So I think we're largely in agreement--2012 bad, 2011/2009 good, 2008 pretty amazing, 2010 somewhere in the middle (I suspect I liked it more than you--even B&T grew on me, ended up far better than 2007 or 2008). That's not enough of a pattern I'm not willing to chalk it up to much more than luck.
Again, I'm more concerned about the paradigm shift at this point - powers out west are running the show. That's a very different change than just 2009 or 2011 not being quite as great as 2008. But we'll see. You're right, we're in agreement - I'd rank 2010 well below 2009 and 2011 but I thought it was significantly better than 2012, if that helps. I saw B&T three times throughout the run that year, and it just never clicked with me. I liked a few of the sketches (like "Pecker" and the opening slides), but overall it was just okay at best and pretty bleh at worst. A friend of mine who's attended the event with me every year I've gone (but who doesn't follow all of the speculation, just hops in the car with me when it's time to go and I fill him in on the way) turned to me following the 2010 show and said, "That was $#!t." I just kind of shrugged.
In addition to losing SS 44, they had AWiL snatched away for legal reasons. Technically an IP, but it sounds like an IP Creative was eager to play with--hence its return this year. I think the hordes were a nice theoretical response to the parade route--they just didn't work in practice. Had there been a 2009 crowd rather than a 2012 crowd, might have been better. Honestly, I think the record crowds and unseasonable rain put a damper on the event as much as any creative choices. And at least this year we get back 8 houses and SZs, so correcting their mistakes. If 2013 is as bad as last year, then I'm right with you--but until then, like I said, willing to call a mulligan.
Touche on the AWiL... they've wanted to do that property since 2008. We got Silent Hill as the replacement, I believe? Unfortunately it doesn't negate the other points I made. They should've known the hordes were going to work - they were such a disaster in 2007 that they had to add "zones" a couple weeks in. We saw a swift return to permanent zones the next year. I really don't know why they didn't learn. To me the issue wasn't just crowds, though those definitely hurt it even more - it was the lack of real sets, lack of music, lack of lighting, place, context - it was all random, sporadic, and felt cheap. (In a lot of cases, it *was* very cheap.) I attended the third weekend, flying down from Boston - the only time there was rain was Thursday, where it was torrential downpour most of the night. I sucked it up, bought a poncho, and did my best to enjoy myself, ruining my sneakers in the process. But you know what? I also dealt with downpours in 2009 and 2011, and those events were still far better. Rain has no impact on the quality of the event. It wasn't very good. Walking Dead, Silent Hill, and Alice Cooper (and debatably Penn & Teller) were all poorly designed houses.
I guess I'm just frustrated that we have to praise them for correcting their mistakes in the first place - the seven house debacle never should've happened. You make a fair point, though, another bad year in a row will help determine if this is a pattern or a one-off mess-up. I'm willing to concede that - I'm just concerned that based on what I'm hearing, this is looking like a mess up. The house list is middling and the zone situation sounds all over the place. But we'll see.
Not
the best, but best in a while. Chatter around Finns, mostly. There was as much plot as, say, 2006 (the year everyone seems to love) or 2007--here's a bad guy, let's find some people to fight him, dumb resolution, dance number! It's just an excuse to bring out pop culture icons anyway.
Huh. Thought the consensus was that it was pretty horrible amongst the veterans. It's the younger crowd that usually find it funny because the humor has gotten increasingly reliant on sophomoric stuff since it can't really attack anything really fun directly. I guess my problem with 2012's show (besides it not being very funny) was that it was barely about Bill & Ted - every show has had sequences involving other pop culture parodies interacting with each other without B&T, but it was kind of taken to an extreme last year. It seemed like a bunch of half-thought out ideas for sketches that they slapped together into a B&T show. I dunno.
I thought the quick hit jokes--especially toward the end in the montage--worked well without bogging the show down. "Rooster Cogburn's True Grits," for example, would have worked so much better in that format, rather than dragging on for 90 seconds. The Don Draper bits could have been stronger, but at least they moved.
I will agree it had a faster, improved pace that was much better than 2011's glacier pace - I just found 2011's jokes (slightly) funnier, so I didn't mind if they stuck around for a while longer. (Though god, that True Grits bit was pretty awful.) But yeah, the pace was good. The problem was the jokes weren't funny and the plot (which yeah is usually thread-bare, but at least typically makes some sense) was MIA.
Also, I thought the thick girl was pretty cute.
To each their own, I suppose. 