“Serial” is a new podcast spinoff from “This American Life” that will tell the story of a Baltimore high school student’s 1999 murder over a season of episodes. Credit: Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass
This week's Digital Savant column, available in Tuesday's print edition and on MyStatesman.com, is a roundup of some of the best stuff I've found online that you can't find anywhere else. By anywhere else, I mean in stores or elsewhere in any physical form.
That means streaming TV shows like “Transparent” and “BoJack Horseman” that are not yet available on DVD or on cable and broadcast TV, podcasts such as Chicago Public Media’s new “This Ameican Life” spinoff “Serial,” a highly compelling show that unravels one true-crime drama over an entire season of episodes, Thom Yorke’s new BitTorrent-only album (which is also in a pricey vinyl version, but not on CD), and “The Private Eye,” an online-only comic written by Brian K. Vaughan.
Jeffrey Tambor stars as a transgender woman named Maura in “Transparent,” the latest original series from Amazon. The first episode of the first season’s 10 is available for free while the rest are streaming only to Amazon Prime customers. Credit: Amazon
Here’s an excerpt:
My favorite new series online is"Transparent," a rich and satisfying family comedy/drama from former "Six Feet Under" writer Jill Soloway. It stars Jeffrey Tambor ("Arrested Development") as the patriarch of an emotionally scattered Los Angeles family who reveals to his three children that he is transgender.
It's delicate and daring, with a great performance from Tambor as Maura and an easily digestible running time of 30 minutes per episode for its 10-episode first season. The first episode is available for free on Amazon.com, and the rest of the season is available only to Amazon Prime customers. How good is the series? It finally made me break down and pay $99 for the Prime service. "Transparent" has already been renewed for a second season.
If you miss "Seinfeld," the next best thing available now is Jerry Seinfeld's very funny and free "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" on Crackle. It's a loose conversation and short road trip. In its most recent seasons, it has featured Tina Fey, Jon Stewart, Howard Stern and Aziz Ansari in episodes that run about 15-20 minutes.
Clearly, I was a fool to think I could fit all the great stuff on the Internet into one print column, but I did my best to pick some great stuff that maybe you haven’t already seen or heard about. Feel free to add more suggestions in the comments.
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