I’ve been obsessed with the Women’s College World Series for the last week, which has put me a bit behind on my web TV viewing. So, this week I thought we’d jump in the wayback machine and take a look at the first web series that I got hooked on, Red vs Blue. I headed off in search of some video to embed, and that’s where the question part of the post came in. Have you spent any money on web TV? And if not, is that a dealbreaker? Or, what would it take to knock the lock off the wallet?
I started thinking about it because I have Red vs Blue on DVD, signed by Gus Sorola even. It’s an interesting question because I think it’s an important part of the future of web TV. There have certainly been the successes of things like RvB, and more recently, Dr. Horrible and The Guild, but for the most part it seems that web TV remains a free streaming endeavor for most people.
There’s certainly money to be made with advertising, but having more avenues for those who produce the shows to generate revenue is a good thing for everyone. If the people that create your favorite shows can make a few more bucks, they can go on producing more, and better, shows for you to watch. Thanks to the internet, that path is getting simpler. Many of the roadblocks of DVD (production, shipping, stocking) are erased with something like the iTunes model, but it also opens up the possibility of new ideas.
Another of my long time favorites, TikiBar TV has recently adopted the “freemium” model. They’ll continue to make the show available online for free, but for the low, low, price of $49 per year, you can become a member of the TikiBar Club. That membership offers access to episodes if HD (720P) with 5.1 surround. In addition, members get a discount on official merchandise.
That brings us back to the question. Do you see yourself pointing a couple of your internet dollars at one of your favorite shows? Is the prospect of Lala in HD enough to get you on board? I think it’s going to be a slow transition, but as we move along there should be more and more of these shows that start to find success in venues other than streaming.
Getting back to Red vs Blue, the show follows two teams of soldiers, red and blue, who are engaged in a battle in a box canyon, Blood Gulch. The show is produced by combining gameplay footage from the various Halo games with voiceovers, and that really gets to the brilliance of Red vs Blue. It’s really not much to look at, and the nature of the Halo game footage leaves the characters rather limited visually. After all, they don’t have faces or reactions. Still, they manage to convey an awful lot with clever editing and moving a helmet just the right way.
The real star of the show is the writing and the voice performances. Seven years later, those first episodes still hold up well. It might be a stretch, but if I would go so far as to say that when the show is at it’s best, it has a bit of that Seinfeld vibe. My favorite moments are when the characters are left to just stand around and talk about nonsensical things. It means little in the long run, but it’s fascinating in the here and now. Something that comes through well in episode two as Griff, Simmons, and Sarge talk about naming the M12-LRV. Have a look.
“What in the Sam Hell is a puma?” It gets me every time. The Seinfeld comparison is also apt as “The Blood Gulch Chronicles” end much the same way, with the characters repeating dialogue from the first episode. As the story moves along though, Red vs Blue does get much more complicated than that. The chronicles span some 100 episodes. Along the way you’ll find a host of recurring characters, ghosts, AI, male pregnancy, and time travel. It becomes much more than what the first impressions might suggest.
If you want to give RvB a go, or if you have already seen it but are due for a rewatch, the whole thing is available over at the Roosterteeth YouTube page. I would also recommend the very clever, and beard-centric, “Saving Face.”
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Jun 04, 2009 @ 15:35 EST5EDT
