Netflix’s AI Rollout, Prank Culture Backlash & Toy Store Madness

Hi, this is Dan Gilbazan, and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hello and welcome

to Altered Geek. I'm your host, Steve Megatron,

and joining me on this adventure into geekdom

is TFG1 Mike. I ain't afraid of no toast. Yep,

that's right. Yeah. So, been another week. Been

a lot of... Different news. I mean, there's a

lot of crap that's been going on in geekdom and

different spheres, technology especially. Yeah.

But we're going to stick to something, you know,

short and sweet. Yeah, we're going to bring back

the 30 -minute blitz. Except it was 10. Yeah,

but it's an NFL joke, man. It's an NFL joke.

I didn't watch the NFL. I don't know those jokes.

I'm a nerd, man. Oh, my God. Oh, don't even.

Oh, my God. I don't watch sports. What are you

talking about? NFL Blitz 2000. He's going to.

Oh, man. Sports. It's in the game. That's the

only thing I knew. I played hockey. Oh, my God.

NHL 96. You could break the glass and you could

create a team. Yep, yep, yep, yep. So yeah, this

week we've got a plethora of different stories.

We've got the Netflix upgrade, which is kind

of a downgrade. Stuart fails to save the universe

information. Toys R Us sucks. Influencer pranks

and Doomsday. Yes, Doomsday. I'm going to start

with... Netflix. Because it's stupid. So this

one is truly mind -boggling. So a lot of companies,

and I don't know what people know going on right

now, but a lot of companies have varying degrees

of layoffs going on. Yes. Whether AI influenced,

whether or not companies are not doing so hot.

A lot of the companies that went all in on AI

are burning and crashing and burning. in different

ways, like monetarily, some of them staffing.

So it's proving to be a giant money suck and

they don't make enough of it to replace it. But

in this particular instance, Netflix, you know,

has a pretty decently user -friendly interface

and been kind of the number one for some time.

Now they're going to have Netflix AI. Which will

suggest different themes for you. Because everything

needs AI stuff down our throats. Don't get me

wrong, I use AI as a tool. I don't want it in

my TV. I don't want it built into my phone. If

I choose to download it, that's different. I

don't need it in all of my home devices. I don't

feel the need that we have to have it in every

single interface at this point. not making these

companies extra money. No. So the company announced

on November 3rd the new feature AI Discover.

The new technology will first launch on the Netflix

TV app. Yeah. And it's going to be limited to

a number of subscribers in the U .S. before expanding

globally. The new AI -based tool will encourage

viewers to select preset themes. which include

Something Light, Scare Me, Workplace Comedy Favorites,

Family Movie Night, Quick Watches, Family Scandal

Sagas, or Royal Court Intrusion. Similar to already

established categories, the new features will

take it one step further and suggest titles in

real time based on the user's viewing history

and preferences. However, it will also include

what's trending on the platform. So, you know,

never, never a dull moment. That's, that's show

the algorithm. Uh, I don't, I don't do recommendations.

Yeah. So of course they're doing all this other

crap and they've done, you know, announced some

layoffs have done a shakeup of who's in charge

of what, uh, at the top. And, uh, you know, cause

they just missed their chair film and they've

had a large layoff. Yeah. Their, their goal is.

Every title will come with a tune your recommendations

button or select something different or next

to play in my list so that it allows subscribers

to keep a recommendation or ask not to see it

again. Yep. It won't be available on kids profiles

because they're underage and they can't do that.

They're already screwing around with stuff on

the mobile experience for iPhone users. Netflix

bought an AI company founded by Ben Affleck Interpositive.

During the spring, which helps with post -production

work. Okay. Which, whatever. This, I don't know.

I feel like there's so much content at this point.

