A Parallel Universe to TV and Movies By MIKE HALE

November 12, 2010
A Parallel Universe to TV and Movies By MIKE HALE
HAS any art form — or entertainment category or visual medium or whatever you want to call it — grown so large so fast as the online serial, while remaining so consistently outside the mainstream cultural conversation? Quick, name a Web series. We’ll wait.

Did you come up with “lonelygirl15”? Two years after that initial series ended, it’s probably still the best known online serial — not because of its quality, but because of the fuss when it was revealed to be fiction.

If you’re an aficionado, or just have a lot of time on your hands, you may actually be watching better serials, like Felicia Day’s role-playing-game satire, “The Guild,” which recently completed its fourth season, or Lisa Kudrow’s latest deconstruction of 21st-century self-absorption, “Web Therapy,” which just resumed its third. But you’re probably not reading or hearing about them anywhere but online.

And still the Web series get made, hundreds of titles numbering thousands of short episodes: dramas, comedies, Webisodes accompanying television series, cartoons, talk shows, reality shows, newsmagazines, documentaries — a cheaper and quicker parallel universe to television and film.

Beginning this week in Arts & Leisure we will periodically round up some current and recent examples of purpose-made (as opposed to spur-of-the-moment) online video, focusing on original content but also keeping an eye out for hard-to-find television shows and films that have been given a home on the Web. We hope it will serve as both a snapshot of what’s being made and a guide for the casual but interested consumer.

Web Therapy

Ms. Kudrow’s series starring herself as Fiona Wallace, an abrasive and unhelpful online therapist, posted its 46th episode last week, and it’s a good one. The “Web Therapy” viewer sees both sides of Fiona’s iChat conversations; here she discusses her husband’s sexuality with his therapist, played by a hilariously winsome and breathy Meryl Streep. (The stagy reflexive laugh that’s marred some of Ms. Streep’s recent performances in film comedies doesn’t make an appearance.)

“We take the homo out of sexuality,” Ms. Streep purrs, before revealing that Fiona’s husband has responded more positively to a photograph of David Hasselhoff than to one of a naked Fiona. Then she has to pause for a moment because her bra has popped open.

Ms. Streep will reportedly appear in two more episodes while this ministory arc plays out; new episodes are posted on Wednesdays at lstudio.com/web-therapy.

Riese

The Canadian production “Riese” is not a new series; 5 of the 10 episodes appeared last year on KoldCast.tv. What’s interesting about its current run at Syfy.com is that it’s explicitly a tryout for television. Syfy wants to see whether “Riese” can make the same Internet-to-cable move that “Sanctuary” made in 2008. (Ten nine-minute episodes, with commercials, equals a two-hour pilot.) In case the connection wasn’t clear enough, Amanda Tapping, the star of “Sanctuary,” narrates “Riese.”

Less interestingly “Riese” exemplifies the recent resurgence of the steampunk aesthetic, which has journeyed from Western science fiction through Japanese animation and comic books (where it produced wonderful things like “Fullmetal Alchemist” and “Howl’s Moving Castle”) and back into geeky Western popular culture. That mash-up of Victorian and Industrial Revolution visual motifs with science fiction or Tolkien-esque fantasy is represented in “Riese” by the usual goggles and arcane headgear, and a few dirigiblelike sailing ships floating in the air.

Christine Chatelain, a lithe beauty who has also done time on “Sanctuary,” is a bit glum as the title character but still makes a convincing exiled princess-action heroine. “Sanctuary” has made it to a third season on Syfy by being mediocre but mildly addictive, so the bar isn’t set too high for “Riese.” The 7th of the show’s 10 episodes will be posted on Tuesday; new episodes go up Tuesdays and Thursdays at syfy.com/riese.

Kids Reenact

The Babelgum.com original series “Kids Reenact” isn’t exactly satire at a high level, but it doesn’t need to be. Having 6- and 7-year-olds act out mock scenes from shows like “The Hills” and “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” complete with sighs, head tosses and rolled eyes, is inherently funny.

In the latest episode, “Kids Reenact Project Runway,” a tiny Tim Gunn in a suit and wire-rimmed glasses marches around spouting his namesake’s pet phrases. (“This worries me. Go go go. Follow your vision. Make it work.”) A mini Michael Kors dresses down a bashful designer in terms he can understand: “It looked like Princess Jasmine showed up drunk to Little Mermaid’s birthday party.”

Tales From Beyond the Pale

A project of the cult horror auteur Larry Fessenden (“Wendigo,” “The Last Winter”) and the writer and director Glenn McQuaid (“I Sell the Dead”), “Tales From Beyond the Pale” could be described, uncharitably, as a podcast site. But what Mr. Fessenden and Mr. McQuaid are really trying to do is revive the radio drama in a new setting. Those old enough to remember previous attempts like “CBS Radio Mystery Theater” — as well as fans of shows from “A Prairie Home Companion” to “This American Life” that take their stylistic cues from radio’s glory days — should enjoy these macabre R-rated tales.

Three half-hour dramas are available, including “British and Proud,” a satirical take on Anglophilia, imperialism and sex with the natives, by the filmmaker Simon Rumley (“Red, White & Blue”), and “Is This Seat Taken” by the novelist Sarah Langan, a meet-not-so-cute story set on the Long Island Rail Road. The schedule includes episodes written by Mr. Fessenden and the Eli Roth protégé Paul Solet (“Grace”). The site, talesfrombeyondthepale.com, offers free preview clips, but hearing an entire drama means buying a $1.99 download.

Dark Echo

Once again Showtime is offering a set of animated Webisodes to accompany its serial-killer-drama, “Dexter.” The six two- to three-minute episodes of “Dark Echo” tell a self-contained story, opening with the funeral of Dexter’s adoptive father, Harry.

The storytelling in the Webisodes is carried entirely by the animation and by the internal-monologue narration of Michael C. Hall as Dexter. The narration is the weakest part of the television series and a steady diet of it here is deadening. The compensation: The first three episodes are drawn by the top-flight comics artist Bill Sienkiewicz (“Elektra: Assassin,” “Daredevil: Love and War”).

Salesman/Princess Jellyfish

There are gems to be found among the “Real Housewives” and “Cops” episodes on Hulu.com. Its Criterion Collection channel, begun in February with a group of “Zatoichi” sword-fighting movies, most recently added “Salesman” (1968), the seminal direct-cinema documentary by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin (hulu.com/salesman).

In a completely different vein Hulu is posting episodes of the charming anime series “Princess Jellyfish,” based on an award-winning shojo manga (women’s comic) about a group of socially awkward young women sharing an apartment with a cross-dressing man, more or less simultaneously with their broadcast on Fuji TV in Japan. New episodes have been going up on Thursdays at hulu.com/princess-jellyfish.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 21, 2010


The Watchlist column last Sunday, about the growth of the online serial, referred incorrectly to the history of one such series, “Riese,” currently running on Syfy.com. Only 5 of the 10 episodes appeared last year on KoldCast.tv, not all 10.