Marzgurl debuted when The Nostalgia Critic had a contest back in 2008 to decide who would become his female counterpart. Although she lost Doug was generous enough to let her too post material on his site. Marzgurl remained a mainstay of the site for almost 7 (!) years. An amazing feat, considering Doug never gave her much promotion. She popped up in other crossovers by other hosts, but never in an actual The Nostalgia Critic review. Even in the anniversary specials she is mostly an extra with hardly any lines.
The reason for this may be that she was, at best, So Okay, It's Average. Her videos have the typical feel of a dry school report: informative, but not entertaining. While I praise her for actually doing proper research (take note, Doug!) it's still just basic info, without any deep or fresh analysis. Similarly, her view points never rise above opinions of your baby sister. F.e: she once did a "History of Animation", which was mostly about Disney and not much else. She even felt that most of today's animation "made no sense" and needed to be "more like Disney or Don Bluth", which already gives you a clue of how small her world view and expertise on the matter is. But even when she made a homage series about Don Bluth she never managed to express or analyze her subject matter in a proper way. It's just your average girly opinion: "I like these movies because they are cute, fluffy, heartwarming and give me exactly what I want, rather than challenge me." It's like a boy discussing action-packed animation like "Transformers" or "G.I. Joe", but never rising above the opinion: "It's good, because fights are cool." And while I don't mind her taste in movies you do have to wonder whether it's worth to make an entire series about it if you don't really have anything meaningful or refreshing to say about it?
I do give her credit for actually trying to move beyond Disney and Bluth, by tackling the movies of Ralph Bakshi. Unfortunately she seemed totally unaware what she got herself into. According to her Twitter account the content horrified her so much that she terminated the entire retrospective after only three episodes. And once again, it doesn't provide you with anything insightful. She gives info you can find on Wikipedia, combined with Youtube clips and adds her own clueless perspective on what she saw. Again I wonder who she made this video for? Those familiar with Baskhi learn nothing new and will likely be angered by her "oh goodness me" approach. Newcomers to Baskhi's world will probably be put off by her "this is all to heavy for me" opinions.
So in the end, I wouldn't recommend her work at all. Granted, it has more research than Doug Walker's editorials and is less irritating than, say, Obscurus Lupa or Phelous, but that really isn't enough. I'm glad that she found more happiness in her personal life now, because video reviews are just not her thing.
Sympathetic host, forgettable show.
Marzgurl debuted when The Nostalgia Critic had a contest back in 2008 to decide who would become his female counterpart. Although she lost Doug was generous enough to let her too post material on his site. Marzgurl remained a mainstay of the site for almost 7 (!) years. An amazing feat, considering Doug never gave her much promotion. She popped up in other crossovers by other hosts, but never in an actual The Nostalgia Critic review. Even in the anniversary specials she is mostly an extra with hardly any lines.
The reason for this may be that she was, at best, So Okay, It's Average. Her videos have the typical feel of a dry school report: informative, but not entertaining. While I praise her for actually doing proper research (take note, Doug!) it's still just basic info, without any deep or fresh analysis. Similarly, her view points never rise above opinions of your baby sister. F.e: she once did a "History of Animation", which was mostly about Disney and not much else. She even felt that most of today's animation "made no sense" and needed to be "more like Disney or Don Bluth", which already gives you a clue of how small her world view and expertise on the matter is. But even when she made a homage series about Don Bluth she never managed to express or analyze her subject matter in a proper way. It's just your average girly opinion: "I like these movies because they are cute, fluffy, heartwarming and give me exactly what I want, rather than challenge me." It's like a boy discussing action-packed animation like "Transformers" or "G.I. Joe", but never rising above the opinion: "It's good, because fights are cool." And while I don't mind her taste in movies you do have to wonder whether it's worth to make an entire series about it if you don't really have anything meaningful or refreshing to say about it?
I do give her credit for actually trying to move beyond Disney and Bluth, by tackling the movies of Ralph Bakshi. Unfortunately she seemed totally unaware what she got herself into. According to her Twitter account the content horrified her so much that she terminated the entire retrospective after only three episodes. And once again, it doesn't provide you with anything insightful. She gives info you can find on Wikipedia, combined with Youtube clips and adds her own clueless perspective on what she saw. Again I wonder who she made this video for? Those familiar with Baskhi learn nothing new and will likely be angered by her "oh goodness me" approach. Newcomers to Baskhi's world will probably be put off by her "this is all to heavy for me" opinions.
So in the end, I wouldn't recommend her work at all. Granted, it has more research than Doug Walker's editorials and is less irritating than, say, Obscurus Lupa or Phelous, but that really isn't enough. I'm glad that she found more happiness in her personal life now, because video reviews are just not her thing.