0:00

A quick fix. I am Frank, and I'm here with John.

0:02

Hey, hey, we've got much talk about today.

0:05

We have some Star Wars stuff, some, news from Sophie Turner.

0:08

She's getting back into the acting game. Denzel Washington and a lot of the.

0:12

Work that was.

0:21

Let's get started with our d question of the week.

0:23

Jonathan, what is an underrated 90s movie that people should be checking out?

0:29

Underrated 90s movie. That's hard because there's so many good 90s movies,

0:34

they just pop out in your head. You're like anyone that was good that maybe a lot of people didn't see.

0:38

And I know typically we would I would steer towards geek movies,

0:42

but the one I'm thinking of is actually like an action thriller kind of suspense movie.

0:47

As we were younger, we used to watch a lot of more like scary movies,

0:51

at least more than I do now. This one isn't so scary, but it's called a simple plan.

0:55

Remember that? So good. I was just trying to explain this

0:58

because I couldn't remember, though I even now I can't remember the whole plot of the story, but now, more or less, a plane crashes.

1:04

These guys find it. There's just duffel bags of cash, and they live in a small town

1:08

and it's like, oh my God, what are we going to do? Somebody is probably going to come for the money more.

1:12

I think they were already going through like, financial hard times.

1:15

So they can't make it obvious that they all of a sudden have this surplus of money to fix all their problems.

1:20

And then they also might not trust each other

1:22

completely anymore because, oh, he might double cross me and keep all the money for himself and leave.

1:27

It's two brothers. One's kind of a wild card.

1:29

And the other one's more straight. Narrow.

1:31

It's. Just a bit simple.

1:34

And I believe that was played by Billy Bob or Bill Paxton.

1:37

One of those two. Maybe it's both those actors, actually.

1:41

Yeah. What a good movie. And the.

1:43

I don't remember the director of that movie, but I know that they tried to make it like a Coen Brothers movie.

1:47

So a lot of times talked about, like when you read about Coen Brothers movies, like a movie like Coen Brothers. Check out A Simple Plan.

1:52

That is a really, really good one. Yeah, I would yeah.

1:55

Well, first off, I think that could be a series. Everything could be a series

1:57

that I it's like my go to saying, yeah, yeah, mine is far

2:00

less serious job than mine is a movie that everybody likes to bash on.

2:04

But you know what? It's a solid flick and has an excellent song.

2:07

Okay, I'm going to go with Wild Wild West with Will Smith immediately.

2:12

Okay. Yeah. Those bring them in and I see those as if there is one.

2:17

Is that just one. Yeah. No it was it was good. It was fun.

2:20

It was definitely a Will Smith movie which.

2:23

Yeah, very almost everything he does has the same kind of vibe.

2:26

You know, it's family friendly and fun with a little bit of action and

2:29

comedy in it. So yeah, that's a good pick.

2:33

And it to me, I think it's so underrated because I think it

2:35

if it was released today, people would be talking about franchises.

2:38

I think it could have been a Pirates of the Caribbean style franchise where we're watching Will Calvin Klein.

2:43

I can't remember whenever Calvin Klein, doing different things, in grants, USA.

2:48

Like I think that'd be a fun and just like random robot spider and stuff, it was to me, it was a blast.

2:53

Yeah. Don't take it seriously. Just come as a popcorn soda and enjoy the watch, I think.

2:58

And again, that song is very good. Yeah.

3:00

And they did have that little splash of sci fi with this, like, industrial, you know, revolution technology.

3:05

I was like, oh, this is, you know, technologies that were kind of lost in the process or whatever.

3:09

Like that's a good way to just kind of pepper in some cool things that we haven't seen.

3:13

There's a ton of W7 spy tech that they had, but it was like set in 1800.

3:18

So it was a little bit yeah, the very steampunk version.

3:27

All right. So let's go ahead and discuss the episode we got ahead of us.

3:31

Jonathan, why don't you start us off with some movie news?

3:33

What do you got for us? Oh, okay. We got all kinds of good news.

3:36

So we did know that there was expected to be some more Star Wars movies coming out.

3:40

Another trilogy supposedly is in the works, and it was,

3:44

I think they they actually Disney announced that or at some point said

3:48

it wasn't going to be and probably wasn't going to be more, Skywalker saga.

3:54

Well, now it sounds like it is. It sounds like it's all going to be, revolved around Rey.

