Channel Awesome / ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com. (Discussion thread.)

[Metahuman1]

but then judge by what standards? by big movie standards? they have nowhere near the money. by tv show standards? they have nowhere near the people required, and again, or the money. what standards do you judge them by without being unfair? what can you expect from them without expecting the impossible? how can I rely on such judgement if the judgement might be holding them to standards they cannot possibly reach?

Very much this.



As for some fave eps, I'm rather fond of the cool world review Marzgurl and Linkara did, I really liked his 200th and 300th eps, Marzgurls Don Bluth and so far her Ralph Bakshi were very interesting. As for Doug, I'm rather partial to the Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie review, along with the Alone in the dark cross over, the Batman and Robin and Heavy Metal Reviews, And the Reviews for Devil, Signs, Last Air Bender, and The Starwars Christmas Special. JO and NC's Digimon the movie review was a lot of fun, as were JO's reviews of Azumanga Daioh and Outlaw Star, as well as her Witchblade Review were she has Nash do a cameo to demonstrate what a lot of casual fans of the Witchblade Comic had for a reaction once exposed to the Witchblade Anime. Including me.


Also, I'm not a regular follower of Nash, but I liked his cross overs with Linkara for the Justice League 1990's movie, with Linkara, Film Brain and the Late Jewario for the Dr. Strange Movie, and his Video on the recent events with the Star Wars Expanded Universe.

[DigoDragon]

Here's a question: What are the very best episodes from each of the CA/TGWTG/League of Super Critics people? I mean this as both a metric of what episodes are most enjoyable and which episodes are the best examples of what to expect from each series.

My favorite Doug Walker reviews were Sonic the Hedgehog and the commercial reviews.

[Psyren]

I... hmm. I like a great many NChick episodes so it's hard for me to pin down my favorite.

Milo and Otis is a standout because she really did some good research on that one to detonate people's rose-colored nostalgia goggles.

Men In Black was great because she used the original as a great way of illustrating what it truly takes to make a good movie (and the first men in black was exactly that - a good movie) - while using the sequel to illustrate how easily a studio and series of design committees can piss all that away.

The Lorax was another favorite, as she basically focused on the need to unnecessarily dumb important messages down for perceived consumption by children - when you can actually make them not just appealing but even successful without doing that, as she illustrated handily by contrasting it to Wall-E, a much better movie with the exact same message.

There's a ton more I like but I'll stop there.

[Tengu_temp]

but then judge by what standards? by big movie standards? they have nowhere near the money. by tv show standards? they have nowhere near the people required, and again, or the money. what standards do you judge them by without being unfair? what can you expect from them without expecting the impossible? how can I rely on such judgement if the judgement might be holding them to standards they cannot possibly reach?

I don't judge the production values. I judge the content.

I liked Linkara's very first storylines about Silent Hill. Do you know why? Because they were funny. Right now there's no humour, just a nerd's ego trip as he defeats more and more powerful enemies.

[Lord Raziere]

I don't judge the production values. I judge the content.

By what standards? The amount of money and people he has does more than just limit his special effects- it limits the plots he can tell. it limits the places he can go, the enemies he can fight, the things he can do. sure you can be creative with the limited amount of space he has to work with, but its tight. writing is determined by the resources you have at hand just as much as what you can creatively come up with. if your novelist, this is not much of a concern- you can spend all your time on the plot, because the only resources you really need are: words, critics, an endless amount of time, paper and ink. you can write anything you can imagine because with such words you can depict anything you can imagine.

however when you start writing for other things however, things start getting more complex. big movies are limited by the resources you can use to put all this together- sure you can write anything, but that doesn't mean the script will be accepted, as they might not have the special effects to pull such a thing off. sure these days you can do a lot of things with CGI, but that wasn't always the case. and even then, all this requires a lot of money to tell the story that you want to tell, it requires a lot of work to figure out how to fit the writers vision to the big screen, which sometimes need a rewrite if something proves unfeasible to do.

