|
Post by OGBoardPoster2005 on Feb 18, 2024 18:33:31 GMT -5
Remember when they bought a studio space and made a really bizarre game show? Remember how he tried to retire Nostalgia Critic, make Demo Reel, and it didn't even last a year? And then he still tried to make the Demo Reel-ish skits work within Nostalgia Critic's reviews and a large number of people thought a lot of them were annoying as f*** and added nothing to his reviews but like 10 extra minutes of padding? Outside of the Dante Basco Zuko ones... those were good because of Dante Basco lol Demo Reel was the turning point. Doug reached a point where he was bigger than he ever expected but had 0 idea how to navigate that and how to expand beyond what he was doing. He had ideas and such but they were so bad and forced that it never caught on. I was happy that he brought Critic back, but it died when suddenly most of his reviews where Demo Reel actors doing bad skits. After a while it just stopped being worth watching becasue Doug seemed more concerned with getting Demo Reel over than reviewing the material he had.
|
|
|
Post by Lizuka #BLM on Feb 18, 2024 18:37:42 GMT -5
What's weird is as much as he was banking on Demo Reel it seems like he put, like, almost no effort at all into it? No workshopping it before release, no attempts to try and build it up before committing to it being the headliner, a lot of the pilot was just bad Nostalgia Critic jokes reheated, it was extensively retooled in the middle of its run, even though he probably could've just brought the Nostalgia Critic back as a side-piece with it he instead chose to completely abandon it, his first instinct on moving on from it was to torch it the ground and completely bury its cast and story instead of trying to give it any sort of real conclusion, and it seems like something he doesn't carry any emotional investment in beyond occasionally dunking on it.
For a project he supposedly wanted to do for years and had so many ideas for he went into it with seemingly nothing planned then burnt it to the ground without a fight.
|
|
|
Post by G✇JI☈A on Feb 18, 2024 18:40:51 GMT -5
And the skits were so forced. I remember in the After Earth review he did a whole stupid skit about a nothing throw away line about suit changing color or some shit.
To be fair, there was really not a lot to work off that film. Maybe she shouldn’t have done a video on it at all.
|
|
|
Post by A Platypus Rave on Feb 18, 2024 19:17:18 GMT -5
I don't know how much this contributes to the conversation, but the last thing I saw of Doug's was his Matrix NC review and I think I'd actually prefer to rub sand in my eyes than watch anything he creates. you didn't think him condescendingly calling Neo "Tom" was the height of comedy?
|
|
|
Post by A Platypus Rave on Feb 18, 2024 19:23:47 GMT -5
What's weird is as much as he was banking on Demo Reel it seems like he put, like, almost no effort at all into it? No workshopping it before release, no attempts to try and build it up before committing to it being the headliner, a lot of the pilot was just bad Nostalgia Critic jokes reheated, it was extensively retooled in the middle of its run, even though he probably could've just brought the Nostalgia Critic back as a side-piece with it he instead chose to completely abandon it, his first instinct on moving on from it was to torch it the ground and completely bury its cast and story instead of trying to give it any sort of real conclusion, and it seems like something he doesn't carry any emotional investment in beyond occasionally dunking on. For a project he supposedly wanted to do for years and had so many ideas for he went into it with seemingly nothing planned then burnt it to the ground without a fight. Not to mention it literally blind sided everyone at the sight... and everyone had to mention that no they weren't also retiring because that was basically what the ending to Boldly Flee hinted at. my guess for wanted to do for years ... is he had the idea of Terrible studio head making mockbusters... and didn't expand upon it at all, until he decided he was done with NC. Even then if he wanted to like do that he knew that the Critic was the money maker, so killing it for his untested and unprepared half assed attempt was ultra stupid.
|
|
|
Post by Alice Syndrome on Feb 19, 2024 7:09:25 GMT -5
Yeah, that's one of the things about Doug that I've said in the past. Unlike most of his former Channel Awesome colleagues, he's not actually a geek, he's a comedian doing an impression of a geek. He has no emotional investment in the things he's talking about, they're just things to strip mine for jokes. His review of The Wall is the perfect demonstration of this. I doubt he ever really cared about that movie before he decided to make that video. He obviously had nothing to really say about the movie. All he cared about was that he got to wear silly costumes and sing bad Weird Al parody songs about it. Which is another thing... whoever told him he could sing needs to be beaten. Also that is an insult to Weird Al sir... I can understand not actually being able to have Corey Taylor sing the album for either contract or time issues, but Tamara's husband Rob Scallon was doing all the instruments, and he's at least a decent singer, instead of what I'd call an over sung baritone on everything Doug does.
|
|
Soultastic
El Dandy
Only an idiot can be completely happy.
