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

A Thriller Web Series

2 Swirlies

“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.2 | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

A Thriller Web Series

2 Swirlies

“He drank the sedatives! Shoot him you morons!”

This episode, while still being pretty cool, lacks the nuance, tension and careful blend of humor that the first episode had.

Although I did quite like the hallucinations Quinn has.

The production is all but perfect, the make up and special effects alone are outstanding. But still, after that first episode I was disappointed. The ending of the first episode felt like an ending, like we were being told a complete story, the ending of this episode was a mid scene cliffhanger type.

There appears to be a bit of a trend in web series to take a short film and turn it into a web series pilot. The problem is that the two aren’t really the same form. Some series can do it really well. Aidan5 surprised me how well they took that short, with it’s very enclosed story, and turned it into an ongoing series.

I think the same thing happened here (I’m only guessing, though). I think the first episode was a short film, and when they decided to do more they conceived of it more as a multi-part story rather than episodic stories as part of a larger arc. Leaving this episode feeling unfinished.

Am I over thinking it? Perhaps. After all, from what I can tell there’s only one more episode in their Chapter 1. I’m sure that has a more satisfying ending to it. But I guess we’ll wait and see.

From YouTube Description:

Drugged, hunted, and slightly silly in a murderous way, Quinn is on the move.

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Broken Toy Ep.1 | A Web Series on The Watch List

Astounding progress has been made by the United States government in the development of the once-theoretical Mach 24 jet engine. Fast jets, however, need fast pilots and a program to re-engineer aviators with accelerated reflexes and neural pathways capable of flying these fighters has been a disaster. Four prime candidates were upgraded. All four died horrifically. A fifth — never meant as anything more than a disposable test subject — has unexpectedly survived the strain to his nervous system. Hunted and confused, he is now a violent fugitive on the run from his grave.

4 Swirlies

“Wait. People can survive without their lungs. Yes or no?”"

A very nicely written sci-fi thriller web series. Looks good, sounds good… the acting’s a little stilted but otherwise this episode is very strong. It has a nice mix of tension, pathos and humour - often all at once. It’s a hard mix to get right, but the creators kept everything grounded in the characters.

In many ways, this is what a first episode should be - putting you right into the middle of the action and parceling out just enough backstory so that you understand the context, without spending all of its time telling you what happened before. What I think it could have done better is to let us know what to expect from this series. The ending feels like just that - and ending. Does the web series, so far only four episodes, continue with the same characters? What do I have to look forward to if I remember to come back?

I know this is gonna sound kinda pissy, but I think they could have gone with a better title. Titles are hard - but if you’re clicking around in YouTube, does this title make you stop and think; “Oh here’s a well produced science fiction thriller web series. I should watch it.”

We’re starting to build up quite a solid little collection of science fiction web series to cover - Tyranny, Aiden5 and Broken Toy are just off the top of my head. Go web!