One of the greatest final lines to a movie ever. Also one that is sadly appropriate for today.
Still, I hope the attempt at humor helps smooth things over.
As you’ve already gathered from Jason’s post this morning, we’re shutting down Pop Critics. This was a very, very difficult decision to make and not one we took lightly. For me personally, it’s been coming for around a month, and only in recent days have I finally realized I needed to pull the plug.
Jason mentioned it, but I’ll say it again. Some of you may not realize that we run this site in our spare time and thus need full time jobs to pay the bills. It started as a hobby on our own blogs, then we merged both into Pop Critics.
Since then, I’ve poured my heart and soul into this site, trying to grow it and doing whatever it takes, even spending my own money to attend and cover Comic Con for a few days. I don’t know how to do anything other than at 100% when it comes to stuff like this, so that might tell you how much work I put into it.
Working 40+ hours a week at my real job, then 20+ hours a week writing gets draining. Pop Critics started out as fun, and soon became something that might potentially make us some side money to help pay the bills. But we’re just nowhere close to that yet and the time spent on the site is just not worth it at this point in time.
I have my first child on the way in late November as well and the idea of coming home from work to spend 4 hours writing a night is suddenly not something I really want to do. And with my full-time job becoming more and more involved and important to me, I need to focus all my time there. After all, it pays the bills.
So that is the explanation for why I told Jason that I think I needed to step down. Amazingly, he was at the same place. Just shows you how great a partnership we had together.
And speaking of that, I wanted to make sure this post was focused mainly on all of you who helped make this site what it is.
First off, I’m grateful to Jason for joining this venture with me and doing all he could to make it awesome. I truly believe we had something great here, and if we had the time and energy to see it to completion, I think Pop Critics could have been huge. He’s been a great friend and ally here and the dedication he had to the site was amazing.
I’m really going to miss working with him.
Next, I want to thank Richard Porter for his tireless work in writing recaps for us every single week. From Charlie Jade, to Burn Notice and The Middleman, not to mention a few interviews and commentaries, he’s been an unbelievable blessing to us and brought our site an air of quality and uniqueness. He was also planning on recaps for Dollhouse and Friday Night Lights too, so it kind of sucks to not get the chance to see those make it here.
I can’t thank him enough.
Also to Shawn, Julie, David, Nicky, Adam, Jeff, Jina and Ana…thank you for recaps, movie reviews and your participation on the site. We were so indebted to you for your help.
In fact, to so many of our commenters. My wife Jina, Shawn (The Trousered Ape), Cap’n Schwartz, Scotty Dub, Adrian, Dadofiandi, Sean, RobertB, Pariah, RavenSpinner and countless others I’ve forgotten: You guys are what drove me to write everyday. Knowing you’d read our stuff, comment and start discussions made all of this so much fun.
Giving this up is hard. Most of you who know me understand that I have this crazy urge to write about stuff I like and to talk about TV shows and nitpick each and every episode. Not doing the Heroes recap on Monday was tough for me. I wanted to TALK about it with you all and see what you thought. I love to pass on my opinions and tell you what I think.
I like to help people find those good shows and movies that they’d otherwise miss out on. It’s what I do.
(on a side note, if you’ve not rented In Bruges yet, do it. That’s my final recommendation to you guys.)
So not doing this anymore on a regular basis will be difficult for me. But I think it’s important to let it go and focus on my wife, the little baby girl on the way and my real career.
Still, like I suspect, some of you will be missing me big time, so you can still follow along with random stuff over on my personal blog, or on twitter or facebook. While I wont be slaving to write stuff like I have in the past, I will always be writing something here and there and perhaps even talk about shows and things that I want my friends to watch or check out.
You can’t keep a good scientist down (or so says Doc Brown), so my keyboard will always be typing something. I plan on taking some of the spare time I’ll have now to get back to work on my book and to catch up on some novels and comics I need to be reading. Pariah just recommended Fear Agent to me, so I’m going to have to check that out.
