If you aren’t trying to find your next gig, or pay your insurance, or get out from under the curse of a disgruntled client that involves a haunted demon doll with an endless supply of lollipops (and who hasn’t been there?), you know someone who is. Or at least that’s the way it is on Freelancers.
Yeah, life is a struggle for anyone making their own way in the world. Freelancers is a crowd-funded sitcom available on YouTube and VidAngel that takes that struggle and runs with it. While the actors probably aren’t familiar faces, we know these kinds of characters and situations all too well.
This safe-for-work comedy is about occasionally working freelancers (obviously) and friends who are trying to run their video production company called Video Production Company (obviously). Arizona “Zona” Goodwin (Whitney Call) is the producer, heart, and soul of the struggling enterprise. It’s her passion that often makes their projects more difficult than necessary. Her band of misfits include anxiety-ridden Micah (Stacey Harkey), blissfully unaware man-child Ryan (Matthew Meese), probably psychotic Devin (Mallory Everton), and preening Owen (Stephen Meek).
Something goes awry with every project VPC tackles. But these down-on-their-luck freelancers' desire for success is infectious like a bad cold, and we can’t help but catch it. If they can succeed, maybe we can too. In every episode there are shades of Scrubs, 30 Rock, and Friends. Unlike those shows, though, you can watch Freelancers with your kids and your mom. There’s no swearing. The characters aren’t sleeping together. The haunted demon doll isn’t that creepy once you get to know her and doesn’t overstay her welcome.
The writers’ goal is entertaining us by letting us feel as if we’re hanging out with our friends. Alright, maybe I don’t exactly want to hang out with the VPC crew, but I’ll watch them from a distance. A great distance. Running gags reward multiple viewings, and even if not every joke is to my taste (or tasteful), my friends and I would have endlessly quoted it at each other in college.
Asked if she’s really eating a salad with her hand, Devin sagely answers, “The hand is the fork of the arm.”
Shakespeare this is not. That said, nothing about Freelancers feels cheap. The production is network quality, making the short episodes easy to watch. With the second season wrapped, I’m curious to see how the show grows as it increases in popularity.
Whether we’re working for ourselves, a boss, or a laugh, we all have to work. Paul wrote to the Colossians, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not human masters” (Col. 3:23). When we approach every task as an act of worship, it should give it some significance and increase our joy at the opportunity. Paul adds in the next verse, “You know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord you are serving.”
Whatever we do, it’s not insignificant. (JK! Studios)
About the Author
Trevor Denning is an alumni of Cornerstone University and lives, lifts weights, and spends too much time in his kitchen in Alma, Mich. His first short story collection is St. George Drive and Other Stories.