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127. We Should Have a Sleepover
18 Plays2 months ago
To start the new year off right, the two pals name their most anticipated TV series and movies of 2026. Simon & Adrian also review the series finale of The Duffer Brothers’s hit Netflix TV series’ Stranger Things. Plus, they discuss A Man on the Inside season 2, Slow Horses, The Walking Dead Season 11, and Fleabag. The two comrades also converse about the new Disney+ vertical video format, the strange conspiracy theory surrounding Stranger Things season 5, and MCU star Sebastian Stan’s recent casting in director Matt Reeves The Batman Part II.
This episode was recorded in Canada on January 11th 2026 (prior to the Golden Globes). Episodes air every two weeks on Tuesdays! Catch us on January 27th for Episode 128.
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Transcript
Anticipated Movies and TV Series of 2026
00:00:02
Speaker
This episode, we discuss our most anticipated movies and television series releasing in the year of our Lord, 2026. twenty six We review the series finale of the Netflix hit television series, Stranger Things. And we talk about Disney's push into vertical viewed content on Disney Plus and how they want to trap you. They want to hold you down and keep you stuck in that app. They don't want you to they they don't want you to think. They don't want you to feel anything but what they want you to think or feel. You're going to be stuck in Disney Plus for forever. You're not getting out of there. You're stuck. you're goingnna be You're going to be using Disney Plus reels, shorts. You're just going to be swiping up and down on Disney Plus. You're going stuck in there forever. That's what Disney wants. It's going to be all ag garbage probably.
00:00:49
Speaker
Whoa. Whoa. What's that? Let's tone down the
Podcast Introduction and Hosts Banter
00:00:53
Speaker
hyperbole. With new episodes airing every two weeks on Tuesdays, this is Split Focus, a film and TV podcast. I'm Charles Dickdreyer. And I'm Adrian Pinter. Welcome to episode 127. Episode 127. Episode 127.
00:01:30
Speaker
You got it one? You got a story for me? I don't have a story. Is this really how you're starting this? yeah I don't know. You just hit record and you're like, you got a story? And I was like, what? I don't know. I never said it. Well, don't i have anything. Well, you I invited you to New Year's and you didn't show up. And then you said that I wouldn't remember it and not bring it up this episode, but I'm bringing it up. Here we go. Boom.
00:01:51
Speaker
How's your New Year's? I wouldn't remember. I didn't say that. I don't know. Who cares? How was your New Year's? are you talking about? What? When did I say i would you wouldn't remember it? i wouldn't remember to bring it up.
00:02:03
Speaker
No. It's recorded on the podcast because that's not. I think I think so. That did not happen. I think it is. like two hours and 32 minutes into that episode.
00:02:14
Speaker
I don't think so. I don't think what you're saying is true. ah So you're hurt by this. Is that what you're saying? Nah, it's fine, man. I understand. It's cool, man. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about So what you're saying is your my social anxiety is is a joke to you.
00:02:29
Speaker
Let me write this down. how is that's ah That's a big leap there. That's a big leap there, Simon. I'm not saying it's a joke to me. Gosh, no. Gosh, I'm saying it's a joke. and I'm just kidding. We're both wearing pink shirts today.
00:02:43
Speaker
I know. Mine's not pink, though. What color is it? It's maroon. Get fucked. get We're really starting this episode. It's maroon. I'm not joking. And if you saw it, you'd be like, yeah, that's maroon.
00:02:57
Speaker
What's your problem?
New Year's Traditions and Chinese Food
00:03:00
Speaker
It's like the question of whether the dress is blue or black or gold or whatever the hell it was. God, no. Black and gold and blue. Dude, no one' no one's pointing at things and be like, wow, that's such a nice maroon shirt. They'd be like, that's a pink shirt.
00:03:13
Speaker
It's not pink. Yours is pink. Yours is hot. Mine is pink. Yeah, I agree with you. Mine is pink. We're agreeing on nothing so far, except for that. my old Best Buy Be Amazing shirt.
00:03:24
Speaker
Oh, that's nice. Is it signed? No. Oh, okay. It has a hole in the armpit, though. Oh, so it's like a pajama shirt? i don't know that's coming through. Yeah, this is my Lazy Day shirt. Sundays are for Lazy Day shirts.
00:03:35
Speaker
Okay. That's cool, man. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm sorry that I offended you that I didn't show up to get together. No, you didn't offend me, man. I'm being facetious. It's cool, man. I get it. I get it. I get it. What did you have a nice new year? Did you eat? We just chilled because a charcuterie board. ah We didn't do a charcuterie board. What do we eat? That's a good question. I can't remember. You ever have like Chinese food on New Year's like they do in the movies?
00:03:58
Speaker
No, me neither. Is that a thing in the movies? Yeah, isn't it like a thing in the movies where they're like, oh, let's get Chinese on New Year's. I used to, when my family was all together and not like separated across Ontario, we used to we used to get Chinese food when things like when shit hit the fan on Christmas Eve. Because my mom would always be so busy preparing for Christmas Day. There's so much prep she put into it. she would wait at her whole family over. And as she put so much effort into it. And then we were so like, generally we would eat salmon, like a salmon filet with some, you know, delicious sides at the same time on on Christmas Eve. But then sometimes there was like moments where like you would just be fed up because she was working so hard to get the thing like the Christmas day all prepped. And then we were just like,
00:04:47
Speaker
He's like, no, I can't do this. And then somebody like my brother would be like, let's just go to the Chinese restaurant and and the Chinese food restaurant and and go and and eat there. And then you're like, what? And so we did that a couple years. It was kind of strange break of tradition, but it almost became a tradition, which is kind of interesting. But I've never seen the that tradition of of New Year's.
00:05:05
Speaker
Isn't it? You're saying New Year's not New Year's. Yeah, isn't it? like you know like It's like the two detectives that are in a hotel room together, they're detecting, and then they're like, oh, let's order of some Chinese for on New Year's. It's New Year's Day. That sounds like a detective mystery trope. It has nothing to do with New Year's Eve at all. Yeah, I don't know. What are you talking about? Is that the only example you've got? Yeah, New Year's Eve Chinese...
00:05:33
Speaker
food trope. Okay. all right The Chinese food on New Year's Eve trope January 1st in North America stems from Chinese restaurants staying open while others close.
00:05:43
Speaker
Oh, that makes sense. It's a wise choice. Yeah, because Chinese New Year's on February 5th. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So this is a thing. Okay. I wasn't crazy. That's cool. yeah There's a brief minute. There's a brief minute there where I started questioning. I'm like, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm just fucking nuts.
00:06:00
Speaker
And you got me on the detective. The detective thing was like the worst possible example. There's lots of detective shows and movies where like you know the get Chinese food. Out of that like the you know the little cardboard boxes, that's a classic thing.
00:06:15
Speaker
But I never connected it with New Year's. That's just like a thing. they would was cool I was connected it to New Year's. I want to eat like Chinese food out of a cardboard box. I've never done it.
00:06:26
Speaker
I've never done it. I feel like it's a New York thing. Am I wrong? Yeah. That seems like a New York thing. i've never... We've actually been in New York together. was going say I've never been, but we went together like seven years Yeah,
00:06:37
Speaker
A few days. Yeah. Yeah. was cool. It was cool. It was. All right, man. Well, now that we both don't have stories and just wasted ah seven minutes, let's move on to let's move on to the...
00:06:51
Speaker
I what will it
00:07:09
Speaker
be taking it i know what it is look can i say Well, yeah, of course you
Upcoming Films: Resident Evil and 'The Odyssey'
00:07:13
Speaker
prepped. Yeah, this this episode, this episode will be taking a look at our picks for the most anticipated movies and TV shows launching in 2026. We've each chosen three seasons of TV and or movies and will present them in an alternating fashion. When you said you knew what it was, you meant I'm going to read it off the copy that I sent you.
00:07:32
Speaker
Yep. Well, that's great. that's Exactly what i meant. Excellent. Yeah. ah But yeah, let's do it. Let's just start with it, you know? Yeah, dude. Let's get it out of the way, man. Let's get it get it out of the way. Let's get it out of the way. It's chore. Yeah. This is a chore. Okay, buddy. Yeah. No, i'm just kidding. Okay. I'll to you first.
00:07:51
Speaker
What do you think? I got a few things, man. I got got i got i got a list of like probably like 12 things here, but I know we're we're doing three. So I'm going to going to pick a few and kind of leave a few out, even though I'm very excited about them, but I'll probably talk about them later anyways. OK, so my first thing, Simon, that I'm very excited for this year.
00:08:14
Speaker
Is Zach Kreger's Resident Evil movie? We don't know much about it, but I think right now, you know, Zach Kreger is two for two with his horror movies.
00:08:26
Speaker
Yes. I love Resident Evil. I'm very hyped. There's a new Resident Evil game coming out in February. The end of February, Resident Evil 9, Resident Evil Requiem. And I'm just in kind of a spooky, scary mood. You know, I want to see what this guy's going to do with this Resident Evil franchise because it's not based on any of the games. Like he's not doing the same story. He's just making it, you know, in the universe and something that's going to fit.
00:08:50
Speaker
So I'm very intrigued at what this guy This is Zachary Kreger is going to come up with, you know, from the whitest kids, you know, releasing two awesome horror movies and potentially a third awesome Resident Evil horror movie or a movie that is a Resident Evil movie.
00:09:11
Speaker
So that is my first selection of the year of excitement of 2026. Yeah. Okay. That's, that's interesting. I was just looking at it. I'm like, is it really coming out this year?
00:09:25
Speaker
Yeah. I think it's slated for like, ah this year it's in october yeah it is slated for this year apparently it's strange though because like i didn't i didn't see anything about the casting and we didn't talk about that on this show i don't think i thought we did talk about it because it's like paul walton hauser paul walter hauser he's casting it there's zach cherry's in it zach cherry is also in it john feel like we talked about this yeah he's john o wilson Is this an AI problem again?
00:09:58
Speaker
i don't know. Jono.
00:10:01
Speaker
John o Wilson. John. It's Johnny Wilson. No, it can't be right. John. Hold on. Take your time, man. There's no rush. There's no rush. We Well, you could just help me instead of just talking.
00:10:15
Speaker
You know, I mean, I don't know. i'm I'm looking it up, dude. There's ah Austin Abrams, Paul Walter Hauser, Zach Cherry and Callie Reese. That's that's from the quick Google search.
00:10:27
Speaker
You're saying he's not in this. I don't know who John O. Wilson is. I don't know who you're talking about. He's in it. He's in it. It's all on IMDb. I'm looking at it right now. Okay, whatever. It's going to be difficult.
00:10:39
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Yeah, I don't know. i don't I'm curious to see what this will be. But you you you have a better baseline for Resident Evil than I do, so I'm not sure I'm the correct person to talk about it. But yeah, it's interesting that he's getting it done. The turnaround is very quick.
00:10:52
Speaker
he's very yeah He's launching movies fairly quickly. Yeah. I wonder what the budget's like. don't know if that's been announced or predicted, but I'm not too you sure, man.
00:11:02
Speaker
I don't think so. But John O. Wilson, where have I seen this guy before? He was in the hit TV show Raven's Home. I've not seen him. I don't think I've never heard that name, John O. Oh, he's in searching.
00:11:18
Speaker
Maybe that's where I saw him. OK, maybe. because it's the only movie on this list that I've seen. in I feel like you could have easily picked. um I was leaving it for you.
00:11:30
Speaker
It's the Odyssey. Christopher Nolan's the Odyssey. It's very exciting. I mean, i don't think I could be possibly more hyped for a movie coming out this year. It looks insane.
00:11:41
Speaker
There are like there's like crazy amounts of of film being used to create this movie. It's a new IMAX. Two miles is is what you said? And then edited it out? Yeah, not two miles. Way more than two miles. Yeah.
00:11:54
Speaker
Yeah, now I can't remember that I'm out now and I feel stupid. It's like 40 something. It looks awesome. The cast looks amazing. there's the the The fact that there was like literally a new IMAX camera created to make this film. You know about this, right?
00:12:11
Speaker
The Keeley.
00:12:15
Speaker
What about you frozen? Jesus Christ. I'm listening. what do you want me to say? You're, I thought you were describing this camera to me, man. No, you said, yeah. I'm like, you know her about it? And you're like, yeah.
00:12:26
Speaker
I've heard that he, he made a new, uh, yeah. Like they're using a new camera. I don't know much about it, but I've heard of it. Jeff Keighley's parents made it. Yeah. Yeah. Jeff Keighley from the game awards. Yeah. They made, they made the, the camera.
00:12:40
Speaker
hu That's what they filmed the high guard trailer with. I think you think I'm joking, but I'm serious. They made this IMAX account. Is it actually Jeff Keighley's? Yes. Jesus.
00:12:51
Speaker
Oh. I thought you knew because I can't tell. You're just looking at me like I'm crazy. Jeff Keighley's parents have worked in IMAX or IMAX engineers. That's their claim to fame, I suppose.
00:13:02
Speaker
And so they they made this camera and it's called the Keely. And so when when ah when Jeff Keely's father passed away last year, Christopher Nolan made like ah kind of made a statement on his social media, or he doesn't really have social media, but he made a statement to various publications that he was really sad to hear this because he'd worked with the Keelys for such a long time because Christopher Nolan's kind of a force to be reckoned with in that space with IMAX. He's kind of moved the medium forward.
00:13:30
Speaker
So it's kind of neat. So that's why it's called the Keeley. But anyway, I thought you knew that. That's that's why you you're likem like, yeah i have I don't know. I'm not sure. Are you kidding or not? But I i wasn't kidding. he he He did do that.
00:13:42
Speaker
But it's cool. they They made a special camera for this. And the amount of, i think this is like a record-breaking amount of IMAX. Because the entire movie is filmed in IMAX, which is rare. I don't think there's, is there any other movie of this size in caliber and budget that's been filmed completely in IMAX? Especially because like,
00:13:58
Speaker
They're filming this on the water in an actual boat. There's that. and There's that. Obviously, Nolan's a big fan of special, like practical, practical effects. Yeah.
00:14:09
Speaker
Yeah. So it's kind of cool anyway. Yeah, that is really cool. So there's a camera waterproof. I imagine it I mean, I don't know. That's good. Let me look at how many how many yards of film.
00:14:26
Speaker
Yards. and Why yards, dude? We don't know yards. yeah I actually actually don't know what what the conversion of a yard is to like a number of proper measurement system.
00:14:39
Speaker
Yards. Yard.
00:14:43
Speaker
The suspense is killing me, Simon. Oh, let's see. Two million feet. Two million yards. The nice part about that is that means nothing to me. so Two million feet. Yards is, I think a yard is three feet roughly.
00:14:58
Speaker
So it's like a meter.
00:15:01
Speaker
A yard is like a meter. Yeah. It's not quite though to make it confusing. Yeah. Metric is really better in every way. Anyway, 2 million feet of film were shot during the 91 day production. According to this year, that equates 379 610 kilometers that's oh that's crazy that's a lot Yeah, it is. That's really far.
00:15:27
Speaker
How far is it from here to Ottawa? Let's see. Let's see. Ottawa. It's going to put in Ottawa.
00:15:35
Speaker
that's Super relevant. why you So we live in Guelph, Ontario. Give some background while you look it up. We live in Guelph, Ontario, and Ottawa is also in Ontario for those. That's 527 kilometers.
00:15:47
Speaker
So he has more film than us driving to Ottawa, distance-wise. Wow. That's incredible. That's crazy. What about Montreal? Let's put it in Montreal. A lot of work. No, I i think we're good. What's your next pick?
00:16:02
Speaker
You're excited for the Odyssey, though, right? Oh, very much so. ah yeah Yeah. Montreal is 620 kilometers away. So he filmed as much. film as as distance from here to montreal but pretty we we understand this because we live here but i feel like anyone else well i guess if someone else is listening who lives in your guelph it's kind of relevant i don't know who anyone cares anyway sure cool yeah that's good cool yeah i'm very excited for the odyssey um i mean christopher nolan can do no long wrong i think um
00:16:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's a star-studded cast, like, for one. And again, like, i just think any time Christopher Nolan comes out with something new, I'm going to be there day one. I want to watch it in in the theaters. It is crazy, though, because they put those tickets on sale, like, seven months ago.
00:16:51
Speaker
I think, like, they all sold out for the first week or in a bit. So, if we're going to watch we're going to have to wait a while. Specifically to watch it in IMAX, I mean. Yeah. Presumably, which is a shame. But whatever. That's showbiz, I guess.
00:17:05
Speaker
But no, great pick, man. Great pick. Another thing that I'm excited for, Simon. Yeah. I'm kind of i want to keep this fresh. You know, I want to keep this, you know, not the typical picks. OK, not the things that you'd expect.
00:17:17
Speaker
Yeah. What I'm very excited for is a movie that's going to come out called The Legend of Aang, The Last Airbender.
The Legend of Aang and Avengers: Doomsday
00:17:25
Speaker
which is full length feature film sequel to Avatar, the last airbender, the the TV show.
00:17:33
Speaker
Yeah. Animated, not not live action. Correct. important amazing Very, very important to say. Watched moments. Oh yeah. Cause I forgot there's the Netflix live action that's going on right now. Right. It's crazy. Also the M night Shyamalan movie.
00:17:47
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I never watched it. I don't need to. I don't think, but I'm very excited about this. um i'm ah I'm a huge fan of that series. i i didn't get into The Legend of Korra, which is like a sequel series, which is technically set after wherever this movie takes place.
00:18:03
Speaker
But um I think, you know, Avatar The Last Airbender is like one of the most perfect like shows for children that still hold up as an adult.
00:18:14
Speaker
I watched it when I was a kid and then I rewatched it, you know, a few years back as an ah ah adult and It's still just so well written. the voice acting is is is great. It is kind of a shame because I think a lot of the voice cast is recast in the movie because yeah they are aged up quite a bit.
00:18:30
Speaker
um But, you know, that's OK. But wait, the the build cast here is Kikui Kwan, Dave Bautista, Taika Waititi, Geraldine. Steven Yeun is in it as well. This one.
00:18:44
Speaker
This one, Vanath. I've never been able to say her name, but this one, ah event this one, a fan. Jesus, I i know how you're talking about, but I don't know how to pronounce her name either. I know exactly. Frida Pinto's in it, but there's like no you said it. Oh, you're saying they're aging up the actors in this or you're saying that they've it's a whole new cast. Yeah. Yeah, but they're all adults. That's what's so strange. Aren't these kind of kids in this series? They are. know the series. Yeah, and in in the series, they are children. So it makes sense that they're aging them up a lot. of Oh, I see. you' You're saying they're aging. I think you're kind of saying they're aged out. Oh, OK. I understand. So, yeah, this is a direct s sequel years later. That's cool.
00:19:24
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, that's that's pretty neat. Yeah, so I'm quite excited about this because, again, I think that the TV show is just like this perfect little, again, kids show, but still holds up for an adult. And I'm i'm like excited to you know watch that show with my like nephew and you know a few years time and everything. I just think it's it's so good. And ah the creative team behind this movie umm it's two of the three main guys from the original series. And I know they haven't had like a huge, like like a man of success as the other guy with their kind of avatar ah continuations, not, not, not blue avatar, but like avatar, the last airbender continuations. But don't know. still very excited about this. I'm curious how it's going to play out. And um I don't know. It's going to be nice to be back in that world with those characters as, you know, I don't know how many years later, 10, 15 years later
00:20:16
Speaker
Is it 10, 15 years later since the show aired? You mean? No, it's been over 20 years since the show finished, I think. So they kind of used the cast. That's kind of what I was trying to... Yeah.
00:20:28
Speaker
Because you didn't have to. You could have just followed it along and just used the cast. They just chose not to. It's crazy, though, it's star-studded. Because I bet that cast was not that star-studded. I don't know where that cast, but no I don't think pretty no-name voice actors. or I shouldn't say no-name. That's rude. But, you know, less known.
00:20:45
Speaker
Lesser known voice actors. Yeah, it a shame, though, because they did... like Paramount pulled it from the theatrical calendar. It was supposed to go to theaters and now they're just putting it straight on Paramount Plus.
00:20:57
Speaker
I think this came out like a few weeks ago, a couple weeks ago, which is annoying. um But hey, whatever, man, who cares? I'm going to watch it regardless. So yeah, that's fair Huh.
