Is Pure Pwnage Losing It's Charm?

If you want a crash course internet viral phenomenons, gaming culture, and/or Canadian humor, you definitely need to head over to Pure Pwnage and get it all in one massive dose! I've been hooked on this show for about 3 years now, and I anxiously await each episode's release along with what has grown to be over 3 million viewers since 2004.However, if you aren't one of the horde of rabid, immature, lunatic gamers in the world who frequents LAN parties and online forums and knows leetspeak and internet slang, then you'll probably think it's just pretty dumb. Don't say I didn't warn you, and I'm telling you now that if you are easily offended or have issues with strong language, then you'll probably have a conniption.

So, the premise of Pure Pwnage is that it is a documentary about a "pro gamer" named Jeremy. No, Jeremy isn't a pro gamer in the sense of someone like Fatal1ty, he's just a mega-nerd with no social skills that does nothing but plays, talks, lives, sleeps gaming. The show is shot from the point of view of Jeremy's brother as the cameraman, and it generally centers around Jeremy's interactions with other characters such as his friend "FPS Doug" and his girlfriend Anastasia (a WOW addict). The show incorporates all kinds of stuff from original music to machinima and you just never know what they are going to do. I guess it's kind of like Jackass without midgets and nudity (although maybe that will change one day?). There's more info on Wikipedia, but really the charm of the show is unexplainable. I guess you just have to watch it.

For me, the early episodes of the show were absolutely priceless. They were shot and written in such a way that it really looked like a documentary and the storyline and characters were all centered around gaming culture. In fact, the second episode "Girls" had actual interviews with girls which were not staged, asking them questions like "Do you know what a noob is?", etc. Hilarious. It was a great hook for gamers and very easy to relate to, keeping to content that concentrated on gaming and the culture.

I felt like the series started to take a route that I didn't want it to, though, when later on they started incorporating some "fantastical" elements, like gaming super-powers and secret organizations, essentially forming a slightly tweaked-out-of-reality, fictional universe. I saw some interviews with the creators of the show discussing that their reason for doing this was that they wanted to try some different things and keep the series interesting. I can understand that concern, but I didn't think it worked. Instead, it made it harder to relate to, and centered the series more on the characters rather than gaming culture. I don't think it's bad, I just think it lost some of its charm. The real kicker was that at the end of the first season when this fantastical world storyarc was at its height, the cameraman/brother Kyle's face is revealed (he was never seen, always behind the camera up till then) and all of the actors' names are then listed in the credits. This was a huge departure from the norm of the show and illustrated how the series was certainly in a state of evolution. You have to understand that I still was holding onto the vaguest possibility that Jeremy actually was legit - that's how well his part was played. That all changed, and since then the show has taken on a more "commercial" feel, with the actors/creators being interviewed publicly and interacting out of character with their fan base, none of which had been done before. Inevitable? I guess so and I guess I can't blame them, but it just isn't the same.

So, here we are with the 16th episode just released a few days ago and I am very thankful that there wasn't another 45 minute long rap video like in the last episode, although T-Bag made his appearance apparently as a regular now (I'm not a fan and I don't see the point of his existence). In general, I give this one a solid "Meh". I thought the Guitar Hero stuff was pretty funny, but there was nothing in this that was memorable. They haven't yet revisited what was I thought their big storyline around the cliffhanger ending at the end of the first season, and I have to think at this point they don't mean to. It's hard for me to understand where they're going with the show now, honestly. I'll still watch, and I'm entertained, but I know that if they put out this kind of stuff at the beginning, they would never have gotten off the ground.

Get back to your roots guys. You don't need to try to find what works, you had it from Day 1.