All opinions are my own and not sponsored
July 1, 2019 4:08 PM Subscribe
Sarah has a YouTube channel that may seem familiar to you.
Sarah's Beauty Routine
A haul video
A makeover
Sarah's daily routine
What's in my bag?
Bloopers
Actually, Sarah is comedian Claudia O'Doherty, starring in a bizarre web series that perfectly mocks YouTube culture while telling a good story.
(Ms O'Doherty formerly on the blue)
Sarah's Beauty Routine
A haul video
A makeover
Sarah's daily routine
What's in my bag?
Bloopers
Actually, Sarah is comedian Claudia O'Doherty, starring in a bizarre web series that perfectly mocks YouTube culture while telling a good story.
(Ms O'Doherty formerly on the blue)
I miss SailorJ.
posted by zaixfeep at 4:48 PM on July 1, 2019 [14 favorites]
posted by zaixfeep at 4:48 PM on July 1, 2019 [14 favorites]
'Sarah' sounds too US to be AU, yet too AU to be US. I know of 'midlantic'; is there also a 'midcific' accent?
posted by zaixfeep at 4:57 PM on July 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by zaixfeep at 4:57 PM on July 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Claudia O'Doherty rules and so does this. A+ thanks for sharing.
posted by saladin at 5:28 PM on July 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by saladin at 5:28 PM on July 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
oh my gosh yes, Claudia O'Doherty is fantastic and I am super into this from the first video.
posted by cortex at 6:24 PM on July 1, 2019
posted by cortex at 6:24 PM on July 1, 2019
God, I need to get my daughter to watch this. She's making youtube style videos like this, although not posting, and it's driving me insane. THAT VOICE is spot on.
Miss Claudia O'Doherty on Love.
posted by waving at 6:24 PM on July 1, 2019
Miss Claudia O'Doherty on Love.
posted by waving at 6:24 PM on July 1, 2019
Also: nice first post!
posted by evilmomlady at 6:41 PM on July 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by evilmomlady at 6:41 PM on July 1, 2019 [3 favorites]
Okay the goblin friend is adorable, next up is a makeover video which I know I'll be just living for
But seriously though the best/worst part is when she holds something up close to the camera and sticks her hand behind it to cause autofocus to recalibrate, but it's always ever so slightly slow or doesn't quite make it? Whenever this happens in a "real" influencer/guru/whatever video it bugs me in a variety of pet peeve ways that boil down to me hating it as an unthoughtful style choice, but in this it's eerie and perfect.
posted by Mizu at 6:55 PM on July 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
But seriously though the best/worst part is when she holds something up close to the camera and sticks her hand behind it to cause autofocus to recalibrate, but it's always ever so slightly slow or doesn't quite make it? Whenever this happens in a "real" influencer/guru/whatever video it bugs me in a variety of pet peeve ways that boil down to me hating it as an unthoughtful style choice, but in this it's eerie and perfect.
posted by Mizu at 6:55 PM on July 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
This was delightful. I liked how it was never fully mocking "Sarah" although it was laughing at this influencer/Youtuber culture. It was just like ... Sarah was just doing what she knew how to do, and make the best of some terrible circumstance she found herself in.
Until the end when she realized she needed to do something more because there was nothing else left. That was so satisfying.
This was so spot-on. I loved it.
posted by darksong at 7:17 PM on July 1, 2019
Until the end when she realized she needed to do something more because there was nothing else left. That was so satisfying.
This was so spot-on. I loved it.
posted by darksong at 7:17 PM on July 1, 2019
Yeah, these are terrific. They did a really good job making Sarah simultaneously adorable, annoying and heartbreaking. I guess the blooper one is the last episode. It's a good ending but I'd also really like to see how/if Sarah fulfills the prophecy! I hope she saves her weird goblin friends. In this interview O'Doherty makes it sound like a second season or even a half-hour version might be possible.
If you liked these I'd very much recommend checking out the Remain Indoors sketches from That Mitchell and Webb Look. It's a gameshow set in a post-apocalyptic bunker, and it teases out the story in a similarly funny/creepy/tragic manner.
I'm trying to piece the larger story together. (SPOILERS:) So, this is many years in the future, and humanity has either devolved into the goblin creatures or else all the humans are gone and the goblin creatures have arrived somehow. They live in fear of some ghastly entity, and judging by the way they go into a trance and their jewels glow when the entity is near, it seems possible the entity had something to do with their creation. The creatures somehow resurrected Sarah from her DNA, believing her to be their savior. They don't seem tech savvy at all, so perhaps Sarah's resurrection was done through magic. Although the creatures don't really seem smart enough to have figured out magic either! Does all of that track for anybody else, or am I missing something?
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:26 PM on July 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
If you liked these I'd very much recommend checking out the Remain Indoors sketches from That Mitchell and Webb Look. It's a gameshow set in a post-apocalyptic bunker, and it teases out the story in a similarly funny/creepy/tragic manner.
