#so i think its funnier if this is my last post of 2023

[peri-shambles]

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Chortle headlines.

Some of these are interesting. I don't know if it bodes well if Paddy Young is the absolute best rookie comedians in all of Britain, but he definitely had a good show last year (that got streamed on NextUp from Edinburgh). I have trouble believing anyone wrote a show that's better than both Paul Foot's Dissolve and Ahir Shah's Ends, but to be fair, I haven't seen John Kearns' show and he is very fucking good at these things, makes me hope even more that he'll be doing something in Edinburgh while I'm there. Alex Horne got an award for Taskmaster being an outstanding achievement, not quite sure what that means but I think it's accurate. I think if you look up the definition of "breakthrough act" you'll just find a note that says "see Sam Campbell's career throughout 2023", so that couldn't really have gone any other way. I've heard Kiri Pritchard-McLean compere a bunch on NextUp things, she is in fact very good at clubs. I haven't seen any of the other nominees but I'm still sure that James Acaster deserved to win that best tour one. I couldn't stomach the amount of Celebrity Glamour in Joe Lycett's new show but he is a great comedian and he is definitely made to be a TV comedian, which in some ways could be an insult but I really mean it as a compliment, he's great at that, good for him. Munya Chawawa posts highly amusing song parodies on YouTube. Fern Brady's is one of the best comedian books I've read. Three Bean Salad I was unable to get into, but maybe I'll give it another shot sometimes, after I finish with the winners of that radio award, John and Elis - well done to them for getting over ten years and not completely falling apart. I usually find it hard to get into sketch comedy (or anything that isn't straight stand-up) but Lorna Rose Treen made me laugh with character things last summer, so she probably deserves that one.

Those are my unsolicited opinions on that. The existence of Taskmaster is definitely an outstanding achievement for all involved.

This a special feature that happens every once in a while, called "Chortle publishes the contents of Daniel Kitson's mailing list". I find it gets funnier the less it sounds like Steve Bennett knows about the news items beyond the contents of the mailing list email, and in this case, that is clearly fuck all. But anyway, it's a great show and exciting announcement, anyone who has the opportunity should go see this tour. He said in the email that he might try to get something going in NYC later this year, which would be incredibly logistically difficult for me to get to (8.5-hour drive each way if I can borrow a car from someone, which would be tough, 14 hours on the bus otherwise, I've been told I can't take any more vacation days in 2024 because I used them on the London/Edinburgh trip), but still, I have found myself wondering how I might be able to make that work if he actually announces it.

Fucking hell. I can't believe this. My local comedian Facebook group is going pretty wild in response to this news. That's fucking huge, a massive amount of stuff is centred around this. To be honest I'm still not clear on the scope of this news so I won't go into it too much, I'll just say, fucking hell. Truly shocking. That's like a sport just canceling its national championships halfway through the season.

Excellent. Everyone should read this. His 2023 show (which I think he's still touring) is one of my favourite comedy shows ever. And the one before that, which inspired this book, is also very fucking funny, though not as good as his latest one.

Also, I am up for a trend of one comedian per year writing a book about their relatively recent autism diagnosis. Who do we think it'll be in 2025? I have approximately four to five suggestions.

[its-koili]

hey guys. sorry for being gone for so long. heres an update

(tw for: mention of violence / gore, general distress, mental health issues)

(tw below)

.

basically i had a huge mental health crisis. i was having 24/7 constant rolling panic attacks from may of 2023 to january of this year. my last big meltdown was in early february. been processing a lot of CSA trauma and some recent trauma that ive gone through. i think i talked about my panic attacks before leaving social media but idk i dont remember. isolated myself from absolutely everybody.

the main thing that made me leave was that while i was keeping up to date on the g3n0c1d3 (censoring bc idk how tumblr is about it), and when i was looking in the replies / related of the awareness videos, i came across 4 accounts dedicated to using gore for clicks / shock. not videos of the g3n0c1d3 (thank god bc of how they were using the vids) but of unfortunate every day situations and cam footage. like, the kind of stuff you could see on liveleak back in 2010. just out in the open on twitter. they all had usernames like "(insert number here) ways to die)". they were all content farms for click/ad revenue. it was too much it was a huge trigger and i had a full on meltdown. the bluecheck ppl on twitter were using the replies of the videos people uploaded for raising awareness to upload mindless g0re for money. the fact that peoople have 0 compassion for human life sent me into a spiral that i couldnt get out of. (i reported 3 out of the 4 accounts i was able to and 3 got taken down but 1 is still up and it odesnt seem to be uploading the hardcore g0r3 anymore. so thats good. but that was one of the reasons i left social media. ive been keeping up to date w the news but thats it. i left my socials entirely and ive only been on my phone to look up recipes or to use my computer for media research groceries and gaming and shows

that was the main thing that pushed me to leave. i just couldnt take it anymore. during the start of my crisis last year, i was planning on taking a small break, but all of that pushed me over the edge and i dropped everything. after that, my issues got worse and i dont remember most of it. thankfully. but i couldnt bring myself to talk to anybody. i isolated myself and just. laid in bed. but im doing better so i guess thats good

on another topic ive beeen nervous to post this on main but during all of this (ive talked abt tihs a little bit on my priv before i left) i found out that im a system a long while back. my dad (one of my abusers) had/has DID and it terrified me to think that i could be anything like him. i also knew cereal abuser who pretended to be a system to get away with stuff/abusing their friends (and then years later admitted that they werent a system and siad that systems are fake.) LOTS of tears. lots of crying over this. was in denial for a few weeks. cried some more. then eventually came to terms with it.

