Author Archives: Jesse Schaffer

Better Call Saul is Perfectly Serviceable, and that’s the Problem

Posted on by

The challenge that Better Call Saul came up against when it premiered was how it could create drama even though it’s destination has already been predetermined. We know that Jimmy McGill ultimately becomes Saul Goodman, who develops a reputation as the top “criminal” lawyer in all of Albuquerque and like all criminals, sees his reign come to an end.

Prequels don’t often have the luxury of surprising the audience, so no one is holding their breath hoping that Jimmy has a chance as a legitimate attorney or that he’ll make amends with his brother, Chuck. The question is if the show can keep people invested even if they know where things are going. Better Call Saul is in its third season now, so someone out there is paying attention to what’s happening. Personally, a lot of my interest was riding on whether or not Jimmy would get lucky with Kim. Score one for the guy who looks like Kevin Costner.

And while the pre-Breaking Bad escapes of Slippin’ Jimmy hint at greatness and occasionally even delivers it, there’s just not enough substance to make me forget that I’m watching a prequel. When I’m constantly reminded of what awaits these characters in the future, I find myself wishing that I was watching Breaking Bad instead.

Continue reading →

Romo’s Back Could Support Broncos Playoff Run (or it Could Break by August)

Posted on by

Ah, the NFL offseason. Where the rumors are rampant and the desperation even more so. If your team is active in free agency and loves making big splashes, then the start of the league year is like a second Christmas. For us Broncos fans, John Elway may as well be Santa Claus, because he usually delivers an assortment of shiny new toys every March. Except last year, but hey he helped bring us a Super Bowl. How greedy are you people?

Anyway, there is one rumor that keeps coming up that I just can’t ignore. That of course is the prevailing theory that the Broncos are the front-runners to be Tony Romo’s rebound if the Cowboys file for divorce. You never know what will happen with these kinds of relationships, especially in Texas, but it seems likely that Romo and the Cowboys have reached a crossroads. The question of the day is whether or not Romo is even worth pursuing, or if at this point he is just damaged goods.

Let’s be clear on one thing: signing Peyton Manning was as good as punching an annual ticket for a first-round bye, and clearing a path to the Super Bowl. Signing Tony Romo is more like scheduling your annual eye-exam a year in advance, but then that appointment comes around and it’s not that great of a fit for you anymore. You may not have liked that joke very much (stay with me, I’m warming up), but you can at least agree with me when I say that there is a very clear difference between bringing in the Sheriff and bringing in a guy that probably dresses like one.

So here’s what I’m going to do: I’ll gave you three reasons for why signing Tony Romo would be beneficial for the Broncos, in my humble opinion, and three reasons for why it would make me extremely nervous. You with me so far? Okay, let’s do it.

Continue reading →

Time To Let the Nuggets Back Into Your Lives

Posted on by

More than any other sport, being a fan of a basketball team is a lot like being in a relationship. Relevance in the NBA is predicated upon individual star power, so if your team has a star you tend to grow a lot more attached to him than you would for a football or baseball player. Don’t believe me? Just look at how Lebron James turned the entire city of Cleveland into a legion of jealous ex-wives when he bolted for South Beach. They burned his jersey, cursed his name and only granted him visitation rights a couple of times a season (and only because that was out of their control). Ultimately, the pain wasn’t alleviated until Lebron wanted to come back, and Cleveland was more than ready to get back together with him. Oklahoma City may say they’ll never forgive Kevin Durant, but I bet they would too if given the chance.

It sounds weird, I know, but let’s look at Denver’s last basketball marriage. Carmelo Anthony broke all of our hearts very much in the same manner, except instead of chasing a title like Lebron did, Melo just wanted to be another rich guy in New York. I was texting Kevin yesterday and we found ourselves talking about this very subject (no, there’s nothing strange about that!), then he summed up our seven-year relationship with Melo in two sentences: “It was just a marriage with one sided love. We are still recovering from that.”

If you used to follow the Nuggets but have largely ignored them for the past few years, that’s probably why in a nutshell. When Melo packed up all his shit and left in the dead of night, we carried on as best we could afterward. Even had a couple of pretty entertaining seasons while we tried to forget about him. But things bottomed out. The Nuggets faded back into irrelevance and we looked on in envy at all the other happy cities with their own superstars. There hasn’t been much hope that we would ever truly recover.