It's nearly impossible to check everything. And

then most of the stuff, like me, for instance,

I gravitate towards certain actors, certain franchises,

certain... you know certain things that will

will intrigue me right from the get -go are those

two things and then maybe the occasional something

else when it's like oh i kind of recognize somebody

in that or uh this could be interesting but i

don't know how well this is going to work and

i i look forward to trying it because obviously

they're going to shove it down our throat anyway

uh just to see how well it performs yeah um because

i mean netflix has done clips which are shorts

personalized highlight reels with short clips

from shows, movies, and specials to help you

decide what's next. Honestly, I hate any of the

automated playing on any of the streaming platforms

to the point I turn them off. So I don't necessarily

want that. I thought that's what the trailer

was for when you pull up the clips. So I don't

know how I feel about this new endeavor. Plus,

If you know the category that you're looking

for, like the specialized code that's there.

Yeah. You can go right to that. If they would

just make those like on a homepage, like press

the button of what you want. Yeah. I mean, these

categories exist. It's just a matter of finding

them without Googling it. Yeah. Silly. I don't

do. So what I use recommendations for. is for

the stuff i don't want in my face on any of the

streaming platforms like specifically to me i

don't want horror stuff advertised to me on these

platforms so if i'm going like let's just say

i even though this is not the case but let's

just say i haven't had a netflix subscription

in a while and i resubscribe and oh you're back

or oh this or oh that and blah blah blah and

all of a sudden all the freddy movies or all

the jason movies or all the this raw and they're

they're trying to figure out and even though

with netflix oh choose three genres and i don't

choose the horror genre but yet somehow whatever

like That's what I use recommendations for, but

I do not use recommendations for, like, take

Tubi, for example. Tubi, amazing, absolutely

love it, whatever. But literally today, four,

five, six, seven, eight hours ago, when I was

getting the script together for this podcast,

at some point, I was over on Tubi, and what Tubi

had done, what most places do, New to the platform

or just added or just movies returning or TV

shows returning to whatever. And I noticed on

Tubi there was that they had gotten like three

or four classic things back on the platform or

new to like new to whatever. And I'm like, oh,

this is and it's stuff that I would want to watch

and have in my my list or whatever. So. That's

cool. That's awesome. But generally I'm not looking

through if I want to discover something or if

I want to find some, like I use search. I don't

go through like, is that you? No, I don't, I

don't know what you just stopped getting. You

weren't talking into the microphone. So it picked

nothing up anyway. Sorry. But, um, so yeah, I

just, I don't use recommendations at all generally

to actively find things that I want to watch

on Netflix or any other mobile platform, online

platform for streaming. Same thing goes for music.

I do not use me. I've mentioned this before on.

on the podcast i don't use music recommendations

on spotify how i get my music recommendations

half the time is i'll hear somebody on instagram

use music on their reel or something and i'll

then go to spotify and and find the song and

add it to my playlist so I don't use, I don't

find things the way most other people find them.

I still find the stuff, but I don't find them

by using Netflix in this cases. I don't find

them the way Netflix wants me to find their stuff.

