Living Free

*Living Free* is a comedy web series created by Mike Barkhoff. The series premiered with a seven episode first season on September 17th, 2021. The week after its seventh episode, on November 10th, 2021, it was teased on the company's social media that a second season had been commissioned, with the revelation that plots had been written up to Season 3. The next day, November 11th, it was confirmed that a second season of 10 episodes was set to follow the debut of the series, containing all actors as well as adding Conner Paulsen to appear as a minor character.

## Premise

The show is a fictional view of Mike Barkhoff as he navigates the Live Free company, with appearances from members of the team also portraying fictional versions of themselves.

## Plot

### Season 1:

Mike Barkhoff is attending therapy due to his excessive stress that has come with trying to be an accomplished filmmaker. Dylan Van Hauen, the younger brother of his best friend, is trying to convince Mike continuously to return to making films on a lever more than just writing, but Mike refuses, seemingly not missing the time he and Jarrod spent in High School working on film efforts. Struggling with writing, Mike has turned to Ron Gomes for inspiration, but, upon breaking the news to him that he is considering delaying Ron's film and making it his last effort as anything more than a writer, Ron tries to convince Mike otherwise.

Mike comes up with the idea to astral project in order to find more inspiration for writing. During this, he sees variations of himself mocking him for being a poor friend to Dylan and Ron. Mike leaves this experience with an altered opinion, and agrees to help Dylan with his film effort. During a business conversation with Zach Delfs, Mike's Manager, Mike expresses his desire to "find the right time to leave" but obliges to handle their current projects in a professional manner to their completion. While filming with Dylan for his film effort, Mike's car is stolen, and he blows up on Dylan when the latter tries to convince the former that it is just an incident of "shit happens".

Mike regains his car from the thief and parts ways with Dylan. Having time to reconsider his reaction, Mike apologizes to Dylan and opens up about the weight on his shoulders, agreeing to continue help Dylan finalize the film. Shortly thereafter, Mike, struggling due to recent release "I Give It A Year" bearing a low IMDb rating, is lifted up when Zach contacts him regarding interest in an interview with Mike. Dylan congratulates Mike, and Mike's therapist suggests that good friends will be there for him when he needs them most. The Interviewer ends up being an elite woman who is trying to further accuse and blame Mike for accusations of domestic abuse between him and his last girlfriend. Mike tries to sway the topic but, when he cannot, cuts the interview short, and apologizes to Zach. Dylan interferes the call and tells Mike that he is sorry and not to listen to the interviewer, making Mike come to the conclusion that Dylan is indeed a good friend.

## Cast

Mike Barkhoff (7 episodes)

Dylan Van Hauen (6 episodes)

Ron Gomes (2 episodes)

Dr. Yawar Mushtaq (2 episodes)

Guest or Minor Roles Below:

### Minor Roles:

Anessa Smith (1 episode, Season 1)

Conner Paulsen (4 episodes, Season 2)

## Production

Inspired by Donald Glover's series 'Atlanta', Barkhoff wrote the first season's plot after formatting a trailer. Having had difficulty coming up with a plot naturally, this was enough to get Barkhoff's liking, and six scripts followed in two days. The fourth episode script was quickly transitioned to two episodes due to it's length in comparison to it's counterparts.

The first season was filmed in April of 2021. Barkhoff enlisted help from actors to fill in scenes occurring over virtual methods. The only actor Barkhoff worked with in person was Dylan Van Hauen.

A song from Norff is featured in the season finale, "The Interview". Many aspects of the show bleed into non-fictional occurrences, though spread out. The characters, meanwhile, lie closer to fictional. For example, in the aforementioned season finale, a subplot of Barkhoff getting falsely accused for domestic abuse allegations in his hometown is based on an actual occurrence following a bad breakup. Episode 2's "Astral", meanwhile, makes fun of a non-fictional recurrence, following Barkhoff having gone through several 'near lucid dreams' for months.

The Barking Vans Facebook marketed the first season from Episode 6 on, and announced Jarrod Van Hauen as director of Episode 7. In the same post, it was revealed that he would have a cameo in a forthcoming episode, hinting at an early confirmation of Season 2 before an official one. The day of the season finale, the Live Free Reddit page also announced an upcoming announcement set for November 11th, six days following the finale.

On November 10th, five days following the finale, the Facebook page of Live Free revealed that plots were written for Seasons 2 and 3 of the series. The following day, the aforementioned teased date of November 11th, the Facebook revealed a poster for Season 2, confirmed it for 10 episodes, a release in 2022, and the return of the primary characters - Mike, Dylan, and Ron - as well as the addition of Conner Paulsen appearing as himself in a minor role.

## Opening and Ending

Living Free in boldface appears at the start of every episode, typically over a framed camera angle. After this fades, Created by Mike Barkhoff appears in the same font as follow-up. In Episode 5, this appears over a black screen as opposed to a scenery backdrop. Season 2's openings changed entirely. While some episodes use a traditional opening sequence, showing actor credits by an image - and an edited keyboard image for Ron's credit - others use other methods, such as a clapperboard or to mock the intro of a specific film.

The end credits are traditional, but are the first time the cast and crew are revealed to the audience. This lasts 10 to 15 seconds. The ending for Season 2 remains the same for few episodes, but others do the same juxtaposed to the preceding image before the episode's conclusion. In one particular instance, the credits don't scroll but rather appear frame by frame style, based around the head of Barkhoff's character in the frame as he sits in reflection.

## Reception

Early response to the series has been unanimous applaud. Episodes 1 and 2 were submitted to be viewed early, on their initially planned release days (set in July). Both episodes have above a 9.5/10 on IMDb from 20 people, with the second scoring a 10/10.

The third and sixth episodes remain the lowest rated on IMDb, the former having an 8.3 and the latter an 8.6, while all remaining five episodes (two stated above) hold above a 9. Episode 4 maintains a 9.8, while 5 carries a 9.3, and 7 a 9.7.

Clarke Accloades commented on each episode his opine, and only criticized the third and sixth episodes to an extended degree. Episodes 2, 5, and 7 in particular were lamented by him positively.

Following the former two episodes release on Drakoloid Adult Zone upon the show's syndication, the new channel audience gave positive reviews to the two episodes. Particularly the debut, which one audience member commented was a "really good premiere" that "set everything up".

Barkhoff himself admitted that he was proud of the series, also adding that he genuinely had fun filming it, the first project he's commented this on in years.

Several collaborates of Barkhoff's had the opportunity to read the scripts prior to filming, such as Drakoloid and UGK David, both of whom have reviewed it well publicly, as well.