Mozart in the Jungle

Yet another terrifically offbeat and off-the-beaten-path comedy, sparked by another great, career-shifting central performance--this time from Gael Garcia Bernal as the charismatic new conductor of the fictional New York Symphony.

There are other half-hours I might recommend first as a holiday binge if you haven't seen them yet. But "Mozart" is an interesting, colorful look at a world I don't know well, filled with fun performances.

The show is funny, but never gut-bustingly so; it’s most often a triumph of atmosphere, a hangout show with a tremendous (and too infrequently engaged) sense of tension.

Coppola and Schwartzman, who has a great cameo about a reporter doing a podcast, dole out just enough in these half-hour episodes to keep it light, funny and (by the fourth episode) a bit more brazenly quirky, while also not losing touch with the story's core--which is the music.

Forget everything you assumed about the lives of classic musicians. Turns out, they’re not so boring. Mozart in the Jungle, then, is like Girls meets Amadeus.

The series nails everything that NBC's Smash failed to do with the world of Broadway theater last year, providing a rollicking backstage look at the crazy, temperamental people engaged in artistic expression.

The pilot, posted on Amazon back in February for viewers to vote on, may have relied a bit too heavily on the sex-and-drugs angle. I found the setting intriguing, the characters less so. Subsequent episodes--I've seen seven--got me hooked.

What sets Mozart apart from MTV shows, though, is that here we have a handful of twentysomethings and a lot of older folks, not vice versa. It plays this fresh turf well, on both sides.

At times, it feels like a smarter, less melodramatic version of a backstage series like “Smash” (or a less over-the-top version of a superior backstage story like “Slings and Arrows”)

The 10-episode dramatic comedy, dropping Tuesday on Amazon Prime, is romantic, funny and fresh--ripe for binge-viewing.

We see the orchestra and its egos through [new oboe player Hailey's (Lola Kirke)] sometimes incredulous eyes.... Mozart in the Jungle” made me laugh, although I have no idea whether it will make musicians or insiders with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra crack a smile.

In truth, the drama half of this comedy-drama is a little weak and not as engaging as the comedy. That becomes evident a few episodes in, but, fortunately, the show’s creators don’t linger too long on Hailey’s love life before getting back to the very funny business of running a symphony orchestra.

It’s not the best-plotted series: stories tumble by like clothes in an off-kilter dryer. But there’s charm in intimate moments, as when two worldly women share confidences, or a lovely sequence in which Rodrigo wanders around the city, sniffing the air and playing pickup chess.

I would encourage you to keep watching "Mozart in the Jungle" ... past its so-so, sometimes off-putting pilot. It gets good thereafter — very good.

The characters and the plotlines offer almost no surprises. They are generic and much too “Smash”-ish.... And yet, it is enormous fun watching Bernal steal the show.

While Mozart is surely a niche confection, the show generally shines by proving long on charm even when it’s short on laughs.

The show seems to think the mere idea of highbrow symphony pros humping, toking, and generally being lowbrow is, like, irreverently hilarious! It gets stale quickly.... but the seventh episode, a minor-key Fellini homage, won me back, thanks to inspired direction from Roman Coppola and dream-logic storytelling that digs deeper into the characters.

For fans of "Smash" who miss that behind-the-scenes-of-Broadway show, Mozart is an OK, if less exciting replacement. Symphony performances lack the visual flair of musical theater numbers but the sense that you're peering into another cloistered universe is similar.