or look at tv shows. those require more than writing- those require either a host of actors all by themselves and a set built for them to act in, or you need good animators to churn out good consistent art every week or so, plus voice-actors. your working on a time limit for a show that during every episode, is at most one hour long. thats not exactly the conditions that will produce the best writing, only enough for it to make sense. forget about making the best plot ever- you got to make deadline. and both Doug and Lewis are working on a weekly deadline.

you want the best plot ever, go read books. this is just the plain truth. they're the medium that can pull it off the best. if you want visuals and sound with that- prepare to lose other things in the process. Channel Awesome isn't even working with the resources we can expect from your average tv show network, yet still holds themselves to a weekly show schedule. the standards are already low tengu. the only question with these things is: how low can you go?

that and the ego-tripping? kind of a reaction to all those heroes who are all "boo-hoo-hoo, woe is me. sob. angst. psychologically messed up. watch me do my Shinji impression." which would you rather have? at least this flaw is more original. if it can be considered a flaw. confidence in yourself is generally better than none at all.

[Metahuman1]

By what standards? The amount of money and people he has does more than just limit his special effects- it limits the plots he can tell. it limits the places he can go, the enemies he can fight, the things he can do. sure you can be creative with the limited amount of space he has to work with, but its tight. writing is determined by the resources you have at hand just as much as what you can creatively come up with. if your novelist, this is not much of a concern- you can spend all your time on the plot, because the only resources you really need are: words, critics, an endless amount of time, paper and ink. you can write anything you can imagine because with such words you can depict anything you can imagine.

however when you start writing for other things however, things start getting more complex. big movies are limited by the resources you can use to put all this together- sure you can write anything, but that doesn't mean the script will be accepted, as they might not have the special effects to pull such a thing off. sure these days you can do a lot of things with CGI, but that wasn't always the case. and even then, all this requires a lot of money to tell the story that you want to tell, it requires a lot of work to figure out how to fit the writers vision to the big screen, which sometimes need a rewrite if something proves unfeasible to do.

or look at tv shows. those require more than writing- those require either a host of actors all by themselves and a set built for them to act in, or you need good animators to churn out good consistent art every week or so, plus voice-actors. your working on a time limit for a show that during every episode, is at most one hour long. thats not exactly the conditions that will produce the best writing, only enough for it to make sense. forget about making the best plot ever- you got to make deadline. and both Doug and Lewis are working on a weekly deadline.

you want the best plot ever, go read books. this is just the plain truth. they're the medium that can pull it off the best. if you want visuals and sound with that- prepare to lose other things in the process. Channel Awesome isn't even working with the resources we can expect from your average tv show network, yet still holds themselves to a weekly show schedule. the standards are already low tengu. the only question with these things is: how low can you go?

that and the ego-tripping? kind of a reaction to all those heroes who are all "boo-hoo-hoo, woe is me. sob. angst. psychologically messed up. watch me do my Shinji impression." which would you rather have? at least this flaw is more original. if it can be considered a flaw. confidence in yourself is generally better than none at all.

Besides, again, there's really not THAT much ego on Linkara's vids. That's why there are according to atop the 4th wall Canon multiple Champions (Consisting of every member of channel awesome/league of super critics/thatguywiththeglasses and others beyond even that.) Linkara is just one Champion of a number of them, and this was done specifically to keep himself form becoming too self important and cliched to be entertaining by being "The Chosen One.tm"

Also, the 9th story arc, Guns and Sorcery, AKA, the Gunslinger story arc is about how he's getting too big for his britches to use and old expression, and it costs him his magic and all the neat toys he could use because of it. How he'd gotten to the point that he was starting to abuse his power and he needed to rein that in.

Again, your thinking of this wrong. Your thinking in terms of Novels and Movies and TV Shows with teams of writers and the budgets go tell a much wider variety of stories but have certain styles. The styles you need to think of are those of Super Hero Comics.

