Episode 329. We're back to our ongoing coverage of The Americans, talking about season 4. Philip and Elizabeth have to make choices that will devastate the lives of their unwitting informants, while Paige struggles under the pressure of keeping her pastor from revealing the family's secrets. We theorize about what the show will do with Henry and how he'll finally learn about his family's double lives, dignity for Martha, sudden and random deaths, how the show uses '80s pop culture sparingly and carefully, and past storylines coming back with unforeseen consequences.
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Episode 328. This year's Halloween episode is on Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, a British comedy series from 2004. In this show within a show, Garth Marenghi is a horror author who writes and stars in a series about a cursed hospital, trying to deliver spine-tingling tales on a shoestring budget. We discuss the structure of the hospital drama intercut with fake interviews with the fictional creators of the show, how skilled the show is at being bad on purpose, the unnerving absence of any settings outside of the hospital, the musical number, and the bug boy.
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Episode 327. We continue our mission with The Americans, talking about season three in this episode. Philip and Elizabeth are conflicted about revealing their spy history to their daughter Paige, and struggle against the constraints of their orders from The Centre. We discuss sad sack Stan, all the sex missions weighing on Philip, Elizabeth and the old woman in the repair shop, if Mischa is even real, the teeth scene, and the urban legend of the psy ops video game Polybius.
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Episode 326. We finally begin a show that's been on our mutual to-watch list for years: FX's 2013 spy drama The Americans. "Philip and Elizabeth Jennings" are undercover KGB agents who have been embedded in the US since the '60s, living as a married couple, raising children, and trying to fit in as a normal '80s suburban family -- and their cover is tested when an FBI agent moves into their neighborhood. We discuss the story's slow burn pacing, giving the Jennings kids their own unique character arcs, all the sex scenes, all the wigs, and using a real-world local TV commercial for plot foreshadowing.
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Episode 325. To prepare for Paul Thomas Anderson's new movie One Battle After Another, we watched his 2012 drama The Master. A volatile vagabond crosses paths with a charismatic scholar with a cult-like following, and the two men form a bond that threatens the scholar's family and community of believers. We discuss the shifting power dynamics of who exactly is "the master" of any situation, the surprising sense of humor in this movie and in PTA's other works, anxious cinematography, and movies where a freaky little gremlin guy comes in to take over your life.
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Episode 324. We read Secret Identity by Alex Segura, a prose novel set in the world of 1970s comic book publishers. Carmen Valdez is a publisher's secretary trying to break in as a writer, and when she finally gets the chance to introduce her own superhero, her co-creator winds up dead and her name is missing from the comic's byline. We discuss the myriad mysteries in this book beyond the whodunnit, the moral murkiness that makes it a noir story, the worldbuilding of fictional comic companies alongside the real works of Marvel and DC, and racking up bills taking informants out for dinner.
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Episode 323. We read the first two volumes of The Terrifics, a DC story featuring fan-favorite characters from James Gunn's Superman, in a format that feels more like Marvel's Fantastic Four. The best of both worlds! Mr. Terrific, Metamorpho, Plastic Man, and Phantom Girl find themselves literally stuck together -- if they're more than a mile apart from each other, they'll all explode -- and have to turn themselves into a real working team to solve a multiversal crisis. We discuss Plastic Man's ability to be truly, mind-bogglingly ANYTHING, classic Jeff Lemire sadness, "science" adventures, and if Alan Moore has ever once in his life jumped.
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Episode 322. We watched the first two seasons of Poker Face, the mystery comedy show created by Rian Johnson for Peacock. Charlie Cale is a cocktail waitress on the run from her casino's mob goons because of her uncanny ability to tell when someone is lying. She travels across the country trying to keep a low profile as she takes odd jobs and stumbles into mysteries. We discuss the feast of character actors and extremely niche settings in these murder-of-the-week episodes, the escalation from small town petty crime to regional mafia empires to a serial killer nemesis, what the "Good Buddy" plotline could turn into, and we demand an episode of ONLY smokey-voiced character actresses.
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Episode 321. For our annual Nicolas Cage weekend, we watch our earliest Cage yet in 1987's Raising Arizona. In this Coen Brothers caper, an infertile couple kidnaps a baby from a family of quintuplets, intending to raise him on their own, until criminals and manhunters get in their way. We discuss the movie's sincerity, the iconic chase scene, the tattoo mystery, John Goodman screaming, and how every small town movie just takes us back to Napoleon Dynamite.
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Episode 320. We bring our racecar nonsense to The Review Show by watching the 1971 movie Le Mans, set in the real 24-hour motorsports endurance race through the French countryside. We discuss the film slowly building anticipation before the race actually starts, Steve McQueen's movie star identity intertwining with cars and motorcycles, waxing philosophic on the roar of the engine, and watch sponsorships.