3:58

So they did say that Rey is kind of they're like another Keystone character

4:02

for them. She's really valuable in the MCU or in that story and the Star Wars,

4:07

you know. Yeah. And so they want to it sounds like

4:11

they want to make these this next trilogy kind of wrap around her.

4:14

So, yeah. They came out with a statement or, what?

4:16

The director came out with statement saying that like,

4:19

Rey is the most valuable character in Star Wars today.

4:22

Do you agree with that statement? Just off the top of your head?

4:28

I mean, I'm trying to think of other characters right now that I think would be more valuable.

4:31

I just don't think the story has to pivot on a single character.

4:35

I think the the galaxy is the most valuable, really.

4:38

It's, you know, built out to where a lot of fun characters can come and go

4:42

and you don't really need to hang up on any one in particular.

4:46

Yeah, I think she is a great character. And her her

4:48

especially her dynamic with Kylo Ren, who I think he is my favorite character.

4:52

The opening scene from that first movie was just nailed it.

4:56

So I think the dynamic between the two of them makes for a great drama

5:01

and a good story, and just a lot of fun, but her personally, I don't know.

5:05

I don't, I don't I don't think so. Maybe they're seeing a lot of other fans, you know, requesting more Rey.

5:11

Or maybe she's doing really good in the park or something like that.

5:14

Because I know they have a lot of, a lot of their movie

5:18

represented in, Galaxy's Edge and, Disneyland.

5:22

I just feel like I think it's normal for Star Wars to pick somebody

5:25

to hang the hat on. We look back at the old ones we had we had,

5:29

Luke Skywalker was definitely like, why we had such a great band of characters.

5:32

We all love Han Solo and Princess Leia. It was different.

5:35

Luke Skywalker was pushing the stories forward, and then when we go to the next one, it was definitely Anakin Skywalker, right?

5:39

Even with Obi-Wan Kenobi being amazing. And so I think that's what they need.

5:42

I think they're just trying to find that character.

5:44

And in the last, in the newest trilogy, the sequel trilogy, it was Rey as well.

5:48

So I think to try to find that character, they keep kind of going back to that.

5:51

All the stories will come back to raise adventures in starting a new Jedi

5:55

Temple of Jedi Order. I, I know

5:59

one thing is hard as we compared to the TV shows and they even said like, TV shows have a lot more free range,

6:04

so it's hard to compare themselves to that. But we have The Mandalorian and I think even more importantly,

6:08

we have a Sokka, which I feel like Ahsoka is the proper.

6:11

The character herself is the proper, inheritance to the Skywalker

6:15

saga, to the Skywalker Saga then, and Rey is because she actually was trained by Anakin.

6:20

And actually kind of like, falls in line to, you know, she works with Luke.

6:24

She falls in line with that family line, I think more so than Rey would.

6:28

Yeah, I, I think it's a probably to me,

6:30

I think it's a bad idea to, for them to hang their head on one character.

6:35

It's like putting all your eggs in one basket.

6:37

And I have two good examples of where this is not done and it's proven

6:40

very successful is but one of our favorite shows, Star Trek or Star Trek Voyager.

6:45

Yeah. Would you say is a show about a captain on a ship?

6:48

No, it's about a dynamic crew with a lot of characters,

6:50

and they each carry their own weight in different ways.

6:53

And if one leaves in another, one comes on, it won't really disrupt the show.

6:57

It'll change it a little bit. But, you know, if they have to kill off Rey

7:00

and bring in somebody else, for some reason, it would it would derail it.

7:04

If she's the pinnacle character.

7:06

Yeah. But if she's just one of, you know, I mean, there's already a lot of very well

7:09

developed, cool Star Wars characters that,

7:12

you know, they can have them all working together as a team and come and go.

7:15

What was the other example? I had another one that was perfect.

7:18

Oh, SNL, if you're a fan of SNL,

7:20

you don't stop watching it when one cast member, you know moves on

7:24

and has a thriving, you know, career or something like that.

7:27

It's ongoing, you know, with different members all the time

7:31

and they all, you know, help share picking up the slack and everything.

7:34

So SNL oddly works well because there's a lot of times

7:37

when veterans come back to do special cameos or like, right now,

7:41

Adam Sandler, not Adam Sandler. Sandberg is on there a lot right now, doing doing bits.

7:46

So, yeah, there are a lot of people who just returned for the sake of returning, you know, as an homage to the alumni,

7:52

and respecting the foundation. So there could be something that would serve as well,

7:56

where maybe we do see, rogue pop up here and there is just a side character.

