The Incident in Istanbul, The Creeping Desert, and The Scarlet Empress Review

MAD CRUSADERS! WORKING OVERTIME! FIGHTING CRIME!

FIGHTING CRIME! SECRET RATERS! WHO WILL NEUTRALIZE!

TURN THIS DAY TO RIDE! AT THE FIGHT! THE TRACK

IS GONNA LEAVE A MISSION! don't start fires oh

well at least something's fighting today hello

and welcome to mass ma 'am this is episode 23

right i think oh god seven more to go yeah we're

back yeah we're back i'm df2 and mike and you

are tune master tim that's right We're getting

to a point in this series folks where the episodes

just they aren't bad. They're just boring. Yeah

Well some are bad well, yeah, but I mean like

not every single one of them is Like, oh my,

like, I don't think anything in this podcast

or next time around in episode 24, I don't think

anything enraged me as much as what enrage I

had in episode 21 with the friggin' Thunderhawk

and the seatbelt shit. So, at this point, I'm

just like, oh god. I honestly have no idea why

I like this cartoon as a kid. I have no clue.

Outside of the theme song I have The cartoon

I love the toys the toys were amazing, you know,

I'll say that again There's nothing wrong with

the mass toys, but the cartoon they needed better

writers They needed flint dilly. They needed

somebody. Yeah, I I see a lot of kids sitting

in front of the TV with their mask toys With

the with the TV on and it's there but for most

of the episode they're actually just playing

with their toys and then suddenly when there's

a battle scene with the vehicles you know their

attention perks up and you know they start watching

what's on tv but for the most part man yeah it's

just it's so hard to get through them and i think

one of the things that makes it so hard to watch

besides it being like these recycled plots is

that the voice acting is just so flat yeah you

know it really is i mean if you There was a particular

episode this week that I was watching and Matt

was delivering a line, but basically all the

characters do this. But it was just like, wow,

you know, I listened to that line and thought

it could have been delivered in such a different

way to have more punch to it and more life. And

any other kind of, you know, other shows would

have voice actors that would deliver those lines

in that manner rather than this is flat, monotone,

you know, Scott, hey, get out of there. You know,

I mean there's just no inflection at all And

I think that just exacerbates what's already

a very drab show Yep, pretty much All right,

we are going to get into the episodes today starting

off with an Incident in Istanbul take it away.

They might be Giants. Oh, no, wait They're not

at the museums, but they're not here either.

The car is abandoned. Maybe they get hungry too.

I'm afraid it's not as simple as that, T -Bot.

Maybe they had car trouble. Maybe, but we had

a planned route. I don't think Mement would have

left the car here unless... That's it! They switched

cars. This isn't the original armored car. What

do you mean, Dad? Come on, let's drop you two

at the hotel. Alright, thank you for that musical

selection. They might be giants. And first up

today is the incident in Istanbul, hence why

that song just played. Venom hijacks an armored

car in Istanbul, stealing Constantine's chess

set, which contains secrets to finding his golden

crown. Good night, everybody. plots what plot

Again, you know, we've said it since we've been

back on this podcast. We had this going against

this episode. I You know 15 Recycle recycle recite.

I guess if you want to look at mask in a positive

way, at least they're recycling Seriously This

plot is just another treasure hunt. I know I

sound like a broken record at this point, but

there is nothing in the overall plot of this

episode that is interesting at all, at least

to me. I don't know. What do you think of the

plot? Yeah, it's another treasure hunt. It has

this heist aspect to it, too, with the armored

car being hijacked, so... It was a little bit

different, but basically getting to the point

is, yes, we're after more treasure. Actually,

venom is after more treasure here. So it's just,

again, that recycled plot over and over. Put

in a little bit of A, a little bit of B, sprinkle

in some C, and you get D. And that's another

episode of Mask for you. One of the kind of cool

things in this one, Matt. focuses in on the lock

that they have on the back of the armored car

and Then later when you know, he's following

this armored car playing an escort And dagger

like, you know Gets in front of in front of Thunderhawk.

So Matt can't follow along Pretty soon. He loses

the truck and then later on they find a truck

But it's not the same one and he picks it out

because the lock on the back of the truck is

different. Yeah So that was so that was a you

know something Interesting that they did with

that Again, you know plot wise. Yeah, there's

still Nothing here the surprising and nothing

that we haven't seen before No, I mean it's just

It's very very standard and It's just not I don't

know I just Did you have any high beams? Because

if you don't, we're probably going to skip them.

