But that’s not all. There is the .comDish! “High 5″. It’s a list of the five best entertainment websites to surf, based upon your feedback. Also in that section is the “One on One” area, where I post interviews that I have had the privilege of conducting with web celebrities, up and comers, and web content providers.

The Internet is so much more than search engines; so much more than just a way to go shopping or a faster way to book travel. In fact there are so many high quality entertainment websites out there–from family-oriented to educational to serial episodics–that millions of people regularly watch the Internet instead of television.

I archive my website reviews too. So far I’ve reviewed over ONE THOUSAND of the websites that I have surfed. Ultimately, you decide if the online entertainment I review is worth the surf. Please let me know. I welcome the feedback because my passion is to help you see what you’re missing in the world wide web of Internet entertainment.

So check back regularly here, at the .comDish! to see what you’re missing. Thanks for surfing along.

No, Paris posted her parody at www.funnyordie.com, an online, comedy video site previously reviewed here at the .comDish! Paris always gets press, so that’s not what is remarkable about the viewing numbers. What is remarkable is that Paris was generous, or shrewd enough to grace the Web 2.0 website with her presence. By doing so, funnyordie.com did benefit from the precious Paris bump, boosting their mainstream presence in the process.

Just another example of how post-prison Paris has matured. And if that’s not enough for you, watch the video and pay attention to her energy plan for America. It is right on. Or is it…hot?

As you can imagine, MidwestTeenSexShow.com has drummed up a fair amount of controversy since ballooning in popularity online. Unlike “Sex Is Fun”, another popular online, sex advice video podcast, the MidWestTeenSexShow production staff is not populated with sex professionals. Instead, principals behind it are a guy with a great name for a website and a dream, a 30-something single mother with lots of life experience, and free-for-all cast of character actors willing to impart practical sexual advice (tongues firmly in cheeks) to an otherwise jaded teenage population.

And that drives “legitimate” advisors nuts.

Which is precisely why MidwestTeenSexShow is so popular with teens. Contrary to naysayers who claim that “our youth” don’t get sarcasm, “our youth” are actually engaged by the topics at this site. Sometimes it’s not about book sense; it’s about common sense. And that’s what MWTSS delivers.

The topics range from dating to sex, drugs and alcohol to breakups to abstinence to homosexuality to “the first time”.

MidWestTeenSexShow.com is not for everyone. Frankly, I have to give it a DCD “M” for mature—language and content. That being said, I do think that everyone who has a teen-aged daughter or son should take the time to watch and listen to the messages in each video, and then do it again with their teens at their sides. And then discuss what was just streamed.

Behind the tongue-in-cheek delivery lies good information, that at the very least will provoke some good introspection by you, the parent, if not a some memorable conversations.

The bewildering folks at Despair.com can be counted on for two things—demotivation and occasional inspiration.

On the inspirational tip, Despair.com is now showcasing Mark Osborne’s Academy-Award® nominated short-film film “More”.

In fact, according to Despair.com’s press release, “Fans of Mark Osborne’s Academy-Award nominated short-film masterpiece MORE will be pleased to note that we’ve increased the resolution of our online version of the film. And what’s more, we’ve actually added 3 commentary tracks for the film- right off of our Special-Edition DVD itself!

Commentary tracks 1 and 2 are feature director Mark Osborne’s creative and technical commentary respectively. While laudable, they frankly pale in comparison to the entertainment value to be had listening to Despair.com co-founder Dr. E.L. Kersten’s running commentary on track 3.

His commentary is touted as “representing the executive’s penetrating perspective”. It just may also represent some of the greatest deadpan humor of this decade.

It’s official! HappySlip is now 50 posts into its Internet career. Veteran online performer, Internet celebrity and HappySlip.com creator Christine Gambito posted the big 5-0, “Houston YouTube Gathering!” yesterday. The post is a “reach out” to YouTubers to attend the upcoming June 15th YouTube gathering scheduled for Houston, TX.

