Web Video / Wasting Time

The main cast of Wasting Time

Wasting Time is an animated web series about two friends who receive the power of time travel and how that affects their lives. It's animated with Plotagon, posted on YouTube, and premiered on February 22, 2022.

Tropes in Wasting Time:

• 20 Minutes into the Future: Wasting Time takes place in the near future, in the year 2026, although it comes out in 2022 and has been in the works since 2016.
• Alternate Timeline: Lexi and Nia create alternate timelines whenever they time travel.
• Alpha Bitch: Jill is shown to be the Alpha Bitch character of Watersman High School who has bullied Nia since childhood, including stealing her ex-boyfriend Ethan. Her best friend Rebecca is also a bully.
• Beta Bitch: Makayla is one of Jill's friends, who bullies Lexi for having less experience acting than her. However she still isn't on the level of Jill's best friend Rebecca and Jill treats Makayla and treats her more like someone she's using rather than a friend.
• Childhood Friends: The main friend group consisting of Lexi, Nia, Mason, and Lizzie met in their childhoods. Lexi and Nia met in kindergarten, and later Mason and Lizzie met Lexi and Nia in fourth grade.
• Everytown, America: Wasting Time takes place in the fictional town of Watersman, California.
• Flash Forward: Nia in several episodes is forced at random intervals to go to the future, where she is locked in a padded cell with Chelsea, and learns that Chelsea has been tracking her and Lexi for a long time to study and get their time travel powers.
• In Medias Res: The first episode of Wasting Time takes place a couple of months after Nia and Lexi have received the power to time travel.
• Jingle: Before every episode, a jazzy-sounding jingle from Plotagon plays.
• Mental Time Travel: The basic premise of the show is Nia and Lexi got the power to time travel to travel to different points in time just by thinking of the time and touching each other.
• Offscreen Breakup: The first episode mentions two offscreen breakups, one between Nia and Ethan which happened exactly one year ago in 2025, and another between Gregory and his long distance girlfriend Kaycee, who broke up over the summer. When Nia and Lexi go time traveling back to 2025, we actually see Ethan and Nia's breakup and Nia helps Gregory break up with his girlfriend earlier on the same day because Gregory knew he shouldn't have convinced her to stay with him for more time.
• Romantic Wingman: In the episode, "New Year, New Nia," Lizzie offers to be a wingwoman for Nia to get with Gregory while Gregory offers to be a wingman for Mason to get with Nia. However, Gregory doesn't know that Mason doesn't actually like Nia. Lizzie is successful, and Nia asks Gregory to the upcoming dance and he says yes.
• Pun: The first episode's name "An Ex To Grind," is a pun of the phrase "an axe to grind,"
• Stable Time Loop: In the episode, "Not So Great Grandparents," there is a stable time loop between 1984 and 2027. In the present, Nia's grandparents come to visit and tell her that Nia and Lexi went back to when they were teenagers and helped them stay together at a point where they almost broke up. Since her grandparents already know this, this means that Lexi and Nia already done that. Grandma Carrie tells Nia the day they went back was the episode's present day, February 2, 2027, meaning they have to do it now or risk Nia's life being different in the future. Nia and Lexi go back to make sure Nia's grandparents stay together and succeed, thus, her life is the same and the time loop in stable.
• Town Girls: Lexi, Nia, and Lizzie fit this trope. Lexi is a Girly Girl, Nia is a Tomboy, and Lizzie is neither but she is Street Smart.
• Synthetic Voice Actor: The characters are voiced with Plotagon's default text-to-speech program.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: The characters are all wearing different outfits every episode, especially every time Nia and Lexi time travel to a different time period. Lexi in particular wears a lot of different and varied outfits, affording them through shopping at thrift stores despite her single mother having financial problems.