I just have a few things. We get to see Surf

NT Bob again. Yeah. And he saves Scott in the

tunnel. And then, you know, in this one, they're

after this chest set. That's what Venom is after

inside the armored vehicle. That's what's being

escorted. And then they get these chess pieces

and they're inside a church that has this tile

floor. and has this checkerboard pattern, which,

you know, mimics what you'd see on a chess set.

And the chess pieces actually fit into these

holes on the floor, which, you know, opens up

the floor and allows them to get to this crown

that's hidden there. So I thought that using

those chess pieces in that way was kind of a

cool idea. So that was one of my high beams.

And then I think that the pacing in this episode

was better than in some of the more recent ones.

Yeah, I'll agree to that. And now we're gonna

get to the low beams. Oh my god. Secured. Proceed.

Select best agents for mission in Istanbul. Rendezvous

to Kapi Museum. Julio Lopez, occupation physician.

Vehicle code name Firefly. Aerial recon may be

essential. Calhoun burned. Occupation architect.

Vehicle code name Raven. Amphibious vehicle could

be valuable in port city of Istanbul. Gloria

Baker. Champion race driver. Black belt in Kung

Fu. Vehicle code name Shark. Vehicle adaptable

as submarine. Selection complete. none the worse

for wear from your driving, Vanessa. Now if Rex

can only remove it without breaking it after

all my work. Good thing I rigged that bridge

or you would have had nothing to drive. Good

thing Bruno set it off while you were feeding

your face at the cafe. Oh boy! It's almost like

Christmas! Tiger, take that stupid thing off!

Alright, for the low beams, I am so sick of Tracker's

bad parenting, allowing Scott to go off on his

own at the bazaar. No parent would let their

child go off in a very crowded marketplace like

that. I remember at one point, there was one

time I stepped away from my mom. We were at Faneuil

Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, and I got lost

for two hours. And Faneuil Hall is a big place.

So it's like, you know, worst cartoon dad ever.

Matt Tracker is even as much as I don't like

this show Matt Tracker is worse than Peter Griffin

and that's pretty bad worse than Peter Griffin

on Family Guy how so In every way at least Peter

Griffin takes some sort of interest in what his

children are doing. Yeah just as a parent Yeah,

yeah You know, we already mentioned crown of

Constantine yet another treasure hunt episode

boring Now, this is something, this might have

been an animation error, I don't know. They're

trying to get an answer from the computer about

which church to find out the location, and you

see the computer going back and forth, back and

forth like it's searching for the answer. All

of a sudden, while it's still doing that, you

hear Matt give the answer. How the hell did he

get the answer from the computer if we didn't

see anything? The parked car PSA That actually

happened to me a few times. Oh, yeah There was

one time my grandmother's house we She the the

very top of her driveway is a dead -end street,

but it's also a hill I was in my mom's Mazda

se5 back Oh, I don't know 89 99 or 10 years old

I guess And I let the emergency break go and

it went all the way down the hill. So, well,

I don't think it's a, I think they're reaching

with like, they're not even showing like, it's

not even Matt saying to Scott, you know, this,

this is a lesson you should learn. And they're

just coming up with, you know, commercial break

intros where it's like, Hey T -Bob, you shouldn't

do this. And God, the PSAs for this show are

the worst. Yeah, they're not done very well if

you look at other shows like the GI Joe PSA is

they're actually a lot more fun I have you know

you'd have maybe three or four kids doing something

and then you know they're about to do something

they shouldn't perhaps and then all of a sudden

then stuff's one of the GI Joe's and Explains

why they shouldn't be doing that or you know

Explain whatever safety messages there is but

this one is just like it's right there and they

usually go pretty quick They're not very lengthy

either Well, neither are the ones in G .I. Joe

or He -Man. No, they're not, but these are shorter,

I think. Extremely. What didn't you like about

this one? Well, Venom gets foiled again. They

basically just drop the thing they're after.

