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Hey OP. I'm one of those "several hundred" who viewed the thread without commenting. I only lurk CC (and SA itself anymore) so I didn't feel that great offering criticism when I've never workshopped anything here myself, but since the lurking masses have been brought up, I might as well chime in. I'm a huge metal fan, and I enjoy shows like Todd + The Book of Pure Evil and Metalocalypse. Heck, one of the only web series I follow is black metal themed, albeit a cooking show. I clicked on your thread expecting to see a poor knock-off of that sort of thing. Why poor? Because "Metalhedz" immediately struck me as the kind of title an out-of-touch marketer who knows NOTHING about metal comes up with. The vibe it puts out is more 1990 XTREME SUPER SOUR CANDIEZ FOR RADICAL DUDEZ when (I assume) you were trying for trve kvlt or füll øf ümlåüts. I checked out the trailer first. The actual footage looks pretty nice! The impact font does not. And why is the music totally not metal? I kept waiting for the record scratch or some kind of punchline slam into harder music which never came. If the rest of the trailer had nailed the metal aesthetic, I might not have started thinking that the actors look like actors wearing borrowed Hot Topic costumes-- I only know that they're in the scene irl because you said so in this thread. They do seem like a potentially appealing bunch, and I could get behind a pub-oriented relationship comedy, but as it is, I'm left wondering what this really has to do with heavy metal music. "The alternative crowd may look different to everyone else, but they're really not." Yeeaaah... that gives me the impression that this is just an ordinary comedy dressed up with spiked bracelets for some reason, which makes me worried I'm going to be cringing at every forced reference to something I love. The opening is alright, though again, the font makes it look cheap as hell to me. Hey, music that actually fits the title! I quite liked the "people putting on their rings and bracers" thing. Echoing the criticism of the camera set up during the table scene, but overall the first episode looks well shot. The actors are pretty decent, and their costuming is mostly believable if boring. Too bad all of the characters come off as just plain unlikeable. If you're gonna do the lovable misguided losers thing, there has to be something to love or at least some vicarious bad-idea fun happening. Two guys bullying their sullen lesbian "friend" isn't a good time. The rohypnol joke was awful, and this is coming from someone who laughed all the way through the Dory McClean episode of Metalocalypse. Your character with the strongest look is now gross and irredeeamable out of the gate. Tails didn't come across as not getting what he meant so much as being pathetic enough to make a weak joke in order to go along with her lovely, possibly rapist, friends. Her demeanor during the opening pop-culture exchange didn't come across as "pals having fun busting on each other" as "sad lonely girl who lets people treat her like crap." I'm a queer female metal fan and she depresses me. I love a lot of shows with unlikeable-in-real-life, morally terrible characters, but most of those shows make it work by being smart, high-energy, and having lots of over the top humor as a counterpoint to the dark stuff. Comedy pilots are often uneven, as character humor is hard to make work while the audience is still figuring out who the characters are, but I wasn't given a lot of hooks to know who these people are beyond "incompetent poon-hound", "rapey dumbass" and "doormat nerd girl." Your title invites comparison to comedies where the character hooks are just plain more fun like "emotionally incompetent poon-hound world's fastest guitarist", "sweet but dumbass inheritor of the necronomicon", and "shy but brutal nerd girl genius." If you're going for a more realistic kind of show, I'm going to want characters that are even more appealing than the ones in goofier metal comedies, since there won't be the fun of blood and demons to carry things. I gave episode two a shot for fairness's sake. Again, the technical stuff and some of the acting struck me as pretty good for a no budget web series! I wish the house hadn't looked like an ordinary place with a few dorky metal things strewn around, which, while admittedly true to life, is visually uninteresting and comes across as low-effort. Unfortunately, episode two really bored me. Maybe having Beki make a nerd reference was supposed to be a hint that she's the one for Tails, but what could have been a telling moment later on once the characters were established made me feel like nobody had their own identity. Tails's reaction to it made her come off as an unappreciative jerk-- I'm already thinking Beki deserves someone better. Ginge felt too awkward to be sympathetic, but not awkward enough to be really funny. I'm confused why someone who supposedly has all this debauched sex is so bad at picking up girls-- if the idea is that he's nervous and loses his edge around the girl he really likes, that's not really coming across, especially since his interest in her seems to be entirely based on her being hot. Skull was by far the most interesting guy to watch, as he was different and interesting and pushing his gimmick to the hilt, but he's a creepy rapist who helpfully reminded us of that yet again, sucking a lot of the appeal out of what could have been a bright spot. I'm not going to watch any more. Just to reiterate, I'm a queer woman who is still passionate about metal into her thirties. I was pretty nerdy and shy when I was younger, too. A comedy about a geeky young dyke finally getting the balls to ask out the girl with the help of her goofball friends AND THE POWER OF METAL would be my favorite thing in the world if it was well written. As it is, I despise Tails and am bored to tears by the show. Sorry!
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Mar 14, 2014 19:37
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 01:45 |
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