Books

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.