I think it was T -Bob, maybe in this case, tripped

one of the guys from the Venom team. I believe

he tripped Bruno. I don't know, they've had a

problem with that in the past, hanging on to

things that they've stolen. And then... of course

there were lots of puns in this one just as there

are in just about every episode and At one point

T Bob says I consider it my crowning achievement

And yeah, so like even even the the guy that's

there with them He's not one of the venom or

not one of the mass characters, but he's just

like one of the secondary Yeah, he just shakes

his head. I don't think that they've done that

very much in the series where somebody's just

like oh my gosh This is terrible. Yeah, it's

kind of bad. Alright, I think we are going to

move on to the next episode. Thanks for the warm

invitation, Gloria, but I promised I'd go skiing

with Scott this weekend. Forget it. Something

weird's going on here. Yesterday, everything

was perfect, but today, man, it's like vacationing

in Saudi Arabia. What's happening? Could you

be a little more specific? Everything's dried

up and covered with sand. S -S -Saudi Arabia?

I thought Gloria w -w -was in Al Capoco. No,

w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w

-w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w

-w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w

-w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w -w

-w -w -w -w Up next is the Creeping Desert. Dun

dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. A corrupt

landowner hires Venom to destroy land in Alcapulco,

Mexico, rendering them worthless patches of desert

so he can buy it up real cheap and restore land

later with an advanced hydration machine. Hmm,

where have I seen this before? Can anybody say

Lex Luthor? You know, playing around with the

San Andreas Fault Line to make California its

own state. Ah, Superman plot rethread, yay. Let's

just make it stop. Well, I didn't think this

one was so bad. It's something different, at

least. We're not chasing after treasure. No,

but... I mean, this is episode 58 out of 65.

I shouldn't expect this, but I hope that writers

actually write some decent damn plots. I guess,

as I'm so used to the cartoon writing of today,

that going back and watching this, it's like,

get this slime off my shoe. Ugh. Yeah, I guess

I give this one some props. I kind of like the

contrast of starting the episode at the mansion

and it's snowing and then we go to Acapulco and

there's, you know, it's warm. There's all this,

you know, sand and desert. Actually, you know,

the trees have all browned and actually some

of the buildings are in disrepair as well from

the sand machine that's turning everything into

desert. So I kind of like that contrast though

of you know, we go from the cold weather into

you know, the desert Yeah Transformers did it

better because Transformers started out with

a snowball fight. Oh, well, yeah Better But yeah,

no, I you know, I can I can agree with that but

but I mean just the general overall plot there

Liked it better when venom used to actually rob

places like Again, you know the Whatever the

Las Vegas episode was earlier in the season the

great gold rush or gold something or other I

forget what it is and They have this machine

in that one, which we've already talked about

it a long time ago But they had this machine

in that one where it sucks all the gold at all

the casinos and it's like hey That's a that's

an interesting plan. I'm like this So, alright,

let's go ahead and get to the high beams, I guess.

Computer, priority one emergency. Select the

best mask agents for this mission. Is there a

signal like that? I don't know. Gloria Baker,

preselected. Selection complete. Personnel approved.

Assemble Mobile Armored Strike Command. Turning

on the high beams. I only have two moments out

of this one and they're both animation related

the both of the battle scenes the animation both

battle scenes was really really well done the

action was really well done in those and The

laser fire and all that stuff absolutely love

the animation in those I agree I had that down

as a highlight as well What else did you like

about this one? T Bob the hairdryer Pretty funny

That's Scott gets wet and T Bob is drying him

off Love seeing the shit. Yeah, go ahead. Well

that started out as T Bob the snowblower because

Scott somehow let's see I thought T Bob was like

Any other robot where he could you know? Basically

remove his hands by himself and just pull him

into him or like I didn't realize at the time

when I was watching this that Scott actually

Removed his hands and feet to make him be the

snow blower blow -dryer Whatever and he keeps

asking him. When are you gonna put my hands back

on? I was like Scott's like I had no time for

that now. It's like jeez Yeah, he does and it

was funny when he was a hairdryer to the yeah

top of T Bob was red It was getting hot Mm -hmm

I love seeing the shots of Boulder Hill and the

gas station again And we get a little longer

shot of the helmet room, which we haven't seen

a whole lot in recent episodes They actually

is it this episode they actually use the the

little readout at the center of the table as

a map I Think I believe so yeah, I think it's

this one Yeah, so that was interesting. Yeah,

we don't see the helmet room a lot anymore because

they're all out in the field are all out doing

something or in the plane or Yeah, and it's some

of the recent episodes We've been seeing more

of the mask members as they're being called so

we get to see what they're doing Although I would

have to say that the things they're doing aren't

very interesting. It seemed like early on in

the series They were they were humorous You know

now it's just like They're there. They're doing

something and they get called away like, you

know Dusty's maybe riding a horse and he gets

called and Nothing really humorous happening

happens or Bruce is testing out some toy and

has to run off You know, usually they leave somebody

there holding the bag or something But this time

there just wasn't anything very interesting occurring

and they had they keep going to Julio and Calhoun

and these two new characters. What the hell is

Hondo? We haven't seen him in God knows how long.