i dont want to post abt my system online too much bc i dont want to act like this is some fun trendy thing bc its not. it makes day to day living very hard (some lighter/funnier issues that make it hard are: arguing with an alter bc YOU dont know where THEY put YOUR MEDS, not being able to cook because one alter can and the other cant, your art style not being consistent because their styles are different). i dont want to really make it a massive part of my identity online bc its not a big deal! theres just Multiple Little Guys in my brain. so. im a system! im the same but....this explains why i dont remember talking to certain people SUIDHUFHX. i always felt bad. makes conversing with online friends hard especially if icons/usernames are changed. ill make a separate post about this someday thatll go into detail a bit more.

i went years thinking it was just "kinning" but it wasnt lol. it turns out that your personality completely shifting, tastes in food / music / art / media changing, the way you walk / talk dress changing, and having complete memory blackouts when you """"kin shift"""" isn't normal. /lh (dw ive had a lot of time to come to terms with this)

but basically right now ive been spending time getting to,,know myself?? iive been using simplyplural for myself for several months and im uncovering a lot of my memories / trauma ect bc alters can write down what they need to in the chat. so i can go back later and read it. its been v helpful!

i will not be coming back just yet. i have no interest in using social media rn or drawing or writing unfortunately. ive been working on my original stuff here and there but i havent been drawaing fandom stuff bc im not hyperfixating on a fandom.

also. some things have come up. im not going to say anything until the party in question is stable/safe/comfortable before i even suggest anything for context (i dont plan on talking abt anything at all unless they start talking publicly). right now i am helping someone through abuse. their wellbeing is my #1 concern. i'll think about other things after im sure theyre okay.

i dont really have any resolutions as to how things are going but i do feel better and im not having as many panic attacks. i dont really know where im going with this now sorry. just trying to brush over the basic topics before i go. idk if anybody remembers me bc ive been gone for so long so idk if im just talking into the wind but if i am thats fine honestly this is helping me reorganize my thoughts (i type these vents out a lot on docs so i probably wont remember posting this hiudhvu)

other than that. i dont draw or write anymore. i think in the past 6 months ive drawn like....5 things. its. weird. im completely disconnected from fandoms now. coming up to a full year of not having a hyperfixation at all.

my bday was on the 6th. im 27 now im very old (everybody forgot it asides from my husband (and the people he reminded) n my abuser). ive been trying to cook and bake more and ive been playing video games again. planning on getting back into drawing soon and working on my original stuff. when i come back im planning on redesigning my profiles and updating my social media bios and stuff bc theyre so old. also ill make a section on my carrd for my system. there you go theres some positivity to the update nxfjdfjh. sorry if i dont seem very enthused im very tired so typing has been a chore hfuidshuifv.

sorry that this was a lot or if it seems disjointed i was trying to put down as much into this as possible without making it too long

bye!!! see u all soon!

[moiloru]

🥇 My 2023 anime awards! ✨

Hello! Since we're slowly approaching the end of 2023, I wanted to give awards to the animes I've watched this year, just like I did in 2021 and 2022!

Before we start off, I want to clarify two things. Firstly, this list contains animes I've watched this year, not necessarily animes that have aired this year (though there are some of those, too). Secondly, these are my opinions, which you may disagree with. Please be sure to stay respectful. With that said, let's begin!

First anime watched this year: My Hero Academia

I began 2023 with the well-known MHA. I doubt it requires an introduction, as it is one of the most famous animes out there, but I wanted to say that, even if it has some lows (especially in S5), it remains a great anime that deserves the recognition it gets.

Last anime watched this year: Ao Haru Ride

I actually finished watching this one today. It was a pretty good ride (pun intended), though it did leave me a little disappointed. Still, it makes for a good romance/character study show, which I recommend.

Worst anime watched this year: Abunai Sisters: Koko & Mika

Do not watch this sh*t. Or, you can, to have a laugh. It is evident in my mind that this anime is the worst one in existence. Nothing in this piece of garbage is done even remotely correctly, so save yourself the trouble.

"Honorable" mentions: (A Girl & Her Guard Dog, Ex-Arm, Call of the Night)

Prettiest anime watched this year: Oshi No Ko

If there's one thing I can't take away from Oshi No Ko, it's how beautiful it looks. We were all hooked on the art and animation from the first second, which then stuck. The character design, in particular, is breathtaking.

Honorable mentions: Demon Slayer S3, Insomniacs After School, Call of the Night

Best plot in an anime watched this year: Monster

It has aged like fine wine. Monster has many qualities, but its plot is the first one that comes to mind. It is the near-perfect combo of suspense, adventure, and psychology. It perfectly fits with the art style and the characters, too! A great gem!

Honorable mentions: Hunter x Hunter, Code Geass, Black Lagoon

Best action scene in an anime watched this year: Netero vs. Meruem (Hunter x Hunter)

I did not hesitate for even a second when choosing the winner for this category. Of all the scenes that make HxH such a unique experience, this one stood out the most. It is the climax of one of the best arcs in Shonen history, executed perfectly. I have shivers just thinking about it!

