#netflix needs to release the next batch of episodes already
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qb's top 10 seasonal anime of 2022
2022 in anime was a year of many known quantities, but what really ended up sticking out were the shows few saw coming before they took the world by storm, and before we knew it, everyone was watching a guitar-playing pink blob with severe anxiety while drawing her band on every album cover ever made. 2022 was the year I watched a new Gundam for the first time, I experienced unforgettable trash gems like Pride of Orange, ESTAB-LIFE, and Extreme Hearts, and I was let down more by the wasted potential of the Biscuit Hammer anime than any anime I've ever watched, easily. All considered, this year was unusually good on average for the shows I finished, so I ended up with a glut of series I wanted to put on this list that I had to cut down for time. I would make this list longer, but you know, then it might come out in 2024.
Top 10 in order:
Cyberpunk Edgerunners - Studio TRIGGER's take on the world of Cyberpunk 2077 was an unexpected contender - it was announced so long ago I sort of forgot about it, I wasn't expecting much from the batch release of a Netflix-Trigger anime after BNA's messy release, I underestimated the potential of Cyberpunk 2077 as a setting after the very public trash fire of the video game, and it should have been overshadowed by the next thing after a quick Netflix dump in the middle of a season. Should have had its lunch eaten by the similarly edgy violent action of Chainsawman, should have been yet another failed videogame anime, but none of this stopped Cyberpunk Edgerunners from being the anime I enjoyed the most from 2022.
Bocchi the Rock - the breakout hit school band anime of 2022 was also relatively unexpected, although I at least knew it was stacked with talented animators going in, I didn't predict the sheer memetic power of the result. This series shatters the fourth wall over its knee and livens up an already pretty funny manga with demented, free-flowing gags in a particular way that wouldn't work at all without detailed and well planned sequences which come off so naturally it's hard to believe this was originally a (lightly subversive but still) 4 panel strip. The album cover redraws were the best thing to come out of Bocchi and I hope they never end.
Pop Team Epic 2 - some kind of fucked up comic strip but aoi shouta is there? I thought they promised they wouldn't make this
Mob Psycho 100 III - everything I said about the second season of the popular shonen manga adaptation but moreso, it finishes out the series in exactly the way I hoped it would. Third OP is just mad flexing. look how many hands we can draw. Episode 8 changed my life forever. knowing they nailed the landing retroactively improves the whole series for me.
Do It Yourself - original anime by studio PINE JAM, DIY is pure aesthetic hobby-ani with a mildly entertaining cast of extremely animated characters. very enjoyable but may not have enough momentum or things happening for some. soundtrack is another standout by y0c1e but at a noticeably different speed from Gleipnir and Spyce.
Kaguya-sama Love is War: Ultra Romantic - everything I said about the second season of the popular romcom manga adaptation but moreso, it reaches the climactic peak of the series in exactly the way I hoped it would. I'm still reeling from the entire rap battle episode (sub and dub), and can't believe the Starship Troopers ED was real.
My Dress Up Darling (Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru) - excellent manga adaptation, effectively gets across the dangerously horny but strangely wholesome vibe of the series.
The Demon Girl Next Door Season 2 - everything I said about the first season of the popular magical girl romcom manga adaptation but moreso, it reaches an inflection point in the manga with exactly the same manic pacing and blatant disregard for breathing room I hoped it would. out of everything else on my list I hope the most this one gets another season, because it kind of needs it.
Mobile Suit Gundam: Witch from Mercury - original anime in the long-running GUNDAM series which is sort of like Robot Jox for kids. This is definitely the first time I've watched anything from Gundam before it was completed and I immediately regretted not having more to watch as a direct consequence. Half of my enjoyment right now is coming from experiencing it in tandem with the rest of the internet, but it's sure to hold up in retrospect as one of the best modern Gundam seasons. Look forward to a future very annoying post by me claiming g-witch ripped off Granbelm.
Call of the Night - another above and beyond manga adaptation, probably the anime OP of the year. It strongly intensified my longing for studio SHAFT to not be dead anymore.
Assorted Shoutouts
Going by rating number scale rules, Chainsawman and Spy X Family should be here, but I'm not going by rating, I'm going by what I feel deserves more attention. those anime already have too much recognition.
The Executioner and Her Way of Life (Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road) - If you asked me what the most hidden gem is from 2022, this is what I would answer immediately. Irresponsibly complicated and unusual take on the hated isekai genre in the most disrespectful way possible, twisting anything familiar about that tired setting into an unrecognizable pretzel shape. Recommending this is a challenge, because the less I explain the better it is, but nobody would want to watch this on its face. Everyone should watch it though.
Ya Boy Kongming - banger soundtrack and some eye-popping color choice elevates this manga adaptation from average to a certified Cool Time.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: STONE OCEAN - My favorite (not best) Jojo part, the anime greatly improves the readability of the last third from the manga.
Tokyo Mew Mew New - It's almost comforting how little they tried to update the love triangle of incredibly shit boyfriends in this remarkably normal magical girl anime reboot. I pleaded for someone to make a normal regular magical girl anime reboot and they delivered something totally acceptable.
Reiwa Di Gi Charat - Dejiko drags society kicking and screaming into the Reiwa era. This is the anime of all time of 1999, 2022 and 2023.
qb - friend of the no show (@queuebae on twitter still, unfortunately)
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haHAH
WELL DAMN. I haven't been here in a hot sec. SO. Let me lay it down for everybody, here's what I've been up to for the last 6-7 months.
- doing really well, getting only 90s and above on my psych work
- had a mental break down and a major emotional downswing after finding out my grandfather was diagnosed with cancer
- distracted myself with class work and crochet and got through finals
- KICKED ASS AT FINALS
- HOMIES I MADE THE DEAN'S LIST
- first semester of college was completed with a 3.800 GPA, I have never looked at my GPA before but my mother was losing her shit over it. I think I was in the bottom 50% of my class for high school and considering how much I was enjoying college I felt really accomplished :)
- new batch of classes fall into my lap during January
- went to go see Machine Girl
- had another breakdown due to issues with my friend group, I pretty much went multiple months without having a stable emotional support system that existed outside of myself. I learned that I don't really get lonely as long as I have two or three people that I legitimately connect with and can confide in, like if I have that I'm good forever. Since then my friend group has mostly come back together minus one person and every one is seeming to heal.
- I drop stats because of complications with the professor as well as the program that they were having us use instead of actually teaching
- rest of my classes go extremely well
- I have a great relationship with my english prof, she gives legit critiques, and doesn't explicitly hate on my work for my writing style
- I enter a lifetime and development psych class and the professor is WONDERFUL. I LOVE HER SO MUCH. This is going to be the first time in a very long time that I will actually miss a teacher. I will mourn not being in her class I stg.
- went to my first Ghost B.C. ritual and had a fucking blast, I LOVED seeing Twin Temple they were amazing. There is no greater catharsis for a jaded Texan than shouting "Hail Satan" at the top of your lungs with a group of likeminded people lol
- Now I mentioned earlier in this blog that I was in community college and was planning to do that for two years before transferring to a university. I've been at home with no license taking mostly asynchronous classes. And as much as a loathe to admit it, I have been so fucking envious of my friends who are at universities. I want to be away from home. I want to make new friends and to be somewhere where people have no predisposed idea of who I am.
This is where shit might get a little interesting. So like I said, I wanted to be at a university. I spent an unholy amount of time fantasizing about what my daily life would be like if I wasn't at home, better yet if I wasn't in Texas. I felt pretty confident that once I got there I would feel great and that I would acclimate nicely. I could socialize more fluidly and could tap into some wanderlust around campus. There is a pretty nice university nearby that I had my eye on as my transfer place and I even have some trusted friends there who have been trying to convince me to go sooner.
I'm cooking dinner one night and my mother is sitting on the couch and I hear her mumble the name of a scholarship that I have been somewhat avoiding due to anxiety. This scholarship applies to me BIG TIME and covers the costs for everything aside from housing (which includes a mandatory meal plan) and books. Which is fucking sweet. I would like to emphasize, that I am terrified of going to the dorms. But I want to go to the dorms, very badly. So my mom kind of tries to carefully ask how I would feel about transferring a year early, and I"m like LETS FUCKING DO THIS.
I have never felt this motivated to try and get somewhere as far as colleges are considered. I actually want to do this. Due to my grades I apply for multiple organizations that provide scholarships and things that look good on applications and yadda yadda so. I'm really fucking excited. If all goes well- aand I hope it goes well. By time September rolls around I'm going to be here a LOT more. I want to try and do a nightly mental health check in and to include cool photos that I got around campus. Naturally this will include me actually telling you what university I'm attending so that will eventually be a thing.
And my grandfather recently got a surgery that has removed just about all of his cancer :)
things will always get better at some point
#update#college#university#psych student#mental health#life update#I turned 19 btw#jolyne years old#netflix needs to release the next batch of episodes already#on the other hand one of my friends whos been trying to get me to transfer is SUPER into jjba so maybe he and I can#watch the rest of part 6 together :)
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General Thoughts on the rest of Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City season 1
In a way, I right with my initial guess that the first 20 episodes would go up on Netflix today, since each episode is two together, with an intro and end credits. 🎉
Getting to watch the last 9 episodes in one big batch improved my overall feeling for all of them, as there are some really good ones in here, but also some so-so ones. Thoughts under the cut
Spring Cleaning
I kind of wish that BitBC had made its Netflix debut next week, as this was not the best one to start off on. It just doesn't make sense from top to bottom. Why are the girls put in charge of cleaning? Doesn't the BerryWorks have a cleaning crew? And if they're going to the trouble of stashing the junk in the office, why not just drag it to wherever it was supposed to go? It couldn't have been that much further. And lastly, the deal was just for cleaning out the office, not the whole BerryWorks. Bad ep, didn't like it. And on top of all that, the ep is out of order, which it shouldn't be, considering that Netflix rearranged all the already released episodes to be in the right order (i.e. Raspberry's actual debut is before the Fright Fall episodes, as it should be). But this is the episode where they made the room that Strawberry went to when she was sick, and that episode is before this one in the official listing. Two episodes before, in fact. Why, Netflix? Why, WildBrain?
