For One Shining Moment, High Noon, and The Battle for Baja Review

The End Welcome to mass mayhem. This is episode

29. We're done after this I Am Dave June Mike

joining me is to master Tim. Hello. Hello there.

Oh I'm so glad winter's here I'd rather talk

about the weather than talk about mask episode.

Oh, yeah, I'm not a big fan of winter, but oh

my gosh These were some bad episodes We're in

for it today. Oh man I'm just so glad that it's

over, honestly. Yeah, me too. Ladies and gentlemen,

I've said this many times throughout the entire

podcast lifespan. Just because we are bad -mouthing

the cartoon and we are legitimately pointing

out things that we find wrong with it does not

mean in any way shape or form that we are trying

to take away your enjoyment of the toys. The

toys were great for the most part. I loved Boulder

Hill. I loved Rhino. I loved Thunderhawk. I loved

Switchblade. I loved Raven. You know, loved all

the toys. But the cartoon in the racing series?

It's like they don't even try anymore. Oh, yeah

You know if you don't know what we're talking

about if you didn't own the toys or grow up seeing

the commercials You know go on YouTube. They

have some commercials on there if you just search

mask toys. There's this great website Sort of

has sort of a orange or yellowish background

it has a list of the toys and All the figures

the the boxes that they came that they came in

So it's it's really cool and you can see how

neat these toys were but man the show is just

It's so bad. You know we had trouble with season

one, but season two It was just so much worse

Yes, it really really is so we're getting into

the final four episodes after this And the winner

of the modified stock division at the National

Hawkeye Championship is Brad Turner! All right,

chopper! Great range! You jumped the start, Turner!

No, I didn't, Vanessa. You did! You were across

the start before I'd popped the clutch! Because

I'm faster! You're a liar! You're a man who will

do anything, including cheat, because he can't

stand to be beaten by a woman! Stop blaming your

loss and everything but the real cause. You're

driving. We'll see who's the best. When it really

counts, I'll eat you up and spit you out. Soon,

Turner. Soon! Alright ladies and gentlemen first

up today is for one shining moment This really

should have been the series finale ladies and

gentlemen it really should have Because they

really do leave it on a cliffhanger But according

and I've had to go to TV comm to get better descriptions

for the show The location is Chicago venom organizes

a charity race Between Matt in Goliath and miles

and buzzard Bruno impersonates Brad's voice in

a call for help to lure Clutch into a Venom trap.

Venom double -crosses mask and Miles steals the

charity money. Really, this should have been

the series finale. It really should have. I don't

know why it wasn't. Okay. Because... Well, the

reason why I say that is because Miles's brother

brings up a good point. Why not go legitimate?

Why not try, you know, why not pull a doctor

evil and, you know, take over Starbucks and everything

else? You know, why not? Yeah. You know. Yeah,

and of course no I know I mean I like that aspect

of this episode actually too And you know his

brother is being serious about it. You know I

thought that he was just saying you know let's

just do it and it's just gonna be a ruse and

We're gonna we're gonna flip anyway, but then

he's really upset and somewhat disgusted at miles

that You know he's not Legitimately trying to

be good and that they're stealing the charity

money And I don't think they did enough with

this plot, but I liked it. I mean, I liked that

they came up with this idea for this episode.

Yeah. It just was kind of... I don't know. Again,

because they ended on that, oh, well, this should

be, you know... You know, we will always fight

venom and we will, you know, this, that, and

the other thing and everything else. And then,

you know, Matt says, oh, it was kind of nice

not to have to fight venom. And I'm like, wait,

what, really? Seriously? That's the cliffhanger

you leave it on? Yeah. And maybe that's where

some of the confusion comes from, you know, with

watching these episodes. I mean, they have not

been released on DVD. No. I don't know if they

ever made it to VHS. Probably not. But on YouTube

the the person who has listed these videos they

list this one as being the final episode of the

series Yeah, and probably for that reason because

it is kind of tied up in a nice little bow at

the very end With like you said, you know, it's

like, okay Well, we're gonna fight them, you

know to the end no matter what, you know, wherever

they are We're going to race them. We're gonna

fight them So that was a nice way to wrap it

up versus what we end up getting later in cliffhanger,

which is Which I think is still a decent episode

on its own and we'll talk about that but You

know we'll get to that later, but this one it

did have that nice that nice wrap up at the end

Yep, yep, all right. Let's get to the high and

low beams after this sorry gee, that's nice Nice

What planet are you been living on it's an honor

just to take part in the Mesa Verde Memorial?