Honorable mentions: All Might vs. All for One (My Hero Academia), The Final Confrontation (Attack on Titan Finale), Sukuna vs. Jogo (Jujutsu Kaisen S2)

Best romance in an anime watched this year: Fuyutsuki-san & Himuro-kun (The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague)

I'll deal with these two in more length later in this post, but I absolutely adored Fuyutsuki and Himuro's relationship. Everything about them made me a silly, blushing mess. They're straightforward characters when you think about it, but perhaps it's part of what makes them such great characters in my mind. I love them!!

Honorable mentions: Miyo & Kiyoka (My Happy Marriage), Tomo & Jun (Tomo-chan is a Girl!), Ganta & Isaki (Insomniacs After School)

Funniest anime watched this year: Great Teacher Onizuka

GTO's a classic and for all the right reasons. You cannot stop yourself from laughing at Onizuka's antics. Nonetheless, GTO remains more than a mere comedy. It's this mix of humor and seriousness that makes the funny scenes even funnier.

Honorable mentions: Buddy Daddies, Nodame Cantabile, Spy x Family S2

Saddest anime watched this year: Hunter x Hunter

Thinking that HxH is a childish show based on the first few episodes alone is a grave mistake. This adventure is a rollercoaster of emotions, and a few scenes, in particular, come to mind that will most likely make you tear up. Even if it can be painful at the moment, these events are part of what makes this show legendary!

Honorable mentions: Oshi No Ko, Attack on Titan Finale, Code Geass

Best opening in an anime watched this year: History Maker (Yuri!!! On ICE)

This anime is well-known for many things, but its opening theme is cruelly underrated! It fits the show to a T and is so catchy and fun to listen to! I've undoubtedly listened to it dozens of times during the year, and it's one of my favorites overall! Kudos to Dean Fujioka for such a masterpiece!

Honorable mentions: Venus Line (Birdie Wing: Golf Girls Story), Idol (Oshi No Ko), VORTEX (Link Click S2)

Best ending in an anime watched this year: Tokyo et Paris (Nodame Cantabile)

Such a fantastic song for such an underappreciated show! It has definitely gone off the radar due to being from a relatively unknown anime, but I loved this theme from the first time I listened to it! It's not the style of music I typically listen to, but it makes a great change of pace, and it totally fits with the ambiance of the anime!

Honorable mentions: Mephisto (Oshi No Ko), yurukuru love (Tomo-chan is a Girl!), Yofukashi no Uta (Call of the Night)

Best scene in an anime watched this year: Hunter x Hunter

I'm not gonna be able to go in-depth about this scene due to risks of spoilers, but fans of the show probably know what scene I'm referring to here. I'll just say that it punctuated a fantastic moment in the story and closed an arc in the most remarkable of ways. Truly splendid.

Honorable mentions: Oshi No Ko, Attack on Titan Finale, My Hero Academia

Worst character in an anime watched this year: Koko & Mika Abunai (Abunai Sisters)

They're pieces of cr*p, in short. I don't even want to talk about them since their whole existence is a mistake and should be avoided at all costs. See, flawed characters can have redeeming features. Not only do they have none, they're enough to worsen the whole industry.

Honorable mentions: Miyabi Aizawa (GTO), Minami Uezono (Ex-Arm), Mikio Tanuki (A Girl & Her Guard Dog)

Best character in an anime watched this year: Fuyutsuki-san (The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague)

I kinda went over why I love her so much in an earlier category, but I just want to reiterate: she makes me happy. The thought of her (but also of Himuro) is enough to make me smile. Whether it's her voice, her design, her personality, her bonds with the others... Everything about her is so excellent; I can't help but love her. She'll go unnoticed because she is from a show that's not so popular, but that doesn't make her any less fantastic.

Honorable mentions: Himuro-kun (The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague), Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass), Eren Yaeger (Attack on Titan)

Best anime watched this year: The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague

I think it was somewhat predictable, thanks to the huge amounts of praise I gave the show earlier, but this award, probably the most important, has gotta go to this anime. It also aired this year! Tuesdays were days I was looking forward to last winter for this show alone, and it definitely helped me get through tough times. You probably will hear very little about it as it's not a big production, but it had everything I watch anime for: the music, the art, the cast, the relationships, the cute moments... I even bought the manga to know the rest of the story, which I usually never do! Hopefully, we get a second season someday, though I'm slightly worried. In any case, if you're into cute workplace romances, I can't help but recommend this anime a million times. You won't regret it.

Honorable mentions: Hunter x Hunter, Perfect Blue, Insomniacs After School

Overall, 2023's been another excellent year of anime, whether for me or the community as a whole. We got a ton of fantastic shows and great sequels. I'm personally looking forward to more of the same next year, with great names either airing or coming back!

To conclude this post, here are my yearly tierlists for the opening themes, the main characters, and the shows themselves. I managed to fill them quite a bit this year, as well! Thanks a lot for reading, and I hope you all have a great New Year's Eve!

