When I watched the first episode I thought it was funny fluff. After that it got weird real fast.
posted by Anonymous at 9:26 PM on August 9, 2012

Needs more zombies For anyone who hasn't seen Dead Set.

I am hoping this will be worth watching and not as cringe-worthy has the opening credits (which I watched, 'cause I am at work).

(Is TW trigger warning? I saw there was a MeTa this morning).
posted by Mezentian at 9:29 PM on August 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

"I'm trying to figure out who else in the house is gay, so that I can have sex with them."
posted by neuromodulator at 9:32 PM on August 9, 2012 [3 favorites]

Yeah, goes from laugh-out-loud hilarious to creepy and entrancing fast.
posted by Saxon Kane at 9:37 PM on August 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

I watched three episodes. I liked how the voices were just like in that MTV show... but then things become increasingly irrational.
posted by Forktine at 9:38 PM on August 9, 2012

Yeah this is really great, the first episode is mostly normal and like a lot of other parodies but the later weirder ones are much better.
posted by burnmp3s at 9:40 PM on August 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

This definitely takes until Episode 2 to kick in with the absurdity...what the Onion has always done well.
posted by Hollywood Upstairs Medical College at 10:02 PM on August 9, 2012

This series seems as if it were written from a point of abyssal misanthropy.
posted by Algebra at 10:05 PM on August 9, 2012 [10 favorites]

Unexpectedly well-done, thanks! And yes, if you haven't watched Dead Set, DO.
posted by escabeche at 10:25 PM on August 9, 2012

Metafilter: as if written from a point of abyssal misanthropy.
posted by suburbanbeatnik at 10:29 PM on August 9, 2012 [7 favorites]

Sold!
posted by Ian A.T. at 10:37 PM on August 9, 2012

This series seems as if it were written from a point of abyssal misanthropy.

Bug Feature.

Actually, the only two really hateful people are the bro and the party girl. The wild girl is annoying but sad, and the old guy, the (former) virgin and the gay guy are pretty sympathetic.

Agree w/ everyone else that Ep. 1 just sets it up and then the dystopia kicks in powerfully in 2 and 3.
posted by unSane at 10:37 PM on August 9, 2012

Director commentary by Werner Herzog please.
posted by stbalbach at 10:50 PM on August 9, 2012 [19 favorites]

That's Chris Agos playing the host.
posted by unliteral at 11:13 PM on August 9, 2012

I watched through Episode 5. It's nightmarish. It's creepy. I hope to God they can escape.
posted by Xoebe at 11:39 PM on August 9, 2012

(Is TW trigger warning? I saw there was a MeTa this morning).

Yeah.

What's it a trigger for, anyone know?
posted by Pope Xanax IV at 11:42 PM on August 9, 2012

My wife doesn't agree, but I think that Lake Dredge Appraisal is one of the best new Onion video series. This is only relevant because it seems to have premiered roughly around the same time as sex house.
posted by Bonky Moon at 11:44 PM on August 9, 2012 [5 favorites]

I haven't watched this yet, but The Year of the Sex Olympics immediately springs to mind - it's a 1968 sci-fi teleplay in which Nigel Kneale (as in Quatermass) brutally satirises reality television, decades before its invention.
posted by jack_mo at 11:53 PM on August 9, 2012 [6 favorites]

"Are you sure it's mine??" Yes, yes she is.
posted by AMSBoethius at 12:09 AM on August 10, 2012

Further proof that Cabin in the Woods was a documentary.
posted by sendai sleep master at 12:32 AM on August 10, 2012

Wow, this is surprisingly brilliant. It starts out as a dead-on parody of MTV "reality" shows, with just a few subtle satirical elements, and then turns into some sort of full-on absurd horror thing. So good.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 12:35 AM on August 10, 2012 [1 favorite]

He'll throw the Rock of Rejection at whoever displays traces of intelligence, character or ethnicity!
posted by ostranenie at 12:45 AM on August 10, 2012

Wow. Here's that Jersey Shore-themed adaptation of House Of Stairs you didn't know you wanted...
posted by Ian A.T. at 12:47 AM on August 10, 2012 [3 favorites]

Way to bring the pain Onion.
posted by BrotherCaine at 1:05 AM on August 10, 2012

Actually, the only two really hateful people are the bro and the party girl.

Both of them show occasional flashes of basic decency. The real only two really hateful people are the comic and the host.
posted by Flunkie at 1:13 AM on August 10, 2012 [5 favorites]

We need food to live. Because we're humans.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:11 AM on August 10, 2012 [8 favorites]

I am enjoying this massively. I love painful humour and the preview of episode 5 makes it look like it's only going to get more painful.

