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I have been making GBS threads up the Not Another D’n’D Podcast (otherwise known as NaDDPod) thread over in Rapidly Going Deaf for months now with chat about new episodes of shows on CollegeHumor’s Dropout service since the cast on that work (or worked) for CollegeHumor, and so I thought it was time to make a thread here in TVIV; where it’s really more fitting to discuss the subject. Hopefully other people have some interest in it too. CollegeHumor started as an comedy channel on YouTube, doing skits of a few minutes apiece; though they did make a couple of dedicated shows after a few years. They eventually spun this off into a proprietary streaming service of their own called Dropout. Unfortunately, not long afterwards, the people who owned CollegeHumor pulled support. At which point one of the staff, Sam Reich, who has some personal wealth was allowed to buy up what was left and now owns CollegeHumor and Dropout. Sadly, he’s had to let dozens of staff go and now only a couple of dedicated staff remain, and the service doesn’t get nearly as much content as it used to. Still, it’s ticking along according to a Reddit AMA he did a while back, and things are slowly improving so they don’t appear to be in a danger of going under. The service only updates a few of it’s more popular shows at the moment, but there’s still a couple of new episodes a week in total. The fact the service only gets a couple of new things a week may put some people off paying for it but because they’re a small service doing some oddball shows that probably wouldn’t get much play elsewhere, I don’t mind personally. If you’ve never heard of Dropout and/or don’t want to pay money for them though, they have put a lot of their older content on YouTube, and even some new stuff gets put on YouTube, so you can at least check out those. All CollegeHumor’s content is still there too. CollegeHumor’s main attraction to me is the focus on improvisation through a lot of their content, as well as the fact that the people who write the various shows are often the star, rather than being a hidden group who don’t get any recognition. Plus, I just find a lot of their recurring staff charming as hell to watch. I'm pretty sure that with the older CollegeHumor stuff on YouTube that when one of the staff pop up to ask people to subscribe etc. after a skit that person is the one who came up with the skit and/or did most of the writing so you know who was responsible. Which is a nice way to give credit. I’d like to start off by giving a brief overview of Dropout’s biggest shows, along with a couple of links to content on YouTube that can be viewed for free. **** A Message from the CEO  Brennan Lee Mulligan records a series of short (4 to 7 minute) videos where he parodies CEOs of larger companies, highlighting the awful practices of companies like ABC (racist shows), Juul (targeting kids for smoking), Tide (making their products look like candy) and so on. There’s only been a few of them in total, and they’re all on YouTube, but they’re all worth a watch, if only because Brennan is great at acting like he’s losing his patience/sanity and becoming increasingly manic or distressed. This playlist has all but the latest episode available, along with some behind the scenes footage. The latest episode is available here, with Brennan parodying the Oreos CEO in exasperation as his employees keep trying to improve the flavour of their cookie with weird recipes instead of just making one good product. There’s also some extra footage for some episodes on Dropout that’s not on YouTube. The latest episode for instance has 20 extra minutes of an off-screen employee reading out a list of nearly 200 types of weird Oreo cookies that the fake version of Oreo for this video make, while Brennan gets frustrated with them for all the really stupid poo poo they’re selling. Breaking News  Guests are tasked with reading off a teleprompter in a fake news setting, but the catch is that none of them know what they’re about to read and the more you laugh, the more points you rack up; with the loser being the person who laughs the most. There’s no prize or anything, but it’s a great show to watch the various guests across the CollegeHumor and Dropout stable bounce off each other. I can recommend starting with these two episodes: True Facts About Grant O’Brien: Grant O’Brien is asked to read a series of true statements about himself that are weird or awful. He’s fully aware of what’s about to happen going in, and presumably okay with it, but boy are some of them bad and the other guests roast him appropriately for it. Tornado Jail: This one is good but not amazing for about half it’s run time, then it switches over to "on-the-spot reporter" Amy Vorpahl, who almost immediately breaks down, and her score shoots up from single digits to the highest point score in the series as she completely falls apart. Not because any one thing she was asked to read is particularly funny, but because her method of stopping herself from laughing is so stupid and just results in not being able to stop herself from laughing. Game Changer  Sam Reich, now owner of CollegeHumor and Dropout hosts a game show that changes the game (almost) every episode. The contestants (almost) never know what game they are going to be playing, and have to figure out the rules as they go along. Games have included lie detector tests, dares, identifying a mystery guest, 1 minute cosplay and on. I believe this might be the only full episode on YouTube, but that’s okay, because it’s also one of the best. Impressions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-6m0jW0X9E The impressions the guests have to do start out quite simple, impersonating everyday animals (duck, frog), then step up to some more obscure animals (hyena, sea lion) before going off the rails as guests are asked to do things like impersonate a recording of a political speech so old it’s become unintelligible and so on. The above game is also one of the few times the show has repeated a formula, because there are two more impression episodes with (mostly) the same guests. The third one in the latest season subbing in Michael Winslow (of Police Academy fame) as the ultimate challenge of sound impressions. If nothing else, the show is worth watching for this clip of Brennan basically losing his mind as he starts suspecting the game is rigged against him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88et7YlmzTs Total Forgiveness  Ally Beardsley and Grant O’Brien compete to set challenges for each other with monetary rewards of several thousand dollars apiece, with the goal of earning enough to pay off their student debt. I can’t honestly say much about this one, because while it sounds good I haven’t gotten around to watching it yet. Still, both Ally and Grant are entertaining comedians so I’m sure it’s worth a watch. I know from looking at episode descriptions some of the challenges sound awful too (as in “fun to watch; would hate to do them”): Grant being tasked to wear a dog’s shock collar for a day, Ally having to dye their hair so they look like an Oompa Loompa, Ally writing an awful stand up Grant has to perform, Grant making GBS threads his pants in publc, Ally intentionally mangling “the Star Spangled Banner” when performing in pubic and so on. I don’t know if this is true, but I suspect the above Breaking News segment about Grant is a dare from this. I’ll have to watch and verify at some point.  