Insights Into Entertainment: Episode 42 “Disney Plussing the PC”

Audio
Video

Subscribe to Audio
Subscribe to Video

Transcription

Speaker 2: 00:10 Insightful podcast by informative insights, a podcast network

Speaker 4: 00:36 To insights into entertainment, a podcast series, taking a deeper look into entertainment and media. Your hosts, Joseph and Michelle Waylon, a husband and wife, team of pop culture, phonetics are exploring all things from music and movies to television and fandom.

Speaker 1: 00:58 Welcome to insights into entertainment. This is episode 42. Disney plussing the PC. I’m your host, Joseph Whalen and my patient and loving cohost Michelle Waylon. Take a running out of adjectives. Sweetheart. I’m going to get you this or else you gotta help me out. How are you doing today? Doing okay. So we have a big show today. Thanks to largely to Disney Disney. Now so the big news this week was the launch of Disney plus on Tuesday. Was it Tuesday and Tuesday? We got a lot of really interesting news out of there. A couple of really cool shows, lots of, lots of lots and lots of content out of there. So we’ll be talking about their subscriber numbers after the first couple of days and a little bit of controversy on how they’re handling some of their older content on there with a disclaimer. And then we’ll talk about, ironically, some Disney memorabilia that we actually were referring to yesterday watching one of the new documentaries on Disney plus. And then because we already had so much stuff in the Disney detective, we moved our star Wars article to our entertainment news this week along with some SpongeBob news, which I’m sure our daughter is very happy about. And yours and my favorite villain on the walking dead, some news about vegan and then some very cool, insightful picks of the week. So big show, full show, a I ready to get started. Let’s do it. Alright, let’s do it.

Speaker 6: 03:02 Go for Disney detective. So if you’ve been living under a rock and you don’t have access to the internet or anything, you’re not obviously watching us or listening to us, but Disney plus launched on Tuesday. We’ve been talking about this for, for months now. I want, you know, when the news broke out and they actually hit 10 million subscribers one day after the service rolled out. So a shares of the company ended Wednesday with a 10% increase on the New York stock exchange. So for any of you out there like us, who are Disney shareholders, yay.

Speaker 6: 03:45 Full disclosure. So he still hates it. Right? so Disney’s mix, you know, so if you haven’t logged on to it, you haven’t subscribed to it. It has a mix of Marvel and star Wars and classic shows and everything. And a lot of, you know, stuff was available kind of right out of the gate. In April the company said that it plans to reach 60 million to 90 million more subscribers globally by 2024. Obviously Disney invested a lot of money in the service. It costs about $7 a month or 70 a year after a seven day trial period, which when we had talked about it it seemed kind of a small in comparison to usually you can get a Netflix subscription, you know, free subscription for 30 days. You know, Disney’s just giving you seven days to kind of try it out.

Speaker 6: 04:48 Customers with a Verizon wireless and internet have actually been offered a year subscription for free. So Disney didn’t actually break down where their subscriptions came from, whether they were free or a monthly or the yearly. You know, we had been talking that there were offers available for a discounted rate for a two year subscription or a three year subscription. So I know the war, you know, pushed largely through the B 20 finger. Well, there was three fan club that had the offer. There was Disney visa credit card that had the offer a DVC discount. A was doing that as well. So there were a couple of different places where you could get get these discounts. Now by comparison, Netflix garnered a 158 million subscribers since they launched their streamings platform back in 2007 and has about 60 million us subscribers now. Disney plus, which launched in the United States, Canada and Netherlands hit some technical difficulties. There were a couple of glitches that happened for the first couple of days, people were having issues logging on or downloading some issues. We had a, we had a couple of issues where we’d go to play and it would say, oops, it couldn’t play it. You’d go out, you’d go back in and then it eventually did.

Speaker 1: 06:17 But they developed, they develop technical difficulties within the first few hours of,

Speaker 6: 06:22 Right. Right. Cause there were so many people that were, you know, launching it. Plus the other thing too, which was kind of weird, was that through Apple apps, you could download it a couple of days before, but with Google you actually couldn’t download it until it actually launched. They didn’t allow you to do any pre downloading of the app. So, you know, I’m sure that probably helped with some of the problems that people were, you know, that we’re having. But you know, in, in an article you know, Disney said big launches often often have their hiccups when consumers are fighting to be the first one to have a given service. So I’m sure that was, you know, those problems had anything to do with Bob Iger only the success of it. And obviously despite reports of the technical glitches, many customers signed up with no problems and viewers were buzzing about, Hm. The Mandalorian making it a top trending topic on Twitter. I wonder if that’ll be somebody who’s insightful or more, don’t ruin it. Oh, please add to know if they know us and they’ve listened to as long enough, how could we not? So along with Disney plus hitting that many subscribers another article came out talking about how Disney plus has outdated cultural depictions, disclaimers on classic movies.

Speaker 1: 08:00 Well, before we jumped to that, I did want to talk briefly about the numbers. You know, if you’re talking about 10 million subscribers, the whole variety of things sort of was a last minute announcement. You know, they didn’t really announce that ahead of time. Disney has been Hocking subscriptions to this for months and this whole Verizon thing didn’t come out until very recently. And with the Verizon one, any Verizon customers entitled to it. So I am curious as to whether or not the bulk of the 10 million subscribers are free subs.

Speaker 6: 08:38 Right. And that was the thing in the article it said they, they didn’t have a breakdown of how many were the fray. And, and I also wonder how many people that had Verizon, you know, what about people that had already signed up for it? Did they, you know, and then all of a sudden get it for free. Did you know have the option. Right. Right. Cause I know I’m a friend of mine who he signed up, I think he did the two year and he did it back in like June and he got charged for it back in June where I would have thought, well don’t charge my credit card until it goes where we didn’t, you know, I didn’t actually sign up for it until a couple of days beforehand. Well that was kind of my whole point. You know, I was hoping, but then when I did sign up it did say that I wasn’t going to be charged until after a seven day period. So we were still kind of getting a seven day free trial with, with at least ours. I don’t know if it was something where you were buying it under a special deal.

Speaker 1: 09:40 And that seven day trial is actually kind of interesting because most other streaming providers give you a 30 .

Speaker 6: 09:47 Right. And that’s what I just said a little while ago was that,

Speaker 1: 09:50 And that kind of plays into how Disney is dropping their content because they drop one show at launch and you had the wait for the others to drop on a regular schedule. So everything will be dropping on Fridays. Right. So if you signed up for your seven days, you know, free trial, you might get two shows out of it. They’re not dropping everything for you to binge-watch. But those subscriber numbers are kind of interesting because Apple kind of pulled some shenanigans like that when they launched, launched Apple plus where they had a deal where if you buy literally anything from Apple, you get a free year. Which to me, that just smacks of desperation. But even with that, Apple has not released any real numbers on this, what their subscriber rate looks like.

