There’s a new transmedia project out there called “I Made America.” The premise is this: six of our Founding Fathers have been kidnapped and transported to modern-day America by a fictional group called “ARFF” to be used as political props for the 2012 election. Hilarity (presumably) ensues.
My take? The site is well thought-out, and well-photographed. Also, the costuming and production values in the videos are excellent. Not so much on board with the story, though. One major disappointment of mine is the glaring need for a better copyeditor for their product: “A well reputable lawyer and public figure as myself?”–one would guess that John Adams had a better grasp of grammar than that. Especially when dealing with people of such repute as the Founding Fathers, good-quality writing is a must. I was pulled right out of the virtual world several times by poor writing and grammatical errors.
I had the same problem with the videos–each “Father” has a personality that appears to be more driven by the actor playing him than by any realistic recreation. Not that I’m really that much of a stickler (this is comedy, after all), but in this case I think it would have been far funnier to see how horrified these men are by what we’ve done to their nation, than to have them join in the debauchery, doing keg stands during the first week of episodes.
All-in-all, the project really intrigues me, but the actuality of it leaves me cold. There is so much fun to be had with this idea (which is brilliant), but it comes off as a quickie skit produced by an improv company. That won’t keep anyone’s attention for very long. For an undertaking of this magnitude, I would have liked to have seen a bit more research, so that an audience actually gets really sucked into the story. What I’ve seen so far is a string of adequately written sketches filled with sophomoric humor, tied together by contrived hooks.
I think I’m more disappointed in the “almost great”-ness than I would be if it just sucked outright.