Written and directed by lead actor Bill Sorice, during Ev’s (Monisha Shiva) endless job search, Freddie winds up in awkward social situations, where he can’t seem to bite his tongue.
In recent years there’s been a massive uptake in series exploring the modern existence for young people but it’s not often you see it explored through the eyes of those in their late thirties and forties, who might not be so on board for the current trends. A good way to describe Bill Sorice’s Freddie, he’s of a generation that simply speaks their mind and doesn’t bend out of a need to be politically correct or overtly polite.
That’s not to say he suddenly becomes the boomer stereotype, he’s interestingly somewhere in-between, he’s old-school but as time goes on you can see the empathy and awareness under the frankness. Sorice’s performance does a good job of capturing that balance, he’s confident and unfiltered but he never goes so far as to feel arrogant or uncaring.
The writing follows a similar balance, it’s got a fairly old-school, noughties romcom type of energy to it. It’s a touch old fashioned but it’s funny, the humour doesn’t try to hard, there’s no constant one liners and it’s nicely consistent throughout. Each different scene the characters find themselves is has something to add and a different area of society to comment on.
There are a couple of stereotypical notes hit along the way but they’re not frequent enough to take away from the comedy. It also has a good dose of awkwardness to it, enough to add a touch of reality but not enough to wade too far into cringe territory.
Visually, it’s playing things very simple, the style does work but it’s not unlike Freddie, unfiltered and rough around the edges. There’s a lot of handheld and not a great use of the space, going for a lot of closer shots. It’s basically the typical style that you’ll find of a lot of web series content.
There also isn’t a tonne of space to give Monisha Shiva’s Ev a more developed personality. You can get to know her slightly but most of the conversation is taken over by Freddie as the singular lead, rather than them as a team.
Dyed in the Wool takes aim at modern pretention and explores growing older in a rapidly changing society. It’s funny and the writing doesn’t fall into too many of the classic traps when poking fun of being politically correct. It’s nicely awkward but has enough of a natural side to not take on that synthetic sitcom edge. The visual quality needed to step up its game slightly to elevate the comedy but it still works on its own.
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