00:21:10
Speaker
That's cool. The cast is crazy. Okay, sweet. My next pick is a very mainstream as mainstream as it gets Adrian. I am very excited for this. I think that I'm not done with Marvel, the Marvel cinematic universe.
00:21:24
Speaker
No, I'm done with it. I don't care what people say. I am annoyed with the way that they're marketing this film currently, but Avengers doomsday. I'm very excited to see what the Russo brothers do with it. The directors of Avengers end game and infinity ward, infinity ward, infinity ward. Yeah. Yeah.
00:21:39
Speaker
they call Call of Duty ah studio Avengers Infinity War um but yeah so I'm really excited i just wish that their marketing department wasn't shit but other than that it's it's it looks it looks cool I'm i'm excited for it if if this movie is bad from a perspective of like it's badly written slash directed slash, well, won't be acted because the actors are crazy in it. It's like, you know, whatever it's going to be, it's going well acted, I think. um If it's bad, I think it's the end of the MCU as we know it.
00:22:11
Speaker
I think if it doesn't do well in theaters and if it's, I think part of that will be if it gets badly reviewed, I think it might not do that as well as it would in theaters. I feel like scores now are correlating more than ever to box office success in some way for Rotten Tomatoes. I don't know if you agree or disagree, but It's not always the case. It's not always a correlation. It's not always at the linear line. But there I feel like there is some things that – I feel like – this bad example. I was going to say the the game Concord. but But it kind of got a bad score. And then it did badly, but it also had a bunch of negative hype around it. But there's a lot of like movies –
00:22:45
Speaker
ah Like Morbius, you know, Morbius reviewed very badly. Kraven the Hunter, that that Sony superhero a thing. I think they kind of have to have all the, they have to have the perfect storm of good press for it to work. And I think that they got to have a good score and good hype behind it.
00:23:03
Speaker
to make it work. So the marketing has to kind of all work together and then it's going to do well. It won't be a promise to do well if it's reviewed well. Like if you look at the Fantastic Four movie, which didn't do as well as they had hoped, didn't fail by any means, I don't think at all.
00:23:16
Speaker
I think that they I think that was a success overall as much as Various places said it didn't succeed. i don't I don't think that's true. I think it made over $500 million at the box office, didn't it? But their their expectations are high, and that's always kind of the tricky thing. to speak Actually, to speak of Call of Duty, the Call of Duty this year, Black Ops 7, I think did remarkably well, but not remarkably well compared to other Call of Duty titles, if we're comparing it ah previous years as an example. And that's why they they seem to be a bit panicked over there at the studio, even though they're probably...
00:23:47
Speaker
top three minimum, if not the top selling game of the year, um I would say. But anyway, but yeah, they are panicked because they put a press release out and said, we hear what you're saying and we're listening. We're going to help. We're going to fix it. It feels like that's what Marvel's in that kind of state right now. Here's Nicki Minaj.
00:24:05
Speaker
Yeah. Here's Chris Evans. Oh, did you you miss Chris Evans? Here he is. It's Steve Rogers. you know did you know he's going to be in this? Remember when you already said bye to Patrick Stewart?
00:24:18
Speaker
He's back. He's back again, But this time it's different. That one I'm okay with. I don't. Because they announced it. They literally announced it with the chairs. Okay.
00:24:29
Speaker
I know. I know they That one's not as bad. that it's It's an interesting like trailer, I guess. But it's also just the fact of like this isn't the x like this isn't in the same universe of the X-Men that we watched, right? Because the Logan...
00:24:45
Speaker
universes in the main line X-Men universe that we watched. Right. So it's technically just Patrick Stewart playing the same character, but different. Am I crazy? I don't think that's true. The Logan Logan its own universe.
00:24:58
Speaker
I don't think they ever commit to anything in that universe. That universe was a mess at the end. Yeah, fair enough. Logan's an incredible movie. like I think that that that was always a question. that was I always had that question. I don't think I ever had that answered.
00:25:10
Speaker
but Logan, i mean, you can look it up there if you have ah a second. Well, i don't I mean, they talk about it in Deadpool versus Wolverine where like literally they go like, oh, don't worry. like that everything like That universe still happened. This is a different Wolverine that I'm bringing in. because This is a different Hugh Jackman.
00:25:26
Speaker
That's true, but I don't think they were saying it was the same one. That was a really weird dystopian society. That was that society was really effed up, wasn't it? Messed up? It was, yeah, but it was also in the future. and like Yeah, right. so like even if it So they could have put that Deadpool, it could have been the same. Deadpool was all mixed up. It was all the different timelines. Yeah.
00:25:45
Speaker
that's fun I think that kind of works in this too. Cause you can bring the X-Men back. I think it's a good way to reset it personally. I think that's a good idea to bring those X-Men back personally, yeah because you can then reset it properly. Cause then you can do an actual send off because they, they always are like, this is a send off in days of future past. And they're like, this is a send off in Logan.
00:26:04
Speaker
And then like, this is a, this is another weird send off. That's not a send off. Cause it's not that good of a movie in the multiverse of madness. So they just kept bringing Patrick Stewart back repeatedly. It's like, okay, okay please stop. that was That one wasn't worth it at all. that Like the Multiverse of Madness, like Doctor Strange.
00:26:23
Speaker
No. I'm the smartest guy alive. So those trailers came out. they Basically, at the beginning of Avatar, they had trailers for Avengers Doomsday. You may as well just talk about it. Why not? I have it listed in the notes for later. but Sure, sure, sure. They had the Thor one, they had the Chris Evans one, and they had the X-Men one.
00:26:42
Speaker
The Thor one is Thor taking care of a child who's actually Chris hemsworth ah ah camps chris Hemsworth's actual child because it's from Love and Thunder. um But it's like him praying in the woods.
00:26:55
Speaker
It's kind of cool. actually like that trailer a lot. I would have just been okay with that trailer and the X-Men one and just thrown away the Chris Evans and Steve Rogers. So disappointing that you would reveal that. Because again, is there going to be a bigger reveal than that Chris Evans thing in the movie? I think not. But Hawkeye's haircut probably.
00:27:12
Speaker
But apart from it, he's got a crazier haircut. He's not in it, apparently. Jeremy Renny, although that might be a lie because Jeremy Renner said he's not been asked to come back. Maybe he is in it. And that's a that's a little spoiler. That's like ah he didn't want to tell anyone. Although what? Why? like he's just he's a cool character. I like him, but he's not the leader of the team. He's kind of like a.
00:27:31
Speaker
it's like It's like saying Paul Rudd's coming back. It's like, okay. I love Paul Rudd in it. I love Jeremy Renner in it, but it's not the earth-shattering thing. It's like the return of Chadwick Boseman, which we said last time. Yeah. They just fucking AIM in the movie. That would be horrible, by the way. They better not do that. ah Dude, obviously.
00:27:50
Speaker
obviously would be horrible. I don't think anyone would be like, wow, this was really cool. I mean, actually there would probably be some fucking weirdo that would say that. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. that we They don't know listening to us that we're not a fan of that type of ai because somebody listening to this might not be Kenneth Staddlebauer. It could be some random person who's never listened to our podcast in Netherlands or something.
00:28:11
Speaker
that I do think that there will be a Black Panther. No, I'm confident in that. Oh, we have one. yeah sure i think it's gonna be like another black panther that's also gonna be like yeah you think in this movie yeah i think so or secret wars one or the other but oh only like a multiverse type black panther situation yeah it's gonna just be a different actor that's yeah that's smart yeah they gotta do it yeah yeah i think that everyone that but yeah Yeah. Quick question, Simon, because I was I was Googling this and this also came up because like, yeah, obviously Doomsday is on my list. Right. i'm i'm I'm intrigued.
Spider-Man and Scream 7 Speculations
00:28:50
Speaker
I'm not like super hyped, but 100 percent I'm going watch some. I'm excited about it.
00:28:54
Speaker
Right. Yeah. It's Spider-Man brand new day. Isn't that coming out this year in like July? am I crazy? That's correct. It's in July. Yeah. I just had that up, actually. It's been a brand new day. July 31st, 2026. Mm hmm. who Yeah, that's interesting because we haven't seen anything about that other than like the on set photos and stuff.
00:29:13
Speaker
They haven't like done any trailer or nothing. So and then obviously the announcements and everything. I'm curious when we're going to see more about that. What you just said yeah is exactly the thing.
00:29:28
Speaker
There's an element of like, how much are they panicking right now? Like, can you relax? The Doomsday comes out in December of 2026. It's not soon. Relax. They're just going so hard. It's like, why are you so panicked? They're like so worried it's going to fail.
00:29:43
Speaker
They're not worried about Spider-Man failing because they're not showing anything. That's the testament to that. That's why we were talking about that two weeks ago when we talked about how annoyed we were with the Chris Evans reveal. They didn't tell us about Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire in the Spider-Man No Way Home.
00:29:57
Speaker
They didn't do that. They didn't advertise it in the trailers. And they didn't even do it after the movie aired. This is a Sony marketing beat too. Sony's like holding their cards close to their chest and they're going to reveal the marketing material when they think it's ready.
00:30:10
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's interesting because Sony hasn't made the best decisions with Spider-Man otherwise. But also this movie is being kind of produced a little bit by Marvel as well. So it's not like Morbius or Kraven the Hunter.
00:30:24
Speaker
Mm hmm. Being 17% or on tomatoes. Genuine question. You think there's a chance that they're going to have Kraven the Hunter or Morbius or Venom in in Doomsday?
00:30:35
Speaker
played by Jared Leto, Aaron Taylor Johnson or um Tom Hardy. um No, I don't think they're going to be Spider-Man. I'm just sure about do you say who is the villain in brand new day? Did we know we know that?
00:30:52
Speaker
No, if we do, I don't remember. So so yeah, you haven't got I don't remember.
00:30:59
Speaker
We haven't really gotten Doc Ock in this universe. No. We did, but we didn't. We didn't really. Yeah. Because now we're going to go... So I think the way I interpret it is Brand New Day is going to go more Spider-Man mainline as opposed to like the Spider-Man in Avengers.
00:31:18
Speaker
It seems like that's the play. So he's like friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, not Spider-Man with with crazy suits and like earth-shattering aliens coming to the to the planet. So I feel like that's kind of going to be...
00:31:32
Speaker
The play. So what's the most mundane Spider-Man villain out there? I don't know. That rogues gallery is awesome. So it is the most normal. Non-alien technology villain.
00:31:45
Speaker
Hmm. I'm trying to think. I mean, you could bring back Scorpion. Cause they planted that seed in, in the first Spider-Man movie. They could, that's still pretty, that's still a pretty crazy suit, but yeah.
00:31:59
Speaker
Yeah. big Yeah. Maybe they'll do that though. That is a good call. Big little tail. That's going to, he's got it. He's got, he's got to deal with it. He doesn't have like the, the resources cause he has, he's got his Spider-Man without no backup essentially. Yeah.
00:32:12
Speaker
Um, which would you be cool. I I'm very excited for that too. Is that your next pick? No, no, it's not. Okay. i Yeah. My next pick, Simon.
00:32:23
Speaker
is going to be it's actually coming out fairly soon. It's coming out in about a month and a bit. It's Scream 7, baby. oh I'm very excited about this movie. um You know, I obviously, you know, I i love the Scream franchise. i was Ghostface for Halloween this year as well. And my wife was was Sydney and we we have Sydney's return in this one because she was absent in Scream 6.
00:32:49
Speaker
um A lot of you know theories going around. you know Matthew Lillard is likely back. I think he was cast. you know Chances are we're going to have Stu back in the mix. I'm very curious how this is going to play out. There's a lot of you know background issues with it. you know The firing of Melissa Barrera for saying nothing.
00:33:08
Speaker
poor like um nothing anti-semitic the you know uh matthew oh man what's the director's name it was like matthew something um his him stepping down from the project and kind of leaving um you know there's a lot of issues on the back end um but you know i'm i still like this franchise you know i i think there's a lot of potential here again bringing back both uh sid um like sidney and no yeah christopher landon what did i say i said something matthew something yeah matthew lillard um and christopher landon quentin tarantino's favorite actor matthew lillard yeah so i'm i'm i'm excited about this quite a bit this is definitely on my radar and i'll be there to see it day one with my wife probably exciting that's cool
00:33:59
Speaker
Yeah, man. yeah Are you excited about this? Because you're you're kind of a more recent Scream fan as well. Like you kind of, I think, watched them all within the last couple of years, if I recall correctly. I watched them all within three weeks.
00:34:12
Speaker
Nice. I like it enough. It's good. I like it. It's good stuff. It's good stuff. i ah The amount of controversy around this was silly, though. I mean, I don't think they'll affect it at all, personally, because I think that they just started from scratch.
00:34:26
Speaker
I think so after removing the directors and the main actors from the main cast of Scream 6, I think that it seems like they just started over. So I think they're on ah on a zero position. Like they're not negative or positive. I think they're just like whatever they give us, I think we'll start from zero. But you have to wonder about those producers. Like what's going on?
00:34:45
Speaker
going on with them? I don't know. It's crazy because i think we talked about this before, but Melissa Barrera, the situation with her, it's like, It seems like their position on that in terms of firing her is aged very poorly. Because if you look at – she was kind of at the forefront. like Good for her She's actually like a leader in some way. because like lot no People weren't speaking out as much because they're scared of repercussions. And now if you look at it, even like – I think I just saw a Bernie Sanders tweet about how Israel is stopping aid.
00:35:16
Speaker
ah Like, I think they stopped the like Doctors Without Borders from helping people in Gaza, the Gaza Strip. It's like, oh, my God, like there's something some terrible thing in the news every day, dude. It's crazy. Lately, the beginning of this year, dude, is crazy.
00:35:33
Speaker
on a political perspective it sucks like it's very very sad like we're in a very bad way I think but thank god we don't live in the United States in that in that regard because that's it's very sad but anyway um or Venezuela
00:35:49
Speaker
or Israel charlesine you know anyway um yeah it's crazy stuff or France Ukraine yeah Or Quebec.
00:36:02
Speaker
what Wait, what's happening in France? Wait, what? Nothing, than just French people. It's just French people. What do you have against French french people? Nothing. Okay.
00:36:14
Speaker
I got none of the French teachers get you down in elementary school there, bro. or no, actually, i really loved my French teacher in elementary school. Mr. Dow. He was awesome. Oh, nice. I hope he's doing well. I don't know where he's ah where he's at. I always like think about like, you know, go back and talk to a couple elementary school teachers and be like, hey you know, I want you to know you made an impact on my life. I appreciate you. And I still think about you.
00:36:35
Speaker
20 years later. did Do you ever do like a reunion at any of your past schools? Is that a thing you've ever done? You've ever been invited to? i like I've never been invited to one. I wouldn't even either know where to look, but I wonder if that, did it not exist?
00:36:47
Speaker
The high school would be where it would be at, not elementary most likely. But you always see that in the movies and TV shows like, oh, i know knowre we're doing a reunion. It's like, is that just in the United States? Like, is that not in Canada?
00:36:58
Speaker
Is that why? Yeah, that's a good question. I actually don't know. I don't know. I feel like that is a thing. I feel like they do do that. Would I go? Fuck no. i don't Like, God, no. I don't give a shit about any of those people. The people I care about from high school either, you know, stayed in touch with or...
00:37:17
Speaker
you know, you know, slowly like drifted away. But it's like, if I wanted to see them, I would just message them directly and not meet them at a high school reunion. give a shit about my high school. Who fuck cares?
00:37:29
Speaker
I think the idea was to bring people together and then you see people that, you know, you were kind of friends with, but you weren't, you know, they weren't your group necessarily. Yeah. Were you, did you have a good high school experience overall? Or do you find like you're one of those people yeah I hated high school. it was bad.
00:37:44
Speaker
I don't know. There's obviously ups and downs. There's ups and downs. I was a big pothead in high school as well. so Okay. So, you know, spend a lot of time at that smoker's pit, smoking cigs and smoking joints, Simon, when it when it wasn't even legal back in the day.
00:38:02
Speaker
It's crazy. Now it's legal. Now you can just buy weed on on the internet and they deliver it to your house. feel like it still wasn't leaked. I mean, it's still not legal now.
00:38:13
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. That's true. Because you were in high school. Yeah, like if I was a high school kid. way yeah Yeah, it would have still been illegal. Yeah, no. Yeah. yeah yeah Yeah, you're right. You're actually right. Good point. it was I actually was cluing at the cigarettes. That was actually the part. I'm like, wait wait, you were in high school. I don't think that was allowed.
00:38:33
Speaker
But yeah, that's cool. So what would you call that group that you were in? I don't know. weren't the high guys, you know? The high guys got uss fucking no, fucking absurd. No, I like, i don't know. I had like a few groups because like I like i had some friends that were really into like the film, like ComTech sort of stuff, like video editing and everything like that. So I would spend time with them sometimes. And then the other times you just like hang out at the Smoker's Pit with all like, you know, the fellow pothead friends and yeah, do that whole thing. So kind of going back and forth.
00:39:08
Speaker
Kind of going back and forth. What about you, man? How was your high school experience? That's fine. It's fine. It's good. Where are you going? You leaving me? No, I'm here. Your Apple watch tell you to stand up?
00:39:19
Speaker
No, but my cat was pawing at the door. So I was like, I'll open the door for him, but he's not even there. i don't know where the fuck he is. right. Well, Nikki nine doors. Yeah.
00:39:32
Speaker
Yeah, I know. Nikki, Nikki nine doors. Do you ever do that when you're a kid in a lot? Yeah, not a lot, though. No, I felt guilty. um I didn't like doing things like that because i just felt guilty. I was kind of like that was like a peer pressured. That was the one thing I got peer pressured into doing. And I was like, this wasn't worth it.
00:39:47
Speaker
And I didn't do it ever again. I think I did it one time. I'm like, this was shit, especially because I did it in my own neighborhood, like on my street. And i was like, what? Now if I get caught, I'm screwed. Yeah. like You would want to go to a different street. like Go to a street. open Don't do it in the street you're in.
00:40:01
Speaker
Yeah, we used to do it because like I lived in like a complex like townhouses and stuff. So there was like a lot of us, like a lot of kids and we would just do it in the other townhouses. It's it's absurd. Yeah, stupid. I got up to a lot of ruckus back in the day, Simon.
00:40:15
Speaker
Yeah, like smoking cigs. Smoking cigs, dude. Smoking cigs and weed, man. I still smoke weed. Excellent. All right. My pick is next, right?
00:40:27
Speaker
Yeah? Yeah, Yeah, you said Scream 7. Yeah. Okay, so my pick is, I'm just going to kind of bring
Dune 3 vs. Avengers: Doomsday Release Clash
00:40:33
Speaker
it all together. Oh, this is my last pick, isn't it? It is. Oh, shit. I got to look at this more in more detail. Do I want to pick this? Because this is kind boring. some honorary mentions after. I know we said three and three, but we'll just do I know, but I've got so many good ones here.
00:40:44
Speaker
Whatever. I'll pick this just because I'm very excited for it. um Just to be a little bit of a a boring. That's a boring belly. That's idiotic. Dune 3.
00:40:57
Speaker
Dune 3 is my pick. I am very excited for Dune 3. I'm curious to see where Denis Villeneuve will take this series. i got a walk I got to read the second Dune book so I get some context on it because that's what it's based upon. I think it's Dune Messiah.
00:41:14
Speaker
Right. and So, yeah, I got to i gotta to read that at some point so that I can get the full perspective before I go see it. The weirdest thing about this, and this is why I picked it here because I thought it'd be fun to talk about, although I'm going honorable mention it anyway. I just picked Doomsday, right? Doomsday and Dune 3. We talked about this at a dinner we were just at.
00:41:33
Speaker
Yeah. It's on the same day. but The release date is the same day in December. It's very strange. And one of them is going to move. They're just basically playing chicken with each other. It seems like they're different studios. Yeah. Sorry, Disney and Warner Brothers. So if they're just playing chicken, which is very strange. So it's Doomsday, according to the internet.
00:41:54
Speaker
People are excited about it as it's like a Barbenheimer type situation. Mm hmm. And i I think you were saying like, who's going to sit through three and a half hour, to two, three and a half hour movies. Yeah, it's it's like, it's going to be like a full, full time shift, a full eight hour shift. If you want to do both, pretty much.
