Striker and Swat Slack Off, Fauxmentary Style

When it comes to comedy webseries, I’m starting to worry about the fake documentary (fauxumentary, perhaps?) format. Specifically, I’m starting to worry that between established entities like Dorm Life and newer shows like Bumps in the Night, it might be getting overplayed.

It’s little wonder that creators keep coming back to it, of course. Being able to cut between interviews and reenactments adds an extra layer of complexity to the narrative, gives each character individual moments to shine, streamlines exposition, and often leads to easy cutaway jokes. But do we really need one more?

As long as they’re as funny as Striker & Swat, the answer is yes. A mostly improvised look at one Los Angeles apartment complex and its strange denizens, this series focuses on two slackers (James Bonadio and Steve Berg) with very different temperaments but occasionally the same goals.

In the first episode, Striker and Swat attempt to figure out who left their dryer lint in the little dryer tray, going door to door in order to find the culprit. (High-stakes drama, right here.) The set-up is an easy one for establishing other residents, such as their uptight apartment manager, a former dance star, and a couple with weird boundary issues, all of whom have their own issues beyond being pestered by a stoner and a gun nut.

But the over-the-top nature of the characters is grounded by the improvised asides and mutterings; it’s unclear how much is scripted but each performer is at the top of his or her game in terms of reacting and character building. And Bonadio and Berg, as the protagonists, are just the right combination of weird and funny. If the camera’s framing of their on-the-couch discussions isn’t a deliberate nod to the the Diggnation guys, no matter — it still works.

This is a different direction for independent creators the AV Club from their last web series, the more experimental Psycho Bob, and it’s difficult at this moment to know exactly where the show is headed. On a technical level, the show is solid, and the on-camera talent’s comedic timing is well-honed. But without a larger aim to the narrative, Striker and Swat could flounder, especially if it relies too heavily on the fauxmentary style. Because no matter how good a joke is, if you hear it over and over again, at a certain point it stops being funny.