October 9, 2021

Saturday Night Showcase: Phantom 2040

Longtime readers are no stranger to my enjoyment of The Phantom, Lee Falk’s classic newspaper strip character. While not one of the biggest fans I do enjoy the franchise very much, and the newspaper strip used to be a must-read for me every day. The Ghost Who Walks has made his way to other media formats: a serial in the 1940s, as a member of the Defenders Of The Earth alongside other Kings Features Syndicate heroes, a live-action movie starring Billy Zane, and a Sci-Fi TV movie I’d…really rather not talk about again. And then there’s tonight’s showcase, Phantom: 2040!

Taking place in the future city of Metropia the 23rd Phantom has disappeared in the wake of a toxic spill in battle with his latest foe, Max Madison and his crazed “Maximum Era”. Madison’s widow has taken up the cause, and clearly has some issues. Heloise Walker had hoped to spare her nephew the same fate as her brother. (Yes, I know something’s wrong with the numbering. If this is the Kit and Heloise from the comic strip he should be the 22nd Phantom.) Unfortunately for her, events will play out to cause young Kit the 24th to assume his family’s legacy. Originally airing in syndication meant it could take a few more chances and didn’t have to be a show for young kids, as despite the kid-friendly editing this was clearly meant for older audiences, like the Fox Kids’ version of Batman.

Tonight I only bring you two episodes, though the full “origin” story takes up the first five to introduce all of the Phantom’s allies. Still, the two part “Generation Unto Generation” does set up the dynamic for this series and explain why the African jungle of Bangala was replaced by the urban jungle of Metropia. Enjoy!

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Posted by on October 9, 2021 in Animation Spotlight, Saturday Night Showcase, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , , .

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October 8, 2021

How United States Of Al Responded To An Unfortunate Situation

Before I begin I feel compelled to put this warning up again:

BW Media Spotlight is a storytelling discussion blog, not a political blog. While by necessity we will be discussing real world events, many of whom are the source of heated debates (and that’s being generous with my description), those debates have nothing to do with this topic and are not welcomed no matter who you’re supporting or bashing! I will delete stuff or straight up turn off comments if I have to. This is your only warning!

Last month I wrote about how real world events can have an impact on our stories. Something that seemed like a great idea can be altered when it would be seen as tasteless or triggering based not on what a certain group may think but due to a real life disaster or incident that makes what was fiction seem tame in the face of real life.

The United States Of Al probably wasn’t prepared to face the harshest example of that since the US first went into Afghanistan because the Taliban ruling government was protecting Al Queda, the group responsible for the 9-11 attacks that serves as the first example. If you haven’t seen the show or my review of the pilot, the sitcom follows the life of Awalmir, an interpreter for the US during the war. Though the Taliban were forced from power, they continued to be threat enough that his life and that of his family was in danger. Awalmir, aka “Al”, was helped to escape by his soldier friend Reilly, and he works to help Al get his family to safety while Al tries to help him with PTSD and the resulting end of his marriage. The show also includes Reilly’s sister Lizzie, whose fiancé was killed during the war. The show highlighted the real life situation in Afghanistan for locals who helped the US forces and the actors even promoted a charity group working to get US allies out of the country safely.

Two days before filming on the next season was to begin, things changed. I won’t get into the politics or who to blame for what because this isn’t a political blog, and while biases are unavoidable I want to review the story, not the events that inspired it. Those events are a deadline set by President Joe Biden, and as the deadline neared the Taliban took the opportunity to retake the country. US forces scrambled to escape, and ended up leaving behind modern weapons and information. People were killed or injured as the Taliban waved good-bye with their guns, and as of this writing they have retaken control of the country, making the whole war not only pointless but giving them new toys to play with. Granted, your assessment may differ but that’s full disclosure of where I’m coming from in the whole deal. Placing blame is nice in hindsight but for the purposes of this review it’s how the events affected the show, and how the show itself dealt with a huge change in the issue at the heart of the show’s premise that I’m here to discuss.

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Posted by on October 8, 2021 in Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , .

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October 8, 2021

BW’s Daily Article Link: The Value Of Remasters

Old movies get remastered all the time. Comics can even be fixed up for digital viewing. So why not remaster an old video game so a new audience can enjoy it. Does it take away from new games? Enigma of Unboxed takes a look at why some remasters cost more than others and whether or not a game loses value over time or if there is a place for an updated and polished version of an old favorite.

