San Diego Comic-Con 2020 has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. This is the first time in the con’s 50-year history that SDCC has been canceled. The event will instead return to the San Diego Convention Center from July 22-25, 2021.
WonderCon Anaheim, which was scheduled to run April 10-12, 2020, will now return March 26-28, 2021.
Comic-Con released the following statement Friday explaining their decision to cancel the event:
“Recognizing that countless attendees save and plan for its conventions each year, and how many exhibitors and stakeholders rely upon its events for a major portion of their livelihood, they had hoped to delay this decision in anticipation that COVID-19 concerns might lessen by summer. Continuous monitoring of health advisories and recent statements by the Governor of California have made it clear that it would not be safe to move forward with plans for this year.”
SDCC also announced the following information for badge holders, exhibitors, and hotel bookings:
Individuals who purchased badges for Comic-Con 2020 will have the option to request a refund or transfer their badges to Comic-Con 2021. All 2020 badge holders will receive an email within the next week with instructions on how to request a refund.
Exhibitors for Comic-Con 2020 will also have the option to request a refund or transfer their payments to Comic-Con 2021 and will also receive an email within the next week with instructions on how to process their request.
In the next few days onPeak, Comic-Con’s official hotel affiliate, will be canceling all hotel reservations and refunding all deposits made through them. There is no need for anyone who booked through onPeak to take any action, including trying to cancel their reservations online or contacting the company via phone as the process will be handled automatically. Those who booked rooms through onPeak will be notified when refunds have been completed.
San Diego Comic-Con becomes the latest in a long line of industry events canceled due to COVID-19, with E3 and Gamescom being among the notable gaming events scrapped due to the pandemic.
IGN can exclusively reveal who the new celebrity Dungeon Master will be on the forthcoming third season of Rollout, the UpUpDownDown’s D&D-meets-WWE streaming show featuring WWE Superstar Xavier Woods (aka Austin Creed).
This season’s new celeb Dungeon Master is none other than Freddie Prinze Jr. of Star Wars Rebels and Scooby-Doo fame.
Prinze also wrote an original RPG story arc that takes place in 22nd century Japan, a quest that will span Season 3.
Prinze joins Xavier Woods, Alexa Bliss, Ember Moon, Tyler Breeze, and Dio Madden for five all-new episodes of Rollout, which premieres Tuesday, April 21, at 10am ET on the UpUpDownDown YouTube channel.
“Expect the unexpected,” Prinze promises viewers in our exclusive trailer for Season 3, which you can view above.
And also be sure to watch Xavier Woods right here on IGN News Live at 4pm today where he’ll talk Rollout and more!
Beginning in 2019, UpUpDownDown “explores the worlds of video gaming and nerdom,” showcasing WWE Superstar interviews and virtual battles between panelists for the UpUpDownDown Championship.
Ozark Season 3 ended with a bang… literally. And now that Helen Pierce (Janet McTeer) is dead and out of the picture thanks to cartel boss Omar Navarro (Felix Solis), what’s in store for Marty (Jason Bateman) and Wendy (Laura Linney) if Ozark gets picked up for a fourth season? And let’s not forget about their children, Charlotte and Jonah, who went through their own significant transformations in Season 3. Will the Byrde family stay unified or fall apart before it’s all over?
In order to find the answers to these questions and more, IGN spoke to showrunner Chris Mundy to get the inside scoop.
Marty and Wendy once again get out of a sticky situation by earning the trust of ruthless cartel boss Omar Navarro. In a surprising turn of events, Navarro’s hitman kills long-time employee Helen Pierce. But why did Navarro end up siding with the Byrdes and not Helen? “I think that Navarro had to make a choice between Marty and Wendy or Helen,” Mundy said. “And Helen had long service and loyalty, but Marty and Wendy had pulled off a couple of impossible things: One was getting a casino to launder money through, and the other is getting the FBI and US government to intercede in a drug war. Those are some magical things that Helen couldn’t do.”
Is Ben Davis (Wendy’s Brother) really dead?
