What’s the consensus on Kevin Smith in these parts? I was once an unabashed fanboy. However, his rambling, pot-fueled Twitter rants began to take their toll after he lashed out at critics who dared suggest that Cop Out blew the very donkey dicks featured heavily in Clerks 2. I am nevertheless one of the few film critics who openly admits to digging the hell out of Red State, but like a lot of folks, I think Mr. Smith is better on the lecture circuit than as a director, at least since Dogma.
Still, when you think of AMC, you think of quality, slow-burn dramas like “Breaking Bad,” “Mad Men,” and “The Walking Dead.” You don’t think of a Kevin Smith reality show about a comic book shop, which will debut next month after the return of “The Walking Dead.” Recent misfires, including “The Killing,” “Rubicon,” and “Hell on Wheels,” were at least in keeping with the network’s tone, but this? I don’t care how much nerd cred it has, it’s a reality show. And it looks like a bad reality show, which moves AMC one step closer to Bravo! for nerds.
Here are a couple of short previews of “Comic-Book Men,” formerly “Secret Stash.”
(Source: Comic Book News)
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Rubicon wasn’t a misfire. It may have gotten only one season, but that was a political decision as much as anything else. That show was excellent.
Political decision = “horrible ratings”?
Worst reality show ever.
Apparently AMC and Kevin Smith fans are not also Simpsion fans.
FUCK YOU THIS SHOW IS GOING TO BE AWESOME
Put me in the fanboy column. And Kevin doesn’t like the results of Cop-Out either (from the podcasts I’ve heard) so I’m not sure what’s going on in twitter.
By the way, so I can prioritize my geektitude, which is worse: Setting up a twitter account just to see what someone says or listening to a podcast? I’m guessing the podcast. I’ve not done the former, but I’ve done the latter.
Rubicon was awesome. Too smart for most viewers.
I couldn’t get 10 minutes into Red State. It was just like HEY FAGGOT YOU’RE ACTING FAGGOTY and my brain went “oh wait, Kevin Smith’s brain is still an intolerant 17 year old”.
Smith as intolerant? He stood with a bunch of protesters with a sign that says “Dick Tastes Yummy” to combat the real intolerant, religious folk.
Red State was alright. It was his take on a horror/thriller with a Coen Brothers vibe.
I like the best/worst write ups, Brandon, but calling Smith (or his brain) intolerant is just inaccurate
Are Mad Men and Breaking Bad nerd shows?
Kevin is barely in the show at all. It’s more about the Tell ‘Em Steve-Dave crew so you idiots don’t know what you’re talking about the show is going to be great and fuck you.
CLERKS IS MY CATCHER IN THE RYE!
Rubicon was my favorite AMC show.
Maybe this reality show is a way to punish us for liking shows with such big budgets. “Oh, you viewers want to keep shows like Walking Dead and Mad Men, well I guess that just leaves us with enough money to fill the rest of the schedule with fat boring comic geeks”
I’m so-so on Kevin Smith, but I’m a big fan of the Tell ‘Em Steve-Dave podcast ([smodcast.com]), which this show is focused on. As far as I can tell, it’s 30 minutes of Walt and Bry making fun of Ming, which sounds entertaining enough for me.
It seems like it would be passable on most networks. I’d rather watch it than some Housewives crap.
Then again, I watch Storage Wars so I can’t talk.
Didn’t the killing already do this?
Is Kevin Smith required by law to wear a hockey jersey every where he goes?
That or a muumuu. He doesn’t want to look like a weirdo, you know.
I keep telling him a judicial robe would be more slimming.
And it would hide the jorts.
Stinkpalm AMC’s Reputation? Fuck YOU!
I’m sensing by the multiple comments here and on Facebook that you YOU ARE VERY ANGRY. Your rage is noted. I will file it away in a very special drawer and refer to it often.
JERSEY GIRL IS THE CITIZEN KANE OF OUR GENERATION! FUCK YOU! SO MUCH ANGER!!!!!
Is “The Walking Dead” really a quality show Dustin?
Well, Season one was. Or part of season one. OK. The pilot episode was really good.
The show did kind of peak when Rick shot that little girl zombie in the head during the pilot.
If jeffkeyz’s love of it is any indication, this show will be about as enjoyable as cancer-AIDS.
What Dux & BobLawBlawLobsLawBombs said – in terms of content, Rubicon’s streets ahead of The Killing and Hell on Wheels. It’s biggest crime was having too slow a burn toward a conclusion that was, in the end, worth the build up.