Speaker 6: 10:41 Yeah. Yeah. I haven’t seen anything about it. Like, you know, cause again, as you know, you’ve even said, and we saw it together, there’s only a couple of shows that they even had. They don’t have, you know, a lot of content. So, yeah, it’s almost like here, try it out and hopefully within six months we’ll, we’ll have more

Speaker 1: 11:02 Scam of subscriber numbers here is really just a game of numbers for propaganda purposes. Yeah. Yeah. So tell us about the outdated cultural depiction. So

Speaker 6: 11:12 Obviously now that Disney pluses available and you have all of these classic movies, they kind of wanted to put it out there that, you know, some of the content, my might actually be offensive for this day and age, whereas at the time when the movie came out or the story, you know, we were a little less sensitive I guess would be the a PC way of saying it. So the disclaimer which appears a PO it sorry, appears ahead of some of the Disney movies, including Dumbo, the Arista catch jungle book lady and the tramp basically have a basic plot description and then S States that this, you know, program is presented as originally created. And then in most cases it, you know, it may contain outdated cultural depictions. You know, the disclaimer on Pinocchio says, you know, more specifically contains tobacco depictions.

Speaker 6: 12:18 You know, cause there was obviously smoking and drinking. You know, whereas, you know, most cartoons that you go and see today, you don’t, you don’t have that. So this was a, a clip if you see on our screen from the jungle book and it says, experience the song filled celebration of friendship, fun, adventure, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, receiving Walt Disney’s personal touch you know, so and so, you know, songs and the program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural, you know, depictions. So the, they’re putting this out there, you know you know, some of the, you know, the stereotypes of the day that we, you know,

Speaker 1: 13:04 And I, you know what this is, this is kind of ridiculous because I wonder, Disney still sells DVDs and see, and, and Blu-ray of these, do they put the disclaimers on the media that they sell?

Speaker 6: 13:20 I don’t know. I don’t know. But you know, like, you know, the one thing that they were talking about was you know, Peter pan, the one song is what makes the red man red. You know, you would never refer to a native okay.

Speaker 1: 13:34 That you know what you did. And, and if, if they want to cater to cultural sensitivity, then they simply shouldn’t make the content available because no matter what, even with a disclaimer, the contents called to be insulting to, to someone is stamping a disclaimer on the content now supposed to make it all better. Cause I didn’t, I would look through the library and I did not see song of the South in the library.

Speaker 6: 14:04 Well, and you will never see song of the South and that’s, you know,

Speaker 1: 14:08 We can put a disclaimer on it, you know, and make it okay, right.

Speaker 6: 14:11 Boy, you’re good. You know, and that’s kinda supper, you know, like, yeah, if you, you’re putting this disclaimer out there, you should be able to, you know, put song of the South finally, you know? Right, right.

Speaker 1: 14:24 But my, I guess my point is that disclaimer does absolutely nothing to hide. The fact that Disney in its past is created insensitive material. Either you own up to it and you put it out there or you don’t put it out there and then put a disclaimer in that may be culturally insensitive when you know that it is in today’s world. So if that’s the case and you’re concerned about that, then don’t put the content out there. It’s just that simple. This is Disney trying to whitewash their own history, which, you know, not surprising coming from Disney.

Speaker 6: 15:03 Well, and I think also too is a lot of the movies they’re making a lot of the movies available that haven’t been available in years that yes, people might still have DVDs of, but that, that’s the other thing you have to remember too, is that Disney for so long, you know, would put things in the vault and things would come out of the vault and things would go back in the vol. So some of these movies haven’t been out on DVD in a while and now they are available. So I think they’re the kind of, you know,

Speaker 1: 15:34 I’m not, you know, I don’t want to get hung up on the, on the idea that, you know, they didn’t put this on their media so it’s bad. My point is putting a screamer out there doesn’t make it any less culturally insensitive. Right. The material itself can’t stand the test of time and it’s going to be period specific then don’t put it out there. Right. You know, Disney doesn’t have to release this stuff. They didn’t release all their library. So much song goes out. They didn’t put song in a South out there. So Disney very carefully curated certain elements of their library and of these elements that they have out here now are racially insensitive or culturally insensitive. They should have curated them out instead of putting a disclaimer on them. That’s, I mean, that’s just, otherwise it’s revisionist history and, and you know, and if you start doing that, then you’re as guilty as all those who do it

Speaker 6: 16:31 Well. And I think, you know, at least they’re not doing, you know, a George Lucas and Oh let’s just change the scene cause we don’t want Honda shoot first because that

Speaker 1: 16:40 Oh, but they are though, aren’t they? We don’t have that article in here. But they did change the hand shot first scene again.

Speaker 6: 16:47 But that’s what I’m saying. How many different times has it, has it changed throughout the year? Y throughout the years,

Speaker 1: 16:54 Lucas doing that is no different than, you know, if DaVinci decided to change his smile on the Mona league.

Speaker 6: 17:01 Sure. Right. But you know what, at least they’re, you know, putting it out there so that Hey, you know, go ahead and watch this. You know, I mean

Speaker 1: 17:10 I, I, and I don’t disagree with that notion, but my point is if they’re going so far as to put this disclaimer there, they know that it’s culturally insensitive. So why even release it at that point? Okay. So anyway, because most of the movies still good. Some people would think so song going to South, most of the movies still go to, sure. That’s supposed to be a historical representation, isn’t it? Just like, you know, gone with the wind. Exactly. And you don’t see them putting disclaimers out. We’re gone with the wind

Speaker 6: 17:43 Because everybody knows these days, you know, so I know, I got it. You can’t ignore these things. I get it. So anyway, now that we’ve, I’ve finished bashing, tell us about some rare Disney memorabilia. So Disney collectors and the in through the now have a chance to get their hands on decades of coveted Disney memorabilia dating back to the 1950s a history of Disneyland and Walt Disney world auction, which is being hosted by van Easton galleries. We’ll be offering a collection of more than 1500 collectible relics from the Disney dynasty. The auction is going to be play taking place between December 7th and eighth. And we’ll have an exhibit that it’ll actually be open to the public until December 6th. Now, I have no idea where this is. I didn’t see anything in the article that stated where this was. But bitters will be able to vie for historic props, posters, memorabilia from such rides as the haunted mansion space mountain and pirates of the Caribbean.

Speaker 6: 18:50 The collection will also include original documents from the Park’s founding including a rare copy of Walt Disney’s original pitch for financing the Disneyland park containing descriptions in a hand colored map of what Disney expected the park to look like. Now what’s really funny is the other night we were watching one of the new shows from Disney plus. It’s an imagine yearning show and it was basically giving you the history of how, you know, Disney land came to be and, and they had some of these props and things and we were kind of joking going, so I wonder how much of that goes for it. Where are these, where do you, yeah, and all of a sudden here’s this article saying, Hey, we’re doing this big auction. And some of the pieces were things that we actually saw. You know, it’s kind of funny that this came out.