And I'm not sitting down in front of Netflix

using their family movie night or. action -packed

movie saturday night or friday night fights or

whatever thing button i don't know that's just

me maybe other people will use this though yeah

i don't know i'm waiting to see how this turns

out so moving on to the other topic which we'll

cover more about in depth on studio 2009 yes

is stewart Fails to save the universe. Yes. So,

yeah, we're going to be getting to review or

getting to the point of reviewing season one

of Stuart. But back in August of this year, Stuart

did get renewed at HBO Max for season two. This

doesn't bode well for saving the universe by

season's end, but it really is good news. nonetheless

hbo max has renewed stewart's fails to save the

universe for season two tv line has learned the

pickup comes just four episodes into the big

bang theory spinoff uh spinoff's freshman run

the single camera comedy which hails from original

series co -creators chuck lorry and bill prady

so it only took them four episodes into the 10

episode run to get picked up for a season two

obviously i mean it was i know it was genuinely

good yeah no absolutely i absolutely loved it

i thought it was great i've got a couple of nitpicks

which again y 'all will hear uh in uh in the

future episode of studio 2009 but um but yeah

i at the end of season one i was like okay I

could be interested in a season two to see what,

what happens to these characters. And I think

the biggest gripe that a lot of people probably

had with this is, oh boy, it's more side characters

from big bang. And I mean, obviously Sheldon

is not a side character, but young Sheldon spun

off with Georgie and Mandy. And that's what I

mean by side characters. Because honestly, I'm

more invested in Georgie and Mandy than I ever

was in Young Sheldon. Young Sheldon, I think

I only watched up to the end of the... No, I

watched up to the midway point of the second

season. And then I heard about Georgie and Mandy

and I had to go back and watch Young Sheldon

again to finish it off. To catch up to where

Georgie and Mandy started. But it took me forever

to finish Young Sheldon. And it was only because

Georgie and Mandy started that I went back and

finished it off. But no, Stuart fails to save

the universe when season one started. And this

is kind of getting into what we'll record later

tonight. But when I first saw the trailers for

season one, I was like, oh, this is interesting

and cool. I wonder who else is going to show

up as the guest stars, or I wonder what, how

else they're going to incorporate the rest of

the main shows cast as the guest stars or how

they're going to flip the script. Cause that

was the whole point of fails to save the universe

is with Stuart being the main driving force of

this show. And basically. making it about him

and making it about the comic book store and

then branching off from that so yeah no absolutely

uh we'll have to wait and see what happens with

uh with season two yeah so i'm specifically looking

forward to season two to see who is going to

get brought back because they did a number of

cameos with the exception of uh two three three

of the main cast Yeah, there was no... They didn't

show Leonard Sheldon or Howard. Yeah, they didn't.

Yeah. They showed everybody else. Yep. It'll

be interesting either way. I'm looking forward

to seeing what they do with it. I did not expect

it to be good. And again, I think it's because

these were all of the side... literally stewart

i don't i'd have to go back and do the math i'm

not doing the math right now i don't know how

many episodes like i don't think it's in the

article here i don't know how many episodes of

the big bang theory he's actually in like i know

he runs the comic book store and i know sheldon

goes to the comic book store every wednesday

for new comics like i know they are there a lot

but I don't know how many times or how many interactions

they actually have with Stuart and Bert. I don't

know how many episodes Bert is in. I know Brian

Posehn is a great, he's a really cool actor and

I've seen him in a couple of things, but, uh,

and then don't even get me started on crib key.

Well, I need to save all my energy on that guy

for the actual, uh, but yeah, anyway. So, Moving

on from there, we have Boys Aren't Us. Yeah,

because no. And I know we've talked about this

briefly in the past, but there was a video of,

like, this is exactly how you go out of business

to get in. They were showing, like, these crappy

Hasbro Dungeons & Dragons figures that should

have been, like, $12. Yeah, and it was, like,

they started with... Yeah, it was like 20. No,

that's this. This is even worse. So it was a

2299 Dungeons and Dragons figure. It was some

other figure. And then they showed a Masters

of the Universe Skeletor, which was like $35.

And I'm sitting here thinking to myself, huh?

Well, they're like 20 bucks at the store and

half of them. Yeah, I know. That's that's my

point is that you have Toys R Us. You have whomever,

I don't even know who's trying to bring Toys

R Us back. And look, folks, it's not going to

freaking happen. You're not going to recapture

the magic that was Toys R Us from 30 to 40 years

ago. And I know Toys R Us, and again, I don't

have the Toys R Us Wikipedia page pulled up here

or anything. like toys r us was in business for

a long time and unfortunately they went bankrupt

as far as i remember off the top of my head um

so do you do you want to know who owns them now

it's probably mcdonald's or coca -cola so this

this is the the one once i say this you're going

to be like uh do you remember the the little

calendar kiosks that eventually became go toys

and games and calendars yes so the go retail

group bought toys r us yeah which is why these

look like dogs not although they own they own

babies r us too they own the disney stores which

honestly the disney stores are actually halfway

decent uh but they've got all these different

like go like they're basically junk shops it

says they're a family business and you know whatever

which but Toys R Us sucks now. It's a pale comparison

to Toys R Us. It makes KB Toys look premium.

