Dominion Ep.1 “The Case for Tuesdays”

Episode 1 – The Case for Tuesdays

Starring: Sean Michael Field, Maia Nicholson, Mateo Prendergast, ;With: Claudia McLain, Steve Carter, Jason Johnson-Spinos, Pedro ColonDirected, Filmed and Edited by Rodney SmithWritten and Created by Andrew Stoute and Rodney SmithMusic by Rob SbarSound Design by Andre Philips

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4 Swirlies

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“Few things surprise me. But when they  do, it is usually one hell of a surprise.”

Yeah, I know the feeling.

This starts out as a fairly typical detective, film noir, low budget web series. At first, I couldn’t figure out if odd touches like the detective’s office is just a chair at the back of a hardware story were intentional or just a case of “my brother owns a hardware store.” But as I got into it, it all kinda worked together.

And three quarters in, it takes a twist that not only did I not see coming, but made me bound up in my chair.

The first part of it does a nice job in setting the scene, introducing the main character, and lulling into a rhythm so that, much like our detective, when the twist comes it hits hard. This is one well written show.

Where it falls down is in the shooting. The Blip player doesn’t help – it looked so gross in SD that I let it the HD version buffer for a while, but even then it kept dropping into low rez when there was a lot of detail. Sure, my computer isn’t top notch, but YouTube looks and works a lot better, even in HD.

But the actual on set production of this series could be better. They clearly used available lighting, which sometimes made the scenes feel fake rather than gritty. And the acting could be better.

But that twist – it not only works but that moment is by far the best produced part of the show. With effective camera, editing, sound, voice over and special effects… it’s well worth the rest of the episode. And, to be clear, the rest of the episode is good, just not great. That one scene… that’s a 10 out of 10.

There’s a bunch of mini-sodes out that are supposed to give you some back story. I guess if you’ve seen them, the twist won’t be much of surprise. I’d watch this episode first, like I did. (And of course, nothing ruins a twist like being told to expect a twist.)