1 Swirlies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=stA-W276AEk

“Stay away from me. Stay off my couch! Who are you?”

Wha!?

I gotta say, I don’t like things that are deliberately oblique I like to think I’m a pretty smart guy, but I have only the faintest idea of what this series is about. The two episodes don’t even seem to belong to the same series.

I know, I know, I’m supposed to be intrigued and then head over to the website to “solve the puzzle.” And look, I’m really sorry to the people involved with this series for being hard on you. This is merely my opinion, I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who love this show. I wish I could recommend it more, because the reason I do this blog is not to hold up things to ridicule them like 90% of the internet does, but to help introduce people to series they may not other wise get a chance to see - to make it easier to watch and follow web series in general.

I like stories that force you to rise up to their level, that ask you to trust them and learn as you go. Something like Radiance is like that - I had no idea going in what it was going to be about, but I found myself liking the characters and wanting to be around for the ride. I didn’t feel like the creators were deliberately withholding information that I needed to know to understand the story. I just felt like I didn’t have all the information yet, but as each episode goes by I’m getting more and more context.

Yes, this is only the second episode of Overturn, and I’m sure if I watched to the end all would be revealed. But here’s where they lose me - the whole foundation of the story is designed to be a mystery to be solved. What’s it about? Go to the forum and tell us your best guess. What’s going on? Join us on Facebook and discuss it with other fans. This not a story meant to be watched and enjoyed - it is meant to be figured out with very little clues and context. And I’m sure they’ll get to the episode where you find that you have been deliberately misled in order to keep you guessing.

I get why you’d want to design a web series this way. On the face of it, it seems like it will be good for community building. Watching the show isn’t enough you have to become involved. But first and foremost - entertain me. I don’t want to feel like I’m being given a quiz. “Quick, name three objects in the room you just saw.” “Was it really a dream or is he lying?” Can’t I just eat my burrito and watch your show?

This is what Lost has brought us to. To me, Lost was never about the mystery. Lost was about the characters. I found Lost entertaining, and I spent very little time trying to puzzle it out. To solve it. Where I stopped caring about Lost was when it began pandering to the “I want answers” crowd. All of a sudden, characters took a back seat to connecting all the dots. To giving people answers so that they could know if they got more things right than the other people in the forums.

And now the “I want answers” crowd, to whom Lost was something that you could win at, are making web series.

So where does that leave us with Overturn? I’m probably not going to keep posting it - it will be the first series that I have deliberately abandoned since starting The Watch List. But I can’t cover every web series out there, so by choosing to continue posting this one, I’m not posting any other show. I hope that there are people out there who discover this show through The Watch List and enjoy it. Just because I don’t like doesn’t mean you have to not like it. Just head over to YouTube, or the link to the website is below.

From YouTube Description:

Overturn - international sci-fi mystery web series - Episode Two
http://www.overturnseries.com Solve the puzzle.

Also check out this:
http://www.webseriesnetwork.com/profile/OverturnSeries
http://overturn.blip.tv

- 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 Out With Dad

Back to The Watch List’s Main Page

Overturn Ep.2 | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

http://www.TheVetala.com

1 Swirly

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZIddhEz9ho

“Am I alive? Or am I dead?”

Wow, what a giant let down!

I know that many people don’t always agree with some of the things I have to say on The Watch List, but I’m shocked that The Vetala is as popular as it is, after watching this last episode. Essentially a coda where nothing happens but a half-hearted explanation of the mysteries at the heart of the web series - and revealing (or perhaps implying) that the whole first season was back story to a second season. This is the “I can help you master your powers” scene that we see in just about every Hollywood action movie.

I didn’t love every episode of this web series, but at least I thought they were going somewhere with it. I was along for the ride because I figured they were telling me a story about something, and quite honestly, I feel cheated by this last episode.

On the plus side, we do get to spend some time with the creature, up til now only seen obliquely. It’s cool, even if it doesn’t rise above the level of a video game character and so looks decidedly unreal in the middle of a live action parking lot. And the series, as a whole, has strong production value and some good acting.

Completely unrelated to the fact that I didn’t enjoy it, I don’t think there’s going to be a second season. This series is two years old now, and there’s been essentially no news on their blog expect the awards they won around this time last year.

