Casual Ep.1 “Change” | A Web Series Review on the Watch List

A Romance Drama Web Series

5 Swirlies

Casual 1.1: Change from Altermotion Pictures on Vimeo.

“Do you think that people can change?”

I never want The Watch List to stop digging and searching to find those great (or at least watchable) web series by creators that don’t spend a lot of Twittering and Facebooking and emailing web series review blogs.

I do kinda love when someone emails us, though. Anything that makes it a little bit easier to keep this blog going is great in my books. But when we do get those emails, and I can’t fob it off on another reviewer, I click on those links with my heart beating loudly in my chest, holding my breath. Because sometimes… the show isn’t very good, or it isn’t the kind of show we cover or whatever. And then I feel like a jerk cause these people were nice enough to get in touch with us, and then I’m not going to post their series. I’ve found that I need to watch how many new series I add to the Watch List. I’m already in the middle of more series than then I have room to post new episodes for in a month.

But every now then a gem comes along this way.

This series is one of those gems.

It’s not emotionally gripping and filled with tension like Untitled Fiction Project. It’s not zany, clever hilarity like… say… Space Hospital. But it is a really nicely done first episode that is well written, well shot, well acted, well edited – and with the perfect song used the perfect way. It’s sweet and delicate and rings true… not easy for the type of conversation the characters spend much of the episode having. In clumsier hands, with one single misstep along the way, the dialogue might have come off as overly writerly, or theme driven instead of just being what people say. But they make it sing.

And it ends with a moment in which writer/director Jay Diaz and his team totally had me. They knew what they wanted me to feel, and how to make me totally emotionally invested in the characters, even as I knew that I was being manipulated. (Manipulated in a good way.) I found myself feeling what the character was feeling – and as far as I’m concerned, that’s what we’re all working to achieve when we tell our stories.

It’s sweet. That’s exactly the word for it. And I don’t usually like sweet. And, for that matter, sweet is one of the rarest things on the internet. And I don’t mean sweet like 30 seconds of kittens sneezing and then we move on with our lives. I mean the kind of sweet that lingers and makes a bad day seem better.

So thanks, Jay Diaz for reaching out to us. I see that you have about 12 episodes. I’m eager to see where this web series takes us.

From Vimeo Description:

Casual Episode 1: Change
Starring Lauren Marini & Brian Thomas Smith
A story about a Guy and a Girl.
Watch it on FACEBOOK
facebook.com/​casualseries

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