I watched through Episode 5.
posted by Xoebe at 7:39 AM on August 10

Is this a tease? I saw only a preview. Okay, you got me, I'm going to go look.
posted by Decani at 3:07 AM on August 10, 2012

Okay, I found episode 5. Oh God, episode 5. Bananas... the bucket...

I can't find episode 6. I NEED EPISODE 6.

Good Lord... they've even managed to capture the mindless addictiveness of these infernal shows.
posted by Decani at 3:16 AM on August 10, 2012

Does anyone know what the full run of this (episode wise) is going to be?

After watching episode 5, I am fascinated by the spiralling hideousness.

It's so plausible, such a great mocking of reality show styles, and also has the potential to get so very much more dark and upsetting than it already is.

I re-watched episode one with someone else after watching all of the available five eps myself. I like watching other people's reactions to things. There are so many moments of foreboding in the first episode even before things get ... complicated.
posted by Faintdreams at 3:45 AM on August 10, 2012

Only watched the first episode so far but I'm already in love with that boxing glove recliner chair thing.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:13 AM on August 10, 2012

"My company focuses on technology but i don't really deal with that."
posted by benbenson at 7:24 AM on August 10, 2012

Here's the Playlist URL. It works remarkably well with youtube-dl.
posted by Nelson at 7:24 AM on August 10, 2012

"Are you sure it's mine??" Yes, yes she is.

How long have they been in that house, anyway? From the viewer's perspective she found out pretty fast.
posted by kenko at 7:41 AM on August 10, 2012

The wild girl is annoying but sad, and the old guy, the (former) virgin and the gay guy are pretty sympathetic.

The old guy, not so much. I love how understated but there some of the dark abyssal misanthropy is. The repeated "I'm a nice guy!" variants (including masterful creep-needle-burying of "I need you to tell me I'm a nice guy" at said former virgin), and the up-for-debate because holy crap bit in the Truth or Dare inflection point:

"Frank, what's the youngest person you've had sex with?"
"...can I do dare?"
"Sure."

Note that the obvious answer would be to mirror the just-a-moment-ago line of "Frank and I had sex last night." But...

Tangential: I remain baffled and enraged that I still can't buy a region 1 copy of Dead Set. Come on, BBC. I've got money right here. You can have it right now. Because Dead Set's fantastic (and has similar abyssal misanthropy driving it).
posted by Drastic at 7:43 AM on August 10, 2012 [2 favorites]

Ah ha. It looks like it can now be legitimately acquired in digital form, at least. I suppose that will do. Baffled enragement standing down.
posted by Drastic at 8:14 AM on August 10, 2012

So very creepy. Couldn't stop watching. And is a Simian a real thing? They need to stop blurring these things out, how's a girl supposed to educate herself?
posted by Kokopuff at 11:07 AM on August 10, 2012

It's a Sybian , and yes, that is a real thing.

> "Actually, the only two really hateful people are the bro and the party girl. The wild girl is annoying but sad, and the old guy, the (former) virgin and the gay guy are pretty sympathetic."

Nah, that's just the first impression you were supposed to come away with. So far, the older guy has shown himself to be a "Nice Guy(TM)" who is actually sometimes shockingly self absorbed. The wild girl isn't just annoying yet sad, but actually seems completely nuts and disturbing. Meanwhile, the party girl is so far proving to be at least a reasonably empathetic and sane human being.
posted by kyrademon at 11:23 AM on August 10, 2012 [1 favorite]

Abyssal misanthropy is my favorite type of misanthropy!
posted by codacorolla at 11:35 AM on August 10, 2012 [4 favorites]

I look forward to watching this, to see who I end up identifying with.
posted by davejay at 11:45 AM on August 10, 2012 [1 favorite]

When you stare into the abyssal misanthropy the abyssal misanthropy stares back at you, bro!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:38 PM on August 10, 2012 [4 favorites]

The TW is legit. There's a fairly explicit dubious consent situation in the first episode. It's pretty grim and definitely made me uncomfortable to watch.

I actually don't find the show funny at all, but it is fascinating and on some subliminal level extremely horrifying.
posted by annekate at 5:29 PM on August 10, 2012

Drastic, when I heard "Can I do dare?" I thought he was asking to do so because his answer would only mirror Erin's, and he was embarrassed. It hadn't crossed my mind that he was hiding pedophilia.

I think your reading hews closer to the show's spirit than mine does.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 5:38 PM on August 10, 2012 [5 favorites]

Thanks for the post, The Devil Tesla. I watched the first episode and it was such uncomfortable viewing that I just couldn't keep watching Sex House. The absurdist turn the series takes makes it bearable.

Algebra: This series seems as if it were written from a point of abyssal misanthropy.

