From IDW Press Release:

Disclaimer: I want to make it very clear, I am not endorsing this product or any claims made by Unspoil.me.  I am covering this story because it amused me, not because I think it has any credibility.

I stumble across the weirdest things in my journeys across the internet.  Today, that happened to come from a website I've never heard of called IFL Science.  They did a story about something called Unspoil.me, and I just had to talk about it.

There's nothing quite like watching an amazing TV show for the first time. The second time you watch it, however, you're going in with no surprises and the experience is never as good.

Even Hollywood understands that there is just something special about the performance art known as “the musical.” There have been hit musical films almost as long as there have been films, period: The Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins, Singin’ In The Rain, and most of Elvis Presley’s films involved a fair amount of singing, even if some might not regard them as musicals in the purest sense of the word. Grease was a big hit when I was young, as was The Jazz Singer. Moulin Rouge, Chicago, Hairspray, Les Misérables, La-La Land and others have garnered box office success and award nominations in recent years. This year is no exception as Australian heartthrob Hugh Jackman retires his Wolverine claws and dons a bright red coat with long tails and a dashing top hat for the role of P.T. Barnum in The Greatest Showman.

I actually hadn't even heard of this movie until Disney had posted yesterday "Tomorrow, see the trailer for Disney's The Nutcracker and the Four Realms."  I was curious, so I checked it out.  Still not sure exactly what the movie is about...sort of reminds me of Disney's live action Alice in Wonderland movies.  But it does have some strong cast members with Keira Knightley, Morgan Freeman, and Helen Mirren

From IMDB:

Until January 2 (January 4 in some cases), Comixology has some huge sales going on for a wide variety of digital collections and single issues. 

BTW, if you want to send some gifts this way, my user name is SkitchNM!

Thomas Wolfe once famously said, "You can't go home again."

To which John Stamos has replied, "Hold my beer."

The Tanner family is (mostly) back in the Netflix comedy series, FULLER HOUSE, the continuation of the popular 90s series that was part of the TGIF lineup. (Maybe Jaleel White can get a gig for "More Family Matters" down the road?) In the new series, DJ Tanner-Fuller (CANDACE CAMERON BURE) is a widow with three children, Jackson (MICHAEL CAMPION), Max (ELIAS HARGER) and baby Tommy (DASHIELL & FOX MESSITT). Family patriarch Danny Tanner (BOB SAGET) has moved out to host his television show with Aunt Becky (LORI LOUGHLIN) in San Francisco, and has left the house to DJ.

Welcome back to Critical Blast’s long-running weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week.   Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that.  Let's get to it!

Everyone has their own list. As soon as a new Star Wars movie is released, its success is immediately measured by where it ranks among the others that came before it.

And to say STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI is as divisive as BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE, would be a slight understatement. Not even Mustafar is as fiery as the passion of most Star Wars fans. And when they begin debating the merits of Rian Johnson's entry, much like a Jedi or a Sith, they choose a side and refuse to be tempted by the other.

While Rotten Tomatoes receives a fair amount of criticism from fans, one thing is true: it aggregates the average score of critics and fans alike. So taking that into consideration, let's do the math and find out how the critics rank the Star Wars saga with rating in parathesis:

Editorial cartooning. It's been the hallmark of American politics since before we even signed the Declaration of Independence. It can be on point, humorous, and skewer the opposition just as viciously as any sword. A picture, truly, is worth a thousand words. God bless the First Amendment!

But just because speech is protected from being silenced doesn't mean it's protected from criticism. When Sarah Palin famously put cross-hairs on states that were having elections, urging people to get out and vote, it was seen by many as an advocation of violence. Cross-hairs, after all, were indicative of guns, and guns meant shooting. Thus, it was reasoned that Sarah Palin was calling for violence against the opponents in these states.

I had the good fortune to attend A Charlie Brown Christmas Live on Stage at the Peabody Opera House on December 15, 2017. It’s a live version of the classic Peanuts holiday special, with the script verbatim from the show and the music licensed from the Vince Guaraldi Trio, it was a familiar favorite for young and old alike, and indeed I think there were more adults in the audience strolling down memory lane than there were children.

