Our ongoing series covering web-based productions in the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror genres. If you have a recommendation for a web original that we should look at, contact us at mail@axiomsedge-scifi.com.
By John J. Joex
664 – The Neighbor of the Beast
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
The premise of this humorous web series is quite simple, a family moves into their house (address 664) to find out that their neighbor is Satan (guess which number his address is). The title of course plays off the Iron Maiden song “666 – The Number of the Beast” only here it is 664, the neighbor of the Beast. I’ve made it through the entire first season of this show (which comprises 20 episodes) and I rather enjoyed it (there is a second season available as well). We find Satan (who takes up the name Lou, short for Lucifer) living a normal suburban life though the neighbors are quite wary of his presence. And it also throws in some bits about Satan dealing with the corporate world that is Hell (he is only the face of the Underworld, not really the ruler) which includes a suggestion that Rupert Murdoch has bought out the whole joint. I like the fact that they do not keep up any mystery about Lou’s origins as Tracy and Arthur ask him almost right away and the others living in the area apparently already know his occupation. So the whole premise of the series is what it would be like to live in the suburbs and hanging with Satan as your neighbor.
This series is not laugh-out-loud funny, but it keeps you consistently amused most of the time as you venture through the episodes. And the one episode where the hard-nosed Girl Scout (actually they call her a Girl Champion or something, but you get the idea) shakes down the Devil for the money he owes for cookies is just hilarious. The actors all do a bang-up job, if not even better, for a web series and the guy who plays Lou (Tony DeMauro I believe is his name, the credits are a bit sketchy) must be the long-lost brother of John and James Belushi. I believe he definitely has potential to break into the next level.
All in all, I would much rather watch this than most of the new sitcoms currently airing on broadcast and cable. But also, I wouldn’t want to see this made as a sitcom either, because I believe it would wear thin quickly in that format. From what I understand, creator George O’Connor came up with this idea and submitted it in a contest to create a television pilot. It did not win, but he decided to expand it into a web series, and it works just fine that way. Twenty episodes of five to six minutes each keeps the concept moving along just fine. And I liked it enough that I plan on checking out the second season as well. But 22-24 half hour episodes across a regular television season (or even 13 for the shortened seasons cable shows do) would probably quickly drive the concept into cliché and formula.
In any case, I recommend checking this one out for a fairly amusing series that will provide an enjoyable return on the time you invested in it. The entire series is available for viewing on YouTube (start with the first episode at this link). When searching for episodes there, just make sure you have the right season, because I accidentally skipped ahead to the second season on a few of the early episodes and found myself confused before realizing I was watching the wrong season. The production company Lazy Horde has a web site as well, but I keep getting a time-out error when trying go there.
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
The first episode of this series won the Grand Prize at the 2009 Escapist Film Festival for the gamer magazine The Escapist and then went on to produce a full 24 episode series. The series follows a slacker gamer who’s life is turned upside down after several characters from the video game he is playing come out of the television and he must then leave the comfort of his couch and aid them on their quest which will keep the evil forces in the game from threatening the real world. The script is corny, the special effects are cheesy, and the acting is over the top at best and downright amateurish at worst. But I have to admit that I laughed out loud several times through the ten episodes that I have sampled so far. This one definitely has some geek cred, made by geeks for geeks, and it should appeal to gamers and fantasy fans alike. And while it definitely has more of a cheesy web series feel to it than some of the other entries I have watched recently (like 664 above), it also has some nerdy charm about it as well. The episodes are about 3 to 4 minutes each and you can catch the whole series at escapistmagazine.com. As I mentioned, I have watched the first ten episode thus far, and plan on making my way through the full series before too long.
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