Speaker 6: 19:43 I am curious though, what is prompting Disney to do this? Are they that hard up for cash now that they needed to have a yard sale? Is that what this is what every couple of years you see this happened because I remember probably maybe less than 10 years ago, I remember that there was another auction that came up and it was Disney props, but it was more movie props from different Disney movies and things like that. So I think it’s just kind of put some of this stuff, you know, you know really like special items, like the stuff for the the right. And I’m kinda surprised that they, they don’t open up a museum of it, you know, like they’ve got, you know, several places in Disney world that they could display this. Right, exactly. Like why not build a museum of all of these different things, you know? Or is it just something where you know, it’s too much money for them to keep repairing it or you know, I don’t, I do have

Speaker 1: 20:48 To say that the cynical part of me wants to think that they’re putting this stuff up for auctions so people like Bob Iger can buy it. Who’s going to be retiring from Disney in a couple of years is that re I’d love to see who won this stuff. If there were anonymous bitters and you know, the fixes in at that point. Yeah. I don’t know. Yeah,

Speaker 6: 21:12 We’ll see. So early documents will be auctioned off alongside with whimsical theme park props and rod vehicles are an iconic pieces. A Disney fans will, you know, be able to you know recognize, you know, a lot of the pieces like two birds from the Tiki room. And then there’s actually a hand painted stretching painting from the haunted mansion. And you know, and what also is kind of cool as an opening day guidebook that’s actually signed by Walt Disney himself, which again, why wouldn’t you have that on display in Disneyland connection? This, you know,

Speaker 1: 21:57 Is, it’s almost criminal. It really is like that type of like, I could see if it was like, we have three versions of the same thing and we’re off

Speaker 6: 22:09 Shooting off, you know, two of them or something. You know, like we have so many of these versions of the thing, we don’t need as many, you know,

Speaker 1: 22:15 This was like saying you should be on display somewhere where the die hard fans of Disney can go and everyone can enjoy it. What’s going to happen is these are going to be auctioned off. They’re going to go, no private collections. Do you want to see him ever again? Is we get, we go to the bank and we get alone and we buy everything and then we open up a museum ourselves. I don’t like these enough for that. I know that’s not going to happen. Okay. Well it was an idea anyway. Was that all we had for our Disney detectives? All right, we’ll come back with our entertainment news. Gimme some star Wars news, maybe.

Speaker 6: 22:59 So a Daisy Ridley was interviewed recently by entertainment weekly and she was asked to describe the movie in three words, but she actually gave four and they were dark, scary, sad and joyful. Okay. so, you know what, what does that mean? So dark? You know, could it mean that she’s alluding to dark Ray who, you know, you’ve seen in the switchblade Lacey, right, exactly. You know, could that be part of it? You know, or is it that she’s, you know, her and Kylo Ren are kinda battling out? Like what’s, what’s dark about it? Scary, you know? Well, Palpatine’s back and, and he scary. So maybe that’s, you know, what scary or that the fate of the galaxy is in the balance. You know, so when isn’t it true, true. Sad, you know, is it because it’s the final movie within these Skywalker sat saga?

Speaker 6: 24:06 Or is it that, you know, this is princess layers, you know, final movie, you know, is that part of the, the sadness? You know, obviously we, we kind of know Les is gonna more than likely die at the end of this. So is that the character killed? Right, exactly. So it was that, you know, sad. And then, you know, joyful is, you know, you can’t have a hero’s journey without a positive outcome in the end. So, you know, with every struggle and losses and battles, I guess you always have to have hope and hope can lead to joy. So, you know, Hm hints maybe not maybe leading you in the wrong direction, but you know, we’re, we’re getting closer to to opening day.

Speaker 1: 24:53 Well, and you know, I think those four words are vague enough that they could be attributed to just about every star Wars movie out there. So to say that she’s playing it safe, I think would be an overstatement there, I think.

Speaker 6: 25:15 Yeah.

Speaker 1: 25:16 Jeez. Under, you know, obviously she’s on Kurt Geiger. What does, she can’t really say anything and that’s like saying, well, star Wars, you’re going to see space battles, you’re going to see some lightsabers tanks. We wouldn’t have expected that.

Speaker 6: 25:31 But just another little thing to kind of tease, you know, as it’s, you know, getting closer and everything very close now. Very close, closer for some people.

Speaker 1: 25:44 That is true. We’re almost almost a month away now. So, and I was invited to a special screening for special work thing. Wa was there was, I have one of my vendors at work invited me to a special screening. I have to sit through it, you know, Oh, presentation. But it will have me seeing the movie before the rest of the and we’re not bitter at all. Not at all. No, we’d never used it. Nope. So enough harping on star Wars tell us about SpongeBob. So a new SpongeBob Squarepants spin off described as a musical based project centered around SpongeBob’s iconic neighbor octopus. Squidward is heading to Netflix according to the New York times this see an octopus or is he a squid? No, cause I always thought he was a squid, but I think our daughter always said that he octopus. I dunno. I never bothered to count.

Speaker 6: 26:46 Yeah. So the show, the show is reportedly part of a new multi-year deal between Nickelodeon and Netflix. That was confirmed earlier last week. One estimated that the report was a $20 million deal. The deal we’ll see Nickelodeon produced a slate of original films animated films and series based on both existing and new characters. The times reported that squid word’s new. Adventure is one of the shows Netflix will receive as part of a nine figure deal. A representative for Nickelodeon declined to confirm you know, if squid word’s participation would be you know, if, if he was going to be part of it. So a separate SpongeBob Squarepants movie is actually already in the works at paramount pictures. Netflix and Nickelodeon have had a relationship prior to this announcement. Nickelodeon first made a TV movies like Rocco’s modern life invader Zim, sorry, there’s a cat walking around underneath me.

Speaker 6: 27:56 Dorian woke up, you can actually see her. She don’t worry. She, she’s fine. She was taking a nap in the corner. So they obviously had you know, a success, you know, doing made for TV, movies and things like that. Also, Netflix is set to receive a number of new Nickelodeon shows and films in the deal. Older titles, you know, might be coming. You know, to them. Also, excuse me, Amazon and Viacom signed on for a deal. But that kind of fell through years ago. Now there is a chance that all of the SpongeBob library would be coming to net, could end up on Netflix, but right now Nickelodeon actually has their own little streaming service called Nick hits and that runs with, you know, for the same amount that everybody else does at seven 99. So,

Speaker 1: 28:55 So that’s great. So there’s another streaming service that we’re going to wind up getting that will cost us, you know, that magic number I think is like $6, $7 a month now. So now you can get 50 million different TV networks all streaming all at the same relative rate. And you know, Nickelodeon is getting in on the action now too. So interesting story. And you know, I don’t think we’ve seen too much exploration of of Squidward

Speaker 6: 29:34 Right. Or some of the other, you know, characters. So it’ll kind of be, you know, interesting to see. The other thing too, there, there was a meme that came out, or maybe it was a Twitter posting that actually talked about, you know, if you signed up for all of the streaming services. So I tried to let the cat out of the back and shit, just so, but anyway, if you signed up for all of the streaming services, you were actually spending more than if you just had regular, you know, cable, right. So, and like over the lifetime, it was like astronomical how much it would cost

Speaker 1: 30:16 TV, Allah cart. Now the problem is you’re going to pay top dollar.

