Jewish culture to being a lively, diverse and chaotic hub for retail pop-ups and so-called hypebeast capitalism. It’s easy to be perplexed by and a little derisive of the area’s ubiquitous lines that sometimes wrap around multiple blocks and appear to lead into empty or abandoned storefronts. The culture is ephemeral, one week’s hottest brand becoming the next week’s historical relic, leaving these connoisseurs of clout ever chasing the next consumer high.
It’s visually energetic, humorously frantic and populated by an exceptional voice cast. It’s much more invested in endless name-dropping than in being consistently substantive, but it does a good job of simultaneously respecting and mocking the world it’s depicting. Our point-of-entry character is middle schooler Dale (Skyler Gisondo), who moves with his parents (Rob Delaney and Yvette Nicole Brown) to Los Angeles so that they can take over his uncle’s vape store, or something comparably flimsy that’s mentioned in the pilot and then is never again relevant.
Making new friends and being indoctrinated into their gang sets Dale on an eight-episode adventure that includes Chernobyl-themed music festivals, corporately sponsored Instagram verification parties and a multi-episode homage to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It’s easy to be exhausted and occasionally annoyed by the way Fairfax layers on the jargon and feels the need to explain the jargon to the uninitiated, who won’t have much interest in the show anyway. The series gets away with this in large part because of the decision by creators Matthew Hausfater, Aaron Buchsbaum and Teddy Riley to focus on a group of young protagonists fueled by insatiable enthusiasm more than anything else.
This may be why some of Amazon’s publicity for the show — built on the service’s own clout-chasing and boasting about participation from brand Pizzaslime and characters designed by artist Somehoodlum — are obnoxious in press release form but reasonably charming onscreen. The Titmouse animation cutely captures the general Fairfax geography, even if this is a fictionalized version of the neighborhood, one where you’ll want to pause to take in all the jokey business signs, many of which — “Oy Vape,” “Big & Tallis” — nod to the area’s Jewish roots. Certain episodes, like the music festival half-hour, over-rely on disposable reference humor, while better installments lean more into character-driven comedy, among them several storylines involving Benny and his family that are written and performed in Korean.
I wish Fairfax had steered into that character-based focus a bit more in early episodes, but by the end of the season I saw real potential there. The voice cast, full of precision-comedy-delivering talents, is capable of providing punchlines or heart as required. The community service episode, set at a retirement home, features the likes of Henry Winkler, Elliott Gould and Garrett Morris, while Shania Twain and David Strathairn are among the standout voices in the festival episode.
What Is The Name Of The Half-Hour Adult Animated Comedy?
Amazon has given a two-season, 16-episode order to half-hour adult animated comedy Fairfax, from Matt Hausfater (Undateable), Aaron Buchsbaum and Teddy Riley, Serious Business, Titmouse and Amazon Studios. The series is slated to premiere on Amazon Prime Video in 2021 in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. Created and executive produced by Hausfater, Buchsbaum and Riley, Fairfax follows four middle school best friends on their never-ending quest for clout on Fairfax Avenue – LA’s pulsing heart of hypebeast culture.
“It’s a modern look at the timeless struggle to be cooler than you are, to fit in while standing out, and what it feels like to wait in line for a pair of sneakers you’re never going to cop. We’re incredibly excited to be working with Serious Business, Somehoodlum, Pizzaslime, Titmouse, and Amazon Studios. We couldn’t have asked for a better team.”
Hausfater, Buchsbaum and Riley executive produce with Peter A. Knight (Bojack Horseman); Jon Zimelis and Jason U. Nadler for Serious Business (@midnight); and Chris Prynoski (Big Mouth), Shannon Prynoski (Niko and the Sword of Light) and Ben Kalina (Tigtone) for Titmouse. Characters were designed by Somehoodlum, who also serves as consulting producer. Pizzaslime is also a consulting producer.
Hausfater also has a workplace comedy set at Fox with co-writer Nicole Delaney, and executive producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and Sony TV. Somehoodlum directed the Area 51 remix video for Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” and designed the cover of 21 Savage’s album “Issa Album.” Collaborations include Getter, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Dicky, Oliver Tree, Lance Skiiiwalker and Schoolboy Q, and Migos, among others.
What Is The Name Of The Email That Amc Sent To You When You Purchased Your Ticket?
The image is an example of a ticket confirmation email that AMC sent you when you purchased your ticket. Your Ticket Confirmation # is located under the header in your email that reads Your Ticket Reservation Details. Just below that it reads Ticket Confirmation#: followed by a 10-digit number.
