Lets show love to the people of Texas and Hong Kong

Its really no secret right now that the state of Texas in the USA is in a spot of bother right about now.  In the last week, the state of steakhouses was wracked by hurricane Harvey which swept through the state coming in from the gulf of Texas.  As of this post, much of the eastern half of Texas has been flooded in part and in regards to areas such as many streets in Houston and Interstate Highway 45 have been mostly if not entirely submerged under multiple meters of water.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4830364/Hurricane-Harvey-enhanced-climate-change.html

This kind of devastation, the likes of which has not been felt from a natural disaster in the USA for more than 10 years, has prompted much of the USA to band together and help their fellow men and women down south of the range.  What makes this remarkable is not only that police, army, navy and firefighter services and even just civilians have been helping their fellow countrymen in Texas to salvage their belongings and survive, but that many sympathetic people around the world have tried their best to replicate this kindness.

Donations to local services and amenities as well as charities have been flooding in to help out the people of Texas, Houston in particular, and thus far have allowed extensive outreach to not just those on the periphery of the disaster but those who are less able to move themselves.

Source: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2017/08/28/cincinnati-firefighters-assist-hurricane-harvey-rescues-texas/607880001/

Source: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/846843/Hurricane-Harvey-path-2017-texas-dementia-patients-rescued-from-nursing-home

Unfortunately, Houston is not the only major city in a global economic superpower that has been hit by such a heavy storm.  The enigmatic city of Hong Kong has also recently been dealing with the aftermath of a similar storm wracking its streets and buildings.  Typhoon Hato, while less covered in the mainstream media has had a similar effect as Hurricane Harvey on the people of Southern China, Hong Kong and Macau.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-asia-storm-hongkong-idUSKCN1B22JL

However, as is somewhat similar to what has occurred in the USA, the public services in Southern China have been working day and night to drain away the water and then clear the debris from their streets and fields while accounting for the injured, dead and safe.

Source: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/2108481/rescuers-hong-kong-save-11-sea-and-two-mountain

And while I have been less successful with finding links for donating to the recent tragedy in China, I would greatly welcome anyone coming forward with reliable and safe links and sources for donating to the victims and saviours of both events.

Fortunately, I saw this article from Forbes which recommends tips and directions for donating to the disaster in Texas and I urge you all to check it out: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2017/08/28/helping-out-after-hurricane-harvey-where-what-how-to-donate/#16b87e93c798

And as I said above, if anyone has any links or ideas for donating to the disaster in China any help would be greatly appreciated.

I didn't really have anything succinct or opinionated to add to this recent topic unlike the post I made yesterday.  I just thought it made sense to raise awareness of the situation that some are facing in the South of the USA and China at this time.  Hopefully these people, like this blog, can get back to happier and simpler topics and times in the near future.

Punching people for their haircuts and political beliefs is a terrible idea

Sorry about not posting on here for quite some time.  Furthermore, sorry for bringing an end to my hiatus on this platform with a spicy bit of political commentary at an emotionally and politically charged time in the west.  However, given the considerably depressing reactions of some people to apparently "racist" haircuts and fashion choices in recent times, I thought that I should weigh in.  Especially considering the actions of some in this debate could hurt political discussion and discourse.

On August 15th 2017, twitter "comedian" Jon Hendren called out world-renowned music and rap artist Macklemore for sporting an apparently racist haircut which Macklemore responded to by pointing out that he hadn't sported said haircut for quite some time.

Image source: http://www.vladtv.com/images/size_fs/video_image-467718.jpg

Ignoring the fact that Hendren's twitter @ accurately describes the quality of his humour on twitter, you'd reasonably think he could look at a recent picture of Macklmore and rectify his simple mistake.  This moment of laxity in looking up public info implies to me that both Hendren's question and the intention behind it aren't particularly well founded.  The question itself is clearly poorly-informed but on top of that, asking someone to renounce and change their haircut implies that anyone wearing that haircut is inherently racist.  Macklemore's now former haircut, commonly called the 'undercut', was originally fashioned by western men in Europe and the Americas during the 1930s and 1940s.  This included men who fought on both sides during the Second World War (1939-45).

Really, the hairstyle originated as a general western fashion choice rather than a political statement as these German soldiers during the 2nd world war show...

