if you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere

March 8, 2010 9:54 AM

Is ‘If I Can Dream’ the Start of a Web Reality Rush?

from the article:
This week saw the launch of Hulu’s first original web series, If I Can Dream, backed by reality TV’s worldwide top dog, American Idol creator Simon Fuller. His first foray into the web goes way beyond Hulu though, as the series blends several reality formats into a 24/7 experiential internet show combining dozens of live camera feeds, edited episodes and even a public auditioning platform on MySpace. The show follows five young and aspiring talents trying to make it in Hollywood, which on its own isn’t anything novel. Three of them are actors, one a musician and another a model, all starting somewhere near the lower ranks of Hollywood’s slippery talent ladder.

So why is this is big deal for web TV?
...A success for If I Can Dream means we may be seeing the start of a reality rush online in 2010.

posted by Potomac Avenue (12 comments total)

Some could argue that the ultimate reality format already exists online: the endless sea of home videos uploaded into YouTube every minute.

And they'd be right! I mean, there have been people uploading videos about their lives, blogging, and now "twittering" their daily lives forever. This mediated bullshit fake reality isn't even new either, I mean, there are "web shows" like WeHoGirls (Which stands for west hollywood) on youtube forever too.

The only thing new here is that a "professional" crew who have worked on television are doing this, with backing from a major company.
posted by delmoi at 10:28 AM on March 8, 2010 [4 favorites]

HuluBlue!

I am probably not the target demographic for this series or article. I wish reality TV/web tv/podcasts would all die a horrible, traumatic death.
posted by usonian at 10:29 AM on March 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

(Oh, and then there's lonleygirl15, which started out as a 'reality' show before turning to some horror mismash. I would say that that would have been a "hit" by the web standard)
posted by delmoi at 10:30 AM on March 8, 2010

:::sigh:: believe it or not, I didn't mean that to be as much of a thread-dump as it seems now that I've pushed the submit button. What I should have said was that this reminds me of all breathless hype 10 years ago, when "Animated Webisodes" were somehow going to Replace Television As We Knew It.
posted by usonian at 10:40 AM on March 8, 2010

I have a dream, and it's that all these moronic assholes find their dream home on the web so I can go back to working full-time in an industry decimated by all this bs, unwatchable, high-viewership-bc-no-on-can-look-away-from-a-trainwreck reality TV.
posted by nevercalm at 10:40 AM on March 8, 2010 [3 favorites]

Short answer would be no. The economics of TV and Web video seem totally different.
posted by mrgrimm at 11:05 AM on March 8, 2010

Isn't the draw of internet reality that I can look at whatever I want, whenever I want to? If I want America's Funniest Home Videos I can search "football to the groin" on Youtube, and if I want drama I can read failbook. I don't have to sit down for 30 minutes at a time (including unskippable commercials) and get one type of "reality", which isn't even that real.

This seems like a pretty typical reaction to new media, where an existing non-internet thing tries to jam itself directly into being "interactive" just by having a web address, a facebook page, and a twitter account.

Delmoi really nails why this is dumb.
posted by codacorolla at 11:42 AM on March 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

It really stinks that they're using that song / title for something so crass. Especially since I only heard of it a few months ago on NPR in a story about Killian Mansfield. Here's his version.
posted by ghharr at 12:27 PM on March 8, 2010

I keep seeing commercials for the thing on Hulu, and I have to confess just the commercials make me want to slit my wrists out of despair for the human condition. I can't imagine what watching an entire episode would do.
posted by winna at 12:45 PM on March 8, 2010 [1 favorite]

I glanced at the OP and my first thought was, Is somebody remaking that Elvis song? Alas, I was disappointed.
posted by blucevalo at 1:23 PM on March 8, 2010

Potomac Avenue, I wish I could favorite this, but I'm not here to make friends. Oh wait, actually I am. I would like reality tv shows to succeed on some medium that I can completely isolate myself from, perhaps a program broadcast over shortwave... in Plains Miwok.
posted by BrotherCaine at 1:50 PM on March 8, 2010

Heh, I had a coworker back in the day who was briefly into The Spot.
posted by hattifattener at 6:44 PM on March 8, 2010