We're going to be representing the chiefs tribe

When the Native Americans originally raced, it

was on foot. Those braves were brave. I really

am excited, Calhoun. I just can't stop thinking

about Vanessa. Vanessa? As in Venom's Vanessa?

The same. She's becoming real paranoid and hateful.

It's gotten a lot more personal than just Mask

and Venom. Because you always beat her? Right.

And she won't accept losing. Claims I cheat.

Calhoun. I get the feeling that soon it could

become a real battle between us for survival.

All right, high and low beams. What do you got?

So, as you mentioned, they're in the plasmonopsis.

So Bruno can do impressions. Yeah, that's that's

new. Yeah, he does some good ones as well. So

just like people, he was impressed, impersonating.

So, yeah, there was a Laurel and Hardy reference

on here. I thought that was funny. There's also

another moment that wasn't meant to be funny,

but it's just so corny. It actually made me laugh

out loud. And that's as the announcer is saying,

you know, here's Matt Tracker and Miles Mayhem

getting together. Everybody be quiet. This is

an important moment for world peace. Again, one

of the reasons why I say this should have been

the series finale. And it was good that they

they remind us that Miles was once good and and

he's even Said it's being responsible for getting

mass started in the first place Yep You know

for me This had some weight to it I like all

the continuity things that they try to basically

shoehorn in with Miles and Matt and the brother

and everything else. I do like that. But again,

realizing that it isn't the series finale, like

I said, I watched them out of order because I

thought this was the series finale. This serves

better as a finale than it does a middle episode.

Like in the middle of the season. Yeah It makes

more sense as the finale the other one does not

at all I mean it wasn't I still don't like the

vehicles I still like Matt traded in a traded

Thunderhawk, which is essentially what a Camaro

or a Corvette or whatever It's supposed to be

a Camaro. You know, he traded in a Camaro for

an Indy car racer really seriously Throughout

the rest of these episodes, you never see the

transport plane that they used to use, and you

never see Rhino. That's the biggest problem I

have with Season 2. You never see Rhino ever

again. And you never see Bruce ever again. Bruce

isn't in any of these 10 episodes. No, he's not.

No, we see Alex a few times. We see Alex like...

We see Brad, Buddy. Yeah. We see Brad and Buddy

most of the time. We don't see Dusty. We don't

see Gloria. Like I said, you know, for the most

part, we don't see Rex. We see him like for a

half a second in one episode. We don't see Dagger.

It's just... Yeah, that's the thing I don't like.

There are other cartoons where that has happened

or even other TV series. You know, you basically

end up losing the characters that are most interesting

or in this case, some of the vehicles. Two I

mean the vehicles are as much part of the series

as the characters because you know the characters

don't have much personality to begin with But

you know you lose those things that you really

like, you know, we we love thunderhawk and rhino

Those are the two coolest vehicles bruce was

funny. We don't see hondo either. We both talked

about how we like them You know, we miss switchblade

we don't get gloria back. I mean she was awesome

We've got so basically mass doesn't have any

female team members at this point No, we get

Vanessa on the mask side. She's up shows up quite

a bit in season two so yeah those things that

You know that we like the most from season one

that made it more interesting to watch or now

gone. They're non -existent in season two Pretty

much yeah, yeah, I hadn't thought about that

What would you rate this one? You know yeah,

it has some moments that were okay Like you said,

it may play better as a season finale. But again,

it's just a lot of racing around and blasting

at each other with a few moments sprinkled in

here and there. So I still didn't like it that

much overall. I'm going to give it two masks.

