Angels walk amongst us in web-series 'Circledrawers'

At the beginning of May a 9 episode web series called Circledrawers began opening up to us a different look at the world and class of angels called Circledrawers. Between 'Somewhere in Iceland' and 'Somewhere in New York' the search for a special kind of Circledrawer is happening...

Welcome to world of the Circledrawers – lowly janitors of the Almighty's imperfect system, angels living among us and performing the most mundane of tasks. Oleg, a special emissary has arrived at transmission central in Iceland to do the semi-centennial report on the efficiency of the Circledrawer system. He introduces himself to the team and begins his analysis of these poor creatures who were once human but, due to unproductive or lackluster lives, have been reborn as angels. Each is condemned to complete a near impossible list of 1571 tasks in the hopes of being reborn as human once more. But the report is not Oleg's only task in Iceland, as Lewis, a young man in New York, is about to find out. Accidentally undetected by the system for twenty years, he was born and raised human. But now his human life will be erased and his life as a Circledrawer begins. As Oleg continues his report in Iceland, Lewis is placed in the care of two seasoned Circledrawers, Marcus and Moses, who introduce him to their strange limbo reality, including: the women who govern it (including Sharon Angela of the "Sopranos"), the attention-starved Human Protector (Steve Schirripa of the "Sopranos"), and the wonders of batteries, flashlights, and prostitute nights. But can Lewis really leave his former human life behind? And is there something Oleg isn't sharing about his mission to Iceland and the true identity of Lewis? Meet the clumsy, humorous, pathetic bureaucrats of the after-and before-life…Welcome to the world of THE CIRCLEDRAWERS.

Circledrawers introduces a different mythology about angels. Creators Olaf de Fleur Johannesson and Stefan Schaefer have written into their angel world a hierarchy, one that even distinguishes between gender too. These individuals are Circledrawers because they did not do enough good in their human lives to get them into a higher rank. So they become denizens of the human world and aspire to get back to their human lives. Their goal is to become human again, not a higher rank in the angel hierarchy. It is not clear if it is even an option to rise above this rank. But after they spend so much time in the human world trying to remind themselves what it was to be human before I guess it is no wonder that all they want is to be human once again.

With this mythology of angels I cannot help but feel sorry for them and their plight. Even if they reach their goal of 1571 good deeds they are then assigned to the role of Human Protector and they are under a kind of house arrest. Though they are Circledrawers made human again they still cannot go out into the world for another year and are left to introduce new Circledrawers to their new world and role. That is of course if they ever reach their goal of 1571 good deeds, a goal we are led to understand is very difficult to reach.

And while we feel this empathy for these bureaucratic angels all of these characters that have certain charm. Despite the hopeless situation there is still room for humour as well. And though completely unintentional by the creators of this series I did have a good laugh when our own Swarez makes a brief appearance as a pimp. It is not a funny scene per se it’s just that he really can be that swarthy. But other than the personal moment I found a definite charm to the whole series that despite the sadness of the situation still made watching it enjoyable. This hodge podge of characters and lowly servants to the Kingdom never drew pity out of me but empathy.

Johannesson and Schaefer have also hinted at something greater, something not alluded to until the final moments of this first series, about the nature of this young man Lewis, and if they get the chance to make a second series I can only hope that then we can understand the true nature of Lewis and why so much attention and effort was made to bring him into the Circledrawers fold.

Olaf de Fleur Johannesson ‘s direction is very calm and stoic. He moves the camera very little and when he does he is very gentle with it. He understands the world of the Circledrawers isn’t at all an exciting one there is no sense trying to make it any more exciting than it already is not. His camera remains in position mostly and sometimes incorporates slow dolly drawbacks. Even his handheld moments are smooth and restrained. And his settings also lack any warmth, symbolic of this life of the Circledrawer.

Lets hope there will be a second series and something greater is coming.