I’ve been poking around Hulu.com during my funemployment time and came upon CTRL , an original web series. (It’s also on iTunes.) Now, I hate watching TV online and I hate webisodes, so I’m almost ashamed to admit that this one has me hooked.

The premise: Office drone Stuart (Tony Hale) discovers that his damaged keyboard can manipulate time and reality. This means that hitting “CTRL Z” on his keyboard will actually undo what just happened. “CTRL C” followed by “CTRL V” will actually copy and paste people. “F1” brings help, and so on, (when they run out of command shortcuts will the series be over? Will Stuart then hit “Shut Down”?).

The premise and execution are fine but what make this watchable are the cast and the shortcuts.  First, Tony Hale is best known from “Arrested Development” which means you can count on him to be funny. He doesn’t disappoint and he IS every forgettable office drone out there. I swear I sat next to this guy before.  Emy Coligado is one of those character actresses that you’ve seen everywhere but can’t quite remember where. (Was it “Chuck”? Men in Trees”? “Crossing Jordan”?).  She’s Elizabeth, the boss’s put-upon assistant and Stuart’s object of love.  Emy Coligado is usually very funny but seems a little underused here. I hope that changes in future episodes.  Steve Howey plays the boss, Ben, who is of course the boss from hell, but he’s very good at it. I love that he’s a babe instead of the typical suit in glasses type boss. You want to punch him in the face and then kiss him.

Now to the nerdy confession. I’m learning about keyboard shortcuts by watching this show.  (I’m also learning that Nestea makes iced tea in a bottle, but that’s not important right now.) But “CTRL B” will put my words in bold?  Hitting “F1” brings me help?  (I just tried it and it does.)  I’m hoping future episodes will educate me on the rest of the F keys, maybe the “Alt” key, and then teach me how to use Photo shop.

CTRL is one of Hulu’s top performers and the most downloaded webisode on iTunes.  It’s also clearly sponsored by Nestea, since Stuart almost always has a bottle of the stuff sitting on his desk. (A bottle that actually moves with the camera thus ensuring that the label is always facing the audience.)  But the obvious product placement doesn’t bother me, and hopefully network television can get a clue from webisodes like this.  Not just with regards to product placement, but also with writing and casting.  CTRL is a well told story that is well acted. And if it takes some product placement to fund it, that’s fine by me.

Watch it here.

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