Until now.

Continue reading →

Vance Joseph Could Be the Coach We Need, and the One We Deserve

Posted on by

The announcement of Vance Joseph as the next head coach of the Denver Broncos was met largely with anger and confusion. I’ve described this process as a search for the best bad option, because there was so much unknown and risk involved to truly feel good about any of the available candidates.

And yet, the more I let this marinate, the better I started to feel. If you’re still pissed off or puzzled as to why Joseph ultimately wound up being the choice, maybe this will help bring you around. If Kyle Shanahan represents the coach that Broncos fans wanted, the flashy X’s and O’s guy whose offense may catapult Atlanta to its first Super Bowl victory, then Joseph teeters at the other end of that spectrum. He’s the coach we deserve, not for his ability to coordinate a defense, but for his knack at getting players to fall in line and do whatever it takes to win. If need be, they will go down kicking and screaming, as John Elway demands.

There are coaches who are better suited as coordinators instead of running an entire team. Why can’t the same be true of men who are fit to lead the entire 53-man roster, more so than designing gameplans for one side of the ball? Is that such a crazy idea?

Continue reading →

Telltale’s The Walking Dead: Season 2 Review

Posted on by

“We’ve all made mistakes. Done things that we regret. It may not be perfect, but we look out for each other.” 

I had intended to be finished with both seasons of Telltale’s Walking Dead game, as well as the Michonne spin-off entry, before the first two episodes of season 3 were released. You know what they say: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

I mean, hopefully I’m not going to hell just because I took too long to beat a video game. That would be an embarrassing reason to be subjected to eternal damnation. Anyway, I finally got through my playthrough of season 2 on the Playstation 4, so now it’s time to talk about it. It wasn’t as well-received as season 1, but it was still SO much better than the TV show.

How much better? Well, pull up a chair, hit the jump and I’ll explain it to you. There will be no spoilers for season 2, but if you haven’t played season 1, I would tread lightly here. Spoilers are hard to avoid.

Continue reading →

Game of Thrones: Season 1 Review

Posted on by

When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.

There has probably never been a quote in the history of television that laid a path for an entire series like that zinger from Cersei did. For all of its complexity, depth and shocking turns, Thrones is a pretty basic show at heart. Those who play the game either wind up victorious or six feet under. Or burned alive. Or flayed. Or killed only to be brought back as a mindless husk. People are very particular about the way that they like to kill in this world.

I have done reviews for Thrones in the past, but they are very much a mirror of Pegboards’ activity level (and by result, my level as a writer). Now that we are heading into the final two seasons of this sprawling, epic saga, I am running out of opportunities to write about it and be somewhat timely, so I thought it would be fun to look back at the series and see if there is any singular storyline or character that catches my eye. It only makes sense to start with season one.

And of course there will be major spoilers for season one and much of the series, but if you haven’t caught up by now, what the hell are you waiting for?

Continue reading →

Telltale’s The Walking Dead: Season 1 Review

Posted on by

(Update, 12/9/16: With The Walking Dead: A New Frontier coming out in a little over a week, I thought this would be a good time to review the first few Walking Dead games in Telltale’s library. Then I remembered that I already have reviewed Season 1, and there’s not much point in doing it again. Even though the bugs and framerate issues are much better when playing on the PS4, this is still the same game, I still think it’s great and Kevin still hasn’t played it. Maybe you could guilt him into doing so in the comment section. Otherwise, my original review follows.) 

The next generation of video game consoles are here, and we here at Pegboard couldn’t care less. Not only are those new systems horribly overpriced and riddled with numerous technological issues, but at this point there are hardly any games worth owning anyway. Meanwhile, there are a bunch of titles from this generation that Kevin and I have yet to play, and it just makes a lot more sense to us to focus on those before we even consider dropping half a grand on a new console. Thus, we are happy to start our own series of video game columns, where we will be reviewing some of our favorites from the current-gen systems. Or I guess they are now the last-gen systems? I know, it’s confusing.

First up: Telltale Games’ critically acclaimed episodic adventure, “The Walking Dead: The Game.”

