By now you know well that A is for Arrested Development, but soon you might be able to say I for The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret. Or maybe it will be P or M or something. Its a long title.
The reason I bring this all up is because AD alums (and GOB Industries founders) David Cross and WIll Arnett are at the heart of this new sitcom for Channel 4. Yes thats the BBC. The other actor in the above shot is Spike Jonze, noted for directing Where The Wild Things Are and dressing up like an old man on Jackass.
David Cross’ character Todd Margaret is sent to the UK by his company, which sells energy drinks trying to expand their market. He is mistaken by his boss as someone far more capable and confident than he actually is. Hilarity ensues.
You can catch the pilot here, as some helpful chap(I talk like England too!) has uploaded the whole thing. Keep in mind you can swear on TV there, because there is a lot of swearing.
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Welcome to Powet’s first $20 GOTW and Lost Classics of the new decade. We got two classic games that will help you get the new year started off right. Without any further ado, click below and lets get started.
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Debuted at the Spike Video Game Awards last night, we get our first glimpse at the sequel to one of the greatest games of 2009. Amongst the beautifully decrepit scenery we were shown from the first game, it also looks like Mark Hamil is reprising his role as the Joker. (I’d know that laugh anywhere)

Check out the chaos!

As I played this week’s $20 GOTW entry, three questions immediately popped into my head. How were the people who made Okami make the transition from something so beautiful and artistic to well….this? How did Sega get the green light from Nintendo for this to be released on the Wii of all systems? Most of all, WHY IS NO ONE BUYING THIS GAME? The Wii’s hardcore gamer audience would love this game, as it contains the perfect combination of extreme violence and “what the hell is this” brand of zaniness that made No More Heroes and Killer 7 cult classics. It’s Japanese producers designed this game with a western audience in mind. In fact, as of this writing it’s unsure of weather of not this game will even be released in Japan!
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Is the name David Jones familiar to you? If you’re a fan of Grand Theft Auto or the more recent Crackdown (and/or you’ve been keeping up with this week’s E3 coverage) then it should be. You see, David Jones is the man behind both of those modern-day gaming classics along with the upcoming MMOG APB. Years before showing revolutionizing the sandbox genre and showing gamers how fun it is to partake in deviant criminal behavior, he created the puzzle game Lemmings. Although it wasn’t nearly as violent as his later titles, it was just as innovative, and years later it manages to maintain its charm. Although Lemmings has hit almost every major gaming system in the past, this $20 GOTW centers around the 2006 PSP game from Sony Computer Entertainment and developed by Team 17.
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Welcome back to part 2 of our Street Fighter special. In the last part, we looked over some of the franchise’s more infamous parts. In this one, we look at Street Fighter EX, which was a highly controversial entry in the series, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, and as an added bonus, we’ll take a look at a little known Dreamcast/Arcade title featuring characters from the franchise.
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2001 was an interesting year for pro wrestling to say the least. The once mighty WCW, who in its prime had dominated the WWF in TV ratings for over 80 weeks had clearly seen better days. Thanks in no small part to backstage politics, fallout from the AOL-Time Warner merger, god-awful angles, and even worse booking, the company that had been home to superstars such as Diamond Dallas Page, Lex Luger, Bill Goldberg, and Sting was on its last legs. With fans deserting the promotion on a weekly basis, the company losing millions of dollars a year, potential investors pulling out, and advertisers pulling ad space, WCW was clearly running on borrowed time. Meanwhile in Philadelphia, Paul Heyman’s ECW was undergoing a similar financial crisis. Since its inception in the early 90s, ECW’s bloody matches, homegrown superstars, and controversial storylines have gained the promotion a cult following, and was credited with supplying the blueprint for what made the WWF popular during its Attitude era. Even so, the fact remained that Heyman just didn’t have the money nor the muscle to compete with McMahon or Bischoff. The loss of their TV deal and the constant talent raids by WCW and the WWF did little to help matters. With worker’s paychecks bouncing on a regular basis, and wrestlers departing for the big time, ECW too would be shortly be becoming just a memory….

…until Vinnie Mac saved both brand names by buying out both companies for next to nothing and retaining some of their better workers. After that, Vince screwed up the whole thing by eschewing the dream matches fans wanted to see and instead presenting some of the worst inter-promotional booking ever seen, but that’s another story. Vinnie Mac had finally done what he had set out to do: monopolize mainstream North American pro-wrestling by either absorbing or eliminating his competitors. No one believed that anyone would ever step up to take on McMahon at his own game ever again. No one that is, expect for Jerry Jarret and his son Jeff Jarret.

Now Jeff was not new to the wrestling business. In fact he was a longtime performer for the WWF after gaining popularity as a local star. He was also part of WCW during its final days, where he even had a run as the world champion (before losing it to David Arquette. Yes, that David Arquette.). Instead of rejoining the WWE after the WCW buyout, the Jarretts began work on an all new promotion. Though it would begin life as an offshoot of the NWA, Jeff’s goal was to introduce an all new style of wrestling, one based around total nonstop action. Thus, TNA wrestling was born (not exactly my first choice for to name my newly created wrestling promotion, but I digress). The promotion would feature a six-sided ring, a revamped cruiserweight division (known as the X-Division), a more respectable women’s division, and a mix of new superstars and veterans. The promotion started out small, but then grew bigger, and gained a TV deal with Spike TV, as well as a video game deal with Midway, which brings up to this week’s $20 GOTW.
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Within the past decade or so, we Americans have seen a trend of comic book-based movies and adaptations from books all over the silver screen. In fact, it’s become so commonplace that we expect it now. If there not a summer blockbuster that isn’t based on a comic or a book, good or bad, then it hasn’t been a fulfilling year, has it? Even the success of Transformers has proven that other venues can be tapped for potential in the film industry.

So it’s only fitting that anime become the next big thing to be converted by Hollywood. And that’s got potential in and of itself, right?

Perhaps not as much as you’d think.

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