Indie Web Series: ‘UnBothered’
When creating a true-to-life cinematic experience, making sure comedy and drama maintain equilibrium can be a challenge. UnBothered, a web series produced by Confused Style of Art Studios, not only meets this challenge but excels at it. This particular show has been adorned with many accolades, furthering the fact that the way in which UnBothered narratively operates is something special.
The show opens with Fey, an actress living in D.C. in the middle of an audition. Before she even begins to perform, the casting director immediately begins to make intrusive, racialized comments about her appearance to establish her “type.” As this conversation is happening, the audience hears Fey’s internal dialogue, and it becomes clear that this is not going to be your average web series about millennial living. Fey is not the only character in this series that is going to have to deal with specific occupational struggles. We later meet Fey’s boyfriend Jason, an aspiring journalist who spends his time working at a security company to make ends meet. Their first conversation is an argument, specifically about how Jason’s focus on paying the bills has gotten in the way of his desires.
This introduction to the series is unique because we are not meeting a couple on their first date, nor are we starting the show after a breakup. This show starts in the middle, with a couple who is really attempting to navigate the outside factors that impact their relationship. This is a bold choice that’s still impactful because it communicates how “problems at work” can place a wedge in a relationship just as effectively as any relationship issue we’re more used to seeing, like the appearance of an ex. This show directly lets the audience know that specific workplace issues are going to be dramatized with as equal a focus as the relationship issues, flipping the script in regard to how one impacts the other.
Additionally, the conversations the characters have with each other are very naturalistic. All of the conflicts that occur in the show happen between either couples or good friends, and it seems as if the narrative technique of dramatic irony is avoided by choice. Nobody is characterized as having a hidden agenda at any point. Instead, the cast consists of fully realized people who are dealing with their own ordeals. We get to see the ripple effect that unrelated confrontations have on current conversations, and that is a rare and difficult way to tell a story.
In this show, every serious conversation and confrontation feels like it is occurring under realistic circumstances, even when humorous and outlandish events happen in the series. The group of millennial friends depicted in UnBothered are charismatically navigating the different paths life is leading them on while also relying on each other as navigators and seeing that connectedness displayed in such a relatable fashion is an uncommon treat!