8:01

I feel like Star Wars. And if, if from what we're seeing, because there's, like,

8:04

some sources that kind of got leaky and stuff, they're saying that

8:08

it's just kind of aimless right now. They're haven't they're struggling to find the line to go forward with.

8:13

And I think one of the biggest problems is there are too many people

8:16

who have voices in Star Wars. I mean, even bands like the Toxic Fandom and for Star Wars is, unmatched.

8:23

For the most part, like, it's either you're a super fan of Star Wars or you absolutely hate it.

8:26

And it's like, why can't we just like, disagree and agree and still love Bite Saber?

8:30

I don't understand, but I think there's too many,

8:33

too many cooks in the kitchen, right? There's too many people that are making decisions for Star Wars right now.

8:37

So if you were if you were in that room and they said, you know what,

8:40

we're just going to get one voice. Frank, what do you say?

8:42

What's the direction of Star Wars moving forward?

8:45

At least broad strokes. What way would you point? What do you think should be there?

8:49

You know, the line that they start following? Yeah, I think it has to be a post first order world.

8:55

I think they're right in doing that. I think Rey definitely needs to be a part of it.

8:58

But I also think you need to focus instead of having it being a main character.

9:02

Being the Jedi Order is your main character

9:05

and then, have a band around that go to me.

9:08

I think Guardians of the Galaxy, like Rey could be your, Star-Lord.

9:12

Sure. But by far everybody loves ro.

9:14

You know, Rocket Raccoon, people like Groot.

9:16

People are there for other reasons as well.

9:18

And and you're right with the Star Trek thing as well.

9:20

But I think a captain is is pretty strong character for the show, though.

9:23

I think if you don't lose Janeway, Voyager wouldn't exist.

9:26

But something like that. Right. Yeah, it is very tough.

9:30

I honestly, if they said, hey, very good studios, I go tell Dave Filoni to have the keys to the Kingdom and just do it.

9:35

You know, he you he would put us in charge and it would be fine.

9:39

So. Yeah. What about you? What would you do if they said, hey, which way do you want to go?

9:42

Well, I think like in the older I mean, everything we've seen before,

9:46

it's always this balance between good and evil and this,

9:48

you know, fight between, you know, red and blue or green or,

9:51

you know, however you want to see it. I think we should explore that gray area in between.

9:56

And we've talked about the gray Jedi and how so I think it'd be great to see,

10:01

kind of a redemption arc from, you know, we've seen like good evil

10:05

and evil two good, but one that doesn't really take sides.

10:09

It's like, a good person can do bad things sometimes, and they're frustrated,

10:12

and then a bad person decides, you know what?

10:15

I need to, you know, save people, but I'm saving people that are close to me.

10:18

And sometimes I have to do bad things to save, save my people.

10:21

So, you know, there's a spectrum in there that we haven't really explored

10:24

the middle ground of. I think they have tried that with The Acolyte and they just, they just

10:29

they didn't successfully land that. I think. So, Yeah.

10:32

But I think if they were to give an the problem with the acolyte is they told you pretty quickly

10:36

that like, the Jedi did bad things for what they thought were good reasons.

10:39

If they were to have a redemption arc last a lot longer, you're right on board.

10:45

Yeah. So if we were to literally see a Jedi fall to the dark side or a dark side person

10:49

like give you, give you the simple stuff that Star Wars fans all clearly love,

10:52

but then show us that redeeming, nature over time.

10:55

I think this is probably best.

10:57

That was so bad I actually forgot about the acolyte

11:01

is very new. Yeah. It's it's got a lot of good parts.

11:05

I think the villain in this is fantastic, but, yeah,

11:07

it overall was pretty forgettable, unfortunately.

11:10

Yeah. But yeah. So Star Wars is is banking on Andre right now.

11:14

And it looks like there is turmoil within the studio.

11:17

Hopefully they just take their time and do it right. We have a lot of stuff actually coming along.

11:21

We have Kinberg s trilogy, which we now learned it's actually gonna be focusing on, right?

11:24

We have Taika Waititi, Shawn Levy working on stuff.

11:27

There's a Lando series that is still kind of out there.

11:29

Rogue Squadron series, movie that's kind of out there.

11:32

Who knows what comes out of all that? Disney's got money.

11:34

They know people like Star Wars, so they're just going to keep making

11:38

content, like, see what?

