Channel Larry (EDIT: Channel Awesome renamed to just Nostalgia Critic)

[LumRanmaYasha]

Someone on TZ said that in order to get AT, one has to stop thinking of it as a silly cartoon, and more as an adaptation of Jack Vance's The Dying Earth. Is it wrong that I'd prefer a silly cartoon to something arty and dramatic?

No, but I don't think there's anything wrong with "arty" and dramatic shows, when done right.

I do think Adventure Time is at it's weakest when it is too serious and goes too dark, and also when it feels random for randomness sake, but at the same time I can't help admiring the way it develops and treats it's characters, and the sorts of stories it writes, many of which are boundary-pushing in a good way. The weakest part of Adventure Time, personally, is Finn. I like some of the stuff they try to do with him in the serious stories on a conceptual level, but in execution they come off more uncomfortable or bland to me, the exceptions being episodes like both of the Susan Strong episodes and "Puhoy." I'm far, far more interested in Jake, Princess Bubblegum, Marceline, Ice King, Lumpy Space Princess, and even BMO and Flame Princess than I am Finn, and the episodes I enjoy the most usually involve them being prominent with Finn having little to no role in the episode. I like Adventure Time, I do, but recently it's trying to be too serious at the expense of fun, yet not willing to go far enough with there stories, as seem through their cop-out endings in "Too Young" and "Jake the Dog" where interesting storylines where rendered pointless by an easy fix back to the status quo. I think Adventure Time should find the balance between comedy and it's adventure/character story arcs and not attempt to do anything as ambitious as the Lich storyline because they don't have the capability to make consequences stick. Season 3 was easily the best season in the show because it managed to find the balance, producing a season full of great episodes, and I think many people would agree with me that it was one of the best seasons of any Cartoon Network original series ever. These last two seasons, however, have been bogged down by the Lich and Finn struggling with his maturity/relationship problems and that has severely lessened my enjoyment of recent installments of the show and Finn as a character even though I quite like everyone else. This and unfunny comedy episodes like the "Graybles" trilogy make me feel that the show is running out of ideas and has only the option to focus on it's more serious elements, which aren't executed all that effectively as it is, and that's why I think the show is feeling tired to me now.

As far as Doug's problem goes, he's trying too hard to "get" the world, because he's assuming it's trying to be wierd while considering situations of normalcy, wheareas instead he should see that Adventure Time's wierdness is it's normalcy, and stop trying to compare it to other things and other worlds he has seen before. I've never had this problem with shows like Adventure Time, because I just accept what such shows present to me as it's "normal" reality, and focus in on how things operate as far as how characters behave and interact with each other in the world. I don't question the logic because I accept that the world in shows like Adventure Time simply do not follow the same rules we normally expect, so I just go with it. As you continue along in these kind of shows, the way things are start making more sense as you learn more about the characters and the world they inhabit in, and the jarring aspects soon fade away. When I first  watched Adventure Time, I did not see a bunch of weirdness, but rather a world where they were simply Candy people and talking dogs and assumed it was simply natural for those things to exist in the world of the show, and went along with it, and as the episodes went on and I saw how things worked in the world of Adventure Time, I stopped paying any second thought to it, and was able to get into the show much better. I have a feeling that as Doug watches on and he sees how the world of Adventure Time operates that he'll start to enjoy the show more, and it's weirdness will be less confounding to him.

[LumRanmaYasha]

3 episodes in and Doug still doesn't "get" it. I honestly don't understand why he doesn't get Jake is a shapeshifter at this point, since he and Brad kept going back to how that was jarring to them. I think he is going to drop the series, at this point, since the remainder of season 1 is similar to these episodes and there really isn't any plot-developing episodes until....I guess "It came from the Nightosphere" is the earliest. Well, actually, "Memories of Boom Boom Mountain" shows a bit of Finn's backstory and gives him character development, so if he makes it to that maybe things'll start making sense to him.

Hopefully he makes it to "Ricardio the Heart Guy" at least. That's easily one of my favorite episodes in the show and I'd like to hear his reactions to it. But "Tree Trunks" is his next episode, and while I think it's a good ep, it'll no doubt be the weirdest yet for him...

[Goldstar]

The Huntsman on TZ says that he finds Regular Show to be far more random than Adventure Time. I have to disagree with that. Regular Show is similar to Rocko's Modern Life in that much of it's humor comes from the relatabe characters and situations. Yes, bizarre super natural occurances happen regularly, but they typically stem from everyday situations that people can relate to. Adventure Time never bothers to explain anything to it's audience; it just shows us this post-apocalyptic world where almost nothing is explained and leaves almost everything up to it's audience to learn about later on or to simply figure out for themselves. Another problem that I have with Adventure Time is that there are no actual jokes or genuine humor. It's just characters saying and doing random things. AT is like watching a kid play with his/her toys; you have no idea what's supposed to be happening because you don't understand the rules.

AT is also a very hard show to categorize. It's not funny enough to be a comedy, nor serious enough to be a drama. What is it?

