4 Swirlies

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“I heard you crying again last night.”

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English subtitles
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This is one of the Toronto web series Out With Dad’s mini-episodes. It’s about two and a half minutes, and instead of being a full on story – instead it is a bit of a slice of life glimpse into Vanessa’s struggles. Not everyone has a supportive parent like Rose – and it was hard for Rose.

This whole episode is two shots, almost all the dialogue in one. It lets the actors really carry the moment. What I like about this set up is how the family is already dealing with one child who isn’t speaking to them because of how he wants to live his life – he married a Muslim woman – which places extra strain and stakes on Vanessa not to put her family through that all over again.

While some of the dialogue spoken by Vanessa’s parents is quite on the nose, the real emotional anchor for this scene is Vanessa’s brother, Jacob. I got the sense that Vanessa is, more than anything, trying to protect Jacob, which leaves her torn. If she is true to who she is, she’ll make Jacob’s life worse. It is a struggle that many of us go through, I think. I think in everyone’s lives, there comes a time when they are forced to choose between their happiness and the values and choices of their family.

While Lindsey Middleton does all the heavy lifting – dialogue wise – and does a great job, Jacob Ahearn has, in some ways, the harder part. He has to listen and emote in character. Actors sometimes tend to focus on the dialogue, what they are saying, but a good actor knows what to do when the other guy is talking. Anyway, both performers do a remarkable job in an intense scene.

Man, these actors do a lot of crying, don’t they?

Lindsey Middleton as Vanessa
Jacob Ahearn as Jacob

From Out With Dad website:

A difficult time for the LeMay family. Vanessa and her younger brother, Jacob, sit upon the steps as they listen in on their parents fighting. Jacob fears he might loose another sibling to something he doesn’t understand, and Vanessa realizes what is truly important to her.

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Out With Dad S02E04 ”With Jacob and Vanessa” | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

5 Swirlies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddkK9canrao

“In the illegal world, we’re born in a sewer.”

This episode of the unique, mixed media science fiction web series Aidan5 takes a break from the high octane action of the previous few and gives us a little backstory into Riley.

One of the things that this series does well is to take a look at cloning from various angles, and how it impacts our society; even if some of the angle they choose to examine are a little obvious. In this one, they tackle a few things, including clone discrimination. My favourite bit - and a very nice, interesting touch, is how vilely Riley’s original reacts to her clone, who then goes to the original’s funeral.

One the parts I liked the least is seeing Aidan as heroic (and thus, presenting him as heroic to the audience) for brutally beating a bad guy unconscious for threatening to hit Riley. Sure, the guy was a bad guy, but Aidan is a cop - we’re supposed to cheer on this behaviour? It is a small beef, more of a pet peeve about how the U.S. cop mythology is handled in general rather than a complain about this episode. Oh, I also cringed a bit when Riley was portrayed as a damsel in distress that needed to be saved by a strong man handing out savage beatings to those he disagreed with. I’m not saying every woman in every novel, TV, web series whatever needs to be portrayed as being as tough if not tougher than a man, it just felt very… thoughtless on the part of the writers, not coming so much from the character and on the cliche side.

I like that they’re willing to take a break and do something a little more introspective. And writing wise, it was interesting that Riley choose not to remind Aidan that they had met before - like she was making a clean break from the past. I also like that they fast forwarded a bit from the end of the previous episode - not that there couldn’t have been some great episodes in that period, but they chose to take a different route. For me, every evidence that the writers and creators are making choices about their story makes me respect them more.

I also really like seeing some new locations - man, I don’t how how the artist doing the backdrops can keep up with this show. They must be drawing all the time. One thing that I don’t think I mentioned before is the trouble they must have in matching the POV between the drawings and the live action material. How do they make sure the perspective isn’t off?

From YouTube Description:

Episode 7: A look back at Riley’s cloning and troubled past.

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Aidan5 Ep.7 “The Life of Riley” | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

3 Swirlies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0npWnyK9rQ

“I’m selling all my sunglasses online. I won’t even tell you how many pairs have.”

Living with his mother-in-law is about as bad as Don thought it was going to be. And it turned out that his “business” isn’t as recession proof as he had hoped.

From YouTube Description:

Closed-captioned for the hearing-impaired.

Episode Five - “You can’t choose your family” Starring: John Colella, Reamy Hall, Marcia Wallace, Chris Mulkey.

Support Season Two! http://www.VampireMob.com

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Vampire Mob S01E05 “You Can’t Choose Your Family” | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

3 Swirlies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQdHICkxGFg

“Half vampire, half werewolf and one third zombie?”