Christine has been producing HappySlip webisodes since September, 2006. Her performances often include comedy sketches in which she impersonates members of her family. She is also an accomplished musician, accompanying herself on piano or guitar when performing original or parody cover songs.

Christine Gambito’s talents also extend to behind the camera. She films, edits and produces her shorts completely on her own

In other news of note, Ms. Gambito was appointed Ambassador for Philippine Tourism by the Philippine Department of Tourism in January of this year. You go, girl!

Congratulations Christine Gambito, and many more from all of us at the .comDish!

“Minushi” is told from the perspective of Trixi, a teen-aged orphan, who must first flee from within a city under martial law in order to find her conscripted older brother, Griffin. He’s the only family she’s ever known.

Trixi is joined on her journey by her faint-hearted best-friend, Khal. Do not be fooled by Khal’s skittishness. He holds a secret that brings with it a world of trouble for the pair.

For Trixi and Khal, this rite of passage adventure is fraught with war zones, menacing bandits, lumbering alien giant robot combatants and an army bent on capturing the both of them, dead or alive. At their heels stalks the nefarious, black-cloaked Mr. Tinker and his band of robot goons. During their odyssey, Trixi and Khal must not only evade loathsome foes and overcome hardships but they must come to realize important values such as friendship, courage and hope.

But who is Tyler Gibb? According to his bio, ” Since breaking through online in 1998 with his first Flash animation, The Stress Relief Aquarium, Tyler has spent years stockpiling animated weapons of mass distraction at his home-base of Boneland.com.

In 2003, the script for Minushi was finally hatched. Since then Tyler has devoted his time exclusively to developing the feature. Tyler wrote, drew, animated and created the sound effects for Minushi. He also plays Khal Kekoa, Mr. Tinker, Ezra, General Werner in addition to other voices.

Currently, ten of nineteen chapters are available for streaming. Additional chapter release dates online, will depend on Minushi’s feature length release offline.

Doogtoons are created by Doug “Doog” Bresler, a filmmaker, artist, animator, actor, musician and self-described “overall fool”. He is a graduate of the Film Studies program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His website is free to access. His works are viewable in Quicktime or in the iPod video format for those sitesurfers willing to subscribe to the Doogtoons podcast.

Want to know what makes Doog tick? Check out our exclusive interview with now. It’s Doogilicious!

Ostensibly, Despair is the marketing website for Despair, Inc., a corporate, de-motivational company founded by Dr. E.L. Kersten. We say ostensibly because it is not certain if this is just a tongue-in-cheek mock of the corporate, motivational industry or if it is a real, ongoing concern by the good doctor for increasing the amount of despair in our daily lives. Consistent with the Despair, Inc.’s corporate image of inattention and uncaring, no one has returned our queries for an interview.

This is the era of corporate outsourcing, employee downsizing, and reductions in employee benefits. Amidst all that chaos, who wouldn’t want to stand for a moment before the framed image of the mesmerizing, concentric circles of solitary drop suspended above placid water, or of a mountain peak, or of a majestic, soaring eagle? Who wouldn’t want to breathe in the peace that these images bring to an otherwise hectic, frustrating, rat racy day? Who wouldn’t want to accept the subliminal suggestion behind the catch-phrases carefully penned beneath each perfect image?

Dr. E.L. Kersten, that is who. For one moment, imagine Tony Robbins. Now imagine his energy and his message. Now imagine someone 180 degrees opposite of him, his energy, his message. Then take that down “about a thousand.” That’s Dr. E.L. Kersten. That is his message of Despair.

It is one thing to mock the smarmy motivational posters (excuse me, “lithographs”) present in just about every single possible business establishment in the industrialized world, (including, we kid you not– our local junk yard). It is a whole ‘nother thing entirely to wage war against the multibillion dollar, employee productivity enhancement industry. An old advertising slogan for Smuckers, purveyors of jellies and jams boldly states: “With a name like Smuckers, it has to be good.”