[dorothydalmati1]

Obscure Animation Subject #34: Scaredy Squirrel

Originally posted on Twitter on March 13, 2023

OBSCURE ANIMATION SUBJECTS ARE BACK BABY! Our last subject was on FantomCat on February 2nd. Been a month and 11 days huh?

Anyways, loosely based on the book series by Mélanie Watt, the show was produced in Canada by Nelvana.

Developed by Matt Ferguson and Jillian Ruby, it was directed by co-developer Matt Ferguson, whose also a writer on the show, and aired on YTV from April 1, 2011 to August 17, 2013. In the US which is my home country, it aired on Cartoon Network and grew up with it a bit.

It aired on the channel from August 9, 2011 to June 22, 2013, only the first two seasons aired, but Qubo started airing the show on March 27, 2017, and aired the third season, with the show making its final broadcast on July 24, 2020. Qubo would also shut-down by 2021.

The series ran for a total of three seasons with 52 episodes, each episode containing two 11-minute stories, which makes a total of 104 segments. The show follows a squirrel named Scaredy and his best friend Dave, a skunk. They have adventures in their town Balsa City.

Scaredy works as a stacker at a grocery store called Stash "N" Hoard, and is fond of cleaning and is germophobic. His best friend Dave, is dimwitted and fonds being messy, and because he’s a skunk he also loves farting. Does some of what I describe sound a bit familiar to you?

This show is often considered a rip-off of SpongeBob with most characters having similar personalities to ones you may find in SpongeBob. However, that isn’t the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that this show is so ANNOYING! It’s one those shows that won’t shut-up!

It thinks that screaming and shouting is comedy gold, but it bleeds ears instead, especially with the theme song where the main characters SINGS OBNOXIOUS GIBBERISH! Yeah the voice-acting is terrible. The animation, character designs and the backgrounds are generic and dull as well.

The characters if you take the annoying voices out, are very bland and forgettable, with Dave being the worst offender, with his only trait being a self centered dumbass and being gross and that’s it. Yeah, this show is insulting to the books that were innocent and lighthearted.

I beg you to not watch this show and just stick to the books instead. Watching-wise stick to SpongeBob as its this show but less annoying, a lot funnier, better animated and better characters. As bad as seasons 6-8 were, their definitely better than this show!

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 13/07/2023

Crompton Racing

Season 3 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips Volume A

Ripped by Grambam36, Rabid, Bápo Numnum, Myaggic, Twonko (Bápo Numnum is on Discord as @/venturiantale)

This won't be a recurring thing, I promise, but yesterday's post just reminded me of another rip from the same event that I NEED to talk about. Despite how batshit insane it is - or perhaps even because of it - Crompton Racing is a perfect demonstration of the creativity of the SiIva team.

I feel like its easy to get the assumption when looking at some of the channel's takeovers that they kind of "box in" rippers creatively. Hell, for some takeovers like The Harlem Shakeover in Season 6, part of the point WAS to make all rips feel extremely similar, all using the same joke with little variation to it. That's of course an exception, since most takeovers only last a day and by extension only really reach around 10-30 rips total. But even within that time, I imagine its easy to think that all the content posted is going to feel pretty tangentially similar.

This sentiment applied to me back during It's "It's Everyday Bro" Day Bro, the one-day takeover discussed in yesterday's post where every rip uploaded spoofed Jake Paul's 2017 disasterpiece. Though I personally love the source and the event by extension, I'm sure there were a lot of people who grew fatigued of the song's sound, even with the takeover being just one day. Thus, to buck that trend we have whats probably my favorite rip made during the takeover - Crompton Racing.

Rather than playing solely off of It's Everyday Bro, this rip is a YTPMV of Jake Paul's entire channel - every audio source stems from one of his videos, be it vlogs or the aforementioned song the takeover is built around. Chocobo YTPMVs are almost always golden due to the good mood the source track itself instills, yet knowing just how much Jake Paul you're consuming all at once as you're listening just makes it all the funnier. These poor bastards decided willingly to sift through so much obnoxious Vlog-content to find the most apt audio sources possible to use for this one-day event, and it paid off in spades!

Grambam36 is a veteran ripper on the channel and specializes in YPTMVs, which I 100% buy from the quality on display here. Crompton Racing's visuals in particular completely sell the rip, driving home just how much Jake Paul content is being played all at once. Its a wonderful display of just how much can be done to still surprise viewers under a takeover: When everyone knows what to expect, the surprises hit all the harder.

[legion1227]

Succession: TV Show Review (Season 4 Spoilers)

Who knew a show about wealthy, pretentious white folks could be so… fascinating?

On June 3rd, 2018, Succession aired the first episode of its satirical comedy-drama on HBO. And on May 28th, 2023, Succession aired the final episode, bringing one of the best shows in recent memory to a premature close.

I emphasize premature because I think the show would've benefitted from just one more season.

The show, as a whole, is great. Despite starting in 2018, it was not until this year, upon hearing about the finale closing in, did I decide to start watching the show from the beginning. It doesn't take long going into the first season for the wheels to start grinding, and the show picks up a momentum that carries until the final vestiges.

