Books

Just finished watching Chapter 4 of "Books." Wow! This show is all around really great! Love the writing, directing, the production values and the performances. And it just keeps getting better and better. The actors are growing on me, too. I wasn't sure about it at first, but I really like the two lead characters. They provide a nice balance because they are so different from each other. And the crazy guy at the bookstore was perfect. Looking forward to the future chapters/episodes! It would also be a good fit for HBO or even the network. It feels like "Entourage" without the an entourage. I'm curious to see how things will play out. There's a little mystery going. I hope they keep them coming. Probably one of the best web series I have seen of this kind. It's got plenty of drama, but it's funny, too.

So I was reading this screen writing website, The Bitter Script Reader, and saw an interview with the director of Books that had the first episode of the show embedded, and I clicked on it. It was...okay. A little slow, felt like a lot of character set-up without any real pay-off but it was shot well and the dialog was good so I thought, what the hey - I'll click on episode 2. And then I clicked on episode 3. And by that point I was like, wow, this is really, really good. I was hooked. Once the two brothers (Josh Beren and Peter Douglas) get on screen together, they've got this legit brotherly chemistry that propels the show forward, and by the time I was to the end of episode 6 I was angry that it was over. The production value is not network TV quality, but it's way higher than the budget numbers on this site indicate - think of it as like a Sundance movie, or as a cable TV show. The acting is above average. And the writing and directing are just legitimately good. I saw the view-count numbers on YouTube, they're not that high, but I think with more publicity this show would find a devoted audience. Maybe the problem is that it feels more like TV than web, and that's part of it. And maybe it's because the first episode is a little slow, like I said. But for a low budget show, this is really, really good. These guys have a future in TV, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if this low budget show turns into something bigger.