Dr. Kersten may be on to something. Because he’s that good.

Dr. E.L. Kersten wants to hand you back your dignity. Or at least your sense of desperation. All you have to do is read his catalog and order his calendars, or books or motivational wall hangings. Your money, added to the legions of others will set him free.

On the .com Dish! site surfin’ scale, Despair rates a “T” for Teens and above. Why? Because a wise teacher once told me that sarcasm has no place in the education of a child.

In her own words, “I am here for children, every time I try to branch out I end up back in the preschool classroom…that is were I’m destined to be.” Thus the inspiration for TheGoToMom.com.

Kimberley co-directs the website with Jammie Shaughnessy, a dental hygienist and mother of a toddler. Their site says it all: “An important part of their job is to share child focused, enriching information and research with parents and professionals who work with children. The videos are a fun way to help improve the quality of life for those raising young children.”

Kimberley offers workshops, consulting services and informative videos answering questions submitted by her site surfers. I found the videos incredibly useful. For instance, it never occurred to me that one could use their child’s stuffed animals as “guardians” to help the child overcome his or her fear of the dark.

Neat stuff, especially for new parents. The GoToMom rates a .com Dish! “E” for everybody.

The Guild is precisely why I get such a big kick out of the Internet. Surfing its online entertainment offers me glimpses at alternative lifestyles to which I otherwise might not ordinarily get hipped. Like that whole shady world of “online gaming.”

That scene was never my thing. I didn’t get the lingo, I didn’t care about their daily victories and tribulations. And I definitely didn’t understand the dress code–until I surfed across the The Guild.

Day, her Guild cohorts, have their own special challenges dealing with Reality. It all comes to a head in Season One, Webisode Four when Codex, unable to turn to the real life friends she doesn’t have, cajoles her other Guild members into meeting face to face…in the real world…for the first time.

Day is pleasantly Tina Fey-ish in both her acting and her writing. In fact, it’s the spirit her writing imbues into each character that works at shattering many of the stereotypes about gamers that I brought to the streaming. What’s nice about The Guild is that it’s surprisingly PG-13. Also the droll, understated humor punctuated by uncomfortable pregnant pauses keep Season One’s ten webisodes crackling.

In just its first season, The Guild has already managed to snag three big online awards–the 2007 YouTube Video Awards, the 2007 Yahoo Video Award for Best Web Series, and most recently the 2008 Greenlight Awards for Best Digital TV series.

On the .comDish! Sitesurfin’ scale, we rate The Guild “T” for teens. Surf on over to WatchTheGuild.com, and see what you’re missing.

The people at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia understand this. They created the KidsHealthGalaxy site betting that a child’s visit here first will then make a visit to the hospital less scary.

KidsHealthGalaxy is an interactive website, designed to get a child involved in their hospital visit. Surfers are greeted by Joey, the intrepid kid narrator. Joey pilots a Jetsons-era aircraft. Click on one of three buttons on his control panel, and off he flies us to either the Hospital, the Medical Library, or to the Fun and Games tree house. Wherever one lands, your child will continue to make choices to advance through the entire destination. What’s nice about the site is that the choice options are built non-linearly, just like a child’s brain. Your child surfer may choose from a pull-down menu and pick a different area of the website to explore at any time. Sound effects also enhance all aspects of the surfing experience.

Another good feature on KidsHealthGalaxy is one called “Read to Me”. With the feature “on”, site surfers will hear the narration and also be able to read the supplied captions. With it in the “off” position, surfers can read the information at their own pace without distraction. This feature enhances site access for the hearing impaired. It’s also a wonderful parental control in the event the slightly helium-tinged character voices impair your own hearing.

