A-k-a Episode 0
JoAnne: This appears to have been a mix of previously unused footage, where the cast members appear in a 'confessional room' a la MTV's Real World and share their feelings. Sadly, this has been the best acting we've seen from any of them. For those who were already not bad, the acting approached the level of professionalism you'd expect from a non-amateur production. For those who were not good... they got better and suddenly became likeable people, but it wasn't great.
kakashi: OMG what is this?! You should have warned me. Yeah, sure, the acting was alright, but .......... WTH am I watching?! Quick, make unseen, make unseen!!!!!
JoAnne: Mostly, what it put me in mind of was an exercise where the actors were working out motivations and feelings for themselves in preparation for filming. We didn't learn anything new - the people who are supposed to like each other are discovering that they do, and the people who are becoming friends are becoming friends.
kakashi: Man, I will miss Zoey#3 and Liam#1. Even though they are behaving like teenages and definitely not grad-schoolers. And I'm just saying this to say at least SOMEthing nice in this post.
JoAnne: I will make a special point of saying that Liam's scenes with the cupcakes were really, truly funny. He's a boy you couldn't help but love, really. Unfortunately, the transformation has been so absolute that it really doesn't fit at all with the Liam we met in the first episode, so it's a bit jarring.
kakashi: Oh dear. Absolutely. Masterful writing. Truly masterful. NOT.
JoAnne: The second half of this episode was absolutely embarrassing. Under the veil of 'not being able to say anything' they said more ugly things about people who are gone than those people have said in all the days since they left, that I've seen anyway.
kakashi: I cannot believe what I am seeing and hearing. How CAN THEY?! To be honest, I was most disappointed by the actors there (especially Chase) and they're desperate attempts to make this production seem legit. In every way possible, this is NOT how you do it. It's a communication disaster. Commenters on viki go: "huh? what are they talking about? why do they spend 20 minutes telling us this is not a scam?" Altogether too desperate, y'all, to prove something to an audience that doesn't even care that much about what you are doing behind the scenes. Just produce something watchable. Not CRAP like you have been delivering.
JoAnne: The producer actually said 'it's not my fault that people (in this case production) didn't do their jobs properly.' Does no one review anything prior to air time? Various individuals commented vaguely about people refusing to learn lines and being unprepared and not wanting to work, which is a pretty neat spin on 'we can't work without contracts, per our management.'
kakashi: This episode makes me hate them SO MUCH. All of them. It's a level of hate that is unhealthy.
JoAnne: It appears that those who remained are willing to accept whatever conditions they face and that's fine, and the ones who left have been labeled as not team players and ranks have closed behind them. And that's fine, really. I can imagine myself on either side of that equation, easily. But I think the choice to create a 'face to face' video to address concerns was self-serving and immature and although there was much that was positive and helped a viewer to appreciate the love they feel for what they are doing and their sincere wish to do well - those few moments where they dipped into ugliness pretty much negate the rest of it and are absolutely unimaginably unprofessional.
kakashi: Hahaha, they hired a director of photography who was absolutely useless - and they claim episode 4 looks absolutely amazing now, after they fired him? Hahahaha, I guess I'm allowed to laugh?! These people are not only extremely unprofessional, they are also extremely delusional.
JoAnne: The producer and writer still seem to think that people owe them praise for making this attempt and investing their own money in the production. They actually used air time to be snarky about criticism they'd received from specific fans. Air time that they have to pay for, by the way. When they're running out of money. I was absolutely flabbergasted. I know these people are human - but if they are PROFESSIONALS, as they claim to be, they keep their hurt feelings for their private lives - they don't try to do tit for tat on Viki.
kakashi: So embarrassing. So hateful. Whose stupid idea was this?! Hey, you: you lost ALL credibility that you might have had before. ALL. This does not prove that you are doing a good job. It proves that you deserve every bit of hateful criticism coming your way. You are arrogant and mean - the worst.
JoAnne: Anyway. Next week perhaps, Episode 5? I'm curious. They're flooding Instagram with happy happy pictures of the cast and crew with the two newbies and while I appreciate the candid views of BTS...I'd much rather they didn't feel the need to spend time on CYA.
kakashi: After seeing this, I have lost all respect for these people. I will be vicious. Like ... a new level of vicious, never reached before.
