Dungeon Crawler Carl (2020/2024) Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I was gonna do a blog post on either Monday or yesterday, but I was running errands both days, so I didn't get around to it. However, that post I planned to do will happen on Friday. Today I'm finally doing my review of Dungeon Crawler Carl, the first book in the series of the same name. This will have some spoilers in it because I think most of you have probably read this book already, but if you haven't, this is your SPOILER WARNING!!! for potential spoilers. Even though I've read books 2 and 3 of the series, I haven't read anything past that, so I won't even be discussing books 2 and 3 in this review. Let's get into it.

I'm amazed at how big this book has blown up in the last eight months. I originally read it back in January, when Brad lent me the first three books as I was stuck at home due to medical issues I was having at the time. When I first read it, nobody was talking about it online, nobody I knew besides Brad had told me about it. It just wasn't there. But, almost as soon as I finished book 3, suddenly I was seeing people talking about it online, outside of the typical Booktube (the book review community on YouTube), Bookstagram (book community on Instagram), and Booktok (the TikTok version) spaces. Not only that, but I have other friends who have read this book, as well as the other books in the series. It's insane that it's gotten so huge in such a short amount of time.

Dungeon Crawler Carl is written by Matt Dinniman, who originally self-published the book in 2020, as the pandemic hit and we all went into lockdown. Like I said, I didn't hear a thing about it at the time. I'm sure people within the online book communities were discussing it, but it never appeared on my radar and nobody I knew had read it.

The book is about a dude named Carl, who ends up in a game of survival along with his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, whose full name is Princess Donut the Queen Anne Chonk. Donut was a show cat. Aliens invade Earth and destroy every building, car, gazebo, and other structures designed as shelters. The only inhabitants of the planet to survive are those who were outside when the alien invaders arrived. The survivors had a choice, enter the dungeon and participate in the game or stay on the surface and try to survive. The game is basically a reality show being watched by millions of people across the galaxy. It's like Dungeons and Dragons meets The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets The Hunger Games for more familiar references.

The reason Carl was even outside in the first place is because for some reason, Donut jumped out the window of the apartment that Carl had shared with his ex-girlfriend, Beatrice, onto a tree branch and then refused to jump back in through the window. This forced Carl to go outside to try to coax her back into the apartment. It was also January 3rd, in the middle of winter in Seattle. Carl had gone out in nothing but his boxers, a leather jacket, and a pair of crocs on his feet that were way too small. So they had no choice but to enter the dungeon and play the game in order to stay alive. Oh, and Donut talks after Carl gives her a special pet biscuit that turns her into a talking cat and a dungeon crawler in her own right.

I really enjoyed this book both times that I read it. However, I'm not a gamer, so while I found the concept to be fresh in the beginning, it quickly became repetitive and a slog to get through as I got further into the series. Which is why I've only read the first three books in the series. I think this first book is the best. The social commentary is great, it's just not saying anything new or groundbreaking. Which is fine, because that wasn't Dinniman's intent. 

My favourite part of the book is the characters. I love the dynamic between Carl and Donut. I also love Mordecai, who is basically Carl and Donut's guide in the world of Dungeon Crawler World, which is the name of the game show that Carl and Donut find themselves in. Mordecai is a former crawler who stayed on as a guide once his season was over. Which is interesting, but we don't really learn very much about him in this book. 

I do really enjoy Dungeon Crawler Carl. Normally this is where I'd recommend the book to you, but most people have read this book. Those that haven't are the ones who aren't interested in it. And that's fine. Not every book is for everyone. It's still a good book to read though, and I do recommend it if you enjoy reading books like this.

That's it for me for today. I'll be back soon with another post. Until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.  

Nostalgia is Fun, But It's Fun Watching and Reading New Stuff Too

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. It's Friday, and that means I'm here to talk about some of the things that I watched this year so far that I enjoyed and are recent releases. By recent, I mean in the last year or so (2025 to 2026). So, let's get into it.

Right now I'm currently doing a re-read of Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman. I actually read this book back in January when Brad lent me the first three books in the series while I waited for surgery. I haven't read books 4 to 8 yet, and I don't know if I actually will, but I liked the first book enough to buy my own copy of the paperback for the book a few weeks ago when I was at the drugstore for something. I'm re-reading it right now so I can do a review of it on the blog since I didn't do one back in January.

