Given the chance, I like to point readers here toward relationship-based entertainment when I can. The main criteria being it has to have a certain level of quality. There has to be heart to it–not just the same old crude and crass pot shots any old sitcom takes (and sitcoms have been taking the same easy-laugh pot shots for decades now).
Since that kind of creativity doesn’t often make it onto your normal networks (or, when it does, doesn’t last all that long), most of the good stuff I find lives out here on the Web.
Case in point: Awkward Embraces
Awkward Embraces is a fun little web series that centers around three female characters, each a bit different from the other in tastes, temperament, and attitude. Despite their difference, they’re friends, brought together by their workplace, a publishing house that specializes in trashy romance novels. Their personal lives, however, are the real meat of the stories.
As they describe the show:
Awkward Embraces is a web series that follows the dating adventures and misadventures of three L.A. girls who prove that just because a girl is hot, it doesn’t necessarily follow that she has a man, or even that she’d know what to do with one if she got one. Jessica, the Star Trek/comic book geeky girl, seems to always say and do just the wrong thing at the wrong time to the wrong guy, proving that, well, “Nerdy girls need love, too.” Her friends’ awkward attempts to help her generally backfire, and though their luck with men is a little better than hers, it’s still not enough to keep from being face-aching funny.
Here’s one of my favorite episodes from their first season:
Even more entertaining than the show itself is the video blog, where the show creators read stories sent in by viewers. Those stories? They’re all about bad or strange dates and other relationship foibles. Always good for a laugh.
So, if you’re looking for something a little different, mostly female-centric, and generally funny, check out Awkward Embraces.
And, hey, if you like what you see, they’re raising money for a second season–give what you can and support the stuff you like, it’s the only way you’ll get more of it. 😉
