It’s a beast

Can you believe the amount of marketing dollars that are being spent to promote ‘The Beast,’ the new A&E original series starring Patrick Swayze?

Let’s count:

1. At AMC & Regal Cinemas, it is part of the pre-show entertainment promotional extravaganza, featuring cast interviews, pilot excerpts, etc.
2. The pilot is available for free download through iTunes
3. It’s being advertised with prime time commercials on non-affiliated networks
4. There are radio commercials through online streaming radio stations.

Here’s the thing, part 1 – I really respect the integrated marketing plan they’re attempting.

Here’s the thing, part 2 – Everyone loves Patrick Swayze, for one of the following reasons: Dirty Dancing/Ghost (requisite chick flick), Road House/Red Dawn (requisite tough guy flick), Point Break (requisite for everyone ever) or Donnie Darko (requisite indie flick). For the most part, he avoided becoming a washed-up star, and (And I truly don’t mean this to sound callous), now that he has cancer, people love him even more because they're rooting for him.

But there is only so much you can do, when, by most accounts, Patrick Swayze is the only good thing about this show (Check out the reviews from: Entertainment Weekly, New York Times,
Hollywood Reporter). So, it's hard to not feel like A&E knows that people want to be supportive of Patrick Swayze, regardless of the context, and that is why they are shoving a mediocre show down our throats so much.

Of course, it seems to have worked, because I DVRed the pilot episode. But, I don’t know if I can watch it, because if I hear “You can trust your case file. And you can trust ME” one more time, I literally might scream.