There’s a really cool special effect at the end of this final episode, I honestly have no idea how they did that.

There’s a few really funny jokes in this episode, especially with the Vampires justifying their existence to the producer. My favourtie parts of this series was the producer dealing with the blood thirsty vampires, especially finding out his buddy was a vampire.

Where this series didn’t connect with me was all the stuff about web series. I can’t even really say why, except that I felt like it was out of place with everything else that was going on, and it was only kind of a MacGuffin to get the plot in gear… but the story never really evolved beyond it, like a typical MacGuffin. I never cared if they came up with a web series concept, but I did care if the producer got eaten by the vampires. On the same thought, I didn’t care if he got eaten by Tad and Bunny, because then the story would be over, and also the producer did very little to avoid being eaten by Tad and Bunny, while with the vampires it felt like a very present danger that he was struggling to avoid.

But KATR Productions did make it look and sound nice - a very slick and well produced project. I haven’t gone back and watched their previous effort yet, Life From the Inside, which is spoken about very highly from web series fans.

If someone from KATR Productions is reading this, we’d love it if you could leave a comment talking a little about “the head shot” and how you achieved it, or maybe just a hint about what your next series might be?

From YouTube Description:

Teeth are bared, hackles rise, and everything comes to a head. The thrilling conclusion of Vampire Zombie Werewolf Season 1.

Watch the Entire series! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXiK_2JhBxw&feature=li…

Watch Vampire Zombie Werewolf at http://www.vampirezombiewerewolf.com/

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Vampire Zombie Werewolf Ep.9 “Meta-Morphosis” | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

2 Swirlies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4hlo3x8Fos

“You are a sweet little monkey. NOW GIVE ME A HUG!”

I don’t know.

The production, especially the special effects, is really strong. Some of the explosions towards the end look CGI-y, but a lot of it is awesome. The fights scenes are pretty well choreographed, and the acting on the part of the main guy is good. But the script… the script…

That first episode was so well written. Now each episode is just a drawn out fight scene and special effects showpiece. Especially since this guy is a psycho superhero that can’t be contained, but he’s the main character… well, we’re kinda just waiting for him to escape. Even when the twists come, such as they are, we don’t care because we’re not invested in anything or genuinely surprised. Nor do they particularly make sense.

A lot of work by a lot of people must have gone into making this web series. It has to be way more than the four people listed on the website under team. (Who did the make-up? And all that blood effects?) I wish that I liked it more. I’m going to keep watching, if only to see what happens now that we’re not in that same building.

From YouTube Description:

Bigger. Badder. Better. Don’t call him Frankenstein.

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Broken Toy Ep.3 | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

4 Swirlies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEIY0yVhaCA

“Be advised: Suspect is clone of Detective James Aidan”

This episode of webseries Aidan5 is both supremely awesome and little cheesy at the same time.

This is supremely ambitious - shoot outs, flying scenes, a train racing through a city scape, giant crashes and explosions… in a Hollywood feature, this scene along would cost a million bucks and take months to make. There’s plenty to admire about the execution of this in such a small webseries - and what I’m assuming is a labour of love more than a lucrative venture for the creators.

But I found myself thrilling to the action and wincing at the same time. Some of the dialogue and action are standard action movie moments and cliches that feel like they’re here more because that’s what happens in action movies rather than being natural or believable to the story and characters. And there’s an odd moment at the end where Aidan, after risking the lives of dozens if not hundreds of people by firing at a train in the middle of a big city, lets the bad guy go because he runs out of bullets (he doesn’t try to chase him down or go after him, nor does he radio in that the suspect is getting away) and then he tends to his partner who was just in a horrific crash. It might seem like I’m a fanboy nitpicking how I would have done it - there’s nothing easier than going on the internet and spouting off on how you would have it different or better, without knowing any of the reasons or complications that lead to the creator’s decisions - but I don’t think that’s where I’m coming from. I feel like the writing here has taken a back seat to the cool, actiony, plot-twisty stuff in this episode.

Like I said, there’s a lot in this episode that they did right. I don’t know how they manage to make this episode every month. The animation may just be in a pencil sketch style, but the angles and camera moves are extremely well thought out and executed. Some of the greenscreen work is a little rough, but some of it is actually quite amazing - like the shots from “outside” the flying police car in which we partially see through the pencil sketch window. I can’t imagine that something like this is easy to pull off, but in watching the episode is so well pulled off that you don’t even notice it - you just accept it. And, for its flaws, the episode is incredibly cool.

