While searching for something completely unrelated on YouTube last week I stumbled, as I often seem to do, over something a little different. WIGS is an online channel that has been producing high quality scripted drama and releasing it on the internet for free since 2012. I realise that this makes me somewhat late to the game but my research technique mostly involves me clicking through the internet one page at a time so forgive my lateness.
If you are already aware of WIGS then please move along but if not bear with me a second.
What made WIGS stick out to me was firstly the fact that the short films and web series starred actual actors whose names and faces I recognised. Much as I realise this shouldn’t matter to me I have to acknowledge that it does, particularly in the Wild West of YouTube filled with plenty of videos so awful you’d be better off watching the adverts that precede them. I am to blame for some of these videos so I know what I’m talking about.
Faces you might recognise include Julia Stiles, Jennifer Garner, Dakota Fanning, Michael C. Hall, America Ferrera, Stephen Moyer, Jason Isaacs, Jena Malone, Alfred Molina, Allison Janney, Alison Pill, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and plenty others.
The second thing that intrigued me about WIGS may have become evident while reading that artfully copy and pasted list of names; there are women all over the place. It has not been a great time for women on the internet recently/ever and it was refreshing to be offered the opportunity to see female actors take on complex leading roles rather than being offered the opportunity to see female actors take off their shirts without their permission. The phrase “strong female characters” is bandied about a lot and often refers to examples of women in dystopian futures being manipulated and punching authority figures in the throat. A strong female character doesn’t need to possess physical strength just character, real motivations, and to be a protagonists not just a prop or pawn. WIGS provides these in abundance.
I have not been asked to push this particular channel so hard but liked what I saw and wanted to share it with you. To watch their videos I advise visiting their YouTube channel and I have embedded some highlights below:
Serena
Jennifer Garner & Alfred Molina star in a short about a woman taking confession.
Celia
Allison Janney & Dakota Fanning star in a short about a young woman visiting a doctor who also happens to be a friend of her mother.
Denise
Alison Pill & Chris Messina star in a short about an actress being picked up by a man she may have met before.
Dakota
Jena Malone stars in a series about a young mother relying on poker wins to survive.
Most episodes of the first season of Veronica Mars included a flashback featuring Veronica with longer hair. Sadly this hair was in the form of a horrible, flat, unconvincing wig that ruined my concentration. I think the biggest giveaway was the complete lack of styling given to the hair, it looked like the wig was just plonked on before the scene began with no real care. In later years when Bell grew out her hair it was even more obvious that that just wasn’t how Veronica Mars would look with long locks.
In early Heroes episodes Claire’s hair was real but in later season she started donning a wig, presumably because Panettiere had dyed her hair and the show would lose even more viewers should the cheerleader stop being blonde. Sadly the wig was a weak illusion as it sat lifeless on her head with an odd amount of bulk at the back where her own lengthy hair was all bunched up.
The oddest thing about this instance of wiggery is that as Banks is wearing a wig pretty much identical to her normal hair, the wig seems plain unnecessary. As with the other wigs it was a bulky failure, the hair looking all dry and straw like. This is not the glossy mane of a Hollywood star! Most other instances of wig have a reason but I just don’t see why Banks has to wear one. Madness.
Sadly this Claire is a double offender, having sported two equally obvious wigs during the series. The first, seen on the left, was for a flashback and was to save De Ravin from having to dye her hair. The picture way up top shows her latest wig which is a big crazed mess. This tangled wiggy masterpiece is possibly the least terrible of the lot as the surrounding layer of crazy slightly masks the giveaway bulkiness of the hair beneath the wig. If it’d been up to me I’d just back-comb her hair everyday.
Mild Concern 