Indie Spotlight: ‘Everyday People’ Share Their Unusual Passions

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.

There are a lot of unusual character’s kicking around in Glennis LaRoe‘s head, and in her web series, she shares them with the world. LaRoe, an actor and comedian, is the star of Everyday People, a series of short vignettes she has released through her Instagram account.

Everyday People‘s title is quite literal. Each day in July, LaRoe has posted a new video to her Instagram page, with a new character coming into focus each time. Her creations carry their own unexpected quirks, and her show brings fresh surprises with every new episode. One day, we might meet a ukulele player with daddy issues; the next, a lonely grandma who talks to Siri; after that, a woman who has a weird relationship with succulents. As Forrest Gump would say, you never know what you’re gonna get.

Individual episodes of Everyday People last only a few seconds, but in that time, LaRoe is able to convey distinct emotions and give complex shape to her characters. As an added bonus, she uses ancillary images to give her Instagram page a pleasant aesthetic, thus bringing a compelling visual element to a series that is otherwise limited to close-ups. Feel free to scroll through the month of July to see the full range of personalities LaRoe has invented.

OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT

• Janny Jelly. A demented kids show satirizes children’s entertainment.
• FML. A group of friends who work in the porn industry sort out their lives.
• Wisco Queens. A move from Wisconsin to New York will be set to music in this upcoming series.

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