The Vetala Ep.7 “Tides of Change” | A Web Series on The Watch List

1 Swirlies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUonyk9NDUA

“This internet is supposed to be all about interacting. So let’s interact! Alright? ”

This very short episode introduces a new character, doing a video blog about television.

Not sure where this web series is going with this episode, and it has grown quite stale since it has been uploaded - he’s talking about an upcoming TV season that has long past us by. Which is mildly amusing, but doesn’t make me want to watch the next episode.

I think part of the problem for me is that this episode lacks any sort of context with the series, letting me know how it connects. I assume that Taffy meets this guy, so this is our way of meeting him before she does. I guess. I haven’t watched an episode for a while, so maybe I’m missing something.

This series takes a fictional character and has that character use YouTube to communicate with the audience, blending together the episode that have narrative elements with uploads (like episode 3) that are just stuff Taffy wants to share with us. While I loved that about the commercial in episode 3 I don’t love it so much here, because there’s no sense of how this guy connects to Taffy, while with the commercial you get the strong impression that Taffy’s feeling disillusioned with the promise of Hollywood.

A little more context would have made me connect much more with this episode.

With The Angels Ep. 5 “Hollywood Insighter”

(More info below…)

1 Swirlie

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Hello Agent Frost.  Hello Mrs. Frost.”

Woah.  Since when were we watching Mr. & Mrs. Smith?  Or True Lies for that matter?  Minus the funny.

After a real thriller interrogation of a first episode, in which, we were promised Zombie destruction la 28 Days Later— and then a second episode packed full of conspiracy theory—we’re stopping for a flirty domestic picnic?

I’m all for character.  But a five minute scene between two characters that we haven’t seen up to this point, discussing their marital difficulties, seems a bit like… stalling.

I felt like shouting at the screen: GET TO THE ZOMBIE ACTION!

Also, aren’t law enforcement/government agents the first to get it in these kind of horror stories?  If so, the filmmakers had better not be building these characters up just to kill them off at the first sign of zombie infection.

Filmmakers: Never betray your audience’s expectations.  We won’t like it.  Really.  (Hello, Lost, anyone?)

Though, I have to hand it to the actors.  A marital scene loaded with subtext and subtlety is hard to pull off, but they do.  (Although, I had a hard time believing the male lead was a government agent—but then again, Matt Damon has spoiled me).

The director has some nice nuanced moments, and the score helped to emphasize when we should care—which, if overdone a bit more, would have felt overly sentimental.  But the biggest issue here is the writing.  Not that it’s all bad, but it just goes on for too long.  Get in and get out.  That’s how an effective scene works.

This was not an effective episode for building upon the greater zombie conspiracy arc.  If anything, it feels like a strange tangent—a subplot that we’d have time for in a feature film or television show—but not so much a web series in which you only have so much time to hook your audience.

All I have to say is that there had better be some action in the next episode!

More Info:

CAST:

Sonia Pierce… Marisha Ray
Agent Greg Frost… Richard Lara
Erika (VO)… Traycee King

CREW:

Created by… Traycee King
Producers… Traycee King, Beau Ryan
Director… Mando Franco
Director of Photography… Beau Ryan
Writer… Marisha Ray
Lighting… Beau Ryan
Editors… Traycee King, Joshua Evan Ovenshire
Makeup… Chrissy Lynn
Visual Effects… Ryan Anderson
Music by… Drew Krassowski

8.13 EPISODES:

Episode 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UhuMLU4k78
Episode 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXqUC3QUQT0&feature=re…
Episode 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko4ehzVKHzs&feature=re…
Episode 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw-gD3HJ_uk&feature=re…
Episode 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln5xX8a27c8&feature=re…
Episode 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y78u4Njlj5I
Episode 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7a4Mon0o-0
Episode 9: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRb40bm2aTo

8.13 SITES:

Website: http://813series.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/813series
Twitter: http://twitter.com/zom813s
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/eightthirteen
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/813series

8.13 Ep.3 “Dinner for One”

1 Swirlie

Click here to view the embedded video.

“It’s like… uh… it’s like genetrics.”

