The Variants Ep.4 “Passholes” | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

A Comedy Web Series

2 Swirlies

“Pass?”

While there’s still a few good one liners and some other stuff to like about this episode (Like the Captain Power ship! Cool!) it’s too wonky to really get into.

One of the biggest problems of any low budget production is extras. Sure, you can ask all your friends, but bet on only half (at most) showing up and don’t expect them not to smirk through the whole thing. And that’s what happens here.

This zombie apocalypse parody episode largely falls apart for two reasons, one - the smirking zombie extras, and two - the forced concept that these are not-zombie customers that totally act like zombies. And I generally like this show. Just not this episode. It also seems the least polished of the ones I’ve seen, as if the production was more rushed (not unusual when dealing with a bunch of extras).

And plus, this episode lacked the nice character touches that other episodes had. Hopefully the next one will get back into the Joe/Keli will they or won’t they plot.

For some good news, I just noticed that Variants season two just started! We have 6 episodes to go in season one, so we won’t be posting season two as it is released, but some day we’ll catch up!

From YouTube Description:

The Variants Web Series Episode 4 “Passholes” A movie pass giveaway forces the employees in the store overnight. Can they keep back the hordes and survive until dawn?

Watch more of this web series comedy about life at a comic book shop at our site http://www.thevariants.com
and twitter @variants

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The Variants Ep.3 “The Upsell” | A Web Series Review on The Watch List

The Variants - Comedy Web Series

4 Swirlies

“The End is Neigh.”

A great third episode of this 2009 web series about guys working at a comic book store.

What I like about this one was that it focused on the characters, and had a set up that led organically into the jokes. And Barry looks awesome in his Black Adam super hero outfit.

The acting seems a little more natural, too. I think the cast is hitting their stride.

Story wise, not a whole heck of a lot happens, but it doesn’t really feel that way. While it is a little on the long side for web series, it feels full and the pace is strong. There’s a bunch of good laughs, and the joke with the sign is pretty funny - and the call back makes a great button.

In the last episode, I talked about how I felt that they were focused too much on the long arc and not enough on telling a story in each episode. I feel like with this one, there’s hints of the ongoing plot, but the focus is on the episode. It works for me in this ep a lot more than in the last episode.

From YouTube Description:

The Variants Web Series Episode 3, “The Upsell” The crew gets into character in order to increase sales.

Watch more of this web series comedy about life at a comic book shop at our site http://www.thevariants.com
and twitter @variants

- 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 The Variants

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The Variants Ep2. “Dead Man’s Comics”

The Variants Web Series Episode 2, “Dead Man’s Comics” In discovering a vintage comic, Joe discovers his co-workers’ ignorance in Kurt Russell filmography.

Watch more of this web series comedy about life at a comic book shop at our site http://www.thevariants.com
and twitter @variants

3 Swirlies.

“This guy dying is the greatest thing that’s happened all week!”

This second episode doesn’t really live up to the promise of the first one. It appears to be setting up a subsequent episode where they have a movie night to watch Kurt Russells’ films. If you look carefully, there’s a very funny sign in one scene that reads, “Kurts so good.”

There’s not much in the way of a story here. But there are still some funny bits. I’m hoping that the story picks up a bit more as the series goes on.

Often, when we’re writing web series, there’s a tendency to write episodes know that there’s some good stuff coming down the line. We forget that the audience doesn’t know what’s coming, and so we need to give shape and satisfaction to each episode (within the format of the series, of course). There’s two things going on in this episode – an attempt to quit smoking and a pending decision whether or not ot buy a dead guy’s comic collection – but neither of them have very high stakes. There’s no real consequences to the outcome either way. It leaves me feeling a little unsatisfied at the end – like watching a Star Trek The Next Generation movie.

The Varients Ep. 1

The Variants Web Series Pilot Episode. Joe misses out on a limited hardcover and can’t recover a copy for himself.

Watch more of this web series comedy about life at a comic book shop at our site http://www.thevariants.com
and twitter @variants

4 Swirlies

“Yeah. Like I’m gonna go back into Deliverance land and ask Stockroom Guy for his copy? No.”

Here’s a fun little discovery.

Sure, it’s rough around the edges and is a little long for the amount of story in the pilot, but it does tell a nice little story. We get a sense of all the characters without feeling like it is simply informing us about them, like we see in a lot of first episodes. This one is actually about something – a guy wants a new, limited edition comic book badly and, being tricked out of it, has to try to con someone else’s.

Sure, the part in the middle in this episode is a long stall, as all our guy can do to get a copy is ask various customers to give up theirs. But there’s a fun rant about midway, and the ending is a touching twist that I didn’t see coming which, hopefully, points to some heart in this show. I am a little uncertain about where it is going (I don’t want to spoil the reveal by giving too much away) but that’s a pleasant surprise to me. There’s also a few funny bits of dialogue.

So, give it a chance. Stick it out until the end. Now that I told you to expect a surprise, you may see it coming a long time before I did. If you hate me for making you watch this, you can tell me off in the comments.