Lucky Berry
Another song ep, and that's all it really has going for it. A good one for the Strawberry/Orange fans, I suppose.
Johnnycake Cobbler's Sensational Sweetening Spritz
I liked this one much better than the previous two, though mostly because my girl Raspberry is back. Her teaming up with Strawberry was great, and I loved that this episode actually had a bittersweet ending that it didn't undercut with one last joke. I also liked the little interactions between Bread Pudding and Sour Grapes in the background.
Strawberry Surprise
This was the episode I was most excited for after reading the episode descriptions from Sky, and I was not disappointed. We got more Raspberry lore, and a little insight into Bread Pudding and Sour Grapes' relationship. I suspected that Raspberry's relationship with her parents wasn't great, but the fact that she feels she has to reminded them of who she is speaks volumes. And while I would hope that Bread Pudding would have put in a little more effort on Raspberry's birthday, I can totally see Sour Grapes only doing the bare minimum. And it was another episode with a nice ending not undercut by a joke.
Bread Pudding's New BFF
This is the episode I was seond-most excited for, and it also did not disappoint. It was the Bread Pudding episode I didn't know I needed, revealing both lore and a possible new relationship. Just so good. I love when the characters get to be vulnerable, and this one had that in spades. Plus, new fashion!
Ice Cream Trouble
Another episode where Blueberry's new agey outlook butts heads with her friends more pragmatic attempts at problem solving, and honestly, after the Lucky Berry episode, I don't see that Strawberry has any place to be criticizing Blueberry's reliance on the universe for help. I also don't get why Lemon didn't just fix whatever the problem with the freezer was instead of throwing random gadgets at it. I mean, I get why Lemon's answer would be random gadgets but not why Strawberry didn't point out the fixing the freezer solution.
I did like everyone's summer outfits, and Strawberry's fluffy hair after the fan. Plus, Blueberry's increasing frustration with the universe was fun to see. Since she's usually so zen, it was good to see some new expressions from her.
Beat the Heat
This is the episode that the Berry Best Friends Forever song is actually from (I suspected as much after seeing the promo pics from TinyPop and reading the episode description from Sky), which makes me wonder why they made more new footage for the video that dropped back in January. But I'm not complaining, since the footage in this episode is better, and not just because everyone is in their summer outfits. The character interactions are just more fun.
I liked the setup for the song, too, though mostly the hypocritical humor from Bread Pudding and Raspberry Tart. And Sour Grapes line "It's hard being this cool. You wouldn't get it."
Bake-Off, Parts One and Two
Unlike Sky, Netflix has this one as the season ender, which is more appropriate than the previous one would have been, as it brings together elements from the whole season, and caps the character arcs pretty well, as well as ending with a sequel hook (I know a certain twitter user who will be excited about that last scene).
That said, the first part is mostly just set up for the second half, as Strawberry spends most of it baking and rebaking. There are a few good gags, like Huck mistaking the cooking show auditions for a music show, and Aunt Praline commenting that their garbage smells delicious. And we learn the names of Raspberry's parents: Raspberry Ambrosia and Mulberry Tart.
Part two reveals the final song, and Raspberry actually gets to sing this time! She's had little snippets, but this is the first time she's had a part in an actual song! And one of the season's better songs at that, the perfect background music to a competitive baking montage. Overall an enjoyable episode, and one that brought the series to a satisfying conclusion, especially that last scene!
It will be interesting to see where season two goes from here, with everyone being friends (and I loved that Lemon lampshaded the whole thing), and with the reveal that the next antagonist. It really feels like the writers have found their feet with this show, so I'm excited to see what they do next.
#strawberry shortcake#strawberry shortcake berry in the big city#berry in the big city#sscbitbc spoilers#episode thoughts#spring cleaning#lucky berry#johnnycake cobbler's sensational sweetening spritz#strawberry surprise#bread pudding's new bff#ice cream trouble#beat the heat#bake off part one#bake off part two
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Unsolved Mysteries
”Unsolved Mysteries“Boss Offers Updates on Cold Cases and Talks Tackling Ghosts in Upcoming Episodes。Since its debut “Unsolved Mysteries” has been sitting atop Netflix’s “Top 10” queue and while executive producer Terry Dunn Meurer is obviously “thrilled” with the reception of the streaming revival, Meurer also admits the production team “would be happier” if they could have solved the majority of cases explored within.
But perhaps they still can. The 33-year-old series never had the online support of millions of armchair detectives on social media before, nor quite the international reach of streaming giant Netflix. These things combined make for a pretty impressive army of concerned citizens looking to right a wrong.
Despite the decision to ditch its previous formula of actors recreating each mystery in favor of additional interviews with family members and other loved ones of victims, the purpose of “Unsolved Mysteries” remains the same today as it did when it began: to investigate cold cases and reignite hope when there often is none. And occasionally, it will even continue to dip into the paranormal, such as with UFO cases and ghost stories, the latter of which will be included in the upcoming batch of episodes Muerer says have been shot, edited and delivered, and are going to be released “sometime later this year.”Here, Meurer provides Variety with updates on some key cases and offers a look ahead at the next batch of episodes, including whether or not they will look into ghosts.
How do you go about choosing each case?We get story submissions, and we have a database of hundreds of story submissions. It is really challenging to figure out which cases to produce. We knew that we had an order for six [episodes]. So, out of that six, we wanted to make sure there was a variety of categories. There’s unexplained deaths and a missing person and a murder and paranormal. It’s always important to have a variety of categories — there’s something for everyone. Then we wanted to add in some international stories. Out of the 12 [episodes] that we’ve produced, three of them are international. Two of the international stories will be in the second [batch of episodes]. Then we look at every other kind of diversity: We’ve got international versus domestic, we have rural versus urban, we have age diversity, we have ethnic and racial diversity. They all have to have a lot of twists and turns and need to be very intriguing. If they’re intriguing to us, we know that they’re going to be intriguing to an audience.android box
There are also stories like the case of Patrice [Endres]. Is it an unsolved mystery? The internet seems to believe her husband Rob did it.It’s totally an unsolved mystery. Jeremy Jones has not been ruled out as a suspect in this case, and neither has Gary Hilton. We really try and present balanced cases. As far as I’m concerned, Rob is innocent until proven guilty. We take everyone’s interview at face value. Rob’s a character, but he was very, very honest with us in his responses to the interview, and we believe him. We respect him, and we respect everyone we interview. As Mitch Posey, the investigator says, “Everybody remains a suspect until the case is solved,” but it is an unsolved mystery. Who abducted and killed Patrice? That’s the mystery.
What did her son Pistol [Black] think of Rob’s interview?
We haven’t spoken to Pistol. We’ve spoken to Pistol’s dad, Don, but we haven’t spoken directly to Pistol. We know he’s doing fine. With any of these stories, there’s always information that we can’t include. I wish there were a few other things that I wish we could have included. I think he’s pleased with how the story came out, but we haven’t gotten any comments from him about Rob.
How has social media changed the reception of “Unsolved Mysteries” in 2020?
It didn’t exist when we did the original episodes. The show would air on a certain day at a certain time on a network, and you could watch it once. You couldn’t rewind it. I guess you could tape it off the air. And then it would air again, usually in the summer, and that was it. Now the old episodes have been streaming, so people have an opportunity to look at those in more depth again if they want to. We didn’t have the kind of commentary, and the kind of armchair detectives who jump in and really do try and solve these cases and come up with theories. It’s been amazing to see the reaction on social media.
How many email tips have you received?
There’s probably around 2,000 tips and comments at this point [on unsolved.com] but not all of those are credible leads. Somebody asked me, “How many credible leads have you gotten?” I don’t have an answer for that because I don’t know. We pass the leads if there’s law enforcement involved. Like in the Alonzo Brooks case. We’ve been sending leads to them for Alonzo. I’ve been working on the [Rey] Rivera case. And then the lead for Endres is going directly to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. We know they’re working the leads we’re giving them, and I’m sure they’re getting leads of their own, but we just don’t know. There’s just no way to quantify how many credible leads there are. But a lot has come in. It’s been very active.
How do you assess a credible tip?
If someone names a name, that would be a credible tip [or] if somebody said, “I was a witness.” If somebody who was at the party where Alonzo was said, “I was a witness to what happened to Alonzo,” that would be a credible tip. We haven’t gotten that yet, let me be clear about that. Anything that has specific information is great. If somebody called and said in the Rivera case, “I own that money clip” or “I know where that money clip is,” that would be a credible lead. Or in Endres, if they said, “Oh, I know that blue Lumina with the wildlife tag.”
