He remembered it, so you didn't have to.

So, for those who follow That Guy With The Glasses, you've probably seen To Boldly Flee and how it seemed to bring an end to the character of the Nostalgia Critic.

Well, it did.

Doug Walker is moving on from the NC and into new things. Some might say it was too soon, others might say it should've happened long ago and still more might say he picked the right time to do it. Whatever your thoughts, it is truely the end of an (Internet) era.

If you haven't watched TBF you should. It's pretty good and does serve as a fitting finale to an iconic Internet character. Now we'll just see what the Walkers will have in store for us next...

To Boldly Flee is interesting if only because they had an actual budget with a dollar amount beyond the standard triple digit budget not counting travel expenses all the way up to the high four digits. But then I always wondered how long Doug could keep this going and four crossovers is great record from some guy who started by waving his arms around while yelling. But Doug is right there's no where he could have gone except at the same level he's been at and there is a limited amount of nostalgia stuff that meshes with his style.

OAN he posted a response video about this
No more nostalgia critic
Long story short he says he's done doing reviews as the Nostalgia critic but he's going to keep running the sight and keep building the brand finding new reviewers and providing support to his existing stable of critics and reviewers.

Still kind of bad him calling it off, losing Spoony and the drama that resulted.

I liked some of the NC's stuff, but at the same time I think it's good that Doug's moving on. With Spoony gone and the NC character retired I'm curious what they'll do to fill the voids left by these characters. That said I also enjoy the Nostalgia Chick, Angry Joe, Weekly Managra Recap, Read Right to Left, Jesu Otaku, Jewarrio, Linkara, Todd in the Shadows, and the Rap Critic to name the ones that came to mind.

Ah so the fact his last actual review was a parody of 'All Good Things...' was not a coincidence.

I take it this means no more bum review as well? This makes me sad.

^^^Bum reviews and ask that guys are still going. Im saddened by this whole thing too as the NC's reviews had become a weekly ritual for me. I enjoyed the other reviewers as well but none of them post as regularly as the NC.

A week ago this would have knocked me off the site completely. The only people I cared about were The Nostalgia Critic, Film Brain and Spoony. And Film Brain's been boring lately.I don't like people like Linkara because unlike those mentioned above, his anger is nowhere near as organic and entertaining. But I've discovered Rap Critic and Todd in the Shadows so I have something else to view now.

I guess he's making enough money and the pool is shrinking so it's as good a time as any to quit. I never watched the crossovers because they looked like dogshit. But I'll try to see if I can power through this one.

It's interesting how much they're expanding. They have the bare bones place for an honest-to-god studio.

In any case, I wouldn't be surprised if we actually did see the Nostalgia Critic pop up and post a review on rare occasions, whenever he finds an old movie he wants to rant on. It just won't be a regular weekly thing.

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"You can't hammer tin into iron, no matter how hard you beat it, but that doesn't mean that tin is worthless."
-Jon Snow, A Game of Thrones

"I prefer my history dead. The dead sort is written in ink, the living in blood."
-Rodrik Greyjoy, A Song of Ice and Fire

Following on from this...

The trailer for the new show: demo Reel

It seems to be some sort of Be Kind Rewindesque thing. And it doesn't seem that funny from the trailer.

Well, I'll give it an episode. But it honestly looks like something I could have made if I wanted to. Weren't they trying for more of a 'We have a studio now' feel?

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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed,or numbered. I am a free man. My life is my own" Number 6
The Prisoner

No, it actually is a studio, they bought one right down the road from me in Aurora, one of my fellow Dnd buddies is currently working with them to see if he can get some time on their channel.

---

"It is just such a question as has been left times out of mind in this Old World to the decision of the sword. The sword will be the arbitrator in the New World too; but the event teaches us plainly enough that Republics and Democracies enjoy no exemption from the passions and follies of humanity."
~ The London Times May 30, 1861.
Canon
A rule or body of rules or principles generally established as valid and fundamental in a field or art or philosophy.
Cannon
A large artillery gun that is usually on wheels.
http://omniopolios.myminicity.com/

Well, they now have their first episode on the air, and it's....okay. It's not good, it's not bad, it's just okay. I think he's making a bad choice here business wise, but he might have a big enough fanbase to keep viewership going.

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/demo-reel/37080-demo-reel-the-dark-knight-begins-rising

See for yourself.