I did a review on this book two months ago, but the only other new book that I read is The Weight of Everything by Steve L. Morgan. Go check out my review of the book to get my full thoughts on it.

I haven't seen any new movies this year, because I don't go to the movie theatre anymore, but I have watched some recent TV shows. The first was the first season of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. While there are some legacy characters in this show, as well as a host of legacy actors, this show doesn't focus on them as much as it does the younger cast who appear in this show. I had so much fun with this show because the characters were unique and while we've had characters who were cadets attending Starfleet Academy before, as well as stories that take place in that school setting, getting to see it on screen for the first time as the focus of a show was awesome for me, as a life long Star Trek fan. 

After that, I watched the first season of Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord on Disney+. It was a really good show. As I mentioned in my review of the first season, I was unsure about whether I would watch it or not, just because villain centric shows and movies are not my thing, and while I liked Darth Maul in Episode I, I thought they could've done less with him given that he was killed (supposedly) in that movie. I also tried to start season 1 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and got eight episodes in, but haven't gotten back to it, because I haven't been in the mood for it this past week.

Last year, when I was watching Andor, I kept seeing a show about a group of young adults in their twenties living in New York City in the 2020s. I was intrigued by it, so I put it on my watchlist on Disney+. It's called Adults and I finally got around to watching the first season after I was finished with Maul, and I loved it. Season 2 is premiering at the end of this month. So we'll see how things go.

Currently, I'm in the middle of the fourth season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. It is a way better season than season 3 was, however, I have one big problem with it, and it's a problem that the show has had for the last couple of seasons. SNW has always been about experimenting with different genres and filming styles. We had the storybook fantasy episode in season 1, way too many horror episodes for my taste, a musical episode, and a live-action/animation hybrid crossover episode with Lower Decks, which is still one of my favourite episodes of the entire show so far. But I found that in season 3 they experimented too much and the story got lost in the shuffle. Season 4 is suffering from that too a little bit. Like, this week's episode was filmed like a film noir show (like Spider Noir) and it wasn't necessary to do that. For me it distracted me from La'An's storyline as well as Una's and just became visually unappealing. It took me out of the world that Una, M'Benga, and Uhura were dealing with.

The people working on SNW have done their best to make every episode stand alone from the others. Which is fine, but when the story of each individual episode isn't necessarily strong enough, the jarring nature of changing genres and visual styles makes them even harder to enjoy. Especially when they're changing it constantly. And, so I don't know what show I'm going to be watching week to week anymore because of that. Which makes next season a bit worrisome to me as it's the final season and there are three characters who don't transition to TOS, so I'm afraid they will kill off these three characters or get rid of them in a way that serves the story, but doesn't serve those characters.

As a whole though, season 4 is a lot better than season 3 was. So I am enjoying being with these characters again after a year apart. I just hope we have a more satisfying ending to the season than we did with season 3.

Nostalgia is fun. I love watching movies that came out during my childhood, or from the decade I was born in, that I didn't get to see growing up. But, I also enjoy stepping back into modern day and watching or reading books, movies, and TV shows from now. I like having the balance of watching old shows, mixed with new shows. 

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. I'll be back next week with a review of Dungeon Crawler Carl and I might try to do a movie review or two next week too. We'll see though. Until then, have a great evening and a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care. 

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy - Lost Contact #1 (2026) Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Thursday. Happy SNW Premiere Day to all of my fellow Trekkies who are reading this. In honour of the season 4 premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which is today, I decided to review a Star Trek comic. Specifically the first issue of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy - Lost Contact, which is a mini-series based on the Starfleet Academy TV series that came out with its first season earlier this year. There will be a few spoilers in this review because it is a single issue out of however many the series is supposed to be, and I can't talk about anything if I don't include some spoilers. Let's get into it.

The cadets of both Starfleet Academy and the War College are on a training exercise with their ship/Starfleet Academy's central building, the USS Athena, which is on a planet that is supposedly abandoned. Genesis, Caleb, Tarima, Jay-Den and Kyle were chosen for the exercise so SAM and Darem Reymi don't appear in this issue, neither does Tarima's brother, Ocam. I don't know if they appear in the following two issues that have come out so far, but they aren't in this one. However, something goes wrong and the cadets end up being stranded on the planet, cut off from the Athena, so now the cadets have to learn how to survive on this supposedly abandoned planet, while overcoming their usual trials and tribulations, namely Genesis's need to lead even in situations where she really shouldn't be the leader, or wasn't chosen to be the leader to begin with. I'll talk about that a bit more later.