Photo courtesy of Netflix
Per Mundy, Ben “is actually dead,” but that didn’t stop us from being a bit skeptical because we never see him die on screen. So why did Mundy and his team of writers decide not to reveal the deadly deed? “The important thing about Ben’s death was about the emotional impact on Wendy,” Mundy told IGN. “It just felt like if we showed the death on screen, that in some strange way it was going to take away from what we were really telling, which is, look at what Wendy did and had to do. We didn’t want to take away from that emotion and when you do violence there’s something visceral about it, and we only wanted to lean into it from the emotional.”
Wendy is obviously distraught after being complicit in the death of her own brother, but has she truly gone over to the dark side now or is there still some humanity left in her? “I feel like Wendy and Marty are still trying to desperately hold onto their humanity even as they do worse and worse things,” Mundy explained. “They would probably say they’re forced to do worse and worse things. I don’t think it’s a situation where she’s become a psychopath and is taking pleasure out of these kinds of things.”
Was Ben’s Death Too Much for Jonah to Handle?
Photo courtesy of Netflix
The last time we see Jonah in Season 3, the young man has a haunted look on his face as he holds his Uncle’s recently cremated remains in his hand. Jonah proved that he’s more than capable of standing up for himself — and he even kissed a girl! But now that he’s aware of his mother’s involvement in Ben’s death, how will that affect Jonah moving forward from an emotional standpoint?
“Because Jonah’s so intellectually curious, Jonah took to the idea of them being this family in crime easier than Charlotte did… if his dad’s going to launder money, then he’s going to learn how to launder money,” Mundy said. “[Jonah’s] been the one who’s kind of skated through it, relying on his intellect. And this is the first time the full emotional impact crushed him. [Ben’s death] was too heavy, and learning that his mom is complicit in it is more than he could handle. It was the first real break we’ve seen from Jonah.”
What’s the Deal with Wyatt and Darlene’s Relationship?
Photo courtesy of Netflix
One of the most peculiar storylines in Season 3 is the romantic relationship between Wyatt and Darlene and we’re a bit worried about Wyatt, since Darlene killed her last husband. So what makes this odd couple work?
“We talked about in the writer’s room pretty early. And it was one of those things like, ‘Are we really doing it?’ The important thing for us was to play it very straight: the way we filmed it, the way we wrote it, the way they talked to each other,” Mundy told IGN. “This was a relationship born out of two people who had similar needs. They’re both damaged, and they each helped each other through a hard time, so it’s a real relationship. Obviously the age difference is a big one but we didn’t want to play it as a comedy. We wanted their connection to be real.”
What Video Game Is Marty Playing?
Photo courtesy of Netflix
In episode four, titled “Boss Fight,” we flashback to Marty’s childhood while he’s visiting his dying father in the hospital. Looking for a distraction, Marty notices another kid playing an arcade game called Beast Slayer. Mundy informed us that Beast Slayer was made up for Season 3, however, it’s based on a real game called Altered Beast. Altered Beast is a beat ’em up arcade game that was originally released in 1988 by Sega.
Mundy couldn’t remember the specifics of why they weren’t allowed to use the real Altered Beast arcade game in the episode, but it usually has to do with “people not willing to license things or the pure cost of it,” Mundy said. At one point in production, Mundy and his team thought about calling the game “Boss Fight,” but thought that might confuse the audience since the title of the episode shares the same name.
Ozark has not been renewed for a fourth season yet. What are you most excited to see if Netflix picks up the series for another season? Let us know in the comments.
On Wednesday, April 15, WWE laid off multiple WWE Superstars. The names were released and/or leaked to the public in a slow trickle over the course of the day. Unlike several WWE producers who were furloughed, the 22 WWE Superstars were “future endeavored” and will need to find other employment.
The current COVID-19 pandemic precipitated these cuts. Typically, WWE makes a bulk of its monthly revenue on live arena shows. In the wake of the pandemic, the company has been forced to cancel and refund its upcoming live events. Since March 13, WWE has been broadcasting Raw, Smackdown, NXT, and even Wrestlemania 36 from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, with no audience.
