By now we’ve seen that the world hasn’t ended; yet everyday "worlds" end as people fall out of love and relationships crumble. Eastsiders - a new web-series - explores the personal apocalypse surrounding the aftermath of infidelity. Cal (Kit Williamson) discovers Thom (Van Hansis) has cheated on him with Jeremy (Matthew McKelligon) and the couple must question the state of their relationship.
Writer / Director / Actor, Kit Williamson, was lucky getting two "names" for his series. He has been long time friends with Steven Guarino and Kit met Van Hansis through a mutual acting coach. Van Hansis has appeared on several TV shows, but is currently best known as gay character Luke Snyder in the long-running CBS soap opera As the World Turns.
I asked Kit, given the subject matter of Eastsiders, whether fidelity in gay couples was something to embrace or whether being faithful to your other half was more of a traditional holdover from heterosexual couples. "I don’t believe that gay couples should be forced to subscribe to any one particular viewpoint. I think each couple should have the freedom to define their relationship by their own terms," he said. He personally has only been in monogamous relationships but, his attitude is that he’s all for whatever works for two people in love...as long as they are honest in the relationship. "I don’t think you can have a good relationship without having honesty and transparency and trust between two people."
As well, the series highlights how people in their 20s and 30s tend to be more prone to making messes out of their lives. As to whether this was inspired by Kit’s friends, he admitted it may have provided some ideas. "I think that’s just a natural part of your 20s. It’s all trial and error; and we make a lot of errors in our life experiments. It’s very easy to self-sabotage." This is evidenced in the first episode – Cal and Thom have an opportunity to start fresh, but instead Thom creates a new lie. Meanwhile, Cal’s best friend Cathy (Constance Wu) is almost self-destructively obsessing about her relationship with her new boyfriend.
Yet there’s something to love and hate about each one of the characters. "There’s not a clear-cut protagonist or antagonist to the series. I don’t want there to be a good guy and a bad guy. I think as the series goes on, hopefully you’ll take turns picking sides with Cal and Thom." What’s more interesting to Kit as a writer and actor is to have complex characters living outside of a black and white morality. As in life, you need to consider people’s circumstances before you pass judgement.
Finally, I asked Kit about the production itself and why he thought the web-series medium seems to be catching on lately. Kit said there are several reasons: "I think it’s the realization you can make quality content at a lower cost, coupled with the fact more and more people are turning to the Internet to watch their television in general." Like me, all of Kit’s TV viewing is done through the Internet; he doesn’t have cable. Kit watches Hulu and Netflix among others and if it’s not on one of those providers, he won’t watch it. He thinks this trend has made it a fertile ground for people to produce and market web-series to ready audiences. "They’re more acclimated to watching content online."
And having a well-written series with attractive people doesn’t hurt either.
Eastsiders is currently available on their website and YouTube (possibly iTunes in the future), and I highly recommend checking it out. They’ve filmed three episodes and are looking at a full season of nine episodes, with the possibility of it being available as a full movie.
