In this blog I’m going to talk about something a bit different and something that means a great deal to me. I miss the old days of YouTube movie critics where it was just one guy sitting in a chair talking about a movie and giving their opinion on it in three to five minutes. Yes critics like Chris Stuckmann are still around doing just that. Unfortunately for a long time his videos haven’t impacted me like they used to back in 2012, but I’ll touch more on Chris in a bit. I never realized how much those days meant to me until recently. It really felt like you were listening to your friend(s) talk about movies back then but now with the current state of channels like Collider and Screen Junkies News that has largely disappeared.

Don’t get me wrong, I used to love Collider and would never miss a video but as time went on things began to feel more corporate and less like just friends talking. That has a had a large effect on one of my favorite channels, Schmoes Know, which is now just Collider adjacent and has really lost that unique feel it once had. I used to look forward every week to the Schmoes Know Live Show whether they had an interesting guest or if it was just the core crew. The in jokes were always very enjoyable and fun to use online in various fan groups on Facebook. Now that show doesn’t even exist. Another show that no longer exists that I was a big fan of is Pretty Much It. The show was quirky, informative and had an undeniable charm. As time went on though Eric Striffler became less and less into the content he was creating which is understandable. Truly creative people have a hard time fitting into one box no matter how hard they try to reinvent it.

Side Note- as I was looking to get screen shots to accompany this article I realized that Pretty Much It deleted all of their old videos. 

One of the coolest things that used to be a big deal (a big deal for me anyways) was when these movie channels would collaborate and do big spoiler discussions for a huge release like The Avengers. Or even just them all getting together to talk about movies in general. I will never forget the collaboration between the Schmoes, Jeremy Jahns, Chris Stuckmann and The Flick Pick. It was so fun to listen to on the Schmoes Know Show because much like The Avengers it was cool to see all these individual channels come together and create something together.

The thing that actually sparked this sense of nostalgia for me was Chris Stuckmann’s Avengers Infinity War spoiler review that he did with The Flick Pick and Matthew Brando. It just really took me back to when I first discovered movie review channels on YouTube. It was just three guys talking about the movie, what they loved and what they didn’t, they just nerded out and it didn’t feel like they had any obligation to hit certain points like a Screen Junkies or Collider. It was just genuine passion about this franchise that we’ve seen grow over the past 10 years it was a real conversation. It just made me want to go out and see it again with friends so I can have a similar experience. I really hope to see more content like this moving forward and will begin to pay more attention to channels I used to love like Stuckmann and The Flick Pick.

I know it’s unlikely that we’ll see a resurgence of this kind of content as the industry has just simply moved on. I’m mixed on where the industry is currently at due to the oversaturation of crybaby content about how Star Wars “not being as good as it used to be” or it being “sexist against men”. On the other hand there is great content being produced in the form of video essays. Those can be really great and can help me understand other people’s perspective but I also tire of them pretty quickly. So right now I think the movie related content on YouTube is in a weird state. I don’t love the “mainstream” content. Before deciding to watch Stuckmann and The Flick Pick again I really only watched three movie related channels, Mr. Sunday Movies (who is my favorite) and AtZ. If you haven’t watched them I highly recommend doing so. I also watch John Campea who I know is controversial but honestly I don’t quite get why. People either really like Campea or absolutely hate him. It’s weird.

Anyways that’s really all I have to say, I just felt like airing my nostalgia for the far flung past of 2012. I hope you all are having a wonderful May!