We Need Girlfriends – Episode 1

The inaugural episode of Ragtag Productions new ongoing web series “We Need Girlfriends.”

2 Swirlies

“Suitcases!”

Sometimes ‘fine’ isn’t enough.

So, I’ll start with the reasons to watch. There’s one… one and a half… very funny scenes where Rod (I think) freaks out on Tom (I think) for going after a girl that he called “squirrel” on. And this creates a somewhat abrupt cliffhanger that actually made me wonder what’s going to happen next. Nice job.

As to the negatives, I won’t dwell on them except to say that everything else about this inaugural episode is fine. The production is fine, the writing is fine, the acting (for the most part) is fine. The first half could be a little faster. The biggest problem is that ‘fine’… well… kinda boring.

Things really picked up in the second half, so maybe the rest of the series will do the same.

This episode raises a tough ethical question. Is it okay to go after a buddy’s “squirrel”? What about you gals? Is there a rule about a guy your BFF has her eye on?

Riese – Ep. 2: Fragments

Riese awakens inside the township of Helmkin and discovers a horrifying secret.

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.

With the Angels – EP 1: Life Of The Party

Fish-out-of-water story of a small town Arkansas girl swimming in the freak-infested waters of Venice Beach, CA

(Almost) 3 Swirlies

“Am I really that different from everybody else?”

Almost there…

There’s not too many attempts at straight out drama on the web. So I not only applaud “With the Angels” for trying it, but for getting so many things right.

A young girl from Arkansas moves to L.A., but finds herself an outsider in the shallow, flakey, freaky lives that populate Venice Beach. What really works for me is the idea of the perpetual outsider looking for a place to fit in. Usually it’s a problem when your main character is a passive observer, but these guys make it work.Main character Taffy is both protagonist and storyteller – we very much see everything through her eyes – a trick that is often attempted but rarely carried off.

Even here, there’s a few things that come close to dragging the good parts down. The confessional parts (especially the first of the two in this episode) made me glance at the time bar. Death for internet video. Luckily the moments at the party were skillfully done, turning Taffy into enough of an underdog to make us root for her.

My other big question mark is the accent. Is that for real? It sounds put on to me. But what do I know? My fiancee tells me every accent I try to do sounds like John Lennon.

So… some good. Some bad. Where’s the story? We’ll see if the people behind “With the Angels” have any clear idea in the next few episodes.

Karma Kula – Episode 1 “THE NINJAS”

Karma Kula Mystic Warrior is an original live action/adventure martial arts web series independently created by the Ninjai Gang. Official Website http://karmakula.ign.com

4 Swirlies

“While the body can be cut into pieces by a weapon, the soul is never slain.”

In a word, ninja-tastic.

This series is all atmosphere and action, short on story and character. But that’s the point. While maybe not breaking new ground the “Ninja Group” made a kickass samurai fighting extravaganza that absolutely nailed the genre.

It looks amazing, and the attention to visual style reminds me of both Samurai Jack and (one of my favorite things ever) the ’70’s Japanese television version of Lone Wolf and Cub. I hope, like both of those examples, Karma Kula evolves to something more than just almost cartoonesque cutting and slashing, although for now that’s more than enough.

The only reasons I held back from giving it 5 full swirlies is the very long opening voice over that verges on pretentiousness, and the fact that I’m not sure whether certain things that took me out of the story were flaws or whether they were intentional. For one thing, the guy’s white. Are we just supposed to accept that, or ignore it? And at the end he quotes the bible. So, is he western or is that an unintended anachronism? Hmm… we’ll all have to keep watching to find out.

Which makes me wonder, should we give webseries more of a pass than we do a movie because we expect it to be a low budget labor of love and requires an extra level of our suspension of disbelief? Or do we hold them up to the same standards?

Riese – Ep. 1: Hunt

A lone wanderer flees an evil cult.

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.

The Black Dawn – Episode 1

Day 1 – 9:27 am. A mysterious plague falls over Los Angeles, leaving death in its wake.

2 Swirlies

Okay… and then what?

Nice premise, even if we’ve seen it before. People start dropping dead and no one knows why.

The problem is that we watch a full five minute episode and we don’t know more than that… which is to say the same things we knew going in. We don’t know anything about the main character, not his name (at least I didn’t catch it) or why we care about his story.

I don’t want the maker’s of The Black Dawn to feel like I am singling them out in order to make a point, but they have fallen into a trap very common to short form series. Your first episode is not like an opening chapter of a novel, nor is it the opening scene of a movie.It needs to tell a satisfying story, like a pilot for a TV show, only in a very short time span.

Here’s the difference. With a novel or a movie, the audience has already committed to the work as a whole. With a 5 minute episode, the story has to be compelling enough to convince someone to seek out the next installment. You can’t simply start to tell the larger story, you have to finish a smaller one. (And of course leave things hanging enough to make people care about what the storyteller has up their sleeve.)

In this episode of Black Dawn, we know going in that people are going to drop dead, and that’s what we get. I’m hoping in the next episode something else will happen. We’ll keep you posted.

Here’s a little poll. What webseries has the best first episode?

Captain Blasto – Episode 1

Growing tired of his repetitive life, Colin Carter decides to break free of his boredom and become the comic book super hero of his childhood, Captain Blasto.

3 Swirlies

Slow but interesting start.

Okay, so this series isn’t new, but it is new to me, and that’s good enough for The Watch List.

This first episode has a bad case of ‘pilot-itis’. It’s all set up. In fact, it’ s only half of the set-up – almost a prologue, really.   By the end of it, I’m not really sure where the story is going. The preview of the next episode looks funny. Which is something this episode could have used a tiny bit more of.  But while we have seen this concept before, I’m a sucker for superhero stories so I’m willing to go along for the ride.

There are a few laughs in it. I did like the “dinner” left out for Colin by his mom.  And the use of split screen toward the end, starting at the 4:00 mark, was nice. The layout and style of the split screen had a nice, graphic feel to it, and I admire the fact that they left some panels blank. Many people would feel like they were required to fill each one.

The production looks slick. There’s some nice use of colors. It looks like they put a lot of money into lighting and their sets.

So I’m going to keep posting episodes of Captain Blasto on The Watch List.

When you come across a webseries that you haven’t heard of, do you look at the date it was posted? And if you do,does that affect your willingness to watch it? Leave a comment and let us know!