Break Ups: The Series Ep.7 “Nicky & Tim” | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

A Semi-Improvised Dramedy Web Series

4 Swirlies

“Don’t forget to send the thank you card to your aunt.”

I bet a lot of break ups happen during breakfast.

This episode is a little hard to watch, just because there’s next to no dialogue and only one wide shot. This episode is very much about the subtleties of what’s going through these two character’s minds as they eat their breakfast in uncomfortable silence.

On the one hand, it is brilliant masterwork of acting and confident direction. On the other hand… it can be hard to sit through the whole five minute piece without clicking away. While I don’t subscribe to shortened attention spans, I did find my attention wandering. You sort of have to force yourself to watch in order to really appreciate what’s going on in this scene. And, of course, the title provides the context. If this series was called “Falling in Love” the same scene could be watched with very different expectations and energy.

This is one of those things that I like the idea of, more than the piece itself. Other episodes are more watchable and entertaining. I’m not slagging it… I’m just saying that my tastes run a little more towards having more stuff going on in a scene.

From YouTube Description:

Happy spring everyone! Feel free to share this or “like” it as all the kids are doing nowadays.

Directed, Edited, Shot by
Ted Tremper

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Break Ups: The Series Ep.6 “TJ & Katie” | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

A Semi-Improvised Dramedy Web Series

4 Swirlies

“I’d drop you out here and leave you to freeze in the goddamned Hoth that is Chicago right now.”

Ha ha!

This is an awesome episode of Break Ups: The Series, which takes place in a blizzard.

There’s many fun things going on in this episode, one of the biggest is that they were shooting in a blizzard so the scene is entirely about the blizzard.

Ted Tremper really knows what he’s doing, and by keeping the frame wide and having the couple argue in blizzard blown silhouettes means that we can enjoy the worst night of their lives at a remove. Hearing them talk about very specific stuff, but all we see is them waving their arms around and stumbling through the snow gives us a sense of detached voyeurism.

Plus, the scene improvised by Jagodowski and Thomas is hilarious in a “I’m glad its not me” way that avoids the cringe type comedy some of the other episodes go for. It is so over the top silly, and both characters are giving as good as they get. Some other break up scenes clearly have a good guy and bad guy, not here. Here they’re both in full on assault mode.

A lot of the individual lines are pretty funny, and I’m a bit awed by how specific the moments and the back stories are for an improvised piece.

I like this series a lot, but this one is one of my favourite episodes.

From YouTube Description:

Spread the news! Break-ups is back! Please share this on your facebook wall!

Instead of staying in last night, we decided to brave the Blizzard of 2011 and do some shooting. We sincerely hope you like it!

Improvised by
TJ Jagodowski
Katie Thomas

Sound by
Jared Larson

Directed, Edited, Shot by
Ted Tremper

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Break Ups: The Series Ep.5 “Cate and Timmy” | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

A Semi-Improvised Dramedy Web Series

4 Swirlies

“I’ll get back to you.”

This is a return to the silly funny episodes of the first couple from this web series. But at the same time, it explores a little bit of of the tension around marriage proposals, or non-proposals as the case may be.

There’s nothing terribly new about this observation, but some woman are only concerned about the relationship ‘moving forward,’ like getting married is something to tick off their list of life goals. And for some men, getting married is that final step towards growing up that they’ve been avoiding.

I’ve talked about this before, but what Break-Ups: The Series really gets at is the diverging needs and goals that drive people apart - that moment when what they want out of their lives clearly differs, and they can no longer pretend it doesn’t. Like many of the episodes, the fact that these two are breaking up isn’t even mentioned. But this is the moment, the moment when she realizes that he is never going to marry her.

Of course, they have been together for 11 years - why is the ceremony so important to her? And for him, is avoiding it really more important than his life with her? For such a short and silly episode, it really raises a lot of questions about the way people see relationships in general - of course, answering these questions is more than a five minute short series can handle.

