A Big Live LIVE Show Review

by foxxfireart

A Review of the Whiskey Media's Live-Video Event Length: 7:00:00 It was last week that Whiskey Media (WM) held it's bit live-video events that was to celebrate the creation of the multipass and paid subscriptions. It was a seven hours long of live entertainment that was hosted by all the personalities from the various WM sites; Comic Vine , Giant Bomb , Tested , and Screened . There were many g...

A Review of the Whiskey Media's Live-Video Event

Length: 7:00:00
It was last week that Whiskey Media(WM) held it's bit live-video events that was to celebrate the creation of the multipass and paid subscriptions. It was a seven hours long of live entertainment that was hosted by all the personalities from the various WM sites; Comic Vine, Giant Bomb, Tested, and Screened. There were many guests, some entertaining events, some less so; cool insight to some coming games, and some rather funny moments. Though promotion were made over all the Whiskey Media sites and everyone was invited, was everyone really welcome?

I watched this live for the most part. I missed the very start of the show, because I didn't realize you had to press the play button on the player to get the show started. I didn't miss much. I also didn't get to view the last few hours live. I live in the Eastern time zone,and had places to be that day. Hard to out aside seven hours in a whole day, but I did get to watch what I missed in the archived videos. I wanted to confirm what I had hoped was just a rumor, but sadly it turned out to be all too true. We'll get to that later.

The Good

For the most part, the vast majority of the entertainment that was given to the audience was pretty well entertaining. It could not of been easy to get seven hours of programming put together. I'm quite sure that everyone worked really hard, and that needs to be recognized. It would be a bit difficult to sum up the seven hours as each event went by. So, I will be separating these categories by their respective sites.

Comic Vine:

I was rather surprised how little time Comic Vine got for this show, but it was all pretty fun. They had some fun events of some live character battles, but I thought some of the CV staff could of done far better with the characters given. I honestly have no idea how Norm could of lost the battle with Darkseid as a character. I haven't read Superman in years and I could of done better at that.
Comic Vine also had some nice giveaways with some rather cool prize packs. Though, things only got even better when Inferior Ego joined the festivities. I also enjoyed seeing the regular Comic Vine guest James Robinson join the show. He's always been a favorite guest of mine for the podcast.

I am going to be honest. When I originally heard via Twitter that Babs had purchased a dress specifically for this big event. I thought the whole idea was kind of silly. Why would she want to spend seven hours in some elaborate gown for seven hours rather than something more comfortable. Well, after I actually saw her in that dress. All that criticism went flying out the window in a nanosecond. She looked utterly stunning. It truly had an elegance to it that suited her in the most exquisite way.

Watching a live taping on the Preview Theater really makes one appreciate editing. A lot whole of giggling going on. I also enjoyed the live Comic Vine News that was shown. It brought up some nice news events, but G-Man seemed more interested in standing there to drink and add occasional commentary. I also hate what that X-Men First Class movie is doing with Emma. It's bad enough she was made into Silver Fox's sister for Wolverine Origins. For this movie, she looks similar to an Austin Powers' Fem-Bot. This movie is D.O.A. to me. They will be lucky if I watch this when it comes out to rent or on TV.

Giant Bomb:

We saw some rather cool game footage for some coming series. I'm more interested in the Playstation Move line of games. I can't get into Rock Band, but that dance game looks kind of fun. After watching the footage. I heard one rather odd line. It makes me wonder, "how many gay bars does Babs attend?". I'm sure you will get the meaning if you watched it. She also seemed to be the only one appropriately dressed for the setting.

It was Giant Bomb that had the most pleasant surprise, I would say. That coming from the music of Jean Baudin and his eleven-string bass. While his Zelda theme was off beat, most of what he played was utterly beautiful. I really hope he got some more sales from that show. He well deserves it.

Tested:

This is one of the sites that I haven't joined. They have covered some rather interesting things in the past, but I just can't see what I could personally get out of being a regular member. Tested was kind of a mixed bag for me. I found the dismantlement on a PS3 rather intriguing. I was more interested in how they put it back together. That was the part that wasn't shown. I got bored rather fast with many of those silly As Seen on TV gadgets. Testing those felt utterly pointless to watch. It's no great surprise that they never work as well as advertised. It just felt as if they were pointing out the painfully obvious. To their credit, I think they did well given what they had.

