Fanboys Anonymous

Which television shows am I watching right now? What programs have I been viewing recently?

Welcome back to another edition of NOW CONSUMING, which is a check-in segment to fill you in on what I haven't had a chance to talk about. Since my attention has been diverted elsewhere for far too long, I've neglected talking about so many TV shows over the years that I would have normally done full scale reviews or seasonal breakdowns for.

Unfortunately, I can't remember everything from every show I've watched over the past few years. However, I'd like to get back into the swing of things if possible, so Now Consuming gives you a microdose review as a quick fix for my thoughts.

Previously, I mentioned the theatre performances recap, so now, I wanted to shift my focus to the realm of television.

Previously on...

Admittedly, I've not kept track of the television shows I've been watching for a looooong time. There are entire series that I've seen and you would have no idea because there isn't a blip of a mention on this site. Unfortunately, I don't even remember some of them, and I don't have my handy lists like I do with movies for me to go back and check for comparison. Apologies for the gaps. Something like The Paper, I did write up about, so you can find my thoughts there.

Something like Batman: Caped Crusader, you would think would be the subject of a bunch of articles and podcasts (especially given my Batman Blueprint), but I didn't have anything to say about it until well past the point that it was out of the zeitgeist. For the most part, I wasn't impressed, to be honest. None of the show was what I would want out of it.

Peacemaker season 2 was pretty great. I had a lot of fun with this season and enjoyed it even more than the first. If they don't get a third season, I'll be disappointed.

Keeping up with some of the comic book stuff, X-Men '97 was a blast. I'm SO glad they knocked that out of the park. Since I've been eagerly awaiting the next season and I know that they're shuffling the deck with the creative team, I'm concerned this next round won't be quite as good, but I hope I'm proven wrong.

Harley Quinn is perpetually great, always funny, and I can't get enough of that show. My Adventures with Superman isn't as amazing, but I still liked it. It works better as a binge watch to me.

Did I mention anything about how Penguin was one of the best shows I had seen in a long while and I am so glad it was recognized with some awards?

Gen V and The Boys continue to be fun treats. I'm sad the show is ending, but I'm hoping they will go out with a bang.

More comic book stuff, starting to venture out a bit, The Sandman was a great finale. That season was phenomenal. I wish Dead Boy Detectives and other things in this universe were still around. For that matter, when the hell does Good Omens return?!

Interview with the Vampire is one of my favorite shows going. Talamasca was a fun side story to hold me over, but I didn't like it anywhere near as much. Lestat is going to be great, I'm sure. While I'm bummed that it didn't release yet like it was supposed to already, I hope that's for the better.

Also on the horror side of things, From is a show that my wife and I (who watches about 95% of these shows with me) binged all the seasons of. Awesome. I'm counting down the days until that comes back, too.

It: Welcome to Derry was amazing. I actually liked that better than both the television adaptation (which was meh) and the recent film reboot. Frankly, I enjoyed this maybe more than anything in that universe. I don't know how they're going to do another season, but I trust them to pull it off. On the strengths of that, we watched the first season of Castle Rock as well. Comparing the two, Welcome to Derry was better, but I still liked Castle Rock. It was cool to revisit Shawshank and to play around in that world some more. I've yet to watch season 2, partially because there are just so many other shows going on right now, but I'm sure I'll get around to it eventually.

Alien: Earth was on a similar wavelength, where I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to the next season, even though I'm not as crazy over the franchise like I am with the comic book side of things. Full transparency, I've only ever seen Alien, Aliens, and Alien: Romulus. I've never even seen AVP. It feels like with those three films and this television series, I've watched all the good stuff.

Yellowjackets doesn't have quite the punch it used to, and I think it's good that they're wrapping things up. I still liked the last season, but I'm going to need a refresher for certain parts of it that I'll have forgotten by the next time they're back. Speaking of which, Severance is consistently great, but I do feel like the last season ended in a way that they might be milking this and stretching it out too long for its own good. I don't like having to wait so many years between seasons all the time, and I'm not sure where they go from that end point. Then again, why should I second guess such a great show?

Stranger Things ending isn't something I spoke about on here, but I happened to really like the vast majority of the season. It didn't end exactly as I would have done it, but I was happy with the outcome for the most part and would just nitpick certain things. I never once thought that we were getting more episodes. Conformity Gate was ridiculous.

Squid Game ending the way it did was good, and I was sad to see that show leave, but I was even more sad to see the reality show was so terrible with season 2 that I couldn't make it past the first episode. It's become far too over the top scripted. If you're curious about any other reality shows that I've watched, The Mole is something I wish would return.

On the animated comedy side of things, I've not particularly loved Futurama and South Park as much lately. While I still appreciate them, I just haven't been laughing as much. When it comes to Futurama, it's starting to have that same downturn in quality that The Simpsons and Family Guy eventually fell victim to. Regarding South Park, as much as I want as much criticism of MAGA as possible, because that political ideology is nothing but pure evil, I'm so inundated with that on a daily basis that I want to escape from it. I can't open up TikTok without seeing terrible things those idiots are doing, and I have a hard time laughing about our world turning to shit and a good portion of the population losing their goddamn minds. This past season of South Park is something I've almost entirely skipped, as I just don't have the stomach for it right now.

English Teacher was something I really wish wouldn't have gotten cancelled. It's rare these days for me to get into this type of sitcom anymore (even though I used to love a lot of them), and it's even rarer for my wife to be interested, let alone legitimately like a comedy like this. Thumbs down on how this all ended, as I wanted more seasons.

Sadly, I have to give a thumbs down to It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia at the moment. This past season had such a weak opening that I didn't feel any motivation to keep watching. With so many other things taking up my time, I've completely let that sit on the sidelines and I have no itch to check out those episodes I've missed. Maybe I'm skipping out on some gold, but since nobody has told me anything about any of those episodes, I have a feeling it's probably all on the weaker side compared to how brilliant it used to be.

Black Mirror is also not as great as it once was, but I'll keep watching anything they put out there.

Silo, on the other hand, is a show that I struggled with for the first season and got halfway through season 2 before I threw in the towel. I just couldn't connect with any of the characters and I got tired of the visuals and the tone.

The Last of Us was much better in the first season. Season 2 was fine, but I'm not as thrilled about the third season as I was to get into season 2. Also on the video game adaptation side of things, Twisted Metal isn't a GOOD show in the sense that I find it gripping and award-worthy, but it's an entertaining one that I can't help but to check out as a guilty pleasure. It's honestly better than I anticipated from the start, and I liked the most recent season more than the first one. Fallout is something I'm behind on. I haven't started the second season yet. Other things have been more of a priority.

Currently Watching

Had I written this article a week ago, I would still be watching Wonder Man, but I finished that before publishing this. Overall, not my favorite of the Marvel Cinematic Universe television shows so far, but I did like it. I'm only one episode into Daredevil: Born Again's second season and I'm sad to say this feels like a downgrade from the previous season. I hope the second episode and onward turns things around. 

Invincible is always rad. Since I'm not as aware of the source material as I am with Marvel and DC things, each new twist is something that wows me. That in and of itself is a refreshing change of pace, and I love how both serious and silly this series can get. I most recently watched the Hell episode, which was weird, but interesting as a side plot.

Scrubs is great. I was so worried they were going to drop the ball with this follow-up series, but it's SO good. Somehow, they were able to capture the magic from the original series without dating it in a way that makes it cringe. They avoided the pitfalls of trying to do something different purely for the sake of it, and thusly alienating the whole reason why anyone would want to reengage with a show they used to love, as well as the trap that many shows fall into where they just carbon copy everything and it feels like a hollow retread. New characters fill in previous roles very well. I like the new cast, and I like how they're progressing as supporting players who will take on bigger spots as the show evolves. 

Traitors is a show that has finished, but I haven't finished the season. I'm on the final episode, so I still have that and the finale recap to check out. This cast wasn't my favorite by any means, and very early on, they knocked out some of the people I was rooting for (like Ian) and made it harder for me to get invested in the people I had never heard of and wasn't loving.