For me, I was going to give it two masks if it

had been the series finale because I think it

was good enough as a series finale. And I know

my logic might be flawed here, but looking at

it as a regular individual episode, that they

basically put all the continuity in there, which

I love continuity. Everybody knows. Everybody's

listened to me in the last six years that I've

broadcasted. They know I love continuity. And

that's one of those things where they put all

of it in, but it's just a middle episode. It's

like they... Forgive me folks. I recently read

image comic series sex criminals So it's kind

of like they blew their load too early is really

what this episode is like So I get to give it

one mask. Yeah, just just for the continuity.

It only gets one Well, you know good good writing,

you know dictates that especially with light

TV Okay, I was watching some special features

on a DVD for a series that I like to watch and

They were showing some of the scenes that had

been deleted. And they talked about your series

premiere or your season premiere, it is a different

type of episode than just your standard episode.

It needs to have certain elements. You might

have new viewers coming in who need to know who

these characters are and what their motivations

are. So you need to reintroduce those. And same

thing with a season finale or a series finale.

Those need to be bigger. They need to have some

impact. And so that's why I think like what you're

saying is this one had some of those elements

and it would have fit better as the series finale.

Not necessarily that. And if it had been, it

would have received more credit as a good episode

because of that. Because it's just like just

thrown in here is basically what, like the fourth

episode from the last. It loses its impact. Pretty

much, yeah. Pretty much, yeah. So we're going

to move on to the next episode after this. Matt,

I'm sure happy you talked me into joining you

guys. Huh? no reason to look so gloomy just because

venom decided to attend the celebration aren't

we lucky most parties only have one pooper this

party's got a whole bunch all right up next is

high noon the location is unknown during the

wild west festival and air boat and road race

take place the buzzard plane flown by the drone

attacks the mask agents while mayhem brothers

break into a secret airplane test center done

done done um let's see here uh let's see um so

yeah uh this one is all right it sounds more

interesting Then what it is to be yeah, because

you think oh, it's gonna be so cool You know

we're gonna have you know land sea and air battles,

and you know it's big race and it's Just yeah,

it's not very interesting. I mean a few moments

here and there, but they don't pull it off No,

not at all My one note about the plot that I

actually wrote down, I said, you know, and I

mentioned this at the beginning of last week's

episode, I know I complained and complained and

complained about the treasure hunting episodes,

but holy hell, this is by far the worst step

of the series. Just the thought of doing a air

land and sea battle is or sea race is great.

Yeah. Where's Dusty? Where's Gator? come on now

i mean where's where's brad and condor where

are the classic frigging vehicles i mean come

on well you could have had for land sea and air

you could have had for air you could have had

thunderhawk because it flies you could have had

rhino on the on on the land part and you could

have had gator on the sea part for for the mask

team on the venom team you could have had um

Manta on land switchblade in the air and piranha

on the sea Like that would be a land sea air

race that I would want to watch this not so much

I will say that the animation in this one picked

up. It was better It was more like the animation

we saw in the first episode from series two Alright,

any other thoughts on the plot sir? No. Let's

get to the high and low beams after this. High

-end low beams. What'd you like about this one

anything? Yeah, there were a few things as I

said, I like Bulldog It's the semi on the mass

side. It's pretty cool. It's kind of a semi in

a tank So it's great seeing that again. I also

like Wildcat, which is the mask tow truck, but

I don't think it was in this episode Vanessa

still teasing the mask team and giving them a

hard time Yeah, and at one point she wants an

ice cream cone And it seems like Matt doesn't

know how to answer everybody's kind of standing

around frozen not really sure how to respond

Yeah, it's Just tragic how bad the writing has

gotten for this series. Not that it was great

in the first place, but... I just... no. Yeah.

Yeah, it looks like that's the last of my high

beams. What about your low beams? Really? They're

gonna head them off at the pass? I couldn't believe

that. That's terrible. Talk about bad writing.

Head them off at the pass stand back to back

walk ten paces turn and fire. It's like You already

mentioned the ice cream cone I wrote down what

the actual hell an ice cream cone Venom won't

run Won't ruin trackers fun. What in the weird

weird world are we living in here? And then,

the PSA. Always wear your helmet, seriously.

