As Pride Continues, "The Feels" Feels Just Right

The Feels, a short-form web series on YouTube, is much more than just an artfully executed New York-based dramedy.  Created by Naje Lataillade and Tim Manley, and produced by Camden Elizabeth and Suitcase Productions, this show -- which is comprised of over 85 separate episodes varying between one and ten minutes long -- is more of a mosaic of moments.  All the little pieces come together to form the multi-faceted portrait of Charlie (Manley), a bisexual teacher who feels a lot, arguably too much, on his journey to sort through his issues with himself, his lovers and whatever his community is.

The particular season of The Feels I am writing about is its third, and while normally I’d have gone back and experienced the show from its very beginnings, its outside-the-box storytelling methods had already influenced me somehow, and instead I chose to view this current season with absolute innocence.

At first, The Feels feels a bit disjointed.  Sure, seeing the previous two seasons would have provided a sense of familiarity with its format (and possibly some of the characters), but I felt it was important in this case to watch the series the way someone new to it would, and not so much like an overly thorough professional.  It’s just not how most people experience these things.  At any rate, the first thing I noticed is the series avoids a lot of things that are normally taken for granted in a show.  There was often no real plot per se, so much as there was a premise.  It was (almost) always eventually clear where we were, or what was happening to a certain extent, but how we got there, who these people were, or what exactly needed to be accomplished during each episode (if anything) was, at first glance at least, never more than hinted at, if indicated at all.

Ainsley Andrade

Ainsley Andrade is a freelance writer working primarily as a TV critic and influencer for MediaVillage in the column #AndradeSays. Having "cut the cord" back when cords were still a thing, Ainz, as he likes to be called, brings a fresh an… read more