After 5 minutes of watching Gary Busey not do anything crazy I went to netflix, intended to watch the Breaking Bad pilot and ended up watching all of season 1 back-to-back. AMC gets a pass from me for whatever mamma’s got to do to pay the bills.
Count me in for this. Smith’s had a couple of misses, but he’s also made some of the best shit of the past 20 years.
This looks sort of interesting, but it obviously probably won’t appeal to anyone who a) doesn’t like comic books or b) doesn’t like Kevin Smith.
It is a TERRIBLE name for a show, however.
This man speaks the truth. I’d go so far as to say that it’s going to appeal to comic book fans who like Kevin Smith, narrowing the target audience down so small that he should have made them “webisodes”, sold them online, then counted his cash.
Ugh goddammit fuck this. Kevin Smith made 3 great movies deserving of all our fanpersoning, then his ego ate his very soul and he is now a prominent member of douche society. Smith needs to just go home to his scary talentless wife and stay there.
This show is going to be great because it seems to essentially be a video version of the “Tell ‘Em Steve-Dave” podcast, which has only the loosest association with Kevin Smith or his movies.
I was/am a huge fan of a lot of Smith’s stuff but his current habit of getting high and making jokes almost solely about bodily functions every day has worn thin. At least with things like Clerks, those jokes were mixed in with intelligent writing or commentary. Now it’s just “Jizz lol”.
But TESD is basically just Smith’s less-crude and more-interesting friends ragging on each other for a couple hours a week. It’s impossible to listen and not laugh.
Basically if you are into Smith’s earlier stuff and wit but haven’t liked him for about 10 years, give this a shot.
AMC execs should just go ahead and literally suck a dick for money to pay for Mad Men instead of putting something on that just sucks dick.
I give FX a pass for the Two and a Half Men reruns b/c of the original programming. I’ll let AMC slide on this. For now.
Count me in as a fan. I haven’t seen Cop Out, Clerks II or Red State though, and I haven’t heard any of these podcasts you kids are clamoring about. I cut my Kevin Smith viewing off at Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which sounds like a good decision. He’s and up and down director and has a loyal following because of his fanboy status. But outside of Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma, I don’t much care for his work.
That all being said, I hate reality shows of most kinds and hope this show and all shows concerning a unique hobby crash and burn.
I was in Red Bank a couple months ago and we did the touristy stuff like visit Secret Stash and they were getting ready to film. I talked to some of the crew who were really cool. They were filming some girl with a life-size Yoda statue in her trunk. I wanted to steal that statue so badly.
I’m interested to see it. I’m a fan of smiths podcasts but not really his films, but I love TESD/Pucknuts the 16 second spot about the wonderwoman comic sucks though
Red State sucked tranny balls.
Rubicon was AWESOME.
Rubicon was absolutely not a “misfire.” The Walking Dead — is.
Just wanted to come back and tell you that I used to think you guys were a very cool website. Not anymore. You fuckheads have lost my (and my 1500 friends and followers) readership. Good bye and good riddance. You and Michele Bachmann can both fuck off today. Forever. Kevin Smith awesome and the TESD crew are even fucking better!
BUT HOW WILL WE FILL THE WHINY SENSITIVE CRATER YOU ARE LEAVING BEHIND?
This post wasn’t even that bad. Dustin admitted to liking Smith before, and that he enjoys his lectures, but just said Cop Out sucked and this show doesn’t look too great. To him. In his opinion. You dolt. If you can’t handle someone having a different opinion than you — and expressing it in a reasonable manner — without flying all the way the fuck off the handle, then beat it and take your friends with you. You can’t even imagine how little I care.
Smell you later, jeffkeyz. Smell you later, forever.
I USED TO THINK YOU GUYS WERE COOL UNTIL YOU SAID SOMETHING I DON’T AGREE WITH AND MADE FUN OF SOMEONE I LIKE SO FUCK YOU!! ME AND MY ARMY OF EASILY SWAYED FOLLOWERS ARE OUTTA HERE!! SO ANGRY!
I understand it’s his opinion, but Kevin Smith is NOT (REPEAT NOT DIRECTING OR WRITING for that fucking matter) this show! It’s about the gang who do the Tell ‘Em Steve-Dave podcast and not Kevin Smith for fuck’s sake. Let the show stand on it’s own fucking merits and leave Kev and what you think about his movies out of it. He’s only a fucking figurehead, you idiots!
I like Hell on Wheels. The Killing was a misfire because of what they decided to do (would have been better to wrap it up in 1 season and have a new case next season). I also like Rubicon but it moved really slow.
I’ll probably like this.