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

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

Overturn - international sci-fi mystery web series

SYNOPSIS
Christopher Gabriel suffers from constant terrifying nightmares. These dreams have been coming since childhood, and all his life Chris tries to understand this disease, but no doctors or books give answers. Suddenly, an unknown group of people kidnaps him and conducts a number of strange and cruel experiments on him. At first, it looks like one of his nightmares has come true, but gradually, he begins to realize that they know something important about him. Chris also feels that something changes in him… But he does not know yet that he will never get back to his ordinary life because his real life is only beginning…

More info after the review…

3 Swirlies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eieYTOYp-k

This web series starts off with a gripping, if a tiny bit awkward, opening scene.  The first episode really rests on the drama of that one opening scene, and in the mystery of what it meant - a mystery both to the main character and to the audience. The intent of this series is to set up a mystery that its viewers try to solve. Such is the legacy the Lost has given to web series.

Shooting wise, the mix of “found footage” and web cam video with what I assume is more standard “invisible third person” footage is a little confusing because it is hard to tell which is which. All in all it is competently produced. The sound is actually quite well done. But there wasn’t enough in this first episode to really grab me. If you loved Lost, then you really might want to dig in to this series.

More YouTube info…

STARRING
IVAN DOAN as Christopher Gabriel
BILL KONSTANTINIDIS as William Higgins
MARY MELLOW as Maria Baturina
PHILIPPA PETER as Lisha
PAOLO NICOSIA as Fabrizio Conti
KONSTANTIN GERASIMUK as The Servant

CREW
Directed, Written, Produced, and Scored by Ivan Doan
Co-director — Helene Wang
DP - Sergey Kachanov

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

Overturn Ep.1 | A Web Series on the Watch List