It was really interesting to see Kelrec, Nahla Ake, and the cadets in comic book form. It was cool though. Corali Espuna is the artist on this book and they do a really good job. Nora Serrano is the colorist. My favourite panel in this issue is at the beginning when Kelrec and Ake are briefing the cadets and the panel is a shot of Ake and she's rolling her eyes at Kelrec, as she has a habit of doing whenever he says something stupid, which is a lot. That's it. That's the panel. Eye rolling isn't something I've ever seen captured in a comic book before. Not even a Star Trek comic. So I just thought that Espuna and Serrano captured it so well in that one panel.

Based on the Stardate at the beginning of this issue (Stardate 869013.5), the miniseries takes place between episode 7, "Ko'Zeine", which doesn't have a Stardate attached to it, and episode 8, "The Life of the Stars" (Stardate 869372.1). Which makes sense given Genesis's attitude in this issue. Though, if I'm being honest, she's very close minded and unreasonable when it comes to listening to her fellow cadets. Even more than the show portrayed her as. Especially because Jay-Den and Caleb were making very good suggestions for their situation, but Genesis is like, "we're gonna do the opposite of that". For no other reason than "I'm an admiral's daughter, and this will look good on my transcript when I graduate in four years". Which completely ignores the empathy and willingness to listen to others that she gained in episode 3 following the war games simulation debacle she and Darem butted heads during that episode.

I really didn't like Genesis in this issue for that reason. I don't know if this is an example of the comic book writer, Layne Morgan, not being able to see episodes of the show before writing the comic, or if the writer simply chose to write Genesis as a more hotheaded individual than she was portrayed as in the show. Not knowing the production history of this comic in particular, I can't say for certain. 

However, given my knowledge of the history of comics based on Star Trek, particularly the original Gold Key series, which was published during the time the original show was on the air in the late '60s, and the first comic book miniseries that DC published based on TNG in 1988, chances are pretty good that the writer of this book had to have it written before the show started coming out, so they weren't able to watch it beforehand. That's how it feels to me anyway. Like the writer was only able to look at the character descriptions for the cadets and wrote them based off of those descriptions rather than based off of how the actors and actresses portrayed them in the show.

Overall, this was a good issue, but it's very much a setup issue. It's also not a comic I would hand to someone who hasn't watched Starfleet Academy just because it does little to set up the characters overall, and simply, and quickly, just sets them up for this particular story. I would recommend it if you've already seen the show, love the show, and need to spend time with these characters again before season 2 starts sometime next year. 

Alright my friends that's it for me for today. I'll be back on Saturday for my review of the season premiere of season 4 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as I'm recording it on cable when the episodes air tonight, so I can watch them tomorrow night. So, no Rental Recommendations this week over on My Nostalgia Blog. Until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

The Weight of Everything (2026) Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing very well. It's a humid, rainy Wednesday here today, which is the perfect kind of day for a blog post. Luckily, I knew exactly what today's post was going to be on. A week ago I ordered two books from Amazon. One was The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the other was a brand new book called The Weight of Everything by an author named Steven L. Morgan. That's the book I read first, and I finished it before bed last night, so that's what I'm going to be talking about today. Let's get into it!

I found out about this book because Perry, my good friend from the The Cassette Phase YouTube channel, reviewed it on the channel last week as part of a larger conversation about the nostalgic books and comics he'd been reading, and because The Weight of Everything is set in two different time periods, 1984-1986, and then in 1999, Perry chose to talk about it in that video. I liked the premise of the book enough that the day after I watched Perry's video, I ordered a copy for myself. It arrived on Friday and that night before bed, I started reading it. I was hooked.

The Weight of Everything is about a 25 year old named William Hawthorne is called to have a DNA sample taken at a lab in Abilene, Texas, and he thinks it has to do with the disappearance of his best friend, Marty Winslow, which happened in the spring of 1985, when William, then known as Billy, was 11 years old. During his long trip from where he was living in Tennessee to the lab in Abilene, Texas, Billy remembers the events leading up to Marty's disappearance as well as the immediate aftermath of that event.