Image source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-217-0465-32A%2C_Russland%2C_Soldaten_auf_dem_Marsch.jpg

...when paired up with this picture of a French resistance fighter during the latter stages of the 2nd world war in urban France sporting the same style of hairdo.

Image source: http://weeklyworker.co.uk/assets/_versions/images/archive/wwimages/ww942/sm-WWII-resistance2_art_full.jpg

Because of this, the idea that this one style of haircut, even down to its origins, is representative of racist political beliefs and fascism is not just overly-presumptuous but also historically inaccurate.  However, this hasn't stopped some overly-reactionary blowhards attacking people in recent weeks over having this particular haircut/hairstyle.  People in the currently tumultuous political climate of the USA have been wearing the haircut that some fascists both past and present have worn, this must mean that anyone who is sporting the undercut deigns to at some point take up the cause of fascism.  And certainly not that the hairstyle is a comfortable and easy-to-maintain fashion statement popular in both alternative and mainstream modern fashion scenes.

True, the undercut has been worn in recent times by undeniably fascistic political figures in the USA such as far-right political commentator, speaker and activist Richard Spencer.  But regardless of this point, this does not mean that one can just lump all members of a certain fashion group in with one socially unpalatable or maligned individual (depending on your political views).  This has not stopped people not only asking wearers of the undercut hairstyle to change their hairdo but also that members of far-left and progressive anti-fascist groups, particularly ANTIFA (Anti-fascist action) physically attacking people who wear the fashionable haircut.

The most notable case of this happening recently has of course been anarchistic anti-fascists recently mistaking some of their own group members for a neo-Nazi because they too wore undercuts.

Source: http://freebeacon.com/issues/boston-antifa-protester-attacked-fellow-activist-after-mistaken-neo-nazi/

Clearly, if this idea that the undercut being a statement of facism has become so insidious that it is affecting those on the right, left and centre of the political spectrum one must ask this: surely it is an issue of mistaken identity rather than promotion of a hateful ideology?

Subsequently, this prompted me to think about interjecting on the idea of attacking someone for their political beliefs and how irrational that seems to me.  I know I may be sounding like I am blowing my own political horn to the Nth degree but hear me out on this.  Attacking someone not in self-defence illegal in the USA and UK. And doing so on the basis of their political beliefs alone, especially in cases of mistaken identity, seems extremely harmful to not only people's physical safety but also the stability of reasonable political discussion and discourse in the free world.  

What I mean by this is that the way that we have traditionally discussed politics and rooted out bad ideas in politics in modern free-democracies is by giving an equal platform of opportunity to all to discuss their beliefs and manifestos.  Reason dictates that we should do this to people on both the left and right as well as the centre.  That includes groups I and others would find unlikable such as neo-Nazis and ANTIFA, again, depending on your political views.  In discussing political ideas, even offensive and unpalatable ones, on a level playing field, we are able to root out inflexible, offensive and irrational ideas by reasonably seeing the weaknesses of these ideas and beliefs for what they are. Punching someone, whether it be because you do or do not know their political ideology, is a terrible idea; because it not only promotes civil violence but invalidates the great boon that free speech and political discourse gives us.

By punching someone for their political beliefs not in self-defence, whether they be right or left-wing, only validates your political enemies cause and poisons the well of political discourse.

So I issue a plea to anyone, be they far-left or far-right; if you have an inkling that someone is a political opponent to you then talk it out like a human being and do not punch them.  Because if you resort to violence as the first response to someone's opinions, then you clearly don't really care about discussion, peace or your fellow man and woman.

Editor's note: This post has been amended and edited post-publishing because I was made aware of information  about the story of the alleged stabbing of Joshua Witt that compelled me to amend my article.

New film review #24: Gold (released 3rd Feb 2017)

Image source:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1800302/?ref_=nv_sr_3

I know, I know.   I haven't posted on here in like what?   7-8 months?  Good lord do I suck at being consistent with uploading.   Hell, it even happens on my 3 YouTube channels (CHECK THEM OUT PLEASE #SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION).  However, while I may have fallen back on uploading as frequently as I personally feel I should that doesn't mean I can never return!  I hope.  To be fair I do tend to be a bit lax so I should really take note to tackle that. 