There’s some vague tips that come in that are very difficult to follow up on: “I know who killed Ray Rivera.” We email back and we say, “Could you give us more information? Can you give us some details?” We don’t pass those leads onto the FBI or to the law enforcement because we know there’s nothing they can do with them. We try to get whoever submitted the tips to give us more specific information as they can. We would rather have law enforcement vet the tips. We’re not investigators, and you never know what they’re going to see in a tip that we aren’t experienced to see.
How many people do you have reading tips on staff?
There’s a team of about five, six people on different shifts so that we have somebody on the website all the time, going through the tips. And we still have tips and leads in cases getting solved from the original shows. There’s a 30-year-old case, it’s probably going to get solved in the next month or two that we’ve been working with a detective on. I kind of always refer to it as a living, breathing television series where it has a life of its own. You never know when you’re going to get a phone call from the French police and they say, “You know what? We found Xavier [Dupont de Ligonnès].” That’s the mission of the show is to solve these cases. That’s the goal.
What’s the old case that you think is going to crack soon?
There was a young man who committed suicide in a church in Idaho. He’s a John Doe — he’s been a John Doe for 30 years. And the investigator in this police department of relatively new investigators decided he wanted to try and solve this case. My understanding is he went to the file, which was in a box, and the only thing that was in the box — the only information in the box — was a VHS copy of “Unsolved Mysteries.” He reached out to us and said, “Do you have anything? Do you have the note this man left behind? Do you have any of the details from the case?” And we actually had it, which was surprising to me after all these years. We gave him the information we had, and this investigator has been working on it. He just recently, in the last couple of weeks, reached out and said, “I think that we might have figured out who this man is.” My heart goes out to people who don’t know what has happened to their loved one. Even if they’ve passed away, they need to know. Solving these John and Jane Doe cases are really, really important to me.
Can we run through each new case? The world is really eager for updates on every episode. What’s happening with Rey Rivera?android tvbox
There’s been a lot of conversation around the note that he left behind, and also the helicopter theory. When you have a case this mysterious and you cannot figure out how Rey came off of that roof and landed where he did — I was up on that roof and I’m baffled — I think people look for stuff. “Well, what other theories are there if he didn’t come off the roof? Well, maybe he was dropped from a helicopter.” That theory has been circulating.
I know with Patrice Endres, the GBI hasn’t shared the tips that have come in on that particular case. [People are] hoping to find Patrice’s wedding ring or somebody who knows what happened to that. Or the blue Lumina. Somebody could connect that to someone that. That would be great, but we don’t have any specifics on that case.
Alonzo Brooks was probably [the case] we’ve received the most emails on. Lots of theories that we had already heard when we were producing the episodes, but there are some new names that have come in and that we forwarded onto the FBI.
Has no one come forward who was at that party?
There were a lot of people there at that party, somebody witnessed what happened. We just hope that they’ll come forward. The FBI offering that $100,000 dollar reward, which they just announced in the last month. That was so incredible and hopefully motivates somebody to come forward with what they know in that case, because somebody knows.
Was the Brooks case reopened because “Unsolved Mysteries” was digging around? [Editor Note: The reward was announced before the show launched.]
We’re told that, when we were producing the episode over a year ago, the FBI started to look at it again and reopen it. But they just recently made the announcement that it was reopened and that the reward was being offered. Because we reached out to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the FBI about the case. At the end of the episode, Billy Brooks, Alonzo’s brother says, “This case needs to stay open. It should never have been closed.” And then, there you go. The case was reopened right before the show premiered. We feel like there might’ve been a connection, and we’ve been told there was a connection, our producers.
Yeah. You know, people always say “sad” and they say “tragic” and that’s really true, but the show gives people so much hope. And the Brooks family has hope — Maria, Alonzo’s mom; everyone has hope. Rodney [English], who was his childhood friend, reached out to us by text and said, “Are there really a lot of tips coming in?” They’re so excited. I hope that their hopes aren’t dashed, but that’s what the show does. I think the audience hopes these cases will get solved. They get invested with these characters and they want to see closure. We want it for the families, but we also want it for the audience.
Do you personally feel that Brooks was where he was located the whole time, despite not being found by the KBI?
I go back and forth on that, honestly. That’s one of the most mysterious aspects of this case. Was Alonzo’s body there all the time, and was it underwater and then [it] popped up when a rainstorm came along? Or was his body placed there? We just got a tip from an entomologist, she was looking at these photos of Alonzo’s clothing and there were maggots on that clothing. She said those maggots often can tell a story of how long that body had been exposed. We passed that on to the FBI, and hopefully they have somebody in their system that could take a look at that. It’s probably not going to solve the case, but it could answer the question that you’re asking, which is: “How long was Alonzo’s body there?”
And what is going on with Lena Chaplin’s case?
Well, Lena, we just would hope that someone would come forward and say where Lena is buried. That would be the dream in that case.
Xavier, we got the most interesting tip. Somebody was actually in Chicago, I think they were on Lake Shore Drive, and they heard this guy talking French and they looked at him and they had just seen the episode. They sent us a photo, and it really did look like Xavier. It was striking. So we sent that tip on. But again, this is just a stranger — we don’t have a name, we don’t have anything specific. In the Xavier case, what we’re hoping for is that he’s remarried or he has a girlfriend or he lives next door to somebody or he has a coworker who absolutely 100% knows that’s him. We need a very specific lead, because those leads come in from all over the world. Xavier looks so much like so many other people. With Netflix’s global reach, if Xavier is going to be found, we’re really hoping that the Netflix audience will find him. If he’s alive. That’s the mystery. Did he kill himself after he went through the elaborate work that he did, or is he out there somewhere? So we’re hoping he’s catchable if he’s alive, because of Netflix reach, global reach, or national reach.
In the next six episodes, will there be a ghost episode?
Yes. But I’ll qualify that and say it’s an unusual ghost episode. That’s all I’ll say. It’s different. A bit different.
How has working on this show for so long changed you?tvbox
I don’t know that it has. I guess it makes me more cautious about myself and my children. I think that the scarier stories for people are the ones where somebody is doing everything right, and something goes wrong. But I’ve loved “Mysteries” from the time I was very, very young. I was a Nancy Drew fan and Agatha Christie fan. Recently in looking back, I’ve thought, “How lucky am I that I could take this passion of mine, which is mysteries and intrigue, and twists and turns, and actually have that be my career and almost my life’s work?” We’ve been producing “Unsolved Mysteries”, involved with the brand, created the brand and then been managing the brand for 34 years. That’s probably unusual in the television business where you’re involved with brand for that many years. So it’s been very gratifying, the number of cases that have been solved and the people that we feel like we’ve helped. We just want to keep it going. We just want to keep following more cases. I still have hope. I don’t think it’s changed me a lot. I still have as much hope as I did back when we did the first special that we’re going to solve a case. And I still get that same feeling of excitement when we do solve the case and we get some leads come in. It’s very exciting. And we just very hopeful. So we may maintain the hope that we’ve always had that we can keep solving cases.
“Unsolved Mysteries” is streaming now on Netflix.
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she-ra s3 thoughts ftr
i know it’s not the show’s fault netflix is forcing them to release weird batches of episodes. but OMG the result of that sure was a boring, listless s2 and an extremely tight s3 huh. s3 was awesome
it screws the pacing a bit... scorpia and catra for eg had an interesting arc across s2-3 but it would have worked better in one season
another unfortunate consequence is fans of other characters barely even saw them in s3... but... i dunno how to get around that. if it had been all one season like it was obviously designed, they would’ve had a decent amount of screentime to start. it wouldn’t have made sense to interrupt a tight 6-episode arc to shove in a filler episode
but the upswing was that there were six solid episodes and i wasn’t bored in any of them
i’m a casual enough fan that some of the lore gets lost on me, so like... definitely lost track of whatever’s going on with micah and shadow-weaver and all that backstory lol
likewise i only kind-of remember what was up with mara, cutting of etheria? people thought it was bad? my main memory of it was that mara was a gay disaster for madam razz? but unlike with micah and shadow-weaver i’m super interested in it regardless lol. more mara!! my main disappointment in the finale was that adora saw her in the flesh (sorta) and they didn’t speak. i assume it will happen later but i wanted it nooooow
also she’s got the same va as amara in borderlands 3 lol
(side note though was mara-version she-ra white and blonde as well?? i can’t remember if we’ve seen her. yikes if so)
looking back i think i expected more from adora re: wanting to open the portal to go “home”. she very nobly immediately gave that up. i guess that’s why she’s the hero... but... would’ve been interested to see more conflict there. i assume it will return though w “hordak prime”
which, btw, what the fuck & lmao @ that
entrapta/hordak....... woof. not here for it. deeply uncomfortable with it. why is this happening.
LOVED adora’s gay amazement at huntara lmaooooo. huntara sweetie i’m sorry these teenagers ruined your hook up with that bartender goat lady
also liked goat kyle
can’t honestly say i ever found angella anything other than tedious so... her sacrifice didn’t hit me. also as soon as glimmer in like ep 2 or whatever it was said “you’ll ALWAYS be there to lecture me”, or whatever, i was like oh she dead
sucks for glimmer though. and she’s absolutely definitely going to be manipulated and abused by shadowweaver before that whole thing wraps up. lol every time the “heroes” teleport in their Sinister Shadow Cloud i’m like hmmm totally innocent
that entire sequence with shadow weaver, where glimmer was half-in half-out of shadow, and eventually stepped fully into the shadow, was EXTREMELY on-the-nose directing ... but also should assuage the fears of anyone who thinks shadow weaver is totally our friend now and got a redemption arc while catra didn’t. shadow weaver is still awful and is gonna do something awful very soon. just wait.
