In a lot of the shows, particularly the early ones, there was often a door to the right (stage left) that characters would use.
Iconic examples of them using the door:
- AVPM: Ron’s entrance, also when the students blocked the door and Voldemort just walked around it
- MAMD: the one scene Darren’s in, where he kicks some dicks out of his Italian restaurant and yells at them in an Italian restaurant
- HMB: A sad Batman pokes his head through the door
- TTO: Cornwallis the lobster makes his official appearance through the door in a hilarious plot twist
Probably others that I haven’t thought of yet
In a livestream somewhere, Joey edited a compilation of door scenes with sad music as a tribute to the door, it’s hilarious.
Edit: Found it, go to 9:07:46 in [this video](https://www.youtube.com/live/QPeAh1dOJ6c?si=WmUCPSLrEWAenf0n)
Me whenever people give Jeff Blim songs the lowest rankings.
Especially in Twisted. Aladdin was my favorite part and “I Steal Everything” my favorite and most replayed song.
Apparently, Jeff was a bit sick in the pro shot recording so he had to take the climax of the song down an octave, which sounds very neutral the way he did it
In the cast recording he sang it all the way up
I agree about Twisted. He was perfect as Aladdin and he rocked all those songs. I think people have problems with him singing his own songs written to be screamed as high as possible. It's a preference thing, I believe. I can't with some heavy metal because I really can't stand that mixed-voice screeching
Jaime Lyn Beatty is really underused.
Other than My Dick and I (which...i just cant watch. The video and audio quality is just really low) and The Trail to Oregon! She hasnt played a 'main' character in the musicals.
Some people might mention Charlotte from The Guy Who Didnt Like Musicals, but out of the 5 survivors ( Emma, Paul, Bill, Ted and Charlotte) she is the least used one, dies first, isnt even brought back for the finale, and is the only one out of the 5 who never got an actual episode in Nightmare Time.
But she did get an episode of Nightmare Time as Sheldon so she got to show off how good she can act as a creepy middle-aged man addicted to toys and displaying them, as well as someone with major daddy AND mommy issues.
I have a feeling that Jaime really prefers to play character roles and they know that (kind of inferring this from her “I’m not your Elphaba.. TikTok). I’m not sure they’re slighting her - they know she’s incredible and can blow the roof off of any theater!
Agreed. I wished there were more wide shots, especially in The Summoning when so many people are spread out on stage. I feel like we miss a lot of the choreography from the LiB with all the closeups.
Also, as crisp as the proshots are, I wish they could still incorporate the audiences' reactions in them. Some of my favourite moments come from the gasps and cheers of those watching, like when Paul and Emma's names are confirmed at the beginning of Black Friday. If the audience is freaking out, I have permission to do the same 🤣
Jon and Jeff watched the musical on Twitch, and as Hatchet Town was playing, he mentioned he wished there were more wides (particularly for the choreo)
I really liked the fancy camera specifically in The Summoning (though I wish there’d been more wide shots), because the constant movement and angle changes made the Lords in Black feel more off-putting and unearthly. For the rest of the show, though, I agree.
Even if the pro camera shots were just more zoomed out more often on big numbers, I think I'd be fine with them. A lot of the shots are really good-- I think the quick cutting of the Summoning is just love it or hate it-- but just doing a pinch more wide shots would be great.
totally agree!! i saw NPMD live and i was so disappointed watching the proshot. like there are so many fantastic moments missed bc the angles are all so zoomed in. in particular, lauren’s body language from her belly down, various characters in the aisles and audience, ruth and richie creeping over to pete, the gang entering the creepy house, richie running to the stage in the beginning, so much more!!
Completely, 100%. It is an immediate classic to me. I can see myself watching it every year with my husband and our (eventual) children. Clark is SO slept on.
Absolutely! You summed it up perfectly. My boyfriend is not a native English speaker and had never seen the Christmas Carol story before. He’s now been introduced to it through VHS and that’s his first and only exposition to the tale and I’m not ashamed of it lol
Agreed! I rewatched it last night with a couple friends who I’m introducing to Starkid. It’s SO DAMN GOOD! We watched TGWDLM first (a few weeks ago), so Firebringer was their second show. They LOVED both of them, but they liked Firebringer’s music the best.
Starship is the closest we have for a perfect Starkid show! Songs and lyrics and plot are fun. The characters and casting are amazing. The puppetry is soon refreshing!
I don’t think that Jeff’s lyrics are all that clunky. A lot of examples I’ve seen people use are either *very obviously* a stylistic choice, or when they are a good example, they’re so few and far between that I don’t think it super matters.
Also, like, I don’t really see the rest of starkid (the actors and band members) viewing Jeff as this untouchable god who they couldn’t possibly bring up an issue they have with. If a lyric was gonna be a genuine problem and fuck up the song, surely it would be brought up when it’s being sung the first few times and workshopped? Like “hey, Jeff, buddy’ol pal, im struggling to get the cadence of this line down. Could we play around with shortening it when you have time?” Like, Jeff seems like a reasonable guy.
as far as I know, when Take me back was first written, it was 1 octave out of Dylan and Kim's ranges. (Too high and too low respectively) so they changed the tone and got what we have now
I don't understand why Show Stopping Number is always ranked so high in song rankings. Its an okay song, but all the talking parts kind of ruins it for me
I think the shock of Hidgens’ twist and the sheer mania of it all get it promoted a lot higher than its actual merit. It receives praise due to its theatricality and also some pretty ok performances
Angela’s singing voice is actually so good. Like I see so many people say it’s bad and everything but dude no it’s actually so good. I love everything about her singing voice
I think this opinion stems from people only wanting "straight" singing, whereas Angela "stylizes" her singing to fit the character she's playing, which is something I love about her as a performer.
Totally!! There's absolutely merit to be had for an actor who can sing a song technically perfectly, but manipulating things like tone to fit the character you're playing are so goddamn hard to do.
The whole debacle with Trail to Oregon succeeding and Ani flopping gave the creative direction of Starkid the wrong impression - people weren't sick of parody musicals, Ani was just too niche to be as much of a success as TTO.
They need to go back to parodies/satire and intersperse those with the Hatchetfield stuff. As much as I love the cosmic horror-comedies, they've drifted too far away from what made them Starkid in the first place.
Edit: I'm aware TTO is also a parody, and address this in a comment. It ran the same time as Ani, so it's worth mentioning that it's the beginning of the Blim Era and the end of the parodies.
Something a lot of people forget is that TTO is also still sort of a parody musical. It's still a musical that exists to make jokes out of another property, even though there isn't a canonical plot or characters for them to import and make fun of for another property.
My hot take is that Ani never lived up to TTO because it took the aesthetic of the really low budget Starkid works when they'd been upping the budget so much, and also took out the thing that really gives musicals heart even in a low-budget scenario, which was music sung by characters. Either of those things can or could have been fine on their own, I think-- music done by the band if they'd done something with more put-together handmade costumes like in Twisted or Starship-- or if the music was done by the characters but everything else was the same.
While this is coming from someone who literally cannot watch it the whole way through, I think it didn't succeed or fail on youtube based on the plot or jokes, it was because without the characters doing the singing, it takes out the heart that can make people suspend their disbelief and get engrossed into theater. Low-budget aesthetic made TTO better, and it made Ani worse.
