You know, doing this Nick-O-Rama thing has been an interesting experiment and experience. And it's one that I'm not likely to repeat. And it's not for watching shows I didn't like. It's not for doing much more work than I'm used, in rapid succession. It's... to be brutally honest, taking internet toxicity in rapid succession. I'm used to all kinds of comments and hatred and random stupidity. But... on a slower time scale.
But in the past few days, maybe even bordering on a few weeks, the fact that it's all coming in rapid succession is... really starting to get to me and actively piss me off. You probably don't have much context as to what I'm talking about. But you know... it seems that no matter what I do, whatever I say about any single show, there's nothing but complaints and such.
My favorite time is when I did the Korra and the Chalkzone reviews. Where some people, fans of those series, thought that I did such a poor job that I should review them again. Yup, just make the review again. Because me reviewing Korra a third time is going to make me like the series definitely for realsies. Chalkzone gets better later on... not when it was on Nickelodeon. Only when it was booted to Nicktoons and lost its chance for a good impression. Telling me to just "redo" hours of work is not gonna make me like your show, and I find it... entitled for lack of a better word.
That's one thing. Oh, let's talk about when I talk about shows that I like. Oh, it's not good enough because I found some things about shows that I didn't like, because I didn't have a blindly positive opinion about anything. For example, the fact that they used lasers instead of guns in TMNT 2012. That is a problem that legitimately bothers me for the reasons that I stated. If it's not a problem to you, then all the power to you. I'm not here to repeat your opinions back to you.
And I love it when the criticisms against my... criticisms are just frankly wrong. I forget which show at this point I complained about cliches, but... I got this response a lot. "There's nothing wrong with a show being cliched. All shows have cliches." That's incorrect. What you're thinking of is a "Trope." A show in itself being cliched is a problem, and a massive one. If a show is your first ever, it's not a problem, I'd concede. If you've never seen a show before in your life, you probably won't have a problem with Back at the Barnyard.
However... when you get more versed in a medium they become a hangup. A television show's first and most important job is to make you forget that you're watching a television show. You're supposed to forget that the story is just... words on a page. That there's a controller in your hand. A cliche is something that more or less reminds you... that that barrier is there, that you're not experiencing something, just merely watching it.
If that sounds pretentious, let me give you a few practical examples. One case is BoJack Horseman. The first few episodes aren't really awful. They are just very cliched. And because they are so cliched, many people stopped watching during the first few episodes and never continued on with what the show became. And even going back, rewatching from the very beginning is difficult.
And then there's the mystery genre. This is where cliches really hurt. There's a reason "The butler did it" is insulting, why you should never ever use it when you're writing a mystery story. You're supposed to keep your logic ahead of the audience. It's the same in other genres as well. The audience that catches your punchline before you say it doesn't laugh. The audience that catches your scare before you reveal it, doesn't scream. It mutes the power that good media can have.
While yes, you can see tropes time and time again, most every animated film is a roadtrip, the set pieces and things you do on that road trip can elevate it to a new height. Sorry that I can't bring up this argument in a 7-10 minute video every single time when I've been trying to keep a daily schedule, and review 48 separate cartoons.
Oh, and that's my favorite one. You're not going in depth enough for these shows. I love this one because when I actually do go in depth on a show I go on for far too long. Because there's no way to make an internet audience happy. You know, unless I say there's no problem whatsoever with your new favorite show, Teen Titans Go. But seriously. I'm not going too far into each show? That's because it's... more of a review than the analysis that I usually do. Reviews tend to be brief overviews. They don't go deep into detail about the implications of every given episode.
But next time, I promise that I'll watch every single episode of a show that's gone on for multiple seasons, and write up a 40 minute video in a 24 hour period to have it uploaded daily. Never mind the economics of this, considering how much it would cost to have someone edit that. I am planning on getting deeper into some of these shows, but the more things go on, the less shit I want to do in general.
I honestly don't know why I'm continuing with this because I know people are going to give me shit for my honest opinions about shows like Harvey Beaks and Welcome to the Wayne, because I'm not 100 percent positive towards them. I get it, every single show out there is someone's favorite, someone's "do not attack point."
El Tigre was super progressive and ahead of its time because it had a Mexican aesthetic. Ha ha, except that so many shows around 2005 were extremely culturally progressive. Much more so than El Tigre, which is what gives my complaint extra merit. You had Mucha Lucha, Proud Family, Avatar: The Last Airbender. All I'm saying is that I've never heard Dora the Explorer's Diego call international football "Soccer", like the most progressive show of the time.
I love people mishearing me as well. "You said Mighty B was flash animated, so here's some cels." No I didn't. I did not say it was Flash animated. I said it looked Flash animated. It looked too clean until it randomly got jarring. "You do know that El Tigre was made by a Mexican person, right?" Yes. That's why I said so in the video. That's why I found some aspects of exploring Mexican culture a little bit lacking.
Do people just hear what they want to hear? Not every point I've ever made is sound, I'll admit that, but in general, I choose my wording very carefully. I say what I mean, and I mean what I say. If I don't have background knowledge, like with the Monsters vs. Aliens film, I will say so. But not only have I watched these shows, I have done research on them.
I got this special tweet. "I hope he addresses and listens to all of the criticisms he received if he wants to do this again with Cartoon Network." Yeah, I did listen to all of the criticisms and it's damn near driven me neurotic because no one is going to be happy with anything I do, because the internet is neurotic as fuck. All I learned is I don't want to do this with Cartoon Network. I don't want to even finish this Nick-O-Rama thing. What do I have to gain? The 100% achievement?
And I love it, and I mean I really love it when I'm out of line because my criticisms are "cliche." For example, I dunno, The Casagrandes not having much of a reason to exist, similar to another spinoff. Am I going to be too opinionated when I say that I don't like because... I don't like the character they chose to make a spinoff with? Even though the only reason you should be watching my reviews is because you're interested in my opinions. Are you going to complain when I say that the Breadwinners... don't look like ducks? Or when I say that I think that Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a bad adaptation? Probably, and I really don't want to deal with that shit. When I say that the dialogue in Welcome to the Wayne lessons the experience, are you just gonna take that at face value, or are you going to hear me out? Or maybe just pull out some random slang terms that Gravity Falls used, ignoring that Wayne used them almost constantly.
The reason that I didn't upload yesterday is because I was detoxing from all of this shit. Because I'm just sick and tired and don't want to do much of anything anymore. No, it's not from burnout or overwork. It's just the rapid fire blasts with a shit canon.
So, tell me what the prize is to keep going on this track. I'm genuinely curious. Assume that you'll be disappointed when I get to that show you really want me to talk about because at this point, I'm assuming you will be too.
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