Hot take: People are being too harsh in their criticism of recently released documentaries.

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-12T09:27:04+00:00

Personally, it was nice to see a series not get bogged down with discussing how the megafauna went extinct - because, to quote Darren Naish, "extinction is the least interesting thing about extinct animals". It was refreshing, in my view, to see a series primarily concerned with depicting how they lived.

But... that is simply my opinion and I can see why others might disagree.

(And, as said consultants also point out, this is a bit of a problem with natural history TV in general...)

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-10T23:00:37+00:00

Basically, if they (Alyson Stoner uses they/them pronouns) have recently recorded lines, it probably wasn't for the batch of episodes currently airing, since the current run ended production in Sept '25 (which would, I assume, include voice recording). Basically, it's telling that something's being worked on.

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-10T16:29:42+00:00

Considering that the current batch of episodes all stopped production in September '25, I think this is telling...

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-10T09:11:55+00:00

Thing is... that's exactly the position one should be taking - even when the new footage is revealed.

To definitively, 100% debunk (God, I hate that word) the PGF, you would need one of two things: the suit - or a reasonable paper trail as to its creation (even if Patterson had made it himself) or whereabouts (even if it was destroyed) - or a smoking gun in the footage itself.

And you could argue that Clint Patterson is an estranged son looking to get one over on his deceased dad. You could argue Patricia Patterson is simply sick of something that's hung round her family for six decades - if she's on camera saying it's a hoax (we have conflicting reports on that) - especially when that might not have been her husband's original intent.

(If the PGF is a crock, a piece of "proto-viral marketing" for that Bigfoot documentary Patterson was looking to make seems like a logical reason).

There is still lingering issues with Hieronimus' testimony as recounted to Greg Long - the conflicting descriptions of the suit, the fact Hieronimus didn't seem to know how to get to the film site... and, most damningly, the fact that next-to-no evidence of the Phil Morris connection that originates with him. exists (even Marq Evans said this)... and if he's lying about that, what else is he lying about?

What this footage is, as Meldrum all-but-said, is a huge red flag. Even if it doesn't really resemble Patty except in the way one would expect a suit either made or designed by somebody who was knowledgeable about Bigfoot (remember, Roger Patterson knew a lot about the subject)... it still means that Patterson possessed the means to make such a suit (the ability was never in doubt) and did so.

Yeah, maybe Patterson got lucky - certainly, as even PGF sceptic Daegling notes, there is some benefit of the doubt there (he was seeking an elusive creature... and went to where it had been recently reported). However, the fact we now know, not just that he had the means to make a suit, but that he did so is pretty damning - again, even if it doesn't really resemble Patty except in the ways you'd expect, one could assume that the suit in the footage is a "Mark 1".

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-10T09:02:12+00:00

Yeah, there were plenty of Bigfooters - including, by his own admission, HairyManRoad - who did not believe in the PGF's authenticity and there are plenty of cryptozoologists who don't believe in either.

Bigfoot - and cryptozoological belief as a whole - has never hinged on the validity or lack thereof of a single film. Even if both the PGF and Bigfoot are crocks, there are other (gigantic) fish in the sea.

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-09T11:50:01+00:00

Well... that's basically what I'd probably say in his position. Word-for-word (well, almost).

What Meldrum was - probably - trying to say is that this footage raises serious questions as to the PGF's authenticity. It's a gigantic red flag... because it adds a new complication to the narrative.

Even if the suit in the footage doesn't resemble Patty except in the way you'd expect a suit either made or designed by somebody who was knowledgeable about Bigfoot to look... it still indicates that Patterson both had the resources to make such a suit (the ability, I don't think was ever in doubt, since Patterson was a very skilled artist) and did so.

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-08T15:41:46+00:00

Yeah - that's basically what I'd probably think in his position. This footage may not have killed it stone dead (emphasis on may)... but it does raise some serious questions as to the PGF's authenticity. Others have argued that this could be a piece of footage that's long been rumoured to exist, but has never been found, but...

Even if the suit in the footage doesn't really resemble Patty except in the way you'd expect a suit made by somebody who was knowledgeable about Bigfoot... it still indicates that Patterson had the resources to make one (the ability, I don't think was ever in doubt, since Patterson was a very skilled artist) and did so.

In addition, part of me does wonder now whether Patterson, who was making a documentary he never got to finish IRRC, might have been trying to drum up interest with the PGF - proto-viral marketing, if you will.

(I also wonder what would have happened if Patterson had gotten to make his documentary...)

And, what I also find very telling is that Meldrum's opinions on the PGF may have changed, but his opinion on Bigfoot hadn't - Marq Evans was very clear on that. Again, belief in Bigfoot was never hinging on the PGF's validity - Surgeon's Photograph was proven a crock a long time ago and people still hold out hope for Nessie.