Speaker 6: 30:19 Right. Exactly. And that’s why we even, you know, sat down and kind of figured, you know, do we need this one? Do we need this one? You know, and we kind of were like, well, we don’t need Hulu anymore. You know, Disney plus will take its place. But you have, you know, HBO max, they just announced that they were going to be doing a friends reunion thing, you know, and it’s only gonna be, you know, on there. So, Oh, if you want to watch that, you have to do that. Or you know CBS, all access is gonna have the Picard show and it’s like, Oh, I really want to see that, but I don’t want to

Speaker 1: 30:56 Well, it’s like they already have the star Trek one that I want to see, but I’m not going to buy the service for one show, two shows.

Speaker 6: 31:03 Right. So it’s kinda like, all right, you know, there’s just all this really good content that’s out there and you really do have to, you know, pick and choose or you just get, or are you just waiting for the whole season to drop. Right. And you’ve been a starter and watch everything. Right? Yeah. So, and then cancel. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 31:22 Anyway, so the last one we have it in the entertainment here is a story about Nagan. So a little pig, little pig. Let me in.

Speaker 6: 31:33 Hey, that was good. Now, now you kind of understand. So the walking dead obviously introduced a new villain all the way back in season six. And in that, the seasons that followed fans actually became kind of frustrated with AMC and you know, many referred to as the Nigen problem, both within the Canon of the show and at home in their living rooms. You know, that actually drove away a lot of, of a viewers. I actually had a couple of friends who had been, you know, long time walking dead fans, watched it religiously. And as soon as Nagin came, even though they knew he was gonna be a, a bad guy to stop watching the show that it was, it became too hard for them to watch. It was, you know, like the violence became too extreme.

Speaker 1: 32:27 One violence, what? He bashed a couple of people’s heads in with a baseball bat. It’s not that

Speaker 6: 32:32 Well, you know, and there was just a lot after that, you know, that. And I think binge watching it and also backpedaling because you got to see like when you met meet Nagan because don’t forget you actually meet him. Right? Yeah. It wouldn’t be huge. He would kind of be great. I would be kind of pretty cool. But I think if you, you know, you have the fan who watched it in sequence in the time frame that it went through, it kind of screwed up a lot of people just in the way it was like, I can’t believe they did. Like no, he was not in the comics, right? No. Deagan is in the car. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And why would people not expecting see that? You know what? Because he was kind of bad, but he wasn’t as bad. Just like in the comics, the governor was actually worse in the comic than he was. We’ll see the show. So

Speaker 1: 33:34 The time Meagan’s introduced in season six, you needed an outsider, you could be better. I’ll tell you, binge-watching the whole thing. By the time I got the season six I like, I don’t know why Rick Ryan’s was still involved in anything there because of how many bad mistakes and, and how many times he’s promised off and never came through. Or just the fact that he was out in the wilderness too long and basically became a Savage, you know, he, to me, he was like the bad guy. He was the anti-hero. So you kind of needed a n***a to come in and build him up just by being worse than him.

Speaker 6: 34:15 Yeah, and I, and I think, and again, because I wonder how your reaction would have been of him if you had watched it as the majority of people had watched it from beginning to end as opposed to watching season nine 10 and then going back.

Speaker 1: 34:36 Well, and that was the thing, like the main reason that I went back a monster, everything was because I had no idea so much of what he was in season nine were references back to the previous season. And I had no clue what those references meant. So I felt like such an outsider.

Speaker 6: 34:52 No. And I, and I totally get it and I, you know, but again, I think my, my take on this is if you had watched it as slowly as you know, where, you know, we, you know, most people were watching it on a Sunday night and you know, at 10 o’clock we’re like Whoa, that w you know, and, and going into work the following Monday and you know, the, the water cooler talk of, Oh my God, did you like, I can’t believe they did that. Oh my God, that was totally, you know,

Speaker 1: 35:24 They can in the same light had I watched the entire series, one episode a week, I would have dropped it at season four because even binge watching season four halfway through, I was so bored out of my mind. And yeah,

Speaker 6: 35:38 They were people that, and there were a lot of people, I think that that came into it, left kinda came back, you know, season four was terrible, but it bad script writing, right? Bad situations. It ground so slow. You had no direction whatsoever. At least when Nagin came in, vegan was a bad guy that everyone, and like he’s not even introduced at first you know, you, you run into the saviors a couple of times right before you even get the knee. Right. And I think that was the whole thing, the anticipation and the buildup and, and people that had, you know, read the comics, knew who was coming and you know, and, and knew the most of the bad things that he did, but now to, to see him, you know, flesh and blood and like, wow, he’s worse than I thought. But anyway, what this article kind of talks about is how now, you know, the character of Nagan has really become the best part of the walking dead.

Speaker 6: 36:43 And, and you know, people, you know, that maybe kinda gave up on the show, you might be kind of willing to, to come back because you know, he, he, he has a little bit of a softer side, but not really because obviously we’ve seen the past couple of weeks. Yeah. The last list episode kind of has a nice, interesting little twist. It tells you, you know, he’s, he’s still, you know, he’s still in there. He’s still a crazy bag of cats upstairs. Right. Because, you know, the other thing to it, you know, if you did stop watching it, you know, Nagin was basically, you know, imprisoned. I’m in Alexandria for the last six years and you know, has kind of, you know, nobody, you know, nobody really trusts him, but they kind of gave him a little bit of freedom. And then you see, you know, one of the the, the kids getting picked on and he kind of goes in and saves her.

Speaker 6: 37:44 And, you know, as a result, this other person, you know, he kinda kills her by accidents or now, you know, there’s havoc again. And then he meets, you know you know, he kind of escapes and he meets this, this woman and her son, and he’s trying to protect them. And then, you know, this little psycho kid that had been, you know, his dad had been one of the original saviors, you know, as like Omni-Gen and you know, there’s a whole thing that happens and you know, again, he’s trying to protect them. He’s only had a couple of, of showcase episodes this season, but there’s been so much character development. Yeah. Like just on his character in maybe two episodes. Yeah. There’s been more character development on the, because it’s such a good character. He’s such a good actor. Oh my God. Absolutely is. You know, and we’re fans of, of talking dead and, you know, and, you know, hearing the after shows and, and everybody talking about, you know, and, and everything, you know, it’s, it’s nice to kind of see the crazy come out again, you know, especially last week’s episode you know, with him and the whispers and everything.

