The 9 Best Web Series

Sharp October 7, 2014

Sometime before Barack Obama sat between two ferns with Zach Galifinakis and after the most famous comedian in the world started driving around getting coffee with his famous (very funny) friends, the moment of the Web Series officially arrived. It’s been a long time coming, frankly. For most of its existence, web series were either consolation prizes or try outs for creative folk who weren’t quite ready for cable. And while an element of that still exists, more and more they are a new art form altogether. Not quite television, but far more weighty than a typical YouTube clip. But, as with all things online, there are the good, the bad and the corporately sponsored. Here are the 9 best web series you should pay attention to.

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(1/10)

High Maintenance

Maybe the most impressive web series out there, each episode is crafted—like the best episodes of Louie—like an immaculate short story. Ben Sinclair stars as a loveable and reliable pot dealer (the title is a pun, you see) in this web series co-created by himself and his wife, Katja Blichfeld. The first season of artfully shot vignettes, compelling characters, well-timed laughs and emotional insights was so successful that Vimeo will be offering another six episodes on Vimeo On Demand— which means it’s no longer free. They start you off on the freebies and then charge you once you’re hooked. Typical drug dealers.

vimeo.com/highmaintenance

Bad-to-the-Jones

F*ck That’s Delicious

Rapper Action Bronson says ‘All I believe in is food and myself.’ And in his monthly web series F*ck That’s Delicious, you can tell he’s not kidding. A chronicle of his love of food, the show follows Bronson through his travels on tour and stops at restaurants all over the world. And he’s not just a hands-off fan of food. As he tells the camera in one episode, Bronson was a cook before he made it as a rapper and ‘could probably [make] all this with my eyes closed.’ While his lyrical way of explaining the food he’s about to eat is a definite reason to tune in, trust us, you don’t want to miss the close ups of dishes that practically ooze deliciousness. Don’t watch on an empty stomach.

munchies.vice.com

Next Time On Lonny

The first run of Next Time on Lonny ended in 2011, but they’re back with Ben Stiller lending his significant weight to the project as executive producer. A mock-reality show where the look forward at the next (and next next) episode, begins one or two minutes in, Lonny is everything that makes the Internet awesome: non-linear, random as hell and consumable in the time it takes your wife to decide which shoes she actually wants to wear.

Maker.tv

Sex Factor

The premise of this web series is spelled out in the title’s pun. This is reality TV on Viagra. Sixteen amateur contestants, half men, half women, compete for our, ahem, affection in front of four pro judges—just like X-Factor!— with the whole shebang (zing!) fittingly aired on porn’s preferred medium, the World Wild Web. To the victor: a cool mil and a scene with the hostess, porn star Bell Knox. And people still think people go into porn as a last resort. No, that’s reality television.

SxFactor.com

Wedlock

Mark Duplass can do no wrong. The prolific writer/director/actor/producer is at it again with this web series about two friends who seek out a relationship therapist in hopes of falling in love and getting married. As you do. A look at whether you can force and create love, the 10-episode series follows the ‘couple’ as they attend weird sessions with their therapist (played by Rob Corddry), schedule a first kiss and possibly make it down the aisle. Duplass’s real-life wife Katie Aselton guest-stars (presumably hilariously) in this web series that will make hopeless romantics head for the hills.

vimeo.com

Reggie Watts: Teach

Reggie Watts is a comedian and a musician. He is not a teacher. Case in point, his Literature episode: “Why do you think the first character doesn’t like a mockingbird? Correct. Mockingbirds are annoying…”

Filmed like a ‘70s sitcom with teachings that would barely have been believable in the Dark Ages, Teach is basically just Reggie Watts doing what he does best: spouting entertaining nonsense and having huge hair.

Jash.com

Charles, Your Hangover

You might’ve pictured your hangover personified as a slovenly individual with little care for his outward appearance, like the heavily bearded man who roots through your garbage in search of empties. But comedy group Two Trick Pony and Aboveaverage.com didn’t. In Charles, Your Hangover, Tory Stanton plays the hangover, an always peppy and cheerful, bow-tie-and-vest-wearing bearer of nausea, fatigue and unwanted memories named Charles. He’s delightful.

Aboveaverage.com

Winners

The pilot begins with a beautiful speech made by a man about his love and admiration…for himself. Because he’s speaking to a mirror. And therein begins the web series Winners, a show about a group of nondescript winners (aka losers) trying to make it in Hollywood. This quirky ensemble comedy is about an eccentric talent manager (who worked as an actor for 13.5 years) whose home acts as a commune for starving artists in LA. Unfortunately for this gang, neither talent nor good sense is on their side. Luckily, the lack of that combination makes for good watching.

WinnersTalent.com

Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee

In this, the the fourth season of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, sometimes Jerry gets coffee in great cars with great comedians, and other times he gets coffee in terrible cars with great comedians. In one episode, Jon Stewart and Jerry drive around in a Gremlin, discussing the vehicles many merits like how it, according to Stewart, “was used for many years in New Jersey as contraception.”

comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com