#but Scrags is the one who gets the cases solved

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

💛💛Benji "Scrags" Scragtowski, my beloved💛💛

(If you couldn't tell, he's my favorite Squadster)

[hatchetfieldtheories]

Its Week Seven of the Rewatchers with a Thousand Eyes watchalong, and we bring Pop Culture Parodies to a close with The Solve It Squad Returns!

A kid detective team reunites as traumatized adults to solve the murder of their trusty dog, Cluebert. After 20 years, a familiar case comes across the desk of FBI agent, Scrags. All signs point to this being the suspect who ruined his life, but he’s not going to be able to catch him without the help of his childhood detective gang, the Solve It Squad... Can Scrags get the squad to put aside their differences and rewrite their past in order to catch the maniac who broke them up in the first place? (Youtube)

You can watch the full show here: x

Ah Scooby Doo, easily one of the best shows ever made in my opinion, and certainly a show so recognisable TCB were able to make a whole show parodying it without any actual reference to the original content.

Also, this is our first Tin Can Bros show of the rewatch, which is exciting!! The whole cast are amazing, but special mention to Brian Rosenthal for... well, you'll see!

[awigglycultist]

Pt 3 of The Guide: Tin Can Brothers (or Tin Can Bros or TCB) the sorta sister company of Starkid, created by three of the founding SK members (who not *actually* brothers) they started off doing skits but have also made many projects. Totally worth checking put their skits too though they're great. Fun fact all of these except Ex-Vloggers and Idol Worship canonically actually take place in the same universe. You do not at all need to watch one to understand another or anything but in WWG they made references to SIS, SAF and Flop Stoppers and then in SISBIB made another reference to SAF so its just a fun neat little thing that they all take place in the same universe.

Ex-Vloggers. It isn't like any of their other projects you'll see me list. In fact I wouldn't really call it a project. Its just a short webseries. It's much simpler and lower quality, not bad I just mean that this wouldn't have cost much to do compared to the others. It's actually really good and underappreciated in my opinion. It totally gives me nostalgia for 2015 youtube era and also it points out how fake youtubers can be putting up a front for the camera.

Summary: boyfriends Kyle and Brendan run a YouTube channel together, doing different challenges and tag videos. To their audience they seem like total love birds but behind the scenes their relationship isn't doing so well.

Spies Are Forever (SAF). This is a musical all about spies. I cannot describe how great this. It's the most loved TCB project. It's one of my fave musicals over all. There's stuff I'd love to talk about more but it'd spoil it. Just know it's great. It's really good story.

Summary: after his partner dies on a mission Curt Mega finally gets back into spying after 4 years and he ends up uncovering a super villains plot to rebuild the Nazi empire. Trailer

Choose Our Destiny: Improv Adventure. It's an improv show! Every month they had a different theme and they would do it live and do polls to let the audience choose different things to happen next. This was actually originally don't a different website that is now defunct, due to this all the episodes were luckily put on youtube by some fans but unfortunately several of them have audio issues. CHALLAHBack Girl and Murder... On The Rocks are particularly bad offenders but I promise you gets better after a while and the episodes are really great.

No summary or trailer for this one

Flop Stoppers. A short film musical with 4 songs that are all complete bops. It's a very fun little short film.

Summary: Two comic nerd YouTubers talk about their opinions on comics and movies on their channel. Until one day they're tasked with making sure one of the most hated movies by comic nerds including themselves is never made. Having to go back in time and kill the man who made it. Trailer

The Solve It Squad Returns (SIS/SISR/TSISR). A one act play that does also have two songs. It's a Sooby Doo parody and it's great the characters are so fun the jokes a fun. There's a few series moments but it's overall just really super fun and funny. Also there's only 5 actors, one for each squad member and then one that plays every single other character. And it's insane. There's literally a scene where it's just him playing every character and he has do these ridiculous quick changes and it's so funny.

Summary: The Solve It Squad is a gang of kids detectives well known throughout the world. When their dog Cluebert (Scooby) dies durning a case they whole gang breaks apart. 20 years later Scrags (Shaggy) has become apart of the FBI and his boss gives him the case that ended it all. He gathers the gang back together, Keith (Fred) who's become washed up and missing his peak in life, Gwen (Daphne) who became a self centered actor but is always stuck in a box of mystery solving, and Esther (Velma) who's became a druggie, to solve the mystery of who Cluebert's killer is once and for all. Trailer

Idol Worship. A short film about how fake YouTubers are and how much fans idolized YouTubers. It's good commentary. Pretty funny. It's not my favorite but I enjoy it for sure.

