The Nostalgia Critic (Show)

"Hello, I'm the Nostalgia Critic. I remember it so you don't have to."

- Nostalgia Critic

The Nostalgia Critic (also known as The Critic) is a show by Doug Walker that is named after the character of the same name.

Summary
Along with the 5 Second Movies, The Nostalgia Critic is the most popular video series created by Walker, as well as one of his first. Usually, it involves him on camera critiquing entertainment from the 80's and 90's, although a couple of videos will also target modern popular culture as well. His catchphrase which usually opens and ends each video is "I'm the Nostalgia Critic. I remember it, so you don't have to." The first video was a high-speed, adrenaline-like review of of the 2007 film version of Transformers. Unlike the future videos, this review is more positive. His trademark black hat and suit jacket appear in the video, but the red tie and white shirt did not appear until his review of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. Walker's other major character, Chester A. Bum made a special appearance in the Follow That Bird review, and he re-appeared, along with AskThatGuy, in the Nostalgia Critic's Mortal Kombat: Annihilation review. He also appeared in the Transformers 2 review. For character information, please see Nostalgia Critic.

While Doug started doing the videos alone, all since Tom and Jerry: The Movie are usually written by Doug and his brother Rob, who also at times makes guest appearances - be it imitating people (Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum), or playing characters such as Santa Christ and Dinosaur Rob. When the video is crossover, the collaborating reviewer does the script along with the Walkers.

On September 14th, 2012, after the release of the final part of To Boldly Flee, Doug announced via video that he decided to end the Nostalgia Critic as a weekly series, adding that the character is not technically "dead" and may return in specials. On January 22nd 2013, the video "The Review Must Go On" confirmed that the Nostalgia Critic will continue on a bi-weekly basis, starting Febuary 5th. The Critic will also now cover any movie that has a DVD release and isn't just released with "nostalgic" parameters.

Christmas 2008
In late December 2008, the Nostalgia Critic released two Christmas-themed releases. The first was the Top 12 Greatest Christmas Specials. In this special, the Critic reveals his love for Christmas, decorating the set with Christmas ornaments. However, even these draw his rage as novelty singing and dancing Christmas toys he puts on his desk keep interrupting him during his review. The following week, the Critic gets the post-Christmas blues: even though he got a and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but no Mario Kart Wii and, worse still, got Jingle All The Way in his stocking instead. As a result, the Critic takes his gun and assassinates Santa for his poor present, exclaiming "Happy New Year!"

Year One
In the Year One special event, The Critic and The Nerd had their final battle. However, they were not alone as gamers and reviewers from TGWTG.com clashed in a battle royal, which ended with the respected groups calling a truce. Crossovers were made and one of the crossovers involving the Critic aired June 10th, 2009. On that day, the Critic and the Nerd both reviewed "TMNT Making of Coming Out of Their Shells" once they decided to do a review together. Though it appeared they had a truce, it is seen at the end of the video them fighting, due to being bored of the credits rolling, but the video not ending, in a parody to the end of the movie.

April Fools Day 2009
On April Fools Day, 2009, The Critic switched places with Ask That Guy With the Glasses and was asked stupid questions. He was astonished at how much porn Ask ThatGuy had in his house and even more astonished about the questions that were given to him. He leaves, not answering any questions, utterly perplexed. Meanwhile, Chester A. Bum took the Critic's place and reviewed The Neverending Story in his own usual fast-paced manner, while Ask ThatGuy reviewed Monsters Vs. Aliens.

The 100th Episode
On February 2nd, 2010, The Critic celebrated his 100th episode by reviewing Battlefield Earth. At first it looked like he was going to have a clip show. Through some convincing from Ma-ti and his past self, he decided to review a film that got many requests on the forums and in e-mails.

Year Two
In early May 2010, the trailer for the Year Two event aired on the site. The event is a movie named Kickassia where the Critic decided to take over a micronation called "Molossia". Several site talent helped him on his quest to take over the land and rename it Kickassia. However, the Critic later turned out to be a poor leader, and was later betrayed and beaten by his comrades until they gave the former president back Molassia and went back to their former lives. After the event, many crossovers were made!

Year Three
On June 23rd, 2011, a trailer was released for the Year Three event. The movie for this one was called Suburban Knights and followed the Critic and company trying to find a magical gauntlet to sell and get rich from. However, thanks to a series of events, the film ends with Ma-Ti dying and the Critic feeling guilty. This all leads up to the Year Four event.

The 200th Episode
On February 21st, 2012, The Critic celebrated his 200th episode by reviewing... Ponyo?! The review was filmed during the Anime Milwaukee con and features cameos by LittleKuriboh, Spike Spencer, and Uncle Yo. His efforts to review the film initially cause con-goers to turn on him, then accept him, then turn on him once more when he insults "Howl's Moving Castle."

Year Four
In July 2012, another trailer was posted for the Year Four event, this time named To Boldly Flee. It continued the story introduced in Year Three in which The Critic is feeling guilty towards Ma-Ti's death. Meanwhile, a space entity known as the Plot Hole appears and starts to cause havoc on the Awesome-Verse. The Critic once again teams up with his fellow reviewers to discover what the Plot Hole is. After a series of events occur, the Plot Hole is revealed to be Ma-Ti as he tries to show that the Critic never changed from the events of Suburban Knights by sending him to the 'Real World' and tries to have him leave his friends behind. However, the Critic decides to stay where he belongs and apologize to Ma-Ti, Ma-Ti realizes that he was wrong and that the Critic had changed, and as a result of this, Ma-Ti passes on and The Nostalgia Critic takes his place to making the Plot Hole stable. "To Boldly Flee" was originally intended to kill off Doug Walker's Nostalgia Critic character and show, however, due to recovering from a burnout, Walker realizes that the Critic character wasn't finished and that all he needed was a break to freshen his mind. This lead to the video The Review Must Go On.

Year Five
The Nostalgia Critic was revived in February 2013, with a review of The Odd Life of Timothy Green. The show now is on a bi-weekly basis to provide more workful episodes, which now incorporate a heavy amount of related sketches (featuring Demo Reel actors Rachel Tietz and Malcolm Ray, as well as collaborators such as Rob, Jim Jarosz and Orlando Belisle Jr.).

Even if Critic did not appear in any of the The Uncanny Valley shorts (as Doug was playing a different character in Dragonbored), he was briefly mentioned after Diamanda Hagan blows up the studio in The Pointless Epilogue.

Yearly Events
Every year since it's inception, the Critic has had yearly events to celebrate Halloween, Christmas and the new year.

Nostalgiaween
Starting on October 5th, 2010, NC started a special Halloween themed month. His first film review was Ernest Scared Stupid. The special repeated on October 2011 and was brought back in October 2013. For details, please visit the page NostalgiaWeen.

Christmas
Starting in December of 2009, the Critic had special Christmas themed episodes. For more on what he reviewed, see Christmas.

January
Starting in January 2009, the Critic hosted a different theme every January, starting with Nickelodeon Month. He then reviews movies and shows related to the topic of the month. For more on what he reviewed, see January.

Running Gags
Running Gags are jokes that have repeated themselves over time in each Nostalgia Critic episode. See article NCgags for a list of continuing gags in the Nostalgia Critic show.

Weapons
Nostalgia Critic is known to carry a gun such as a SIG Sauer P226 and even a Beretta 90-Two. He was also seen in the Shining review to carry a mallet; in order to replicate the scenes from the mini-series.

Trivia

 * In the Mary Poppins' Disneycember, Doug has revealed he was born in Italy.

Episodes
Older episodes:
 * NC2008
 * NC2009
 * NC2010
 * NC2011
 * NC2012
 * NC2013
 * NC2014
 * NC2015
 * NC2016

The list of 2017 episodes can be found here: Episode Guide

All NC reviews can be found here.