No. of seasons 3 | Country of origin Canada | |
Genre Web SeriesTween ComedyDetective Mystery Starring Madison CheeatowMarlee MasloveElena GorgevskaScott Beaudin Original language(s) English/French subtitles | ||
Ruby Skye PI is a Canadian web series created by Jill Golick. The first two seasons, The Spam Scam and The Haunted Library, were shown on YouTube over the course of a few months and has since been shown on Koldcast, Vimeo, blip.tv, DigitalChickTV, Clicker and MinglemediaTV. Ruby Skye PI has earned plaudits from numerous festivals, including the ITN Festival, the Banff World Media Festival, and the LA Web Festival. The web series follows the detective work of Ruby Skye as she tries to solve mysteries using her keen powers of observation.
Contents
Cast
Recurring Characters
Production
Ruby Skye P.I. is the brainchild of the digital pioneer Jill Golick, and is directed by Kelly Harms and produced by Karen Walton, Kerry Young and Golick under the flag of her company, Story2.OH. Golick and Julie Strassman, Golick's writing partner, crafted the story and then developed the character of Ruby to go along with it. They applied to the Independent Production Fund and then wrote the scripts when they had the money. They had the green light from IPF on June 18, 2010, and shot all 12 episodes of the first season in early August of that year.
Transmedia
Ruby Skye P.I. has a unique relationship with its audience in that the creators are immediately accessible. They have a dedicated Twitter account, Facebook group, Tumblr account and YouTube page. Their official website allows audience members to interact with the show, from reading blog entries relating to content to playing games of rock, paper, scissors. Despite their openness, Jill Golick, speaking at a Writers Guild of Canada event, said of Ruby Skye's audience that they "created opportunities on the website for our audience to participate and be part of a community and we'll do that much more with the storytelling next time around".
As of the second season, Ruby Skye P.I. has several websites that lend to the transmedial experience. These include O'Deary Library, O'Deary Puzzles, blogs for Hailey, Diana and The Mint Chip Girls, as well as several other ways to participate with the series on a deeper digital level.
Critical reception
Those Video Guys states that "Madison Cheeatow is a fantastic actress and she really has the charisma to hold together a series that is purely based on her and her character". James Floyd Kelly, part of GeekDad on Wired.com, said of the series, "As I continued to watch the series and be introduced to key characters, I was happy to see that the character of Ruby (and her friends and family) don’t seem to fall into stereotypes." Kelly went onto say that she had "to give credit to the team that has developed Ruby Skye, P.I. — it’s got to be very hard to write, film, and release a show for young adults that doesn’t take the easy route to try to get our kids’ attentions. With so many television shows containing violence, sex, and harsh language, it’s actually quite nice to watch a well-written and professionally edited web series. The dialogue is realistic (you won’t find those 2-minute-long monologues here), the mystery is interesting (and based on a real-world scam), and the characters are likable." Clicker.com likens Ruby Skye P.I. to hit teen shows from the 1990s. They said: "The mysteries may be silly—ranging from a Nigerian money scam to a sham wedding—but you feel it every time Ruby makes a mistake, or when her friends turn on her a la “Harriet.” And true to those wonderful ‘90s shows, the adults are hilariously bumbling and over the top, from villains to supporting characters."
IPF executive director Andra Sheffer referring to Ruby Skye PI's building audience, said, "It’s not like TV or film, where you have the launch night and sit back, hoping the audience comes. This is the continual building of an audience."
Awards
Nominations
Festival selections
Season Two: The Haunted Library
Season two began on October 10, 2012.