myspace tv - afterworld

When I heard about the 130 part series 'Afterworld' to be shown concurrently on a destination site and on myspace tv, I immediately rushed to check it. I believe the future of online video - at least in as much as it will compete with more traditional forms of longer programming - lies in episodic bites that keep you coming back for more. Imagine something as catchy as entourage, with the emotional investment made possible only with the amazing writing and execution of a show like the Sopranos, or Six Feet Under? Even something with as many obvious flaws as NBC's heroes, if bottled into online form and with the same amount of technically flawed but nevertheless effective story hooks, could possibly do the trick.

So a cataclysmic show about survival after the end of the world? YES! You scream. Hell yes.

Or not.

I mean, to be fair, it's watchable. Clicking on the play button and what follows does not directly make me want to kill myself, or bill the misguided producer/creators for wasted seconds of my precious life.

But the derivative writing (where the story is told in retrospect for some bizarre reason), the forcibly emotive voice over, and the stiff graphics with occasional movement of machinima esque bodily parts all culminate into not much doing. The fact that there was a typo on the Japanese Hiroshima survivor's name didn't help.

And do we really need to hear

'my name is Russel Shoemaker. I sold technology to the world. Back when there was technology, and people to sell it to...'

as a preface to each show?

It's like, we get it. We understand the premise, we know who you are, can we please move on and quit wasting valuable time that could be spent watching some guy on youtube castrate himself with a can opener? The next viral video, man...

I'm at episode 11 so with an open mind let the count down begin.

Peace.