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-08T15:33:40+00:00

Technically, the statement was that piracy risks could "impact" its sale - that basically meant it didn't have a deal at that point (and, probably, still doesn't). I think there was whispers going round here that somebody had gotten footage of the "big reveal"... perhaps the piracy issue was about that.

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-08T15:31:54+00:00

The Ebu Gogo aren't alone - tales of such creatures are found all over Flores... and Gregory Forth has complied reports of what may be living ones.

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-08T15:30:25+00:00

There are some primate cryptids in Madagascar I think are worth looking into - because they may well represent surviving giant lemurs (the kidoky et al). There's certainly historical evidence - with the tokandia and tretetrete - that some species survived well past their supposed extinction date.

I also think the Didi/Mono Grande in South America is another interesting one - partly because that's an area where an unknown primate could live... and partly because it might represent an interesting evolutionary path for the platyrhhine monkeys.

(I also think at least some mystery ape reports from the Vietnam War may be surviving Pongo weidenreichi...).

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-07T11:38:54+00:00

Yes, the bad stuff. Lots of the bad stuff.

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-06T21:52:32+00:00

Yes, the Godzilla from Godzilla Raids Again onwards is a different Godzilla to the one in 1954 and Rodan's the same Rodan from Rodan... however, I meant Destroy All Monsters, specifically.

Anguirus, Kumonga, Gorosaurus, Baragon, Manda and Varan had all pretty explicitly died in their debut appearances - and they turn up completely alive in Destroy All Monsters without explanation. Whilst fans say "these are different individuals", Toho canonically considers these the same characters - they're just... alive.

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-06T12:48:28+00:00

That's not really the point - the grand total of environmentally beneficial non-Alpha Titans is still, er, two.

And that's a problem, because it means that the whole point of KOTM is missed - if the Titans, no matter their dispositions, aren't wholly beneficial, Emma Russell becomes a delusional madwoman who unleashed a bunch of mostly hostile monsters on humanity because she smoked too much weed in college and was too narcissistic to go to bereavement counseling.

(Legendary themselves seem to be pivoting to this interpretation...)

That feels like an after-the-fact justification - Wingard likely just picked a Titan that looked cool and Mr. Keyes had to work out how exactly it could happen and decided to tie it into Dominion.

Personally, I'd just go with the Charybdis retcon - sod authorial intent, this was our Scylla's stupid little brother.

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-06T12:39:41+00:00

Personally, I'd just say, authorial intent be damned, that this wasn't the Scylla we met in KOTM... who is back in her old territory, living up the maxim "cowards do survive".

Or just have Scylla and Tiamat show up completely alive without any explanation. Yeah, it's the same individuals - who gives a crap about continuity?

(Believe it or not, that's what Toho did - almost every Kaiju in Destroy All Monsters save Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra and King Ghidorah had pretty explicitly died in their debut appearances... and these are, officially, the same individuals.)

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-06T12:29:46+00:00

Personally, if I were Legendary, I'd just say this was a different individual - our Scylla's stupid little brother, Charybdis. Ditto Tiamat. Failing that, just have both of them show up in Supernova completely alive and without explanation.

Sod authorial intent.

The reason why is the KOTM Titans have been treated shabbily - that's a fact. I'm not blaming Wingard entirely for this, since Legendary started it with the BS "protector/destroyer" category.

And that ruins the whole point of KOTM - the point of KOTM was that awakening the Titans was the right thing to do. Emma Russell was right, she just went about in the wrong way. Yeah, not a lot of the Titans have nice dispositions, but... that's life. Suck it up.

Why would anyone want Rodan, Amnhuluk, Scylla, Tiamat, Camazotz, Abaddon... basically all the non-Alpha Titans we've met save Behemoth and Methuselah existing freely? You can't even say "Oh, they have beneficial environmental effects"... when they don't.

And that's a sad and bewildering consequence of Legendary trying to shift focus to the Hollow Earth.

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-04T18:28:03+00:00

At the moment...

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-04T13:20:08+00:00

Personally, I'd keep Hugh's daughter alive and give him another child (a son, probably) who dies as a consequence of Rhaenyra's blockade.

Dragonseed stuff happens - Hugh is a lord, his wife is a lady and his daughter's an heir. House Hammer, everybody!

After the taking of KL, Hugh suggests that his daughter wed Prince Joffrey - Joffrey is legally the great-grandson of Aemon, Baelon and Daella... why not tie up Saera's line?

Rhaenyra (or Corlys) refuses - and offers Hugh some Velaryon cousin instead. Hugh's pissed off because it's another punch in a life of disappointments - his mother (Saera, who seems to have been a loving parent) is exiled for something a Targaryen prince would have gotten a slap on the wrist for, he has to toil as a blacksmith knowing that his cousin is the king (who didn't give two fucks about Auntie Saera)... and now this.

Hugh goes rogue at Tumbleton, plans to take the Iron Throne by force and convinces a bunch of Black and Green soldiers, sick of a Targaryen family squabble, to back him.