Yeah, we haven't. The last time we saw Hondo

was when he was the Leprechaun scheme. The Pot

of Gold scheme a few podcasts back when they

were in Ireland. That's the last time we saw

Hondo, so whatever the hell episode that was,

I forget the name of the episode off the top

of my head. It's been a while since we've seen

Hondo. It's like, what the hell is he doing?

Did he retire or something? Did heaven forbid

an 80s cartoon character get killed or something?

I don't know. All right. Anything else for high

beams? Nothing else. All right, we're going to

get to the low beams. Perhaps Mother Nature took

her lunch break. Whatever it is, I hope Gloria's

got something on it by now. Alright, for the

low beams for the creeping desert. A desert is

no real danger. Are you fucking kidding me, Tracker?

Seriously? there are snakes and spiders and scorpions

and the You see you mean to tell me this guy

thinks that the Sun is not a real danger in the

desert. Hello heat stroke heat exhaustion dehydration

What an idiot? Why hasn't t -bob changed back

into oh, that's we already talked about why the

hell hasn't this is what I was saying earlier

and why I made the note here Why hasn't T -Bob

changed back into his real hands? It's because

he apparently can't change out his hands for

other body parts or other useful tools. Apparently

Scott just, you know, Scott George -Lucas -ed

him, apparently, on both hands. It's like, sorry,

yes, I am your father. it's like yeah um you

know i already mentioned the damn land deals

is the lex luther plot and and then we have the

the psa on firecrackers are you kidding me yeah

they should at least tailor these damn things

to mimic the episodes or have a lesson like we've

said before have a lesson from the episodes but

oh my god a PSA on firecrackers okay then uh

what did you like or not oh what didn't you like

about this one well i only wrote down one there

were a lot of things i didn't like about it but

um it's going to take six months for the foliage

to grow back i mean that's that's a long time

i hope this guy uh you know has a lot of money

sitting back there in the bank while he's waiting

for the uh the economy to recover because he's

he's having venom basically you know use this

machine or whatever to uh turn the whole place

into the desert so it runs everybody else out

of business then he can like buy up all the land

and build his hotels it's gonna take six months

for the foliage to grow back before he can even

start like getting people back into his hotels

yeah and and that's really the whole point of

this plot it's just I mean I like the concept

that yes they're going to turn the whole area

into desert but then it's just to help this guy

buy up some land and make a bunch of money and

of course you know Venom is going to profit from

it but you know even Cobra Commander could come

up with something better than that yeah that's

very true um very very true oh lord all right

so I kind of goofed up on this episode ladies

and gentlemen we're going to be giving our ratings

to the end of the podcast when we do closing

the show so next time around episode 24 it'll

go back to the ratings actually being at the

end of each episode's low beams so we're gonna

get to the final episode after this it won't

be long Dusty before everyone can have a glass

of clean drinking water thanks to your program

for purifying the Tooroon River It's gonna mean

good health and new jobs here in Venezuela. Matt!

Sam, you look like you've just seen a ghost.

That's easier to believe than what I'm going

to tell you, Matt. Angel Falls stopped flowing

just like this. Hold on, partner. You're trying

to tell us that a waterfall almost a mile high

stopped running? I've been an environmentalist

for 10 years, and I've never seen anything like

that. Dad! The river water level went down in

two seconds flat! You should have seen it! It

was far out! You mean to tell me the water level

of the river dropped because the waterfall has

stopped flowing? Sounds far -fetched! I'd like

to look into this, Dusty. I want to see what

puts a waterfall on hold. Finally up today is

the Scarlet Pumpernickel - Oh, I'm sorry. No,

there's no daffy duck here. The Scarlet Empress!

