It seems like every six months or so I start to feel like the level of quality of web series is going up. When I first started covering the space I’d run into series that had blockbuster production values, then a week later I’d see something without lighting and filmed on a handycam.
As time has gone on I’m starting to see some consistency. There is almost an expected level of production quality for a web series now. Visually a lot of shows are nearing the level of a typical network sitcom, just with fewer locations and a lot of hidden cut corners.
For Misdirected the show cuts corners in the typical ways. It’s short, filmed over just two weekends, uses only a couple of exteriors, and spends most of it’s time inside someone’s apartment.
What I loved, for the quality as well as the efficiency, was their use of cheap props and quality staging to turn some simple scenes into some really good stuff.
The show opens with two of our lead male characters throwing branches at the window of our main character, Freddie. The result had me cracking up – and the cost was only a good scolding by the building manager.
Another moment was highlighted by some strange ‘cat ears’ worn by a character during a DnD game. The ears supposedly react to your brain waves or something, and twitch based on your feelings… or something. I don’t know but they alone steal the scene!
An earlier scene has the trio of guys trying to get back into the good graces of Freddie, by breaking into her car. When the police come knocking at Freddie’s door with the guys, my first impression was, ‘those are some good looking police uniforms.’ Turns out they were picked up at Good Will, and the scene was staged with the officers in back, to hide the fact that the bottom half didn’t look all that official.
Perhaps the best scene in the show takes place in the episode “Woo” and is centered around an assorted set of squirt guns and a bean bag (which is now available to anyone in the LA area who is willing to pick it up, let us know if you’re interested!). What follows is a reenactment of various moments from John Woo films… if only there were some doves trapped in the apartment. That would’ve been epic.
A lot of shows with limited production capacity rest on their ability to write witty dialogue. Don’t get me wrong, witty dialogue is vital to a comedy, and ‘Misdirected’ definitely has it, but what I’m seeing here is a show that does more than sit around and talk. There is a clever use of physical comedy, props and whatever they can get their hands on.
It’s much appreciated.
It should be noted as well that the direction of the show takes full advantage of this. There are tons of close-ups and insert shots of the minutia of the scenes. The camera seems to have a sixth sense about where the funny is visually.
All in all I really enjoyed Misdirected. It’s an unusual take on the complexities of friendship. More often than not relationship stories focus on the challenges of romance but here we see that remaining good friends can be just as tough.
Inspired by the idea of the ‘what if’ scenario of meeting your friends over again for the first time, ‘Misdirected’ follows ‘Freddie’ – if that is even her real name – a woman suffering from amnesia. Her friends, Josh, Gerald, and Cameron, to go along with fiancé Andy, and ‘frenemy’ Melanie all seek to take advantage of the situation, to mold their relationship into something they find a bit more preferable.
It’s a thoughtful reminder that things change, people change, circumstances change. We form friendships for many different reasons, not all of them are healthy, and many are selfish. It’s time, sticking around and still being there when things are different that is real friendship. Things happen all of the time that are out of our control, and while it’s almost conceivable why this group would go so far to make things right, in the end it’s being OK with those changes that makes them good friends.
…Or maybe they are all full of shit, great liars, and terrible ‘friends.’ Time will tell with a couple of episodes still set to conclude season two.
You can find ‘Misdirected’ at their online home, http://misdirectedshow.com