The
Power Object Webseries Review
I
have to admit that when I first read the basic premise of the webseries
The
Power Object,
I was a bit skeptical. As described by creator Claire-Dee Lim, the show
“follows the adventures of three young San Francisco women who
turn their loser lives around with the help of a magic vibrator.”
Adding to my cynical view was the fact that The Power Object
used dolls as actors as opposed to actual human beings. “Think
Team America meets Sex and the City,” Lim offers,
referring to the 2004 motion picture from South Park gurus
Trey Parker and Matt Stone and the classic HBO series starring Sarah
Jessica Parker.
Despite
my misgivings, I decided to watch the first episode of The Power
Object with the expectation that I would switch to a different
website within sixty-seconds of viewing. In reality, however, I could
not have been more wrong as both the overall narrative and inherent
humor of the webseries quickly became apparent. While Team America,
as well as the Seth Green co-created Robot Chicken on Adult
Swim, utilizes marionettes and action figures for satirical observations
on culture and society, The Power Object is indeed more akin
to the realistically-grounded Sex and the City. The story of
three college roommates who had big dreams for the future only to find
disappointment afterwards is universal after all, and while the use
of a “magic vibrator” may be off-beat—to say the least—The
Power Object likewise contains a cautionary tale of “watch
what you wish for” storytelling.
The
Power Object centers on Glenda, Hannah and Jessie, whose lives
did not turn out the way they expected. Glenda, for instance, had plans
of becoming an investigative journalist but finds herself thirty-years-old
and working as a researcher for a local television morning show. Jessie,
meanwhile, wanted to be a record producer but instead ended up as a
“baby-sitter to the stars” as she watches over the musicians
signed to the company where she is employed. And Hannah is a sculptress
who was unable to find traditional success and now crafts items more
suitable for the bedroom than an art gallery.
“I
thought my life would be so much different,” she laments. “I’d
be an artist and married and surrounded by babies. Instead I’m
making fake penises all day.”
With their
lives finding little satisfaction from either a career or romantic standpoint,
the three roommates drown their sorrows in bottles of wine before they
discover an old spell-book one night and decide to take desperate measures.
Like the Halliwell sisters from the former WB series Charmed,
Glenda, Hannah and Jessie utilize their own “Power of the Three”
to make their working-lives more successful. When the next day yields
results, the trio turn to a more potent spell and create a literal “power
object” that is capable of turning their wishes into reality.
The “object” in question, of course, turns out to be a vibrator.
“This
is insane,” Glenda remarks afterwards. “I’m Phi Beta
Kappa, have an IQ of 154. I can’t entrust my future to a plastic,
battery-operated penis. Can I?”
According
to creator Claire-Dee Lim—who co-wrote the family-themed motion
picture Firehouse Dog—the inspiration for producing a
webseries originated during the 2007 strike by the Writers Guild of
America. For content, she turned to an old screenplay likewise entitled
The Power Object that was based on a story crafted with her
Firehouse Dog partners Mike Werb and Michael Colleary. “A
few years ago I was really into Sex and the City and Buffy
the Vampire Slayer, so I wanted to mix the idea of female friendship
with a supernatural comedy element,” Lim told Animation
Magazine
in June 2011 about the script. “I’m also a huge fan of wish
fulfillment stories. Having one’s dreams come true is too nice
and tidy but when those desires go haywire, that’s a lot more
fun.”
Claire-Dee
Lim originally planned for the webseries adaptation of The Power
Object to be an animated creation using Flash but discovered that
her artistic abilities were not necessarily up to the task. She thus
turned to the idea of home-crafted dolls instead, and the concept suits
The Power Object well. The likes of Robot Chicken
has made the narrative device a comedic medium in its own right and
in the hands of Lim and The Power Object, it adds to the overall
humor of the webseries—the life-size bottles of wine, martini
glasses and other items that are used as props on the show are just
as funny as the overall plot. A narrator keeps the action focused and
centered, meanwhile, and the storyline itself is both entertaining and
engaging to the point that one actually forgets that the world of The
Power Object is populated by Barbie-like dolls rather than actual
human beings.
The one-sentence
tagline of The Power Object may sound far-fetched but when
it comes to execution, the webseries is right on target. Claire-Dee
Lim has done an outstanding job of not only writing a comic-filled script
that is likewise grounded in reality despite containing a supernatural
element, but turning the “watch what you wish for” narrative
into a first-class webseries as well. Which just goes to show that one
should never judge a book by its cover—especially when that book
contains a spell capable of transforming a handcrafted sex device into
the source of magical power.
Anthony
Letizia (July 4, 2011)
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