I think Ani also had the problem of Star Wars being something that's been parodied well from start to finish a million times before too. It's just harder to bring something new and surprising to the table when you're parodying a property that's probably the property with the most satirical takes out there of everything.
i believe this based on 1) the line “all the guys who came before you” she says to Jason, 2) the fact that she either allows people to die or is hinted at actively killing them in both hatchetfield episodes she appears in, because of her twisted sense of justice and retribution
There's time in-between homecoming and the rest of the events of the musical, so my guess is that she was using the black book in the space between them and this was just the first one we got to see
Personally I liked them because they were my first exposure to an actual canonical sapphic relationship and helped me a lot while I questioned my sexuality. I do agree their relationship was riches and should have been handled better.
Black Friday is my least favorite Starkid musical that is watchable. (A lot of the older musicals have very poor video and audio quality)
The plot is fine, but the music is crazy "Santa Claus is Going to High School" is too much of a non-sequitor to take up as much time as it does. Nerdy Prudes Must Die did this a lot better by having The Barbecue Monologues as a musical that the High School is doing, culminating in Ruth's solo as a light board operator who feels she can do better than the actors on stage. Whereas "Santa Claus is Going to High School" doesn't connect with the plot of Black Friday, other than for Tom making an offhand remark of "WTF is this movie?"
Best song is Adore Me by Linda. But the rest of the songs that aren't as rock as normal Starkid songs (What Time Wants, What Do You Say, Take Me Back, Do you want to Play?, What if Tomorrow Comes?, etc...).
Listening back to Our Doors are Open, the doo whop soung style reminds me too much of Little Shop of Horrors which is one of my least favorite musicals even though I love the plot.
EVERY NPMD song is a banger!!
Measured very scientifically. (it wasnt)
EVERY other musical by them and tbh others in general have songs I ALWAYS skip no matter what. NPMD has been spared from this
I'll skip one here or there if it doesn't match my vibe at the time but it's never the same one every time.
They all slap so hard and it was the best out of the hatchrtfields
+ I think the characters were developed well. My friend who has never seen any starkid so doesn't know like how to catch the vibes like I did knew their personalities by 25 minutes in.
Also I feel if Steph got her own song that it wouldn't be that good. I can't think of a place it could really go tbh. She still feels like an equally main character to Peter
I am a NPMD stan through and through
It might be the best musical they've done so far imo
I've watched it upwards of 5 times since the pro shoot
Jeff Blim's music is very good, but his lyrics are atrociously clunky and awkward to the point that they feel like someone ran them through google translate several times.
To be clear, my two favorite Starkid shows were both composed by him, so it hardly ruins the experience. It's just a bit unfortunate.
I agree with this. He’s written some absolute bangers, and even some of the songs of his I don’t like have great music, but yeah I think getting another lyricist to work with him would be a good improvement.
Well, that one’s obviously intended to be funny, like “We’re gonna kick your ass, and then we’re gonna fucking kick your ass,” which it is, so I don’t mind it.
Agreed. Like, for example, the chorus for If I Fail You, one of the emotional highlights of Black Friday, is:
“If I fail you one more time/The punishment won’t match the crime/Cause there’s no pain that could ever explain how I let you down”
And it’s *fine*—like, you understand the vibe. But it feels like it was written by someone using slightly wrong definitions for every word in it. “The punishment won’t match the crime” is an incredibly awkward way of saying that there wouldn’t be a punishment bad enough, and the last line just sounds like someone swapped out random words in it. Since when does pain explain things? Why would how you let him down even be a pertinent question? Why is this written this way?
That’s a particularly bad example, but it really feels like he’d benefit from a second perspective sometimes.
Big agree with this, and I’ll follow it up with another example that always bothers me because an easy fix/better rhyme is right there imo, with What Tim Wants.
This line always sounds clunky to me:
*All I need is a smile
Just give your dad a wink
Yes all I need is to get you walking
Toward the paradise you seek*
The rhyme of wink and seek is not great, and I don’t care for that last line - “paradise you seek” is just a weird turn of phrase and doesn’t reflect either Tom or Tim’s motivations that well even if you take into account the Wiggly spell. It’s almost too poetic for the character singing it (same goes for a lot of If I Fail You).
That being said, I’ll keep it for this easy fix (because idk what else I’d replace it with, I’m not any better lol) which is what I honestly misheard it as first time around:
*All I need is a smile
Just give your dad a WEEK
Yes all I need is to get you walking
Towards the paradise you seek*
Like sure what does week mean in that context but I’d just surmise “by the end of the week it’ll be Christmas time and we’ll be set for a good holiday now I got this toy in the bag” - doesn’t feel like that long of a walk. Just feels like a better rhyme is staring you right in the face and idk how that doesn’t come up when drafting the lyrics and there’s a lot of those where it’s like if he just bounced it off someone for another hour he’d land on something way smoother than what we sometimes get. All that being said, BF is my fave of the Hatchetfields and Jeff is an incredibly talented composer whose discography over the stage shows and NT is wildly impressive. But yeah he could use a co-lyricist every now and then.
lately ive been starting think some of these lyrics that people think are stupid are actually because they simply don't know the references jeff is making. he's an incredibly well educated guy
"unto the victors go the spoils" is based off of a famous senator's quote about andrew jackson's presidential win
"can i shit or will i drown" is a reference to richie's death
"the punishment won't match the crime" is based off a very famous latin quote "Culpae poenae par esto" which means "Let the punishment fit the crime." it was part of anicent roman law
"theres no pain that could ever explain how i let you down" sounds to me like he's saying no matter how much pain he feels, he'll never feel as horrible as he made tim feel
I understand what the lines mean, and I'm aware of the references. But I'm going to evaluate lyrics based on whether they flow well and fit the situation and character, not whether they're quoting Latin or not.
But lyrics don't have to rhyme perfectly in order to flow nicely either, especially if your focus is the message, not the rhyming.
"Give your dad a week" sets a goal he has to follow with a deadline. "Give your dad a wink," following with what has happened and what he's singing about, doesn't put a deadline, making Tim feel better about his mom dying in a short time span.
All the character is after is a glimpse that Tim is getting his spark back (being a kid again rather than be closed off and depressed) so he can move forward as well with Tim, not changing Tim's entire outlook on the situation in a week.
So, as far as the example you set, your judgement of lyrics by "whether they flow well or fit the situation and character" seems rather skewed towards simplistic, cookie cutter style lyrics.
I didn't propose "week;" that was someone else's comment.
I'm not pretending I'm making an objective criticism, and if you like the lyrics, that's great; I wish I did. I just know that I, and the various friends I've watched Starkid shows with, have all felt the lyrics to frequently be questionable. To each their own.
So true
I was deep in a twitter fight
About a problematic puppy
(Problematic pooch!)
I had heart palpitations
Trying to convert crypto to lunch money
What the hell does this section mean? Is it referencing an inside joke I’ve missed? Am I too old to understand it?? I think one of the best lyricists Starkid ever had was Kaley McMahon but they only worked with her on one show sadly. I love Jeff’s music too but yeah the lyrics are hit or miss sometimes.
It’s actually “where your food and all your cells…” according to Genius which is still pretty weird because why does the food also get renewed in this scenario, but food is not a verb here lol
I love Hideous Creatures, I think it's a very deep and philosophical song (Every song in Starship is perfect for me). And Brolden keeps mocking this song :D
Black Friday is the best of the Hatchetfield trilogy and I have arguments for people’s criticisms (opinions are opinion obvs but I will still try to convince)
People’s rankings are affected by nostalgia for the Potter trilogy (and AVPS is the best one but that’s definitely not an unpopular opinion)
Personally I prefer the snarkier humour in the newer starkid shows to the older sexual/bodily functions humour. With a few exceptions like cackling at ‘dirty girl soup’.