As an aside, the student loans they accrued sound pretty horrifying. Um, Actually…!  A game show about pedantry for nerds. Host Mike Trapp reads out a factoid about something nerdy, with one incorrect bit of information included. Contestants must identify the one thing that’s wrong in the statement. They can interrupt at any point if they think they know the answer, and the show’s only real rule is “you must start your correction with the words Um, actually…”. Some of the show’s best moments are when someone gives a real specific response about why a thing is wrong, only for someone else to speak up a second later and go “Um, actually…they forgot to say um, actually” and then steal the point; because the show might only have one rule, but people regularly get so excited at knowing a thing and wanting to prove they know the thing that they forget it. Topics range across movies, books, television shows, games, D’n’D, anime and more, and the show has occasionally done episodes dedicated to specific areas such as musicals, British media and so on. A good sample of the kind of technicality and spirit the show goes for can be seen in this image:  I don’t really have any specific episodes to recommend, but there’s a good few episodes up on YouTube if you want to check any out from that playlist. Some of them are cut down versions of full episodes that are about 10 or 12 minutes long, and some of them are the full episodes. YouTube Mobile Live Obviously, this isn’t a part of the Dropout service, but CollegeHumor staff used to do live shows on occasion that are still archived on YouTube and a lot of the ones I’ve seen are fun, so I thought they were worth a mention. Basically, the staff just came up with stupid gameshows, roped in a few people around the office to be contestants and had fun. So you have games like Blender of Death, Who’s 57?, Sports Drink or Body Wash? and so on. Smothie of Death has the host ask questions with food related answers to 3 guests, and the people who don’t get the answer have to put that food into a blender with the winner’s prize being not having to drink the resulting concoction, while the other two do. So they end up with fruit, fish, vegetables etc. all in one “drink”. Who’s 57? is just the cast having to try and name a celebrity who is 57, and the prize was the blenders from the previous game. Finally, Sports Drink or Body Wash had the guests presented with two containers, each of which had an ambiguous name attached and they had to guess which was the sports drink and which the body wash, before drinking the one whose name they thought sounded like a sports drink. Which resulted in several people drinking bodywash. Including two swallowing it. Basically, just the staff finding excuses to goof around, but they’re an entertaining watch. Dimension 20  This is undoubtedly Dropout’s biggest draw, as the show is now on it’s 9th season in a couple of years. A Dungeons and Dragons actual play, with 6 guests playing a game hosted by DM Brennan Lee Mulligan. There are 2 non-concurrent seasons centered around a group of high school kids going to a pastiche of American schools in a fairly typical fantasy environment, with about 20 episodes for each of those full seasons. There are also 2 non-concurrent seasons about a group of people in a magical realism style New York. The only other full season of (roughly) 20 episodes is about a Game of Thrones style political thriller set in a Candyland, with the neighboring kingdoms based around fruits, vegetables, meat, bread etc. These seasons tend to have a steady cast of the same people (Ally Beardsley, Brian Murphy, Emily Axford, Lou Wilson, Siobhan Thompson & Zac Oyama) There are also a couple of shorter seasons of 6 episodes apiece with no character levelling, where it’s just a group of 6 characters at a given level (some low, some mid range) bumbling through a roughly planned story. These tend to have a more varied player group, with Matt Mercer and Marisha Ray from Critical Role in one season, for instance. So you have Escape from the Bloodkeep, which is set around a group of villains in an obvious send up to Lord of the Rings after their leader suddenly dies because the Frodo analogue delivered the One Ring to the Mordor equivalent, and each of them scrambling for power in the aftermath of that event. The fun thing about this is that Brennan planned it out as culminating in a PvP free for all, with everyone competing for leadership, but despite all playing ostensibly bad people or monsters, they’re all so nice to each other and so cooperative that within a few episodes Brennan realized that’d never happen and he had to change the ending. You also have Pirates of Leviathan, about a group of pirate wannabes on a pirate city called Leviathan formed by lashing hundreds or even thousands of ships together, as they come together around one plot to destroy the city. And Tiny Heist, which I haven’t watched yet, but is about a group of toys doing an Ocean’s 11 style heist from what I gather. There are also a few shows related to Dimension 20: Adventuring Academy, Adventuring Party and Foundry; though that last one only has one episode as of now. Adventuring Academy is Brennan chatting with other people in the D'n'D scene about why they love it, what makes a good DM/player, how to do certain things, why it can be therapeutic and so on. Adventuring Party on the other hand is Brennan hosting a chat with the members of a given season about the show. Some of them have one episode for each episode of the show, while others only have a few episodes for the whole season. Finally, Foundry is Brennan collaborating with someone else to create a character. As I said, there’s only one episode at the moment, with Lou Wilson, but it was a fun watch. As to YouTube, the full first season of Fantasy High is on YouTube, as is the full first season of The Unsleeping City, and the full season of Escape from the Bloodkeep. Dimension 20: Mice & Murder  Finally, there is Mice and Murder, a new season of Dimension 20 currently airing and on it’s second episode of a planned 10 episode run. It’s a murder mystery set in a rural Victorian England (1905, to be exact) that is identical to our own, beyond that there are anthropomorphic animals instead of humans akin to something like Wind in the Willows. So the Sherlock Holmes pastiche is an fox, his Holmes is a German Shephard, the Irene Adler is a racoon and so on. The story takes place in the town of Tufting Meadows just outside London. Connor McCabbage, a man who worked in one of the new textile mills, died a few weeks ago, and while Sylvester Cross, the most famous detective in England was called to investigate, he failed to find any evidence of foul play and the death was recorded as negligence rather than murder. His widow and others have doubts though. Now the local lord who employed Connor and called Sylvester to investigate is hosting a party at his manor (Loam Hall) to try and make people forget the fact an employee died, and all our characters are attending for various reasons. Grant O’Brien as Sylvester Cross  Level 3 Rogue (Subclass: Inquisitive) A Sherlock Holmes pastiche, since every whodunnit needs someone of that type. Grant decided that Sylvester is an aging Holmes who is just past his prime as a detective, having failed to solve his case for the first time going into the show. His Moriarty also died years ago, and he walks with