Virginia Madsen in Jan

Jan is a show from the YouTube Original Channel Initiative on the WIGS channel. The channel is dedicated to highlighting Web series, short films and documentaries centering around the lives of women. The channel only seems to have lasted a couple of years but the work remains there to be viewed today, or at least at the time of writing.

Most, if not all of the shows on the WIGS channel share the same universe, characters from one show appear in others, even if just briefly. Each of the shows last as long as they need to, and each episode of the shows averages around 8 minutes.

Jan was the first of these shows to premiere.

The channel seems to have attracted a wealth of talent to work on these shows, Jan is no exception. The titular character, Jan, is played by Caitlin Gerard. Playing support are Laura Spencer, Stephen Moyer, Jaime Murray, Julia Stiles, Iddo Goldberg and of course Virginia Madsen to name but a few.

We first meet Jan as a new employee of Mel, the character portrayed by Virginia Madsen. Mel is a photographer whose latest project is to take pictures of women in the moments after sex, to “capture ‘The Moment’” for her new project book called (subtly) Afterglow.

Jan is the recent winner of a competition to be her assistant. On the first shoot her glasses get broken which leads to her being taken under the wing of the male part of the project, Gery (Stephen Moyer) who is responsible for bringing the models (Jamie Murray) ‘moment’ to reality.

As the series goes on we see the two get closer together as a series of circumstances unfold, mostly through a series of blunders by Jan. These blunders lead to some recognition of her talent through a few happy accidents.

This gets under the skin of Mel, she’s not happy that Jan seems to have come out of nowhere and making no effort to steal her thunder. Virginia Madsen is in full power mode in this role, there is a particularly great scene in the fifth episode between Mel and Jan which leaves the viewer, and Jan, under no illusion of who is in control here. Kind of. The two come to some kind of understanding as the show goes on.

It’s a weird kind of relationship between the two, they don’t seem to trust each other but work as a team nonetheless. I guess I’d call it a professional rivalry. Both are talented, Jan is the newer and younger version of Mel and although she might not like it she tries to help in her own way. Tough love.

Although the episodes are short they tend to run on from each other, which is a bit weird as it could have just been like a normal TV episode. Of the 15 episodes Miss Madsen is present for 9 of them, so well worth adding this one to the watch list.

In all fairness it’d be worth a watch without her, it’s not a bad show or a bad way to kill an hour or so.

Availability:

All ready and waiting for you to watch on the WIGS YouTube Channel.