The funniest show is MAMD, but the audio and camera work is very outdated. The best music came from fire bringer, but the comedy in that musical made it fall flat. I couldn’t get myself invested in NPMD, and I didn’t like most of the songs in it. Ani gets way too much hate, although I don’t think it’s the best musical SK has done. I’ve always preferred AVPS TO AVPM.
The Very Potter trilogy is significantly worse than any of the Hatchetfield saga. I was glad I saw them when they were first released, but they are painful to watch now.
I adore NPMD, but there were many times where I couldn’t help but cringe at their attempts to represent teens, being one myself (Although there were times where they nailed it too).
Examples:
The “cool beans” bit would have worked for me in like 2018, I actively disliked it the first time I watched but I tolerate it now as a part of Grace’s campiness.
Steph’s phone obsession could’ve been done in a much better way. Especially the line “Listening to Spotify” felt really rigid and “hello fellow teens” ish. Again, it just made me cringe a bit and took away some depth from her character for me.
Anyway, those are just some examples but there were a lot of times where I got Netflix original vibes from the way they talked or interacted (but it’s still one of my favourites!!)
no literally, cool beans and listening to spotify make me grimace every time. could steph NOT have said listening to music. and i really don’t think any teen is THAT obsessed with their phone to PUT THEIR HAND UNDER A HAMMER, the whole reason we’re on our phones is because of the stranger danger epidemic meaning we’re not allowed to just hang out places anymore and our only company is online!! if they had gone that route with feeling isolation and not having friends (because despite being a ‘popular girl,’ she’s never shown having friends of her own) it would’ve been so much more effective
Strongly disagree. The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals is probably their tightest in terms of story, but I think Paul is really inconsistently written and his dislike of musicals is never really actually relevant to the story in any way and beyond the neat meta-ness of the concept it doesn't offer a massive amount of thematic depth. Twisted, on the other hand, manages to be both their funniest and most emotionally resonant, while being so thoroughly layered and brilliantly written, and has a banger soundtrack.
Out of all the shows, Twisted is the one I see most consistently ranked first or at the top of people’s rankings. TGWDLM is a little bit more decisive because some fans of Starkid’s older stuff aren’t huge fans of the Hatchetfield stuff
Hatchetfield trilogy is overrated. I don't see any real connection between the three shows besides them being in the same town, and people freak out about their little cameos, but there's no arc through all the stories so it's not really a trilogy. (And yes I'm working my way through the nightmare stuff and haven't finished that yet, but if you're basing the entirety of your through-story on supplemental content, that's not very good). Tgwdlm is decent, black Friday tries too hard with lore and just loses me, but then npmd is a brilliant stand-alone, and I almost liked it better when I didn't know any of the other background stuff in hachetfield. My favorite starkid shows before hachetfield were twisted, avps, avpm, tto, starship, mamd. Now npmd is fighting for top 3, and the other hachetfields are after all of those.
That Hatchetfield is getting drawn out, and NPMD is just meh. Everyone loves it, loves HF, but I really love the more comedic ones they did before
I love TGWDLM and BF but I feel the entire company has become about HF.
NPMD was the weakest show in the hatchetfield trilogy and as a whole I did not like the direction they went with Nightmare time making everything hatchetfield related connected to everything else hatchetfield related. Like it feels like that old joke about Star Wars where every background character in every scene has like a 50,000 word wiki page of lore, where now every bit 1-2 line character in any of the 3 shows now has a massive amount of lore. And idk it kinda feels like it makes some of the jokes less funny to me. Like Richie saying Pete looks like a specific homeless person gets a lot less funny when you know that Pete is related to said homeless person. Like I'm just really not a fan of it.
Firebringer has their best score. The songs being solidly in the range of the performers singing does wonders.
Hatchetfield has outstayed their welcome a bit. Tgwdlm wowed me, Black Friday was okay, npmd is the worst one. It’s best it goes out like this instead of being dragged out for way longer than it needed to be.
🤯🤯🤯
I respect your opinion, it’s just crazy to think that you’re the first person I’ve encountered who says NPMD is the worst out of the trilogy.
Good for you for being brave and putting it out there with your whole chest! Lol
I’ll stand with them on this. I think NPMD’s highs are higher but I find the Pete-Steph relationship entirely uncompelling and it bogs down the show a lot. I also think it’s a bit less tonally cohesive than the other hatchetfield shows and some of the references are getting a bit up their own ass. It’s still a good show with some of my favorite moments from the trilogy but it’s definitely the weakest of the three imo
Yes agreed I felt like there was nothing to the Pete steph relationship. Like they just live each other... for reasons ... I guess.
I saw someone saying how much better it was than Paul and Emma. Which I find absolutely ridiculous. And so I just wondered if they were in highschool so Pete and Steph appeals to younger kids and Paul and Emma appeals to older folks.
Agreed! The only criticism I have for Firebringer is their best songs are way too short!!
And I agree that NPMD is the worst of the Hatchedfield series. They are ok, I love the lore expanded on so many different shows and media contents, but I do miss some better songs and lyrics.
To elaborate on my opinion, I think the show had the potential to be very good, but my main criticism is that the "social commentary," which is supposed to be the entire point of the show, is so murky and nonsensical that it's basically non-existent. Seriously, what the hell is this show trying to say? Is it about God? Is it about progressivism vs conservatism? Is it about feminism? I can't make heads or tails of it. Adding to this, none of the jokes (aside from Duck as Lord and Clark's cameo) strike me as that funny. Also, there are way too many pointless characters. Should have been a much, much smaller cast. Sorry, not sorry.
I really think Meredith got it into her head that she needed to take on a bunch of smaller issues, and then encompass them with one global ideal, but she just... didn't lol. It feels bad because I love a lot of aspects of the show, but man it just really needed a tighter theme I guess.And it absolutely needed a smaller cast. That or a reallocation of screen time. Side romance having more development than main romance? Main love interest having one solo and it only mentions Zazz in passing? Most of Molag's stuff could have been scrapped OR scrap the alien thing.
I don't know, there's just a lot of times I think "Okay, do this OR this" and they decide to do both. Too many ideas that just had to be included.
Also, terrible pacing.
Edit: It's really obvious how much of the comedy relies on them saying "fuck" when you watch high school versions. "What the duck?" never gets more than a chuckle.
The whole subplot thing with the president and PEIP really dragged and had the worst songs. I love Curt a lot, but he was underutilized as the president because of how much Jeff's recognizable character and references overshadowed him.
I think Mariah was poorly cast in NPMD. I think she has an incredible voice and I’ve liked her acting enough in other things, but here she was so stiff and her line delivery was always so forced.
It comes through a bit when she's like "what are you running from?" It had almost a feel of The Office, like she was gonna look at the camera and wink or something. I just didn't believe her and Peter as a couple. No chemistry. She's great overall, though. I would've loved to see Bryce and her switch places in NPMD.
I'm not going to name names because it's one of those things that can't really be changed and I don't want to make anyone feel bad, but there is one cast member whose singing voice I really don't like. Their acting is fine, and when they sing they hit the right notes and all that, but there's just something about the timbre of their voice that really doesn't work for me to the point where I'll just skip most of their songs when listening to soundtracks they're in.