a cane due to an accident. One of the best parts of the two episodes out for me was watching Grant mirror Sylvester by holding a pen or putting it in his mouth in place of a pipe, using an A4 pad in place of a newspaper, striking imaginary matches etc. Ally Beardsley as Lars Vandenchomp  Level 3 Fighter (Subclass: Battlemaster) The Watson of the story. A former soldier who serves as Detective Cross’ bodyguard and companion. Non-binary (as is Ally). Lars is very attached to Sylvester, viewing him as their best friend. Likes to mess with people, or at least go along with their silliness for their own amusement. While Lars doesn’t have a huge presence in the plot so far, Ally’s decision to play up the dog like mannerisms is fun. So Lars’ tail gives away their true feelings at times, even if they are trying to be circumspect, they sniff to detect things etc. Rekha Shankar as Daisy D’Umpstaire  Level 3 Rogue (Subclass: Assassin) Completing the Sherlock Holmes trifecta is Daisy as the Irene Adler/femme fatale of the story. An American con-artist who rose from humble beginnings (real name: Daisy Dumpster). She had a relationship with Sylvester years ago that ended on a sour note. She is now partners with Buckster $ Boyd. Grant and Rekha’s chemistry as their characters meet again for the first time in years, and both their characters fall apart because of it, is one of the best parts of the two episodes we have. Sam Reich as Buckster $ Boyd  Level 3 Rogue (Subclass: Mastermind) Yes, his middle name is Dollar Sign ($), though he tells people they can pronounce it “Cash” if they wish. Buckster is an oil tycoon and while he dresses in a cowboy suit, it’s a bit too clean and gives away that he’s just a poser who’s never actually done any real work in his life. Daisy’s new partner, and a bit of a grifter himself. It’s Sam’s first time playing D’n’D on camera, and I don’t believe he’s had much experience full stop. Katie Marovitch as Gangie Green  Level 3 Rogue (Subclass: Thief) The local grave digger, double dipping as a grave robber. Then triple dipping as the groundskeeper at Loam Hall. Gangie used to be a petty criminal in London, so Lars recognizes him. Low class, and not bothered about it. This is basically Katie’s first time ever playing D’n’D if I recall, and she’s a delight right out the gate. Brennan revealed in a behind the scenes bit that the whole gang played an episode zero off-camera that was mostly combat and because Katie’s character is so combat focused and everyone else (bar Ally) isn’t, that she easily bodied the rest of the cast. Which gives both her as a player and as a character a lot of confidence going into the game, and it showed, because she intimidates one of the other characters without hesitation as one of the first scenes, and sells it well. Raphael Chestang as Vicar Ian Prescott  Level 3 Bard (Subclass: College of Eloquence) The local priest, whose father and grandfather were both respected figures in the clergy. It’s given Ian a bit of a complex, because he’s not all that confident in himself or in his religion. He does speak truth to power at the pulpit though, and has been vocal in his distrust of the new mills in the area. A real highlight in episode one for me, because like a lot of the rest of the cast for this season, Raph is new to D’n’D and to Dimension 20 but is entertaining and sells his character well as a nervous pastor unsure of everything but trying his best. **** There are also a veritable tonne of skits by the CollegeHumor gang on YouTube, many of which are a good laugh. I’ve watched a good few of them now, so I just pulled a few random ones I found fun from YouTube at random: How Being in Public Feels for Men vs Women: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcoX9aCDeiM Medieval Black Mirror: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1aSqZ23ydk An Honest Call with Your Bank: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSh7efnQfVc High Stakes Ice-Breakers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T35KaUxiSU Furry Superheroes Are Super Gross: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1Dyqas6Sm8 Well, well, well, Late for Work Again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw_FSlpo9KI Finally, you’ll probably have noticed that Brennan Lee Mulligan’s name has come up a few times over the course of this. It’s because as well as being one of the most popular of CollegeHumor/Dropout’s contributors, he’s also a really nice guy by all accounts and is one of the main creative talents left there now. He’s the DM for all the Dimension 20 stuff, as well as being a researcher on Um, Actually…! and a common guest on other shows because of his propensity for theatrical outbursts. I’m not actually sure if he’s as involved in Um, Actually…! as much these days, with Dimension 20 becoming so big. Regardless, he’s great. Him and Grant O’Brien are probably my favorite regular staff, though I don’t dislike any of them. Also, in thinking about it earlier, I believe this might be the first thread I’ve ever started on Something Awful. So 
tsob fucked around with this message at 12:01 on Apr 20, 2021 |
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Apr 17, 2021 18:40
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Also, to make a regular post to start things off: I’m loving Mice and Murder so far. Rekha and Grant’s flashback of the relationship between Daisy and Sylvester was great; both because it was pretty emotive for how quick it was, because it was very funny at times and because Rekha being so frustrated about having to act dramatic against Grant was very charming to see. Is there any logic to her use of the term “tisch” to refer to dramatic acting, as Rekha did during the second Adventuring Party chat? As to the [episode 2 spoilers]murder this episode? I suppose technically all the player’s characters had motive, but I don’t really see how several characters could be involved at the moment barring some major character shifts. Ian doesn’t seem like the type to harbour that kind of anger, wouldn’t have had the time to organize an elaborate murder even if he did given he only got told about being shifted to Siberia a few minutes beforehand and presumably doesn’t have the funds to hire someone to do it on his behalf even if he could. I can’t see Sylvester doing it either, since he displayed a bit too much moral fiber at times, refusing to work with Buckster to besmirch Badger’s image if it involved anything shady on his behalf for instance. They could all be hiding character development that’ll change that image, but it really seems like it was someone besides any of the main cast at the moment. Also, re: Message from the Oreo CEO, I had not thought Oreos were a big thing here (Ireland), as while I have certainly seen them (and had some in the past), they’ve never been a major brand or thing people talk about to my recollection. Certainly not to the point that the appropriate aisles in a shop are bursting with Oreos. I looked out of curiosity while shopping today, and there were about 3 shelves of Oreos with 4 or 5 different types. Which, not exactly bursting to the degree Brennan was saying perhaps, since there were about 30 or 40 shelves of biscuits (or cookies, if you prefer), but still a lot more of a presence than I’d have expected. I don’t even think I’ve had an Oreo in several years. I did buy a pack though. Not the nicest biscuit I’ve ever had or anything, but pretty good.