“you made me this and now YOU get to be a good guy?” - the writers aren’t dumb, they know what this is, they’re not like, unknowingly redeeming the abuser first or whatever. it’s gonna be bad.
catra once again too gay to function
i mostly see a lot of handwringing in the tag about how catra is irredeemable now, she’s too far gone, unheard of!!, etc, and i don’t really think any of that is true. i still feel like this show couldn’t be telegraphing a redemption arc for catra more clearly if it tried, even before you take into account noelle stevenson’s general... like... body of work.
same with catradora. it was inevitable that they reach a point where even adora has given up, and i think that is necessary for them to ever reach a point where they come back together. if catra’s going to be redeemed (which again i think is almost inevitable, much like shadow weaver inevitably betraying the rebellion), it needs to be because catra wants it, not because adora or even scorpia were nice to her a few times. adora making catra take responsibility for herself is important in the long run. it would be significantly less meaningful if, after being asked five times, on the sixth time of “run away with me” catra was just like “yeah aight”
there’s supposed to be what, four seasons total, which netflix will probably split into eight? this is season 3 of 8? not even the halfway mark. of course catra’s got a long ways to go. she’s very close to rock bottom now (if not already there) without anyone -- including scorpia and adora -- looking out for her. i think that’s where we’ll see her for the next season or two before she starts to climb out of it
i mean if people wanna bail on the ship bc it’s too #problematic or w/e like fine (although i gotta lol @ the fandom deciding catra’s iredeemable now but loving entrapta and hordak) but if you’re worried bc you think the show just quashed your ship or doomed your fave to a life of evil misery.... i really don’t think that’s the case
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The Best TV Comedies of 2020
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Have we ever been in more need of a laugh than in 2020? Amidst a historic global pandemic, a tumultuous American political election, civil unrest, wildfires, MURDER HORNE… alright, you get the picture. 2020 has been the pits, man. Thankfully, this year from hell featured some bright spots on television, even if rays of sunshine were sorely lacking in reality.
If the shows on our list weren’t making us laugh, we would have been ugly-crying since March. While we were all locked in our homes, we got reacclimated with the Warner Brothers (and sister), said goodbye to BoJack Horseman, and met regular human bartender Jackie Daytona, making quarantine a bit more bearable, if only in 30 minute increments. From brand new series like How To with John Wilson, to swan songs for Den of Geek favorites like Schitt’s Creek, TV comedies in 2020 kept us cackling through the chaos.
To determine the best TV comedy of 2020 in a particularly stacked, diverse year, we polled 12 Den of Geek staffers and contributors. Below, you’ll find our honorable mentions and our list of the series most likely to raise your mood in the darkest year of our adventures.
Honorable Mentions
The following shows received votes but just missed out on the top 20:
Ramy, Never Have I Ever, Feel Good, The Great, Avenue 5, The Duchess, Staged, Famalam, Inside No. 9, Ghosts, The Shivering Truth, Bob’s Burgers, Katy Keene
DEN OF GEEK TOP 20 COMEDIES OF 2020
20 – Big Mouth (Netflix)
How long can a show about puberty, a very specific time in the life cycle, remain viable? Well based on the fourth season of Netflix’s animated comedy Big Mouth, just about as long as it wants to. Big Mouth season 4 succeeds by finding new avenues to delve into the psyches of its young characters going through chaaaaanges. In the process it also finds ways to expand its storytelling capabilities, delving into issues of trans youth, code switching, and anxiety. Through it all it remains as hilarious, and disturbingly vivid, as ever. – Alec Bojalad
19 – The Eric Andre Show (Adult Swim)
It’s not like Eric Andre reinvented the wheel or anything with the fifth season of his anarchic, absurdist talk show. If you were never a fan of anti-comedy that centers heavily around duping random people on the street, gross-out gags, and the torture of unsuspecting guests, then you’re not going to start liking it now.
However, for those of us already onboard The Eric Andre Show train, it’s no small feat that, five seasons in, this is still one of the funniest shows on TV. You’d think by now Eric would’ve run out of guests who have no idea what they’re in for, but, no, there’s an all-new batch of naive celebrities whose lives are effortlessly worsened by Eric, his crew, and his new house band. You’d assume he couldn’t prank people on the streets of New York City and Newark, New Jersey anymore because he’d be recognized by now, but, no, he pisses off a lot of people and breaks a lot of other people’s brains with ever-inventive, bizarre, obnoxious pranks.
Finally, you might think the series would suffer irrevocably from the departure of co-host Hannibal Buress only two episodes into the season, but Eric demonstrates he’s more than capable of spreading chaos all on his own (though he’s sometimes assisted, alternatingly, by a Hannibal clone named Blannibal, comedian Felipe Esparza, and Screen Actors Guild Awards nominee Lakeith Stanfield). Season five is the same The Eric Andre Show as it ever was, but that still makes me laugh harder than anything else on television right now. I’d be happy for Eric to keep making this show forever. – Joe Matar
18 – Saved by the Bell (Peacock)
A Saved by the Bell reboot shouldn’t have worked. But as Peacock’s recent series showcased, with the right creative team and angle, you really can successfully reimagine an outdated but beloved ’90s teen comedy for 2020. Working as both a soft reboot and sequel, this is meta-comedy at its best. Saved by the Bell is fully aware of what made the original special and why they don’t still make shows like it now. Juxtaposing those two competing views through the lens of the privileged and perfect Bayside kids and the new normal students makes this an accessible and seriously funny series with a biting humor rarely seen in teen comedy. – Rosie Knight
17 – Everything’s Gonna Be Okay (Freeform)
Australian comedian Josh Thomas brings his off-kilter sensibility to a loving and sharply funny portrait of a modern family in Everything’s Gonna Be Okay. In the pilot, Thomas’s character Nicholas, a gay twentysomething from Australia, visits his father in the US and learns that his physically and emotionally distant dad is dying. Things really pick up as Nicholas steps up to care for his two teenage half-sisters, Matilda (Kayla Cromer) and Genevieve (Maeva Press), while also trying to date, and manage his melodramatic mother from the other side of the planet.
Matilda especially comes into her own as she hopes to go to college away from home next year— something others doubt since she’s autistic. Her autism is a reality that becomes part of the fabric of the show, a setup rather than a punchline. Few shows would include a teenage threesome that manages to be funny, heartfelt, and matter-of-fact, but in Matilda’s world, sex (and exploring her sexuality) are often all three. Everything’s Gonna Be Okay is a family show that acknowledges the realities of family: death, disabilities, teenage girls with sex drives, and laughter at funerals. – Delia Harrington
16 – Star Trek: Lower Decks (CBS All Access)
Created by one of the writer/producers of Rick and Morty, it’s no surprise that the first episode of Lower Decks involved some pretty broad humor and wildly out of control situations. The producers of the 1970s Star Trek: The Animated Series understood the creative potential of animation when they replaced Ensign Chekov with a giant cat, and Lower Decks follows suit, the pilot giving us blood, guts, gore, zombies and a giant spider, all in Rick and Morty’s madcap tone.
As the show has developed over its first ten episodes, though, it’s become something more than that. The knowing humor is a delight—the focus on things like “second contact” (the less glamorous setting up of diplomatic relations after first contact), ascensions to a higher plane of existence gone wrong, and re-visiting half-forgotten alien races like the Pakleds shows the same sort of gently teasing love of the franchise that Galaxy Quest did. But the characters have also developed into real, complex people to the point that a character death is genuinely moving, and the audience are really able to care about what happens to these essential cogs in Starfleet’s machine next. – Juliette Harrison
15 – Solar Opposites (Hulu)
A big part of what makes Rick and Morty so great is that, in addition to all the sci-fi hijinks, there’s meaningful development of the show’s characters and world. Unfortunately, as the series has progressed, this is also what’s dragged it down. As Rick’s nihilism has increasingly alienated the people around him, a lot of the fun has been lost. The show still puts out the occasional brilliant episode (for example, the season four finale), but it almost feels like all the characters on Rick and Morty straight-up hate each other and watching it can be kind of a drag sometimes.
It’s such a treat then, to see all that fun sci-fi silliness rebirthed in the form of Solar Opposites, co-created by Justin Roiland and Mike McMahan (Rick and Morty co-creator and writer/producer, respectively). Making good use of all the storytelling lessons they learned from their other sci-fi cartoon show, the two have released a confident and consistently funny debut season. Though it feels awfully similar to Rick and Morty at first blush, it has more in common with classic sitcoms, with its focus on goofy, self-contained plots about the alien family at the show’s center. However, the series shakes the sitcom formula up a lot with a surprising dedication to callbacks and continuity, most notably exemplified by the continuing, dramatic tribulations of a community of people who have been shrunken down and forced to live in the aliens’ multilevel terrarium. The combination of madcap sci-fi alien plots contrasted with the trials of the melodramatic dystopian shrunken-people world makes Solar Opposites one of the most inventive comedies of the season, and I’m excited to find out where it’s going next. – Joe Matar
14 – Dave (FX)
There are countless hip-hop artists whose backstories would make for compelling television. So why did FX choose to spotlight a goofball white rapper from the suburbs with a mediocre penis joke for a stage name? It takes only one episode to realize any preconceived notions about Dave, based on the life and rap career of Dave Burd, aka Lil Dickey, should be spit from your silly mouth faster than Lil Dickey spits bars on a freestyle.