While that may be the premise of this book, The Weight of Everything isn't about that. It's about friendship, first crushes, peer pressure, family, summer nights, school, and the daily life that we all shared regardless of the decade we grew up in. It's about childhood, and being that age just before you reach your teenage years.

The most important thing this book is about is people. I relate to stories the most when the focus is on the people involved in them. The thing that kept me watching The Goldbergs for almost the entire time the show was on the air was the characters. The people. The '80s references were great, but the show wouldn't've stayed on the air for ten years if the show was only about the '80s pop culture references. And what kept me engaged with this book were the characters. The people. Because they felt like people. 

Growing up, I knew girls named Jessica, Laura, Stacy, and Amber and boys named Billy, Jimmy, Desmond, and Marty. I lived in a small town where everybody knew everybody. I went to school with the kids of the people my mom and my uncle went to school with when they were growing up. I had indoor recesses when it was raining or really cold out. I wondered who my teacher would be the following school year, until the phone call or letter came to let us know who it would be. 

And so, after reading several chapters each night, I'd think about the kids I went to school with from 1994 to 1999. I thought about the teachers I had. I thought about everything I did at recess every day, as well as what I did when I got home from school. The nurses I had. 

So not only was I spending time with Billy, Marty, Jessica, Laura, Amber, Jimmy, Stacey, Darnell, and Desmond while I read this book, but I was back in the schoolyard at Greely Elementary School from September 1994 to June 1999 with Garrett, Spencer, Maegan, Meagan, Trina, Ashley, Morgan, Tracy, Jessica, Jasmine, Heather, Kayla, Chelsea, Lindsay, Jesse, David R., David F., Faith, Rob, Tyler, Tyler T., Chad, Dillon, Colin, Cory, Jaime, Jason B, Jason S., Leslie, Stacy, Jordan B. Jordan C., Rachel, Patrick, Alex, Eric, Gloria, and every other kid I ever went to school with during the five years that I spent at that school.

Steven L. Morgan, the author of The Weight of Everything, said in his author's note that writing this book took him back to when he was the age of Billy and his friends, getting into the same kind of shenanigans that Billy and his friends got into in the book. It shows. 

One of the problems I have with Ernest Cline's books, Ready Player One and Armada (I haven't read Ready Player Two yet) is that they have the flimsiest plots and one dimensional characters and so the pop culture references, all from the '70s and '80s (or earlier) end up carrying the stories because there isn't anything else there. The references are there because the stories wouldn't work without them. And some TV shows and movies focusing on nostalgia have the same problem. The references are the focus, not the characters. The Weight of Everything does not have that problem. The references are there because the characters experience them. They aren't the center of the story. Steven didn't cram as many as he could into the plot. They occurred naturally, because that's the time period the story is set in. So what were kids into in 1984 and 1985? G.I. Joe, The Transformers, and Cabbage Patch Kids. All three are mentioned in this book. 

The book isn't all sunshine and rainbows however. Marty disappears and is presumed dead, back in town Billy ends up under suspicion as he was the last person to see Marty as they'd been on a camping trip in the woods just outside of town, and other bad things happen within a short span of time, which causes Billy and his family to leave Hemlock Grove. Without spoiling the end though, what takes him to Abilene, Texas, and eventually back to Hemlock Grove, in 1999 has nothing to do with Marty's disappearance, and he discovers some good things have happened as well as some unexpected things. In fact, there's quite a twist at the beginning of the book's final act. I never saw it coming, and yet when it was revealed to me, I felt nothing but joy for William/Billy.

I loved the dynamic between Billy and Amber. We all remember that first crush. It can be so awkward sometimes. Especially when your feelings are reciprocated by the person you have a crush on. And yet, it can be the best feeling in the world. Especially when you're between the ages of 10 and 13. The friend group is great too. The girls join the boys for just about every activity, except for the prank that Billy and Marty played on the girls having a sleepover at Amber's house obviously. There's none of that boys thinking the girls can't play video games with them at the arcade simply because they're girls crap going on. Which I'm thankful for, because that also wasn't my experience growing up. Not at the age that Billy and his friends are in the book.

