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Tyrant - The Godfather set in the Middle East - Season 2 - Tues on FX

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C

Cornballer

Member
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Tyrant premieres on FX this Tuesday, June 24th at 10pm ET. Written by the Emmy-winning producers of Homeland, Howard Gordon and Gideon Raff, the script borrows the theme from the original Godfather story — a scion drawn reluctantly into the brutal family business — and situated it in an Arab dictatorship. The first season will consist of 10 episodes. For a quick summary of the series, check out FX's First Look video on youtube.

The show has endured a turbulent production stretch for the first season, but the intriguing setting and talent behind the series make it one worth checking out. For more insight on the production including discussion of the change of director and casting the lead, see the Hollywood Reporter article from a few weeks ago: Turmoil on 'Tyrant': The Dramatic Backstory of FX's Middle East Epic. In the end, this could be a complete trainwreck or it might end up being a great series, but at the very least there is some decent buzz about the pilot and FX's recent track record is very good.

FX said:
Tyrant tells the story of an unassuming American family drawn into the inner workings of a turbulent Middle Eastern nation.
Bassam "Barry" Al-Fayeed (Adam Rayner), the youngest son of a war-torn country's controversial dictator, returns to his homeland after a self-imposed 20-year exile in America for his nephew's wedding. Upon his return, Barry is immediately thrown back into the familial and national politics of his youth. He braces himself to confront the stark realities of his father and older brother Jamal's (Ashraf Barhom) harsh rule, and finds himself at odds with Jamal's wife, Leila (Moran Atias), who strongly believes in a firm, unforgiving regime. Although his wife, Molly (Jennifer Finnigan), struggles to comprehend her husband's apprehension, Barry is unable and unwilling to make his all-American family understand his unease over returning home. Emma (Anne Winters), their 17-year-old daughter, adores her father and shares his disdain for the extravagances of her extended family. Meanwhile, their son, 16-year-old Sammy (Noah Silver), revels in the lavish lifestyle their "royal" status brings, but dangerously tests cultural divides with his poorly disguised interest in handsome family bodyguard Abdul (Mehdi Dehbi). Barry's only warm memory of his childhood, boyhood friend Fauzi (Fares Fares), wants nothing to do with him. Fauzi is now a journalist, whose reports on the abuses of the Al-Fayeed rule resulted in his arrest and torture. Barry must now confront the life he once fled. With his father's health in decline, everyone – Jamal, their mother Amira (Alice Krige), their father's top advisor Yussef (Salim Daw), and even easygoing U.S. diplomat John Tucker (Justin Kirk) – expects him to assume a more active role in both the family and the regime.
Click to expand...

Cast:
  • Adam Rayner as "Barry Al-Fayeed"
  • Jennifer Finnigan as "Molly Al-Fayeed"
  • Ashraf Barhom as "Jamal Al-Fayeed"
  • Moran Atias as "Leila Al-Fayeed"
  • Noah Silver as "Sammy"
  • Anne Winters as "Emma"
  • Fares Fares as "Fauzi"
  • Salim Daw as "Yussef"
  • Justin Kirk as "John Tucker"
  • Mehdi Dehbi as "Abdul"
  • Alice Maud Krige as "Amira"

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Videos from FX:
Episodes
Pilot

Barry Al-Fayeed is a California pediatrician who also happens to be the second son of a Middle Eastern dictator. Barry reluctantly agrees to return home with his American family for his nephew’s wedding. Events thrust him into the complex and turbulent growing pains of a nation straining to break free from dictatorial rule.
Click to expand...

Promo pics
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D

Ducarmel

Member
Nice OP

The commercials being played during Fargo convinced me enough to want to watch, cant wait.

I hope its better then Homeland.
 
J

JDSN

Banned
Looks great, cant wait to hear people call the female protagonist a bitch after the main guy throws a bunch of Sarin gas at a crowd.
 
R

RustyNails

Member
I am going to be skeptical of this show. If it portrays the Arabs as either caricature of what we believe they are like (The Siege), or if it's just a show with American sensibilities simpy transported to middle-east, I wont watch it.
 
V

Valhelm

contribute something
RustyNails said:
I am going to be skeptical of this show. If it portrays the Arabs as either caricature of what we believe they are like (The Siege), or if it's just a show with American sensibilities simpy transported to middle-east, I wont watch it.
Click to expand...

I'm going guess a mix of both. The primary characters are Americans of Arab descent probably meant to contrast with the more traditional government officials. I doubt anybody will be a straight-up stereotype, but the old "violent Muslim" trope will probably pop up.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
RustyNails said:
I am going to be skeptical of this show. If it portrays the Arabs as either caricature of what we believe they are like (The Siege), or if it's just a show with American sensibilities simpy transported to middle-east, I wont watch it.
Click to expand...
I think you're right to be skeptical - it's difficult subject matter to handle properly, and we don't have any idea yet if they pulled it off. The Hollywood Reporter article covers some of the issues that they ran up against (where to film it, how to cast the lead, working with various Muslim groups to try and approach the series with some accuracy and sensitivity) when they were in production. They're certainly making an attempt, and we'll just have to see how it turns out.
 
N

Niraj

I shot people I like more for less.
I'm skeptical that this will be good, but I'm going to give it a try anyway.
 
