Every so often a new web series comes out that is heralded as an “all new type of interactive experience!”  It’s not.  Increasingly though, networks are doggedly putting money behind webisodes that supplement their main content (like FOX did partnering with AT&T to release the Touch-offshoot web series Daybreak this summer).  Interacting with televisions shows over the internet and through other media is nothing new – we do it with our fan forums and sub-reddits and frantic “did you just see that??” texts to friends.  The difference here is that there is a desire to both control and quantify that experience through specifically supported forums and other tie-ins that are created and moderated by the network or studio.  Again though, what else is new?

What makes the upcoming Electric City interesting - it being the latest attempt at a mainstream web series - is Tom Hanks.  For more on the project (which is hosted by Yahoo! and will be paired with apps that offer a related role-playing game as well as digital comic books to expand the mythology, etc – that’s the “interactive” part), and my take on its first ten episodes, hit the jump.