By the way, one more thing I remember happening in my life that was in the book, was that not all of my friends were in the same grade as me. In the book, Amber is a grade behind Billy and the others, while Darnell and Desmond are a grade ahead of them. The book doesn't mention split grade classes like I had for grades 3, 4, and 6 (grade 2/3 split for grade 3, grade 4/5 split for grade 4, and grade 5/6 split for grade 6), but yeah, not all of my friends were in the same grade as me. Some were in the grade behind me, some were in the grade ahead of me, some were two grades behind me and some were two grades ahead of me. And sometimes that meant that those who were in the grade ahead of me would start at a new school because Greely Elementary only went up to grade 6 or I'd end up at the new school before my friends who were a grade behind me.

Overall, this was an awesome book. I highly recommend that you read it. Especially if you're into nostalgia the way I am, or just grew up in the '80s or even the '90s. Steven self-published it through Amazon, so it's available on Amazon if you'd like to get a copy for yourself. Just type "The Weight of Everything by Steven L. Morgan" into the Amazon search bar and it should pop up immediately. It's such a fun read, and like it said, it brought me back to when I was the age that Billy and his friends are in the book, and brought me back to all the people that I haven't seen in almost 30 years, because they either didn't continue going to the same schools as I did or they moved away at some point.

That's going to be it for me for today my friends. I'll be over on My Nostalgia Blog at some point to talk more about my time at Greely Elementary School in the mid to late '90s, and for this week's Rental Recommendations post. Until then have a great week and I will talk to you all later. Take care. 

My Pet Monster (1986) Movie Review

 Hey everyone! Happy Friday! How're you all doing today? I'm pretty good. As promised I'm back with my review of the 1986 direct-to-video movie, My Pet Monster since I watched it on Wednesday night with Katie and Nat for the VHS Club monthly movie watch party. I don't really have a whole lot to say other than, this was the first time I'd ever watched it. I'd heard of this movie and heard some fairly negative things about it, so I was a bit prepared for it to be bad. It was actually pretty good. I'll get into that more in the review. So, let's get into it!

Like The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin the year before, My Pet Monster was produced as the pilot for a live action TV show. Unlike The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, there doesn't seem to be a reason for why the series remained unproduced. The movie didn't air on TV, as far as I'm aware, but it was released on VHS in lieu of airing on TV. Instead, a 13 episode cartoon series was produced by Canadian animation studio, Nelvana Limited and aired on Global TV here in Canada and on ABC in the U.S.

The cast for this movie is great. We've got Sunny Besen Thrasher as Max/Monster, he also voiced Max, who was a separate character from Monster in the cartoon, Alyson Court as Max's sister, Melanie, Colin Fox as Dr. Snyder, the antagonist, Yannick Bisson as Max and Melanie's older brother, Rod, and Kelly Rowan as Rod's girlfriend, Stephanie. Aside from voicing Max in the cartoon, Thrasher was in a bunch of cartoons as various voices, including the Care Bears, Alyson Court voiced Max's sister, Jill in the cartoon, but she is also very well known as Loonette the Clown on The Big Comfy Couch and a girl named Ruthie that Big Bird encounters on a farm in the 1985 movie Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird, as well as tons of cartoons. Colin Fox played the storekeeper in the first episode of the 1995 Goosebumps TV series, Yannick Bisson played Agent Jack Hudson on Sue Thomas: F.B. Eye, and Detective William Murdoch on Murdoch Mysteries, and Kelly Rowan is very well known as Kirsten Cohen on The O.C. So this movie has a pretty stacked cast.

The plot of the movie is that Max and his sister go on a field trip to a museum, where Max gets turned into a monster by a statue, which he transforms into whenever he's hungry. Meanwhile, the scientist who theorized about the monster's existence while studying the statues discovers what happened to Max and wants to use him to gain fame and fortune for his work.

I loved this movie. Like I said earlier, I'd only heard bad things about it, but it's actually pretty good. It's definitely different from what the cartoon series is, but that doesn't automatically make it bad. Sure, the production quality isn't great, but it was made with a low budget because it was supposed to be the pilot episode for a TV series that never got produced, and it was released direct-to-video. 

What makes this movie fun is that there's the mundane aspect of Rod trying to get on his girlfriend's good side by taking care of her dog for her, to get her ready for a dog show. Of course, he tries to take the cheap way out and the greedy dog groomers end up kidnapping the dog, so it's up to Max as the Monster, Melanie, and Rod to get the dog back.

