Betas
| Television series | |
|---|---|
| German title | Betas |
| Original title | Betas |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Year (s) | 2013-2014 |
| Production company |
Amazon Studios |
| length | approx. 25 minutes |
| Episodes | 11 in 1 season ( list ) |
| genre | Comedy |
| Theme music | Telekinesis Power Lines |
| idea | Evan Endicott , Josh Stoddard |
| production | Michael Lehmann |
| music | Jennifer Pyken |
| First broadcast | April 19, 2013 (USA) on Amazon Instant Video |
| German-language first broadcast |
April 8, 2014 on Amazon Instant Video |
| occupation | |
Beta is an American comedy - television series . It is about four geeks from Silicon Valley , who are looking for an investor for their mobile dating - App BRB are with which they hope to gain a breakthrough in the art scene. It was produced by Amazon Studios and premiered on April 19, 2013 on Amazon Instant Video . In Germany, the series was first published on April 8, 2014, also via Amazon Instant Video. The series consists of a season with eleven episodes.
Betas is independent of the Syfy Alphas series . Instead, the title alludes to a development stage of software that is in the beta version . That said, it's just a preliminary version that tests (also known as beta tests ) can be run on before they go on sale.
production
According to co-producer Evan Endicotts, the production team took several trips to the San Francisco Bay Area as part of the production preparations to look at several startups and accelerators, institutions that are supposed to help startups to develop rapidly in a short period of time through advice. They also phoned venture companies , business angels and technology CEOs to get an insight into the business. In doing so, they came to realize that the actual circumstances matched their expectations.
Due to positive audience feedback on the pilot episode, which premiered on April 19, 2013 and became a hit in the USA, the series was produced entirely in one season.
Betas was written by Evan Endicott and Josh Stoddard and produced under the direction of Michael Lehmann with Executive Producers Alan Freedland and Alan Cohen, who have already won Emmy Awards. Oscar nominee Michael London also took part in the production of the series.
In March 2014, Amazon announced that it would not add a second season to the series.
Cast and dubbing
The German dubbing was created under the dialogue direction by Wanja Gerick and based on a dialogue book by Andreas Pollak by the dubbing company SDI Media Germany in Berlin . The pilot appeared under the dialogue direction of Dennis Schmidt-Foss, who also wrote the dialogue book for this episode.
Main cast
| Role name | actor | Main role (episodes) |
Voice actor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trey | Joe Dinicol | 1.01-1.11 | Julius Jellinek |
| Nash | Karan Soni | 1.01-1.11 | Dirk Petrick |
| Hobbes | Jon Daly | 1.01-1.11 | Dennis Schmidt-Foss |
| Mitchell | Charlie Saxton | 1.01-1.11 | Christian Pointer |
| Mikki | Maya Erskine | 1.01-1.06, 1.08-1.11 | Judith Hoersch |
Supporting cast
| Role name | actor | Supporting role (episodes) |
Voice actor |
|---|---|---|---|
| George "Murch" Murchison | Ed Begley Jr. | 1.04, 1.07-1.09 | Roman Kretschmer |
| Jordan | Madeline Zima | 1.02, 1.05, 1.06, 1.08, 1.10-1.11 | Maria Koschny |
| Dane | Tyson Knight | 1.01, 1.03, 1.06, 1.09, 1.11 | Tommy Morgenstern |
| Victoria | Breeda Wool | 1.04, 1.08, 1.09-1.11 | Melanie Hinze |
| Trevor | Mark L. Young | 1.04–1.06, 1.10–1.11 | Sebastian Fitzner |
Episode list
| No. | German title | Original title | First broadcast in the USA | German language first broadcast (D) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | - | Sailing (pilot) | April 19, 2013 | Apr 8, 2014 |
| In Silicon Valley , flooded by technology startups , the four geeks Trey, Nash, Hobbes and Mitchell are trying to achieve their dream of a big breakthrough with their location-based mobile dating app BRB . Nash, who is responsible for the demonstration of the program, wants to dissuade the over-motivated team leader Trey from his plan to arrange a meeting with the technology investor George Murchison, because the program is not yet stable enough and has destroyed his cell phone. Meanwhile, Hobbes helps Mitchell make his first approaches to Mikki, whom Mitchell has taken a liking to.
