It’s official – 3way has finally given up. No support, no funding, no show.
I don’t understand why, though. Sure, I get that the networks wouldn’t fund it. They were scared of trying something new in this economy. Etc. Etc.
What I don’t understand: Why didn’t 3way blow up on the Internet? Why didn’t it ever really became popular? The people involved keep saying how much they appreciate the fan’s support, how they never thought it would get so big, and on and on, but was it really ever that big of a deal?
The season finale only got 12,000 views on youtube. It got a few more elsewhere, but how is it (just to pick a random video for comparison) that a samsung ad involving LEDs on sheep can get 5,000,000 views, while 3way only got roughly 100,000 per episode? Yes, the sheep thing is admittedly clever – but also pointless. It’s a dumb trick, paid for by a big company to sell something. And what about all of the videos of people falling on their faces, dancing animals, not to mention dancing people? Those aren’t clever or smart or funny. And people still watch them.
It’s not as if 3way was too intellectual, or was aimed at a unusually narrow audience like some shows. The target audience was lesbians, sure, but it was funny, cute, the actors were pretty, and it was different and clever and non-political. I kept expecting to go to the youtube page and see 700,000, 800,000 views at least. Heck, they should have gotten that much just from the straight guys who were watching to see girls make out! (Which they did almost every episode, come to think of it.) I wasn’t sure that they’d make it past the first season, even if they had gotten that many views, (heck – Imaginary Bitches racked up 750,000 views on their first episode, and they still failed, down to only 120,000 by the last. (Imaginary Bitches wasn’t that great in my opinion, so I’m not surprised, but still…) But I feel sad, betrayed almost. I thought it was so good – why didn’t anyone else?
I guess people really are like sheep.
I’m working on a post (which I’ll probably never finish) called ‘Fragmentation is Good’. The basic idea is that people only put up with mass-produced culture because there’s no other option. Once they find media they *really* like, they’ll drop the lowest-common denominator stuff like so much trash. That’s what *I* did, anyway. It only makes sense, right?
Yet 150,000,000 people still watch American Idol, while more than 150 vocal students at my university, most of whom could sing circles around 99% of the Idol contestants, will never record a song, let alone be on TV. And the same is true all across the country, in every sort of media. People go with the boring.
After 3way died (and motivated by watching old episodes of Girltrash), I went looking for other webseries, just to see what there was. Guess what? Even non-LGBT series’s can’t make it work! The few that still keep going have private money behind them, or delusional sponsors. Take a look at the Streamys, a web series award site. It’s all Battlestar Galactica, Dr. Horrible, and talking head shows. PINK (a show about a female assassin) got one award. There is perhaps one other worthwhile one. By and large, it’s just more status quo.
Perhaps it will change someday. Anyone But Me is currently on the front page of blip.tv, along with 7 talking heads, one (bad) comedy series, and an okay-ish drama-type show. I don’t know how many people use blip.tv, but there’s still hope.
Maybe.
Or maybe people just suck. Oh, well.
Watch Anyone But Me! And We Have to Stop Now!