Jer3miah vs Sherlock

"The Book of Jer3miah" did what I thought was all but impossible: create a murder mystery intertwined with BYU culture.

The story of a college freshman who's life comes crashing down after receiving a bizarre, supernatural calling to protect a box, "The Book of Jer3miah" delivers a suspenseful plot with the short segments of the wen series. After reading the reviews of some of my classmates and more critical commentary, it became evident that the choppiness of the web series did not appeal to the broad audience. There were also complaints that the story lacked character development and that the dialogue was scattered and inconsequential. While all of these comments hold water, there is still something to be said of the series when the genre is taken into consideration.

Over the course of my life, I have gone through many TV show binges. Normally, I side with medical or comedic series, but I have tried on a few occasions to get into more mystery and crime based productions. My issue has always been the lack of depth, especially in shows where the plot is unrelated between episodes and the audience is left to enjoy the story just for the twists and turns of the day. As an avid reader, I personally tend to crave character development more than the average person, but this has not diminished my appreciation for the brilliance of the genre when executed well. Then, six months ago, I was turned on to BBC's rendition of Sherlock Holmes. Where other mysteries lacked in character development and meaning, Sherlock Holmes excelled. I believe the reason is the show's focus on portraying Holmes's personality as its primary hook. As opposed to other mysteries, it feels as though the plot is just the vehicle that the directors use to develop Holmes as a character, and not the end all be all of the show.

While "The Book of Jer3miah" is not Sherlock Holmes, I do appreciate it for what it is. Jeremiah remains a somewhat flat character, but I believe that the main focus of this show was the suspenseful plot and not the development or journey of Jeremiah as a person. However, there are attempts at this development. For instance, Jeremiah's intuition and sensitivity to the Spirit makes him and interesting character to follow.

While I do agree that some elements of BYU culture being portrayed in the series make me cringe (such as the scene from a ward prayer in which Jeremiah's love interest asks him to stay just after returning home from his parent's funeral because "Everyone needs to pray"), I think overall, this is a successful and engaging series.

Jer3miah: A Good Watch

I remember seeing Star Wars Episode 3 in theaters as a 17 year old on the night it appeared in theaters. When it was over, I felt like it would be so cool to be a character in a storyline so epic and grandiose. Then, while on my mission, I finally realized that I was involved in an epic story, and I think Jer3miah captures that feeling. It parallels the eternal struggle that we are all in and makes it relatable and entertaining.

The story is full of mystery and I think it’s executed well. Mystery surrounds the box, Jeremiah’s mission, and even Jeremiah’s very identity. It definitely kept me interested and wondering what each episode would reveal. I think the plot develops well and moves forward at a good pace. I like the emphasis on lineage and Mesoamerica. It has a lot of potential for rich eternal identity and purpose, while having a constant appeal to the Book of Mormon.

I was very impressed with the way that the series was able to create an emotional impact on the viewer. I seemed like I could understand what Jeremiah was feeling during the intense moments in the story. This adds to the story's epic feeling and helps create a more authentic response in the viewer. The drama was interesting and well executed: It ranged from car accidents to cave adventures to interrogations. I was impressed with how far they were able to push the narrative while maintaining a sensible plot.

My only negative response is that the story is set in Provo and surrounds BYU campus and activities. Not that I don’t find that interesting! I just feel like the story has the potential to reach a larger Mormon audience than the specific audience it seems to initially appeals to. But I could be totally wrong there. It does makes sense that the students who made the movie were attending BYU at the time.

Overall I liked it and would recommend it.

