60Frames' New Show 'Get Ripped' Has Strong Start

At first glance, 60Frames‘ latest series Get Ripped might not look like much – the episodes are made up of long takes, shot from the point of view of a woman joining a gym and getting a personal trainer. But four episodes into its run, Get Ripped has become easily one of my favorite shows online. The series is less of a narrative, and more of an expose of the main character, a personal trainer named Derek who has, to say the least, some issues he’s still working out. This quote from the second episode pretty much sums him up: “It’s good to be fit, it’s good to be healthy, but I miss food… TRUTH is, nothing makes me happier than eating. WHOA! Did I just say that? Ok, fine, FINE! I had a Twinkie today, and you know what? It was so F***ING AMAZING that I was crying the entire time.”

The series was created by Gloria Calderon Kellett, a writer and co-producer on CBS’s hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and produced by 60Frames (Carpet Bros., Cockpit). Get Ripped is the perfect example of a show that has the potential to excel online, but could never work on any other medium (except perhaps as an SNL sketch). Each episode is 3 to 4 minutes long, enough time to get involved in the story, but not too long that you get tired halfway through. The way in which the show is shot, through the eyes of Derek’s latest customer, works for the online audience in the same way that lonelygirl15 did; considering the fact that most of us watch web TV up close to our computer screens, an intimate, face-to-face shot helps the audience stay engaged in a way that traditional TV could never replicate.