Indie Spotlight: ‘Beck & Clem’ Explores Womanhood Across The Ages

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.

In a new web series, a 300-year age gap makes for an unusual roommate pairing. Abbey Fenbert is the creator and co-star of Beck & Clem, a web series about a time-travelling woman from the 18th century who moves in with a modern feminist.

In the premiere episode of Beck & Clem, we learn that Clem (Emily Harpe) has been sent forward in time from the 18th century in order to escape a plague. Arriving in the present day, she moves in with Beck (Fenbert), who takes it as her duty to teach Clem about life in the 21st century. Clem’s puzzled responses to elements of our culture — ranging from online dating to Hamilton to #Team-based social media trends — provide the majority of the show’s laughs.

Harpe’s committed performance is one of Beck & Clem’s strongest selling points, as is Fenbert’s deft script. On a superficial level, the show is a comedic exploration of the changes womanhood has undergone over the past three centuries, but it also maintains that all points of view are relevant and should be included, even if they’re 300 years old. Check out what Fenbert has cooked up on YouTube.

OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT

• • Hand Jobs. A comedian with no hands pursues activities that are tricky for him.

• • No Pink Cowboys. Roommates endure each other’s zany sex lives in this Australian comedy.

• • Homicide Hartford 860. This gritty crime series takes place in Connecticut.

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