Invisible Friend: Too Good to Overlook

Every once in a while, someone comes up with a premise for a web series that is so simple yet so demented that you can’t believe no one ever thought of it before — or that someone actually did.  Such a premise is at the heart of Invisible Friend.  Seemingly nice guy Gabe (Jeff Cannata of Revision 3’s awesome geekfest The Totally Rad Show) wakes up after a night of drunken post-party sex with longtime friend Allison.  Only Allison is dead, and despite remembering nothing of how she got that way, Gabe’s pretty sure he killed her.  He calls his buddy Dan (Attack of the Show YouTube Person of the Moment Ryan O’Quinn), who — though horrified — agrees to help hide the body.  Things go awry, of course, and madcap hijinks ensue. 

Except, Allison, the corpse in question, is…invisible.  As in not visible.  Undetectable to the naked eye.  Played, in the series, by a vast swath of air. 

Now, Allison’s friends can see her, as evidenced by the fact that they can tell when she’s dead just by looking at her.  And yet, they do know that she’s invisible.  (The description given to the police by one friend when Allison goes missing, “She’s got long invisible hair, flawless invisible skin….”)  It’s strange.  It makes no sense.  It should not, could not, possibly work.  And yet…it’s just unbefreakinglievably delightful.  Seriously.  Go figure. 

Invisible Friend runs on the Independent Comedy Network and is the brainchild of LA-based comedy group Very Angry Neighbors.  VAN has been making a name for themselves for a while now, with breakout vids like Father’s Day of the Future for Celebrities, Jeremy, and Time is Up.  Like their previous efforts, Invisible Friend features top-notch writing and acting (VAN regulars Danielle Weeks and Amy Jo Steele complete the cast and shine as Patricia and Sam).  But what’s also outstanding here is the post-production work.  Between the subtle use of green screen that really convinces me I’m looking at a dead body I can’t actually see, the great oops-I-dropped-that-invisible-corpse sound effects, and the pitch-perfect score, there is a quality level to this viewing experience that you don’t often get in online video.

So far, my favorite exchanges are in Episode 1 (“You should have never become invisible more-than-friends.”  “It was a one-time thing –”  “Apparently!”)  and Episode 4 (Sam to the police sketch artist: “Her hair doesn’t look like that.”  Police sketch artist: “Her invisible hair?”)  Oh, Police Sketch Artist.  You only had one line.  But I may love you most of all.

According to an interview with Ryan O’Quinn, only five episodes have been shot thus far, and as of this week, four have been released.  Here’s hoping there’s more to come.  It’s easy to see (yuk yuk yuk) that this one’s worth more than a second look.  (Thank you!  I’ll be here all week!)