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As a Buffy fan, and after seeing the adorable Felicia Day in the hilarious Joss Whedon Internet show, "Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" (she also had a recurring role in the last series of BtVS and also appeared in Dollhouse), I then found out that she had created her own web show, so I knew I had to check it out - and when I finally did, I was not disappointed.
Day has created a wonderful set of socially inept characters whose real world lives revolve around their their un-named (MMORPG) Internet game, which they play as a group, but separate from each other from their own homes.
Prior to one group member ("Zaboo") tracking down Day's character ("Codex"), in order to express his undying love for her ( although he only knew her on-line character and her avatar), the group had not met each other in person, so as actual, social interaction increases, so does the scope for comedy.
An admitted on-line gamer, Day's witty and well-observed set of otherwise eclectic characters and their gaming foibles, whilst also being joyfully stereotyped, are a great bundle of laughs - but that is also largely down to the superbly cast set of actors playing each of the main characters.
Such is the skill and ease with which they have assumed their roles, I found myself checking to see what they had all been in before, feeling sure that I had seen them in something, but instead found - to my very great surprise - that it simply was not so. For me, that is unheard of, and I feel slightly chagrined, but it is also a testament to the cast.
Jeff Lewis ("Vork") and Sandeep Parikh ("Zaboo") in particular, may well find that further fame awaits them, but as Day herself has stated, she had to turn to writing in order to find the sort of regular acting role that suited her, blaming and also thanking the very people who had constantly rejected her for parts. I don't think I've ever used the phrase before in my life, but, "You go, girl!"
Day successfully and skilfully avoids making the script and stories too reliant on gaming or Internet jargon, and as part of the extended "Whedon family", there are distinct traces of the Whedon style and humour in there too, all of which helps also to give the show a broader appeal than you might imagine, if you were, say, a Hollywood TV Exec wanting to hear a pitch for a new TV show, and you were told about this before it had been made on the shoestring budget that it started with.
As I said up top, I went from Buffy to Dr Horrible to this, and will undoubtedly now check out "The Jeff Lewis 5-Minute Comedy Hour", so I have no doubt at all that Joss Whedon is looking on to all this very proudly - and rightly so.
score 9/10
Ajjam1967 11 August 2011
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2472471/ |
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16-3-2021 22:27:06