Succession follows the Roy family, who own the global media conglomerate Waystar Royco, headed by the family patriarch, Logan Roy. Logan, along with his children Kendall, Roman, Siobhan (and the other one, Connor, I guess,) consistently fight amongst each other and against outsiders over who may takeover next after aging father Logan steps down. One might think four seasons of bickering and in-fighting might grow old, but Succession found a way to keep me hooked by being simply one of the best TV shows released within the last several years. During my time binging Succession, other TV shows were neglected because the desire to see what was next for this dysfunctional family was too high.

There were times when the business jargon between various men and women in suits became hard to follow or made my mind wander, but if there was something to keep me glued, it was the characters and their interactions. The way the Roy children interact with one another, their father, or even the employees that work for them feels genuine and enticing.

Succession is also a lot funnier than I thought it was gonna be.

I thought the show was mostly a drama but the comedic aspects and the witty one-liners held by Roman or Siobhan, are shocking and hilarious. Many of the characters uphold the professional businessman-like facade, but as they drop profanities like Logan telling numerous others to "fuck off," or Roman getting ridiculously obscene with scenarios, it's clear many of the characters are unhinged and the opposite of that archetype. The banter between characters is on another level and is clearly one of the best qualities of Succession.

I don't have many significant qualms pertaining to the first three seasons or the majority of season four, but two things come to mind.

The way season four went down didn't feel like a finale. It felt like there could've been just a bit more. The fourth season of Succession consists of ten episodes, just like seasons 1 and 2. Logan dies in episode 3 of season 4. The episode itself, revolving around his death and Connor's wedding, ultimately overshadowing the wedding, was one of the best episodes of Succession. Logan's death was bound to happen as he got older in years, but it felt like it happened too early in the season. It felt like we were deprived of more of the gravitas Brian Cox's performance as Logan carried. In the next several episodes without him, Logan's lack of presence is felt. I would have preferred his death to come later in the season, then one more season focusing on a post-Logan world for the Roys and Waystar Royco. And in regards to the final episode, it sets up more than it pays off. I want a little taste of a company run by Tom with Greg higher on the food chain or how the others like Frank and Karl, get along with Tom as opposed to the years spent at Logan's side. Does Siobhan and Tom's relationship get worse as Tom becomes head honcho? If so, how? With a baby on the way, how does the dynamic change? And how fucked is that kid with how fucked up the Roy family is? What happens to Kendall now that he is out of the business? I feel like everyone might be alright in the end, except for Kendall.

Succession does a wonderful job at making detestable people like the Roys, Tom, and Greg, into people you root for, from time to time. It excels at bits of comedy and breaking your heart as well. The heart, and I'm hesitant to use the word as they are awful people, of the show, Kendall, Roman, and Siobhan's lasting images with one another in their final, nastiest fight, was messy. It still feels like one more aspect to venture with those three as they end on the worst of terms after almost uniting together and being on the same page seemingly.

Each episode in the final season is great. It's just sad how it ended because the potential for just a little bit more is there. But I suppose it's better that Succession ended sooner rather than drag out and become worse like too many other long-running shows. I should've watched this sooner, but I'm glad I saw it when I did. Go watch if you haven't already. It's like a darker version of Arrested Development, I suppose. 4/5. (Rating for the show as a whole).

[themeatlife]

Avengers: Endgame, the Legacy of the Avengers, and the Future of Disney and the Marvel Cinematic Universe

#DontSpoilTheEndgame is over on Monday, so I’ll discuss Avengers: Endgame - the movie itself and the larger impact it has on the legacy of the Avengers and the MCU.

Avengers: Endgame - A Review

To begin, it’s kind of hard to judge the film on its own. Even more so than its predecessor Avengers: Infinity War, Endgame is largely dependent on the previous films. So the impact of it is less so on someone that’s only seen a handful of the Marvel movies than for someone who has invested time seeing the now 22-film catalog.  With that being said, for those who have seen most or all of the other movies, wow. It is both extremely entertaining and extremely gratifying.  If you are an MCU fan, Endgame was made especially for you.

Now, SPOILERS AHEAD!

I’m not going to explore all the plot points (because there is a LOT of plot), I want to hit on some of the major ones though.

Much of the first two hours of the film (this thing has a three hour run time) is spent in the melancholy post-Snapture.  The opening scene is Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye with his family as they disappear from Thanos’ snap.  Just in case you forgot the stakes that were established in Infinity War, well this will certainly remind you.  We see our heroes trying to deal with loss and trying to move on in the aftermath.  I like this touch.  Throughout the MCU, the writers and directors have always tried to a least have a sort of psychological realism, always visiting not only the epic battles but the emotional aftermath.  To reenforce this, next we see Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man and Karen Gillan’s Nebula stranded in space running out of resources to get to Earth (much of this featured heavily in the trailer). It looks hopeless until Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel rescues them and reunites them with the surviving Avengers at Avengers HQ in upstate New York. She doesn’t really have much of a role in the film outside of this and the some of the final sequences.

After hunting down and killing Thanos in the first 20 minutes of the film (Thor goes for the head this time), time jumps to five years later.  Earth’s mightiest heroes go on what Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man calls a “time heist,” a quest to use the quantum realm go to the past to collect the Infinity Stones.  Ant-Man’s return from the quantum realm having only aged 5 hours rather than 5 years spurs this. Not to change the past and prevent Josh Brolin’s Thanos from the Snapture, but to bring everyone back that was lost by the Snap, mainly because Stark now has a family with Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts and a little daughter he doesn’t want to lose.

