NBC exploits online minidramas

As NBC has cast about for ways to restore its fortunes, it and its sister cable channels have become the only reliable purveyors of true Webisodes -- minidramas produced in conjunction with an existing television series.

In particular, two online dramas on NBC Universal Web sites are bridging gaps in their companion television series' schedules.

"The Recruit" (nbc.com/Heroes/video/categories/the-recruit/873822/) falls between "volumes" of NBC's "Heroes," which returns to the air Feb. 2.

"The Face of the Enemy" (scifi.com/battlestar) leads up to the final episodes of the Sci Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica," which begin Jan. 16.

The two serial dramas join a library of Webisodes available on the NBC Universal sites.

But it's not just science fiction or fantasy shows that have had such resources devoted to them.

At usanetwork.com are six bare-bones but fairly funny Webisodes for "Psych," notable because they feature series stars James Roday and Dule Hill.

More elaborate are the recent "Chuck" Webisodes at nbc.com, which take the form of mock instructional videos for Buy More, the big-box store where the show's hero, Chuck Bartowski, works. A number of the show's supporting players appear in the Webisodes, but Chuck himself (Zachary Levi) doesn't.

Even more ambitious is "The Outburst," a four-episode Web extension of "The Office" posted recently on nbc.com. It is a self-contained narrative about the Dunder-Mifflin workers' raging curiosity when Oscar (Oscar Martinez) has a loud argument on the telephone with an unknown interlocutor.

Clocking in at about 11 minutes, it's half the length of an "Office" episode and about half as funny. Much of the regular cast appears in the Webisodes, but not the biggest stars.

All of these comedy Webisodes (or dramedy, in the case of "Chuck") are diverting, but none is more than a diversion.

Tied to the story arc

The "Heroes" and "Battlestar Galactica" Web serials are, for better or worse, tied into the story arcs of the TV shows, and if they don't advance the plots in essential ways, they still contain information that those series' obsessive viewers will want to process and file away.

"The Recruit" spins off from the Dec. 15 half-season finale of "Heroes," in which the Pinehearst laboratory where Mohinder Suresh was working to perfect the superpower formula was torched.

The Webisodes follow a particularly inconsequential strand from the show's current tangle of story lines: They fill in the back story of one of the otherwise faceless Marines who served as guinea pigs for tests of the formula.

The whole effort feels halfhearted. And like the earlier "Heroes" Webisodes, "The Recruit" amplifies the show's biggest problem, which is superhero inflation. The last thing we need is more characters, with increasingly redundant powers.

"The Face of the Enemy," on the other hand, could serve as a model of the Webisode genre. It's not something you need to watch if you're not already a "Battlestar Galactica" fan, but those who are will appreciate the serious treatment this minidrama has received.

The lead writer of "Enemy" was Jane Espenson, a "Galactica" co-executive producer and television veteran with "Gilmore Girls" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" on her resume, and its performers include series regulars Grace Park, Alessandro Juliani and Michael Hogan.

Along with the regular Webisodes, the Sci Fi Channel is providing "enhanced" versions featuring commentary by Espenson. They're a revelation in their own right.

Espenson describes the chaotic circumstances in which the Web serial was filmed: With the television series' final season already completed, the "Enemy" scenes were often the last things filmed. After a scene was completed, its set would be torn down for good.

Other tidbits might seem like too much information to have while the serial is still unfolding. But it's really just a sign that NBC Universal is getting at least one thing right.

When the possibilities for elaborating your shows online are endless, the true fan wants to see and hear everything.