Mask member Calhoun Burns accidentally shrinks

a priceless statue Venom is trying to steal,

and Curious Bird makes off with the statue. Wow,

that's a really cheesy, low -brow plot synopsis

from Wikipedia. Yeah, so we're back to treasure

hunting. that plot doesn't exactly just basically

calhoun finds this thing uh... the statue of

the scarlet empress uh... finds venom with it

venom wants to because they're they're in venezuela

they're in south america go a little north people

come on now we need more north american adventures

here dammit instead of some foreign jungle So

apparently there are no roads going into and

out of this jungle so venom is going to Float

the statue that they stole down the river. Yeah

Okay Now I'll admit that when I Saw the title

of this episode I thought oh they're gonna pull

a jungle book They're going to, you know, have

Scott fall in love with some little Indian girl

or something or other or some little Venezuelan

girl or something. Like I thought the Scarlet

Empress was going to be like, what's her name

from Neverending Story? Yeah, I can't remember

her name, but I had the same idea. Yeah, I didn't

realize. Yeah, I didn't realize it was just going

to be some statue. And the plot for this is just...

it's just lame. What do you got for the plot?

I thought that there were some moments in the

very beginning that were interesting. It was

a good way to start it off with a little bit

of humor. Scott and T -Bob are fishing, and Scott

gets bitten by the fire ant, so then T -Bob throws

a bucket of water on him. And then... T Bob says

well at least something was biting today, so

I thought that again That was a good way to start

it off with a little bit of humor and then and

suddenly the lake starts drying up and and And

then off we go with the episode. I did kind of

like the the design for the Scarlet Empress So

those are those are nice, you know points in

the plot that I like but We'll get to more of

those things that we liked here in just a moment

Yep Hmm All right. Yeah, we're gonna get to the

high beams after this Laser burns are all over

those rocks. Yes, Brad, but he didn't take a

vacation after all. Of course not. Water was

obviously evaporated by the lasers. I get the

feeling we're smelling fishy water. And the fish

smell like venom. I wonder what kind of scheme

they've got cooking in. I don't know. But I have

a friend who might be able to help us. Zuwater.

So four high beams for the Scarlet Empress. I

have two things. Fire ants! Yikes! I thought

that was hilarious in the beginning and then

I thought it was even more hilarious at the end

and I will have two pictures in the post for

this one because um when Scott and T -Bob use

the fire ants at the end they bite Vanessa in

the butt and you see um I think is it this one?

I'm trying to remember. There's a point in either

this episode or it's maybe in an episode next

week where either Vanessa gets bitten or shot

in the ass, quite literally. It's next week.

Several characters get shot in the butt. Yeah.

Yeah, that's, that's, yeah. Okay. So, but anyway,

the fire ants thought that was absolutely amazing.

Yeah. Cause it's, it's used again. We mentioned

a little while ago, I mentioned about how it's

used early on with T Bob and Scott, but then

Rax gets bitten by the ants later on. And then,

uh, Gory. something that's it's a pun but it's

also kind of humorous sometimes they can be used

well and this is one of those times where I thought

was funny he said you'd use any antics to get

attention yeah yeah what else did you like about

this one well at least Matt figures out early

on in the episode that venom is behind this it

just takes us a while again to learn why venom

is so interested in this thing yeah Yeah, it

took... I'm trying to think. It was somewhere

along the lines of between 9 and 14 minutes to

even fully show Venom on screen. It might have

been around the 9 minute mark where we might

have seen or heard Miles talking to Rax, but

I think it was somewhere around 13 or 14 minute

mark where we actually finally learned of their

plan and... You know, I would at this point I

would rather have these episodes start with venom

start with their plot and Then go to mask instead

of going to Scott and okay Scott and T Bob fishing

I guess that was a setup for what obviously happens

at the end of the episode but like Start with

the bad guys have them do something and I mean

it's kind of like, you know, it's kind of like

the Joker The Joker goes out and does things

commits crimes kills people Sets money on fire,

you know, whatever in order to get Batman's attention

right, you know, so Venom should be trying to

get even though they want to get away with it

But I mean, it's like the crimes that they do

should bring mask to them in the very beginning

of the episode, instead of just starting out

with, oh, Scott and T -Bob are relaxing, and

Matt's no, Matt, I don't think was anywhere in

sight in the beginning of this episode when they

were fishing. Exactly, this is what we've mentioned

before. Find other ways to introduce the episodes,

to bring the characters into it. It's always

the same way that we start off, pretty much is...

