Four Tanks and a Healer: Episode 2: "Of Men and Noobs" Now Online!
Episode 2 Synopsis: Malcom and the others quickly learn that having such an unbalanced group is harder than they
thought. After being humbled and humiliated in a battle with a giant rat-man, they're forced to concede that being
different means playing different. Malcom forms an out-of-the-box gameplan on how to not only outsmart their enemies...
but how to outsmart the very game mechanics as well. It all ends in a giant battle with a monster known as a Beholder,
but the battle may not be what you think...
"Four Tanks and a Healer" is a funny, two-part series created by filmmaker Larry Longstreth ("The Long, Slow Death of a
Twenty-Something", "Batman's Gonna Get Shot in the Face") under the watchful eye of "Lord of the Rings" executive
producer, Mark Ordesky. The pilot episodes were created in the hopes that they will one day result in a full-fledged
series.
Both Longstreth and Ordesky are nerds at heart - with Mark being a closet tabletop Dungeons and Dragons veteran and
Longstreth being a fan of the genre's newer forms: World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online.
"Four Tanks and a Healer" is an Adult Swim-style look at the lives these people live, from the sole perspective of their
in-game characters. Taking place entirely inside an online roleplaying video game, the series follows a group of misfit
gamers as they venture across fantastic landscapes and epic quests, all from the comfort of their real-life computer
chairs.
At times funny and at times just plain pathetic, the show explores the geeky underground culture of fantasy roleplaying
- from the amazing displays of imagination and wish fulfillment to the downside of having to play alongside
socially-inept elitists and basement-dwelling cretins. The show's protagonists - Malcom the dwarf, Redbeerd the dwarf,
Nickelsack the gnome, PlzmePlz the human and LuvPrncess the fairy princess, all serve as funny and insightful glimpses
not only into who their real-life counterparts are, but also into who they wish they could be. (For example, the sexy
fairy princess of the group, LuvPrncess, is actually a 50 year old man).
Written and directed by Larry Longstreth, produced by Mark Ordesky and Marisa Zakaria, and animated by Jacob Drake,
"Four Tanks and a Healer" is at it's heart a satire, but it also pays homage to the fantasy geek culture that many of us
know and love. More than anything, though, is how it serves as a funny reminder of those times when we probably take it
all a little too far.
Michael Regina
Editor in Chief - TheOneRing.net