issue 12// vol 46

Tune in and Dropout: New
season of ‘Dimension 20’ serves

as a love letter to NYC

» ‘Dimension 20: The Unsleeping City’ television review

Jacey Gibb
Distribution Manager

keen

The jokesters over at CollegeHumor
launched their own comedy streaming
platform Dropout TV. I'm here to tell
you if their exclusive content is worth the
subscription fee.

 

t feels weird typing this, but when
Dropout launched just over a year ago,

I didn’t even like Dungeons and Dragons.
I'd played a smackling of times over the
years, using the odd invitation as mainly
a vehicle to hang out with friends, but it
rarely held my interest. Dimension 20:
Fantasy High lured me in with promises of
regular doses of veteran CollegeHumor cast
members who had otherwise moved on
from the company. Before long, catching
new episodes had been integrated into my
weekly routines, and I even started my own
campaign IRL. Suffice it to say, I was a fan.

Now in its third season, Dimension 20
is a crown jewel of Dropout, and probably
the reason why I'll never cancel my
subscription. A certain standard has been
set with the previous seasons, and dungeon
master Brennan Lee Mulligan nails the
hattrick with The Unsleeping City.

The titular city of the season is New
York City, a bustling, grimy metropolis
where mystery and adventure lurk around

 

every street corner—and that’s just the
non-magical side of NYC. Turns out this is
only “The Waking World,” one facet of our
reality, while The Unsleeping City exists
in tandem. There's a lot of groundwork
laid in the first few episodes, but once the
storyline takes off, the duality becomes a
major player.

One of the first season’s (many)
highlights was the ineffable chemistry
between the six cast members Siobhan
Thompson, Brian Murphy, Emily Axford,
Lou Wilson, Zac Oyama, and Ally
Beardsley. Thankfully, everyone's back
around the table, though now as different
characters. Whereas in season one |

Still of ‘Dimension 20' via GeekTyrant.com

found myself gravitating towards certain
favourites, this season is truly a cast of
MVPs. From Thompson’s Misty Moore, a
veteran Broadway star to Axford’s recently
divorced hairstylist tragically based on
Staten Island, there are classic NYC tropes
laced through the characters, but they all
feel truly unique.

Season three also plays with internal
conflict in a way that previous seasons
shied away from. When you have six players
working cooperatively, there’s a tendency
for D&D campaigns to forgive and forget
easily for the sake of group cohesiveness.
This season, Beardsley’s Pete the Plug acts
as both a wild magic sorcerer but also a

J-Pop Spotlight: Arashi

» The greatest boy band you didn’t know about

Jerrison Oracion
Senior Columnist

 

pologizes to any fans of New Kids

on The Block, Backstreet Boys, One
Direction, and BTS. In my opinion, Arashi
is the greatest boy band of all time. They
have been making music for 20 years
now—much longer than most boy bands.

Earlier in January, the group
announced in a video message to their
fan club members—and later in a press
conference—that the group's career will
finish in December of 2020. This is because
the captain of the group and lead member,
Satoshi Ohno, wants to focus on his life
outside the entertainment industry. The
five-member group is part of the male
groups in Japan called Johnnys, which
is named after their late producer, Los
Angeles born Johnny Kitagawa.

The name of the group, Arashi, means
storm in Japanese. Their self-titled debut
single combined pop, hip hop, and rap—
something that was previously unheard
of. The end of the music video of the song
shows an iconic image of the group and is
the beginning of a long career. Unlike most
boy bands, the group is still relevant today
and they are seen everywhere, even starring
in films and shows—including their weekly
NTV show, Must Be ARASHI!, and the
infamous Fuji TV gameshow, VS Arashi.

Ohno is the most popular member
of the group since he is the lead of most
of their singles and has major roles in TV
shows—including a famous character
named Kaibutsu kun in Little Monster. The
group wrote “Monster,” the theme song of
that show. Jun Matsumoto (Nicknamed
MJ) usually does the rap sections of their
songs.

An interesting fact about another of
the band’s members, Sho Sakurai, is that he
is one of the hosts of NTV’s main newscast,
News Zero, where he does special sports
reports. Masaki Aiba is also usually seen
in shows and does some of the rapping in
their songs. My favourite member in the
group, Kazunari Ninomiya (nicknamed

Nino), is well known internationally

for playing a major character in Clint
Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima. He isa
great actor, as he displays.

Most of their hit singles have a variety
of styles—but often have a disco flare
and are both fun and serious. Some of
my favourite songs of the group include,
“Typhoon Generation,” “Lucky Man,”
“Happiness,” “Step and Go,” “Wild at
Heart,’ and “Guts!”

After they announced that the group
will end, they released a best of album
called 5x20, started a YouTube channel,
opened social media accounts, announced
a world tour, and made their music
available on streaming services—leading

oe

 

arts // no. 7

wildcard for the storyline, as his selfish
actions continuously endanger the group
(and New York City). A tension develops
early on between Pete and Wilson’s
Kingston Brown, which results in some
tense, and therefore juicy, storytelling.

And of course, the man behind the
iron curtain, Brennan Lee Mulligan, is
back. Mulligan’s rich world-building
and storytelling have been a personal
inspiration for me in my own D&D
campaigns, and he’s outdone himself with
this whimsical take on New York City.
Mulligan’s a continuous defender of NYC—
check out his sketch for CollegeHumor
called “Don't Trash Talk New York” to see
him in his natural element—and season
three feels like both a takedown but also
a love letter to one of the world’s most
infamous cities.

The previous two seasons of
Dimension 20 set the bar impossibly high,
in terms of cast, creativity, and storyline,
and yet The Unsleeping City matches those
heights in leaps and bounds. From the
whirlwind premiere to the heartbreaking
finale, The Unsleeping City will have you
reaching for your “I <3 NYC” T-shirt like
never before.

You can watch clips of The Unsleeping
City on YouTube, while the entirety of
Dimension 20 season three is available on
Dropout now.

to the group’s next hit single and first
digital single, “Turning Up.” The music
video of the song is directed by a Canadian
music production company—The Young
Astronauts—and is an introduction to the
group for fans new to J-Pop. It reminds
me of music videos of boy bands in the
1990s, and it proves that they are finally
mainstream in North America. It was
filmed in partially in Los Angeles in a
variety of places, including Hollywood
Boulevard.

The history of Arashi describes why
they are the greatest boy band of all time.
While they are doing a lot of major events
in their last year, the storm is still definitely
coming.

Still from ‘Turning Up' music video on YouTube