I was listening to a “Cultural Gabfest” podcast from Slate.com (an online magazine) that was pondering the creation of a short, episodic web television only series called “The Guild“. They talked about it as if short, web-television shows are something NEW, and could only list “LonelyGirl15” and “QuarterLife” as their main exposures to the concept. I guess they totally missed Chad Vader, I expected more from people that claim to be cultural enough to justify gabbing on a podcast for extended periods of time.
Despite that oversight, I checked out “The Guild”. It turns out that it had been available for AGES on Miro, but because of the name I thought it was something completely different. I thought it was a video podcast about people who like to play Massively Mutliplayer Online Role Playing Games, which puts it somewhere above “watching paint dry” in my scope of interests.
Instead, it’s this really clever show delivered in short, professionally produced shorts that advance a hilarious plot. The show starts with a webcam confessional from the main character who’s character’s name is “Codex” (who happens to have been an actress on Buffy the Vampire Slayer!), and then picks up the action where it left off from the previous show. Over the course of the eight episodes, there are other characters from the online guild that Codex interacts with via computer, and then later in real life.
It’s amusing to see this premise played out using online terminology. It’s funny, because if I ever met some of the people I chat with online, I’m sure I’d have an awkward sort of reaction around them too. The impressions you get from people’s voices, or their writing isn’t always as accurate as you expect when you meet them in real life. You say and do things you never would do in person, and that’s where most of the humor in The Guild comes from.
It’s only a 30 minute time investment, so I’d recommend checking it out. According to the Gabfest, The Guild even has an agent, and is possibly going to jump to Television. All of this from a fan supported show on the Internet! I don’t know if it would work as well on TV, but “The Office” meets “Gaming” might be awesome. I think it’s exciting that web is producing shows recognized by people outside of the geek subculture as something worth watching.