RangersFan

RangersFan

Member
The commercials looks interesting. I'll give it a shot, but it had better be good. I have enough TV shows as is on my list.
 
ZiZ

ZiZ

Member
very likely a show about evil arabs, where the least evil arab is the Americanized one.

As an Arab myself I often find most portrayals of arabs in the media to be terrible and cringe worthy, and I can't help but feel this will be one of the worst.
 
F

fawaz

Banned
Am I alone in thinking that it is distasteful to make this show while there are revolutions and civil wars being fought right now.
 
A

ambientmystic

Member
Subbed, but I will remain skeptical about the show. RustyNails said it best, if it's just going to be another one of those Western slampieces on Arabs I'm not going to bother.

EDIT:- Also, what's with the cast that are supposed to be protraying Arabs being predominantly white Anglo-Americans? That sounds real authentic lol.
 
K

KingK

Member
Hmmm...sounds like it could be intriguing, but I'm very skeptical. It could easily just be a "white Americans struggle to bring civilization to the bloodthirsty Arabs." And what appears to be the "good guys" all being played by white Anglo looking actors doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.
 
P

PeskyToaster

Member
fawaz said:
Am I alone in thinking that it is distasteful to make this show while there are revolutions and civil wars being fought right now.
Click to expand...

Good luck finding a time when there aren't wars and revolutions being fought in this lovely world of ours. I think it's a very interesting plot and subject matter. I will cut them some slack for taking risks. We need more of that not less.
 
E

effzee

Member
Cornballer said:
I think you're right to be skeptical - it's difficult subject matter to handle properly, and we don't have any idea yet if they pulled it off. The Hollywood Reporter article covers some of the issues that they ran up against (where to film it, how to cast the lead, working with various Muslim groups to try and approach the series with some accuracy and sensitivity) when they were in production. They're certainly making an attempt, and we'll just have to see how it turns out.
Click to expand...

It doesn't help that while I love 24 and liked some parts of Homeland, there are so many gross mistakes made with simple things that they should know that it really takes me out.

In Homeland
you have simple mix ups like Al Qaeda working for or with Iran which is just inaccurate and stupid
.

ZiZ said:
very likely a show about evil arabs, where the least evil arab is the Americanized one.

As an Arab myself I often find most portrayals of Arabs in the media to be terrible and cringe worthy, and I can't help but feel this will be one of the worst.
Click to expand...

Yeah and wasn't there that one show about an American born Arab/Muslim who gets kidnapped by her Arab grandfather to be taken back?

Most all depictions are either off or just pure wrong even with good intentions. Looking at the cast just by names I only notice 2-3 Arab actors where as the the rest is going to be white or Latin actors portraying Arabs.

I'll check it out but I doubt it will be something I can stomach especially with the team behind it.
 
Z

Zaph

Member
Creators of Homeland - featuring heroic Jews and Israelis, and the CIA 'winning' by installing another puppet dictator (because that's always worked out) - making a series about evil Arabs. Great.

But don't worry, I'm sure it'll be okay because the most sadistic ones will be fair skinned, while a dark skinned character tries (and fails) to help things.
 
C

Chris R

Member
Zaph said:
Creators of Homeland - featuring heroic Jews and Israelis, and the CIA 'winning' by installing another puppet dictator (because that's always worked out) - making a series about evil Arabs. Great.

But don't worry, I'm sure it'll be okay because the most sadistic ones will be fair skinned, while a dark skinned character tries (and fails) to help things.
Click to expand...

To be fair, Homeland isn't an original work, but rather is based off an Israeli TV series. I do hope they don't go down the "Arab == Evil" path though...
 
A

AuthenticM

Member
All of those videos are blocked for me.

Why the hell is this still a thing ? Doesn't FX want to sell its show ? Why the fuck would you block any promotional material for it ?
 
P

Prompto

Banned
The premise sounds interesting enough. I'll give it a chance though I still need to catch up on all the other FX dramas.
 
K

kamorra

Fuck Cancer
Zaph said:
Creators of Homeland - featuring heroic Jews and Israelis, and the CIA 'winning' by installing another puppet dictator (because that's always worked out) - making a series about evil Arabs. Great.

But don't worry, I'm sure it'll be okay because the most sadistic ones will be fair skinned, while a dark skinned character tries (and fails) to help things.
Click to expand...
Oh, I was just thinking about starting to watch Homeland. Is it really that bad?
 
E

effzee

Member
rhfb said:
To be fair, Homeland isn't an original work, but rather is based off an Israeli TV series. I do hope they don't go down the "Arab == Evil" path though...
Click to expand...

Always meant to find out.

So is Homeland the American series all mapped out based on the Israeli series? Or did they just takes bits and pieces from that show and built up their own storyline?
 
R

real_slime

Banned
This looks bad. It might seem superificial, but the pandering of having some white guy called 'Barry' be the lead and his blonde wife Molly second just gets things off on the whole wrong foot. This looks like it's prioritising popular entertainment over legitimate investigation of its subject area and I'm not too interested in getting another show like that about the middle east - we have had plenty. It's on FX as well, which limits my expectations since it's always pursued shows with some small level of creative weight behind them but goes for pulpy most of the time.

Probably not gonna watch it unless I hear it's unexpectedly very good, like beyond what people are expecting.
 
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