Detective Pikachu, Chicago Taxes, and Modern Media Revivals

Neil Ross here and it's time to get altered and

get geeky on Altered Geek with Steve Megatron.

Hello and welcome to Altered Geek. I'm your host

Steve Megatron Phillips and joining me this week

is... JFJU and Mike. Hello, hello. Hello, hello.

So on the docket today we have a multitude of

topics from Detective Pikachu to the... Chicago

tax of entertainment, reboot revivals, and then

Funko Pops. Yes, the amusement tax. Oh, God.

Yay, Chicago. That's because they got C2E2. I

still think that thing should have changed its

name each year. C3E3, C4E4, but whatever. Anyway.

There's so many different ones going around.

You know, there was that article earlier this

year, or late last year, where San Diego's like,

No, this is law. We are the only Comic -Con.

You can't call yourself Comic -Con anymore. I'm

like, oh god, give it a rest. They're evil. Yeah.

So, Detective Pikachu. Oh my god. I watched the

trailer for this. I expected to hate it. I surprisingly

don't. The one thing I've said about this is

that I Feel like it's going to be not the movie

itself, but the the promotion the hype the whatever

around it I feel like it's gonna be the same

thing as what the happy time murders were was

which was the puppets thing the Muppets go evil

movie kind of thing with Melissa McCarthy and

It was, you know, amazing, amazing, hype, hype,

hype, trailer, trailer, trailer came out. I wanted

to see it. Karen and my wife, Karen and I got

too damn busy and I we completely forgotten lost

interest. And like I haven't heard anything about

it since it got released to theaters. I don't

know what it did in the box office. I don't care.

It bombed. I'm sure because most things Melissa

McCarthy does bomb. With this, I. It's Deadpool

voicing Pikachu. It's Ryan Reynolds voicing Pikachu

At least he's graduated from Green Lantern for

Van Wilder. He's now Deadpool Yeah, and that's

cool. Like I like the first Deadpool. I haven't

seen the second one yet. I will eventually Yeah,

I will I'll see it eventually. I have not seen

it yet but the first thing I thought of was oh

my god, it's Deadpool is a Pokemon and We knew

eventually at some point a live -action Pokemon

movie was going to happen I didn't think it was

going to be in the form of Ryan Reynolds as Detective

Pikachu, but okay sure fine Whatever what when

I equate this to is like Wreck -It Ralph meets

Deadpool I say that I say that lovingly because

they're Because the way that they're incorporating

the the different Pokemon into this world it

almost reminds me of the cyberspace and all the

different buildings and everything else with

All the different characters, so it's it's very

Well done and very mixed up in that sense So

they've got Like on their their poster, it's

got detective Pikachu, and he's walking through

and There's like jigglypuff records J puff records

And then they've got Mr. Mime, One Night Only.

And then, you know, the PokeMart and some of

the other stuff. So I mean, it's just, they're

having fun with it. There's like Pokemon Snap

and then, you know, Moomoo Milk and some other

weird things that are on there. But when they

had them show up and they were like, you know,

fuzzy and more like quasi like CGI. with the

real feel of like, Monsters Inc. in a sense.

I was like, okay, it's a different aesthetic,

but I'm not hating it. And then they had him,

you know, the only person that can hear him speak,

which makes a lot of sense when you're watching

the cartoon now, is the one that the trainer,

you know, because the Pokemon supposedly chooses

the trainer and, you know, then they can kind

of... they form this bond and can hear each other

and whereas like anybody else just hears their

their Pokemon sound which was really funny because

you know when Ryan Reynolds is talking it's very

sarcastic and you know put down the stapler or

I will shock you and he's like acting it out

and he's like you can talk you can hear me and

then when the lady does the whole thing of Isn't

he cute and you know, can you hear him pika pika?

Yeah, pika pika. Yeah, he can't hear me So I

mean, yeah, it was just it was just really funny

and I think that this movie will go over really

well Yeah, I think it will too. But I also think

that certain Pokemon fans might be up in arms

about it because the poke fandom is very Fickle

shall we say when it comes to certain things?

But aren't every one of the franchises, I mean,

you look at Transformers, you look at He -Man,

you look at, you know, just because people had

the outrage with She -Ra, and then the Thundercats

go, and then, you know, so I mean, like, every

franchise gets that way. I mean, Star Trek and

Star Wars are, like, the big two right now that

are having that throwdown. But... Again? Really?

It's always going on. Well, Star Trek is constantly

green -lighting new shows right now. and adding

seasons to things that haven't even aired yet.

They're like, oh, we're greenlit for a second

season. Hey, guess what? The first season hasn't

even been started yet. So it's just a title right

now with a premise and a long one. So I don't

know. I feel like this will go over much better

than some of those other things, as long as they

do it right. And I feel like the trailer slam

dunked it. Yeah, it did. It was one of the cooler

trailers. Am I still going to go see the movie

in theaters? No, probably not. But I didn't like

come out of watching the trailer and say, oh,

that that's going to suck or whatever. I just

said, oh, hey, look, it's Deadpool is Pikachu.

That's all I said. And I think that that'll be

part of the drive and the pull for the movie.

Yeah. For being live action is because it's Ryan

Reynolds and because everybody has this like

love of him now because of the character of Deadpool.