00:42:12
Speaker
Do you think though, maybe they won't, they're playing chicken maybe, but they're maybe actually going to release it at the same time. They're just, the thing about Oppenheimer and Barbie was that they were so different.
00:42:23
Speaker
You know what i mean? Like that, that kind of went in their favor. I wonder if like, cinemas will just be bumping during this period of time, during the Christmas time, Christmas holiday season next year. If you just leave Dune 3 and Doomsday in the same period, but if you do it on the same day,
00:42:41
Speaker
I don't know. I'm not sure if it's going to like hurt it or not. It's it's there's just so there's so much zeitgeist around both of these properties, but definitely more so on the Marvel.
00:42:51
Speaker
Like, I think Doomsday Marvel's Marvel Cinematic Universe Avengers Doomsday. So do you think they'll move? What you think? Yeah. Yeah, I think it would be probably the right decision to move Dune. doing three yeah um maybe netflix will be making that decision who knows yeah yeah leave it in theaters for two weeks or whatever and then 17 days yeah okay um yeah don't know i think it would make sense for it to move i'm curious about it i i'll be honest with you like i like the dune movies i like doing one and i like doing two enough but i don't love them i don't love them i think i like the first one more than the second one
00:43:31
Speaker
um Oh, interesting. Maybe maybe I just wasn't in the right headspace when I watched it. But I remember I like kind of left. and I was like, yeah, this is good. Like, this is good. This is a visually stunning. There's a lot going on. But I was like, i wasn't really that into the story.
00:43:44
Speaker
And like when I felt like it was picking up. It ended. And I was like, man, what the fuck? I was like, come on, dude. want to see this intergalactic war go on. And it's my understanding that Dune 3 doesn't pick up immediately after. It's like a jump.
00:43:58
Speaker
It's like time jump. Which is frustrating. Because I want to know what happens immediately after. i feel like that was on a TV show. Yeah. don't have time. They have that Dune prophecy show, which takes place like 100 1,000 years prior to the movies.
00:44:13
Speaker
Right. Doesn't seem andt seem interesting to me, I'll be honest. Did get renewed? Yeah, it did. It got renewed for yeah Dune Prophecy 2. Yeah. yeah Dune Prophecy. Yeah, here, you know, yeah, that's like that's a good choice, man. I mean, tell me some of your honorable mentions. I'm curious. what What are some of your honorable mentions?
00:44:33
Speaker
ah Yeah, you went first. So you picked Scream 7. Mm-hmm. h And I forgot all the other ones. Resident Evil. Right. And The Legend of Aang, The Last Airbender. Right.
00:44:43
Speaker
Yeah. You picked some unique ones there. That's good. I was trying to keep it fresh. was trying to keep it fresh. I'll throw it to you. We'll go go to your honorable mention. We'll do them real quick. Yeah. Honorable mention, Shrinking Season 3. That's out in a couple a few weeks, actually. Yeah. So I'm very excited about Shrinking Season 3. Yeah.
00:45:00
Speaker
Another TV show that I'm also very excited. you want to go back and forth or should I just list off a few? I can just, yeah you do two, I'll do two. Okay, cool. Yeah, so Shrinking, season three, I'm very excited for. ah for And then House of the Dragon, season three, I'm very excited for as well, which is this summer.
00:45:16
Speaker
so That's cool. Yeah. Are you excited for knights ah Night of the Road? or the yeah, I am. Seven Kingdoms, that's what it is. Yeah, yeah a Night of the Seven Kingdoms. I'm very excited about that. that's in That's very soon. That's two weeks today, actually. Yeah, yeah.
00:45:29
Speaker
So that I didn't bring it up because I was going to just talk about it later. There's like a few things that I'm very excited for, but again, they're within the next couple weeks. So I'm just simply not bringing them up in the most anticipated movies and chose section.
00:45:41
Speaker
Okay. so Well, speaking of ah shrinking Ted Lasso's return apparently is this year. So that's super exciting. That I'm very excited about because I don't know what they're going to do with it. they they kind of They kind of tied it off with a bow after season three. So if whatever they're going to bring it, however they're going to bring it back, I'm hoping they're not just doing this as ah the old the good old money grab situation and that they have a really good idea, which I think Jason Sudeikis kind of confirmed that he wouldn't come back unless there was some really good idea to bring the show back.
00:46:10
Speaker
So it is really exciting. He's in America now, you know, at the end of season three or whatever. He's in America. don't want to get into why or what's going on, but how do you move from that? Are you going to do a show in America and in the UK at the same no simultaneously and then bring them together? Is this just one season and you're going to continue it past one season or are you just doing one season and that's it?
00:46:30
Speaker
Cause it's, it's been a few years now since season three. So I'm i'm just kind of curious about all those questions. What's, what are they going to I thought they announced some of the stuff about it. Cause Women's soccer team.
00:46:41
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. The women's soccer team thing. Right. And I think it's like a women's soccer club in the UK. So you assume that he's. Or is in the US? Because I would have assumed in the US. s Because you can assume it's what's her name?
00:46:54
Speaker
One of the other main characters. Because she's the one starting the women's soccer club. Typically, like if you're starting a club, it's within the country that you're a part of. You assume. But I could be wrong. Oh, is that what it is? Okay. That's my guess.
00:47:08
Speaker
I don't know for sure. It's Hannah Waddingham, right? Hannah Waddingham, exactly. Her character. Yeah. Yeah, okay. I don't know. That's an interesting... Yeah, we'll see. But yeah, I'm interested in that. Anyway, my second pick ah for this this like residual picks here is Disclosure Day.
00:47:28
Speaker
Yeah. Spielberg makes really good movies. like he's He's a legend. I i don't think I've ever watched a Spielberg movie and thought, this is bad. I know that you did. I definitely know that you did. Yeah.
00:47:40
Speaker
I personally like every movie that I've seen by him. And he's kind of, in my opinion, the most legendary director. When I think of, like yeah i've I've asked this question actually to people in the past. I'm surprised that I haven't asked you yet.
00:47:54
Speaker
I should have on this podcast many episodes ago. When you think of the the the word dictionary, ah sorry, the word dictionary, the word director in the dictionary, if you had a if you had this idea of director, movie director, who's the first director that pops into your mind?
00:48:10
Speaker
Um, the first director that pops into my mind is, um, Ryan Crago.
00:48:20
Speaker
He directed, uh, the Gabby's dollhouse, the movie, your favorite movie of last year. right. Of course. movie I haven't seen. That's a good name. He's got a good name.
00:48:31
Speaker
Yeah, i know he does. Hey, um, no, like honestly, like for me, it's probably Christopher Nolan is like the first okay person I think of personally, But now now i'm now now I'm questioning it. Am I just thinking about that because I was on the spot?
00:48:45
Speaker
Because we were talking about Chris? You know what's interesting? Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's crazy, but not Christopher Landon, that guy, his name is Matthew. um but Yeah. but when He goes by Matt. It's crazy. I asked this question at work one time, and I asked, when you think movie director in the dictionary, what's the first name that pops in your head?
00:49:06
Speaker
And like, if you you have ah if it was a dictionary with like a photo, right? Like, give a couple examples, like a photo there next to the definition. Yeah. but everyones A lot of people said Christopher Nolan. I'm like, that's cool, but i'm like I don't know about that. I think Spielberg like is legendary. He's the first blockbuster like director, theoretically. like The Jaws kind of started the blockbuster way back 40 years ago. how many days is it today? 50 years ago? It's it's like...
00:49:33
Speaker
It's it really impressive. And he's made both blockbusters and really emotional, almost art house type films alike. Like there's his his repertoire. Some people might say Scorsese maybe as well, or I don't know. but There's this idea, though, that I asked. Maybe I asked people who are too young as well. Scorsese is a good example, though. I think you could. I would imagine Scorsese. Some people maybe say ter Tarantino, perhaps. Some people wouldnt maybe say even James Cameron, even though he hasn't directed a huge amount of movies, but like he's made a huge impact.
00:50:01
Speaker
But I would make an argument that that one's not good because but what you just said. Exactly. yeah um But I think Nolan's like very prolific. I don't know. It's just i think Spielberg is just it's he's just kind of i feel like he was an inspiration to I bet if you asked Christopher Nolan what his answer was, a e might have said Spielberg or he might have said or Stanley Kruber because another one that would be like huge or Alfred Hitchcock. That's another one that's like very powerful.
Iconic Directors and Their Influence
00:50:26
Speaker
You know? But I feel like I asked people today and they're all like Denis Villeneuve or Christopher Nolan. I'm like, is it just because it's a recency bias? Probably.
00:50:36
Speaker
i think that matters though. Yeah. Right? like i is my Yeah. yeah like Spielberg, i I feel like isn't... Yeah, like I get it. Because like again, Spielberg continues to make movies like he has for so many years. But I think it is just like...
00:50:51
Speaker
what's, you know, what's taken up everyone's, um you know, mind space for like lack of a better term, right? Like Christopher Nolan's movies are an event consistently and they're not like really like,
00:51:03
Speaker
you know, your, your typical like blockbuster movies, all like they're, they're usually fairly intense. Um, yeah, but again, gra then he did the dark night, which ah is a blockbuster movie. So what am I saying? Yeah, they all they are blockbusters. That's what's interesting about him is he's, yeah he's made consistently blockbuster movies, but they're also,
00:51:23
Speaker
very artsy and very like they feel like they've got a lot of depth to them uh like interstellar like it's definitely blockbuster but it's also very deep i'm gonna sleepover and watch interstellar yeah yeah okay that's cool ah Cool.
00:51:44
Speaker
But yeah, anyway. Yeah, Spielberg is my answer. But yeah, I was curious what you would say. I should have not biased the question by starting it, but you said Christopher Nolan right away. I should have started our podcast. but oh Well, I said Ryan Craig right away.
00:51:55
Speaker
The director. dog That's right. You did. Good name. Again, good name. He's got maybe a a bright future because of that name. It's very yeah captivating. Okay. Well, what was my... Did I give a second one? I did. Oh, Disclosure Day. I didn't say anything about it. Yeah. Yeah, Disclosure Day looks...
00:52:11
Speaker
Really interesting. It's really cool. I'm very interested in this. It's kind of going back to like the, like, um oh my God, I always forget the beginning the beginning of the name of this, ah of the third kind. It's the, oh my God. Every time think of the movie, I encounter. counter Yeah. Close encounters of the third kind. Thank you. Yeah.
00:52:31
Speaker
But yeah, there's that in ET, but there's like the the these kind of going back to that kind of interterrestrial type situation and it feels I think like post encounters ah of the third kind, I think Denis Villeneuve was kind of inspired by that. i i'm i He must have been for um what am i thinking of?
00:52:52
Speaker
know what you're talking about. Yeah. Arrival. Yeah. And ah I think must have around such a good movie, man. So would have a sleepover and watch arrival. Well, it has to be science fiction. um But yeah, it looks cool. It's really creepy. Emily Blunt is great and everything she's in. So it's going to be interesting. And then the dude from. ah
00:53:14
Speaker
Challengers. Yeah. You also don't. Oh, dude, you want to hear a crazy thing about challengers? What? Okay, so I'm going to take a step back. There's this amazing YouTube video from 14 years ago.
00:53:29
Speaker
um I know I've sent this video to you. I love this video. It's Potion Cellar. You know Potion Cellar, that video? No, I don't know. By Justin Kurtzkus. It's like Potion Cellar.
00:53:40
Speaker
Oh, shit, yeah. He's the writer of Challengers. He's the writer of Challengers. And I didn't put two and two together until got- I remember this video. Maybe it's the title throwing me off. It's- and going But yeah, the name I was thinking is Josh O'Connor, by the way.
00:53:56
Speaker
You know? No. Send it to me after. My potions are too strong for you, traveler. No, I don't know this. I don't think you send it.
00:54:07
Speaker
A million percent have sent this to me. He made this video on YouTube? Yeah, 14 years ago. And then he he's the writer of Challengers. Oh, that's cool.
00:54:18
Speaker
It is very cool. I put that together like a month ago. i was like sitting. And then i i think it was, no yeah it was like after i watched um What's Its Face, um the has him wake up dead man i watch that because it has um jo it's josh o'connor right joshu con um yeah it has him in it and i was like, in Challengers. And and then i was like, you know on Wikipedia. i'm like oh yeah the challengers were written by justin kirk kitz becausez because whatever i'm like one second kurtzkys And
00:54:49
Speaker
Why is that name so familiar? I was like, I must have seen it in another movie. Of course, this guy has written different movies. I'm like looking at the list. I'm like, okay, yeah, maybe that's it. And I literally open up my YouTube app.
00:55:02
Speaker
And like one of the top recommended videos on YouTube, for whatever reason, is the potion seller video all of a sudden know by Justin Kirtzke's. I was like, oh, my goodness. This and I love this video. Like, unironically, it's a classic. I've watched it hundreds of times, probably at this point.
00:55:19
Speaker
And I was like, oh, my goodness. And it just all came together at that moment. It's cool. It's cool. Very cool. He's written a few things for Luca Guadagnino. It's interesting because they were making that Sergeant Rock movie for James Gunn in the DC universe. And that just fell through. But it still says written by an IMDb. So maybe they still use the script. But he did Queer recently with Luca Guadagnino. Yeah. And that was Daniel Craig, right?
00:55:46
Speaker
Yeah. Did that come out? Yeah, it did. It came out last year. Damn, crazy. He's cool. like There's a couple directors that have been... It's it's him and the dude who did Begonia.
00:55:58
Speaker
They just keep pumping out films constantly and they're like such high quality. and they kind of They almost blur into the background, but they're more indie, I think, and that's the thing. like They're not huge budget and they're not blockbusters, so like people don't watch them or pay as much attention to them as they would, yeah obviously, a Marvel film or Tom Cruise film.
00:56:15
Speaker
hanging off ah but off of a plane or whatever. so Yeah. um Yeah, Yorgos Lanthimos is the director that you mentioned. Thank I was just about to, yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, i'm I'm losing all my names today. It's one of those days. sucks. I know. It's just one of those days.
00:56:31
Speaker
Okay, so what else you got? Give me another two and then we'll I'll give you another two and then we're we're out of here. Yeah, cool. My other two, it's Ready or Not, Here I Come, which is a sequel of Ready or Not. That's coming out in a few months. it takes It picks up directly after the first one ends. Really cool. I'm very curious about that. Quite
New Releases: Send Help and Lanterns
00:56:49
Speaker
excited. And then then the the other one that I'm very excited for, this is a Sam Raimi joint, Send Help.
00:56:56
Speaker
This is with Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien. And it's like Dylan O'Brien's like this asshole boss of Rachel McAdams. They crash land on an island and it seems to be a little wacky.
00:57:09
Speaker
So that comes out, I think, at the end of this month. So I'm quite excited about that as well. That's great. I love Rachel McAdams as well. Wait, did we mention any TV shows? Now I'm blanking. Yeah, I mentioned House of the Dragon and Shrinking. You mentioned Ted Lasso.
00:57:23
Speaker
But not in our main list though. No. That was a mistake. No, I should have swapped it out. Dune three. It doesn't matter. we're We're talking about it now. Oh, it's all in your maroon. shot man They're not exactly ranked. Anyway, the other one I've got here is a TV show. It's lanterns. I'm so excited for this. i cannot. I think it might be my most anticipated show of of this year.
00:57:45
Speaker
I think whereas last year, my most anticipated show, by the way, was black rabbit and I hadn't even watched it last year, although it came out late last year. um But yeah, I'm very excited for Lanterns. This, I think, will be a day one watch. I don't know I'm... Well, maybe I won't do day and day. don't know. It depends on how it gets rated. But I just think that Damon Lindelof and Chris Mundy combination... And I really like Kyle Chandler as an actor. I just think he's the most underrated actor.
00:58:11
Speaker
Like, one of the most. He's very good. And so I'm very excited to see what they do with A True Detective in Space is what they... They claimed it was. That's what James Gunn said when he had announced it. So that's pretty sweet. An HBO show that's rated M, M.A.
00:58:28
Speaker
is really exciting. So we'll see how that goes. But yeah, that's my other pick. And then that would have been the one I would have maybe swapped out for Dune 3 just to to give some variety. yeahp And then i got another one here and it's we already talked about it.
00:58:41
Speaker
but So it's not much to say. But Spider-Man Brand New Day is on my list as well. Oh, like it was for you. thought you were to mention something else. Supergirl. What did I miss? Supergirl. Supergirl. Oh, yeah. I'm excited for that, but I'm not as excited for it. as oh yeah. Because you're a sexist. You hate women. Understood.
00:58:57
Speaker
Cool. OK. Thanks. Thanks for that. Yeah. So you have that on your list as it as it was one of my honorable mentions. I just assumed that you would bring it up.
00:59:08
Speaker
I didn't just because... So who... would It's the the creators I wasn't as as hyped about, if I remember correctly. I just don't know. It's like there's like a blank... Kind of ah a blank... um Could go either way. At a zero. Like, I'm not sure. Oh, I know why. Yeah, because I haven't seen many things that this guy's made. It's Craig Gillespie, who's great, by the way.
00:59:27
Speaker
I just haven't watched as many of his movies as I... To to comment on it. He's like the I, Tonya director and... Oh, that's crazy. He... He executive produced your friends and neighbors.
00:59:40
Speaker
He's a showrunner. Oh, I was, we were just about to start watching that. Nice. Now I kind of want to watch it more. Uh, so yeah, maybe I'll jump into that. Oh, actually, no, there is a movie I just watched by Craig Jospy actually dumb money.
00:59:53
Speaker
I don't know if i talked about it on this podcast. You did not. It's, uh, it was about the GameStop thing. You heard about this movie? Yeah. It's Paul Dano.
01:00:04
Speaker
Paul Dano's the main actor in it. Yeah. I heard he's great. and He sucks at acting though. Yeah. That's what they say. Not that I've ever witnessed, but that's what they say. One guy says anyway, but yeah, he was a dumb and he's really cool.
GameStop Movie and Slow Horses
01:00:18
Speaker
It's got, uh, Pete, uh,
01:00:21
Speaker
Davidson. Thank you. Well, you you're helping me a lot. Yeah, Pete Davidson, Paul Dano, and they're like dealing with the GameStop thing. he like he There's a lot of these big firms shorting GameStop, as you may recall, a few years ago. And he was like, no, I'm going hard on on GameStop. And he was like legitimately going for it. And they they kind of paint a picture of like the small small guy versus the the big guy.
01:00:45
Speaker
um I kind of thought that the Redditors or whatever were very obnoxious. That's kind of the, that was always the impression I got. um But honestly, it is, it is like, it's a little guy against, it's like David versus Goliath. It's a cool story. It was, it's pretty good movie. I liked it did quite a bit. Yeah. I should check out your friends and neighbors. Is that something you're interested in? I was curious. Like, yeah, it's on my list as well.
01:01:07
Speaker
Yeah. Cause Apple TV shows are just really high quality. I feel like it's a baseline. Yeah. Okay, cool. Yeah. I'm excited for Super Bowl. Yeah. Cool. Awesome. I mean, hey, you know, we're talking about Apple TV. We may as well just kind of jump into what we've been watching or reviewing, eh? You want to do that? that segue.
01:01:24
Speaker
You want to do that? I like how you're coming up with it. Like it just a came up in your head. That's good. Yeah, yeah. That's a great idea, Adrian. Yeah. So what have you been watching this? Yeah, Simon. So on the topic of Apple TV, I watched the first episode yesterday of Slow Horses with my wife and I. You know, we did we were kind of in the mood for like, we've been watching like a lot of comedies and stuff. There's been like, you know, some dramas that we were watching week to week, but like a lot of the, you know, sit down and watch it TV that we've been binging has been more comedy and lighthearted. And i was like, I want something little bit more serious, like a little bit more like intense and dramatic.
