Snapchat’s first original series is here and it’s awful

Yesterday, we wrote that Snapchat’s very first original series was coming to the app and it’s now available for your viewing.

The first episode is available inside Snapchat’s channel found within the new Discover feature and is titled “Sip & Surf Party XXX.”

I tried to watch it. I really did. It was so painful that I had to give up. Then I had to go back and watch the entire thing again so I could objectively write this piece. It didn’t get any better.

It’s one of these cases of a company that’s forcefully trying to be “cool” for millennials and came out like a train wreck in slow motion.

The idea and execution is pretty cool, but it feels like Snapchat tried as hard as possible to be cool and it just came out as a five-minute long awkward thing that I spent the whole time cringing.

The production quality and format of the show itself is actually great and takes advantage of the portrait format that Snapchat adheres to. You often see both character’s points of view at the same time, which is a pretty fun way to use the available space.

Unfortunately, the writing contains every cliche the writers could have thought of. Drinking! Young adults at a pool party trying to be cool! Painfully stereotypical, vain, airheaded college students! You name it, it’s there.

I’m assuming I’m the target market for this thing. I’ve just turned 24 and it seemed like it was aimed at someone in the 18-25 space, but it was written for twelve-year old humor with some adult themes mixed in and a whole bunch of babble I didn’t understand. Am I old now?

Also: it was long. Five minutes is way, way too long in an app that I usually only view photos in for ten seconds. I can watch something actually funny on Vine in six seconds. I hate the future.

Let’s switch gears now and see what some real teens on the internet think, by using our powers to search Twitter for some unscientific reactions.

Only a little ashamed that I watched Snapshat’s show “Literally Can’t Even” and bust out laughing… Not bad @snapchat, not bad

— Noel! :) (@nordrr) January 31, 2015

No, SnapChat. ‘Literally Can’t Even’ is too damn far. Too. Damn. Far.

— Gavin O’ Driscoll (@GavinODriscoll) January 31, 2015

So @Snapchat new show Literally Can’t Even is pretty dope. Great POV shots

— Alpha & Omega (@QYSL) January 31, 2015

I watched Snapchat’s “Literally Can’t Even” and I get it’s supposed to be a parody and all, but it’s on par with Mean Girls 2.

— Mila Georgieva (@mila_georgieva) January 31, 2015

Verdict: some people kind of love it, others hate it. That last tweet’s on the money, though; it’s like a painful sequel to one of the best movies of all time: it just shouldn’t have been made.

The jury’s out on whether or not people actually enjoy this thing, but I won’t be watching it again. It’s like the worst of YouTube culture met the worst of millennial stereotypes, bankrolled by a company that really wants to be cool.

I’m assuming that because so many people hate it and don’t understand the short that it’ll actually do really well, as is often the case with these things.

Literally Can’t Even is only available for a short amount of time before it disappears and the new episode is released, sometime next week.

My score: 2/10: Nice try, would not watch again.