Posted by on October 8, 2021 in Video Game Spotlight and tagged , .

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October 7, 2021

How Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Saved EA’s Single-Player Narrative Games

“Yes, R2, he IS taking ‘pirating video games’ a bit too literal.”

Star Wars is in a bit of a slump despite so much material being put out. The sequel trilogy has been met with scorn by classic film fans to the point some are reassessing the prequels and want to apologize to George Lucas for trying to force him out to “save Star Wars”. The only thing getting any praise from regular fans was The Mandalorian, and that took a hit with the political and possibly personal firing of co-star Gina Carano, due to the rumored in-fighting between Kathleen Kennedy’s group and those within Disney and even Lucasfilm more interested in the classic interpretations rather than what she’s brought to the franchise. Marvel’s comics have been hit or miss while for some reason IDW is handling the kids comics, the High Republic is treated as a joke (you named a rock dude who is just a rock “Geode” and made him navigator of a vessel called The Vessel and DIDN’T expect to be made fun of?), and trying to add elements from the extended universe without knowing why they worked has not been helping either.

Meanwhile, EA has had a few issues of their own. Their Star Wars games have had issues with loot crates, questionable stories, and just not very interesting gameplay overall. It doesn’t help that EA has been moving towards multiplayer, which is actually an industry-wide issue as publishers have been forcing studios to insert multiplayer options whether it makes sense or not. The Old Republic has worked out for them, but it’s a single-player campaign that has interesting stories featuring numerous factions while still needing to be online to play. Once those servers are gone, so is the game. Some of their recent single-player offerings have not been the best in terms of storytelling, but while EA blamed a lack of interest in single-player stories in favor of something like Fortnite, it’s been the story and gameplay at the heart of the problem. They just need to fix that.

In fact, they did. Tonight’s commentary was inspired by a video for the G4TV relaunch where Jirad, aka YouTuber and recent G4 acquisition “The Completionist”, took over the X-Play commentaries from Adam Sessler while he’s away and went over Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a single-player narrative game in which you play a Jedi padawan who has survived past the Jedi slaughter at the end of Revenge Of The Sith and General Order 66. I haven’t been able to play the game myself but I did watch a playthrough that makes me want to play it in the future, and that’s because the story is good. The Completionist however also makes the case that it is this game’s overwhelming success that may have saved…the Dragon Age franchise?

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Posted by on October 7, 2021 in Movie Spotlight, Video Game Spotlight and tagged , , , , , , .

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October 7, 2021

BW’s Daily Video: 10 Unsolved Transformers Mysteries

Note that some of these mysteries are about the toys, but enough were about the fiction that I decided to use it anyway.

Catch more TJ Omega on his YouTube channel.

Posted by on October 7, 2021 in Animation Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged , , .

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October 6, 2021

How Ninja Is GI Joe’s Snake Eyes

The ninja (or the exaggerated image of what a ninja actually was) grew in popularity in the 1980s. So it’s not surprising that Hasbro added a ninja to their G.I. Joe toyline. Also, he could be unpainted and they could make another character, which may be his actual origin as a toy. The only versions without the popular Snake Eyes were G.I. Joe Extreme and the pilot that preceded it, Sgt. Savage and his blatantly obvious Nick Fury And His Howling Commandos knockoff, which I could call an homage to the origins of the “A Real American Hero” storyline but it still seems lazy. It’s not terrible, just not that great. There’s a reason it didn’t last long and has gone forgotten, and it isn’t the lack of Snake Eyes.

Snake Eyes has a huge following in the Joe community, from his war with Storm Shadow, to his silent nature due to the accident that disfigured him, to being a ninja with additional military infiltration techniques. However, how does he stand up as a ninja? From Gaijin Goombah and my favorite series of his, Which Ninja, we get the answer to that question…a question so big due to his many incarnations that it needed two videos to answer.

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Posted by on October 6, 2021 in Animation Spotlight, Movie Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , .

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October 6, 2021

BW’s Daily Article Link: What The Phantom Menace Did Right

If it wasn’t for the movies Disney put out since taking over the franchise, The Phantom Menace would still be the most hated Star Wars movie. While I didn’t have nearly the hate for it other had it certainly has a lot of issues. And yet even the worst movies usually find a way to get something right. Author James Harrington points out a few things the movie did right, though it took me so long to make this a daily quickpost some of the videos are down as of this writing.

Posted by on October 6, 2021 in Movie Spotlight and tagged , , .

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