2 Swirlies?

“I do sense of strong presence of magic.”

I don’t. Not with this video.

To be fair, it’s actually kind of hard to review this episode because, at its 1:14 length, it plays more like a teaser trailer than an episode. It’s 54 seconds of set-up and another 24 seconds of some creepy bluish demon who looks like he’s wearing one of those weird Asian baby masks from Brazil.

But the elf chick is hot. Her pointy-eared hotness coupled with the video’s brevity keeps it from getting boring. So that warrants at least two swirlies, I guess. But it’s hard to award the episode more than that because it’s not really clear what’s going on in this RPG-inspired show.

But then maybe I’m missing something. If you’re a fan of Spellfury or if hate the show, send us a comment and tell us what you think. You can even regale us with the tale of the last time you had sex with an elf. It’s all good…

3 Swirlies

“I haven’t gamed since… the incident.”

Yes, this is what it is like to game.

Okay, so a bit of a confession, this is a movie chopped up and placed on Youtube. (Yes, legally.) And I really enjoyed watching this as a movie, so I’m excited to include it here.

It seems that this is sequel to “The Gamers,” a movie I’ve never seen. Rest assured, I’ll get it on here sooner or later. But for now we gotta dance with the one what brung us.

Despite being chopped up and having an abrupt ending just before the ten minute mark, it’s a good first episode in that it sets up everything and tells a little story. This story is satisfying on its own but fits into a larger narrative. Sure, ten minutes is on the long side but there are two minute videos that had me looking at the timeline at the 1:00 mark, while I didn’t look down once.

Where this production could have been improved is the craft of it all. Lighting, camera, acting… it very much shows it amateur nature. But the story rises above all that to make on enjoyable watch. And it does a good job of capturing the feel of a tabletop role playing session.

And it is a snapshot of an era. I mean, how many of you have played a table top role-playing game? In another 20 years it’ll be deader than M. J.

3 Swirlies

An improvement over the first episode.

Well, we’re two episodes into Riese now and the semblance of plot has started to emerge. Riese awakens in hospital after passing out from her stomach injury in front of a village in the previous episode. And although she doesn’t say much it’s clear she doesn’t trust the doctor who’s tending to her wounds. And it seems something sinister is going on in the maternity ward.

This episode also introduces us to Amara (played by Sharon Taylor, the presumably evil empress of the kingdom of Elysia. I say presumably because she seemed pretty annoyed, and evil rulers on TV are always annoyed for one reason or another.

Generally speaking, the acting is pretty dead pan (save for one scene where a woman screams about how the doctors stole her baby) and although it works for the lead actress Christine Chatelain as she’s playing the largely silent, solitary traveller, it seems a little stunted in the rest of the cast.

And we still don’t get much in the way of story, it’s still primarily setting up the tone or ambiance of the piece. It’s not boring, but it’s not that interesting to watch story set up in multiple parts. And frankly, even if these two videos were the first 20 minutes of a feature-length it might seem a little slow and disjointed.

That being said, I still have high hopes for this show and the baby storyline looks like it could offer some dark twists.

But we want to know what you think. Give us your comments about this episode even if you just want to howl about how hot Christine Chatelain looked at the beginning of the show with nothing covering her top half but basically a scarf wrapped around her breasts.

2 Swirlies

All action, no story.

Described as “a steam-punk fantasy web show,” Riese (or Riese The Series) follows a mysterious traveller, with only a pet wolf as a companion, who finds herself in Elysia, a kingdom ruled by an evil empress.

At least that’s what I got from the show’s website. The episode just shows a woman (in an outfit that looks like it was stolen from a Mad Max movie – I guess that’s the steam punk element) running through the woods with a wolf (well, actually a dog, I think). Then some baddies catch up to her, they fight, she runs off wounded and ends up at a city and passes out… Oops sorry, I guess I should have prefaced that with SPOILER!

Unlike many web series, Riese seems to be quite high budget. The fight scene is quite well-choreographed and it has that I’ve-been-made-by-a-major-studio look. The website also mimics one for a network television show.

It stars Christine Chatelain in the title, who has appeared in multiple episodes of shows such as Sanctuary and The Collector. She also played the stripper/medical intern in SCTV alum Dave Thomas’ film Intern Academy. So the producers are going with professional actors.

Chatelain does a decent job as the stoic lead, I guess. It’s hard to say, considering not much happens. But generally speaking she’s a solid actress.

It seems the creators of Riese have a lot planned so I’m hoping the show gets better as it goes along.