Meatspace
Meatspace is a proposed television series developed by well-known TV and film critic William “Trilbee” Carlisle, of MrTARDISReviews, who made his name primarily reviewing Doctor Who episodes on his YouTube channel before expanding to other TV series and films.
SquishiVision was one of the selected reviewing sites granted a sneak-preview of the episode before it’s broadcast on TrilbeeReviews on the 5th September 2014 at 2100 BST. As the show has not been broadcast to the general public yet, this review, unusually for me, will be a spoiler-free review of the episode.
The premise of the series is about four university Freshers during their time at higher education and their relationship with them, as well as the online world they, as with our generation, have grown up with. The title ‘Meatspace‘ reflects this.
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| I don’t know why, but the title makes me think of a butcher shop … hmmm …. |
To reflect this, each character from the series has a Facebook profile page attached to them, which are run by the character’s actors. When the pilot episode plays live on the 5th September, these profile pages will be updated live with the episode. I must admit, I really love the concept. It is one which hasn’t really been used by the mainstream media yet, for all their enthusiasm to try and engage with the ‘hip and now’ youth of the day. This is something, which if done properly, could work. Similar ideas to this are the tie-in websites developed for the first three series of Doctor Who. However they were soon, much to my dismay, terminated, though most of the sites still remain. As someone who was only just getting into Doctor Who, they added another dimension to the viewing when after an episode, I could log into www.whoisdoctorwho.co.uk and actually participate with some of the invents before, during or after the episode. However, unlike the Doctor Who tie-in websites, which were pre-written and then published during the episode – these pages will be written live during the episode, by the actors, which is the next step above the tie-in websites (there was a game where you could talk to Ricky Smith, but this was simply a chat bot, though, admittedly, a rather advanced chat bot for a simply flash game for kids). Actually, now I think about it, the tie-in websites for Sherlock are probably more similar in concept, as those were actual blogs – although, again, not written live. Also as people will be able to leave comments on the pages, they can interact with the characters. The only criticism about the page and what I’d like to change about it is that instead of the pages being called ‘Character name from ‘Meatspace” is that if it actually just had the character’s full name. Despite being a page and not a profile, it is set out as if it was a profile set up by a person, and as the pages are intended to exist within the universe of Meatspace, it wouldn’t make sense for them to acknowledge the show – basically breaking the fourth wall.
The characters themselves (with links to their Facebook ‘profiles’) are Jamie, a filmmaker played by John Ferguson; David, a vlogger (pfff. vloggers! What sad lonely people!) who studies sociology and doesn’t really know where he’s going with his life, played by Cayde Sleeth Wilding; Lydia, a writer, played by AFC “Best Actress” Nominee Della Maylan; and finally Megan, a musician played by AFC “Best Supporting Actress” Winner Chloey Rose.
So, having explained the premise of the show, the review!
Review
(because my introduction was longer than I planned, woops!)
I have a feeling this series is going to more focused on the characters rather than the plots – analysing and exploring the relationships, character dynamics and behaviours rather than trying to tell an epic story.
When I watch and review films and TV series or episodes, I categorise them into being either character-driven or plot-driven – that doesn’t mean that if one is one it doesn’t have any of the other, but there’s usually a clear indication of what the focus of the piece is. A good example is Elementary, CBS’ US rip-off of Sherlock. This show is very much character-driven because God knows the plotlines are drab, unoriginal and predictable, and are only there as a vehicle to explore Holmes’ and Watson’s relationship (not that that’s dealt with particularly well).
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| The only reason I watch this show is because Johnny Lee Miller is brilliant as Sherlock Holmes. |
Speaking of Sherlock, that is a good example of both. I used to categorise it as plot-driven but with extremely strong characterisation, but now I think it’s both. Going back to Meatspace, based on this episode, I would definitively describe it as character driven. Indeed the episode stops from the plot several times just to explore the character’s motivations, personality and who they generally are – and this isn’t a bad thing. Sometimes TV shows don’t need to be all about the plot. Some of them can be interesting just about the people. I probably couldn’t tell you the plot of half the episodes of Black Books, but that show is immensely brilliant just because of the people and the humour.
There was one part of the story line that isn’t usually dealt with in this stock-plotline, and I’m glad it was included – and that’s whether or not you should try and pressure introverts into being outgoing. Most shows that deal with this treat introversion as a negative character trait, and introverted people are simply waiting for the right words of encouragement and motivation from the right person to unlock them from their prison and free them into the world. However this episode actually, although briefly, argues that some introverts should just be let alone to do what they’re comfortable doing in their own time. I would’ve liked it if the episode explored more of this, and if Megan spent longer deliberating before deciding to accept David’s idea of recording herself and publishing it onto YouTube instead of almost straight away – but this is only a half hour episode that has to focus on the characters.
There was one part of the episode I didn’t get, nor did it fit with the cohesion of the rest of the episode. Jamie is describing his motivations for being a filmmaker and as he does so, stands up and we jump into what I assume is a fantasy, a la Scrubs (just with less Zach Braff in it).