This sounds like the craziest '80s movie plot, and yet it works so well. Dr. Snyder is a typical '80s kids show antagonist that isn't a supervillain. He's greedy and a glory hound, and Colin Fox plays him really well. Max and Melanie are my favourite characters though. Of course I grew up watching Alyson Court on The Big Comfy Couch and in Follow That Bird, but the character of Melanie is pretty great and was always willing to help Max when he turned into Monster. 

Overall this was a really fun movie. It's nothing spectacular, but it was a great watch for a Wednesday night virtual movie night with friends. I had a great time watching it.

Alright my friends, that's it for me for this week. I'll be back soon with another blog post. I have an idea of what I want to talk about next. Until then have a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin (1985) TV Movie Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. So last night was the monthly VHS Club Watch Party that Katie, Nat, and I do and we watched a double feature of mid-80s non-theatrical films. The first was the made for TV movie, The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, which aired on the ABC Weekend Special on November 30th and December 7th 1985, then got released on VHS in 1986, and the second was the 1986 direct-to-video movie based on the My Pet Monster toyline. So today I'm going to review The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin and then tomorrow I'll come back and review My Pet Monster. Let's get into it.

The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin is the first VHS tape my parents ever rented for me when I was a little kid. I was 3 years old when they first rented it for me in 1990. I watched it endlessly. The first time we rented it they had gotten it from West Coast Video, and then everytime after that it was from Rogers Video. Eventually, Rogers discontinued the tape, and we ended up buying it and I watched it numerous times after that.

This was originally meant to be the pilot episode for a full live action/animatronic TV series, and it aired in two parts on ABC in the U.S. I don't actually know what channel it aired on here in Canada, if it even aired here in Canada. It may have only been direct-to-video here, I don't know. Regardless, I wasn't born yet when the special aired on ABC, so all of my memories of it come from the VHS.

The reason this pilot never went to series is because the animatronics would've been too expensive for a weekly or daily series, and the network didn't want to spend that much money. In the '80s ABC wasn't owned by Disney yet, and Disney didn't have any involvement with AlchemyII's work on the show (unlike with Welcome to Pooh Corner only a couple of years earlier). Basically the special cost $1.5 million dollars, which was a much higher cost than most TV specials on ABC at the time. Which is why for the The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin TV show that aired in 1987, they went with an animated series in first run syndication.

The voice cast for this special is pretty much everybody who voiced the various characters in the original Teddy Ruxpin book and tape stories that were produced to go with the toy. Phil Baron voiced Teddy, Will Ryan voiced Grubby, Tweeg, Prince Arin, Wooly, and Louie the Grunge (the Wizard's cameraman), Tony Pope voiced Gimmick, Katie Leigh voiced Princess Aruzia, and Russi Taylor voiced Leota.

The special is an adaptation of the first two book and tape stories, The Airship and The Missing Princess. Tweeg and L.B. weren't in the original book and tape stories, most likely because the Child Safety PSA at the end of The Missing Princess took up enough time that there wasn't time to include the two characters in the story, as a result they were removed from The Airship. At least that's the prevaling theory in the Teddy Ruxpin fandom, as it's never been talked about why Tweeg and L.B. weren't included in the first two book and tape stories even though they were part of the original story that Teddy Ruxpin creator, Ken Forsse, wrote for the book and tapes.

I love this special. It's not only nostalgic for me, but it actually holds up pretty well for something that's over 40 years old. The animatronic suits and model work are really good. For the time obviously. But it's all practical effects. Which is really cool.

Overall this is a very good special. Both Katie and Nat enjoyed it when we watched it last night, and of course, I love it because it's so comforting. You might appreciate it more if you have some history with Teddy Ruxpin, be it through the animated series or the original toy in the '80s, but I think it's enjoyable on its own.

That's gonna be it for me for today, but I'll be back tomorrow with my review of My Pet Monster. Until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord (2026) Season 1 Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. The season finale of Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord dropped on Monday, and I watched both episodes that night, but I wanted to give it a day to simmer in my brain before I wrote about it. So, here's my review of the first season of Maul: Shadow Lord. There will be some spoilers for the end of the season, so if you've been watching the show and haven't watched episodes 9 and 10 yet, this is your warning. Let's get into it.

