Good Web series are overlooked

I SOMETIMES question whether The Times has its finger on the pulse of the entertainment business -- especially the real underground stuff that might escape the folks not looking to be part of the status quo.

That’s why I was totally surprised and disappointed with last Sunday’s Web Scout column [“Hollywood Rolls Out Its Fall Slate of Web Series,” by Maria Russo and David Sarno].

I guess they don’t really pay attention to Web series aside from YouTube or MySpace or what they hear from their middle-aged friends.

Though “Gemini Divison” sounds worth checking out, the real winners among young people are well-made and original webisodes of “Quarterlife” at quarterlife.com or my current favorite, “The Strippersons” at thestrippersons.com, and Chelsea Handler’s “In the Motherhood”at metacafe.com.

Slick productions from studios such as the WB, Sony, etc., may be backed with a lot of cash, big names and professional quality. Really all that does is give more of the same unoriginal, safe programming they give us on TV with old out-of-work actors (Ileana Douglas? C’mon!) we are sick of. Exactly what the new-media-watching public is trying to avoid. Duh!

Nicholas Fleming

North Hollywood