The time heist features three teams: Iron Man, Ant-Man, Chris Evans’ Captain America, and Mark Ruffalo’s now hybrid Bruce Banner/Hulk going back to 2012 during the Battle of New York in the first Avengers movie to retrieve the Space, Mind, and Time Stones.  Chris Hemsworth’s now broken and depressed and overweight Thor and Bradley Cooper’s Rocket Raccoon going back to Asgard in 2013 during the events of Thor: The Dark World to retrieve the Reality Stone.  And Don Cheadle’s War Machine, Nebula, Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye/Ronin, and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow going back to Morag/Vormir in 2014 during the time of the first Guardians of the Galaxy with War Machine and Nebula tracking down the Power Stone and Hawkeye and Black Widow tracking down the Soul Stone.  Highlights from these ventures include Captain America fighting his 2012 self, Thor interacting with his mother on the day of her death, and Hawkeye and Black Widow’s dramatic fight for who will sacrifice their life so the other can get the Soul Stone.  We also get a bonus time jump back to 1970 with Iron Man and Captain America. (My gosh, so much plot here, and that’s not even all of it. No wonder this thing is three hours long.)

While I won’t dive too deeply on what happens, what this part of the movie effectively does is show just how far back the arc of the original six (Stark, Rogers, Thor, Banner, Barton, and Romanoff) goes and how far they have come.  We also get to see how focused 2014 Thanos was at achieving his Snapture goal even back then.  And it’s a good excuse for Marvel to revisit some of the places they have been, kind of like a Greatest Hits album (although I wouldn’t consider The Dark World one of those hits, I would consider it a flex by Disney/Marvel to make one of their lesser movies that important in the long term story).

And then the last hour of the film is all kinds of crazy action, and the results are satisfying and enjoyable. 2014 Thanos gets onto the Avengers plan and sends 2014 Nebula to replace 2023 Nebula to go back to the future (OH I forgot to mention there were a lot of Back to the Future and other time travel movie jokes). So 2014 Nebula opens up the quantum realm portal to 2014 Thanos. That Thanos takes out the Avengers HQ right after the Hulk snaps his finger with the new Stark-made Infinity Gauntlet. There is then a showdown between Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man against Thanos, after which sets up an epic splash-page like final battle between Thanos’ Chitari army and the recently resurrected rest of the Avengers crew. Highlights in this part include a psyched Thor when Captain America not only lifts up Thor’s hammer Mjolnir but summons it and wields it’s power and a touching brief reunion between Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and Iron Man. The battle ends with Tony Stark swiping the Infinity Gauntlet back from Thanos and snapping Thanos and his army out of existence.

This concludes the Tony Stark character arc, for the snap was too much to bare and ultimately kills him. But not before Peter Parker and an Iron-suited Pepper Potts say their goodbyes (Potts with the emotional “now you can rest” line). There is a somber funeral sequence with all the major Marvel characters that are still alive making an appearance, along with a big surprise.

After the funeral, we also see the conclusion of the Steve Rogers story arc. Hulk sends Rogers back in time to return the Infinity Stones back from where they grabbed them. He doesn’t return when Hulk tries to summon him back but Anthony Mackie’s Falcon and Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier notice someone sitting on a bench in the distance. It’s old Steve Rogers, who ended up settling down in the past after returning the stones. He hands off the Captain America shield to Sam.

The movie ends with Steve Rogers sometime in the 1940’s in a new house finally having that dance with Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter.

Rather than a credits scene, the opening of the credits showcases each Marvel hero over the years with the actor who played them and ends the sequence with the original six Avengers with the actors’ signatures displayed on screen. Cool way to salute the actors in some of the major roles over the years.

Other than a couple of time travel issues (time travel is ALWAYS tricky to pull off in movies and television and maybe some other time I’ll go over those), the storyline works very well. I dug the balance it struck between the emotional weight, action, and humor. It was smart to have a lot of small moments early in the film where it focuses the interaction between characters. And it was a lot funnier than I expected it to be. The film as a whole is emotionally gratifying and clearly wraps up this chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But as I said earlier, it is at max effectiveness if you’ve already invested the time in the characters’ previous stories, in particular the original six. If you know the original six’s stories in particular, you will thoroughly enjoy this movie.

I’ll save my ranking the Infinity Saga movies for after Spider-Man: Far From Home (Marvel President Kevin Feige calls the latest Spider-Man the final installment in the Infinity Saga). You can expect that Endgame would rank very highly in my ranking.

The Legacy of the Avengers

What is the biggest impact the Avengers and Marvel’s Infinity Saga have had on pop culture?

It is crazy to think that when Iron Man came out back in May of 2008 when Marvel Studios was using Paramount to distribute, it was considered a risk. Robert Downey Jr had yet to make his comeback complete (Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes a year later marked his return full return to stardom). Iron Man was a few months before The Dark Knight came out and garnered critical acclaim and helped legitimize the comic book-based genre. And the MCU was in its infancy, no one thought it would become the bohemeth it is now.