Don't think Supernatural or Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Don't think Harry Potter or A Song Of Ice And Fire. Don't think The Lord of the Rings or *Insert Oscar Bait here.*.

Think Power Girl. Think Power Rangers. Think Blue Beetle. Think The Titans/Teen Titans when there not being run by utterly incompetent writers/editors. That should be more your point of comparison.

Also, humor is largely subjective, just cause you don't think it's funny doesn't mean others won't. And beyond that, a lot of the humor is contained in the review itself more then the story lines, which does mean they can, again, be skipped if the review is all you care about.


(Though being up on the story line helped with one of the better "I AM A MAN" bits. Because when his fist comes back from off camera, he managed to bring lord Vyce back form hammer space, much to there mutual surprise. )

And riddle me this. Have you ever seen a better take off on Lovecraftian styled Horror that actually got the slow, unnerving feel of dealing with an outer god so well as The Entity Story Arc?

[Androgeus]

SF Derbies has just recently joined up with Channel Awesome, so I now have a new favourite reviewer on the site.

[Psyren]

As someone who barely reads comics, and generally only hears about certain storylines when they get mainstream attention (e.g. One More Day, Ultimatum, Gay Cry For Justice etc.) I find Linkara entertaining and educational. Make of that what you will.

[Hazuki]

And riddle me this. Have you ever seen a better take off on Lovecraftian styled Horror that actually got the slow, unnerving feel of dealing with an outer god so well as The Entity Story Arc?

Well, Lovecraft's works... Though I do feel that branding the Entity as Lovecraftian is wrong. Nyarlathotep does not run away from a guy in a cheap helmet and a few lackeys with guns. He also doesn't fall victim to a Doctor Who speech, regardless of what Doctor Who tells you*.

I also feel like The Entity was far too concerned with people, too willing to chat with Linkara and focus on him, too weak, to truly capture the feeling of Lovecraft's works. It's a good storyline, but it felt more like, as is befitting Linkara's style, a comic book interpretation of Lovecraft than one that actually reflects his work.

*Yog-Shoggoth does not get defeated by a random twenty-something! No matter how sexy she might be!

[Androgeus]

He also doesn't fall victim to a Doctor Who speech, regardless of what Doctor Who tells you*.

*Yog-Shoggoth does not get defeated by a random twenty-something! No matter how sexy she might be!

Are... are you referring to the Great Intelligence?

[Hazuki]

Are... are you referring to the Great Intelligence?

Indeed I am.

[tensai_oni]

My 2 very big cents about Linkara:

It doesn't matter if in his storylines he is an unbeatable Mary Sue or someone with flaws and someone who sometimes loses. The fact that he made himself the main character, gave himself super powers, made himself a White Ranger (from a very American franchise made by Saban - Super Sentai, what's that?) and made himself face bad guys and rescue the world... this is all pure indulgence. It's a self insert fanfic that we're all supposed to watch.

And okay, maybe Linkara's writing is better than some of the crappier comic books, but that still doesn't mean very good. And yes, the plot comes at the end of reviews so no one is forced to watch those bits if they don't want to, but you know what? It still eats into the review's quality. If Linkara didn't make those self-indulgent stories, he'd have more time and effort to put into the review itself, make it better.

Reviews are for reviewing things, not serious ongoing storylines with plot arcs and stuff. Focus on one or the other, or the quality of both suffers.

[Metahuman1]

Well, Lovecraft's works... Though I do feel that branding the Entity as Lovecraftian is wrong. Nyarlathotep does not run away from a guy in a cheap helmet and a few lackeys with guns. He also doesn't fall victim to a Doctor Who speech, regardless of what Doctor Who tells you*.

I also feel like The Entity was far too concerned with people, too willing to chat with Linkara and focus on him, too weak, to truly capture the feeling of Lovecraft's works. It's a good storyline, but it felt more like, as is befitting Linkara's style, a comic book interpretation of Lovecraft than one that actually reflects his work.