Trey manages to persuade Nash to the meeting and drives him to the Murchison estate, where a private party - not a meeting - takes place, to which neither of the two is officially invited. Nevertheless, Trey manages to win Murchison, who refuses at first, for an idea of the application. Since Trey Murchison reveals that he has hacked his Facebook and Foursquare account in order to obtain information relevant to the dating app, which is used to compare properties with possible partners, he asks the two of them to leave the property immediately , even if he is not averse to the proposed partner. At the end of the episode, Murchison reports by SMS with a selfie with the same and praises the developers for the good algorithm . |
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| 2 | - | Kid Charlemagne | Nov 22, 2013 | Apr 8, 2014 |
| The team of four geeks has qualified for a startup competition, Murchison's “Accelerator” competition, sponsored by the fictional tech giant Velocity . Each team has three months to get a beta version of their program . In order to generate attention for the application, Trey approaches blogger Jordan Alexis, who is known in the Valley , who is talking to Lisa at the competition. Despite Lisa's advice that he shouldn't seek media coverage before the application enters a beta and can be operated, Trey agrees to meet the blogger via Twitter , as the team realizes that the competition is not sleeping in the competition. Both Trey and Alexis use cannabis during this meeting , which is why Trey tells all sorts of explosive stories, such as how his team got the opportunity to take part in the competition.
Alexis, for whom such information is a hit, uses it to publish an article on her blog Valley Smash entitled "The Fallen Angel George Murchison's Newest Would-be Entrepreneur", in which she presents this information to the general public. In the course of this, Murchison Trey issued a press ban before the release of a beta version. Following a successful Reddit video of Mitchell filming a homeless man urinating on Nash's sofa dressed as an Indian, Trey tries to use this as a medium for an unconventional introduction video for his team. This video turns out to be a complete success and makes the rounds in the Valley, which helps Trey and his team to gain local recognition. At the end of the episode, Murchison is satisfied with the popularity of the clip - despite the press ban. |
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| 3 | - | Waiting for a girl like you | Nov 22, 2013 | Apr 8, 2014 |
| At the beginning of the episode, Dane is sent to prison for drug possession , from which he is released after three hours and - later in the episode - is picked up by Mitchell, Mikki and Hobbes. Under these circumstances, Dane and Hobbes become friends.
Meanwhile, Nash gets a visit from his parents, who have high expectations of their son's professional career and who have acted as first-time investors for BRB . Trey tries to capitalize on the visit by trying to get the parents to invest more money because BRB needs more server capacity. Also provides Trey Mikki which operates from now on as a market researcher and marketing employees, as an integral part of the teams, as Trey to the video that the team 42,000 beta registrations would have introduced, build to BRB as a fixture in the Valley to consolidate . Nash's parents do not comply with this request because the reason for the visit is different: They are dissatisfied with their son's work and want children, which is why they arranged a meeting with the daughter of another Indian family named Divya. Since Nash defends himself at the beginning, Trey wants to help Nash lose his uncertainty by proposing a double date with Lisa. The consumption of alcohol, as well as the consumption of coke by Divya and Lisa, help the four to have a lot of fun during their time together. However, Nash and Divya do not find each other. Outraged by a Facebook picture of her ex-boyfriend, from whom Lisa broke up some time ago, she begins to kiss Trey, who replies. In the picture Rob was posing with another woman. |
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| 4th | - | One on one | Nov 29, 2013 | Apr 8, 2014 |
| Nash and Mitchell watch an AWE wrestling match that Murchison is interested in taking over and marketing it nationwide. Mitchell sees this as an outrage and rebukes an AWE member for being a traitor. Meanwhile, Trey wakes up in Lisa's bed where they had intercourse last night. Hobbes informs Trey via SMS that the launch of the Murchison app has been brought forward by four weeks, as Murchison wants to capitalize on the current popularity of the app. Lisa, however, doubts that BRB will be released prematurely and asks Trey to first fix the app, which is currently still suffering from glitches and still destroys cell phones when starting up. This turns out to be a problem, however, since the team currently only has defective hardware available. Lisa tries to advise Murch against withdrawing the move forward. Murch does not heed their advice, however.
Meanwhile, Trey meets with a new investor, CEO David Chu, who gained notoriety in Valley for his smartphone application, which was also an investment by Murchs, which is supposed to finance the hardware. This refuses, however, which is why Trey, on the advice of Mikkis, who Trey previously hired as a permanent member of the team, buys hardware on the black market in exchange for his car. Meanwhile, Murch meets with Mitchell and his friends to learn more about the wrestling league in which he will invest in the future. After this meeting, Mitchell admits that he must have misjudged Murch and is satisfied with the takeover. Lisa tells Trey that she would like to take up a job offer from Green Mob in Seattle and again advises Trey not to publish it. At a meeting with Murch, Trey is convinced of this. BRB is released at the end of the episode . |
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| 5 | - | Takin 'It to the Streets | Dec 6, 2013 | Apr 8, 2014 |
| At the beginning of the episode, Trey is blackmailed by blogger Alexis Jordan with the help of mismatches that have occurred in the dating app BRBs . Trey should give her a better story to publish in ten hours, or she'd go back to the application.