Speaker 6: 39:00 And,

Speaker 1: 39:00 And that’s the thing, like when you saw the whisperers show up the first time, you didn’t realize that they were humans and in masks, basically, it was terrifying. And then you see alpha, then you see me again and it’s like they’re really nothing compared to what Nagin was like. They have a purpose. Like they have a culture there, they’re almost like a cult. Whereas Nagan was just so out of his mind. Crazy. Right,

Speaker 6: 39:30 Right. But also still a cult in a different way. But not everybody knew it was a cult. You know, you had the worker bees and

Speaker 1: 39:40 Cult centered around a man. It wasn’t the religion or a way of life where the whisper whispers are kind of a way of life, religion. So the whispers are kind of like their own little religion. Whereas a Meagan is almost like his own little fiefdom. Yeah. It was more of a government style, Colton than a religion.

Speaker 6: 40:00 Yeah. Yeah. So it was an interesting, you know, article talking about how you know guns obviously, you know, made a comeback and so to speak and you’re, you’re finally getting to see him, how he was and, and how, you know, how this is gonna you know, potentially play out. So if it’s something where you were a fan and you kind of gave up on it, you know, it might not be a bad time to revisit, kind of fast forward, you know, all those bad times and, and have a fresh look at it. So

Speaker 1: 40:32 Very cool. So I think that does it for our entertainment news this week and we will be back with our insightful picks of the week.

Speaker 1: 40:48 Go for your insightful pick of the week.

Speaker 6: 40:51 So probably for the next couple of weeks I could see our insightful picks kind of coming from Disney plus, which, you know, not, not such a bad thing. So my insightful pig is a show that actually originally debuted in 2017. They kind of just did it as, as a pilot one off and never really did anything else with it, but then went to a Disney plus and now it’s gonna be a weekly series and it is called Encore. So it’s a reality show hosted an executive produced by Kristin bell. Like I said, the series actually had a pilot in December of 2017 but officially premiered on Disney plus obviously on November 12th. And what the series is, is it reunites cast members of a high school musical to recreate their performance years after it was originally performed. So in the first episode it was Annie and it was back.

Speaker 6: 41:58 The original cast was from 1996. And it, it’s a cute show. I’m, I’m actually almost halfway through the second episode which is beauty and the beast which was from a Texas high school from 2007. So it’s kinda interesting to see, you know, the, the different stages. You know, so basically they get all of the cast, you know, to come back and you kind of see where everybody is now in their life. You know, 10 or 20 years later you know, and it’s kind of interesting. You know, so in the beauty and the beast show, you had two of the kids, they were high school sweethearts and then, you know, they haven’t seen each other in 10 years cause they broke up during high school, you know, graduation. So it’s interesting to, to see, you know, who made it big or who, you know it was kind of funny was in, in this one episode they went back to one of the their parents house and she actually had a box of all the stuff from drama club.

Speaker 6: 43:09 So all of the the playbills and everything. So they were looking through it and kinda like, you know, when you, you know, if you were ever in, you know, any production at school and you had to write your little bio and it was like, so-and-so wants to, you know, go to Broadway and make it big and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. And then they had something else and they, they looked it up. And like the one kid he had always wanted to be a performer or something. And he actually is. So it was kind of funny how they were like, Oh my God, this is, I really did that. What was interesting with going on the real life version of glee. Yeah. It’s like glee, you know, the reunion show, you know, and it’s neat because, you know, you get to see ’em, you know, like I said, so in in the first episode, which was Annie, the girl that played Annie, the woman now, she actually did go to New York and did a couple of off-Broadway shows and then met someone, got married and moved back, you know, to Calif back to Texas or yeah, back to, to California.

Speaker 6: 44:15 You know, and never really made it big. And then, you know, there were other people that, you know, one person became a sheriff and, you know, you had a couple of different teachers and, and things like that. And it was just kinda, you know, interesting to see, you know, because I remember there was one person that I was in drama club with and like, if anyone was gonna make it, she was going to be that one. And, you know, I’ve, every now and then I try looking her up online to see if I can find anything. And, you know, social media now, you know, most of your, your graduating classes, they’re in some way, shape or form or somebody at least know somebody else. And she happens to be that one that nobody’s heard from. So, you know, you wonder, I wonder what happened.

Speaker 6: 45:02 Did she change her name? Or maybe that’s what she did. She went in and did that. So, you know, for someone who was in drama club and you know, it’s, it’s kind of interesting to see, you know, we all do grow up, but we all still, you know, well, no, you have Darth Vader behind you, you’ll never grow up. And I have masters behind me so I’ll never grow up. But it’s, it’s a nice show. So, you know, especially if you were in, you know, in some sort of high school production of something or your choir or something like that. And, you know, and then, and it’s interesting to see how, you know, like they admit they weren’t good singers and they weren’t good dancers. And what’s neat is, you know, they basically have like a week to get ready to do this show and to put it on and they, you know, and they’ll bring in extras to kind of help.

Speaker 6: 45:54 And what was a neat was for the beauty and the beast one. I can’t think of her name off the top of my head, but the woman who played the original bell shows up to kind of help, you know, give everybody pointers and things like that. So that was really, really kind of cool, you know, so really cute show if you know, if you’re into, you know, musicals or you were into that in high school you know, hour long episodes, really fun show. Good. Thank you. So this is Encore on Disney plus schedule over in a drops. We now every Friday it looks like it’s awesome.

Speaker 1: 46:37 With my pick. I’m a darling. So my pick actually I have,

Speaker 6: 46:47 Have a pixel lined up for this week and then

Speaker 1: 46:51 Streaming service and then Disney

Speaker 6: 46:54 Plus, and I had to preempt my original pick. Hmm. I wonder what it is.

Speaker 1: 47:01 This week’s insightful pic is none other than the Mandalorian.

Speaker 6: 47:07 It was episode one was just awesome.

Speaker 1: 47:13 And I was relating a story to you earlier. I went to work and I have a friend at work who’s a S, you know, big star Wars fan. And I happened to be in a, in a meeting with, with my staff and he pokes his head in and all, he said, did you and I said, yeah, did you? And he’s like, yeah. I’m like, and he’s say, what’d you think? I said, it was awesome. He was like, yeah, well, awesome. And my Stanford are looking at me like, did we just miss like some kind of language or something like that? What do you people talking about? And that’s literally all the conversation was at that point. So here’s the, the byline on the Mandalorian after the stories of Django and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the star Wars universe. The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the empire. And before the emergence of the first order, we follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy, far from the authority of the new Republic

Speaker 7: 48:22

Speaker 1: 48:22 As the tumbleweed goes. So episode one was a spaghetti Western in space. It was action from start to finish. You had your bar scene, you didn’t get bogged down with challenging dialogue, you had the decipher. But aside from the action aspect of it, the one thing that I love is they’re delving into the lore. Like one of the big complaints that I’ve had about all the new star Wars movies, cause I, I have a tendency of reading all the novels in addition to the comics before I watched the movies. And a lot is established. I mean, let’s face it, the star Wars universe is huge. So there’s a lot of things that are established in the star Wars universe don’t show up in the movies. But there are alluded to in the movies, right? So the problem is is that the average person doesn’t read the books.