*Yog-Shoggoth does not get defeated by a random twenty-something! No matter how sexy she might be!

Yes, Lovecraft Does Lovecraftian horror better the anyone, that's not what I meant. Have you seen anyone do film or TV or what have you that tackles that sub genera better?


As for the Entity, Vyce was rather powerful and even he wasn't a threat, he was just annoying. As far as taking it's time, it's immortal and time is all but meaningless too it, and it was playing with him cause hey, minor amusing distraction.

Yes, I realize that if you look at the whole body of Lovecrafts works, convincing it to commit suicide is not a thing that should work, but then again, Cthulhu took a boat to the head and went down so hey, I'll give him some leeway there. More so since he'd done pretty much everything else in keeping with right up to that point so Deviating at the end for sake of not having to end the series right then is forgivable.


Psyren: I wouldn't insult people of that persuading by trying to retitled the refuse that was Cry For Justice with a term for them in it.

[Hazuki]

Yes, Lovecraft Does Lovecraftian horror better the anyone, that's not what I meant. Have you seen anyone do film or TV or what have you that tackles that sub genera better?

Mentioning Lovecraft himself was a joke... I don't actually watch many films or TV shows to be an adequate judge of that, though I hear one of the movies from around the 80s(?) was meant to be pretty good at capturing the feel.

As for the Entity, Vyce was rather powerful and even he wasn't a threat, he was just annoying. As far as taking it's time, it's immortal and time is all but meaningless too it, and it was playing with him cause hey, minor amusing distraction.

True, but a guy with a lot of firepower still shouldn't even be annoying to something that's meant to capture Lovecraft's feel. And implying that something Lovecraftian actually feels human emotions does nothing but humanize them...which is kind of the opposite of the point of the mythos, no?

Yes, I realize that if you look at the whole body of Lovecrafts works, convincing it to commit suicide is not a thing that should work, but then again, Cthulhu took a boat to the head and went down so hey, I'll give him some leeway there.

Cthulhu was stunned, not exactly taken down... If Linkara's speech made The Entity take a nap for two minutes, maybe I'd agree.

More so since he'd done pretty much everything else in keeping with right up to that point so Deviating at the end for sake of not having to end the series right then is forgivable.

Well...he could have told it differently, which is one way he could have maintained that feelings (Assuming that was his goal). As I understand it, most of the threat in Lovecraft's works comes in the form of remnants, or the threat of cultists bringing them to bear. I feel that Linkara's mistake was in facing off against The Entity itself; it robs it of all threat if all it takes is the equivalent of saying "This statement is false" to defeat it.

If he wanted to preserve that feeling of Lovecraftian horror, The Entity should never have been confronted directly. It shouldn't be a human form, with human emotions (amusement and sadistic glee, I seem to recall).

Again, not saying it was a bad storyline. Just that I found the ending anticlimactic.

[Cikomyr]

SF Derbies has just recently joined up with Channel Awesome, so I now have a new favourite reviewer on the site.

Wait, what?!

[Tengu_temp]

By what standards?

By my very own personal tastes. Linkara's storylines are boring. There's no effective drama, no tension, no atmosphere. Some people say that some of his villains, like Lord Vice or the Entity, are scary. I say those people would probably get a heart attack when they saw any half-decent horror.

And it might be just my own personal opinion, but you know what? A lot of people share it.

At least I appreciate Linkara's honesty in addressing this matter. "I put the storylines on the end of the video on purpose, if they don't interest you, you can skip them." That is a good approach, and it's exactly what I do. Because, really, I usually like Linkara's videos, especially his non-AT4W videos. I just hate those storylines.

[Androgeus]

Wait, what?!

He announced it yesterday on his twitter (this tweet)

[Kitten Champion]

He announced it yesterday on his twitter (this tweet)

Well, so long as his site's still around it doesn't really matter.

