So That Happened...

One of the big thrills of my year thus far was A.) getting to meet and hang out with a bunch of the crew from TGWTG's side of the interwebs at MAGFest and B.) having everyone turn out to be super, super cool people. This is a weird business, and it's quietly exhilirating to be able to chill out, "vent" and talk-shop with people who otherwise occupy that nebulous space where you're simultaneously fans and colleagues of one-another.

I bring this up as a segue into clarifying that, despite "knowing" (and finally not just in the digital sense) a bunch of the principals involved here - no, I had no idea this was coming either...

Anyway, pretty much THE big news in this "industry" a few months back was that Doug Walker (whom I have not had the pleasure of meeting personally as yet) went and gave his Nostalgia Critic series - the nominal "backbone" of TGWTG - a send-off, filing a final episode for the show and sending the character to his final reward as the meta-plot of the site's annual teamup movie. This was kind of a big deal, since these things rarely "go out" while still exceedingly popular. In it's place, Walker and his team have been trying out some new material ("Demo Reel," most notably) which I've actually found pretty interesting but was met with... "mixed" reactions from fans, to be charitable.

Well, about an hour ago, THIS went up on their site...




I'll admit it: As a fan of the series, I'm definitely glad to see it coming back in some form... but I'd be A LOT less so if it didn't feel like Walker was in a good place about it coming back, which is the sense I get from this. This is some of the better acting/staging he's offered up, period, and what that says to me he's being sincere about going this route because he wants to - not just because people having been begging him to do it.

I've been through the burnout/stagnation rollercoaster in this business myself, to say nothing of the change-averse fandom ride that can come with it. And while I can thank terrific editors for pulling me out of such funks on a few occasions I also understand how rough making these kind of career-direction decisions can be in scenarios where you're effectively your own boss. It's hard to make a big change to your own output, but it's even harder to say that maybe you didn't change 100% for the better. This is one of the classier versions of the "okay, maybe I spoke too soon..." walkbacks I've seen; and I'm now really looking forward to seeing where he goes with this - especially under the more open "directives."

Hell, I'm so (cautiously, because again I know approximately nothing of the behind-the-scenes business at hand here) happy that I'm not even that put-out about having to scrap "Timothy Green" from the Big Picture to-do list...