Nash finds the error underlying the problems in the application's source code and informs the team that the backups have also been copied, i.e. the BRB needs a patch . During this meeting, Mitchell behaved strangely, stating that he couldn't concentrate because he didn't have any of his Aderell pills in stock and that he couldn't buy them for the next two weeks. Hobbes meanwhile thinks he realizes that, due to the hacking technique used , it must be his former friend, the hacktivist John Carlo, with whom he is now at war. You decide to go see him to save time troubleshooting. However, this denies the charge. Nash starts patching and locates the hacker in an internet café, so Trey and Hobbes make their way there. A waitress says she served Hobbes' ex-wife Brenda recently. The critical situation around BRB came to a head when several posts were posted under the hashtag #BRBWarnung in which the mismatches were discussed. Meanwhile, Trey and Hobbes go to Brenda's new apartment, but are taken by surprise by this and her new friend John Carlo and are expelled from the house. Meanwhile, Mikki and Mitchell get the pills they need from a friend. Then she drives with Mitchell to a park, where he confesses to her that he accidentally hacked BRB when he tried to force a match with a girl he wanted. In doing so, he only changed one line of code, which caused great damage, which is why he tried to cover his tracks, which led to everything getting out of control. At Mikki's request, he informs Nash, who states that he had known this for a long time. The code is now patched and he will not reveal Mitchell to Trey. Trey's conflict with Alexis resolves when Hobbes, who spends time with Trey in a bar, is harassed by a man in a bar. When the latter repeats his behavior, Hobbes turns and strikes. However, he meets a girl who happens to pass by. The episode ends with a cell phone photo showing Hobbes at that very moment. |
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| 6th | - | Lowdown | Dec 13, 2013 | Apr 8, 2014 |
| The beginning of the episode shows the hype that the picture of Hobbes triggered on the Internet. From now on, the picture is used as a meme on the Internet and Hobbes is known as the “ crazy misogynist guy ”. Jordan also reveals that BRB has too few female users. Nash sees this as confirmed and suspects that many women have opted out of the popularity of Hobbes, through which the app is associated with a misogynist worldview, which is why Trey Hobbes is suspended from work for the time being and a link to Demsell , an app that serves his purpose To evaluate and expose ex-friends aims to reach the female audience and to prevent BRB from becoming one of the often frowned upon "Rummachapps". Hobbes, who disapproves of the condemnation as misogynist and the ruble for his person, will from now on live in Mitchell's flat share.
After Trey Jordan reports on his plan, she agrees and promises him to meet him at a gala. The managing director of Demsell is not interested, however, as such a link already existed and it was not well received. After Trey rejects Jordan after trying to seduce her, she leaves the gala furious and sleeps with her secretary, whom she otherwise despises, to reduce her anger. Trey and Mikki meet with Nash, who negotiates without understanding Trey with Michael Lau, the operator of a fashion platform with 5 million users. Trey sees this as an attack on BRB and accuses Michael of trying to sabotage the team. An argument ensues in which Trey feels betrayed because he is responsible for business as CEO; Nash sees himself as a disadvantaged programmer. Meanwhile, Dane invites more people to Mitchell's flat to cheer up Hobbes. When the party gets out of hand and Hobbes is drugged and burns his dead, stuffed cat, Mitchell texts Trey, Nash and Mikki asking them to help him. When Trey Hobbes suggests that he go home, he replies that he is currently homeless. The group freezes at a loss. |
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| 7th | - | Strange Magic | Dec 20, 2013 | Apr 8, 2014 |
| 8th | - | Show & Tell | Dec. 27, 2013 | Apr 8, 2014 |
| 9 | - | Steppin 'out | Jan. 3, 2014 | Apr 8, 2014 |
| 10 | - | Blinded by the light | Jan. 10, 2014 | Apr 8, 2014 |
| 11 | - | This Is It | Jan. 17, 2014 | Apr 8, 2014 |
reception
Betas received several positive reviews at the start of the series in the USA and was described by the New York Times as "(...) clever and keenly observed (...)" and the weekly Variety described the first season as "a pretty impressive debut ".
Web links
- Betas in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official website at Amazon.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jean Bentley: Startup Comedy 'Betas' Tries To Be Too Cool With' Girls'-Type Humor. News website Mashable.com, November 24, 2013, accessed May 25, 2014 .
- ↑ a b German premiere : Amazon Prime Instant Video shows the comedy series Betas, the new in-house production of Amazon Studios. Platform for press releases and press releases Presseportal.de, April 7, 2014, accessed on May 25, 2014 .
- ↑ Todd Spangler: Amazon Greenlights 6 Series, Including Chris Carter's 'The After,' and Renews 'Alpha House'. News website Variety.com, March 31, 2014, accessed June 13, 2014 .
- ↑ a b c Betas in the German dubbing index