Take Me Back Ep.8 | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

A Comedy Web Series

4 Swirlies

Take Me Back – Chapter 8 from Joe and Seth on Vimeo.

Click here if you don’t see a link to the video.

“Stop saying ‘we.’”

The two Al’s (Al and Allen) finally meet face to face. The scenes with the two of them are cleverly constructed so that the one actor can play both parts. It might be easy for big budget Hollywood films, but when you’re doing an indie web series, it can be challenging. And Joe and Seth pull it off flawlessly.

The problem was, for me, that the moment lacked any emotional punch – because we know that they’re two versions on the same guy. Well, the original, Al, already knows too but this is first time seeing the other, Allan. Still, there wasn’t any impact for us beyond imagining what Al is feeling and looking to see if we can tell how they pulled off the scene. The actor, Seth Mendelson, does a really good job of being in the moment and in both sides of the conversation. Technically and from a craft stand point, this series sets a high standard for other web series to follow.

It’s the story I’m struggling with. I kinda stopped caring a few episodes ago. There’s barely been a hint of why what has happened / will happen is so important that Allan travels back in time to fix it. I’ll be watching for the last two episodes to find out, but I remember how jazzed I was when I first started watching. I’d back in time if I could get to do that all over again.

From Vimeo Description:

With Neil on his side, Al tries to turn the tables on Allan and take control of the situation. Will his plan work? Will the mask finally come off?

This is the eighth of 10 chapters in the original web series, Take Me Back. New chapters air every Monday. Check the series out and leave your comments in its proper home at TMBtheseries.com

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Take Me Back Ep.7 | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

A Comedy Web Series

3 Swirlies

Take Me Back – Chapter 7 from Joe and Seth on Vimeo.

“Okay, but then who the fuck is that in the kitchen?”

This series started so strong, but I feel like it’s been running in place for the past three or four episodes.

I think the problem is that this show has an interesting plot, but not particularly interesting characters. For many screenwriters who have read Sid Field, (or even ones that haven’t, it has become something of a screenwriter clutch) the story is divided into 3 acts, which is really just a pretentious, ‘How To book’ selling way to say beginning, middle and end. The middle, the act 2 of movies, is the hard part because it is easy to fall into the trap of having your characters spin their wheels until enough has happened that they can head for the ending you have planned. And that’s kinda what’s happening here – the middle of the story isn’t the interesting part but the writers need certain things to happen in order to get to the ending… only those certain things aren’t particularly surprising or interesting.

In the case of this episode, we’ve kinda seen much of this happening already. In fact, we kinda could have skipped from episode… 4 maybe to this one without anyone feeling like they’ve missed much (with a little tweaking of the writing, perhaps.) I mean, I get it – plot wise you could argue that stuff has happened, we haven’t been staring at a blank screen, but has enough information been revealed, either of the plot or the characters, in the past three or so episodes?

Well, there’s only three episodes left, so I hope we’re headed into the Act Three, the end, and that some cool, surprising stuff will happen like it did in the first four or so episodes.

From Vimeo Description:

Allan tries to make amends with Emma, while Al waits patiently for the results of his last phone call.

This is the seventh of 10 chapters in the original web series, Take Me Back. New chapters air every Monday. Check the series out and leave your comments in its proper home at TMBtheseries.com

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Take Me Back Ep.6 | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

A Comedy Web Series

3 Swirlies

Take Me Back – Chapter 6 from Joe and Seth on Vimeo.

“I am open to you, I’m wide open. I’m like a golf tournament.”

In this episode of the web series Take Me Back, Al’s escape attempts with his cool radio phone sends his doppleganger’s attempts to woo Emma into a tail spin.

It’s cool and everything, and a good episode, but I feel like we’re coming aground on the complications inherit in the concept. First of all, where’s this show going? Many scripts and stories have their hardest time in what Sid Field called Act Two. Essentially, the middle stuff between the beginning and the end. It is hard to keep your story fresh, moving forward and interesting as you’re setting up what will be the ending. Here, I feel like the series is in a stall for the last couple of episodes. Al is stuck, and Allen is getting what he wants (until the end of this episode, maybe).

