New Rockstars

Today's episode of Sneak Peek was moved to an evening upload: a special aftershow for LANTERNS EPISODE 3! Erik and Jessica were lucky to see the third episode "OutKast" early, and pre-record a special podcast to answer your questions immediately after you finish watching the episode on HBO tonight. Sneak Peek will publish at 9:30pm ET / 6:30pm PT. Seriously, as soon as you're finished watching, come on over to New Rockstars on YouTube and join our conversation!

Also, seeing the episode earlier than usual means we'll be able to get our Easter Egg breakdown to you a day earlier than normal: TOMORROW (Monday Aug 31)!

1 day ago | [YT] | 936

New Rockstars

LANTERNS premieres tonight on HBO! Our breakdown of the first episode will come on Tuesday Aug 18. It's possible that ALL of our Lanterns breakdowns will come on Tuesdays. HBO did not give NR early press screener access for Lanterns. Why not, you might ask? Why do seemingly smaller creators get early access to these episodes and not us?

Good question! Let us know when you find out! (Kidding... mostly.)

The real answer is kinda complicated. Most of the time, press screeners go out to official press who are affiliated with a major news outlet or text-based website led by a well known film / TV critic. NR doesn't have a website, and while we have published reviews, we aren't really known around the industry as "critics."

Beyond that, sometimes digital creators are included on that distribution list. NR sometimes gets grouped with "press," sometimes with "creators." We're happy with either if it means we can just see stuff early.

A lot of independent creators join professional critics associations, which sometimes gets them on the screener distribution list. There are dues to be part of such orgs. NR is not currently part of any association like that. So we're almost never on the press list that these publicists start with. For every title we want to cover, we have to email 30 days out asking if there's any availability for early access, and most of the time the studios and networks add us. Not always though. Especially for streaming shows.

The situation with Lanterns has been additionally tough. Back in July, HBO sent out screeners to their usual list of critics and creators who were part of those orgs. I guess one of those creators leaked a plot twist. (I didn't even know about this -- it was DMCA removed from all places before I could see it.) But I guess it pissed off the network and producers so much that they put a firm halt on any other screeners going out to anyone. Before NR's 30-day email request came in. HBO has been overall nice about the situation and has included NR in other media events for the show. But nothing that will help us get our breakdowns out early.

So if you see another creator who gets their Lanterns recaps out on Sunday nights / Monday mornings, they A) got press screeners through their connection to a major critic or text-based website known for reviews, B) they're part of a critics organization, C) they make the kind of quick-turnaround content that they can edit and publish faster than an in-depth visual analysis, and/or D) we've heard there are some creators who share and pay for each other's ripped digital files of episode screeners... we don't do that... we've never done that... and we don't know if it still goes on... but some out there may still be doing it.

Really, that Explanation C is a huge part of why some creators get recap content out faster than others. Every established YouTuber has come up with workflows that helps them move faster and more efficiently. Some are just good at moving really fast and recording their content without writing beforehand, and requiring minimal editing. Some do a lot of prep work before the episode drops. Some structure their videos so that, in a 15 minute recap, only 6-7 minutes is actually stuff that had to be recorded that night and edited with new assets. Some use AI and editors in other countries that they can pay beneath a living wage.

But with the kind of New Rockstars Easter Egg breakdown our viewers expect, there's a limit to the kind of shortcuts we can take. Good media analysis takes time. I need time to watch an episode at least twice. I need 6-8 hours to write. An hour to shoot. And we need another 6-8 hours of post-production. And we need to sleep and do a dozen other tasks to keep our company operating as a business every day.

So hopefully you're OK waiting an extra day for some of these episode breakdowns, and I hope you understand we're doing the best we can under these circumstances.

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 3,256

New Rockstars

HBO didn't give us an early press screener for the House of the Dragon finale episode, so our breakdown will publish a day later than usual, on Tuesday Aug 11. Thanks for your patience! We'll all be watching the finale episode together tonight!

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 1,741

New Rockstars

OK the day is here! Fans around the world are now seeing Spider-Man Brand New Day, and we want to give you all a head's up that our "ending explained / post-credit scene" video will be publishing to the channel about an hour from now. The packaging of that video will, itself, not be a spoiler. We're using images from trailers, filters, and no revelatory text. We're also testing out an alternate thumbnail that's just an image from a trailer with nothing revelatory about it. But if you want to go into the movie completely blind, we wanted to give you this warning now, so you can take whatever measures you need to limit your social media exposure until you see the movie. Our massive Easter Egg breakdown is coming to the channel TOMORROW.

1 month ago | [YT] | 3,773

New Rockstars

It's the First Friday of the month! Erik's doing another Office Hours AMA livestream in 90 minutes. What questions and topics do you want answered?

1 month ago | [YT] | 461

New Rockstars

Starting TOMORROW, we will revisit the first three Tom Holland MCU Spider-Man movies with all-new in-depth Easter Egg breakdowns, with dozens of details we never spotted before, to prepare for Spider-Man Brand New Day on July 31!

Friday July 3 - Spider-Man: Homecoming
Friday July 10 - Spider-Man: Far From Home
Friday July 17 - Spider-Man: No Way Home

1 month ago | [YT] | 2,501

New Rockstars

ROAD TO DOOMSDAY: June Saturday Schedule! (sorry for the announcement delay)

June 6 - Ep. 26 Deadpool Trilogy (2016-2024)
June 13 - Ep. 27 Captain America Civil War (2016) (live from IGN Live)
June 20 - Ep. 28 Doctor Strange (2016) + Multiverse of Madness (2022)
June 27 - Ep. 29 Spider-Man MCU Trilogy (2017-2021)
July 4 - Ep. 30 - Logan (2017)

2 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 834

New Rockstars

WHY DID THE RUSSO BROTHERS POST THIS?? Erik will be hosting another "office hours" livestream TODAY at 3pm PT to discuss this, and all other questions you have about Spider-Man Brand New Day, The Boys, X-Men 97, Spider-Noir... anything else you have questions about! Post your questions here, and/or bring them to the livestream in four hours!

3 months ago | [YT] | 1,504

New Rockstars

New Rockstars' ROAD TO DOOMSDAY May Schedule! Now that a few of us have seen the Avengers Doomsday trailer, we have a better idea of what will (and what probably won't) be in the film. So going forward, we're going to narrow our focus with this podcast with only the Marvel titles that are most likely to be on the Russos' minds as they're putting this movie together. Some movies / shows, we'll spend a whole episode on; others, it makes more sense to group them together as a trilogy. Erik will be livestreaming today at 2pm PT to chat about this and answer any questions you have in general!

3 months ago | [YT] | 1,921