But like you know I'm with you. I won't I don't

I actually don't even see movies in theater anymore

Just because I don't have time. It's just it's

more of a time issue than anything else and because

I just I don't care anymore Yeah, I'll wait till

it hits some streaming service, and then watch

it that way yeah So for those of you who don't

know my wife and I have been married for about

a year almost a year at this point our anniversary

is December 6th Yay and we've been together for

a year as of August 6th so in a year years time

between the time we got together and now we've

seen two movies in theaters which was Incredibles

2 and the one night only showing of Transformers

the movie like When I see trailers for stuff.

Oh, yeah, cool. Sure. I can wait until it hits

streaming the only one I want to see in the theater

that we didn't get to see was the Won't you be

my neighbor the mr. Rogers documentary? I wanted

to see that in the theater, but we just didn't

have the time or we didn't whatever I'm really

I'm really interested to see that and I'm really

interested to see the Tom Hanks version I'm not

I am only because he's gonna be playing mr. Rogers

and they made him look like surprisingly like

mr. Rogers I'm not a fan of it. I I'm fine with

the actual documentary. Like I said, you know

won't you be my neighbor, but the Tom Hanks Fictional

version of it. I know I just can't get behind

Forrest Gump being Mr. Rogers. See, you can't

put away the fact that there's a different face

sitting there pretending to be the person that's

there. I can get past that. It's just as long

as it's the right person doing it. Now, for instance,

if somebody else tried to play like Tony Stark

at this point, I would be like, no, you're nuts.

It's like Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine. There's

no better. You know that that's the one thing

I gotta get Marvel They don't have to play character

select on actors every few years of a new rendition

of their their characters Because they choose

them right the first time Exactly. Yeah, whereas

DC's like I don't know what we're doing this

week. I think we'll change it every year so and

I mean like Okay, yeah, I agree with what you're

saying about the Marvel characters and the actors

playing them But there are certain ones that

they're they're gonna be like, oh well, I'm kind

of done. I want to move on case in point No,

Chris Evans as cap now the only thing is I don't

know if they'll recast Steve Rogers cap but they

could just use like Sam Wilson You know have

him as cap or that there have been plenty of

other versions of Captain America Besides Steve

Rogers, even though he is the main kind of killing

what they could have recast Nick not that they

would have because hello Samuel Jackson But they

could have recast Nick Fury several different

times and they haven't kind of a thing and Robert

Downey jr. Is so engrossed and in with the fandom

and in with supporting his like he wasn't gonna

do a couple of these movies until his stars got

his co -stars got the same amount of money as

he did kind of a thing like he's all in supporting

this as Iron Man now is there gonna be a time

where he might say oh I want to step away or

who knows if that's gonna happen or not but that's

what I love about the Marvel universe in the

in the films is that Everybody seems to all be

on the same page. You don't have Diva temper

tantrum kind of things. You don't have any of

that stuff. And I've said this for almost 10

years that I've been podcasting. Marvel is amazing

at the films and DC does animation. Well, like

DC's films, especially the last couple of years.

This this the Batman project that's supposed

to be coming out by Matt Reeves. I don't even

like anymore It's not that I don't even care

anymore. I don't even like there's nothing there

Yeah, I don't even pay attention and now they're

saying that that supposedly Batfleck is gonna

show up Not on the CW not on Gotham. He's gonna

show up somewhere. That's where it is Yeah, it's

gonna show up on the DC Universe app Titan series

You can go off Batman for all we care because

that's what they said in the trailer was F Batman

so you know I Don't know and what we see what

I saw Ben Affleck as Batman I feel was a piss

-poor movie It just was I would have rather I

don't want to see the Batman origin again, but

I would rather have seen a solo Batman film to

actually get the feel for Ben Affleck as Batman.

Well, I want to see basically the writing that

we got in the Arkham games. Exactly, yeah. Which

means they need to hire Paul Dini to write it.

Exactly. And then have Ben Affleck playing Batman.

And then boom, we're good, because he does kind

of look like Kevin Conroy's Batman on the animated

series. Yeah. in a multitude of ways and then

he has the Dark Knight Returns kind of batsuit.

Which I was really good with just because I mean

it was kind of a tie between that and the new

52 which I felt was a nice mesh that they had

going in BVS and then they kind of like foobarred

it and went back to the jet black crap in Justice

League. Yeah, so see I haven't even seen I haven't

even seen Justice League yet Like the only bad

fleck move the only bad fleck movie I've seen

is is the BS that is BVS I have not seen Justice

League and it's not that I don't it is that I

don't want to but it isn't really it's more so

out of sight out of mind like You know this podcast

was built on the 2012 comic -con news of Batman

versus Superman Ben Affleck versus Henry Cavill

that was the first news story you guys talked

about and After all this time. It's like at this

point. I just don't give a rip anymore. No but

uh Yeah, so so moving on to something else that

equally sucks We have the the Chicago tax yes

amusement tax that is nine percent yeah so I

you know met my wife online like you know people

like oh how'd you guys meet my my answer is I

will always be you know online how does anybody

else How does anybody meet these days kind of

a thing? Cause I'm not a bar scene guy. I'm not

a church guy. I'm not doing any of that crap.

I prefer to stay away from people in general

and I just prefer to be at home kind of a thing.

