I have never been an avid watcher of web series, so the way in which this story was told was very different for me. As each episode was very short, it took incredible talent to cram a lot of information in for viewers in just minutes. For example, in the episode where Jeremiah flies to New York and attends his parent's funeral, I was pleasantly surprised to see how well the producers handled it. I thought that a funeral scene could easily take the whole three minutes but then that would have been the entire episode and no one wants to watch a whole episode of just a funeral. There would be no drive to watch the next episode. They, however, handled it well, in a way that is was both artistically pleasing and story-driving.
For me, even though The Book of Jer3miah was interesting and compelling to watch, it wasn't exactly my cup of tea. I had a hard time connecting to this strange mix of mystery and conspiracy theory all bundled up in Mormon doctrine and traditions. I don't know if I was reading too much into it, but as I watched I had flashbacks to reading Orson Scott Card's novel, The Seventh Son, which deals heavily with magic and the mystic and alludes to the story of Joseph Smith. The story of young teenage Jeremiah receiving an object from ancient America and then traveling to NY was just a little confusing and misleading for me.
In general, web series can be an effective method for sharing stories. People these days are looking for instant gratification when it comes to entertainment. If you only have a few minutes for some down time, a web series is a great choice because you get enough of a story to entertain you, but it doesn't require you to sit through an entire movie or a whole book all at once.
Your post encompassed just what I felt. I am new to the whole web series medium though I do find it an interesting new form of media. They were able to fit a lot of material in which was probably aided by the short episodes, allowing the viewer to take a small breather from everything that was happening. I also was often confused through the series, wondering how the got from one event/place to the next and I think I preferred "The Seventh Son" because it was a lot more subtle so the supernatural/Mormon aspects were not so confusing.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I felt like "Jer3miah" wasn't nearly as well done as "Seventh Son". But it was the story and not the format that bugged me. I actually don't really mind webshows too much--have a couple favorites I've watched avidly. But they had better writers, which is probably why I liked them better.
ReplyDelete