Speaker 1: 49:21 90 plus percent of the people that go to CDs movies aren’t reading the books and getting these backstories. So the first thing that they do here is they establish a very fundamental thing, demand Lorene’s and that is what they call best Gar and best scar in the, in the show early on it’s handed to him as payment for a bounty and its Haina tone like a bar of metal, almost like a gold bar, gold bullion. And the audience has sort of left to believe that it’s just a valuable mineral that that Jews for Karen Z. And it’s not, what it is is a type of metal that’s only mined on the Mandalorian Homeworld and they’re trying to give it back. He’s, they’re trying to collect it back. Now, I don’t know how the story is going to go at this point, but I’m going to go based strictly on what I’ve read in the novels.

Speaker 1: 50:17 And that is that when the empire came and the minus all the backstory, they took over Mandalore the Mendler in home planet and they basically stole all the best car that the plant had had. And now there’s a quest, almost like a, like a like a Holy quest, which they make reference to in the second episode to get this back, get this heritage back. And, and in the first episode they actually show you that they use this to build their armor. So now you’re starting to get this the aura. You’re starting to understand the order of Mandalorian armor and weapons and their, their war, like religion almost. So they’re doing a really good job of not throwing everything at you at one time, but you can kind of see they’re planting the seeds here to give you that lore so that probably by the end of the season you’re going to know so much more.

Speaker 1: 51:23 It’s not just about some guy out there, it’s not the dog, the bounty Hunter in space. You know, it’s not dragging people out of the streets because there’s a price on their heads. There’s real story to it. At the top, it all off. There’s a very big surprise at the end of the first episode that everybody goes, like really plays through in the second episode. So the first episode is very much a spaghetti Western. There’s drama, there’s action. The second one, there’s humor. So to see in those just the first two episodes to see that kind of contrast and that kind of depth is just, it’s fantastic. It really is. It seeing these two has largely restored my faith in the franchise after the last jet I, because that last jet I just shattered the entire franchise from me and, and millions of other star Wars fans. But watching the first two episodes of this actually has me excited for star Wars wants .

Speaker 6: 52:32 And, and honestly, I haven’t heard a bad review from anyone that watched it. Like everybody has

Speaker 1: 52:42 One critical review that said, the first episode was a snooze Fest. And I’m thinking,

Speaker 6: 52:46 Well, yeah, because before we even watched it on, on Tuesday night, you had said, Oh, well I didn’t, you know, I heard a bad review and were like, Oh, okay. I don’t know how you could come up with that episode. What was the medication when you tried to watch it? Yeah, it was definitely now literally. Right. Like some people were more Finnish. Right, exactly. Some people were a little bit more excited about it, you know, than others. But still, nobody that I knew or that I read said, you know, a bad thing about it, it moved very well. The first episode was nine minutes, the second was 31 minutes. You know, they’re not. So yes, within that amount of time. And what’s very interesting is the second episode, the first 10 minutes, there’s absolutely no dialogue and there’s so much emotion. If I had the care team,

Speaker 1: 53:45 Anything, I would have to compare it. And star Wars fans will remember this years ago after almost immediately after, I think revenge of the Sith came out. You had the genetic target of a clone Wars short series. They were 15 minute skits that they would do. And they were very similar, like in style to this, where there was a ton of story that was crammed into these 15 minute little segments here. But there was a lot that was left between the cracks that you could fill in. They gave you enough so that you knew what the story was, but they didn’t give you too much. You know? And that’s exactly what this is. They’re giving you enough to sort of draw the lines between the dots. Okay. But they’re leaving a lot on the table there. And man, you know, for die hard star Wars fans like myself, they keep you wondering, is this really what it is? Is this, you know, what’s this, you know, character’s race. You know, what does this guy look like? Hacking, you know, his arm are so clean and you know, like the weapon. Okay, so, so you see the weapon that he carries in, it’s a forked rifle. And that forked rifle was actually specifically carried into that show by John Fabro, right? Because it appeared the first appearance of Boba Fett as an animated skit in the holidays special, the star Wars holiday special. So just the fact that they’re going to that length to bring that kind of lower end.

Speaker 6: 55:27 Right. And they even talk about life day, which was also part of the holiday special. So there were a lot of little Easter eggs, you know,

Speaker 1: 55:35 And, and in an interview with John Fabro did early on he had said that it was his way of, of making the holiday special, a Canon once again because George Lucas hates it and one of them removed. So I’m very happy with it. Looking forward to the rest of the episodes that we’re waiting to drop. It is dropping on Fridays for the most part. Well it is dropping on Fridays, but there are some breaks in the schedule for the public schedule that I saw and it is streaming on Disney plus. So the Mandalorian and I think that’s all we had this week that we have any afterthoughts or anything? No, nothing today. Now we’ll run down the contacts. We would love to hear from you if you have any questions, comments snide remarks, anything you’d like us to talk about, email, emails, comments at, in the insights into things.com. You can hit us on Twitter at, at insights underscore things. You can get our video on a http://www.youtube.comslashinsightsintothingsonthewebatwww.insightsintothings.com. You can get our audio versions@podcastdotinsightsintoentertainmentdotcomandonfacebookatfacebook.com backslash insights into things podcast. And if you are watching us live on Twitch, don’t forget to subscribe and a subscribe to both the audio and the video podcasts on our website. And we’ll be back next week with another great podcast, another one in the books. Alrighty, we’re outta here.