11:40

See what the fans like. Yeah. All right.

11:43

Another news. We know we just heard recently that Sophie Turner is in talks to play

11:46

Laura Croft in a new Amazon Tomb Raider series.

11:50

Yes. She plays, Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones.

11:54

What do you think about that? I think to me, she seems like she's just the right age.

11:57

She's, you know, young, young adult, not, you know, not in their 30s yet.

12:02

Like. Like old people like me, or us gets to us for a little while longer.

12:08

Please. But, yeah. No, I think she's a good age for that character specifically.

12:14

And we've seen she has a pretty good range in her acting with Game of Thrones.

12:18

So thank you. We're kind of cool for her to break out of that.

12:21

That more, I don't know, softer character I think.

12:26

And play a character. Yeah. Someone who's, got to do backflips and swinging across ropes and stuff like that.

12:32

When I was talking about this casting choice on TikTok,

12:34

people were pretty down on it. And I think and I admittedly was to at first.

12:38

And I think a lot of that comes down to when we look at Sophie Turner, we think of Sansa Stark and

12:43

and the course of Sansa's character. You go from absolutely hating her, especially in the book.

12:47

Oh my God, absolutely hating her to then sympathizing her and seeing the value

12:51

in her. And it it

12:54

famously the beginning of, Game of Thrones is better than the end of this Game of Thrones.

12:58

And so I think that that early Sansa kind of stuck with people, right?

13:01

People kind of see her as a bratty girl.

13:03

She's not that anymore. She's a very developed actress.

13:05

I, you know, I would like to see how she does with this. I don't know if she's going to handle this role very well.

13:09

We've not seen anything that indicates that she would be good at this, I think.

13:13

Yeah. And I think that, like you're saying, it's hard because the character that we got to know,

13:17

we saw her and really got stuck in our mind.

13:19

Her is a bratty kid, but she evolved as a character into,

13:23

you know, like a strong potential queen or leader.

13:26

But I mean, that's also just the character that we saw.

13:29

So, you know, we saw a range of acting abilities

13:33

in, in her character development.

13:36

So I think, I think it would be great for her as an actress to be able

13:39

to break into a different kind of role like this would provide.

13:42

And if she can nail it, then that would be great.

13:45

That would, you know, have a very long lasting

13:49

future for her, I think, and for the franchise.

13:52

But obviously, I mean, it's a

13:55

it's a it's not going to be an easy character to nail.

13:58

I think. So, yeah.

14:00

It's going to take some, some work.

14:03

I like the idea of her getting another shot at another iconic role, because again,

14:06

we're going back to stories on this conversation. But, looking at Harrison Ford, because he would have just been Han Solo

14:12

if it wasn't for the fact that they gave him a shot at at the Tomb Raider.

14:15

Indiana. Indiana Jones very emotional, very similar.

14:18

Yeah. And then also another kind of, like, broke the mold a little bit,

14:21

and he's able to shake it up and become the legend he is today.

14:23

And I think Sophie Turner has that path, because right now,

14:25

even when I'm describing it like she says, to start, if you're okay it has to start.

14:29

And so this could be her chance to say, like,

14:32

I could do other things and then break her into a leading,

14:35

actor down the road, you know, somewhere else as well.

14:38

I was wondering, I can you think of another, character

14:42

she's played in, in the movie she's been in? I cannot, but I mean, like Jaime Lannister,

14:45

I can think of only one other movie that he's been in, and everybody loves

14:48

Jaime Lannister or. Yeah.

14:50

I know Maisie. What's her name? It's not Maisie Ridley.

14:53

That's Daisy Ridley from Star Wars. Oh, they're mixed up in my head now.

14:56

Oh, stark. Was that she was Dark Phoenix. Oh, God.

15:01

Oh my God. She was in a very big franchise, and I totally forgot it.

15:05

That's not a great sign. That's.

15:07

Oh, like, how many people listening right now are screaming at their iPods?

15:12

That's that's a true. Yeah. People are probably like, oh my God, these guys

15:16

don't know what they're talking about. She's been in a lot of them.

15:18

Oh shit. So forgettable in those movies that I see.

15:22

So hopefully she could break that bad habit.

15:24

She's a much more mature actor now, so, my god, rather good.

15:28

Thank you. Google that.

15:32

On top of this, by the way. Yeah. So our stark, who I think also has kind of got digital,

15:35

they try to put her in a marvel movie and it didn't really take off.

