drama

Downsized is a 2009 web drama. It was a 2012 Writers Guild nominee for original new media and has been celebrated in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Fast Company and Indiewire. This essay is part of Televisual‘s ”Indie TV Innovation” series. Somehow I became a part of the first generation of web series [...]

Anyone But Me is a drama series, which concluded its three-season run in 2012. It has won numerous awards, including from the Streamys (lead actress), Writers Guild (original new media), IAWTV (directing), Indie Soap Awards (writing, guest appearance, marketing/fundraising), Clicker (best web drama), Tellys (people’s choice). It has been lauded by numerous publications, including the Los Angeles Times, The [...]

Anyone But Me is a drama series, which concluded its three-season run in 2012. It has won numerous awards, including from the Streamys (lead actress), Writers Guild (original new media), IAWTV (directing), Indie Soap Awards (writing, guest appearance, marketing/fundraising), Clicker (best web drama), Tellys (people’s choice). It has been lauded by numerous publications, including the [...]

Spoilers ahead. There’s a tradition for launching a new network with a original programming. The idea is to give audiences something they can’t get elsewhere. On cable creating new original shows often leads to casting, or making shows about, minorities. It’s a remarkable trend. Look at the early scripted dramas and comedies for cable networks, [...]

Television is so awash in great shows no one can watch them all. And yet most TV fans can name the best new show of last year — technically, it’d have to be Girls – and best show overall — take your pick of Mad Men, Treme, Breaking Bad, etc. Online, nobody knows what’s good. There’s too [...]

An edited version of this essay is published on Slate. Before I watched Machinima’s cinematic new series, Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, I had to look it up on Wikipedia. Halo ranks among the most successful game franchises in history, and Forward Unto Dawn among the most expensive web series to date, but I’m not a gamer. Unless [...]

Final version posted at Tubefilter. Have you ever heard of the “Al Thompson hustle“? It’s a specific kind of hustle familiar to web television aficionados. For years, actor-producer Al Thompson made his mark by selling independent web series to major online networks. Most of us came to know him after  his 2009 NYTVF winner Johnny B. Homeless was sold to Atom (now Comedy [...]

Final version published at Sparksheet. Americans have so many entertainment choices it’s remarkable anybody watches anything. Blockbuster ratings and opening weekends are fewer and farther between. Nothing much “pops” anymore. Web networks grew up in this environment and learned to survive in it without breaking the bank. Companies like YouTube thrived by harnessing amateur/independent production [...]

The lastest episode of The Outs ends with sad Mitchell, played by series creator Adam Goldman, asleep on his couch, beer in hand, lying aside a photo of a half-naked athlete and a small pipe filled with ashes of weed. As the screen faded to black at Brooklyn’s Berry Park, the audience roared. The character Mitchell [...]

Thanks to Girls Like Giants for linking. Why can’t all political television shows be like Parks and Recreation? Don’t get me wrong. Veep is nice and smart. Scandal is fun and salacious. It’s great to see those strong, sexy women make decisions, good and bad. And it’s even better to see both shows get second seasons, particularly [...]