2 Swirlies

“We don’t know what tonight is going to bring. Or tomorrow.”

In true movie fashion, the beautiful girl in distress is the second character we meet. Will they get together?

This is the second episode of the series, and we see that there are, indeed, some survivors from whatever it is that killed almost everyone in L.A. The survivors huddle in a basement and get what surely must be the worst pep talk ever – a real downer followed by, “Everything’s going to be okay.”

I’m still waiting for this series to get going. I’m a sucker for science fiction, so I guess we’ll see what picks up next…

2 Swirlies

Mime needs a job!

Part 1 of 5, Mime to Five chronicles the attempts by a mime to find gainful employment.

The jokes are mostly based on the fact that mimes can’t talk, and they pretend to act out things instead of actually doing them.

There’s a few chuckles, but nothing I would say that makes this installment stand out. Maybe the next 4 parts will have what this one is missing?

Keep watching this space!

2 Swirlies

This is an attempt to make a supernatural show for a family audience. Because there’s so many parents and kids watching online videos together?

This series is about The Kayn family and its involvement in supernatural mysteries. The mom is some sort of expert on everything whose biggest challenge in life is getting all her children to sit down for dinner together. The son is a sort of mad scientist who doesn’t like to come out of his lab (insert comic relief here). The older daughter fights things (that’s all we know so far) and the younger daughter is a teenage girl. They’re trying to solve mysteries and be home in time for prayers and bedtime.

This is the first part of the story, we don’t get very far into what’s going on except for a strange coin. Then the Ninjas show up. The production isn’t terrible, but the acting could be a lot better (like most webseries). It reminds me of syndicated series from the 80’s – the kind you’d watch on Sunday afternoon when nothing else was on.

This has that same feel as a tween comedy like Wizards of Waverly Place or iCarly, but not anywhere as clever or funny. (I should point out it is not a comedy). If you’re looking for something to watch with your children for family time, you might want to give this a chance. Me, I’m giving it two swirlies for now and waiting to see if it picks up next episode.

2 Swirlies

“She sings when she gets emotional.”

Wow, Twilght meets Glee.

I guess one of the things the internet provides is a quicker way to cash in on trends. I don’t know who’s behind this show, but it looks like they sunk a bunch of money into it.

Essentially, the guy is a newly turned vampire and his biggest problem is that he’s worried that his crush slash best friend won’t love him. Add two extended music video sequences and a “surprise” ending and you have what feels like a pitch at tweens. Is it meant to be an online ‘backdoor’ pilot for a TV series?

The production is slick, but it feels too slick and doesn’t really help creating any kind of mood. The acting is pretty bad (sorry guys, I know you’re trying your best.) I suppose if you’re 13 and think Glee and Twilight are the high water mark of cultural achievement this is the show for you.

If, on the other hand, you’re still discussing the ending of the Sopranos, made I suggest something else from the Watch List’s extensive menu?

Does it matter to you if you sense a webseries is just a thinly veiled attempt to get a TV show? Like they’re only dating you to get to your hotter friend?

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…

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?

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.

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?