In an April 15 press release, WWE announced a “headcount reduction” due to COVID-19 and “current government mandated impacts” on WWE. The company also announced it would be reducing executive and board member compensation; decreasing operating expenses; cutting talent expenses, third party staffing and consulting; and deferring spending on building the company’s new headquarters. WWE estimates the company will save $4 million from releasing and furloughing employees and cutting their compensations.
WWE has faced criticisms for these actions. Some of it stems from the revelation that the now-defunct XFL and the WWE were more closely linked than WWE chairman Vince McMahon initially led on. When he announced the XFL league in January 2018, Vince McMahon insisted that both companies would operate as separate entities; he would pledge $500 million out of his own pocket to fund the XFL. However, the XFL bankruptcy filings revealed that the WWE owns 23.5% of the Class B stocks in the company, which means that the XFL and WWE’s financial problems are inextricably linked.
WWE has also been criticized for placing its employees in unnecessary harm’s way. WWE was originally included in Florida’s statewide lockdown, which would have temporarily put an end to the company’s live shows. However, a last-minute signed order from Florida’s emergency management director reclassified WWE as an essential business, which allowed them to remain open. These actions would, theoretically, give WWE some financial space to avoid layoffs of certain employees, many of whom–like recently released Sarah Logan and No Way Jose–were traveling to the Performance Center to wrestle at personal risk.
Other critics have called attention to the McMahon family’s political clout in Florida and question whether that led to WWE’s reclassification as “essential.” Linda McMahon, Vince McMahon’s wife and former CEO of WWE, heads a Super PAC called America First Action, which supports President Trump’s re-election campaign and recently announced $18.5 million in television advertisement spending towards that objective. On April 14, President Trump announced that Vince McMahon would be an advisor on his Great American Economic Revival Industry Groups, designated to assist in re-opening the economy following the pandemic.
Lastly, WWE announced they would be paying a stock dividend to all WWE stockholders that would amount to $.12 per share. With 78 million shares, that equates to $9.4 million paid out to stockholders–more than the $4 million the company estimated it would save with its headcount reduction.
It is unknown, at this time, if this was the only round or just the first round of layoffs at WWE. Gamespot will continue reporting on the releases at WWE and the response from WWE Superstars, both current and former.
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If you’ve been playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, odds are you’ve become as obsessed with turnip prices as everyone else. The vegetable, which has been featured in every Animal Crossing game to date, is the star crop of New Horizon’s “Stalk Market,” with prices fluctuating between the modestly lucrative to positively ludicrous. Plant enough turnips and you’ll be looking at enough bells to essentially turn your island into a 5-star resort.
This has spurred Animal Crossing’s more entrepreneurial fans to do something that would almost certainly land real-world stock analysts in hot water. Across sites like Twitter and the “Turnip Exchange,” people are coordinating to sell their turnips at the highest prices possible, or maybe perform a quid-pro-quo for access to their island. What’s emerged out of the turnip thicket is a sort of online black market, with multiple price-tracking sites, turnip algorithm calculators, and even small armies of bouncers to keep less-than-honest players in line.
But while Animal Crossing players have probably felt like deviously clever insider stock traders these past few weeks, they probably wouldn’t have been able to do it without one of the U.S.’s most omnipotent intelligence agencies: The National Security Agency (The NSA).
Twitter user Ninji, a 25-year-old software developer who has previously built tools for games like Super Mario Bros Wii, reverse-engineered Animal Crossing’s code using the NSA’s free reverse-engineering software Ghidra. Using Ghidra, Ninji managed to find the Nintendo Switch equivalent of a .exe file, which in theory would allow them to figure out all the game’s various secrets, including turnip price algorithms. In practice, things weren’t so simple.
“This compiled code is heavily processed and only includes the information that the Switch’s processor actually needs to run the game,” Ninji told IGN. “So, all the comments and most of the names in the original source code are gone. It’s a big puzzle where you have tiny clues all over the place and you have to use them to figure out what specific sections of code do.”
Buried in Animal Crossing’s code, there’s a flag labeled “FirstKabuBuy” (“Kabu” is Japanese for Turnip) and following that trail led Ninji straight to the turnip pricing code.