Continue reading →

Depleted Nuggets Can’t Get Out of their Own Way

Posted on by

About a month ago, I predicted that this would be the year that the Denver Nuggets made it back to the playoffs. That despite their stacked division and the absence of a star, this would be the year that Michael Malone started to make good on the promise of his talented young roster.

About a quarter of the way through the season, you would probably look at the Nuggets’ 8-13 record and guffaw. “Playoffs?! Don’t talk about playoffs, Jesse! Not when it comes to the Nuggets!”

I’ll admit, things haven’t started out as well as I’d hoped they would. Maybe I oversold the Nuggets’ chances or I’m just a supremely bad judge of the sort of components that comprise a winning basketball team (the latter could always be true). However, though the 2016-17 voyage has been rocky thus far for the hometown team, I believe that the flaws that are currently holding them down can be erased sooner rather than later. Let’s go over those and I’ll tell you why.

Continue reading →

Dr. Strange is Just Marvel Being Marvel

Posted on by

You ever know someone who seems to have everything work out for them? My buddy Nick is like that when it comes to fantasy football. He’s won our league the last two years and could very well come out on top again this season, but the surprise is no longer the fact that he’s successful. The rest of us are used to that, whether we like it or not. What really perplexes us is how he achieves that success. He’s drafted a team that has won a championship. He’s had one autodrafted for him that won a championship. Certain players will perform below expectations on our teams and then experience a career renaissance on his. If any of us try to emulate what he does in the hope of reaping similar rewards, it blows up in our face.

What I’m getting at is that Nick is the Marvel Studios of our fantasy league: he is untouchable and seemingly unstoppable.

Look no further than Dr. Strange, the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that absolutely would not work anywhere else, and yet there it is making more money and garnering more acclaim for a studio that could go to the bathroom and poop out a successful film. Again, the surprising thing isn’t that a good Dr. Strange movie exists. It’s that it exists and none of us are shocked to see it happen.

(In case you were wondering, my fantasy team is more like the DC Cinematic Universe: it looks good on paper but no one else is ever impressed by it and it winds up tanking every year)

Continue reading →

Nuggets Are Primed to Shock the Basketball World (And Probably You)

Posted on by

A few years ago, I bought NBA 2K13 and Kevin and I started an Association Mode with his brother-in-law Josh. We wanted to play as the Denver Nuggets, but even more importantly wanted to have a star player on the team. Unable to swing a trade in the game without the computer completely pilfering all of our talent, I simply changed the rosters so that James Harden was on the Nuggets (2K13 came out just after Harden was dealt to Houston and before the whole world found out that he doesn’t play defense). We embarked on an odyssey that saw our team claim four straight championships and establish a modern day dynasty. Alright, maybe we didn’t change the difficulty until year two or three, but that’s beside the point.

If all of that sounds rather corny, then it was the best kind of corny. When your favorite team doesn’t have a star or even a clue in real life, you know that you’re never going to see them hoist Larry O’Brien. You’re still intrigued by the drama of the playoffs and admire from afar when Lebron James finally gets Cleveland to the promised land, but it’s not your team basking in the champagne and the confetti. It’s just not the same. That’s why playing out the fantasy of the Nuggets actually being relevant in the landscape of the NBA was so satisfying. More than any of my teams, I want them to be the next one to break through that glass ceiling.

And I honestly can’t tell you why I care so much about the Nuggets. Sure, they’ve been around for 50 years but have never even advanced to the NBA Finals. Denver isn’t a particularly lucrative basketball market and the last time it had a star, Carmelo Anthony wanted to leave so bad he was willing to fade into obscurity with the Knicks just so he could get away. Most importantly, to say that I personally lack game is an understatement. The bricks that I put up when I’m foolish enough to take shots are an insult to actual bricks. Much like dating, there is often no rational reason for why you fall in love with a certain team. It just happens.

The point of all this is that the Nuggets start their 2016-17 season tonight and I’m here to make you a promise. Maybe I’m losing my mind (always a possibility) or maybe I have my blinders on, but here it is: I promise that the Nuggets will be back in the playoffs this season. Not only will they be back, but they’ll be well-equipped to be a real nuisance once they get there. You read that right. If you don’t think I’m a complete lunatic, hit the jump and I’ll explain.

Continue reading →