Web Series Wednesday – Lukulele

By: Spring Marie Cullen

WHAT? Lukulele

BY: The Animus Workshop

WHY SHOULD I WATCH?

When debatably successful Youtuber Luke Sharp-Fitzpatrick (Paul Blatch) is caught in a freak lightning storm in the middle of an online live stream his life is changed forever. Lukulele follows Luke as he adjusts to his new life, no longer able to simply record harmless ukulele tutorials now that he’s developed otherworldly powers. What started as a necessary stream to educate his audience on the harm of online trolling and bullying turned into Luke’s superhero origin story. Lukulele is a brand-new web series, currently releasing videos every week.

The Animus Workshop, which consists of Blatch and co-creators James Elkin and Rupert Aspden, set out to push the limits of visual storytelling and they succeeded. The three-man production team captured the art of content creators in a way I’ve never seen in a series before. Lukulele is smart, layered and downright entertaining. Blatch also does a great job of being likable, even though you can tell Luke is fairly cringey. He has good music taste too as Noah and the Whale’s song “5 Years Time” is a personal favorite of mine.

The episodes are from the point-of-view of someone watching Luke’s tutorials and they’re filled with an array of details a YouTuber or frequent YouTube consumers will appreciate. At times it felt like behind the scenes footage of Luke’s tutorials, as if I was his video editor adding graphics and clipping parts for the finished product. During Luke’s livestream there’s constant buffering and a lively chat that’s two parts cruel and one part desperate fans longing for his attention, elements that raise the believability of the show despite the shocking green clouds developing behind him. The humor is there from obvious gags like Luke’s regret for not wearing a belt when he’s trying to run to safety to hidden jokes peppered in the live chat and it never feels like they’re trying too hard to get a laugh. It just happens naturally.

There’s an underlying mystery brewing beneath the surface of the videos. In the three episodes I watched the mysterious stranger has yet to be fully revealed, but I imagine they’ll play a big role as the season progresses. They’ve dabbled with crystals and show plans of a molecule manipulator, hinting at things to come.

Lukulele is something fresh and new. The Animus Workshop combined elements from different genres to create a show that’s unlike any other out there right now and I’m interested to see more. Plus, the punny title alone makes it worth checking out.

WHERE CAN I WATCH? Episodes are available on YouTube.

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