It's a Christmas miracle! Not the great kind though, more that Chris and Serena Wade were able to persevere through their first full viewing of the amazingly bad holiday cartoon The Christmas Tree. John joins in and records a group viewing, with plenty of outbursts, horrified utterances, unintended laughter, and plenty of questions with no chance of an answer.
Listen to the previous bonus episode for a proper review of this thing along with our Best Media of 2017 picks, and feel free to watch along with us via the YouTube upload we used: https://youtu.be/GlFtMxG6mnY
Happy holidays and New Year to all our listeners - look forward to Episode 22, Chris's return and more new guests and topics soon!
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Serena's Twitter: https://twitter.com/omnomsenzubean
Episode 22 is fully recorded and still being edited, but with the winter holidays coming up, John decides to pull a Christmas miracle and sneak an extra episode out, not only getting Chris back to co-host, but recording on location at the Wade residence, mercifully sparing us of any Skype & Discord errors. We take this opportunity towards the end of 2017 to do a personal awards show, listing not just what films, TV shows, and games we adored the most, but also look back on Sketch Watch Play's history so far to discuss our favorite episodes and moments as well as plans for the near future, with John throwing a curveball of an extra award out as a capper.
But that's far from the only thing we discuss in this episode. The actual reason John went to Chris in person was to show him a little special from 1991 by the name of The Christmas Tree, an independent animation that's got a reputation for all the wrong reasons. Be it the garish character designs, numerous animation errors, abysmal voice acting, or straight-up insane last act, there's a lot here for so-bad-it's-good fans like John (And a lot of pain for non-fans like Chris). Discussions include theories on what was surely a messy production and its director, the possibility of expanded lore that enriches its insane villain, one particularly disturbing early moment that steers it into anime territory, and Serena Wade's first proper appearance on the show.
John recorded audio of our entire watch, and will put that up as an additional bonus commentary soon. If you're curious about watching this thing for yourself, either check out the reviews John mentions towards the beginning or the actual special here if you have the stomach for it: https://youtu.be/GlFtMxG6mnY
01:25 - The Christmas Tree review
44:38 - Best of 2017 awards
Show Twitter (Follow for updates, and send feedback and requests): https://twitter.com/sketchwatchplay
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Show homepage: http://sketchwatchplay.blogspot.com/
John's Twitter: https://twitter.com/Behonkiss
Chris's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChristopTheWade
Watch John's analysis of Sonic Forces' ridiculous writing: https://youtu.be/xLWBRhj83AM
John and Tyrone finish off their X-Men movie retrospective by tackling the films past the original trilogy. Tyrone covers Origins & Apocalypse, both tackle First Class, Days of Future Past, & Logan, and we honestly both skipped The Wolverine because neither of us were ever interested enough to see it (And Deadpool, because although we both liked it, it's a different beast compared to the main series- Apologies.)
Topics include how Origins' director seems like a bad fit stylistically, how First Class mishandles the first appearance of a particular character, John's controversial opinion of Days of Future Past, and more talk about Logan than the rest because it's such a unique beast (HA!) of a sendoff film, and there's a lot about it to dissect.
One more thing: The recording of this episode brought with it a record number of technical problems while recording, leading to an extended editing period and numerous spots where John's stereo sound isn't equalized. We tried our best to correct things, but still apologize for what's noticeably off and have figured out how to lessen these issues going forward.
00:20 - X-Men Origins: Wolverine
07:19 - First Class
18:28 - Days of Future Past
27:40 - Apocalypse
36:37 - Logan
Show Twitter (Send feedback, questions, and requests!): https://twitter.com/sketchwatchplay
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Show homepage: http://sketchwatchplay.blogspot.com/
John's Twitter: https://twitter.com/Behonkiss
Tyrone's Twitter: https://twitter.com/tyronehydraulic
Chris's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChristopTheWade
Check out Tyrone's webcomic, Elements of Light: http://eolcomic.blogspot.com/
Check out Tyrone's indie film fest Soul 4 Reel: https://twitter.com/Soul4Reel
Watch John's analysis of Sonic Forces' ridiculous writing: https://youtu.be/xLWBRhj83AM