Although the site can finally claim it has someone who reviews anime (on occasion) and doesn't annoy me thoroughly, mostly because he treats it like every other review he does.

[Cikomyr]

Well, so long as his site's still around it doesn't really matter.

Although the site can finally claim it has someone who reviews anime (on occasion) and doesn't annoy me thoroughly, mostly because he treats it like every other review he does.

I respect his approach when you reviewing animations of any kind:

"I will treat it like any other type of fiction. I will not cut it any slack because of the excuse "its for children". At the most, i will point out the elements i feel should be seen from a children's point of view, but crap is crap."

Basically addressing the fact that many executives seem to consider children to be morons, while they are just.. New minds.

[Metahuman1]

Mentioning Lovecraft himself was a joke... I don't actually watch many films or TV shows to be an adequate judge of that, though I hear one of the movies from around the 80s(?) was meant to be pretty good at capturing the feel.

True, but a guy with a lot of firepower still shouldn't even be annoying to something that's meant to capture Lovecraft's feel. And implying that something Lovecraftian actually feels human emotions does nothing but humanize them...which is kind of the opposite of the point of the mythos, no?

Cthulhu was stunned, not exactly taken down... If Linkara's speech made The Entity take a nap for two minutes, maybe I'd agree.

Well...he could have told it differently, which is one way he could have maintained that feelings (Assuming that was his goal). As I understand it, most of the threat in Lovecraft's works comes in the form of remnants, or the threat of cultists bringing them to bear. I feel that Linkara's mistake was in facing off against The Entity itself; it robs it of all threat if all it takes is the equivalent of saying "This statement is false" to defeat it.

If he wanted to preserve that feeling of Lovecraftian horror, The Entity should never have been confronted directly. It shouldn't be a human form, with human emotions (amusement and sadistic glee, I seem to recall).

Again, not saying it was a bad storyline. Just that I found the ending anticlimactic.

It's not a thing that's done often outside of comics and literature because it often doesn't translate well at all to other media. Hell, based on a fair number of comics I've seen that went for it and failed hard, I'd say the feel of a lovecraft style book doesn't translate well too Comics either unless your just frigging brilliant at the medium. But yeah, the thing was right up till the last 1/2 episodes in that storyline it's doing it really well, which is outright uncanny really. Then it sorta adjusted direction near the end, though not as badly as the original idea too was. When he was first kicking the idea for the storyline around in his head he was just gonna fight it and kill it with A Power Rangers Lost Galaxy Galaxy Saber and a new costume and some electric attack special effects. And then he figured out that that was gonna be missing the whole point, particularly after he'd hammered out the details of dealing with Lord Vyce the first time, and we got him point blank telling it after a couple of short goes at it "Ok, There is exactly squat I can do too you, do against you, or do to stop you." The Speech and hitting it with existential horror and the trick question were a last, rather desperate gambit that paid off.

Vyce isn't really just a guy with a lot of fire power. He's suppose to be beyond that. He has knowledge and understanding of the Entity and it's nature. Which, was still not nearly enough to kill it in spite of his best goes at it, but it was enough to make him an irritating distraction form what the Entity wanted to be doing. It didn't like that so it would go away form Vyce to do stuff else were and not be Irritated. When Linkara beat Vyce, it as intrigued and kinda grateful, in that way you might be for someone swatting that fly that's been bugging you. So, he decided to play with him abit before getting one with it.

And yes, Lovecraft's original work (Which has been buggered up by later authors who wrote of/about the Mythos from time to time.) was very much about not just how above and beyond us they were, but how alien to us they were. Lewis decided it might make a more interesting approach however for his story line to divert form that at the tail end and have the motives, which generally speaking should be simple things even when everything else is complex, be simple enough to understand. And that that one very simple thing was his Undoing. He was inspired for that form the notion that it's a tad conflicting in the Lovecraft Mythos that Cthulhu is a Conqueror but is also as on to humans as humans are unto Ants if not even higher above us and Beyond Good and Evil and Even Sanity, that something like that would waste time being a Conqueror, and that maybe that's why he lay dreaming and decided to go back to sleep when the boat hit him. He knew that being a Conqueror when your that fair above such concepts was in and of itself futile.

