Hulu is airing a web series called The Booth at the End in a five episode format. I watched it last night and am now doing my best to make sure others see it. It’s a brilliantly written little piece with an incredible cast of character actors and some unknowns. Xander Berkely, who many may recognize from 24 is just fucking awesome as The Man.
I’d recommend going in it without any more details as the story is just a joy to watch unfold, but for those that need a little more info here’s a bit from a review …
[spoiler]
"It began as 62 two-minute webisodes on, you know, the web, which are now being broadcast in larger chunks on FX every night this week. A man (Xander Berkeley, delivering a performance so brilliant it should be used as an acting masterclass) sits at the end booth in an anonymous diner. People come to him with problems. He offers them each a deal. They must perform a task – rob a bank to be prettier, kill a stranger’s child to save a cancer-stricken son – tell him the details, and they will get what they want. Whether they agree and fulfill their side of the bargain is entirely up to them.
Even before the stories begin to overlap and complications start to arise, the programme has you in its grip. It might seem at first that the format is designed to pander to our wretchedly brief and fragmented attention spans, but in fact each little piece is simply a miracle of compression, as finely wrought, scripted and acted as you could wish. There is more talent and effort poured into one 120-second nugget, demanding a corresponding surge in effort and engagement from the viewer, than there is in almost any hour of TV elsewhere that you care to name." [/spoiler]
Again, this isn’t really a spoiler but for those that like to watch something from as pure a perspective as possible, I’ve concealed it.
Hopefully someone on the crew will watch this because I’d love to hear their take on it.
