Red vs. Blue is an early and influential web series that offered a fun spoof of games, sci fi, and more and produced hundreds of episodes across multiple seasons.
What Is It?
This comedy animated web series takes a stab at first-person shooter games (like Halo, from which it borrows its footage) while also acting as a parody of the science fiction genre and life in general. The basic premise (for the first five seasons) centers on armored soldiers from two teams, the Red and the Blue, who have set up bases in Blood Gulch and whose sole purpose is to destroy each other, even though there’s not a lot of shooting going on. For the most part, the series gives us the mundane, off-kilter conversations of the troops as they wait for orders or carry out the most recent routine instructions given to them. And the fact is that the soldiers don’t really care about killing each other (except for Sarge); they just want to get through each day without suffering much in the way of personal damage.
Aired: 2003-2014, 19 seasons + 6 miniseries Totaling 381 Episodes + 1 Film
Cast: Matt Hullum, Burnie Burns, Gustavo Sorola, Geoff Ramsey, Dan Godwin
Crew: Matt Hullum (Creator/Writer/Director), Burnie Burns (Creator/Writer/Director)
Legacy:
This award-winning web series is one of the earliest in that format and one of the longest-running and it made good use of the machinima process to create a show that offers a spoof on games, sci fi, the military, and life in general.
A Closer Look:
Red vs. Blue is one of the very first web series, premiering on the Rooster Teeth site all the way back in 2003, and it continued on all the way to 2024, having produced 19 seasons and close to 400 episodes plus one movie. It is made using the machinima process, an animation technique that uses the graphics engines from a video game (in this case, Halo) to produce the visuals, syncing the movement of the characters with the dialogue.
Creators Matt Hullum and Burnie Burns first produced the series with the intention of it going about six to eight episodes, but it became an immediate hit on the internet. Bungie Studios (the creators and owners of the Halo games) allowed them to continue using footage from their games with no license fee, as it brought positive attention to their products. The original storyline, The Blood Gulch Chronicles, ran for five seasons and was followed by additional seasons and several miniseries.
I can’t say that I have watched all 380+ episodes, but I did make it through several of the early seasons and have sampled some of the later installments as well. It’s definitely an enjoyable romp, livened up by the droll dialogue that provides the main focus of the episodes. Of course, some lines pass by without much notice, while others can be quite dry or overly subtle, but each episode I’ve watched usually delivers at least one or two laugh-out-loud moments.
One note, though: even though this series has generated multiple seasons with ongoing story arcs, Red vs. Blue is best viewed in small bites. The mundane dialogue of soldiers who don’t really want to be fighting each other can be quite witty at times, but with a lack of much else in the way of action, it can quickly grow old in large doses.
There is definitely some character development along the way, even though we never see the actual people inside the Powered Assault Armor. Some characters come and go as the series develops a large roster over its many seasons. The animation is limited, but that is to be expected given the machinima process. This series isn’t about constant action; it’s much more about the dialogue between the characters, which is delivered quite adeptly by a very capable voice cast. You need not watch every episode, but this is definitely a must-see for video game fans, and sci-fi fans in general will likely enjoy it as well. With the episodes only a few minutes long, it’s a quick watch, and you may find yourself getting addicted.
Cancelled Too Soon?
Not only was this series not cancelled too soon, I believe it may count as the longest-running sci-fi web series (though it’s hard to say for sure, as there isn’t a definitive resource for the genre). As mentioned above, the creators originally planned only a handful of episodes, but the series kept growing and ultimately produced a very impressive run.
The 19th season was announced in advance as the last, but it was eventually compiled into a movie (released in 2024) amid the shutdown of Rooster Teeth around that time. A continuation of the Zero miniseries (Season 18) was produced and became the official 19th and final season of the show.
Should It Be Rebooted?
Considering that there was a new entry in the franchise as recently as 2024, it seems far too soon to put it in the reboot queue. With 381 episodes plus a movie, the series has certainly given us plenty to watch and may have taken the concept as far as it can go. Still, some new installments every few years might be enjoyable if the creators come up with interesting new story ideas.
Interesting Facts:
According to Wikipedia, machinima “is an animation technique using real-time screen capturing in computer graphics engines, video games, and virtual worlds to create a cinematic production.” The term itself is a portmanteau of the words machine and cinema. The earliest video games that allowed the use of graphics engines for this purpose were 1992’s Stunt Island from Disney Interactive Studios and Doom from id Software. However, it was 1996’s Quake that truly launched the machinima trend, as players used the game’s demo-recording tools to stage scenes, move characters, and tell stories inside the game engine. Diary of a Camper, created by a group known as “The Rangers”, is often cited as the first film in the genre. The success of Red vs. Blue later brought much wider attention to machinima.
Streaming video on the internet was not common in 2003 when Red vs. Blue first appeared, due to the lack of high-speed connections at the time (many people were still accessing the web via dial-up). Early episodes were made available in QuickTime (QT) and Windows Media Video (WMV) formats, which viewers would download and watch offline.
Where Can You Watch It?
Many of the seasons have been collected on DVD and Blu-ray, though some have gone out of print, and I don’t see a complete series release. You can stream the show for free on the Rooster Teeth website, and it is also available on services like Prime Video, The Roku Channel, and Pluto TV. You will need to search out the story arc names like Red Vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles or Red vs. Blue: The Recollection because each typically has its own entry on those services.
Read More About the Show:
If you produced an independent sci fi/fantasy web series during the 2000s and/or 2010s, please contact us at cultscifi.com@gmail.com with the information about the show. Or if you know of productions from that time, please pass along that information as I am working on a project documenting the rise and fall of this format.
