Webseries Review: 1 Hour Power

The thing about the internet is that it gives you the freedom to make whatever kind of wacky series you want.

Like to film cattle chewing cud all day long? You can make a show about it.

Like to watch kittens roll around on the floor with chinchillas? You can make a show about that too (and wouldn’t that just be the super cutest thing ever?)

Like to surprise random strangers by smacking them across the face with live fish? Well, you can totally make a series about that but you might not be able to do many episodes once you get locked in jail for assault and battery.

The point (since there must be one somewhere) is that the internet gives show creators the opportunity to do whatever they want, with whatever kind of budget they can manage, and with whatever professional or amateur actors they can scrounge up.

And this is a good thing. Because regular TV sucks a lot of the time these days. Everything is the same on the networks, and if it isn’t exactly the same as everything else it gets cancelled too soon. Which is just irritating.

I don’t want to watch the same thing all of the time. I like to see things with new actors or new storylines or new concepts that may not totally make sense to me but are interesting anyway.

Which is why I turn to the internet for a lot of my viewing these days. It is on the internet that I can find webseries like 1 Hour Power. I’m going to use the term webseries for this show because a) there are multiple episodes with more being added all the time, and b) it does air on the web. But unlike most (if not all) of the webseries I’ve watched in the past, there are no storylines or characters here. This is a “show” by the loosest definition of the word only. Still, it has a very intriguing concept so is worth checking out.

The concept, basically, is that these crazy filmmakers go out during lunch time and film something, then take it back to the office and edit it into something resembling an episode, all in the space of an hour.

What they come up with seems to range from student film bizarre to just plain wacky. I think the episode with the Dance Box probably had the most consistent theme – or any theme at all really. There really is no rhyme or reason for the most part here. Each episode has a title and some of those titles fit with what goes on in the episode while some don’t (or if they do it is in some esoteric way that I wasn’t understanding). There are lots of random editing tricks employed, and dialogue is about as non-existent as linear storylines.

Still, the show is fun to watch. Like a music video with no music, or a pretentious film student final exam project without the pretentiousness.

The filmmakers are also the stars of the show, and they bounce around and fight with plastic weapons and dance in alley ways. Are they good actors? I have no clue, as they don’t seem to be portraying any specific characters. They are just outside having a fun time making wacky videos in their spare time.

I kinda wish I’d thought of the idea. Oh well. I’m still working on my review show of all As Seen on TV products, so I’ll get over it.

1 Hour Power was created by Kait Copenspire and Mitch Davis. Each episode is under three minutes long and they are all available to view through Youtube HERE.

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