Marvel Studios, whether intentional or accidental, helped mold and was molded by the changing methods of which people were consuming their visual entertainment. The early 2000’s saw the advent of binge-watching television, where serial series like Alias, 24, and Lost saw people prefer to consume episodes in bulk. Once Netflix got their streaming service going, the idea of binge-watching caught on everywhere. Television ratings waned as people watched things more on their time on devices other than an actual TV. People only tuned in to things when they are originally broadcast if they were billed as an event, like a series finale (or in Game of Thrones’ case a final season) or a live event like the Super Bowl. Similarly, film started becoming more event-based. Blockbusters had to be built up as an event to go to in order for films to be successful, more so now than any other film era. And in making an event out of their films, Marvel serialized their MCU movies like a season of Lost - individual episodes focused on a character or set of characters with the overarching story in the background until culminating in the season finale, or in Marvel’s case an Avengers movie.

So the biggest impact the MCU has had is shaping other movie studios approach to movie releases. After 2012’s The Avengers, many tried the serialized team-up event concept to varying degrees of failure. Universal flopped trying to launch a shared monsters universe with Tom Cruise’s The Mummy reboot in 2017. Warner Brothers has a semi-successful MonsterVerse going with Godzilla and King Kong. We’ll see how that progresses with the new Godzilla movie this summer. Warner Brothers also has the mostly failed DC Extended Universe. Starting strong with 2013’s Man of Steel but limping thereafter with lackluster installments in 2016’s Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad and 2017’s Justice League, DC/Warner Bros has seen more success with the mostly standalone attempts Wonder Woman in 2017, Aquaman in 2018, and Shazam in 2019. DC’s current strategy is kind of confusing though, with some plans to continue the DCEU, and other plans to do more standalone work.

So the fact that Marvel’s shared universe set of movies has worked and has been the only one to work so successfully is an anamoly and an achievement. Marvel was allowed to build its world over time, a luxury that was afforded to them by Paramount from 2008-2011 and by Disney when they were acquired in 2012. The first two phases of the MCU spanned ten films from 2008-2015, building a foundation for what the franchise is today. That type of patience has not been lended to DC in particular, something that ended up looking and feeling rushed and resulted in a less successful and less satisfying result in the DCEU.

The Marvel approach has changed not just the method of outside studios release strategies but also in releases within their Disney family. For studios to make money on these films, they have to culminate in an event to get people to the theater. Fewer and fewer indie films turn into financial successes, at least at the theater. So event movies galore are on the horizon at Disney. Disney proper has “live-action” remakes of classics animated classics Aladdin and Lion King coming out this summer. Pixar has Toy Story 4 set for a summer release as well, even though the third installment was originally thought to be the conclusion of the story. Lucasfilm has what has been announced to be the finale of the Skywalker saga in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker coming out this winter. Each of those marketed as an event, whether it be a nostalgic event, an unexpected continuation, or a conclusion of a story.

Up Next for the Disney and the Marvel Cinematic Universe

While Marvel Studios has changed the movie industry and pop culture, it is hard to say what the next step for the MCU is. We know of a few things coming though.

With the announcement of Disney’s streaming service, Disney+, coming in November, there were MCU projects also announced to debut on the service. Loki, Falcon/Winter Soldier, and Wanda/Vision will all get series on Disney+. There will also be an interesting What If series where they were explore what if scenarios of some of your favorite Marvel characters.

The MCU’s film future is less set. We know that Spider-Man: Far From Home (co-release with Sony Pictures) comes out in July and is set in the immediate events after Endgame. After that, we know a few projects are in production but no definitive release dates have been set. Projects include a Black Widow flashback, origin stories for The Eternals and Shang-Chi, and sequels for Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, and Black Panther as well as talks of sequels for Ant-Man and Wasp, Captain Marvel, and Thor (although I think the route for the Thor character should be to join the Guardians).

And then there is 21st Century Fox. Disney acquired the entertainment wing of Fox proper earlier this year (I was scared of Apple taking over the world, but Disney is closer to doing so). Fox owned the movie rights to all the Marvel properties included in the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Fox’s run of X-Men movies presumably concludes this summer with Dark Phoenix. Since Marvel Studios now owns the movie rights to what has been traditionally two of the more popular Marvel brands, one would think some sort of reboot and integration into the MCU would be coming in this next chapter.

I’ll end on this. The Avengers Infinity Saga, the Star Wars Skywalker Saga, and Game of Thrones are all pop culture epics that will be ending their current chapters this year. It is hard to imagine the changing entertainment world will ever have subjects as impactful as these given the number of formats available and the vast number of entertainment options now available. Those three epics, especially the oldest being Star Wars, caught pop culture at a time when people would watch and experience the same thing. Soon, the event-centered entertainment world will grow smaller with less people gathering to experience and watch the same thing. Or maybe I’m wrong and every generation finds a way to galvanize to have that shared experience (Gone With The Wind, the original Star Wars, Titanic in the film world all being previous examples). I hope for the latter, but I can’t help but feel that the record-breaking Avengers: Endgame will be one of the last of its kind: an event that everyone wants to share and experience together.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

This was the second very strong Long-Running Panel Show Friday in a row (Feb 10, 2023); this week was maybe even better than last week.