In any case, with the disappointing return of a hopeful maverick must also come the review of something with a similar background and underlying ethos.  And in this case I am talking about the recent film release of Gold starring Matthew McConaughuey, directed by Stephen Gaghan and written by Patrick Massett and John Zinman.  I should mention beforehand prior to going into this review that I feel bad about slagging it off as it contains a lot of talent in the cast most notably McConaughuey who himself most of all has been in considerably better productions than this droll and slow-paced trek of a film. 

So then, how does the plot of the film add up?  Well it starts off in 1981 with McConaughuey's Kenny Wells accepting an offer of more prestigious and higher-earning work in his father's gold pioneering company.  Fast-forward 7 years and not only is Wells's father long dead, but his company is on its last ropes with something drastic needing to be done in order to save Wells junior and his friends jobs.  Then, as if by some magical prompting (or by the magic of an arbitrary script), young Wells receives a vision in his brandy-induced dreams that he must call up an old friend and search for gold in the jungles of Indonesia.  The rest of the film after this point then follows the misadventures of Wells himself and his swarthy Hispanic compatriot Michael Acosta (played by Edgar Ramirez) try their best to keep their gold company afloat amidst a sea of hungry wall-street vultures and some shady activities on their own hands.

On paper this sounds like the plot for a good if not very good film.  Furthermore, the potential for the story in terms of its quasi-historiographical and dark/seedy underlying theme is fuel enough for any talented filmmaker to make, at the very least, an engaging film about the greed and folly of man.  However, it seems as if the film focuses almost entirely on this underlying theme of seediness and as a result, Wells, Acosta and the other main protagonists and antiheroes we see emerge throughout the story come across as slimy and greedy rather than down on their luck hopefuls working towards their big break.  And like I said before, this feels a bit tragic because in combination with a deluge of talent working on the film, the interesting and unique story really should have ensured that this was going to be one of the films of the year or at least of early-2017.  Instead, we get an overly-slow-paced bore of a film with unlikeable characters, wall upon wall of exposition and all this encompassed in a terribly paced 1st act and a horrendously boring and overly-long 3rd act.

This 3rd act in particular for me was the most boring part of the film to sit through.  By this point I had just sat through about 90 minutes of droll storytelling and characters I didn't care about only to be met with a series of scenes that kept hinting at the film nearing its end but never delivering until after the point at which I was tired of sitting on my arse.  This went on for nearly 30 minutes at the end of the film with minor and even some major story points being introduced or continued from early on in the film with little to no eventual conclusion to many if not all of them.  Because of this drawn-out final act, I not only felt bored by the end of the film but also somewhat annoyed as the final few scenes bizarrely explained very little while featuring a truckload of exposition and talking.  This was at the same time as the conclusion of all the major character's personal stories meeting either unsatisfying or incomplete resolutions.  Even the ones where their character arcs were completed, (that being Acosta and Wells), the conclusions in these cases came to either contradict the theme and narrative of the film or not correlate realistically to the development that character had made throughout the film.

I suppose the most prominent thing that contributed to this being the case is probably the direction in part but that would be somewhat unfair.  I did actually like a fair few scenes at least in terms of how they were shot such as Wells vision scene early on in the film (as daft as it was in practical senses).  If it isn't the directing that is the main source of this film's issues then I would probably say it has to be the writing.  I genuinely can't remember any of the dialogue or notable lines from the film.  Although saying that there is notable lines when I can't remember any is a bit of dichotomy so I could just be talking out of my arse again.

So in conclusion, this film had a lot of promise but really failed to deliver and as a result ends up being either forgettable or just a bit unappealing and unpleasant.  I would recommend this film if you are a fan of the work of the people who made and starred in it but even then I would just recommend rummaging through their other works and projects. 

Camerawork/cinematography: 6.5/10
Directing: 5/10
Writing: 4/10
Acting: 6.75/10
Other: 5/10
OVERALL RATING: 27.25/50

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Uncle Ted's recipes #8: Post-workout pasta (includes prawns)

Again I know I really haven't been uploading a lot recently on this blog but whenever has punctuality been an aspect of my character on any form of social media?  Really the main reason for this being the case is that I haven't been making any new recipes or seen any new films recently but with this inspired dinner I thought up of recently I figured that now was as good a time as any.

