The Boys Who Brunch – Season One-Two (2011-14)
“That’s what life is all about… the people you meet along the way.”
Making connections with other people is maybe one of the highlights of life. That and a good mimosa to start the day. As this web series opened up its first episode, it comments on how in New York City, there are so many people crammed in together, but how difficult it is to find real, genuine friends. Mason, our main character, is eager to make real connections with people and to maintain them.
Besides Mason, there are 3 other main characters that Mason has met during his time in NYC. Each week they meet for brunch and talk about their lives. One week, Mason introduces them to their weekly challenge where they all decide on something they are going to do or accomplish in the next week. This is where things start to get interesting for them.
Each episode is short – about 5 minutes long. Each one reveals something new about the characters, and gives some depth to the story. Short episodes probably aren’t my favorite, but in this case they work ok. This is a labor of love – low budget and self-funded. (I think he said it was made for under $1000). So it’s not HBO quality, but they did a good job with production values.
I really like the concept here, and what the series seems to be after. Making connections, making friends, is one of the things that makes life worthwhile, bearable, and valuable.
[After watching Season 2]
Um.. holy crap! Where to start?
Production values increased as well as each episode’s time – up to over 10 minutes. The storyline went from introducing and starting to develop the characters to some serious drama. Without giving too much away, I’ll say that it was surprising and unexpected.
The show goes into HIV, relationships, death, bisexuality, betrayal… Sometimes it jumped around a bit, but that might be because there was a lot to say in each episode and they had to squeeze it into 10 minutes.
One thing I noticed right away in Season 2 was that it didn’t seem to carry the same theme of connections between the friends like I thought it would. Immediately I noticed how the friends were drifting apart in their own ways. Mason was the primary example, retreating into himself as he was scared and preoccupied.
However, each episode carried its own theme and message. Having just one theme can be limiting, so I wasn’t opposed to it – just noticing the change. For instance, one episode seemed to comment on how often we get so into the smaller situations in our lives that we miss the big picture.
I won’t comment to much on the ending because I don’t want to give it away for anyone who hasn’t seen it. All I can say is… WTF? Not expected.
Saw this series featured on Dekkoo, and finished watching it on YouTube. It’s worth watching.
Find the series on Dekkoo, or
on YouTube.
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