I went into this show with absolutely no expectations. In fact, when I was idly troping, I saw that Carmilla had a video adaptation hosted free on Youtube, I jumped right in, since I really enjoyed the novella when I read it a few years ago, and I had nothing better to do that day. I watched the 36 roughly-five-minute episodes in over three days.
The show, a horror-drama-comedy, begins with the protagonist (Laura, of course) introducing herself to her webcam. Her roommate disappears and is soon replaced by Carmilla, a languorous, darkly-made-up Eastern European. The plucky cast of characters is surprisingly likable, and when the show works, it works very well.
Unfortunately, it is often very frustrating.
The show suffers badly from telling to much, far too quickly. The epistolary format is fantastic - it allows for both monologues and incidental humour, and provides a great air of verisimilitude while allowing the show to be made on (what I imagine is) a shoestring budget. When it breaks away from that for visual gags, which is often, it is very jarring, as are the minute-long outros.
It's clear the show is trying to work as both a drama and a comedy at the same time, and when the humour is earned, from clever observation or snappy dialogue, it's great and it enhances the story. For example, when the campus frat boys offer night walks to "hotties 7.5 and up," it's both hilarious and sad. All too often, though, the action is broken up by goofiness that is distracting and makes it too hard to care when things get serious.
The source material was great because it had a fantastic sense of subtlety - character was developed slowly, and the more we learned about the title character, the less we understood. The show completely lacks this, which is a shame - at one point, Carmilla literally dictates her entire backstory, a mere three episodes after reminding us she wouldn't want to lose her "air of mystery." Oops.
tl;dr: When this show is on, it's on. It's a lot of fun, but if it were written a bit more carefully and pared down the goofiness, it could have been an innovative masterpiece.
WebVideo Carmilla (series) review
I went into this show with absolutely no expectations. In fact, when I was idly troping, I saw that Carmilla had a video adaptation hosted free on Youtube, I jumped right in, since I really enjoyed the novella when I read it a few years ago, and I had nothing better to do that day. I watched the 36 roughly-five-minute episodes in over three days.
The show, a horror-drama-comedy, begins with the protagonist (Laura, of course) introducing herself to her webcam. Her roommate disappears and is soon replaced by Carmilla, a languorous, darkly-made-up Eastern European. The plucky cast of characters is surprisingly likable, and when the show works, it works very well.
Unfortunately, it is often very frustrating. The show suffers badly from telling to much, far too quickly. The epistolary format is fantastic - it allows for both monologues and incidental humour, and provides a great air of verisimilitude while allowing the show to be made on (what I imagine is) a shoestring budget. When it breaks away from that for visual gags, which is often, it is very jarring, as are the minute-long outros.
It's clear the show is trying to work as both a drama and a comedy at the same time, and when the humour is earned, from clever observation or snappy dialogue, it's great and it enhances the story. For example, when the campus frat boys offer night walks to "hotties 7.5 and up," it's both hilarious and sad. All too often, though, the action is broken up by goofiness that is distracting and makes it too hard to care when things get serious.
The source material was great because it had a fantastic sense of subtlety - character was developed slowly, and the more we learned about the title character, the less we understood. The show completely lacks this, which is a shame - at one point, Carmilla literally dictates her entire backstory, a mere three episodes after reminding us she wouldn't want to lose her "air of mystery." Oops.
tl;dr: When this show is on, it's on. It's a lot of fun, but if it were written a bit more carefully and pared down the goofiness, it could have been an innovative masterpiece.