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| One would hope this is the only and last time the words ‘less’ and ‘Zach Braff’ are used in the same sentence. |
I don’t like this scene. It just doesn’t fit the more grounded and realistic tone of the rest of the episode – especially as this is the only part where it happens. All it really is is a short sketch. But what’s worse is that this fantasy scene loses cohesion with itself. The gag breaks down and turns into simple slapstick, which doesn’t even follow on from the previous half of the gag both in tone and humour. It clashes with itself.
Now, to the characters and their actors. One thing I noticed even on first viewing is how three of the actors, Ferguson, Maylan and Wilding, playing Jamie, Lydia and David, don’t act naturally – to begin with. They all make the movements and deliver their lines as if they were actors acting a role – not actual people or characters. When David knocks over a Jenga tower accidentally, he does so in a very deliberate, forced and unnatural way – as if he was an actor who knew he had to stand up and knock over a Jenga tower. At one point, while David is jokingly threatening Jamie with a Jenga block, Lydia covers her mouth with her hand and makes a noise and I’m not sure what she was even trying to convey – it seemed really forced and an out of place reaction.
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| No, seriously … what is she doing?! |
Even the actress seems not sure of what she was doing because when she stops, she does so awkwardly – but not in an in-character awkwardness, out-of-character awkwardness.
However (before all you witch-hunters attack me for being cruel) – However, as the episode progresses, you start to see the three actors becoming more and more comfortable into their role. They start to feel a lot, lot less like actors acting, and more like actual people interacting. And this is all to be expected with an indie product and actors who are only just taking on the roles they have been given.
Chloey Rose, who plays Megan, however, in my opinion, seems confidant and comfortable in her role from her very first scene, and thus is the most natural out of all the four characters – ironic, considering the character she is playing is the shy introvert of the group. In her first scene, she is in the kitchen when suddenly an almost naked David walks into the kitchen totally unaware of his surroundings and the fact Megan is there and proceeds to make himself a cup of tea in naught but his leopard print boxers.
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| A sight which had previously scarred Jamie for life. |
In this scene, even though for almost a good minute there is absolutely no dialogue, Rose’s performance, with her body language and facial expressions are exactly spot on and completely natural. She acts just as someone who is shy and awkward around these people she doesn’t know would act when one of them just walks in-front of her in just his underwear.
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| “And when you gaze into the leopard boxers – the leopard boxers stares back.” (Alt. caption: The thousand-yard stare of someone traumatised by leopard boxers. Next time: Megan and Jamie set up a support group for people traumatised by leopard boxers.) |
And as if good acting was contagious, Wilding also begins to act more natural in his character, and him interacting with Megan, completely oblivious to her awkwardness, is one of my favourite scenes in this episode and the most well directed and performed scene. And when Lydia and Jamie appear at the end of the scene, they too act more like people than actors. And as the episode progresses the characters slowly become more lifelike – I do wonder if this episode was filmed in chronological order, as that would explain the actors becoming more gradually comfortable with their roles. (EDIT: Trilbee contacted me and has confirmed that the episode was, for the most part, filmed chronologically. It’s nice to know I can accurately spot production techniques and I am not just bullcrapping out of my butt!) Also I must add that Ferguson has some rather brilliant eye and eyebrow acting. Not quite Peter Capaldi scale but he’s getting there. Seriously, I just find myself watching his eyebrows during his scenes – they are an independent character in and of themselves! If Trilbee paid his actors, I feel like he’d have to also separately pay Ferguson’s eyebrows for their amazing performance!
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| I’ve actually just written my own comedy series – yeah, and I’m planning on casting Ferguson’s eyes as the lead actor – once I’ve found who their agent is. |
I’ve talked a bit about Megan’s character already so let’s have a look at the other three characters (We’ll leave a full in-depth analysis of Jamie’s eyebrows and the important role they play to a later review). Obviously, on the first episode of anything, it’s hard to give an exact idea of what characters will be like, as, just as the actors are getting comfortable with their roles, the writer himself is getting comfortable writing for the characters. A lot of reviewers for TV series make the mistake of dismissing a character of the main cast as a failure and one that should be dropped, without giving them the chance to find themselves (a good recent example of this would be a couple of characters in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. James Hunt, of Den of Geek, reviewed most of the episodes of season 1 of the show – and frequently criticised most of the characters in the first half of his reviews (I should also note that a lot of people, me included, complained about him in the comments of his reviews as he was being overly critical of the show – judging by the reactions in the comments, most people liked the show after a couple of episodes). Soon, the characters found their place in the series, and eventually Hunt had to admit that).
For that reason, it’s often hard to really know how a character is on a pilot episode – however, based on this episode, and especially the parts after a third-way through where I feel the actors have become comfortable, I do feel that they all show promise. It’s clear already what role each character will play in the dynamic of this small community. As this episode focuses more on Lydia’s relationship with Megan, David and Jamie do take a slight backseat … but only slight one (this is, after all, only a four-person cast).