“I figured people would probably be interested in knowing how the turnip pricing worked, but I wasn’t quite prepared for how much attention it’s gotten,” Ninji told IGN. “It’s pretty neat to see something I’ve done having an impact on so many people though, even if it’s just in a tiny way.”
The code that Ninji eventually posted online would go on to help create the Turnip Prophet site (created by one Mike Bryant), which lets users use an algorithm to determine (with a fair amount of accuracy) what their turnip prices will be throughout the week.
While Turnip Prophet and similar sites are great for players trying to keep tabs on their personal stalk market standings, many players aren’t content to wait around, so they’ve begun visiting sites like Turnip.Exchange, created by the team at Warp World, a gaming and streaming tool developer.
Turnip Exchange lets users either host their own island (and post their current turnip value) or request to visit another player’s island. Many island hosts are also using their island’s card on Turnip Exchange to ask for some sort of compensation for entry to their island, often in the form of bells, specific items, or recipes.
“I was attempting to sell my turnips with a friend that had gotten a Dodo Code online from a Twitter message, and it took us over 40 minutes of trying to enter the code and going through menu after menu, and message after message of interference,” Warp World CEO and president Matthew Jakubowski told IGN “So I vowed that day to build something that would make it easier for everyone.”
That something has since grown immensely, with Warp World saying its portal has 1.3 million users, and a peak concurrent user count of 300,000. Jakubowski and the team at Warp World managed to build the Turnip Exchange portal in only about five days.
However, for a venture intended to make things easier for players, the Warp World team have still seen their fair share of backlash. “I’ve always been a casual player of Animal Crossing, maybe dabbling into the turnip business every so often,” Jakubowski adds. “But the number of people that are very serious about their island/items really surprises me…There have been people that have had internet issues with hosts and so their items would get lost, and the amount of angry emails, tweets, Discord messages directed at us is absolutely astounding. We make sure to let users know that things like that can happen, but there is only so much you can do. I feel bad for the number of messages Nintendo must be getting as a whole.”
Considering the turnip business is big business, it’s unsurprising that not everyone is playing nice. Though visiting players are fairly restricted in what they can do to another player’s island, it’s possible for visitors to take more than they’re welcome to, or ignore a host’s requests for a tip in the form of bells.
This has spurred some players to hire their friends as, to put it simply, Animal Crossing island bouncers.
Corey Reynolds, one such player, brought in a few friends to help ensure that people were paying his requested fee of gold, star fragments, or Nook Miles. Reynolds built a fenced-in path that led straight to the Nook’s Cranny shop where players can trade in turnips, and stationed a friend there to block the path until their visitor dropped the necessary fee.
An Animal Crossing ‘bouncer’.
“Honestly it was extremely efficient,” Reynolds told IGN. “After I was done hosting my island, we split all profits equally. I think this is a great way for any host to make sure their guests are true to their word with bringing their payment.”
Like any boom market, there will be plenty of cheapskates looking to exploit the masses in other ways. Animal Crossing’s turnip market could open the door for less-than-honest individuals to pull one over on their followers, much like similar scams for Fortnite V-Bucks or other virtual currencies.
“Some folks actually seem to be using high turnip prices as an attempt to curry favor with people,” Ninji says. “I saw one Twitch streamer trying to gain viewers by promising artificially high turnip prices (which I know from my research to be impossible without save-file hacking) as well as other unrealistic giveaways.”
Elsewhere, moderators on the r/ACTurnips subreddit have posted warnings of at least one individual offering what they believe to be pornographic images of themselves in exchange for turnip trips.
On r/ACTurnips, entry fees to access another island’s high prices that you’d commonly see on some of the other turnip sites are banned. A post from a moderator explains that this is due to reports of island hosts booting players after they’ve already paid an exorbitant bell fee. Bots that disperse a person’s unique Dodo Code (which allows someone to visit your island) are also a common issue. One r/ACTurnips user produced a brief video on how to create a Google Form that, they say, will catch most bots with a Captcha test.