A telling sign that Dave was going to be a sleeper hit was the involvement of co-creator Jeff Schaffer, a longtime EP and writer on Curb Your Enthusiasm and the creator of FX’s The League. Together Schaffer and Burd mapped out a first season that sees Dave navigate the early stages of his music career with a level of narcissism he believes is needed to be taken seriously in the rap game. But the series also shows another side of Dave, self-deprecating in a surprisingly endearing way, rarely swayed by what others think, and frustratingly true to himself and the path he sees for his life. This is FX’s star vehicle for Burd, but the show manages to make him the center of the universe while still developing key players in his life as the season progresses, giving each character an affecting spotlight episode. The standouts include episodes about Dave’s real-life friend and hype man GaTa and his struggles with bipolar disorder, the evolving managerial relationship with his roommate (Andrew Santino), and how sudden fame begins to erode a once promising relationship with his girlfriend, Ali (Taylor Misiak).
Already renewed for season 2 and a ratings hit with FX/Hulu reporting high streaming numbers, Dave is no longer an underdog and will carry a new set of expectations as the titular character’s career ascends. If you’re still a skeptic, you need to adhere to television’s golden rule when it comes to Dave: Don’t judge it until you binge it. – Chris Longo
13 – Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Fox)
At only 13 episodes, Season 7 was the shortest season yet of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, but it packed a lot into those 13 half-hours. With Melissa Fumero pregnant in real life, the writers used this to cover six months in series by following Jake and Amy’s attempts to conceive a baby, helping those limited episodes to feel like they were filling out more time. The show has also struggled to work in its annual Halloween Heist episodes since moving to NBC and being put into a winter start slot, but in 2020 Rosa managed to triple her victory by engineering Heists on not just Halloween, but Valentine’s Day and Easter as well.
Season 7 aired too early to deal with the Black Lives Matter protests that dominated the summer of 2020, but the writers have already pulled all their planned scripts for Season 8 and re-written them in light of those events, so that is yet to come. 2020 had a little bit of everything that makes B99 great—a dose of Pimento, Jake and his daddy issues, Holt’s adorable corgi Cheddar, and one final appearance from his nemesis Madeline Wuntch. For once, the season didn’t end with Holt somehow being removed from his job as Captain of the 99, but there’s still plenty to look forward to in Season 8—maybe 2021 will be the year that Charles Boyle finally wins the Halloween/Valentine’s Day/Easter/Cinco de Mayo Heist? – Juliette Harrison
12 – Animaniacs (Hulu)
Rampant remakes and sequel reboots have turned into the norm, but streaming services have especially embraced this idea as a way to anchor a library of programming. These endeavors are extremely hit or miss, but Hulu’s revival of Animaniacs is one of the few exceptions that feel justified for a return. Animaniacs always functioned as a radical cocktail of perversions of pop culture and classic comedy and 2020’s Animaniacs actively thrives with decades’ worth of new material to lampoon. The series has stripped itself back to its basics and temporarily removed most of the old supporting players, except for Pinky and the Brain, but this allows Animaniacs to build itself back up and establish new recurring characters and segments.
There’s such clear joy present in Animaniacs, whether it’s from the voice actors, the creative staff, or the animation team. Segments like an unauthorized Russian version of the Animaniacs or catchy songs about Shakespeare and the different First Ladies of America prove that the classic series’ sense of humor has successfully been maintained. If anything, the cartoon is even more fearless. It’s the perfect burst of ‘90s Saturday Morning nostalgia that’s also exceptionally funny and thought provoking. – Daniel Kurland
11 – Rick and Morty (Adult Swim)
Rick and Morty is a colossal behemoth of storytelling that’s developed a fascinating and often antagonistic relationship with its audience. 2020’s Rick and Morty content only includes five episodes from the second half of the show’s fourth season, but they’re some of the series’ wildest installments when it comes to storytelling, perpetual jokes, and the show’s ability to deconstruct itself and its fandom. The series Emmy-winning “Vat of Acid Episode” explores the emotional highs and lows of “save states” while “Never Ricking Morty,” the show’s “Story Train” episode, is perhaps the most structure-obsessed piece of television that’s ever been written.
Rick and Morty continues to expand its universe in exciting ways and allow its characters to realistically mature. These episodes provide fascinating insight on both Rick’s relationship with Morty as well as his bond with Beth. Even Jerry and Summer get their moments to shine and Rick and Morty feels more like an ensemble than ever before as it prepares to shake things up even more in season five. – Daniel Kurland
10 – Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun (Netflix)
In 2019, Netflix gave us I Think You Should Leave, the sketch comedy series from Tim Robinson that birthed memes that somehow only get more relevant (and funnier) as time goes on. In 2020, Netflix, likely mindful they needed to hold us over until Robinson finishes filming season 2, gave us a gift from down under called Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun. If you liked Robinson’s sketch series, imagine that on crack, dialed up to 100, and featuring the three silliest Australian dudes to ever walk on that continent. The series stars Mark Bonanno, Broden Kelly, and Zachary Ruane, a group of friends who formed a comedy group called Aunty Donna and gained a large following on YouTube with their absurdist humor that features simple premises that often descend into frenetic madness. See: them explaining how a board game works or doing roll call at school.
In Big Ol’ House of Fun, the series opens with a musical number that will have you wondering whether everything’s a drum. Episode 2 will change the way you think about your morning coffee. Friendly faces like Scott Aukerman and Ed Helms (or is it “Egg” Helms?) even stop by just to play ball. Through its infectious and (mostly) good-natured absurdist energy, the series lives up to its name with endlessly quotable and memable sketches. And much like I Think You Should Leave, Aunty Donna material only gets better when you rewatch it. Here’s to hoping Netflix will let us come back and visit this Big Ol’ House again for season 2. – Chris Longo
9 – Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet (Apple TV+)
Created by Rob McElhenney, David Hornsby, and Megan Ganz of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fame, Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet is a new Apple TV+ comedy that easily justifies a subscription to the streaming service. Set within a video game studio for a popular MMORPG, Mythic Quest leans into certain workplace comedy tropes, but never feels derivative of the genre or that it’s just Always Sunny with a fresh coat of paint. The comedy effectively explores and skewers gaming culture, but a knowledge of the industry is not at all necessary to enjoy the program.
Smart and creative scripts are punctuated by the show’s phenomenal cast, which features the likes of McElhenney, Hornsby, and Danny Pudi. However, Charlotte Nicdao’s work as Poppy Li, the studio’s neurotic perfectionist lead engineer, is a revelation. Mythic Quest works so well because of how it grounds its quick comedy in powerful character dynamics. The series’ “standalone” flashback episode, “A Dark Quiet Death,” received a ton of acclaim, but there are few episodes of television from 2020 that contain more heart and honesty than the series’ quarantine-centric installment. – Daniel Kurland
8- Search Party (HBO Max)
HBO Max’s first bingeable, bonafide hit was outsourced from TBS. After languishing on basic cable with critical praise but low viewership, Search Party made the move to the new Warner streaming service for Season 3 and proved that the series was the perfect “watch it all in one afternoon” comedy. What began as a comedic mystery series about a group of prototypical Brooklyn millenials on a quest to find their missing former classmate shifted in its third season to become a satire on celebrity trials and how tabloid spotlight can turn unassuming people into sociopathic narcissists.
Search Party’s strength is in its ensemble. Alia Shawkat brings an interesting vulnerability to disaffected Dory, but her other “searchers” are the real bright spots. John Reynolds is perfectly cast as the de facto worthless millennial “beta male,” and John Early and Meredith Hagner are consistently laugh out loud funny as self-obsessed, attention seeking airheads. Search Party has a twisty, interesting plot, but it’s also a scathing indictment on an entire generation obsessed with celebrity, self-analyzation, and searching for “meaning.” If you have not yet watched one of the year’s funniest shows, get caught up before Season 4 debuts in January 2021. – Nick Harley
7- How To with John Wilson (HBO)
Life is strange. If you take a moment to actually watch and analyze many of the seemingly ordinary, day-to-day things you witness while walking down the street in a major U.S. city, you’ll be shocked at how alien it can all appear. In New York City in particular, every imaginable human behavior is on display somewhere, and documentarian John Wilson is out there capturing it all on camera. How To With John Wilson may seem like a series designed to teach you useful everyday skills like how to split a check or how to improve your memory, but in reality, it’s a love letter to New York, in all of its beautiful, ugly, life-affirming, and soul-crushing splendor.
It’s also insanely hilarious. Wilson’s deadpan, stammering narration on top of quick cut, slice of life footage is an endlessly watchable setup-punchline joke machine. Wilson also is wise to go down the rabbit hole and follow weird digressions wherever they lead him, like a Mandela Effect conference or the home of an anti-circumcision activist. Further, the series finale is the first piece of television to fully capture the reality of post-pandemic city life, putting to shame all of those half-assed Zoom created depictions of life in 2020. Few shows can effortlessly glide between cringe comedy and poignant moments like this. How To with John Wilson is unlike any other show on television, an absurdist masterpiece that makes the mundane feel surreal and vice versa. – Nick Harley
6- High Fidelity (Hulu)
In a time full of reboots and remakes, High Fidelity earned its existence and then some. To its many admirers, it warranted a second season for more eclectic music choices, guest stars, and beautiful lingering shots over the credits. Sadly, that is not meant to be. Hulu’s High Fidelity is so much more than just a gender-swapped adaptation, though Zoe Kravitz leads the endeavor in the lead role of Rob, the idiosyncratic record store owner counting off Top 5s, especially her Top 5 heartbreaks.