And very watchable. I hope that my discussion of those flaws dissuades you from watching it, because it is easily one of the best science fiction webseries out there.

From YouTube Description:

Episode 6: After killing Hicks and stealing the Infinity database, Matthew escapes the police station with Aidan and Riley hot on his trail.

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Aidan5 Ep.6 “Off The Tracks” | A Webseries Review on The Watch List

4 Swirlies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRLWtXPiuNQ

“You know how Vanessa and I have been getting really close lately…?”

In honour of the start of the second season of Out With Dad on July 7th, we on the Watch List are running back to back postings of the last episodes of season one of this popular webseries.

This episode leaves anything dealing with Vanessa to season two, and instead leaves us on a cliffhanger - will Rose come out to her dad, Nathan? I mean, coming out to her friend is one thing, coming out to her dad, even though we as the audience know that he’d be more than cool to know the truth… well, it’s still something else all together.

The shot where Rose tells Kenny is particularly incredible; time stops behind Kenny. Was that done with green screen? Or was it simply time consuming aftereffects? If anyone involved with the production knows the answer, leave a comment and let us know!

The premiere of season two is only a couple of days away, and to wet your appetite, here’s a little taste of what’s to come…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHwWdGd1JEg

From YouTube Description:

In this finale episode of our first season, Rose finds coming out isn’t easy… even when you practice.

http://www.adrianelliscomposer.com/

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Out With Dad Ep.8 ”Out With Kenny” | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

4 Swirlies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBDxZ9PnDCo

“Things are really starting to make sense.”

Wow, what a reversal for Rose. Just when things seemed at their worse, Rose seems to catch a break. Or does she?

This episode is one of the plottier episodes of the series, and certainly one of the least nuanced. There’s also some minor rough moments in the editing. But in the plus column, the shooting is amazing and the digital effects of the chalk drawings are really great - in a closer shot, they appear out of focus and closer to the camera, as they would be if they were physically present. Sweet. Plus there’s a surprisingly steamy make out scene. This series has recently hit 1.5 million views, and a steamy make out scene certainly doesn’t hurt on the internet.

I feel like all of a sudden the story has ramped up, and with only one episode to go. Will Rose’s love life be resolved in the last ep? Stay tuned to find out…

You won’t have to wait long! Season 2 of Out With Dad starts in just a few days of this post. In honour of the new season, which writer/director Jason Leaver has been tweeting up a storm over, The Watch List will post the last episode of season one tomorrow and then bring you the premier of Season Two as soon as it comes out. How’s that for exciting?

From YouTube Description:

In this penultimate episode of season one, things are shaping up for Rose.

Please tell us what you think! Your comments will be appreciated!

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Out With Dad Ep.7 ”Chemistry with Vanessa” | A Webseries Review on The Watch List

5 Swirlies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc4ulUan424

“How come you always make such good tea?”

A sharp, smart little episode. The description calls it a minisode, but I don’t think there’s anything about it that makes it any lesser than the other episodes.

What’s funny is the amount of comments in YouTube that focuses on two things - strong reactions to how tea should be made, to the fact that the milk comes in a bag in Canada. It just goes to show you that sometimes it the little things in our lives that we take for granted, things we don’t even realize that other people do it differently.

From YouTube Description:

A bonus minisode. Nothing like a spot of tea to make everything better. The conclusion of Rose & Nathan’s nights out.

Our regular schedule is to debut new episodes every other Thursday. This being such as short one, we decided the wait for it should be short too. We’ll now return to our regular schedule of ever-other-Thursday. The next episode (a regular length) will debut September 26, 2010.

Please tell us what you think! Your comments will be appreciated!

Visit: http://www.outwithdad.com
Join: http://www.facebook.com/OutWithDad
Follow: http://www.twitter.com/OutWithDad

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Out With Dad Ep.6 ”Tea with Dad” | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

Tights and Fights: Ashes is a comedy web series and transmedia story about super heroes, told over YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. You can jump to the Tights and Fights website, or you just keep watching from here.

Hangovers, benders, and open-mouth kissing…not just a day in the life of Charlie Sheen anymore! Watch as The Plumber reaps the painful rewards of his first AAA ‘Cleaning’, and Trojy finally achieves his heart’s desire…or does he?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA501A6F567C07EC

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Tights and Fights: Ashes – May 9th to May 13th – Super Hero Comedy Web Series