Elsewhere, the internet is aflutter with other groups and individuals getting in on the turnip craze. As reported by The Verge, a small group of financial tech startup employees has started using their company’s Slack to exchange turnip information in a dedicated channel. One co-worker went so far as to develop a custom Slackbot that tracked each employee’s turnip prices.
The world of Animal Crossing is meant to be one of chill hang-outs, fun fashion parties, and developing the most rad island imaginable. The online turnip market that’s emerged out of Animal Crossing just goes to show that Tom Nook has some serious competition when it comes to being the suavest (or most sinister) businessman in town.
Don’t forget to check out IGN’s own official turnip guides for a much more legit bit of assistance.
Welcome back to Game Scoop!, IGN’s weekly video game talk show. This week we’re discussing the PlayStation 5’s launch constraints, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Resident Evil 3, Animal Crossing, and more. Watch the video above or hit the link below to your favorite podcast service.
Many years before he won the Academy Award as Best Actor for the title role in Joker, Joaquin Phoenix was director Darren Aronofsky’s first choice to play the title role in his Batman: Year One screen adaptation.
While that has been public knowledge for a few years now, Aronofsky recently revealed who Warner Bros. wanted for the role and ultimately why his vision of a Batman origin movie fell apart long before Christopher Nolan tackled it in Batman Begins.
“The studio wanted Freddie Prinze Jr and I wanted Joaquin Phoenix,” Aronofsky told Empire. “I remember thinking, ‘Uh oh, we’re making two different films here.’ That’s a true story. It was a different time. The Batman I wrote was definitely a way different type of take than they ended up making.”
“The Batman franchise had just gone more and more back towards the TV show, so it became tongue-in-cheek, a grand farce, camp,” Aronofsky explained back in 2012.
“I pitched the complete opposite, which was totally bring-it-back-to-the-streets raw, trying to set it in a kind of real reality — no stages, no sets, shooting it all in inner cities across America, creating a very real feeling. My pitch was Death Wish or The French Connection meets Batman.”
After teases, and some leaks, Microsoft has revealed the Cyberpunk 2077 Limited Edition Xbox One X console bundle. The console is set to launch in June, three months before the Cyberpunk’s September 17 release date.
Based on the box shown in the reveal trailer, the bundle appears to come with a digital copy of Cyberpunk 2077, however the console will be available months before the game itself.
Both the console and previously seen Cyberpunk controller feature designs straight out of Night City, including a glow in the dark message on the console that says “No future,” along with themed custom panels that take after the game’s futuristic setting. The controller features Johnny Silverhand’s black and silver color scheme, along with touches of red.
Yesterday, the Xbox Twitter account posted a teaser video filled with codes, along with text that read, “#breakthecode”. Fans worked together to break the code, and were eventually rewarded with the limited edition console’s reveal trailer, which was posted to Xbox’s YouTube channel as an unlisted video.
Logan Plant is a news writer for IGN, and the Production Assistant for Nintendo Voice Chat, IGN’s weekly Nintendo show. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.
With the critically acclaimed series finally on Netflix, we look back at the best genre-pushing episodes.
Though beloved by critics and a small but passionate audience, Dan Harmon’s Community was always just a bit too niche and weird for a mainstream network. Nevertheless, the show fulfilled the first part of its joke-turned-rallying cry of “six seasons and a movie,” even after it moved networks–the sixth and last season of the show aired exclusively on the short-lived Yahoo! Screen platform.
Who would have imagined, back in September 2009, that a sitcom about a disgraced lawyer enrolling in a community college and forming a study group as a ploy to win over the heart of a fellow student would evolve into a genre-pushing, meta joke-filled, rule-breaking, A-list-actors-and-blockbuster-directors-making comedy that gave us some of the best episodes of TV ever? In celebration of the show being available on Netflix, here are the 10 best genre-pushing episodes of Community you can stream right now.
