Tubefilter News

Conceptually clever 2 Girls 1 Cop, created and written by Erica Bardin and Susan Graham has two things going for it: hot girls and great production value…and that’s it.

Not that that’s a bad thing. I didn’t mind losing the three and half minutes to watching actresses Juliana Barninger and Daina Gozen eventually undress to their skivvies to avoid a parking ticket. However, I did find the comedy in this “comedy” to be lackluster and broad.

The basic concept is a spin on the car safety device, OnStar, only this one is called OnSluts which is designed to help hot girls get out of jams with the law. In the pilot, Cheerleaders 1 and 2 are pulled over by Officer Duda, played competently by Hal Rudnick. The girls are then instructed by the OnSluts, played by Bardin and Graham, via dashboard video, on various ways to convince Duda to throw out their ticket.

Structurally, we watch three scenarios which escalate in prurience and success until they finally force Duda to tear up the ticket by threatening to tweet a compromising picture they orchestrated with the help of the OnSluts. This final punch is the funniest bit and got a smile out of me, but nothing to write home about.

I like the basic idea of the show, it’s just that I didn’t laugh, due partly to performance and partly to writing. While clever in concept, the writing is just average and broad, unfortunately. There’s an abortion joke that falls flat, is not needed, and made me cringe; and then a smeared brownie moment that could have been funny (maybe?), but just plays as bad titillation.

From the trailer you get the idea that Tyranny is a distant relative of 70’s American thrillers, where corporations rule the world and your mind. From the three episodes I’ve screened, I was convinced it was another dystopic, post-apocalyptic thriller. Dystopia, I know, but I think timing wise, this is more pre-apocalypse. At any rate this series from creator John Beck Hofman is gripping while still competently executed for its scope.

Hofman plays Daniel McCarthy who in 1999 volunteers for a Berkley Grad student’s experiment that records his every thought and action throughout the day. Shortly thereafter he realizes he has lost memory of the last eight days and can now see the future from 2011 to 2013. And it ain’t pretty. Food shortages, bio-engineered pandemic, and picketers galore…future? Hmm, that sounds awfully similar to a certain planet I know right now. The rest of the cast is impressive, with Bond girl Olga Kurylenko starring alongside Hofman and web series standout Bitsie Tulloch from Quarterlife and lonleygirl15.

Wow. Central Division is one intense cop drama. The four episode first season will cost you ten minutes of your life in viewing time, but a lot more than that in reflection. I’ve never seen so many twists and turns in such a short span of time with no more than two characters and a body.

The minimalist cast consists of Brian Silverman as Det. Alan Edwards and Clay Wilcox as Det. Frank Hodge. You’ve seen both of these guys on a smattering of tv shows from Life and Cold Case for Silverman’s part to Criminal Minds and Heroes on the Wilcox side of things. Though usually bit players in these shows, these two guys are displaying some serious acting chops here.

Of course they seem to be in capable hands with the series creator-writer-director Aleem Hossain, who helmed the the sci-fi web series It Ends Today and the Comic-con official select short, Pinkerton. Hossain has obviously learned from his experience with small-filmmaking, by keeping this show in one easy location: a parking garage, his cast very small, and his writing tight and thrilling. Adding to this solid planning, is great cinematography by Julie Kirkwood that’s both unobtrusive and edgy.

Have you ever seen the first season of Seinfeld, or even The Simpsons for that matter? They are both kind of terrible. But when you watch them you do see glimpses of what they eventually became. I’m not about to put Agents of Cracked on cracked.com in the esteemed category of those shows, but it’s possible there is something here worth looking at. Maybe.The show, created by Abe Epperson, Daniel O’Brien and Michael Swaim, is relatively terrible for the first six episodes with tiny bits of funny, or at least funny ideas tossed in there. However, I look at episode 7, ‘The Curse of the Idol’ and things seem to be beginning to coalesce. Somewhat.