You know, Matt and Scott are with T -Bob vacationing

somewhere. Sometimes there's another mask member

with them. And they stumble along some mystery

or something. They somehow get involved in trying

to figure out what's going on. And of course,

we know Venom is behind it. But yeah, why not

start it off different and have Venom doing something?

And then we bring in the mask members later.

Again, is this this formulaic plot? they keep

using over and over again where it's just, you

know, okay, we've got to have, you know, so many

characters, we've got to have some scheme or

treasure hunt for Venom to go after. And this

gets tiresome. They've pretty much gone everywhere

in the world except maybe Australia and the North

Pole at this point. They're always in... either

Mexico, Mexican jungles, Venezuelan jungles,

South American jungles. There have been a couple

of times where it's actually coming up that,

you know, there's an episode where they go to

Italy. They've been to Paris. They've been all

over the world and they've been in the United

States maybe. Out of 60, okay, I don't know about

the other 60, about the other 5 or 10 or however

many episodes we have left. I think it's like

5 or 6, but out of the remaining episodes so

far, they've only been in the United States like

5 different times that I can think of in 65 episodes.

For a U .S.-based kids cartoon... Like if I want

to go exploring the world I'll watch something

like we're in the world of Carmen San Diego or

Mysterious cities of gold or you know something

like that like if I want a gold treasure hunt

type of stuff I would watch mysterious cities

of gold Right, I think that's one thing that

they they did wrong with this series is because

you know The kids don't really care where we're

at. I mean as a viewer. I don't really care I

mean yes, it's kind of interesting to go to different

places sometimes but to do it at this frequency

and just be Globetrotting for you know really

no apparent reason other than you know I will

say that occasionally and we've mentioned this

before is that they will throw in Historical

facts and things about some of the places that

they go to So they're sort of using it as a learning

device, but I just don't think it works very

well. I think it's unnecessary. I think the kids

really just want to tune into something that's

fun. You look at something similar to this, like

we mentioned GI Joe earlier in the episode. GI

Joe's in different places, but they're not in

a jungle every week. They're sometimes in a snowy

area. We don't even know where it's at. It's

just some snowy area, some desert area, some

jungle area. It doesn't really matter, you know,

let's just get the action moving. Let's let's

do something with the characters Let's find a

different plot device and and tell an interesting

story. Unfortunately, you know Mask is missing

the mark on that. Oh Very much. So very much.

So alright We're gonna get to the low beams,

which we kind of already started after this turning

on the low beams so why couldn't they have done

this plot in canada it made a hell of a lot more

sense for niagara falls to stop flowing that

whatever river this is in south america like

seriously yeah they could have gone they wouldn't

have had to go on the u .s side they could have

gone to the canadian side to niagara falls in

canada And just make, you know, of course, back

then, you probably see if you if you stop the

falls, you probably see a lot of people in midair

in barrels. Still, it's like, why couldn't they

have just done this shit in Canada? Yeah. Brilliant

idea, Mike. Brilliant. Yeah, I know. Right. See,

I'm better than the mask writers. And it turns

out to be in another treasure hunt. And then

I will say that gory had I had a good one you

already mentioned antics And then I think T Bob

had a good one anti -social Yeah And what PSA

would PSA there was no PSA in this episode It

was no such thing as ghosts Where did that come

from and the thing I was thinking is you know,

it wasn't even like this scary scene, you know,

I mean, you would think that T Bob and Scott

would be like, you know, all nestled in their

beds at night and there's a thunderstorm with

all this lightning or something and that, you

know, the wind comes howling through the window

and, you know, not something over, but no, it's

middle of the day, you know, it's like one o

'clock in the afternoon and they're just walking

by this creepy house or something. It's not,

not very well done. What else didn't you like

about this one? I mean, we talked about the ant

puns. There were a lot of them here. There were

a couple that worked pretty well, but they just

kept going on and on. There was something like

ant acid that I didn't think worked as well.

And then, Miles has to remind Natch to use his

mask powers to lift the object. Yeah. That's

what his mask power is. How can he forget? What

that mask does he shouldn't need reminding so

I thought that was just terrible Yeah Overall

this one just This might be the worst episode

of the day honestly It really really might So

yeah We are going to take a quick break You're

gonna come back with our final thoughts and ratings

on these three episodes and then we'll close

the show after this Hello geeks what a podcast

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Now for a behind -the -scenes look at GeekCast

Radio Network's newest show, Talking in Circles.