Show Notes

Introduction

• Insights Into Entertainment: Episode 42 “Disney Plussing the PC”
• My patient and loving co-host Michelle Whalen

Disney Detective

• Disney+ hits 10 MILLION subscribers one day after the streaming service launched, sending shares soaring in spite of technical glitches at roll-out
• https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7682277/Disney-hits-10-MILLION-subscribers-one-day-streaming-service-launched.html?fbclid=IwAR0UlPtlX_EGb_sgNjCqbw6eAHYXlB5ESmmag6gipXFjk4CMPuTAUzn7uPE
• https://dailym.ai/2rL8vqc 
  • Disney+ says it hit more than 10 million sign-ups on its first day of launch, far exceeding expectations.
  • Shares in the company ended Wednesday’s trading session up 10% to $148.72 on the New York Stock Exchange, giving it a market value roughly double that of Netflix’s.
  • Disney´s mix of Marvel and Star Wars movies and shows, classic animated films and new series appears to be a hit out of the gate after its launch on Tuesday.
  • In April the company said it plans to reach 60 million to 90 million Disney+ subscribers globally by 2024.
  • Disney has invested billions in its streaming service, which costs $7 a month or $70 a year after a 7-day free trial. Customers of some Verizon wireless and home-internet plans were offered a year free.
  • Disney didn’t break down where the subscriptions came from or if they were free or paid monthly or yearly. Some analysts thought it would take Disney a year to reach 10 million subscribers. 
  • By comparison, Netflix has garnered 158 million subscribers since launching its streaming platform in 2007, and has about 60 million U.S. subscribers. 
  • The service, which launched in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands, was hit with technical glitches that the company claimed were caused by higher-than-expected demand as it takes on rival Netflix.
  • Despite reports of technical glitches, many customers signed up with no problem, and viewers were buzzing about ‘The Mandalorian,’ making it a top trending topic on Twitter. 
  • ‘Big launches often have their hiccups when consumers are fighting to be the first to have a given service.’
• Disney Plus Has “Outdated Cultural Depiction” Disclaimers On Classic Movies
• https://www.gamespot.com/articles/disney-plus-has-outdated-cultural-depiction-discla/1100-6471373/?fbclid=IwAR0UlPtlX_EGb_sgNjCqbw6eAHYXlB5ESmmag6gipXFjk4CMPuTAUzn7uPE
• http://bit.ly/2rPXUdK 
  • Disney+ is now available, and there are hundreds of movies and TV shows to check out on there. They span the many decades of the studio’s output, with numerous classics dating back to the first half of the 20th century. Of course, society’s attitudes towards things like race, gender, and unhealthy lifestyle choices have progressed considerably over the years, and as a result, Disney has added new disclaimers to certain titles to advise viewers of potentially offensive content.
  • The disclaimers appear ahead of some of Disney’s much-loved animated movies, including Dumbo, The Aristocats, Jungle Book, Fantasia, and Lady and the Tramp. Following a general plot depiction, they state “this program is presented as originally created,” then most cases, “it may contain outdated cultural depictions.” The disclaimer on Pinocchio gets more specific: “contains tobacco depictions.” Check it out below:
  • While the disclaimers don’t get into details about these “outdated cultural depictions,” it’s not hard to guess what they are if you’ve seen these movies. Peter Pan features the notorious song “What Makes the Red Man Red,” while the crows in Dumbo, the chopstick-playing Siamese cat in The Aristocats, and King Louis in The Jungle Book have all been accused of perpetuating racial stereotypes over the years.
  • However, although the Fantasia disclaimer states that it’s the “original version,” this isn’t strictly true. The minor character of Sunflower the centaur was removed from the film in 1969 and has not been seen in any version since, due to her clearly racist depiction. As for the most notorious movie in the Disney vault–1946’s Song of the South–you won’t be surprised to learn that it’s nowhere to be seen on Disney+.
• Rare Disney memorabilia to be auctioned off, including Walt Disney’s original planning documents
• https://www.cnn.com/style/article/1500-walt-disney-land-auction-trnd/index.html?utm_term=link&utm_content=2019-11-14T08%3A00%3A08&utm_source=fbCNN&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR2JfMBxPg7l8504yqh5fF8hlAVHYdDdonuwoss_OhuSGmxrY6FpWLvT2UA
• https://cnn.it/2q9FLY1 
  • Disney collectors and enthusiasts now have a chance to get their hands on decades of coveted Disney memorabilia dating back to the 1950s.
  • The History of Disneyland & Walt Disney World auction, hosted by Van Eaton Galleries, will offer a collection of more than 1,500 collectible relics from the Disney dynasty.
  • The auction will take place December 7-8 and will be preceded by an exhibit of celebrated artifacts from the collection. The exhibit will be open to the public until December 6.
  • Bidders will be able to vie for historic props, posters, and memorabilia from iconic rides such as the Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean.
  • The collection also includes original documents from the parks’ founding, including a rare copy of Walt Disney’s original pitch for financing the Disneyland park, containing descriptions and a hand-colored map of what Disney expected the park to look like.
  • “The auction offers the excitement of very rare items never sold before at auction, but also evokes a sense of nostalgia and sentimentality for those artists and performers whose work defined our popular culture,” Mike Van Eaton, co-founder of Van Eaton Galleries, said in a statement. “We are honored to be able to offer such remarkable items to fans and collectors around the globe.”
  • Early documents will be auctioned off alongside whimsical theme park props, ride vehicles, art and iconic set pieces.
  • Disney fans will easily recognize several pieces in the auction lineup, including two original animatronic tiki birds from the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disney World, hand-painted “stretch-paintings” from the Haunted Mansions in both Disney parks, and an Opening Day Guidebook signed by Walt Disney himself.

• Entertainment News
  • Star Wars: Daisy Ridley describes The Rise of Skywalker in four words
  • https://dorksideoftheforce.com/2019/11/14/star-wars-daisy-ridley-tros-four-words/?fbclid=IwAR0URrUdkqa8sE5Q_BiaiSMmh9bwCjXFuojhZ1f09K_Bw6QoPQUxEkysPxA
  • http://bit.ly/2CP8rIw 
    • Daisy Ridley picked four words to describe Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and we are going to look at them to decipher what they could possibly mean for the conclusion of the Skywalker Saga.
    • Ridley, who plays Rey, was asked by Entertainment Weekly to describe the movie in three words. But she gave four.
    • Dark. Scary. Sad. Joyful.
    • Dark – Could she be alluding to just Dark Rey? We think that’s part of it. Rey doesn’t seem to be in a great place following the events of The Last Jedi. She lost her mentor. She tried to get Kylo Ren to return to Ben Solo, and most of the Resistance is gone. The events of The Last Jedi were a huge failure for the Resistance.
    • Scary – Look, Palpatine is back. He is scary. But the other thing that is also scary is that the fate of the galaxy is in balance. There is so much riding on what will happen with Palpatine and his apparent return that the way forward is not clear.
    • Sad – With it being the finale of the Skywalker Saga and the war to determine the fate of the galaxy, we are probably going to lose some beloved characters. The obvious person seems to be Leia since Carrie Fisher has passed and many of the original characters were killed in previous films.
    • No matter how heroic or well done Leia’s death will be, it is going to heart wrenching.
    • Joyful – You can’t have a hero’s journey without the positive outcome in the end.
    • Even with all the struggles, the losses and battles, there is always hope. Hope can lead to joy.
    • So while the end of an era may be upon us with The Rise of Skywalker, there is still joy in knowing we got to witness a great story. But also that our heroes did everything they could to fight for the light.
  • SpongeBob Squarepants spinoff may head to Netflix in new massive deal with Nickelodeon
  • https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/13/20963816/spongebob-squarepants-spinoff-netflix-nickelodeon-deal-disney-streaming?fbclid=IwAR1QoLY3_KUS6DGxxi9W7vGYsXemaW0SzgFnSGwsG1CMLS5NiAJ9NwEoQk8
  • http://bit.ly/34ZXTlM 
    • A new SpongeBob Squarepants spinoff described as a “music-based project” centered around Spongebob’s iconic neighborhood octopus Squidward is heading to Netflix, according to The New York Times.
    • The show is reportedly part of a new multi-year deal between Nickelodeon and Netflix that was confirmed earlier today, one estimated at a reported $200 million. The deal will see Nickelodeon produce a slate of original animated films and series based on both existing and new characters, with the Times reporting that Squidward’s new venture is one of the shows Netflix will receive as part of the nine-figure deal. A representative for Nickelodeon declined to confirm Squidward’s participation to The Verge, however. A separate SpongeBob Squarepants movie is also in the works at Paramount Pictures; both Paramount and Nickelodeon are owned by ViacomCBS.
    • Netflix and Nickelodeon had a relationship prior to the announcement. The streamer acquired Nickelodeon’s recent made-for-TV movies Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling and Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, which are based on beloved series from the ‘90s. Just recently, Netflix added a slew of Nickelodeon titles, including Victorious, Sam & Cat, and Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie.
    • Although Netflix is set to receive a number of new Nickelodeon shows and films in the deal, older beloved titles may not show up on the platform. Drake and Josh, the live-action sitcom from the early ‘00s that starred Drake Bell and Josh Peck, is currently on Hulu. Other series, including SpongeBob Squarepants original seasons and Dora the Explorer, are available on Amazon Prime Video. Amazon and Viacom originally signed a big, multi-year deal in 2013, following Netflix’s decision not to renew an expired contract with Viacom.
    • There’s always a chance that all of Spongebob Squarepants’ library, along with other shows, could end up on Netflix. But Nickelodeon shows are available through a number of streaming portals — including a separate streaming video on demand app launched this year called NickHits that runs $7.99 a month.