---

"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed,or numbered. I am a free man. My life is my own" Number 6
The Prisoner

Seven minutes in and I'm already hearing "Melvin Melvin, brother of the Joker" in my head. The jokes are flat and stale before they even finish saying them, the series is catering to lame parody, and I feel like I've been thrown into something forced.

So basically, I would say the Nostalgia Critic Humor is alive and well. And I'm not being sarcastic when I say that.







(In seriousness, it feels like a version of Bum Reviews with a larger cast and bigger budget and possibly some of Ask That Guy's preformance. Exact same kind of jokes, but none of the characters are as endearing as Chester or the Critic before he became stale, nor is there the black humor of Ask that Guy With the Glasses. If you like Bum Reviews, you will probably get a few laughs out of it, but if it feels like a repetitive chore that might explain why)

The premisse had potential.... Yet the pacing is shit, the parodies have been done to death, the jokes are either forced out or are just plain bad. None of the characters come off as engaging. It's not funny.

The main issue is that the comedy doesn't match the characters. While the director is a deluded, self-centered egotist who believes he is making fine art, he acts as if the Nostalgia Critic. Sure, he is trying to improve them, but the show doesn't need to make it's main focus to point out inconsistensies and plot holes.

Perhaps it would be better to drop the parody angle and focus on Donnie attempting to make his own movie. There is only so much humor you can derive from it. Hell, I'm quite sure "Be Kind Rewind" was an inspiration, and the "sweded" movies were only part of the focus. We need to care about the performers. Like how they would react to being miscast, how they handle their own egos - the writer shouldn't be a pushover, and personal problems.

The comedy should reflect the the characters. If Donnie is the driving force for the movies, it should be alonf the lines that Donnie takes some script from the writer (can't bother to remeber the character's name) that might be good, or even just pretentious, and churn out "The Room", while believing it to be on par with "The Godfather". Like that The Office episode, threat level midnight.

With this formula, it doesn't seem like something that will be either intelligent, funny, or even manage to hold on for more than 3 episodes or so.

I liked some of the NC videos, so I'll watch one or two episodes to see if it gets better.

The Review Must Go On

Well, he brought him back. Once every two weeks instead of weekly. Wonder what this means for the cast of Demo Reel? Seems the show is over, but will the actors remain?

Demo Reel numbers were horrendous apparently, for a tenth of the effort he got twenty times the views. And views (In groups of a thousand) equal money.

So it makes sense to bring back the NC if for nothing else to pay the bills.

Just try watching the first episode. "Try" being the operative word. Here is how horribly written and realized it was: when they released it they were (almost?) finished with the second episode. Said episode never saw the light of day online. At one point Rob Walker got online to explain that decision-- it was too similar to the first episode. He also admitted to some of their failures in hindsight, like the fact that they still haven't watched "Be Kind Rewind" (though that just shows that its not the idea that is the problem, its just them). All in all, having watched it go down on their forums, its just sad. And what is sadder is all the time I wasted reading those clusterfuck threads.

Apparently the Walker brothers (especially Doug) were so full of their own successes that they never considered the possibility that Demo Reel would tank. Not just have flaws they could correct, fail horribly. Their "plan" such as it was apparently consisted of putting up videos without first doing any kind of screening with a test audience consisting of people who would give them feedback before showing it to the world. No, no. In Doug Walker's mind the internet is better than Television because he can take audience feedback dynamically and make followup episodes better! Of course, that doesn't work because anything you show the world can and will be used against your reputation, and that first episode pretty much damned them. So their followup videos had no direction, their first video sucked balls, and they had already poisoned the well against themselves by hyping the production in the month leading up to it in the sincere belief that Demo Reel would appeal to someone other than its creators.

So yeah, they apparently don't fully understand the method behind the madness of TV and Film producers, nor do they fully appreciate the mechanics of what makes internet phenomena click. So they are going back to their viral success with the NC, because you can't reproduce that success on purpose without coming off as tryhard.

