Whatever is this?
One soggy afternoon in January when I had nothing to do, an unfortunately usual occurrence, I started to trawl the Internet for something to busy myself with. A few half-witted articles and a lot of porn later, I very much stumbled upon a web series entitled 'The Outs'. It was free. And I began to watch.
What I was watching was some sort of homo-brilliance. A story about life and the many pitfalls of love and letting go. A gay drama. But instead of the adulterated shit that crowds many pieces of gay writing and television drama, I found true reality in this piece. I got completely lost in its realism. It wasn't patronizing - With the exception of Queer as Folk and Beautiful Thing, Gay television has been consistently patronizing and it is boring to find meaning in such shit. The Outs, in contrast, is relatable, true and utterly stupendous in its portrayal of modern life as a yuppie homosexual.
Adam Goldman is the man behind it all and I've literally fallen in love with him. Watch The Outs and you will too. As the central character, though he doesn't play himself, he is adorable whilst wallowing in pit of self-loathing as he re enters the world of singledom - a world of absurdity, self doubt and regret - while watching his ex boyfriend settle down with another man - Oh, and I've just remembered what you find out. Watch it here.
The money that supported the series was funded by a Kickstarter campaign, which is also where Goldman's next project is born.
True to form, Goldman presents this once more real depiction of life for struggle creatives, living in Brooklyn in New York. The new web series 'Whatever this is' follows two production assistants who are scraping by working on low or unpaid video production gigs. It poignantly begs the question: How long are you expected to do work that you hate, for money, until it becomes something that you love that pays the rent? Is it even possible?
It's a question that I continuously ponder and one that you probably do too. Well Goldman makes no false attempt at trying to answer the question and once more details the reality of the creative's survival without giving into working in a shop or in a telesales call centre just to afford the bills. The over looming reality, which no one wants to face, of today's economy and job market is all here, all digestible and all plain.
It's good, too. More humor, a bit less gay but it's all realism. It's dry, but life is. I'd hoped that television might have snapped Goldman up by now, but not yet, but please somebody soon. More of this on our screens will replenish and open our minds after endless house of television drivel in the format of "reality tv" - challenging drama and messages that stimulates the mind and encourages us to do something kinetic and to do something less mind-numbingly painful than watching formulated shit.
Turn off you television sets, turn on your computer and watch Whatever this is.
FOOT NOTE: In the beautifully eccentric piece of babble above I used the, very American, term 'Yuppie' and apparently in means 'Young Professional' - you can't tell me I'm wrong because I'm googled it - I apologise if I offended any of my British co-existees.