So how else am I going to meet people? The internet,

of course, you know, kind of a thing. And so

I had zero problems moving from Kentucky to Illinois

because I've been in love with Chicago since

I was a senior in high school. I almost, if I

had a higher score on my ACT, I would have gotten

into the University of Chicago back in 1999.

So, you know, and it also goes back to Knight

Rider because the season four premiere of the

series, the original 80s series took place, the

two hour premiere took place in Chicago. So,

you know, you put Michael Knight and Kit in any

city, I'm probably going to fall in love with

that city. And it just so happened to be Chicago.

But the taxes here are crazy. They have a 9 %

amusement tax as you said. It's currently on

Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Pandora, and a few other

things. You want to know what's funny about it

though. They're basically saying that they're

taxing fun. Yeah. Because the second area code

section 4 -156 -010 states that amusement means

one any exhibition performance presentation or

show for entertainment purposes including but

not limited to theatrical dramatic musical or

spectacular performance promotional show motion

pictures show flower, poultry, or animal show,

animal act, circus, rodeo, athletic contest,

sport, game, or similar exhibition such as boxing,

wrestling, skating, dancing, swimming, racing,

or riding on animals or vehicles, baseball, basketball,

softball, football, tennis, golf, hockey, track

and field, games, bowling, or billiard, or pool

tables. And then two, I just want to read it

because it sounds funny. It's almost like one

of those like medical infomercials on a drug.

So it's just really fun to do right now. Any

entertainment or recreational activity offered

for public participation or any membership or

other basis, including but not limited to carnivals,

amusement park rides, and games, bowling, billiards,

pool games, dancing, tennis, racquetball, swimming,

weightlifting, bodybuilding, or similar activities,

or any paid television programming, whether transmitted

by wire, cable, fiber optics, laser, microwave,

radio, satellite, or similar means. It's crap.

Yeah, it is so much crap and Okay, so the reason

why we're even bringing this up there was a story

that broke on Various outlets, but I'm reading

it from the CBS to Chicago website Upcoming video

game tax has gamers seeing red. So the new tax

this 9 % Amusement tax is the result of an agreement

between Sony and the city of Chicago and that

has some gamers seeing red Some gamers on Thursday

night were just getting a word that their gaming

hobby was about to get more expensive Quote you

are just playing in the comfort of your living

room playing PlayStation. Why do you have to

be taxed on it? It makes no sense said PlayStation

gamer David Kim Why should I have to pay extra

if I didn't have to pay before and why do I have

to pay now? Okay, so here's the here's the thing

with this and in my opinion and others can sound

off in the comments and whatever hopefully Mike

booth ninja powers will write a comment or Mention

on social media or we can bring it up again next

time when he's here This may happen throughout

the country, I don't know so far Sony has only

done it here in Chicago You spend, let's say,

regular MSRP, anywhere from $400 to $700 on a

PS4. And the reason why I say $400 to $700 is

because they have, you know, various versions.

They have the regular version, they have the

base version, they have the this version, they

have the that version, they have the super Spiderman

PS4 version kind of a thing. And I know Black

Friday's coming up because Thanksgiving is coming

up and all that. And I believe... Walmart and

target are gonna have the ps4 spider -man bundle

for like 199 on black friday I don't know whatever.

It's just what I read Online, so you're spending

all of this money to buy this game system You

pay your internet company. Whatever it is comcast

spectrum direct TV AT &T What whoever your internet

service provider is you pay them to be online?

and you just want to sit in the comfort of your

own home and interact with your other friends

on a gaming console playing Spider -Man or Call

of Duty or whatever it is, why should you have

to sit there and pay more tax on something you've

already bought? No, I agree. It's frustrating

because this isn't the only city that's got it

though. Oh, really? Yeah, there's many cities

have this amusement tax including cities in Pennsylvania,

Maryland, Tennessee, Florida, and Wisconsin.

Oh, well, Wisconsin I don't doubt because it's

right next to Illinois. Cheese! But yeah, it's

such garbage though because they're just trying

to find a way to like squeeze extra money out

of people. Oh, yeah. And then not not to mention

the fact that gamers are being attacked with

microtransactions left and right now Don't even

get me started like it's not even the actual

PlayStation game stuff, but even the mobile game

stuff like My wife plays words with friends one

of the Facebook games. She's been playing it

for years at one point They allowed her to buy

it to have ad free And so she'd been grandfathered

in when Words with Friends 2 came along. Well,

I go and try to download Words with Friends 2,

and I get bombarded with ads after every word

I play. Like, she'll play a word, I'll play a

word. As soon as my word is done, I get hit with

an ad. And lately, it's been popping up, oh,

pay 10 bucks to have ad free for the next 30

days. No, I'll pay 10 bucks to have a full version

of the game with no ads. Thank you very much

for the rest of... my natural born life as long

as I own my smartphone. I'm not paying 10 bucks

a month for ad free words with friends. That's

ridiculous. See, that's where I'm just like,

I'm out. And then I just, I quit doing stuff

like because I refuse to pay extra for a lot

of things. And you're going to see a lot of people

just over this, you know, little nickel and diamond

stuff. Yep. Start pirating again. Oh, absolutely.