The overall site experience is very positive. The designers did a great job of including all aspects of the hospital environment and the hospital stay in a friendly, approachable way. An example of this is in the “People You’ll Meet” area. Here janitors, security guards, even cafeteria cooks say hello and explain their roles to us. The inclusion of support staff emphasizes the integral part all hospital employees play in a patient’s well-being. This is in marked contrast to many “hospital” TV shows, where these same people are often just silent background extras or used in the occasional role as comic relief.

Another example of the care and consideration built into KidsHealthGalaxy is in the “Fun! & Games!” section. Here packing for a hospital stay is turned into a learning game. We learn not only what personal items are acceptable to bring to the hospital, but also why some things from home aren’t necessary to bring. As an adult, some of this information may seem like a given, but for a first-timer, this is particularly useful advice. The answers are just as informative for the adult as the child. Adults may deem some of the “comfort” items a child may want to carry along as inappropriate where in reality, the hospital encourages their inclusion; for instance, a child’s favorite blanket.

The site does what it is intended to do: demystify the complexities of the hospital experience, alleviate young patient anxiety, and put some fun into an otherwise stressful family event. Despite its good intentions, KidsHealthGalaxy does suffer from some minor handicaps:

The website was programmed in Macromedia Flash animation software. If you don’t have Flash 8 on your computer, you will have to download it first. Without it, you will be unable to surf the site at all. Site surfers who have earlier versions of Flash will also have to download the upgrade. Normally, web designers supporting a Flash-only site will provide a link on their site to Macromedia.com where a free download of Flash is available. The folks at KidsHealthGalaxy neglected to do so. And that’s the biggest problem. While it is just a quick surf over to Macromedia.com, to get the latest Flash download, it is one more step to ask a surfer to do. For a veteran site surfer, that may be enough annoyance to lose them. For a novice site surfer, who may not know where to go to get the necessary viewing software, it is enough to lose them.

Also because of the nature of Flash, KidsHealthGalaxy is a site best surfed on a broadband connection. That immediately limits who can access the site. And that’s too bad. The information on the site is really good and should be made widely available. An optional, non-Flash area built in Java or HTML would greatly facilitate the majority of users who still surf the Internet on dial-up. For many sophisticates, that sounds like an absurd option to offer, but frankly broadband’s recent 50% U.S. penetration notwithstanding, there is a large population of kids whose parents can’t yet afford high-speed Internet connections.

Another bummer is that English is the only language option on KidsHealthGalaxy.com. Again, given the universal nature of the Internet, perhaps the creators of KidsHealthGalaxy will get hip and offer more languages. Some of the information here is hospital-specific, but most of it is general enough, and more importantly, good enough to share.

In summary, KidsHealthGalaxy is worth forwarding as it has great content, is visually appealing, easy to navigate and highly interactive, if you have the latest Flash and read English.

Finally, KidsHealthGalaxy rates a .com Dish! “E” for everybody.

Not until I surfed on over to SingleMalt.tv and saw what I was missing, did I know that Scotch Whisky gets its woody flavoring from spending its first year in the cask.

Cynics might label this website as a gussied up direct marketing program by Scotland’s Liquor Council. Not true site surfers, not true. The concept of SingleMalt.tv sprang from the fermented mind of Rob Draper, an American cinematographer.

For Rob, the problem was a lack of quality scotch television. Not the kilts and brogues and sheep kind; the snifters and brogues and barley kind. Draper hails from Camden, Maine, where it’s practically a requirement to imbibe a good stiff drink just to ward off the chill. No wonder he conceived of a website dedicated solely to the history and culture behind a drink named after a people.

Like any spirits maker worth his salt, Mr. Draper first assembled the finest whisky enthusiasts, collectors, chefs and historians for his wee Internet channel. He then blended their individual expertise with his own film production talents; aged them in the photogenic casks of the fragrant Scottish countryside and in the metropolitan capitals of the world. He distilled out all the tawdry, alcoholic chaos associated with the abuse of strong alcohol. That means you site surfers looking for an MTV Spring Break/Mardi Gras/Beach House kind of boozy experience will probably find SingleMalt.tv boring.

