The idea of Internet tv, shows that air exclusively online, has been toyed with before. Mostly it has been in the form of "webisodes" or "mobisodes," short bites of already established television shows that fill in some story gaps or tell an entirely new story. There have yet to be any cases of an original internet television series becoming a huge hit. The closest, however, was Prom Queen, produced by the former Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner's media company. The show and its short second series which ran over the course of 2007, airing in 90-second shorts, was the best-funded internet series ever. It was viewed by over 20 million people thanks to the viral campaign run through MySpace.But is it worth watching?
The story revolves around prom season at a California high school, and Ben (Sean Hankinson) who receives a message telling him that he will kill the prom queen. It seems everyone at this high school has a secret of their own, and the show quickly becomes a sort of Twin Peaks of the MySpace generation. Much like Twin Peaks, the show quickly takes a turn for the bonkers, with ridiculous plot twists, leaps in logic and hilariously over-the-top moments. The setting does manage to be extremely encapsulating and the cast of attractive characters drawers the viewer in by the end of the first batch of episodes. Once they have you, you've gone too far. You no longer have a choice in watching, because you have to know how it ends, even as the forehead-slapping plot devolution begins.
The last episodes leave massive questions, which you assume will be answered in "Summer Heat," but never are. In fact, the even more ridiculous second season brings up a whole new batch of unanswered questions.
Despite the low-rent actors, cheesy dialogue and convoluted plots, Prom Queen is pretty fun if you're willing to completely squash your disbelief. And considering it only runs about three hours total, it could be a pleasant break in the Facebook and MySpace hop-surfing.