In case I've never mentioned it before, I'm old. So my playlist doesn't often reach out to include Taylor Swift in its lineup.

That doesn't mean I'm insulated, though. I know who she is, I remember when she was on my country stations...and I'm aware that, for whatever reason, her opinion on politics is highly sought after, and her silence on it seems to be infuriating to the pop culture media HMFICs. Yes, why is a twenty-something pop-star not weighing in on where she stands on matters of international diplomacy or perceived social inequities? How can we move on without knowing this information?

J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson, please report to the Carbonite freezing chamber. You two have done the impossible. You've made me long for Jar Jar Binks. Heesa wooda being betta dan de bombad Bantha poodoo that is The Last Jedi. This is your only warning: there are a ton of spoilers ahead. 

Back in 2013 I reviewed the Nebraska Theatre Caravan‘s production of A Christmas Carol and thoroughly enjoyed it. Four years later I revisited the show, and found it to be a bit underwhelming.

The performance is technically fine, and doesn’t stray from the tried and true formula of Scrooge being a grumpy miser, being visited by his late business partner who heralds the arrival of the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present ,and Yet to Come before Scrooge realizes how miserable he’s been to everybody  and set s out to make amends. The sets are functional, and some are particularly nice, such as the town square shops in the opening sequence. The costumes are excellent throughout.

What did we talk about on Critical Blast this week?

Reviews

In a world where balance exists between the dark and light sides of the force, forshadowing casts a gray cloud over everything.

What does it all mean?

Hell if I know. THE LAST JEDI will be deconstructed until the next installment is released. This much I know for sure. The internet will be littered with articles that dissect the most miniscule moments. Have questions been answered? Yes. Do we have more questions now that we've seen it? Absolutely.

Rian Johnson delivers a movie that is both action packed, humorous, and full of depth. While some of the comedy is more over-the-top than we're used to for a Star Wars movie, it still meshes well and doesn't distract from the story that's being told around it.

From CBS News:

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday overturned "net neutrality," the regulations ensuring that internet service providers such as AT&T (T), Comcast (CMCSA) and Verizon (VZ) treat all website and content equally.

The meeting was charged, reflecting the public controversy over whether to preserve or eliminate the Obama-era rules. As if to punctuate the drama, attendees at the FCC hearing were forced to abruptly clear the room over unspecified security concerns before Chair Ajit Pai cast his vote.

About a month ago, we had reported the rumors about Disney looking into buying Fox.  Today it looks like that deal was finalized...

From CNN:

Disney is buying a huge chunk of 21st Century Fox in a deal that promises to reshape the media industry and help the entertainment giant fend off digital rivals such as Netflix.

The $52.4 billion deal will combine two of the biggest players in Hollywood.

Christmas comes to Riverdale in this second season mid-season finale. It's time for peace on Earth, and for all the loose threads of the Black Hood saga to finally come to a satisfying closure, with sensible revelations that will allow everyone to finally rest easy.

Yeah, right.

Let's start with Jughead. His life was supposed to take an upturn when his father, FP, was released from jail. But FP has gone right back to leading the serpents, and running drugs for Penny Peabody -- but only because Penny had dirt on Jughead that she was using to blackmail him and all the serpents into doing her bidding.

That stops tonight. Maybe. Because Jughead's finally gotten tired of it, and to protect his father and the rest of the South Side Serpents, he'll go to any measures to remove Penny Peabody from their lives. Get ready for a vision of Dark Jughead (okay, "darker" Jughead) as he extracts his "pound of flesh" with the Serpents rallied around him.

Blip is a happy little robot/console that lives daily plugged into her computer. But when a blackout causes her to trip and unplug (and fall-and-roll a distance longer than any meatball did from on top of spaghetti), she finds herself out of doors, in the sunlight, and learning new things.

Well, basically -- as per the text of the book -- she's doing pretty much all the same things she did on her computer. But she's doing them "for real" and she's having more fun doing so. So much so that, when she ultimately returns home to reconnect to her old life, she finds that she prefers the way things are when she's "unplugged."