Space Janitors

I’m always looking for new shows to watch, especially things I can stream to my computer or TV, so I don’t have to be in front of a television at a specific time.  I also enjoy binge watching whenever I can.  Web series are often good candidates for this. 

Of course, the quality of web series varies greatly.  Anyone with a camera and a YouTube account can make one.  These are often filmed on a shoe-string budget and production quality can be amateur.   Based on the creativity of the team, these issues can sometimes be turned into an advantage.  While many videos online are bad ideas filmed by people who think they are funnier and cleverer than they actually are, some are created by people with genuinely good ideas.  Those people are free to hone their craft, within budgetary means, without compromising their idea to appease a producer or network.  Their only aspiration is to please themselves and the fans who return again and again to watch the show.

Good web series are often hard to find, however, so it usually takes a bit of searching to find something worth watching.  Generally, I just have to keep my eyes and ears open for articles listed on the news and cultural aggregators I read as well as comments posted by others who frequent the same sites.  Last week I found a new one.

Space Janitors is a Sci-Fi comedy produced in Canada.  It was described, when I was introduced to it, as Red Dwarf meets Star Wars.  This piqued my curiosity, since I happen to like both things, so I watched it over the weekend.  I’ll explain as much as I can without spoiling the plot or humor.

While all of the names of things and shapes of craft have been changed, this show is clearly set in the Star Wars universe.  It follows a pair of janitors, who clean and do maintenance on what is essentially the Death Star, along with other minor and incidental characters working for the Empire in their struggle against the rebels.  These characters, however, are not that far away from the action allowing the show to spoof and mock the situations of the original Star Wars trilogy.

So far there have been two seasons filmed, each with eight episodes ranging in length between seven and twelve minutes.  The third series began preproduction this past December after reaching their Kickstarter goal of $30k.  Unfortunately, based on the expected delivery dates of the Kickstarter goodies don’t expect new episodes of the show before the fall.

If you enjoy Sci-Fi spoofs, I highly recommend this show.  It is easily worth every penny you’ll spend to watch, especially since all of the episodes are available for free online either at the show’s website (http://www.spacejanitors.com), the Geek and Sundry site (http://geekandsundry.com/shows/spacejanitors/), or on YouTube.   

I’ll leave you with one of the Empire’s motivational posters: