Board James is a Cinemassacre-produced series written by and starring James Rolfe as the titular character Board James, a typical laid-back nerd who reviews games, similar to the Angry Video Game Nerd.
However, Board James reviews board games and usually has some friends accompanying him, including Motherfucker Mike, a dirty cheater, and Bad Luck Bootsy, an eccentric and extremely accident-prone board gamer.
The first few episodes follow continuity-less board game reviews, but it frequently sinks into a serious horror-movie tone. This is first displayed with the Mr. Bucket episode, and fully embraced with the Dream Phone episode, following a storyline where James supposedly murders Mike and Bootsy in a psychotic fit and spends the rest of the episodes playing alone or trying to resurrect them, and is eventually successful.
Many hints are dropped in the 24th episode of a possible connection between the Nerd and Board James and this is confirmed in the 25th episode with the reveal of Board James and the Nerd being the same person.
The season three finale Nightmare establishes that the Board James universe is Inception-style where each time the characters die, they enter into a new board game world and so on, with whoever enters first being the Game Master and the one in control.
Cast
- James Rolfe as Board James/Angry Video Game Nerd (27/27 episodes)
- Mike Matei as Motherfucker Mike (18/27 episodes)
- Brendan Castner as Bad Luck Bootsy (10/27 episodes)
Episodes
Note: Most episodes debut on the same date on Cinemassacre and YouTube. If the debut dates are different, they will be listed chronologically.
Season 1
| Episode № | Overall Episode № | Episode | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Mouse Trap | April 14, 2009 |
| 2 | 2 | Dragonstrike | May 27, 2009 |
| 3 | 3 | Crossfire | July 17, 2009 (YouTube) July 27, 2009 (Cinemassacre) |
| 4 | 4 | Weapons and Warriors | September 7, 2009 |
| 5 | 5 | Fireball Island | January 18, 2010 (YouTube) February 3, 2010 (Cinemassacre) |
| 6 | 6 | Deadly Danger Dungeon | March 26, 2010 (Cinemassacre) April 7, 2010 (YouTube) |
| 7 | 7 | HeroQuest | April 14, 2010 (Cinemassacre) May 11, 2010 (YouTube) |
| 8 | 8 | Mr. Bucket | May 11, 2010 (Cinemassacre) June 3, 2010 (YouTube) |
Season 2
| Episode № | Overall Episode № | Episode | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 | Tornado Rex | September 15, 2010 (Cinemassacre) November 16, 2010 (YouTube) |
| 2 | 10 | TMNT | May 24, 2011 (Cinemassacre) June 19, 2011 (YouTube) |
| 3 | 11 | Key to the Kingdom | June 10, 2011 (Cinemassacre) September 6, 2011 (YouTube) |
| 4 | 12 | Donut Disaster | August 17, 2011 (Cinemassacre) September 23, 2011 (YouTube) |
| 5 | 13 | Loopin' Louie (Live at PAX 2011) | September 9, 2011 (Cinemassacre) September 27, 2011 (YouTube) |
| 6 | 14 | Monster Madness | September 23, 2011 (Cinemassacre) September 29, 2011 (YouTube) |
| 7 | 15 | Battle Masters | November 24, 2011 (Cinemassacre) December 12, 2011 (YouTube) |
| 8 | 16 | Splat! | December 13, 2011 (Cinemassacre) November 12, 2014 (YouTube) |
| 9 | 17 | Doggie Doo | January 25, 2012 (Cinemassacre) May 1, 2014 (YouTube) |
| 10 | 18 | Shark Attack | November 19, 2012 (Cinemassacre) February 17, 2015 (YouTube) |
| 11 | 19 | Dream Phone | April 1, 2013 |
Season 3
| Episode № | Overall Episode № | Episode | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 | Omega Virus | April 1, 2015 |
| 2 | 21 | Lie Detector | May 3, 2015 |
| 3 | 22 | Ouija/Domino Rally | June 1, 2015 |
| 4 | 23 | Wacky Blasters | July 3, 2015 |
| 5 | 24 | Full House & Do The Urkel | August 4, 2015 |
| 6 | 25 | Video Games!! (with AVGN) | September 5, 2015 |
| 7 | 26 | 13 Dead End Drive | November 1, 2015 |
| 8 | 27 | Nightmare and Beyond | December 4, 2015 |
Bonus Episodes
- The Making of Board James - March 12, 2015 (YouTube), March 17, 2015 (Cinemassacre)
- Board James - Dream Phone (Commentary) - March 18, 2015
- Board James Mythology Explained - December 8, 2015
Trivia
- Due to the reveal of Board James and the Nerd being the same person, many fans have speculated that the Board James series is either a prequel to AVGN or a sequel. However, James Rolfe has revealed that The Nerd is Board James's split personality, although Rolfe has also said that he sees the two entities as separate ones, hinting that Board James may be imagining that part as well, or there may exist an alternate universe, where they are two identities in the same person.
- As explained in the Board James Mythology Explained video, the release dates of each Board James episode has a secret message when taking the date numbers.
April 1 = 1
May 3 = 3
June 1 = 1
July 3 = 3
August 4 = 4
September 5 = 5
November 1 = 1
December 4 = 4
If you take the last four numbers and convert them into words, the message reveals itself as "1313 DEAD". - Also explained in the Board James Mythology Explained video, the hats that board james wears: Apple, Frankinstein, Top Gun, Empire Strikes Back, RCA and the Skull that means death. If you take the first letters of each of the first 6, A-F-T-E-R Death = After Death.
- You can also see that Board James's T-Shirts get increasingly darker by episode: White, Orange, Light Grey, Blue, Navy then Black.