by Frankie Fanelli
Launched in April of 2020, Quibi is a new type of streaming platform offering small, “bite sized” pieces of entertainment starring many of Hollywood’s elite. The platform offers tons of high-quality production value series broken up into episodes that are guaranteed to be no longer than 10 minutes. The company was started by CEO Meg Whitman, who also happens to be the former CEO of eBay, and the series it puts out are meant to be viewed on your phone, an appeal to today’s technology-centered youth and their ever decreasing attention spans. The company says that the “Hollywood-quality” episodes are brief enough to be viewed while “waiting in line for coffee” but dynamic and enthralling enough to fully capture your attention and keep you wanting more.
The first series I watched on Quibi was titled The Most Dangerous Game and was adapted from a short story of the same name by Richard Connell. The series follows a terminally ill man (Hemsworth) who goes looking for a loan from a wealthy businessman (Waltz) but instead stumbles upon an beyond-unorthodox way to make sure his family is financially secure after his death. The first episode, coming in at about 7 minutes in length, starred only Liam Hemsworth and Christoph Waltz. As far as production value goes for all of Quibi’s series that I’ve seen so far there’s no doubt that the quality is “Hollywood” worthy. Not only that, but the directors manage to find ways to play with camera angles, lighting, and sound so that the series, meant to be watched on your phone, never falls flat, as watching television or movies on your iPhone sometimes tends to do. The acting was well done and believable, as one would expect from Waltz and Hemsworth, and if you had told me that the episode was just the first few minutes of a full length Netflix show or something similar, I would have had no problem believing you. Though I only watched the first episode, I was left both fully satisfied by the storyline of the single installment yet dying to know what happens next.
The second series I watched was Flipped, starring Will Forte and Kaitlin Olson as a married couple who both lose their jobs, but aren’t much put out by it as they both feel that their creative and artistic visions and potentials weren’t being fully realized in their respective fields of employment. One night as they are watching a home makeover show and a commercial comes on advertising an open call for the channel’s next dynamic, home makeover duo, the couple thinks they’ve finally found their big break. This series was undoubtedly more campy than the first one I watched, but admittedly Flipped was labeled as a comedy while the first was a drama. However, the production value suffered no losses because of it. Despite being less polished of a show, the characters were more relatable and they’re the kind of whacky, artistic people who seem completely unaware of their own comedy and yet take themselves very seriously, making for a hilarious combination and I found myself chuckling several times throughout the first 8-minute episode alone.
The final series I sampled from Quibi was When the Streetlights Go On, a coming-of-age drama set in the summer of 1995 and narrated by Charlie Chambers, portrayed by Chosen Jacobs (who your might recognize from his role as Mike Hanlon in the IT movie franchise) a teenager in the town who acts as a omniscient eye over the town as he writes from an adult perspective reflecting on that formative summer. The series follows a group of teenagers struggling to come of age while also struggling to come to terms with a double-homicide that rocked their town. There were a lot of familiar faces in this series, such as Kristine Froseth (Looking for Alaska, The Society), Mark Duplass (Big Mouth), and Tony Hale (Arrested Development, Veep). This show tackles a lot of more mature topics like murder and student-teacher romances, but does so without seeming over the top or like the drama is unnecessary. Much like its peers, the show is high quality and deeply entertaining, especially for viewers like me who love true crime and teen dramas- this series is the perfect blend.
TV Wasteland 