Screened:

I do wish to thank Screened for bringing back some fond memories of watching Mystery Science 3000 with the showing of that horrid movie. The one with a monster that apparently kills people by drowning them in red syrup, and characters were required to wear clothing that identified their occupation. Though, this just made me want to watch the real MST3K show.
Screened is another in the Whiskey Media line that I am very much not interested in joining. More so this one than any other. I was also a vocal critic of this one even being created. I vehemently despise things such as reality TV and tabloid news. The whole celebrity culture irritates me to no end, and I don't see how you can report on movies and never cover the people in them,

The Bad

Now, this is where I need to get a little serious with some rather strong criticism. This whole events was basically billed and celebrated as the big coming together of all the Whiskey Media sites into one large group. While it seems that everyone was invited. Not everyone was included in this celebration. One whole segment of the community was regulated to the kiddie table for all seven hours. Present, but not included. That was the Anime Vice community. It seems that this part of community was snubbed from the celebration. How can you celebrate all the communities coming together and completely leave out a whole section in this way?

I am a regular user on Anime Vice, and I've been honored to have several of my guest articles posted in the news segment. I'm always very appreciative about that. That fact can not be understated. I come at this review with a great deal of respect for all the staff. Though, in away I feel a bit foolish now. Seeing how Anime Vice was left out of this entire show. Why did I watch this whole thing from a part of the site that was never going to be involved? Waiting for hours for something to happen for the anime/manga people. There wasn't even a warning or some kind of heads up that Anime Vice wasn't going to be included.

Mind you, I really don't think this was really an intentional slight. It can't be easy when they don't have any in house staff right now. I'm also not delusional, despite what one ex-staff member of Anime Vice may tell you. I am in no way trying to imply I at all think that Anime Vice deserved equal time. It's one of the smaller of the communities. I just find it rather implausible that out of seven hours. They couldn't find five minutes for Anime Vice. More so, when I saw how much time was wasted on those broom slippers.

It's akin to being invited to a party, but everyone refusing to talk to you. It makes one wonder why you were even asked to come. To their credit, Tom Pinchuk did drop into the chat from time to time, but that's hardly the same thing. Tom is a seriously entertaining guy in his own right, and I really enjoy his writings. He has a strong personality and clever wit. I can't see any plausible explanation why five minutes couldn't of been put aside for some portion hosted by Tom.
Looking at all the money that was wasted on some of those TV gadgets, and I wonder. Why didn't they buy a manga volume or anime DVD to give away in a raffle? Much in the same way the other sites had giveaways.

I purposely held off on writing this review, because I wanted to see if there was going to be any sort of statement made on Anime Vice's main page. Just some sort of thing that would say something along the lines of, "Sorry we couldn't work AV into the show. It was because of (x, y, or z) reason, and we will try to do something for the future.". Any sort of reasoning. Even if it was just lip service. Five days later, and nothing.

Verdict 9/10

While I did have some rather passionate criticism for this show. That shouldn't overshadow that what the staff at Whiskey Media pulled of was extremely well done. It's just too bad a whole part of the community was held at arms length rather than embraced for the celebration. Still, the pros greatly outweigh the cons.
I must of sounded pretty harsh in this review, but I don't think I was unfair. I would much rather be a part of the solution than complaining about a problem. It's one of the reasons why I work so hard at writing guest articles and anime reviews for Anime Vice. It makes me regret living on the other site of the continent. Otherwise, I would gladly send a resume to join the team to try and give Anime Vice some more attention. I just don't know if they need any more out of state staff.

I couldn't watch the live after party footage that was archived. I shut it off after the first five minutes of a microphone with no one at it, and a lot of people having fun in the background. Looking at the counter and seeing it said there was two hours of this. I shut it off. I felt ridiculous sitting at my computer, alone, watching a lot of people having fun. I had more fun reading my books and manga.

It's really disappointing that one part of the Whiskey Media community was snubbed. That doesn't mean what was shown wasn't a lot of fun, and perhaps next time will be different. I know the rating systems normally range in the maximum of five stars. I felt ten was more appropriate given the seven hour time frame. For that the staff did do for the audience. I think the show merits a strong 9 out of 10 stars. In closing, Thanks for the show.
Favorite Moment: The Psylocke vs. Elektra battle