Rob’s rich world is full of characters we’d love to spend more time with, like snarky Cherise, she of the eclectic taste who keeps putting off her musical dreams for “someday.” Or Simon, Rob’s ex and current best friend, who narrates an episode that completely changes how the audience views Rob. Zoe Kravitz carries this beautiful mood piece, sharing chemistry with just about everyone. While it seems relaxed and fun on arrival, High Fidelity eventually reveals itself to have plenty to say about being accountable for our actions and allowing oneself to be happy, before wrapping Rob in a warm summer night and sending her on her way. – Delia Harrington
5- Pen15 (Hulu)
The debut season of Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle’s brilliant series in which they, two adult women, play middle-schoolers surrounded by actual kid actors playing their classmates, was, in my opinion, the funniest show last year, but, as I didn’t actually get around to watching it until this year, I didn’t know that at the time. Rectifying my past mistake, this year—despite the fact it’s only aired half a season so far due to production being halted by COVID—it’s not just my favorite comedy, it’s my favorite show, period.
Though it still has its fair share of laugh-out-loud moments, the comedy in the second season has, admittedly, been scaled back a bit, but it makes perfect sense for where Pen15 is right now. From the start, what the series has done painfully well is zero in on the utter nightmare of living through our stressful and confusing pubescent years. As the series deepens its exploration of these characters’ experiences with friendship, romance, sexuality, the internet, and the impact of divorce, the stress and confusion should and absolutely do ratchet up. This season is also doing a great job of further developing the show’s side characters, with a standout arc for Dylan Gage as Gabe, who is grappling with the discovery that he may be gay. Though it’s still a hilarious series in places, Pen15 most wins me over most for how uncomfortable and tragic it can be with its stunningly well-observed depiction of surviving junior high. The secondhand shame and embarrassment you’ll feel makes it one of the toughest, but most worthwhile, watches of the year. – Joe Matar
4 – Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)
Jason Sudeikis’s Ted Lasso first originated as a character back in 2013, when NBC Sports commissioned a commercial for its upcoming coverage of the English Premier League. “An American Coach in London” introduced the concept of an American football coach deciding to try his hand coaching “the other football” with top flight club Tottenham Hotspur. It was a hilarious five minute clip that seemingly exploited the “fish out of water” concept to its natural conclusion.
The character seemed destined to be a one-off goof. But then Sudeikis and producer Bill Lawrence decided to try their hand at the overmatched coach one more time with a series for Apple TV+. The end result was one of the most essential new comedies of the 2020 TV season. Ted Lasso works because its’ funny, first and foremost. The show proves that this fish still had plenty of more time to spend out of water after all. More important, however, is how aggressively wholesome and optimistic it is. In a year that saw ugly Americans all over over TV screens, Ted Lasso represented the stars and bars the only way he knew how: by believing in the best of people from aging football star Roy Kent, to selfish young buck Jamie Tart, to even the woman who got him this job in the first place as an elaborate revenge plot. – Alec Bojalad
3 – Schitt’s Creek (Pop)
If Schitt’s Creek were a fairy tale (and in all the best ways, it is), it’d be about a group of puppets brought to life by a magic spell. When the Roses lose their fortune, they’re forced to swap wealth and glamour for unfashionable small-town living. They start out wooden, obnoxious and alone. Then, over six seasons, we watch them transform into a flesh and blood family who figure out how to love each other in a community that’s as weird as they are, and that ends up loving them back.
If that sounds schmaltzy, then I’m saying it wrong. Schitt’s Creek doesn’t do schmaltz. It does smart and absurd and naughty. It does jokes and brightness and kindness. Or it did, because now it’s gone. 2020 waved Johnny, Moira, David and Alexis off with a final season packed with treats: Patrick’s spray tan, David’s bed-wetting, the world premiere of “The Crows Have Eyes III: The Crowening”, Moira officiating a wedding dressed in a Rapunzel wig and pearlised bishop’s mitre…
However painful it was to say goodbye, the alternative – another six seasons with diminishing returns – would have been much worse. Dan and Eugene Levy’s sitcom went out on a high, with a finale that left fans in joyful tears. Not least for moments like the one in which a usually armoured-by-sarcasm David tells his sister, “For what it’s worth, I am continuously impressed by you.” The feeling’s mutual, Roses. – Louisa Mellor
2- BoJack Horseman (Netflix)
Though BoJack Horseman premiered only the back half of its final season in 2020, those eight episodes were some of the best dramatic and comedic storytelling on television this year. This final season operated as almost a microcosm of the series’ entire run. Just like the show’s beginning, season 6B begins with BoJack in a place of relative stability. He has just finished rehab and is prepared to embark on a career as an acting professor at Wesleyan. Of course, something from his past has to pop up to shatter his fragile equilibrium, just like it always does. In this case, it’s a pair of journalists working on a story of what really happened the night Sarah Lynn died back in season 3. What follows is as sadly predictable as it is tragic… also there are jokes!
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BoJack Horseman has been a frequently occurring item on many of our year-end best-of lists since the show first premiered in 2014. And each time, it’s hard not to continually expound upon what a bizarre, touching, and incisive drama Rapahel Bob-Waksberg’s animated creation is. That temptation remains for this final season, which is as devastating as they come. But this year, for the show’s final appearance on any of our best-of lists, let’s not lose sight of how funny this all is.
Yes, this is an exploration of the human condition and how the only way to repair our damage is to acknowledge it and then put in the work to get better. It’s also the show where Mr. Peanutbutter, his fiancée Pickles Aplenty, and international pop superstar Joey Pogo open up a Lazy Susan/small plate restaurant called “Elifino.” The animation remains just as bright in this final season, the dialogue just as witty and convoluted, and the background jokes just as rewarding. BoJack Horseman season 6 shoulders a grand narrative burden of closing out the story of the world’s most miserable Horseman. That it is able to do so is remarkable. That it’s able to do so while maintaining its sharp sense of humor is even better. – Alec Bojalad
1- What We Do in the Shadows (FX)
Adapting a beloved indie comedy film to the small screen seems a near impossible task. But when Taika Waititi convinced Jemaine Clement they should do exactly that, it was a stroke of genius. With Waititi busy on his Marvel movies, Clement was left to write and produce the FX series alongside Stefani Robinson and Paul Simms. What We Do in the Shadows began with a solidly silly first season but came into its own during a stellar second season which leaned into the absurdity innate to the idea of ancient vampire roommates. The series has also given us a new action hero for the ages in Harvey Guillén’s Guillermo de la Cruz.
What makes season two so excellent is the writing and performances that play on the fish out of water setup the show has so much fun with. In “The Curse,” Nandor checks his email and discovers a chain email from Bloody Mary. Most of the hilarious runtime focuses on the crew trying to uncurse themselves. It sounds simple but it is honestly one of the funniest episodes of TV you’ll watch all year. “The Curse” is only topped by “On the Run,” which allows Matt Berry to go full Matt Berry as Laszlo leaves the nest and becomes a bartender, Jackie Daytona, who loves girls volleyball in smalltown America. It’s a pitch perfect riff on feel good sports movies while also being hysterically funny. It’s still a complete crime that Robinson didn’t win the Emmy for this one.
But the real power of What We Do in the Shadows is its heart. Even within the broad comedy, genre parodies, and often gross out humor, this is a show about love, family, and friendship. Guillermo’s arc feels radical and boundary-pushing. It’s so well built in from the very first season that it’s also incredibly satisfying. This is the kind of comedy we need more of: inclusive, intelligent, and most importantly just really, really, f**king funny. – Rosie Knight
The post The Best TV Comedies of 2020 appeared first on Den of Geek.
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Deep Space Nine Upscale Project Season Finale: What We’ve Brought Ahead
The Deep Space Nine Upscale Project is an unofficial fan effort and not affiliated with Paramount in any way.
After three months of work, the Deep Space Nine Upscale Project (DS9UP) has hit some milestones that I feel comfortable showing off in greater detail. While there’s still more to do to bring Deep Space Nine into the modern era, I’m proud of what we’ve achieved in the past three months.
I’ve included a broader array of videos in this article. If you’ve wanted to see more head-to-head comparisons and examples of how different settings play against each other, you’ll like what we’ve got in store for you. Footage sources compared here are:
Original DVD: Not much point to the comparison if I don’t show you where we started from. There’s a lot I don’t like about Deep Space Nine on DVD, but I’d recommend anyone buy them compared to streaming the show. In-article designation: “DVD.”
Upscaled MKV: This is the toughest comparison for DS9UP. Topaz Video Enhance AI has a 30-day free trial and a $199 – $299 list price depending if it’s on sale. The DVD set costs ~$110. If I can’t demonstrate a better version of Deep Space Nine than you’d see from upscaling a DVD rip, there’s literally no point in what I’m doing. In-article designation: “MKV.” Original MKV from the DS9 rips I did ~15 years ago.
DS9UP Encode Process: My own work. Because this is an ongoing series of articles and I want to be able to refer to my own encode workflows without confusing people, I’ve decided to use codenames for the major “releases,” as it were. Fortunately, there’s a ready supply of thematically appropriate names near to hand. Say hello to Rubicon, a 23.976fps constant frame rate conversion of DS9’s original variable frame rate content. It’s currently created with Handbrake, StaxRip (AviSynth, not VapourSynth), and DaVinci Studio Resolve. Details on why I’m using Handbrake instead of MakeMKV will be forthcoming in an upcoming article.
