The Second-Worst Episode of Love|Hate Ever
Ever since Gutenberg brought the pain to monks, scribes, and the dudes who pimped out their drop caps, the written word has been the way society operates. And certain things follow from that: we know how to spell, we know letters usually need salutations, we know about semicolons and chapters and the inverted pyramid and whether it’s possible to read 200 pages in an afternoon. We are, in other words, literate.
Now, we’re not nearly saying that viral video is on par with the printing press. But being able to create a short movie is inarguably becoming a crucial skill, in a time when one dude can create this — 2.7 million views and counting.
Philip de Vellis, the “Vote Different” guy, is clearly the new kind of literate. And at Harvard, the people who make “Love|Hate” just as clearly are not. In January we wrote about their execrable pilot; only one commenter made it past the 2:34 mark. Here’s their second effort, and while it’s better — on account of being 12 minutes shorter — it still just fundamentally makes our life hurt, to borrow a commenter’s phrase. We’re not even talking about production values necessarily, although the echoes do bring to mind the San Fernando Valley’s finest. It’s that “Love|Hate” is not compelling, original or necessary in any way, and we say that as people who would absolutely buy Ball In A Cup if that commercial ever actually aired.
