With Halloween just around the corner, it seems fitting that we turn our web series attention toward something with a bit of a macabre twist. Dead and Lonely, new this week from IFC, looks rather unassuming at the start. We follow along as two people, Lee and Justin, meet through exactly the kind of dating site you’ve seen a hundred times on the Internet. Well, almost exactly. The look is there, but as the name of the site (dateordie.net) suggests, there is something a little bit different about the way things work on this one.
I don’t want to give away the big reveal tucked away inside of the first episode, but I will toss out this bit from the about page. “In this series, two lonely Los Angeles singles are brought together via the popular Internet dating website DateOrDie.net. The only problem is…one of them is a vampire.” That was enough of a hook to get me to watch. I think of it like … with Seeking Simone online dating has never been so gay, and with Dead and Lonely, online dating really bites.
Of course, there has to be more to it than that. “One of them is a vampire” is a good hook, but there has to be something more to keep you coming back. With three episodes released as of now, that something is the mood and style of the piece. It’s all very deliberate, and taking its time working toward things. Through long scenes just watching the characters there is an undercurrent of background music that borders on creepy, but never gets too over the top. It’s very cool to watch, and sets the mood as we head toward that first meeting.
We’ll have to keep following along to know how it all really plays out. With episode three, our possible match has just met, and one of them is about to get a very big surprise. Here’s the first episode. The next two are already available at the IFC Dead and Lonely site.
And since I brought up Seeking Simone, I thought it would be a good idea to start highlighting some of the past shows from the Webisode column each week. The real trick with these shows is keeping up with all the various release schedules. So I’ll try to update a couple of them each week, in case you meant to go back but just didn’t get around to it.
Seeking Simone: The episodes continue to roll out at a leisurely Canadian pace, with the latest being episode 4, “A League Of Her Own.” That one is notable because Simone finally gets some, so we have the hot girl on girl action going for us, which is nice. Even better than that though — and the reason the show remains one of my favorites — is Simone herself. Renee Olbert is outstanding — easily bouncing between adorable and sexy, all while being laugh-out-loud hilarious.
Lumina: The last chapter of the Lumina run, “Endgame,” is now available. If you haven’t been following along, I do recommend you take a few minutes and go watch the whole thing. What started off as a remarkable example of just how great a web series can look turned into quite a story as well. I’m eagerly awaiting any new projects from Jennifer Thym.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Oct 29, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