• Negan is Finally the Best Part of The Walking Dead
• https://comicbook.com/thewalkingdead/2019/11/15/the-walking-dead-negan-season-10-different-comics-best-part/?fbclid=IwAR09A41qhRPoLfKh3CG0DlCBxWr_mYfG4VvrAQ-7NhccXrLHqpFcRejbDkk
• http://bit.ly/2OglPdT 
  • The Walking Dead introduced a new villain in its Season 6 finale. In the season which followed, fans became frustrated with the AMC series and what many referred to as a “Negan problem” both within the canon of the show and at home in their living rooms drove some viewers away. The show lost some of its lure when Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s villain became the face of it, not because Morgan wasn’t entertaining and making the most of what he was given, but because it wasn’t fun for the story of Team Family to be drawn out over the course of two seasons. An excessively violent introduction was met with a cartooon-ish follow-up in his dialogue (along with a tiger being introduced, further removing some of the grounded nature of the show) and fans weren’t exactly loving having Negan on The Walking Dead.
  • Remember all of that anticipation for the character’s arrival back in the tail end of Season 6? It wasn’t met with quite the payoff many wanted, at first. Now, in Season 10, Negan is definitely the best part of The Walking Dead.
  • Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character underwent some serious changes during his time in prison. For the character, it was more than six years. For fans, it was about two. Since emerging from his cell this year, Negan has had a similar devil may care attitude about him which keeps the main essence of the former villain. However, a bit of retconning through the years and changes in his idealogy has made him a frontrunner for a Best Character in Season 10 award, if that were a thing.
  • Kang’s take on Negan is one which makes him slightly more relatable for fans. Yes, this is still the guy who killed beloved characters which makes it difficult to fully embrace him, but that conflict makes the whole thing that much more intriguing. Now, Negan is fully defending kids from harm and stopping murderers in their tracks. After rescuing Lydia from a few bullies in Alexandria, he accidentally killed a woman and created a major problem for himself in the community. In that moment, a lot of fans probably found themselves rooting for him to be off the hook for it within the community — as he was doing the “right” thing in defending a fellow Alexandrian outcast stuck living within the community’s walls. Later, after escaping the community, he cut Brandon down after an attempt to glorify the Saviors and what he thought Negan’s old group represented resulted in a woman and her son getting killed.
  • While many will never forgive Negan for his actions — killing Glenn, Abraham, and indirectly causing the deaths of others — the new take of Morgan’s character is, at minimum, a much more enjoyable viewing experience. Factor in the unpredictable nature (especially for those unfamiliar with what happens in the comics) and Negan is making The Walking Dead better week by week.
  • In Sunday’s upcoming Episode 10×07, for example, Negan is absent. On the heels of an interesting outing with Aaron leading to a story where he has seemingly teamed up with the Whisperers, Negan’s absence from the episode prevents it from reaching its full potential as others this season have. That’s not to say Episode 10×07 isn’t good, it is packed with a couple of good surprises, but Negan’s story and presence on screen has proved to be superior to all other content offered up in Season 10.
  • It should come as no surprise. In the comics, the dynamic between Negan and Rick during the Whisperer War was the best piece of writing Robert Kirkman mustered up through the series. Their dependence on one another both as a leaders and survivors juxtaposed with their reluctancy to work together or trust one another made for tense, compelling story beats. Although Rick is not around on the TV series, fans have a lot to look forward to as some form of that story hopefully makes its way to the TV series.
  • What’s most impressive about Negan’s swing in Season 10 is that he is competing with other characters who are also having a great year. Danai Gurira’s Michonne might be in consideration if she were featured in more episodes. Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon has finally found a stride as relevant dialogue is replacing the many grunts and short lines he was given in recent years. Melissa McBride’s Carol is taking charge or her own fate, again. Plus: Lauren Ridloff, Ross Marquand, Josh McDermitt, and Seth Gilliam are all putting in their own respective bids with great character work and performances across the board.
• Insightful Picks
  • Michelle
    • Encore! is an American reality web television series hosted and executive produced by Kristen Bell. The series premiere with a pilot on December 10, 2017, and officially premiered on Disney+ on November 12, 2019
    • The series reunites the cast members of a high school musical to recreate their performance years after they originally performed.
    • “Annie • 1996 • Santee, CA”   
    • “Beauty and the Beast • 2007 • Saginaw, TX”
    • ABC aired the original special, also titled Encore! on December 10, 2017, also hosted by Bell in which it reunited the cast of a 1997 South Hills High School production of Into the Woods to recreate their original performance
  • Joe
    • The Mandalorian
    • After the stories of Jango and Boba Fett, another warrior emerges in the Star Wars universe. “The Mandalorian” is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy, far from the authority of the New Republic.
      
      
• Email: Comments@insightsintothings.com
• Twitter: @insights_things
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/insightsintothings
• Web: https://www.insightsintothings.com
• RSS: http://podcast.insightsintoentertainment.com/#
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InsightsIntoThingsPodcast/