The relationship between Megan and Lydia, best displayed in the scene where (and I love the wording here) Lydia requests Megan ‘serenade’ her, is certainly a highlight of the episode. Although, obviously, in it’s infancy, you can already see that this relationship will blossom in future episodes.
Jamie and David similarly have a connection. With David being very much has a ‘bull in a china shop’ personality, Jamie’s more relaxed casual personality grounds him (or, perhaps, continuing with the ‘bull’ simile, his personality leashes David’s). David and Jamie have a scene together to establish their relationship with each other as they discuss, of all things, Viagra and neck snapping.
I mentioned earlier about how each of the characters have a role to play in the group dynamic (or at least, three of them do – Megan only gets two brief scenes in this episode where she is with all three of her co-stars, so her role is a little less defined at this monent). David is very much the soul, the fun, unrestrained of the group – the life and soul. I’m tempted to define him as the ‘comic relief’, though that term usually carried negative connotations, one which I don’t feel applies to David. Lydia seems to be the head, anatomically speaking, of the group in that she’s not in charge, but she’s definitely the first to suggest things to be done, is confidant about her ideas. Jamie is, as said earlier, the ground of the group. He’s David’s restraint/leash for his enthusiastic, but loud personality – and he keeps Lydia from going along with the first idea that might come to her mind, and gets her to just stop and think a bit more. He seems the least pro-active of the group, the most relaxed and casual. Lydia is zipping about in this episode trying to bring out Megan, David is literally bouncing off the walls with his personality, but Jamie, for the most part, prefers to just sit on a chair or a couch and interact with people as they pass by – he is relaxed one out of his more fast paced friends (as I’ve said, I think we need to wait until future episodes to see how Megan fully slots in between all four).
There are moments throughout the episode, more in the first 5 mins and then less so but still sporadically, where there are lines that sound like ‘lines from a script’ and not ‘things these people are saying’ – however I can’t really tell at this moment if these are further examples of the actors still finding their roles, or if this is simply because the sound in my pre-release preview hasn’t been cleaned up yet. It has been said that there are still some sound cleaning and mixing to do, and that might have something to do with it. However, there is a monologue from Lydis as she recounts a story about an incident where she wrote a short horror story at her first year in secondary school (I was at a private school, so I had to pause for a moment to work out which year Year 7 was – we would call it First Year, because we’re pretentious like that). It was a genuinely funny monologue that ended with quite an amusing punchline, and I enjoy’d listening to it. Some of the other dialogue, however, did teeter towards being cliché at moments, but that might simply be a by-product of using a stock-storyline.
Further notes on the visuals and production of the episode. I should start off by stating that my pre-release copy hadn’t been fully colour corrected when I received it, however Trilbee released on his Facebook page a comparison to indicate the sort of colour correction being done (and has, in fact, been completed now) on the episode.
I’ve always been amazed by the art of colour correction – it does seem to be quite a tedious thing to have to do and it’s impressive how simply changing the balance of colour of a scene you can change the setting and mood of the entire scene.
There is a moment in the episode where Lydia unboxes the router and picks it up and holds it over her head, while a sound effect similar to one that might be played in a video game when the player finds an item or power-up. It’s clear that this is mean to be a parody of such video games, but however, much like the extended surreal fantasy scene mentioned above, it doesn’t fit with the more grounded feel of the rest of the episode, and as a result, it un-emerges you in the episode and reminds you you’re watching a work of fiction.
I also like how Trilbee rips off, sorry, I mean, …is inspired by Sherlock with the use of on-screen texts, instead of cutaways to the screen of the mobile. I liked the animating of on-screen texts, but I feel the images need to be cleaned up, as the episode is in 1080 HD, but the images looked pixilated. They also had grey borders around the images – I feel they would’ve looked better if it was just the speech bubbles, not the speech bubbles on a grey square.
So, overall, I am quite impressed with Meatspace – As the start of a series it definitely has my interest and I very much would like to see where the show goes next with these characters. I was more interested in their interaction rather than the actual story, but that’s fine, as the interaction and chemistry with the characters, while started off shakily, eventually clicked and became enjoyable to watch. That said, if interesting plots and original plots can be thought up by the writers in future episodes, I will be more than excited to see those as well. I am also enthused for the idea of this social media tie-in, I feel it’s one of the strongest concepts of this project and I will be rewatching this episode live in Saturday 5th September on TrilbeeReviews to see how well the tie-ins work.
I also hope this gets picked up by a studio – the backing of one would help what is already a strong concept and idea into a stronger reality.
Meatspace is copyright of TrilbeeReviews. Screenshots used in this review are used with permission. Elementary promotional image is copyright of CBS, and is used here under Fair Use. Scrubs is copyright of Disney-ABC Domestic Television, promotional image us used under Fair Use.