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10. Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas
Season 2, Episode 11
Besides its quirky characters and constant meta jokes, Community quickly became known for its ambitious pop culture homages. A lot of these focused on subverting and poking fun at the tropes of various genres, but a few used the change in formula to dive deep into its characters’ psyches. One of the most emotional of these episodes invited viewers inside Abed’s mind, which took the form of a Rankin/Bass-like stop-motion Christmas special. The result is a fantastic Christmas special in its own right, taking us on a mission to find the meaning of Christmas, which Abed finds thanks to a DVD of the first season of Lost. The visuals are impressive and perfectly recreate the magic of those classic Christmas specials, but most importantly, we learn a great deal about Abed as he resorts to the magic of stop-motion and Christmas to cope with reality.
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9. App Development and Condiments
Season 5, Episode 8
Before Black Mirror tackled the horrors of social media and how it can create a world of fake elitism through an app that lets you rate other people, Community did an episode about the horrors of social media and how it can create a world of fake elitism through an app that lets you rate other people. This being Community, it blew its initial premise to comically large proportions, turning into a parody of movies about dystopian societies like Logan’s Run. Turning Britta into a crazy socialist revolutionary warlord who commands an army of students may not be the deepest of social commentaries, but it’s fun to watch. The episode’s elaborate set design that turned the entire school into a full-blown dystopia, full of retro-futuristic costumes and instruments, is impressive from a technical standpoint. And watching a weird initiation dance for those who reached the top rating is just pure fun.
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8. Contemporary American Poultry
Season 1, Episode 21
The first time Community did a theme episode, Contemporary American Poultry was devoted entirely to paying homage the mafia movie genre. Of course, since the show is still set in a community college, it was a Goodfellas homage about the study group infiltrating the school’s cafeteria and controlling the chicken finger market. As Abed and the group rise to power they start getting power-hungry, with increasingly ridiculous demands like an entourage and a monkey.
Like any good mafia movie, this leads to back-stabbing and murders as messages (a backpack being left ripped to shreds in the open for everyone to see). The concept was not only masterfully executed, paving the way for countless parodies and homages in Dan Harmon’s other TV show, Rick and Morty, but also found the time to be an emotional story about Abed’s desire to fit in and better understand other people.
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7. Geothermal Escapism
Season 5, Episode 5
Community Season 5 saw the return of the show’s creator, Dan Harmon, but also the exit of two main characters, Pierce and Troy. The latter felt like the heaviest loss for the show, given Donald Glover’s presence, being one half of the show’s most dynamic duo, and his ability to give serious gravitas to even the most over-the-top concept. It’s no wonder, then, that the show sent him off with a high-concept episode that, as usual, turned the entire school upside-down.
When Abed announced a game of “the floor is lava” as a goodbye for Troy, together with a cash prize, everyone lost their minds and turned the campus into a Mad Max-like post-apocalyptic wasteland. There are elaborate Road Warrior punk costumes, strange vehicles built out of school furniture, and even a new religion that worships fire. At the center of it all, though, is an exploration of grief and a heartbreaking goodbye between Troy and Abed that results in one of the best moments of the series as a whole.
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6. Basic Intergluteal Numismatics
Season 5, Episode 3
A parody of David Fincher’s movies, particularly Zodiac and Seven, has never looked this good. Much like the criminally underseen and severely missed Netflix mockumentary American Vandal, the episode takes a juvenile joke of a crime (someone slipping a coin down people’s pants when they bend over) and commits so much to it that it becomes a serious matter.
Watching Jeff and Annie obsess over the investigation while the dean denies the existence of the Ass Crack Bandit, Troy’s horrific scream after being attacked before becoming an overly dramatic victim for the rest of the episode is hilarious. What really sells the episode, though, is how closely it resembles a Fincher movie, from the color grading and constant rain to the moody lighting and unresolved ending.
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5. Pillows and Blankets
Season 3, Episode 14
You don’t need extensive knowledge of documentarian Ken Burns or his award-winning documentary The Civil War to appreciate Pillows and Blankets. From the slow-motion shots to the stirring narration and the use of still images, this is the greatest mockumentary in a sitcom ever made. But it was also meaningful because it was the first time Troy and Abed’s friendship was really jeopardized.
