What is the deal with Reel Layers?

Is this even a real thing is it a joke? I'm so confused. Bryan Stills is definitely not a real person right? Where does Janina fit into to all this? Will there be more episodes? Is Jeff B in on the joke? is the Joke on me? Is anyone actually offended by the Bill Paxton bit? So many questions and literally no answers. I go to twitter and there is nothing. No leads no convos no a single clue. Bryan stills started his twitter account on October 10th less than a month before the first episode. The only real interaction between him and anyone from GB is in a reply to a "receipt" of the Bill Paxton stock photo where Jeff B says "dude please answer my DMs I know you're seeing them". Bad Blood? It seems in the announcement video the the GB crew were confused that Janina wasn't making the series herself, but even that seems a little fake. I just don't friggin get it! Please someone fill me in.

It's a bit. What, who, why and to what extent is up for debate but there definitely isn't any bad blood or confusion on the part of GB Staff.

The show is what they meant for it to be - what exactly that is remains to be seen.

I have been trying to figure it out as well. I watched the first 4-5mins of the video and stopped watching because 1. I didn't get it, 2. It was boring, 3. It was just not funny. This and Ranking of Evil are the 2 new shows that I don't understand and also don't find funny or entertaining.

I hope Bryan Stills is just Janina with a voice changer.

I think the truth is that they wanted to do some Andy Kaufman sort of thing, and it’s fun for them so it’s content here, which is totally fine. It’s not really working for me but it’s not something to be upset about, I’m not required to watch it.

Is this tweet a joke about Dan Ryckert analyzing movies? When I first saw it, I thought it was just someone who knew the VO person or whoever and they were teasing them with their real name. @fisco

Did anyone else see Reel Layers: The Apology show up on the "Latest" bar? I clicked on it, but it keeps returning a 404 error.

Was anyone able to check out the video before they pulled it down?

To prove I'm not crazy, googling "reel layers: the apology" pulls this up.

@lab392: Yep, I watched it before it disappeared.

Short version - "What is the nature of apologies? I apologize to the estate of Bill Paxton."

Is pulling it down part of the meta-joke at this point? Who can say.

This is turning into the Inscryption of GB. I saw the video before it was yanked, and learned there is some sorts of Twitter component to it I was previously unaware of about a legal dispute with the Bill Paxton estate. I dunno, It remains the most baffling part of the site, and I’m not against it, if they want to do some sort of Andy Kauffman work, that is fine. I’m just not really deciphering what it all is at this point.

The Apology had a placeholder deck and image, so I think it just went up early by accident. It was around the same time as Guilty Treasures #4, so maybe they just got pushed at the same time. Or it's another part of the joke.

Giant Bomb's Frog Fractions

The "definitely real person" Bryan Stills tweeted that folks should pay attention to the Bombcast this week, so I assume the video will be posted on its own right after that.

I wish this was as clever or fun as Inscryption but everything about Reel Layers comes off as trying too hard and thinking it's a lot more clever than it is. I typically really vibe with Giant Bombs offbeat humor but this is a huge miss with me.

Reel Layers comes across to me as someone trying to parody film critique video essays without having ever really watched them.

I love the movie Twister, and that’s the only reason I watched that show. It was terrible and everyone involved should feel bad about it.

This continuation where they pretend that they’re being sued by the estate of Bill Paxton isn’t even interesting. GB should cut this feature short instead of continuing to hand Janina cash to phone in an entirely effortless production.

Whatever this bit is, from my subjective viewpoint, it isn’t entertaining. Whatever it is, everyone is trying too hard, and it is coming off as a bad neurotic Woody Allen skit.

I guess y'all don't know it a work when you work a work and work yourself into a shoot,marks

fuck this crap. this sucks no matter what it is.

this is worse than when they tied alex to that chair or whatever

So, what if it's an ARG?

I like the idea and how they're trying to go about it, I just don't think they're succeeding in executing it well. Like, I like everything about it, I just don't find it funny enough to enjoy it. It's like an anti-humor non-joke. My only feedback is to make it funnier.

Reel Layers is the least entertaining thing this website has ever done.

This is why Ben pulled the plug on Kingdom Heartache and I'm still bitter about it.

@bacongames: Reel Layers killed Kingdom Heartache?

The more people say it isn't funny, the funnier it gets. Thank you for your service.

The bad part isn't the videos. Unfunny commentators pretending Reel Layers is great is a real bad look for the site.

"How to With John Wilson" is an incredible HBO cringe documentary. It is incredibly awkward, sweet, funny and sad. Reel layers just isn't worth watching. But, every time a new video comes out, you will get people threatening to pull their memberships and other people saying it is the best thing ever, because it makes people bad. I could yell slurs in public then laugh when people get mad, doesn't make it "good" just because it gets a reaction.

On reddit, here and something awful (my 3 main web places) everyone is arguing about whether this is garbage or genius. It is tiring and everything surrounding it is bad engagement.

Y'all need some chill

please go away

I've been following this crowd for many years and I will always blindly give them subscription money because, well, I'm an adult with disposable income and I want them to be able to make more stuff. My main issue with the current content dump is quantity over quality. I love Grubbsnax, the Silent Hill series, and yes, Albummer. I completely forgot any of the other shows existed. When this show was announced I distinctly remember Jeff B being slightly irritated right off the jump because Janina was only producing the show.