Summary: famous lifestyle youtube influencer Ashley puts on a con but it is outed for being fake from production crew. Trailer

The Wayward Guide For The Untrained Eye (TWGFTUE/WWG). This is an amazing horror comedy web series and podcast. In the webseries there's two ppl making a podcast they also released the actual podcast they made so you get to see what actually happens vs what is told to the public. If you watch this let me know before you watch it because it's suggested to watch the webseries and podcast in certain order (basically alternating every other episode) and I'll send you a playlist of it in that order. Its got a really fun cast of kooky characters. It's a mystery you can try and solve along the way yourself. I love it.

Summary: Twin siblings Artemis and Paul Schue-Horyn work at the American Podcasting Network and are trying to get the spot to the host the new season of the podcast The Wayward Guide For The Untrained Eye. When a strange man from a weird small town comes in their office to pitch the story of the corrupt mining cooperation in his town the shrug him off. Until their boss doesn't like their idea the give to him for the new season, as a last stitch effort they pitch the strange man's story and their boss loves it. When they arrive in town and their lead dies and they find out about the possible existence of werewolves the suddenly have a lot more on their hands to deal with than originally. Trailer

The Solve It Squad Back In Biz (SISBIB, or Solve It Squad the Animated but no one really calls it that). Ofc you have to watch SISR first before this. This also technically isn't fully on youtube but it is currently coming out. It's four script readings of episodes for an idea of animated series of the solve it squad, none of its actually animated (the title sequence/song is an animatic tho). It's fun getting to see these characters and it's funny. Also I'll go ahead and mention they're also currently working on a Solve It Squad musical for the holidays and the plan is too perform live and also release digital tickets for it around this upcoming Xmas and then it'll come out on youtube around the Xmas after that. I'm just mentioning this so you know that the solve it squad is like an expanding series. Anyway.

Summary: Ep 1 SIS to the (Dog) Rescue. A tiger was stolen at the zoo and the squad has to find out who stole it, Scrags is still sad about Cluebert and gets a new dog, the dog is an idiot and ruins everything they do. Ep 2 SIS Takes a Chill Pill. Gwen's life is busy with the squad, acting and her family. So her and Esther take a day off to relax. Esther gets them on drugs bc that's their idea of fun and relaxing, meanwhile Keith and Scrags take care of Gwen's kids and turns out that's not very easy. Ep 3 SIS Cashes Out. There's a certain case Keith really wants to investigate, about a cool tech billionaire, but the rest of the gang doesn't want to, so he brings back a favor from when they were kids to make them investigate it and they end uncovering the truth behind the billionaire. Ep 4 SIS Says No To Drugs. Esther tries out a new drug while the Squad follows a trail to find out more about said drug leading back to a Russian Drug Cartal while Esther has to hide that they're on this drug. It's basically a total fever dream (which make sense). I'm gonna give you two trailers for this also. First one. Second one.

[starsync52]

Ducktales Meets the Solve it Squad Returns Headcannon

SPOILERS FOR THE SOLVE IT SQUAD RETURNS BY TCB!

The triplets and Webby staring in “The Solve it Squad Returns”

Starring: ~ Louie as Llewellyn Gander [Scrags]. Former member of the solve it squad and owner of Scrooge McD (his dog), his life changed forever after the dreaded Magica De Spell killed his beloved dog. Now working for the FBI and going by his full name he must get the gang back together in order to solve the case once and for all ~ Dewford as Dewy McQuack [Keith]. The former ‘cool guy’ of the solve it squad, Dewy’s life is in the dumps selling merch for his old crew. In order to get his friends back together he kickstarts their only unsolved case (Magica De Spell) to show his friends how much better they are together ~ Huebert as Huey Gearloose [Esther]. A child prodigy turned drug addict to keep his brain from basically exploding. Huey’s life (while enough for him) isn’t the greatest before Llewellyn drags him back into the solve it squad ~ Webbigail as Webby Vanderquack [Gwen]. After a failed writing carrier (no one wanted to read her detective novels) and a unfulfilling marriage, Webby is happy to rejoin the solve it squad in hopes of turning their adventures into a TV show ~ Della as Chief Duck [Chief O’Brien]. Llewellyn’s boos at the FBI who’s just trying her hardest to relate to her best agent and get him to recover from the loss of his dog ~ Scrooge McDuck as Scrooge McD [Cluebert]. Llewellyn’s dog and the glue that held the solve it squad together before he tragically passed at the hand of Magica De Spell

Roles still needing to be cast (open to ideas) ~ Literally every other role played by Brian Rosenthal in the original (see this video for the long list of parts)

Again another headcannon that came to me at 3am

This one is also open for use (just please give me a little credit please?)

[kikiofthevast]

Solve-It Squad AU

After 20 years of being apart, 20 years after their old dog Patton's murder, Detective Logan of the FBI must get the gang back together to catch the criminal who murdered their precious puppy pal.

Starring:

Logan as Scrags

My first instinct was to put Logan as Esther, but Scrags is a better fit, if only because they have similar anger management issues, and Logan would be the one to get a real job.