Rubicon isn’t perfect — it’s got a ~100ms audio synchronization bug in a couple of clips that I still need to fix, but I’ll iron it out. Besides, it wouldn’t be Star Trek if Season 1 didn’t end with a few bugs to work out.
Previously, On Deep Space Nine The Deep Space 9 Upscale Project…
I was inspired to undertake this project by the work of CaptRobau, who published the first screenshots and video of what an upscaled Deep Space Nine could look like. I investigated the possibility of upscaling the show myself, but the performance figures were daunting and Gigapixel AI often crashes if you attempt to load too many images at once. The idea of manually converting each episode in batches of 2,500 to 5,000 frames was anything but appealing.
The release of Topaz Labs Video Enhance AI took this idea from pipe dream to possible. While the application is still very new and in need of some bug fixes, its long-term potential is demonstrably tremendous.
Deep Space Nine is, unfortunately, an ideal candidate for this kind of restoration. While Paramount created an absolutely beautiful Star Trek: The Next Generation remaster, the company has claimed the boxed set didn’t sell well enough to justify making an effort for the later shows like Deep Space Nine and Voyager. For reference, this sort of image quality is what major stream providers like Netflix believe is acceptable:
Defending the Alpha Quadrant with the power of moire!
DS9’s lousy streaming quality isn’t news to longtime fans of the show. It’s just that now, there’s something to be done about it. I decided that if Paramount wasn’t willing to treat DS9 with the respect it deserved, I’d take on the challenge myself, despite having no previous experience or education in video editing. Rubicon isn’t perfect, but I think it represents a significant uplift worth talking about.
Up until now, my clips have either lacked audio or had audio badly out of sync with the video feed. That’s no longer the case. So let’s get started:
Tips for Best Viewing, Notes on Quality Comparisons
Be advised that the audio on some of the Rubicon clips is off by a fixed ~100ms. This can be easily corrected for in a video player, but I haven’t had time to figure out why it happened in the first place.
Always set Netflix to play in 4K or the highest available quality, even if you do not have a 4K monitor. This will improve the quality of the stream regardless. The quality differences between Rubicon, an MKV, and the other versions of Deep Space Nine are less apparent at lower quality levels.
Be aware that the largest gap in quality, at least in my opinion, is between the streamed services and the DVDs. That’s not an absolute — there are some scenes where the DVDs are quite poor — but it’s a pretty good rule of thumb.
The gap between the upscaled MKV file we’ve included in this coverage and what Rubicon can achieve is much smaller than the leap from DVD to upscaled footage. When I wrote my first article on upscaling Deep Space Nine, I said that I felt as if running an MKV through Topaz VEAI got you 75 – 80 percent of the improvement that might be reasonably squeezed out of the DVD source, and that still seems like a pretty fair assessment.
Initial Fleet Flyby
DVD:
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The DVD looks pretty good here, honestly. There’s not a lot of great detail on the distant ships, but the nearby Excelsior comes through quite nicely.
MKV:
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The MKV looks really nice, here. I don’t expect to see the Rubicon encode recover much more detail than we have already.
Rubicon:
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The hitch at the front of the video is because of where I cut the frame. Apart from that, Rubicon and the MKV tie here. Not much difference.
Defiant Conversation
Most of my comparisons have been battle comparisons to-date, but not much of Deep Space Nine actually involves combat. This short clip focuses on a range of characters — shows like DS9 have a lot of skin tones, and some AI upscalers handle them oddly.
DVD:
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The DVD is dark — Deep Space Nine feels dark overall — but the detail is pretty solid. Dax’s face looks oddly low-detail, though.
MKV:
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The GCG preset brings out some nice detail in the clip, but it also creates an odd aberation on the bulkhead over Sisko’s left shoulder at one point. This appears to be an error in the upscaler — the problem isn’t present on the regular version of the MKV — but it shows how important it is to keep every bit of detail, since it isn’t present in Rubicon, either.
Rubicon:
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I don’t think there’s all that much difference between the MKV and the Rubicon upscale in this clip, either. That’s not to say I can’t see a difference — if you pause both videos on exactly the same frame, you can usually find a few details that favor Rubicon, and in a few spots, places that favor the MKV. Ultimately, though, I’m not sure how much of the detail is visible. Rubicon has a ~100ms audio delay in this clip that I didn’t notice until it was too late to fix for this article.
First Fleet Engagement
This sequence is one of the great battle shots of Deep Space Nine. The show had been showing us fleet engagements all throughout Season 6, but Sacrifice of Angels was teased hard as something that was going to be extra-special. This isn’t the first fleet skirmish — those have been going on for a while by this point in the episode — but this is the largest pure Federation fleet we’ve ever seen opening up on-screen.
DVD:
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The DVD looks like it was recorded off someone’s old VCR tapes. The ships going by in the background look like vague little miniatures. The image is downright ugly and robbed of most of the impact.
MKV
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The MKV file is a huge improvement over the DVD. The noise is gone and you can get a sense for just how large an engagement this was intended to look like. Tremendous improvement.
Rubicon:
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This is another area where the improvements from Rubicon over MKV are small, but definite. Watch the leading edge on the saucer on the lead Galaxy-class vessel in the two clips and you’ll see that it’s blurrier. Rubicon is slightly sharper overall, and it’s easier to follow the Galaxy-class vessels as they move from the background to the foreground of the video. Until I upscaled this scene, I didn’t realize that the Galaxy-class ships moving through it near the end had even been visible in the back of the video. When I said you’ve never really seen this footage until you upscale it, I really wasn’t kidding.
Second Fleet Engagement:
The second, climactic battle of Sacrifice of Angels. I’ve showed short clips of this fight sequence before, but this is the first time I’ve shown the whole thing. This was one of the all-time high watermarks for DS9’s VFX team.
DVD:
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The DVD is, once again, badly marred by noise. It’s difficult to read the hull letters on the Miranda-class ships and there’s a weird aliased grill on the bottom of the Miranda saucer. Several interlaced frames are prominently visible. It’s a dismal way to experience such a beautiful set of scenes.
MKV:
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The MKVs, as expected, dramatically clean up the show. Again, I can’t argue with anybody who says this footage looks gorgeous in upscale. If it didn’t, I wouldn’t be writing this article.
Rubicon:
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Rubicon eliminates all but a trace of the aliased pattern on the underside of the Miranda-class hull, smooths out the motion overall, and cleans the noise out of the smoke billowing around on the Defiant’s bridge until it just looks like, well, smoke. Detail levels in the Rubicon clip are just a touch higher.
How About Some Footage From a Different Episode? Any Episode?
No matter how bored you are of looking at Sacrifice of Angels, I promise you, you are not as tired of it as I am. I’m literally better at lip-reading than I was before I started this project. With that said? Your wish is my command:
youtube
It was important to me to demonstrate that Rubicon could stand up to footage in other seasons without modification. I used exactly the same process to render “The Die is Cast” that I did for the rest of the show.
Looking Ahead to Season 2
I’m declaring this the end of “Season 1” of DS9UP for several reasons. First, I’ve got a move coming up, and need to turn my attention towards it. Second, I’m long past due to circle back and talk to some folks who have either wanted to help with this project or are already actively working on efforts of their own. Third, I want to pause long enough to hammer some remaining issues out of my workflow, understand some of the problems I’ve had over the past few months a bit better, and return to the idea of improving the color balance of Deep Space Nine through some judicious changes.
As things stand, I’ll be writing a follow-up article to this one over the next week or so, with some additional examples of alternate workflows and outcomes when using applications like AviSynth. In addition to 5Sharp, I’ve got a ~48 fps and ~60 fps version of Deep Space Nine that have their own strengths and weaknesses. We’ll also finally be taking a look at Gaia-HQ.
I couldn’t have completed the work I’ve accomplished to-date without help from a number of people, including Gary Huff, Mark Renoden, Steve Reeve for some deinterlacing solution ideas, and help from several members of the Doom9 forum. Shortstack, I still hope to chat with you about recoloring ideas. Anybody else who deserves to be on this list, I sweartogod I’ll update it as soon as I’ve slept.
What We Brought Ahead
Deep Space Nine is too good of a show to be left rotting on DVD-era source. For all Paramount’s talk about the high costs of remastering, I’d love to see the breakout of recutting all of DS9 and Voyager compared with the cost of a single episode of Discovery. Back in 2017, leaked data showed the budget for Discovery at $8M – $8.5M per episode. Supposedly TNG’s episodes cost $70K each to remaster, but let’s assume VOY and DS9 are more expensive, at $100K each. The $34.8M it would take to remaster 348 episodes of TV works out to… about 4.5 episodes of Discovery?
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Paramount could build a better version of the show than I could even hope to create — but since they aren’t going to bother, I figure I’ll keep up my own efforts.
On the night the last episode of Deep Space Nine aired, I carried my IBM K6-233 tower out to the living room, ran a 3.5mm cable from the audio-out port on our VCR into the line-in port on my sound card, and made a recording of the following. It’s been one of my favorite moments of the show ever since it aired, and I can’t think of a better way to end what I feel has been a very successful “season” thus far, than with a little James Darren.
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Rubicon’s credits. I’m actually a little more partial to the ones I released back on April 27, but the Defiant’s motion is better here.
To the actors, artists, creators, directors, set crew, sound crew, and anyone else I’ve forgotten: Thanks for creating a show so damn good, people still rally around it 25 years later to see it treated with the respect it deserves.