Pirating's gonna come back in a heartbeat because

of all of this. And yeah, you can shut down places

like Pirate Bay and things like that, but they

still pop up. And Pirate Bay still pops up. They

switch their ISPs constantly, and so it's, you

know, I'm not saying it's right, but I think

that the government should be coming in and telling

people how to do things like this, especially

when in the 90s... There was a federal law the

Internet Tax Freedom Act which was signed by

Clinton in 98 that's prevent state and local

government from taxing Internet access or imposing

multiple or discriminatory taxes on electronic

commerce and now Some of the courts are using

this as their main argument that the tax is illegal

and must be lifted Some of the some of the counties

that are fighting it now so I think it should

be lifted. I think it's crap Yeah, I mean this

this is just as bad, but this reminds me of the

soda tax kind of thing mm -hmm soda tax here

in Chicago was 10 .25 percent see we don't even

have it here they we have 10 % on like marijuana

which is understandable, but Because it just

passed in Michigan, but But like to do that and

like entertainment Yeah, like really seriously.

It's like yeah Thanks for taking extra money

for me having fun and actually living life Yeah,

really like I just now realized because of this

article and I kind of realized it before it must

be taxed but I realized that when I turned my

hulu on when I you know Got the monthly subscription

transferred from Kentucky to here. I was paying

$1 ,199, no tax in Kentucky. There was no tax

on it at all. It was $1 ,199 straight for the

plan that I have, the basic plan that allows

you no ads. Here in Chicago, it's $1 ,306 after

tax. I'm like, seriously? $2 .50 or whatever

it is to ... have entertainment like really and

because i'm on hulu all the time and i watch

the shows the next day and things like that whatever

it's two bucks it's whatever it is but still

it's crazy because like like you said you're

taxing us from having fun and yet You know half

of the news is you know this person shot this

person this person's home got broken into the

it's all depressing crap so like we have to find

some sort of escape what i think is crap is it

yes the government part of it but also the fact

that sony made this deal with the city of chicago

like companies are gonna make a deal like this

really to really after you've paid like i said

between four and seven hundred dollars for a

ps4 really The company is going to then want

to make a deal with the city that you live in

to tax you. And it's only for people who have

the city of Chicago billing addresses. It's nuts.

It's just so nuts and it drives me crazy. I don't

know. Yeah, I don't know, man. It's just it's

ridiculous. It is like. You know, you know, there's

that old scene in a movie that'll be about 20

years old next year 10 things I hate about you

where Heath Ledger says to Andrew Keegan's character

Joey says, okay. Well, let's think about this

going to the movies You know, the tickets are

probably gonna be 15 20 bucks, you know And then

she's gonna want raisinettes and popcorn and

a drink and whatever that's gonna be 53 bucks

So we're looking at about 75 bucks Fabio You

know You know take 50, you know take 50 and like

it trailer park kind of a thing basically the

whole movie theaters are expensive thing and

that's really what this feels like it Taxing

entertainment is just wrong Like I get it a normal

sales tax like Kentucky's I believe is the sales

tax is like 6 % I could be wrong, but I think

I'm right like so An item that is 99 cents is

either a dollar five or a dollar six. Yeah, sure

fine Whatever, but an additional tax like like

like we're saying an amusement tax on top of

sales tax That's a little much So it's crazy

I think now that we've we've destroyed that soapbox

we can move to the other soapbox. Oh, no TV reboots

and revivals Or continuations in film form that

is yes, so kind of going in that that rodeo we

have For instance one that probably doesn't need

to be made Toy Story 4 Okay, so I saw the teaser

trailer that they put out which one I was there's

two Only saw the one with the the fake toy the

toy. That's not a toy. That's not supposed to

be there Okay, I saw the other one too where

it had Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele No,

I did not see that keen keel from you know so

they're they're playing stuffed animals making

fun of Buzz Lightyear's slogan No, I did not

see that I saw the what I assume is the official

first teaser of all the toys holding hands and

whatever in the sky and there's this happy music

and all this and all that and then there's this

like Spoon looking character. I'm not even a

toy. I'm not supposed to be here kind of thing

I'm thoroughly not excited I love the Toy Story

franchise. I absolutely do. I think the third

movie was an amazing movie, and I think the third

movie was a great ending point for the franchise.

I have no idea what the fourth movie's gonna

be. I'll hold out my judgment until then, but

just seeing the teaser, I'm not excited for it

at all. Just not. I gotta say I'm in the same

boat. But I guess we'll see what happens. Yeah,

we'll see what happens and that's fine. I'm I'm

not making a judgment on the movie I'm just saying

I'm not excited about the news that there's gonna

be a fourth Toy Story I'm perfectly fine with

them doing like little mini shorts like Toy Story

of Terror or like The Beach thing that they did

or like Hawaiian Vacation or whatever that was

kind of like the little shorts things. That's

fine, but Another film I just feel is not needed.

