Season of the Villain is Studio Korppikela’s non-profit web series with length of seven episodes. The story tells, through satire and the means of the super hero genre, of a world without heroes, through the eyes of the super criminals themselves. In a world, where super heroes are part of the everyday life, the villains simply represent the necessary evil, for without the evil from which true heroism could arise, there wouldn’t be any good, either. The symbolic picture of a hero, flying towards the sunset with their loved one, and of the inevitably defeated villain, has made a home for itself in the minds of the people for so long, that it’s taken for granted, diminishing even the need for a grand battle before the seemingly obvious outcome.

But unearned appreciation is poisonous, causing such inflation in true heroism, from which it cannot rise on its own. After the super heroism degenerated from concrete actions to idle “celebrityness”, estranged from the real people, an interesting phenomenon has taken place on the other side of the pool as well. In its own peculiar trait, which super criminality represents, there has always been some sort of a counterforce – some obstacle, which has in its hindrance provided the sufficient willfulness and fuel to set aflame even the most desperate of plans, doomed ever since the beginning. The only virtue in a “Golden Age” villain is his or her insistence, never backing down, even in the face of an impossibly superior opponent – but if the villain has no one left to fight, does even the bad guy have place in this world anymore? Or could it be, that there’s a completely new role to fill in?

Season of the Villain tells of a literal midseason, following the Golden Age of the heroes, but already staring into the face of the pitted, cynical future. But surprisingly, after the extinction of vigilantes, it turns out that the villains have not flourished. In fact, for many of them the situation causes – in a megalomaniacal scale, of course – anxiousness of their own identity. The sense of unbelonging has the villains fixating their resources into more trivial matters, like competing amongst themselves. Super criminals being, by nature, such a narcissistic lot, that even a petty competition may turn into something larger than life – and, for the outside spectator, into something absolutely hysterical.

Once the last true conqueror, Lord of Darkness and old school super criminal is caught by the authorities, a completely new page is turned in the apathy pestered underworld. Due the arrest and the recently vacant title of being the Interpol’s most wanted criminal, four professional criminals are stirred back to action, finding their purpose again, while the fifth – a freshly unemployed minion – finds herself losing her own.

The episodes were released between 2012-13. The filming took place between July and October 2012. The project received financial support through the Oulu City youth council ONE’s (Oulun Nuorten Edustajisto) Nero-campaign. In terms of locations and filming equipment, collaboration was made in addition to the Oulu City with numerous local firms and establishments. We would like to thank you for your help: Pilailupuoti, Radisson Blu Hotel, Oluthuone Parkkinen, the Oulu University’s Zoological Museum, Hotel-restaurant Lasaretti and the Oulu City Library.

Pilot Episode

The Strange Award (1,5)

The Takeoff (2)

The Publicity Dilemma (3)

The Criminal Craft (4)

No Honour Among Thieves (5)

The Grand Finale (6)