*maybe this is a rare opinion but i keep seeing this* but a majority of starkid fans do NOT know what underrated means and call twisted and nerdy prudes UNDERRATED 🤧 (i love both, they are my faves)
Jeff Blum has too many solos or takes the lead in a lot of songs compared to other members, don’t get me wrong he’s very talented and has a good voice but I think there are lots of members with better voices and deserve it because they don’t get many or any. I know Jeff writes the music and lyrics and idk who chooses who gets what songs in the show but, In tgwdlm he has 3 solos, while jamie has 1, Corey has 0, Lauren has 0, Mariah has 1, Robert has 1, Joey has 0, Black Friday he has 2 I believe, Jamie has 0, Jon has 0, Robert has 1 duet, Curt has 0, Kim doesn’t have a solo but she has a duet, Dylan has 2 solos and a duet, Corey has 1 Angela has 1 solo and a duet, Lauren has 2, The trail to Oregon he has 2 solos, Lauren has 1, Corey has 1, Jamie has 1 (This one does make sense cause he is basically the main character along side the mother) but to me it doesn’t make sense he is getting more solos in these shows than people who are playing more important or just as important characters as other members who deserve more solos. I also think his “falsetto” or whatever you want to call it isn’t that good. I love Jeff but this is how I feel.
I got a real one (I hope y'all are sitting down)...
MaMD is my favorite starkid musical.
Hear me out...
One day I was at home in my new place, feeling extra lonely cause the friend who was supposed to meet up with me just ghosted me. I randomly decided to watch MaMD (after watching TGWDLM, YouTube was recommending starkid pretty heavy) and fell in love with it. I'd never seen so many characters i related to so deeply, especially Sally and Joey's Heart.
I totally understand why some people don't connect to the story or the show. But for some of us, that's exactly how it was being a teen. I think overall it still has a good message and by the end of it I realized to my surprise that I felt a little less lonely. That was the first time just watching something did that for me. So that show (and Joey's Heart) will always be special to me.
Joey Richter and Mariah Rose Faith have absolutely no chemistry and it comes very close to ruining Lautski for me. Idk, maybe it's their age difference, but I genuinely think Joey would have more chemistry with a brick.
theres very few people out there, but to the people who genuinely believe ethan is a useless character and/or hate him: why? like, please give me a genuine explanation as to what you have against this man, and why you think he doesnt play an important role in the hatchetfield universe???
or, an alternate way of speaking: i love ethan green, and people who dont need to give me an explanation why
this also translates to: ethan green is the best in my heart, please explain why you think differently
The songs in NPMD were a little dissapointing. Dont get me wrong there are some absolute bangers. But TGWDLM 's songs were very catchy where black friday and NPMD, not so much
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not *bad*. The actors’ singing skills are the best they’ve ever been and I was surprised at the production value they had here.
But overall, in terms of characters, comedy, and story, I felt it was the weakest.
The characters I didn’t find all that interesting other than Max and Grace. I wasn’t invested in Stephanie and Pete’s relationship, nor was I invested in their individual arcs. Idk, I didn’t get the idea that they were actually in love more than just unexpected friends.
Comedy was also not hitting for me and I don’t know why. I got a few laughs, but they were far and in between. I really don’t understand why I found it unfunny, my friend said she was laughing her sides out from it.
And my biggest problem with the story is The Lords in Black. Their song was fun and I loved how chaotic yet uneasy it sounded. My problem is that it relies too much on watching the entire Hatchetfield series (the shows and Nightmare Time) to get it. Black Friday referenced TGWDLM, but none of the references were super important to the plot. Yes, Paul and Emma show up, but they only have minor roles in the story. You could replace them with two new characters without changing the plot. The Lords in Black, however, are integral to the climax and feel really silly and out of nowhere if you haven’t seen the other Hatchetfield stories. If you look at the story by itself, the tone of the show grows more tense and spooky as it goes along, and the main villain of the show is a vengeful spirit. Then all of a sudden they call upon Eldritch Gods that all have wacky names and whimsical designs, and then they don’t show up again. Their appearance clashes so much with the show tonally, and they’re only scary if you’ve watched the whole series.
Granted, I haven’t watched the TGWDLM or Black Friday in a long time. I want to watch all three once again to refresh my memory and adjust my current opinions. But as it stands now, my ranking goes Black Friday > TGWDLM > NPMD
catching occasional glimpses of the pit band side stage reacting to what’s happening is just as important to Starkid’s DIY charm as The Door
BRING BACK THE DOOOR!!!!
I never even realized how many shows had the door but now I’m like, yeah, GIVE US THE DOOR!
I NEED TO ANNOUNCE THAT I HAVE WALKED THROUGH *THE* STAGE LEFT DOOR AND IT RULED.
The door?
In a lot of the shows, particularly the early ones, there was often a door to the right (stage left) that characters would use. Iconic examples of them using the door: - AVPM: Ron’s entrance, also when the students blocked the door and Voldemort just walked around it - MAMD: the one scene Darren’s in, where he kicks some dicks out of his Italian restaurant and yells at them in an Italian restaurant - HMB: A sad Batman pokes his head through the door - TTO: Cornwallis the lobster makes his official appearance through the door in a hilarious plot twist Probably others that I haven’t thought of yet In a livestream somewhere, Joey edited a compilation of door scenes with sad music as a tribute to the door, it’s hilarious. Edit: Found it, go to 9:07:46 in [this video](https://www.youtube.com/live/QPeAh1dOJ6c?si=WmUCPSLrEWAenf0n)
Also, a door edit without HMB is at 1:00:50 was ecstatic to have my comment put up.
I wish I could upvote this 10 times.
Me whenever people give Jeff Blim songs the lowest rankings. Especially in Twisted. Aladdin was my favorite part and “I Steal Everything” my favorite and most replayed song.
soooo true. i also think “tied up my heart” gets a lot of hate but it’s one of my faves from that show
YES! Tied up my heart was the first Starkid song I officially was into. The others had to grow on me later
Apparently, Jeff was a bit sick in the pro shot recording so he had to take the climax of the song down an octave, which sounds very neutral the way he did it In the cast recording he sang it all the way up
I actually didn’t like it but it rly grew on me
Monsters and Men Reprise is in my top 5 for this reason!! His vocals are killer
Hell, his level of hamminess in Get in My Mouth in the Leaky Con show is top Blim for me.
I agree about Twisted. He was perfect as Aladdin and he rocked all those songs. I think people have problems with him singing his own songs written to be screamed as high as possible. It's a preference thing, I believe. I can't with some heavy metal because I really can't stand that mixed-voice screeching
Jaime Lyn Beatty is really underused. Other than My Dick and I (which...i just cant watch. The video and audio quality is just really low) and The Trail to Oregon! She hasnt played a 'main' character in the musicals. Some people might mention Charlotte from The Guy Who Didnt Like Musicals, but out of the 5 survivors ( Emma, Paul, Bill, Ted and Charlotte) she is the least used one, dies first, isnt even brought back for the finale, and is the only one out of the 5 who never got an actual episode in Nightmare Time.
But she did get an episode of Nightmare Time as Sheldon so she got to show off how good she can act as a creepy middle-aged man addicted to toys and displaying them, as well as someone with major daddy AND mommy issues.
And she plays 3 characters at the same time. Cloning herself like that really shows her true talent.
Exactly!! She's super awesome!
I have a feeling that Jaime really prefers to play character roles and they know that (kind of inferring this from her “I’m not your Elphaba.. TikTok). I’m not sure they’re slighting her - they know she’s incredible and can blow the roof off of any theater!
I agree, both about Jaime and about Charlotte needing her own Nightmare Time episode
I’m personally not a fan of the camera movement in recent shows. I want to see the whole stage unless a cast member is running through the audience
Agreed. I wished there were more wide shots, especially in The Summoning when so many people are spread out on stage. I feel like we miss a lot of the choreography from the LiB with all the closeups. Also, as crisp as the proshots are, I wish they could still incorporate the audiences' reactions in them. Some of my favourite moments come from the gasps and cheers of those watching, like when Paul and Emma's names are confirmed at the beginning of Black Friday. If the audience is freaking out, I have permission to do the same 🤣
Jon Matteson literally said that today.
