Top 10 Web Series on YouTube - TopX Ep.30

#10: “Mortal Kombat: Legacy” (2011-2012)

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- Movie adaptations of video games are notoriously bad, and when you couple that fact with the limited budget of a webseries, you can see why many would be skeptical of Legacy – which is why this turned out to be such a surprisingly awesome Flawless Victory. - Seeking finance for a feature film, creator Kevin Tancharoen (Tan-cha-ro-in) first intended this to be a pitch to Warner Bros. While they didn’t bite, it did garner enough fans enthusiasm to warrant a fully fleshed out web series and eventual a Blu-ray release. - Produced by Machinima, the series is surprisingly well put together. The first season is a prequel to the original game, explaining the backstories of all the characters and why they are in the tournament – whereas the second season, deals with the tournament itself. Pretty shweet… - Furthermore, as of early 2015, rumors have been swirling that a season 3 is in fact in the works.

#9: “The Haunting of Sunshine Girl” (2010-)

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- While it is somewhat rare, some styles of movies are actually better suited for a web series, as is the case with our next entry, the Haunting of Sunshine Girl. - The series follows the story of Sunshine Girl, who documents the strange paranormal activity, which she experiences in her new home and her adventures thereafter in later seasons. Clearly inspired by the Paranormal Activity movies, the show uses a web-log/documentary/found footage sort of style to give it its sense of authenticity. The idea, at least initially, is that you’re just following a very unfortunate girl’s YouTube channel. - The series was popular enough to garner 10 seasons, a kick starter campaign for a feature film, and even a potential Television show that was announced in 2015….stay tuned.

- Kids. They make no sense! They get away with things that adults never would. That’s basically the premise of our #8 entry, Convos With My 2-Year Old. - Created by Matthew Clarke this web series re-enacts the interactions (conversations) that Clarke has with his 2 year old daughter Coco. The catch being that Coco is portrayed by a fully-grown man. The idea here is that “kids say the darnedest things” and hearing them come from an adult makes you realize just how ridiculous they are while also emphasizing the sweet innocence of their youth. - What’s great about the delivery here, is that David Michard, who plays Coco, doesn’t talk like a two year old – so he often just comes off as an extremely unreasonable person…often in a tutu. Of course, there are flashes of Coco herself, which contextualizes the whole thing and serves to remind you of what’s really going on.

#7: “Jake and Amir” (2007-15)

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- What started as a humble sketch with College Humor writers Jake and Amir playing exaggerated versions of themselves has evolved into a beloved long running web series – and our #7 pick. - Essentially a classic funny-guy/straight-guy setup, each episode has the two guys bantering back and forth at lightening pace. What’s kinda funny is that in some episodes Jake takes the role of the straight, serious guy, and in other’s its Amir. Either way, the results are equally hilarious. - Like a number of other shows we’ll see today, there’s now a push from the fan base to get this made into a full on TV show. #Greenlightjakeandamir.

- Our #6 entry, the Anime inspired RWBY, pronounced RUBY is produced by Rooster Teeth. - As far as high concept goes, it doesn’t get much higher than this. The series takes place in the world of Remnant as four girls, all with incredible abilities, fight against shadowy monsters known as the creatures of Grimm. In case you hadn’t guessed, much of the inspiration is drawn from the fairy tales of the brother Grimm. - The series is renowned for both its impressive visuals and unique storytelling. Also, fans of the Halo games should recognize the Mysterious Narrator’s voice to be that of Jen Taylor, who also voiced Cortana.

#5: “Video Games High School” (2012-14)

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- Hogwarts shmogwarts, this is where you wanna send your applications. At #5 on our list is Video Games High school. - Created by YouTube sensation Freddie Wong, VGHS tells the story of Brian who gets accepted to a crazy elite school of video gaming in the not too distant future. Aside from the crazy cameos and overload of pop culture references, this show features thrilling action sequences – as any “gameplay” is reenacted with actors instead of CGI footage - making for a interesting mix of action movie and video game tropes. - This is a pretty high profile entry. As I mentioned earlier, there are big name cameos, but also really cool effects, lots of extras to flesh out the scenes, and some pretty good acting throughout. Obviously it’s gained the right kind of attention, cuz you can now catch Video Game High School on Netflix as well.

#4: “H+: The Digital Series” (2011-2013)

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- Now we’re getting into the really high quality stuff. At #4 is a show you’d never guess was made for the web, Bryan Singer’s H+. Yeah, that’s right, THAT Bryan Singer. - H+ tells the story of a not-too-distant future where a 3rd of the world’s population has a computer implanted in their bodies, which allows them to connect to the Internet 24/7. Of course this is all fine and dandy until a virus starts affecting those with the implant, and the story jumps backwards and forwards in time to tell the tale from different viewpoints and perspectives. - Really, this is almost not fair to include this on a list of more humble shows. Along with its ultra professional production value, the show features well known actors and beautiful cinematography – really indistinguishable from something you’d see on AMC or Showtime.

- Jumping from the cutting edge of web series content back to one of the earliest entries in the genre, at #3 we have Homestar Runner, home of the infamous Strongbad and Trogdor the Dragon. - Now, to know about HomeStar Runner is essentially to know a bit about the history of the Internet. Homestar essentially started as a series of flash games designed by brothers Mike and Matt Chapman, ostensibly because they were displeased with modern children’s books. Soon their most popular character, Strongbad, took center stage in animated shorts where he would read emails from fans, and the show garnered a Cult following that steadily grew …until 2009 when the brothers took a break to move onto new things. - But now, it’s 2014 and the brothers Chapman are back. Like I said, to know this content is to know the history of Internet humor, so it’s worth checking out purely for that.

#2: “The Guild” (2007-13)

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- Next up is the show that made Felicia Day into one of the first big web celebrities, the ultra popular web series “The Guild”. - K, so little backstory. In a massively Multiplayer game, or MMO, a guild is a group of players you associate and play the game with – sort of like a team. Okay, so in the Guild, Felicia plays a member of a guild who is trying to step away from her in game commitments and lead a normal life – which becomes complicated when one of her guild members shows up on her real life doorstep. The series follows her and the various guild members as they juggle their lives in and out of the Game, with the two often coming into conflict. - This was one of the first series to really focus on videogames and their impacts on daily life. I’ll leave it up to you to guess which game this was based off, but I’ll give you a hint – it’s the one you’re thinking of. Before we get to our to spot, here are a few honorable mentions. HM1: “Awkward Black Girl” (2011-2013) HM2: “The Katering Show” (2015-) HM3: “LARPs” (2015-) HM4: “Next Time on Lonny” (2011-) HM5: “Chad Vader” (2006-2012)

#1: “Red VS. Blue” (2003-)

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- Either you knew this was gonna be number one, or you’re complete baffled about what the kids are watching these days. Our number 1 pick is a web series that predates YouTube itself, Red Vs. Blue. - Animated in the various Halo engines, Red vs. Blue follows the lives of several self aware Halo Spartans stuck in a multiplayer game. Funnily enough, the bulk of the shows content is revolves around dialogue and character interaction, and not the sort of action you’d really expect from the legendary FPS series. - Initially intended to be just a 6 episode miniseries - Red vs. Blue exploded into popularity and eventually gained support from Microsoft itself. It’s now the second longest running web series, behind Homestar runner, and is technically the longest running episodic series on the web with a current total of over 230 episodes and counting. Fragging impressive. With countless amazing series out there, there’s a chance we missed one of your favorites. So, be sure to sound off in the comments to let us know what you think we may have missed. As always, be sure to check us out on twitter, instagram and facebook, and for more top 10s published every day, be sure to subscribe to watchmojo.com