All three of the picks for this month’s VOD and web series round-up spotlight a loaded subject: mental health. Long considered taboo, mental health has finally started to be talked about more openly in recent years. The tide is slowly shifting away from stigma, and towards more candid discussion.
Women have historically been taught to hide their struggles, but are now increasingly being offered a platform to represent mental health issues on screen in realistic and inventive ways. Two Netflix series stand out. While “Jessica Jones” portrays the lasting effects of a superhero’s PTSD, “Lady Dynamite” shows stand-up comic and actress Maria Bamford drawing on her own experiences with bipolar disorder.
In a similar fashion, this month’s selections all approach mental health from a unique voice, proving we have only scratched the surface when it comes to telling these kinds of stories.
Web series “Ghost BFF” and feature film “The Broken Ones” address depression and grief in two very different ways, while “Avant-Guardians” allows us to drop in on some one-of-a-kind therapy sessions.
Here are our web series and VOD selections for the month of July.
Web Series
“Ghost BFF” – Created and Directed by Vanessa Matsui; Written by Vanessa Matsui and Katie Bird Nolan
Tara (Tiio Horn) and Amy (Vanessa Matsui) were the best of friends until a depressed Tara took her own life, leaving Amy reeling. Fast-forward three years later, and Amy has tried to move on and build a new life for herself. But it becomes much harder to let go when Amy starts seeing the ghost of her dead friend everywhere she goes. To make matters even more complicated, Tara isn’t the silent haunting type; she loudly interjects her opinions on everything Amy is doing these days.
As the series progresses, viewers learn more about how Tara’s death impacted Amy and changed the trajectory of her life. Despite some heated moments of conflict, the love between the BFFs is clear. The easy and playful dynamic between the two make the fraught moments all the more heart-wrenching, but the lovable characters and humorous moments threaded throughout ensure things don’t get too dark. “Ghost BFF” engages with important questions about how we treat those experiencing mental illness.
Creator Matsui took particular care to ensure the subject matter was handled with sensitivity. “We definitely felt like we were walking a fine line [with the content],” she said in an interview. “Obviously, I wanted to be respectful and sensitive to anyone who has suffered from depression or is suffering from depression. But, at the same time, my instinct was always to make this a comedy. Comedy can be cathartic. Sometimes through pain comedy emerges,” she observed.
The level of thought and care given to the subject matter of the series should be celebrated itself. Each episode ends with a minisode called “Let’s Talk About Our Feels,” during which a member of the creative team discusses real life mental health challenges, and offers tips and strategies to manage stress and anxiety.
You can watch “Ghost BFF” on the WhoHaha website as well as on YouTube.
“Avant-Guardians” – Created by Alesia Etinoff
Stand-up comedian Alesia Etinoff shows off her creative streak with “Avant-Guardians.” The series explores a fascinating hypothetical: what if Guardian Angels were real, and what if they went to therapy? Over seven episodes we follow counseling sessions between therapist and ArchAngel Dr. Hanniel (Zainab Johnson), and her client Razz (Alesia Etinoff), a fledgling Guardian Angel. To further complicate matters, Razz has the daunting task of looking after a 12-year-old named Charles, who is to become the third African-American President of the United States.
Each session gives viewers a peek into a conversation held in a nicely decorated office, much like that of an actual counseling center. But instead of a bespectacled therapist taking notes on a reluctant patient, we’re met with two ethereal beings in trendy fashion chatting about their problems. Despite the highly imaginative concept, each episode addresses themes that are very much grounded in reality. “I wanted to comment on the state of society – the racist, sexist, trans/homophobic trauma in everyday life, but from a perspective that was seemingly removed, yet invested,” Etinoff has said.
With discussions of social justice issues, “Avant-Guardians” aims to educate just as much as it entertains. In one instance after Razz begins to complain, the web series breaks the fourth wall and Dr. Hanniel talks directly to the audience saying, “Slavery cannot be compared nor used for comparison. Not on Earth. And not in Heaven.” With this kind of imagination and purpose, Etinoff shows that she’s one to watch.
You can watch all seven episodes of “Avant-Guardians” on YouTube.
VOD
“The Broken Ones” – Directed by Elyse Niblett-Russell; Written by Cece King
Based on screenwriter Cece King’s own experiences, “The Broken Ones” is an intensely personal story about a woman who lost her father on 9/11, and has been trying to cope ever since. The film follows Andrea (King) a young artist whose struggles with substance abuse have landed her in a sober living home in New Jersey. As the 10-year memorial of her father’s death approaches, Andrea embarks on a journey to New York. Along the way, she meets Joe (James Russo) who is facing a few demons of his own. Together this unlikely pair go on a night-long adventure that reveals painful and intimate details about their past, but ultimately brings them closer to healing, and to each other.
When Andrea meets Joe, it’s lying down and on a set of train tracks. Not the meet-cute one would expect. Nevertheless, the scene is just as charming as it is emotionally-charged. What really makes the scene resonate are the fiery words exchanged between the pair as the train rapidly approaches.
“The Broken Ones” explores the vulnerability of dealing with grief and depression in front of and with others, and speaks to the incredible shift that can come with such a daring act.
The film marks the directorial debut of Elyse Niblett-Russell. “It was very important to me to have a female director on this project,” King said in an interview. “I feel that it’s important to employ represented groups, especially women. Also this is a female-driven project and I think that it’s a very unique point of view, and I knew that a woman would be able to bring that to life,” she continued.
“The Broken Ones” is available to purchase or rent on iTunes, Google Play, and YouTube.