01:02:04
Speaker
And, um, I'm glad that we kind of jumped into this. You know, this, the show is pretty interesting. So it's ah about, you've talked about it um before, but it's about this like disgrace. MI5 agent that, you know, brutally fails this, um,
01:02:22
Speaker
like a like this this test that that they're that they're running to stop this terrorism from blow, like a terrorist from blowing up a train. And you know he's like chasing after it. And he makes this you know one minor mistake that he believes he didn't make. He he thinks that this guy that worked at MI5 told him the wrong information and that's why he slipped up on the job. And and you know long story short, you know gets disgraced because he you know makes that single mistake. and hundreds of people could have potentially died. Although this was again, kind of a test. And he starts working at this, like, you know, back alley MI5 area where they're just kind of doing, you know, little, you know, just basic odd jobs, nothing too crazy. And he obviously wants more for himself, you know? ah
01:03:09
Speaker
And it's kind of interesting how the first episode plays out um Because again, it is quite serious, but there is like a lot of almost just like human interaction, like with Olivia, Olivia Cook. She's ah in in this as well.
01:03:22
Speaker
um One of the main characters and just like little quirks and how she like talks to, you know, the main character, I think his name's Jack um just makes it seem like a very human show. And again, it's like these people that,
01:03:37
Speaker
you know, messed up at some point in their career and now are kind of stuffed away to the side working under Gary Oldman, who is just a big piece of shit and just like a total asshole to everyone and hates them.
01:03:48
Speaker
His words literally in that first episode. So I'm very curious to see where this is going to go because it just seems like a I don't know It's nice that it's like kind of, you know, six episode seasons. so I'm assuming each season is kind of it's more contained story. So, and you know, the, what it, what it set up in this first season, like first episode, i think it did a lot of really,
01:04:14
Speaker
really great character development with, you know, just a couple of scenes with all of these additional characters that are around. And I want to see them kind of interact more and, you know, see how this story unfolds. So I'm, I'm pretty, I'm pretty into it again, one episode in not, not crazy, but it's, it's definitely something me and my wife are going to continue to watch.
01:04:34
Speaker
I know you watch, you've watched all seasons or you're, you're watching the fifth season or on the, onto the fifth season. Taking the fifth season slow. I'm very, and love this show a lot. For me, it's like popcorn TV in a way. And it's weird. Like it's like popcorn TV at like a very high level.
01:04:50
Speaker
Like it's just very, very fun to watch. It's funny you said you wanted to get into a drama. I find it a comedy. I think it's very, very funny. Like throughout. I think Jackson Lamb, like ah Gary Oldman's character is hilarious. By the way, the actor's name who plays the character you're claiming is a main character. His name is Jack.
01:05:07
Speaker
ah The character's name is River Cartwright, which is a very yeah epic name. It's epic. And then you got like um the the the dude I always say is like looks very much look very much like Pope Francis as Jonathan Price. And he does play Pope Francis. And he's awesome as well. he's He's a pretty legendary actor as well. Like I love Jonathan Price. I think he's great. He plays David Cartwright. He's got like this like kind of like this you don't know what he did in mi5 back in the day and you're like what's going on there there's some interesting stuff there it's really cool you mentioned the character development i feel like that's all the show is and like at it's finest it's like it's all these like interactions between these like very quirky characters and they're all like screw-ups in some way or another um and that's kind of the the the fun of it in some ways that they're all they're all like you and me Like if I was in MI5 type situation, like maybe they shouldn't have been hired in the first place. And they're like putting this like the work. It's like not even the B team. It's like that the the F team or something. um But I just think Jackson Lamb like is so entertaining. Gary Oldman is just killing it. every I just watched an episode yesterday, actually. Oh, nice.
01:06:20
Speaker
of of season five because I've been trying to I've been going through Netflix my Netflix catalog so but I kind of took a break from slow horses but I was like I don't feel like watching black rabbit I'm gonna watch this instead because it's gonna be very entertaining but you'll be interested to know i don't know if this isn't in a spoiler River Cartwright is not as much of a main character as he as he seems it's really much an ensemble I find more than anything else, but he is important. Jack Loden is definitely one of the main characters, but I feel like largely this is like very much all this little horses are kind of given a lot of as the seasons go on, especially i feel like it becomes less of a Jack Loden a show and more so everyone. Yeah, that's cool. OK, I kind of like that.
01:07:04
Speaker
Yeah, that's cool. I'm very interested. They tried to ground it, which is really good in that first episode especially because they they give him – like he's like he's really eager. He's very passionate and he's like he's trying to do his thing and he screws up with that mistake, as you said. And I think that's really cool because I feel like it it grounds it because the the people when he goes to Slough House – He's in like with all of these people who seem way worse than he is, at least in the beginning. And so like I think that that that tries to ground it in a good way. It's like kind of what I talked about. I always talk about Parks and Recreation, how I kind of like the first season because the one the one not quirky character in it is kind of it grounds it a little bit. You kind of feel you can relate to that person a little bit more when you're going in. I don't know if you you recall that one guy who wasn't in the cast in season two.
01:07:50
Speaker
No, he's in season two. He leaves in season He kicked season three. Yeah. But anyway, yeah, cool. I'm glad you're watching it because it's also not much of a time sink. It's really reasonable. It's very respectful of your time. And it's like a regular TV show in that it launches seasons every year when everyone else is launching seasons like every two years for some stupid reason. Well, it's shorter.
01:08:11
Speaker
it it It launches more than a season a year because it's it just launched season five. The first season came out 2022, think. if i If I saw it correctly, at least when I did a quick Google search, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong.
01:08:25
Speaker
But it seems like it's it's at a fairly brisk pace that they're coming up with this. Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah, it was like there was one. yeah there was two seasons in one year for sure at one point. yeah other That is a good point.
01:08:36
Speaker
Yeah, it's cool. I really, yeah, I'm curious to see when you watch more and when you finish the first season, what you think. But it's it's almost like there's not enough for me just because I just, at least in the beginning, because you watch the full season and it's only six episodes and they're not like longer episodes. They're just under an hour.
01:08:54
Speaker
So it's cool. But yeah, I'm curious to see if you you also think it's kind of a comedy. It's kind of a good segue for what you were watching. If you're watching a lot of comedies and you're kind of trying to watch comedies and then you're kind of moving into dramas, this is kind of like a good segue. It's like a dark comedy and or like a dramedy, I guess. Almost like Better Call Saul.
01:09:09
Speaker
I can look at it like that. A British, like a drier Better Call Saul, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, fair enough. Because, yeah, like, it's funny.
Fleabag's Impact and HBO's The Pit
01:09:17
Speaker
I mean, on the topic of dark humor and British TV, me and my wife, I rewatched it, but she watched it for the first time. The two two seasons of Fleabag. um and You know, written written, directed and created by Phoebe Waller Bridge.
01:09:34
Speaker
ah And This show is immaculate, man. I i always like think of Fleabag so fondly. It's a show about this woman who all you know, her name is Fleabag. They never say her actual name.
01:09:50
Speaker
um That is really just kind of down on her luck and constantly makes the wrong choices consciously. And Everyone around her is kind of frustrated about her making these choices consistently. And the first season is essentially this, you know, watching her, you know, a while after her best friend kills herself by by accident. Yeah.
01:10:17
Speaker
Um, and her running this cafe that she opened with her friend and it's just like her living her life, you know, kind of super depressed alone. Everyone kind of is frustrated at her. And again, she's continuously making the wrong choice and is hyper aware of it and even comments on it. And there's a cool thing the show does like they do in like a, you know, um,
01:10:42
Speaker
that that Kevin Spacey Netflix show where, you know, they break the fourth wall and she talks directly to the camera. She's talking to the viewer and they do that in, in both seasons. Yeah. And it's just so hilarious, yet also incredibly depressing. And just, you're watching this damaged woman ruin her life.
01:11:06
Speaker
And you're frustrated at it. And you have like you know her family members that are there. And you know these cast of characters that are all flawed in their own way. But you know no one's just purely evil for for the sake of being evil. It's just...
01:11:20
Speaker
these very human interactions constantly. And again, she's, she's just trying to figure out her life, you know, in the first season and not to spoil anything, but you know, there's some big reveals at the end of the first season. then the second season takes place a year later.
01:11:37
Speaker
And the contrast between season one or two is, is awesome because season two where, where season one is, is about, you know, i guess finding yourself and just, you know, living you your bad choices. Season two is a redemption story.
01:11:54
Speaker
ah and also a love story because, you know, in season one, she's like a sex addict. She's, you know, again, doing dumb shit constantly. And season two takes place a year later. She's, you know, worked on herself over the last year, wants to be a better person, you know, um, and, and is,
01:12:12
Speaker
trying to make the right choices now. She might still slip up. She might still make the wrong choice. She might be aware of it, but now she can kind of rationalize it a little bit more and, and see it, see things at a more nuanced but perspective.
01:12:26
Speaker
And, The second season is so like some of the best television, honestly. It's both seasons or six episodes each is 12 episodes. It's a complete series. And I cannot recommend this show enough.
01:12:38
Speaker
It is just so good. It is so good. And it is so funny. And again, it it throws you for a loop because you can be laughing in one second and then kind of just being like, oh man, like not feeling good. And even like crying in another second and then going from a cry to a laugh. And it's just like this roller coaster of well balanced out, like emotions.
01:13:01
Speaker
And, um, I genuinely like I love Fleabag. I really freaking love this show. And it's, it's kind of a shame that Phoebe Waller-Bridge hasn't really done much since she was making the Mr. And Mrs. Smith series originally with the Donald Glover. And then she kind of stepped down from that.
01:13:19
Speaker
And, you know, obviously, she's been in i think she was in the new Indiana Jones movie, but i don't think she has like a writing credit or anything on there. And I'm just like, i I want more from her because I think she's one of the most talented you know writers and I guess directors and actors um that that I've really come across.
01:13:37
Speaker
And I just think she has this unbelievable ability to write such nuanced human characters um that you can root for, but also...
01:13:51
Speaker
you know, have empathy for or be upset at, at at but again, you know, understand where they're coming from through, you know, these brisk 20 fucking two minute episodes and still tell like this amazingly cohesive story that, like you know, spans over like a year and a bit and it all just fits together and works.
01:14:10
Speaker
Um, and God, i I love that show, man. I freaking adore it. I freaking adore it. And I'm really glad because, again, I showed it to my wife. She liked it the first season.
01:14:22
Speaker
She liked it. But she she was like, it's kind of depressing. like It's kind of a bummer. And then, you know, you go into season two and the tonal shift is so dramatic. And she's like, okay, I like she like immediately. She's like, I really like season two already like more because it like feels better. But the coolest part about it is like season two could not be as good at it as it is if it wasn't for season one, because they're meant to be.
01:14:47
Speaker
a mirror of each other in a way like an, like opposites of each other. Cause it's season one's about going down where season two is about going up. And it's just this perfect package, this perfect 12 episode package.
01:14:58
Speaker
And, uh, God, there's another show that ah reminds me of what you just said. you, can you think of it? What do it show? I'm thinking of, No, no. There's a show where it has like a season one and a season two that are very, very, very different, but I didn't love season one, but I do like it a lot, but it's just not as good in my opinion. And then season two takes what season one is and then just really turns it on its head in some aspect.
01:15:22
Speaker
Oh no. yeah. Yeah. oh yeah Yeah, that's actually a really good point. Yeah. Not doing quite what you said and then it was like, she's just like going down then going up. But it's very, well, actually it is kind of. It is. In some sense. That show is just immaculate as well. And so it's interesting to, know.
01:15:43
Speaker
hear you say that because love season one of the leftovers but I feel like in in season two couldn't have existed without season one but there and it's also the season that's based on the book is season one um but there's just this element of what season two is it's just like very creative and so is two three it's like oh man this is such a that I that still may be my favorite TV show it's just so good the leftovers but yeah That's cool, man. Fleabag. Yeah.
01:16:06
Speaker
Did you ever watch Fleabag? I can't remember. I tend anyway i watched it with my ah girlfriend at the time. Now my wife. Oh, wow. And she didn't like it. So I just completely just didn't watch any more of it. I i should watch it because it's not very long, apparently.
01:16:21
Speaker
I didn't know it was that short. It's 12 episodes, dude. Yeah, it's short. How many episodes did you watch with her? One. One. Oh, man. Yeah, that's too bad. That's yeah, you gotta to get it. You gotta have a good pilot. that's the I feel like the pilot is really good. like I think it sets up all the characters very well. But again, yeah, that that is fair. And we didn't finish the first episode. I don't know. I know it's good. Obviously, it's won numerous awards. I think it won the Emmy for best comedy that year. If I'm not mistaken, I think it won. um That seems right. 2019 for season two.
01:16:51
Speaker
Yeah, it was nominated. Wasn't it nominated a lot alongside like Atlanta at the time? Possibly. Was that it? I'm not sure. But I thought it won something. Either a Golden Globe or an Emmy for best show, I think.
01:17:05
Speaker
I could be wrong. If you're looking it up now, let me know. Otherwise, Yeah, the Emmy wins include outstanding comedy series, outstanding lead actress in a comedy series, outstanding writing for a comedy series, outstanding directing. Those are wins? Those are all wins?
01:17:17
Speaker
Yep. Oh, wow. There you go. Yeah. Yeah. Sweet. Is that just the first season or the second one? I guess it's hard to tell, right? I think that's always a hard thing. This is for its second one. Yeah. For its second season, it won six Emmys.
01:17:29
Speaker
Sweet. Yeah. It's amazing. Anything else? Anything else you've watched? Want to talk about today? Yeah. um I'll keep this one brief. I watched the first two episodes of The Pit, like HBO is The Pit.
01:17:40
Speaker
Okay. That I'm watching solo, so it's going to take me a while to get through it. I just heard a lot of good things about it. And again, I was in the mood for something like more of a drama. i know fallouts airing right now, and I was like considering jumping into it, but I'm like, i don't know if I'm in the mood for that tone.
01:17:55
Speaker
So I was like, going to going watch the pit. I watched the first episode with my wife. She did not like it. She's like medical dramas make me sad. Hospitals make me sad. i don't want to watch this. So i was like, OK, that's right. um So I watched the second episode on my own.
01:18:07
Speaker
It's good. It's it's it's interesting. Um, they do like a lot of neat, you know, character work in these first two episodes and you kind of like get a lot of these characters personalities. And the the coolest part about the show is it's, it's like the show 24 where every episode is one hour, just in like a medical drama format.
01:18:25
Speaker
Um, I don't like adore it, but again, I'm only two episodes in, I just think it's pretty good. It is funny though, to be so into a show where you don't understand like 50% of the dialogue.
01:18:40
Speaker
Cause it'll be like, Oh, it's like, yeah it's like, okay, look we're going to put 10 BPs of the trachea and the blah, blah, blah, blah. And they're just saying stuff. and you're like, trachea yeah. And you're just like, you're not in your head. Like, yeah, yeah. Do that. Do that.
01:18:52
Speaker
um um But yeah, it's pretty good. It's pretty interesting. um I'm going to keep watching it. I'll, i I'll update it eventually, depending on how many episodes I watch every episode. two weeks but yeah pretty good season two just started so that that was kind of another reason why i was like i should watch it and and also won you know best drama at the end at the emmys as well so i'm just like i should get into this this show beat and or okay um yeah we'll see yeah we'll see we'll see about that um we'll see it's probably good but is it that good i don't know
01:19:24
Speaker
I don't think it's possible, but we'll see. We'll see. We'll see. So, yeah. You'll give it a fair shake, you know? Yeah. um And then the last thing I watched is something that I assume you watched as well, so we can get get into it.
01:19:37
Speaker
But I don't know if you have a couple of things that you already watched over the week. Yeah, have a few things. Okay. Yeah. You want to talk about that before we talk about the presumably the Stranger Things finale that I'm going to guess you watched?
01:19:50
Speaker
I did watch it. Okay, cool. Yeah, it let's get into the after. Sure, I'll go through my things. I started watching Black Rabbit. Incredibly depressing. These characters aren't likable enough, and and this isn't a comedy. Did you watch Black Rabbit?
01:20:02
Speaker
I watched the first episode, and I was like, I'm not in the mood for this. I watched this like two months ago. i didn't bring it up. I forgot Impeccably shot. I think it's really, really well shot. I think it seems to be fairly well written from a realistic standpoint, and like the acting is great.
01:20:16
Speaker
The issue is the characters are not... likable enough across the board. And the main characters are these two brothers. One of them played by Jude Law is running a restaurant and his other brother is like a screw up and played by Jason Bateman.
01:20:31
Speaker
And I don't think either of them is likable enough. Like Jude Law owns a restaurant that his brother used to own with him. And there's this whole controversy like why did he leave the restaurant business? why is he ah Why is he selling coins? Things like that. We're like, okay. Very strange. It's a very like up kind of a up and coming restaurant in New York City called The Black Rabbit. It's cool. the Again, the way it's shot, Jason Bateman did a great job as director. You can clearly tell. The problem is I don't think the writing is strong enough because you have to create more compelling characters. I just don't feel...
01:21:04
Speaker
The characters draw me in enough and I want to finish it. I do. I'm going to probably, but i don't know if I'm goingnna finish it on this Netflix run. I think my Netflix subscription will lapse before I finish it. Okay. Fair enough. How many episodes do you watch? know.
01:21:16
Speaker
I've watched two. I just like- okay There is a point in ah in episode two, and I think if you continue watching it, you'll get to the point you'll be like, oh, okay. There's a point where it's like, it gets really dark, like on a park pinch at one point. And I'm just like, okay, I i can't do any more of this. Like I need some, some kind of, there's gotta be some kind of light. Like there's like, this is where you, you say like, you know, there's not, there has to be, there has to be likable characters or I don't like it. It's kind of like you one of your like mantras. I don't think that's true. Yeah.
01:21:46
Speaker
personally, i just think it has to kind of have characters that I can can see like where we're we're progressing. You have to have somebody who's just like, okay, this is this is a person who wants to do good. like Breaking Bad does the opposite. It starts with a really likable person and it becomes a little bit less likable. But because we can see who he was before, we can get this idea and be be kind of drawn into it.
01:22:08
Speaker
Yeah. and and But again, it's also surrounded by like this ensemble cast of other likable people that that. Yeah. there Yeah. to Yeah. So, yeah. You know, it's it is interesting. um Yeah. But no, I get where you're coming from, because, yeah, like I watched the first episode of Black Robin. I'm like, something's missing here. I'm like, I'm just not in the mood for this. It was also like in an hour and 15 minute first episode. And I like finished it. I'm like, I'm not going to continue this right now. Like maybe another time.
01:22:36
Speaker
Yeah. But yeah, I get where you're coming from because yeah, like they, they aren't likable and I'm not like, I don't know. It's not as simple, you know, like that. It's like, you know, if I don't like the characters, I don't want to watch it, but it's like, yeah, you gotta see but yeah if if you don't like the characters and you don't see their perspective and it's just like a bunch of blah, it's just not great. And especially i typically mentioned this in comedies a lot of the time, like, you know, like um I forget,
01:23:03
Speaker
and I talked about this where it's like, you know, ah like it's always sunny in Philadelphia. Like all the those people are bad people. Like they're awful human beings, but it's funny. So you can get into it.
01:23:13
Speaker
You know, it's like judgedg I don't see their. Exactly. Right. um i mean, it's part of the reason why I love reality TV. A lot of the time it's like, you know, a lot of these people suck, but it's like, it's fun to watch.
01:23:26
Speaker
Yeah, it's just tough when you kind of you you're in it to see these main protagonists, these main characters. like You want them to survive and you want them to thrive, but they're making the stupidest decisions, but there's nothing funny about it. You're talking about Fleabag. She's an unlikable character, but she does pretty funny things. You can break the depression. It just feels...
01:23:45
Speaker
you can break break the the the the depression with the it just feels I don't want tension. There's a lot of tension in Black Rabbit. That's a great thing. It does well. But I think the problem is, is like you got to break the depression. I feel depressed watching the Black Rabbit and I've I've just kind of been more depressed recently. And so watching this at the same time, it's like, oh, my God, I can't do both. you know i like In my free time, i'm go to watch The Black Rabbit. I'm like, no, I'm going to play Oblivion remastered. That's kind of the problem for me. Or watch A Man on the Inside, which is the other show that I completely finished. and I think it's awesome. I think the second season is really good.
01:24:25
Speaker
um I think ah the character Charles Dryer Dick is just a great character. Is it Dryer Dick? That's not... What? Is that his actual name?
01:24:37
Speaker
No, it's his yeah is Charles New and Dyke. But my my wife was sitting on the couch and she's like, we paused it for a second. She's like, you know, ah the the main character, the main character, she's like, you know, ah char ah she's like, dryer dick. I'm like, who? yeah like, what are you talking about?