I'm behind on Survivor. I haven't finished season 49, let alone started season 50. There's no sense of urgency. I'll get around to it at some point.

School Spirits is also something I'm currently sitting on. We're juggling too many shows at the moment, so some things have had to be on the back burner, like how I mentioned Fallout is still just sitting in my queue. Since they've been renewed for a fourth season, I'm hoping that's a good sign that season 3 is solid, and I've liked the previous two.

I'm also sitting on starting season two of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. I started to watch the first episode, realized I had forgotten where we left off, and I'm waiting to eventually watch a recap on something like New Rockstars before picking this back up.

Something I'm even more excited to start watching is Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat. That's something I feel might work better as a binge watch, so I'm holding off until all the episodes have been released. The same for Love on the Spectrum, which is back today. Those 7 episodes are definitely going to be a quick watch. I perpetually say that show is the most wholesome thing I watch and I just love it.

Next Time, on...

Naturally, I'm looking forward to some of these shows returning. Everything listed above is something I plan on revisiting.

From is back soon, The Boys starts next week, Stranger Things: Tales from '85 is right around the corner, and holy shit, American Gladiators is also coming out this month, finally. Hell yeah.

In May, I know I have Spider-Noir and the Marvel special presentation to look forward to, and my god, how am I going to finish everything on my plate as well as take on the rest of these?!

I've also been interested in eventually (somehow) checking out Sunny, The Studio, Shrinking, The Institute, and Disclaimer, as well as a few other shows I've heard good things about, but unless I figured out how to extend 1 day to 1 week, I don't know if I'll ever get around to them. Plus, who knows what else will randomly pop up on the horizon that will be so tempting to watch that I'll have to add it to the list? 

What are you watching right now? Have you seen these shows? Drop a comment below and let me know what television has caught your eye lately! 

A few years ago, I binged the entire series of The Office during COVID-19 lockdown quarantine. It gave me an excuse to tap into a show that I had completely missed out on, as I had never watched it when it was airing. I always heard good things, but I've heard that about all sorts of different shows and movies only to be disappointed when I engaged with it, so I assumed The Office would be another one of those. Clearly, I would start watching it and hate it.

On the contrary, I ended up doing what I did with Modern Family: I started watching it, pretty instantly realized that I liked it, and breezed through my binge watching, going episode to episode every day until I swept through the series in no time.

It wasn't perfect. There were certain characters that didn't resonate well with me. The show fell off after Michael Scott was no longer the centerpiece and some other characters came in that were annoying. But overall, I ended the series wishing I had experienced the journey for several years with other people, rather than just watching it all in 2020 long after it had ended.

So when they announced that The Paper was going to be a show, I knew that I had to give it a chance from the onset, instead of waiting.

Here are my thoughts—for better and for worse—on my impressions and review of season 1 of The Paper.

75% Pro: The Tone

Arguably even more than the cast of characters themselves, the real gem of The Office was its tone. For the most part, The Paper gets that right, but not fully on the mark.

There's a certain level of awkwardness that it should have so that it plays off as believable. Things shouldn't feel like the pacing sets up for a laugh track, nothing should look staged, reactions should seem genuine. At times, though, I did find myself thinking that they lost track of this and dipped too much into sitcom tropes.

This doesn't feel as "lived in" as the original. Everyone's clothes feel a little too chosen for them, for example. I do feel like some of the acting can turn into performing rather than being. Sometimes, it feels like they were told to ham it up a bit because it would come off too flat, whereas the flatness is part of what sold The Office. It needs that tension.

This feels like The Office, but it feels like the later seasons and not the core 2-5 I would say that really make up what people love about the original the most. IE, The Simpsons of 2025 has some of the essence of the prime 2-10 seasons, but my milk still tasting like my cereal doesn't mean it literally is more cereal, if you catch my drift. 

Mixed Bag Pro & Con: Jim & Pam x2

The dynamic between Jim and Pam was in many ways the main hook of the show for a lot of people. Maybe I'm diluting it a bit, but I feel like most fans could probably say they either watched the show primarily for Michael's antics, Dwight's antics, or the Jim and Pam romance. A big portion of the crowd loves shipping people and love stories, so that becomes their investment.

As such, I fully understand not only why the writers of The Paper would want to revisit that dynamic for themselves, but why they would also feel obligated to do that. If there wasn't a couple to root for to get together, I think a good number of viewers would tune this out and say they can't get into these characters.

But they've decided to double it up and have two of those couples right out of the gate in The Paper, and I don't really love that. It feels like there is another layer to this that could possibly be an excuse. Did they not think they could write one of them well enough, so they have a backup couple in case fans reject one of them? Did they not think they were strong enough on their own and want to double up because quantity over quality? I sure hope it isn't that they wanted two white people and then wanted two non-white people to get together for a quota or demographics thing and they were just running the math behind this. Likewise, I don't wish to find out it was manufactured by the studio as some sort of generic equation of "people liked Jim & Pam, do 2 Jim & Pams and we'll get double the ratings!" Ploys like that don't ever really work out.

Between the couples of Ned Sampson & Mare Pritti and Nicole Lee & Detrick Moore, I do like both of them, but I don't LOVE both of them. Honestly, it didn't feel like I watched 10 episodes of growth between these characters in any fashion to reach a point where I was really hoping they would get together in some fashion. That all felt very rushed, and I think part of what made Jim & Pam so special was the teasing.

I can only assume that season 2 will start with Ned and Mare being awkward with each other because "they shouldn't" while Nicole and Detrick are awkward with each other because Detrick got his heart broken and needs to chill out a bit while Nicole needs to grow a heart herself and get closer to his level. Tada. 

Ned and Mare comes off as the slightly better duo in the sense of being equals with the caveat of being a little bland, while I feel like Detrick and Nicole comes off as more interesting characters but the power dynamic kind of makes Detrick "winning" Nicole kind of like a contest rather than a romance blossoming. To be honest, both couples kind of feel like they could almost play the brother and sister vibe better than love interests.

I do like all four characters, overall. Detrick is probably my favorite of the bunch. 

Massive Con: Esmeralda Grand & Ken Davies

Holy shit, do I not like Esmeralda. Her character is supposed to be obnoxious, but not in this way for me. This is the same problem I had with Nellie in The Office, where a villain is supposed to be disliked, but I didn't want to see her get her comeuppance, I just wanted to see her not in the episode. In pro wrestling, there's a term called "go away heat", where instead of the villain heel getting boos because they're a bad person and you want to see them lose the match, you're booing the performer and the character's writing and you don't want them to take time away from other performers/characters you genuinely do find entertaining.

Esmeralda is like someone watched Modern Family, said "we gotta have a Gloria" and then told Sabrina Impacciatore to do her best Sofia Vergara impression. I've seen some people defend the character, saying they're interpreting it as Esmeralda as a character is trying to put on a performance for the camera. I don't think that is the case at all, or we would have seen her change her voice and act like a human being during her sad moments manufactured to try to convince me to like the character and sympathize with her. Newsflash, it didn't happen. I would love to see her character written out of the show or coming back in season 2 with a completely different vibe. I don't want to watch the redemption of her villainous character at all.

With Ken Davies, I just feel like the whole bible of the character is just one page that has typed out in big letters "do The Office". He feels the least like an actual character and more like a fever dream of what someone remembers characters from The Office to look and sound like. I don't believe whatsoever that this is an actual person living in this world. What is he, The Great Gazoo from The Flintstones?

I haven't seen Tim Key in anything else (same with Impacciatore), but I assume they're better than this. In 10 episodes, they never got out of coming across to me like people auditioning to be in an Office spoof, rather than actual characters within the show.

Major Pro: Travis

He's not on the same level of the series regulars, for some reason, but Travis stands out to me as the most consistently funny character of the show. Frankly, he's funnier when he's interacting with the others than he is in his own side bits, which I'm already afraid will contribute to his flanderization and turn him into a total dimwit doofus instead of the more subdued character that I like better now. Give me more scenes of him just being a sly scumbag and less of him pulling a Kramer waking up from the melatonin.

The Oscar Situation

Why is Oscar here? Don't get me wrong, I like the character. I liked him a lot in The Office. But the coincidence of him working at the place that the documentary crew is going, and then going from an accountant to a report, just screams to me "we reached out to see how many people would be interested in a sequel series and Oscar Nunez was one of the only ones who said yes, so we had to figure out a way to put him into this new show instead of where he would've fit in with The Office 2.0"

I did enjoy him calling up Stanley. There does remain potential for him to bring other guests onto the show, which could be fun. But I didn't get a chance to see much from him so far in 10 episodes, and it still feels a little forced.

The Others

Is Barry just literally that they took jokes they wrote for Stanley and made a new surly older black man?

Adam has some charm, but he's also a little over the top already. I don't find him as engaging of a character as Ryan was, if he's in a similar position. 

Adelola hasn't completely won me over yet, but I like her sass. She just hasn't had as much to do and no real episodes primarily focused on her.

Marv and everyone else either were there just to fill a functional role in a scene or weren't memorable enough for me to even recall their names. 

My Expectations Going Forward

I think this is going to end up following the pattern of That 90's Show where as a follow-up, I felt like they were doing a decent job trying to replicate the formula, but they weren't able to capture the magic. I didn't watch season 2 of that show, as I wasn't loving the characters (and some of them I outright disliked and thought were obnoxious). Season 2 of The Paper will get a watch from me, but I'm going to be hoping that it is as much of a level up as The Office had. The first season of that was rough as well, and season 2 was where it really anchored me in. Maybe The Paper will, too. If it doesn't, I could very well see season 2 being the last season I watch. There is still time to find a better rhythm, prevent some stuff from getting too wacky, and further bring depth to some characters that have a lot of potential, but haven't hit their stride yet.

That's me telling my truth on the Toledo Truth-Teller, but what do you think about the series? Drop a comment below!

Welcome to a special crossover between Fanboys Anonymous and my professional wrestling website, Smark Out Moment! This is the first edition of POKÉMON: WHAT IF, where I take the rules of the Pokémon franchise and apply it to other characters in other media.

To celebrate Pokémon Day, this time around, the question is "What if there were Pokémon trainers in the world of professional wrestling?" Which WWE Superstars would be the top Pokémon trainers that would be gym leaders, the Elite 4 and the champion of the different WWE eras?

Make sure to subscribe on whatever platform you're listening, leave your comments on the video below or this post, share this edition with your friends, and smark out with us!

Subscribe to the Smack Talk show on:
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and more!

What if the characters of Marvel and DC fought in a WWE Survivor Series style pay-per-view?

Welcome to a special FANTASY FIGHTS podcast here on Fanboys Anonymous along with a Fantasy Booking edition of the Smark Out Moment Smack Talk podcast!

This crossover two-part episode takes the concept of the annual Survivor Series event and replaces the WWE Superstars with the superheroes of DC Comics and Marvel instead of the brand warfare "Raw vs. SmackDown" setup.

The red brand of Marvel and the blue brand of DC are put together on Battleworld with general managers Red Brother and Blue Brother in a two-night pay-per-view hosted by Access. This contest of champions will settle brand supremacy once and for all in Secret Wars!

This event is so big that it had to be broken up over two nights, so if you want to find out what matches were booked, how the card plays out and who comes out on top, be sure to check out these two podcasts below and subscribe on the different platforms that you can find these episodes!

Bonus: If you are on the Darkcast tier on Smark Out Moment's Patreon (or YouTube membership) or the Bonus Features tier on the Fanboys Anonymous Patreon (or YouTube membership), you can check out a special Episode #3 of this, with a different card lineup based on the WWE Survivor Series: WarGames concept instead of the traditional elimination matches!

Smark Out Moment: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, and more.
Fanboys Anonymous: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, and more

PART 1 - SMARK OUT MOMENT

PART 2 - FANBOYS ANONYMOUS

PART 3 - FANBOYS ANONYMOUS (BONUS FEATURES SUBSCRIBERS)

LEAVE YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!

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THE BATMAN: A KNIGHT-TIME STORY - 100 RECORDS FROM THE WAYNE FOUNDATION ARCHIVES tells the entire history of Bruce Wayne and the Batman character as part of THE BLUEPRINT PROJECT created by Anthony Mango.

The Batman Blueprint incorporates references, storylines, characters and interpretations from all previous versions of the Batman franchise to tell the most absolute complete version of this story possible. The goal is to create a gold standard bible for both diehard fans and casual audiences.

For this entry, Tony Mango presents a dramatic reading and pitch synopsis of the fifth chapter in this tale, called Bat Out of Hell. Picking up from Chapter 1 (Why Do We Fall?) and Chapter 2 (The Big Chill), and Chapter 3 (Guilt Trip) and Chapter 4 (Head of the Demon), a heartbroken Bruce Wayne has rejected The League of Shadows and decided to return to Gotham City to start his vigilante career as The Batman. But how can he forge this identity and in what state of chaos is the Gotham he's returning to after all these years?

Join us for
Volume 1: Gotham Guardian - Chapter 5: Bat Out of Hell

The Batman Blueprint and all these superhero stories from The Blueprint Project are outlines in progress with the intent to become full-fledged works with the backing of DC Comics and the other production companies associated with these intellectual properties.

At the moment, they are not in any direct association with those entities. But with your support, these pitches could become a reality. So help spread the word by sharing this with the hashtags #BatmanBlueprint and #HireMangoDCComics, tag @DCOfficial and @Batman as well as @JamesGunn, along with other creators, people who have worked on Batman projects and films and television shows in the past, comic artists, and especially your friends and family! The more you share this, the better chances the right eyes will get on it and this can be a true adaptation, eventually.

Stay tuned for more from THE BATMAN: A KNIGHT-TIME STORY.

THE BATMAN: A KNIGHT-TIME STORY - 100 RECORDS FROM THE WAYNE FOUNDATION ARCHIVES tells the entire history of Bruce Wayne and the Batman character as part of THE BLUEPRINT PROJECT created by Anthony Mango.

The Batman Blueprint incorporates references, storylines, characters and interpretations from all previous versions of the Batman franchise to tell the most absolute complete version of this story possible. The goal is to create a gold standard bible for both diehard fans and casual audiences.

For this entry, Tony Mango presents a dramatic reading and pitch synopsis of the fourth chapter in this tale, called Head of the Demon. Picking up from Chapter 1 (Why Do We Fall?), Chapter 2 (The Big Chill), and Chapter 3 (Guilt Trip), Bruce Wayne has traveled the globe learning from various people and caught the attention of The League of Shadows. With an offer to join the society of assassins, Bruce learns the backstory of the organization, its leader Ra's al Ghul, and falls in love as he takes his final steps toward becoming The Batman—but must watch his footing along the way to ensure he doesn't fall into darkness.

Join us for
Volume 1: Gotham Guardian - Chapter 4: Head of the Demon

The Batman Blueprint and all these superhero stories from The Blueprint Project are outlines in progress with the intent to become full-fledged works with the backing of DC Comics and the other production companies associated with these intellectual properties.

At the moment, they are not in any direct association with those entities. But with your support, these pitches could become a reality. So help spread the word by sharing this with the hashtags #BatmanBlueprint and #HireMangoDCComics, tag @DCOfficial and @Batman as well as @JamesGunn, along with other creators, people who have worked on Batman projects and films and television shows in the past, comic artists, and especially your friends and family! The more you share this, the better chances the right eyes will get on it and this can be a true adaptation, eventually.

Stay tuned for more from THE BATMAN: A KNIGHT-TIME STORY.

THE BATMAN: A KNIGHT-TIME STORY - 100 RECORDS FROM THE WAYNE FOUNDATION ARCHIVES tells the entire history of Bruce Wayne and the Batman character as part of THE BLUEPRINT PROJECT created by Anthony Mango.

The Batman Blueprint incorporates references, storylines, characters and interpretations from all previous versions of the Batman franchise to tell the most absolute complete version of this story possible. The goal is to create a gold standard bible for both diehard fans and casual audiences.

For this entry, Tony Mango presents a dramatic reading and pitch synopsis of the third chapter in this tale, called Guilt Trip. Picking up from Chapter 1 (Why Do We Fall?) and Chapter 2 (The Big Chill), Bruce Wayne has deserted Gotham City and is stowing away on a container ship, heading off to an unknown location. Wrestling with the shame of having almost shot Joe Chill to get revenge for the death of his parents, Bruce is on a journey of self-discovery to travel the world and train his mind, body and soul while forging the future identity of The Batman.

Join us for
Volume 1: Gotham Guardian - Chapter 3: Guilt Trip

The Batman Blueprint and all these superhero stories from The Blueprint Project are outlines in progress with the intent to become full-fledged works with the backing of DC Comics and the other production companies associated with these intellectual properties.

At the moment, they are not in any direct association with those entities. But with your support, these pitches could become a reality. So help spread the word by sharing this with the hashtags #BatmanBlueprint and #HireMangoDCComics, tag @DCOfficial and @Batman as well as @JamesGunn, along with other creators, people who have worked on Batman projects and films and television shows in the past, comic artists, and especially your friends and family! The more you share this, the better chances the right eyes will get on it and this can be a true adaptation, eventually.

Stay tuned for more from THE BATMAN: A KNIGHT-TIME STORY.

As part of THE BLUEPRINT PROJECT—where Anthony Mango seeks to take the entire history of every adaptation of a series and condense it into the gold standard bible version of the story with as many references as possible—one of the biggest adaptations is focused on THE MIGHTY MORPHIN' POWER RANGERS.

This Power Rangers Blueprint is dubbed ABSOLUTE POWER RANGERS: A MIGHTY MORPHIN' EPIC and is a 14 part series (12 feature films and 2 short films) telling the full story of the dawn of time and the backstory of Zordon, Rita and Lord Zedd as well as the fight against evil starring our core team of Tommy the Green Ranger/White Ranger, Jason the Red Ranger, Kimberly the Pink Ranger, Billy the Blue Ranger, Trini the Yellow Ranger and Zack the Black Ranger.

Check out this pitch video detailing some of the project in the hopes that Hasbro will be interested in producing this adaptation, and if you are fond of this concept, please help get more eyes on it by sharing this on social media, message boards, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter and more!

The Power Rangers Blueprint and all stories from The Blueprint Project are outlines in progress with the intent to become full-fledged works with the backing of other production companies associated with these intellectual properties.

At the moment, they are not in any direct association with those entities. But with your support, these pitches could become a reality. So help spread the word by sharing this with the hashtags #PowerRangersBlueprint and #MMPRBlueprint, tag @Hasbro and @PowerRangers as well as other artists, creators, friends, family and more.

THE BATMAN: A KNIGHT-TIME STORY - 100 RECORDS FROM THE WAYNE FOUNDATION ARCHIVES tells the entire history of Bruce Wayne and the Batman character as part of THE BLUEPRINT PROJECT created by Anthony Mango.

The Batman Blueprint incorporates references, storylines, characters and interpretations from all previous versions of the Batman franchise to tell the most absolute complete version of this story possible. The goal is to create a gold standard bible for both diehard fans and casual audiences.

For this entry, Tony Mango presents a dramatic reading and pitch synopsis of the second chapter in this tale, called Big Chill. Picking up from Chapter 1 (Why Do We Fall?), Thomas and Martha Wayne have been killed by Joe Chill and Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth must deal with the fallout of the funeral and their new relationship as adopted son and father. Bruce's inability to cope with his new life causes concerns after his poor coping mechanisms and depression affect his schooling, causing him to get into fights. While he picks up some friends along the way like Harvey Dent, he is proving himself incapable of developing a romantic relationship and after becoming even more disillusioned about the state of crime in Gotham City, Bruce starts to go down a dark, vengeful path and almost makes the biggest mistake of his life.

Join us for
Volume 1: Gotham Guardian - Chapter 2: The Big Chill

The Batman Blueprint and all these superhero stories from The Blueprint Project are outlines in progress with the intent to become full-fledged works with the backing of DC Comics and the other production companies associated with these intellectual properties.

At the moment, they are not in any direct association with those entities. But with your support, these pitches could become a reality. So help spread the word by sharing this with the hashtags #BatmanBlueprint and #HireMangoDCComics, tag @DCOfficial and @Batman as well as other artists, creators, friends, family and more.

Stay tuned for more from THE BATMAN: A KNIGHT-TIME STORY.

THE BATMAN: A KNIGHT-TIME STORY - 100 RECORDS FROM THE WAYNE FOUNDATION ARCHIVES tells the entire history of Bruce Wayne and the Batman character as part of THE BLUEPRINT PROJECT created by Anthony Mango.

The Batman Blueprint incorporates references, storylines, characters and interpretations from all previous versions of the Batman franchise to tell the most absolute complete version of this story possible. The goal is to create a gold standard bible for both diehard fans and casual audiences. IE, this is The Batman Bible to learn everything there is about The Caped Crusader.

For this entry, Tony Mango presents a dramatic reading and pitch synopsis of the first chapter in this tale, breaking down the night Bruce Wayne's life changed forever with the murder of his parents, Thomas Wayne and Martha Wayne, and the infamous events with Joe Chill in Park Row that would set our protagonist on a journey to becoming the mythological Batman vigilante.

Join us for
Volume 1: Gotham Guardian - Chapter 1: Why Do We Fall:

The Batman Blueprint and all these superhero stories from The Blueprint Project are outlines in progress with the intent to become full-fledged works with the backing of DC Comics and the other production companies associated with these intellectual properties.

At the moment, they are not in any direct association with those entities. But with your support, these pitches could become a reality. So help spread the word by sharing this with the hashtags #BatmanBlueprint and #HireMangoDCComics, tag @DCOfficial and @Batman as well as other artists, creators, friends, family and more.

Stay tuned for more from THE BATMAN: A KNIGHT-TIME STORY.

I, like many others, am convinced the game plan for the Marvel Cinematic Universe is to have a reset coming to the full scope of the franchise with the upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars film.

This post will act as sort of a combination of Predicting the Plot, fan theories, fan fiction, a pitch and an editorial all wrapped in one.

My prediction, as well as what I would probably do in this scenario, is that we'll see Avengers: The Kang Dynasty wreck everything with incursions similar to how Avengers: Infinity War ended with the downer snap. Kang will win, irreparably sending the multiverse out of whack. Our heroes will not know what to do. This is way above their pay grade, as the Thanos incident was the most catastrophic thing that has ever happened, and this is even worse.

Whether Secret Wars is split in two movies or not—and I think it will be—we'll see either film #1 or at least the first good portion of the solo film as Battleworld. The Beyonder version of Kang will be the manipulator, playing around with different versions of our heroes. We'll see cameos from people like Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man, maybe Ben Affleck's Daredevil and most predominantly, the X-Men actors we've seen before. Probably a mix of the older and younger crew, since I doubt they'd want to single out just one or the other. But if they have to pick, they'll pick the James Marsden side of it, rather than the Tye Sheridan.

The MCU can get a whole film out of Avengers: Secret Wars - Battleworld as its own crazy film. Then, Avengers: Secret Wars - Part 2 (whatever they'd call it; maybe Brave New World or Time Runs Out or something) will focus on as many heroes as possible from across the multiverse coming together to stop The Beyonder Kang and restore some sort of balance.

How they do that, I don't know. We've already had some characters play their big hero moments. Doctor Strange orchestrated the 1 in 14,000,605 plan, Scott Lang spark the time travel, Thor chop off Thanos's head, Natasha Romanoff sacrifice herself for the Soul Stone, Hulk snap to bring people back, and Tony Stark snap to destroy Thanos and his army. I don't think they're going to make this all come out to be that Monica Rambeau or Peter Parker or any one person in particular is going to be the one to save the day. Not even Wanda Maximoff, but I'm sure she'll help.

For now, let's just say Steve Rogers hasn't been confirmed as passing away because the game plan is to have him—the man out of time who went back into the past in a branched timeline to restore the Infinity Stones, and could easily have a story where he's Nomad going through time and all, and was The First Avenger—is the one to save the day.

Somehow, in some fashion, the heroes win, but it comes at a cost. The multiverse is forever changed. There is no way of restoring it exactly the way it was. But in some ways, that's okay. This is the natural order of things, to be reset once in a while, and in doing so, they'll make room for all new stories to be told and blah blah blah.

Here's where we get to the fun fan fiction part. This is how I would showcase that:

Whatever contraption they use to pull this off to hit the reset button, the lever gets pulled or the button gets pushed, etc. Then, we watch as the characters all get distorted, as if they're being erased by a pencil, almost. We should also see at least the most important gods as characters by now. The Living Tribunal is a must, along with Eternity, Infinity, Death/Oblivion/Entropy (I don't know why they are 3 separate things) and so on. We don't need to see Lord Chaos and Master Order, for instance.

Everything goes to black.

Silence.

Now, there are 3 different ideas I have of what you can do following this. All 3 work in my mind, and it would be a matter of preference and what you can do legally.

Idea #1 - The Simplest Option

While the screen is black, Stan Lee's voice says EXCELSIOR. And then BOOM. A new Big Bang happens on screen, swirling different universes around as we see The First Firmament and some cosmic entities and abstracts all being created, along with galaxies, planets, civilizations and so forth until it flashes to the absolute finale (found below).

Idea #2 - The More Complicated, but Still Relatively Easy Option

The black screen slowly but surely fades something into view: a bar. There is a bartender there, glowing in blue. Wiping down the counter, the bartender addresses the camera, breaking the fourth wall, directly talking to the viewer.

This character, aka The Fulcrum is played by Kevin Feige and is representing The One Above All—the true omnipotent god of Marvel. He thanks everyone for their love and support of the MCU over the nearly 20 years this series has gone on. And while this is indeed the end of an era, and these actors are not going to be playing these parts anymore (mostly, I'd assume), that doesn't mean Marvel has run out of stories to tell.

He won't reveal exactly what is coming up next, but it will be...well...marvelous. Stay tuned.

Maybe he snaps his fingers or something, but he does something to indicate the start of a rebirth. We see the same idea of the Big Bang and everything restarting, leading to the absolute finale.

Idea #3 - The Nearly Impossible Option, But My Favorite Idea

The black screen fades into the bar scene. This time, the blue bartender isn't just played by Kevin Feige. Instead, he's a composite. We see a blue glowing figure that can transform between a CGI model of Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and of course, Feige. Maybe we can throw in Steve Ditko, John Romita and the other major contributors to these characters over the years, but that's likely pushing it, as would probably even Louis D'Esposito, but he should get some credit for all his work, too. He's never mentioned.

The point would be that this character, The Fulcrum, would be revealed as the embodiment of the creators of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It isn't just Kevin Feige, but his collaboration with the writers and producers and all that have come before him and worked alongside him and so on.

But he would reveal (in his speech that I mentioned above) that he is merely a portion of The One Above All and not the entirety. I've always liked Jack Kirby being depicted as an aspect of TOAA where he redraws The Thing and Reed Richards with his pencil to fix them up and such. But you see, the true absolute pinnacle zenith indisputable overlord of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in full, is not just the creators, but also the fans. You, watching, are part of The One Above All. It is through this connection between story creators and the ones watching the stories that we have this sandbox to play around in. And by no means is that going to end just because this chapter is coming to a close.

Same deal as the other speech, in a lot of ways. The future of the MCU is about to begin. Stan Lee's version of this says EXCELSIOR and snaps. We get the Big Bang and lead into the absolute finale.

The Absolute Finale and the Start of a New Chapter

All of these ideas all lead to the same place, pretty much. We've watched the multiverse reestablish itself, and we can see that there are variants all over the place, new rules are being written, and we're shown some very specific, but still vague, details about this new version of what we're getting going forward.

By that, I mean we see that the X-Men and mutants have been a part of this universe the entire time. Likely, we're in the present day, which means Captain America has already been unfrozen and we know he's had some history with Wolverine and whatnot. Maybe The Avengers is already established, depending on how far they want to reset things. If they've already cast people for future movies, we can see them show up in some fashion, but if not, we can just see some shadowy figures that we can definitely recognize, like that there is definitely a Hulk, a Thor, etc.

Depending on how you want to proceed going forward dictates which characters can show up and how, but I think no matter what, you need to show New York City. That has always been the heart of the Marvel Universe. It is where a good portion of the heroes reside, where Avengers Tower is, and so on.

In my ideal scenario, Tom Holland is still going to be Peter Parker going forward, Spider-Man will be integral to the MCU and not involved in Sony anymore, etc. That's probably unlikely, but let's just play with that for now. You can play into this in any number of ways.

Ideally, Peter Parker is on the street in New York. He looks at a Daily Bugle paper that has a piece about J. Jonah Jameson calling Spider-Man a menace. Peter sighs. "Oh man. What am I gonna do?"

A bystander next to him puts his hand on Peter's shoulder. There is no spidey sense, of course. The camera pans and it is The Fulcrum, in Stan Lee form (again, I'm convinced they have the CGI to pull this off and the ability to do it legally). He says "Face front, true believer." He smiles and walks away.

The camera pans up and into the sky. The universe is familiar, but anew, with endless possibilities, and we're just getting started.

Cut to black for the title card of Avengers: Secret Wars. But you have to end with the words THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE CONTINUES.

I toyed with the idea of having everything with the whole Fulcrum character be a mid-credit or post-credit scene to allude to how much fun we've had with those, but I think it is too important for people to see this as part of the actual movie's resolution.

To be perfectly honest, I don't know if there is a post-credit scene I can think of that would end the movie on a better note. But I'm certainly down to try thinking of one.

My first idea would be to tease the next big bad already if we're sticking to the phases concept and they have that planned out. Who that could be, I have no idea, as once you've done this multiversal reset, you can't get any bigger. Maybe it could just be some views of some of the characters going forward, like some generic teases of X-Men, new versions of Captain America and Iron Man, etc. Maybe they could get away with having it end with Franklin Richards, since I've always viewed him as the sort of heir-apparent to the Marvel Universe in many ways. Maybe it can just end with someone saying "Avengers, assemble" or maybe you just don't have one this time around.

This acts as a true, definitive end to many of those stories, combines everything together from all the films we've ever seen, and allows Disney the option to continue with characters, actors, and stories in any way they please.

What do you think? Do you have any other ideas or suggestions? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!

Batman is a franchise that has been around for nearly 100 years. It is almost impossible to watch all the films and every episode of the television series, as well as read all the comics at this point.

But what if someone were to condense all that—combine as many big and little details as possible and form the most cohesive outline of the Bruce Wayne character ever created—all in just 100 stories?

That is the goal of THE BATMAN BLUEPRINT—one of many parts of THE BLUEPRINT PROJECT created by Anthony Mango.

The official name of this Batman series is THE BATMAN: A KNIGHT-TIME STORY which will consist of 10 volumes of story arcs that tell the most comprehensive version of Batman by mixing elements from everything that has come before.

Big stories like A Death in the Family and The Long Halloween are adapted with original stories and new twists. The entire Bat Family is represented, as well as every villain and supporting character imaginable, whether they're crucial to the overall series like Alfred Pennyworth or extremely minor like Nick and Eddie from the beginning of Tim Burton's Batman 89.

This concept is huge, so here is a pitch video to explain what this is all about:

The Batman Blueprint and all these superhero stories from The Blueprint Project are outlines in progress with the intent to become full-fledged works with the backing of DC Comics and the other production companies associated with these intellectual properties.

At the moment, they are not in any direct association with those entities. But with your support, these pitches could become a reality. So help spread the word by sharing this with the hashtags #BatmanBlueprint and #HireMangoDCComics, tag @DCComics and @Batman as well as other artists, creators, friends, family and more.

Stay tuned for more information and the initial breakdowns of the first few chapters of THE BATMAN: A KNIGHT-TIME STORY.

By no means was That '70s Show my absolute favorite program growing up, but it was still part of that pantheon of staple things I had watched.

In an era where there wasn't a near-infinite amount of options available if you wanted to watch TV (ie, no YouTube, on demand, Netflix, etc), you grew to just start liking shows after watching them enough times. I've seen the majority of Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, King of Queens, and so many other shows like this just because they happened to be on around the time a rerun of The Simpsons was about to air or something along those lines.

This is a long-winded way of saying that outside of some parts of the final season—since it just wasn't the same—I had watched nearly all 200 episodes of That '70s Show and grew up with the characters, graduating high school just before its final season, of which I remember watching the finale and liking that it ended with the countdown to the new year into 1980.

Naturally, when That '90s Show was announced, I was curious. Revisiting nostalgia can sometimes be amazing. Other times, it can fail miserably. I've never felt the need to watch Fuller House, but I'm excited to see the revival of Clone High, for instance.

After binging the 10 episodes of That '90s Show, I figured I'd give my quick rundown of thoughts, mostly in pro/con form. You'll have plenty people super obsessed with That '70s Show that will either love or hate this on principle alone, but I'm one of those middle of the road types, which you might find a refreshing change of pace for this type of review.

Without further ado, let's start breaking down what worked for me and what fell short of the mark.

Pro: The General Premise

This is simple and rather perfect. I feel like they sat down, hashed out a few conversations at a conference table, and settled on the easiest, yet most effective foundation that just flat out works.

The old cast probably wouldn't have been all that interested in being the absolute focal points of the show, would be more expensive, and you're missing Hyde. Plus, That '70s Show was about teenagers, so if this was all about adults, it wouldn't have the same vibe.

But if it had been a scenario where Eric and Donna stayed living in Red and Kitty's house, or had moved next door, or anything along those lines, how do you start the show? Their daughter would have grown up with all her friends and the audience would have been plopped into it just skipping 15 years while being asked to "just go with it and love these new characters and don't pay attention to why we're ignoring their parents that you really want to see."

It wouldn't have worked.

But framing this as a summer break for Eric and Donna's daughter, wherein she can stay with her grandparents at the base home of the series, meet a colorful cast of new friends, go on a personal journey of growth and have some antics along the way is exactly the right formula.

Kudos to them for figuring that out and not trying to force anything else. It very much gave me the exact same vibe of the original, with a logical extension follow-up, rather than trying to reboot it entirely or be the show in name only.

Con: The Laugh Track

Unfortunately, one thing that hasn't aged well compared to 1998-2006 is the laugh track.

Generally speaking, I can't stand this anymore. I can only tolerate it when it comes to Seinfeld reruns.

Every show that I rewatch from back in the day—even a show I loved, like How I Met Your Mother—just doesn't feel right with the laugh track. It has become more obnoxious than anything else.

The Big Bang Theory is partially responsible for this (and before you say it, I've watched every episode of that show, so I'm not "just a hater", even if I grew to dislike how Flanderized the show became). Also to blame are the growing number of shows that don't use a laugh track. Even The Simpsons and Scrubs from back in the 90s didn't, but you can also throw in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Modern Family, The Office, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and other comedies that work better without it.

To be perfectly honest, there wasn't a single joke over these 10 episodes that made me laugh out loud. Part of that is the writing itself, with that old school "oh brother" or "you couldn't have told me that sooner!? womp womp" style behind it that doesn't do it for me anymore, and part of it was the canned laughter.

Of course, if this was abandoned, it wouldn't have felt like the same show, so this is a con in a general sense and not something to ding this show itself on. But if this weren't a relic return show and was just something brand new, I wouldn't have bothered with the second episode.

Pro: Leia Forman

Naming Eric and Donna's daughter Leia is perfect. Having her be awkward like Eric, but not just a full-blown Eric clone, was the right way to go, too.

Callie Haverda didn't quite give me "She looks like she'd be the daughter of Erica and Donna" vibes as far as casting goes, but Eric never looked like the son of Red and Kitty, did he? Shut up. It's a sitcom. Just go with it.

Transitioning from a male protagonist to a female lead doesn't matter. The show retains its spirit without becoming about how "it's a GIRL now", which is often incredibly frustrating to watch. Instead of making a statement about it for the sake of it, the writers do what should be done, in that they just treat it like it is natural, so it feels natural. Major kudos for not falling into that trap.

As mentioned with the general premise, having Leia be a fish out of water (sort of) to act as the audience surrogate while introducing these new characters, where she's familiar with the old characters just like the viewers are, worked super well, and not making her some total brat or a buzzkill went a long way in making her likable.

Con: Ozzie

Not likable, though—at least, not for my tastes—was the character of Ozzie.

I get it. He's the Fez of the group. Fez was the quirky and effeminate one with the sass who stood out as not fitting in with the regular kids of Wisconsin, and they felt they needed a similar archetype character, so they came up with Ozzie.

But holy hell, this character was written to just be "the sass machine" 24/7. Every single line he says has no value to it because they are nothing but punchlines. But they aren't even good ones. They're just bitchy "I wouldn't do that if I were you" and "Sorry. I wasn't listening. I have my own problems to deal with" type tropes.

I knew every time the camera focused on him exactly what he would say and I just grew to roll my eyes.

The only good moment he has was when he comes out to Kitty, but that moment is only made good in her response of treating it like it is no big deal and just accepting him for who he is. So really, it is KITTY who makes that scene worthwhile, rather than Ozzie.

If the show comes back for another season, I'd be more than fine with them shipping him off on a bus and replacing him with someone else. He was easily my least favorite of the cast and needs to be toned down considerably and given some actual depth and better jokes other than being cheeky and impertinent.

Pro: Jay Kelso

Who I did really like, though, was Jay Kelso. Pretty much in every possible facet.

Michael and Jackie getting together made more sense to me than the Jackie and Fez thing. And for their son to be just like his father is great. You get to keep the Kelso character alive, basically, but apply it to another generation.

Great casting. I fully buy that Mace Coronel looks like a mix between Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis. He also does a great job being a little dim, but not quite as dumb as Kelso, since he does have half of Jackie's genes, too.

The "Buuuuuuuuuuuuuurn" was a good callback. Definitely a highlight.

I really like how they went with the Kelso/Forman romance, rather than to just frame them as friends. Personally, I'm one of those people who thinks Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon should end up together, I think Sam and Izzy are definitely destined to be a thing for the future of Scrubs, and so on. When you've got the ability to take those characters and merge those families together, it's going to likely be a positive for me, so bonus points there.

Mixed Bag: Gwen, Nikki and Nate

Honestly, when it comes to the other three, I could take or leave them. They were fine, with some good and bad moments each.

Gwen works well as the best friend coaxing something out of Leia, but I'll admit that she often felt like she was there just for that reason. I couldn't tell you what her character actually is beyond "Leia's friend who seems kind of cool, but nobody actually gets her" because that's all they've told us and shown us.

Nikki has more depth to her. She's the smart one of the group and has the right level of sass to her. I like her the best of this trio, but I felt like she was just getting started right when the show ended its season.

Nate needs to find himself. Is he the biggest dope of the group, rendering one of Kelso's traits rather moot? Is he the sentimental one like they suggest at the end? (By the way, I didn't like the whole Leia/Nate thing. That felt forced.) Is he a football player or a lazy schlub? Some retooling could go a long way.

Pro: Red and Kitty Forman

These two were exactly as they were in the original show and haven't skipped a beat. They were absolutely perfect all across the board.

There isn't much more to say than that. 10/10

Mixed Bag: Sherri Runck

The show "needed a Bob" in a sense, so they have Sherri. She fills the void of the annoying neighbor rather well.

At no point did I ever get the sense that she was the mother of Gwen and Nate in any fashion, though. I guess if they had had 22 episodes like network television normally has, they would have explored that further and it would have potentially come across better. But as it is, if you told me she was flat out just a neighbor unrelated to anyone else, I'd have bought it.

I don't know why, but she was the character more than any that I looked at and thought to myself "I don't get a 90s vibe from her" even though I didn't get that with essentially ANYONE on the show, if I'm being honest. My brain must have just thought she needed to be more 90s in some way.

