Lunch Room - Web Series about the Comedy (and Horror) of a Modern Workforce

We all know it: working in some places is not just bad for you professionally, but can also become a black whirlpool of cosmic horror that slowly sucks in your whole soul. While this is a terrible situation to be in, in art, it can be a wonderful source of inspiration for both comedy and subtle drama. Lunch Room is an upcoming web series that takes this concept and builds it into a very entertaining show, which also hits close to home for anyone stuck at a dead-end job.

The series follows a group of workers as they spend time in the lunch room of a low-end supermarket called OzSupermart (which comes with a logo that may or may not look like a gaping vagina, as one of the cast notices in the pilot episode). Here, the staff of the same market converge for all manner of reasons and try to get through their grueling days.

Lunch Room (Trailer) from Martin Ponferrada on Vimeo.

Right off the bat, the series takes that chaotic movement of a big cast often talking one over another, and runs with it. Lunch Room is all about the dullness of being a retail worker, which is intertwined with countless strands of interpersonal contact and relationships. In the space where all spend time to have lunch, relax or go on endless angry tirades, these things come together in a now-classic comedy setup.

In many ways, Lunch Room is the direct continuation of modern masterpieces like Clerks, Office Space, and The Office (more the UK version than the US one). It also features a cast that is very diverse in many different ways, which provides that eclectic mix of so many different people all being trapped in this quiet hellscape of modern low-wage employment. At the same time, the cast does a really excellent job of improving together and bouncing stuff around during dialogues. That really shines through when massive conflicts occur where everyone is shouting at everyone else, giving the entire show an appealing change of pace from the otherwise very mellow atmosphere of slackers slacking off.

Funny, witty, and yet so true for so many workers across the world right now, Lunch Room has all of the makings of a future comedy hit. In short form, it delivers the essence of the workplace comedy-drama genre and does a cool update on its themes and topics, ideally suited for the third decade of the 21st century. Watch the full pilot episode right here.