And until I see an actual full -on trailer, I

have zero interest. Yeah. I just have zero interest

in that. So among other things that have been

rebooted slash continued, Fuller House, again,

canceled after its fourth season is over. I only

watched the first season and I actually skipped

through like the last three episodes, like I

skipped through each episode of the last three

episodes of the first season. I could not take

it. After all the good jokes were done in the

beginning of the season, you know, after all

the have mercies you could absolutely want and

need out of a show like this, a new show, I just

couldn't handle half of Fuller House and I have

not watched season two, three or four. I don't

know if I ever will. It's better But it's attempting

to tie up like old loose ends From the original

show and then they end up in the third season

incorporating more of the original cast with

Season four where the original cast will be completely

in the show hmm I might watch that since it's

the original cast the original cast kind of comes

back in full force like They'll be on like basically

they move back home right back to San Francisco

in season 4 season 3 They're all kind of in the

show sporadically a lot more than what they would

have been The biggest question I have is is Michelle

gonna show up or they just gonna make constant

jokes about her not showing up You know they

should just do Get their younger sister who's

Scarlet Witch to show up. Yep. Just have her

be Michelle now. Yep Yeah, Scarlet Witch. Oh

You look so different now. You changed way too

much Michelle. You're not our sister. You're

up Hey, aren't which twin are you? Oh wait You're

the triplet. Yeah, so yeah, it's I don't I don't

think that they'll have her in the show, but

if they do I would be very surprised Yeah Then

of course there's Kelsey Grammer wanting to bring

back Frasier Which I don't know if you've even

watched the original oh yes, I did absolutely

what was the premise of it just because I haven't

had time to okay, so History lesson folks and

no I'm not optimist solo, but still history lesson

here Growing up in Massachusetts, and it's not

just because it's a Massachusetts thing, but

it kind of is Cheers, which was where Kelsey

Grammer's character Frazier first started Cheers

was based in Boston. It was about Sam Malone

who played for the Red Sox yada yada yada yada

yada They introduced Kelsey Grammer's character.

They introduced his wife Lilith's character and

all that and everything else At the end of Cheers,

he gets a radio gig out in Seattle and he moves

out there to do that and to take care of his

elderly father. So it ends up being him, his

father played by the late great John Mahoney,

and Niles, his brother who is played by David

Hyde Pierce. And it's basically their adventures

in Seattle with him doing his radio show and

all of that kind of a thing. I believe it's on

either Netflix or Hulu still. Check out a couple

episodes of the first season. You might find

it funny. I've seen it. It's just, it's been

a while and I couldn't remember what the exact

premise of the show was. Yeah. Check it out again.

Like, you know, just to, you don't have to watch

all 11 seasons or anything like that. You don't

have to pull a me or anything like that. But

like I'd say check out the first like two or

three episodes. They're really funny. I absolutely

love them. I can go back and watch that show

pretty much any time I want because it's basically,

you know, it's just really, really funny and

it's cool characters and it's not Frazier dealing

with the Cheers characters anymore. It's with

his own kind of, you know, separate, you know,

placeholder people kind of thing. I don't mean

placeholder, but that's what I said. Frazier

coming back. I don't know You know remember when

William Shatner did This very short -lived it

was based on the Twitter feed and I'm gonna say

this and I want you to leave it in I'm not gonna

add it in remember when he remember when he did

shit my dad says Cuz it was based on that Twitter

feed kind of thing. It was a very short like

a ton of bricks, right? It was a very short -lived

show Kind of a thing where he would say like

the the raunchiest kind of things and whatever

else Well, they brought back Murphy Brown and

I liked Murphy Brown in the beginning. I remember

all the characters I remember the the the newsroom.

I remember this I remember that I remember how

creepy certain characters were everything else

when they brought her back and the first couple

episodes is basically her versus Trump and I

don't want revivals or reboots or whatever to

be pulled in my personal opinion the whole point

of television entertainment is to get out of

reality and while yes it is funny that Not only

does Trump make fun of himself, but people make

fun of him as well. I don't need that in my television.

And Karen and I are still watching it still,

but I don't know if I'll watch it past the first

season kind of a thing. So bringing Frasier back

has me hesitating because I don't know what they're

going to do with it. Like, I don't know. How

they're gonna handle it. I don't know what the

the contents gonna be or anything like that if

He's just gonna do the same thing. He did in

the original show if they're gonna continue that

or what I'm not sure So I'm just hesitant with

it at best. I don't dislike or like the idea

either way Yeah, I'm kind of I'm kind of torn

And on revivals I'm the the the regard of how

political they get and I it's more so just because

We get enough of that drama on Twitter. Oh Yeah,

I don't really want to see it in my shows either

and I get it some of this stuff's gonna bleed

over anyway And it always has in television in

the last like 60 years. Yeah but it's written

in such a way it's not like a direct punch against

what's going on or actual people. It's written

in a way that it's fictitious and it's making

fun of a possible part of the climate over a

certain period of time, but it's not necessarily

like, it's kind of an overarching fantasized

version of whatever's going on. And I think that

that's where it lends itself better in not Yeah

Getting caught up in in actually attacking a

specific person or administration Well, yeah

certain shows do that and then there's Murphy

Brown she actively Attacks the administration

in the fictional show. So I guess that's all

right because I like last man standing So I mean,

I guess I get the other side of the spectrum

there. So yeah, absolutely Continuing on with

reboots and remakes and things like that. I have

to say I listened to Almost all of part two with

you and DJ, but I did listen to all of part one

for AG and DJ Valentine from simplistic reviews

is under this impression that the lethal weapon

television show is a continuation or more from

what the four lethal weapon movies did and It's

not. I know he knows this. I know he knows this.

