It’s time for Cypher Avenue Pop Culture Expert, Nick Delmacy, to review and recap the latest episode of a popular web series or television show. For those not familiar, Nick satirically recapped a bunch of Gay Black Web Series like Steel River, Finding Me, In the Deep, No Shade, Street Behavior, Mommaz Boi and Freefall with hilarious results. Now its time for Nick to once again shamefully demonstrate that its much easier to criticize than to produce the work yourself.
If there are any other popular web series or television shows that you want to see Cypher Avenue review and recap, please let us know at Contact@CypherAvenue.com or hit us up on Twitter and Facebook.
Guess who’s back! Hahaha! I really know how to start with a bang, huh? The Freefall team hated my “weak ass satire.” Hahahaha! Oh well, I can take it as well as I dish it. Time for more weak ass satire fo’ dat ass.
So what’s next? The readers have spoken and I shall review and recap the newest episode of Sean Anthony’s No Shade. I can see it already. Many of our more manly readers are Googling this web series to find out why in the hell we’re talking about it on Cypher Avenue. We primarily speak from a guys-guy gay perspective on this website (which adds to the whole diversity of the community) so this series being featured on the site may seem odd.
Unfrown ya stink faces, my dudes. True, No Shade features some flamboyant effeminate men, transgender women and more than a few black gay stereotypes…but its pretty damn good. I couldn’t even deny that when I first reviewed the show. This is one of the two best black gay web series ever made (the other being Drama Queenz). Its not perfect and it’s not for everyone, but as a scripted narrative comedic series, its a great watch.
This is why I smirk at people that call me a hater. Check the nearly 200 articles I’ve written on this website: I always freely admit when I think something is good…even if it goes against people’s taste expectations for this site.
I actually laughed while watching the first 7 episodes of this show…but unlike other black gay web series, I laughed at scenes the filmmaker intended to be funny. On top of that, the writing is well executed, the High Definition visuals are crispy and colorful and the acting is pretty believable for these characters.
No Shade strips out all the fat and just gives you the meat. The show is fast, funny and keeps it moving.
The most impressive thing about No Shade is that writer Sean Anthony seems to really understand the fundamentals of story, especially in an ensemble series like this one. Each episode begins with a character (or characters) with a problem. By the end of that episode the problem is solved, or at the least, satisfactory closure is met even if the overall situation is still open-ended. This is screenwriting 101. Watch any television series on cable or network and you will see the same formula. Hell, read any decent short story or novel and you’ll see it.
Sean Anthony doesn’t waste any time getting right to story and telling it.
Having said that, I guess I was bound to be disappointed eventually. What do I mean? Let’s get to recapping to find out.
Let’s watch the eighth episode of No Shade! (Catch up on the first 7 episodes HERE)
If my issues with the episode weren’t apparent, hit the next page for my recap!
I gotta agree. I was enjoying the whole web series until episode 8. I’ve seen the episode and I wondered why so many minutes went unaccounted for. I was like… hmmmm so okay this girl is walkin… walkin… and walkin…. I just didn’t get it.
I hope that more story is included in episode 9 with LESS walking.. lol.
The “Meh” episode..lol
Well, I’m completely caught up on all the No Shade episodes and I just fucking love it. I love the religious mother whose face we never see. Her ode to Mr. Grinch stealing her son’s paintings was just priceless.
Love the characters and love to hate Noel, a moody snob with no money playing hard to get. Although, I loved Noel using the bible against the preacher in self defense.
Love the jokes, the people can act, the camera work and sound isn’t distracting. I’m in. I’m a fan.
This episode was clearly supposed to be different from every other episode with no comedy and was to be centered around Danielle. I wanted play with it artistically and try something I never did before. It really wasn’t executed the way I wrote it lol. There were so many chain of events that was supposed to be filmed which lead up to Danielle meeting Winston. It didn’t happen due to schedule conflicts so I just chopped it in half and put some music on it… Its not my favorite either but it could of been worse.
I took one look at drama queens and never looked back. This is a light version of that series. The problem I have with this series (like Christopher Street) is empasis on color. I know it exist, but I think it went over board with it. But one thing I like about this series is it did not have the audio and video issues like street behavior. But Street Behavior is a better Web series overall. The scenes are much more developed. I mentioned SB because the lead actor was on there. Also stereo-typical gay does not go well for me. The gay community is much more diverse. They aren’t a Steel River, but more gays are represented there. Judys is similar, but it is better, because of the one masculine gay on that show.
I want to add that Christopher Street was more diverse. I didn’t see an ounce of feminine in their youngest actor Ashton.