They've never had this... Like, I know before,

you know, Optimus Sole and I in the beginning

part, first 14 episodes of Bygass were complaining

about some of the PSAs being repetitive. They've

never had a, you know, helmet safety thing. Okay.

I honestly think this was just a shoehorned way

in to show T -Bob one last time. Right. We get

to see T -Bob one last time. He doesn't speak

a word, OK? Right. And the other thing is, this

is a good message in the PSA, OK? Yes. I know

we both agree on that. But Scott has never worn

a helmet while writing T -Bob, ever. Nope. Nope,

he never has. I hadn't even thought about that.

We talked about vehicle safety and how Scott

wasn't buckled up in Thunderhawk at one point,

way back. We can't forget that. You made a very

valid point. We have screenshots and everything

to prove this. Now to throw in that, yes, you

should wear a helmet. Yes, it's a good message,

but then we have had Scott this whole time without

one. Couple other things I did want to mention

I talked about this well I mentioned this I think

with the first episode we talked about today

But it's ace here who sounds exactly like racks

Mm -hmm. I thought it was racks I'm taking notes

and I hear who I believe is racks and I look

up and it's not and it's ace So, you know bad

on the voice actors and the voice director here

for not doing something to differentiate those

voices. And then the other thing, we've talked

about this several times about how all of the

team members can now hear each other, no matter

what team they're on. Venom's hearing mask, mask

is hearing venom. And I don't like it when People

are in two very different locations And if they

can still hear each other when they don't even

have helmets on or have no business hearing each

other so for example Vanessa here shouldn't be

hearing ace after he is ejected after actually

actually she's ejected from Manta and ace is

still flying around in his jet locked in his

cockpit and They're having a conversation Yeah

It's crazy, yeah All right, we are gonna get

to the second to last episode of the day after

you give this one your rating What are you gonna

rate? High noon. Yeah, this one's getting one

mask same here just It's just horrible All right,

we're gonna move on to the next episode So the

series finale ladies and gentlemen the series

finale which should have been the other episode

But sadly it's not oh no wait. This is the battle

for Baja whoops The battle for Baja mask and

venom race across Baja desert Matt has loaned

Goliath 1 to the President's son Raul Vega for

the race. Venom wants to kidnap Vega in order

to hold him for ransom. Well, at least it isn't

a treasure hunt plot. It's still a race, but

at least it isn't a treasure hunt. Thoughts,

sir? I can just say everything I need to say

and it's like two minutes or less and I Really

don't have much to say on this one. It's It's

a thin plot We've kind of seen it before but

really it's just another reason to have a race

We have another long race with a big battle Lasers

firing and whatnot. It is well animated. I'll

give it that it doesn't look bad But other than

just a few Character bits here and there with

like the president's son wanting to win the race

so he can impress his father And then I think

they basically just let him win which I did not

agree with either There's nothing to it I I did

not like this one at all. I hated this one. This

one gets my lowest rating. Well, I've given a

zero already, but This one's like negative one

almost this is bad. I'm giving it zero I just

get it all out there right now. I don't even

want to talk about this episode. Wow. Yeah, I'm

right there with you on the zero. Um, and what

the hell kind of a name is Maxi? I mean, And

and they're twins They have like were they trying

to save money on the animation and making miles

and maxi have the exact same fucking mask the

exact same costume and Even in the episode before

when they were when miles was dressed up as the

peanut vendor You can see the two of them look

exactly alike It's like they were trying to save

money on the animation and this episode in general

this episode just sucks. Yeah, absolutely The

only difference between them, I didn't like that

either. I mean, when they're racing around, they're

in their masks, and it's like, okay, well, they

both have identical masks. They're brothers or

twins, whatever. But they look exactly the same,

except for Maxie has a monocle for crying out

loud. And I guess his name is Maximus, so, you

know, I call him Max or Maxie, but I don't know,

it's weird that he calls him Maxie instead of

Max. Yeah, it's still It just I Need to watch

a good cartoon after this like seriously, I know

We are we are gonna move on to the quote -unquote

series finale after this I agreed to let you

join Venom because you're my brother. But don't

try to tell me how to run my organization! I

know what I'm talking about, Miles! You have

no idea what you're talking about! The very idea

of Venom going legitimate! Huh! Try to listen

to reason! Reason? Reason?! I don't know where

you get these strange ideas! Don't you understand

how much more power real power we could have

if we established ourselves a force for good

Alright folks, this is it the quote -unquote

serious finale cliffhanger The location is unknown.