I know he'll say, oh, they're just using the

character names. They're just doing this. It's

not the real Riggs. It's not the real this. I

had reservations when Lethal Weapon was first

announced. I thought it was continuation. I wasn't

sure. Whatever. The four movies are the four

movies. They are what they are. Mel Gibson and

Danny Glover's characters are what they are.

This is and I get what DJ is saying too about

oh you just taking the character names and trying

to reel reel people in with that What I felt

over the first two seasons of Lethal Weapon between

Riggs and Murtaugh Damon Wayne's character as

Murtaugh and Clayne Crawford's character as Riggs

They took those characters and made them slightly

different at the same time the show also pulled

stunts or pulled homages to the movies there

was one episode in season one where They dove

off a hotel balcony and ended up in the pool.

Well, that's kind of what happened in the second

Lethal Weapon movie at one point with Joe Pesci

kind of a thing. The characters are different.

It's a different story. It's a different feel.

It's a different background kind of a thing.

Now, obviously, Clayne Crawford was supposedly

a nightmare to work with and he ended up doing

unsafe things on the set and he ended up getting

fired. So they left season two with a cliffhanger

of him getting shot by his half brother. I'll

say this for season two. I love the story that

they did in season two with getting answers with

his father and his past and all that and everything

else. Season three, we weren't even sure if we

were gonna get a season three. We weren't even

sure if the show was gonna be picked up again.

But it was, it was announced that Stifler was

going to be playing a new character. Sean William

Scott plays Wesley Cole. Now, for those of you

who have seen the four Lethal Weapon films, you'll

know that Lorna Cole, played by Rene Russo, was

Riggs's love interest in the movie. Well, this

character, Wesley Cole, has so far, to this point,

no relation, no connection, other than just referencing

the Cole name. That's really the only thing.

He's his own character. He has his own things

going on. He has his own past, obviously. Um,

and what I love about this season of Lethal Weapons

so far is that it is so vastly different from

when Clayne Crawford was Riggs and they didn't

sit there and recast Riggs. They let Riggs die

off and they brought in this new character, this

new dynamic, and it's so fun to me because not

only do you have Roger being challenged again

with a new partner, You have all these other

side stories and things like that with Cole His

ex -wife What's her name? Oh god, I know what

her I know what the actress's name is, but I

Natalie yeah, yep She's played by Maggie Lawson.

Well, I don't know Maggie Lawson personally I

grew up watching a young Maggie Lawson on WDRB

Fox 41 in Louisville, Kentucky. She is a Louisville,

Kentucky girl. So anytime she shows up in anything,

I'm like, ooh, hey, it's Maggie Lawson. I kind

of know her, even though I really don't. But

I know of her, because I saw her on kids' news

television programming back in the 90s kind of

a thing. So I love that she's there. I think

that's cool. And I'm really digging the third

season. I think it's super fun. I think it's

super different. I don't know where it's going

to be going. And that's a good thing if you if

you can't sit there and predict where a television

season is going then it must be good Yeah, and

I mean I Well, I agree with them. It's not lethal

weapon It's a different version of it Yeah, I

mean it's really it's no different than how many

times they've changed Transformers Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles You know just a variety of other

different series that have come out over the

years. So, I mean, it's just a different iteration.

You know, no different than how they constantly

change Star Trek and especially that their animated

series is called Star Trek Lower Decks. Not decks,

decks. And it has to do with the people that

are on those lower decks. And it's animated,

it's... It's CBS All Access' first animated series,

and it will be produced by CBS Eye Animations

Productions, Secret Hideout, and Roddenberry

Entertainment. And it's going to be written and

developed by Mike McMahon of Rick and Morty.

Please stop talking like Daffy Duck. Thank you

very much. I do that on purpose. But anyways.

Yes, I know you do. So anyways. Yeah, I mean.

So basically this is this is how he won the role

says Mike won our hearts with his first sentence

I want to do a show about the people who put

the yellow cartridge in the food replicator so

a banana can come out at the other end. Oh no,

and They said he's funny and knows every inch

of every stretch track episode and his you know,

he likes to write So basically I think we're

gonna end up with like a thundercats go version

of Star Trek here And it's gonna be a half hour

animated show Yeah, and The guy promised at the

very end not to add a reveal the whole thing

took place in a training program Because in Enterprise

the last episode Ryker was it took place during

the episode of the Pegasus on TNG So they had

Marina Surtis and Jonathan Franks playing Ryker

and Troy On the holodeck in him reliving And

they're wearing like their TNG uniform is my

new this is like after they've done nemesis at

this point, so they had to like Retro age them

here at this point to fit into the look of that

episode and So he's walking around with the Enterprise

crew as like an additional added character in

the holodeck of the Enterprise interacting with

You know all of them and and seeing how the Federation

was formed and the first Enterprise Going to

you know Earth and and Jonathan Archer and everything

else and so It was it was an interesting task

that they undertook and in Ending the series

in such a crappy way that was like a slap in

the face of the Enterprise crew like and even

Jonathan Franks like kind of admitted that he

was like it was just kind of wrong how it went

down, but Yeah, I never watched Enterprise I

watched like maybe 10 episodes of Voyager I think

I've gotten through and this was years ago now

But I think I've gotten through almost all of

DS 9 and as a kid I watched TNG faithfully I'm

a casual Star Trek fan at best. I'm not like

you where I'm like I must know everything now

about it I have other fandoms for that There's

still a lot for me to know in Trek especially

when I went to that Trek convention and I got

kind of schooled by a bunch of people that were

older than me and Could tell me like exact episodes

and speak Klingon. I was like, yeah, I'm not

that big of a nerd. Thanks Like there's a little

bit normalcy to me still But like I give them

kudos for for knowing it. I mean, I I don't know

it but But yeah, I mean I'm not I'm not such

a fan of this this idea Yeah, but it's already

been greenlit for a second season and There's

not even been like a total premise of what the

new show is gonna be about like there's nothing

out there It's just they're just announcing Yeah,

that's not good. Yeah. That's not good at all.