Abyssal misanthropy has become The Onion's basic stance. A lot of The Onion is written from the point of overwhelming anger. The editorial voice of The Onion issues through clenched teeth.
posted by Kattullus at 5:40 PM on August 10, 2012 [8 favorites]

The editorial voice of The Onion issues through clenched teeth.
posted by Kattullus at 1:40 AM on August 11

The best satire should be borne of rage. Witness "Brass Eye".
posted by Decani at 6:29 PM on August 10, 2012 [3 favorites]

Wow. That got really dark, really fast. If it weren't for the insane, absurdist angle I don't think this would actually be watchable. As it is, though, I'm strangely entranced.
posted by asnider at 9:56 PM on August 10, 2012

Metafilter: Blasts of really hot air at random intervals.
posted by danielsolis at 5:47 AM on August 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

Both of them show occasional flashes of basic decency.

Yeah, actually that's my favorite thing about the series. Doing the Awful People Are Awful thing would have been the obvious and pretty boring route, one we've seen too many times. But I love that, as the series has gone one and Jay & Tara's motivations have gone beyond hooking up to basic self-preservation, they've been portrayed with a certain amount of sympathy. Not because they're secretly good people so much as they're people, period, and nobody deserves to be treated like this.

(I really really love this series.)
posted by Ian A.T. at 10:35 AM on August 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

Okay, I have to link some Brass Eye. Sorry.
posted by Decani at 1:07 PM on August 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Wow. That was vastly more captivating (and disturbing) than I imagined it could be.
posted by schmod at 8:51 PM on August 15, 2012

So, at the end, we're going to find out that the host has been taking his commands from GLaDOS, right? Because I'm pretty sure this is the Portal of Big Brother spinoffs.

Or something like that...
posted by schmod at 9:36 PM on August 15, 2012

The sixth episode is now up.
posted by codacorolla at 9:07 AM on August 16, 2012 [3 favorites]

This has fully transitioned from disturbing-funny to just disturbing. Kudos, Onion, and thanks for the ercrngrq pybfrhcf bs gur fdhnfurq sebt.
posted by psoas at 12:23 PM on August 16, 2012 [1 favorite]

Frogs will die. You have lots of frogs.
posted by codacorolla at 12:48 PM on August 16, 2012

I like that the gay guy is playing the Straight Man through all of this...
posted by schmod at 7:42 PM on August 16, 2012

They'll be eating frogs by episode 7.
posted by squinty at 10:28 AM on August 18, 2012

I'm pretty sure it was not a distress signal, but a "mission accomplished" signal for whatever nefarious next phase is to come.
posted by psoas at 6:42 AM on August 21, 2012

We've now had five of the ten plagues. Spoiler alert: that tenth one is a doozy.
posted by roll truck roll at 2:54 PM on August 22, 2012 [4 favorites]

roll truck roll: "We've now had five of the ten plagues. Spoiler alert: that tenth one is a doozy."

Holy shit. I can't believe I didn't catch that.
posted by Apropos of Something at 4:20 PM on August 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

Episode 7: and here you thought it couldn't get darker.
posted by Iridic at 10:34 AM on August 23, 2012

One thing I really like is that they get the Youtube annotations down so well. "Want to find out the secret recipe to the cloudy drink? Subscribe to our channel!"
posted by codacorolla at 3:20 PM on August 23, 2012 [2 favorites]

Episode 7: and here you thought it couldn't get darker.

What's the word for when you're entertained and horrified in equal measures?
posted by psoas at 6:34 PM on August 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

And one more plague coming in Episode 8.

Holy shit. I can't believe I didn't catch that.

Actually, you have Youtube commenters to thank.
posted by roll truck roll at 7:33 PM on August 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is the best show on television, isn't it?
posted by escabeche at 8:50 PM on August 23, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's really good. I'd watch a full 30 minute effort by the same writers. The Lake Dredging show that mocks American Pickers is pretty terrific as well.
posted by codacorolla at 9:25 PM on August 23, 2012

Wow this show is great. Really nicely designed and there's a lot going on in just a few minutes. Way smarter than it looked at first.

If you can't get enough Sex House discussion, the Something Awful thread is pretty good. I found it while trying to understand the Plagues of Egypt thing. FWIW, it's not clear it is a serious theory but I like it. Even better I like the idea that it wasn't in the show creator's minds, but after reading the fan theory they'll retcon it into the show. Host as Pharoah.
posted by Nelson at 9:35 AM on August 26, 2012

Hell is other people... not having sex.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:22 PM on August 26, 2012

Hell is other people... not having sex.