Posts: 7,865
|
Post by Soultastic on Feb 19, 2024 10:22:25 GMT -5
I think a lot of Doug's problems as a "Nostalgia Critic" is that he doesn't have any nostalgia for most of the stuff he reviewed and it shows. Yeah, that's one of the things about Doug that I've said in the past. Unlike most of his former Channel Awesome colleagues, he's not actually a geek, he's a comedian doing an impression of a geek. He has no emotional investment in the things he's talking about, they're just things to strip mine for jokes. His review of The Wall is the perfect demonstration of this. I doubt he ever really cared about that movie before he decided to make that video. He obviously had nothing to really say about the movie. All he cared about was that he got to wear silly costumes and sing bad Weird Al parody songs about it. I honestly doubt he even watched it. He had a whole bit about how long it was. The movie is barely an hour and a half.
|
|
Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]
FANatic
Writer, Lover of all things Wrestling. Analytical, Critical, Lovable (hopefully). Lets all have fun!
Posts: 236,212
|
Post by Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] on Feb 19, 2024 10:45:24 GMT -5
I think a lot of Doug's problems as a "Nostalgia Critic" is that he doesn't have any nostalgia for most of the stuff he reviewed and it shows. Yeah, that's one of the things about Doug that I've said in the past. Unlike most of his former Channel Awesome colleagues, he's not actually a geek, he's a comedian doing an impression of a geek. He has no emotional investment in the things he's talking about, they're just things to strip mine for jokes. His review of The Wall is the perfect demonstration of this. I doubt he ever really cared about that movie before he decided to make that video. He obviously had nothing to really say about the movie. All he cared about was that he got to wear silly costumes and sing bad Weird Al parody songs about it. His best videos are the ones he actually has nostalgic investment for, like the Commercials ones every Thanksgiving actually hold weight to him for most of them and he gets excited to talk about them, and it actually comes through, some are more popular meme or modern ones but a lot of them are 80's and 90's fare and the gags work with the shorter format of them The Wall review is baffling, and deserves to be like his outright worst review in many peoples eyes. I don't know what he was going for, I get why no one told him it was a bad idea, but I don't get how they saw it nearing completion and thought it was good enough to release as it was, not only do the songs not land like some of his other stupid parodyish songs could in other reviews, but he completely missed the point of the movie and most of the songs as a whole. It just came off insulting, especially the whole Nazi part of it, he's been very aware of the past and tone deaf jokes, but that was one of the biggest ones he's made tbh
|
|
|
Post by BlackoutCreature on Feb 19, 2024 12:06:25 GMT -5
Yeah, that's one of the things about Doug that I've said in the past. Unlike most of his former Channel Awesome colleagues, he's not actually a geek, he's a comedian doing an impression of a geek. He has no emotional investment in the things he's talking about, they're just things to strip mine for jokes. His review of The Wall is the perfect demonstration of this. I doubt he ever really cared about that movie before he decided to make that video. He obviously had nothing to really say about the movie. All he cared about was that he got to wear silly costumes and sing bad Weird Al parody songs about it. His best videos are the ones he actually has nostalgic investment for, like the Commercials ones every Thanksgiving actually hold weight to him for most of them and he gets excited to talk about them, and it actually comes through, some are more popular meme or modern ones but a lot of them are 80's and 90's fare and the gags work with the shorter format of them The Wall review is baffling, and deserves to be like his outright worst review in many peoples eyes. I don't know what he was going for, I get why no one told him it was a bad idea, but I don't get how they saw it nearing completion and thought it was good enough to release as it was, not only do the songs not land like some of his other stupid parodyish songs could in other reviews, but he completely missed the point of the movie and most of the songs as a whole. It just came off insulting, especially the whole Nazi part of it, he's been very aware of the past and tone deaf jokes, but that was one of the biggest ones he's made tbh Like I said, he's a comedian strip mining these movies for jokes, and to expand on that, he very rarely goes past the surface level to find those jokes. And for like 90% of the stuff he "reviews", that's fine. There's no deeper, sub-textual meanings to Michael Bay's Transformers. If he misses the point of something, his response will usually be "well that's the joke, my character misses the point of stuff". But if you're gonna review something as deeply personal and symbolic as Pink Floyd's The Wall then you really need to up your game and do your research, something Doug seems to actively hate doing.
