Web Series Wednesday – After Pluto

By: Krista Ann Freego

WHAT?  After Pluto

BY: A Right Forever Productions

WHO? This series is created and produced by Lane Allison and Sara Lafferty. In fact, this dynamic duo also serve as the Production Designers and Casting Directors as well as cast members for the series. Lane Allison plays the main character, Truman Welles, and directs the web series.

WHY SHOULD I WATCH?

After Pluto is co-created, co-produced, written, directed and edited by women. Two-thirds of the cast are women. So, if you are looking to support women in media, then look no further. For me the first aspect of this project that caught my attention was the premise. Truman Welles is a bestselling author who has already written two bestselling books and is about to write her third when she suffers a tragic accident that strips her of all of her memories from the last ten years. Imagine the last ten years of your life suddenly erased from your memory. The last thing Truman remembers from before her accident is the fact that Pluto has been downgraded as a planet.

So, what has happened in the past ten years that Truman “Tru” no long remembers? Meeting her husband, dating him and marrying him. The fact that he cheated on her. Writing two bestselling novels. Pretty much her twenties. Six weeks after Truman falls from the second story deck of her house and lost the past ten years of her life, we find her at a mediator trying to finalize her divorce from Ian (Christopher Carver), a husband that is nothing more than a stranger to her at this point.  The mediator will not let them go forward with finalizing the divorce until he knows for a medical certainty that she is able to make sound decisions. After the failed attempt at mediation, Ian takes Tru back to their home to use the bathroom because she forgot that she is lactose intolerant and has just indulged in a deceptive cheese Danish. While walking around their home Ian is patient, kind and attentive.  The ease and connection between these two characters leaps off the scene which is a testament to the writing, acting and directing.  The portrayal of Ian post-accident helps the audience root for their reunion, which is saying a lot seeing as how it was his used condom from a one-night stand that is the basis for the lawsuit that Truman is now facing from her previous tenant. Need more explanation on that one? Thought you would. The tenant was watering the plants while Truman was on a book signing tour. Truman thought Ian was at their cabin in Big Bear so she enlisted her upstairs tenant to water her plants. The tenant entered Tru’s kitchen to get water and ended up slipping on a used and discarded condom that was left on the floor. Ian, upon hearing the tenant screaming, runs out into the kitchen…naked. The catch, the woman in the next room who is naked is not Truman. The further catch? Ian never tells Truman and she doesn’t find out until it is her birthday. Her tenant came over to tell her, on her birthday, that she is suing her and why she is suing her. It seems the tenant assumed that Truman was the naked woman in the next room. Happy Birthday! If that snippet of the story doesn’t make you want to watch this web series than nothing will. Somehow Lane Allison takes such a farfetched incident it makes it realistic and endearing.

The writing is smart and poignant without being obnoxiously esoteric for esoteric’s sake.  At one point after the accident Tru lays down on the same spot that she fell. Her brother asks her, “Why would you want to lie down in the spot where you fell?” Her response is perfect and is a great encapsulation of her character – “perspective.”

I recommend After Pluto for anyone looking for an interesting story, told in a smart and relatable way with interesting and complex characters. You should watch it now because in the words of Truman Welles, there is “no time like the present. I guess it’s all I’ve got.”

WHERE CAN I WATCH?  After Pluto can currently be seen on their YouTube channel. Episode One is currently available on the series’ website along with many behind the scene videos, interviews with cast and crew and vlogs.