And yes, I realize that the implications are that hitting it with the boat didn't kill Cthulhu, but hey, got hit in head with boat, didn't do the whole wipe everyone out thing the book had been building up would happen if he did wake up.

Course then again for a long time it was Canon in the DC Universe that Aquaman could make Cthulu obey him cause "King of the Sea and rule of awesome/cool/Metal." So, make of that what you will.

Linkara wanted the feeling right up till the Climax. And he didn't want to 100% abandon the inspiring materials feeling for it (hence no knock down drag out fight to the finish that he won in the end. That and he'd built it up so much he though it would be too big a stretch for him to beat it, particularly after having to trick Vyce to beat him and setting it up that the Entity was a lot more powerful then Vyce.), but he didn't want to stay 100% faithful because well, that would kinda be the end of the show for him and/or everyone else on the site, or just a "the end" and then a giant unexplainable plot hole when new eps came out. So he needed to deviate somewhat to have a way to not have totally lost either, which at the point they were at in a lovecraft book he'd already have. Thus, suicide after having existential horror of your existence brought to your attention. I forgive DC letting Aquaman ride Cthulhu into battle, I'll forgive that. )



And while I liked the Entity story line and thus far I'm enjoying The King of Worms Storyline, I think my favorites in order are The Nimue story line, the The first Two Mechakara story lines in reverse order, and the Linkara Lost Story line.


Edit: Don't think I've seen him review anything animated. Does he usually have much/anything to say about the art work/animation quality itself, or is he just like "It's there and it's not what I'm focusing on. Moving right along..."?

[Tengu_temp]

Although the site can finally claim it has someone who reviews anime (on occasion) and doesn't annoy me thoroughly, mostly because he treats it like every other review he does.

Freakin' finally! The faults of JesuOtaku were discussed at length already. Bennett is a colossal grognard who jerks off to ultraviolent 80s OVAs and thinks all anime made in the last 15 years is slice of life moe ****. MasakoX is so incredibly bland, generic and forgettable I have a hard time to say anything else about him. Y is alright, but he reviews manga, not anime, and makes videos once in a blue moon.

[Terraoblivion]

Bennett has weird opinions, but he is relatively fair in judging the things he reviews and far less scum than his online persona would suggest. I wouldn't let him review modern stuff, but he's pretty good at reviewing 80s and 90s schlock and is perfectly willing to point out why it's awful and is also willing to concede substantial flaws in things he likes. His tastes don't square with mine, some of his views are factually wrong and some of his jokes go way too far into offensive territory, but underneath all that, he's actually fairly competent as a reviewer as long as it's of crappy 80s and 90s ultraviolent or pretentious schlock.

[GolemsVoice]

I mostly watch it for the smaller reviewers like MikeJ, ThatSciFiGuy and especially Rap Critic. I really like RC, because although I'm not that big a rap fan, his reviews are fun and understandable for outsiders, while still containing the occassional nugget of rap lore. While he mostly reviews bad songs, you can really feel his passion for the medium when reviews stuff he likes.

[turkishproverb]

Well, Lovecraft's works... Though I do feel that branding the Entity as Lovecraftian is wrong. Nyarlathotep does not run away from a guy in a cheap helmet and a few lackeys with guns. He also doesn't fall victim to a Doctor Who speech, regardless of what Doctor Who tells you*.

I also feel like The Entity was far too concerned with people, too willing to chat with Linkara and focus on him, too weak, to truly capture the feeling of Lovecraft's works. It's a good storyline, but it felt more like, as is befitting Linkara's style, a comic book interpretation of Lovecraft than one that actually reflects his work.