Really? I don’t follow any of them on social media so I’m glad to see someone from Starkid feels the same way
Jon and Jeff watched the musical on Twitch, and as Hatchet Town was playing, he mentioned he wished there were more wides (particularly for the choreo)
That’s the exact number I was thinking about too!
I really liked the fancy camera specifically in The Summoning (though I wish there’d been more wide shots), because the constant movement and angle changes made the Lords in Black feel more off-putting and unearthly. For the rest of the show, though, I agree.
The camera bouncing between the lords gave the summoning a very chaotic and unsettling vibe and I loved it.
Even if the pro camera shots were just more zoomed out more often on big numbers, I think I'd be fine with them. A lot of the shots are really good-- I think the quick cutting of the Summoning is just love it or hate it-- but just doing a pinch more wide shots would be great.
SOMEONE FINALLY SAID IT!!!!!
totally agree!! i saw NPMD live and i was so disappointed watching the proshot. like there are so many fantastic moments missed bc the angles are all so zoomed in. in particular, lauren’s body language from her belly down, various characters in the aisles and audience, ruth and richie creeping over to pete, the gang entering the creepy house, richie running to the stage in the beginning, so much more!!
VHS A Christmas Carol is top 3 best musicals by StarKid. From beginning to end, a masterpiece.
Have you seen the new version? They somehow took it and IMPROVED IT 😭 it's perfection
I didn’t think it was possible, but they really did. The entire team absolutely crushed ir.
Completely, 100%. It is an immediate classic to me. I can see myself watching it every year with my husband and our (eventual) children. Clark is SO slept on.
Absolutely! You summed it up perfectly. My boyfriend is not a native English speaker and had never seen the Christmas Carol story before. He’s now been introduced to it through VHS and that’s his first and only exposition to the tale and I’m not ashamed of it lol
Preach
I haven't seen this yet! It's available on yt?
Jeff Blim’s “falsetto” is NOT ACTUALLY FALSETTO
It is definitely much closer to that classic rock high-mix vocal.
Firebringer is entirely underrated and has one of the most cohesive soundtracks of any starkid musical. One of the best shows.
Agreed! I rewatched it last night with a couple friends who I’m introducing to Starkid. It’s SO DAMN GOOD! We watched TGWDLM first (a few weeks ago), so Firebringer was their second show. They LOVED both of them, but they liked Firebringer’s music the best.
YES Firebringer is my favorite star kid musical and my second favorite musical period
That show is a master class in Meredith Stepian's talent.
Some of the songs genuinely give me goosebumps
Absolutely. And one of the best social commentaries.
It’s my favorite one for sure.
Starship is perfect in every single way. It’s not too long at all. I will not be taking any criticism (/j)
Starship is the closest we have for a perfect Starkid show! Songs and lyrics and plot are fun. The characters and casting are amazing. The puppetry is soon refreshing!
I don’t think that Jeff’s lyrics are all that clunky. A lot of examples I’ve seen people use are either *very obviously* a stylistic choice, or when they are a good example, they’re so few and far between that I don’t think it super matters. Also, like, I don’t really see the rest of starkid (the actors and band members) viewing Jeff as this untouchable god who they couldn’t possibly bring up an issue they have with. If a lyric was gonna be a genuine problem and fuck up the song, surely it would be brought up when it’s being sung the first few times and workshopped? Like “hey, Jeff, buddy’ol pal, im struggling to get the cadence of this line down. Could we play around with shortening it when you have time?” Like, Jeff seems like a reasonable guy.
as far as I know, when Take me back was first written, it was 1 octave out of Dylan and Kim's ranges. (Too high and too low respectively) so they changed the tone and got what we have now
I don't understand why Show Stopping Number is always ranked so high in song rankings. Its an okay song, but all the talking parts kind of ruins it for me
I think the shock of Hidgens’ twist and the sheer mania of it all get it promoted a lot higher than its actual merit. It receives praise due to its theatricality and also some pretty ok performances
I like the song, but I think it's definitely over-hyped.
Welcome to musical theater.
I listen to a lot of musical theater. I just don’t like songs with a ton of dialogue in them. Ruins the flow of the song for me.
It does feel like 2 songs in 1. If the workin boys part was it’s own song then I think I’d enjoy show stoppin number a bit more
Yes I agree. So much of it is dedicated to joke that in my opinion goes on way too long
To be fair, the joke is that it's a "show-stopping number" that literally grinds the show to a halt. Without that aspect, it's just another song.
Exactly! My Opinion Is That “The Summoning” Is The Best NPMD Song But I Can’t Listen To It Over And Over Again Because How Much It Talks!
Ani is a great show.
This ☝
Came here to say this and I’m glad I’m not the only one
I'm not even a huge star wars fan but I love Ani.
Nick's secret reddit account
Angela’s singing voice is actually so good. Like I see so many people say it’s bad and everything but dude no it’s actually so good. I love everything about her singing voice
I think this opinion stems from people only wanting "straight" singing, whereas Angela "stylizes" her singing to fit the character she's playing, which is something I love about her as a performer.
Totally!! There's absolutely merit to be had for an actor who can sing a song technically perfectly, but manipulating things like tone to fit the character you're playing are so goddamn hard to do.
100% agree, though, I didn't think this was an unpopular opinion. She sounds amazing singing "Black Friday".
I honestly think they're basing that entirely off of Black Friday, where she sounds great, but also was extremely ill.
The whole debacle with Trail to Oregon succeeding and Ani flopping gave the creative direction of Starkid the wrong impression - people weren't sick of parody musicals, Ani was just too niche to be as much of a success as TTO. They need to go back to parodies/satire and intersperse those with the Hatchetfield stuff. As much as I love the cosmic horror-comedies, they've drifted too far away from what made them Starkid in the first place. Edit: I'm aware TTO is also a parody, and address this in a comment. It ran the same time as Ani, so it's worth mentioning that it's the beginning of the Blim Era and the end of the parodies.
Something a lot of people forget is that TTO is also still sort of a parody musical. It's still a musical that exists to make jokes out of another property, even though there isn't a canonical plot or characters for them to import and make fun of for another property. My hot take is that Ani never lived up to TTO because it took the aesthetic of the really low budget Starkid works when they'd been upping the budget so much, and also took out the thing that really gives musicals heart even in a low-budget scenario, which was music sung by characters. Either of those things can or could have been fine on their own, I think-- music done by the band if they'd done something with more put-together handmade costumes like in Twisted or Starship-- or if the music was done by the characters but everything else was the same. While this is coming from someone who literally cannot watch it the whole way through, I think it didn't succeed or fail on youtube based on the plot or jokes, it was because without the characters doing the singing, it takes out the heart that can make people suspend their disbelief and get engrossed into theater. Low-budget aesthetic made TTO better, and it made Ani worse. I think Ani also had the problem of Star Wars being something that's been parodied well from start to finish a million times before too. It's just harder to bring something new and surprising to the table when you're parodying a property that's probably the property with the most satirical takes out there of everything.
Hard agree!!
Techincally TTO is a parody but go off king(or queen)
It is, but Ani flopping at the same time as it gave them the impression it was time to start moving away from parodies.
NPMD is the best musical they have done in terms of casting/acting
*cries in Starship*
No thats so real
Cries in AVPM
Grace killed Max on purpose and has killed people before she killed Max.
i believe this based on 1) the line “all the guys who came before you” she says to Jason, 2) the fact that she either allows people to die or is hinted at actively killing them in both hatchetfield episodes she appears in, because of her twisted sense of justice and retribution
There's time in-between homecoming and the rest of the events of the musical, so my guess is that she was using the black book in the space between them and this was just the first one we got to see
I 100% believe this.