[LumRanmaYasha]

I honestly have never found Adventure Time or Regular Show random at all, because neither have given me reason to expect that what occurs in their episodes is unusual as far as occurrences go in their world. There is consistency in how characters act, react, and interact with each other and their world in both shows, and there are rules and logic governing their behaviors. People's problems with them seem to be that they are trying to hard to see the world of the show from a familiar, normal perspective, but their worlds simply do not behave in the same way typical worlds in other shows do and will, and the sooner people understand that, the sooner they can move on from trying to figure out how things work and the strangeness of everything to focus on the characters and the story. Only then will you actually be able to find anything funny and enjoy the show. I honestly have laughed only a few times at any episode of Adventure Time, and I really don't think it's all that funny a show. However, I like it for it's stories and characters, and the dynamic between them, and that's what made me watch the series and get into it early on. Granted, I'm probably the only person on this planet who doesn't give a damn if a so-called comedy actually makes me laugh as long as the characters and stories keep me entertained. It took me till I was 13 to realize that I was supposed to be laughing at shows like Rocko or The Simpsons, and honestly that never occurred to me because my enjoyment of those shows came from seeing characters interact, go on adventures, face challenges, fuck things up, etc. So personally these kind of shows have never bothered me, and I like Adventure Time for being what it is. I like that it doesn't feel the need ot explain things to me, and honestly, if you don't realize Jake is a shapeshifter and there are simply all sorts of Princesses for various things and living normally inanimate objects in the show by episode 2, you are probably trying to hard to "get" the show than you really need too. When you watch a show like Adventure Time, you can't expect to know the rules of the show off the bat, and you shouldn't care. Watch it long enough and they'll all come to you. What matters most should be, do you like these characters and their adventures and do I want to see more of them. If the answer is no, then that's that, plain and simple.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

The Huntsman on TZ says that he finds Regular Show to be far more random than Adventure Time. I have to disagree with that. Regular Show is similar to Rocko's Modern Life in that much of it's humor comes from the relatabe characters and situations. Yes, bizarre super natural occurances happen regularly, but they typically stem from everyday situations that people can relate to. Adventure Time never bothers to explain anything to it's audience; it just shows us this post-apocalyptic world where almost nothing is explained and leaves almost everything up to it's audience to learn about later on or to simply figure out for themselves. Another problem that I have with Adventure Time is that there are no actual jokes or genuine humor. It's just characters saying and doing random things. AT is like watching a kid play with his/her toys; you have no idea what's supposed to be happening because you don't understand the rules.

This is why I've never been able to get into AT. I've laughed a few times, but at the end of the day I can't bring my self to care about whats going on. I can see why some people like it, but I've just had to move on.

[Avaitor]

That's honestly how I feel about both Adventure Time and Regular Show. I just don't care about either at all, but they're not even bad shows.

[No-Personality]

Heeeeeeee's baaaack:

http://blip.tv/phelous/halloweenie-scary-candy-6655791

Until next time when Pumpkinweenie takes over. 

[Avaitor]

Adventure Time vlogs are back.

I think I mentioned this before, but Tree Trunks is the only character I really like from AT. I really do enjoy this episode and her return.

[talonmalon333]

By the way, did anyone see Doug's editorial on zombies.

I think his editorials are great. But I think this might be the first one that's a bit of a dud. His ideas were pretty good. He just didn't elaborate enough for me.

[No-Personality]

This was officially my very last Doug Editorial.

Wow, he is boring doing these. There hasn't been one that has worked for me. His flow is awful- he keeps starting summaries, ending them, starting again, ending again. All the while, he has some ridiculous music playing in the background. The effect of listening to that music while he basically can't decide how to vocally build a functioning argument because his focus is constantly resetting, it makes him sound like he's confused. Not just because he's asking questions- he really sounds stuck. Trying to watch these videos feels like watching some kind of Public Service Announcement... for 8 to 12 minutes. Most people who actually make those videos know that you can't keep people in that musical realm for that long while trying to sound thoughtful and earnest. I can't believe I'm going here but...it's like watching that Google It Gets Better video at 3 times its length. And the idea of using This Kind of music started with human interest news segments on television. Again, they knew to keep it short. Doug does not. Even Leon Thomas keeps it shorter. Lindsay is the master at doing this right, but she builds her flow on the clips cutting her off and doesn't play "heart warming" music. Her music choices are usually relevant to the tone of the subject she's discussing. Same with Leon...usually.


Phelous has been busy lately. This one was pretty damn funny (it takes awhile to get over the joke that he's not actually insulting it but completely worth sticking around):
http://blip.tv/phelous/garfield-s-halloween-adventure-6664031

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Hid editorials usually bring up interesting topics, but in many cases Doug's thoughts usually come off as rambling to me, and in some videos I'm not quite convinced that he bothered to research the subject material that much.

[No-Personality]

Diamanda's review of The Pink Angels is finally up (she announced it was coming a few months ago):
http://blip.tv/diamanda-hagan-lecher-bitch/05-03-the-pink-angels-sd-6665621

I will never have the courage to watch this film (which is one reason I consider her reviews essential watches), and... I didn't even know about the ending. Not that it shocks me in the slightest.

Also, I can't believe I never caught this 2011 episode when I was mainlining her stuff last year - it has to be one of her best:
http://blip.tv/diamanda-hagan-lecher-bitch/diamanda-hagan-review-03-07-preaching-to-the-perverted-sd-5631478

[Avaitor]

A Nostalgia Critic-related blog I follow on tumblr polled its users to figure out what their follower's favorite NC videos were, and #2 was his Les Mis video.

Tells you what kind of people are on tumblr.

[Dr. Insomniac]

A Nostalgia Critic-related blog I follow on tumblr polled its users to figure out what their follower's favorite NC videos were, and #2 was his Les Mis video.

Tells you what kind of people are on tumblr.

...people who aren't as judgmental over liking a video on Blip?

Though I never really minded that video. Liked quite a few parts, actually.

[Avaitor]

Well here's their full list:

1- The Room (ughhhhhhhhhhh)
2- Les Miserables
3- Moulin Rouge!
4- The Last Airbender
5- It
6- Alone in the Dark
7- Patch Adams
8- Signs
9- Cat in the Hat

Apparently #9 is Doug's new personal favorite. I do really like that one myself.