Your AMC Ticket Confirmation# can be found in your order confirmation email.
What Is The Hypebeast Brand On Everyone’S Feeds In Amazon’S New Animated Series, Fairfax?
In Amazon’s new animated series, Fairfax, the hypebeast brand on everybody’s feeds is LATRINE. Customers line up and down the block of L.A.’s trendy Fairfax Avenue to cop the latest products like the Dr. Phil box T-shirt (sold out immediately) or the LATRINE pencil sharpener (reselling for $900, thanks to a shout-out on Timothée Chalamet’s Instagram). At the heart of the series are four seventh-graders who watch for every LATRINE drop, convinced they have the formula down: Merch equals clout, and clout equals followers, and followers make you into influencers.
The crew teaches him that you exist as your brand: Truman (Jaboukie Young-White) is an aspiring filmmaker who posts movie clips at @TruStories69. Benny (Peter S. Kim) poses as a “gangster shoe salesman” at @1YUNGHYUNGH. But somehow, it only scratches the surface of the internet culture that makes up its whole premise.
In order to get into an influencer’s birthday party, he has to gain 100 followers. The episode has its moments, including every time Dale’s pupils dilate with dopamine hits as his follower count rises. In Fairfax, Instagram is the only social media with any real sway.
Teens existing as digestible brands dripping in streetwear could delve into all sorts of fascinating avenues about identity, capitalism, and the effects of growing up so logged on. The show never really goes there, though. Their outfit details shine with small details, from Benny’s red sneakers to Derica’s cursive LATRINE necklace.
The show also shoehorns in lots of references to real-life celebrities, but the funniest jokes come when it creates new ones. The hottest rapper at Fairfax Middle School is Yung Polluter, who spins rhymes like “Throw a cheeseburger out the coupe, we pollutin’.” (Honestly, it’s a bop.)
Amazon ordered two eight-episode seasons out of the gate, so maybe future episodes will go deeper into what could be a fascinating and funny look at what it actually means to exist online.
What Is The Name Of The Show That Is Currently Streaming On Amazon?
Currently streaming on Amazon, it’s a goofy, absurdist show in the artistic style of BoJack Horseman, and follows four social media-obsessed 12-year-olds in Los Angeles: high minded activist Derica (Kiersey Clemons), sneakerhead Benny (Peter S. Kim), wannabe filmmaker Truman (Jaboukie Young-White), and Dale (Skyler Gisondo), a transplant from Oregon whose Patagonia fleeces and fanny packs make him an accidental streetwear icon. Sign up for The Goods newsletter Each week we’ll send you the very best from The Goods, plus a special internet culture edition by Rebecca Jennings on Tuesdays. Fairfax is obviously not supposed to be a realistic portrayal of the world — at one point the four middle schoolers escape from an evil lair underneath a parody of the Supreme store (called Latrine) using a fidget spinner.
That’s because crafting a good narrative about the way the internet works is really, really hard. Later, she attends an exclusive party, where her performance of “Teenage Dream” again goes viral, this time for the right reasons (she’s being herself!) and immediately gains hundreds of followers. While the musical version manages to achieve this relatively believably, to the extent that theatre audiences must already suspend their beliefs to watch a live play in myriad other ways, the film does not.
I could think of only a single example of a piece of media that showed a realistic portrayal of what “going viral” is really like. When the in-series true crime documentary goes viral in episode five, the scale of virality is relatively small: the video gets hundreds of thousands of views, and the local prank group that was featured in the video sees their YouTube subscribers go from 250 to 700. It’s a far more realistic sense of scale, and the end result of going viral is what happens most of the time, which is to say, practically nothing.
“With American Vandal, our going ‘viral’ was the kids getting their short documentary to get a ‘staff pick’ on Vimeo, get like, 100K views, and climb to the number-four video on Reddit. I think audiences generally value realism more anyway. I asked him how film and TV could portray the “going viral” moment in a realistic way, and, he confirmed, it’s hard.
It shifts every time something new goes viral.” He said that on Fairfax, the focus wasn’t necessarily on the inner workings of the internet but how it made the characters feel. “I think what the show does a great job of is everything feeling so important but also being kind of inconsequential at the same time,” he explained.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot: How do you make a show, a book, or a film about online not feel stale by the time it comes out? Sign up here so you don’t miss the next one, plus get newsletter exclusives.