01:24:58
Speaker
and just yeah im like, what are you talking about? She's like, laundry dick. I'm like, that's not better. What are you talking about? And eventually we arrived on the fact that is it was a Ted Danson's character, Charles Newendike, which is clearly not even close to... I was scared for her for a moment, but we did we figured it out. And so Charles Dryer Dick is a very strange name. And I feel like feel like you have to kind of bleep that at some some point, yeah you know depending on the context in the show. But it's really good. I think Mike Schur's...
01:25:29
Speaker
comedy and this his writing is solid. I think this is a more upbeat season while also diving into very emotional tones constantly. It still kind of dives into the the really dark subject matter in some parts. Not as dark as the first season. in the we're Not dark, but I guess sad.
01:25:46
Speaker
It's not really that dark. It's just really depressing. um But I think they did a really good job. I think overall, I really liked the season. I like i like how they spawned the idea of what the first season was and they put him made him a man on the inside of another organization to try to figure out what was going on. I really like David Stratharn from like Good Night and Good Luck and various other things like the Bourne.
01:26:11
Speaker
ah the Bourne movies. I think he's really a great actor and it was really cool to see him in like this side role in this film. um Also Nomadland. He's in that too. He's really great. I just think he's awesome. So you just see him as like a professor in this like, oh, it's just it's like that's cool. I know I really like the season. i I liked it a lot. It was it was it was very easy to get into and just move through fairly rapidly. So Yeah, I liked it.
01:26:36
Speaker
But yeah yeah, you finished it too, right? Yeah, I finished it too. I agree completely. I think it fixed a lot of the issues I had with the first season. And again, it made it more lighthearted and and fun. um So, yeah. Did you think his name was Charles Dreyer Dick as well? No, I was like, okay no I was like, what? that that's that That was my confusion. I don't think that's right, dude. it's ah Like can't It's not. It can't be. And I could not figure out what show she was even referring to. And she...
01:27:03
Speaker
it wasn't yeah We weren't pausing it for that. We were pausing some other show or something. I can't remember what it was, but then she just started talking about the show and was trying to like talk about the mystery, but I was like, I couldn't figure out what show it was because she said Charles Dredd. Anyway, um but the other thing I watched just really quick, I watched The Walking Dead to its completion. I'm done. Season 11, it's over. What a terrible ending.
01:27:26
Speaker
Oh, man. Well, it's not an ending. It's bad. Yeah, it is. It's not literally an ending. It's literally an ending. Literally it is. But it's like final figuratively is not. It's not.
01:27:39
Speaker
I guess literally it isn't. And literally it isn't. It is. Yeah, I guess it's both literally is and isn't. But it is technically because it is the end of The Walking Dead. Anyway, I don't like it. And I don't remember you talking about it negatively, but I thought that the last two episodes were written very badly.
01:27:55
Speaker
I'm just shocked about how bad the writing is. If that hold up, the last half of the season was very lopsided. There was a lot of weird shit in it. But I found the last the last two episodes in particular were like jarring. I it's crazy because Josh Hamilton, I think, is like a standout. That guy, he plays Lance.
01:28:15
Speaker
He's like freaking awesome. I thought he's like his performance was really good. But the way his character kind of his arc ends, I'm like, don't know if this was worth I was like, is he such an interesting, compelling villain? Whereas like the governor lady of that big place is like not that interesting. don't know. I think they didn't make enough time jumps. They have this problem where they don't tell you what how much time passed and then they talk about it as if years or months have passed.
01:28:39
Speaker
Did you find that? i don't know if you remember that. and have for you I don't remember. Yeah, unfortunately, like I cannot tell you. Yeah. like You don't tell you, you understand what I'm saying though.
01:28:49
Speaker
They like, they would be like there'd be like, no time would pass at all. And they'd be like, Oh yeah, we're, we're friends with this guy. We've been with this guy forever. And I'm like, you just met him like five like It was like over like two episodes ago, but it would also no time pass. and's like I get it. Weeks have passed for the audience, but I'm watching this all at once. like That's not how TV shows work. like you You have to tell me how much time has passed. If no time has passed, which it clearly hasn't, don't pretend it has. They did that yeah constantly.
01:29:17
Speaker
It wasn't like once. It was like many times. i was like, why are they talking about this as if i they've had... so Yeah, no, like I agree with you. I kind of remember that because I think like one of my biggest issues with The Walking Dead, you know, you make a show that one of the the key things about it is its willingness to kill off characters and that extra shock value. And end up over the course of the first six, seven, eight seasons, you know, you have like a fairly core cast, a big cast, but you took time to develop a lot of them before you started killing them off in ways. Yeah. And I feel like by the end, they have killed off so much of their core cast or have written them off where they're like, okay, we got to add a new cast member to this, make them seem important. So it's shocking when we kill them off in like three episodes and like act like they are far more important than they actually are.
01:30:11
Speaker
Um, and I remember that being a big issue. Cause yeah, there there'd be like characters like near in the end where it's like, oh my God, Ted is bleeding out. I'm like, I don't even know who the fuck Ted is. I don't care about Ted. I'm, I'm glad Ted's dead.
01:30:25
Speaker
You know, it's just like continue. And it's just, they, I think they, They fell into the trap because in that show and in the comics, to be fair as well, the universe widens, right? As as each season goes on, it's bigger.
01:30:40
Speaker
And, you know, there's more and more people. So you're you're starting to spread yourself a little bit more thin But why? stopped killing characters off at a certain point at the same pace. And then they they announced the TV shows that were going have these big characters. And then there's like, they have serious plot armor that you can't, you know, they're going survive. So you're not worried about them dying.
01:31:01
Speaker
That was a huge problem too. But it's not
Finales: The Walking Dead and Stranger Things
01:31:03
Speaker
just that. The characters who aren't in the other shows, who weren't planned to be in the other shows, who weren't announced, those characters weren't even, they they just didn't die. And there's like, theyre these actors aren't like huge actors. They're just like,
01:31:15
Speaker
people I've only seen in The Walking Dead. I'm like, why are you afraid to kill these characters off? It's very strange. I just couldn't figure it out. They would not kill people off in the last season. It was very unusual. they just They all survived, and then they kept trying to follow these characters. At one point, the dude who plays, oh, what's this guy's name? I actually like this actor very much. He actually plays freaking, he plays um Red Skull in the Avengers Endgame.
01:31:38
Speaker
Oh, yeah. ah You I'm talking about. Yeah. Aaron is the character. Aaron, right? He plays Aaron. Marsh and first name I can't remember. But anyway, yeah he's an invincible and everything like that.
01:31:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. He's good. He's a good voice actor and he's he's a good actor in The Walking Dead. I think he's great. I don't think I've ever seen him in anything else. My live action. um But. ah Because the Red Skull, well, Red Skull is very prosthetic, though.
01:32:00
Speaker
So, yeah, I'm not even sure. I'm sure he's motion captain. Markand. Markand. Ross, sorry. Ross Marchand. Yeah. Anyway, Ross Marchand, he's, ah his kid at one point in season 11, I'm not going to say when or whatever, but like there's this thing with the kids. Did you notice this thing about, like, save the children? Save the children is, like, a huge plot point in season 11. I'm like, okay, relax. But at one point, his kid would technically be also missing with these other kids.
01:32:26
Speaker
But he never says anything about it. I'm like, you guys have such a huge cast. You forgot to write this in. You can't just not write it in. This guy's one of the most sensitive, like nice people in The Walking Dead.
01:32:37
Speaker
Like he legitimately cares about the community and his family. You think he's not going to be all like worried. about his child going missing. He never even mentions it and no one mentions it to him. i'm like, what happened to his kid? And like, yeah at one point, a lot of people were like taken or whatever. And then you're like, not sure who was taken and they never really explain it.
01:32:55
Speaker
And the problem with not explaining it is when you have one of the children who is mysteriously missing, but in the show itself, like you can't see them because you don't see them, but they never mentioned them. You're like, well, that doesn't make any sense. Cause you've been like, like,
01:33:08
Speaker
embroiling the whole plot in a mystery of like who was taken we didn't tell you And you're like questioning also, like, how are all these people taken? is this is What kind of a its it's just like yeah I can't I don't believe in the the big settlement. I don't believe that they could have that many people there. You never see enough people as well. It's just and everything about that season is like it's very unbelievable.
01:33:31
Speaker
Not the ideas, the skeleton of the idea of a bigger settlement and like, you know, dealing with that and what that means is awesome. Yeah, I know it is awesome because there was a comic book written about it and it follows and it does it well. It does it very well.
01:33:48
Speaker
Right. Like the Robert Kirkman comic book is amazing. This isn't good. And this is the kind of the problem. I can't speak to the comment. didn't read it could have been bad. I have no idea. But that's the problem with this is just it's just not it's not acceptable. The writing is just so lopsided. It's like, are you guys just trying to finish this? I don't know. I don't remember season 10 being this annoying. um I feel like I feel like we both liked season 10. I feel like they yeah we were positive on season 10.
01:34:13
Speaker
I remember that. They just they lost the plot. There's just too many characters and they couldn't follow them all. And they're like, we're gonna have to pick and choose. it' like you can't completely pick and choose. Just kill the characters off. Like you can't have some of them get kidnapped and some of them not. And then you're like, well, we're like you have to question like, where did it? Where did a seven year old go?
01:34:30
Speaker
Like, ah where where is she? She's missing. And like, I remember it. So did you not remember you're the writer of the show? i don't know. That is annoying. I didn't like it that much. But I thought josh Josh Hamilton was a standout. I thought his character was really interesting to watch. And and there was a lot of there's a lot of the, you know, the trappings of The Walking Dead that were cool. There's some elements that were neat. Like there was that whole, actually, again, rooted in Lance. I like the Daryl and Carol storyline. I like mixing up this.
01:34:55
Speaker
These characters are like walking together and talking. And you just mentioned it, too. They're just like basically building up for this. These other shows that are coming. And they're like they kept doing that, like really forcefully, like with um Maggie and ah Jeffrey Dean Morgan's character, by the way, who's a great character. I just think he's great overall.
01:35:12
Speaker
But yeah that there's like we're going to. We're going to go out and look around in the in the other cities. They say that like explicitly like, we're going to, I'm like, what do you what are you doing right now? That like the last episode was like largely just like wrapping the show up like in a neat bow so that they could just like tease other things that were coming. It felt like a trailer for other shows and not a finale. It's just not good.
01:35:37
Speaker
Yeah, it was like ah like a, what what is it called? Like a back-end pilot or whatever they call it. Oh, backdoor pilot, right? backdoor Backdoor pilot. But the backdoor pilot was a series finale. Yeah, it literally is a trailer though because it's at the end.
01:35:51
Speaker
Which is actually yeah fun. um But yeah, there's the there's something interesting too is like they they teased the season with Andrew Lincoln, which is the best reviewed spinoff, I think, overall. It's only got one season. that I actually do want to watch that because I think Andrew Lincoln and... um Danai Guerrero.
01:36:10
Speaker
Yeah. They're both really compelling actors. and like They're very fun to watch. There's an element of Andrew Lincoln's performance. He went real dark as Rick at some points, and he kind of came out of that. I just i kind of love that. there's like there's almost That doesn't really happen as much. There's a lot of dramatic aspects of The Walking Dead. and they're like they're very People are very dramatic, and they like monologue about community constantly. They're like, oh, yeah. Oh, you know, it's just about love and we got to save each other. They just like i like talk about it for like two hours. I'm like, I don't know if Andrew Lincoln was here. I don't think Andrew Lincoln does that shit. He did a little bit. It's not his writing, but it's just it kind of felt like he could act the phone book a little bit more compared to the others a little bit. Not that they're bad. I just I don't know. I don't think the writing is as strong as it should be. I agree for the season.
01:36:57
Speaker
It's very heavy handed. It's very heavy handed. Yeah, right. they I think it is literally tell don't show a lot of the time where they're like, we need to make sure everyone's intentions are made as clear as possible. So they're going like, I'm very upset because this person who is very important to me got shot by a crossbow three episodes ago. yeah And because of this, I'm very upset.
01:37:22
Speaker
It's like, it's kind of the the writing is so. I remember what really bothered me about the last season. I don't know why I'm right this year. Oh, because I want to spoil it. I can't go into too much detail, but there is a point where there's a like basically a child who like stands up after basically being seriously injured and closes the door. i just want to point that out. Like that's one of the most absurd things The Walking Dead has ever done. This person is basic. It's a child who's got a serious wound.
01:37:50
Speaker
and is unconscious and somehow brings them himself to like stand. It just makes no sense. You remember what I'm talking about? ah Vaguely. it's in the last season. It's not good. This is like the worst writing I've ever seen in this show. Probably overall. I was like flabbergasted. I was looking at the screen like this. My eyes were why I'm like, are they seriously? Did they write this in? They could have anything in.
01:38:12
Speaker
That's what they chose? I couldn't believe it. they I don't know. i feel like you would remember if you thought it was that absurd. it was It's almost one of the most absurd scenes in the in the in in the entire show. It's so crazy. I'm like, what?
01:38:24
Speaker
She was just carried for like three blocks. How does she have any blood? And then literally later, they're like, oh, she doesn't have any blood. like We have to do a transfusion. I'm like,
01:38:35
Speaker
But she stood up. What are you talking about? That's not how illness works. It's kid strength. Yeah, kid strength. And meanwhile, this other, like Ross Marchand's character's child. It's Marquand, I think. Is it Marquand?
01:38:52
Speaker
Is it Marquand? Marquand. M-A-R-Q-U-A-N-D. Oh, I thought it was C-H. I'm sorry. Marquand. I'm sorry, Ross. I'm sure you're listening to this. But anyway, yeah. Yeah, good. Thank you for correcting OK, yeah, that's it.
01:39:06
Speaker
That's all I watched. And I and I watched Stranger Things. Nice. Oh, and I finished Pluribus, which I thought was great. Oh, yeah. Yeah. wonder what it was. And great. Can't wait for the next season. Hopefully. and it works on I also watch man versus baby, which I don't recommend anyway. I won't watch that. Don't worry. um Yeah. Pluribus real brief.
01:39:25
Speaker
this is just a question. Do you think we're going to get season two next year? Because like you, you got to think about this, this show. It's not. Okay. Don't worry about it.
01:39:37
Speaker
so what were you going to say though? I'm curious. but My point is, is like, it's such a small cast realistically. And it's just like really a core cast in like smaller areas that I feel like you could make it. Oh, faster if it's written. Right.
01:39:52
Speaker
So I'm like, could we get it this year by the end of this year? But, um, I don't know I read somewhere that they said no. Okay. well that's great. I'm happy about that. Let's see here.
01:40:03
Speaker
I'm happy. Well, you're happy about that. No, I'm being facetious, Simon. Oh, sorry. I couldn't see your face. I'm looking at a different screen. I'm sorry. ah Where would I read that? I'm trying to find it now.
01:40:15
Speaker
Oh, it's on Entertainment Weekly for some reason. Pluribus Season 2 isn't happening according to and Entertainment Weekly for a while, says Vince Gilligan. We're working on it. Like, okay. Like, but I mean, this is not how shows were made. Vince Gilligan, when you made X-Files. So what what happened? i don't know. When you made Breaking Bad.
01:40:33
Speaker
The budget's different now. It is different. I will give ah chris some credit, them some credit on this. Like the sets are bigger. The the the productions are huge more larger like larger than ever before. They're not like the Sopranos even like they they're way bigger than that. You know what i'm saying? Yeah.
01:40:47
Speaker
yeah Game of Thrones kind of did it. like That's the thing. But season one wasn't as as deep. Only 10 episodes. I don't know. It's just a different time. It's very weird. um I don't know what happened. There's some kind of strange.
01:41:01
Speaker
There's rumors of another strike. Do you see this? No. I don't want to. I don't want to. It'd be bad if that happens. Anyway, let's talk about Stranger Things. Stranger Things ended season five and the series finale was on Christmas Eve. Christmas. New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve.
01:41:18
Speaker
It ended. What did you think? I... Liked it. I thought it was ah like a nice kind of finish. the The last hour of the episode, it's kind of like an epilogue in a way.
01:41:31
Speaker
And i feel I feel like it was a very satisfying conclusion for me personally. i don't think it's perfect by any stretch. I think there's a lot of threads kind of left. um out um You know, they don't wrap everything up in a perfect bow.
01:41:46
Speaker
which is okay. You know, you don't necessarily need closure on every single character or on every single situation, but they do have enough closure on the main cast of characters. I think there are elements in the series finale specifically that are a little bit very just like people in front of a green screen with stuff going on. And there's like these almost like plot hole elements um where it's like, ah how did you get up on that cliff so fast sort of thing? um Like little things like that, if if you understand where i'm what I'm referring to, be Simon. But I think as a whole, I did really like it. And I thought, again, the ending and the last kind of conversation with the kids was –
01:42:28
Speaker
Amazing. And like, you know, it brought a tear to my eye. And I just, it's nice to kind of have this, you know, five season story come to an end. And again, in my personal opinion, be done pretty darn well.
01:42:43
Speaker
um What did you think about this? I think this is one of the better finales that I've seen. I think that it's really excellent. I think that the way it ends is really, really great in some ways. And I think the the Duffer brothers say this, they take they take some inspiration from the way that the Lord of the Rings Return of the King film ends.
01:43:01
Speaker
um And there's kind of like, it's like a tale of multiple endings. It just keeps kind of, it was like an ending of this. It's like closure for this, closure for this. And they don't completely close it off completely. Kind of like the Lord of the Rings as well. Like they just kind of, they're like, leave some things like, well, where did these characters really go? Like what actually happened there? And that, that's actually a really cool thing. I think that was really great. I didn't find,
01:43:25
Speaker
Too many things that were plot holy enough for me to say, ah, that's it's impossible. um I can see like somebody you know rolling off a truck or something. Yeah. um It's really – I'm okay with that.
01:43:38
Speaker
Yeah, i think really it's just the scale of the the final – epic battle shot yeah it was a little bit i don't know confusing in a way oh that part yeah yeah no that was strange yeah a little bit um but again like the conclusion of that was still satisfying it's not necessarily you know like it is again it's wacky but again it is literally like how did you guys get up on that cliff so fast yeah like sort of thing. Like there, there are these moments where I just think it, it kind of moves. And then again, it it is kind of confusing because it's like a big monster thing. And it's like, how big is this monster compared to these cliffs? So the the scale was a little bit messy, but again, it was, as you mentioned, it's not enough to like take you out of it and be like, this sucks.
01:44:23
Speaker
um I know what you're talking about now. Sorry. I got confused with what you were saying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah yeah That's a, yeah, that's true. Yeah. I did call that out when it was, when it was going, it was a strange battle. There was, there's a questions of like,
01:44:36
Speaker
of enemy number as well that people had, but the Duffer brothers kind of answered that. I don't really care. i think that overall it's cool. I think there was that ah element. Yeah, that is an issue with CG. It's sometimes the scale is a problem when you're going to create a giant, like it's, it's a, so like, what are you going to do there?
01:44:51
Speaker
Like, it's like, how do you, how do you manage this? Um, sorry, is that a spoiler that we shouldn't put it? No, no, I think it's fine. So yeah. I don't know. I like it overall. Overall is great. I think the way they wrapped it up overall, that was the that was the thing that really got me. And it it got me emotional. Like, this is over. It made me feel sad at the end. Because I think a good ending like this, where you have all these different characters that you kind of learn to love, and like it's just a overall well-written show, it kind of just makes you sad when it ends. This is like, ah as you call it, post-platinum depression when you finish a platinum trophy on a video game on PlayStation. It's
01:45:23
Speaker
It's kind of like that. It's like, this was amazing. And it's like very sad to see it end like this, I guess, like completely. um So because there's no there's no spinoff, right? There's no spinoff. There was going to be there. There is a spinoff in the works, but it's set in like a different decade, totally different cast. Like it's not set in Hawkins or anything like that.
01:45:43
Speaker
And apparently there's. Yeah, those guys are leaving, right? They're going going to. be Yeah, they're not. They're not show running it. I think they have like ah like producer credits and like will help a little bit, but they're not the show runners or anything like that.
01:45:56
Speaker
And then there's also the the animated spinoff that takes place between two and three, I think. Which is coming out this year. We got the stage play. That's happening. That's already on stage now.
