UPDATE (Jan 29, 2019): Originally developed at Fox for the 2018 pilot season (where it was said to be an internal favorite), Mixtape missed the cut for a series order and was immediately taken out to streamers. Netflix bought it, and gave it a 10-episode order for a 2019 launch. This is the second project at Netflix for Annapurna, the production company behind the show; they are also producing the Coen brothers anthology The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. The majority of the cast from Fox pilot was re-signed just hours before their options were set to expire, except for the original male lead, Raul Castillo, who's been replaced by Paul James for reasons that were not made public. My original pilot preview from last year at Fox follows below...

LOGLINE: A romantic musical drama that looks at a disparate group of interconnected people in contemporary Los Angeles through the lens of the music that defines who they are. Mixtape captures the different stages of love, exploring if time can heal a broken heart and if love can withstand life’s tragedies.

“Every Song is a Love Song“. It's with those words that the pilot script for Mixtape begins, and I have to confess upfront that I fell in love with this pilot as one falls in love with a great song.  The script has several twists in store (which I won't spoil here), and that's one of the things that make it so good: you never quite know where it’s going. But when you finally get a sense of what’s really going on, you’re just happy to see it play before your eyes. 

Let me tell you first about the structure of this very unique pilot. It's broken up into five acts, each one containing a song: Nellie’s Side A, Sam Side A, Nellie Side B, Sam Side B, and finally a mashup from both. This overarching metaphor -- music is life, life is music -- is weaved throughout the episode. Along the way, each song expresses the innermost feelings of the character who sings it, sharing with us their most profound fears, desires, and joys. On paper at least, it seems reminiscent of La La Land, aspiring to be modern and timeless at the same time. 

The characters are well-written, and their stories easily relatable, as they should be. Nellie (Callie Hernandez) seems to be living the American Dream: beautiful and talented, her hot boyfriend’s band is catapulting into massive stardom. Nothing can get to her -- that is, until her life turns completely upside down. Meanwhile, Sam (Paul James) is a shattered widower, aspiring songwriter and secret romantic who has been forced to move into low income housing, balancing work with the heady job of fathering his bright-eyed son. He’s helped by his aunt, a warm, pragmatic woman in her fifties, who loves him like he was her own son.

Other characters include Joanna (Jenna Dewan), a young professional who seems to have everything under control, but she’s also guarded -- as if she's always preparing for the worst -- and Margot (Madeleine Stowe), an actress who carefully constructs how she presents herself to the world, but finds it utterly exhausting. Each character, while attractive and appealing, is also very fragile in a very human way. And that’s all I'll say; just know there’s more, but it's best experienced for yourself.

Mixtape is a love letter to music where life bursts into songs: think La La Land meets This is Us.  Like all modern musicals, this ambitious project runs a high risk of missing the mark, but this very strong pilot script is a great start. Let's hope everything else falls into place. If it does, prepare to open your eyes, your ears and your hearts to it!

OVERALL PROJECT SCORE:
[   ] PASS
[   ] CONSIDER
[X] RECOMMEND