Television off TV: Chad Vader

            Upon watching Chad Vader I definitely had my doubts, however after watching Season One, I must say that I thought it was a fairly impressive web series.  The storyline was easy to follow with some entertainment and the acting wasn’t half bad.  It reminded me of a traditional television series in many ways.  The storyline was consistent and it had a likeable main character like many television shows have today.  Chad, the main character, goes through many struggles throughout the series such as being demoted and then fired from his day managing job at the grocery store Empire Market, trying to find a new job, problems with the ladies, and many more which eventually lead to him battling his arch enemy Clint for his day managing position back.  Chad wins back his day manager position in the end, giving us another classic example of good triumphing over evil, which is seen in a lot of television shows today. 

            Though there are similarities between Chad Vader and traditional television shows, there are also differences.  Chad Vader episodes were only about five minutes long and there were only eight episodes in the first season for starters.  The quality of the videos and the special effects, like Chad Vader’s summoning abilities and his lightsaber, were subpar.  This suggests that the show didn’t have much funding, unlike television shows today that require ample amounts of money to produce.  For these reasons I do not believe that this series could be made into a traditional TV series.  I just can’t see people tuning in to watch the new episodes of Chad Vader each week, and I also can’t see any companies thinking that this show would make them money. 

            In order to become successful on television, Chad Vader would need to come up with more ideas for episodes and more content for each episode so it could fit into a traditional 30 minute time slot on TV.  It would need more funding so it could have better special effects and video quality.  But mostly I think that the series would have to develop some edge in order to become successful.  If Chad Vader were on TV, I see its demographic being high school and college aged people, and as a member of that demographic I can say that the most watched shows by this demographic are edgy shows.  Chad Vader currently has no edge to it, which is probably the main reason the show is a relatively unknown web series.  I feel like in order for Chad Vader to become successful, its humor needs to become more crude and its episodes need to be about more touchy subject, giving it an edge kind of like It’s Always Sunny on FX.

            I believe that digitization allows for positive advancements in media production/distribution/exhibition because it takes away a lot of the costs that are usually associated with media.  The production costs remain the same, but the cost of distribution and exhibition is diminished because all the creator has to do it put in on the web.  By taking away a good amount of the expenses, it allows for more creativity and anyone can create a media product and put it on the internet, where anyone can be exposed to it.  A problem arises with digitization however; do you really want anyone to be able to put whatever they want on the internet?