Two days ago Sony announced they would be making a series of four-minute dramas to satisfy the easily bored, staggeringly ephemeral appetites of the YouTube generation.
It's not an original idea, but if the viewing figures for We Need Girlfriends is anything to go by, it definitely has a future.
This independently-made sitcom follows the lives and extremely unfortunate loves of a trio of socially dysfunctional bozos who refer to women as squirrels, do just about anything to hurt and humiliate one another, and generally try their best to prove that feminism was something that happened to other people.
Though not quite as funny as it hopes to be, it does have moments of genuine inventiveness and wit. In the 80s, there was much talk about the comedy of hate (Bill Hicks, Sam Kinison, Andrew 'Dice' Clay etc).
Today, in the wake of The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Peep Show, there is the comedy of embarrassment. We Need Girlfriends manages, mostly successfully, to bridge that gap.
It could also tell us a good deal about what drama and sitcom may look like in the not-so-distant future. You can watch the episodes, and bonus specials, here.