Brad and Vanessa take part in a drag race, and

when Brad wins, Vanessa accuses him of cheating.

Later, Mask and Venom take part in a race held

in memory of the great ancestors of Nevada's

tribe. Buzzard and... Buzzard and Manta steal

military stuff and other stuff happens, as we've

already said. From one shining moment should

have been the series finale. Any thoughts on

the plot? Plot -wise, not really. I mean, I don't

think the plot is the real highlight here. I

think the biggest draw really is the interaction

between Brad and Vanessa. That's what I was focusing

on in this episode. Absolutely. Absolutely. So

we're just going to get straight into the high

beams. No fooling around, ladies and gentlemen.

I had three things written down. Red Vanessa

sitting in a tree. That's all I can think of

is that old that old school nursery rhyme The

only other cool thing about this episode is when

the chief uses the totem I love the total like

out of all the new mass powers totem is my favorite

because it's so cool -looking Yeah, I absolutely

agree. I think it's so cool, and they have to

animate that you know This is not CGI digital

effects stuff or animating each one of those

totems that comes flying out Mm -hmm. It's a

neat power. I like a lot. It really is Holy crap

Scott is in the PSA haven't seen him or T Bob

much lately now I wrote that Originally when

I thought this was the middle episode and where

I thought for a one shunning moment was the series

finale but we've already seen Scott and T Bob

once so But I mean as a series finale, this is

kind of a letdown Yeah, it's a good episode on

its own but as a season finale, yeah It's sort

of lackluster. It doesn't have those key moments

where you know You probably want to bring in

more members of the team and you want to have

that that conclusion like we talked about with

The other episode this week. All right, or you

know, you have the you have Matt and the guys

going Yes, you know, we're going to keep you

know, we're gonna keep the fight going You know,

we're going to battle them no matter what and

we're going to win Mm -hmm. Yeah, we don't get

that here. We get a good episode though. Yeah,

this is a good middle episode Like I said, this

is a good, you know kind of like hey will they

won't they you know kind of a First date kind

of episode cuz I mean they were really trying

to build up Vanessa and Brad's relationship and

they you know Vanessa finally actually, you know

Other than just her natural beauty her personality

started to become more beautiful as she started

her beauty on the inside started to show a little

bit because Normally, she's just cold calculating

and just not not a very nice person at all. No

And you know the whole thing with her and Brad

just kind of softened her up a little bit The

rest of the episode honestly is forgettable Outside

of their interaction. Yeah, it is I would say

that this eat seem like they're actually a very

real threat you know should venom get them and

use them so it's probably one of their most dangerous

diabolical plans so far but it doesn't really

play out that way i mean we just know that there

is something that's dangerous they could get

their hands on but ultimately you know we're

just chasing each other around now don't you

think you know going back to Vanessa I noticed

this in season two particularly. I mean she was

always evil. Okay, you know, she's she's on the

bad side but her comments toward the men in the

series both the venom members and the mass members

she has Ratcheted it up quite a bit. Hasn't she?

I mean, I certainly thought so and then that's

even brought out in this episode that Brad is

You know talking about how just like I don't

know how she's like lashing out at everybody

yeah she um she's not exactly too happy right

now I mean other than you know this whole new

quote -unquote potential relationship with Brad

she's uh She's not a happy camper. She's more

angry than usual mm -hmm Yeah, and and he senses

that makes a comment about it. It's not just

oh well She's bad. It's like he's he's noticed

the pattern with it That she is just getting

more and more angry and actually has some concern

for her Yeah Which was kind of nice to see I

mean nice to see that the alert the lines aren't

so set in stone that mask is good, venom is bad,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I think what this

tried to do is show character growth for Vanessa,

but it came too late in the series. They really

tried with some of these episodes to do continuity

and character growth for characters, but it was

too fucking late. It really was. It really was.

