It’s heartening to see a new longer-form sitdotcom hit the virtual universe, especially one that’s actually watchable and rather charming. Though not breakthrough in most ways, Inconvenient Molly represents the rare web serial more interested in taking its time and developing real characters, rather than relying on “the quick-laugh,” copious pop culture references, parody and the like.
### But one has to ask whether there’s something about how we watch video on the web that puts longer shows like these at an immediate disadvantage. We’ve all been guilty of using certain compound buzzwords like “web-friendly” and “youtube-esque” to describe successful Internet TV, yet it’s shows like Molly, which seem to break a lot of these rules, that force me to reclassify my judgments as prejudgments. Perhaps this “shorter + faster = better” sentiment is simply undue prejudice, a relic from the older days of shabby web connections, less user-friendly compression modes, and fewer portable video players.
Inconvenient Molly follows Molly Brooks, a former child-star forced by her parents to go to college (lame!) but now trying to make it again as an actress. Molly hired a director named Lisa, perhaps from craigslist, to make a documentary about her plunge back into show business. The show itself is this documentary, more or less unedited, although I wish it were a bit messier and choppier. And as in Clark and Michael (Tilzy.TV page) and other documentary-style sitdotcoms, the camera is itself character. Molly takes this even further, as the cameraperson actually has a name, Lisa, and a face, as she does on-camera testimonials.
The pilot episode is about 13 minutes long, and definitely feels like it can be a little shorter and tighter, but creator Jeremy Robbins tells me that he considered the pilot as a “double episode” designed to introduce the characters and that subsequent episodes will be about 8 minutes long. Eli Clark, who deftly plays Molly, is also a co-creator. Check her out here:
