Fanboys Anonymous

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

AMC Wants YOU to Pay for Their Coronavirus Cleaning

You know how it's going to be harder than ever to convince people to go to the movies because it's unsafe during COVID? Well, AMC's decided to up its prices to compensate for the cleaning process that may or may not even be a disaster and not something that can stop you from getting sick in the first place.

So if you thought it was too expensive to see movies in theaters before and you want to make that even bigger of a gap AND you want to risk getting sick, go to AMC once they re-open!

Stupid decision. They should be cutting back prices to try to get people in theaters, in theory.

How many companies have to fall into the same trap of thinking that they can save themselves from bankruptcy by upping their prices when they know full well the main reason people avoid their business is high prices? Isn't 100 people paying you $5 much better than charging $20 and hoping 25 stick with you while 75 stop going? It's one thing if you up something a few pennies and you can make a lot of money from something that is negligible, but we're talking a price difference every couple years that gets harder and harder for people to justify spending their money on.

I remember when I used to go to the movies for $5.50. Now, to get the same movie ticket, it's $20. That's ridiculous. We're not talking the 1960s, either. We're talking 2005. In 15 years, it shouldn't go up 300% in cost while your concessions are also going up, too!!!!

This bubble isn't going to take forever to burst. Movie theaters are going to die if they try to charge people MORE to take MORE risks during a PANDEMIC to go do something that they can ultimately get cheaper at home and be lazy about it.

Shia LaBeouf as Iceman?

Rumor going around is that Shia is who may be cast as Iceman in the MCU. That's wild and I don't quite get the idea of casting him for the role. He doesn't strike me as Iceman. I would think he'd be better for something like Multiple Man or Toad or maybe a villain.

Big Shake-Ups at Warner Bros and DC

Look. We all knew DC Universe needed to be folded into HBO Max. It should have happened from the very beginning. The whole point of people not wanting to pay for cable is because they don't want to pay for things they don't need and they would like to consolidate and pick the methods for them to have the most stuff available for the cheapest cost. People won't pay for HBO Max if they just want the DC stuff and they won't pay for DC Universe if some of those things are taken over to HBO Max. Instead, what they have to do is make it so DC Universe is just for the comic books and is a less pricy subscription service plan that can cater to that market, while the film and television shows go over to HBO Max and boosts that subscriber number. At least, from my perspective. I'm not a business major or anything, so what the hell do I know as a consumer what I would want, right?

DC Collectibles? Gone. No idea what that really means for DC's merchandise. I can't imagine they're making such little money that they'll want to stop making toys and stuff for Batman and other incredibly important characters. Some things are made just to sell toys, even, like entire TV shows and films.

Why is someone from esports coming in to fix the comics? What?

In theory, weekly comics will be digital and physical copies will only be graphic novels. As much as that kills comic book stores and a big side of this whole media with people loving collecting individual comics and such, it just seems like this is the natural way of things. If people don't buy comics, you can't keep making comics. If companies don't give you a reason to keep buying pieces of paper to read something that you can more easily read through a digital platform, it's just natural selection. You can buy a digital copy at any moment of the day, immediately, while doing anything. You might not want to go out of your way to spend your gas and drive over to the store to see if they have that comic book, buy it, and hold it in your hands. It's just a harder thing to do, definitively, even if it has its own merits. You still have plenty of people who will rather read a book than use a tablet, but just think of it as any other thing out there. Is it easier for you to sign in to Netflix to watch a movie or to go to the store, buy the Blu-Ray, make sure your BR player is working, get up off the couch, grab the disc, put it in and play just that? Laziness and ease always wins.

Plus, I'd assume it's cheaper to create the digital comics than physical ones. After all, you're creating them digitally and then printing them. You're skipping not only the printing costs but also the shipping. And apparently, graphic novels sold in bookstores performed better than anything sold in comic book stores, including single issues.

Curious why this is all happening before FanDome...

TRON: ARES

Is that the name of Tron 3, according to a Jared Leto post? It seems like that's the case. If so...meh...

Also, I'm still curious why it's Leto at the lead instead of Hedlund and Wilde from #2.

GoldenEye 25 Dead, Kind Of

Well shit. The remake of GoldenEye for N64 that has been in the works and looks absolutely phenomenal has been hit with a cease and desist. Now, they're going to have to repackage the game as a non-007 thing with new elements, original characters and so on.

Basically...there goes my interest. The game itself could be great, but I was into it for the James Bond stuff and seeing the game that I loved updated, not some brand new thing with a similar feel. If that was the case, I would have gotten into Perfect Dark back in the day, but I didn't.

CBS All Access Becoming Paramount+

If CBS All Access appeals to an older market and they think renaming it Paramount+ is going to get younger people, they're wrong. People aren't going to just flock to a service because the name changed to fit Disney+ and the other things like that. They'll go there based on the content.

There's nothing wrong with the All Access name. It's just a matter that there are tons of streaming services now and you need the right content to hook people.

I never bothered to watch The Office when it was running. I had convinced myself that since it was so popular and it was advertised as "that cooky Steve Carell show", I would hate it, so I shouldn't even bother.

What a mistake that was.

Many people have treated this COVID-19 pandemic as a means to catch up on movies and television, and while I haven't had the free time to do that, I did decide on a whim to give The Office a shot, if given the opportunity.

What's the worst that could happen? I watch a few episodes, hate it, figure "I was right all along" and move on to another thing?

Well, I liked it from the start and got hooked to the point where I loved it.

Binging all 9 seasons of a show like this during the span of one month was a journey. It wasn't nearly the same as growing 9 years older with these characters like most fans of the show, though. But even still, I decided to write down a lot of my thoughts along the way and share them so those fans could see how the series was viewed through different eyes—and yet, I get a sense we still came to the same conclusions about a lot of things.

There's no clean, organized way of doing this, so let's just dive right in.

Jim and Pam

The love story between Jim and Pam is the crux of the show. Had that not worked from the beginning and continued to be solid, the whole series has a bad foundation.

Thankfully, they never ran into much of the tropes so many of these shows fall victim to. Even the good ones, like How I Met Your Mother and Scrubs, are guilty of some really cliche situations and plot contrivances.

One of the things I absolutely loved about The Office was how there wasn't manufactured tension for extended periods that drove the show. Nearly every show has nearly every episode about how the characters are fighting with one another or there are entire seasons dedicated to a problem that could have been solved with a few seconds of talking.

Like "real people", there were moments of issues between Jim and Pam (and other characters), but it wasn't some sensational thing. They'd argue or have things in their way, but most of the time, it didn't feel like some writer just threw in a wrench because "wouldn't that be interesting?" That did happen a few times, but not often.

For example, a lesser show would have had Jim be a terrible person to Karen. Or for Karen to pop back into Jim's life and try to win him back so Pam is on the defense. Or, with the inclusion of Cathy, they would have had that awful trope where she kisses Jim and Pam sees it, walks away and doesn't see that a moment later, Jim scolds Cathy for doing something he didn't want. Then, a whole season revolves around him having to prove he didn't initiate the kiss or have feelings. Had that happened, it would have been awful textbook crap and I'm glad The Office was better than that.

Instead of just tolerating the romantic subplot, the Jim and Pam angle was one of my absolute favorite things about The Office. I rooted for them from the start and didn't feel disappointed along the way.

Immediately, I pegged Jim as the most likable character. I also thought Roy was shitty and needed to go, which made him a great foil. Katy as a fake Pam was a nice touch.

I'm glad the show didn't stall on their relationship. You know they're interested in each other right out of the gate, they establish their feelings early on, and each season they take one or two steps forward (until, admittedly, they hit a bit of a snag. We'll get to that with the season 8 problem or so.)

You can kind of live for those moments where Jim has spent time away at the Stamford branch and by the end of the season, he asks Pam on a date. You're thinking FINALLY, and it didn't take 6 seasons to get there. It was basically 2, since the first season's so short.

Good lord. The teapot note. My heart. When that came back at the end, that was a beautiful touch, and I'm glad we don't get to know what was said on it. We don't need to know.

I'm glad both Jim and Pam are more than just their relationship, too.

Pam's the heart of the show in a lot of ways and even though she didn't get to become some majorly famous artist, she got her moment in the sun. Also, what the hell, people? You didn't go to her art show? Awful friends. That was a great moment when Michael was so proud of her and bought the painting, though. I loved that. Major highlight moment for the series.

Jim's got his future career that he'll be much happier with, overall, than selling paper. Even though it's sad to think the gang can't all just keep hanging out, that's not life. You need endings to some things and this is a happy ending. That guy was always better than this job and now, he gets a chance to fulfill his true potential. He was there to meet Pam and develop these relationships and then to move on. Happy ending.

Jim and Pam make the show. Had they been written off or anything, it would have needed to been cancelled. They were both such great, lovable characters and their relationship was amazing.

Dwight K. Schrute

My first impression was "Dwight's a great character, but I can see myself getting annoyed of him once they try to make him break out too much."

There was only one instance of that, which was the episode The Farm.

It's to my understanding this was somewhat of a backdoor pilot to see if they could do a spin-off with that group and give Dwight his own show, right? If so, thank God it didn't happen. That would have been brutal, as I couldn't even take that episode.

Sometimes, they went a little too out there with the farm stuff in general and could have dialed it back a bit. But they'd frequently tone it down for some other episodes. My preference was always more of the office stuff with him, rather than getting deep into the weird, over-the-top rituals and such.

But how great is Dwight? They really found the right balance of making sure he's weird, but not annoying, and someone you could see yourself growing to pity-love if you were around the guy and could witness how strange he is.

He doesn't get nerfed when his character grows. As in, once he starts showing emotions, it's not like they destroyed his edge. They really, really did well with him.

I'm very glad they made it so he's Phillip was his son and Angela just didn't want Dwight to want to be with her for that reason. Nice touch. I'm also glad Dwight and Angela got together just in general. It was hard not to want that to happen once they had such good chemistry early on.

SO happy with the rapport Dwight and Jim had for the final episodes. Their rivalry was more like siblings than enemies, so you needed to have them end on good terms. Having them both endorse the other as a good potential manager shows they can put their egos aside. Hugging each other and Dwight making Clark move out of Jim's seat was a great gesture. And I LOVED the dynamic of A.A.R.M. I could have eaten up a whole season of that.

Dwight deserved to be the manager. That's the best ending I was hoping for him.

Michael Scott

It's odd. Michael was the main reason I didn't watch the show when it was on and now that I did, I'll flat out say when he left, the show got worse.

My first impression was that I didn't really like him, initially. It took a little while for me to warm up to the character. A few episodes in, though, I was pretty sold. I can't actually tell you even when it was that I started liking him, but it might have been The Dundies (season 2 episode 1). Eventually, the note I wrote was "Michael would be so infuriating to work for, but he's too nice of a person to dislike."

His rhythm of being the centerpiece with which everything revolved around worked so well because he was equal parts subdued for the cameras as well as crazy for the plot. It's a mundane setting and you get the sense that Michael's the driving force for a lot of the antics that go down. That's the way it should be. He serves a purpose as the main protagonist because he's the subject.

That's why it's such a downer when he leaves the show and they can't find a new rhythm. Again, we're going to address this further down in another section, but in short, I feel like once Michael leaves, the series goes downhill and doesn't recover until the finale.

Speaking of when he left. Maaaaan. I got a little choked up with his letter of recommendation for Dwight, but when he and Jim said their goodbyes that weren't really goodbyes, that got me really teary.

As far as his love life went, I'll admit that I grew a little tired of Jan at times. She went from a solid foil to a great character to one that overstayed her welcome. Then, after she left, I was glad to see her pop up for a cameo.

But Holly was key. She worked so well as his true love that it was great to see his exit from the show at least came about for a happy reason. Seeing that Michael has kids and is happy and grows up a bit (but not so much that he can't still crack a "that's what she said" joke) and be Dwight's best man (as Jim's surprise, nonetheless) was so so so so goooooood.

Andy Bernard

So much to unpack here. Where do I get started?

Andy was a roller coaster ride and not for the right reasons, most of the time. Here's the adventure I went on with his character:

1. Hated him. I thought he was just a side element that would be gone once the Stamford storyline ended and he was there just to be "a worse Dwight" to prove that Jim would rather work with Dwight in comparison. Totally wrong.
2. Totally right about one thing, though. When he was brought in with the other Stamfordites, I was hoping he and Karen would be the only two that would stay and they'd find a role for them on the show. Eventually, Karen started to prove herself as not having much of a character, so I was okay with her leaving the show, too.
3. However, once Andy started being the suck up to Michael, I liked the character a lot more. He served a purpose and was different from Dwight in that role.
4. Dating Angela? Not a huge fan of him during that time. He got a little obnoxious and they went a bit too far into the idea of poking at him so we'd prefer Dwight. It worked, but it made Andy more annoying.
5. Trying to date Erin? Endearing. I liked him again.
6. Andy's brought on as the manager and becomes Michael Lite. More on that later.
7. But hey, he went ahead with the tattoo. He's trying. Also, cute moment that its a Nard Dog. I really liked that camaraderie and it made me feel good that maybe he'd work out well as the new boss in the long run for the show.
8. Then, he became too much of a focal point and I'm annoyed with him again because too much of season 8 was about Andy and Robert California.
9. But hey, he's not anywhere near as bad as Nellie. Holy shit. Let's get rid of her and bring Andy back!
10. Aaaaand now I hate Andy again when he leaves on the boat trip because he's become an entirely unlikable character. It's almost as if they had a vendetta against Ed Helms for being busy with The Hangover.
11. Ultimately, he lands where he should have. Andy's better off at Cornell and while they made him a meme to get made fun of, they also didn't fully crap on him in the finale.

He had one of the best lines in the whole show during that finale, too. "I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them." That hit me hard.

Nice touch with Stephen Colbert being Broccoli Rob. That was great.

Ultimately, Andy is a character that came in when the show was in its stride, threw everything for a loop and found his place, but ultimately kept being thrown around in weird ways. At times, he was the glue that held things together. At other times, he was easily the most divisive character that I can understand having tons of haters for.

Kelly and Ryan

Right from the beginning, I loved Ryan. His complete lack of enthusiasm in the first three seasons, which grew into him becoming a worse person was fantastic. I actually was thinking at the start of the show that they might end it with him being the manager and that this would be kind of framed within the context of the rise of a temp to the boss. When he became a boss in season 4 and was such an awful person, that was interesting in its own way and I enjoyed that storyline a lot.

Kelly wasn't such a smash hit, at first. I didn't think she served any purpose for the beginning of the show as she was just sort of there, not doing much. Eventually, though, once they developed her character as gossipy and awful in her own right, she instantly upgraded considerably and became a real highlight.

It was always surprising to me that B.J. Novak was considered main cast all throughout 8 seasons. Ed Helms was still even just "starring" for his first three seasons. 

I was disappointed we didn't get them in the last season, but having them run off together was the best ending possible.

Erin

I was very, very suspicious of her, originally. I thought she'd be too much of a situation where a show brings in a younger kid once the children actors start aging, or they introduce "the fun uncle" to the sitcom to spice things up. She was allowed to grow on her own, though, and quickly became a highlight.

She's just so cute and adorable. How could you hate her?

When she was paired with Gabe, I wasn't a fan. With Andy, I thought it worked. Then, once Andy was out of the picture and they threw Pete in there, it didn't feel right. I never got the vibe Pete and Erin should be a thing.

Erin meeting her mom and dad at the end? Very touching moment and I'm glad she got that happy ending.

Darryl

Rockstar. The man. Easily one of my most favorite characters, by far.

I really don't know what more to say about him other than that, oddly. He and Erin were the two main additions post original cast that I grew to love like they were originals (even though Darryl was officially in the first season and all, but it's a big step to go from a background character to a principal one).

The Accountants

Oscar was a little meh, but got better. He's more of the straight man (no pun intended) so he doesn't have as much of a bombastic side to really win you over. However, despite that, I missed him when he was gone for most of that one season and I'm glad he never became a total asshole even when he was part of the affair with Angela's husband. Good B-level character.

Speaking of Angela, she was one that I assumed they'd go too far with. They didn't, really. They kept her a pill to deal with but one that you could feel bad for at times. Every show needs some villains and she managed to be one without becoming unlikable. Overall, I think I liked her purposefulness on the show even more than Oscar.

But Kevin was probably the character that made me smile the most of all of the entire cast. "But you can't eat cats. You can't eat cats, Kevin." Damn near every line of his was gold. I do feel like they dropped the ball with him, though. There was a lot of stuff for nearly every character, yet no real Kevin episodes. I'd gladly sacrifice multiple Andy episodes, the entirety of Robert California and so on to get one good Kevin episode per season.

I understand why some people say he suffered from Flanderization, as he did go from "clearly the stupidest one in the office" to someone who could barely function, but hey, I also enjoyed that ride. I also like the theory that he's suffering from the gas leak and that that's an explanation. One of my favorite moments was Holly thinking he was "special" and him giving her all the reason to believe it. I wish they would have given him more of a positive send-off with buying the bar, though. I guess he was supposed to have become a cult favorite from the documentary and that was what helped him buy it and run it successfully? I'd have liked to see that and for him to be happy. It's nice to win one, right? (Gah. That was sad.)

The Old Timers

Let's talk about Phyllis and Stanley.

They were extremely consistent supporting players. Very early, it became clear what their roles were and they didn't adjust all too much, but they didn't need to. Of course, they did see some progression and I think that was for the better, too.

Stanley was best, I think, when he was dismissive and didn't want to be involved. The episode where he flips out ("Did I stutter?") was a bit strange, to me, and I thought it was weird how they seemed to almost glorify his affairs, but overall, I loved when he would be surly and cantankerous even by just not participating. Very glad his conclusion was a retirement in Florida that he seemed to enjoy a lot when he visited.

It's interesting Phyllis Smith was originally in casting before they decided to give her a spot on the show with the Phyllis character (side note: it's also interesting how many people have the same names as the actor's names). I really loved how even though she'd be picked on, it never felt like we were supposed to not pity her in the process. I also like how she got progressively more confident and a higher self-esteem after dating Bob Vance (Vance Refrigeration...loved that gag). Very sweet character in a lot of ways.

The Oddballs

Lumping in Meredith, Creed and Toby together as the odd ones who more often than not were just hanging out in the background.

Meredith took me a bit. She was just sort of there in the background and didn't make an impression on me until she started to come out of her shell as the office trash bag, essentially. At times, I'd have liked her character to be toned down just a smidge at least, as it got a little slapsticky and too broad, but I tend to prefer that with every character in every show, not just her. It's hard to find a character I don't like better before that Flanderization kicks in (although with Kevin, he's a rare exception and stayed amazing). I thought the hair stuff was kind of sweet in a way as one of her send-off ideas and that she was partying mostly because she was in college getting her degree during the show. Hilarious touch.

Creed. So good. I started off saying "I didn't even know he was a character until he almost got fired" and my friends told me that was the point and it would make more sense as the show went on. Little did I know how right that would be! LOOOOOOVED Creed throughout the show. Tons of little moments that were gems, like just throwing an old shirt in a bag for a Christmas gift and stealing tons of things.

Gotta love Toby being the sad sack. I felt bad that his big happy ending was just a fleeting moment of happiness to be invited to join the rest of the crew, but then again, that's kind of fitting, too. It's interesting that this was the first bit of acting work Paul Lieberstein had done, because he was so good in that role.

All these were at their best when they were sprinkled into episodes.

The Regime Change Causes a Downfall

It's time to address the biggest problem with the series, which was the transition to a new writing approach and a shake-up with the team on and off the screen.

Greg Daniels left as showrunner from seasons 5 through 8. Want to guess which seasons I find the worst?

Season 1 was so short that it's hard to even really count it, but it got me into the show. Season 2 secured that I would stick through it. Season 3 and 4 had hit its stride and it was just awesome (not perfect, but easily the most consistent product).

Then, season 5 comes along and I didn't even know about this change in the writing team, but I actually wrote in my notes that it felt like there was a change. I could feel the difference and I didn't like it.

I liked Holly Flax a lot, but I didn't like Charles Miner. I did like Erin, but I didn't like how it felt like she was introduced as a point of tension with Pam in art school. That plot in and of itself felt very normal sitcom-like where the whole time, I was waiting for her to become infatuated with some new guy and all that nonsense.

I was nervous when Michael quit and they were doing that story, but I was happy when he was bought out. It felt like they had found a new status quo and I was going to enjoy season 6.

Now season 6 was better, in some ways. Andy trying to get with Erin was much better than the Andy vs Dwight over Angela stuff, for example. But I felt like Michael dating Pam's mom wasn't utilized as well as it could have been.

Yet the big problem with season 6 was the introduction of Sabre and the inclusion of a bunch of characters I wasn't really into.

I never grew to fully like Gabe. He had some moments, but the cast had gotten so overcrowded that I would have rather had more stuff from the core group of like 10+ people than to just insert another person in there and keep him for the next few seasons.

Jo Bennett? Wasn't digging her, either. Jim as co-manager had some good moments, but it also felt a little strange, too. It could have been done much better. We didn't even get much of a take down from Ryan and Dwight teaming up. That would've been fun.

Season 7 was a series of miscellaneous random things that felt very disjointed. Sweeney Todd and Glee and all, for instance, when Michael's exit just was rushed?

I did love Jim and Michael having their moment when he was leaving, as well as Pam's goodbye and the letter of recommendation for Dwight. Those were sweet and I was happy to see Michael leaving on a happy note instead of just being fired or something.

But man...Deangelo. I went from loving his introduction to disliking the character to being okay with him trying to find his place, to hating him, to missing him, to forgetting he was even there.

I will say, though, he had the one line that made me laugh the most hysterically out of any line in the entire series, which was when his idea of banter for the awards was to say "Where were you on September 11th?" I BUSTED OUT laughing at that. I wasn't expecting it at all.

So we end season 7 not knowing who will take over for Michael. Big shoes to fill. And boy did they blow it.

Season 8 was the Andy and Robert California show. Ed Helms being a bigger star and James Spader being a featured name DOMINATED the season and I didn't enjoy it.

Andy was Michael Lite, as I mentioned. They managed to make him okay in the long run, but just not Michael. Being around Robert, though, made Andy less annoying in comparison.

Now I'll say this. The character of Robert California would have been amazing if it had only been a guest supporting part that comes in once in a while, like a Todd Packer. He had intrigue, but they killed it by having him be such a monumental focal point.

Then, they go even worse by making Nellie an absolute chore to sit through. I HATED her character, and not in a "grr I can't wait to see her get her comeuppance" way. I mean in an "uggghh she's in this scene so I hope it ends soon" way.

But thankfully, David Wallace stepped in at the end and saved the day. I've always been a big fan of his straight man act and I was super, super happy to see him back at the helm of Dunder Mifflin. And to be honest, I was happy to see Andy reinstated as the boss, too. I would have preferred Michael back and Andy to go into sales once more, but Andy was a step up from Robert and Nellie.

Then, even though season 9 is great for a lot of reasons, it's also problematic as hell for one major problem: they decided "fuck Andy, right?"

Nellie got better. She went from an obnoxious character to watch to someone who was just meh and taking time away from my preferred characters. I'd rather you get rid of Nellie and give me Ryan and Kelly in that season. But I'm glad Nellie got a kid...even if it's Ryan's. Dark!

I couldn't get attached to Clark and Pete. Clark had some moments, but I think he would have been better had he been introduced earlier in the show and become Dwight's protege in a more full way. Pete was just a stand-in to give Erin someone to flirt with and I think if you take out the atrocious "Andy is a complete dick and goes off the walls and leaves for months, which is a horrible thing to do to Erin so we should hate him and root against him" angle and just make it so Andy's in the season as regularly as he was the previous few, you not only don't need Pete, you also don't even create the character.

Brian the boom mic guy was an interesting choice. I liked that as the show was wrapping up being filmed, they were playing around more with the crew filming the documentary. It's like senior year of high school. I'm also glad they once again avoided having Pam actually develop feelings for Brian in return and Jim needing to save the day.

The Floor Plan

I could not get a proper foothold of the floor plan of that office for the longest time. I keep imagining the accounts sitting in the corner that Darryl's office is in. Basically, like this:

Accountants            Darryl            Creed and Meredith               ????
Stanley/Phyllis/Andy                    Dwight/Jim/Pam                    Reception

I know it doesn't make any sense, but that's how my brain malfunctioned so often when I couldn't grasp the layout. It also seemed so crazy to me that Toby and Kelly were so far away from everyone all the time, even though I knew they had to be. Still just weird to me even after looking at maps.

Miscellaneous Notes

• Hilary Swank is hot. C'mon now.
• I love that the same stripper kept popping up.
• Whatever happened to Danny Cordray?
• I expected a little more payoff for the Scranton Strangler.
• So was Kevin's fudging of the numbers the reason why Scranton was always doing better?
• Astrid is Hunter's kid, right?
• Who the fuck is Louanne?

Final Thoughts

Even at its moments that I wasn't enjoying it as much as I had before, this show was still great. I'm so thankful to have been able to watch it and taken that plunge. It's a shame I didn't watch it when it was on the air so I could experience it as it went on, but maybe this was even better, as I got to speed through it so the bad stuff didn't drag and the good stuff just kept coming along.

I'll be holding a lot of reverence for this show. It's not going to top the first 10 seasons of The Simpsons as my favorite show of all time or unseat Seinfeld or anything like that, but I'd say I'd probably put it on my top 10 favorite sitcoms at this point along with the likes of Community, Modern Family, etc.

This show wins so many Dundies.

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Big Brother All Stars Premiere

I had no idea this was even coming back, let alone when. It's the 20 year anniversary. Holy shit. I've been watching this show for TWENTY YEARS? I feel so old.

As far as the cast goes...

Nicole F - I liked her, but she wasn't my favorite or anything.

Dani - Well she doesn't seem to have aged at all, which is good. But is she still not talking to Dick? That's a shame, if that's the case.

Da'Vonne - To be honest, I can't remember if I liked her or not, which means I must not have loved or hated her. We'll see.

Christmas - She was both good and bad at times, depending on if she was working alongside the people I liked, but I overall liked her, so she'll be one of the people I root for. I felt bad about her injuring herself so early in her season. Now, she'll get a proper shot.

Tyler - One of my favorites from that season.

Ian - I liked Ian a lot. He'll be another one of my favorites.

Kevin - I didn't like Kevin and that season had some awful people on it, too. I'd be cool with him being one of the first evicted, especially as I have no interested in seeing this character he's created.

Enzo! - Dude! Enzo was awesome! Brigade FTW!

Janelle - LOL She can't stay away, can she? She was great, though. She won't be my top pick to win, but she's on the list of thumbs up.

Bayleigh - Total wreck. Absolutely nuts. I couldn't stand her and I hope she's either just as crazy but in an entertaining way instead of a frustrating way, or she's toned things down since then.

Nicole A - She was cute and I liked her a lot. I'm rooting for her, for sure.

Keesha - I don't think I was a fan, if I remember right. I can't be positive, but she's on the low end right now until giving me a different opinion.

Kaysar - I didn't see season 6, so I never developed an opinion of him.

Cody - He's another one of my favorites out of this cast.

Memphis - I liked him, but there are others I'll be rooting for over him.

David - He got screwed the last time and didn't get a chance to compete, and I remember thinking that that sucked.

So Memphis and Cody have to team up and try to be The Renegade Hitmen, right? And if Enzo is trying to get another Brigade going, why not make that a threesome? The Renebrigade Hitmen?

Currently, who I'd like to see win are, in order:

1. Cody
2. Enzo
3. Nicole A
4. Ian
5. Danielle
6. Memphis
7. David
8. Janelle
9. Tyler 
10. Christmas

I'm glad this is back. This should be some decent quarantine viewing material.

Mulan Going to Disney+ on September 4th

For $30 on top of your monthly subscription price, Mulan is coming to Disney+ instead of being released in theaters (or on top of being in theaters, when available).

This is actually huge. This means Disney is fed up with waiting for a theatrical release for one of its tentpole films and is willing to roll the dice and see how much money they can make with a direct VOD release.

This is a test for what could become the industry standard. They're saying it's a one-off, but they also said they wouldn't do it at all. Clearly, that's just business speak for "don't be too upset if we decide not to do this anymore, but if we see a big success, we'll just announce that plans have shifted and we're going to do it with other movies, too."

Tom Hanks as Geppetto in Pinocchio

Supposedly, that's the casting news.

I've never been a Pinocchio fan. However, this seems like great casting potential. Hanks is awesome and if he can make the accent work, he's already going to bring a lot of heart and warmth to the role. He could knock it out of the park.

A League of Their Own Series

A series based on the film A League of Their Own is coming to Amazon. There's potential here.

The film itself is rock solid. Now, to be fair, maybe that's because of the actors that were in it just bringing their own natural charm. I'm not familiar with any of the cast, but if they can tap into that, maybe they'll have something.

Antebellum Coming to VOD on September 18th

One of the films I had on my watch list is Antebellum, which will apparently be coming straight to VOD on September 18th. Rest assured, I'll be checking that out and might even post a review here about it or do a Reviewpoint podcast if there's any support for that.

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

L is Real 2401

24 years and 1 month after the release of Super Mario 64, it seems the L is Real 2401 mystery has been solved. Luigi's model, textures and other information have been found in the game. I'm not even a gamer and I think this is crazy enough to mention here!

AMC and Universal Reach a Deal

After 17 days of being in theaters, Universal Pictures movies will be allowed to go to VOD platforms, provided they share 10% of the profit with AMC Theaters.

This might end up being game changing. If both sides like the results, we'll see other chains doing something similar. Then, over time, less and less movie theaters will be open, as less people will go there as opposed to just waiting a few weeks and staying home. Then, that will give the theaters less leverage, and eventually, the chains will change that to 5% profit sharing or whatever. Eventually, nothing. It will just be "release it in the theaters and we'll release it as a VOD and you only get a share of the theater sales" or something.

I don't really know what to think of this. COVID has disrupted so many things, including the film industry. It's going to be an historic year that moves things either in the most natural progression, but forced, or it ruins everything.

Spider-Man: Home Safe

Rumor has it this is the title for the third Spider-Man film. If so, I hate it. I don't get why they would have to keep the Home theme going just for the sake of it, and even if that were the case, I think there could be much better options available (depending on the plot).

Home Sweet Home
Home Free even works better
Home Run might sound more like a baseball thing, but maybe that can even work
Stuck at Home with him being on house arrest?

I'd rather it just be something like Spider-Man: Web of Lies.

The 72nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards will take place September 20, 2020, broadcast by ABC.

Here is a list of the nominees in all of the categories and some thoughts on this year's predictions and such.

Outstanding Comedy Series

Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO)
Dead to Me (Netflix)
The Good Place (NBC)
Insecure (HBO)
The Kominsky Method (Netflix)
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)
Schitt's Creek (Pop TV)
What We Do in the Shadows (FX)

Thoughts: I haven't seen a single one of these.

Outstanding Drama Series

Better Call Saul (AMC)
The Crown (Netflix)
The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu)
Killing Eve (BBC America)
The Mandalorian (Disney+)
Ozark (Netflix)
Stranger Things (Netflix)
Succession (HBO)

Thoughts: Ozark and Stranger Things are so good. If either of those win, I'm a big fan. The Mandalorian was surprisingly good, too, but I'd prefer the other two.

Outstanding Variety Talk Series

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (Comedy Central)
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (TBS)
Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS)

Thoughts: I don't watch any of these.

Outstanding Variety Sketch Series

A Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO)
Drunk History (Comedy Central)
Saturday Night Live (NBC)

Thoughts: I haven't seen any of these, unless you count previous years of SNL. Not this year.

Outstanding Limited Series

Little Fires Everywhere (Hulu)
Mrs. America (FX)
Unbelievable (Netflix)
Unorthodox (Netflix)
Watchmen (HBO)

Thoughts: I stopped watching Watchmen after the first episode. I couldn't get into it. The rest, I hadn't even heard of at all.

Outstanding Television Movie

American Son (Netflix)
Bad Education (HBO)
Dolly Parton's Heartstrings: These Old Bones (Netflix)
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Netflix)
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend (Netflix)

Thoughts: Never seen them or heard of most of them.

Outstanding Competition Program

The Masked Singer (Fox)
Nailed It! (Netflix)
RuPaul's Drag Race (VH1)
Top Chef (Bravo)
The Voice (NBC)

Thoughts: These aren't for me.


Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Anthony Anderson as Andre "Dre" Johnson Sr. on Black-ish (ABC)
Don Cheadle as Mo Monroe on Black Monday (Showtime)
Ted Danson as Michael on The Good Place (NBC)
Michael Douglas as Sandy Kominsky on The Kominsky Method (Netflix)
Eugene Levy as Johnny Rose on Schitt's Creek (Pop TV)
Ramy Youssef as Ramy Hassan on Ramy (Hulu)

Thoughts: I've got no horse in this race (you're going to see that pop up quite a bit here).

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

Christina Applegate as Jen Harding on Dead to Me (Netflix)
Rachel Brosnahan as Miriam "Midge" Maisel on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)
Linda Cardellini as Judy Hale on Dead to Me (Netflix)
Catherine O'Hara as Moira Rose on Schitt's Creek (Pop TV)
Issa Rae as Issa Dee on Insecure (HBO)
Tracee Ellis Ross as Dr. Rainbow "Bow" Johnson on Black-ish (ABC)

Thoughts: No horse in this race.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Jason Bateman as Martin "Marty" Byrde on Ozark (Netflix)
Sterling K. Brown as Randall Pearson on This Is Us (NBC)
Steve Carell as Mitch Kessler on The Morning Show (Apple TV+)
Brian Cox as Logan Roy on Succession (HBO)
Billy Porter as Pray Tell on Pose (FX)
Jeremy Strong as Kendall Roy on Succession (HBO)

Thoughts: Jason Bateman!!!!

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Jennifer Aniston as Alex Levy on The Morning Show (Apple TV+)
Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth II on The Crown (Netflix)
Jodie Comer as Oksana Astankova / Villanelle on Killing Eve (BBC America)
Laura Linney as Wendy Byrde on Ozark (Netflix)
Sandra Oh as Eve Polastri on Killing Eve (BBC America)
Zendaya as Rue Bennett on Euphoria (HBO)

Thoughts: Ozark is great. Give it to Laura Linney. She's awesome.

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

Jeremy Irons as Adrien Veidt on Watchmen (HBO)
Hugh Jackman as Dr. Frank Tassone on Bad Education (HBO)
Paul Mescal as Connell Waldron on Normal People (Hulu)
Jeremy Pope as Archie Coleman on Hollywood (Netflix)
Mark Ruffalo as Dominick and Thomas Birdsey on I Know This Much Is True (HBO)

Thoughts: I haven't seen any of these except the first episode of Watchmen, as I said. But I totally bought Irons as Veidt. Maybe it would be cool for him to win.

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

Cate Blanchett as Phyllis Schlafly on Mrs. America (FX)
Shira Haas as Esther "Esty" Shapiro on Unorthodox (Netflix)
Regina King as Angela Abar / Sister Night on Watchmen (HBO)
Octavia Spencer as Madam C. J. Walker on Self Made (Netflix)
Kerry Washington as Mia Warren on Little Fires Everywhere (Hulu)

Thoughts: No horse in this race.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

Mahershala Ali as Sheikh Ali Malik on Ramy (Hulu)
Alan Arkin as Norman Newlander on The Kominsky Method (Netflix)
Andre Braugher as Raymond Holt on Brooklyn Nine-Nine (NBC)
Sterling K. Brown as Reggie on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)
William Jackson Harper as Chidi Anagonye on The Good Place (NBC)
Dan Levy as David Rose on Schitt's Creek (Pop TV)
Tony Shalhoub as Abe Weissman on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)
Kenan Thompson as Various Characters on Saturday Night Live (NBC)

Thoughts: I love Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Maybe Braugher isn't the right person to win, but I don't know, since I can't compare to the others. But I do know I love his work as Holt.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series

Alex Borstein as Susie Myerson on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)
D'Arcy Carden as Janet on The Good Place (NBC)
Betty Gilpin as Debbie Eagan on GLOW (Netflix)
Marin Hinkle as Rose Weissman on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video)
Kate McKinnon as Various Characters on Saturday Night Live (NBC)
Annie Murphy as Alexis Rose on Schitt's Creek (Pop TV)
Yvonne Orji as Molly Carter on Insecure (HBO)
Cecily Strong as Various Characters on Saturday Night Live (NBC)

Thoughts: GLOW is great. I doubt Gilpin will win, but it's nice to see her recognized. I'm also shocked she's considered a supporting actress. Isn't she one of the three leads along with Alison Brie and Marc Maron?

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series

Nicholas Braun as Greg Hirsch on Succession (HBO)
Billy Crudup as Cory Ellison on The Morning Show (Apple TV+)
Kieran Culkin as Roman Roy on Succession (HBO)
Mark Duplass as Charlie "Chip" Black on The Morning Show (Apple TV+)
Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring on Better Call Saul (AMC)
Matthew Macfadyen as Tom Wambsgans on Succession (HBO)
Bradley Whitford as Commander Joseph Lawrence on The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu)
Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe on Westworld (HBO)

Thoughts: Westworld is the only one I've seen. I love Wright as Bernard, but I'll have to admit that the first season was significantly better for this show than 2 and 3.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series

Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret on The Crown (Netflix)
Laura Dern as Renata Klein on Big Little Lies (HBO)
Julia Garner as Ruth Langmore on Ozark (Netflix)
Thandie Newton as Maeve Millay on Westworld (HBO)
Fiona Shaw as Carolyn Martens on Killing Eve (BBC America)
Sarah Snook as Siobhan "Shiv" Roy on Succession (HBO)
Meryl Streep as Mary Louise Wright on Big Little Lies (HBO)
Samira Wiley as Moira Strand on The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu)

Thoughts: Julia Garner as Ruth Langmore is one of the true highlights of Ozark. I'd love to see her win.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Calvin "Cal" Abar / Doctor Manhattan on Watchmen (HBO)
Jovan Adepo as young Will Reeves on Watchmen (HBO)
Tituss Burgess as Titus Andromedon on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend (Netflix)
Louis Gossett Jr. as Will Reeves on Watchmen (HBO)
Dylan McDermott as Ernest "Ernie" West on Hollywood (Netflix)
Jim Parsons as Henry Willson on Hollywood (Netflix)

Thoughts: No horse in this race.

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie

Uzo Aduba as Shirley Chisholm on Mrs. America (FX)
Toni Collette as Det. Grace Rasmussen on Unbelievable (Netflix)
Margo Martindale as Bella Abzug on Mrs. America (FX)
Jean Smart as Laurie Blake on Watchmen (HBO)
Holland Taylor as Ellen Kincaid on Hollywood (Netflix)
Tracey Ullman as Betty Friedan on Mrs. America (FX)

Thoughts: No idea.


Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series

The Great (Episode: "The Great (Pilot)"), Directed by Matt Shakman (Hulu)
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Episode: "It's Comedy or Cabbage"), Directed by Amy Sherman-Palladino (Prime Video)
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Episode: "Marvelous Radio"), Directed by Daniel Palladino (Prime Video)
Modern Family (Episode: "Finale Part 2"), Directed by Gail Mancuso (ABC)
Ramy (Episode: "Miakhalifa.mov"), Directed by Ramy Youssef (Hulu)
Schitt's Creek (Episode: "Happy Ending"), Directed by Andrew Cividino and Dan Levy (Pop TV)
Will & Grace (Episode: "We Love Lucy"), Directed by James Burrows (NBC)

Thoughts: I enjoyed the Modern Family finale. Let's go with that.

Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series

The Crown (Episode: "Aberfan"), Directed by Benjamin Caron (Netflix)
The Crown (Episode: "Cri de Coeur"), Directed by Jessica Hobbs (Netflix)
Homeland (Episode: "Prisoners of War"), Directed by Lesli Linka Glatter (Showtime)
The Morning Show (Episode: "The Interview"), Directed by Mimi Leder (Apple TV+)
Ozark (Episode: "Fire Pink"), Directed by Alik Sakharov (Netflix)
Ozark (Episode: "Su Casa Es Mi Casa"), Directed by Ben Semanoff (Netflix)
Succession (Episode: "Hunting"), Directed by Andrij Parekh (HBO)
Succession (Episode: "This Is Not for Tears"), Directed by Mark Mylod (HBO)

Thoughts: Hey, if you want to give Ozark another win, I'm down for it.

Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special

62nd Grammy Awards, directed by Louis J. Horvitz
72rd Annual Tony Awards, directed by Glenn Weiss
Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones, directed by Stan Lathan
Live In Front Of A Studio Audience: "All In The Family" And "Good Times", directed by Andy Fisher and Pamela Fryman
Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show Starring Jennifer Lopez And Shakira, directed by Hamish Hamilton

Thoughts: Let's go with Dave Chappelle.

Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series

A Black Lady Sketch Show (Episode: "Born at Night, But Not Last Night"), Directed by Dime Davis (HBO)
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (Episode: Dr. Fauci Answers Trevor's Questions About Coronavirus), Directed by David Paul Meyer (Comedy Central)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Episode: "Episode 629"), Directed by Paul Pennolino and Christopher Werner (HBO)
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (Episode: "Live Show; Chris Christie; Nathaniel Rateliff), Directed by Jim Hoskinson (CBS)
Saturday Night Live (Episode: "Host: Eddie Murphy"), Directed by Don Roy King (NBC)
Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready (Episode: "Flame Monroe"), Directed by Linda Mendoza (Netflix)

Thoughts: n/a

Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special

Little Fires Everywhere (Episode: "Find a Way"), Directed by Lynn Shelton (Hulu)
Normal People (Episode: "Episode 5"), Directed by Lenny Abrahamson (Hulu)
Unorthodox, Directed by Maria Schrader (Netflix)
Watchmen (Episode: "It's Summer and We're Running out of Ice"), Directed by Nicole Kassell (HBO)
Watchmen (Episode: "Little Fear of Lightning"), Directed by Steph Green (HBO)
Watchmen (Episode: "This Extraordinary Being"), Directed by Stephen Williams (HBO)

Thoughts: n/a


Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series

The Good Place (Episode: "Whenever You're Ready"), Written by Michael Schur (NBC)
The Great (Episode: "The Great"), Written by Tony McNamara (Hulu)
Schitt's Creek (Episode: "Happy Ending"), Written by Daniel Levy (Pop TV)
Schitt's Creek (Episode: "The Presidential Suite"), Written by David West Read (Pop TV)
What We Do in the Shadows (Episode: "Collaboration"), Written by Sam Johnson & Chris Marcil (FX)
What We Do in the Shadows (Episode: "Ghosts"), Written by Paul Simms (FX)
What We Do in the Shadows (Episode: "On the Run"), Written by Stefani Robinson (FX)

Thoughts: n/a

Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series

Better Call Saul (Episode: "Bad Choice Road"), Written by Thomas Schnauz (AMC)
Better Call Saul (Episode: "Bagman"), Written by Gordon Smith (AMC)
The Crown (Episode: "Aberfan"), Written by Peter Morgan (Netflix)
Ozark (Episode: "All In"), Written by Chris Mundy (Netflix)
Ozark (Episode: "Boss Fight"), Written by John Shiban (Netflix)
Ozark (Episode: "Fire Pink"), Written by Miki Johnson (Netflix)
Succession (Episode: "This Is Not for Tears"), Written by Jesse Armstrong (HBO)

Thoughts: General rule of thumb is to give things to Ozark, cause I love that show and I haven't seen the others.

Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special

Dave Chappelle: Sticks & Stones (Netflix)
Hannah Gadsby: Douglas (Netflix)
John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch (Netflix)
Patton Oswalt: I Love Everything (Netflix)
Seth Meyers: Lobby Baby (Netflix)

Thoughts: I've only seen Chappelle.

Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (Comedy Central)
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (TBS)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Late Night with Seth Meyers (NBC)
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (CBS)

Thoughts: n/a

Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special

Mrs. America (Episode: "Shirley"), Written by Tanya Barfield (FX)
Normal People (Episode: "Episode 3"), Written by Sally Rooney and Alice Birch (Hulu)
Unbelievable (Episode: "Episode 1"), Written by Susannah Grant, Michael Chabon, and Ayelet Waldman (Netflix)
Unorthodox (Episode: "Part 1"), Written by Anna Winger (Netflix)
Watchmen (Episode: "This Extraordinary Being"), Written by Damon Lindelof and Cord Jefferson (HBO)

Thoughts: n/a

Is that the most entertaining round of thoughts? Of course not. But hey, who has time to watch all these shows? At the very least, I'm surprised more wasn't given to Modern Family for its last season, but I'm happy Ozark is being recognized.

As far as what I've been watching this year? This season of The Twilight Zone sucked. Westworld was meh. The Purge was interesting, but there's no way it would be nominated for anything. I'm excited to see Lucifer's next season. Harley Quinn is a great cartoon. I'm finally binging The Office, if that's worth some points in your book!

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Helstrom

Nope. No interest. At least they're not trying to act like this is connected to the MCU.

G4 is Returning

The geek culture channel G4 is set to return in 2021. How? In what capacity? They didn't say.

This is either awesome, or it's completely useless. It all depends how they do it. If the folks that made it good like Olivia Munn, Kevin Pereira and whatnot are involved, then it could be good to see some of the modern nerd stuff back in their realm. But if it's just some YouTube channel with some totally random new people, then that will greatly depend on if those people are great.

What shows will be on it? Is it a network or just some Twitch thing or whatever? All that information is key. But hey...neat, so far.

Zack Snyder's Justice League Title

Apparently, due to legal reasons of an unknown variety, the Snyder Cut may not be named Zack Snyder's Justice League.

I'd assume it's because they don't want to have his name officially attached to it and they might want to go with something like Justice League: The Original Cut or whatever.

Comic-Con@Home

Is it just me, or has this been a complete dead zone? You'd think there would be MORE stuff to talk about with this going on and it being online. Instead, I'm not hearing pretty much any peeps at all. What am I missing???

When Generation II of Pokemon came out with Gold and Silver, I remember being astounded at the creation of the Dark and Steel types. Of course this would happen, and with good cause. But I always had thought that a few other types didn't make much sense (why have both Ground and Rock, for instance?) and that some other things could have been created over time.

Then, with the addition of the Fairy type, I was even happier with the type diversity. I still think, to this day, that certain types should be switched as far as effectiveness goes (click here for a restructured Pokemon type effectiveness chart), but the idea of creating new types to fit new concepts of Pokemon is something I find very interesting.

However, I think people are a little too quick at coming up with random types and flooding the market. If you think about it, the series has been around 20+ years and they've only added 3 types. That's not a lot compared to some fan sites out there that have another dozen or so random things they'd like to see—most of which make zero sense.

Magic type is just Psychic. Wood, Magma, Wind and Steam? C'mon now. Those are just Grass, Fire, Flying and Water. Fear type is just Dark. Why is there a Beast type when all Pokemon are beasts and there isn't enough of a distinction between Bug, Dragon, Fairy, etc for something as generic as Beast?

Still, I do think there's room for a few more types to be made and I feel like this could be worth talking about.

What would the type conceptualize as? What Pokemon would be retconned to being that type, similar to how Clefairy became a Fairy and Magnemite was part Steel? Which moves could be granted that typing and what would it be effective and weak to?

For this first edition of what I'm assuming will be a 4 or 5 part series, I wanted to focus on the one type I think would make the most sense to add: the Sound type.

SOUND TYPE CONCEPT

Ghosts are ghosts. Dragons are dragons. When you start getting into the more energy-based things like Fire, it's a little harder to pinpoint, but I think it's still rather self-explanatory.

It's not that these creatures are made of pure sound (although some could be). It's more that sound is their gimmick. They have immunities to sound-based attacks, are able to control sound and vibrations very well, or have concepts that are based on music/sound/etc.

Pokemon already uses Sound as a subcategory of sorts for certain types of attacks. This is just the next natural progression.

SOUND-TYPE BATTLE CHART

I'll admit that I don't think I have all the balancing figured out for this. However, there are plenty of gaps from the current layout of the battle chart with what's effective against other things. Again, look above at the link at the start of this for a better breakdown of how I think things should work with Poison being super effective to Water and so on.

Here's what I could see making sense, though, for the Sound type, but I'm totally down for tweaking if you have any suggestions in the comments!

2x Strong Against

• Ice (avalanches can be caused by sound)
• Rock (glass shatters)
• Steel (good conductor of sound)
• Water (sound travels faster in water and amplifies its noise level)

• possibly Fighting (solve problems with your words, rather than your fists)
• possibly Ghost (prayer)
• possibly Psychic (sound can break mental concentration)

1x Strong Against

• Normal
• Poison
• Bug
• Fire
• Electric
• Dragon
• Fairy
• Sound

0.5x Strong Against

• Dark (its quiet at night)
• Flying (sound doesn't travel in space)
• Grass (natural sound barrier)

Zero Damage Against

• Ground (drowns out the sound)

2x Weak to

• Electric (disrupts the vibrations)
• Ground (drowns out the sound)

1x Weak to

• Bug
• Dark
• Dragon
• Fairy
• Fire
• Flying
• Ghost
• Grass
• Ice
• Normal
• Psychic
• Rock
• Sound
• Steel
• Water

0.5x Resistant to

• Fighting (you can't really punch energy)
• Poison (why not, right? How do you really poison vibrations?)

Immune to

• Nothing

POKEMON WITH THE SOUND TYPE

Igglybuff → Jigglypuff → Wigglytuff = Sound/Fairy
- Its gimmick is singing.

Drowzee → Hypno = Psychic/Sound
- I'm not entirely sold on this, but I think it could work.

Hoothoot → Noctowl = Sound/Flying?
- I'm not entirely sold on this, either, but it could make sense with the hooting and all.

Politoed = Water/Sound
- Its Pokedex entries talk about the noises it makes.

Misdreavus → Mismagius = Ghost/Sound
- Dex entries mention sounds. It's also called the Screech Pokemon.

Whismur → Loudred → Exploud = Sound
- Duh.

Wailmer → Wailord = Water/Sound
- Wail. Duh.

Chingling → Chimecho = Psychic/Sound
- Duh.

Kricketot → Kricketune = Bug/Sound
- Duh.

Bronzor → Bronzong = Psychic/Sound or Steel/Sound (probably Steel)
- Duh. It's a bell.

Chatot = Sound/Flying
- Chat. C'mon now.

Woobat → Swoobat = Sound/Flying I guess 
- You might be thinking "Why not Zubat's line?" Well, let's be honest. Zubat could be Poison, Flying, Dark and Sound all at the same time. Let's go with Poison/Flying for Zubat and Sound/Flying for Woobat to differentiate them a bit and not make 2 of the same bat type things both Sound.

Audino = Sound or Sound/Fairy or Sound/Normal
- Duh.

Tympole → Palpitoad → Seismitoad = Water/Sound
- This is all about vibrations. Let's get rid of the Ground and replace it with Water, even though that means we have 3 lines of Water+Sound types already with Politoed and Wailmer. But hey, how many Normal/Flying birds do we have? Just give it lots of Ground moves like Earthquake to go along with it.

Maractus = Grass/Sound 
- It's a cactus with maracas. It has to be sound.

Meloetta = Sound/Psychic and Sound/Fighting
- It's all about singing.

Litleo → Pyroar = Fire/Sound
- Since it focuses on the "roar" part of the name, and it's Fire/Normal for some reason, let's replace that Normal type.

Noibat → Noivern = Sound/Dragon
- It's another bat, but it's even more so dedicated to sound. This one is a given.

Oricorio = */Sound instead of */Flying
- It's a dancer. Let's give some more variation to the Sound type and just get rid of Flying for this.

Jangmo-o → Hakamo-o → Kommo-o = Dragon/Sound
- I'm actually not all that into this being another Dragon and Sound type, but it's something worth talking about.

Grookey → Thwackey → Rillaboom = Grass/Sound
- It's a drummer!

Gossifleur → Eldegoss = Grass/Sound
- No need for it to be Sound, but it's worth talking about.

Toxel → Toxtricity = Electric/Sound or Poison/Sound
- I can see why people would want to keep it Electric/Poison, so I'm not opposed to that. But I could also see a case for there to be Electric/Sound and Poison/Sound variations or something. Maybe different forms?

Obstagoon = Dark/Sound
- It's based off KISS.

+ Arceus, Type: Null and Silvally with the corresponding plates that would allow for them to be the Sound type.

Some people suggest Voltorb. I don't see it being sound-based just because it knows some sound moves. If anything, it should be Steel/Electric since it's a metal ball.

Lapras has certainly been given some musical elements to it, hasn't it? But to me, Lapras should be Ice/Dragon or stay Water/Ice rather than turn into a Water/Sound or Ice/Sound.

As far as new types go, you have countless instruments you could draw inspiration from. There could be a variant of Jynx that is more like a Nordic opera singer. Sound/Flying parrot Pokemon is a guarantee.

SOUND TYPE MOVES

I'm certainly not going to go through hundreds upon hundreds of moves and double check everything. This is more about the theory and concept, rather than some historian breakdown. Nevertheless, I think some moves stand out as obvious picks while some others are certainly within the discussion.

Note: A move like Bug Buzz should stay Bug, shouldn't it? The same goes for Grass Whistle, Metal Sound, etc.

Belch
Boomburst
Chatter
Clanging Scales
Confide
Disarming Voice
Drum Beating
Echoed Voice
Encore
Growl
Heal Bell
Howl
Hyper Voice
Lucky Chant
Noble Roar
Overdrive
Perish Song
Relic Song
Roar
Round
Screech
Sing
Sleep Talk
Snarl
Snore
Sonic Boom
Sparkling Aria
Supersonic
Uproar
Yawn

Based on that criteria, I think Sound could be a solid new type to add to the Pokemon series. What do you think? Got any ideas for the Sound type or any other future types? Drop them in the comments below to keep the discussion going!

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Spies in Disguise

I finally got around to watching Spies in Disguise, which was a fun little kids film. I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it. I'd watch a sequel and I hope they get one, but I feel like the pigeon concept was sort of shoehorned in and there's more to this film than just redoing the pigeon thing in #2, as they didn't seem quite convinced that they wanted to do the pigeon thing in the first film, even.

Palm Springs

I also watched Palm Springs from Hulu. I recommend it to anyone who is interested in checking it out. It's pretty much Groundhog Day, but if someone said "Yeah, but what if...." and started to try to answer those questions.

"What if someone else were in the same cycle?" and so on.

The Office

I'm late to the game, I know, but I just started to binge The Office. At the time of publication, I'm only a few episodes into Season 2, and I have a few thoughts I figured I'd share about this whole viewing experiment:

• Jim is charming. I get it. He's easily the most likable character.
• Pam's cute. I get it, and I don't like Roy, so that all works out very well. I like how she's not bitchy, but she's also not some manic pixie dream girl fantasy. She's just a normal woman.
• Michael Scott is so much better so far in season 2 than season 1. The first few episodes were a bit of a struggle to like him.
• Dwight is a great foil, but I can already see why Rainn Wilson blew up and went nowhere much beyond this character. It's defining and he can't likely escape it.
• Angela is a great side character. I hope they don't run her into the ground.
• Kelly Kapoor is pointless. She's background furniture so far.
• Kevin Malone is my favorite character. Hands down. 100%.
• I like Ryan the temp guy and I'd like for it to be a gig where he gets a job there for real and regrets it, or that he's perpetually a temp and never hired or something. It wouldn't shock me if his character left the show, though.
• Phyllis has some great moments, as does Stanley. I feel like I'll like both of them even more as the show goes on.
• Meredith, Oscar and Toby, I haven't warmed up to, yet. Creed I didn't even know was a character until he was almost fired.
• Todd Packer. Does David Koechner always play the same character (and do it so well) or what?
• Katy (Amy Adams), it's funny they brought her in to be an ersatz Pam. Great casting.

Anakin Skywalker in Obi-Wan Kenobi Series

More and more rumors that Hayden Christensen will be in the Kenobi series and there will be flashbacks to the Clone Wars.

If so, I love that idea. I don't feel like the TV show even really counts toward the series and the Clone Wars felt so rushed in the films. Of course, if I would have had it my way, I'd have had that 10 year gap between Episode 1 and 2 to be a different story (Anakin is a teenager in TPM and that's why he's "too old" to start training and so headstrong; Clone Wars starts at the end of that film, carries into #2 which is a few years later and he's battle-hardened and had to train during a war instead of any peacetime, #3 skips another few years to the end of the war and beginning of the Empire).

Anyway, I dig this idea and I'm looking forward to it.

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Marvel Acquires Alien and Predator Franchises

This is pretty cool! I've never been the absolute biggest fans of these franchises or anything, but they're properties who have value and name recognition, along with cool creature designs. While this doesn't mean it will necessarily happen, at least it's now an option for them to possibly bring them into the Marvel Universe in at least the comics with some crossovers.

Imagine the symbiotes like Venom fighting the aliens. Punisher vs. Predator? Pretty sweet!

Janelle Monáe Wants to be Storm in Black Panther 2

You know what? I wouldn't hate it.

I do hope they go a little younger with Storm than Monáe, just so we get enough time with her as a character (as I feel she's super underutilized and shouldn't even be an X-Men character—a case I argued here—but she's a good actress and could pull off the part.

What about Nakia, though?

Tron 3 with Jared Leto

Rumor has it they're finally starting work on Tron 3, but Jared Leto will star. Why not Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde to carry on that storyline from Legacy, which was the infinitely better film compared to the original? Why not also keep Cillian Murphy and keep that thread going?

Maybe Leto is just a recasting of that character and will be the main villain, or will be a different villain like how Clu was the primary antagonist in the last film, and since he's the biggest name, he'd "star" in the film.

New Batwoman Cast

Javicia Leslie will be the new Batwoman character Ryan Wilder. We've talked about this before. I think Batwoman as a concept is uninteresting, I think the CW shows lost most of their quality and I've stopped watching them long before Batwoman premiered, and I think making a brand new character to take up the mantle is going to be lame. I know nothing about Leslie. She looks like she's exactly who CW would try to cast in the part, for what it's worth. Good for her. I hope she does well. I don't expect this show to get another season, though, and I know I won't bother watching it, as I don't even watch The Flash anymore and that was the best one of the bunch for a while.

Spin-off of The Batman Planned for HBO Max

There's going to be a show centered around the Gotham Central series, focused on the Gotham City Police Department, tying into Matt Reeves' Batman film?

SIGN. ME. UP. Assuming, of course, that Reeves has a good universe he's building and all, naturally. If it's awful, I don't want any more of it.

One of my gripes with Gotham was that it was supposed to be this type of show, but they decided to turn it into something completely different. I think there's a lot of potential for a serious GCPD cop drama where Batman is just a background character or myth or something.

Give me Commissioner Gordon (eventually; gotta have some other people above him that he can take down and all), Renee Montoya (and Maggie Sawyer?), Harvey Bullock, Crispus Allen, Jim Corrigan, Sarah Essen, Gillian Loeb, Ellen Yin (better than Yindel IMO and allows more diversity), Ethan Bennett, Angel Rojas, etc. Even a quick Wikipedia search brings up dozens of characters I've never heard of that they could pull from to create the cast.

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Zatanna and Batman Beyond Films

Another week, another "DC has XYZ films planned" story that will likely not pan out, like most of them haven't.

This time, it's a Zatanna solo film, rather than Justice League Dark, and a Batman Beyond movie.

I'll believe them when I see them. Between the two, I think there's more of a chance Batman Beyond were to happen, but I still don't think that's going to come to fruition.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition on HBO Max

The Ultimate Edition cut of BvS has replaced the theatrical cut on HBO Max. That's awesome, as that's the far superior version of the movie.

2 Secret Movies for DC FanDome

The DC FanDome website has "Secret Film 1" and "Secret Film 2" listed.

Let the speculation begin. Is it Zatanna and Batman Beyond from above? Is it Aquaman 2 and The Flash? Maybe Batgirl? Green Lantern Corps? Nightwing? Something completely out of the blue like Metal Men or Red Tornado or Blue Devil?

Superman to Lead The Authority?

Rumor has it, the big plan at DC is to set up Superman as the leader of The Authority.

Now, I don't know much about Wildstorm and all their characters and such, but it seems strange to me for Superman of all characters to be the one that heads up that group.

I would think that would be a better opportunity for a smaller character than the top dog. Maybe Captain Atom, Martian Manhunter, Commander/Citizen Steel or whatever.

Perhaps, if this is true, it will lead to Superman vs Apollo and Batman vs Midnighter as the big payoff?

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Michael Keaton Returning as Batman?!

Now, reports are saying that instead of Jeffrey Dean Morgan playing Thomas Wayne in a Flashpoint movie, it's going to be Michael Keaton returning as his version of Batman from the Tim Burton films, but older (obviously) as an anchor point in some fashion.

Insane, but cool. I still think the movie may not ever be made at all, and even if it is, it'll have lots of tweaks and things might not work out all that well, but hey, I'm open to the idea. That sounds neat.

Joel Schumacher Dies

Speaking of the old Tim Burton films, the man who took over for that franchise after Burton, Joel Schumacher, has passed away at age 80. Like most, I equate him to Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. In fact, the only other movies he did that I've seen were The Number 23 (meh) and Phone Booth (which I liked quite a bit). Nevertheless, RIP.

Twister Reboot in the Works

Why? Just watch the original. A remake/reboot can't be that much different other than better special effects and a less engaging cast that doesn't tap into the cultural zeitgeist like the original did.

The Princess and the Frog Replacing Splash Mountain

Due to its connections to Song of the South, Splash Mountain is going to be reworked to fit The Princess and The Frog, instead.

I've never actually seen either movie, probably. If anything, I've seen SOTS when I was like 4 or something like that, which I've forgotten about entirely by now.

But here's my basic thoughts: if the ride itself is fun, keep the ride structure. If you change the scenery around it to something that's a more modern movie and it makes people more comfortable and feel like there's one less racist thing out there in the world, then hey, all that more reason to change it.

Now, if you were going to do something like remove all the water and just make it a roller coaster, that's what would suck.

Elizabeth Banks as Ms. Frizzle in The Magic School Bus Film

Never was a fan of The Magic School Bus, but I know a lot of people who loved it. From what I've seen, Banks probably has the right energy for the character and can pull it off, even though she's much better looking than Frizzle was. I've always thought the character looked more like Bette Midler.

Tenet Pushed Back Again

The theme of 2020: everyone just says "ugh..wait...hold on" and the pandemic continues, while others get so frustrated that they stop doing things that they need to do in order to keep the pandemic from getting worse, which makes everyone have to suffer.

Tenet's release date has been delayed once again. And I bet you it's going to happen again, if not many more times.

Watch This

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

Dick Grayson in Batman v Superman

Zack Snyder confirmed that the dead Robin in BVS was supposed to be Dick Grayson.

I KNEW IT. I knew he was screwing that up and going with killing the wrong Robin just for simplicity's sake!

All these years later and now, I have vindication that I was right to be worried that they would have messed that up royally. Just like they HORRIBLY whiffed the whole Jenny Jurwich and killing Jimmy Olsen thing.

Snyder made some great decisions about some stuff in his work on this series, but he made a LOT of really, really, really bad decisions, too. This would have been one of them.

More Rumors of Thomas Wayne in Flashpoint

From the time of Batman v Superman, we've heard rumors that Jeffrey Dean Morgan would be playing Thomas Wayne in a Flashpoint film.

Over and over, this rumor comes up. It's come up again.

I'll believe it when I see it. This film - and many others in this series - have been rumored to be guaranteed to do 100 different things and 99 of them never happen.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time

Love the title! I thought the first game in this series was great back in the day. I never played the others, but I remember thinking Crash was a worthy companion to Mario and Sonic. It's good to see him returning.

Echo Coming to MCU

They're casting for a deaf female, 18 or older, of "Native American, First Nations, Indigenous or Latinx" actress they're calling Malia.

Maya Lopez / Echo isn't a character I know much about, but the speculation that this could be that character makes a toooon of sense.

Welcome to another edition of WEEK IN GEEK here at Fanboys Anonymous—a rundown of some of the events, news and stories that went down over the past few days in the geek culture spectrum.

Here are some of the topics I felt like voicing my opinions about:

New Release Dates

As is the case with 2020, when nothing happens in the world but people arguing with each other and pop culture going "Hold on a minute", we have updated release dates for films that should have come out already or were set to come out soon.

- Tenet was pushed back 2 weeks.

- Wonder Woman 1984, which at this point feels like it should have come out in 1984 with how many delays its had despite the film's plot apparently leaking online a while back and being SUPER underwhelming from my POV, is now set for October 2nd. Probably should've kept that November 2019 date you originally had, right?

- No Time to Die moved up a few days.

Inception 10th Anniversary Re-Release

The original date for Tenet, July 17th, will be replaced by an Inception re-release that will commemorate its 10th anniversary. Along with that, Warner Bros is having some sneak peak content for Tenet and some other projects including likely The Batman, The Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman, maybe Godzilla vs. Kong, etc.

Neat. I don't know how many people will actually be in theaters, but at least this makes sense to give someone a reason to go see Inception at a location other than their home. I think I would do the exact same move if I were an executive calling the shots.

10 Best Picture Nominees for Oscars

The Academy Awards are adjusting its strategy with Best Picture nominees by making it a guaranteed 10 entries, instead of the algorithm thing they've used recently where it could be any number between 5 and 10 based on a weighted system.

I'm of two opinions about this. I actually like weighted systems, to a certain extent. However, I think having more Best Picture nominees is potentially a good thing for opening some minds for the voters. We've seen decades upon decades of only the same type of movies being nominated by the same type of people, and I think lots of great films have been snubbed from being able to say they're a Best Picture nominee because of that. There's no reason The Dark Knight shouldn't have been nominated, for instance, just because it's about a superhero.

Having 10 films at least gives some of those movies more of a fighting chance. They might not win - and that's okay, too, so long as the films that do win aren't stunt votes based purely on politics and NOT the actual film itself - but at least they'll be able to say they were nominated.

Remember That Batman Game...

Every single year, constantly, there are reports that there's another Arkham game in the works. Every single event that revolves around video games, like E3 or whatever, is spoken of as when they'll reveal the new game. And it NEVER happens.

This is another year where that's happened again. I don't know why people bother to trust in these reports when this has been several years of these kind of promises and nothing happening.