I'm trying to piece the larger story together. (SPOILERS:) So, this is many years in the future, and humanity has either devolved into the goblin creatures or else all the humans are gone and the goblin creatures have arrived somehow. They live in fear of some ghastly entity, and judging by the way they go into a trance and their jewels glow when the entity is near, it seems possible the entity had something to do with their creation. The creatures somehow resurrected Sarah from her DNA, believing her to be their savior. They don't seem tech savvy at all, so perhaps Sarah's resurrection was done through magic. Although the creatures don't really seem smart enough to have figured out magic either! Does all of that track for anybody else, or am I missing something?
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:26 PM on July 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
"I think they're together, so she - she seemed angry... LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE! š"
I lost it there.
That was really well done.
posted by whatnotever at 10:19 PM on July 1, 2019
I lost it there.
That was really well done.
posted by whatnotever at 10:19 PM on July 1, 2019
Spoiler Discussion:
Ursula Hitler, that pretty much tracks for me, too. I think that the goblins are whatever humans evolved into, perhaps after some kind of life-mutating world event? Because I feel like that works narratively, and kind of follows in the tradition of Australian post apocalyptic fiction. I feel like the line between magic and technology is melted and irrelevant, especially in the perspective of both the goblins and Sarah who are equally uninformed, so their glowy head gems could be some kind of bio-tech or not. When Justin shows Sarah the picture from his sack she describes the goblins as snakes and herself as glowy and I feel like that's more metaphor and prophecy than historical document - it is Justin's dream board!
The goblins themselves hoard flour and other food, but before they made(?) Sarah they didn't eat it, or know how to eat it. But they do know what antibiotics are, and what they're for - just not how to make them. They also know that they should be cultivating crops but not how to do so. It's like all the written language is gone so any books they might have found would have been useless, despite them speaking english. Maybe they learned it from Sarah. I feel like however they made/summoned Sarah, they didn't choose her specifically. Maybe in their culture anybody from the before times should have boundless knowledge and skills (because internet) so they figured whoever they got would be their savior.
I love the final video where we see Sarah's mental shift from not being a person capable of what these goblins want to being the only person so she has to at least try. I think that this series is fantastic and says a lot of nuanced things about what's happening culturally right now without it being judgmental or hopeless. Like, Sarah has a lot of skills! All that DIY! She taught them how to bake bread! And her coping mechanisms for being thrust into a post apocalyptic hellscape are actually pretty fantastic?? Stay hydrated, try to get some physical activity, visualize your goals, keep making art and being creative, don't forget to eat. What an icon, seriously.
posted by Mizu at 1:20 AM on July 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
Ursula Hitler, that pretty much tracks for me, too. I think that the goblins are whatever humans evolved into, perhaps after some kind of life-mutating world event? Because I feel like that works narratively, and kind of follows in the tradition of Australian post apocalyptic fiction. I feel like the line between magic and technology is melted and irrelevant, especially in the perspective of both the goblins and Sarah who are equally uninformed, so their glowy head gems could be some kind of bio-tech or not. When Justin shows Sarah the picture from his sack she describes the goblins as snakes and herself as glowy and I feel like that's more metaphor and prophecy than historical document - it is Justin's dream board!
The goblins themselves hoard flour and other food, but before they made(?) Sarah they didn't eat it, or know how to eat it. But they do know what antibiotics are, and what they're for - just not how to make them. They also know that they should be cultivating crops but not how to do so. It's like all the written language is gone so any books they might have found would have been useless, despite them speaking english. Maybe they learned it from Sarah. I feel like however they made/summoned Sarah, they didn't choose her specifically. Maybe in their culture anybody from the before times should have boundless knowledge and skills (because internet) so they figured whoever they got would be their savior.
I love the final video where we see Sarah's mental shift from not being a person capable of what these goblins want to being the only person so she has to at least try. I think that this series is fantastic and says a lot of nuanced things about what's happening culturally right now without it being judgmental or hopeless. Like, Sarah has a lot of skills! All that DIY! She taught them how to bake bread! And her coping mechanisms for being thrust into a post apocalyptic hellscape are actually pretty fantastic?? Stay hydrated, try to get some physical activity, visualize your goals, keep making art and being creative, don't forget to eat. What an icon, seriously.
posted by Mizu at 1:20 AM on July 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
Well, she says that she ate all of their food, and they seem wistful about crops, so I think they eat. And they seem to need antibiotics. It does seem to add up that these are the remnants of humanity, turned into these weird, timid goblins by some unspeakable monster. If they used Sarah's DNA to bring her back, I suspect that she was indeed the one person who was prophecised to save them. As unlikely as it seems, she's come back for a reason.
This series does a funny thing where it basically just tells the first act of a conventional story and then ends right when the big action is about to start. The "rules" of screenwriting would say that the hero is living their life, feeling unfulfilled on some level, when there is a Call to Action. They reject the Call, wanting to go back to the safety of their old life, but then some misfortune forces them to accept their destiny. (Think Luke Skywalker refusing to go to Alderan with Obi Wan Kenobi, then returning home to find the burning corpses of his aunt and uncle.) In this story Sarah is yanked from her cushy 21st century life and told that she is the one who will save the wretched goblins. She totally rejects it, going into extreme denial and carrying on making her goofy videos even though literally nobody's watching them. After the goblins are gone she takes up a sword (or a rusty, pitifully small knife) and seems to accept that she has to save her friends... and then the story ends! We fade out at the exact moment where most stories would be heading into act 2 and we have no idea how this will resolve. Sarah might well be heading off on a suicide mission. It's a total violation of conventional storytelling rules, and that really shouldn't work.