I thought up of this healthy and tasty pasta dish recently a few days before I went to the gym as I needed a good dish that would be a great balance of all the essentials one may need after having a good work out and I think I've thought up a right winner as even if you don't work out its a deliciously healthy dish that ticks all boxes (that is if you do not eat fish).

INGREDIENTS (Serves 3-4 big portions):

300-350g king prawns (pre-marinated tofu if you do not eat fish)

175-250g ricotta

2 bunched handfuls fresh spinach leaves

1 large white onion

2 cloves of garlic

350-400g spaghetti (uncooked weight)

4-6 tablespoons white wine

olive oil

salt and pepper

dried basil

UTENSILS:

1 medium saucepan

1 large frying pan

1 vegetable knife

1 wooden spoon

1 fork

1 cutting board

1 colander

METHOD/PROCESS:

1 - Place some cold water into the saucepan to about just over halfway then add in some couple splashes of olive oil and turn onto boil.  Dice up the onion and place in an extremely low heat frying pan with a few splashes of oil in it and add a dash of salt before stirring.

2 - When the water is boiling, put the spaghetti in, make sure it is submerged for the most part then cook for 9 mins while stirring with the fork every 2 or 3 mins while it cooks so as to not let it become all clumped and starchy.

3 - When the onion starts  to soften after 5 mins of frying add in the crushed garlic and simmer for another 5 mins before adding in the white wine and simmer for another 5.

4 - When the spaghetti is cooked, drain it in the colander over a drain or sink then place the colander over the saucepan after the pasta is dried to get as much water drained away.

5 - After the white wine has had a few mins to simmer then add in the prawns and spinach and stir around for about 4-5 mins until the spinach has wilted before lumping the drained spaghetti on top.

6 - using a teaspoon, spoon the ricotta in several bits onto the spaghetti then stir around until most or almost all of the ricotta is nicely mixed in and all of the ingredients have been mixed around in a balanced way.

7 - Serve onto plates alongside toasted pitta with garlic oil and carrot salad with a glass of white wine (I'd recommend something like La Vielle Ferme) or if you don't drink alcohol then something like lemon or blood orange tea.

Hopefully you'll all enjoy this one as I kind of just thought up of it off the top of my head but it really is a winner if you need a perfectly balanced meal and don't have a huge amount of funds or time so give it a shot as you really can't go wrong with it!

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Ted's trailer reactions: Dawn of War 3 cinematic trailer (2016)

Image source: http://venturebeat.com/2016/05/03/warhammer-40000-dawn-of-war-iii-announced-with-a-rain-of-corpses/

For the last 7 years, my favourite game has undoubtedly been the 2009 real-time-strategy game release Dawn of War II, a highly ordained sequel to the massively popular 2004 RTS Dawn of War and both based off of the in-depth and much-loved Warhammer 40,000 franchise.  I used to play DoW 2 daily and still partake in it regularly, it truly is a wonderful experience for someone who grew up loving the shit out of the Warhammer 40,000 universe and while I loved the original 2004 game I tend to prefer the 2009 sequel for its more company-level tactical-based combat with more precise actions that came out of THQ and Relic Entertainment's previous works on the 2006 World War 2-set RTS Company of Heroes.  This doesn't mean that the original 2004 game is bad at all, its really just down to personal taste and preference.

Regardless, this has been one of my favourite franchises in video games over the years and aside from the Dawn of War games, the peeps at Warhammer 40,000's Games Workshop have ok'd the making of some other great titles like the 3rd-person shooter Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (2011) or the late 1990s Space Hulk games.  Therefore, I was a bit perplexed when the only significant releases after the last Dawn of War 2 expansion pack Retribution (2011) were crappy lane-defence games produced by third-rate driving game developers.  So Imagine my joy and nostalgic inner-fanboy going mental with convulsions when I saw and heard about the recent release for a cinematic announcement trailer for Dawn of War 3.

YouTube link for the cinematic trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN8geCTlZOo

Now there are some problems with this trailer which I feel should only be right to go through before getting into why I'm so excited by this recent announcement.  First and most apparent is the fact that a cinematic trailer only really gives you some idea about the story of a game and never really reveals anything about the gameplay and thus there really isn't too much to know about the game in this trailer aside from what races from the Warhammer 40,000 universe will be in the game when it comes out.  I know this comes without saying as many have stated before about cinematic trailers, really I think one could make a solid argument from this point that cinematic trailers are pointless.  However, it does make for an interesting marketing tactic that will undoubtedly raise up buzz for the upcoming release and increase clicks on gaming websites like Gamespot or Joystick.  Therefore, it makes reasonable practical sense to release a cinematic trailer but I do feel a bit irritated by the fact that there is little to really know about the game from the simple fact that we haven't seen much of either the story or gameplay in Dawn of War 3 judging from this cinematic trailer.