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Apr 17, 2021 18:40
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The World Inferno posted:Crown towards the end loses a bit of momentum, but I'd argue the first half of it is just as griping as early Game of Thrones was. Man what a ride. Crown of Candy is the one Dimension 20 season I've found myself struggling to finish too. As in, I've yet to watch the last episode or two, despite racing through the majority of it months ago. I just don't like Emily's new character essentially, so when one of the episodes opens with what is presented like it's going to be a very emotive flashback I bugged out and have yet to push into it. I'm not even sure what it is that annoys me about her, but perhaps it's just as simple as not liking that she has a new character that kind of rubs Siobhan's character wrong after the two of them played such close siblings throughout the rest of the show. Instant Jellyfish posted:Escape from the Bloodkeep is my favorite D20 mini arc. LOTR told from the villian's pov is just perfection and it includes some of my favorite NPC interactions ever (spoilers, obviously). One of the best parts of Escape from the Bloodkeep to me is the way Brennan and Mike present Sokhbar's animal companion as completely stupid and weird in ways that make no sense and shouldn't be physically possible, but it's magic, so gently caress it, who cares. J'er'im'ah is great, and I I love that even his name is part of the gag with the dumbest possible spelling. The fact Matt Mercer declares at one point "J'er'im'ah is my favorite animal companion ever", before realizing what he'd said a few seconds later and going "except Trinket, obviously. Don't @ me" or something is just the icing on the cake.
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Apr 18, 2021 14:34
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The World Inferno posted:For me it's that she comes in so late and becomes The central character. I like the conflict she has with the Rocks family, but that plot kind of usurps their whole deal in a way that feels just slightly too tangential to the initial struggles. Her character has a dope backstory and the dragon stuff is great. I just don't like how much air it takes out of the beat up family, to the point where they almost feel like after thoughts by the finale. Yeah, that's probably a factor too now that you mention it. I did mean to say that one thing I started to find wearing with Crown of Candy by the end is that it felt like every single non-player character was waiting to stab them in the back. It seemed to happen just a bit too much, so that it lost any effect as a viewer by the time it turned out that cake slice dude betrayed them. The outcome was fun I suppose, in that it meant the whole family was now on the run with no resources, but in the moment I was just tired of it rather than shocked or anything.
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Apr 18, 2021 15:11
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Man this week's episode of Mice & Murder was good. I'm really getting a kick out of Rekha and Grant's interplay; it's obvious the two of them are having a blast, but they have really great chemistry as old lovers. The constant sniping at each other is great fun, and I loved Sylvester just getting annoyed at one of Daisy's comments and shooting back "Yeah, well your real name is Dumpster", prompting Daisy to just chuck a book at him in annoyance. It's so petty on both their parts. The fact Grant rolled a nat 20 on his investigation and got pretty much every clue in the episode frontloaded to him was great too, as was his smug reaction to it and everyone else just getting annoyed that Grant was getting secrets texted to him. I wonder will we ever be able to find out what was in those texts in some form? The fact Grant figured out one of the things happening on his own rather than from Brennan telling him was fun too.
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Apr 22, 2021 21:57
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eke out posted:"I'm really thinkin about ghosts and how much I know about them, but I don't want to steal his glory" I really thought Lars was just going along with Lucretia to amuse themselves or humor her; it's even more fun that Lars genuinely believes in that and thinks Lucretia is the real deal despite how transparent she is.
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Apr 23, 2021 20:56
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If anyone hasn't watched it yet, the 3rd episode of Mice & Murder's accompanying Adventuring Party is well worth a watch, if only for the crew trying to decide what animal each of them is for a viewer question, leading to Brennan giving a very good defense of donkeys that basically boils down to the fact that he thinks of them as the blue collar workers of the animal kingdom. A defense that instantly made me rethink donkeys.
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Apr 26, 2021 10:20
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I've only just started the 4th episode of Mice & Murder, but can I just say: I love Brennan's puns. Barkus Aurelius, Naponyleon and myth of the Naponyleon complex because ponys are shorter than horses is solid gold punnery. Grant's "rifle" pun was great too. Edit: Jesus Rekha, those rolls. The dice in this game are really screwing her everytime she attempts to do anything. Edit 2: I spoke too soon, because Raph 
tsob fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Apr 29, 2021 |
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Apr 29, 2021 20:12
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:The dice have been mauling Rekha this entire game, but that one Persuasion roll of Raph's I think Rekha might be one of my favourite D'n'D players now, because her using the dice rolls to rationalize her characters feelings and vice versa, for good rolls and bad is a really interesting and entertaining way of playing. The fact she's decided that all the bad dice rolls she's had over the first few episodes are the result of her being thrown off balance by coming back into contact with someone she loved but couldn't be herself around is simple but brilliant justification that paid off really nicely in this episode when she finally gets a good roll after distancing herself from him a bit physically and having a moment to think to herself before making a roll so she could do it with advantage. Followed up by getting a nat 20 on attack roll on Sylvester that throws him off balance for the rest of the episode.
