Indie Spotlight: The “Social Medium” Is (Sort Of) An Internet Psychic

Making fun of psychics is an easy way to strike gold on the Internet. The latest series out to skewer mystics who believe they can communicate with the souls of the deceased is called Social Medium, and its main character is a woman who thinks she can use the Internet to talk to dead people.

The star of Social Medium is Tara Jayn, who portrays a spacey vlogger named Beatrix Beckett. While she communicates with her audience as well as texters who she believes to be spirits from the Other Side, she is constantly dissuaded by her boyfriend Fallon, who is played by James Brent Isaacs. In the first episode, Beatrix discusses a text message correspondence with her dead grandmother.

Isaacs also appears in Emma Approved, and as with that web series, Social Medium brands itself as a “transmedia” story. Beatrix has her own Twitter account, and according to a press release, Social Medium began on Twitter, where creator Brian Newlin

fired off a series of tweets imagining the life of a “hipster psychic.” Jayn saw the tweets and loved them, and the two collaborators began work on Social Medium. The result is a fun, chirpy web series, and new episodes each Tuesday promise new characters and more of Beatrix’s shenanigans.

OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT

• Sitters. A web series looks into the personal lives of a pair of not-so-professional babysitters.
• The Late, Late News. A new satirical news program begins with a parody of the net neutrality debate.
• The Garden Apartments. A man helps his neighbor deal with her husband in the first episode of this dark comedy.
• Gazillionaire. The host of a popular Las Vegas show launches his own web series.

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