Raising Kayn – Ep. 1 The Puzzle of the Coin

The first episode of the popular web series “Raising Kayn”. Vampires, were creatures, ninjas and mad scientists, the Kayn family deals with them all in their search for the source of a mysterious coin.

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.

Riese – Ep. 2: Fragments

Riese awakens inside the township of Helmkin and discovers a horrifying secret.

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.

Riese – Ep. 1: Hunt

A lone wanderer flees an evil cult.

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.