The second major concern I have about this trailer is more of a subjective and personal one but I do think it is worth taking up to some extent.  One thing that has defined the best RTS titles over the years is an abundance of several and varied armies and/or races to play with throughout the game.  This in particular has been something prevalent with the previous two Dawn of War games with the original game having 8 races to pick from after its third and final expansion pack Soulstorm (2008) marking it out as a highly diverse and varied title with many gameplay styles.  Therefore, I was a bit pissed off that judging from what I've seen in the cinematic trailer for Dawn of War 3, only 3 races at first seem to be the eldar, orks and Imperial space marines and that unlike the first two games, the first iteration of this one will not start off with at least four races.  I suppose this game has been one in the making for a long time but I would hope that they would at least stick true to the inherent variety of the franchise up to this point.  It also galls me that an RTS in this day and age would include such a small start to its content but to be fair, the cinematic trailer really doesn't reveal too much about the gameplay which could end up covering up for all this and ensure that this becomes a moot point.

The only other real major concerns I have around the trailer have come out of official statements made by Relic and Game Workshop in the wake of the trailer as more and more information has filtered out.  For one, despite the fact that the companies have not revealed the release date of Dawn of War 3 there is a possibility that it may be revealed in the next several months but I am hoping the date will be sometime before late 2017.  Look, I can be patient but I really do not want to be kept long for this.  Is this down to fanboyism?  Yeah, probably but I really can't help it.  The last main concern I have is that the single-player campaign is apparently going to be an interwoven story in a gameplay sense with each race generally playing through the same campaign.  Now if they do what was done in Dawn of War: Dark Crusade (2006, yeah, 2006 was a great year for RTS titles) and have all the races in the game play through the campaign but play with their own specific narratives then I won't really mind but considering the sheer focus on story that was so prevalent in DoW2 it does strike me with a bit of concern that such a centralised story may not come into play as much as it has done in the previous games.  I could be getting overly-worried about this and like I said above, the gameplay could easily make up for this in an abundance of enjoyment and good design but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

So what is there good about this?  Everything else.  No really.  Much like a Sainsbury's sausage, onion gravy and mash potato ready meal served with some beans and peas and a can of Stella Artois after coming home from an 8 hour shift as a kitchen porter (something I have experience of believe me), I'm more than willing to accept the nourishment and good points of this trailer over any of the misgivings I have about it.  Do these misgivings play into my opinions about the upcoming release?  Of course and they never will stop doing so until I actually play the game but I really can't deny my own nostalgic joy about the announcement of DoW3's upcoming release.  Sure I am being bias about this but I really can't help it too much.  At the very least I can tell you I am just giving my honest opinion on this trailer and the issues surrounding it and that's all I can really do in this situation.  Sorry if I am not objective enough for your liking here as I may have been with my last trailer reaction but its just the way your uncle Ted operates.  At the very least I can say that this title is going to get my support, as bias as that support may be.

So as always, I hope you lovelies have had as much fun and informative nourishment from this blog as much as I have had researching, editing and writing it and until next time I wish you all best wishes and remember to have fun, stay safe, don't do anything I wouldn't do and I'll be seeing you all on the battlefield!

Uncle Ted's recipes #7: Champion chilli con carne

Sorry I haven't been uploading onto this blog recently lads and ladies but unfortunately your uncle Ted has been a bit weighed down by work and hasn't really seen any movies recently.  Hopefully something about pop culture to stimulate the brain will pop up soon but until then we have this healthy and simple recipe I have to impart on you guys for some marvellous chilli con carne.

Make this if you've got a dinner party coming up or if you're a bit low on the monies and have to make something in bulk to last you for the week but either way we're on to some fine dining here and for a low budget to boot.  Don't say I never care about you lot.

