The way weekly releases are set up for The Nostalgia Critic since its 2013 revival follows a specific pattern: a shorter, less emotional episode with little involvement from other actors (such as a list, an editorial, or a neutral retrospective on a movie rather than a scathing riff) will come between larger, sketch-heavy reviews. This allows more prep time for sketches in longer episodes and to give the recurring actors some time off. However, there are still episodes in the "larger episode" spot, and even some "smaller episodes" with less heavy content than usual. This is usually to allow Doug and company to prepare for particularly high-effort episodes, such as crossovers, clipless reviews, or episodes that further certain story arcs.
- "The Top 11 Most Awesome Movie Themes" is a more straight-forward list compared with the crossovers and convention appearances happening around the time, as well as the upcoming Series Fauxnale.
- The Top 11 Adult Jokes We Never Got as Kids was released between two big reviews, the musical and cameo-laden review of Les Miserables and the much hyped up review of The Last Airbender. It's only about seven minutes long and there's only a brief narration by the Critic at the beginning of the video, not even any reviewing, making it a standout even among his list videos.
- The The Swan Princess review is mostly Critic riffing on his own with low involvement from Tamara and Malcolm, coming between the Food Fight review which had some quite cinematic sketch scenes, and The Lorax (2012) which featured loads of Gratuitous Special Effects with Seussian illustrations.
- Small Soldiers is a simple rant on a movie coming off two big crossovers (Bloodrayne with Linkara, Spoony and Snob, The Purge with Film Brain and Rob Paulsen/Maurice LaMarche), and coming before The Princess Diaries 2, which was shot in an entirely different location and marked a big part of the Hyper Fangirl Story Arc.
- Care Bears Nutcracker is a very short review about the very harmless Care Bears franchise. This, after Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer had an intense music video about Critic's Christmas-related insanity, and A Christmas Story II had a fairly serious story that saw the return of Hyper Fangirl. The episode itself starts with Critic feeling depressed after Christmas, and choosing the movie for some semblance of holiday cheer (though he of course ends up regretting it).
- Mamma Mia! comes after the Wham Episode The Matrix Revolutions which actually resolved a Plot Thread for once. Because Rob, Tamara, and Malcolm leave him early in the story out of disgust that he's reviewing a chick flick, the episode is pretty casual and low on sketches barring the very beginning and end.
- Event Horizon is a basic review after the high-effort Mad Max: Fury Road clipless review, the crossover review of The Smurfs and a clipless review of Pixels.
- Ironically given how high energy clipless reviews usually are, The Force Awakens is just Snob and Critic watching a re-enacted version of the film. This, after the very personal, very continuity-driven, very character focus Christmas with the Kranks.
- The Adventures of Pluto Nash, sandwiched in between two gargantuan-effort reviews. It's acknowledged in-universe as well, as they all want a day off (Malcolm and Tamara to drink, Critic to get ready for a review he actually wants to do) and are mad at the audience for making them half-ass an episode instead.
- The Mummy (1999) in Nostalgiaween 2017 is super low-key, even with old style running gags, which is explained by the Nerd coming in at the end to join a crossover review of the 2017 remake next week.