|
|
|
Post by Zaq "That Guy" Buzzkill on Feb 19, 2024 13:29:17 GMT -5
I don't know how much this contributes to the conversation, but the last thing I saw of Doug's was his Matrix NC review and I think I'd actually prefer to rub sand in my eyes than watch anything he creates. you didn't think him condescendingly calling Neo "Tom" was the height of comedy? There was a time when I smugly put down certain popular movies because I was the only one 'understood' they sucked and anyone who disagreed with me was a butthurt fanboy who wasn't as enlightened as I was. I then grew the f*** up and had the sense to not make a review outing myself as a dipshit.
|
|
|
Post by Alexander The So-so on Feb 19, 2024 15:08:29 GMT -5
My only exposure to Doug Walker post-Change the Channel was both Lady Emily and Folding Ideas taking time to utterly eviscerate Nostalgia Critic, Channel Awesome and pretty much 9 generations of Doug Walker's family. if you want more laughs at Doug and Brad's expense, Quinton Reviews did a really good video about To Boldly Flee Also, if you’re looking for something which is actually pretty serious and insightful, We Are Not Alive did a very thorough analysis of The Review Must Go On, and how the things being expressed through it become more tragic the more you think about it.
|
|
|
Post by The Dark Order Inferno on Feb 19, 2024 15:10:27 GMT -5
The Wall review really feels like it came around based on trolling logic, he wanted to really flex what he could do creatively but he also wanted something that hasn't been done but will get a big reaction, rather than doing some minor musical film like Repo the Genetic Opera or Shock Treatment that would have allowed him to do 'parody' musical numbers. He didn't care about the source material, or doing any sort of interesting critical appraisal, he wanted to pump out material and get hits so said something to say something rather than because he had something to say. It's completely on brand for someone who built their career about screaming petty things about other people's work, and has been said, it works when your target is something of limited creative merit like the Transformers movies, but not on a film that seems like a genuine attempt at expression so all he got was people to reappraise his prior work and his general pettiness.
'Look at me, look at me!' 'Okay, we're looking, you kinda suck.' 'Don't look at me, haters! Hashtag, hashtag!'
|
|
|
Post by A Platypus Rave on Feb 19, 2024 15:53:13 GMT -5
if you want more laughs at Doug and Brad's expense, Quinton Reviews did a really good video about To Boldly Flee Also, if you’re looking for something which is actually pretty serious and insightful, We Are Not Alive did a very thorough analysis of The Review Must Go On, and how the things being expressed through it become more tragic the more you think about it. Lady Emily did a deep dive of Demo Reel, and also I think in another video did the Demo Reel Revival that was like a Halloween episode that showed that with a proper writer and show runner there could have been something there. (Doug was not the lead creative on the Halloween Demo Reel stuff)
|
|
FinalGwen
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
Particularly fond of muffins.
Posts: 16,436
|
Post by FinalGwen on Feb 19, 2024 16:26:08 GMT -5
Kyle Kallgren's musical reviews on the site seemed to be the source for Doug thinking he could do it, but the difference was that not only was Kyle actually a good singer but also had a broader character to work from and a fondness for the stuff he reviewed rather than just an urge to riff on everything. You can tell the love of David Bowie's music that went into the Man Who Fell To Earth review, and the Beauty And The Beast one is not only a broad tribute to Cocteau but also includes a lot of self awareness on the limitations of the character review format that Doug simply wasn't capable of.
