Youtube channel banner as at 30 April 2024

(13) MAULER (UK 2014)

“Film Connoisseur, Video Game Critical Analyst, Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes TM, Video Essay Analyticalyst and Co-Founder of the Intellectual Gaming Community”

Also known as Longman, for the notorious length of his videos and even more so the Every Frame a Pause or EFAP streams he hosts.

Mauler comes very close to being added to my holy trinity of Youtube caustic critics from the British Isles – which would have nicely added his Wales to Despot’s Ireland, Critical Drinker’s Scotland, and Reaper’s England. (Of course, it also would have made it a holy, ah, quadrinity rather than holy trinity – although perhaps the better metaphor would be a Catholic spin with Mauler as the Mary to the holy trinity).

And yes – I like his plummy accent and the observations or opinions in his video content. It’s just that there’s, ah, too much of the latter. Or more precisely – it’s too long. Yes – it’s the length thing. While I don’t dismiss them for their length – the self-effacing joke of the title he assumes as Longman as well as the long form media discussion right there in his channel banner – it does cost some points in my rankings. My own thought is that he should break up his videos into series of smaller bite-sized videos, which is how I tend to watch them in any event. He’s much more concise in his segments on streams with other commentators.

RATING: 4 STARS****

B-TIER (HIGH TIER)