You don't announce something. And now they're

announcing that they're going to have another

Star Trek series that focuses on Michelle Yeoh,

who played Captain Philippa Georgiou on Discovery.

Like they the funny thing is is they killed her

character off at the beginning of Season one

season one of the show like in episode two And

then they went to the mirror universe and then

she's an emperor there so you know they of course

had to keep her after that because you know something

to do and So they they brought her back to the

prime timeline. It's now she's running shenanigans

So they're they're talking about having the Emperor

version running around in the prime universe

running under section 31. So Lord, which is the

Star Trek spy, you know, basically undercover

like CIA operative type thing black ops and and

so I just I don't know, I think they're trying

to blow their load on all things Star Trek right

now on CBS All Access, and I don't think that

there's really a clear vision on what they're

doing. Because they've announced so many different

series at this point. They've announced a Khan

series, a Picard series, now this George Osse

series, the animated series, Discovery Season

2. There's a Starfleet Academy CW -esque teeny

-bopper show that they're planning on doing.

and so like you're looking at all these different

spectrums of track and most of them are limited

runs unless it's like the animated series or

the Picard series or Discovery but still like

I feel like they're they're kind of I think they're

gonna burn people out really quick yeah the only

one I'm actually interested in if I ever do check

it out is the Picard series I have zero interest

in any of the others I'm only interested in Discovery

because I want to see what they do with Season

2 with having Captain Pike. In fleshing out people

that were in the episode The Cage, like characters

from that. That's the only reason I'm invested

in Discovery at this point is because I want

to see what happens. If they did not pull me

with that last episode with having the Enterprise

show up and Captain Pike hailing the Discovery,

I think I would have bailed. But because the

and I think they knew that they screwed something

up somewhere along during season one and had

to throw like a You know almost like what Star

Wars is doing with having JJ Abrams and in like

episode 9 of Star Wars Because episode 8 had

such backlash. I think they're trying to pull

like a but wait, but wait we can fix this we

can make it right and And so like I think that

this is like their their Hail Mary as it were

to make this work and you know they're like we

can we can make it connect to continuity even

though like nothing does in season one for the

most part and they did make it you know kind

of grasp at it and then start to connect things

towards the end but I think that's because the

backlash that came along with it to begin with

yeah because it was a bastardization of what

what had come at one point I mean I'm good with

it now other than the Klingon thing I'm still

waiting for that to work itself out but But yeah,

I think I'm most heavily invested in the Picard

series and I have no I Won't be watching the

animated series. I won't be watching the Starfleet

Academy Teeny bopper show I won't be watching

The Captain George oh show I'll probably watch

Khan just because I'm invested in the character

previously, but I don't know how they're gonna

get Somebody to fill the shoes of Ricardo Montalban.

Mm -hmm so I don't know how that's gonna work

but Nicholas Myers writing it who did Star Trek

2 and Star Trek 6 which are two of the best Trek

films of the original series and so I think that

that alone gives me reason to want to watch it

because he's got such a prolific background in

Trek and in making some of the best Trek that

we've ever seen in film and so I'll give him

a pass on that but Other than that, I think Picard's

series is going to be where it's at, especially

with Patrick Stewart calling the shots, like,

hey, I was this character since the 80s. I know

everything about him. You people don't, so talk

to me. Absolutely. Right now, there's only several

Trek things that I'm interested in, and none

of them have to do with TV. Everything has to

do with the comics. Star Trek Mirror Broken,

which is the Mirror Universe. It's the trade,

the five -issue or six -issue miniseries that

IW did. The two trades that are Star Trek versus

Green Lantern, or Star Trek Green Lantern, and

then obviously Star Trek Transformers, which

pits TAS versus G1 Transformers. The rest of

it right now, I have other things I'm paying

attention to more than Star Trek at this point.

You want to hear something really funny? What's

that? I didn't know and this is not even Star

Trek related but because recently on Diablo having

a new a new game coming out and I was like, oh

I haven't played Diablo 3 in a while So I downloaded

it and tried it and then like so that reminded

me that I used to play that And spent money for

it a long time ago Because it came out in 2012

And then and then I've of course been playing

Star Trek online There was a news thing that

came out like a week ago of or by the time this

comes out a couple weeks ago That said DC Universe

has an Atlantis update that takes players under

the sea. So basically, you know in In the fact

that we have you know, the Aquaman movie now

So they added this add -on to it, and I was like,

you know, I forgot I even had a DC Universe online

account. Because it launched back in 2011, and

I started playing it after it went free to play.