I'll admit that I was a bit on the fence about this show when it was announced, and even as the marketing campaign for the show started up and trailers came out. Mostly because, as you all know by now, I'm not a fan of shows or movies about villain characters. This comes from the fact that I was born in an era where villains were evil, without any kind of redemption or morally grey elements to them or anything like that. Nobody was writing them or portraying them as sympathetic. Especially in animation. However, I was also interested because, of course, it was produced by the same team at Lucasfilm Animation who did The Clone Wars, Rebels, and The Bad Batch, and I knew they'd do Maul justice in a show focused on him. Plus, I love Sam Witwer as an actor, particularly as the voice of Maul. Even then, I didn't start watching the show as soon as the episodes started coming out, mostly because I kinda wanted the hype for the show within the Star Wars fandom to die down a bit before I started watching it.

It was a really good show. I liked the characters, especially the characters of Devon (a Twi'lek), Two-Boots (a Tactical Defense Droid), and Brander Lawson (a human). Devon and her master, Eeko-Dio Daki (a Mosyk, an alien race new to this show) are survivors of Order 66, and have been in hiding from the Empire for the last however many years since the end of the Clone Wars. Lawson is a law enforcement officer on the planet Janix, which is a new planet to this show. They all become embroiled in Maul's schemes to take out local crime lords so he can use Crimson Dawn's resources to take out Palpatine and Vader. It doesn't happen obviously being that this takes place years before Maul's appearance in Rebels, but at least he has a goal in mind for revenge against Sidious.

I haven't seen any of Maul's appearances in The Clone Wars, so I don't really have any context for where Maul is at this point in the timeline. But, that didn't diminish my enjoyment of the show, because like so much of Star Wars, you don't need to have seen a previous show or movie to enjoy the current one. Having said that though, I'm sure there are some nods to The Clone Wars that I didn't pick up on since I haven't seen anything past the halfway mark of season 2, but they weren't all that obvious.

With a show like this it's difficult to talk about individual episodes because they all lead into one another, however, my only real complaint is that the last two or three episodes of the season was basically just one long lightsaber duel between various characters. Not that that's a bad thing necessarily, because it was Maul, Devon, and Daki against two Inquisitors, First Brother and Eleventh Brother for some of it. But, then Darth Vader shows up, and without a single word he attacks Maul and the two Jedi survivors. And when I say Vader doesn't speak, I mean doesn't speak AT ALL, like no lines of dialogue. Not even to taunt Maul. Both Lawson and Daki are killed by the Imperials and Vader, but that's not why I have a problem with this lightsaber duel. My problem with it is that Vader showed up at all.

I get it, Vader was Palpatine's enforcer, but I kinda feel like he was unnecessary in this show. The two Inquisitors were more than a match for Maul and the two Jedi, as was shown in earlier episodes of this season, so Vader just made them a bit too overpowered. Plus, it just feels like the story people were just repeating what was done in the season 2 finale of Rebels, right down to Maul trying to turn Devon to the Dark Side, much as he tried to do with Ezra in Rebels. Or would try to do with Ezra in Rebels depending on whether you wanna look at it from the real world perspective, where Rebels in 2018, or look at it from the in-universe perspective where the events of Rebels haven't happened yet. And not in the "it's like poetry. It rhymes" way that George Lucas crafted elements of the Prequel Trilogy either. It's more like Filoni has wanted to see Maul and Vader duel each other for the past 27 years, even though there was a story where Vader and Maul dueled in a comic book story called "Resurrection", which was published in Star Wars Tales #9 back in 2001.

My favourite part was the dynamic that Lawson had with his son, Riley, as well as with Two-Boots. I'm not a huge fan of police procedurals, the fact that Lawson's storyline feels like a police procedural, where the cop or detective is also a single father, it makes the Lawsons more relatable and makes their story more familiar for the audience. Well, except for the fact that his ex-wife, Riley's mom, works directly for and with the Empire, believing strongly in its ideals and policies. Which makes me really wonder what kind of person the former Mrs. Lawson is, given what kind of entity the Empire actually is.

Overall, this was a great season of television. Despite the singular problem that I have with the season finale, it was really fun. I thought Maul's status at this point in time was interesting because it gives a bit more context for his appearance in Solo: A Star Wars Story, since he was the head of Crimson Dawn, with Dryden Vos as his lieutenant. I loved all the new characters though and am excited to see where Devon and Riley go in season 2 since of all the new characters, they're the only ones, besides Two-Boots, to survive the season.

That's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with another review. Until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.