That would be your loss. Because what Draper ultimately uncorks is a full-bodied slate of tasteful, webisodic historical programs, profiles and whisky-based cooking shows . They are presented at a leisurely pace, not unlike the pace of gentlemen (and gentlewomen) sipping the best single malt whisky in the finest, most exclusive of social clubs.

Whether “Scotland’s foremost whisky writer,” Charles MacLean narrates an exploration of the arcane art of cask-making, or an analysis of the various elements of barley cultivation, or even a lesson on the makings of a good whisky collection, he is guiding us to one unmistakable truth: Great Whisky is the product not just of commerce, but of Art.

A bit pretentious? Sure, but what high-quality, expensive bottle of scotch isn’t? Rob Draper goes out of his way to give the site surfer a high-quality Internet entertainment experience. He exploits the natural beauty of both Scotland and alcohol glistening in a glass by filming in High Definition. High Def saturates every color, every shape, even every spoken word. Draper knows how to drain the last bit of beauty from every single image and pour it through the computer screen. The picture clarity is intense, despite the vagaries and inconsistencies of even the most meager of Internet connections.

For a moment, I actually thought I could smell the stuff.

Of course it would be inappropriate for me to recommend SingleMalt.tv to everybody. First of all, recovering alcoholics will want to surf clear of this site. The subject’s presentation is simply too compelling to keep one “on the wagon”. And as I inferred before, anyone whose idea of a good time with a bottle of booze includes loud music and college-aged women will want to surf on by.

That being said, I would recommend SingleMalt.tv to high school educators and to students. The majority of the content found on this website is laden with educational materials. Whether it’s the chemistry of alcohol distillation, or the appropriate uses of whisky in cooking recipes, or even the brief history lessons of Scotland, a full curriculum of learning exists.

Currently, www.SingleMalt.tv”>SingleMalt.tv streams for free but there is an additional subscription-based component to the site, at an annual fee of $39.95. Subscribers enjoy the extra added bonus of being entered into sweepstakes contests. Surf on over and see what you’re missing.

Nearly half of all college students reported feeling so depressed that they couldn’t function during the last school year. More than half have faced an emotional problem of some sort. Sometimes these challenges can make it difficult for students to keep up with the demands of college life, and sometimes the impact is even more devastating.

Half of Us, is a collaboration between itself, mtvU and The Jed Foundation, a nonprofit public charity committed to reducing the young adult suicide rate and improving mental health support provided to college students. The stated goal is to initiate a public dialogue to raise awareness about the prevalence of mental health issues on campus and connect students to the appropriate resources to get help.

Musical stars Mary J. Blige, Pete Wentz of Fallout Boy and Max Bemis of Say Anything are among celebrities who share their personal experiences with depression.

In planning for the campaign, mtvU conducted extensive research on how stress and depression are affecting college students nationwide.

There is also a link to download the executive summary of the 2006 mtvU College Mental Health Study: Stress, Depression, Stigma & Students. HalfOfUs.com is a great place for a young person to get started on the road to recovery. If you know of a college-aged man or woman suffering from depression, I implore you to share this site with them. If only one person gets the help they need, we have done our part to save the world from another senseless massacre.

…I’m talking about Sock Wars, people, and it’s about to get ugly! Thankfully, there is the brave husband and wife reporting team of CAT and Eric Susch, who are putting their very lives on the line to cover this uncovered war. For full details, surf on over to www.LetsKnit2gether.com and see what you’re missing. Really?…

…No, not really. But SockWars III is one of the many creative ways CAT and Eric have made the once-dying, manual arts of needlework fun and popular again. Stream any or all of the 33+ video podcasts this yarn-spinning duo have produced in their two years online, and you just might find yourself hooked–all puns intended.

