Impeach Max. No, seriously. Impeach him. The joke's not funny anymore.
I posted this in the Penal Zone sticky, but I'm not sure if it's really getting any serious attention anymore at this point, so I thought I'd say it here as well.
Now then, considering the humor for this season of Sam & Max: For the most part, it is top notch. You get more wry and, well, Sam & Max-ish every season and this is no exception. I'm particularly fond of the fact that Max clearly has a conscience this season. One of the things that make Sam & Max so funny (at least to me) is the fact that they joke about doing awful things, but we know they'd never really do them. Well... They'd never do them to people who didn't deserve it. But the past two seasons heavily implied that, if it wasn't for Sam, Max would do absolutely sick and sadistic things to innocent people and that honestly made me dislike him a lot. This season it's more obvious that Max may be willing to brutalize bad people, but he wouldn't really hurt innocent people. We do have to actually LIKE our heroes, after all.
I do have to say, though, that I really wish you guys would try making each season fresh rather than rehashing old jokes and situations, though. It's fun seeing recurring characters like Stinky and Superball (Man, that guy cracks me up!), but some of the recurring jokes and characters are just annoying or feel alienating to new players. The Sybil/Lincoln thing was funny last season, but I was hoping you'd just let it die this year. Same with the references to Girl Stinky's true identity. For people new to the series, you're sort of giving away a lot of the jokes and plot twists for them if they ever want to play the older games. And, in the case of Girl Stinky, I feel it really hurts the Sam & Max humor of finding out something incredibly bizarre, and then never mentioning it again as though it's not really that interesting anyway.
Oh. And impeach Max. Because the President Max joke isn't funny anymore. It was wearing thin during season 2 and I rolled my eyes in disgust when Sam mentioned Max was still president this season. Again, the Sam & Max series works best when it has that sitcom element of a story can end with the weirdest of situations (like a city being destroyed, for example), but the next episode starts up with that thing having never happened. Or possibly being referred to, but no explanation for how things are different now. I don't want to sound so critical, because you guys are REALLY doing a great job. It's just that I feel that your determination to stick so closely to continuity is hurting the series.
Now then, considering the humor for this season of Sam & Max: For the most part, it is top notch. You get more wry and, well, Sam & Max-ish every season and this is no exception. I'm particularly fond of the fact that Max clearly has a conscience this season. One of the things that make Sam & Max so funny (at least to me) is the fact that they joke about doing awful things, but we know they'd never really do them. Well... They'd never do them to people who didn't deserve it. But the past two seasons heavily implied that, if it wasn't for Sam, Max would do absolutely sick and sadistic things to innocent people and that honestly made me dislike him a lot. This season it's more obvious that Max may be willing to brutalize bad people, but he wouldn't really hurt innocent people. We do have to actually LIKE our heroes, after all.
I do have to say, though, that I really wish you guys would try making each season fresh rather than rehashing old jokes and situations, though. It's fun seeing recurring characters like Stinky and Superball (Man, that guy cracks me up!), but some of the recurring jokes and characters are just annoying or feel alienating to new players. The Sybil/Lincoln thing was funny last season, but I was hoping you'd just let it die this year. Same with the references to Girl Stinky's true identity. For people new to the series, you're sort of giving away a lot of the jokes and plot twists for them if they ever want to play the older games. And, in the case of Girl Stinky, I feel it really hurts the Sam & Max humor of finding out something incredibly bizarre, and then never mentioning it again as though it's not really that interesting anyway.
Oh. And impeach Max. Because the President Max joke isn't funny anymore. It was wearing thin during season 2 and I rolled my eyes in disgust when Sam mentioned Max was still president this season. Again, the Sam & Max series works best when it has that sitcom element of a story can end with the weirdest of situations (like a city being destroyed, for example), but the next episode starts up with that thing having never happened. Or possibly being referred to, but no explanation for how things are different now. I don't want to sound so critical, because you guys are REALLY doing a great job. It's just that I feel that your determination to stick so closely to continuity is hurting the series.
Sign in to comment in this discussion.
Comments
As for Girl Stinky, I imagine it's probably a difficult case to manage. Here is a character that is major, but has an absolute ridiculous backstory. You can't just act like the backstory never happened, but mentioning it can really alienate new players. I do think Telltale handled it well by just mentioning that she was created in a baking incident, and not that she was actually a cake. Kinda brings it up in a way that's sorta not quite as ridiculous if you think about it in a Sam & Max way.
It feels more like a trilogy than separate Sam & Max games. Like if they were stucked with the same characters and locations, simmilar to a play with few actors playing all the roles.
Im hoping, if a 4th game rises, to see all new. Like with Hit the Road or the first season.
And thats all i got to say about that.
(sorry about the long whining but i needed to let it out)
Getting back to the main point ... yeah, I'm kinda done with Max being president. In terms of story and puzzles, there's certainly much that comes in handy when one of your main characters is the leader of the free world. And in execution, it's been a fun ride. But it feels like the best aspects of Max being president were exhausted by the end of last season. (Well, sans the scene in 301 where Max says, "Yeah, I'm pretty much the one in charge here!" That was pretty funny). Maybe something that happens later in Season 3 will change my mind, but for right now ... eehhhh.
... And actually, this reminds me of something else that's been bugging me, but didn't really niggle at the back of head until a few days ago. When you have Sam ask Max about his presidency, Max stops short of outright admitting that
From season 1 to now they appear more than enough.
Unless he changes the law (which I wouldn't put past him) Max can't run a third time.