When the prospect of breaking a world record creates conflict between the two best friends, battle lines are drawn, sides are taken, and a pillow fight erupts throughout the entire campus. The brilliance comes in how the episode manages to make its gimmick work consistently throughout its runtime, finding new ways to make the documentary feel like something that would air on PBS (elaborate maps, diagrams, and extensive interviews) while keeping it funny.
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4. Modern Warfare
Season 1, Episode 23
When Community aired Modern Warfare, it finally became its great, genre-pushing self, proving it could successfully commit to a high concept. Directed by Justin Lin, the man who elevated Fast and Furious into blockbuster territory (and was going to give us justice for Han in F9 before the movie was pushed), Modern Warfare is the first time we saw the entire school fall into chaos for a game.
A game of paintball becomes an all-out war, all while Jeff sleeps in his car, awakening in a 28 Days Later-inspired wasteland. The episode is as action-packed as the genre classics it pays homage to, with sequences that look straight out of Die Hard or Rambo, despite its TV budget. And when the episode becomes a John Woo spoof as Chang goes on a rampage? Instant classic. It’s no wonder that Community couldn’t escape paintball, returning to it in almost every season, but there’s no beating how ground-breaking this episode was. It was simple, it was bold, and it set the bar for genre parodies on TV.
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3. Remedial Chaos Theory
Season 3, Episode 4
Multiple timelines are nothing new to TV, but we usually don’t see this many timelines explored in a half-hour episode of a comedy series. This being Community, it’s no surprise that they went all-out, introducing seven different timelines that are created when a delivery man arrives at Troy and Abed’s housewarming party and the group decides to use a dice to see who should get the pizza.
Again, the beauty is in its simplicity. We get basically the same story played out seven different times, only with ever-so-slight differences. The visual gags have more layers than a Christopher Nolan movie, and we’re introduced to the idea of the darkest timeline, which would become an endless source of real world references throughout the past decade. Most importantly, it showed exactly what the characters meant to each other, and how the absence of each of them would drastically change the dynamic of the entire group in subtle or catastrophic ways. It’s no surprise that this episode always ranks high in “best of” lists.
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2. Epidemiology
Season 2, Episode 6
Though not often found in the “best of” lists, watching a sitcom successfully pull off a zombie episode (that doubles as a Mamma Mia spin-off, as the episode plays to the sounds of ABBA) is worthy of praise.
After experimental government powder gets mistaken as taco meat during Greendale’s Halloween party, the student body gets infected with a virus that turns them into zombies. Zombie tropes are referenced and subverted left and right, from the cat scare to a character being wrestled out a window by a horde. The episode not only condenses an entire zombie film into a 22-minute episode that’s effective both as a parody and as a straightforward story, but it also provides a touching story of Troy embracing the nerd he’s become and growing out of the cool jerk he used to be.
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1. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons
Season 2, Episode 14
Watching this episode in 2020 feels different. Post Game of Thrones and Stranger Things, is it really necessary to spend an entire episode explaining what elves, dragons, and magic are to people? Is it really that easy to assume they would laugh at the idea of Dungeons & Dragons? That this episode came out mere months before Game of Thrones debuted makes this a fascinating time capsule to a time before nerd culture became truly mainstream.
When the study group decides to pick up the game to cheer up a depressed classmate, things go south, as Pierce realizes he was left behind and becomes the villain of the story, turning a friendly campaign of D&D into an epic quest of revenge, magic, and how fantasy helps us in times of loneliness. Before Critical Role and The Adventure Zone made playing D&D into a hugely successful multimedia endeavors, we had Advanced Dungeons and Dragons to thank for making the game seem and look so cool.
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Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company
In May, one of the best things to come out of Star Wars comes to an end. The Clone Wars wraps up its 7-Season run as a Disney+ original. In addition to new episodes of Clone Wars, Disney+ has movies, TV shows, and new original content headed your way in the upcoming month.
While it’ll still be a wait for Season 2 of The Mandalorian to come to the streaming service, Disney+ does have a follow-up docuseries about the hit original show debuting in May. Titled Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, the eight-part series is hosted by showrunner Jon Favreau. Each episode will dive into a different aspect of the series, with Episode 1 covering “Directing.”