Ingredients (serves 4 or makes 4 individual meals):

1x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

1x 440 tin or carton of tomato passata

400-500g of minced beef or quorn vegetarian mince

400g tin of red kidney beans

2 x large red peppers

4-5x green and/or red chillies

1 x large yellow or orange pepper

1 x large or 2 x medium of brown onions

2-4x cloves of garlic

1-2x sticks of cinnamon (optional)

olive oil

1 tablespoon chilli or curry powder

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

2x bay leaves

1x handful of parsley

1x bunch of thyme

a couple pinches of salt

Utensils/tools:

1x large saucepan/pot with lid

1x heatproof ladle

1x vegetable cutting board

1x vegetable cutting knife

1x garlic crusher

1x small knife sharp enough for chopping the herbs

1x tablespoon for measuring out the spices

1x wooden spoon for stirring

1x teaspoon for deseeding the chillies

Method:

Step 1: place the saucepan/pot onto the hob and splash in some oil.  skin and dice up the onion and crush up the garlic while heating the pot on the lowest possible heat then chuck in the onions and turn up the heat slightly and simmer with a pinch of salt for 5 mins before adding in the garlic and stirring.

Step 2: chuck in the mince meat or quorn mince depending on your dietary disposition and break the mince up while putting up the heat slightly and stir around with a tiny bit more oil until most if not all, of the mince is browned. 

Step 3: Deseed, wash with cold water then slice up the chillies and peppers and chuck into the pot.  Drain the kidney beans in a colander or sieve then add into the pot along with the cinnamon sticks while occasionally stirring for about 10 mins.

Step 4: Chuck in the passata and chopped tinned tomatoes into the pot and stir then add in the paprika and chilli powder along with another pinch of salt and stir again.  Place the lid back on then turn down to a low heat to simmer while preparing the herbs.

Step 5: Wash the bay leaves and place into the pot as they are.  Wash then dash up the parsley and wring the thyme off its stalks then place both herbs into the chilli con carne and simmer for another 10 mins.

Step 6: Serve the chilli con carne with the ladle onto a bed of either cous cous or brown rice with a side addition of a small dollop of yoghurt (optional of course) and grated cheddar (again, entirely optional) and with a glass of water and a cup of black tea with a slice of lemon.

Like I said above, this is great at dinner parties when you have not too many resources or big ideas of what to make for the main meal.  If you are serving it for the main meal then perhaps serve after a starter of soup or salad and before a light pudding of something like ice cream or light fruit pudding or fruit salad with yoghurt.  Another bit of advice I would give is to perhaps make this the day before you're planning to eat it so that the flavour has a small amount of time to simmer down and mature at which point it will taste marvellous especially with a dollop of yoghurt and brown rice or cous cous.

Again, I apologise for the lacklustre uploading recently but that is the lot of life on this part of the internet I am afraid.  Alas I must leave you all again but hopefully this cheap and healthy and hearty recipe will help all you lot out for a romantic meal, bustling dinner party or busy week and until next time, have fun with whatever you're doing, don't do anything I wouldn't do and until next time I raise my cup to your good health!

Respectful disagreement #3: Why nostalgia isn't always good in TV and film

I'm sorry for not uploading any posts these past couple of weeks but have been busy with going home for a few days, studying, the cutthroat world of blogging and being a YouTuber and shrugging in unsurprised nonchalant apathy that Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) is being slammed as one of the most underachieving films of this year so far.  I will try to replicate this in the future and upload more frequently each weekend but I can't promise anything too solid.

Anyhoo, now that's out of the way, how about we talk about a big issue in film and TV that I was reminded by from a piece of recent pop-culture?  Hey, I know that wasn't as snappy as 'hey sluts, who wants to play strip Jenga!' but it'll just have to do methinks.  Now I know that nostalgia being a double-edged sword to video games and said culture has been thrown around since about 2010 or 2011 but it really isn't as big a problem as in TV and especially films.  For me, the worst three things about video games over the last half a decade has to have been over-involvement of marketers and producers in game design, repetition of formulas without improvement or experimentation and underhand business tactics such as day-one DLC, episodic games or DRM always-online settings.

The reason as to why I suddenly had THE TOTALLY ORIGINAL AND UNIQUE idea of writing an article about the cons of nostalgia on modern film and TV came about because of much reflection on the recent and awful Ghostbusters (2016) trailer that I did a written reaction to on this blog recently.  Upon more reflection on that travesty of a trailer I realised that it had copious amounts of nods to the original two films smothering the trailer and while designs of the ghostbusters uniforms and car were on point, the seemingly endless use of nostalgic imagery to build up hype and fan-base investment rubbed me up the wrong way.