But what really starts tripping me up is the logic problems that you always run into in time travel. If the doubleganger, called Allen, is a future version of Al and has lived through what Al is living through, why does he always seem surprised at Al’s attempts to escape? Does he know what’s going to happen, or does he not know. In this episode, it is clearly implied that he should know – but he doesn’t. Maybe they’ll try to explain it away, but it starts to unravel if you pull at that thread.

As always – great acting, great filming. The static with the radio phone was great. This is very good show, but I feel like we’re not getting any deeper into the story or the characters, we’re just playing out the plot.

From Vimeo Description:

Al reaches out for help with his makeshift telephone while Allan spends the evening with Emma. Is either one successful?

This is the sixth of 10 chapters in the original web series, Take Me Back. New chapters air every Monday. Check the series out and leave your comments in its proper home at TMBtheseries.com

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Take Me Back Ep.5 | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

A Comedy Web Series

4 Swirlies

Take Me Back – Chapter 5 from Joe and Seth on Vimeo.

“You know, most people don’t realize this, but looking up at the stars is kinda is like looking into the past.”

This episode of Take Me Back advances the plot and the story in an expository but interesting, fun way.

Short form web series may just be a dying art form. New series are going longer and longer with their episodes. Five minutes is not the average anymore, it is not unusual to find 10 minute or longer episodes. Which is a shame because there are certain things that are unique to short form web series. Like the structure of this episode. I see it a lot – I’m calling it a bridge episode.

It’s the sort of episode that gets us from story point A to story point B, but with short form there isn’t always enough time to be more than largely expository – to just kinda tell people what happens instead of creating a sharp arc to the episode that stands on its own. Of course, shows like Take Me Back are so serialized that if you don’t watch them in order you’ll probably be lost – in fact there’s two of the same person, so you’d be very confused!

For me, an episode that is just telling you stuff – exposition – without really creating a story (with a beginning, middle and end, rising stakes, conflict, character motivations, etc) does not make a good episode. But a bridge episode is the kind of sequence that writers sometimes refer to as “laying pipe,” which means prepping the ground work for the stuff that’s coming up. Like the scenes in the cop shows where they brief their boss? That’s laying pipe.

Besides that, this is a fun episode. Al manages to cobble together a cool looking jury rigged gadget that might be his ticket out…

From Vimeo Description:

Allan and Emma get a little closer while Al puts his technological knowhow to the test. Has he found a way out or will Allan take over his life before it’s too late?

This is the fifth of 10 chapters in the original web series, Take Me Back. New chapters air every Monday. Check the series out and leave your comments in its proper home at TMBtheseries.com

- If you like what we do, please subscribe! You’ll get every web series episode sent right to your inbox! -

More from the web series Take Me Back

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Take Me Back Ep.4 | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

A Comedy Web Series

5 Swirlies

Take Me Back – Chapter 4 from Joe and Seth on Vimeo.

“Emma was in the park yesterday. Would have been nice if I was there too.” Handwritten note

Wow.

I was a little worried in the last episode that this series was losing the focus and fun of the first couple of episodes as it got bogged down by story. But this episode won me back in a big, big way. I guess there are many web series who have a promising first episode and then… sometimes the idea just doesn’t sustain itself. Or sometimes they get so excited with their plot that forget to tell a story. Not here.

This series is actually moving along at a good pace, each episode telling a story and driving the whole series storyline forward. I don’t want to spoil the episode, but it seems my guess from last episode was right. The body of the episode was good, but it was the twist at the end sealed it.

This is the fourth of ten episodes, and I feel like the first “act” has ended. Most TV and feature writers will talk about their scripts in terms of acts, usually three, which is really just a fancy “I read a book” way of saying beginning, middle and end. I think this series is had a nice beginning – we have an idea of who the characters are, why they’re doing what they’re doing, why it is important to them… and now it is time to complicate things.

I’ve said it before, this series is all but flawless in its execution, from the writing to the production to the music. Shows like Out With Dad and Aidan5 are both great shows, not only two of my favourites but two of the best produced shows on The Watch List, but they do show their low budgets in spots. I don’t know how much it cost to make Take Me Back, I have my suspicions about it being a student project, but it looks like it was done by veterans who knew their craft. Hold on…

I just swatted a bug and it flew away like nothing happened. And I know I didn’t miss. That’s depressing.

What was I saying? Oh yes, this is a great show. It just occurred to me that the thing that might be Al’s salvation, the twist at the end of the episode, stems from the specific characters of both Al and his kidnapper. Now that’s good writing. If only this show was in HD.

