Let’s face it, most ZOOM meetings are beginning to suck. At the beginning of the pandemic, they were somewhat novel. We had our team building meetings. ZOOM happy hours. ZOOM dates. ZOOM film festival screenings. Now even with the help of virtual backgrounds (mine is Tattooine), they are still pretty lame. First and foremost, you have to look at yourself for like an hour or three. That’s pretty scary for me. The new short comedy web series Join Meeting, created by SMUGGLER’s Benji Weinstein, successfully explores these issues and more.
In the unexpected crazy world created here, there is no bathroom in which to excuse yourself or hallway to duck down. You can’t leave after the undesirable guest speaker has joined the call. There is no polite way to avoid the teammate who invites herself to your online ladies night. It’s as if The Office all took place on ZOOM.
Now, after a successful launch in June, Join Meeting is back for a second run. Edited by Cut+Run editors Frank Effron and Sean Stender, the short series reunites the Ad Agency team for more unpredictable video conference calls. Watch a smattering of the episodes below:
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The first run of episodes were released in the early weeks of the shut-down and made fun of the cringe-inducing reality of early pandemic conference calls.
As we’ve all become more familiar with video conferencing (and how to mute your microphone), the new run of episodes have also moved on — this time unveiling the true horror of the always-online world we now inhabit: There is no escape.
Bottom line – ZOOM meetings suck. Join Meeting does not.
Colin Costello is the West Coast Editor of Reel 360. Contact him at colin@reel360.com or follow him on Twitter at @colinthewriter1