Like I said though, TV and film even more so are both severely limited in their inventiveness and creativity as of late due to a huge over-reliance on nostalgia to sell views and tickets.  Fundamentally, this isn't a bad thing but it has to be done in moderation because while nostalgia can be a refreshing reminder of what was, it has to be used appropriately because if we just accept it as the narrative crux for a plot-point in a TV show or the basis of a films' narrative overall then we allow film and TV creators to use said nostalgia as a creative crux and be lazy with their writing and design.

TV, in all fairness, isn't too bad with this trend but it does happen from time to time with easily the most prevalent example being the WWE (Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment).  Now the WWE's main problem at the moment is easily its awful booking for big-event wrestling events but its overreliance on nostalgic booking of legendary wrestlers for ensuring the purchase of pay-per-view purchases and public event tickets isn't certainly helping.  This means that with the over-reliance on legends like Psycho Sid, Sting, The Undertaker and other legends of the industry for storyline-making which not only precipitates lazy writing that over-relies on the status of these legends who defined multiple decades of wrestling but can be very harmful to some of the older legends such as Shawn Michaels who injured his back a few years ago, The Undertaker who injured his shoulder in 2010 and most recently, Sting who injured himself last year in a match where he was 55 at the time.  Considering how physically-demanding wrestling is, not only does this mean that nostalgia can precipitate some lazy writing but can also risk the health of some truly tired and deserving-of-retirement wrestlers who just need a bit of rest.

Image source: http://wrestlingnews.co/wwe-teasing-the-undertaker-for-wrestlemania-32/

Image above: Legendary wrestler M.W.Calaway (aka The Undertaker) at the Wrestlemania 30 event in 2014.

In another TV example that is perhaps less visceral and is more of an example of fans wanting a nostalgically-friendly product so much so that it harms the new product being released; The Loony Tunes Show (2011-). Many people (not including myself) are very nostalgic towards the original cartoons as well as the multiple remakes made of the show in the 1990s and early-2000s but all to some degree or another used the same formulas just in different designs to suit different TV show demographics. 

Image source: https://www.blogger.com/blogin.g?blogspotURL=http://cartooncube.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-looney-tunes-show.html

When the 2011 series came along and changed up much of the physical-based comedy, character motivations and artistic themes and designs of the Looney Tunes universe, it didn't centre itself on the previously built cultivation of classic characters and instead tried mixing things up in terms of how story and character motivation were portrayed.  In turn, it was severely lambasted by a large portion of the Looney Tunes franchise fan-base and while I can certainly understand that change to something as long standing as this is tricky to get used to there are two things that made this aggravating.  Firstly was the fact that many of the fans were fans of the awful early-2000s remakes of the old show and completely disregarded any improvements made to the series in favour of rose-tinted images of the older shows.  Secondly was that the comedy was at least a lot more risqué than any seen throughout the 1980s-2000s era of the Looney Tunes and this was thrown to the dirt by many of the millennial fans who preferred the tired and now-stale of the Looney Tunes comedy that they had grown up with.  As a result, while picking up in the last couple of years, this superb remake/reboot of the legendary franchise was initially met with much hostility from old-school fans. 

Putting aside any misconceptions that people had about this show when it first came out and believe you me, I can certainly see where they come from and sympathise.  The Thing that people have to give credit to this 2011 series is that it tried to update a long-standing and flagging franchise to introduce it to a new generation of children and youngsters.  Regardless of what you may think about The Loony Tunes Show, it tried something new while keeping the core of what made the universe and franchise of the show so popular in the first place mostly intact while doing away with the less-popular dead weight.  The reason why I bring this up is that the show was buried under criticism from old school fans wishing to stick to older versions of the show from the 1990s and 2000s and unwilling to accept proper change to the franchise in order to give it a proper kick up the backside. 