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Apr 29, 2021 22:55
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That was fun, and it's great news that they've made a new season of it to air starting today, but man, the Zoom thing is kind of weird on this. It didn't stand out as much for Amy and Mike for some reason, but the actual newsdesk characters (Raph and Tao) were very obviously on a Zoom virtual background and it just seems weird. Oh well. More Breaking News is more Breaking News. Also, I think Amy might have been trying that dumbass face thing again at the start of the episode while Raph and Tao were doing their bits, despite how disastrously it went last time.
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May 1, 2021 01:07
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Well after this episode Hawkins is acting guilty as gently caress. Lars got incredibly lucky too. The model for the mysterious figure looks like a darker animal, so if the model alone was anything to go on I'd suspect it was Brockhollow. I genuinely don't know what to make of whether that his real body or not though. The fact there's stone dust around the eyes would suggest it's the real body, but the fact Brennan noted the eyes in the painted looked exactly like his would suggest it's not. Then Brennan goes "this has to be his body; and yet..." after it all. It's D'n'D so I'm wondering if there isn't some duplication magic at play here. The whole thing has been treated as a very low fantasy setting so far, but it's still D'n'D after all, so maybe there's a clone or there was magic used to shift a corpse to superficially resemble Brockhollow. So it has his external features, down to the stone dust around the eyes, but internally it's someone else and that person is the one that got shot in the war. That's not how you'd typically deduce things out though, since you'd normally be thinking about mysteries in terms of the real world rules, and not odd D'n'D world rules. There's presumably some higher level figures at work here too, given their assailant had 3 attacks. Multiple attacks aren't a rogue thing either, from a quick Google. So it's presumably multiclassed to have sneak attack and a third attack. Fighters don't get it till the 11th level, so a multiclass fighter would need at least 11 levels fighter and 1 level rogue to get that set of skills? It's no wonder that assailant nearly killed Lars in one hit, nat 20 or no, if they're level 12 while Lars is level 3. If there is a level 12 enemy around can they even beat it in a straight up fight? Will they have to outsmart them to have any chance? tsob fucked around with this message at 22:57 on May 6, 2021 |
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May 6, 2021 22:53
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There's a new episode of "Meet the CEO" up on Dropout/YouTube, with extended outtakes stuff on Dropout. Pretty good. Not the best one, but still fun.
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May 12, 2021 22:12
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I'm kind of interested, but the inescapable problem with any game like that is that even with a few hundred questions you're going to run through them all and start repeating after only a few dozen games at most. Which will be even more pronounced for the person who actually owns the game; meaning they'll basically have to be host to be fair to the other contestants. I imagine if I did buy it that'd I'd want to start writing questions myself (or stealing them from the show, or maybe getting unused ones from the Discord) to supplement the ones in the pack. Honestly though, I think a digital version is probably nicer, just because I can imagine finding people to play online with easier than finding several persnickety nerds to play with in reality and there's at least the faint hope that the team would throw out some DLC packs with new questions every now and then.
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May 19, 2021 23:09
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Prairie Bus posted:I’m loving the latest season of Dimension 20. Spoilers from the latest episode and the Adventuring Party: I wonder if been an undiscussed canine supremacy theme throughout the latest season. I think all of the Roman emperors were dogs, as was the king from the intro to the first episode. At first I figured Sylvester being the baddy was a fake out , but they committed to it hard in the Adventuring Party. Maybe there’s a dogs versus the other animals thing going on? Brennan noted the police were 3 dogs and two cats. I don't buy it, personally. I don't buy it for a few reasons, starting with the simple fact that we're only on episode 7 out of 10, and that feels too soon for the final villain reveal. It's also kind of idiotic that Sylvester would go out of his way to expose how the death of Squire Badger isn't a paranormal event and this woman isn't the murderer and the real murderer is still afoot if he himself is the real murderer. The fact Sylvester chose to put up literally no resistence to everyone's suspicions and his arrest is also weird; if he was guilty you'd imagine he'd at least try and allay suspicions. Instead, as Buckster pointed out he made himself look more guilty, if anything. Not to mention that two characters with deep insight into his life have no idea that he'd be capable of it (Daisy and Lars), and that the whole Cottonbottom thing is just odd to have as a confirmed "yes, he's still alive" if Sylvester is the actual killer. At that point Cottonbottom would just be a red herring that has touched the lives of multiple protagonists and secondary characters but never had any pay off even though we now know Cottonbottom is not only around but must have been in the house when the murder happened. Or else Cottonbottom is around and executing some completely different nefarious plan just when Sylvester is breaking bad. And both those scenarios are kind of stupid. That aside, I want to say that contrary to what Brennan stated in the Adventuring Party episode I do not think Daisy is Irene Adler. Not because Daisy isn't cool and smart, but because Irene Adler is neither of those things. I saw several Sherlock Holmes adaptations with an Irene Adler in them before actually reading any Holmes, and when I did I was kind of shocked that in the one story Adler appears in she's kind of basic. She doesn't even do anything particularly intelligent or deceitful. She just notices Sherlock looking at something in the most guilty way possible, infers that the thing he's looking at is important and decides to check it. That's basically it. Daisy is way cooler than that  I did love that during the episode itself though Rekha immediately decides to run with Katie's suggestion of getting Mrs. Crumb to show her whole rear end, but can't even finish saying it herself for about a minute because she breaks down laughing every time she tries. Between that and Katie really wanting to tell the story of someone she knows needing to go home and take a full shower after every poo poo, she had a good episode. Gangie was cool too, but Katie hit some good notes even without counting anything Gangie did. I especially loved everyone just kind of being sad for the guy that he has to spend so much on a taxi to get home in the middle of a workday and have a full shower after even tiny, unsatisfying shits. I do feel sorry for Raph now too. I thought Rekha had some bad luck with the dice initially, but she's been on a hot streak and every time Raph tries to do anything cool the dice absolutely gently caress him. He's had a couple of potentially cool moments most episodes, and they basically always go bad. It's resulted in some great comedy as he mistook someone's dead father for their fiancee and poo poo, but I would like to see him get a win at some point. I'm also on board for more Mice & Murder. I wouldn't mind one or two recurring characters, or one character popping up as someone in disguise as Sam suggested for Buckster, but another mystery based on a pastiche of the Orient Express as Vicar Prescott goes to Syberia and, I don't know, Daisy is there in disguise but everyone else is playing new characters would be cool. tsob fucked around with this message at 01:55 on May 23, 2021 |
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May 23, 2021 01:52
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There was also a Game Changer with Michael Winslow, the guy who can imitate almost any sound from Police Academy. Where the two contestants have to try and out sound imitate him.