Michael Swaim, former host of CrackedTV, playing Michael Swaim, is a raw, exciting talent throughout the series. The character Swaim is a hapless idiot-savant, a kind of Hunter S. Thompson as played by Bill Murray in Where the Buffalo Roam, only dumber. Way dumber. At the moment, Swaim-the-actor’s energy and delivery make me want so badly to guffaw at his antics, yet most of the time I find myself left with my mouth open and nothing coming out. Like an aborted sneeze, let’s say. Though I’m absolutely sure, over time, as he fills the shoes of Swaim-the-idiot, he will have me rolling on the floor.

Dan O’Brien, Assistant Editor of Cracked, playing Dan O’Brien in the show isn’t quite as exciting…at first. At times it felt like he was channeling Woody Allen and failing miserably. O’Brien, playing the ‘good cop’ to Swaim’s ‘bad cop’ is a geeky, buttoned up babysitter for Swaim. He plays the straight man a little too straight to the point of dullness all the way until the seventh episode, and then…the seventh episode happens. But we’ll get into that later.

What I want to discuss with you right now is why I have not mentioned what the show is about. The reason? I’m not totally sure what the show is about. I know it takes place in the cracked offices. I know that these guys create content for cracked.com. And I know that they are given tasks like ‘brand development’ from their mysterious boss, The Chief. But the jobs and stories feel so random and the fact that they are described in the cracked.com’s ‘About’ section as being ‘trained to handle anything the world of internet comedy throws at them’ makes me totally confused sometimes as to what the hell I’m watching.

Palisades Pool Party is a conundrum in the best sense of the word, at once pathos, hysterical, terrible and oddly wonderful, it’s not quite Glee, nor Gossip Girl, but somewhere awkwardly sandwiched between. A show about the twenty four hours surrounding a teen pool party, there is something compelling about it, like a well-orchestrated trainwreck.

We are either in the deftest of hands with creators Tai Fauci and Jack Monroe, or they are getting very very lucky with a bad show. The unevenness of tone leads me to believe it’s a collision of the two. Just take Mischa, played by Danny Zaccagnino, as he gazes morose into the bathroom mirror, shirtless, fingering his hair while some very depressing ‘I might want to kill myself’ music plays in the background in episode one (song is, Overreacting by Brad Sucks – real name – and isn’t a bad tune in and of itself). The moment is slightly over-the-top, slightly erotic and slightly cloying, but I kind of really want to know what he’s about to do, which I’m guessing is either cry or masturbate. And then (spoiler alert) when he pulls out the needle…I’m still wondering if crying and masturbating are on the table perhaps after he shoots up. It’s funny and sad and confusing and totally on the nose, but somehow, someway, entertaining.

Since there isn’t much to go on so far in the teaser and first two episodes for Zaccagnino, I’ll reserve judgment on his acting. That said, the rest of the acting I must admit seemed either adequate or really bad when the show first began. But then as it went on, my initial least favorite, Whitmer Thomas, playing emo-boy next door neighbor, Josh, became my favorite one by the second episode. His angst ridden, mildly effeminate performance had me laughing at the end of episode two, but also caring about whether or not he was going to get the girl of his dreams, popular pool party thrower, next door neighbor Cassidy played by Ashley Schneider.

You see, Josh and Cassidy had sex the night before and now he’s hurt because she didn’t put her super-hot college ex-boyfriend on her ‘Blacklist’ of people that can’t come to her party. Yes, Josh is really that emo. His tantrum in episode one is capped off in ep 2 when Cassidy’s BFF Bianca, played by Katie Seeley (I Kissed a Vampire) forces a kiss on him in front of Cassidy. Oh, the drama. It gets even juicier when Cassidy and Bianca have a hot catfight in Cassidy’s bedroom, ending it amicably as though this is par for the course with this relationship. Which actually makes their friendship complex – in a good way.

And God presented to Noah his new creation, ‘The Reverse Zebra’ and Noah told God, “It looks exactly like a regular zebra…don’t worry about it we all get into ruts sometimes.” And so God decided to flood the earth and start over with a clean slate. This is the Gospel according to Stephen and Joel Moss Levinson, the writers of the award winning animated web series, God & Co.