I’m being obvious when I write that LetsKnit2gether.com is not for everyone. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t urge everyone of my DotcomDish! fans to surf the site at least once. The thing about particular content being streamed on this website is not how narrow the subject matter is, but how steadfastly Letsknit2gether’s content creators continue to develop it.

And that’s a good thing. We live in an age when a person can build their new car online and then have it delivered to their local dealership before ever test driving it. Why wouldn’t we want the same highly personalized content in our online entertainment? LetsKnit2gether delivers high-quality, exceedingly specific infotainment to individual needlework aficionados around the globe, and then weaves their common viewing experience into a globally local community. That action defines one half of the double entendre found in the website’s name (the other half originating in the name of a stitch).

For casual site surfers like you and me, the clearest example of what I mean can be found in webisode #19. In it, CAT and Eric travel with a gaggle of knitters to a baseball game. Eric trolls the stands, videotaping solo knitters and knitters in groups. Now that our eyes have been trained, a panning wide shot reveal of the crowd shows us exactly what we have been missing—that inside “America’s Favorite Pastime” an entire subculture, enjoying a different pastime, peacefully coexists. Amazing.

If the Susches were able to reconfigure LetsKnit2gether.com to include the Web 2.0 advantage of social networking, I guarantee three benefits would ensue:
1. solidification of their fan base
2. expansion in awareness and in size of the online knitting community
3. successful completion of their goal to raise eight thousand dollars by September 30th in order to pay for a new editing system.

CAT is great at her job. Her clear instructions and folksy style make it easy to understand the finer points of needlework. And just like the better cooking or home repair online shows, LetsKnit2gether.com will quickly and easily teach you the difference between a crown and a gusset, faster than you can turn a heel.

Eric too, does an excellent production job. LetsKnit2gether.com is shot in HD. He also puts a lot of stock into the show’s lighting—the combination of the two, give each webisode a broadcast quality feel.

I give LetsKnit2gether a .comDish! “E” for everybody—accessible to all ages, even if needle and yarn is not your bag. A special thanks to KittyClapper for hipping me to LetsKnit2gether.com. If you have websites for us to review and share, please email me at ZanderKoll@dotcomdish.com, and show me what I’m missing!

Lily was so inspired by young Jamal, that she decided that rather than receive toys for her 11th birthday, she wanted to provide water to an African village. We think that anytime an American middle school student decides that the choice between providing water to a small African village or getting toys for their birthday, is to provide water to an African village, a lot of people should get to know about her.

“Little by Little” also deserves attention because it approaches the best of the best in what is most excellent about the Internet, i.e. its non-linear nature. In an on-demand world, linearity is out the window. Finally the ADD among us shall rule the earth. But rather than become Ritalin-bound zombies, we have the glorious opportunity to become learned. Online video stories like “Little by Little” shall show us how.

You see “Little by Little” isn’t just a movie. It’s also Macromedia Flash animation website. Other Internet media “players” like Real, Microsoft or QuickTime are really just “play” videos.

Flash animation does that and more. It allows the creator to mix a variety of elements like collage, line art, video footage, games, and text all together in order to create a richer Internet experience for their site visitor. In this particular case, it has the effect of creating an online “pop-up” text book.

A site visitor can surf the site from the beginning (”asili”) to the end (”resources”), or they can skip around to whatever chapter of the story inspires them at that moment. The site offers “text on” or “text off” and “sound on” or “sound off” options for those more interested in reading at their own pace.

Finally, on the .com Dish! site surfin’ Scale “Little by Little” rates an enthusiastic “E” for everyone. You do not get to see inspirational stories like this everyday, but you should.

Spatulatta is a website designed to teach children how to cook by watching children cook. Your child may not yet be an Iron Chef, but after watching kid-cook hosts Isabella and Olivia prepare great, simple meals, they’ll be that much closer.

