Rise ‘n Shine Og: Ep. 1 “Locked Out”

A show about an adorably hateful British woman living in Canada, trying to make her way through the world one miserable morning at a time.

3 Swirlies

“Get on the ground!  Shut up!”

This series is basically a one-woman monologue—if that woman were a potty-mouthed Bridget Jones.  Except our heroine is Og— and she doesn’t mind breaking the fourth wall all the time (think Malcolm in the Middle).

The series feels like a quirky indie film—not without its charms—and it looks good for that aesthetic.  And yet, the length of the episode (18 minutes) suggests that the creators see this as more of a potential TV show than a web series.

The story itself is rather simple.  Og gets locked out of her house, and has to retrieve a spare key—obstacles (and hilarity) ensue.  However, there’s a huge logic hole: Why doesn’t Og just drive back to her boyfriend’s work and get the key from him?  It’s the simplest solution, and yet, it takes her until the end of the episode to do just that!

If you can forgive story holes like that, then you just might be able to go along for the ride.  And Anita Smith is quite good when it comes to bringing Og to life.  She is the heart and swearing soul of this show—though it does take some time for the audience to warm up to her prickly, downtrodden, endearingly-pathetic character.

Unfortunately, the acting of Og’s boyfriend (who also directs this episode) is not up to par with Anita’s compelling performance, but, at least, he’s not heavily featured.

On a technical note, I watched the show in full screen, and found the drifting shallow focus distracting, especially when the majority of the show features Og in close-up and medium shots.  Was this intentional?  If so, why?

In the end, this episode was a lot longer than I had bargained for, and longer than it had to be.  Og’s monologues, although funny and biting, didn’t necessarily push the story forward—just her character.  And by the first or second monologue, we’ve already got plenty to go on in terms of figuring out who Og is with all her quirks.

Yes, this is very much “The Og Show.”  And if you can fall in love with the character, you’ll probably happily tune in to more of Og’s daily mis-adventures.  And if you can’t, then this might not be for you.