Curtain
Call Webseries Review
In
addition to gaining a reputation in recent years for being the new destination
for quality television, cable channel AMC is also seen as the home of
slow moving dramas. The trend began with Mad Men in 2007, continued
with the short-lived Rubicon and extended to 2011’s murder
mystery The Killing. Based on a Danish series, The Killing
utilizes a “one episode equals one day” narrative device
as it investigates the death of Rosie Larsen, and contains more than
its fair share of red herrings and side stories involving the pair of
Seattle homicide detectives looking into the crime.
Albeit
on a much smaller scale, the webseries Curtain
Call
is just as ambitious as The Killing and exhibits similar qualities.
For instance, two polar opposite homicide detectives are thrown together
to investigate the death of actress Cassie Sterling (Haley Boyd) just
like on the AMC drama, and while the resulting action takes place over
the course of one night as opposed to the multiple weeks of The
Killing, Curtain Call is just as slow moving with its
analytical and inquisitive storyline.
While the
mystery of “who killed Rosie Larsen” is intricately crafted—the
dead body was found tied and bound in the trunk of a car that was sunk
into a lake and registered to the campaign of a local councilman running
for mayor—“who killed Cassie Sterling” initially appears
to be cut and dry. During a theatrical production, a fellow actor appears
on stage at the wrong time and shoots her point blank. Fortunately,
homicide detective Page Williams (Paul Vonasek) is in the audience and
witnesses the crime, but believes the murder is more complicated than
it appears. He is thus assigned a more “by the book” partner
in Michael Levins (Jeff Nichol) in order to expedite the matter.
Williams
and Levins of Curtain Call have many similarities with Sarah
Linden and Stephen Holder of The Killing, although not necessarily
in a directly relatable fashion. In The Killing, for instance,
Sarah Linden is the experienced detective who operates in a systematic,
thought-out fashion while Stephen Holder is the new guy on the block
who is quick in his desire to arrest the latest suspect in the case.
On Curtain Call, it is Page Williams that is the newbie and
Michael Levins the veteran, yet it is Williams who is reluctant to arrest
Patrick Felton (Steven Molony)—the literal shooter in the death
of Cassie Sterling—while Levins wants to close the case as soon
as possible. And while Page Williams has a quiet, guy-next-door demeanor
compared to the scruffy, hip-lingo speaking Stephen Holder, both share
a similar Zen-like philosophy.
“People
be wanting to put everything in a box, get spoon-fed the answers, make
everything black-and-white,” Holder explains on The Killing.
“Me? I see the grays. Wisdom’s all around—it’s
like air, you just got to breathe it.” The observation could just
as easily have been spoken by Page Williams on Curtain Call.
The
Killing differs from conventional crime dramas in that it not only
follows the murder investigation of Rosie Larsen but the family dealing
with the loss of a teenage daughter and the political campaign for mayor
that has been entangled in the aftermath. While the “one night”
nature of Curtain Call does not allow for a psychological exploration
of grief, the webseries does have a fair share of political intrigue
contained within its narrative. Due to the high profile of what could
be categorized as a “public execution,” both the captain
in charge of homicide and the city’s mayor have a stake in its
quick resolution. The leaking of a video taken of Cassie Sterling’s
death to the media only adds to the pressure, but Page Williams is not
without his own political connections. And just like Stephen Holder
in The Killing, Williams has his own personal secrets and ulterior
motives when it comes to the mystery of who killed Cassie Sterling.
Curtain
Call is the brainchild of North Dakota filmmaker Michael Stromenger,
who first developed the concept for the webseries in June 2009 and completed
the script the following February. After raising $2,500 via Kickstarter,
production commenced during the summer of 2010 and Curtain Call
then premiered online in March 2011. A long journey to say the least,
but one that Stromenger considers worth it. “Living in this area
and getting noticed is extremely difficult, almost downright impossible,”
Stromenger told the High
Plains Reader upon the release of
Curtain Call. “But the Internet is wide open. The Internet
is the most accessible platform there is out there and I felt it was
an achievable thing for us to do.”
There was
a minor uproar on the Internet when The Killing concluded its
thirteen episode first season without revealing the culprit in the Rosie
Larsen case. While Curtain Call does indeed bring closure to
its own mystery, the webseries requires an equal amount of patience
on the part of the viewer. Unlike other entries into the new online
medium—which feature a small handful of short installments per
season—Curtain Call contains seventeen episodes that
often stretch to ten minutes or longer in length.
Although
entertaining and intriguing in its own way, The Killing can
also be frustrating. With slow pacing, multiple red herrings and plotlines
not directly connected to the main storyline, it requires a degree of
commitment from viewers. With its equally deliberate tempo and longer
narrative, Curtain Call likewise requires commitment—but
in the end viewers are rewarded for their dedication, making Curtain
Call an intriguing webseries that is indeed worth watching.
Just like
many of the dramas on AMC.
Anthony
Letizia (August 12, 2011)
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