Spatulatta is a mixed media, cooking website designed to teach kids how to cook. The site features Quicktime-streamed cooking lessons hosted by sisters Isabella and Olivia Gerasole (pronounced “jer-ra-so-lee”). The children live in Chicago, IL. The show is produced by Gaylon Emerzian. It is her job to stay focused on the underlying theme of the website– teaching children that cooking and eating healthy meals can be fun.

The Gerasole sisters are very natural on camera, which makes teaching kids to cook that much easier, and for adults, the natural charisma the siblings display encourages continued watching. According to the girls, Isabella started cooking Christmas cookies at the ripe old age of 2. Her sister Olivia began cooking much later in life. She was 3. Isabella will tell you that Olivia is the better baker of the two; while Olivia will readily admit that Isabella is the better cook.

Spatulatta features five new video segments each week, organized by theme, holiday or cuisine. The most recent segments are displayed under “What’s New?”. The archived segments can be found in the “Recipe Box”. The sisters will also share cooking time with other guest host, kid-cooks, allowing those children to flaunt their culinary skills.

The site itself is equally well organized throughout all sections. In addition to the streamed cooking segments, Spatulatta site surfers can learn basic cooking skills, discover other forms of kitchen artistry, view outtakes and purchase Spatulatta gear. Of particular interest to parents and educators may be the Kids Links and Links for Parents.

Spatulatta won the 2006 James Beard Foundation Award for best webcast. At ages 10 and 8, Isabella and Olivia are the youngest recipients of a James Beard award.

And that’s something to cheer. “S-p-a-t-u-l-a-! T-t-a-dot-com, if you learn this simple cheer, you can learn to cook right here. Spatulatta, spatulatta, spatulatta-dot-com!” Ooops. Got carried away there, singing the girls’ own cheer.

To summarize, Spatulatta teaches kids to cook using quicktime videos and other kid-friendly techniques. The site is easy to surf and filling weekly with new, original cooking content. The site is such a great tool for kids, it would be nice to see it expand its language options, and the name itself is so interesting, posting a story as to its origin could only add to the site’s already zesty flavor.

On the .com Dish! SiteSurfin’ scale, Spatulatta rates an “E” for everybody.

The goal of founder Tony Cort in creating the MAC Experience is to give the nearly 24 million US martial artists an Internet destination at which to share their experiences, network and support the Martial Arts.

Cort underestimated his audience slightly. Currently, people from 101 countries worldwide enjoy the MAC Experience. We hope you do too. Surf on over to the MAC Experience and see what you’re missing.

The opening webisode transcends most online dramatic comedy in its first minute. Brooke and Alice play the joined-at-the-hip, platonically coed, co-habitating duo, who by the way, also draw their paychecks from the very same company. On this day, they ease into their shared cube farm, tardy as usual, ripe for another creatively wasted day “on the dole”–only to discover their hopelessly overworked team leader, dead. The confirmation of said fact may just be simultaneously the most cinematic and most inappropriate moment in the Internet’s recorded history.

Webisodes Two and Three of Team-Leader continue in great comedic fashion where webisode One left off, with Brooke and Alice and their fellow team members rapidly running through Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s famous Five Stages of Grief. Let me be clear, these twenty-somethings are too self-consumed to energize their grief over their erstwhile immediate supervisor. Instead, this crew moves from one stage to another because the suicide reveals an inconvenient truth: Everyone had delegated their share of the annual, major client presentation load to their now dead colleague.

Now it looms large, less than 72 hours away, the lifeblood of this little company. Of all the no-ones who make up this hilarious team, someone has to pick up the slack, pick up the pace, and carry them all to securing a client victory. The remaining 10 webisodes explore how Brooke and Alice will rise or unravel to the occasion. Their first courses of action? Avoid taking any responsibility and assigning blame.