Jer3miah: It Has Potential

The video series The Book of Jer3miah tells the story of Jeremiah Whitney, a freshman in college whose world is turned upside down when he becomes involved in a conspiracy theory and learns of his religious/supernatural purpose in life. The series consists of multiple video clips, each about five minutes long, that tell Jeremiah's story in short segments. The video series is filmed from a hand-held video camera, giving the impression that the video is being "told" from the perspective of which ever character is holding the camera. It's a unique idea with a lot of potential; however, it still has a lot of bugs to work out.
I've never watched a web series before so I was not prepared for or used to the short clips and segments Jeremiah's story was told in. It made the story feel choppy and disconnected as each segment ended. This caused jumps in the plot line and there were times when I felt I'd missed something when in reality it was just the end of one episode and the beginning of another.
A big problem with the series for me was its lack of character development. From the beginning of the series bad things start happening to the main character and yet, I don't know why I should care. Within the first ten minutes of the show Jeremiah has found out his birthday is actually in April as opposed to December and his parents are both killed. While these are shocking events, I don't know enough about Jeremiah to care about the fact that his world is no longer what it seemed. I want to know the characters better so I can understand what is going on and its impact on the characters.
One thing that did, to some degree, help with character development was the the shifting of the camera from one character to another. Seeing what different characters focused on as they recorded showed me their personality which helped me get to know them and start to connect with them. However, this base is not strong enough to carry an entire web series.
Overall, I think the web series had a few issues, but it was unique and attention grabbing at its attempt to do something new. It's laid the foundation for similar efforts in the future that will potentially have less bugs and carry the concept of an LDS sci-fi web series even farther.

Image from Pixabay.com

Jer3miah: Lots of Action

The webseries The Book of Jer3miah follows a college Freshman as is so-far very normal life becomes shrouded in mystery and racked with action and suspense. However, the interesting part of adventurous plot is that it's presented in clips of under five minutes. Therefore, the creators of The Book of Jer3miah had the challenge of making each clip entertaining and suspenseful.

Since I viewed several episodes one right after another, I'm not sure I got the full webseries effect. When watching these tiny episodes altogether it almost seems silly when something outrageous happens every 2 and half minutes. A project like this should be enjoyed as it was intended.

That being said, I noticed many areas in which the creators were successful.

The tight plot introduces several characters, but keeps them involved enough that the viewer wouldn't forget them from week to week. In one of the earlier episodes, a girl name Claire introduces herself to Jeremiah, and I love story develops between them even though Jeremiah is often absent, busy speaking with mysterious men and getting beat up every other time he opens a door.

The creators trust the viewers to piece things together. For instance, when Jeremiah's parents die the camera shows smoke while Jeremiah screams there names. The audience figures out for ourselves that they are dead, and that's enough until a conversation reveals further information (that his parents were hit my a semi) in a later episode.

While plot intensifies, the viewers are reminded of the normal everyday occurrences still  happening. Sometimes books and movies (and presumably webseries) seem to imply that the world stops when one of their character is facing challenges, but in Jer3miah, the insertion of Mormon activities such as ward pray and family home evening lessons into the plot grounds this over-the-top story in some reality.

Overall, I seem to be one of the few of my demographic who has not caught on to webseries in general (Lizzie Bennett Diaries, anyone?). I can't seem myself being interested enough in a story to wait a week to catch another 3 minute segment, but if I wait for the whole series then I face the problem that they were not really meant to watched fluidly. So, for me and my friends at the old folks home, webseries in general aren't for us, but all you smart phone users and YouTube enthusiasts out there should probably give this series a try.

perspective: Book of Jer3miah.

In the short series of 3-5 minute episodes of The Book of Jeremiah, I noticed a very strong theme of perspective, especially emphasized in the very first couple of episodes. As Jeremiah navigates his freshman year at college, his life changes dramatically and very suddenly without any warning. He keeps his video camera on him, the last give he received from his parents before their untimely death, and records different parts of his interactions through video recording. This type of filmography is interesting because it allows the viewers to watch the events directly through the eyes of the one holding the camera.

In the first and second episodes, his father is chastising him for having “one of those feelings” that Jeremiah claims is from the Holy Ghost. From Jeremiah’s perspective, these feelings are very real and very consequential.