Indie Spotlight: ‘The Drunk Series’ Is A Hilarious Mess

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. 

Move over Drunk History–there’s a boozy new web series in town. Emboldened by the success of a viral video they released two years ago, a group of Portland-area filmmakers have launched The Drunk Series, which is composed of six episodes written and acted out by heavily-intoxicated writers and performers.

The first video in The Drunk Series, titled “Star Drunk,” came out in 2013 and received more than 1.4 million views. The formula is simple: Take Star Trek, add in a massive amount of alcohol, and film the results. If you missed “Star Drunk” the first time around, you should check it out; you will not be disappointed.

More recently, five more episodes of The Drunk Series have rolled out on YouTube channel of production company Ganglebot Films. Each one takes on a different genre,

ranging from medical drama to romance to superhero saga. The main consistency between the episodes is the intense inebriation of the writers and stars. As a behind-the-scenes video shows, there was a lot of alcohol on set.

The only sober people in the equation were the crew members. “If they weren’t, nothing would have been completed,” said series director Chris Wilson. “It was like herding drunken goats as it was.” The sobriety of the crew actually makes The Drunk Series funnier. The show is shot so well and so earnestly, but the drunk performers turn it all into a mockery. The result is a web series that is basically just one long joke, but hey–it’s a really funny joke.

OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT

• Unsingle. A trio of female friends, all of whom are in relationships, take all their filters off.
• Laid Out. Three friends explore the big city in their own ridiculous ways.
• My Lengua. A young Latino man tries to learn Spanish for the first time in his life.

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