15:38

She's a new movie. That's right. I liked that movie too. I thought it was pretty decent.

15:41

Go anywhere. Yeah. Yeah. I actually have not watched yet.

15:43

What did you think about the magic character in there?

15:46

I don't know which. Played by Queen's Gambit.

15:50

Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. She was one of my favorite characters. Yeah.

15:54

So yeah, when that movie came out like seven years ago. Six.

15:57

Yeah. It's been it's been a bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

15:59

I can't remember what I had for breakfast, but but yeah, I remember her because

16:03

the just before or after that Queen's Gambit came out and I was like,

16:05

oh, yeah, I recognize that chick from that thing. Yeah. But yeah, she was great.

16:09

I liked all the characters in it. Really. I remember thinking, though,

16:13

it would have probably done better as a series, just like.

16:16

I mean, I think we're just used to digesting content in series form, and we want bulk versus,

16:21

you know, sitting for 2.5 hours to watch just one story and then be done with it.

16:26

So yeah, I think that would have been the best bet

16:29

if they broke it up into, yeah, even just a mini series.

16:32

Unfortunately, it didn't take off. So are you kind of not really doing a lot right now, but, George R.R.

16:37

Martin teased that he's going to be working on a new series

16:40

which, like, of course you are. He's they're not going to release a book

16:43

that we've all been asking for for 20 years.

16:45

Right? Never. Not Jared about that at all. But yeah, series about our staff,

16:50

which I think there is a lot of story to tell there. Somebody who's.

16:53

You know, a woman with no name and like that, that'd be really interesting to see.

16:57

Yeah. All right, we'll do the next one.

17:00

Moving on. We get. So Denzel Washington is now, joining the Black Panther movie.

17:06

I mean, I really haven't heard much about this. Do you know who he's going to be playing in that?

17:11

I, I don't know, I have a feeling like if I were to pick Denzel Washington

17:15

for anything, especially like, so next week, you're gonna be watching.

17:18

Yeah, I'm gonna be watching Gladiator two next week. And all the images from that of him in there, like, oh, this guy's in charge.

17:24

And so now I kind of have that stuck in my head. I hope he's in charge of,

17:27

like, a, rival African nation that wants to take Wakanda.

17:32

Yeah. I've been lied to by trailers, though, so I'm hoping he's a big character

17:36

and not just a cameo that they spliced from five different angles

17:39

to be able to, you know, use a lot of ad time with it or something.

17:44

I did like to buy trailer. Yeah. Yeah, sometimes.

17:47

And well, what was wow, I shouldn't talk so bad about movies.

17:51

I love going to the movies. Then you went to one where it was just like, that was nothing like the Argyle.

17:56

That's it. Yeah, like that's nothing like what the trailer looked like.

17:59

What the heck? Purposely. I kind of warned you on that one, though, cause

18:01

I was like, let me tell you right now, this is not going to be. Yeah.

18:06

Yeah, I think I think, yeah,

18:08

I think he'll be a leader of a rival tribe that's trying to take over.

18:12

Wakanda. Because right now they do have leadership, but they're not as shaky.

18:17

At best, they just survive anymore.

18:19

I could see that happening. And then what I really liked is

18:22

there was a, an award ceremony where Chadwick Boseman,

18:26

when he was obviously back in the day when he was becoming when he's first Black Panther

18:29

said, like, Black Panther wouldn't exist. The movie wouldn't exist without Denzel Washington paving that road.

18:34

And it was a real big inspiration for Chadwick Boseman. So then to see Denzel Washington

18:38

stepping in to kind of help carry the franchise forward without Chadwick,

18:42

I think is a really good way to honor his name. Yeah.

18:44

Yeah. Do you think this could take place in the past?

18:47

It could be when the when the vibranium was first discovered in Wakanda.

18:50

And they have to I mean, it's going to be a power struggle,

18:54

no matter what, of this rare material, figuring out what it can do.

18:58

And then, you know, how do they unite their tribes

19:02

together with it versus it just falling into war over power?

19:05

I mean, that that would that's a very interesting idea.

19:07

I don't see the MCU stepping back in time very often.

19:11

There. It feels like that massive budget they put behind every movie has to,

19:15

for some reason, always pushed together the MCU's phase stories, right?

19:20

So if you're going to do an old story, you have to, like basically be introducing

19:23

a new character for the I'm thinking Captain Marvel.

