The Sopranos? The Bold and the Beautiful? Forget it. The new online trend is a few minutes long shows, dedicated to fans of varied fandoms all the way from Broadway to fantasy football.
In the last few years we’ve been witnessing a new developing trend; the webshows – shows which are just like TV shows, but being broadcasted on the internet, with episodes which usually won’t be more than a few minutes long.
Those webshows give a stage to independent creators who usually can’t get their voice to be heard on the big networks. It gives them a chance to reach a big audience with no “filters” . While it’s clear that the big networks will always to reach the broadest audience available, these webshows can aim for a very specific audience in a very large range of interests.
The fact that the internet offers unique options and opportunities, led to the development of these shows which are directed for an audience of geeks. In this case, “geeks” doesn’t only refer to computer nerds who love sci-fi, but also geeks in the sense of being fans of other subjects like sports, or stage performance. For example, in sports – the players of the “Fantasy” leagues (the famous game in which the gamers operate their own leagues and teams based on real life players), and with stage performance, the Broadway fans who know every musical theater show by heart.
We picked a bunch of varied, noted webshows for you. These shows are meant for the different types of geeks: Gamers, sci-fi and fantasy fans, TV fans, fantasy league fans and Broadway fans.
For Gamers – The Guild
For Gamers and fantasy fans – Legend of Neil
For the Fantasy Football fans – The League
For Fantasy Football and Soap Operas fans – Sunday of Our Lives
For Fantasy Football fans – Rules of the League
For Broadway fans – The Battery’s down
For Broadway Fans – Hit the MARC
Independent webshow which was created, produced directed and edited by a Israeli AMDA alum artist and actress, Chen Drachman who also star in the show.
The show tells the story of a group of students in a made up performing arts school – The MARC, and loosely based on Drachman’s and her friends’ experiences from school. The show follows their lives while at school, which includes Drama, gossip, schemes, teachers students relationships, professional obstacles, identity crises and more. It touches real issues that students in this kind of school need to face, like friendships, rivalry, sexual confusion, self esteem, striving for success, compromising, ego, facing failures and more.