So pretty much the first couple of seasons of Big Brother.
posted by psoas at 2:26 PM on August 26, 2012

Episode 8. In retrospect, it's funny that this post started a debate about trigger warnings. It turns out that a general, catch-all warning was completely appropriate.
posted by roll truck roll at 5:48 PM on August 30, 2012

Just watched episode 8. This is disturbing as all get out, and yet I can't wait until the next episode. I'm with psoas: what's the word for being equal parts disturbed and entertained?
posted by asnider at 8:11 PM on August 30, 2012

:O omg
posted by codacorolla at 6:09 AM on August 31, 2012

Best web series ever.
posted by burnmp3s at 7:10 AM on August 31, 2012

I love the part in Episode 8 where you see the cameramen. As fucked up as the plot has gotten, they still stick with these little reality TV tropes that make it such brilliant parody.
posted by Nelson at 8:03 AM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

I mean, the whole point of episode 8 is them luring some outsider into the house. But here we have these outsiders all the time, the camera crew, only they're untouchable because they're part of The Show. Which apparently is still going on, despite the dire straits our sexy denizens are in.
posted by Nelson at 8:05 AM on August 31, 2012 [2 favorites]

But here we have these outsiders all the time, the camera crew, only they're untouchable because they're part of The Show

It's such a bizarro-world thing, but it's absolutely in line with the reality of these shows. I mean, we clearly have a camera guy in the mold room BEFORE the "cast" goes back in to release the repair man. At least one member of the camera crew KNOWS THE GUY IS DEAD OR DYING and does nothing to prevent it. He just keeps on filming...like when that guy fell into the fire on Survivor; the camera crew did nothing and would apparently have been fired on the spot if they'd actually helped him.
posted by asnider at 8:52 AM on August 31, 2012

Yeah, exactly. I just love that they "slipped" and showed us the camera man to remind us that, yes, this is still a dumb reality show. Even in the middle of all the drama of them luring in an outsider and a life-or-death situation. So delicious. (btw, I'm doing my best to avoid significant spoilers, but maybe there's no point.)
posted by Nelson at 9:14 AM on August 31, 2012

I assume that those of us still posting in this thread are up-to-date and that it is OK to post spoilers.
posted by asnider at 9:30 AM on August 31, 2012

Based on the little preview of Episode 9, I'm guessing that the reality of that show-within-a-show is going to take a big turn.
posted by roll truck roll at 1:17 PM on August 31, 2012 [1 favorite]

Where can I find the preview of 9? I can't make heads or tails of The Onion's youtube channel, nothing seems to be in any logical order.
posted by mathowie at 4:11 PM on September 4, 2012

I don't think it's actually a preview--it's just a tag at the end of episode 8. Sort of like "Next time on Arrested Development!" it's just taking the events of the current episode to their natural conclusion.
posted by psoas at 4:32 AM on September 5, 2012

Actually, if you click on the little mini-preview, it'll take you to a slightly longer preview video.
posted by roll truck roll at 11:49 AM on September 5, 2012

The finale is up. It is craaaazy.
posted by codacorolla at 3:00 PM on September 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Leaving the office in a minute. Can't wait to get home and see how it all wraps up!
posted by asnider at 3:26 PM on September 6, 2012

Damn. How long do we have to let this thread remain spoiler free before we can talk about the final episode?
posted by asnider at 4:43 PM on September 6, 2012

Huh, I thought the final episode was a bit of a letdown. Particularly with the goofy Twilight Zonesque twist. Still a brilliant show, but maybe they were out of ideas. The solution would have been more sex in the Sex House. That would have definitely kept my interest.
posted by Nelson at 5:28 PM on September 6, 2012

That was a great finale. A kind of closure, but still unexpected. Kudos to the Onion writers and the cast on the series.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 6:01 PM on September 6, 2012

Metafilter: The solution would have been more sex in the Sex House.

But they really went hard on the No Exit homage, didn't they?
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 8:51 PM on September 6, 2012

I have mixed feelings about the ending. On the one hand, it's a great commentary on reality TV "stars": even after the show is done, they never really go back to normal life. On the other hand, I dunno, it seemed almost phoned in. I mean, they tried breaking down the windows and doors ages ago, shouldn't they have found that?
posted by asnider at 9:28 PM on September 6, 2012

On the other hand, I dunno, it seemed almost phoned in. I mean, they tried breaking down the windows and doors ages ago, shouldn't they have found that?

I get the feeling that they've found it many times in the past, but it always goes back up.
posted by codacorolla at 10:06 PM on September 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

The solution would have been more sex in the Sex House.

It would have been too gimmicky an ending, but I kept imagining that we'd see Jay and Tara finally together at the end and the counter would go to 3 (or maybe it would go to 9999, which might have been oddly sadder).
posted by roll truck roll at 10:51 PM on September 6, 2012

I get the feeling that they've found it many times in the past, but it always goes back up.

That's a very real possibility, but I was thinking more about earlier on in the series, when they hadn't yet suffered through (much) of the psychological torture they'd ultimate face; you know, back when they were still sane.
posted by asnider at 7:14 AM on September 7, 2012