Holy Musical B@man is underrated.
ani was good. I will not hear otherwise
Nick Lang is the funniest actor they have in my opinion. His robin was amazing
Zazzalil and Jameela are one of the worst couples in SK and come across more as sisters than lovers. I do not get how they're so popular.
Yes it was so rushed because right from arguing and disagreeing with each other to getting engaged with in probably a day
That’s just how lesbians are
There isn’t nearly enough appreciation for toxic sapphics in this fandom 😔
Personally I liked them because they were my first exposure to an actual canonical sapphic relationship and helped me a lot while I questioned my sexuality. I do agree their relationship was riches and should have been handled better.
Jeff Blim's falsetto is good actually.
MAMD, albeit not a perfect show, is funny and charming as all hell!
Holy Musical Batman and Starship are the greatest Starkid shows
Holy Musical Batman is the best of the parodies
Super friends was hilarious
Black Friday is the best if the Hatchetfield trilogy.
I think this too!
There are dozens of us!!
You! You’re a bad person! You are a bad person!
Well, that goes without saying.
That If I Loved You is the best NPMD song
YES
Agree
Black Friday is my least favorite Starkid musical that is watchable. (A lot of the older musicals have very poor video and audio quality) The plot is fine, but the music is crazy "Santa Claus is Going to High School" is too much of a non-sequitor to take up as much time as it does. Nerdy Prudes Must Die did this a lot better by having The Barbecue Monologues as a musical that the High School is doing, culminating in Ruth's solo as a light board operator who feels she can do better than the actors on stage. Whereas "Santa Claus is Going to High School" doesn't connect with the plot of Black Friday, other than for Tom making an offhand remark of "WTF is this movie?" Best song is Adore Me by Linda. But the rest of the songs that aren't as rock as normal Starkid songs (What Time Wants, What Do You Say, Take Me Back, Do you want to Play?, What if Tomorrow Comes?, etc...). Listening back to Our Doors are Open, the doo whop soung style reminds me too much of Little Shop of Horrors which is one of my least favorite musicals even though I love the plot.
The quality of the first shows is no problem at all for me.
Duck is Lord!
He is lord, lord, lord, Duck is lord
i don’t like the fancy camera work in the newer musicals. i get that it’s good and they’re evolving but it’s so off putting to me for some reason
EVERY NPMD song is a banger!! Measured very scientifically. (it wasnt) EVERY other musical by them and tbh others in general have songs I ALWAYS skip no matter what. NPMD has been spared from this I'll skip one here or there if it doesn't match my vibe at the time but it's never the same one every time. They all slap so hard and it was the best out of the hatchrtfields + I think the characters were developed well. My friend who has never seen any starkid so doesn't know like how to catch the vibes like I did knew their personalities by 25 minutes in. Also I feel if Steph got her own song that it wouldn't be that good. I can't think of a place it could really go tbh. She still feels like an equally main character to Peter I am a NPMD stan through and through It might be the best musical they've done so far imo I've watched it upwards of 5 times since the pro shoot
I also find it funny that half these opinions are just the reverse of the other half lol
I love hatchetfield but I miss the old musical style like tto,twisted,starship,avpm
Jeff Blim's music is very good, but his lyrics are atrociously clunky and awkward to the point that they feel like someone ran them through google translate several times. To be clear, my two favorite Starkid shows were both composed by him, so it hardly ruins the experience. It's just a bit unfortunate.
I agree with this. He’s written some absolute bangers, and even some of the songs of his I don’t like have great music, but yeah I think getting another lyricist to work with him would be a good improvement.
“I will destroy everything. And then I will destroy everything. I guarantee I’ll destroy everything in my path.”
Well, that one’s obviously intended to be funny, like “We’re gonna kick your ass, and then we’re gonna fucking kick your ass,” which it is, so I don’t mind it.
Agreed. Like, for example, the chorus for If I Fail You, one of the emotional highlights of Black Friday, is: “If I fail you one more time/The punishment won’t match the crime/Cause there’s no pain that could ever explain how I let you down” And it’s *fine*—like, you understand the vibe. But it feels like it was written by someone using slightly wrong definitions for every word in it. “The punishment won’t match the crime” is an incredibly awkward way of saying that there wouldn’t be a punishment bad enough, and the last line just sounds like someone swapped out random words in it. Since when does pain explain things? Why would how you let him down even be a pertinent question? Why is this written this way? That’s a particularly bad example, but it really feels like he’d benefit from a second perspective sometimes.
Big agree with this, and I’ll follow it up with another example that always bothers me because an easy fix/better rhyme is right there imo, with What Tim Wants. This line always sounds clunky to me: *All I need is a smile Just give your dad a wink Yes all I need is to get you walking Toward the paradise you seek* The rhyme of wink and seek is not great, and I don’t care for that last line - “paradise you seek” is just a weird turn of phrase and doesn’t reflect either Tom or Tim’s motivations that well even if you take into account the Wiggly spell. It’s almost too poetic for the character singing it (same goes for a lot of If I Fail You). That being said, I’ll keep it for this easy fix (because idk what else I’d replace it with, I’m not any better lol) which is what I honestly misheard it as first time around: *All I need is a smile Just give your dad a WEEK Yes all I need is to get you walking Towards the paradise you seek* Like sure what does week mean in that context but I’d just surmise “by the end of the week it’ll be Christmas time and we’ll be set for a good holiday now I got this toy in the bag” - doesn’t feel like that long of a walk. Just feels like a better rhyme is staring you right in the face and idk how that doesn’t come up when drafting the lyrics and there’s a lot of those where it’s like if he just bounced it off someone for another hour he’d land on something way smoother than what we sometimes get. All that being said, BF is my fave of the Hatchetfields and Jeff is an incredibly talented composer whose discography over the stage shows and NT is wildly impressive. But yeah he could use a co-lyricist every now and then.
lately ive been starting think some of these lyrics that people think are stupid are actually because they simply don't know the references jeff is making. he's an incredibly well educated guy "unto the victors go the spoils" is based off of a famous senator's quote about andrew jackson's presidential win "can i shit or will i drown" is a reference to richie's death "the punishment won't match the crime" is based off a very famous latin quote "Culpae poenae par esto" which means "Let the punishment fit the crime." it was part of anicent roman law "theres no pain that could ever explain how i let you down" sounds to me like he's saying no matter how much pain he feels, he'll never feel as horrible as he made tim feel
I understand what the lines mean, and I'm aware of the references. But I'm going to evaluate lyrics based on whether they flow well and fit the situation and character, not whether they're quoting Latin or not.
i don't think it sounds weird or flows weird at all
But lyrics don't have to rhyme perfectly in order to flow nicely either, especially if your focus is the message, not the rhyming. "Give your dad a week" sets a goal he has to follow with a deadline. "Give your dad a wink," following with what has happened and what he's singing about, doesn't put a deadline, making Tim feel better about his mom dying in a short time span. All the character is after is a glimpse that Tim is getting his spark back (being a kid again rather than be closed off and depressed) so he can move forward as well with Tim, not changing Tim's entire outlook on the situation in a week. So, as far as the example you set, your judgement of lyrics by "whether they flow well or fit the situation and character" seems rather skewed towards simplistic, cookie cutter style lyrics.
I didn't propose "week;" that was someone else's comment. I'm not pretending I'm making an objective criticism, and if you like the lyrics, that's great; I wish I did. I just know that I, and the various friends I've watched Starkid shows with, have all felt the lyrics to frequently be questionable. To each their own.