May the Prophets guide you.
Now Read:
Deep Space Nine Upscale Project Update: ‘Sacrifice of Angels’
Deep Space Nine Upscale Project Update: Variable Frame Rate DVDs Can Burn in Hell
How to Upscale Video to 4K, 8K, and Beyond
from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/310176-deep-space-nine-upscale-project-season-finale-what-we-brought-ahead
from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2020/05/deep-space-nine-upscale-project-season.html
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January’s New Announcments from Kotobukiya: Marvel, Star Wars, DC, Resident Evil
Kotobukiya today sent over a batch of pictures of new products that are coming later this year. Keep scrolling for full details and images of the Ikeman Red Hood statue, the Black Panther movie ArtFX statue, Defenders Luke Cage ArtFX satue, the Resident Evil Chris Redfield ArtFX, and the Star Wars: The Last Jedi Praetorian Guard ArtFX+ statues.
DC COMICS RED HOOD IKEMEN STATUE WITH BONUS PART
A KOTOBUKIYA Japanese import! Kotobukiya is branching out into an all new statue concept with IKEMEN. Similar to the popular Bishoujo series, this fantastic expansion is a lineup of popular characters re-designed by the famous Japanese illustrator Ricken in the Japanese Ikemen (“handsome men”) style.
Following up after the debut Nightwing is a true bad boy in the Batman Family, RED HOOD! After Dick Grayson left Bruce Wayne’s side to branch out on his own, Batman needed a new sidekick and found the young hoodlum Jason Todd to be his replacement. Todd excelled as Robin but had a violent edge, and the boy unfortunately met his end at the hands of the Joker. Even death can’t keep a good character down, and Jason returned to life and became the anti-hero known as Red Hood, who takes his place as the second Ikemen style hunk with a special first edition with bonus part!
Jason Todd has always been a rebel, and here he stands in a defiant pose just begging you to look at him. As Red Hood he wears a super cool (and intricately sculpted) costume with black boots, reinforced black trousers, an armored black shirt decorated with a red bat logo, and a brown leather jacket with red accents and silver zippers. Of course, he wouldn’t be in the Ikemen style unless his pose and outfit highlighted Jason’s slim but muscular physique, and as Red Hood stands with one leg extended and one hand behind his head he shows off his toned body. The dark hero comes with interchangeable heads so you can customize your display: a full Red Hood helmet, a bare head revealing an aloof expression on his face and his black hair with a white streak, and exclusive to this first edition a bonus head wearing a sleek red domino mask! Sculpted by the talented Naoya Muto, Red Hood stands in 1/7 scale. Add this handsome hero to your collection and be on the lookout for more upcoming Ikemen Statues from Kotobukiya like Red Robin!
srp $89.99
Available in JULY
MARVEL THE DEFENDERS SERIES LUKE CAGE ARTFX+ STATUE
A KOTOBUKIYA Japanese import! Kotobukiya’s Marvel Comics ARTFX+ Statues have brought you Avengers, X-Men, and most recently Spider-Man and characters from his world, but now we turn our attention to the street-level heroes of the Defenders. Next up in the quartet is the man with superhuman strength and unbreakable skin, LUKE CAGE! Born Carl Lucas, the hero first appeared in 1972 and was a prisoner convicted for a crime he did not commit. An experiment gave him his superpowers, and he set off on a literal career of heroism as a “Hero for Hire.” Luke Cage has had his big moments, even joining the Avengers and getting his own series on Netflix, and now he powers into the ARTFX+ Statue lineup in a tremendous way based on concept art by Dale Keown!
Criminals better watch out, because Luke Cage is on the case! The hero for hire stands ready to dish out justice as only he can, standing in a slight crouch with his legs spread for balance. Luke leans forward slightly and menacingly, with his arms hanging down and ready for action. The Defender is massively muscled and his superhuman physique shows through his casual white t-shirt and blue jeans which he wears with black boots and a belt with a gold “C” logo buckle. Luke also wears big golden bracelets and carries two lengths of chains that evoke the image of his costume from his days as Power Man! His clenched teeth and scowl are enough to intimidate any criminal, and he looks like he just stepped right out of a comic book. Sculpted by Junnosuke Abe (RESTORE), the master behind all of the Marvel ARTFX+ releases, Luke Cage stands 7 ½ inches tall (1/10 th scale) with magnets in his feet providing perfect stability on the included display base. Add this warrior for justice to your display and pair him with other Defenders ARTFX+ Statues Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist!
MARVEL BLACK PANTHER MOVIE BLACK PANTHER ARTFX STATUE
A KOTOBUKIYA Japanese import! Kotobukiya’s next elite ARTFX Statue returns to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and celebrates the breakout hero of 2016’s Captain America: Civil War and the star of his own upcoming blockbuster, BLACK PANTHER! A prince of the mysterious nation Wakanda, T’Challa was thrust into the spotlight when a terrorist attack killed his father and elevated him to the throne. Now he holds the dual responsibility of ruling his people as king and protecting the world as the costumed Black Panther, and it’s that hero who claws his way to you now in a glorious 1/6 scale statue representing 2018’s Black Panther film!
A hero unlike any other in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Panther stalks his prey across ancient Wakandan ruins and will never let his target escape. T’Challa is frozen in place as he steps lightly over the rubble, using his feline grace to move silently and quickly. Enhanced with cutting edge vibranium technology, Black Panther’s incredibly detailed black body suit combines a subtle texture with reinforced sections and decorative silver elements, not to mention wicked claws that can slice through nearly anything. The suit highlights the hero’s muscular physique and his tensed pose as he prepares for action. It also extends over Black Panther’s head with its menacing feline face plate and subtle “ear” protrusions to complete the overall look. Black Panther stands over 12 ½ inches tall (1/6th scale) atop his Wakandan jungle ruins base. Get your hands on this technologically advanced hero and star of the Marvel Cinematic Universe!
srp $139.99
Available in JUNE
RESIDENT EVIL: VENDETTA CHRIS REDFIELD ARTFX STATUE
A KOTOBUKIYA Japanese import! The Resident Evil franchise has been scaring fans around the world for over 20 years, first with a long series of video games and then with other spinoff media. Kotobukiya is proud to partner with Capcom and present all new ARTFX Statues from the recently released 3D animated film Resident Evil: Vendetta, and after Leon S. Kennedy comes the other main protagonist CHRIS REDFIELD! Originally a Special Tactics and Rescue Service (STARS) officer of the Raccoon City police when he made his debut in the original Resident Evil game, Chris went on to become a Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) agent and in Vendetta joined fellow survivors Leon Kennedy and Rebecca Chambers in trying to take down the criminal “death merchant” Glenn Arias in New York City. Now you can take home this tough guy hero in a dynamic new 1/6 scale ARTFX Statue presentation!
Capturing the BSAA Silver Dagger captain as he appears in the opening sequence of the film, Chris stalks the battlefield peering down the scope of his M4A1 Assault Carbine, ready to take the killing shot. He is heavily armored, unlike his partner Leon, wearing heavy-duty B.O.W. combat gear consisting of armor plates, holsters, and a tactical belt over drab fatigues. Chris is covered in extra ammo and equipment like a pistol, knife, walkie talkie, and more, and on his arm is the Silver Dagger counterterrorism unit emblem patch. His pose is all business, with feet spread wide for balance as he fires his weapon two-handed. Captain Redfield stares down his target with an extremely focused expression on his face, his short-shorn hair never getting in the way of taking his shot. Sculpted by M.I.C., Chris Redfield stands nearly 11 ½ inches tall (1/6 scale) atop a specially designed Resident Evil display base resembling the villa floor from a key rescue mission, and around his feet are empty magazines, cartridges, and blood spray. Display Chris by himself or alongside his Vendetta ally Leon S. Kennedy!
srp $169.99
Available in JULY
STAR WARS ELITE PRAETORIAN GUARD 2-PACK ARTFX+ STATUE
A KOTOBUKIYA Japanese import! Star Wars ARTFX+ Statues bring you all of the quality and detailing that you expect from an ARTFX release in a great smaller scale perfect for collecting! The series has already brought you amazing heroes, villains, and troopers from the classic trilogy and beyond, and now you can collect characters from Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. Following up after the First Order Stormtrooper Executioner is a troop builder pack of Supreme Leader Snoke’s bodyguards in the ELITE PRAETORIAN GUARD 2-PACK! In the tradition of previous robed guardians like the Senate Guard and Emperor Palpatine’s Royal Guards, the Praetorians are highly skilled fighters trained to a superhuman level. These red armored guards focus specifically on melee combat, and they utilize various weapons which they brought to bear against Kylo Ren and Rey in the latest film. The ARTFX+ Praetorian Guards are clad in their ornate bright red armor and robes and come with a dazzling array of interchangeable parts for you to customize their look and your display. The two figures come with three types of helmeted heads, two styles of arms, and no fewer than six types of melee weapons (including different weapon configurations)!
ARTFX+ Statues are fun-to- assemble pre-painted snap-fit kits that can be put together easily in seconds without glue or modeling skill. The Elite Praetorian Guards stand over 7 inches tall (1/10 th scale), and magnets in their feet provide perfect stability on the included metal display bases. Collect multiple sets to form your entire eight-man Guard force, and display them alongside other great The Last Jedi ARTFX+ Statues from Kotobukiya!
srp $139.99
Available in JULY
from AwesomeToyBlog http://ift.tt/2E4cm3T
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