There was a very funny moment, too, speaking

of Vanessa, where she's so tough that she stares

down that snake. Yeah, I thought that was great

It's cool to see them do something like that

and then you know the real highlight here as

far as high beams go is again that interaction

with Vanessa and Brad where She wins the race

and I was actually surprised. I didn't know if

she was going to win or not, but she wins the

race and Brad is not sour about it. You know,

he's He's very nice to her. He goes and opens

the door for her just that one Small gesture

and you see Vanessa just you know turn at him

and smile just a little bit before getting in

her car Yeah, I thought that was so well done

I thought I was it was written well it must have

been storyboarded well because it came through

in the animation and that was That was great

to see it was real highlighted this episode Absolutely,

and like you said I wish it had been earlier

in the series. I wish it had been somewhere in

season one, you know, maybe even like you know,

midway, you know, 20, 30 episodes in or something.

This one should have been thrown in there. Yep.

Absolutely. And they could have built upon it

between then and now. And maybe they have some

sort of secret relationship or something. I don't

know. The only thing I wrote down for Low Beams,

once again, is that I really miss Switchblade

and Rhino and all the other cooler vehicles.

I don't like any of the vehicles. The one that

is a bike that turns into a four -bladed helicopter

thing, that one's kind of cool that one of the

mask members has. And Boris's semi is all right,

but the rest of them, they all suck. They really

do. Yeah. The only other one I like, like I said

before, is Wildcat. I like the tow truck. Yeah,

it's battle mode is kind of odd because it transforms

and it's kind of like off kilter But I still

think it looks pretty cool. But the rest of them.

Yeah, they're they're just they're not as interesting

Overall for an episode only because I like the

interaction between Brad and Vanessa. I'm gonna

give this a two. What about you? Okay. Um, well

actually I'm gonna give it four Like that that

much I like those character moments that much

that I'm gonna give it an above average rating

Wow Alrighty then so that's gonna do it for us.

We're gonna take a quick break come back and

close the show after this It's Showtime Synergy,

the latest review podcast from the GeekCast Radio

Network is coming. So join TFG1 Mike, Nicole

Hailstorm, and myself, Lady Rec, as we will be

reviewing all 65 episodes of Gem and the Holograms

in a 25 episode long podcast. You can find Showtime

Synergy on iTunes and geekcastradio .com. We

are the truly outrageous podcast that you want

to be listening to. All right, folks, that's

going to do it here for us on Mass Mayhem. The

next time you're going to hear us is the series

finale. Hopefully Optimus Solo will be able to

join us for that. It's been a fun ride with both

you and Kevin on this show, but the topic is

just so bad. Yeah. It has been fun and thanks

for, you know, asking me to host. I have enjoyed

it, you know, even though the content hasn't

been all that fun to watch for the most part.

It has been tough, you know, you talk about,

you know, sitting down and watch these episodes

and maybe if you're just looking for something

to do, you put one on and, you know, 20 minutes

passes and you go on and do your own thing. But,

you know, we're watching, you know, several episodes

each week. and then preparing, thinking of things

we can talk about when they're just so excruciatingly

bad. It's tough. I think we've made the most

of it, though, and it's been fun. And we are

finally done. So you can reach us on geekcastradio

.com. You can call the voicemail line, 502 -526

-5821. Leave your name and the show you're leaving

a message for. You can follow at geek cast radio

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You can follow me at TF Joe and Mike What is

your Twitter to master Tim? You can become a

fan of us on Facebook go to Facebook comm slash

geek cast radio network Next time is episode

30 of mass mayhem where hopefully like I said

Kevin Tim and I will be talking about the series

finale for mask We're gonna run down all kinds

of cool things about the podcast all kinds of

quote unquote cool things about mask in general

um and then mass mayhem is done so we will see

you next time illusion is the ultimate weapon