On May 1, there are plenty of Disney movies you will want to watch again, coming to the service. Homeward Bound, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and George of the Jungle arrive that day, so whether you’re into dogs talking to each other, pirates involved in a nonsensical plot, or Brendan Fraser with wonderful, long hair, there is something for you.
Check out everything coming to Disney+ for the month of May below. You may find some lesser-known original series are actually pretty great. For more streaming news, check out what’s coming to Hulu in May as well.
And speaking of things you should be watching, consider listening to GameSpot’s weekly TV series and movies-focused podcast, You Should Be Watching. With new episodes premiering every Wednesday, you can watch a video version of the podcast over on GameSpot Universe or listen to audio versions on Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, and Apple Podcasts.
New to Disney+ in May:
Friday, May 1
Awesome Animals (S1)
Birth of Europe (S1)
Bride of Boogedy
Buried Secrets of the Bible with Albert Lin (S1)
CAR SOS (S1 – S7)
Disney Kirby Buckets (S1-S3)
George of the Jungle
Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco
How to Play Baseball
In Beaver Valley
Lost Treasures of Egypt (S1)
Love & Vets (S1)
Nature’s Half Acre
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Prairie Dog Manor (S1)
Primal Survivor (S1-S4)
Prowlers of the Everglades
Secrets of the Zoo
Secrets of the Zoe: Tampa
Survive the Tribe (S1)
United States of Animals (S1)
Unlikely Animal Friends (S3)
Water Birds
Be Our Chef: Episode 106 “Slimy Yet Satisfying”
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Episode 711 “Shattered”
Disney Family Sundays: Episode 126 “Star Wars: Clock”
One Day At Disney: Episode 122 “Robin Roberts: Good Morning America Co-Anchor”
Prop Culture: Series Premiere – All 8 Episodes Available
Saturday, May 2
John Carter
Monday, May 4
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian: Series Premiere – Episode 101 “Directing”
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Series Finale – Episode 712 “Victory and Death”
Friday, May 8
Be Our Chef: Episode 107 “Anyone Can Cook”
Disney Family Sundays: Episode 127 “Star Wars: Hanging Art”
One Day At Disney: Episode 123 “Joe Hernandez: Attractions Host”
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian: Episode 102 “Legacy”
Disney Insider: Episode 105 “Running through Disney, Sorcerer’s Arena, Opening the Archives”
Friday, May 15
Furry Files
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
Be Our Chef: Episode 108 “Worth Melting For”
One Day At Disney: Episode 124 “Stephanie Carroll: Ranch Hand”
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian: Episode 103 “Cast”
It’s a Dog’s Life with Bill Farmer: Series Premiere – Episode 101 “Whale Poop Dogs & Sheep Herding Dogs”
Friday, May 22
The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story
Disney Just Roll with It (S1)
Disney Mech-X4 (S1-2)
Disney Vampirina (S2)
Disneyland Goes to the World’s Fair
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Heartland Docs, DVM (S1)
Hello, Dolly!
Marvel’s Future Adventures (S2)
The Big Fib: Series Premiere – All 15 Episodes Available
Be Our Chef: Episode 109 “Tiana’s Place”
One Day At Disney: Episode 125 “Ed Fritz: Imagineering Ride Engineer”
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian: Episode 104 “Technology”
It’s a Dog’s Life with Bill Farmer: Episode 102 “Dogs & Cheetahs & Companion Dogs”
Friday, May 29
Disney Doc McStuffins (S5)
Disney Gabby Duran & the Unsittables (S1)
Disney The Evermoor Chronicles (S1-2)
Mickey and the Seal
The Moon-Spinners
Violetta (S2)
Be Our Chef: Episode 110 “Woody’s Lunchbox”
Disney Family Sundays: Episode 130 “Nightmare Before Christmas: Candy Bowl”
One Day At Disney: Episode 126 “Jerome Ranft: Pixar Sculpton”
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian: Episode 105 “Practical”
It’s a Dog’s Life with Bill Farmer: Episode 103 “Macot Dogs & Guide Dogs for Runners”
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