By Josh Tyler | 8 years ago

L5 is a brand new science fiction web series… but wait don’t let that turn you off to it. I’d be the first to admit that most web-produced content is, to put it kindly, not up to snuff. Outside of The Guild very little of it, particularly in the sci-fi realm, is worth your time. But L5 is different.

L5 begins at what in any other story might be the end. The crew of a deep space exploration vessel returns home after what was supposed to be a 20-year mission and finds planet Earth, apparently, deserted. L5 isn’t just good, it’s better than anything you’ve seen on television since Firefly (ok Battlestar Galactica). Here’s the first episode. Watch. It doesn’t cost anything, what do you have to lose…

This first L5 episode was actually released back in February but for some reason the show’s team only made it available as a torrent, a format which is largely inaccessible to the average, far less tech savvy internet user. They’ve only now gone and made it available in this more easy to use format. Delaying this move probably hasn’t helped them get the word out, but now that it’s here hopefully we can all help really get the ball rolling.

L5 needs your help. It was funded entirely by donations from supporters on Kickstarter. This first episode cost only $15,000 and while not all of the special effects are perfect, they’re pretty good, at least as good as some of the shifty CGI we’ve seen on recent network television misfires like Terra Nova. Terra Nova by the way, cost millions of dollars to produce and all they had to pull off was a few dinosaurs and some foliage. This does far more with far, far less.

More important than the special effects is the story, which in this first episode seems top notch. The acting, which is usually the big achilles heel in these web produced series’, is mostly good and when it’s not, they don’t spend a lot of time on those inferior actors. This is brilliant well done, but there’s a catch…

If you want them to continue the story they’ll need more funding. Forget television. The networks have abandoned science fiction fans. Take matters into your own hands and donate to L5 by going here.