Right. And then they get you with the microtransactions,

which I'd never spent anything on, and the add

-ons for everything. But yeah, I was like, you

know, I didn't know that the game was still around.

Thought that it was pretty much dead and so now

I'm like hmm. I might have to download this again

and give it another shot, so Yeah, I mean, it's

just it's just funny some of the things that

you get brought back Yeah Yeah, it's it's crazy

and the whole thing about announcing stuff before

anything like What especially with television

announcing two or three seasons of let's say?

bosom buddies 2019 or something not that bosom

buddies is coming back but like Don't announce

two or three seasons of a show before the first

one is already you know out and has some sort

of something like Three TV people think you are

podcasters. I mean, yeah, we and I announced

crap all the time and Sometimes it never happens.

Kind of like the TFG2 podcast. That's been, you

know, teased since 2014. Aw, years. Yes. So.

Haven't gotten to that. Funko Pops. Take us to

school. Oh, boy. I think we almost ought to save

that for next week because that's going to be

a long episode to take you to school. Right the

the I'll say this is a teaser for next week There's

Several different okay funko pops or you know

three four inch vinyl figures. They're basically

Little big head little it's it's big head little

body kind of things there I don't want to say

they're super deformed, but they're not you know

general proportions of an action figure there

are like Any fandom you can think of, there's

a Funko Pop for. They have the regular figures,

they have 6 -inch figures, they have a few 10

-inch figures. They have these things called

Pop Rides. The one that I absolutely had to have

because, you know me, I'm a die -hard -for -anything

Knight Rider. They came out with a Knight Rider

kit with Michael Knight. So it's basically the

kit car with Michael Knight inside of it. You

can't take him out of the car. He's basically

molded in there. But the detail on it is really

cool because you see him holding the gullwing

steering wheel kind of thing. And the car is

just like it looked in the show. The only thing

is the wheels don't move. It's a stationary thing.

uh... but they have the front scanner they have

the back license plate which is california night

on it so the detailing is very nice the main

reason why i got into funko pops is because i

hadn't been collecting anything any toys any

action figures or anything like that since about

twenty eleven when i had to sell my entire collection

off time and they're cool i like them the other

thing i like about these things is the boxes

The boxes are just so cool to me like how they

can fit like something like Gotham on Onto the

box because I have the Harvey Bullock Funko pop

as well from the Gotham TV series I actually

had I have a picture of him with the Batman Beyond

Funko pop so it's Batman and Bullock It's just

not the right Batman. Um, I don't know. It's

just fun little things and a lot of people say

it's, oh, it's the, the, the beady baby craze,

but what I don't know. So it's a whole other

thing that we can talk about at a later date.

I've been wanting to start a fun co podcast,

but I don't know if I am yet or not. It's the

end of the year and I'm tired. I need a vacation.

Yup. So yeah and what spawned this was I made

a kind of statement on Twitter saying I have

to ask and please no hate but what is the appeal

of Mighty Mugs Funko Pops that everybody's had

the past few years? I can't for the life of me

understand the appeal I would much rather just

have a toy that actually holds the correct proportions

of said characters and I say that just as you

know I would rather have something that's and

when I say screen accurate I mean like It's actually

the proportions of said character and has the

same exact look like If they they copied them

from the screen and pasted them into a seat,

you know a 3d printer But see that's what okay.

This is the last thing I'll say that's kind of

what this is with Funko. Yes, they are Not a

fully proportioned action figure. Yes, the heads

are bigger than the bodies But The detailing

on them is amazing like I'm looking at the Michael

Knight part of the figure of the the kit car

here He's got his leather jacket. They actually

detailed in chest hair on him like David Hasselhoff

has the chest hair they detailed in his little

his little hair curly Q down on the on the front

and There is a lot of detail in them If people

don't mind, I'm going to slide over to my Funko

show because, you know, podcasting is ever -changing

and whatever. I'm actually going to grab something

you'll enjoy. Lord Zed Funko Pop from Power Rangers.

Okay. He has, you know, the Zed staff in his

hand that he's holding that it's molded in there.

All of the detailing of the character. that you

see on power rangers in the original money more

from power rangers is there all of his red and

silver bits um his z helmet kind of thing and

like it wraps the silver part of the helmet wraps

around the entire head on the top of his head

is it's made to look like actual brain Matter

kind of thing. So it's it's detailed in the point

of hey, this is his brain up here This isn't

just hair or his head, but this is his actual

brain It's got the silver with his teeth and

it's got the giant Z thing as part of his his

mask and whatever else and on the back it has

all the The detailing that you would see if you

looked at Lord Z from the back The only difference

is is his head is slightly larger than his body.

That's really the only difference Everything

else is detailed perfectly to the figure, to

the character that you know as Lord Zed, and

it is super cool. So we're gonna leave that as

the teaser for the next episode. Yes. So, yeah.

Thank you for joining me on Altered Geek to discuss

a multitude of different topics, and thankfully

we weren't both tired tonight. Thankfully, my

nose stopped, you know, running off my face.

Thankfully, I used gratuitous use of mute. I

coughed a lot during this episode. But nobody

heard it. This part has been edited. Ha ha ha,

you'll never know it was actually here. Exactly.

So, until next time, get altered, get geeky,

with the Altered Geeks.