He may pwn the n00bs, but won't own boob tube

Like, really, who would want to watch Pure Pwnage? And why?

This new Canadian-made comedy (the title is pronounced "pure own-age"), which premieres Friday at midnight on Showcase, is the TV-series spinoff of the successful like-titled web series found online at www.purepwnage.com. It concerns itself with a guy named Jeremy (played by Jarett Cale, who's also a writer on the series), a 26-year-old obsessive gamer whose sole goal in life is to play and win as many video games as possible.

The web series has been a hit online for four years, attracting more than 200,000 unique visitors a month. Clearly, the folks at Showcase are hoping to attract similarly impressive numbers to Pure Pwnage's specialty-cable premiere, and have implemented an aggressive, multi-platform marketing push (that includes online components and a tie-in to Xbox LIVE gaming) to maximize the series' initial impact.

As the series opens, Jeremy has no job, no money and no future prospects beyond seeing how many "n00bs" (a gamer-speak derogatory term for non-gamers or gamers with limited skills) he can "pwn" (own). His brother, Kyle (co-star/writer Geoff Lapaire), an aspiring filmmaker, has decided to document Jeremy's gaming exploits in the faint hope that they might make for an interesting film.

But the boys' mother is pretty much out of patience when it comes to Jeremy's do-nothing life (a characterization Jeremy, a.k.a. "teh pwnerer," would dispute), and tells her slacker son he's got to get a job or get out of her basement.

This is no easy feat, since spending the last two decades in that basement, in front of either a computer terminal or a games-equipped TV screen, has left Jeremy with none of the social skills required to exist in the outside world.

With virtual-world wingman Doug (Joel Gardiner) at his side, Jeremy heads to a local gaming centre in a last-ditch effort to retain his place atop an interactive game's status ladder (he can't do it at home, since Mom has cancelled the Internet account).

But with a new manager in charge, Jeremy learns that being "teh_pwnerer" is no longer an instant ticket to free gaming. Suddenly, for the first time ever, he's faced with having to come up with a plan that's useful in the real world.

There are moments of levity in the couple of episodes of Pure Pwnage provided for preview, but they're few and far between. Mostly, the show's writers seem content to rely on the geeky charm and detached-outsider attitude of its central characters to create whatever comedy momentum can be achieved.

And it's not enough. While there's no doubt that it's possible for "a TV show about someone who's wasting their life" to succeed -- Showcase's biggest-ever hit, Trailer Park Boys, springs to mind -- there has to be something endearing and/or redeeming about its characters that makes viewers want to follow along.

Ricky, Julian and Bubbles were infectious and, despite (or because of) their profane craziness, somehow likable. Jeremy and Doug are, sadly, not; their shared lack of interpersonal skills makes it as hard for viewers to connect with them as it is for the other characters in the show.

And even the use of the now-familiar faux-documentary conceit, employed to such rich effect in TPB, feels a bit forced in Pure Pwnage's format.

It isn't particularly surprising that this comedy concept found a big following in the online world; that is, after all, the realm in which many would-be "pwners" comfortably reside. But it'll also be no shock at all if its ungainly leap onto the mainstream airwaves fails to connect with the larger "n00b" population.

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca

TVPreview

Pure Pwnage

. Starring Jarett Cale, Geoff Lapaire,

Joel Gardiner and Melanie Scrofano

. Friday at midnight

. Showcase

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition March 11, 2010 D5