According to a recent JTA.org article, the show is based on the Levinson’s seder skits from their hometown of Dayton, Ohio. Stephen tells me it took a UCB theater show in NYC to push him into animation, which he’d been planning on doing for a while, spurring he and his brother to make their pilot, ‘Let My People Grow’. This so far four episode series that comes out with eps a ‘couple times a year’ retells Biblical stories that, I won’t lie (it’s a commandment), is sometimes over my head because I didn’t always pay attention in Sunday school and I’m not Jewish. That said, I’ll assume the things I didn’t get were just as funny as the things I did get were I a better student of the Bible.

The ‘Reverse Zebra’ exchange happens in ep 4 of the series (above) when God, played by Jonathan Katz in a sublimely matter-of-fact voice, visits Noah and gets the bright idea for the flood to start anew. I laughed within the first thirty seconds of this four minute cartoon and continued throughout while watching paired animals in various stages of seduction, copulation or utter rejection. Only to finish off this little masterpiece with Noah, played by Bob Balaban (another stellar perf) telling God that his latest creation, the rainbow, was, ‘a little gay.’ That’s funny.

Tim Curcio just ran into Nick Ross, whom he hasn’t seen since high school and would have preferred it stay that way. Because, though Tim married his high school sweetheart, Nick took her virginity. Now Nick wants like hell to be Tim’s best friend, while Tim would rather see Nick get hit by a truck. That’s Old Friends, though Tim would never describe them as such.

Bottom line, this show is good. From top to bottom: premise, performances, and production all conspire to create one solid web-series with some serious legs. Tim and Nick both from NYC’s Upright Citizen Brigade not only play Tim and Nick, but created and write the show. Their last project, Park Bench, was a crowd favorite last summer. And Matt Cady as DP and producer deserves serious props for its beautiful production value and crisp look. The three of them partners in their production company, Metropolitan Bait and Tackle are working with producer Dave Title and Crossroads Films to bring this nice new show to a computer screen near you. And thank god for that.

First of all, the uncomfortable tension between Curcio and Ross will have you squirming with laughter. Curcio as a character is both slightly annoying and totally justified in his discomfort with Ross’s inappropriate reminders of their shared past. You love and hate both of these guys, Curcio just needs to get over it and Ross just needs to stop being such a douchbag about it, even though it’s hilarious how uncouth he is. Especially funny is in episode 2 when Ross first sees Curcio’s wife, Andrea (played by Amy Flanagan), at a bar and mentions, as a complete non-sequitur, “I took your virginity.” Why? Because he’s a douchbag…or maybe a sociopath.

t between one and half and three minutes a piece, each of these eps leaves you wanting more. There are six episodes so far with a seventh on the way, guest starring Mary Elizabeth Ellis from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

More vampires? Say it ain’t so! Well, it is. Yes, the entertainment world has somehow not yet reached the saturation point with vampires. With the new web series, Bleed, the ever-expanding genre now includes ‘buddy vampires’. Described on its facebook page as ‘the lovechild of Kevin Smith and Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this horror comedy hits notes of both, while somehow creating its own left of center charm.

With only three five minute episodes to be found on either the Facebook page or Blip.tv there is a sense that this little show has some potential to actually stand out in the pantheon of vampire media. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but there is something here, something not as abrasive as Kevin Smith, nor so self-aware as Buffy. It’s got a little bit of the Austin, Texas charm from where director Ben Snyder shoots the thing – like the wide-eyed good nature of the boys in Wes Anderson’s Bottle Rocket (another Austin, TX production).

This comes from both the direction and especially Matt Lawson’s writing. Lawson created the show in 2006 as a short film that eventually became the pilot to the web series. His main characters, twenty-something best friends, Perry, played by Alan Seales and Brian, played by Eric Morales, are newbie vampires muddling their way through the early days of undeadness like two kids who just entered puberty. Perry plays it too-cool-for-school, with a ‘let’s get this over with’ attitude, whereas Brian is more the puppy dog, awkwardly finding his way through.