Dark Side of the Internet

Over the past few months, I have been reviewing Channel Awesome's Uncanny Valley, a collection of short films to coincide with their 5th anniversary, and to be honest, it has been quite good for the most part. Sure, Dragonbored was a weak start to the series, with it's unfunny jokes, obvious messages and a tired story, but all of the other short films have been quite good. Dragged In was a fun silly story, Internet Dating and Me was a great one-joke skit and The Reviewers was a pretty good short film with a lot of humor, intelligence and surprisingly heart and it asked interesting questions. So how does the final short fare out? For me, it's a mixed bag. While it does display important points and have some good animation, it is quite patronizing and it doesn't say anything new that hasn't already been covered many times before.

Now unlike the others, this one lacks a story, as it is a documentary about the internet and it's negative consequences, and because of this is a much more serious, downbeat and adult piece than the previous shorts. Whereas the other shorts were playful and upbeat, this ends the collection of short films on a down note, as it discusses the very important issue of online bullying and trolling. It discusses these issues through animated and live action segments to show you the dangers of the internet, even using famous internet celebrities and real life comments and news stories to reinforce these points.

While it is an interesting documentary and is executed quite well, it falls into the trap of many documentaries: while well-made it doesn't bring up anything new about the subject in question, meaning that while it is entertaining, it doesn't reveal anything new about the subject matter. It also feels quite patronizing as well, and you feel like you're being lectured for half an hour, therefore making many of it's points far less memorable. So while it is good, it doesn't display any new information about this topic.

Overall, while it is a well-made and entertaining documentary and is a more downbeat short compared to the Uncanny Valley's previous more tongue in cheek efforts, it's not very original and does feel very patronizing at points. It's a good end to the series, but not an overall brilliant one.

This short was the final main part of the TGWTG 5th anniversary special, called The Uncanny Valley. The series had been very uneven, with Dragonbored being polarizing; Dragged In being mediocre; The Reviewers being a good pilot, if not a great short; and Internet Dating and Me being a slow build to a hilarious payoff. This short, however, was NOT a comedy. It was a serious documentary about problematic internet behaviors. Now, while I will not argue the truth of what they said within it, because yes, they're right, I will argue that it didn't FIT. It was a greatly depressing video that seemed to blame ALL of the fans for the actions of... not all of them. All in all, while this was a thing that most definitely needed to be made (although the audience that most greatly needs to learn these lessons aren't having it at all), it was still a sour note to end both the anniversary special and Welshy's tenure as a video producer on the internet.