Can Webisodes Make You Laugh?

Anyone who has been with me oh these many years of digital voyeurism know how many made-for-the-Web video series we have seen. I go back to the days when the felons of TheDen were sucking up VC money left and right in the hopes of bringing TV-style content to a Web with precious few broadband customers. Learning that lesson, the wags at PseudoTV turned to lo-res Webcams transmitting public-access-level programming of anyone they could pull off the street. Then the mode turned to animated series. Everyone wanted to leverage cheap Flash production itno the next South Park. And so companies like Icebox, Atom Films, and Shockwave tried launching series after series of offbeat curios. Anuone remember Hard Drinkin’s Lincoln? Angry Kid? Stainboy?

I didn’t think so. And so as online video takes off I admit some skepticism about the likes of Seth “Family Guy” MacFarlane and Joss “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” Whedon brining their talents to Webisodics. We have been here before. After ding the mildly funny “Landlord” sketch for his Funny or Die site, Will Ferrell hasn’t delivered much of a second act. And wasn’t it Tim Burton who tried to bring repectable creativity to the digital video format years ago, too?

So I was surprised, nay, impressed by two Webisodics I screened this weekend. The ongoing “N” series from CBS Mobile and Simon and Schuster is an animated graphic novel that promoted the upcoming release of Stephen King’s short story of the same name. Using what we used to call limited animation, the creators have add music and minimal movement to static graphic novel drawings. The 20 very short one-minute episodes are very effective in drawing the viewer in to a story about a psychiatrist who seems to catch his patient’s obsessive-compulsive mania. The relentless melodrama that each micro-episode hits frankly woks very well, both on the Web and even on the phone. You can watch a package of five episodes or one at a time.

The other series that shows great promise for the format is Joss Whedan’s comic Dr. Horrible’s Singa-along Blog, featuring Neil Patrick Harris as a hapless, wannabe super-villain. The production values (including many musical numbers) sets a new high standard for the form, and the three-episode structure makes for a compelling narrative arc.

Perhaps more astonishing is that both series are using the fee-based model via iTunes. In the case of Whedan’s Dr. Horrible, the series is among the most popular in the iTunes library.
If publishers are wondering if the Web can support tried and true narrative genres like suspense and comedy, I strongly suggest they check out these series. They made these crusty cynic a little more hopeful that the Web medium could create genuine entertainment.