Online TV Show Recommendation Thread (Digital/Independent TV thread take 2)

[Darkflame]

Some of you might remember I made an old thread for online tv shows;

A lots changed since then. Sanctuary sold-out, Farscape is taking forever, Dr Horrible won an Emmy (amusing nomination video here), and about a bazzilon other online/independant tv shows have sprung up.

(For example; Nostalgia Critic,The Guild, ST:Phase2,ST: The Helena Chronicles,Frontier Guard, GALACTICAST,Ark,The Awesomes,The Line,Afterworld.tv,Starjackers ,After Judgment, Riese,Sam I Am,The System,The Invaded.....there seems to be a new show every few weeks!)

Thus I thought it would be a good time to start a recommendation thread. (Ive hardly seen any of these myself, so I'm really interested in any cool stuff other people have seen)

So, think of this like the tv show thread, only its reviewing stuff you can watch online right now, legally.
(It can cover short-films as well as shows, both fiction and non-fiction stuff, but it has to a substantial piece of work, not merely a you tube cat video.)

So, anyone seen anything good they care to link too/review?


The LIST:

World Builder -



A 10 minute sci-fi short about a guy making a world. Id class this as visionary. While overall not a tremendously original concept, its very well thought out and seems exactly like how 3d modelling could be in the future. (click title to watch)

The Guild
Reviewed By Darkflame (Type - webseries, CreatedBy - Felicity Day)



A moderately funny web series about a group of online gamers. One of the pioneers of independent web shows, its now in its 3rd season.
It has a strong cast, and is written and stared by Felicity Day (often star of other web shows such as Dr Horrible, and Legend of Neil).
While theres much to be praised, its unfortunately not quite as funny as I hoped. Certainly inferior to "The Gamers" (two amateur films on a related subject). Nethertheless, its worth watching in the background, and you cant argue with the price.

78%

www.watchtheguild.com


Car Pool
Reviewed By Darkflame (Type - webseries, CreatedBy - Robert Llewellyn)

Car Pool is basically a series of casual interviews as*Robert Llewellyn drives various actors/writers/comedians to/from locations in London.
umm..thats basically it.
Some interviews are interesting, others are rather dull. Its still a nice basic concept though. He does one a week, and sometimes there's a slight environmental slant to the conversations.
Its updated every Friday and can be watched here; www.llewtube.com
70%

David Mitchell’s SoapBox
Reviewed By Darkflame (Type - webseries, CreatedBy - David Mitchell)



An amusing series of 5 minute rants by David Mitchell on various subjects. Pretty funny, and normally pretty observant true.
You can watch them online here;
http://www.channelflip.com/2009/02/0...soapbox-mouse/

85%

Water Brain

Short animated film made by Chinese students and banned in China.

Great style, nice story.
The ending is a bit over the top.

http://vimeo.com/5156296
(Suggested by Odysseus)

Nostalgia Critic
Reviewed By Darkflame(Type - Webseries, CreatedBy - )


Nostalgia Critic is an online review show covering classic films, tv and various other things.
It takes a very humorous approach to its reviews, which sometimes could be more appropriately called rants. However, despite the title, its not about universal criticism, some of the funniest reviews are actually for things the guy really likes, and (unlike ZeroPuncationReviews), you seem to get a much more balanced viewpoint overall.
Occasionally the reviews also compare old with new, and while these arnt always as funny as the others, they are sometimes quite carefully considered and interesting.
Overall very recommended.
Watch here:
http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com...stalgia-critic
(and if you enjoy it, donate!)
Plus, he likes Gargoyles. Gargoyles friggin rocks.

85%

Hero Of Time -

I could list lots of problems with this, but I'm still amazed with the effort put into it. (and, not to mention the fact they actually finished it...)
An hour an a half Zelda fan film that's been in development about 5 years.
www.theherooftime.com
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbg...ime_shortfilms

I certainly congratulate their herculean (hyrulian?) effort to get this done.

Ted Talks
Reviewed By Darkflame(Type - Webseries, CreatedBy - The Sapling Foundation)
Ted talks are brilliant. The perfect answer to those that think the internet is only good for cat videos, short gags or the occasional musical.
Ted Talks are often informative, impressive, interesting or funny. They are free to view, and normally under creative commons license.Hundreds of interesting scientists, artists, philosophers and other interesting people all ready for you in handy video format.
I couldn't possibly recommend the site more.
http://www.ted.com/

97%

Zero Punctuation
Reviewed By Darkflame(Type - webseries, CreatedBy - )