And so of course Doug only ever wrote him parts in crossovers where he wasn't allowed to sing.
|
|
|
Post by Ryushinku on Feb 20, 2024 6:00:38 GMT -5
I was a big Spoony fan back in the day, and from their crossovers I also got into watching Linkara a lot (still do from time to time)
So the entire Channel Awesome and associated people I only knew relatedly to that. I watched the odd video here and there, but mainly knew most from the specials - Kickassia/Surburban Knights/To Boldly Flee.
It was definitely diminishing returns, Knights and Boldly particularly were unsatisfying, and increasingly the feeling that something was off.
I tapped out not so long after that, as Spoony's output diminished, and just moved on to other things.
The whole #ChangeTheChannel controversy piqued my interest again many years later, and that was an eye opener.
So, I guess the zombie that was the website finally shuffled its last shuffle. End of an era in a way, but it had already become a sad warning tale about toxicity and negative work practices, even with such creative and entertaining people involved.
|
|
Glitch
King Koopa
Not Going To Die; Childs, we're goin' out to give Blair the test. If he tries to make it back here and we're not with him... burn him.
Watching you.
Posts: 12,717
|
Post by Glitch on Feb 20, 2024 6:11:20 GMT -5
Kind of sad how all this went down. It was an innovative site for it's time but it was led but the most ill fitting people you could get to lead it.
Doug was a guy who thought that just because he was good at doing one specific thing, that he must be good at a million other things. Which was made worse by the fact that him and his friends had the attitude of "I don't need to learn how to do that. I already know to do it somehow." He's lucky he was among the first to do these type of online reviews, because if someone of his talent were to try to do that today he would not get far.
I remember being so thrilled to get to interview him in 2017. The whole change the channel thing just felt like doug did a big backstab to everyone, from former talent all the way to the fans. I would say good riddance to the site, but it was already a pile of ashes for years now.
|
|
|
Post by Lizuka #BLM on Feb 20, 2024 12:04:58 GMT -5
I do find it funny the consistency in which Doug seems to just wildly not understand what his audience actually likes. From Moulin Rouge being his best review ever when a lot of the reactions to it were middling at best, Demo Reel, the review of The Wall, that Transformers review he hyped the hell out of that everyone hated... It's just wild that you could do this as long as he's done it and still so consistently misunderstand your own fanbase.
|
|
|
Post by A Platypus Rave on Feb 20, 2024 12:50:55 GMT -5
I do find it funny the consistency in which Doug seems to just wildly not understand what his audience actually likes. From Moulin Rouge being his best review ever when a lot of the reactions to it were middling at best, Demo Reel, the review of The Wall, that Transformers review he hyped the hell out of that everyone hated... It's just wild that you could do this as long as he's done it and still so consistently misunderstand your own fanbase. The AI 'review' which was really just a terrible parody of TMZ which only really had to say that TMZ is shallow and stupid... but "they had to do it for their soul" or something.
|
|
Gunhaver
Bubba Ho-Tep
"Gunhaver! You actually have a gun!"
Posts: 656
|
Post by Gunhaver on Feb 20, 2024 20:40:28 GMT -5
I do find it funny the consistency in which Doug seems to just wildly not understand what his audience actually likes. From Moulin Rouge being his best review ever when a lot of the reactions to it were middling at best, Demo Reel, the review of The Wall, that Transformers review he hyped the hell out of that everyone hated... It's just wild that you could do this as long as he's done it and still so consistently misunderstand your own fanbase. If I had to make a guess, I would wager he doesn't really care to understand the audience because he was fawned over for such a long time. He only seems to react when a project threatens the bottom line like demo reel or when he gets called out for something really tasteless. He's part of early YouTube success, and while the angry reviewer schtick is passe, there's still enough of a following to keep him afloat, I guess.
|
|
Glitch
King Koopa
Not Going To Die; Childs, we're goin' out to give Blair the test. If he tries to make it back here and we're not with him... burn him.
Watching you.
Posts: 12,717
|
Post by Glitch on Feb 21, 2024 8:06:36 GMT -5
This makes me wonder why they didn't try replacing all the talent that left during the mass exodus. There's probably many reasons why, but I'm gonna go with them simply being lazy. I'm sure there were plenty of untalented hacks that would have joined, but Doug and crew likely didn't feel like putting in the work.
|
|