Web Series Review: Suck and Moan

Status: One Season with 10 episodes completed so far
Credits: Brendon Fong (Writer/Director/Creator), Eric Hailey (Henry), Carmen Elena Michell (Myra), Joel Bryant (Mac), Chris Mollica (Ed), Kyle Eliason (Harold)

Rating: 4 ½ out of 5 Stars

Synopsis: In this web series, two sub-genres collide (vampires and zombies) with hilarious results. The vampires in the series look like normal people who have integrated themselves into our society while keeping their true nature a secret so that they can go about feeding on humans unhindered. The zombies have arrived as the results of a pandemic (though some argue it is not a pandemic and that it is actually hardly worse than the Black Death of the Middle Ages), and their rampage threatens to curtail the food source of the vampires. Oh, and one of the vampires attempted to feed on a zombie (not realizing what it was) and now appears to be infected. But how exactly does zombieism affect the immortal undead?

Review/Commentary: This fun series takes great delight in skewering both the vampire and zombie genres, and it does so with high doses of wit, demonstrating both brains and a bite with its humor (sorry, couldn’t resist). It focuses mostly on a group of vampires (actually, a support group of the bloodsuckers) as they try to decide the best way to deal with the situation at hand. They debate on what parts of zombie lore from the many movies they have seen are true (seeing as they didn’t realize zombies could exist to begin with), then they start debating on what other supernatural creatures are real as well. And the series jumps around from one hilariously deadpan conversation to the next (taking many stabs at the Twilight style vampires) while also mixing in bits of action as the vampires work on thinning out the zombie hoards.  And whereas some comedy web series (or network sitcoms or big screen movies for that matter) have few laugh out loud lines, this one just keeps them coming with plenty of ringers in each episode (which run about four to five minutes).  I especially loved the part where several vampires debated over whether myth about vampires having to be invited into a house is real, while all are reluctant to test it out.

The series has some pretty cheesy special effects (compared to professional productions) and the acting comes up short from time to time, but it’s still first rate for a web series and one of the funniest things I have seen in a while.  I actually would much rather watch this than quite a number of the “professional” offerings the networks regularly throw at us, particularly ABC's horrid aliens-in-the-suburbs sitcom The Neighbors.

Vampire and zombie fans alike should enjoy Suck and Moan and pretty much anybody who enjoys a well written, wry comedy series will like it as well. I would rate this high on the list of web series that I have seen so far and consider it a must-watch show.  They have completed ten episodes of the first season with more on the way.

Links/More Information:  You can watch the entire series and get more information about it at its website at this link.  You can also watch the show at it's YouTube channel at this link.

---