Last December I rounded up the 10 best web series of 2013, showcasing some of the most click-worthy offerings from the still-fledgling online medium. The final list covered everything from a big-budget sci-fi starring Harvey Keitel to a series of three-minute skits about one night stands.
As brand new shows found audiences online, established web series had already proved the viability of the medium as a career launchpad: Broad City, a New York-based comedy about best friends Ilana and Abbi, was picked up by Comedy Central; Children’s Hospital, a kind of nightmarish Scrubs, is now shown on Adult Swim; and Burning Love, a Ben Stiller spoof of The Bachelor, won an Emmy. They all began as online series, in the wild west web, where anything goes.
Fast-forward nine months (or should that be “skip ad-forward nine months”?), and everything has changed. This year has seen no exciting steps forward for the medium, no breakthrough talents that have taken the web by storm, and no moneyed producers are making serious investments in the previously hyped new format. Apart from a few established talents and series that have managed to sustain themselves with a hard-won fan base, everyone else seems to have packed their bags and gone home.
Big brands once saw online drama as a direct way to reach new audiences while neatly avoiding TV’s pesky product placement laws. Ikea had a surprisingly successful run of Easy to Assemble, a comedy show set in, you guessed it, an Ikea store. Ford tried their hand with the oddly charming Escape My Life, about a woman who gets a (wait for it) Ford Escape, only to find it comes with a human instruction manual whom she’s obliged to live – and then fall in love – with. The best producers by some margin were Intel and Toshiba, who produced three excellent budget series (or social films, as they preferred to call them) – Inside, The Beauty Inside and The Power Inside. There’s a dearth of quality branded content in 2014, however. Easy to Assemble and Escape My Life have run their course and not been recommissioned. Intel and Toshiba are promising something this side of December, but what that is remains to be seen.
Likewise, original YouTube channels such as soap-opera platform Wigs – which had previously made hit series like Blue, starring Julia Stiles, and Susanna, led by Anna Paquin – have suddenly stopped distributing content. They did not respond to my inquiries to say if or when they will begin again.
But the tragedy is not that computer manufacturers and studios are no longer pumping cash into online content, though their lack of involvement is indicative of a growing indifference to the format. The real joy of web series has always been the discovery of new talent. They allowed the possibility for anyone with a DSLR and a good script to court an audience. Of the 10 shows that I selected in 2013, eight were from producers or directors whose work I had not previously seen.
It’s easy to see why producers seem to be turning away from web series. With the rising popularity of Netflix and Amazon Prime, the distinction between online viewing and television has disappeared. Three years ago, if you were filming a drama to be streamed online, it’s likely that your main competition was going to be a home video of a cat with a French voiceover. Now, it’s Kevin Spacey in House of Cards, or a rebooted Arrested Development. The idea that low production values or a slightly unpolished script will be forgiven because a show is online no longer holds any sway. Combine that with the fact that advertising revenue simply isn’t reliable enough to guarantee creators will break even on their series, never mind make a profit, and the format seems increasingly unattractive.
One of the few film-makers who has managed to sustain a career in web drama is Ingrid Jungermann, whose second series of her hit F to 7th is being supported by a Spike Lee Production award. She doesn’t believe that web series are done for, but rather that a schism is forming that will see online content becoming more like traditional film. “It’s inevitable that web series will mirror film and split into two camps – indie web series creators who produce and distribute on their own, and “studio” web series creators who produce content for online channels. On one hand, you retain freedom of expression and ownership while going broke, and on the other hand, you exchange vision and voice to make a living. The sad truth is that in the US, art is about money and web series won’t escape this fate.”
Whether the current lull in webisode production signals the end of the format entirely, or merely a shift in the landscape to a more rigorous studio system remains to be seen. I hope that there’s still some life in the format, even if its prospects look bleak right now. Until we find out, House of Cards, anyone?
