Untitled Web Series, Book Club, Space Janitors

Well, hello there! You’ve obviously been eagerly awaiting this week’s issue of the Iron Warrior just to read my deliciously wonderful column: Tube In To This, where I review some of the best YouTube shows out there. Wait, what’s that you ask? What’s a ‘YouTube’? Well it’s a magical faraway land (in the universe of the internets) where cats are worshipped, cinnamon is dust from hell and Godwin’s Law abounds. Among the slew of mediocre to sort-of above-average content churned out on this website lie some web video shows that showcase quite exceptional quality. I know that in the last issue I promised to review the witty and cleverly funny Annoying Orange series, but I sent the creator a draft and he threatened to sue me for defamation and drown me with an endless supply of annoying fruit pun(ch). You can compensate by grabbing a glass of OJ before you read the rest of this, though.

Fans of the hilarious TV show Community may have heard that the creator and former executive producer Dan Harmon is back for the fifth season after being unceremoniously fired after season 3. Community has spawned a lot of creative output from fans, such as fan art and songs. An interesting by-product of Community is the Doctor Who spoof, Inspector Spacetime. In fact, the original actor who portrayed the Inspector on Community, Travis Richey, has gone on to create a web-series based on the Inspector. Due to copyright reasons (I assume), the show is called an Untitled Web Series About a Space Traveler Who Can Also Travel through Time. The Inspector and his naïve but eager-to-learn companion Piper (a reference to Billie Piper who plays Rose, one of the Doctor’s companions), are adventurers who travel through time in a red telephone booth and battling evil while discovering new worlds. The series incorporates and satirizes standard tropes used in Doctor Who from encountering strange creatures and matching wits against super-villains to running down corridors while rocking a flamboyant suit and bowler hat. The show frequently makes fun of itself and the often rapid back-and-forth rapport between characters makes for hilarious entertainment. The show has so far completed only one season, with 6 episodes each spanning about 4 minutes. However season 2 is currently in production and, from the looks of it, this season is going to be way more action-packed and could be longer. Hopefully, the witty dialogue and clever references remain.

On the topic of things related to Community, Danny Pudi (who plays Abed Nadir) is part of a web series on Justin Lin’s YOMYOMF network titled The Book Club. This is by far one of my favourite web shows; it involves a group of regular guys who come together every week to read and discuss a book. While you may think this isn’t the manliest way for a bunch of dudes to spend an evening, it’s not all milk and cookies: the twist is that certain elements of the book they read seemingly come to life and the results are action-packed hijinks and shenanigans that usually end in victory and quite a bit of blood. The show is extremely well written and directed and the actors are exceptional. It is frequently funny and at times downright ridiculous; think martial arts, political conspiracies and cabin-in-the-woods-style horror. With a two-part finale guest starring Blake Griffin and Gillian Jacobs (who plays Britta Perry on Community) there isn’t much that could go wrong with this show. The only potential drawback is the lack of continuity from episode to episode; a lot of plot lines are left open for the viewer’s interpretation. The show has plenty of scope and it would be great news if it got renewed for a second season.

The final web series for this issue is Space Janitors, an amazing spoof of multiple sci-fi movies and shows which airs on Felicia Day’s Geek & Sundry channel. Mike and Darby (played respectively by Pat Thornton and Brendan Halloran) are two janitors who work on a spaceship belonging to an evil galactic empire that is under the rule of the Dark Lord. The ship is frequently attacked by rebel forces which fight against the empire’s clone and droid army. While Mike is content with his job of cleaning floors of dead rebels and clones, Darby has big dreams of becoming a soldier for the empire. On the way, he learns the perils of dating emotionless droids, matching his strength against clones and trying to mess with the rebel forces. Ultimately, he learns a dark secret about himself that makes him question his very purpose in the universe – to clean floors, or not to clean floors? That is the ultimate question. The actors on Space Janitors are quite talented and funny; the frequent references to Star Wars leaves the viewer in splits (light based arm-cutter, anyone?)  The CGI is low-budget but still convincing, and the make-up for the occasional alien character is fantastic. Space Janitors is currently in its second season. In addition to the main episodes, they have a bunch of shorts that depict everyday life on board the evil empire’s ship, as well as comment-reply videos by the actors that give a little extra insight into production and story boarding.

That’s a tasty chicken shawarma wrap for this week’s Tube In to This. Next time, I shall review The Duck Song and its numerous variants, including The Duck Song 1, The Duck Song 3, The Duck Song – Gangnam Style version and Emotionally Vulnerable People React to The Duck Song. Until then, ask yourself the question – why is everybody afraid of love? Stay Tubed!