From YouTube Description:

View our latest episode at breakups.us
—-
Starring and Improvised by:
Timmy Mayse
Cate Freedman

Shot by
Ted Tremper
Aemilia Scott
Naomi Epstein

Directed and Edited by
Ted Tremper

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Break-Ups: The Series Ep.4 “Kellen and Seth” | A Web Series on the Watch List

Starring and Improvised by Kellen Alexander and Seth Dodson

breakups.us

4 Swirlies

“And as soon as the horse gets, like, it’s really going, I grab you by your hair and I just, like, throw you off the horse.”

Ted Tremper’s wonderful web series about break ups takes another unexpected turn with this episode that chronicles the moment of a break up, without any actual break up talk.

I think what this web series is getting at is the myriad different reasons behind the end of a relationship, but it seems to me that all those reasons really come down to the same thing - each person wants something fundamentally different. In this one, it’s about not wanting your head to be grabbed and your life to be threatened.

I’m a little sad because we’re coming close to the end for Break Ups. There’s only two more. But there’s hope - the last one that has been posted was only a month ago. Maybe there’s more being made?

Break-ups: The Series Ep.3 “Paul and Cecily”

Starring and Improvised by:
Paul Jurewicz
Cecily Strong

Shot, Edited, and Directed by
Ted Tremper

5 Swirlies

“But you have to go. And that’s okay.”

Wow, Break-Ups The Series does it again.

From the first two episodes, each of which were a different comedic take on breaking up, this one is powerful and poignant. While there’s some laughs, it’s laughs based solely on how much we like and empathize with these characters. The shooting style is ballsy, but perfect.

I never know what to expect from this series. But I never feel disappointed.

(I’m marking this one as Comedy just to keep it consistent with previous Break-Ups: The Series episodes. I’m putting in the Drama category, too.)

Break-ups: The Series “John & Linda”

View our latest episode at www.breakups.us
—-
Starring:
Andy St. Clair as John
Beth Melewski as Linda

Directed and Edited by
Ted Tremper

5 Swirlies

“I’m gonna get a tattoo, too! It’ll be Mighty Mouse twirling a basketball.”

This episode is more straight forward funny than the first one. In fact it is hysterical.

The first episode was more of an uncomfortable, we’ve all been there sort of funny, but this one is just silly funny.

I was surprised. I guess I expected the tone to be the same across the episodes. I was ready for more of the same and not in a bad way. Now I’m even more excited to watch the rest of the series and watch the different break ups.

I think the dialogue is improvised. Or at least semi-improvised. It could be the comedic voices of the actors coming through. If that’s the case I’m very impressed by series creator Ted Tremper. Not everyone puts all the time and trouble into making a web series and then lets other people do what they want, too.

There’s no writing credits, so I’m only assuming that’s how they’re doing it.

Break-ups: The Series “Katy & Ted”

View our latest episode at www.breakups.us

4 Swirlies

“I don’t like you anymore. At all.”

I’m excited to be returning to posting after the past week or so of simply not being able to cram it into my day. Luckily J-Two pitched in with some reviews – thanks, J-Two!

I’ve had this series on my “to Watch” list for a while now. I love the idea for a series – each episode is a break-up scene, each time with different characters. In this one, at least, it’s two people, one shot. A little bit claustrophobic, but that’s the point.

I really like how we come to know these characters and their relationship as the break-up continues. I think it might be improvised, as details come out and are built on through the scene. I also thought the dynamic was very vivid and real – yes, sometimes the person doing the dumping has a harder time of it than the one being dumped.

When I hit play, I thought this was going to be a comedy. Now, I’m not so sure. It is a kind of black comedy – maybe even a dramedy. There are only a few laugh out loud lines (which is more than many webseries than I could mention). I suppose different people will engage with the scene on different levels – some my find it hysterical, and some may find it heart wrenching.

How ever you feel about it, I think we can agree that the scene rings pretty much true from beginning to end.