By Hannah Hecht– After my previous two recommendations, a political drama and a high school drama/comedy (The West Wing and Freaks and Geeks) I figured it was about time to move on to a television review that hit a little bit closer to the Morningside experience.
It always seems like there is a huge gap between the abundance of shows about high school and the hundreds of television shows about the working world. While NBC’s Community offered an incredibly popular sitcom about community college, I find that it falls a flat of hitting the real live-in college experience.
Enter Dorm Life, a little-known mockumentary-style web series which follows the fictional lives of the inhabitants of dorm floor 5 South. The show, hosted in its entirety on Hulu and YouTube, consists of 46 five to ten minute episodes. Dorm Life was produced by Attention Span Media, and it stars a group of little known actors and actresses.
While Dorm Life may not be the most-watched show available for streaming on the internet, it is a comedy gem. I often found myself laughing out loud three or four times within a five-minute episode. Fans of The Office, Parks and Recreation or Modern Family will love the character-driven humor.
The characters are really where Dorm Life hits its stride. 5 South is home to a lot of people who probably lived on your hall freshman year: the always-drunk kid who never seems to make it to class (Jack DeSena), the overly-sheltered nerd who “lets loose” for the first time (Jordan Riggs), the two roommates who were best friends in high school (spoiler: it never works out well) (Hannah Pearl Utt and Nora Kirkpatrick), the overly-religious girl (Anne Lane), the eccentric-to-the-point-of-almost-being-creepy drama student (Zachary Maze), the power hungry RA (Brian Singleton), and the average Joe just looking for adventure (Chris W. Smith).
Throughout Dorm Life’s first season, the main characters have a prank war, play intramural football, attend a frat party, dress up as Indiana Jones to find the source of a mysterious bad smell and go on a recon mission to discover the identity of the “Mystery Hot Girl,” among other hijinks.
This show, more than any other that I have seen, encapsulates the joyful freedom that comes with the college experience. The five-minute episode style works really well for students with busy schedules; I often would watch an episode or two in between classes or as a short study break. And one of the really great things about the show is that it is available for free on both YouTube and Hulu.
So, if you love comedy, college or both, take five minutes to enjoy the link below and discover one of the best mini series that the web has to offer.
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