I don't know. it worked on Fenric.

And, in a way, on other Elder Gods, like in the arc including Lurkers at Sunlight's Edge to Gods and Monsters.

And the first doctor sort-of beat one by imitating it's voice.

*Yog-Shoggoth does not get defeated by a random twenty-something! No matter how sexy she might be!

Indeed I am.

Nice reference, although I'd argue one of his avatar's was defeated more.

Yes, Lovecraft Does Lovecraftian horror better the anyone, that's not what I meant. Have you seen anyone do film or TV or what have you that tackles that sub genera better?

Without getting into my opinion of that "arc" I'll say this: Watch in the Mouth of Madness and Whisperer in the Darkness. Just for a start. I could probably argue a few more, but they're easy.

[GloatingSwine]

Freakin' finally! The faults of JesuOtaku were discussed at length already. Bennett is a colossal grognard who jerks off to ultraviolent 80s OVAs and thinks all anime made in the last 15 years is slice of life moe ****.

Though really he does point out that the ultraviolent 80s OVAs were ****...

Which they were.

[Aotrs Commander]

(Bit late in, since I have literally only just got back from being away and got Metahuman1's PM...)

Personally, I like Doug's NC reviews, Linkara's reviews especially (t'was him that got me onto the site) AND his storylines... (I actually love those.) Spoony too (I still consider him spiritually paty of the site). I regularly watch Phelous, Sage, Cinema Snob, Film Brain, (though not the comtemporary movie reviews of anyone), OanCitizen, Mike J (usually because his are short), Ashens (who I think is still sort of nominally part of the site) in fits and starts and Suade fairly freqently and Angry Joe occasionally (if he's reviewing something I'm interested in or it looks especially funny) and I'll watch the crossovers with nearly anyone, since I particularly enjoy them. I found Sad Panda at his height to be extremely funny. I thus tend only to watch the "main" series of the producers, but I'll dabble here and there occasionally and I'll give a few things a try now and again. I'd probably have watched a few more regularly if there were enough hours in the day; on top of that, a few reviewers I have seen and liked (Rap Critic and the tragically late, lamented JewWario) often review things I don't, at the best of times even come close to "getting", but I love to see show up doing crossovers.

(Indeed, just before I went away, I watched Boldy Flee for the second time and enjoyed it as much as the first.)

I am, however, one of those terrible, terrible people that kind of doesn't care to judge too much on the personalities: mostly because channel awesome comprises the bulk (like 95%) of my (free) "telly" these days, with the Escapist's Zero Punctuation, Unskippable and Jimquisition and recently a bit of SFDebris now and then, since "real" telly now is down to CSI/Agents of Shield/Murdoch Mysteries and that's basically it apart from cartoons on in the background when I'm cleaning the room or something... (And if it's a cartoon worth serious watching, it's NOT worth watching on UK children's telly, given how utterly terrible nis it to try and watch anything coherent there; I'll either catch it online or buy the DVD.)

So, at the end of the day, I kind of don't really care if some of 'em are a bit full of 'emselves. To some extent, they have to be, because you can't do that sort of job - and for most of them it IS their job - and not be. A great deal of "proper TV" (sic) actors and writers are equally as full of themselves, you just do see it as much because "proper telly" is a more closed system. (Not to mention authors and artists and journalists and... etc). At the end of the day, all I really care about they provide me with two or three hours of free entertainment¹ every week, which is far more than "proper" telly does these days.



¹"Free" in the sense of "have about as many adverts as proper telly, and on a bad with proper telly only slightly more tedius lack of variety." Which is still "free" in the grand scheme of things and they, sadly not having managed the glory of Lichdom as I have, do have to eat...

[Soras Teva Gee]

I stopped watching after I came to the conclusion there were few actual reviews on the site.