01:46:07
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not. um No, no, no. I'm not going to watch a fucking stage play. Okay. Oh, OK. It's not canon for me is my point. It's like I don't need this to fill in the gap.
01:46:21
Speaker
um But and yeah, I do agree with you. I think it's like a very satisfying conclusion all in all. And I think. i think they like as a whole, like this show is great and it's one of the.
01:46:38
Speaker
Let me take a step back. I love watching TV and having that water cooler talk a lot of the time. Yeah. But at the same time, it's such a double edged sword because as soon as like, it's like a snowball rolling down a hill. us As soon as something gains a little bit of traction,
01:46:57
Speaker
it just ruins it for everyone else. And it's, it's tough to enjoy something with all the noise surrounding it. A lot of the time i always think about game of Thrones where it's like, again, I, genuine I genuinely, still stand by it. I think the game of Thrones ending, not great, but it's not awful and not the worst thing ever. And it's just like, it's just too fast. It's just a rushed. I don't think the story elements are bad. I think it's just a rushed ending. And it's just like, you can't,
01:47:23
Speaker
when any when Whenever you talk about Game of Thrones now, it's literally like, oh, that's so that show fucking sucks. It's the worst ending ever. It's like, and nah. No, and it's like ah people are almost talking about this in the same way. It's such hyperbole, and it's just like, it's taxing. It's like, man, I just want, just let me enjoy it.
01:47:38
Speaker
Just let me have a good time. Again, it I think we're in like a point where anything less than perfection is criticized or anything less than amazing is bad. There's no in between anymore. There's no nuanced discussion. And it's frustrating to always hear about because it's just and it's always the loudest.
01:47:59
Speaker
voices that are like, this is the fucking shittiest. Oh, my God, gay. You know, like, it's just i don't know, man. it's It's tiring at the end of the day. You have people in your life that are talking about it negatively.
01:48:10
Speaker
Yes. OK, I don't have anything like that. Yeah. And it's just the Internet, man. Like, I mean. You just like hear things on the internet as well. What is perfection though? Like it's art. Like there's an element of like, I, I don't know. It's, ah it's something interesting. Cause like if the breaking bad finale come out this year, and people be upset about it.
01:48:31
Speaker
You know, people largely I think thought it was good, but I wonder if people couldn't be satisfied because it's ending. And this is just this huge thing. The problem with stranger things too, the breaking bad didn't have as much, although breaking bad spread at the last year, season into two and they spread it out a bit more like in terms of time. Stranger Things had the issue of time being an issue. You create something with an insurmountable hype when you spread it out like this. Don't do this is our lesson because it's kind of a lesson. Severance is going to run into this problem. People going to be disappointed in the answer at the end even if they're great because it doesn't matter because people are building up this hype in their mind. Grand Theft Auto 6 has a huge uphill battle potentially because they delay it 55 times. Although I think it'll still be great because they have $2 billion into it. But still, there's an element of it. It's really... Stop doing this. You don't have to hype it like this. You could...
01:49:25
Speaker
For a TV show, Grand Theft Auto is a little differently different. It takes more time to make. I mean, they had the choice to not hype it the way they did. But for Stranger Things, like did you have to spread it out like this? I don't think you did. I know that there was ah there was a strike, and so that probably put a wrench into your plans. but It sucks. Just stop spreading it out if you can avoid it at least a little bit. Netflix has the money, so what are you doing? so I don't know. I feel like that could have been part of the problem, but I wonder if it's just like there is no perfection in the finale. You're not going to give everyone what they want. it It's just not possible unless you're going to like –
01:49:58
Speaker
I was going to say go the way of Rise of Skywalker, but I don't know if, I don't know. I'm not sure. Like, the did the fans shut up? thenoying fan The most annoying fans maybe shut up for that, right? Because it's reviewed well on Rotten Tomatoes.
01:50:10
Speaker
The audience score is high, right? For for Rise Skywalker. don't think so. Is it? I feel like everyone I talk to, I feel like Rise of Skywalker was the everyone kind of getting together and understanding like, oh, this actually, this sucks. all That went way too far though.
01:50:25
Speaker
My point was fan service is the issue, right? It's 86%, dude. It's really high. But that's like a, ah yeah, it's bullshit. It doesn't make any sense. that That's the most absurd garbage. And it's how many thousands of people have reviewed it.
01:50:39
Speaker
It's so sort of 50,000 plus verified ratings, 86%. What are we doing? How is that possible? yeah It makes no sense because Rise of Skywalker is a shit. It's a shit out of a butt.
01:50:50
Speaker
It's not good. it's It's bad. Yeah, like multiple angles. It's not bad and because of like one or two reasons. It's bad because of the whole package together. It panders. It's a pandering mess. It's pandering fan fiction. It looks like ah like somebody who is like a Reddit for for Star Wars wrote it himself. Like it's it's just not professional.
01:51:11
Speaker
It's unprofessional the way I would describe it. But that's what I was wanting. Like for Stranger Things, what did people want them to do? Did they want fan fiction? like could Did they want like their their wildest dreams to come true? I didn't have an expectation like that. Expectations are the thief of joy. People had expectations that didn't come true. I guess that's why they're upset. I don't know. I didn't. I am not ah as online as you, though, so I feel like maybe that helps me a little bit in that I didn't see the criticism.
01:51:37
Speaker
like Yeah, it's just memes, man. It's just memes. That sucks, yeah. yeah But anyway, yeah, i thought it was great. Overall, i thought it was a great ending. i yeah Yeah, I think it was it was... It surprised me with how...
01:51:50
Speaker
I feel like they took their time with it and they had the extra time to make it in terms of the actual episode size being two hours. I think that they had the time to really spread it out and again, do a return of the King type ending. I think that that was awesome, but that element was really cool.
01:52:06
Speaker
I just, yeah, I was just sad because it was over because anything ending like this, when it's this many seasons in this many years, it started in 2016. Like it's, it's nuts. It's 2026. Yeah. It's like,
01:52:20
Speaker
It's wild. It's over now. So anyway, I liked it. I think they did a good job and i'm I'm excited to see what they do next. The Bros is another thing that's coming out from Netflix, but it's their executive producing, but I don't think they're show running it on Netflix. It's kind of a similar idea, like supernatural stuff in a, in a, so in a city, but it's the retirement home.
01:52:38
Speaker
You know about this? We talked about this, I think. Yeah. Retirement home. People are are trying to figure it out. People in a retirement community. Uh, and then, um, And then they've got their Paramount deal which would with with whatever that's going to be. I don't know why they would go to Paramount.
01:52:52
Speaker
The only thing I could think of for Paramount is that they are tired of people having the wrong settings on their TV. I literally, when I saw that, they said that thing about the settings being wrong on people's TVs for Stranger Things. And then they went to Paramount like within like ah about a month month time. I'm like, is this a coincidence?
01:53:08
Speaker
Because Paramount does kind of promise a theatrical release in a theatrical setting is a... is a vacuumed environment, ah an environment in which you can control exactly what's shown on screen. And not exactly, but close. And so I think that they maybe you're tired of making stuff for people watching on a five-inch screen. They're like, this is this is it. I can't stand people watching it on this Android They want to be close to Tom Cruise.
01:53:33
Speaker
Maybe. They'll hire Tom Cruise. I hope they're not doing what the frigging Benioff and Weiss did. you know They get a Paramount deal and then they don't make anything forever and then they just move on to the frigging Warner Brothers, which would be Netflix. but yeah They just get a better deal somewhere else and then they kind of make something worse. But the Duffer Brothers made up the thing.
01:53:54
Speaker
Oh, like from scratch, I'm saying. There's a creative experience. They made it up from scratch. um I was going to say, actually, we talked about it last week and I forgot to kind of, well, I didn't forget to because this is the next, not last week, the last episode. I'm going to course correct what I said last week last time.
01:54:09
Speaker
I said that season four is my favorite. It isn't. I think season one is my favorite. And the reason why that is, Season one is everything that the show is rooted in. There is nothing. There is no season four unless season one exists.
01:54:21
Speaker
And so I really love season four. I think it's my second favorite season. But because of the nature of the music, which is iconic. And like when you think of that, even that title sequence and everything that that is. And these kids, but they're playing D&D and everything's rooted in this concept. And you're introduced to them the first time. And everything in that show is very, very Amblin movie. They're all riding their bikes.
01:54:41
Speaker
It's very classic. It's a classic movie. story. I think it's awesome. Season four is a close second. I just think it's really excellent. But there's an element of like you wouldn't have it without this. And I think that that Season's good. There's a funny, I had this discussion with a colleague, a work colleague, about season one and season, like the whole oldest seasons are ranking them. And they were like, season one and season two are the best and everything else is bad. I'm like, season two?
01:55:06
Speaker
What are you talking about? i was like, that sounds sounds so so sounded so stupid. they They didn't like the finale, of course. this is Actually, that's one person I talked to, but they didn't go into it because they didn't really talk to them about what they didn't like about season five.
01:55:18
Speaker
I just thought it was hilarious because season two is the most derivative season. It's the same thing over again. They're just expanding on the first season. It's like they didn't have any ideas. The funniest thing is like the one episode that kind of was creative and different was the one that everyone hates. And all the other one, all the other bit of season two, they just wanted the same thing again. It's it's like so Star Wars. You want Star Wars episode one five times. It was what we got.
01:55:41
Speaker
So i think that's kind of what it is. And so that's kind of my my idea. I love season four. I just think that season one is excellent, like really, really good. And because it's really good as a starting spot, it's not like a mediocre season that becomes good over time.
01:55:55
Speaker
um like I could say like for all mankind, I think season one's the with the poorest season maybe. But if you wouldn't have the other seasons without it, that's not what I'm saying. I think season one is so excellent. And everything else kind of expands on it so well, largely.
01:56:10
Speaker
But season four does it in a completely different way. The split split timeline, like not split timeline, but split um ah character arcs, like the plot plot arcs in that season are excellent. Sorry, you were going to say something i didn't like Yeah, no, it's just...
01:56:26
Speaker
But I mean, we were talking about this earlier in the episode, though. Like, I mean, I think Fleabag's first season is is amazing as well. And you wouldn't have, but I think season two is better, but you wouldn't have it because of like the show is rooted in the season one. So I don't know. Like, I mean, you could make the same, like like the exact opposite argument that you're making. It's completely different.
01:56:44
Speaker
Fleabag. it Season one to four five of Stranger Things aren't really completely different. see it's strange obviously season two is the same. But Fleabag like completely changes the game. Leftovers was that way too. like it changed That show is fundamentally different in season two and three compared to season one. Season one is like very depressing and very much not season two. it's like ah For people watching The Leftovers, if if anyone wants to start it like talking on this podcast or if I recommended it to a ah friend, I'd be like, get through season one. It is really good, but season two and three are...
01:57:20
Speaker
immaculate like i think the overall the whole show is amazing because of the overall thing that the whole arc but i think that you know they know i'm saying like they're very different i think fleabag is a different thing for that reason fair enough yeah i can see your point there but i i see what you're saying but you you think season four is the best yeah yeah i mean again i just rewatched all i know which is great so perspective is the best which one was the worst two Yeah, that's what I think.
01:57:45
Speaker
I don't know. i I think I remember that correctly because it's the same thing. That's an easy one. Yeah, like it's interesting because I think like Stranger Things does a cool thing where season one is a bunch of homages to different things. And then season two is just an homage to season one.
01:58:00
Speaker
In a weird way. So it becomes very derivative and redundant in a lot of a lot of aspects. And then you go back into season three and then it's not an homage to the previous seasons. It kind of shakes things up and and then it's an homage to a bunch of different things. And I think, again, four is the same, five is the same. where there yeah No season is the same except for one and two.
01:58:20
Speaker
yeah Each season feels different. yeah And humans, are they are they don't like change. And this is the problem, I think. And I think that's the issue is that the person I'm talking to about, like straight they were just on a, we're on a team's call for a work thing. We're really talking about stranger things. I just mentioned in a passing. And I look, I was bewildered when he said like nothing beats season one and two and like specifically into you. I'm like, and I chimed in. I'm like, and two, like, are you sure? And he's like, yeah, so good. I'm like,
01:58:48
Speaker
Is it like you just don't like change. You like the first season because it was something different. And then you just like, I like season two because I just wanted more of the same. Why would I want more like a have a different cake? Like I wanted this chocolate cake and I want to be exactly the same with the exact same toppings. Like, okay, I guess. But it's just like, I don't know.
01:59:07
Speaker
yeah It's just bit stupid. It's like you want to. That's kind of. what people probably feel like with season five, season five ends, you know, and they just don't want to, they don't want to imagine that it's over too. They kind of want to live with these characters and they probably, maybe some of their disappointment in the fact that it's over overall in this 10 years of their life is now they don't have to look, they don't have stranger things to look forward to anymore. Maybe it's a psychological thing. Like they, they're kind of like tuned out. they're Like this is bad because it's over.
01:59:35
Speaker
Okay. Nothing would have lived up to your expectations. Cause you, now these characters who are kind of, they're not your friends, but you're kind of parasocially. I get that. Yeah. and you' You're, you're, you're in a journey with them. It's like a yeah weird parasocial relationship, but it's like, I don't know. i think about, mean, it's the same thing about, you know, playing like a game. Like, you know, I played persona for 130 hours or whatever it is more. Yeah. And i spent 130 hours with that cast of characters. They were my, that's my gang.
02:00:00
Speaker
I love them. I'd do anything for them. And then it kind of comes to an end and it's like, Oh, that's kind of, it's, it's nice. But at the same time, like I'm, I'm yeah. Yeah. Dead now.
02:00:11
Speaker
Yeah. They're dead to me. They're never going to say anything else to me. yeah i can play it over again, but they're just like going through memories. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Memories, dude. Memories. Let me tell you. It's like remembering, you know, remembering your grandpa or something. It's not, it's just really sad. Honestly. Yeah.
02:00:31
Speaker
Yeah. Cool. Yeah. I feel like that could be part of it. People are resistant to change. some Yeah. A hundred percent for the season two. People like season two. Cause it's yeah, it's like comfort food. Yeah. And, um, and that's okay. You can like comfort food, but again, i just think I like different experiences. You know, there's yeah like, again, talking about video games, like there's a reason i played, i played, i think 69 70 games last year.
02:00:58
Speaker
ah different experiences because I want different experiences. It actually says that on my wrapped, but I know I i played one more. My wrapped actually does say 69. Funnily and enough, I'll send it to you. I'll send it to you right now. You want proof? I'm
TV Preferences and Media Diversity Issues
02:01:12
Speaker
good. I'm good. we're We're on a film and TV podcast. Okay. Okay. going to send it to you. um But yeah, so like it was, i i like different experiences. it's It's fun and I want something new and different every single time. so I don't know. There's a,
02:01:27
Speaker
I don't know. Some people just like, again, the comfort food. Some people just want the simplest things and it's okay. Yeah. Also, I will just watch the office over and over again. there's There's that element. Like I don't want anything else. And then they, I, my annoyance, I guess is when people watch the office over and over again and said, there's no more good TV anymore.
02:01:44
Speaker
I just hate that. That's the problem for me. It's like, okay, I get it, but. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. When people say that, I'm like, you're fucking stupid.
02:01:55
Speaker
There's no good movies. There's no good movies anymore. It's like, oh yeah, have you watched Begonia? It's like, what's Begonia? All they're doing is making the same stuff and there's no good movies. Yeah. And then, like, you're fucking stupid.
02:02:09
Speaker
You're a dumb bitch. You hear me? Whoa. Whoa. That's what I say to them. There's not enough white people. There's not enough white guys in this. Yeah, there's no more white people in these anymore. In these shows. What happened to all the white characters?
02:02:24
Speaker
I haven't seen a single white character. All the white straight people. Yeah. There's no gay people in the 80s. Man. Let's move on.
02:02:36
Speaker
Okay. You tell me gay people exist in this universe? That's bullshit. That's ridiculous. They don't even exist in mine, okay? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. All right.
02:02:48
Speaker
Okay. Well, it's time now, Adrian, unless you have more to say about stranger things.
Casting News and Award Wins
02:02:53
Speaker
No, no, no, no, no. I think, I think that's good. We're done. We're we're never talking about it again. Yeah. Cause it's too, it's going to be too sad.
02:03:00
Speaker
Yeah. going to be too sad. All right. Now onto the montage, the sequence of our show in which I briefly present at least seven of the bi-week smaller news stories Adrian delivers a brisk verdict.
02:03:11
Speaker
Number one, as deadline has reported, actor Danny Ramirez has dropped out of his role as Manny Alvarez in the HBO TV series adaptation of The Last of Us. Although Ramirez had already appeared in season two of the hit series, his role will need to be recast for season three due to scheduling conflicts. Probably Secret Wars, I'm gonna guess. Because he's Falcon. He's new Falcon now.
02:03:33
Speaker
Yeah, possibly. so I'm guessing that's why. Which is kind of a shame. I feel like he was really good cast for Manny. But again, very brief. He's in it very briefly in season two, so yeah. Number two, writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another won Best Picture at the Critics' Choice Awards on January 4th, 2026. Wow, good for you, Paul.
02:03:54
Speaker
Proud you, Paul. Number three, Netflix has renewed Lily Collins' starring series Emily in Paris for a sixth season. She was in Rome for a while, which is crazy, even though it's called Emily in Paris.
02:04:06
Speaker
That's not a joke. Yeah. Did you watch it? No. I just know that she's in Rome. I made that joke so often, like she's actually in Rome. And then I was i had friends over on New Year's like, no, she actually was in Rome for a season. Yeah. I'm like, did I know about this subconsciously and just make the joke or was I just saying?
02:04:23
Speaker
but anyways, yeah, there was a season in season five. Yeah. You watch it. My my wife watches it. OK. Number four, as reported by Deadline, Amazon's Tomb Raider TV series starring Game of Thrones actor Sophie Turner as Lara Croft has now officially cast alien actor Sigourney Weaver and Awake actor Jason Isaacs in supporting roles. Oh, nice. Cool. I'm curious about this.
02:04:47
Speaker
I'm very curious about this. Fun fact, I left this for this. i left this little statement for this. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is the showrunner. Oh, Why didn't I know that?
02:04:58
Speaker
I'm very excited about this. I'm even
Industry Changes and Streaming Strategies
02:05:00
Speaker
more excited about this now. Holy smokes. Number five. As reported by publication The Hollywood Reporter, a sequel to The Housemaid, the film The Housemaid, is in the works at Lionsgate, with star Sydney Sweeney looking to reprise her role.
02:05:14
Speaker
What? How? how then How is she going to be a housemaid for, like, two houses? How is that even possible? I actually don't know what the movie is, but never watched it. I think that would be more common, actually. Potentially. If it's at three houses, maybe she's going to a new house to be a maid at. Yeah, maybe. Number six, according to Deadline, actor David Harbour has dropped out of and or creator Tony Gilroy's next film Behemoth, which has made way for flaked actor Will Arnett to join the cast alongside the Mandalorian star Pedro Pascal and book smart actor Olivia Wilde. That's crazy.
02:05:53
Speaker
David, what where are you going, man? You're leaving an and or showrunner Tony Gilroy's project? But hey, let's bring in Will Arnett. He left it for personal reasons. Oh, hopefully he's okay. And I feel bad for even questioning.
02:06:04
Speaker
Not my business. You do your thing, David. Number seven. As Deadline reports, the studio actor, Catherine Hahn, is in talks to play Mother Goble in the live-action Tangled film adaptation that recently hired on Titans actor, Teagan Croft, as Rapunzel. Catherine Hahn, in that role, immaculate casting.
02:06:22
Speaker
Immaculate. And I've seen Teagan Croft. I watched the first season of Titans. She's Raven. Show? Not great. I don't like it that much. It was fine. Good casting, though. Number eight.
02:06:32
Speaker
As revealed by Black Mirror creator, Charlie Booker, Black Mirror has been renewed for an eighth season on Netflix. Right on. We're living in Black Mirror. you Number nine, Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki's much anticipated sequel Godzilla Minus Zero has been scheduled for a North American release date of November 6th, 2026.