19:27

Like they did it when in the 90s because the next movie

19:29

was going to be her in, endgame like that.

19:33

That was the only justification for that. So I don't know, what do you think this is gonna be doing in this?

19:38

Yeah, that's what I was kind of hoping is it would take place, you know, when,

19:43

when Chadwick Boseman, I can't remember his,

19:47

black. His dad, was taking taking,

19:51

taking over, becoming, you know, the ruler.

19:54

Like, either Denzel was with him and helped

19:58

prop him up and, you know, unite the people together, you know,

20:01

as his ally or whatever, as one of his, representatives or

20:06

know he was his predecessor, and he had to take him out to be able

20:08

to unite the people or something, I don't know.

20:10

Yeah. Because. Yeah. To Chocolat, T'Challa's dad to Chocolat was in charge for a long time.

20:15

And then before that was, his grandfather,

20:18

who fought as Black Panther in World War two, which are doing a video game for.

20:22

And he's voiced by King Ezekiel by the way.

20:25

Oh, really? Yeah. Mike. Oh, perfect.

20:28

That's so perfect. We do have a rough timeline already of their history.

20:32

This. I didn't realize that. Oh, it goes back. It goes back, a couple thousand years.

20:36

So. Yeah, it's it's been a while.

20:39

Like America. We've only been here a couple, 200. Years.

20:42

We're pretty unique in that way. Yeah. But, yeah, I really think that

20:47

that he has that kind of statesman or around him and especially a villain.

20:52

I think he would be a fantastic villain. That's like a political villain that they don't

20:56

really know how to deal with, and that maybe he's like, could you imagine if like, well, Condon's believe that,

21:00

like, Denzel Washington's character is the better leader? Maybe.

21:02

And then so then they're like, look, T'Challa's son can take over.

21:06

He's years of age now or whatever. And that would maybe sway people back.

21:10

A more I'm just kind of spitballing here, and I already want to see this now

21:13

for sure. Yeah, I don't want to see more war between, you know,

21:17

Wakandan people because, like, they deserve to be a piece at some point.

21:21

But that does make sense that there's going to be this power vacuum and the sun

21:25

at some point will be able to take over as a black panther, but he's not ready yet.

21:28

So in the meantime, if there's going to be political drama,

21:33

which, yeah, Denzel would be great.

21:36

Great, a great politician, pretty much.

21:38

Yeah, I'd be cool. I mean, some of the most popular Black Panther stories is all about, you know,

21:44

other nations trying to say that they have the claim over vibranium.

21:46

So it could definitely be that, you know, and then we have adamantium

21:49

coming in with Captain America, the new Captain America movie,

21:52

which could replace vibranium as the most important metal in the world.

21:56

And so you could have something where and I think this has happened kind of recent

21:59

in the comics where vibranium stops vibrating, where it stops becoming useful.

22:03

And so what if that happens all of a sudden?

22:05

Wakanda is in serious drought destroyed.

22:08

Yeah, yeah. And and what if they find out this adamantium is, you know, like,

22:13

maybe this would take place after it's discovered.

22:15

And so they have to try to go secure it so that nobody else

22:18

can make competing technology with what they have.

22:22

Yeah. And and they could argue, like you guys aren't prepared for this kind of power.

22:26

So we need to take it and control it and regulate it.

22:29

And you know, you guys can, you know, advance a little bit slowly versus

22:34

jumping to our level of technology and having World War Three between yourselves.

22:38

Before you're ready for it. Yeah.

22:41

It's gonna be a good it's gonna be good. Okay.

22:44

So I'm going to talk about some video game stuff. By the way, guys, I wanna remind you guys

22:46

there are timestamps in the description if you guys want to jump around.

22:49

Later on after we talk about video game stuff, we're gonna be talking about,

22:52

the Penguin series, as that has just wrapped in doom prophecy.

22:56

We're going to kind of give a quick reaction to the first episode of that, but let's dig into some video game stuff.

23:00

Jonathan. We have the The Game Awards just announced their nominees,

23:04

and we're not going to dig into all of it because there are a lot of repeat names and stuff like that, as expected.

23:09

But I wanted to go right into the game of the year,

23:11

which is the highest thing you can win over there.

23:14

Our nominees are Astro Bot,

23:17

Valastro, Black Myth, Wukong, Elden Ring, shadow of the tree,

23:23

final fantasy seven rebirth and Metamora fantasy.

23:27

Oh, so looking at this list, I will say it's all quite underwhelming.