Pro: Pacing

This was a quick breeze of a watch. I had it on while I was working on other things that didn't fully require my attention, and it was easy to just keep it running. Before I knew it, another episode was starting. It didn't seem like it was dragging or rushing.

Pro: Cameos

The best part of the show was the first episode. Seeing Topher Grace and Laura Prepon back as Eric and Donna, interacting with Kurtwood Smith's Red and Debra Jo Rupp's Kitty is what sells the show.

I'm glad they were able to get Donna back in a few more scenes. I wish the same could have happened with Eric.

Tommy Chong coming back as Leo? Great.

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis nailed their return as Kelso and Jackie. Awesome. Definitely one of the top 3 highlights of the season.

Don Stark's return as Bob Pinciotti was great to see, too. I'm really glad they were able to put that character back in there.

Even just seeing the familiar sets was a nice flashback that I really appreciated.

I will say, though, that since I'm not a total nut about the show, I didn't remember Jim Rash was even on it, let alone this Fenton character. That didn't do anything for me.

I'm on the fence about Fez. Having Wilmer Valderrama back was something that they needed to do, as it would have been weird not to see Fez in any fashion. But while the character was nailed in many ways, I found myself wondering if I had ever found Fez funny. I don't know if I would care to revisit the original series, but I'm starting to think that maybe if I watched it now, I would actually not like Fez, whereas I remember him being an enjoyable character before.

Con: No Steven Hyde

Who I did like even more than Fez back then was Hyde, and it is a shame that he couldn't make a return in some fashion.

Now, before you lynch me, I know why this is the case. Danny Masterson's assault history—true or not—makes it difficult for Netflix and other parties to want to just insert him in there and deal with the potential backlash.

Nothing outright says that isn't a possibility for the future. It isn't as though they said "Boy, it sure is a shame Hyde is dead and we'll never see him" or anything. In an ideal world, there wouldn't be any issues standing in the way of this (for multiple reasons, not the least of which being those things he's accused of doing just wouldn't be a reality). I would have liked to learn what he's been up to.

Is he in prison? Did he die from some overdose? Is he still working with Leo? I'm curious.

He's the only character that felt missing because he was one of the core cast. Not having a cameo or reference about Randy Pearson or even Eric's sister or anything along those lines can be ignored, but I'll admit that no mention of Hyde whatsoever felt like a bit of a void.

General Verdict

All in all, this was a success. It is a short 10 episode semi-reboot follow-up that keeps the spirit of the original going, doesn't spit in its face by any means, tries to deviate a little here and there but keeps its foundation.

If you're a fan of That '70s Show, you should certainly check this out. You won't be disappointed.

What did you think of That '90s Show?
Drop your thoughts in the comments below!

Mary Jane Watson is one of the most iconic love interests in the entire superhero genre. She's a core staple of the Spider-Man franchise—arguably the top female lead—and recognizable to even casual fans.

But despite being such an important, influential and noteworthy character, she's struggling to find her place in the modern day version of the Spider-Man mythos, to the point that I have to ask who is she anymore?

Who is Mary Jane Watson?? Isn't It Obvious??

At first glance, you might be asking yourself what I'm even asking. Clearly, she's "Peter Parker's girlfriend/wife" and that's her role in the story. Duh.

But the damsel in distress trope has been dying out over the years. Rightfully so, might I add. Fans demand more effort to be put into stories so characters—typically more so women—are not just trophies that have to be saved by the hero and do nothing but get captured, shriek for help and plant a kiss on our protagonist to thank him.

They need to be actual characters with definable traits to make them interesting, much in the same way that the best antagonists are more than just "the villain" of a story, but can be explained in more detail.

Norman Osborn is an emotionally neglectful, sometimes downright physically abusive when not absentee father to Peter Parker's best friend, Harry Osborn. In some ways, Norman is a father figure to Peter and a representation of what Peter could turn into if he allowed his intelligence to get the better of him and corrupt into arrogance. When Norman goes in over his head with pride and ego and obsession, it backfires on him, leading to his transformation into the insane Green Goblin.

That's character. He's not just some guy on a glider chucking bombs that Spider-Man needs to punch. Hence why no one's favorite villain in this series is Jack O'Lantern, who is effectively the same exact gimmick across the board. And this version of Norman has only had some tweaks here and there, but has remained largely the same character since the start.

So explain to me who Mary Jane Watson is these days.

Mary Jane Watson vs. Other Love Interests

Again, yes, she's Peter's love interest. But so are dozens of others. For a dork that gets picked on and has painfully bad relationships, Peter slays. He's tasted the full rainbow and has no shortage of notches on his belt.

Peter Parker's love interests list is so long that Ranker stops at a top 20, not including Indira Daimonji, Lian Tang, Sally Avril, etc.

Most of those are pretty pointless, if we're being honest. There isn't anything about Debra Whitman that stands out as special compared to Gwen Stacy that you couldn't just merge those two characters and be fine with it.

So perhaps an even better comparison than the villain equivalent with Norman Osborn is to judge Mary Jane Watson against another love interest in Felicia Hardy, aka Black Cat.

With Felicia, you're getting a vigilante. That offers Peter a reflection point where fans can look at her character in relation to Spider-Man and see why they are together as well as why they have issues. They have a commonality in their masked personas and adventures, but they differ greatly on their morality. She's often a criminal, whereas Peter is by the books good.

Who is Mary Jane in reflection to Peter?

Your answer can't be "the hot girl that Peter normally wouldn't be able to get" because that could apply to virtually any of them. Mary Jane is confident and sexy, but so is Felicia Hardy. Both are drawn with a big chest and perfect bodies and so on and so forth. They all are. But their attitudes are very much both the "spunky one" to counteract Peter, making that part redundant, along with how Mary Jane is "the cheerleader from school" at times, but so are many other characters like Liz Allan and Sally Avril.

To be fair, from someone's perspective who hasn't read all these comics, it isn't just Mary Jane who suffers from this copy/paste problem. Not only do we not need 15 different Green Goblin knockoffs, we also don't need Carlie Cooper as the love interest whose father is a cop when we have Gwen Stacy whose father is Captain George Stacy, for instance.

Back to Black Cat, take Catwoman into consideration. Selina Kyle's relationship with Bruce Wayne and the whole vigilante/Batman idea is the same situation, which makes a character like Vicki Vale stand out as an entirely different love interest for Bruce. Vale is a reporter who could expose Bruce's secret identity.

Hence why we have Betty Brant for Spider-Man. She's the Vicki Vale, in some ways. Not exactly, obviously, but there are some parallels. As well as the whole Gwen Stacy having a cop for a father idea.

So if she can't just be the hot girl or the sexy and confident knockout to prove he hit the jackpot when he could just as easily get with Felicia Hardy or many others...who is Mary Jane?

Mary Jane isn't the smart and nerdy girl who Peter sees himself in, like Indira, Debra, sometimes Gwen, etc. Does that make her the dumb one to offset how intelligent he is? Yikes!

If you're judging a book by its cover and saying "but she's the redhead", then that's sad—and even that isn't always true, sadly.

How the Superhero Genre Adapts Over Time

As these superhero stories last decades, aspects of their stories need to change as time goes on.

Sometimes, the entire character is given a full reboot to be something different, like how Jaime Reyes is a much more different Blue Beetle than Ted Kord. Other times, like the Dan Garrett transition to Ted Kord, or with all the Green Lanterns or most of the Flash characters, they have a new person behind the mask, but many of the core elements remain the same.

Superman used to not be able to fly, but that eventually became the most iconic part about him. Batman used to use guns until it was the central character trait that he not only didn't use them, but also didn't kill at all.

In the same way that you don't see Clark Kent change his clothes in a phone booth since they don't exist anymore, and Superman isn't "more powerful than a locomotive" now that trains aren't as prominent, Peter Parker has gone through similar changes.

Modern day Spider-Man doesn't function 100% the same as what it used to be, outside of the origin story of getting bitten by a spider that has something weird about it (frequently not radioactive anymore; sometimes the origin of the lab can be Oscorp or another place), failing to stop Uncle Ben's killer (sometimes after a wrestling match, sometimes other details), and taking on the motto that "with great power comes great responsibility."