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May 23, 2021 18:05
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Cyster posted:It's a bit more meta, but I don't think for an instant Grant wouldn't take the opportunity to give a little speech and be a ham about it, if it was unambiguously him. It doesn't fit the genre or Grant to be quiet about it and just silently accept being thrown in an oubliette without that moment. Yeah, Grant was hamming it the gently caress up in the Adventuring Party episode, but he said nothing beyond "huh, that does look like my handwriting" in the actual episode. Which is suspicious all on it's own. Man, those text though. I hope they release the actual body of them in some form after the campaign, because his was basically a CIA document, with almost everything obscured bar a few words at the start. Edit: asking in the Discord channel for the show there's an official text document with all the text messages for each episode in them being released by the staff at this link, but the blurred stuff is still hidden. There's speculation in the Discord chat that the hidden information will be included after the show, but I don't think anyone involved has said anything about it yet. Still, worth keeping an eye on. tsob fucked around with this message at 13:07 on May 24, 2021 |
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May 24, 2021 11:37
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Having finally watched the last episode and accompanying cast chat for Mice & Murder, I have to echo the earlier "what the gently caress, Rehka"? She was probably feeling a lot of pressure despite Brennan's best intentions when he was saying "do what you think your character would do, and we'll work out the rolls afterwards" since she was on the spot for a really important beat, and had to come up with something on her own. Still, between that and Gangie calling Buckster "dad" despite having almost no relationship with the character it did feel like the cast let the humor and silliness get the best of them right at the finish line, and it undercut the finale just a little. It was still a really strong showing regardless, minor gripes aside. Brennan did a great job setting up the mystery, and I'd be happy to see more of that style of play at some point down the line. The only thing I thought felt a little odd about it was that no-one noticed or could detect what is essentially taxidermy. You'd think a former doctor and current investigator like Sylvester would notice that in some way, and Cottonbottom's plan to "resurrect" Connor would presumably have a slight snag when he would have no reason to not go "Uh, I wasn't dead so it's not occult; I was just locked up for several months and would appreciate someone finding out why". The whole thing hung together really well regardless though, and I'm sure you could come up with some justifications for those minor quibbles. The fact Brennan was willing to burn the whole thing if someone solved it, or even just lucked into it early, and change the tone and style completely should it come to it is great DM'ing though. Jaxts posted:I decided to subscribe, and I know about D20, um actually, and the other shows people talk about. One show no-one has recommended that's kind of fun is Raph's Hall of Fame. It could as well be a podcast as a show honestly, since it's just Raph in a room talking to one or two guests about some sports personality or event they think is cool, and trying to convince him it's worthy of attention. There's not even any fancy graphics or anything. I like it though, and I say that as someone with little to no interest in sports for the most part. It's basically just a conversation with the people involved having some fun riffing on poo poo, and doesn't require any iintimate knowledge of whatever sport is involved. Raph finds out about the Skeleton for instance, after someone talks to him about how a woman in the UK wanted to do something on the Olympic level and picked that, despite having no experience and no real way to train, then has multiple problems on the day of the actual competitions with various medical issues and still manages to do really well and Raph mostly reacts with horror to the idea of doing a sport like the Skeleton, and then convinces himself he could do it too. No problem. While the guest constantly points out how unrealistic that is to her experience of him as a person. tsob fucked around with this message at 01:51 on Jun 13, 2021 |
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Jun 12, 2021 17:09
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I've only seen her in Escape from the Bloodkeep, but she was fantastic as not!Shelob in that, one part proud but weird mom to one part drunk aunt who's everyone's best friend. I'm really looking forward to seeing her in this because she was so good in Bloodkeep, along with Brennan as a player. I'm really hoping the fact Aabria is back on D20 means that there's more Pirates of Leviathan in the wings at some point however. The first season of it was fantastic, and I'd love to see more of it at some point.
tsob fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Jun 18, 2021 |
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Jun 17, 2021 23:59
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TotalHell posted:I desperately want another Pirates but with everyone playing together in the dome. I just watched the special crew edition of Adventuring Party that went up a few days ago, and found out that Carlos Luna was part of the cast behind this season, which is cool. That's two of the Pirates of Leviathan crew doing work on the show now, so hopefully they'll pull everyone back in eventually for at least one more season. That aside, I also watched the latest episode of Um, Actually! earlier and I think Erika might be one of my favorite contestants on it just because of how expressive and passionate she gets. Her trying to scream her way to an answer, and partially succeeding was amazing to watch. I also realized after a bit of searching that I was under a Mandela effect moment where I attributed one of my favorite moments in the show to her, when she was just one of the other contestants on the episode and it's actually Becca Scott is the contestant I was thinking of in the moment. Erika steals a point out from under her in an early season 2 episode, and Becca just slips off the couch despondently in a really fun moment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLGc7VL0HUM&t=287s It's also always slightly depressing when someone fails to get any points on the show and every time it gets to about the half way point and someone is scoreless I find myself rooting for them to pull out a point at every turn, so Maude getting one at the last second in this episode by pointing out a fault even Trapp hadn't anticipated is great. That aside, I don't know if anyone else her watches the Nando v Movies stuff on YouTube, but he talked recently on one of his streams about how he just filmed an episode of Um, Actually! even if probably won't air for a few months so far as he knows. Which should be fun, at least if the subject of comics or movies comes up at least a bit, so it's slightly in his wheelhouse. Apparently he just took a chance as a fan of the show and sent a message to them on Twitter asking to be on the show, and they got back to him a while later asking if he still wanted to do so.
