I was quite interested when the press release from CTV mentioned original web series.

Only at CTV.ca can viewers also find new webisode series BLOOD CELL, ERIC THE TRAINER, THE LAKE, and PUSHED.

I clicked through to take a look; I didn’t get to the web series. The original links from the release are preserved above although although they do not lead to the web series on CTV.ca. After clicking on every link in the press release I did eventually find all the series on CTV.ca except The Lake, which I did eventually find on the CTV site too, but not easily.

I’m really very happy to see original web content. That said, I am now going to whine and complain.

“Only at CTV.ca“? Actually “only at CTV.ca in Canada” might be more accurate. Blood Cell turns out to be a fairly old piece of work, an 18-part horror series starring LonelyGirl13’s Jessica Bell and produced by the now defunct 60Frames and originally released in about March of 2009 by WB.com. Which raises the question, why is CTV.ca displaying a Canadian flag next to it like it’s CanCon?

Next question: why does the video player want so badly to show you the most recent episode instead of the first? Could it be because the episode synopses give away the entire plot of the episodes so that watching them is entirely redundant?

Of course, the episodes aren’t embeddable (otherwise how could they be “only at CTV.ca?”) and I couldn’t find any deets about the series (not even credits) over on CTV.ca so I’ll embed the trailer below. It dates back to 2008.

Next, I clicked through to The Lake which strangely took me to an August 2009 post on StarPulse.com — an interview with with Cannuck Jason Priestley about directing this web series for the WB. This is particularly odd since the first two episodes are up on CTV.ca. I’m not sure why the press release links to the interview instead of the episodes. The Lake is a teen drama which may have been written as an hour long series originally since four episodes equal about 40 minutes.

Pushed got a brutal review from Tilzy.tv back in February 2009. It’s a thriller about a model.

Which brings us to Tony the Trainer which is not drama. It’s an exercise series in which a trainer named Tony offers gems like:

Make sure you drink a lot of water. Water is incredibly important.

Tony is based in LA and New York and has a ton of stuff to sell you on his web site if you’re so inclined.

Maybe I’m wrong in thinking a Canadian flag next to a video means it’s Canadian. Maybe what it means is that it’s not Canadian because the Bold and The Beautiful, The Colbert Report and Grey’s Anatomy have them too. My mistake. Sorry.

So, on the one hand, good for CTV for making some web only content available on their site. Nice step forward. Wish it was a little newer, a little more Canadian and a perhaps somewhat easier to find on their site… but hey, it’s a start.