But look at J. Jonah Jameson and how much he's changed since even the Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire movies!!

Technology has completely altered the way that character functions in just the span of 10 years, even, as no emphasis was put on this for the Andrew Garfield series, since many elements had already become outdated.

Nobody reads newspapers anymore, and Peter cannot be a photographer who sells pictures of himself to Jameson because everyone has cell phones and reads their news digitally. Hence why Jameson is now an Alex Jones type who is more likely to pop up on a YouTube channel ranting about Spider-Man—the fundamental aspect of his character that has maintained over time—than to be Peter's boss.

I think the franchise still hasn't quite settled on what Peter's alternative job is. They seem keen on making him a professor and/or scientist, but that doesn't work for the younger teenager. Sometimes, he could be a lab assistant, I guess, yet if he's doing that job, you'd wonder how they could maintain the money struggle aspect of the character that has been one of his major problems.

Going back to Mary Jane, she was brought onto the scene as a gag. Aunt May wanted to set him up with her, and he kept dodging that, until it turned out she was actually this smoking hot sassy girl. Jackpot indeed, especially if you found the goody two-shoes Gwen to be boring, right?

In the Maguire films, wherein Gwen isn't a factor until appearing pretty much in name only in the awful third film, Mary Jane is upgraded to the literal "girl next door" trope that Peter's been in love with since they were kids, but was always out of his reach, as she's the hot popular girl and he's the shy nerd.

That makes sense and is a massive step forward, but it has a limited shelf-life. That's why her character is only ever still an object of affection to be obtained. That carries over into the second film, because she has no character beyond that. If she's not "the one Peter is going after", who is she? The model who can't act? That's an unnecessary side plot we don't care about any more than if we found out Wonder Woman's love interest Steve Trevor has a fantasy football team.

Everything needs to be in service of the driving the main character's story along.

This is why Lois Lane is such an important part of the Superman story. She's feisty while Clark isn't. Clark is more of the book smart nerd who can be naive, while Lois struggles with spelling, but is incredibly street smart and intuitive. Lois is more of a cynic, while Clark is more hopeful. He's otherworldly and she grounds him. Plus, she's got the whole reporter/superhero dynamic, too, giving her two functions inside the story for both Clark and Kal-El.

Where Does That Leave Mary Jane Watson in the 2020s?

Lois Lane is a good way to transition to modern day Mary Jane, as it seems this is what their inspiration was for the most recent video game series and some of the Ultimate series.

MJ was positioned as the one who works for the Daily Bugle, not Peter. Now, she's an investigative journalist, who is filling the Lois role of looking into things behind the scenes to further the plot along.

Gone are the "super hot confident model/actress" traits, because those are surface-level and have nothing to do with being an investigative journalist reporter type.

Outside of not just being named Lois Lane, this version of MJ might as well be an entirely different character—not that we need any more, especially since this also could have more easily just been Betty Brant if that were the case.

They seem bent on the journalist character, as that's carried over even into the Ultimate Spider-Man show, where it seems (I haven't watched it all) that she's not even really a factor, just like how they avoided MJ in The Amazing Spider-Man in favor of Gwen (minus some deleted scene content), and it seems as though Spectacular Spider-Man just has her as another hot popular cheerleader side character and nothing more, correct?

But let's talk about the MCU version and how awful that character is.

First off, she's not even Mary Jane Watson. She's Michelle Jones, referred to at the end of the first film as MJ, and then once more retroactively given the surname Jones-Watson to be MJ-Watson.

Mary Jane is one of the most iconic redhead characters out there, alongside others like Black Widow, The Little Mermaid Ariel, Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo, Poison Ivy, Jessica Rabbit and April O'Neil.

Naturally, they got rid of that, along with the name.

As far as her character is concerned, she's a cynical joyless pseudo-friend (basically acquaintance at best) in the background of Homecoming while Peter is interested in Liz Toomes (who is one of many "not really the character Liz Allan, but whatever, we messed up a bunch of these; just look at Betty and Flash and...)

At no point in the first film does Peter have any real flirtation with Michelle, who I've long maintained should have been Michele Gonzales instead, to keep that up.

Suddenly, in the second film, he's head over heels for her. Why? No reason. He just is. There isn't anything explaining what it is about her that he likes. He's just madly in love. Okay. Whatever.

That carries over into the third film and that's about it.

But for argument's sake, let's say the franchise wanted to take aspects of this version of the character and incorporate that into the overall Mary Jane Watson concept. That would mean she would be, at best, a very smart (Gwen/Debra/Indira/etc) classmate (too many to name) who has a darker personality  compared to Peter (Felicia) and....that's it.

"You're a deeply mistrusting person, and I respect that."

As far as a reinvention, this doesn't really check off many boxes necessary to stand the test of time.

So Who SHOULD Mary Jane Watson Be?

As far as I'm concerned, taking Superman as the template, we need to sort out Peter Parker's love life with the pros and cons—or, the reflections that are positive versus the reflections that are too negative for him to end up with that person.

Felicia Hardy has the darker reflection gimmick down. She's also more of the sex appeal and is the object of pure lust in many ways. She's the thrill and the vigilante with the passion and burns red hot, but the flame dies quickly. Take that "hot girl" angle away from Mary Jane Watson.

Betty Brant has the coworker at the Daily Bugle thing down. She's a receptionist, but making her a reporter isn't a stretch. There's your Vicki Vale and Lois Lane tropes. Take that away from Mary Jane.

Gwen is the "girl next door" in the sense of being the "good girl" heart rather than the literal next door neighbor, but might as well be if you're merging the characters together. She also happens to have a cop father, and can often be written as Peter's intellectual equal. Take those away from Mary Jane.

You're left with a few character tropes that can merge a lot of characters into just a few roles:

1. The hot popular girl who Peter fawns over, but she doesn't look at him that way because he's a shy nerd. = Liz Allan, Sally Avril, etc
   
2. The temptation vigilante bad girl that Peter can't help but to be into, but he knows it won't work out in the end = Felicia Hardy
3. The coworker, classmate, or roommate who is a byproduct of just being around them = Michele Gonzales, Betty Brant, many schoolmates and such
   
4. The good girl, girl-next-door who is emotionally supportive = Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane sometimes, etc
5. The intellectual equal = Gwen at times, Debra, Indira, Lian Tang, etc
6. The unfortunate daughter of a cop which offsets Peter as a vigilante = Gwen, Carlie (this trope would also apply if Jameson ever had a daughter Peter was involved in)
   

I feel like the only way to have your cake and eat it, too, with how this franchise is trying to make Mary Jane fill the Lois Lane role is to lean less into the investigative journalism side and make her the photographer who works at The Daily Bugle. That goes with the modeling and actress thing, too. But then, you almost have to make her someone who is chasing Spider-Man for clout, rather than someone Peter's lusting over.

Maybe that's the evolution of the character, making her less of Peter Parker's ultimate endgame girl he ends up with, and more of another failed romance like Felicia Hardy.

And that brings me to a revelation that I didn't have until recently. All these years, I've remained staunch that MJ is Peter's true love, but I'm realizing that's just a bias I have because I grew up with the animated series and the Maguire films.

In reality, I think I've come full circle to thinking Gwen Stacy is Peter's true love.

She just works better as a more fully-fleshed out character with more avenues, being the intellectual equal and supportive girl next door with a cop father which makes sense why she'd be more willing to put up with his heroism, because she understands what it's like, having had a father who fought crime.

Otherwise, what role does Mary Jane serve but to be the backup option after Gwen dies who is just another supportive girlfriend and physical object of his affection who can't contribute to the story without being a Lois Lane ripoff, in need of rescuing from peril, and/or just arguing with Peter to create unnecessary tension and proving they aren't actually a good couple?

Or, you can just judge a book by its cover and say Mary Jane Watson is the redhead who dates Spider-Man and this long-winded wall of text that I wrote up at 4am is just a fan geeking out too much over the specifics and I should go to bed, right?