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Jun 20, 2021 15:23
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I've yet to watch the premier episode of Misfits & Magic, which I'll probably watch later today but I watched a few things on Dropout yesterday and I've of two minds on the spate of improvisational bits on Breaking News. It seems like a lot of the episodes this season have the ticker read something akin to "read this line aloud, grab a thing from nearby and talk about it for x amount of time". Which, is great in some ways because it plays to the cast's strength as improv comedians and usually ends up with more corpsing as the cast break down over the silliness they end up saying. However, a lot of the time in ends up being inane lists or them "ummm" and "aahhing" as they attempt to come up with stuff on the spot, and the show's inherent ridiculousness of "try to stay composed as you read out this idiotic thing you haven't seen" is kind of lost. Also, I don't know how many people watch the Dorkly Bits shows, which are mostly 2 or 3 minute shorts about "what if this Pokemon acted like it does in it's Pokedex description" or "What if Mario was a bit more real in x way" but some of the Mario ones are pretty fun and I just noticed in the latest one that Sam is voicing Bowser. I don't think he's voiced Bowser on them before, but I love his Bowser because he gives Bowser a rather refined accent that makes him sound like an upper class dandy and some one who doesn't even realize how much of a dick he is.
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Jul 1, 2021 11:52
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Does The Seven build on the earlier Fantasy High content? Cause I've yet to watch either season of it beyond the first episode. I should get around to it, but I just skipped to other seasons that looked more fun instead, honestly.
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Aug 19, 2021 23:02
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grate deceiver posted:I live for those Amy Vorpahl Breaking News segments I just watched the latest episode, and they're just setting Amy up at this point to take advantage of the fact she's so bad at keeping a straight face really aren't they? They gave her several improv prompts, and in the end she more than doubled her previous record while everyone else was barely on the board. It was fun, but it was also feeding the bit too hard and I don't know that it'd really work again making it so obvious they just want to see how hard they can push her to crack.
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Aug 28, 2021 17:18
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The latest Breaking News was pretty terrible for the first half, with very dry jokes that literally no-one cracked a laugh at, but it redeemed itself in the second half; through Katie's acting, with Sam breaking script to ask if she was crying as she riffed a sad story to fill in the blanks, followed by Brennan getting very animated trying to be sexy in his segment and Sam just becoming increasingly desperate to actually remember where he first met everyone, but wrong on every single count. I know Katie was a child actress going off other stuff said at times in various shows on Dropout, but drat, it shows. She ran with her bit really easily, and despite being comically silly on it's face (I've already met "the audience" at a theme park years ago), she still managed to make it come across achingly sad in it's silliness. It feels like Grant was trying to rile Brennan up at a few points at the start with all the things he had people saying were over-rated too. Or else like he was taking a shot to see if it'd rile someone and Brennan was the closest to taking a bite, because when Sam was talking about the Muppets and cats being over-rated Brennan looked like he was having to bite his lip to keep himself under control.
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Oct 5, 2021 11:57
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Never heard of the GM, but the premise is fun and the cast are cool so I'm looking forward to how it and seeing how Gabe Hicks plays things. What system is it using, since it doesn't look like D'n'D stats on the character sheets?
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Oct 27, 2021 18:16
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lemonadesweetheart posted:He created the system himself according to the FAQ on dropout discord. I wasn't even aware the Discord had an FAQ; interesting to know in future. Thanks. eke out posted:also new season with the original crew is exciting, gonna be great seeing them back together in person I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun, and I'll almost certainly enjoy it but every time it comes to a new season I'm just hankering for a second season of "Pirates of Leviathan", because the cast was stellar, all the characters were great and it's a really interesting setting. It's probably just a function of Pirates being my first D20 show though, so having some extra attachment to that one property.
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Oct 27, 2021 19:18
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Brennan does shine in the sound impression episodes, but Zac and Josh give him enough of a run for his money that I wouldn't say he dominates them by any stretch. I'd say he tends to dominate a bit more when he appears on "Um, Actually...", but even there he often has some good competition and it just depends on who he's up against. That aside, this weeks "Breaking News" is fun just for the Erika getting an improv cue to name 10 teenagers and just...breaking, and realizing "oh gently caress, I'm getting old". The fact she gets so stuck she can't even name one, and everyone just has to move on is fantastic. I'm still not a fan of how much they're doing the improve cues in the show this season, but I do like the latest episodes giving the loser a task at the end.
tsob fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Oct 31, 2021 |
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Oct 31, 2021 00:03
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I don't know how many Collegehumor regulars could do it, but the show has demonstrated that it's willing to look outside that box for guests at times so I'm sure there's other people in their circle doing VA work or what have you that could do it. I'd imagine Matthew Mercer or Liam O'Brien from Critical Role would be pretty good at it just going off the way they've stretched their voices for sound effects and different voices over the years, for one. I'm not sure if it'd extend to that degree, but they're the first ones to come to mind at least.
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Oct 31, 2021 00:30
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Well, to be fair, the show is a particular mix of both foley work and improv to end up with cues like "A 100 year old recording of a speech losing coherence", "MTA train announcement becoming self aware" and poo poo like that. Mercer is pretty good at thinking on his feet in D'n'D, but I don't know how that'd translate to comedic improv.