I will say this time around, at least it's an

actual store versus the last time around being

a kiosk in Macy's. It's still not much better

because essentially you're wasting money. and

charging more, like, three times the price of

what a Skeletor figure probably should be. Like...

No, thank you. Like... Well, to be fair, they've

always charged too much. Okay, yes, but, like,

my point is, like, the guy in the video said

something about the Skeletor, you could get it

family dollar. It was Triclops or something.

Whatever. Yeah, I know. The point is, is that

all of the figures he shows off in the video,

he even said himself, you could get these at

other stores for much cheaper, even retail or

below retail prices. Like the retail price, the

Toys R Us stores are trying to charge for these

figures is way above board on the things. And

it's just like. Why are you trying to recapture

what Toys R Us used to be when it's just not

going to effing work? It ain't going to work.

And I'm sorry to say it because we don't live

in an age where you can have that individual

electronic shop, toy shop. uh skateboard unfortunately

this is a sad state of affairs skateboard shop

all of the end of all of those individual items

all um just all all of the individual items that

used to have individual shops by themselves like

all that stuff with walmart and target and Just

all these big box stores now, even the low -end

big box stores, you just can't have that crap

anymore. It's just not going to work. I mean,

as much as we, as toy collectors, would want

a legitimate toy store like Toys R Us used to

be, like KB used to be, et cetera, et cetera,

et cetera. There's nobody out there that's going

to do it like Toys R Us used to do it. Again,

unless you are someone who is going to be, like

unless you took Big Bad Toy Store and put it

into, like took Big Bad Toy Store. from online

to being in the real world. You know what I mean?

Like, unless you took one of the online stores

and put it in brick and mortar kind of thing.

I don't know how you would do that. Not sure,

have no idea, but it's just not going to happen.

Unfortunately, for the longest time now, online

or toy collecting and toy selling is, it's mostly

online nowadays. It's just not going to work

as, and kids today prove it honestly. Oh, I,

yeah, I could tell you that firsthand. Like I

go into the Walmart on the daily, like it's literally,

you know, it's the same crap and it's always

on the shelf. It's the same stuff. It maybe gets

clearance. It's yeah. So. I don't see this going

well. I see even though they open them, they'll

eventually get closed down. Yeah. I'm honestly

surprised they haven't gotten closed down already.

Well, I went into it and I'm like, this store

sucks. My kids even went in and said it sucked.

And I was like, this is not Toys R Us, guys.

No. I was like, sorry, it's not. And they're

like, it's expensive and it's old stuff. And

I was like, yep. It was literally like War for

Cybertron Transformers. And how many years ago

was that? Yeah. It's before Legacy and all that

stuff. Like it's literally back there. And there

were figures that didn't sell well the first

time. And I was like, oh, so they're the hand

-me -downs. They're the big lots. So it was just,

I don't know, it was kind of funny. That's depressing.

You. however i think you found this one about

yes i i did i saw a video on i saw a video of

somebody reacting to it and then i went to find

the actual video so i could see it without somebody

reacting to it and this is just oh god makes

my blood boil it really really does oh god so

there was I don't know how or why we end up in

a culture where it's okay for influencers or

anyone to be doing pranks on store employees

or vendor employees that are stocking shelves

in stores. But Walt Z, who is a Red Baron employee,

Red Baron pizza employee, was stocking. shows

in a walmart in michigan of all places white

lake michigan yeah yeah um the prankster came

up and played a sound effect making it sound

like an apple pay transaction chimed yeah claimed

to have stolen ten dollars and then like kept

trying to provoke him for the video footage And

the guy was like, I don't have time for this.

