Jolt Country

A new original on Netflix. each episode is an hour documentary about classic, iconic toys. Episode one was Star Wars toys. Not bad.
Episode two was Barbie, which I skipped. Episode three was He-Man, which I skipped. And there's a G.I. Joe episode which maybe I'll watch, maybe not.

I can't think of any more toys I'd want to watch a documentary about. So the show started strong but is rapidly failing me. Besides, I could hop on YouTube and see most of this stuff already. This makes me question the reasoning behind green-lighting the show in the first place.

THE
TIME INVESTMENT
AARDVARK

The first season consists of eight episodes. The first four are already on Netflix, and the next four will be added next summer. They are:

5. Transformers
6. LEGO
7. Hello Kitty
8. Star Trek

Of those, I can only imagine watching the LEGO episode. I need to watch the Star Wars episode this weekend, although the documentary Plastic Galaxy covered the topic pretty thoroughly.

Yeah, I feel like all of us wouldn't have much to learn from this series as we are already experts. I tried watching it some and just got bored and went to something else.

Well, I take it back. I watched all four episodes and learned something from each one.

I didn't have any He-Man or GI Joe toys as a kid, but both episodes were interesting. Both were essentially responses to Kenner's success with Star Wars toys. The takeaway from the He-Man episode was that the toys were invented first, and the comic books and cartons were developed to sell the toys (not the other way around). The takeaway from the GI Joe episode was, if someone offers you a choice between $50k and 1% of a toy line's profits or a flat payment of $100k, you should take the 50k/1% option.

Caught some of them - I can't stand the way they edit where they take reactions that are out of context from the people who they interviewed and use them when people say whacky things. That seems juvenile.

The new season is out, Star Trek and Transformers are two of them. The editing is still terrible and I think that it may be the first case where I don't think I can continue with it because of how awful it is.

I watched them all. I also found the editing odd, but chalked it up to "this is what young people like."

The Star Trek one is pretty bad!