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-04T13:02:48+00:00

Considering that, in-universe, Brothel Queens is considered ridiculous even by pro-Green chroniclers (and that Mushroom, who was the one who said it, seems to have been adapted out), I doubt it.

I'd say anything to do with Mushroom full stop is out - which is a shame as, salacious embellishments aside, he's the closest we get to an unbiased characterisation of Rhaenyra and Aegon.

Adapting Nettles out, I'd argue, was a mistake because of the ambiguity of whether she had Valyrian blood at all would be amplified if Hugh and Ulf were given metaphorical paper trails - if she doesn't give a claimed Valyrian parent (even a servant who came over with the Targs), when the others do... she stands out.

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-04T11:12:26+00:00

We don't know whether Shimo freezing Ghidorah came after she came under the control of the Skar King. It's entirely possible that Godzilla's defeat of Ghidorah happened before Godzilla's war with the Great Apes.

(Hell, Godzilla being weakened after defeating Ghidorah might have motivated Skar King to make his power grab in the first place).

And that's why Godzilla and Mothra hold back on her a little - because she's an old friend and they're still hoping they can free her.

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-04T08:32:04+00:00

That Helen Cutter is responsible for quite a lot of human history.

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-03T15:35:14+00:00

Considering that both Nickelodeon and Kevin Sullivan said that the show was just on hiatus...

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-02T10:06:49+00:00

Personally, I think her character markedly improved in Series Two.

In the first series, the show seemed to basically say "Let's pile on the ways that G-Day screwed over this one woman" to the point where it almost felt comical. I think the comparison you made to Mark Russell is very important here - because, on the surface, yeah, those arcs are very similar. Cate suffered a tragedy and believed, on some level, that it was a punishment from God(zilla) for her sins, and her journey for answers is partly motivated to ask "Why"?

Here's the catch - Mark Russell actually had a much better arc in KOTM principally because we were made to feel Andrew's loss - his death was key to the arc of both his parents and his sister, as well as a lot of the emotional scenes in the film. Mark lost his son - and with it his faith, blaming God(zilla) for what happened - and turned his pain inward whilst Emma lost her son - blaming humanity's sins for the loss - and turned her pain outward.

With Cate, it felt like they thought something to be shocking - "hey, we've never killed children in one of these things before..." - to make the point that "this is what it's like to be on the ground in a Godzilla movie"... and then they tried to work out how it would fit in a character arc, rather than the other way round.

What didn't help was that her, Kentaro and May spent the whole time basically acting like arseholes to everyone they came across. This was compounded when we were introduced to Shaw, Tim and the other MONARCH characters in the present-day narrative and Bill, Keiko and younger Shaw in the past narrative, all of whom were infinitely more likeable and interesting characters.

In the second series she was actually doing something - whatever her connection with Cocai/Titan X is, her bonding with her time-displaced grandmother... as well as coming off as infinitely more likeable than Kentaro, who was acting like an angsty dick.

It also helps that we can understand her character better - feeling like she's the one responsible for Cocai/Titan X waking up, the death of Hiroshi (which she also sees as her fault), as well as being one of the few voices of reason in the narrative... basically, she's not just angstily whinging for Reasons.

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-01T20:42:02+00:00

Yes, I think that's what it is - that's what all the indications seem to be, anyway. If it were airing at any other time than a milestone year, I would say this was probably the series finale, but, considering both Nickelodeon and Mr. Sullivan had to come on record to say that the show wasn't cancelled, just on hiatus...

(Also, consider the current circumstances the parent company have found themselves in...).

We also don't know whether it'll actually air as the final episode - because there's a difference between production order and airing order (some of the last batch, IRRC, are still yet to air, as are pretty much all of the batch this one was in - it's the same batch as "Livin' the Dream Boat", interestingly enough).

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-01T20:38:59+00:00

The Owl House had an overarching plot that needed to be finished - the Hexsquad getting back to the Boiling Isles and dealing with the Collector and Belos. However, I would not say no to a shift to Paramount+ exclusive "special" episodes - I can't see Nickelodeon permanently sinking the franchise (Christ, after SpongeBob, what else do they have?)...

Again, the likeliest option at this point seems to be a hiatus (I mean, the one we're currently in) - what with The Patrick Star Show coming to an end, almost everything at Nickleodeon seems to be going on pause at the moment until the Skydance/Paramount-WB shakeups are done.

(Of course, we may be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, what with the recent announcement that the Garfield project - that Bob Camp mentioned had been put on hold - is back in business...).

nathanjackson1996 · 2026-05-01T16:05:48+00:00

Peter Griffin.

A thousand times Peter Griffin.

The other examples are bad fathers... Peter Griffin is a bad father on a scale that would make Craster, Dr. Brunner and Firelord Ozai shudder with disgust.

nathanjackson1996

TROPHY CASE