This year has been interesting in the Club Penguin video department. First, we welcomed two seasons of #WaddleOn. Then, we got a new breed of Club Penguin music videos; no more animation - just new art styles. And now, we have The Spoiler Alert.
This video series's shining achievement is that it finally reveals the names and voices of the moderators we know and ask for postcards repeatedly from. However, from there....things aren't so amazing.
What sounds like a great idea on paper - a podcast with moderators and video - gets reduced into something of a tease. Just a video with so much potential but so little of it found.
Let's start with the feature spotlight. This sounds like a nice idea, but really ends up being a disappointment. It tells you about some of the things that are going on around the island in that week....scratch that....most of the things. Most of the Penguin Style pages were revealed in the first episode. Many of the cheats were too.
Now, I'm someone who hates spoilers more than the average person. If you reveal the death of a character or who ends up with whom at the end, I will more than likely hold a grudge for awhile. Now, while The Spoiler Alert isn't that severe in its spoiling, I have to say this doesn't get me pumped about the update coming later in the week - it just diminishes the excitement. This was the first update week that I logged into Club Penguin with a bit of a "blah" feeling - and that's because I knew exactly what was coming. I know, "It's in the title! What did you expect?" However, I just feel there's a thin line between a tease and out-right revealing everything.
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| Source: Club Penguin Space |
What would I do with this feature? Well, for one thing, I would change the fact that it is very fact-oriented. I would have liked some commentary. Maybe Polo could talk about what his favorite item in the catalog is or show us some concept art? Maybe Megg (How is her real name not Meg? All logic has left Club Penguin.) could talk about the process of coming up with certain ideas, or an alternative idea that was once thrown around. Don't give it to us straight.
Then, my other gripe with this specific part is that, to be honest, I don't want to be retold what I already know is coming to Club Penguin that week; I want to know what is coming up later. This would be a great place to reveal February's party or what CPNext is poised to look like. This could be dangerous, as Club Penguin changes plans quite frequently (the second Club Penguin guide's Community Room can tell you that). However, it would give the show more meat (or leftover gluten-free pasta) and make for a better experience.
Then, there was the special game spotlight. This was the low point of the show because nothing really happened for awhile. You just sat there seeing the same things.
Kind of like that.
While it was a neat concept to pit two people up against each other, I would have appreciated a high speed version. This segment could run dry pretty quickly too, since there are only so many games to play.
And then there was the Extreme Reading segment. This was by far the best part of the show. The reading was hilarious and it felt like the only really natural part of the show (more on that in a minute...or however long it takes to read a few sentences). This segment also feels like it could be finished off pretty quickly. While there are many different things you can do, some things - like imitating an accent or trying to read something in another language - could potentially offend someone. The main list could be kind of short, with concepts feeling just like variations of a past gag.
The theme song of the show is great. The Club Penguin composers have some of the most consistent results in all of Club Penguin and they once again shine here. The transitions through fancy computer work are also really seamless and neat.
But, now that we have the basic elements down, I move onto my overall complaint with the show. Everything feels too...buttoned up.
What I mean by that is that everything in the show feels too scripted and edited down to the bare bones. Chris, Cory, and
The only time this breaks is during the Extreme Reading segment, as I mentioned a bit earlier. During this segment, Polo, Cory, and Bobbi's reactions felt real. They were off-the-cuff people with emotions. It felt like three friends who were having a good time with each other; not so stiff and to-the-point as the rest of the show.
This is something the official blog suffers from as well. Things seem so straight and to the point and not very natural.
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| Source: Club Penguin Space |
To close, I have three questions.
First off, why is this a blog exclusive? Polo stated on his Twitter account that this was so all players, not just the teenagers using YouTube, would be able to see them. But, to quote my father, I think that's just a bunch of malarkey.
In the past, a multitude of YouTube videos were also released on the blog; most, if not all, were, in fact. Why not upload it to both? It would give more material to the account, which is never a bad thing. It would also make it easier for us to find episodes in the future - a playlist would be far easier to sift through than the blog archive.
And then, my second question is: what will the group do when the only new content being released that week is a Club Penguin Times issue? That missing content could put a serious dent in the length of the show.
Oh, and why was the Snow and Sports section in German? Was it to be unique? Was it because the English one somehow wasn't done?
But, anywho, to close, I will continue watching this show. I don't hate it by any means; I just feel it could use some tweaks. It's brimming with potential. The only episode out right now is the pilot; things could change.
Out of the three new video series that premiered in 2013, I have to say this is not the diamond in the rough. It's just another pebble.
As Billybob would say, Waddle On!
- Chillin43
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