December 2009 equals endless blurbing about the best and worst of the Aughts. But while the decade certainly added its own flavour to film, music and television, there was one entertainment medium it had all to itself—Web TV.
Seeing as how the World Wide Web wasn’t even invented until 1991, it’s hardly surprising it'd take another decade before the web became a viable video source. But flash-forward to now and Joss Whedon’s online supervillain musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog won an Emmy while gamer-centric web series Pure Pwnage is prepping its migration to this here very network. So let’s take a look the web series that reformatted pop culture in the 2000s.
Red vs Blue (2003-Present)
Bored gamer geeks began adding silly dialogue to Halo gameplay videos which soon evolved into a full-fledged machinima that applied absurdist comedy to first-person shooters. It was the first breakout web series, reaching as many as one million weekly viewers back in 2004.
Pure Pwnage (2004-present)
Once again, gamer culture was ground zero for a smash web series—and this time there was no hiding behind digital avatars. Boasting about “taking n00bs to school since 2004,” the brainchild of Toronto’s Jarett Cale (cast as pro-gamer Jeremy) and Geoff Lapaire (unseen director Kyle) is a hardcore-hewing mockumentary with a worldwide online audience of about three million. Though the show took a hiatus in 2009, the boys had a great excuse: they were working on their upcoming Showcase series. (Fans will be happy to hear that new short webisodes will appear on showcase.ca prior to the series launch in early 2010.)
Yacht Rock (2005-2008)
This Channel 101 classic was a loving "Sabotage"-like parody of the critically denigrated titular genre that won ironic hipster hearts with its faux-histories and smooth sounds of Kenny Loggins, Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Toto, Christopher Cross and the immortal Hall & Oates.
lonelygirl 15 (2006-2008)
Ah, we were so innocent when this series caught fire, largely because people thought the video-blogger was real rather than actor Jessica Rose. Once the hoax was exposed, the reality-blurring series turned into a bizarre occult show. Though it eventually lost its pop-cultural oomph, the creators claimed 110 million viewers over their run.
Sanctuary (2007)
This Vancouver-lensed series about monster-hunting scientists, which was recently renewed for a third season, began as a for-pay web series and wound up proving web TV could survive and thrive offline…
Quarterlife (2007-2008)
Then again, the nine million web-viewers of Quarterlife, produced by the folks behind thirtysomething, ignored the NBC broadcast and the show was axed after the first episode garnered the network's worst ratings in nearly two decades.
Clark and Michael (2007)
After Arrested Development—but before becoming a full-blown movie star—Michael Cera and roommate Clark Duncan (now stealing scenes on Greek) filmed this hilarious, guest-star-heavy mockumentary about their adventures trying to sell a TV pilot.
The Guild (2007-Present)
Former minor Buffy actress Felicia Day recovered from her World of Warcraft addiction by creating this amazing series about a group of online gamers who meet each other IRL. Initially fan-supported, it soon found a benefactor in Xbox.
Dr. Horrible (2008)
Day returned to the web for Joss Whedon’s smash three-part musical which was created during the writer’s strike and starred Firefly’s Nathan Filion as Captain Hammer, Big Bang Theory’s Simon Helberg as Moist and Neil Patrick Harris as the titular supervillain. It basically broke the internet when released, dominated iTunes and came out on DVD with a musical commentary. Yes, really.
Mental Beast (2009)
Vancouver’s indie comedy scene—Bronx Cheer, Manhussy, Sunday Service and Pony Hunters—came together this winter for the ongoing 12-part web series about a failing radio station that alternates between audio of the titular radio show and video of the behind-the-scenes station shenanigans. Its awesome Christmas-themed soundtrack, The Eggnog Experience, is available for free download as of Dec. 17.