‘The Lot’ Doesn’t Quite Have Its Focus

“The Lot” is too humorless for farce, too cartoonish for serious drama. Based very loosely on real events, the four-part AMC series about a Hollywood studio in the late 1930s doesn’t seem to know what it is.

What it isn’t is funny or compelling, from when it opens with starlet Maxine Montaine’s body being found beneath the Hollywood sign to the twisty conclusion involving June Parker (Linda Cardellini), Maxine’s successor as star of a movie that Silver Screen Pictures head Harry Sylver (Allen Garfield) hopes will reverse his studio’s sharp decline.

Created by Rick Mitz, “The Lot” is nothing if not predictable. Although Sylver needs a big picture, makeup artist Mary Parker (Stefanie Faracy) doesn’t want her innocent daughter, who is two months shy of 18, starring in it. And no wonder, for Hollywood, she observes ruefully, is “where stars twinkle till they wrinkle.”

Nonetheless, the sweet young thing arrives on the set for a screen test wearing her future like a theater marquee. And as soon as she slips on a satin evening frock, June is busting out all over. Ever lurking, meanwhile, is the studio’s shady publicity chief, Jack Sweeney (Perry Stephens), and level-headed production assistant Charlie Patterson (Steven Petrarca) has written a screenplay.

“The Lot” is at once lightweight and fat with stock and overwritten characters, most notably Sylver, vamping actress Norma St. Claire (Sara Botsford), costumer Fabian (Francois Giroday), scheming mogul Roland White (Jonathan Frakes) and radio gossip Letitia DeVine (Holland Taylor).

If you have the patience to watch all four episodes, keep an eye on June’s twinkle.

* Episodes one and two of “The Lot” can be seen on AMC tonight at 10 and 10:30, respectively. It concludes Friday with two more episodes beginning at 10 p.m.