If you look at the faces in that apology video it looks to me like Jeff G is pretty irritated. I wonder how much of this was a contract deal and they are currently on the hook for X amount of episodes. I am indifferent of whether it survives or doesn't I just keep picking up subtleties from the staff on that one.

what bacon is saying is the people absolutely flipped out that it wasn't 100% straight serious playthru.. this community seems to have a problem with anything that isn't either 100% real gameplay, or podcasts about things.. the idea of a joke not being spelled out the entire way really bothers some people

are these bits my favorite? no.. but I'm not gonna be bothered enough to shout about like the people above me

my friend this is a bit you are being worked

It's a work, duder. You really think if they were legitimately pissed off that they would air it out on a livestream with Janina?

Just bad content. Period.

The vast majority of people here seem to think this is a Meta joke, I really don't think it is.

- Jeff B seem legitimately upset about it on Nov 2nd and spent a moment on the podcast to just let everyone know it wasn't wasn't show they agreed on.

- Bill Paxton's estate is suing a doctor/hospital for wrongful death. I could see then threatening GB and I also think GB would do a joke like this in bad taste when his family is in the middle of that lawsuit.

- The Real Layers guy has been posting on Twitter for a month about thr Bill Paxton estate demanding he edit his content and how he has last say on his video and won't let anyone touch it.

- The Real Layers creator has posted a cease and desist letter on his Twitter. If it's a joke the. They can sue the hell out of them for posting fake legal documents claiming they are real.

- I've seen GB, especially Jeff G, act before and try to pull off this type of gag. They way they are acting now is totally different. Their posture is different. They aren't acting and if they are they are doing a style of acting they never have before. (FYI I've worked in film over two decades. Not saying I'm the expert buy I have a lot of experience seeing people act).

I was on the fence but I more then ever think this is real.

I feel the worst thing about this series has nothing to do with the content and everything to do with how the GB community reacted. It's like the guidelines about not being shitty towards each other have gone out the window. Don't get me wrong; the majority of people are fine, but there is some real hot garbage between the "I hate it more because you like it" and the "I like it more because you hate it" crews. But the insulting and alienating comments to the people (like the OP here) who are just trying to get it or who want to be in on the joke with the rest of the community are really what I'm surprised to see left standing.

Like, just think about how foreign and esoteric the concept of a "bit" or the whole "work/shoot" dynamic is by itself. It's already one of the more obtuse forms of humor and entertainment. Give each other a break, please.

It's incredibly obviously a joke, but at this point people not getting the joke is far more interesting than the joke itself. So carry on.

This

I'm hesitant to repeat this in case it spoils anything, but I like the idea that the Twister video is the only real episode and the whole of the rest of Reel Layers is just this lawsuit/contract plotline. I want it to go really off the rails.

With how polite GB fans normally are, I think the amount of negative feedback speaks volumes. The guys should listen and try to figure out what went wrong and what people actually like about the site now. I haven't been keeping up so much recently but I thought that Bombathon stream last week was great. More stuff like that!

@doctorfaust: this 100%

I'm fine with them trying weird stuff, not going to cancel my sub over it but yea I'll echo more of that bombathon stuff please!

I don't get it. I don't find it funny or entertaining.

I obviously understand it's a work but I'm struggling to figure out what the purpose of it all is.

Can we have some more Game Tapes or other classic shows back please? Maybe Jeff can play some more Tony Hawk games?

@doctorfaust: I'm very much in this camp too. Holy shit has it made people obnoxious. It has managed to add another subset of shitty people to the already worse by the day community. The people defending the feature seem to be even worse than the people upset about it.

It's still a bit, and it's still not a very good bit, and people should be nicer to people when explaining that it's a bit.

@el_blarfo: I hate people blindly saying it's a bit.....or not a bit. Does anyone actually know?? No just wild speculation.

@bdawg2002: It's not that wild. It would be insane if it was all real.

Assuming that this is a bit (and I'm going to make that assumption because it would be incredible if it weren't) seems to me there are only two possibilities with what's going on with this show, and both of them are kind of bad.

Possibility #1: This is a bit, and it's supposed to be funny.

Which is bad, because it seems like there is a substantial number of people who don't get the bit and/or find it funny in the least. While I'm all for trying new things, you also need to be realistic about when something isn't working. And this feels like it isn't really working. Assuming the purpose of new shows is to drive subscriptions, my impression is that this is not helping that - for every person who comments that they signed up because of this, there's another person swearing they're going to unsubscribe. It seems like a zero-sum game.

Possibility #2: This is a bit, and the bit is "Ha ha. Look at all the stupid people who don't get the bit."

This is probably the worst possible outcome, but it's also the one I'm kind of starting to lean towards it being at this point. Now, to be clear, I have a hard time believing that the crew would want to deliberately do something mean-spirited like that, but just looking at the comments on these videos, it's kind of turned into that whether they intended it to or not. Tonally, it's just so much more negative than anything the site has done in the past. The comments on these are incredibly unpleasant to sift through and it's a really bad look for the site. If I were a potential subscriber, I'm not sure I'd want to have anything to do with this community.

Eh, I like Reel Layers wayyy more than Albummer. That show holds absolutely no interest to me whatsoever, much in the way Jeff G gets incensed about games he doesn't like by loudly proclaiming "fuck this fucking bullshit", but whatever... unfortunately that show is still going to happen regardless. That being said, I think the Very Online Show is probably my favorite of the bunch, which is odd being that this is a site about videogames, and the video game content at the moment is fair to middling. I'm not a fan of Zoom style conversations anymore if there is no actual "video content" included so that last Reel Layers video with Janina wasn't something I was ever going to watch, but I'm still waiting to see the next Reel Layers episode. I don't mind it compared to some other shows.