, which sarcastically pits two straight comedians against each other in a mix of trivia questions and flamboyant dance-offs. This would have worn me out in a 90 – minute format, but condensing this over-the-top, gay-as-hell comedy show into eight-minute blasts means we get it all: laughs every minute and an exit when the time is right.
Time after time, I found myself clicking on things I never would have bothered watching, like a docu-series about concert production staffers or quick-hit dance-offs between street dance crews or mini-sodes about up-and-coming high school athletes, and coming away charmed. The “big” names on Quibi, on the other hand, did sway me as much, including MTV’s nostalgia one-two punch of (Singled Out) (a ‘ s s dating series, only now much gayer) and (Punk’d) () the ‘ s prank show, only now, much shorter). From tiny, kid-friendly street cars to … oh. .. oh goodness But it’s also a weird, all-over-the-map lineup, meaning you shouldn’t look at Quibi as the equivalent of a single TV channel. Tastes and series concepts vary wildly on Quibi.
One minute, I’m watching a “street racing” show in which little kids ride in hot wheels versions of expensive cars . The next, I flip to Game of Thrones ‘Sophie Turner in a gut-wrenching scripted series, Survive , which is broken up into five mini-sodes. But I couldn’t get through its first eight minutes without pausing and walking away, due to its graphic portrayal of a character’s battle with mental illness, as portrayed by her character’s bloody self-harm fantasies. How’d I get from “cute kids in fake cars” to “dramatic actress cutting herself” that fast?
Also, once I got over Survive ‘s shocking intro, I otherwise felt underwhelmed by this “Quibi movie” approach. At a grand total of roughly minutes , this series played out more like a British TV special with a single, extra-long episode. The same could be said for the enjoyably silly Flipped , starring Will Forte (SNL and Kaitlin Olson It’s Always Sunny ) – a quality series, but not due to being stretched over a few mini-sodes.
Quibi is at least in a position to deliver arbitrary series lengths, instead of being beholden to a TV-mandated amount of time , which may prove more compelling if the service catches on as filmmakers and TV producers come up with inventive ways to play with the format. At least one scripted series at launch leans nicely into the Quibi premise: Most Dangerous Game , which is fast-forwards to its whackadoodle premise within four minutes. By that, I mean four minutes after hitting the “play” button, with no long credits sequence or character-driven exposition. Archetypes emerge, and Liam Hemsworth begins immediately facing off against the calm-yet-menacing acting prowess of Christoph Waltz. Right, let’s cut to the chase. This service is not “Slow-bi.”
All in all, Quibi’s preview slate left me entertained enough to recommend installing the service’s generous – day free trial at launch, even if (Murder House Flip) wound up being one of the platform’s more boring “this could’ve been on normal TV” options in the end. After trials run out, the service costs $ 5 / mo with ads, or $ 8 / mo without them — and by then, we’ll see how its daily, news-driven content (unavailable in preview form) fits into the Quibi promise of entertainment Designed around smartphone consumption. And in the meantime, I hope Quibi doubles-down on that Sesame Street – like quality and cranks up the nerdy content. YouTube is proof positive that the eight-minute format can work great for gadgets, games, science, and health, which Quibi sorely lacks as of press time.
(Full disclosure: my preview slate of content did not include (Cup of Joe) , and in spite of my surprise appreciation for much of Quibi, I’m not ready to raise my hopes for that one.)
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