Pop Critics has been pretty awesome for me. I’ve learned a ton about comics, which is something I never got into until his year. A bunch of you have helped me find the good stuff and really led me down an awesome path into a medium of storytelling that I never appreciated. I will still be visiting Atomic Comics every Wednesday, looking for the next chapter in a story or perhaps discovering something brand new.
Pop Critics also been a great tool to hone my writing skills and interests, and hopefully you all enjoyed what I had to say. One of my all-time favorite posts, mostly because of the reaction it got, was my article about Keifer Sutherland when he went to jail last year.
I guess I’m rambling now, and that’s probably because it’s so hard to let it go. I truly hope all of our readers out there understand why were are doing this and will be able to find other places for their recaps and news (don’t worry, there are billions out there, although none as good as us *grin*).
I think the biggest regret for me is letting some of you guys down who visit the site everyday to get your daily dose of what we think is awesome.
Again, I will miss this place big time, I will miss writing and interacting with all of you on a daily basis. I’m so very proud of what we did here, this site will always mean a great deal to me and I have all of you to thank for that.
Be well, and always feel free to contact me if you need anything.
I titled the post with that famous end quote from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and I’m going to leave you with one from Serenity, a movie that was born from one of my most favorite shows ever, Firefly. No matter how many times I see the end scene with River and Mal in the cockpit, this line never fails to choke me up. Damn you Mal Reynolds.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: But it ain’t all buttons and charts, little albatross. You know what the first rule of flyin’ is? Well I suppose you do, since you already know what I’m about to say.
River Tam: I do. But I like to hear you say it.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Love. You can know all the math in the ‘Verse, but take a boat in the air you don’t love, she’ll shake you off just as sure as the turning of worlds. Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells ya she’s hurtin’ ‘fore she keens. Makes her home.
River Tam: Storm’s getting worse.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: We’ll pass through it soon enough.
Sad to see it end – it was a fun ride. Thanks for letting me contribute – I really enjoyed it! Thanks to all the other posters who I have become friends with over the last several months – I've enjoyed reading your comments and will miss our “nearly” daily interaction.
Shawn
Gonna miss the posts and great banter that happened in the comments!
And I heartily second your recommendation for “In Bruges.”
Seeya around, guys!
Thanks man, good luck to you!
I'm just glad I still have an “in” with “someone” who will tell me what to watch at any given hour of the day.
Sayeth Cartman: “You guys suck. I'm going home.”
Seriously, thanks for running a great site and giving me a venue for my over-long recaps and rants. Now I just need to figure out who to coerce into giving me a soapbox half as good!
I'll miss your site. I wish you the best of luck.
Wow! I haven't been recappin' for the site long, but it didn't take much to see the passion and community that the two of you were trying to create. This was definately a great site, but I can completely understand why they two of you have made the decision that you did. I wish you the best of luck.
I can't imagine that it's that hard to find a good site out there that needs writers
I'll write a recommendation if you want 
Thanks Belle!
I think you'll be giving me more news now
This was just becoming part of my OCD. I totally understand the rationale for your decisions. I am sure to harass in other formats
If you think that, you haven't checked Alexa rankings lately.
You guys were really rocking.
That last scene in Firefly (also my favorite TV show ever), always chokes me up too. The people in my office are going to think someone died….Where is my tissue?
Anyway, I'll miss PC and everyone here. Thanks again for all the work to this site Mike and Jason and all the additional writers. I loved every minute I got to spend at PC.
Oh, there is no doubt you will
So glad someone else shares that same sentiment about that final scene…such a good one.
Thanks again Raven for being a part of it!
Thanks for being a part of it!
And I agree that In Bruges was good…although I'm not going to say it was the best movie I've seen all year or anything…alas, I guess we won't get to argue these points much longer.
At least I still have AnaDVR…
Ah man!
Yeah we were.
Thank you, Julie. We appreciate your recent contributions. I'm sorry we didn't stick around long enough to read more from you.
I think it was a part of a lot of people's OCD – including ours! Thanks for sticking with us so long.
On a side note Julie, your Gossip Girl recap has been getting LOTS of hits
thats cause gossip girl is where its at yo! don't ever let them tell you otherwise! haha.