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Oct 31, 2021 00:42
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lemonadesweetheart posted:Dunno if anyone cares or not but imma post it. I'd say it's a pretty safe bet Brennan gets this reaction a lot. 
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Nov 9, 2021 00:43
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Deceptive Thinker posted:Yeah, I'm assuming this either means that, or (less fun option) just different contestants I mean, a series would still imply the less fun option regardless because a series is unlikely to just have the same 3 people for every episode. There are also plenty of other people at College Humor or who are friends with the people in it that are likely to be good at it regardless.
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Nov 30, 2021 14:16
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Gaz-L posted:I feel like they may have stopped counting Brennan's breaks or he could actually have lost! I could only count one that they didn't count, which was him squawking in shock after the reveal of the 2007 photo of Grant. It wasn't really a laugh though, so I guess I can see why. Still, I really do think it should count. That aside, I think this is the most Brennan has ever broken, and the sheer shock on his face when he had to give his pseudonym for the bit based on Grant's oral history was great. Why does Grant agree to this, though? I originally thought the first was for something in Total Forgiveness (which I haven't seen), but now there's two. I know they take the piss out of him for his sexual history at times but masochism is about the only thing I can think of that would drive doing this twice. I honesty don't know what the best part of this was; Grant just giving up trying to explain parts of it, or his desperation to try and cover other parts ("It was more complicated than that!"), Lily's discomfort with Grant after a few seconds of him licking her shoes, Brennan trying to work out the math of the 50; there's a lot to choose from. It's cool that everyone is so chill with him about it though, at the very least. There's some really shocking poo poo in there, and they're just fine with all of it, beyond lightly ribbing him over it. Lily and Grant are pretty drat flexible too.
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Dec 11, 2021 02:00
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I think it's just becoming less funny because it's expected too. It feels like the show is trying to play to that now, which isn't helping either. Mind you, I still loved how helpless she was in the latest episode as she struggled through her "name" among other things.
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Dec 31, 2021 21:07
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I'm going to go against the grain and say that it's not anywhere close to my favorite, but that's mostly, maybe even entirely, because I don't care about musicals. I can certainly appreciate how much talent what they did took, how well done it was and the joy that Sam took in it, but it didn't actually hit that well for me despite that appreciation. Still fun as just one more game he indulged in, but not something I'll be sad if it never comes up again. I wouldn't be surprised if it did come up as a Game Samer honestly, given how much Sam liked it. It's just not something I'd be all that excited to watch if I saw it pop up, either .
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Jan 3, 2022 18:54
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I'm pretty sure there were several of them last season, though none yet this season. The one that sticks out to me is the one where they had to try and figure out who they were talking about, and it started out Sam asking them to tell him about themselves as they thought it was like an ice-breaker style "tell me about yourself" type thing; only they were talking about a person Sam had picked out. It was apparently the premier for that season, but I'm sure there were others too.
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Jan 4, 2022 11:08
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BDG? Also, Liam O'Brien. Oh, and Murph looks fuckin' weird with long hair. I almost didn't recognize him.
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Jan 8, 2022 00:29
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I was so happy to see Liam, I didn't even notice Sam was there  I'd love to see Laura go on too, alongside Liam; just for that sibling rivalry energy. Or her and Travis. Are Laura, Travis, Ashley and Taliesin the only ones of the main crew who haven't been on, now that Liam and Sam have done an episode? I know that's half the crew, but I'm just wondering if any of them have been on an episode I just forgot, more than anything. tsob fucked around with this message at 00:58 on Jan 8, 2022 |
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Jan 8, 2022 00:54
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Is there a word to describe what Erika Ishii did with make-up in a broad slash across her upper face (from one side across the eyes to the other) in the latest episode of Game Changer? It's a cool look, and I know I've seen it on a few fictional characters but I've no idea what you'd call it.
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Jan 12, 2022 23:39
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Gaz-L posted:Can Erika Ishii be on Um Actually every episode? She's the perfect contestant. Funny, got a good breadth of nerd knowledge and gets worked up in a very amusing to watch way when she thinks she should know the answer but can't quite find it. I need to find the episode where she tries to scream until the answer comes to her, and it actually works. That aside, Brennan played in a recent D'n'D charity game that's worth a watch. Aabria Ayengar DMs, with Brennan, Becca Scott, Micah Burton and Danny Quach as the players in a Strixhaven campaign. I'm not familiar with the setting, so I've no idea how true to it the game was, but they all play students in a magical academy. The setting isn't really important though, because the first six minutes is some of the most bananas, chaos crew energy I've ever seen, and while they manage to calm down a bit, it keeps a solid energy throughout. Including Aabria deciding a few minutes in that if they raise $20k that she'll make a new ending, the Daddy ending, even though she has no idea what that'll actually mean as of yet. Which basically sets the tone. The cast play some fun characters too, with Becca playing a bard whose specialty is tap dancing, while Brennan plays an old necromancer who is his own Warlock patron and addicted to dying.
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Jan 31, 2022 20:25
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My biggest issue is that I don't care about reality TV in general, including Survivor. I enjoyed the first episode, but I'm not sure I enjoyed it enough to watch what looks like it'll take up a couple of more episodes as they whittle down the playing field. In particular, it felt like some of the confessional segments were somewhat indulgent, and went on too long. I kind of wish I knew whether this was going to take up just one more episode, or another four or what.
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Feb 25, 2022 13:56
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Oh, cool. I was worried that with 7 (?) original contestants, and only 2 knocked out in the first episode, that it'd take another couple before it was done. Which is fine when they're actually doing some kind of competition, or even doing the voting itself; it's the confessional camera stuff, and even the "behind the scenes" conspiring stuff that wasn't really grabbing me. I know they're a bunch of improv artists, and that the entire show is built around getting them to improvise, but a lot of those bits felt rehearsed or scripted.
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Feb 25, 2022 15:25
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