**I thought I had scheduled this for yesterday, but I had put in the wrong date!**
Back in May I received an email from Melissa Malone asking me to review “Or So the Story Goes: Happy Thoughts”. Unfortunately, that is when my life started getting so super busy I couldn’t keep up with reviews on this site. Each year I get about 8 to 10 requests to review webseries, which I absolutely love to do. It’s definitely fun to get to preview series before they go onto the web, and I enjoy helping people out by sending my review out into the blogosphere. But, as this is a hobby of mine, I don’t often get to the reviewing processes right away.
Melissa’s email was intriguing. She wrote:
I’m the creator of Or So the Story Goes, a young adult webseries that puts a dark modern twist on classic children’s tales. This season we are bringing to the web a dark Peter Pan with Happy Thoughts. The total runtime, however is 70 minutes, giving us the opportunity to display Happy Thoughts as a feature film, as well. Our project began as an outreach program to teach the teens of our town, here the ins and outs of filmmaking and has blossomed into a project that uses the combined efforts of adults and teens alike to make it happen. Not only do we have many talented child & teen cast members, but also a 13 Year Old assistant director as well as three teen musicians included in our soundtrack.
How could I not be interested and hopeful that this was a webseries for which I could give a good review? What a wonderful project!
Summary of the Story via Or So the Story Goes :
After a rocky year, the Darling family moves cross-country for a fresh start. Little do they know their new home is already occupied by the ghosts of a charming yet homicidal teenage boy named Peter and his previous victims. Peter’s quick obsession with the oldest daughter Wendy puts the family at grave risk. This brings a band of ghost hunters to the Darling’s door, lead by a vengeful leader sought on ridding the ghost that destroyed her life. Time is ticking and it’s anyone’s game.
This story is quite a unique perspective on the Peter Pan tale. It is very dark and might be a bit of a trigger for some people. It does not get graphic, but it is does have scenes where children get hurt. However, I thought going to the dark side of the Peter Pan story was completely brilliant. It better explains why Peter does what he does and how he finds the Lost Boys. It makes so much sense that I’m not sure why I never really connected the dots before.
The story line is brilliant, but they definitely could have used some more money for a better production value. The lighting is not always the best, especially inside. Some of the music fits like a glove and works with the scene and some of it not so much. I did enjoy that there were a lot of different rooms/venues used for the flashback scenes and the main story arc. I thought that was quite impressive and better than a lot of webseries do. The acting of the main actors was quite good, some of the minor characters came across as acting, but for a webseries with a lot of kids, it was better than I expected.
The series has more than a couple of one liners that made me smile or chuckle. My favorite line from one of the ghost hunters is: Paranormal is so in.
You are so right Percy, you are so right.
Fans of fairy tale retellings, ghost hunter stories, and the Supernatural fandom would enjoy this webseries. Check out the first episode below.
Absurdly Nerdly 