I think it does work because the story isn't really about whether Sarah saves the goblins, but more about whether she can snap out of her denial and self-centeredness and care about other people... or goblins. She seemed useless in the post-apocalypse, but she's only been useless because she's been mentally stuck in superficial 2019 Youtube culture and she hasn't been using her skills the right way.
Through the videos she does have good advice about self-care and art and all that stuff, but she's only applying it to herself and she treats the goblins with contempt. She yells at them, kind of enslaves them and doesn't even bother to give them names. They're literally dying around her, and she hardly notices. It's only when they're all gone that she realizes she cares for them. Assuming Sarah does save the goblins (and I really hope she does!) I don't think she does it by going all warrior badass and driving a sword into the monster's heart. I think she probably saves them by reawakening their humanity, by re-introducing stuff like goals, self-care and art. Maybe she uses her corny pep talks to inspire them to fight back against the monster. (I think we might be seeing the seeds of humanity's revival in the one goblin who enviously tries on her makeup when she's away.) Maybe she teaches them to plant and cultivate stuff, through her knowledge of decorative gardening. Heck, maybe she even finds love with Justin! (They were really vibing in that makeover video.)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:14 AM on July 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
This series does a funny thing where it basically just tells the first act of a conventional story and then ends right when the big action is about to start. The "rules" of screenwriting would say that the hero is living their life, feeling unfulfilled on some level, when there is a Call to Action. They reject the Call, wanting to go back to the safety of their old life, but then some misfortune forces them to accept their destiny. (Think Luke Skywalker refusing to go to Alderan with Obi Wan Kenobi, then returning home to find the burning corpses of his aunt and uncle.) In this story Sarah is yanked from her cushy 21st century life and told that she is the one who will save the wretched goblins. She totally rejects it, going into extreme denial and carrying on making her goofy videos even though literally nobody's watching them. After the goblins are gone she takes up a sword (or a rusty, pitifully small knife) and seems to accept that she has to save her friends... and then the story ends! We fade out at the exact moment where most stories would be heading into act 2 and we have no idea how this will resolve. Sarah might well be heading off on a suicide mission. It's a total violation of conventional storytelling rules, and that really shouldn't work.
I think it does work because the story isn't really about whether Sarah saves the goblins, but more about whether she can snap out of her denial and self-centeredness and care about other people... or goblins. She seemed useless in the post-apocalypse, but she's only been useless because she's been mentally stuck in superficial 2019 Youtube culture and she hasn't been using her skills the right way.
Through the videos she does have good advice about self-care and art and all that stuff, but she's only applying it to herself and she treats the goblins with contempt. She yells at them, kind of enslaves them and doesn't even bother to give them names. They're literally dying around her, and she hardly notices. It's only when they're all gone that she realizes she cares for them. Assuming Sarah does save the goblins (and I really hope she does!) I don't think she does it by going all warrior badass and driving a sword into the monster's heart. I think she probably saves them by reawakening their humanity, by re-introducing stuff like goals, self-care and art. Maybe she uses her corny pep talks to inspire them to fight back against the monster. (I think we might be seeing the seeds of humanity's revival in the one goblin who enviously tries on her makeup when she's away.) Maybe she teaches them to plant and cultivate stuff, through her knowledge of decorative gardening. Heck, maybe she even finds love with Justin! (They were really vibing in that makeover video.)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:14 AM on July 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
Claudia O'Doherty rules
Agreed. Adore her comedy. About the only reason I stuck out Love was for Bertie's plot lines.
posted by terrapin at 9:33 AM on July 2, 2019 [4 favorites]
Agreed. Adore her comedy. About the only reason I stuck out Love was for Bertie's plot lines.
posted by terrapin at 9:33 AM on July 2, 2019 [4 favorites]
You know, this comment from below the blooper episode:
(Also, I'm now in love with Sarah/Claudia.)
posted by maxwelton at 2:09 PM on July 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
This feels like early internet specialness.Sums this up for me--I miss the early internet so much. I mean, I don't miss real player or shitty browsers, but I do miss how raw and weird and earnest and funny and amazing a lot of it was.
(Also, I'm now in love with Sarah/Claudia.)
posted by maxwelton at 2:09 PM on July 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
There's a behind the scenes video plus interview with Claudia and Nick, who is not only the writer and director but also Justin!
posted by Mizu at 4:45 AM on July 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Mizu at 4:45 AM on July 5, 2019 [1 favorite]
This was brilliant, and Iām so glad it got posted here so I found it.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 1:47 PM on July 6, 2019
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 1:47 PM on July 6, 2019
« Older Rest as Resistance | Device Orchestra Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by misfish at 4:32 PM on July 1, 2019