The springtime (well, close enough) means a new crop of Amazon pilots. Of this new class, three are half-hour series and two are hourlongs, but they share a few things in common. Foremost among them is that they are all very, very quirky, with a very strong indie film vibe. Amazon as an original content provider may have found its distinguishing tone as "indie insanity," at least based off of these shows.

When it comes to producing original series though, Amazon has chosen a democratic process, allowing us to vote on the pilots. Those with the biggest and most positive responses end up getting made (though sometimes others do as well, if Amazon believes enough in the project and the creators), which is a really interesting and rather egalitarian approach. So with that in mind, here are my thoughts on this new batch of pilots (with a "Verdict" instead of a star review since it's just one episode), which are ranked from worst to best. Then, you can then watch and vote on them yourselves starting March 17th.

5) Budding Prospects

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Image via Amazon Studios

Created by: Terry Zwigoff

Starring: Adam Rose, Joel David Moore, Will Sasso, Brett Gelman.

In 1983, three lazy, broke San Francisco friends looking for a big payout decide to take an offer to run a new marijuana farm. Budding Prospects' pilot is all setup and no payoff, and as such, is pretty boring. Despite an attempt at wry, dry humor, the pilot is exceptionally boilerplate, slow, and not particularly charming or clever. It's a stoner comedy without the comedy, which just leaves us with three mild, irritating guys without much ambition attempting to do something that is clearly a bad idea.

Budding Prospects seems to have a road full of chaos laid out for the trio, but we don't get to see any of it in the pilot episode. Instead, it acts with an unearned confidence of not having to sell us on its story (which may be the case, if Amazon has already quietly decided to pick it up). As such, the exposition and long conversations among characters we do not yet know -- nor particularly want to  -- is not worth the time.

Verdict: Puff puff pass

4) The New V.I.P.s

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Image via Amazon

Created by: Steve Dildarian

Starring: Matt Braunger, Ben Schwartz, Missi Pyle, Jonathan Adams

Just because a comedy is branded as an adult animated series doesn't mean that it needs to trip over itself to be foul, but that's exactly what The New V.I.P.s does. What starts out (with some promise) as a kind of cartoon Office Space devolves into a collection of curse words and filthy references that aren't funny or even particularly shocking. The series revolves around a group of unhappy employees who accidentally kill their boss and take over the company (thanks to some quick -- and insane -- thinking to have a security guard undergo facial reconstructive surgery). The pilot doesn't go too far beyond this, but we get the idea; the inmates are running the asylum.

The joke of juxtaposing a mostly kid-friendly genre (animation) with adult content is not new, and there are too many adult animated series out there that are very good (and far less obnoxious) for The New V.I.P.s to break any new ground here.

There are some inherently funny conceits about how normal people might handle (badly) this horrifying situation, but The New V.I.P.s prefers to focus on its sophomoric humor and snickering jokes rather than an attempt to take the material anywhere more interesting.

Verdict: A teenager's idea of an adult cartoon.

3) The Legend of Master Legend

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Image via Amazon Studios

Created by: Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue

Starring: John Hawkes, Dawnn Lewis, Shea Whigham, Anjelika Washington

Certainly the best of the half-hour pilots, The Legend of Master Legend is based on a real-life, self-made superhero profiled in Rolling Stone in 2008. In this fictionalized version, John Hawkes plays Frank, who prefers to be called by his adopted moniker Master Legend, a "good vibes" type of guy who just wants to free his hometown of injustice. Frank does odd jobs but isn't able to support his wife and daughter, from whom he's estranged. Though he sees them often, he lives in a storage unit as his wife weighs up whether to leave him and take up with a kind co-worker, or buy in to the fantasy he's living every day.

Legend's pilot feels (more than any of the other projects) attuned to indie movie sensibilities, and it's uncertain what a full season of Legend would look like. Hawkes is excellent as always -- sweet, funny, tough but broken -- but Legend himself is held back by his cohort Peanut (Whigham), a violent crack addict who Legend wants to help but can't really save. While the premise of the series is certainly interesting, the pilot is a little slow and tonally scattered. Still, Legend is the kind of guy whose character deserves further exploration.

Verdict: Not an Avenger yet, but worth watching.

2) The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

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Image via Amazon Studios

Created by: Amy Sherman-Palladino

Starring: Rachel Brosnahan, Michael Zegen, Alex Borstein, Tony Shalhoub, Marin Hinkle

Fans of Gilmore Girls will recognize the familiar patter and manic pacing of a Sherman-Palladino production, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel does not disappoint. The pilot is a high-energy retro romp that focuses on an Upper West Side housewife and her wannabe comedian husband. It’s clear from the start that Mrs. Maisel, a.k.a. Midge (Brosnahan), is the beauty and brains behind her husband’s comedic aspirations, even bringing brisket down to the club to bribe the promoter to give him a better spot while she takes notes about his best jokes (which, it turns out, he stole).

But despite giving everything to her husband and his dream (with a perfection when it comes to just about everything), the lout decides to unceremoniously dump her and their two (rarely seen) children, which sends the sardonic Midge spiraling downward and right into an unexpected career as a real comedian in 1960s New York (complete with some advice from Lenny Bruce).

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is begging for a series that gives Midge (a gabby broad if ever there was one) her full due. And while it may give off the appearance of a show that is clean-cut, it is anything but. It uses swearing and nudity to immense humorous effect, never overplaying its hand, but knowing exactly how and when to surprise us. Like Midge, it’s an utter delight.

Verdict: Give us more Midge!

1) Oasis

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Image via Amazon Studios

Created by: Matt Charman

Starring: Richard Madden, Anil Kapoor, Vikram Danesh, Michael Shaw, Antje Traue, Mark Addy, Haley Joel Osment

Perhaps the most promising of this new batch of pilots, Oasis manages to build out its world and introduce a new one in a single episode. In the not so distant future, Earth has become something of a wasteland, but a new settlement on a remote planet appears to be a refuge for those who can afford it. At $100 million a journey, the residents of this new settlement, Oasis, are few, and most are builders and engineers sent to construct a home away from home. But their leader sends a cryptic invitation back home to Earth for his friend, a chaplin named Peter (Richard Madden) to come to Oasis -- which is evidently in need of a religious guide.

Oasis is mysterious and provocative, feeling like the closest thing to Battlestar Galactica since Battlestar Galactica. It also sets up a central mystery, one whose possible answers it's not afraid to broach quickly. The Oasis settlement is remote and the situation is desperate, as its residents begin hallucinating figures from their past that lead them to doom. Is it the planet? Or something that lives there?

Peter arrives to find his friend gone into the wilderness with his tracker turned off (there is constant drone monitoring -- aside from the planet colonization, it doesn't all feel so very sci-fi), but leaving a message that he has found the source of these visions. As Peter investigates, he learns more about the past Earth lives of those around him, which give clues to what might be behind the faces they see.

Madden is excellent in the lead role of a chaplin with a checkered past, who is both brave and vulnerable given a recent tragedy. But Oasis also manages to deftly sets up a world around him with depth and narrative promise, one that is desperate to be explored.

Verdict: I want to go to there (for a full season)