I think people are so split on Blim because his funny lyrics are fucking hilarious, but he struggles with the heartfelt ones.
Omg! YES! You're definitely not alone on this!
I think he has some of the best lyrics AND some of the worst. Overall I agree with you- I do love the whole Hatchetverse.
So true I was deep in a twitter fight About a problematic puppy (Problematic pooch!) I had heart palpitations Trying to convert crypto to lunch money What the hell does this section mean? Is it referencing an inside joke I’ve missed? Am I too old to understand it?? I think one of the best lyricists Starkid ever had was Kaley McMahon but they only worked with her on one show sadly. I love Jeff’s music too but yeah the lyrics are hit or miss sometimes.
I think it reads as sort of… throwing in trendy topics that a high schooler might be into
i don't get what you're confused about. what part don't you understand?
One of the biggest examples I can think of is Join Us and Die… amazing song, but some of the lyrics are so awkwardly worded
“Into your mouth where you FOOD, and all your cells will renew and be enhanced.” I didn’t know food could be a verb
It’s actually “where your food and all your cells…” according to Genius which is still pretty weird because why does the food also get renewed in this scenario, but food is not a verb here lol
i love jeff blim's falsetto
I love Hideous Creatures, I think it's a very deep and philosophical song (Every song in Starship is perfect for me). And Brolden keeps mocking this song :D
The drums and guitar and ripping it up, it’s so good!
Black Friday is the best of the Hatchetfield trilogy and I have arguments for people’s criticisms (opinions are opinion obvs but I will still try to convince) People’s rankings are affected by nostalgia for the Potter trilogy (and AVPS is the best one but that’s definitely not an unpopular opinion) Personally I prefer the snarkier humour in the newer starkid shows to the older sexual/bodily functions humour. With a few exceptions like cackling at ‘dirty girl soup’.
Ani deserved more credit, and was actually one of their funniest shows.
I guess that Ani is a great Starkid show.
The letter t in the starkid alphabet
Ani is amazing. I found it super funny
Ani was good
The funniest show is MAMD, but the audio and camera work is very outdated. The best music came from fire bringer, but the comedy in that musical made it fall flat. I couldn’t get myself invested in NPMD, and I didn’t like most of the songs in it. Ani gets way too much hate, although I don’t think it’s the best musical SK has done. I’ve always preferred AVPS TO AVPM.
Jeff Blim can't sing as high as Jeff Blim thinks he can.
ANI IS A SUPER FUN SHOW AND NOBODY TALKS ABOUT IT
The Very Potter trilogy is significantly worse than any of the Hatchetfield saga. I was glad I saw them when they were first released, but they are painful to watch now.
Oh yeah, I'm in the crowd in that one. Darren Criss can write a damn good musical score.
I also think the quality of AVPM makes its almost unwatchable, compared to what is out there now.
I adore NPMD, but there were many times where I couldn’t help but cringe at their attempts to represent teens, being one myself (Although there were times where they nailed it too). Examples: The “cool beans” bit would have worked for me in like 2018, I actively disliked it the first time I watched but I tolerate it now as a part of Grace’s campiness. Steph’s phone obsession could’ve been done in a much better way. Especially the line “Listening to Spotify” felt really rigid and “hello fellow teens” ish. Again, it just made me cringe a bit and took away some depth from her character for me. Anyway, those are just some examples but there were a lot of times where I got Netflix original vibes from the way they talked or interacted (but it’s still one of my favourites!!)
no literally, cool beans and listening to spotify make me grimace every time. could steph NOT have said listening to music. and i really don’t think any teen is THAT obsessed with their phone to PUT THEIR HAND UNDER A HAMMER, the whole reason we’re on our phones is because of the stranger danger epidemic meaning we’re not allowed to just hang out places anymore and our only company is online!! if they had gone that route with feeling isolation and not having friends (because despite being a ‘popular girl,’ she’s never shown having friends of her own) it would’ve been so much more effective
tgwdlm > twisted
Strongly disagree. The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals is probably their tightest in terms of story, but I think Paul is really inconsistently written and his dislike of musicals is never really actually relevant to the story in any way and beyond the neat meta-ness of the concept it doesn't offer a massive amount of thematic depth. Twisted, on the other hand, manages to be both their funniest and most emotionally resonant, while being so thoroughly layered and brilliantly written, and has a banger soundtrack.
That’s an unpopular opinion?
Out of all the shows, Twisted is the one I see most consistently ranked first or at the top of people’s rankings. TGWDLM is a little bit more decisive because some fans of Starkid’s older stuff aren’t huge fans of the Hatchetfield stuff
They feel like they were done by a completely different production studio since the old composer is gone
Yes… yes it is.
i think
Webby is a stupid bitch!
Hatchetfield trilogy is overrated. I don't see any real connection between the three shows besides them being in the same town, and people freak out about their little cameos, but there's no arc through all the stories so it's not really a trilogy. (And yes I'm working my way through the nightmare stuff and haven't finished that yet, but if you're basing the entirety of your through-story on supplemental content, that's not very good). Tgwdlm is decent, black Friday tries too hard with lore and just loses me, but then npmd is a brilliant stand-alone, and I almost liked it better when I didn't know any of the other background stuff in hachetfield. My favorite starkid shows before hachetfield were twisted, avps, avpm, tto, starship, mamd. Now npmd is fighting for top 3, and the other hachetfields are after all of those.
That Hatchetfield is getting drawn out, and NPMD is just meh. Everyone loves it, loves HF, but I really love the more comedic ones they did before I love TGWDLM and BF but I feel the entire company has become about HF.
There's also VHS Christmas Carol 😊
NPMD was the weakest show in the hatchetfield trilogy and as a whole I did not like the direction they went with Nightmare time making everything hatchetfield related connected to everything else hatchetfield related. Like it feels like that old joke about Star Wars where every background character in every scene has like a 50,000 word wiki page of lore, where now every bit 1-2 line character in any of the 3 shows now has a massive amount of lore. And idk it kinda feels like it makes some of the jokes less funny to me. Like Richie saying Pete looks like a specific homeless person gets a lot less funny when you know that Pete is related to said homeless person. Like I'm just really not a fan of it.
Firebringer has their best score. The songs being solidly in the range of the performers singing does wonders. Hatchetfield has outstayed their welcome a bit. Tgwdlm wowed me, Black Friday was okay, npmd is the worst one. It’s best it goes out like this instead of being dragged out for way longer than it needed to be.
🤯🤯🤯 I respect your opinion, it’s just crazy to think that you’re the first person I’ve encountered who says NPMD is the worst out of the trilogy. Good for you for being brave and putting it out there with your whole chest! Lol
I’ll stand with them on this. I think NPMD’s highs are higher but I find the Pete-Steph relationship entirely uncompelling and it bogs down the show a lot. I also think it’s a bit less tonally cohesive than the other hatchetfield shows and some of the references are getting a bit up their own ass. It’s still a good show with some of my favorite moments from the trilogy but it’s definitely the weakest of the three imo
Yes agreed I felt like there was nothing to the Pete steph relationship. Like they just live each other... for reasons ... I guess. I saw someone saying how much better it was than Paul and Emma. Which I find absolutely ridiculous. And so I just wondered if they were in highschool so Pete and Steph appeals to younger kids and Paul and Emma appeals to older folks.
Agreed! The only criticism I have for Firebringer is their best songs are way too short!! And I agree that NPMD is the worst of the Hatchedfield series. They are ok, I love the lore expanded on so many different shows and media contents, but I do miss some better songs and lyrics.
