One of the few places the web has not taken over is in producing original video content intended for large audiences. There have been no real web series of note at this point despite the hoards of folks who now watch TV shows online. Mike Hale had an article on this in yesterday's New York Times. Hale lists off some current web series and explains where they are lacking.
A few things to keep in mind here: The web's fragmented landscape could mean that it's difficult to gain a large audience. In addition, the strength of the web is its ability to allow anyone to create content. If you can't pull in the large audience, it may not be worthwhile to create high-quality content -- particularly when several quick entertaining clips were created by 100 other users. The only way to effectively distribute these series is through established studios and networks which have the money to produce a quality series, but if significant ad dollars aren't there -- and why would they be if the large audience isn't there? -- then it's going to be a struggle to get web-only series off the ground.
That said, as a laboratory for content, nothing beats what the web provides. The viral nature of content still gives young writers and creators a chance to produce something worthwhile of mass attention. It will be a while, however, before we see a breakthrough web-only series.
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