Like my life's hard enough. I don't, I'm having

a hard enough time paying my mortgage. Like I

don't. Yeah. Um, and I mean, Walt did initially

try to like, just ignore the guy and not have

any interaction with him. Tried to brush it off

and that kind of thing and whatever else. And

then it, it just, this, this, this type of footage

is not funny. Like, No, it's not funny. I'm not

lying. I'm pissed. I am. I'm. Well, it's like,

leave people alone. Like their jobs are already

hard enough. Like you don't need to film them

for content. Yeah, no. And this is not content

anyone wants to watch. Like, this is not funny.

This is not like, and especially trying to play.

Yeah. Play an Apple pay sound. Why do you do?

Don't do like this. Like. man like you thought

this was gonna be funny to like and i don't know

this content creator thank god i don't know this

content creator but this content creator sounded

like he was young sounded like he was a young

kid like 20s maybe from what i could hear in

the video uh dude it's i don't know it's it's

crazy that this happened and then some People

raised over $500 ,000 in donations to help support

him. I didn't know Schwan's owned Red Baron,

though. That's kind of funny. But I don't know.

It's funny. The company says he's still here.

He's got a fan club, including us. It just means

that he's paid his house off. I don't know. People

just... need to like chill they need to stop

harassing people it's hard enough and I mean

life's more difficult than it needs to be on

many fronts and cost of living continues to increase

so I I'm totally with the worker like leave these

people alone like you've got too many people

that want to be internet famous especially the

younger generations and like it can happen we're

well beyond that like the early days of like

virality of stuff. Like, yeah, like there's so

much, there's so much garbage out now of like,

um, these AI user generated content or AI, like

everything. And so it's in between that and like

the, the quick and the, the guy that talks like

this on his videos when he's talking about whatever,

you know, it's a little, I don't know. I feel

like all that video crap is just exactly that

crap. Yeah, it is exactly. So. Yeah, it is exactly

that, which like the man just but I mean, I'm

glad the story had a happy ending, but damn,

because initially, like I said earlier, if you

watch the video, you think and everyone thought.

before we got the update and before we knew about

the fundraiser or whatever you think him going

off on that like he only verbally went off on

the kid like he didn't like do anything at all

to the kid at all but he just yelled at him but

you would think if people watch the video oh

boy he's gonna get fired that's the first thing

everyone thought and uh Luckily, that's not the

case. I do find it funny that Red Baron is a

Schwann's company, considering the part of Schwann's,

their home delivery company, which had been in

business since 1952, went out of business a couple

of years ago. But, yeah, it is what it is. But,

yeah, I mean, hey, I'm happy for the guy that

he didn't get fired and that, you know, people

came through for him and whatever else. And that

content creator needs to not make content ever

again. Or if you're going to do it, just be original.

Stop harassing people. Yeah. Because there's

really no reason for that crap. Yeah, no, not

at all. Not in this day and age. so yeah then

we have doomsday doomsday is coming doomsday

is on the way we only have less than a month

a little bit more than a month actually we get

a month and two weeks two weeks from today month

and two weeks from today jesus oh boy so the

trailer i linked i think is the new super bowl

i think it's the new super bowl footage thing

that they released at least it was yeah it came

out like nine days ago yeah so that's i was trying

to get the most accurate and it's not footage

i had seen so i think the only clip i had seen

is the one where uh loki and thor like uh this

this worries you doesn't it This makes you mad,

doesn't it? You know it does. That's what it

is. This bothers you. That's what it is. I almost

wonder if that's Loki. No, it's what everyone's

assuming. Yeah, absolutely. Because he is worthy

now. Yeah. So it would be interesting to see.

