Indie Spotlight: Wisecracking Aussies Offer Up ‘Food For Thought’

We receive a ton of tips every day from independent creators, unaffiliated with any major motion picture studios, television networks, new media studios, or other well-funded online video entities. The Indie Spotlight is where we’ll write about and shout out to a select few of them and bring you up to speed on the great (and sometimes not-so-great) attention-grabbing series you probably haven’t heard about until now.  Read previous installments here. 

What would happen if you smashed together an indie comedy web series and an informative infographic? Food For Thought provides the answer. The new series, from Australian creative team The Pirone Brothers, combines bantering characters with clever nuggets of wisdom and informative statistics related to common topics.

The easiest way to explain Food For Thought is to discuss one of its episodes. In an installment about breakups, the characters Michael and Ruby eavesdrop on a couple that is on the verge of splitting up and offer their own thoughts about the proper way to go about the task. Food For Thought also makes liberal use of flashbacks to explore Michael and Ruby’s pasts. In the last section of the episode, the two eavesdroppers take a seat on a bench of their own and share some statistics about how different generations prefer to carry out their breakups.

In total, three episodes of Food For Thought have been released thus far. The series’ use of stats is not excessive; instead, there are just a few numbers peppered into each installment. Instead, the comedy and character development serve as driving forces, with the titular “food for thought” serving as a fun wrinkle that allows the series to stand out from the field.

OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT

• Baked. A trio of friends in India decide to launch a late-night food delivery service.
• Young Love. A pair of high school sweethearts test their relationship as “co-captains” of their school.
• Bailout. A credit crisis sets the stage for an exploration of first-generation immigrant families.
• Titus And Dronicus. This web series translates Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus into a modern-day cop show.

Got a series you’d like to see featured in the Indie Spotlight? Be sure to contact us here. For best coverage, please include a full episode in your e-mail.