YouTube Celebrities Help Pimp Out Sexperts

According to legendary 19th century Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s primary principle of drama, when two characters make a sex tape, it is an invariable conclusion that said sex tape will get accidentally sent to everyone they know. OK, yeah, Chekhov was actually talking about loaded guns, but when Steve (Brian Rabinowitz) convinces Katelynn (Beth O’Neill) to get intimate in front of their new digital camera in the first episode of Sexperts, you know this isn’t going to go well.

Developed and produced by the TV department of Columbia College Chicago (which offers a concentration in Internet and Mobile Media, if you’re considering a return to academia), Sexperts is so far a pretty tame sex comedy with a new twist on the sex tape reveal. Because as it turns out, the average small-town couple at the heart of this series is so amazing at sex that in subsequent episodes, the two of them become gurus for their orgasm-challenged friends, who only wish to learn from their example.

Unfortunately, in the first episode all we get is a taste of this premise, with the focus instead being put on Steve and Katelynn’s discovery that their private interlude has become much more public than anticipated, thanks to Steve mixing up his email attachments. How they discover this is also Sexperts‘ one big stab at innovation; when Katelynn installs Skype so they can video chat with other people in their small town, the couple finds out how far the tape has spread from their friends. Because their friends only need appear in the form of on-screen video, the producers were able to cast those roles from a geographically diverse range of YouTube celebrities, including Michael Buckley, Valentina of Val’s Art Diary, and Tony Huyin (thewinekone).

The strategy not only adds some recognizable names to the show’s credits, but will also hopefully harness those loyal fanbases. Because the video’s been posted to many different YouTube accounts, it’s hard to gauge exactly how many views the first episode has gotten, but according to the show’s official Twitter account, they broke 1,000 in 15 minutes, which ain’t bad.

Stars O’Neill and Rabinowitz are extremely believable as the settled couple who aren’t afraid to experiment, and their chemistry shines through despite the only average dialogue. The production doesn’t have a great deal of polish, and the sound design especially could use a lot of work — however, if you’re looking for a good example of a well-designed web site for a webseries, the home page for Sexperts is doing a lot of stuff right. Episodes are featured prominently, there’s a nice clean layout, and the distribution options are clearly displayed.

It’ll be interesting to see how far Sexperts is able to push its racy subject matter, especially given YouTube’s ever-tightening content standards, and if future episodes (which lack the first’s star power) will be able to find viewers. But it’s got one big advantage going for it. If Chekhov had gotten around to coming up with a second dramatic principle, it probably would have been this: sex sells. e