Cerealized comes from the same creative team – Toronto-based Rocket Ace Moving Pictures – that brought to the web the 2003-2004 zombie web serial, Dead End Days. That series dealt with the adventures of a hard luck male protagonist living in a world where humans cohabitate with brain-eating zombies. Cerealized follows a significantly more prosaic storyline, involving three caustic roommates. Brad Fox, the executive producer, is also the co-founder of Rocket Ace, which brings together a full production crew comprised mostly of Canadian theater veterans.
Cerealized may seem recognizable to television audiences familiar with such sitcoms as Friends. A series of young adult professionals – mainly roommates Cory, Lincoln, and Charlotte, played by series director Matthew Hoos, John Schuett, and Erin Whitehead, respectively – congregate in their home before venturing out to the less comfortable, predictable outside world. Each of the weekly 3-5 minutes shorts takes place almost entirely in the breakfast nook of their apartment. Whereas some episodes are gag-based, and less dependent on overarching plot threads, a few major storylines have developed over the course of the first 24, which is being packaged as season one. For example, Cory – a struggling actor – is unhealthily obsessed with Charlotte, who doesn’t reciprocate. Misanthropic Lincoln, meanwhile, works as a dentist when not hunting vulnerable women. Rarely do viewers witness these excursions, however, as episodes are dedicated to the morning discussions over coffee and orange juice.
As Cerealized is conceived for the episodic format, it is of little benefit to watch only specific episodes. For example, though number 20, “Free Pass,” features a memorably off-color vocal solo from Cory, as he rehearses a role as Hitler for an upcoming musical, it would hardly be a draw for the casual viewer. Whatever feeling the series provides, comes from a long term relationship with the characters. If you’ve got the time, sit down and watch them in order.