Zero Punctuation is an often highly amusing weekly video game review series.
Reviews are told in what basically amounts to a constant non-stop rant accompanied by crude south-park-esq animations.
"Yahtzee", the reviewer/animator normally breaks down a games flaws quite well, but as is the nature of this sort of thing, they are blown hugely out of proportion (because its more amusing). For that reason you'd get most out of watching Zero Punctuation is you dont even try to take his "reviews" seriously. Its a weekly funny 5 minutes, ; and sooner or later its going to be ranting about a game you love.
There's nothing wrong with this, but it is worth also pointing out quite often his reviews have factual mistakes or oversites, almost certainly due to him needing to both play and review in a relatively short time period each week. One such example was Zack and Wiki, where he complained about not being able to get the Wii to recognise a gesture to open the umbrella......you don't use a gesture in the game, you press a button. (indicated by the button being drawn on the umbrellas stem).
Despite the odd mistake like that though, its very worth watching and can be seen here;
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vide...ro-punctuation
Currently every Wednesday.
85%

[Jasiek]

Well you've seen my post about Defying Gravity,

I'll quote the post here as well:

Spoiler:

toggle spoiler

Originally Posted by Jasiek

I've been watching the 8 available episodes of Defying Gravity lately, and apparently it's been cancelled! :/ However they made all 15 episodes of the first season! :/

You guys need to watch the available episodes!!!

It takes place in the 2050's on a ship that's headed for a 6 years long tour around Sol, with a landing on venus just two episodes from where the show stops...

There's hope however as they might either air the rest online (with one ep today apparently) or some Canadian TV that bought all 15 episodes made will air it.
I sure hope they continue it... as it stands now they just useed it as a filler for the vacation period and will replace it with reality tv shit in the autumn.... how typical...



















Main theme

Trailer!

It shows all manner of things that are speculated for the near future, like stem cell-based medicine, nanotechnology, VR, surgery in space and some "fiction" element to the "science" as well.

Oh and, there's also corporate greed (hence the little pumpkin buckets in one of the shots - something from one of the missions sponsors...).

Since then episode 9 aired and it looks like the remaining ones will also be shown, not really sure about the future of the series - since it relies heavily on expensive sets and CG effects. I think you can watch them on the ABC site (if you're in the US) onine.

It's sad, but I'm not really surprised seeing how little viewers it has, the "scientific ignorance" that is spreading like wildfire these days is really scary. People don't care about the world around them, and about stories that try to at least to some point realistically predict the future, but instead watch soap opera's and pointless drama stories...

Also, Star Gate Universe is coming out in a week.

(Spoiler purely for thread neatness)

[Darkflame]

Its certainly something I'm keen to watch, and its sad it hasn't got the attention it deserves, but I'm not sure it really counts as an online show, seeing as its US-restricted.
I mean, by that reasoning couldn't all of Hulu count as "online shows"?

I was hoping for more things people could just "click and watch", where ever they are based.

eg World Builder;

[Jasiek]

http://www.mercuryseries.com/

Found this, it's free, it's online, it's a mini series! At least I tihnk it is free... now that I look at it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSnwjCCjMbs&fmt=

trailer (the one on the site was choppy for me) I wonder if it's airing already, cause it looks pretty cool.

[Darkflame]

That looks freaking awesome.
Obviously a bit Sky-Captainish, but that's fine by me.
Just what I was looking for

When its out we should repost to promote it. Hope they do well.

Actualy, when this thread has a few more videos, I'll start linking them at the top so we get a nice list.
-=-=-

(The Guild)

[ChaosFish]

I'll watch it lat0rz

BUT! I don't think you're accomplishing what you're trying to accomplish by promoting online shows with celebrities and famous people. I'm not sure it accomplishes anything. People know celebrity actors, so they also watch them online, but still completely distinguish them from all the other shows online that have people in them that aren't TV stars.

[Darkflame]

As long as its completely independent (ie, not a tie-in webisode to a FOX show etc), I dont think it mater's.
I want people to see there's great stuff to watch online, and to nurture a new tv infrastructure. I dont see the harm in existing actors/actress's joining in or even starting the trend.

My "master plan" is the eventually people will use sites like my Rateoholic to find shows to watch based on other stuff they like. People will watch stuff based on recommendations, not adverts or fame of who stars in them.
(though, naturally, if you like, say, Mitchal & Web Lock, your probably going to like Peep Show etc).
Once someone finds a show they like they should then be able to watch it online, whenever they want, and for the creators to get the vaste majority of the profits.
(either from adverts, or from a micropayment system http://www.icents.net looks quite good to me. Even charging just 10p or so would probably be enough for ""amateurs"" to pay themselves enough to live of their creative work)


Felicity Day is probably more famous for her internet stuff then tv stuff anyway. She wasnt a lead character in anything I know. Was in a few epps of Buffy near the end, but since then shes mostly been online stuff.

Anyway, we have been though this loop before :P Personally I want new talent, (please if you find any great shows by 100% new folk, post them!)...but Im also interesting in any talent that wants to "escape" from the current media system of the big 6.. Thats whats important to me. Getting the hell away from those guys!
===
Anyway...now for something completely different...