So, Chuck, Greg, what are you guys thinking for

this week's show? Well, Dan, how about we just

talk about the things that we've read or watched

this week? We do reviews like that every week,

Chuck. How about a game like Factor Fiction or

The Power of Names? Those are great, and we're

always coming up with new ideas for games. And

how about some top fives? You know how I love

my top fives. What about... Tournament style

brackets or sequel reboot and destroy who will

win in a fight taking too far crazy, but true

news or yes It appears we have lots of things

to work on Listen to talking in circles taking

timeless topics in new directions every Tuesday

on iTunes or geek cast radio .com the geek cast

radio network Hey, Dan, who's the guy with the

creepy voice? All right, we are back here on

mass mayhem What are you going to give or not

give to? What the hell was the name of that damn

episode? Incident in Istanbul? Yeah, yeah, the

incident in Istanbul, how are you gonna write

that one? Okay, I'm gonna give this one two masks

Okay, I'm gonna give it a one Just As we were

talking it out, even with the animation for the

chessboard and all that stuff, that was cool,

but still... What didn't work for me in that

scene is the fact that in a different part of

it, something we didn't talk about when we were

discussing the episode, but in a different part

of the episode when T -Bob and Scott are in the

caverns below, as soon as Mayhem and the rest

of Venom opens up the chest thing, this giant

thing raises from the floor and guess who's standing

on the rock? Scott and T -Bob in the middle of

everything and Venom does not see them. runoff

venom doesn't see one. What are you going to

give Creeping Desert? Well, this one I actually

liked it more than the other episodes this week.

I'm going to give it two masks, but again, I

liked the difference in the locations. I mean,

I know we only saw the snow on the mansion there

in the beginning, just briefly. before he moved

on to the desert. But I did like the animation

in this one. We mentioned the good vehicle battle

in this. There were some humorous moments. There

was one moment that we didn't talk about that

I thought was pretty funny, and that is Rax gets

shoved by Rhino. And Rhino transforms, and the

front gate pushes off the front of Rhino's nose.

It just pushes him away, and he goes flying.

Yeah. So... Yeah, it was it was a little more

entertaining than the other episodes this week

And I think I maybe mentioned that the pacing

on this one wasn't too bad Yeah, this one for

me I really did dig it I thought it was kind

of cool outside of the whole you know I I mean

hell if I can overlook the fact that they used

the same damn plot in Superman returns as a Lex

Luthor land deal plot, I think I can overlook

it here in Mask. Overall, outside of that part

of the plot, I give this a three. I really did

enjoy it. I enjoyed the humor with Rax and everything

else. What about Scarlet Empress? Well, as you

mentioned, I think this was the low light of

this week's episodes. It was just awful. I don't

like giving zeros, so I'm going to give it a

one mask. But you know to me one means it's terrible

It was just really bad Okay, I did like the ant

pun some of those work pretty well, but overall

I just I thought like you this was a bad episode

Yeah for me. I'm gonna give it a one as well.

I generally only give zeros when something just

like makes the entire episode not work for me

at all or if it's something like as I mentioned

earlier in this podcast like what happened in

episode 21 of the podcast with the seatbelt thing

so yeah well let me say one of the things I did

not like about this episode is is the ending

you know we mentioned in the incident in Istanbul

where basically Venom is is overthrown just by,

you know, one of the guys being tripped and dropping

the treasure. And sort of the same thing here.

I mean, they're after this scarlet empress, and

it gets shrunken down and then carried off by

a parrot. And that's it. So, you know, we go

through all this just to have that happen at

the very end. It's just a convenient way to wrap

up the episode without really explaining anything.

Yep, and Matt even says oh well the parrot has

it now So I guess it's destined to forever be

lost in time or something or other. Yeah Alright,

thank you for joining us here on Mast Ma 'am.

There are several ways to get in contact with

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You can follow at GeekCastRadio for all the other

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your Twitter? Toon Master Tim. You can become

a fan on Facebook. Go to facebook .com slash

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at geekcastradio .com and I think that's gonna

do it for us coming up next time here on mass

mayhem in episode 24 we will be talking about

the Venice menace treasure of the Narza plane

or Nasca plane and We're gonna pull a disappearing

act out of our hats. So stay tuned for the second

to last episode of season one of mask. These

episodes are 60 through 62 for episode 24 of

the podcast. For now, I am TF2 and Mike with...

Tune Master Tim. Illusion is the ultimate weapon.