This week we turn back to comedy, on the recommendation of CliqueClack pal Wil Wheaton. He sent word of a web series pilot that was written and produced by Shane Nickerson and Christian Duguay. You may have seen Shane and Christian’s work before, on Rob and Big or Fantasy Factory. But in those, they are producers. Here, with dicks, they are doing it all. Writing, producing, and acting.
So, here’s how Shane originally described the show:
…Two guys decide to abandon their boring careers and open a Detective Agency that specializes in the supernatural and paranormal. They are called: DICKS…
And really, that’s exactly what it is. Imagine traveling back in time to the conception of Ghost Hunters, and having the Ghost Hunters have no idea what they are doing. That’s Ken and Carl (Christian and Shane), in a nutshell. One night, they both had the same dream that they were supernatural detectives, and that had to mean something, right? So, dicks was born. Prematurely, you might say.
Just how prematurely is made perfectly clear when we meet the other member of the team, their Intern/Volunteer Assistant, played by Lori Dean-Vincent. She actually knows what they should be doing and I suspect, should the show continue on, will quickly evolve into the brains of the operation.
For now, we only have the pilot episode to go on, but it really is a great start. The bumbling pair of Ken and Carl are a great team, and the snark funneling in from the intern in the other room makes for a lot of laughs. But this is a pilot in the TV sense of the word, because we’re all now waiting to see if the show will get picked up to series. It’s part of Microsoft’s Zune original content program. How this first run plays out will determine if there will be any more dicks. You can read all about it on Shane’s blog.
And now, the bad news. This is the space where I would normally embed the episode in question, to make things easy. Unfortunately, this is the downside of the whole Microsoft angle. If you would like to watch the show, the easiest way is on your XBOX. Just go to XBOX->Zune->Indie Videos->Web Videos.
If you aren’t part of the XBOX family, you can also watch it on a Windows PC by going to this page and installing the Zune software. Mac types, you’ll only be able to see the preview. I know, it’s a lot to ask, but I can say that you will be rewarded with a very funny pilot. I’m hoping it does get picked up and we get to see more.
Finally, since there is no dicks video to embed, let me close with the just released trailer for Zimm The Series. Really looking forward to this one.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on May 26, 2010 @ 10:05 EST5EDT
You know, I never did go back and finish The Guild, once Microsoft picked it up and shuttered it behind the walled garden. I heard it eventually made its way onto free channels, but I’ve got too large a backlog of content that I can already watch stored up to bother looking for it.
I guess I won’t be trying out dicks. either…
*POST AUTHOR*
It’s a fair point, and why I called it ‘the bad news’. I went ahead and installed the Zune software, just to get an idea of what it is Microsoft is asking of potential viewers. If you’re willing to take those extra steps, it’s not bad. It even tied back to my XBOX Live account automatically.
The part that I don’t get is why. I understand the Zune software for video rentals or purchases, but this is a free file. More to the point, a free file that needs as much exposure as possible. And given the way that so many other web video venues operate, every extra step added to the process (and the Zune software install is a long process) is an added opportunity for a potential viewer to shrug their shoulders and walk away.
I’m only half complaining, as it’s certainly a win-win for both content producer and sponsor, but, as I’m mainly a passive and mobile consumer of content, it’s just not for me.
Zune Desktop is a failure, but as it will be folded into both Windows Phone 7 and Kin, all that Marketplace content will be coming to a much broader market segment in the near future. In the meantime, dicks. is just a loss leader to drive other video purchases, so Zune is an unfortunate necessity.