02:06:54
Speaker
Awesome. awesome I'll be there. Number 10. Paramount's revised offer to buy Warner Brothers Discovery has higher risks and higher costs, according to the Warner Brothers Discovery Board and major shareholders. As a result, Paramount's second hostile takeover bid for Warner Brothers has been rejected once again in favor of Netflix's signed purchase agreement. Wonderful. OK, sure.
02:07:17
Speaker
Whatever. Whatever. Honestly. And number 11, according to Deadline, Netflix is looking to implement a relatively short 17-day theatrical window if their deal to purchase Warner Bros. goes through.
02:07:33
Speaker
Jesus. Okay. You okay? Yeah, I'm fine. You froze a little bit. Oh, yeah okay, you're good. I thought you screwed up your computer there. Okay. Anyway, any any comment?
02:07:46
Speaker
Yeah, fuck it. Okay. And that concludes the montage.
02:07:54
Speaker
All right, Adrian. Now let's dive into a trilogy of news. A component of our show where we discuss at least three film and TV industry news stories that have been somewhat zeitgeisty over the past two weeks. And the first, these are relatively short. We won't talk too much about okay any of these. I don't think they're that big, but we'll we'll kind of go into them as we... As we do, the first is that on New on Year's Eve, we just kind of talked about this with Stranger Things. New Year's Eve and for the second time. whoa whoa Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We just said that we're never talking about Stranger Things again.
02:08:23
Speaker
And you're diving right right? Should we just skip this? No, it's fine. We can go. This will be good. You're right. I'm sorry. I forgot this was here. New Year's Eve and for the second time this for the second time this year For this exact TV show.
02:08:37
Speaker
Stranger Things crashed to Netflix for many users due to the large number of viewers simultaneously looking to watch the series finale as it debuted. Days after the series finale, vocal fans online were somehow convinced that the show had not ended and that once one one more episode would launch to to wrap up the story properly, I guess they thought.
02:08:56
Speaker
but First of all, the crashing is interesting because they had to happen the first time. How the heck did you not fix it for the second time? Like just get more servers, you know, because I guess they rent the servers as they as they have big launches. Yeah. You know what didn't crash at that time, Simon?
02:09:12
Speaker
The theaters that were playing the series finale. No, they were very busy, though. Yeah, i know that I know. Yeah, they sold that. I looked. I was curious. Yeah, they didn't they didn't sell tickets. Did you hear about that? They sold concession ah concession tickets. They basically, because they weren't allowed to sell tickets because the the actual cast were not contractually, it was in a theater theatrical release. So they're not allowed to sell tickets directly and make money from tickets because the cast didn't sign a contract for that, apparently. So they sold concession tickets where you would basically buy popcorn with like, and you had to spend $20 and then you go in and watch Netflix. The Netflix is stranger things for free.
02:09:51
Speaker
Cool. Yeah. It's kind of a crazy thing. I wonder if they made, did they make it work on a projector or did did they just kind of have Netflix come up? They just hit somebody, the theater owner, the cinema, the cinema owner is like Netflix account to set it up and just sends it through. I'm assuming that they had a higher, higher. They just airplayed on a tablet. They just airplayed it to the projector. Yeah.
02:10:13
Speaker
No, I imagine that they did a digital projection, like an actual file because you get a much better quality image because you get a lot of compression on Netflix. think not. It's pretty good quality, but like obviously you get more compression than you would if you. Yeah. Yeah.
02:10:25
Speaker
had it on a disc or whatever. But yeah, did you have any thoughts on this, the crashing thing or the fact that people thought that that Stranger Things hadn't actually ended, which I think is bonkers. I was looking at I'm like, this was clearly an ending. how What part did you think it didn't end? it's what It's what's so depressing is like the internet just runs with rumors and conspiracy theories so often and so frequently. I think I saw something on the Forbes website that claimed that there was another crash of Netflix actually.
02:10:56
Speaker
but i don't know how big this was crash was back in the day or no another crash of Netflix for this thing for conformity game because people were were flocking to the season finale to try to find little tidbits about what this conspiracy theorist had said on YouTube or some some shit you didn't hear about that no I heard about it of course I just I i like read it once I'm like okay this is not true and then I just never thought about it again Like, if you believe this, you're probably really dumb.
02:11:23
Speaker
Why would you do it? Like, it just, it makes no sense. Would it have been cool if it was true? Yeah, i guess so. um If the end of the episode was different. But you, but we watched the end of the, the, the, we watched the series finale. It was, it was, it was good. If that wasn't real, I would have been so annoyed. So yeah, anyway it would have been cool if they they felt it felt incomplete and then they came in, but the, the ending is honestly perfect. Like that very ending, like the very last 10 minutes is honestly, it made me cry. Like, I'm like, this is so well done. I'm like, I couldn't have imagined a better way to close this off.
02:12:00
Speaker
Yeah. and No, I agree. That's why. Yeah, that's what that's why i did not believe it for a split second because of yeah the ending. So I don't really care about that. This is the the crashing thing. i don't really care either. It is interesting because I think the last time, apart from Stranger Things, that Netflix crashed for something was when they did ah like a Love is Blind movie.
02:12:23
Speaker
reunion live and then it literally like just didn't function and netflix crashed it was crazy this was like didn't they have don't watch it but didn't they have an issue with the live event for like the boxing at one point i thought oh maybe like the jake paul mike tyson thing was that on netflix something like that don't know that seems right that seems right because people talked about how the like the it froze on mike tyson's butt Yeah. Yeah. I think it was that one too. Cause they, they were trying to figure it out cause they hadn't really done live events like that when they started to do it. They, that was completely excusable. This one's less excusable because I'm like, how'd you not know?
02:13:05
Speaker
but I guess they just didn't, they still, did they probably accounted for a larger volume of people jumping in, but not that many. So it maybe exceeded their expectations even still. Yeah. I watched it on New Year's day. Like I didn't watch it that night.
02:13:17
Speaker
I was like, I'm not going to. I don't think we knew that was the problem. We we didn't realize it. We would have watched it on New Year's Eve because you were yeah like relaxing. We're not at your house. I'm sorry to say. You weren't at my house. Yeah. Because you were upset about it. That's what i'm sorry to say it. Incredibly, actually. Yeah. I don't want to talk about it anymore. I'm sorry. But yeah, we didn't realize. We we noticed it at like 12 in the morning. We're like, Yeah.
02:13:40
Speaker
This is, it's on Netflix. We've got to watch it, but it's a two hour finale. So we weren't that crazy. weren't going to watch it from like 12 to two. And we typically go to bed around like 12, one, like max, like two in the morning, two 30 is probably not. baby He's going to bed early.
02:13:56
Speaker
Well, I'm trying to say, yeah, i know to honor stranger things, it would be shitty if we're tired, you know? Yeah. That's when I was sleepy. Little babies. Little babies. So sweet. Okay.
02:14:08
Speaker
Let's move on to the next story here. yeah As announced at the Consumer, customer is it Customer Electronics Show? CES. I thought it was Consumer Electronics Show. Whatever. CES.
02:14:19
Speaker
Whatever. It's CES. The acronym makes sense. But the Consumer Electronics Show this year, ah Disney is looking to add vertical videos to Disney Plus in order to drive daily engagement.
02:14:31
Speaker
ah Yeah. What do you think about this? I canceled my Disney. So I don't know. Did you? I'm not going to. Yeah, a while ago. Like, the I forgot what I finished watching and I just canceled it.
02:14:45
Speaker
i don't know. I don't have access to Disney no more. i I'll put and put it back for a something in the future. I don't know what. Yeah, we haven't had Disney either.
02:14:55
Speaker
Yeah. But I sorry. I just remembered I watched another thing that I didn't even bring up. I watched Inside Out 2 on Disney Plus. awesome. Do you like it? Yeah, it's really good. i was, I took so long to watch it because I was like, I'm just not in the mood to cry. It's not as like sad. It's it's more of a, like a a coming of age, like, yeah, like teen being like a a teen and trying to fit in as opposed to the first one where it's like a genuinely sad movie about losing your childhood.
02:15:25
Speaker
I really liked Inside Out 2. I thought it was great. I'm not going to dive too deep into it, but I thought it was fantastic. And Um, I think like Maya Hawke's performance as anxiety is is brilliant.
02:15:35
Speaker
And like, again, it's relatable, but again, I, I, I didn't tear up. So I was like, i was like, okay, I was finally, I'm like, whatever, you know, if I cry tonight, that's okay. And we sat and watched, I'm like, I didn't cry. This was just a good watch. I'm glad that we watched it. I'm kind of sad that I waited so long to watch it.
02:15:51
Speaker
Um, yeah, but anyways, um, You're going to have shoot me in the fucking back of the head, Simon, if you ever see me opening up Disney Plus scrolling and watching vertical videos, okay? If you ever see me do this in person, you shoot me in the back of the head with a gun. Because I'm not going to do that, okay? I already spent enough time on my goddamn phone looking at vertical videos on Instagram, reels, and fucking YouTube shorts. Enough's enough. I got to stop. I got to throw out my phone.
02:16:21
Speaker
They're just, they're really trying to, I just don't like this engagement farming aspect of our society. It sucks. It just sucks. That's why I've been trying to stay off of Instagram and Facebook and all those things. I just don't, I don't like it. I don't use TikTok. Like it's just, it sucks. They just try to keep your attention for as long as possible. It's all like the algorithm is just key. They keep refining it to make it so that you never leave these apps ever. It makes me really sad because it's also just feels like a waste of time. I'd rather be playing Kingdom Home Deliverance 2 or,
02:16:50
Speaker
Kingdom Hearts 2. Kingdom Hearts 2, sure. yeah i'm I'm playing that right now with my wife. and by my My wife is playing it. We're three hours in. Awesome. or you didn't You didn't go to the other in-between? We tried Chain of Memories and she was like, I can't. like ah because like It's a card-based system. She's like, I can't. like This is too complicated. There's too much going on.
02:17:11
Speaker
And then then she's like, do you want to play it? And then I played it for like 10 minutes. I'm like, oh, yeah, I forgot. I kind of fucking hate this like combat. So we just watched a video summarizing chain of memories. And then we watched the three 58 by two movie over two movie.
02:17:25
Speaker
Yeah. um Which kind of fills in the gap, even though that technically released after two, we could have probably just jumped into two. But whatever. we We just watched it. And then now we're into two. Yeah. Sweet. That's cool. Yeah.
02:17:37
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Well, again here's the thing with the vertical videos. i just want to say Jeffrey Katzenberg. Do you remember that name? Yes.
02:17:47
Speaker
Do you? i I remember the name. No, come on. I'm trying to ask if you remember in context of this. No. Jeffrey Katzenberg used to be a executive at Disney.
02:17:57
Speaker
Okay. And he started up a little ah little ah little website, a little little app called Quibi. Quibi. Quick Bytes. Quibi. He worked at Disney though and he started Quibi. I just think it's funny that they're doing vertical videos. That was his whole thing. That was what Quibi was about. Quibi was about vertical videos. Short vertical videos to drive engagement. And they're kind of doing Quibi.
02:18:17
Speaker
I just think that's hilarious. I don't know. It's stupid. I hope they actually make shows in the Quibi format. think that would be that would be worth it in my opinion because I actually don't mind the the format of it was cool because of the element of you could scroll. What was it? You could make it You got different aspect ratios so you can switch your phone over and you can get different aspects of the shot like you were shooting the movie. I just thought that that was the coolest thing about Quibi.
02:18:42
Speaker
I thought that was so neat. that You can, again again, use the rotation feature of your phone to to see a different aspect ratio and see different things that you wouldn't see in one or the other. i i thought that was awesome.
02:18:54
Speaker
That's kind of what I would want, but that's not what they're trying to do. They're trying to just get people to have their eyes glued to the screen at all times. And I think that's... don't want to say evil because that's really a harsh hyperbolic word, but I just feel like it's it's not...
02:19:09
Speaker
It's not positive for society. it It just doesn't help children grow, I feel like. It actually shrinks children. It shrinks them. It does. Mentally. I mean, grow in a different way. But yeah. Yeah. Anyway, I'm not that extreme about it. I just, I find it annoying. And i think social media is toxic in some aspect.
02:19:27
Speaker
I think it's good in some ways, but mostly bad in some It's just because there, it was, I don't think was bad years ago. I think when we had like the MySpace and the early Facebook, it was a different time. it was, it was not designed the way it is now. It was kind of designed more of as a tool back then. Now it's become like, how do we keep people on this forever and advertise them, advertise them to them forever and then figure out what they like based on what they click and then advertise the exact thing that they need at the exact moment that they need it.
02:19:57
Speaker
And making profiles on people. Anyway, some Yeah, I'll be honest. My algorithm on Instagram always fucked up. There are days where I'm like, scroll. I'm like, why are you showing me any of this?
02:20:09
Speaker
This is awful. And then there are days where I'm like, all right, I'm on I'm on a stride right now. like These are some good comedy videos. But yeah, I don't know that the algorithms are all shit. Everything sucks. We're all going to die.
02:20:23
Speaker
Hmm. OK. On that note, as reported by Deadline, Winter Soldier actor Sebastian Stan is joining Batman actor Robert Pattinson and director Matt Reeves' upcoming The Batman Part
Casting Surprises in Batman and Breaking Bad
02:20:34
Speaker
2. The Hollywood Reporter later confirmed that Sebastian Stan will be playing Harvey Dent in the upcoming film.
02:20:40
Speaker
Stan is joining joining a fairly star-studded cast that includes Marvel Cinematic Universe alumni Scarlett Johansson, who was recently hired on in an unconfirmed role. Although... I don't even have it written here, stupidly.
02:20:53
Speaker
um ah Her role is apparently supposed to be, i can't remember the first name, ah Gold. It's supposed to be, last name's Gold, but it becomes Dent. I think it's like Harvey Dent's wife.
02:21:08
Speaker
Oh, interesting. Which is interesting. So that's what's rumored to be the case. I am excited about the Batman. It's Gilda Dent or Gilda Gold is the name of the character. Okay. um The one image that came up, I'm like, oh, I can't i can see it.
02:21:24
Speaker
when when When you type in Gilda Gold, I'm like, oh, okay. I can kind of see where they cast her and and where where that rumor might have come from. i don't know if it's true. ah That doesn't seem to be confirmed, but the the Harvey Dent thing does seem to be confirmed for the most part.
02:21:40
Speaker
So, yeah, I mean, at this point, it kind of makes sense considering, again, like if you're now have Harvey Dent and that's confirmed, you can kind of put two and two together. That's cool, man. That's that's great casting. I think that's going to work quite well. I'm definitely I mean, again, we've been waiting so long for this movie. It sucks that it's not even coming out this year. It's coming out next you Crazy.
02:22:00
Speaker
Yeah, sucks. But again, i'm I'm very stoked about this. Again, great cast. I'm curious what they're going to do with. Harvey Dent. It's interesting that they're going that route considering that he's yeah in the Dark Knight.
02:22:14
Speaker
And again, this is and um And the Joker has already been teased. Oh, yeah. that In the Batman part one.
02:22:24
Speaker
That's what's so weird. That was the thing that drew me to writing this story here because I'm like, what are you doing? You're doing the same thing again? That's so weird. What a strange combo. But Harvey Dent is important Gotham and that's a cool... Especially because a lot of the politicians kind of...
02:22:38
Speaker
There's a weird political like rift in that Gotham City after the first movie. So it's like it's kind of cool to try to go into like a different kind of like politics there. But I think, are you not going to do the Joker? Maybe you're just going to tend to tease him and have him be in the background. That's what I would do.
02:22:55
Speaker
Don't make him the main character. Just kind of have him in the background for the next two movies and have him be very important in a third because I think it's supposed to be a trilogy. I'm i'm fairly certain. Yeah, we'll see.
02:23:06
Speaker
That's what I would do. But I think it's funny because you tease them as in he's going to be just like they did at the end of the Dark Knight. You tease them at the end of car Batman. Yeah. it's like you did the same thing and then you brought our redundant and like a pretty big casting.
02:23:21
Speaker
So I was like, this is like almost a more substantial casting than what's that guy's name. I like that actor. Did we talk about how that actor just yeah we just fell off of it? Yeah. He's just in a lot of B movies.
02:23:33
Speaker
Anyway. Cool. Yeah, I'm stoked. Cool. Great casting. I'm curious. I'll watch anything Bat Reeves does. Bat Reeves.
02:23:44
Speaker
The Bat Reeves-averse. The Bat Reeves. I feel like the Bat Reeves-averse, we're going to definitely use that term even more so because we got the James Gunn, the James G-universe. G-universe. at your favorite term that you didn't even yeah hear me say ah and then yeah we got the the bat reason verse we got two distinct universes so i think it it could be useful to set them apart with our incredible incredible uh nomenclature aaron eckert is the is the name of the actor that i couldn't remember the name of just now aaron eckert who i haven't seen did you even remember his name now you you're looking at me like ah you don't even you've never heard it
02:24:21
Speaker
I've never heard it. No, I'm just kidding. I have heard it. I have heard it. did forget about it. Cool. Okay. Let's move now into the trailer roundup, Adrian. Any trailers stick out to you. I'll name a few that came out in the last two weeks, but i probably missed some. Malcolm in the Middle special. Did you ever watch Malcolm in the Middle before I move on from this? Not really. Like here and there. i never watched it like fully, but I did watch episodes, of course, because I think it was on YTV probably like and we kids. and yeah I watched like a few, but very few to the to the point where I'm almost like...
02:24:51
Speaker
The only thing i the thing i I remember the most about Malcolm in the Middle is that Bryan Cranston was in it, and this was around the time when he was cast at Breaking Bad, and everyone was so flabbergasted. it was like This was like when the heat with Heath Ledger was hired as the Joker and no one could understand They're like, what are you talking about, pretty boy? Heath Ledger's going to play the Joker? you're You're bullshitting me. And that was the same thing with Bryan Cranston. It's just like, no one can see it. It's like, can you trust in the creators who are making this? It's Christopher Nolan.
02:25:18
Speaker
Vince Gilligan wasn't really ah that much of a proven entity at that point. It wasn't like a proven quantity. And then after Breaking Bad, I mean, who doesn't want to work with is the provenest? Yeah, he's the most provenest. And so, okay, the other the other trailers that came out were the Thor and the X-Men will return Doomsday trailers, but we talked about that already. Shrinking season three trailer, which is yeah awesome. I just think that can't wait. Great. The rip with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. That trailer looks really good. I'm quite excited for that. Actually, Stephen is on that za too.
02:25:48
Speaker
that Netflix movie? Or is that theater? Yeah, it's a Netflix movie. Exactly. Okay. Okay. I thought so. I thought so. It does look very interesting. It's like they're cops and it's like, are they dirty cops? They found money. They found money. Are they going to take that money?
02:26:00
Speaker
Gang members, people talking. Apparently it's based on a true story. Oh. In some way, which is interesting too. Yeah.
02:26:11
Speaker
Very cool. it's like are you cool. Yeah. Anyway, is this this come out? It's soon. Actually, it's it's January 16th. But I was looking at the cast list. I think it's isn't Tana Taylor in that as well. Yeah, she is. don't know.
02:26:27
Speaker
Yeah, she's pretty cool. She's just so good in in one battle after another that i just i'm curious to see what she does next. But anyway, They Will Kill You with Zazie Beats. I sent you this trailer, but didn't respond. So I have no idea if you like this trailer I did watch it. I did watch it. Sorry.
02:26:42
Speaker
if i If I close a thing on my phone and I don't respond right away, it's game over, man. And I apologize. But I did watch it. because i You sent it to me. I opened the link.
02:26:56
Speaker
I watched it on YouTube. I'm like, wow, that was good. And then I closed it and that's it. I didn't reopen my messages and that that's on me. But I thought this this is fun. Hey man, I'm always down to watch a movie of someone getting stuck in a house, at truck getting onto and then killing people. And that's why I'm excited for Ready or Not.
02:27:13
Speaker
Yeah. You know, that's why i loved the hit movie, The Invitation, which is actually a really bad movie, which is Ready or Not, but with vampires. Right.
02:27:24
Speaker
It's really not good. movie, the trailer I watched, well, I guess that's the one I sent you. The Red Band trailer is very, it's very
New Film Highlights: Zazie Beetz's Latest
02:27:31
Speaker
gruesome. And there's some, yeah there's like comedy in the violence, which is very strange.
02:27:35
Speaker
It's stylized. also really like Zazie Beetz. Me too. I think she's great in everything I've ever seen her in. I think she's great in Atlanta. um I think she's really good in Deadpool 2, actually.