ROTFL!!! Point!
Does that mean I still have to record Dancing with the Stars for you?
*sigh*
LOLOL omg thats funny…. =) I'm gona miss daily Jinaisms =(
sonova…!!!
Man…. I going to stop liking stuff a ton, thats it, I swear. Everytime I frakkin like something they cancel it. So now I love PC (because how can you not!!), it has the coolest reviews, interesting opinions, just about THE GREATEST BACK AND FORTH banter ever, guaranteed daily (hell HOURLY) laughs, the NEATEST COOLLEST commentors and writers, and here they go and put it on the Jounreyman pile, which if you think of it, might be fitting. This partnership you guys had was really cool, put to shame any other site trying to do the same. This was a journey you guys took, and in its season long run, as just damn awesome and will always leave us (ok, me) yearning for a ton more. I guess the saddest thing for me will be the lack of DAMN LOST RECAPS SINCE YOU GOT ME TO WATCH ALL OF THE SEASON…..sonova…..ok not the saddest thing, but its up there. i'll tryly miss everyones comments to the well written articles. So with Jasons post I gave a BSG quute, for Mike's post I'll give a final quote from Journeyman to mark the end of a really awesome adventourous journey this site has taken me on….
PC we will definitley miss you, but if you ever want to come back “we'll leave a light on for you…”
I didn't even think about missing out on the Lost discussions. DANG!
Well, i'll email everyone later in January and have you all find A Mike Life and we'll talk Lost there…because you know I'll be WANTING to talk about it.
See Im good for something…. The Cap'n doesnt have 29 pts for spelling correctly !!
Sureeeeeeeeeeee watch 4 seasons of Lost, you'll really like it, you can discuss it on our site …. for a bit…. WHAP! =D
Man, this sucks.
30 points!
Tell me about it Adam
HAHA – you fell right into our trap! That was our evil plan all along!
Seven months we waited to drop the bomb! Oh man, you should have seen the look on your face!…er…avatar…well, you should have seen the look on my face when I was imagining the look on your face! Priceless!
Well this bleeping sucks. I've been a lurker for awhile but definitely have enjoyed the recaps. Too bad you can't keep it alive but if you're interested holler, maybe it's possible to get your lives back and keep it going…
Woop! there goes the best source for news! Still I understand where your at and I am glad you made the decision to spend more time on the baby when it pops out! I wish you the best of luck with both family and your career
Uh…isn't that your job?
I'm kidding – I had to get one more shot in.
I didn't even think about LOST coming back and the vacuum this place will leave when it comes discussion time…ugh.
boo hoo! although i have been MIA lately with all of the stuff going on with Claire, i will really miss PC! but i totally understand your reasoning and can't wait to see where life's new journeys take you and Jina in the coming months. i really enjoyed getting to “know” some of the commenters on here and wish you all the best!
and i forgot to mention what i will NOT miss. seeing my hubby's creepy mullet picture on his comments! yuck.
Don't worry babe. I'll still wear it at night.
; ( Sad sad day. It's like finding out you have a terminal illness. That's how fun it was coming here. ; )
We had Dexter coming up. LOST. And who knows what else you would surprise us with. Your recaps were awesome. Very funny and well written. Thanks for holding out as long as you did. I appreciate it. It was a lot of fun.
Wow, I am surprised! But I get it… running a site is hard, hard, tiring work. I wanted to say thanks for the opportunities even though I haven't written anything for the site in ages. And also thanks for bringing us all something to read everyday. I didn't comment as much as I probably should have but I don't think I ever missed an article. I'll be keeping in touch.
Not sure anyone's ever called us the antithesis of a terminal illness before but it sounds like a pretty good compliment so I'll take it!
LOLOLOLOL……
lol =D
I keep playing a Dumb and Dumber scene over in my head relative to this site going away….
You can see it here 6th one down called Goodbye my Love…
http://www.blueafro.com/tributes/dumbanddumber/...
Come on now everybody sing the hit single from Drive Shaft…”Weeeeeee are everybodyyyyyy… weeeee are everybodyyyyy….”