(CarPool link)

[Darkflame]

(David Mitchals SoapBox)

[Darkflame]

I'm going to start putting them at the top of the thread.

Please folks, I'm always looking for more to watch/try

[Odysseus]

Water Brain

Short animated film made by Chinese students and banned in China.

Great style, nice story.
The ending is a bit over the top.

http://vimeo.com/5156296




*edit..perhaps not independent enough for this thread?

[ChaosFish]

David Mitchell’s SoapBox is awesome! I watched about half of it so far.

He's very observant. For example I liked how he described the Mach 3 commercials.

[ChaosFish]

David Mitchell’s SoapBox: Gaelic - So true, I agree. I don't know anything about Gaelic, but I do think it was idiotic to revive Hebrew.

[Darkflame]

Yes, a lot of them are funny but also quite true.
I'm all for preserving records of languages and historic documents, but propping them up artificially and trying to get people to speak them is just a waste of time and money. Languages are dynamic and evolving, and some dieing out is part of that evolving process.

Anyway, I seen them all now and cant wait for the next batch, whenever that comes.
--
Water Brain - nah, thats good, added

[Kobold]

Considering that Gaelic has horrendous grammar, I don't think anybody who is just forced to learn it will be able to understand a thing. My aunt is from the Irish east cost, she learned Gaelic in school but doesn't remember anything. The real reason to preserve languages is a social one, the few people who still speak it might feel oppressed and neglected when it comes to bilingual support.

@ChaosFish: Is Hebrew really that bad?

[ChaosFish]

Yep. If it was better maybe the dude who wrote the Bible might have been able to get his point across without having people interpreting it in 1000 different way and forming bazillions different religions based on it.

[Darkflame]

Yes, if Religion was written in mathematics we would all be better off :P

Any other shows people found?
Been watching more star-trek fan shows myself, probably review some of them in a mo.
(they are after all completely independent despite being "officially overlooked" by paramount).

[Kobold]

You already mentioned Nostalgia Critic, didn't you?

If you come to think of it, if he'd been born 50 years ago, he would have joined a television network. Nowadays he can make a living only by posting his videos for free on the internet.

Even I, who never watches any kind of movie in a theatre of a TV show enjoy him very much, for example this episode: http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/vid.../11980-coolice
His site thatguywiththeglasses.com has its fair share of good comedy review & gaming "shows", though the totally irregular release of everything on the site and the lack of a quality-meter makes it a bit messy.

[Darkflame]

Hope, he hasnt been mentioned yet
Hes getting a lot of votes here;
http://mashable.com/owa/votes/category/38
(Web show award thingy). No idea what Internet Killed Television is though.
--
Anyway, an obvious one;

Zero Punctuation -(snip)

[Kobold]

But you mentioned him in the first post:

Originally Posted by Darkflame

(For example; Nostalgia Critic,The Guild, ST:Phase2,ST: The Helena Chronicles,Frontier Guard, GALACTICAST,Ark,The Awesomes,The Line,Afterworld.tv,Starjackers ,After Judgment, Riese,Sam I Am,The System,The Invaded.....there seems to be a new show every few weeks!)

[Darkflame]

yeah, true, but then I haven't seen 95% of stuff on that list.
I just found examples of online shows.

[Kobold]

If you haven't seen him, you should try the episode I linked. You get a pretty good idea about his style from it.

[Darkflame]

Ok, I'll check it out later
(watching deifying gravity at the moment)

[Darkflame]

Originally Posted by Kobold

You already mentioned Nostalgia Critic, didn't you?

If you come to think of it, if he'd been born 50 years ago, he would have joined a television network. Nowadays he can make a living only by posting his videos for free on the internet.

Just saw a bunch they are great

I like the fact he actually seems to review things a bit more then the ZeroPunction guy. The Zero punction guy tends to purely go for laughs at all costs, whereas NC seems to take a little bit more of a balanced approach.

And yes, thanks to the day and age we are in if you got tallent (and are a bit lucky) you can be successful almost completely independently. I'm thinking of making this list into a separate webpage when its more full up with stuff, make it easier for people to find online stuff to watch.

Anyway...you want to review/simmerise NC or shall I?

[Kobold]

Nah, it'd rather have you review him, I'm not exactly good at this. Just keep in mind that he not only reviews movies but also TV shows, and he sometimes does positive reviews (Gargoyles) or comparisons between originals & remakes (Batman & The Dark Knight).

[Darkflame]

Gargoyles rocks.

And yeah, I saw a comparison (LotR), which is what made me think he actually analysis's stuff quite well.

Anyway, dont need anything special, but I'll post a review later today.

btw, if anyone disagrees with any of my reviews/summaries, feel free to post your own.
Id rather more shows form the list, but I also dont want it to be purely my opinion on stuff.
(advert)and of course,feel free to use my rateoholic to review(/advert)