02:27:46
Speaker
yeah Deadpool 2, 2. Deadpool 2, 2. Yeah, Deadpool 2, 2. Deadpool 2 as well. Yeah, correct. And lastly, the other trailer I saw this week, and you might have seen another, so or this last two weeks, um is The Death of Robin Hood with Hugh Jackman and Jodie Comer.
02:28:03
Speaker
And this looks really cool. And it's ah Pig director, Michael Cernofsky, who's making The Death Stranding. Oh, so this looks really quiet. And I think this. He quite a quiet place day one. What I'm curious to see if this is good, he's kind of three for three because I feel like that pig is really well, well regarded. I got to see that. That's actually one of the the Nicholas Cage.
02:28:28
Speaker
I was sleeping on that. Owning a truffle pig. Yeah, we should do a sleepover. We got to do sleepover and do what was afraid. We keep saying we got to do a sleepover, but we don't it. Let's a sleepover, man. Actually, we've never said anything about sleepover. We just talked about seeing the film. That was afraid. Yeah.
02:28:43
Speaker
Yeah, right. But yeah, anything stand out to you? Anything you want to talk about here? Any trailers that you're keen on? I mean, no. I mean, I was kind of talking about them as we were going through them. um yeah Yeah. Like, yeah, the the the, they will kill you is probably the most up my alley shrinking season three. Again, I can't wait. I'm, um that's so soon. It's the end of this month. I'm, I'm very excited about that. I love the show. It's so just makes you feel nice. Makes you feel good.
02:29:09
Speaker
Makes you feel good on the inside. That show does. um And yeah, I'm very excited to watch that. I'll probably watch it week to week just because I have Apple TV anyways. I was going to cancel Apple TV actually because I was like, I'll just wait until it's done.
02:29:24
Speaker
And then I forgot to cancel and I got charged a month. and i was like, well, fuck. So I went to cancel and they're like, well, we'll give you two months. for for, I don't know, like $6 each month. I'm like, okay, I may as well just do that.
02:29:36
Speaker
Cool. So I'll just watch it week to week then. Because that'll take me to the end of shrinking, I think. So I'm like, okay, I may as well. Fuck it, whatever. There's so many good shows, dude, that I cannot recommend. Well, you're watching Slow Horses now. Yeah, exactly. Slow Horses. Yeah.
02:29:48
Speaker
Yeah. I just, for all mankind, I'll watch. But I got to watch that on my own. i tried selling my fiancee, or sorry, my wife on it. And she was like, no. because I was like, we could watch for all me mankind. Like, I don't want to watch that. And I was like, OK, slow horses then. And then we watch the horses.
02:30:02
Speaker
I love the first season. It's a little slow is my only criticism. I just think that that that season just keeps, every season gets better and better for my kind. I just can't recommend it enough. It's so, oh man, it's just, it's so, it's such a great idea too. Like you're just like change your universe in like the smallest way and what would, what would be the repercussions? It's big. It's a big way, I guess, but it's like not big enough that it seems like it's an earth shattering situation. Yeah. it's not Like a little domino, big domino sort of thing.
02:30:28
Speaker
Yeah, it's cool. it's it's It's great. Anyway, yeah um yeah, cool. Yeah, I talked about these while we talked too, so we're good to go. I guess we'll move on now to a segment of our show that I like to call a Look to the Future.
02:30:41
Speaker
A portion of our podcast where each of us present at least three of our picks for the TV series or movies that look most interesting to us that are releasing between January 13th and January 2026. twenty six twenty twenty six Okay.
02:30:53
Speaker
um Yeah. So as a customer, you go first. What is your first pick, sir? Yeah, man. My first pick. I can't wait. This is next week. This is this week, actually. 28 years later, Bone Temple, baby.
02:31:09
Speaker
That's crazy. We got to watch this. you want to go on Thursday? i don't think I'm doing anything Thursday. Let's go do it Thursday. I think I should be good. Yeah. Okay, cool. Your wife not coming? My wife definitely not coming. Okay.
02:31:20
Speaker
No, no, it doesn't make sense because you didn't see the first one. Yeah, okay, cool. Awesome. First one, meaning the first one in the 28 years later trilogy, not the 28 days.
02:31:30
Speaker
Cool. Is it AVX? Let's find out. Let's find out. We got to go to this right away as well because I really want to set a tone that this is awesome and I want them to make the third one and I don't want any chance that it doesn't happen.
02:31:41
Speaker
And yeah, and I want to see what Nia Takosta is up to post-tune. that I'm fortunate the marbles know yeah I didn't see 7 p.m this Thursday oh yeah oh you're already buying the tickets right now I'll do it right now I give a fuck is there any later showing there's 9 40 and it's only at the woodlawn one all right just do seven it's fine I'll make it I'll make it work he'll make it work I'll make myself do an eight hour day I don't really work eight hour days it's kind of a problem okay
02:32:14
Speaker
All right. I actually got to triple check to make sure I'm not doing anything Thursday night. Don't worry. Do it after. Do it after. I know you want to do it live, but... Okay. Yeah, that's my number one.
02:32:27
Speaker
Okay. That's your number one. I'm going to pick here ah the movie we just talked about, Adrian, The Rip, which is on January 16th. It's airing on Netflix as well on January 16th. I am interested in this. I think I will see this. I have Netflix for the next...
02:32:43
Speaker
25 days, 20 something days. So I am excited to see what this is. I also like this, the the camaraderie between Ben Affleck, a Ben Affleck, Matt Damon movie is kind of fun.
02:32:54
Speaker
It's just a like a history there. It's kind of cool. Matthew. you So I'm, I'm interested. I'm, I'm, I'm keen on it. All right. Your Your choice. your choice Nice, dude. Great choice. My next choice is coming out next Sunday, January 18th, A Night of the Seven Kingdoms. It's the new Game of Thrones show. I'm quite excited about but that. I'll watch this week to week with my Crave subscription. Looks pretty good. This looks far more lighthearted and fun. So don't know. I'm quite excited about that. So I'm definitely going to dive into that. And i am free.
02:33:27
Speaker
I just confirmed it. I got nothing on Thursday, so I'm buying the tickets right now, baby. All right. Fuck it. We'll do it live. It's pretty exciting. Yeah, the Night of the Seven Kingdoms, I am...
02:33:39
Speaker
Tentatively excited about it as well. I just like this idea of it being a close knit story, a tiny little snippet, a vertical slice type situation where we're not like getting these grand political things. I love the political aspect of game Thrones, probably the best part of the Game of Thrones, like the actual mainline Game of Thrones.
02:33:55
Speaker
But I think that it would be kind of neat to get not that. I want to see more of the Arya Stark, the Hound journey across was going say Middle Earth for a second. i'm Not Middle Earth. The Seven Kingdoms across the the lands. it's kind of That's kind of a fun little aspect. I feel like that's what we can get. I love that those elements of Game of Thrones.
02:34:15
Speaker
So if we can get more of that and to focus maybe on only a couple characters over ah a span of time could be very different as well. Like just, just that alone. Cause you just don't get that in any of the game of Thrones stuff. There's always these split stories across hundreds of miles, you know? And you're like, okay, it's cool. But i kind of just want to hang out with, you know, uh, Varus, you know?
02:34:36
Speaker
Yeah. Varus is the dude from first is a cool guy. The spider, right? Yeah. I getting the names? There's so many various, I think they pronounce it. bar baras Yeah. Whatever. I really was entertained by him. We're like watching the, the, the, the Peter Dinklage's character.
02:34:50
Speaker
Yeah. It's just very entertaining, but not every character is always as entertaining. So it's kind of nice to maybe just get a buddy comedy in game of Thrones lands. Anyway, my next pick is a ah movie directed by Chloe Zhao. It's called Hamnet. It's getting a wide release. I think we talked about this already. swear we talked about it for the past three episodes.
02:35:14
Speaker
Not three, not three. Okay. Well, we can scroll down. That's the cool thing about my document. It just shows you all of the things. Oh, no, we don't know because we just talked about it. Yeah, we don't write it down. We just shoot the shit here. We don't write down. It's always a mystery. We're just boys shooting the shit. We talked about it, I think, a few, two episodes back, I think. That's what it was. But I just thought to bring it up here because it is an actual wide release. don't know if you're actually interested in it. Probably not.
02:35:36
Speaker
No. Uh, okay. Anyway, it's close. You know what's crazy? Close. Zhao is doing the, the Buffy, the vampire slayer reboot. Oh, it's such a weird thing to get a Buffy, the vampire slayer reboot, but not from Joss Whedon. I know there's a controversy with Joss Whedon, but I just find it's like, can you really do pull this off? It's like Dan Harmon, not doing community for that one season. I'm like, I don't know. is the gas It was the worst season. Yeah.
02:36:03
Speaker
gas leak. Right. Right. wait, why is the gas leak season? I don't remember that Because they literally call it the gas leak. It was like, oh yeah. Like, it's like, oh, Abed talks about it when it's like, cause Brie Larson is is in the show and she's, that she's introduced in season four and then she comes back in season five.
02:36:20
Speaker
And then they like have like a brief conversation. Like, yeah, you know, like when, you know, when we met last year and yeah, last year was a little hazy. There's that gas leak. It's just like this one line. Right. When is that movie coming for Christmas? By the way, I don't know if i told you this. I watched the claymation episode because i think it's an amazing Christmas episode. The Obed Christmas.
02:36:41
Speaker
Was it called the very Obed Christmas something? I don't know. Something like that. That seems great. That seems right. It's awesome. And I, yeah, I, I really hope they make that because they're in production in some way. I think it's pre-production for the, the movie. Yeah. I think it's happening.
02:36:55
Speaker
Um, but who knows when it will happen? 10 years from now. Who knows? Yes. I hope it does though. Cause I think it's six seasons in a movie as they say, but yeah, Hamnet is but a movie about Shakespeare writing Hamlet and uh, yeah, it's by director. And eating a ham sandwich under a net. Best picture.
02:37:13
Speaker
what Yeah, that's right. now Under a net, under a fishing net. Yes. Exactly. so yeah man's so That's how it was done. All right. What's your next pick? My next pick, my friend, is an interesting movie. I don't know if you heard of this. It's called All You Need Is Kill.
02:37:32
Speaker
Have you heard of this, Simon? So this is an animated movie that is based on a graphic novel, like ah like a manga, I think. And it is heavily, um so sorry, and remember the movie Edge of Tomorrow?
02:37:50
Speaker
Yes. Edge of Tomorrow is apparently heavily like based on this book. It's the same premise. Oh, so think I've heard this, this title before, but I'm looking at the animation style and I've never, I've never seen this, like the actual film.
02:38:07
Speaker
Exactly. So they are coming out with, this is coming out January 16th, both in English and Japanese. It's an animated film, a little bit of an odd animation style. Not sure if that's how it looks like in the book.
02:38:22
Speaker
um But it it seems like a, like a good movie. And again, like it's, It's interesting because a lot of people say that, yeah, like well ah Edge of Tomorrow Live, Die, Repeat is is is is based on this book.
02:38:36
Speaker
All you need is kill, which is now getting an animated movie. So yeah i'm ah i'm I'm intrigued about this. It looks really good. Like I was watching the trailer. The animation, and again, is a little bit wacky, but it's also like very gory and bloody. And i don't know, it's unique. It's a unique animation style. I can't really put my finger on it. Again, I didn't really compare how it looks like in the book, though.
02:39:02
Speaker
If it's the same. Doesn't look like the animation style matches the book fully. But anyways, looks good. Interested it.
02:39:12
Speaker
Cool. All right. My last pick here is a TV show, a limited series by Ryan Murphy, who's, I don't know. He's gotten some flack lately. His last few projects have been just that I don't know. There's that the Charlie Hunnam murder yeah season.
02:39:33
Speaker
I was going to watch that, but then it's like a 17% on Rotten Tomatoes. And then there's the Kim Kardashian show, All's Fair or whatever is. That was called All's Fair. Yes. And ah yeah, that just looks terrible. I don't know. Everything of every trailer I looked at that and the rating of Rotten Tomatoes is low as well.
02:39:51
Speaker
So i'm I'm kind of questioning Ryan Murphy at this point. Like he's the American horror story, American crime story guy. And he's yeah kind of always had great season. Like the first. He did Screen Queens as well. Like he he has a lot of like he does a lot of television. He does.
02:40:06
Speaker
He does. Which is interesting. Often. Like seven years ago, almost everything he did was not that controversial. Like people just typically liked it. Like it's, but anyway, so he's making this show called the beauty.
02:40:20
Speaker
And if you've seen this, this with Ashton Kutcher and it kind of looks like that, it's not that, but it's kind of like a movie with the substance. Yeah.
02:40:31
Speaker
It's not that. It doesn't seem like it's more like a crime drama. I think it's like a cool their detectives are, are, are like investigating this, this strange Did i read? No, no, I read it right. Yeah, Evan Peters is in it as well. Yeah, Rebecca Hall and Evan Peters are, apparently they're investigating this strange, they're FBI agents and they're looking at like a fashion show in Paris and all these people who are mysteriously dead.
02:40:56
Speaker
Yeah. um So that's kind of the idea. It could be up my alley because I do like, I've watched a lot of Ryan Murphy stuff. But I just find like lately, i don't know if it's not working out for him as much as it was.
02:41:08
Speaker
So I don't know, hopefully... hopefully maybe this is a turnaround type situation, but yeah, right. He does do a lot. This is on Hulu and it's, uh, it's airing on June 20, sorry, January 21st, June.
02:41:20
Speaker
that This is a two week segment here. It's, it's airing in June. No, it's airing on January 21st. Uh, so yeah, hopefully it's good, but we'll see. Got good actors in it. Pretty stacked cast again.
02:41:31
Speaker
But it's got like it does like literally have super a supermodel. And I think it's like, isn't it like Bella Hadid or whatever? And I don't think she's an actor. So it's like, what what's going up with like hiring Kim Kardashian? Like is Kim Kardashian ever had good acting chops? Like that was the thing when I watched the trailer for All's Fair.
02:41:46
Speaker
I'm like, why is freaking Glenn Close acting with Kim Kardashian in this scene? It just makes no sense. And you can tell the difference between Glenn Close and Kim Kardashian. It's like Stark. That's what I got from the trailers. And I'm like, if this what you chose for the trailers, like what is this show? Like, it's kind of my thing. It's like, I'm not saying that Kim Kardashian couldn't become better potentially at acting, but it's just, I'm not sure that she's like the right choice, but I don't want to be too harsh.
02:42:11
Speaker
Um, Good for her. She's a billionaire, but I'm not sure that she necessarily needs to be in that show. Maybe I'm missing the point. I don't know. But anyway, yeah, I guess I'd have to watch it. You don't know from a trailer, but yeah, that's my choices. Do you have anything else you want to mention? I do. I got a couple other things. My friend, I have returned to Silent Hill, which is the Silent Hill movie based on Silent Hill 2. The first trailer looked kind of shitty. The second trailer actually looked pretty damn good.
02:42:38
Speaker
um Shockingly. So I'm intrigued about that. That's coming out again, January 23rd. There's also that mercy movie coming out, which is like um Rebecca Ferguson, Chris Pratt, the AI that is like yeah doing the sentencing stuff. That's January 23rd. That movie looks like shit. I'll be honest with you. It's the the premise is a plot hole entirely, but it doesn't matter. It's probably like a fun popcorn ah flick. So who cares?
02:43:06
Speaker
And then the last one, um I'm surprised you didn't bring this up. yeah it's in theaters mercy yeah yeah january 23rd so yeah same with the return to silent hill sorry and then the last one i'm surprised that you didn't bring this up um i'm pretty sure this is coming out on the 16th is um me just triple check this dead man's wire we talked about dead man's wire did we much i feel like we did i don't know if we talked about it being like a Maybe you did limited release. We talked about it and we missed the limited release at one point. I think we talked about it on the show after we missed it in this segment.
02:43:44
Speaker
And then we just didn't say either that or we talked about it after the show was done. I can't remember what it was. I think we talked about it after the show was done. But it's it's the same as the hamlet situation. I thought I saw this in my in the notes I was going through, but I just didn't didn't go through it. But yeah, I don't know. i don't My list isn't huge this bi-week year.
02:44:05
Speaker
Are you excited about Dead Men's Wire? Do you want to watch it? I'm curious. It looks really fun. Looks like a good time. This guy takes the guy. This is the guy who takes the guy hostage. Yeah. And then he's on a radio show. No, that was a different. That's a Jon Hamm thing. He's not on a radio show here.
02:44:19
Speaker
No, it's Bill Skarsgård. Yeah, it's it's like it's with a shotgun. He's like, he's just hostage. I'm getting yeah confused, though. There's a there's right. He's tied to the shotgun. Yeah.
02:44:31
Speaker
This looks like a fun time. So does it? Yeah. Oh. Okay. You don't think so? I don't know i didn't get that impression. I just got like a drama, like a heavy drama impression from it. Yeah. I don't know Seems like a fun, like, don't know, like intense. Oh, the director is Gus Van Sant. I don't think I knew that.
02:44:54
Speaker
the director of Milk.
02:44:57
Speaker
And wait, isn't he the director of Good Will Hunting? Hold on. Find this out. Find this out for me, man. don't know. I'm sure he's so captivated. Yeah, it's, it's ah yeah, I guess Vincent is Google hunting. That's cool. Oh, that's a good movie. don't know. Watch that movie.
02:45:13
Speaker
It's good. Anyway, that's it. That's the segment. Because you got more. yeah that's it. That's all, baby. That's it. That's all. I had one more actually, but it's just a TV show. It's ah so again, it's um Sophie Turner.
02:45:24
Speaker
It's steel where she, it's like a six episode series where she's like an office worker and they convince they like these, these robbers come in and they convince her to put all the pension for like all all the UK into like their one account.
02:45:39
Speaker
they have a guns and i shouldn't say convince her they basically have her're a gun point yeah they have a single guns but then she gets embroiled in this plot and they' and you're like wait what does this go deeper than we think it's kind of one of those situations anyway do you have anything else to say before we wrap this show up no let's wrap it up man weve we've been going while i'm getting hungry i gotta eat dinner again i gotta eat dinner too i'm just kidding it's not are you a hobbit Okay, well, it's over now, so I'm just going to close this. It's over.
02:46:07
Speaker
It's all over, dude. It's all over now. Let's end this. I'm excited about Bone Temple. It's exciting. I fucking bone you. What? In the temple.
02:46:20
Speaker
That's not good. ah All right. Thank you for listening, audience, to episode 127 of Split Focus, a film and TV podcast. My name is Simon Eadie, and it has been a pleasure to host you alongside my yeah delightful co-host, Adrian Pinter. Please join us.
02:46:38
Speaker
On January 27th for episode 128. Good evening to you and good luck. Take care. I forget. There was a running joke this episode that I kept on saying, but I don't remember it. I was thinking about it while you were doing this end. And i was like, going to bring it up.
02:46:51
Speaker
I just couldn't think of it. So we should we should have a sleepover. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we should have a sleepover. Was that it Yeah, it was. It was a sleepover bit. That's too bad. Now it's kind of broken, though, because you said there's a running joke. Yeah.
02:47:03
Speaker
Yeah. I tried to make the ridiculous thing that Don said about Dick Dreyer happened in this episode, I'm not sure. Charles Dick Dreyer. That happened, though. That was a real story that happened. Yeah, I believe that. I don't think you're not a kind. You're not the kind of guy to fib, dude.
02:47:17
Speaker
You're not the kind of guy to fib. If you say so. All right. Well, that's it. Goodbye. What you mean if say so? you You fucking lie to me all the time. i Like, what the heck? You wouldn't know, would you? I wouldn't, actually. That's kind of the point.
02:47:30
Speaker
Goodbye. we should just We should just name this episode. Just Stranger Things Season 5 finale review. Just keep it, like, super clean. Why? I don't know. Just a bit. Is that a bit? That's not even funny. Only you and I would find that sort of funny.
02:47:45
Speaker
Yeah. And I'm like, is that funny? It's not. So... Okay, well, I did close the show off. So do you want to say anything else before we go or? Have a have a good sleepover. Yeah, okay. you Have a good sleepover.
02:47:58
Speaker
Goodbye. Bye.