The highs and lows of digital drama

Sep 2, 2008

A look back at a decade--yes, a decade--of Web series, from sitcoms to thrillers to musicals, that both succeeded and flopped.

It's about time things got a little more exiting than this.

After months upon months of cat videos, Star Wars lightsaber dances, and amateurish newscasts, video created for the Web has finally started to resemble what you might see if you turn on your TV. Well, sort of. It's been getting there for the past few years and is finally showing real signs of breaking out.

This fall will see the debut of TheWB.com, a hub for past and present Warner Bros. television content that includes a number of original Web-only series. The creators of groundbreaking series Lonelygirl15 have announced their newest foray, The Resistance, and are structuring it for mainstream appeal. And a show with the bizarre name of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog has generated some big late-summer buzz.

More and more, Web series are taking elements of traditional televised or cinematic content--like actors and narrative arcs--and giving them a very Web 2.0 varnish. The characters on Web dramas often have their own social-network profiles, talk to the cameras as though they were Webcams, and even communicate with fans.

But when it all comes down to it, entertainment is entertainment regardless of the platform. And with big names like Buffy creator Joss Whedon jumping on the bandwagon, the divide between the TV and the PC is getting narrower by the day.

Credit: Photo by YouTube/Caption by Caroline McCarthy