Spatula is currently dead. I'm not sure how well that would work. *laughs* Personally, I think it would have been funnier had they gone back to Max not being president and poke a little fun at how many people dislike Barack Obama by having Sam & Max make some statement at some point about hating the current (unnamed) president, but only because he "stole Max's job."
Really? Harry and Superball seem like perfectly natural regular characters in the Sam & Max world. Harry makes for a funny loser character and, honestly, you can't have Sam & Max without molemen. And Superball being a secret agent allows for him to be a humorous hindrance or help depending on the circumstances. I understand they kept Max as President to keep Superball around, but if he's now an agent dealing with the paranormal and Sam & Max are detectives (and I use that term loosely) who deal with the paranormal, it makes sense that they'd continue to run into him regardless of Max's political standing.
For me, it's Lincoln that I'm sick of. The concept of the Lincoln memorial coming to life and being a jackass was funny the first time around, but wasn't really the sort of hysterical humor that warranted constant repetition. At this point, even references to it aren't funny anymore.
I'm on the fence about Momma Bosco. She's funny, but I don't know how long she'll continue to be. Might've been better just to give us a brand new mad scientist character to fill her role for this season.
As for the other characters, I think they all fit pretty well. The Stinkies are hilarious. I just wish they'd have just chalked up Girl Stinky to being Grampa's granddaughter and nothing more. The C.O.P.S. crack me up and make for a funny parallel to Sam & Max's distrust of modern technology. And I've already stated my opinions of Harry and Superball.
Just stop mentioning it, because i agree, as great as it was in ep104, it's getting old.
But yeah... just stopping milking it would be better than actually have something happen about it...
In that way they could suddenly rehash the joke in season 7 or 8 when no one expects it anymore
Same I still find it funny
I don't really like him, but I think his voice is perfect. It's annoying, just like the character himself.
By the way, I didn't wanted to see Harry again this season, but, since the Molemen seem to have an important part this season, I welcome his return.
And I loved having Leonard in the closet for some reason. My favorite Sam's line of the Season 2 was: Keep up the good job Leonard.
I love the idea of President Max and am wondering why he hasn't destroyed the world yet
also Brady Culture was my favorite villain of season one and I liked the soda poppers.
*Grabs popcorn*
Edit: I'm not joking about any of this
I found it funny throughout the first season (104: " ... They kept Leonard as a souvenir?! HA! Awesome!" 105-6: "Annnd he's still in there! Pfthahaha ..."). But the fact that it lasted past that just felt ... off to me, somehow. It seemed a bit creepy, even for Sam and Max's flavor of criminal justice. Or maybe they just reserve this sort of thing for guys who cheat at cards and break into their apartment to acquire something they need from a fence on the same day?
I dunno, maybe I'm in the minority on this one. I'm just glad they let him go eventually.
I found it funny in 104, and I guess okay in the rest of season 1. It wasn't really funny anymore but it wasn't too horrible either.
In season 2 I was just terribly sad every time I saw him there. I was very glad when they released him although they managed to do it in a way that still made me feel really bad for him.
I have similar feelings about Harry. The first episode (edit: of season 3) was funny, but pretty much everything Harry-related managed to break my heart.
Me too. I don't really like the character (I'm somewhat neutral about him. I just didn't like his role as the Dead in 205. I though that was overkill) but I really wanted to
I'm not alone!
Aw, me too... the first thing I did in every episode of season 2 was open the closet door and say "Hi" to Leonard.
Likewise. Of course, I love the Soda Poppers, so I'm pretty twisted as well. Speaking of twisted, I also have to say that the joke with Leonard did start to get a little disconcerting. Sam & Max keeping some kind of sadistic, violent lunatic hostage is funny and fitting. But them keeping some petty thug hostage like that for so long is uncomfortable. It's hard to do sometimes, but you really do have to draw a line between what they will and won't do or else you run the risk of the heroes looking just as bad as the villains.
President Max is NOT pleased with you. All hail Max!
Max rather enjoys reading Max Impeachment Monthly, so I wouldn't be so sure about that.
I like him when he plays Davey Nipperkin from Tales of Monkey Island. I thought he sounded great in that role because he just talks normally, rather than sounding all whiny like he does when voicing Harry Moleman. But, come to think of it, I don't actually mind Moleman's voice, I think it's okay and it suits the character.
I enjoyed Brady Culture a lot. I was quite surprised to find out so many people disliked him. :eek: I liked his character. And his voice fit the "I used to be a celebrity and you adored me. Adore me again!" personality perfectly.
As for the Soda Poppers, I liked the idea of the characters, I just didn't like their voices. I know I would have enjoyed them more if they were in the print comics. I know they were going for a grown up child star still tries to imitate their child voice. But like Screech from Saved by the Bell or Urkel, the grown up voice gets really irritating after a while. The Soda Poppers were annoying but tolerable in Culture Shock because of the joke, but they were really overused and became really annoying towards the end.
I really love Max being president too. I enjoy hearing the twisted stuff he's unleashed on the citizens.
That's self delusion on Brady's part, he was NEVER adored, in fact he probably had a realtive on the network board or his show would have canceled after the first episode.
As for President Max shouldn't his presidency have ended when he became a zombie? I still like the joke but maybe at season 4 he would resign to pursue more violent interests leaving Vice President Stalagmite-that-looks-like-Mr.-Spatula to take office, becoming the greatest president ever.
Also kinda wished they would let the Sybil Lincoln thing die after a while too but no biggie..
I don't mind Harry Moleman I still think he's kinda funny.
at least until we go to war.