Like good action movies, where the draw is not from the promise of a good story so much as it is from the potential to witness amazingly unique action sequences, Team-Leader offers up its share of incredibly creative, one-off scenic delights. More than that, this series also offers its viewers food for thought. How will churlish young adults deal with a universal fear–What if I can’t find the will to mature instantly in the face of an unrelentingly brutal reality?

Brooke and Alice believe they have Life by the tail. They each have a swell-paying job, and they don’t bring it home, either. Their nights are trivia games, competing at Mario Kart and smoking ganja. Their days are late arrivals, long lunches and getting over on their two supervisors–company president Roxanne and the departed team-leader, Kate “the Cake” MacIntosh. In other words, Brooke and Alice haven’t really evolved since Middle School, and yet they’ve managed to make a good living that way.

Then Cake has the audacity to commit the most heinous of passive-aggressive moves–suicide. Brooke and Alice discover that now more than ever, the maturity that they have together worked so diligently to keep at bay now has them cornered. Like two children suddenly orphaned and left with only one another, this pair has one of two simple choices to make: 1.) sit up, buck up and grow up; or 2.) deny, deny, deny.

People will compare Team-Leader with NBC’s “The Office”. While their flattery may be genuine, it actually undervalues the work done by the Team-Leader production crew. Where “The Office” is a parody of real-life workplace, and of the reality television series genre, Team-Leader is a completely fantastical fiction effort. Where the goal of “The Office” creators is to produce 100 episodes (traditionally the magic number needed to acquire a lucrative syndication deal), the goal of Team-Leader creators Chris Forrest, Josh Budd, Scott Albert and Christopher Guest is to keep the Team-Leader run short and sweet. This American tendency to run any good series to its bitter end strengthens the chance of diluted writing; lessens the quality of the product; and ultimately increases the likelihood that “The Office” will “jump the shark.” Structuring Team-Leader similarly to a Spanish-language telenovela, with a definitive end, insures high quality throughout, inspires fan loyalty, and guarantees a compelling (albeit bittersweet) finale.

Team-Leader is a 12 part, live action short form, multi-platform sitcom distributed by Gopher X Productions. It gets a .comDish! “T” for Teens and above rating. The final moment of the twelfth webisode possesses as much creative genius as the first minute of webisode One. So although Team-Leader left me yearning for more, it didn’t leave me feeling cheated. I am willing to bet you’ll feel the same way, too. But don’t leave me hanging onto an open bet. Tell me if you agree or disagree. I’m all eyes.

Well imagine no more. Instead, Behold! The lamer side of the Dark side….

Chad Vader is an emotionally complex person. Though he has all of the powers that his brother Darth does, he is unable to master them as Darth has. Still Chad tries very hard to be seen as a forced to be reckoned with, but to no avail. He, like Will Smith’s Hancock, is also “the only one of his kind” –which makes him vulnerable and lonely. Combine that with the daily lack of respect Chad endures as Day Shift Manager, and it is easy to see why he might be a wee bit depressed.

Chad Vader the series is no less emotionally complex. The eight webisodes of Season One address the mundane issues of motivating itinerant convenience store employees as well as delving into the deeper family/societal issues of finding one’s true self in a world of high expectations.

Series creators Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda are Wisconsin natives. They hooked up in Madison, WI around the turn of this century, thus proving that it is from the heartland where we often get our heartiest laughs. After cutting their comedy teeth on the local scene, Sloan and Yonda took their love of Star Wars spoofs west to L.A.

Their Hollywood foray has thus far born much fruit. Chad Vader first splashed on the scene during its successful run in the highly competitive Channel 101 series competition. Chad Vader received the highest accolade possible, there, Prime Time status. Two other Sloan and Yonda comedy series have also garnered the coveted Prime Time slot at Channel 101, McCourt’s in Session and Fun Rangers. These guys are two to watch on the Internet.

The content is why I rate Chad Vader a DotComDish “T” for teens. Despite its that profundity, it manages to remain laugh-out-loud funny. I look forward to Season Two. So surf on over here and see what you’re missing.