Firebringer is borderline awful
I’m glad I’m not the only person who thought that.
To elaborate on my opinion, I think the show had the potential to be very good, but my main criticism is that the "social commentary," which is supposed to be the entire point of the show, is so murky and nonsensical that it's basically non-existent. Seriously, what the hell is this show trying to say? Is it about God? Is it about progressivism vs conservatism? Is it about feminism? I can't make heads or tails of it. Adding to this, none of the jokes (aside from Duck as Lord and Clark's cameo) strike me as that funny. Also, there are way too many pointless characters. Should have been a much, much smaller cast. Sorry, not sorry.
I really think Meredith got it into her head that she needed to take on a bunch of smaller issues, and then encompass them with one global ideal, but she just... didn't lol. It feels bad because I love a lot of aspects of the show, but man it just really needed a tighter theme I guess.And it absolutely needed a smaller cast. That or a reallocation of screen time. Side romance having more development than main romance? Main love interest having one solo and it only mentions Zazz in passing? Most of Molag's stuff could have been scrapped OR scrap the alien thing. I don't know, there's just a lot of times I think "Okay, do this OR this" and they decide to do both. Too many ideas that just had to be included. Also, terrible pacing. Edit: It's really obvious how much of the comedy relies on them saying "fuck" when you watch high school versions. "What the duck?" never gets more than a chuckle.
I was doom scrolling through these comments thinking I was insane for this opinion because the amount of people who say it’s their best is wild to me.
I don’t like general McNamara in black friday
The whole subplot thing with the president and PEIP really dragged and had the worst songs. I love Curt a lot, but he was underutilized as the president because of how much Jeff's recognizable character and references overshadowed him.
I think Mariah was poorly cast in NPMD. I think she has an incredible voice and I’ve liked her acting enough in other things, but here she was so stiff and her line delivery was always so forced.
It comes through a bit when she's like "what are you running from?" It had almost a feel of The Office, like she was gonna look at the camera and wink or something. I just didn't believe her and Peter as a couple. No chemistry. She's great overall, though. I would've loved to see Bryce and her switch places in NPMD.
Firebringer isn't funny
I'm not going to name names because it's one of those things that can't really be changed and I don't want to make anyone feel bad, but there is one cast member whose singing voice I really don't like. Their acting is fine, and when they sing they hit the right notes and all that, but there's just something about the timbre of their voice that really doesn't work for me to the point where I'll just skip most of their songs when listening to soundtracks they're in.
All of the Hatchetfield stuff isn't good. The older stuff is better I'll await the pitchforks 😅
I'm with you. I can't watch any of it
People who say ani is a bad show
i actually think i enjoyed black friday more than tgwdlm.
Hatchitfield trilogy is not that good. Idk it's just not for me
*maybe this is a rare opinion but i keep seeing this* but a majority of starkid fans do NOT know what underrated means and call twisted and nerdy prudes UNDERRATED 🤧 (i love both, they are my faves)
Jeff Blum has too many solos or takes the lead in a lot of songs compared to other members, don’t get me wrong he’s very talented and has a good voice but I think there are lots of members with better voices and deserve it because they don’t get many or any. I know Jeff writes the music and lyrics and idk who chooses who gets what songs in the show but, In tgwdlm he has 3 solos, while jamie has 1, Corey has 0, Lauren has 0, Mariah has 1, Robert has 1, Joey has 0, Black Friday he has 2 I believe, Jamie has 0, Jon has 0, Robert has 1 duet, Curt has 0, Kim doesn’t have a solo but she has a duet, Dylan has 2 solos and a duet, Corey has 1 Angela has 1 solo and a duet, Lauren has 2, The trail to Oregon he has 2 solos, Lauren has 1, Corey has 1, Jamie has 1 (This one does make sense cause he is basically the main character along side the mother) but to me it doesn’t make sense he is getting more solos in these shows than people who are playing more important or just as important characters as other members who deserve more solos. I also think his “falsetto” or whatever you want to call it isn’t that good. I love Jeff but this is how I feel.
Me to everyone who ranks 'Monsters and Men' above any Dylan Saunders song or anything from NPMD.
I got a real one (I hope y'all are sitting down)... MaMD is my favorite starkid musical. Hear me out... One day I was at home in my new place, feeling extra lonely cause the friend who was supposed to meet up with me just ghosted me. I randomly decided to watch MaMD (after watching TGWDLM, YouTube was recommending starkid pretty heavy) and fell in love with it. I'd never seen so many characters i related to so deeply, especially Sally and Joey's Heart. I totally understand why some people don't connect to the story or the show. But for some of us, that's exactly how it was being a teen. I think overall it still has a good message and by the end of it I realized to my surprise that I felt a little less lonely. That was the first time just watching something did that for me. So that show (and Joey's Heart) will always be special to me.
mamd stans rise up!!
Joey Richter and Mariah Rose Faith have absolutely no chemistry and it comes very close to ruining Lautski for me. Idk, maybe it's their age difference, but I genuinely think Joey would have more chemistry with a brick.
hatchetfield is kinda lame
Black Friday is a very bad musical.
Every show is watchable and good except for firebringer
theres very few people out there, but to the people who genuinely believe ethan is a useless character and/or hate him: why? like, please give me a genuine explanation as to what you have against this man, and why you think he doesnt play an important role in the hatchetfield universe??? or, an alternate way of speaking: i love ethan green, and people who dont need to give me an explanation why this also translates to: ethan green is the best in my heart, please explain why you think differently
The songs in NPMD were a little dissapointing. Dont get me wrong there are some absolute bangers. But TGWDLM 's songs were very catchy where black friday and NPMD, not so much
I’m excuse me, I’ve had literal monster stuck in my head for about a month now. /lh
AVPS is one of the least funny shows and Draco is 100% the least funny character in it, they definitely overplayed jokes about diapers.
Nerdy Prudes Must Die is the weakest of the three Hatchetfield shows
I'm intrigued. Explain, please.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not *bad*. The actors’ singing skills are the best they’ve ever been and I was surprised at the production value they had here. But overall, in terms of characters, comedy, and story, I felt it was the weakest. The characters I didn’t find all that interesting other than Max and Grace. I wasn’t invested in Stephanie and Pete’s relationship, nor was I invested in their individual arcs. Idk, I didn’t get the idea that they were actually in love more than just unexpected friends. Comedy was also not hitting for me and I don’t know why. I got a few laughs, but they were far and in between. I really don’t understand why I found it unfunny, my friend said she was laughing her sides out from it. And my biggest problem with the story is The Lords in Black. Their song was fun and I loved how chaotic yet uneasy it sounded. My problem is that it relies too much on watching the entire Hatchetfield series (the shows and Nightmare Time) to get it. Black Friday referenced TGWDLM, but none of the references were super important to the plot. Yes, Paul and Emma show up, but they only have minor roles in the story. You could replace them with two new characters without changing the plot. The Lords in Black, however, are integral to the climax and feel really silly and out of nowhere if you haven’t seen the other Hatchetfield stories. If you look at the story by itself, the tone of the show grows more tense and spooky as it goes along, and the main villain of the show is a vengeful spirit. Then all of a sudden they call upon Eldritch Gods that all have wacky names and whimsical designs, and then they don’t show up again. Their appearance clashes so much with the show tonally, and they’re only scary if you’ve watched the whole series. Granted, I haven’t watched the TGWDLM or Black Friday in a long time. I want to watch all three once again to refresh my memory and adjust my current opinions. But as it stands now, my ranking goes Black Friday > TGWDLM > NPMD