Link to Patrick H. Willems' video essay on Grand Prix: https://youtu.be/JPnTm8C_OfY?si=iQKOwlgnMz2rSZVH
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Episode 319. We quick-change into our capes for an episode on Richard Donner's 1978 Superman: The Movie. This has all the classic Superman iconography you know and love, plus a complicated real estate scheme where Lex Luthor wants to sink the California coastline to make a new one. We discuss the strange pacing that makes you wait nearly an hour to see Superman in action, the surprisingly sincere romance (and horniness), Jor-El being a busy dad with two jobs, Midwestern wheat fields, how we expect James Gunn's Superman to emulate this or step away from it, and if we'll ever see a big-screen Superman with a mullet like that one comic from the 1990s.
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Episode 318. We return to the world of Valiant comics to read the first three volumes of Faith, from writer Jody Houser. Faith has always worked with a superhero team, but now she's setting out on her own to live in sunny Los Angeles and fight crime her own way, while keeping up a day job as a pop culture blogger. We discuss Faith's important role as a plus-size superhero and how the story doesn't need to call attention to how unusual that is, the endless barrage of nerdy references, mid-2010s time capsule moments, befriending your clone, and tips for going to your first comic con.
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Episode 317. We want to believe in this week's episode, a look back at the The X-Files movie from 1998. This movie, sometimes known under the subtitle Fight the Future, was released in theaters between seasons 5 and 6 of the TV show but tells a standalone story. Mulder and Scully are fighting for their careers, their lives, and their connection to each other as they're embroiled in a plot to release an ancient alien virus into the world. We talk about how this movie goes big while staying close to the roots of the show, textbook moves for writing an investigative partnership will-they-won't-they romance, the bees, the grandson with the broken leg, and how this is unique in the history of TV shows being turned into movies.
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Episode 316. It's a Review Show first as we try to dissect a sketch comedy show with no traditional narrative, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. This show premiered on Netflix in 2019 and made a mark with its focus on absurd escalations to everyday awkward interactions. We discuss how the show reflects a post-pandemic lockdown hyper-awareness of social interaction, the lack of recurring characters, the buff boy contest, Dan Flash shirts, and how Karl Havoc plays better if you know the story of Jim Carrey undergoing CIA torture resistance techniques just to put on his Grinch makeup.
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Episode 315. We watched the 2016 comedy I Was a Teenage Wereskunk, an homage to 1950s B-movies made on a shoestring budget. A teenage boy is sprayed by a magical skunk while he's trying to look at boobs and now he turns into a murderous skunk monster whenever he gets horny. We discuss how the movie is a deft parody of a variety of genres, the tiny house, the sexy pancakes, our new favorite character Deputy Gary, and trying to understand mid-century cultural tropes like beatniks and the Lover's Lane.
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Episode 314. We pay tribute to the late director David Lynch by watching his 2001 film Mulholland Drive. An aspiring actress finds a mysterious amnesiac woman hiding in her new Hollywood apartment, sparking a close bond between the two women, and a search for truth and identity. We ask whether it's possible to spoil the ending of this inscrutable movie and discuss its origins as a failed TV pilot, clues that don't lead you anywhere, selves within selves, the symbology of the jewelry box, and how many times Patrick Fischler was cast in other movies as an homage to the Winkie's scene.
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Episode 313. It's finally here: the episode where Kyle makes Melissa watch a Gundam. We watched Mobile Suit Gundam I-III, three movies on Netflix that are abridged compilations of the original 1979 TV show. In a war-torn future, young Amuro Ray finds his way into a mech suit and struggles with the moral conflicts of becoming a soldier losing members of his newfound family. We discuss how Gundam is more about the tragedy of war than it is about pew-pew-pew space fights, characters who are introduced just to die, what purpose the little kids serve in the story, discovering the sadness in your workaholic dad, and how the plot of The Big O sounds cool until you get to the part where the giant robots are named "megadeuces."
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Episode 312. We read the first two volumes of the Love Everlasting, from Tom King and Elsa Charretier. This is a psychological horror comic about a woman who finds herself trapped in a series of stereotypical romance stories, never sure when she's really falling in love and when she's just going through the motions trying to get out of this story and escape. We discuss the variety of vintage romance comic tropes, the mysterious cowboy who enforces the rules of this world, finding true love at the end of your life, and comparisons to The Prisoner.
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Episode 311. We catch up to the current season of For All Mankind, as the show reaches the 1990s and begins the race for Mars, with a private company launching its own voyage alongside the USA and Russia. We discuss how the show has proven itself adept enough at drama in the early seasons to earn a few wild comedic moments now, having one specific human villain, and spending too much time on setup when we're ready to be introduced to a situation in media res. Kyle demands a sovereign colony on Mars. Melissa just wants Margo and Sergei to kiss again. We get very excited about homages to Lost.
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Episode 310. We watched the first two seasons of For All Mankind, an Apple TV+ drama that looks at an alternate world history where the space race never ended, with each season jumping forward years to see a new era of exploration. We discuss the balance of tense space missions with equally tense interpersonal drama at home, how the show feels sprawling but also limited in only showing us the American or Russian side, breaking narrative rules, surprisingly nuanced supporting characters, and one of the best season finale cliffhangers in TV history.
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