The example with the WWE shows that an over-reliance on nostalgia can have adverse consequences for performers and actors on the part of the content creator while the same on behalf of the audience is shown by The Loony Tunes Show.  If we are to fully integrate what made older and well-established franchises to more modern TV and film styles and tropes for a modern audience in a smooth and constructive way then we have to reach a good balance between what the audience want and what seems to be the best way of either embracing or criticising modern culture. Now I'm not saying I have the be all and end all of solutions to this but as shown with the abundance of mini-series released after The Loony Tunes Show or the improvements made over the last few Wrestlemania events by WWE as shown by the success of Wrestlemania 32 in 2016, it seems like the best solution is simply trial and error and experimentation.  If anything, while this isn't a fully efficient method, it'll certainly produce the most clear results when trying to create a good implementation of nostalgia into modern entertainment.

Now if you want a bad example, particularly in film where this problem has been far worse over the last few years as compared to TV or even computer games then you need look no further than the 2015 film release Terminator: Genisys.

Image source: http://www.hdwallpapers.in/emilia_clarke_arnold_terminator_genisys-wallpapers.html

Now Genisys is certainly not the worst release in the Terminator series (1984-present) with the worst in my opinion being that god awful TV show The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008-09) but Genisys was certainly not helped by its almost jaw-dropping over-reliance on nostalgic imagery throughout pretty much the entire film.  In all honesty, this wasn't the worst thing about the film or the main reason why it ended getting 26% on Rotten Tomatoes or 38% on Metacritic as that would probably be the shoddy writing and overly-backtracking story that beats the shit out of the overall franchise's storyline.  However, the film's narrative problems were certainly not helped by a stunning over-reliance on scenes ripped straight from the older films such as a shot-for-shot replication of the Nike trainers scene from the original 1984 film without any proper context or ripping the first murder scene by Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 in the first film almost entirely shot for shot and line for line or replicating the death of the main villain again to a scarily similar degree from the 2003 Terminator film Rise of the Machines.  The abundance of recreations of iconic scenes from older entries into the series was so over-saturated to such a degree that while I did enjoy this film overall, I never really got the sense that the film was trying to stand on its own two feet and instead tried to an almost wholesale degree to support itself on the iconography and pedigree of the Terminator series up to that point.  Did the film do better than the fourth film or the TV show?  Certainly, but it didn't revive the series to the degree that people thought it would on account of the almost unpalatable unoriginality rife throughout this movie.

Image source: http://lestoilesheroiques.fr/2015/03/terminator-genisys-arnold-schwarzenegger-et-emilia-clarke-en-couverture-dempire-nouvelles-images.html

Ok so to prevent myself from having my brains blasted out by a vengeful Emilia Clarke and her bloody dragon babies and terminator sidekick I should mention that this film is certainly not bad but it is certainly not the nostalgia and franchise tonic that was expected of it.  In a similar way to Wrestlemania 30 in 2014, the film was expected to supercharge its franchise to its former glory and much like in that case the over-reliance on the nostalgia of the creators became a crutch for the film meaning that it never felt like relying on its own worth as a stand-alone film regardless of the pedigree of the series that it is a part of.  Certainly not the main problem for the film but it is certainly a crippling one.

Now before I leave you all for another week I should mention the aforementioned point from me talking about The Loony Tunes Show that there really is no solid way of creating a bit of film, TV or a computer game that pays good homage to its series while updating the series to a good degree and creating a nice bit of medium that can stand solidly on its own two feet other than trial and error.  The WWE learned from the mistakes made between Wrestlemania 27 and 31 and used that to create one of the best Wrestlemania events in about a decade with number 32.  The Loony Tunes Show might not have been a wholesale success but it was a reasonably successful attempt at changing up the formula of its franchise while creating something new and anything that was learnt from its failings were then taken into account for future series.  Maybe some franchises like Terminator, Scooby Doo (1969-present) do use their nostalgia base as a crutch and this can be shown to be a financially viable option in some cases but with increasingly critical movie and consumer-going audiences being more and more the case along with the rise of social media this may be a thing of the past.  At the very least, as shown with TV shows like The Legend of Korra (2012-14) or films like Deadpool (2016), we are experiencing an increasing trend in using nostalgia as a dressing to fresh and updated ideas for established franchises and that makes me very hopeful for the future let me tell you that.

Hopefully I've hit the nail on the head for you all on this issue and if I haven't...then go suck on a copy of the original Scooby Doo boxset while cradling a Bugs Bunny cuddly toy...you fucking introvert.