I found the first episode of demo reel to be bad, but I was willing to stick through it after Rob Walker released a video apologising and sounding like the second episode would be an improvement.
I would have watched the second episode, except it was dealing with Wreck-It Ralph. A movie that didn't release in New Zealand until after Christmas (different school holiday dates), over a month after the Demo Reel episode. So I had three choices:
- Watch the second Demo Reel episode and risk spoilers or a movie I was planning to see. Unacceptable.
- Wait till I watched Wreck-It Ralph, then deal with a backlog of Demo Reel episodes. That might work, until the next time Demo Reel covers a movie aimed at school children.
- Stop watching Demo Reel.
Naturally I chose option 3.

The Nostalgia Critic may be back. I wonder whether the audiences will be.

Feel sorry for Doug having to go back to this after doing the big 'I'm finished, I have artisitically no where else to go' speech. In hindsight maybe you should have slowed down NC while you tried to get the other projects going? You know, getting a grip on the next branch before letting go of the old one sort of thing.

That made me laugh.

I did enjoy Demo Reel (and will miss it) but to be honest I wasn't looking forward to it the way I looked forward to the NC. Here's looking forward to more NC!

The whole return episode seemed like an incredibly egotistical way to do it. Not an actual 'writer to audience' message - 'hey, we fucked up, this wasn't a good thing or well received, and I may have made a hasty decision - I've been missing doing the old episodes, but at the same time, don't want to get stuck in a rut like that again, so the NC is back but on different terms', and then do a full episode with actual comedy about the return rather than just ego stroking 'real world' internal dilemma stuff and pretentious character/writer conversations.

Is the video implying the NC to be some sort of genious character? God damn it, Doug.

For me the video makes him come out as pretentious, hypocritical douchebag who can't take criticism. Why is he even called the Nostalgia Critic if he is going to review last year's movie?

I was actually thinking about that, and I was wondering if perhaps they didn't in fact press the issue themselves? As actors, they have better things to do than to waste time and craft on a show that's going down in flames if there is the possibility to get out of their contract, and Demo Reel can't possibly look good on their resume's either. Especially as beginning or small time actors. I know for a fact that the role of Tacoma (the Writer) was originally intended for Barghov before he quit the company, and if the actor feels like he's doing something that's really intended for someone else... well...


You could have watched the one that came after without issue. The Wreck it Ralph Ep. was essentially standalone. Of course, you missed nothing of value this way.

Still, I know for a fact that you aren't alone in making that choice, and its likely that it contributed to the bad numbers he was getting. A lot of people who might have liked the show didn't watch it for fear of spoilers. Nostalgia Critic didn't have that problem because the movies he reviewed were too old to spoil, and too shitty to care even if you hadn't seen it.


I think that's essentially the consensus on his own forums.


He kinda tried that already when he still thought he could save Demo Reel. The result got turned into a meme. Search for "Diplomatic Doug" on Google to see it. He came off like he was in denial about how much of an abject failure his first (and un-aired second) episode was, and likewise that he was downplaying the importance of his critics in the creative process of the show. He obviously wanted to write something he wanted to watch, but a bit of advice I got in writing class applies-- write for yourself, but don't share just anything you write with the others let alone the public. If you write a dog turd, people will criticize it and rightfully so.

'Course, Ego has always been a part of everything Nostalgia Critic. Their crossover movies all emphasize this. Contrast this with the Spoony Experiment series. When Noah Antwiler has real life problems and he decides to address them "in character", its always about his flaws coming back to bite him on the ass. Hell, he even started his review of Final Fantasy XIII with an apology for being too harsh on FFVIII and for cracking insensitive gay jokes in the intro. The closest the Nostalgia Critic ever got was... Douchy Mc. Nitpick. Even when he made videos about the mistakes in his reviews, Doug couldn't help but insert a caricature of his critics into the video.

EDIT: Never mind.

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"You can't hammer tin into iron, no matter how hard you beat it, but that doesn't mean that tin is worthless."
-Jon Snow, A Game of Thrones

"I prefer my history dead. The dead sort is written in ink, the living in blood."
-Rodrik Greyjoy, A Song of Ice and Fire

Did he make any statement in response to people complaining about him covering a movie they couldn't legally have watched yet ?

Now NC is going to be reviewing newer movies, with the only stated restriction being that the movie isn't in theaters. So I'm a bit worried about spoilers with that. I do understand that, unless he starts getting his clips from pirated copies, he still has to wait for the movie to come out on disk before he can make an NC episode about it. So practical restrictions are making his 'self-imposed' restrictions meaningless while also lessening my worries about spoilers.