Well, that's what everyone's assuming is that

it is Loki. It's not Cap. it's not it's not uh

steve yeah which i could see it either way i

mean it could just be him just mellowed out and

thor just you know kind of battle hardened and

not as carefree as he once was because even when

ant -man is like captain yeah and then he's like

uh captains and and then he's just like got this

look where he's like doing a sigh like a silent

sigh like Like you got to be kidding me. Shut

up. But I think that you got to be kidding me.

Shut up thing was more about the moron. Like

I was Captain America 2 once for like half a

second. Shut the hell up, John Walker. Nobody

cares. Yeah. Get out of here. Yeah, I'm looking

forward to this. There's I mean, quite honestly,

there's a lot of movies I'm looking forward to

that are coming out. There's. There's that. There's

the new Jumanji. Open world, which comes Christmas

Day. There's the man with the bag. I don't know

if you've heard of that. No, what's that one?

The Christmas movie coming to Amazon with Arnold

Schwarzenegger playing Santa Claus. Oh, no. And

somebody steals his Santa sack. And then he has

Alan Richson as the... Oh, no. He's basically

a rogue elf, steals his bag, and Santa recruits

a thief from his naughty list to quickly assemble

a crew of criminally skilled misfits to pull

off the unexpected heist. oh my god so it's supposed

to be a comedy and I'm like okay like I'll get

behind it it's Arnold he looks like he's having

fun he's old uh I don't know like it's just I

think it's gonna be funny so and then uh there's

uh a movie with Johnny Depp of Ebenezer which

looks like it's halfway decent very cool so yeah

there's there's a bunch of different things coming

down the pipe so I'm kind of waiting to see how

it all plays out but Uh, yeah, I'm, I'm excited

for doomsday and seeing what they do and finally

getting to confirm or, uh, any of my, my estimations

for the film. Yeah. I think I'm going to be right

on some stuff. Yeah. Yup. Yup. Yup. Yeah. I mean,

I think I've gone pretty much blind into it.

Like I've only seen the few trailers and that's

the cool thing about the trailers for like Spider

-Man. Uh, brand new day they practically showed

us they didn't show us everything in the trailers

but they showed us a lot more than i expected

whereas doomsday they've been a lot more reserved

and they've used a lot more restraint like there

was like one of the best reveals ever with it

was the chairs That Comic -Con chair trailer

thing was one of the best trailer gags ever.

And with Downey at the end. Yeah, obviously.

And then they did the teaser, and they did the

regular trailer, and now we have this one that

we have now. So basically, we've got three trailers.

between the time of announcement and and we're

like i said a month and two weeks out so they

haven't bombarded us with like multiple trailer

trailer trailer and then 17 million tv spots

although i'm sure the tv spots are going to start

coming at some point yeah i'm Again, I'm going

to be interested to see what they do with this.

Yep. And who they bring back for the sequel.

Oh, yeah. I think, didn't they say something

about, because this is the interesting thing

with Doomsday and Secret Wars, and that's the

interesting thing about time, is that Doomsday

and Secret Wars is not like Infinity War and

Endgame. Even though Infinity War and Endgame

were still a year apart of each other, the time

in the movies itself was literally instantaneous.

I think the time is going to take a lot longer.

I don't know. I could be wrong, but I don't know.

It's going to be weird, I think. I think there's

something with the time in these movies that

it's not going to be the same. I could have sworn

I heard one of the Russos say something about

that. That the time between in the movies, not

in real time, between the end of Doomsday and

the beginning of Secret Wars, there's going to

be some sort of passage of time. But I could

be wrong. Yeah. Again, I'm waiting to see what

they do. Oh, yeah. No, absolutely. It's going

to be exciting either way. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

No, absolutely. Cannot wait. So I think that

rounds out this episode of Altered Geek. And

yeah, let us know what your thoughts are on some

of these topics. And as always, you can comment

on the website, thegcrn .com in this episode

post. And until next time, get altered. Get geeky

with the Altered Geeks. Oh yeah!