The entire concept, not exclusive to them, is flawed in this regard. You don't need to go through the entire raw material bit by bit to make a review of it, nor do you need much of a persona. Observe some professional critics, while not without their own separate flaws/bias/etc they generally don't go through something step by step. Not that many have the time but identifying say a running theme and its purpose doesn't take terribly long. Of course you don't see much of that from guys like the Nostalgia Critic, they're not using length to pick out the pieces of the bigger puzzle and highlight where this is all going, they're using it for easy potshots. The actual purpose of doing so for the 'internet reviewer' is to provide filler and padding for persona of the "reviewer" even, if its just their own personality, to react. That's not really review or analysis, its a parasitic original creation.

Now there's some uses for that out there. Various parodies (like abridged series) are even more parasitic in that regard, frankly I'm not sold that the TGWTG model is one of them. And if there is hope for the concept, at least the proverbial big names there aren't doing it justice.

While its perhaps hypocritical the only things like that I still sample are Cinema Sins and Honest Trailers. The former I will stress is (generally) not an actual review and easily half the sins don't matter, which is much of the joke. The latter is straight up parody in a short format. Neither makes any pretension (generally) of being actual critique though people do tend to use them that way.

[Lord Raziere]

So, at the end of the day, I kind of don't really care if some of 'em are a bit full of 'emselves. To some extent, they have to be, because you can't do that sort of job - and for most of them it IS their job - and not be. A great deal of "proper TV" (sic) actors and writers are equally as full of themselves, you just do see it as much because "proper telly" is a more closed system. (Not to mention authors and artists and journalists and... etc). At the end of the day, all I really care about they provide me with two or three hours of free entertainment¹ every week, which is far more than "proper" telly does these days.

Yeah, that kind of work always has the "hate machine" hazard in it, where if you can't find a way to deal with the hate machine without breaking down, your not going to do well. a lot of confidence and ego is one way I guess. the fact that they can make fun of that by including fan representations of them reacting to what they say is actually pretty healthy in a way. it shows they can anticipate that sort of thing and laugh at it for the ridiculous overhyped ragefest that sort of thing is, instead of being destroyed by it.

I myself get hurt by people criticizing even minor parts of my works when I do show them. it takes bravery and toughness to be able to endure that sort of thing a thousand or even a million times over and not got broken by it, or at least good insulation. you'd think creators and artists like this could be more logical about this, but its hard to attach logic to it when you invest yourself into it and identify with it a little, and thus when you get criticism about it, it can feel like something sharp stabbing your soul whispering "your not good enough, you suck, you didn't do that well enough. you failed." its why in the writing classes I attended your not supposed to say "I like" or "I didn't like" and be polite about the critique, cause it can have bad consequences if not phrased gently.

[Tengu_temp]

I watch Dr Ashen a lot, every new video pretty much as soon as it comes out. I'm just not sure if he counts as a part of TGWTG.

I stopped watching after I came to the conclusion there were few actual reviews on the site.

The entire concept, not exclusive to them, is flawed in this regard. You don't need to go through the entire raw material bit by bit to make a review of it, nor do you need much of a persona. Observe some professional critics, while not without their own separate flaws/bias/etc they generally don't go through something step by step. Not that many have the time but identifying say a running theme and its purpose doesn't take terribly long.

You should watch current Nostalgia Chick and Brows Held High. Their approach is much closer to a real critic than the "let's go through the thing scene by scene and nitpick everything that's wrong" way that Nostalgia Critic or AT4W use.

[Aotrs Commander]

I watch Dr Ashen a lot, every new video pretty much as soon as it comes out. I'm just not sure if he counts as a part of TGWTG.

He's still on the site under Blistered Thumbs (I just checked) and it was TGWTG that introduced me to him, so I think he still technically is, even if he doesn't release much if any of his new material there.



Also, semi-related Ashens and the Quest for the Gamechild was hilarious.