The Danger of Bad Titles

I've written previously about the importance of a good title, and the debut of Bryan Singer's highly anticipated new online science fiction series was an example (for me at least) of the dangers of a bad one. The well-produced first two episodes of the digital show have already earned stellar reviews, but the sticking point for its long-term survival is its name -- H+.

Ever since I first heard about it, I was rooting for Singer's online eexperiment to succeed and raise the bar on what Web series can be, but I also had trepidations about that title. People might confuse it with Hulu Plus or with some pharmaceutical hemmorhoid cream. You laugh, but I'm being serious -- it's a dumb title.

Entertainment history is strewn with projects that suffered from misguided monikers, some deserving of failure, but others poor victims of the bad titles with which they were labeled -- The Shawshank Redemption, Quantum of Solace, Mr. Margorium's Wonder Emporium, and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.

Episode 1 is called "Driving Under" and Episode 2 is called "On Their Level."  Maybe H+ can prove me wrong and overcome its horrendous name.

H+ is available to watch for free on YouTube.  Ignore the bad title and enjoy it for what it is -- a terrific new tale of wonder.