After roommates, dating is probably the second most saturated subject matter in digital video, but these two series manage to stand out from the horde.

Swipe Click Bang artfully takes on the emotional side of Tinder hook-ups. Creators Michael Vitale, Michael Sasso and Joseph Amato were inspired by acclaimed pot-themed web series High Maintenance to create a theme-driven, quirky drama with a rotating cast.

Honest dialogue and inventive scenarios — such as a post-coitus couple discovering they both have Oedipal complexes — make this series as pop-able as those candy hearts imprinted with aggressively romantic sayings.

Online Daters, by contrast, is a fast-paced, high-concept comedic take on the seemingly life-and-death stakes of online dating. Four friends — writer Ted Sperling, Jonathan Sacramone, Owen Slevin and Chris Slevin — tackle each stage of the postmillennial search for a soul mate, jumping genres numerous times per episode.

Episode one, “The Search,” is 24 meets Magnum, P.I. meets The Da Vinci Code as the four Internet whizzes analyze OneOfAKindGirl13’s many duck-faced photos in order to piece together what she actually looks like. Episode three, “Date Prep,” is an homage to ’90s comedy, with a Full House–style credits sequence and an outfit-switching montage straight out of Clueless.

It turns out making a web series about online dating can really up your game for … online dating. “I put it on my profile and girls will reference jokes from the episodes, which kicks things off nicely,” Sacramone enthuses.

“I met my girlfriend on Tinder,” Sperling says. The show broke the ice on their first date.


The Tangled Web We Watch is our column on what’s worth watching online. Watch Swipe Click Bang at swipeclick?bang.com and Online Daters at funnyordie.com. Check out Stephanie’s full interviews with the creators of both shows on her blog, TangledWebWeWatch.com.

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