It wasn't until I was halfway through my third video of his that I realised that 'The Critical Drinker' wasn't doing a bit. A lot of that is down solely to the name; if I was going to create a parody of the neverending slog of generic middle-aged YouTubers who have built a career out of getting really angry at Brie Larson as a substitute for having any sort of personality, then 'The Critical Drinker' would be near the top of names I would choose, second only to something even more stupidly obvious, like 'The Rageaholic'. So it wasn't until the second or third "This ain't your momma's review! I've got the balls to tell you when something fucking sucking fucks!" that I realised that this almost 40 year old man was unironically trying to encroach on the territory of circa 2008 Angry Video Game Nerd.
You may recognize The Critical Drinker from showing up in your YouTube recommendations despite never having searched for him. He shares all the hallmarks of his peers; plenty of shouting to cover up that his critiques are on the same level as a particularly rushed episode of CinemaSins, the confidence to assert that he understands the meaning of works like Squid Game even better than their own creators - and incidentally, those meanings always align with his own views - and assurance that he definitely isn't a sexist, he just predominantly hates works with female or minority protagonists. But he does like Arcane, so that proves that he doesn't have a problem with women, as long as they're animated. There's a very obvious and crude joke to be made there, but I'm far too classy to make it.
Still, The Critical Drinker puts a lot of work into his criticism; sometimes, so much work that he feels the need to include them even when they are directly addressed or contradicted by the source material. He didn't like Midsommar because he believes the film implies that Christian deserves what happens to him, when... no, it very clearly doesn't - the opposite, in fact. Even his praise hits the wrong note; he liked Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder, but phrases it as "Weirdly, the film even dares to offer a somewhat positive view of fatherhood," which I would totally agree with, if he wasn't trying to drag the plot into some trite culture wars argument about perceived misandry. In his series on "How to Succeed at YouTube" he argues that you should always stay out of politics, but perhaps it would be more accurate to suggest that he just wants people to stay out of any politics that he personally disagrees with.
The biggest saving grace to The Critical Drinker is also his downfall; he's substantially better - well, less bad - than some of his peers, which makes him less interesting. He doesn't have the sincere "This is not an act, I am genuinely angry to an unhealthy degree" vitriolic rage of Razorfist, or the dedication of MauLer to make a seventeen hour twelve-part video series about a seven second toothpaste commercial because one of the teeth was voiced by a woman. He's just sort of... there, in the mix, but never quite standing out. Simultaneously not good enough to watch, but also nowhere near notable enough to go out of your way to avoid.
It's fitting that The Critical Drinker was introduced to me by popping unannounced into my YouTube recs, because his work has about the same intellectual merit as a viral video of a cat trying to catch toilet paper that has been taped to a ceiling fan. The only meaningful difference is that you might enjoy the video of the cat.
WebVideo Genuinely Mistaken For Parody
It wasn't until I was halfway through my third video of his that I realised that 'The Critical Drinker' wasn't doing a bit. A lot of that is down solely to the name; if I was going to create a parody of the neverending slog of generic middle-aged YouTubers who have built a career out of getting really angry at Brie Larson as a substitute for having any sort of personality, then 'The Critical Drinker' would be near the top of names I would choose, second only to something even more stupidly obvious, like 'The Rageaholic'. So it wasn't until the second or third "This ain't your momma's review! I've got the balls to tell you when something fucking sucking fucks!" that I realised that this almost 40 year old man was unironically trying to encroach on the territory of circa 2008 Angry Video Game Nerd.
You may recognize The Critical Drinker from showing up in your YouTube recommendations despite never having searched for him. He shares all the hallmarks of his peers; plenty of shouting to cover up that his critiques are on the same level as a particularly rushed episode of CinemaSins, the confidence to assert that he understands the meaning of works like Squid Game even better than their own creators - and incidentally, those meanings always align with his own views - and assurance that he definitely isn't a sexist, he just predominantly hates works with female or minority protagonists. But he does like Arcane, so that proves that he doesn't have a problem with women, as long as they're animated. There's a very obvious and crude joke to be made there, but I'm far too classy to make it.
Still, The Critical Drinker puts a lot of work into his criticism; sometimes, so much work that he feels the need to include them even when they are directly addressed or contradicted by the source material. He didn't like Midsommar because he believes the film implies that Christian deserves what happens to him, when... no, it very clearly doesn't - the opposite, in fact. Even his praise hits the wrong note; he liked Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder, but phrases it as "Weirdly, the film even dares to offer a somewhat positive view of fatherhood," which I would totally agree with, if he wasn't trying to drag the plot into some trite culture wars argument about perceived misandry. In his series on "How to Succeed at YouTube" he argues that you should always stay out of politics, but perhaps it would be more accurate to suggest that he just wants people to stay out of any politics that he personally disagrees with.
The biggest saving grace to The Critical Drinker is also his downfall; he's substantially better - well, less bad - than some of his peers, which makes him less interesting. He doesn't have the sincere "This is not an act, I am genuinely angry to an unhealthy degree" vitriolic rage of Razorfist, or the dedication of MauLer to make a seventeen hour twelve-part video series about a seven second toothpaste commercial because one of the teeth was voiced by a woman. He's just sort of... there, in the mix, but never quite standing out. Simultaneously not good enough to watch, but also nowhere near notable enough to go out of your way to avoid.
It's fitting that The Critical Drinker was introduced to me by popping unannounced into my YouTube recs, because his work has about the same intellectual merit as a viral video of a cat trying to catch toilet paper that has been taped to a ceiling fan. The only meaningful difference is that you might enjoy the video of the cat.