Destroy The Alpha Gamma’s might just be my new go-to example for use when explaining how to make a web series. It’s timely, well written, well acted, professionally produced, tied to existing intellectual properties, and created with a goal beyond monetary concerns. Let’s take a look at those in more detail.

Goals

Created by Leah McKendrick ‘DTAG’ looks like a full out effort to launch her career. She sings, she acts, she dances, she writes, she produced! It’s a serious calling card to have out in Hollywood for sure because every one of those hats she wore she delivered. No matter what she chooses to do in the future, or what doors are opened, ‘DTAG’ will be a great example of her ability to pull it off. While creators get into the web series arena for different reasons, this one seems likely to have the biggest long term benefit. I can’t tell the future, but if I had to guess, in ten years she’ll point to the production of this show as a major boon to her ultimate career – no matter where she ends up.

Professionally Produced

For direction McKendrick turned to web series veteran, and Larry King Now director Scott Brown. Brown is best known around here for last year’s Snobby Robot Award nominated ‘Stockholm’ which found Brown and his two lead actors alone in a basement. This time around Brown cites a great team for the show’s success – a long list of talented crew that is noted in the description of each video on the youtube channel.

Whether or not Brown is simply being modest this time around ‘DTAG’ is about as professional looking as you can get. There are some minor issues with the sound in a few scenes but beyond that the show looks like it belongs on network television. The music video style scenes are some of the best shot sequences I’ve seen on here this year.  Brown commented “when the camera is our dancing partner it really takes advantage of the medium.” I think that quote sums up the success of the show’s visual content very well.

Tied To Existing Intellectual Property / Timely

My favorite moments on ‘film’ often come with the combination of stylized visuals, music and editing. For years musicals have used the power of song to communicate emotions in ways that acting and exposition cannot – a style that works well in a condensed format like web series. Over time though the style has sort of become old fashioned until more recently with the success of shows like Glee. These days the modern musical has become trendy, and ‘DTAG’ is trying to capitalize on the trend and at the same time leave a mark of its own.
Every episode is easily marketable to pre-established audiences of show’s like Glee, and to fans of popular artists like Adele and Kelly Clarkson, among many others.

Perhaps it’s not too surprising that the one episode that’s garnered the least amount of views is the one featuring just one song made famous by Marvin Gaye. While certainly an iconic name in music, I don’t think his fans are the same as more modern pop artists that can easily be found and targeted on tumblr and youtube. For that episode it might have made a little more sense to market that episode with a handful of screen captures, because that dance number is sure to make a lot of guys sweat – and click on the video. It doesn’t hurt that actress Anna Renee Roberts, who plays the girl highlighted in that episode, is drop dead gorgeous. This show just sells itself – also I’m really glad they didn’t end up shaving her eyebrows off.

Well Acted

Casting was no easy feat. Actors were considered based on their abilities not only to act but also to sing and dance. Being multi-talented was a must, so the casting process brought out more than just actors but singers like Michelle Martinez For the purpose of the dancing the producers brought in Flirt Dancers to provide all of the dancing and choreography, and for some to take on a larger role in the production. It required an interesting balance for most of the cast and it highlighted Leah McKendrick’s range well. In some ways though I believe that the shows ultimate goal of promoting McKendrick’s talents occasionally detracted from a few moments where it might have been more natural for other performers to be highlighted, but as I said in the twitter interview that’s more of a nitpick than anything else. As a whole the cast performed admirably and likely well enough to garner consideration when we dole out our awards at the end of the year.

Well Written

While the show looks like something that belongs on FOX it’s writing is created for web audiences that aren’t concerned with a little swearing. I found the language to be a great way of differentiating the two sororities. The Alpha Gamma’s are crude and constantly spewing foul language, while the Delta Pi’s are proper and well mannered. Carrie’s decent into obsession and the lengths she goes to destroy the Alpha Gamma’s coincides with a loss of proper etiquette and an increase in crude language and swearing by the girls. Were the show on a network a lot of these subtleties would be lost.

[SPOILERS] With Carrie’s character descending into the dark side and becoming closer and closer to those she despises I felt like there was a great opportunity to leave the audience with a real lesson by not allowing her to redeem herself. That kind of ending works well for television season finalies and gives them a reason to tune in for another. In the case of ‘DTAG’ it doesn’t seem to exist for the purpose of continuing on and I think redeeming the character makes sense under those conditions. [/SPOILERS] Ultimately the difference turns ‘DTAG’ from a cautionary tale on the dangers of anger and hate to something about finding common ground on a deeper, more meaningful level that is likely much more relatable.

If I wanted to find one criticism in this area it’s that ‘DTAG’ is more of a dramedy than a comedy. The show spends a lot of time on character and particularly plot (not to mention singing and dancing) without leaning too heavily on physical comedy. The result is a show that has an interesting story, a unique style and quality characters but struggles to find a good balance with the comedy. The jokes are quality but often with long gaps between them. Ultimately for a show that runs about 40 minutes, tells a three act story, has about a dozen decently written characters and essentially includes music videos in the middle of each episode it is impossible to satisfy every last thing, but ‘Destroy The Alpha Gammas’ does about as good a job as possible.

Destroy The Alpha Gamma’s can be found on its official tumblr page at http://destroytheags.com