3 Swirlies

“All girls have a crush on Hotel Soap!”

Dr. Tran is visited by his “friend” Hotel Soap, who he (natch) has no memories of.

I like this one because it dips away from the formula of the other ones a bit, and Hotel Soap is a wacky, wacky idea. I just didn’t laugh as much as I would have liked. Having said that, this is still one of the cleverest series on the web, weird without being confusing. And it seems to be easily one of the most popular on the Watch List.

So enjoy! And keep an eye out for his little balls…

3 Swirlies

“You can’t take a baby! That’s kidnapping, not a theft!”

I really like the visual design of the opening titles. Colourful and graphic.

So, here’s where things get moving. A crazy plot is hatched… and suddenly our hero’s life isn’t so boring.

There’s a number of funny bits. What tickles me is that they are staging a fake mugging and because they are inspired by the comics, the “mugger” is dressed up like the bad guys in Scrooge McDuck.

The fake fighting is fun, even if there’s some moments that feel like outtakes that were left in. I still like the comic book split screens, especially where they are used to juxtapose the comic book moments with the reality. What stands to be improved most is the acting. (Something to be said for almost every web series.)

All in all, a fun episode, albeit with an abrupt ending.

3 Swirlies

“You either want the big story or you don’t.”

The title kinda gives it away.

So, in this second episode, it starts with a surprise (that would have been a bigger surprise without the spoiler title) and then the events of the first episode are (mostly) explained.

While this episode is largely expository – a bad choice when you’re dealing in 5 minute episodes – there’s one interesting part where they show a clip from an old movie, which I assume hints at what’s happening to our gal.

This episode leaves me disappointed after the promise of the first, and I gotta say (at the risk of coming across like an asshole) – what? She wouldn’t go to the hospital or the cops after someone shot at her?

I’ll give it at least a one more episode. What do you guys thinks? Are you going to keep watching?

3 Swirlies

“Chocolate is forbidden”

I’d like to take a shit out of a helicopter.

Shane in San Diego writes to ask Dr. Tran about the breakfast specials. But do you know what’s really special… Dr. Tran. (And this is where helicopters and relieving yourself come into play.)

Good episode, even if it feels like the narrator is crowding out Dr. Tran from his own show.

3 Swirlies

“Dr. Tran will kill all of your mothers!”

This is the very first Dr. Tran Mail, and it sets up the structure for all the rest to follow.

Anthony from Ohio accuses Dr. Tran a killing his own mother with a lawn chair (which Dr. Tran denies) but then our dramatic narrator discloses Dr. Tran’s death list containing the names of the mothers he will kill.

It’s funny, fun, and under 2 minutes long.

Are there any fans out there who have watched Dr. Tran since his Lone Sausage days? I haven’t had a chance to watch any of them yet. How do these Mail versions stand up to the originalsof

3 Swirlies

“I thought I’d watch the sun rise over the ocean for the first time. Only the sun doesn’t rise over this ocean.”

We learn we a little more about Taffy, and get to see her try to bond with her roommate.

This one has a little less pathos than the first one, and little less in the way of overwrought voice over.

This is the real pilot – a lot of exposition (which is mostly well delivered) and a good grounding in what the characters are looking for. Taffy came to L.A. looking for a new life, and while she feels disconnected from the big city life all around her her trust in God allows her to have faith that she’ll figure it out.

Any series that can make me feel sympathetic to a character that talks about God and Jesus is pretty well done.

Still not sure about that accent, though.

This is still the only series I’ve come across that’s all drama. Does anyone have any recommendations?

3 Swirlies

Whaaaat?

I’ve never seen an episode of Baman Piderman before. (By MondoMedia, the folks behind Happy Tree Friends and Dr. Tran Mail) I knew going in that there would be some child’s logic going on. I was not expecting this.

I suppose that this could be very funny, but I spent too much time trying to figure it out to laugh. Maybe I just didn’t get it. Why don’t you check it out and get back to me, cause I don’t even know what to say.

What was that screaming face thing on the couch?

2 Swirlies… no, okay. 3

“No, Buddha. That’s ignorance. We also eat paneer.”

The good is pretty good, but the bad is really bad.

Talk about your slow start. But if you give it time, like past the 3/4 mark, things start to get nicely weird. There’s all kind of weird shots and camera usage. A fight. And then Jesus appears (I shit you not) and eventually, turns into Jerry, the cartoon mouse from Tom and Jerry and walks away.

It’s long. And often out of focus and the sound is pretty bad, sometimes it is hard to hear what’s being said. If you want to give it a change, skip to around the 4:50 mark. It’s loooooong. Of course, if you do that, you’ll miss the guy who speaks only in vocoder (“You sound like T-Pain or some shit”) at around 2:30. If it hadn’t been for that, I might bailed.

The music’s awesome, too. Really, the weakest parts are when they are just sitting talking – even with the excessive dolly movements. Almost unwatchable. But they hooked me enough to give the second part of Episode 1 a chance (yes, it is so long they had to split it two.) I’m told (via annotations on screen) that it pwns this one.

I’m curious to know what you guys think. Does the good stuff outweigh the bad?

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.

(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.