‘Mad Dogs’ is bonkers (and possibly in a good way)

If the name of this new dark comedy/psychological thriller sounds familiar, you may have caught the original British TV show back in 2011. Mad Dogs gets an American take courtesy of Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures TV. It’s a “bro show” that sort of follows in the vein of those that came before it but not at the same time.

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Mad Dogs brings together four underachieving 40-something friends to Belize. These friends are played by big actors in the industry including Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos) who plays Lex, Steve Zahn (Dallas Buyers Club) who plays Cobi, Ben Chaplin (Cinderella) who plays Joel, and Romany Malco (The 40-Year-Old Virgin) who plays Gus. They were invited by their successful old friend, Milo played by Billy Zane (Zoolander), to celebrate his retirement.

The first episode—which we got a sneak peek ahead of the exclusive release by HOOQ in the Philippines this weekend—transitions rather quickly from dark comedy to psychological thriller. From the usual “bro” behavior at the start of the show—like partying and hooking up with really young ladies—the underlying issues and resentment of the five friends start to come up. And the realization that they were now middle-aged men without much to show for it unsettles the four guys. Milo drives the point home further somewhere near the end of the episode.

It’s not really kept a secret that Milo seemed to be involved with something dangerous, especially with the kind of extravagant life he’s able to lead in Belize (big mansion with a private beach, for starters). And when they start to uncover his secrets, things get rather ugly. The dream vacation suddenly became the trip from hell. And they’re immediately thrown one problem after another. And from what I can see, they’re all potentially life-threatening.

As Cobi says near the end of the episode: “It’s like a f***ing episode of America’s Most Wanted.” Initial reviews online say it has a predictable ending but I have to admit, I just want to see them get into a tremendous amount of trouble before the end just so Mad Dogs can show me how insane it can get.

All 10 episodes will be dropping on Saturday, January 23 at the same time the show is released by Amazon in the US. If you want to catch Mad Dogs, you’re going to have to sign up for a HOOQ account. For first-timers, you get a free 30-day trial to watch this show and over 35,000 hours of Hollywood and local movies and TV shows. After the trial is over, you can either pay the P149 monthly subscription fee or through various Globe plans.