From Vimeo Description:

Time passes and new routines form. Things are looking up for Al’s impostor, while Al sees a glimmer of hope in a piece of junk. Will he escape the attic?

This is the fourth of 10 chapters in the original web series, Take Me Back. New chapters air every monday. Check the series out and leave your comments in its proper home at TMBtheseries.com

- If you like what we do, please subscribe! You’ll get every web series episode sent right to your inbox! -

More from the web series Take Me Back

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Take Me Back Ep.3 | A Web Series on The Watch List

Al’s impostor settles comfortably into his shoes while Al tries to make some sense of his bizarre predicament.

PLEASE CLICK ON “JOE AND SETH’S VIDEOS” FOR NEW CHAPTERS

This is the third of 10 chapters in the original web series, Take Me Back. New chapters air every monday. Check the series out and leave your comments in its proper home at TMBtheseries.com

4 Swirlies

Take Me Back – Chapter 3 from Joe and Seth on Vimeo.

[The video won't play on iPhones or iPads. If you don't see a video above, click here to be taken to the post directly.]

“If you want to eat again, slide the cuffs and the key under the door.” – NOTE FROM MYSTERIOUS ABDUCTOR

Hmm.

There’s a few clues given as to what’s going on in this really strong web series out of Montreal. It seems like it might involve time travel.

I feel like the fun of the first episode, and the mystery of the second episode, have been watered down here. While I think I have a better idea of why things are happening, I’m not sure where this story is going. For one thing, is Al going to be stuck in that one room for the whole web series?

Still, like I’ve said an incredibly well produced web series – almost flawless, technically – and a great set up so I’ll keep believing. I do like seeing Montreal – they did such a good job filming it when they allow themselves exterior shots. It looks like there’s ten episodes in this serialized story – let’s hope things pick up again. I’m betting Al escapes pretty soon.

Take Me Back Ep.2 | A Web Series on The Watch List

Al is trapped in a decrepit attic while a mysterious figure begins taking over his life.

This is the second of 10 chapters in the original web series, Take Me Back. New chapters air every monday. [NOTE: Series is finished posted new eps.] Check the series out and leave your comments in its proper home at TMBtheseries.com

4 Swirlies

Take Me Back – Chapter 2 from Joe and Seth on Vimeo.

This video is on Vimeo, so it likely won’t play on iPhones and iPads.

Strange, but fun!

The second episode of this web series, Take Me Back, takes a turn for the bizarre, but in a way that was a little predictable. After the somewhat action packed first episode, this one takes it’s time, and in the end very little happens, but it still delivers some nice humour. And, of course, it is one of the best produced web series I’ve seen.

Take Me Back Ep.1

Al’s life turns upside down when he’s kidnapped by a masked vigilante after an unusual day in his otherwise mundane life.

This is the first of 10 chapters written, directed and edited by Joe and Seth in a brand spankin’ new web series that promises to knock your socks off, or at least ruffle them up a little bit.

For more exciting info and to watch the series in it’s proper home, visit TMBtheseries.com

5 Swirlies

Take Me Back – Chapter 1 from Joe and Seth on Vimeo.

Can’t see the video? Click here to watch!

“I gotta head out and meet with Sheena and the lawyer again. I think she’s gonna press charges this time.”

Now this is how you make a first episode.

This is the third of the new series I have come across this week. New to the Watch List, that is. I just noticed that this series is three years old. I didn’t know what it was going to be like, the website and Vimeo channel don’t really give much info.

It’s incredibly well produced. The acting is top notch. The writing is sharp and interesting – right from the first scene.

At first, while I was enjoying it, I kinda thought that it was one of those self indulgent things that was being weird just to be weird. And then I started getting a Wes Anderson kinda vibe. But while the episode has lots of fun character moments (a couple of them a little forced, like the scene with the girl on the stairs, but only a little), it was the ending that really get me. There’s a perfect book end that gives shape to the episode, and it is one of those endings that adds context to what went on earlier, giving you a satisfying end to the episode while still leaving you wondering what’s gonna happen next.

The tone of it isn’t really my favourite (I’m not a giant Wes Anderson fan) but that’s a taste thing. There’s very little in this episode that could be improved upon.

It’s always nice to find a new series to get excited about.