The News Quiz: Mark Steel was on top form, and that’s really all it takes to make a News Quiz episode great. He was on earlier in the season and he was good, but a little subdued that night. While last night, he was everything that’s great about his usual self. All over every issue, shouty and furious but so good at conveying a constant awareness of the pointlessness of the anger. Which is both harrowing and very funny.

Mark Steel alone makes an episode great, but this one had more than that. That may be Catherine Bohart’s best ever News Quiz episodes; I’ve found her a bit quiet on there before, but last night she had lots to say and it was all good. I think it was because she clicked so well with Camilla Long; those two kept building on each other’s points and bringing out the best in each other. They all did, really. Last week’s episode was made funnier by its total dearth of chemistry, and while I enjoyed that in the specific situation, this week had a nice feeling of being the opposite of that. They all gelled well together, particularly Catherine Bohart with Camilla Long and Andy Zaltzman with Mark Steel (as always).

The Last Leg: I watched this one right after hearing The News Quiz, and I have to say, the TV show doesn’t come out great in that comparison. Going straight from The News Quiz pointing out all the flaws in the government’s publicity stunts, to The Last Leg kind of playing into it. They’re not pro-Tory or anything, obviously. They’re still a broadly leftie topical show. But it feels more like they’re making the jokes that the people they’re joking about are hoping they’ll make.

However, I have to remind myself sometimes that The Last Leg isn’t supposed to be The News Quiz, or The Mash Report, or anything like that. It’s an entertainment show that talks a bit about current events. If I expect that and judge it on those merits, this was a thoroughly entertaining episodes. I’ll just say… when I was watching all their old episodes a couple of years ago now, I didn’t have to remind myself of that so often. It’s only in recent seasons that I’ve had more cause to say “Well, I can’t really blame them for not going harder on this, they’re just here for the comedy.” As a general rule I hate the expression “losing their edge”, as it incentivizes “edginess” for its own sake and that leads to everything from hate speech disguised as comedy to annoying prank videos, but it is an expression that’s coming to mind a bit right now. The fact is that I lost any respect I ever had for this show’s satirical cred when they did the horribly reverential post-queen death episode, so my expectations are different now.

Having said that, this episode succeeded well if I expect it to just be a light entertainment show by three entertaining comedians. I found the AI portion really cool, and was legitimately surprised and interested when they revealed which one was the AI-written joke. Adam Hills played that part well, too. I also though Dara was excellent in this one. He sort of seemed like he just misses TV stuff with Mock the Week gone, though I was probably imagining that because he wouldn’t even normally be back on Mock the Week until the fall. But he was having fun out there, doing an unnecessary amount of acting in the Pointless sketch, challenging Adam during the live show in a part where Adam clearly did not expect to be challenged, just doing whatever he felt like.

QI: I found it interesting that this episode had three guests who are known for doing a lot of feminist material (plus Sandi Toksvig, who is the Queen of Feminism), but it wasn’t an episode about a feminism-related subject. So they just talked about trains and stuff, but all four of them kept having feminism-related facts about the trains. And Alan Davies, as usual in episodes like this, was good about just sitting in the middle of the feminism and saying “Yep, cool, do your thing.”

I think what really made this episode were all the guests’ chemistry with Sandi and each other. Sara Pascoe is always really good with her. Sara Pascoe is always good on QI anyway – there are some old Stephen Fry-era episodes when she absolutely stole the show by being young and excited to be there and so eager to show off how much she knew. But I think she’s even better with Sandi Toskvig, because there’s this clear undercurrent of her being aware that she’s in the presence of the Queen of Feminism, and wanting to impress the queen with her knowledge, and Sandi benevolently lets her do so.

It's also just always a good running joke that they manage to upset Bridget Christie with a picture every time she’s on. Every time. She was fun too.

WILTY: Obviously, this episode was a big one, as far as WILTY episode go. The return of Bob Mortimer and the eagerly anticipated debut of Munya Chawawa. I’d been looking forward to Munya getting on there so I could hear his stories, but what I didn’t expect was how much he’d steal the show even when he wasn’t telling stories. And it’s fucking impressive to steal the show in a Bob Mortimer episode. Munya’s confidence really came into play, with him jumping in to talk much more often then most people do in their first episode on there, and I found it funny every time. I think it set the tone early on when Lee Mack accidentally stole Munya’s Very Superstitious joke, and then Munya spent the rest of the episode trying to get those in before Lee could take them. That Munya/Lee dynamic reminds me a little of what it’s like when James Acaster’s on, like that one time when James made a pun and Lee shook his hand and said no one else appreciates that type of humour enough.

In terms of guessing, I went 3-1, which I’m pleased with after doing badly last week. I’ve realized I have something of a blind spot when it comes to the reality TV-type celebrities on this show, particularly when they tell lies. Due to my own prejudices, I’m too quick to believe they really would do something as stupid as whatever they’re lying about, and too slow to believe they’d be smart enough to make up such a convincing lie. So I tend to call “truth” on them too quickly, which is what happened in the first round of this episode.

But that was balanced out by the fact that Munya’s story was free points, since he’s told it on Taskmaster before. It was nice to have that fleshed out a bit, adding some light to this mystery of what the fuck he was talking about in that one Taskmaster episode. Also, I guessed Bob’s story correctly because I remember reading that his teeth are fake, which is how the kitchen chair dentistry story can be true.