H+ The Digital Series trailer gets a solid B+…

Not only does the project H+ The Digital Series have impressive calibre—it’s produced by Bryan Singer (producer of the X-Men films, and director of X-Men, X-Men 2, and Superman Returns), and featuring Alexis Denisof (Wesley Wyndam-Pryce from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and Senator Daniel Perrin from Dollhouse)—but it looks to explore some very intriguing themes in a thought-provoking way.

It's a well-put-together trailer, outlining the premise of the series, set to the song "Letters From the Sky" by Civil Twilight.

The line "where you become the connection" is interesting. Could it be a comment on the implications that humanity's interaction with technology can have the sense of self? Perhaps it also meta-textually refers to the interactive nature of the series, and thus the potential for active rather than passive engagement?

Moreover, H+ looks to have impressive production values for something shown on the web. It's one of the best-looking web series to date, though Mortal Kombat: Legacy, is pretty amazing (and the director of which, Kevin Tancharoen, is incidentally going on to direct this summer's Glee Live! 3D! concert movie). What impact will this improvement in production values have on small, micro-budget web series, though? Presumably they’ll be just as easy to make, but much harder to market, in light of the competition. Creativity shines through, even on a low budget, but as people get accustomed to cinematic production values on the web, will they be prepared to give things the time necessary to assess this?

A dark, dystopian sci-fi series about how careless use of the wrong technology could bring about the end of civilisation, from an acclaimed director, and featuring Alexis Denisof in (at least) a small role? Sounds a little like the prematurely cancelled Dollhouse… (And they probably have other thematic concerns in common too, such as the nature of identity, the way that people interact with other in society, the relationship between human brains and technology, and the impact of this on the first two.)

(How much does Alexis Densiof feature in it? He doesn’t get any lines in the trailer, but then again there are lots of characters.)

Wesley (at least, in later seasons of Angel) would make an awesome resistance fighter (that is, assuming that there's some sort of oppressive government force, which there nearly always is). And maybe he should be joined by Reed Diamond’s Laurence Dominic from Dollhouse, assuming his schedule isn’t filled up by the enjoyable goofy lawyer show Franklin & Bash (recently renewed for a second season), where he plays the scowly lawyer who looks down on the two main goofy lawyers.

And “queen of all internet” Felicia Day, who knows a thing or two about web series, should also show up, either also as a resistance fighter (as per her role in Dollhouse’s Epitaph future), or as some kind of tech-obsessed gamer who raves about the new technology’s potential for revolutionising gaming. (Except then no doubt her character would have an implant, and thus die, which would not be nice.)

Also, the structure of the project sounds fairly innovative. As GeekTyrant reports from the Comic Con panel:

“There are 48 3 to 6 minute episodes that follow 14 characters in 12 countries over the course of a decade. Viewers will be able to watch episodes in the order they are released, or in chronological order, or by character or geography. They hope the audience will be able to pick up new details and nuances as they watch the nearly 4 hours of content in various configurations.”

This sounds fascinating. It must have been very tricky to write, though, in order for the show to benefit significantly from such interactivity and modularisation. Presumably this approach will raise interesting questions about the flow of information, the importance of context, the nature of cause and effect, causal and thematic connections between the lives of individuals, and potentially more.

The following video has some interviews with the people behind the project:

A couple of the more interesting quotes are:

“It’s not a web series, it’s a project. Because it really is something that redefines what entertainment is and where it can be seen,”

and

“What [director] Stewart [Hendler] has done in H+, is take us to, frankly, the not-too-distant future, where something like this is not only possible, but probably inevitable.”

H+ does not have an official release date yet (clearly an homage to Terminator 2, with the Powers That Be effectively saying “The future is not set.  There is no release date but what we make…”), but (fittingly) will probably be here in the near future.

H+ The Digital Series official Facebook page

See also:

Jane Espenson: Once Upon a Torchwood Web Series

Primeval webisodes online

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