Wow.  When The Watcher sent me the link to this series, I thought I had stumbled upon some weird Jersey Shore porn.  Mind you, I’ve never seen Jersey Shore.

This is basically a show about a guy with a big dick.

But unlike HBO’s Hung, which shares the same premise (hard to believe, right), there is no character here.  This is just caricature.  And it’s milked for all seven minutes.

This is no story.  It’s one joke played for laughs.  I’ll be honest; it’s not my type of humour.  But the video also has some 100,000+ hits.  So maybe others are finding it funny?

I’m trying to find something good to say about the series, but I really don’t know.  The use of quirky sound effects/stings is interesting for a guy doing a video blog—for the first little while.  Same goes for the editing, which starts to grate with repeated “montage” cuts.

Sorry, but I’m going to have to pass on this one.

http://www.thebigdickmikeshow.com/

The Big Dick Mike Show: Episode 1

You can purchase this Episode in HD from the ‘Official Website’ or you can SUBSCRIBE to the Season One account and have each episode digitally delivered to you every Friday as they are released. If you want to learn more, please visit http://mindseyeseries.com

1 Swirly

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bizarre.

There’s some good ideas in this series, and it is well produced, but where it really falls down – I hate to say it – is the acting of its young stars. They mutter through each line without any sense of emotion or intention. There’s a huge suspension of disbelief involved to bridge the gap from how the actors are portraying the story, and what the story is meant to be.

And the pacing of the dialogue is odd, too. There’s a line of dialogue, a long pause, another character speaks, a long pause. It removes it even further from having a sense of a natural conversation. Partialy because of this pacing, it takes a long time for anything to happen, and when it does, it seems largely a recap of events from the first episode.

My intent behind behind this blog is give people web series to watch and I always try to look for a reason to recommend any given series or episode. But, sadly, there’s very little in this episode to recommend, outside of the effects.

Mind’s Eye Fantasy Web Series – S01E02: A Budding Thought

1 Swirlie

“Fine. If she gets into one of her moods, I’m dropping her off – Skid Row.”

I don’t really have much to say about this one. After the tension and mystery of the first episode, this exposition heavy second part is a let down.

There’s so much talk, I barely caught a fraction of it. And still no zombie action.

When I can’t find something to recommend in a video, I feel like I’ve failed you guys. But for this one you should give it a pass. Maybe the third episode will pick up.

More From YouTube:

Website: http://813series.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/813series
Twitter: http://twitter.com/zom813s
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/eightthirteen
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/813series

8.13 Ep.2 “Hacker (13 hours earlier)”

1 Swirlie

“I’ve already found myself a date. When you grow another two inches you let me know.”

So… I often try to find something to like about the videos I review, but I’m a bit at a loss here. I don’t write this blog to post about things I don’t think you should watch, and I’m not one of those people that gets off on cleverly tearing down someone else’s achievements or efforts.

But the best thing I could say about any part of this episode is competent. Which sucks. I certainly know what it is like to work months on something, only for it to be less than glowingly received. This isn’t even one of those “so bad it is good” things – although I tend to avoid enjoying things ironically, too.

I briefly met Norm Jewison once. He shook my hand (along with dozens of others) and said to me, “Don’t be boring.” I was a little taken aback, because he didn’t say it to anyone else. Just me. Did I do something to make him think I was boring? Anyway, that’s the problem with this episode – it tries to go all Ari Gold without going far enough, and takes a long time to get to the point, without much in the way of stakes or character development.

Sorry guys. I’ll check out more of your episodes but if I don’t have anything nice to say… I won’t stick through all 12.

Square One Ep. 1 “Pressure”

Shot on location in beautiful Astoria, New York.

Starring Patrick Cohen, Seth Kirschner and Evan Bass.

Produced by Ragtag Productions.

www.weneedgirlfriends.tv

1 Swirly

“How else are people supposed to know that I’m a Rodney Piper fan?”

The fellows go to a ‘Blue Party’ which, it turns out, is not a sex party. And apparently the most humiliating thing in the world is to take your top off at a party.

The first episode was way funnier. I suggest you skip this one and I’ll let you know when you can check back in.

We Need Girlfriends – Ep 2. The Blue Party