Dec 14 2008
THE OFFICE and HEROES webisodes
REVIEW FOR
THE OFFICE
Season Five
Webisodes
“The Outburst”
Written by Nate Fenderman & Jonathan Hughes
Directed by Lee Eisenberg & Gene Stupnitsky
URL: http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/video/webisodes/the_outburst/#vid=844801
Since there’s less and less new TV to review every week, I figure I’ll tackle some new media. The Officeis one of the biggest participants in the whole interactive online experience. Most of the characters have official blogs, and they just put out their third webseries. Their first, a length ten-episode long The Accountants was the first one, followed by Kevin’s Loan which I have not yet seen, and–most recently–they released The Outburst, which focuses on the supporting characters as they try to figure out who Oscar yelled at on the phone. The plot is a bit mundane, but really did give an in-the-office kind of feel, which was cool. I also liked how they keep focusing on the supporting characters, and didn’t even use one member of the opening credits. Kevin, in particular, was great to watch this time around. He used to be one of my favorite characters, but his recent performance in the actual series has been a bit lacking. He’s back on his game here, though, and the best scenes in the webisodes pretty much all go to him.
What it lacks, though, is intrigue. With The Accountants, I was really interested to what happened to the missing money. But this time around… the writing didn’t succeed in making me care about who Oscar was yelling at. The way it was solved was pretty funny and there was some chuckle-worthy dialogue, but it wasn’t as tight as their earlier web-based material.
5/10
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REVIEW FOR
Heroes
Season Two
Webisodes
“Going Postal”
Written by Yule Caise and Jim Martin
Directed by Yule Caise
So I thought I’d watch some old Heroeswebisodes (for the first time) to get myself in the mood for the finale of the “Villains” volume that’s airing tomorrow night. Turns out, the “Going Postal” webseries left me with nothing but a bad aftertaste.
It’s utterly cheesy. Instead of exploring some new characters with cool superpowers and playing this for a standalone, something they could never do in the main series, the Heroes team just had to go for the big stuff. And when you go for the big stuff in a story that, in total, is about eight minutes long, the mood is going to be very melodramatic and very cheesy. We’re supposed to be affected by the scenes between this guy, a man named Echo whose voice is supernaturally loud (I know, already bad) and his wife as they whisper melodramatic goodbyes and assurances to each other. But I’m not buying it. Nor am I buying the horrible score. So over the top, so “this is what this scene should make you feel like.” All it does is underscore the fact that the scenes just don’t work like they’re meant to.
One thing was cool though… the way Echo killed the Constrictor was pretty badass. But other than that one five second long scene, the rest of this is wasted potential. So much for me getting in the Heroes mood.
1/10
PS: Check in tomorrow morning for a review of the newer Heroes webseries, “Destiny.”
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Heroes season 1 was awesome, but I agree with your lack of excitement for the show now. I think it’s garbage and out of control.