The 7 Best Offerings of April

Despite this month being rougher than the others for me during the lockdown, I am reminded by the things on this list that good things are going on in the world too! And here’s 7 of my favorites:

1: Primal Episode 6: Plague of Madness

For anyone that read my articles about Korgoth of Barbaria and Why Primal understands The Hulk better than Marvel, I ended both with something along the lines of being amped for another season of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal. At last year’s Adult Swim Festival, I got to see the legend in person at his Primal panel, which mainly followed the evolution of Genndy’s career. Near the end of this panel, test animation was shown for what I thought to be the premiere episode of another season. Well, it turns out to have been an episode 6 to the current season with an April 1st premiere, and it was (of course) stunning. What wasn’t expected was how much an infected Sauropod (or as the internet dubs the Coronasaur) can hit home premiering in the thick of a worldwide lockdown.

2: Pentagon officially releases UFO footage

With one of the prior year’s biggest memes being #RaidArea51, you’d think this would be widespread news. The government released official UFO footage. If younger me that would stay out late looking for aliens saw that video, I wouldn’t let it go. ’Nuff said. Just give it a look!

3: Digital Drag with Biqtch Puddin’

Biqtch Puddin’s assembly of Dragula & Drag Race alumni among weekly themed waves of drag queens/kings, on the other hand, has been among the more beautiful and artful offerings that a world in quarantine offers thus far. Every performance and interaction with our fun as fuck host Biqtch includes the viewers in a way that is lightyears more inclusive (this IS a play on words) than any online show/discussion you’re going to find, and press outlets like the Rolling Stone agree with me. If you have yet to see any of the seven previous Digital Drag shows, you can and must check one out by going to Biqtch’s twitch channel Fridays at 7 pm PDT. If any drag queens or kings are reading and you’d like to be on one of the upcoming shows, jump on Biqtch’s Instagram for more details and for a just fun story to follow!!

4: Smiling Friends: Pilot Episode

Adult Swim strikes again on this list because they’re honestly one of the few production companies America has that is willing to take risks for genuine art to find it’s the audience. This wholesomely insane animation comes from Zach Hadel (Psychicpebbles) and Michael Cusak. I am one of the only people I know who absolutely loathe office-based comedies (aka Office Space’s monster), but Smiling Friends makes office comedy work again for me. Our two character’s job is to “…go out there and make somebody smile,” they instead meet a hilariously dark task that I won’t spoil for anyone who hasn’t seen it. It’s been since Hellbenders (which Zach also was a part of) that I’ve been waiting for Newgrounds animators to be given a shot as creators production companies can trust with a platform, and the fact that that day has finally come (even if it’s for one episode) makes me smile 🙂

5: Dario Argento wants Daft Punk to score his movie

There is no artist in any platform that can and frequently does generate the hype that Daft Punk does. 2020’s first widely-shared Daft Punk article came to us in the form of, “Daft Punk to Score Dario Argento’s New Film Black Glasses.” What follows is a statement from the widely known filmmaker proclaiming the multi-Grammy-winning duo as huge fans of his that not only want to score the film but will go to Rome to do so. As a classically skeptic Daft Punk fan, the clarification from the film’s producers that no such conversations have happened did not surprise me. I would still love more than anything for one of my all-time favorite groups to come back through a Dario Argento film, and in my skepticism, don’t completely rule It out.

6: Shudder’s Cursed Films (The first 4 Episodes)

When you go to film festivals or horror conventions, the seemingly very taboo discussion of cursed films, film sets, props, etc. is destined to come up at some point. One of the biggest successes I find in Shudder as a platform is that a good number of their documentaries are THE reason to subscribe because they’re that good. The first season of Cursed Films (not you Episode 5) handles the topics of each episode in the best possible way. Topics of discussion in these big 4 are the Poltergeist trilogy, The Crow, The Exorcist, and The Omen. All of these episodes present the broad strokes gossip brought upon each film, and introduce perspectives from a number of parties that I think will forever change the way fans discuss these topics in the future. Plus, I can just listen to the opening and closing themes of the show forever, honestly.

And then there’s The Twilight Zone Movie Episode…

The Twilight Zone Movie focused interviews of this episode make for a duration that’s less than half that of the prior episodes. Feels like a .5 episode rather than a season finale just on that. The topic focused portions of this episode makes John Landis really look bad, and the big offender being they actually show the sickening on set accident. I admit that I had a morbid curiosity to see the accident but ultimately wish I didn’t. If I had a suggestion for anyone at Shudder who is reading this, I would put a warning before the episode starts that you’re going to show three people’s lives being taken. The prior four episodes show no one getting killed. Between what a lot of the subjects of this episode had to say about John Landis’ behavior, the footage of him showing up to the 3’s funerals saying “film will live forever,” and the final subtitle saying “The Filmmakers reached out to John Landis for a comment, and he did not reply”; it’s all very contrary to the picture others paint of him.

7: Breaking Benjamin and Lacey Strum play Dear Agony

Flyleaf’s singer getting together with Breaking Benjamin is two atoms from my mopey dopey teenager music playlist colliding that I didn’t know I needed. We live in that reality; life isn’t that bad, plain and simple…