'Legion of Extraordinary Dancers': Why This Internet TV Show Matters

More

The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers—a television series broadcast on the Internet streaming video site Hulu—has a lot going for it: beautiful cinematography, impressive dancing, and a cast that includes an actor on the hit show Glee.


What's it missing? Piano-playing cats, Beyonce wannabes, and other staples of viral video hits. But these deficiencies are what make the show a "game-changer," according to Mashable:

Why should you care about The LXD? The new web series is broadcast exclusively on Hulu and is a mix of Heroes, comic books and dance—essentially, it's good vs. evil set in the real world with "dance specialties" like break dancing, the robot, or contemporary serving as super powers. The show is difficult to describe because it breaks boundaries in genre, format and platform. It is, however, a game-changer in the way that web series—and the arts—are presented online. Oh yeah, and it's stunning.

This isn't the first time the arts have been shown online, but The LXD marks a shift in how a series can be conceived for an online space. It also provides a new way of viewing the arts outside of exhibition free-for-alls like America/Britain's Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol.

...

Viral videos usually consist of two-minute "FAILs" or kittens eating watermelons. The LXD is a new kind of viral. On Hulu, a platform familiar with half-hour shows or longer, the 10-minute LXD epics are considered easily digestible, short-form virals. Despite fan requests for longer videos, the plan is to keep them short and sweet. The Internet thrives on high-value, sharable snippets. The LXD has successfully entered that niche while expanding the time restriction normally associated with those videos.


Mashable offers a comprehensive guide to the show, including an overview of its origins and a glimpse at what's next.

Read the full story at Mashable.

Jump to comments
Presented by

Eleanor Barkhorn is a senior associate editor at The Atlantic, where she oversees the Sexes channel. A former teacher with Teach for America, she used to edit the Entertainment channel. More

She is a former producer for the Food channel. Before coming to The Atlantic, she was a reporter at the Delta Democrat Times in Greenville, Mississippi. She graduated from Princeton University, where she majored in American literature and wrote her senior thesis about Oprah's Book Club. For her first two years out of college, she taught high school English with the Teach For America program.

Get Today's Top Stories in Your Inbox (preview)


Elsewhere on the web

Join the Discussion

After you comment, click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be asked to log in or register. blog comments powered by Disqus

Video

Miami: The Next Big Start-Up City?

How the city became a center for innovation

Video

Video

A Brief History of Romantic Comedies

From The Atlantic's Chris Orr

Video

Life in 'the New Arctic'

A moving portrait of a fading landscape

Video

Video

The Rise of New York City

A fascinating look at Manhattan in the 1940s

Video

What Is Methane Hydrate?

"Flaming ice" is a vast natural energy source

Video

NASA's Time-Lapse of the Sun

Now with epic dubstep music

Video

Shaken Not Tuned: Cocktail Experiments

Can a tuning fork improve a cocktail?

Video

Video

Is He Cheating? A 1950s Guide

'That little blonde secretary from the office?’

Video

New Yorkers: Vintage Vacuum-Tube Amps

Risking electric shock to restore old amplifiers

Video

The DIY Piano-Bicycle

Everybody needs a hobby

Writers

Up
Down

More in Entertainment

In Focus

Photos of Tornado Damage in Moore, Oklahoma

Just In