This past week, Netflix has hosted on their various social media sites a virtual con-like experience called “Geeked Week”. It was a celebration of all things geek on Netflix.
And, it was! There were a lot of announcements, and a good variety of chosen properties.
But that’s where my compliments end. You see, when they announced the show, the press release mentioned The Old Guard. For that reason, we expected something. Maybe not the official sequel announcement (mention in Production Weekly and Matthias’ IG story aside), but at least something. The blooper reel, the Church deleted scene (which we know exists), a discussion with the director, or with the writer. Just something.
We got nothing. Ok, well, that’s not technically true. During the sizzle reel that was used as a bumper between the main 40-ish minute show and the hour plus long post show, there was a quick shot of Andy and Nile’s fight scene on the plane that lasted just over a second.
And that’s it.
Unless I’m incorrect, which is totally possible because I’m picky and I don’t really watch a lot of Netflix originals, every other property in the sizzle reel was mentioned or talked about. In some way.
But not The Old Guard. Not this week. Especially not during Pride Month. (Added insult to injury).
So, for that reason alone, I’m fuming. But let me talk about the rest of the show before I completely lose my temper (again).
The show was structured between an approximately 40 minute main show with the two hosts, then a hour plus long post-show with an additional guest or two. The main show featured most of the announcements, while the post show was more of the deep dives and talks. It was also made more casual.
The main show was… a mess. There were a variety of announcements each day, each within a basic theme (main properties, sci-fi/fantasy, comics, animation, and video games), though there was some overlap. A good example is that Cobra Kai was talked about on the final day (gaming), but only in the post show. It would have fit in better earlier in the week.
The two hosts, who I will discuss later, would banter and set up each property, usually with some very awkward jokes that didn’t always land. It was especially obvious when there wasn’t a trailer to debut, because it seemed like vamping between storyboards or set photos just didn’t work. There was a weird focus on some shows, which could be over five-eight minutes (Captain Laserhawk from today was a near seven minutes, with very little to show for it). Other things that people were really excited about would barely get two minutes during the main show, including Shadow and Bone and The Witcher. You know, two of the biggest properties on Netflix right now.
The post show also wasn’t that good. The two hosts were joined by one person every day (except for Thursday, where there were two guests), and they went into a deep dive approach with what was shown during the main show. For Sweet Tooth, the main show gave us the blooper reel. The post show was two of the stars eating candy from around the world. Other times it was discussions with directors or actors or animators. All could have been well and good, but the format dragged on for too long. Each segment seemed to take longer and longer.
At some point, they would also do something interactive. One day was the hosts being quizzed on how to spell some fantasy words (I am not joking), hosted by the guy who created one of the languages in Game of Thornes. (No, I’m not looking up the name of the language. I don’t care that much). It… wasn’t pretty. Another day had them playing Pictionary with various Netflix titles, and two of the hosts kept drawing penises as the beginning of each drawing. Because nothing says humor more than drawing a dick. Yesterday, they were gifted new action figures from Masters of the Universe, and they opened them and played around. Because content. Then one of the hosts spent the rest of the time building a Gundam model kit, which made things awkward. They kept trying to include him into conversations, but he was too concentrated on building.
It just didn’t work. The two hosts, who I’m not naming on account that this really isn’t their fault, didn’t have much to work with. It was clear that the banter and jokes was prewritten, and it felt as though they hadn’t been able to over the script before going live. Especially the first two days, everything felt stilted and awkward. It also didn’t help that a good portion of what they were showing was more like announcements instead of trailers, with the images already on timers. If and when they sped through lines, they had to wait for the images to catch up, which led to a lot of dead air.
Honestly, it was a mess. Sure there were some announcements that I was generally excited for (Locke and Key confirmed for October), and a lot of the fandoms were happy with the Shadow and Bone season two announcement, but it felt like… pandering? I guess that’s the word I’m going with. 80% of what was shown could have easily been dropped onto Twitter or Youtube, with no one to be the wiser. Instead, a bloated and inconcieved show was brought to light, and it was clear that whoever was running it didn’t exactly know what they were doing.
What killed me (besides the lack of acknowledgement of TOG) was that the viewers were expecting more. Instead of release dates, it was a dripple of news that could have been tossed onto Twitter. Instead of a full trailer, there were teasers. And instead of new content, in several places there was the rerelease of trailers and whatnot that had already been out.
It’s here that I want to quickly point something out. Due to being teamed up with Summer Game Fest, Friday had to be the day for video game properties (which I would also say was the worst day). Geoff Keighley was a guest host. It just didn’t work. The dynamic that had been established between the original two hosts was thrown off, because Mr. Keighley was on the stage from the moment they went live, instead of just in the post show. Also, having the video game properties on Friday meant that one of the big fan favorite series would have to wait to have any information dropped until Friday. In layman’s terms, no one got any inofrmation on The Witcher until the end of the show. And it wasn’t a lot of info anyway.
In all honesty, this would have been better off as a one or two day event, even if it was tied into the Summer Game Fest. Stretching it to be 2-2.5 hours shows across five days just felt like a waste. There was a lot of wasted time, a lot of annoyed fans, and a lot of information left on the cutting room floor.
… Which brings me to now, nearly twelve hours after the final show wrapped up. Most of this has been written for days, only edited as the show went more downhill. I actually had to step away from the computer at one point, because I was getting so annoyed at the continued avoidance of all mention of TOG. Actually, here’s a fun thing: I got timed out of Twitch chat three times for mentioning TOG. And the first two times I was being respectful. (The last time I was snarky and I’m not sorry.) All day I’ve taken to commenting on the Netflix Geeked account, reminding them that TOG still exists and damn it, the one year anniversary is a month away, just make it official.
But I digress. In summary, Netflex done goofed with “Geeked Week”. It was not a success, and it only trended briefly. Over the course of the week. In contrast, Summer Game Fest was trending all day yesterday, and most of today. I wouldn’t be surprised if that continued throughout the entire E3 event.
Alas, this may come back. Hopefully not. I don’t think my stress can take it.
Until next time!