Deceit as Keith

No spoilers, but...yeah, if you've seen it, you know why I put him here.

Roman as Gwen

Star that can't seem to get away from the mystery theme, is just in it for the views. Obsessed with his appearance and films everything. Even tricks Logan into acting lessons.

Virgil as Esther

Always high, all the time. Takes a ton of drugs so he doesn't have to face the pain of his intelligence. Manages to essentially carry the squad and appears to be on nobody's side.

---

Logan and the newly-reformed squad must travel to the Sanders Hotel and Sauna and uncover a case that's been cold for years.

Until now.

[belizedeservesbetter]

The Solve It! Squad Is the Purest, Most Earnest Show

Warning: Sentimentality below 

I think it’s very fitting that my last Off-Broadway show (still holding out for those Mean Girls lotto tickets before I go) I see before going home for the summer is The Solve It! Squad. This year I’ve been thinking a lot about who I am as a person and a writer and someone who wants to make theatre someday and here comes this Off-Broadway show I saw that TodayTix had $15 seats for with some of the most familiar faces of my younger teenage years. Those faces were Lauren Lopez, Joey Richter, and Brian Rosenthal, otherwise known as some of my favorite members of Team Starkid. 

If you haven’t heard of Team Starkid, go check them out because they’re pretty amazing. They basically do parody musicals and some original musicals that are actually extremely well written and fantastically acted and they’re all free and uploaded onto Youtube so you can watch them.

Teenage Me was obsessed with them and found a lot of hope in what they do, because if they could do it, why couldn’t I? They helped foster my love for contemporary theatre and their shows are filled with so much earnestness that I immediately fell in love with all of them. I can truthfully say that Team Starkid helped make me the person I am today. I did warn you about the sentimentality. 

Interestingly enough, I had never seen them live before now. 

As you can tell from the top of the picture, this is not a Team Starkid production. It is in fact a Tin Can Brothers production, which is a comedy group based in Los Angeles made up of three Starkid members, Joey Richter, Brian Rosenthal and Corey Lubowich, and I’m definitely excited to support them more in the future. 

So The Solve It! Squad is essentially a parody of Scooby Doo and it follows Scrags, Keith, Esther and Gwen (aka Shaggy, Fred, Velma and Daphne respectively) twenty years after their last case, when Scrags dog was killed. It’s a comedy and it’s hilarious. 

The writing is great and funny and there is never a moment when you’re not laughing. Actually, that’s not true. You’re laughing till one of the characters say something that’s heartbreaking and you Feel Something and you don’t expect it coming into a show like this that’s so comedic. 

It’s so earnest, and I love it for that. 

The cast was uniformly great. Everyone was fantastic. Special kudos to Joey Richter and Brian Rosenthal though. Rosenthal plays “Everybody else” which means he’s playing an upwards of seven characters at a time, there’s even a scene where it’s just him playing like five different people and it’s absolutely hilarious. 

Joey Richter plays Scrags, the main character basically, and is absolutely wonderful. Like really wonderful. 

Also, why isn’t Joey Richter cast as a leading man more often? Honestly. When I was on the train ride home all I could think about is why he isn’t cast as a leading man in shows? He would be so good so @ producers get on that

I got to meet all of them afterwards, and they are honestly some of the nicest people ever. They were all so sweet and it was really cool to talk for a bit to some people I really admire.

So go see this show if you’re in need of a laugh! It’s so good! It’s so fun! TodayTix has criminally cheap tickets! 

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

Scrags and The Case of the Surprise Emotional Closure

I've been thinking about how Scrags remembers Cluebert as the beloved force that pulled the Solve It Squad together. And also about how Esther implies that Scrags was the one who initially chose to break the Solve It Squad apart, and how he now doesn't seem to have a social life at all. In some ways, it's almost like Scrags was, or at least views himself as, the anti-Cluebert. He has spent twenty years not just mourning his dog, but all the things said dog brought into his life. Things, like friendship, that without Cluebert he feels he simply cannot have.

Scrags wants justice for Cluebert, to catch the bastard who killed him, to get revenge and real answers about his loss. But in the end it doesn't work out that way, not really. The reveal of the Demonic Apostle's fate is purposefully anti-climatic. Karmic justice has already been served and Scrags had nothing to do with it. Instead, the emotional closure truly comes from reaching out to his former friends, becoming the force that actively pulls them all together just as Cluebert did all those years ago. It's only when Scrags claims for his own what he believed he needed Cluebert to have that he truly starts to heal. The Cluebert-shaped hole in his heart will never go away, but that doesn't mean he can't fill in the extra shapes of all the things his canine friend used to represent and provide. For all his trauma, Benji Scragtowski is, himself, enough. He just needed to really see it.

I dunno, I just think that's a really interesting take on grief and recovery.