MyMusic is a YouTube sitcom that’s everything you expect and a bit more

YouTube sensations The Fine Brothers have come up with a silly show that’d fit right in with other television offerings – with an internet twist.

 

Ever since YouTube emerged and became a ridiculously popular website, the question was asked: Will this ever replace old-school television? And how can I (the royal “I”) make money off this thing with cat videos and stupid stunts?

The answer right now seems to be “Check again later.” Because Google invested $100 million dollars to fund a boatload of various original content, from short genre-specific talk shows to celebrity sponsored love fests to quasi-educational randomness. MyMusic, from popular YouTubers The Fine Brothers, tries to be a bit different — a true “transmedia” or “social media” powered sitcom.

Everyone is a caricature, which works for some people more than others.

So it’s basically the kind of light, over-the-top nonsense you’d see on a family or children’s network, aimed a bit more at teens than kids. The show is the now heavily copied “mockumentary” format, following a bizarre music production company with people named for the musical genre they associate with (Indie, Metal, Techno, etc). Everyone is a caricature, which works for some people more than others. Indie (Adam Busch from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) mines the still somewhat funny pretentious hipster stereotype, while Idol (YouTuber Grace Helbig) is just a frenetic, shrill annoyance. Other jokes are “funny at first, then not so much” like the Dubstep character only able to speak with inarticulate electronic noises or the way the Hip-Hop character actually enjoys nerdy things too, but in secret.

All this [social media interaction] means that the creativity gets spread kind of thin.

Random cameos from actors and YouTube stars alike sneak in, keenly targeting that teen demographic. MyMusic also incorporates three other shows, trading to “connect” with the audience, including a news show, a live music show, and an interactive Q&A show — the characters all also have “their” own Twitter and other social media accounts to really paint the world of this show. It all seems like an awful lot of effort, which I suppose is admirable just from a “dang, that’s impressive coordination” perspective. But all this work means that the creativity gets spread kind of thin, and this comes across with a lot of broad humor and simplistic story arcs. Some of the acting is surprisingly decent (like other YouTuber Jack Douglass playing put upon Intern 2), and then you get a cameo from an established actor like Christy Carlson Romano where she hams it up in a way that’s totally out of place.

There’s a lot of potential here, and it’s just absurdist enough to get close to decent satire — it’s not quite there yet, but it does demonstrate that the Internet can support a real sitcom after all.

Photo Credit: Fine Brothers Productions

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