Say It Ain't So, Spill.Com

In a recent study on who younger moviegoers trust for recommendations about which movies to see, the top choice was their friends. There was no group of critics out there who came closer to that than the guys of Spill.com, led by animator Korey Coleman. Hailing from Austin, Texas, the Spill gang was most well-known for their Flash animated movie reviews, where Korey and his real-life friends, known under the names Leon, Cyrus, Carlyle, and the Co-Host 3000 would discuss recent movies in very down-to-earth, unpretentious, and often hilariously off-color, R-rated terms. The highest grade a film can receive is "Better Than Sex," and the lowest two grades incorporate expletives. There is no doubt that these guys are professional critics with good taste and years and years of experience doing this - Spill is the continuation of their long-running Austin public-access television show, "The Reel Deal" - but they're also far more casual, personable, and relatable than the majority of critics out there. And that's why it comes as such a shock to hear the news that Spill.com is shutting down at the end of December.

Of all the new media style film reviewers out there, I thought that Spill had the best chances of long term success. They have a small but loyal fanbase, and produce massive amounts of content. In addition to the video reviews, they also do longer audio reviews for all the major releases, and some of the limited releases in the Austin area too. They have several long-running weekly podcasts featuring various combinations of the hosts. I tune into "A Couple of Cold Ones" every week, which involves about an hour of Korey and Leon shooting the breeze and talking about whatever is on their minds before delivering commentary on the past weekend's box office winners. They've also recently started doing "The Daily Spill," which presents their take on the entertainment news, and "Spoiled!" which morphed into a "Breaking Bad" reaction podcast for the duration of the show's last season, and has now turned its attention to "The Walking Dead." There have been call-in shows, convention coverage, awards season heckling, and loads of specials. And then there are their real-world events, like the yearly Spill Dot Con, international gatherings, and bar crawls.

The details have been sparse, but it looks like the difficulty in monetizing Spill's fanbase spelled its end. The site was bought by entertainment news and ticketing company Hollywood Media Corp in 2009. There were several major changes, including the removal of Spill's video game content and the cancellation of several podcasts, including the long-running "The League of Extremely Ordinary Gentlemen," devoted to geek culture. I found Coleman remarkably candid and about all the changes. Many of the sites users were angry, but he set up a series of call-in shows for everyone to vent, including himself. After the news broke about Spill being shut down, he's been doing call-in shows every night. What I've found really remarkable about Coleman is the way he's been so open and willing to talk. Whenever he's had doubts about his career or the site, he hasn't hesitated to discuss it in great depth and detail. I've never met Korey Coleman, but listening to him share so many personal stories and private thoughts week after week make me feel like I know the guy, and I've grown to like him very much - even though he does cop-out too often, letting mediocre movies slide with a "Matinee" grade."

I'm not the target audience for Spill.com, which is young, male, and very sophomoric. There have been a couple of podcast discussions, particularly about the skeevier side of the guys' bar-hopping bachelor lifestyle that have been uncomfortable to listen to, and I didn't last a week on the site's forums, which can get downright female-unfriendly. Still, I found myself listening to more and more of the Spill.com shows as time went on. I had just started getting hooked on "The Daily Spill," which may not be very current with its news items, but I liked hearing them discussed and dissected by a couple of passionate nerds who have been around long enough to offer some real perspective, and irreverent enough to find the humor in anything. I can't think of anyone else out there like these guys, with their multicultural mix, with their backgrounds, and with their attitudes.

I'm really going to miss them, and my only consolation is that Korey Coleman is far too talented and too big a personality to stay down for very long. He's bound to pop up again somewhere, and I expect the site will continue to live on in some form. There are already rumors and rumblings about what might be next after Spill.com closes up at the end of the month. I'll certainly be keeping an eye out.
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