Web Series: The Bannen Way

The Streamys are fast approaching, and I’ve been slowly making my way through the nominees to find what quality content is out there for web video. Try as I may, I just don’t get into the cat on a skateboard kinds of clips that fill up YouTube and other online content providers.

The Bannen Way is one of those shows nominated for the Streamys, and it is a fun, fast-paced show reminiscent of pre-Daniel Craig Bond films and the Ocean’s 11 and sequential numeral films. Neal Bannen is a guy who’s trying to get out of a life of crime, but trouble and gorgeous women keep looking for him.

I’m late to the game with this show, so currently only the first two episodes are available online over at Crackle.com. The rest of the feature-length production is available at iTunes and other similar services to purchase or to rent.

Fair enough. Someone has to pay for online video content, and advertising revenue will only take you so far. The broadcast industry has largely already come to that conclusion with cable networks doing so well. After listening to an interview with the show creators over at This Week in Media, I really can appreciate the costs and constraints of online video entertainment.

The final question, then, is, “Do I actually like the show enough to rent/purchase it?” For me, the answer is “no.” I like what I’ve seen so far from the series, and I would watch the rest of it in clip format for free. Ultimately, I’m just not interested enough to pay for the rest of the content.

As someone involved in website with online video content, it pains me to say that I would be stingy. But switching from a free-view to a paid-view is a big leap, and I don’t want to spend the same amount of money to watch a web series as I would pay to watch the latest Hollywood blockbuster. Does my logic make sense? Maybe, maybe not. But the point is that this is the type of obstacle that online content creators have to overcome.

I hope that “The Bannen Way” does well enough in its sales to create a sequel or to allow the original series to come back online for free, but I’m not ready to pay for it.