2) The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy Season Two: This charming web series is a modern adaptation of J.M. Barries The Adventures of Peter Pan and Wendy. The show centers around Wendy Darling, an advice columnist who lives in the small town of Neverland, Ohio along with her younger brothers, Michael and John, and her best friend Peter. While everyone else seems content with living in Neverland forever, Wendy has bigger aspirations. She dreams of moving to a large city, and working at a large media company. She spends most of season one making decisions about her future, by applying for jobs in New York City, while also unexpectedly falling in love with Peter. When she ultimately decides to leave home at the end of the season, she invites Peter to come with her, but he is unable to make a life change of that magnitude. The season closes on a sad note, as Peter breaks up with Wendy, leaving them both heartbroken.
Season two starts six months later. Wendy is now living in New York, and has a successful job at JH Media. She works for Jas Hook, a former Neverland schoolmate, and she also happens to be dating him. For all intents and purposes, Wendy is doing very well for herself. However, back in Neverland, things are not going as well. After his break-up with Wendy, Peter stopped going to work, and abandoned responsibility altogether. As a result, he got fired and lost his apartment, and now lives with Michael. Michael is still his overly-excitable and energetic self, but it is tinged with a level of sadness. John, has thrown himself into work, in order to fill the void made by Wendy's absence. He is lost without the reassuring presence of his sister, and while he always exhibited neurotic tendencies, he is now on the verge of a mental breakdown. As the result of all of the turmoil at home, Mr. Darling asks Wendy to come home to try to repair some of the damage. The season has already aired the first ten episodes, and Wendy has returned home to find that people are not too happy to see her. It will be interesting to see how things unfold during the rest of the season.
Pros to Watching: This show has so many benefits to watching it. The writing and acting are both sharp, and the set is beautifully designed by the always talented Katie Moest. The transmedia adds a new dimension to the show, without feeling heavy-handed or overdone. As with any effective transmedia, it enhances the experience without making it a requisite part of the story. The show also utilizes interactivity, where fans can role play on twitter, and interact with the characters if they choose to do so. It allows Neverland to feel more like a real place, and it certainly enhances the viewing experience.
Cons to Watching: There are no apparent flaws with this show. The only con to watching it live, is that you have to wait six days in between installments, and when they end on cliffhangers, it is infuriating. While I disagree with some of the creative decisions that have been made this season (I will expand later), it is still a great show that is worth watching.
In future posts, I will get into plot specifics, as well as characterizations, tone, and relationship dynamics. All future commentary will be written on Saturdays.
Bonus Web Series: Call Me Katie: In the time it has taken me to resume this post, I have started watching yet another web series. This show is a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Even though I strongly dislike the play, this show does a great job modernizing the themes to make it relevant to the time period, without demonstrating the overt sexism of the original. Similar to the teen movie, 10 Things I Hate About You, this show makes even the worst characters seem redeemable, despite their morally objectionable behavior. The show is currently thirty-two episodes in, and I am not sure how many more episodes there will be, but it is worth watching. The writing is very clever, the acting is strong, and the representation is also pretty good. Without spoiling anything, there is an episode that features one of the most realistic and honest conversations about sexuality that I have ever seen, and I hope that we see more conversations like this in other shows.
Since I would like to go more in depth about this show, I will be writing further commentary on Wednesdays.
1) Lovely Little Losers: We have now reached the main web series event of the entire summer. LLL is an upcoming web series that exists as a sequel to last years massively popular show, Nothing Much To Do. I have not written an official post about NMTD, but it is far and away the best web series I have seen in years. It is a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. It is set in a New Zealand high school, and it revolves around the lives of a group of friends, as they navigate school, relationships, and life. I will go into a fully comprehensive discussion of it later, but for now, I will just say that it is incredible. LLL takes place eight months after the events of NMTD. Half of the characters are now at Uni, in Wellington. While The Candle Wasters (The Creators) have been pretty tight lipped about plot specifics, I do know that it is loosely based on the themes of Love's Labor's Lost. Part of the plot entails four flatmates creating a set of strict flat rules on themselves, with punishments if they are broken. The show will feature seven original cast members, and eight new ones. I am really excited to see what happens, but since none of the fans actually know what is going to happen, we will have to wait until the show starts to find out. Thankfully, after eight long months of waiting, we are days away from the premiere. LLL officially starts next Wednesday, and words do not seem to be conveying my level of excitement for it. Trust me, I am excited! Between now and then, I will be doing a full re-watch of NMTD, and posting commentary, as well as positing theories about what might happen/hope happens throughout the course of the show.
All further commentary will be written on Wednesdays, and when any new content is released.
June was a great month for web series, but I know that July and August will bring about even more exciting content. Along with daily commentary, every Sunday I will be doing recap posts, where I will briefly discuss all of the shows, and determine what the "episode of the week" is. (Honestly, it will probably be LLL every week, but I am willing to further elaborate as to why). On another note, I might also continue my post about The Mindy Project, from a few months ago. Until then, it is on to talking about all things Classic Alice.
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