November 7, 2021

Top 10 Doug Walker's Biggest Failures

Ok let me make this clear, I am a Doug Walker aka Nostalgia Critic fan. I know a lot of people hate on him and that's fine. I get it. But while he is not perfect and made mistakes I am still a fan of his. For reasons I explained elsewhere he is a personal hero for me and so far at least I have heard nothing to make me change that opinion, That doesn't mean I ignore what has been said about his troubled productions, I just don't hold it against him (that asshat in charge of CA is the real creep imho, but I digress). We all make mistakes. If you disagree with me, no problem.





Anyway I got to thinking about his flops, which after 10+ years he's had his share of, and wondered what it was that made them a failure. So since I have done articles talking about his stuff that I love, let's discuss the stuff that isn't so good. From not so bad to really, really bad. And a few of these may be more personally bad than others which are almost unanimously regarded as flops. If you like any of these, just opinion. And again I am only judging these buy the finished product not the behind the scenes troubles.




#10.The Good Son Review

Sometimes things just happen, and you just have to roll with them. I think he should have just cancelled this and waited, something he'd get better at later, when illness made him unable to speak. I give him credit for trying...but no it's boring. This did also happen with the "Alone in the Dark" review but having Spoony and Linkara along saved that one. 





#9.Emo Jones

I have heard this get referenced as a classic failure but don't think I ever watched it. And when I did...I have no idea what the joke is supposed to be. Which may have been the problem with the whole sketch.





#8.Shut Up and Talk

Was this a failure? Or just an idea that he couldn't maintain? Either way this was the talk show Doug had to interview people as himself. It didn't last very long. 




#7.Surf Ninja's Review 

Another awful early review. Doug chose a different tone for the review, we find out why in the end which only worked if you saw the review before it, and it failed. HARD.



#6.Pop Quiz Hotshot

While Demo Reel had potential to be a good idea (we'll get to that) this was a bad bad idea from start to finish. A game show? Who watches game shows anymore? Then they added a storyline element to it which made no sense at all. I know I said I wouldn't pick on production issues but I have to mention it here, putting the show together was a nightmare. The show sucked and they cancelled it as soon as they could (because it was a patreon prize they they had to film some episodes). 



#5.Full House Review

Ok here is a personal choice, but man did I hate his review of this series. It was so negative. And even worse, he couldn't even get details right from episode plot's to why the mother wasn't alive anymore. If you don't really understand a show or why it was loved you may be best to avoid reviewing  it. Granted a movie is easier it's just two hours, and this may be he never did a TV show review quite this way again. Future tv stuff always showing the good and the bad, as if he realized this was a mistake also. 





#4.The Wall

Yeah you all knew this was coming. Doing the review on this Pink Floyd movie/musical was risky to begin with it. The reason it's higher is simple, I respect that they worked their asses off on this. It really shows. To bad the review is god damn boring as hell. Maybe if he had done more analysis between the segment it'd helped? 




#3.Melvin

I was curious since I had heard the reference but never seen it. And when I did, yeah I can see why this wasn't a hit. It probably sounded funny on paper, but the brother of the Joker? What the heck is funny about that? Not much to say just lame. 





#2.Demo Reel

It still amazes me, THIS was the idea they went with after retiring Nostalgia Critic? This was just so boring! I think one of the biggest mistakes was giving us all new characters and expecting people just forget NC ever existed. If they had done the show with Nostalgia Critic rather than Donny, people may have given it more of a chance. If you've seen his clipless reviews you understand what I mean. I've watched it a few times and I guess it's not the worst thing ever. Why is it #2? They rushed it out and that may have been what killed it. 


And if you're wondering why "To Boldly Flee" isn't here, two things. I don't think it was a failure just very flawed. And I need to whole article to cover why I think that (which I already did).




#1.Bart's Nightmare

You may wonder, why is this #1? Most people admit it was a failure but what makes it worse than everything else I mentioned? It really comes down to one thing for me. It was lazy. Everything else you can tell Doug was trying and it just failed. Here, he admittedly rushed it out before a convention and said himself he didn't even like it. And of course was not surprised when he discovered the masses agreed. It was a slow, ponderous episode. And I like his three other video game reviews just fine so it wasn't the subject or the fact he was doing a game. It was just DULL.






What I like is that Doug is usually honest about his flops and admits to them. Some of them even being referenced over and over. He understand that somethings won't always hit, but as long as you love what you're doing it all works out. And by the way Doug just turned 40 which didn't inspire this at all. :)

3 comments:

  1. He actually reviewed another show Small Wonder and was surprisingly more positive on that show than he was on Full House.

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    1. yep that was years later and a great example of why I think he realized his Full House review was to negative. In that one he was positive and awhile acknowledging the show was lame it did have its positives

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  2. One that I did not like was his review of Michael Jackson's "Moonwalker".

    I had to stop watching it when he kept doing cheap jokes at MJ, which had nothing to do with the movie.

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