23:32

And none of these games are big movers and shakers.

23:36

Black myth Wukong is one of the probably the most,

23:39

you know, pioneering, of its kind.

23:42

Just because it's like China's first Triple-A title.

23:44

Astro Boy was a surprise hit.

23:47

Black Crow I cannot imagine winning this award.

23:50

It's just such. It's just solitaire and poker mixed together.

23:53

It's really nothing. And, yeah, I don't know.

23:58

Do any of these even sound familiar to you? That somebody who does not play video games

24:01

as much as I do do any of those sensibility? No, not at all. Exactly.

24:05

They didn't break through the sound barrier into the mainstream.

24:08

Right. So I cannot imagine any of these being, an overwhelming success.

24:12

And then there's a debate going amongst the fandom today.

24:16

There was a rule change that allowed for expansions

24:19

and deal seas to be included in the game of the year contest

24:22

if they dramatically changed from the original game, if they added

24:26

enough technological advancement or gameplay changes.

24:30

So Elden Ring Shadow of the tree is actually an expansion to Elden Ring

24:36

and a lot of people, myself included, don't think that's quite right,

24:40

because the foundation, the game itself that people are playing is very much Elden Ring.

24:45

You just added more to it.

24:47

What are your thoughts on that take? Yeah, I agree with you because as a fan we don't want them.

24:52

Oh, I like DLCs. I like when they grow a game a little bit afterwards and stuff like that,

24:56

but we want them to make a new game like every, you know,

25:00

a couple years or something like that, come out with something fresh and, and have competition versus we made it.

25:07

It's great. And then every but for example a football game we made Madden.

25:11

It's amazing. Every year we're just going to update with the players.

25:14

You know names are and you're going to pay a full price

25:17

again to be able to play with the new names like that's ridiculous.

25:20

And we want changes in gameplay and you know, different, different, upgrades to it and stuff like that.

25:26

So yeah, I think by making it so DLCs, aren't are not,

25:31

you know, considered for winning awards, but is better because then, you know, the,

25:37

developers are going to have to actually create new games if they want to get these awards.

25:41

I want to add to that, I think, I think one of the keys

25:43

there is that it pushes for innovation, because when you're just going to like,

25:46

say you come up with a game like Elden Ring, which by far deserves the chance for game of the year.

25:51

To add an expansion to that is not elevating.

25:54

It's elevating the game itself, but it's not elevating the industry.

25:57

You don't need necessarily more of that kind of game,

26:00

but if you were like, hey, I'll give it to, electro for trying something

26:04

new, Astro Boy, for bringing back a old school way of playing.

26:08

It's very old school platformer, Spyro type game that is something new.

26:12

And I think that's where game of the year really should be shining.

26:14

And you know, there are best ongoing games are best expansions, stuff

26:19

like that, that this could be nominated for and absolutely win those.

26:23

I just feel like when we, when we elevate DLCs and expansions, it's telling.

26:28

The community is telling the industry. There was nothing really good this year, and personally, I enjoyed games

26:33

that are not on this list, including Dragon Age Vanguard, which I'm still currently playing.

26:38

The World of Warcraft expansion. If you want to add an expansion.

26:40

And, I mean, there's been a few others, but I mean, like Star Wars

26:43

Outlaw was not nearly as bad as everybody saying it is.

26:46

Many others. Satisfactory is a full release game this year.

26:50

Is that available for this now? Because satisfactory

26:53

is the most addicting game I've seen on this entire list.

26:56

That should count for something. Yeah, I think that's a good point.

26:58

They can make a separate category that is for,

27:01

you know, expansions and updates and stuff like that. There is one, by the way, and there is one.

27:05

It's just that they're saying that this one supersedes that as well.

27:08

Beyond that, and is now also a game itself.

27:11

Yeah, I wouldn't say that that's not fair, because then a game can win one year

27:15

and release the following year, an update and win the game of the year

27:19

twice in a row. That just doesn't seem doesn't seem right.

27:23

Yeah. And it encourages them to release a half complete game

27:28

so that they can get some money upfront and then finish it and release

27:32

the updated version afterwards like, no, no, no, we want a full game.

27:35

Put all your cards on the table at once. And if you win, you win.

27:38

If you don't, better try a little harder next time.

27:41

Yeah, you are so right. And that's becoming a thing where people are the

27:44

finally the studios I feel like are listening to the player base.

27:48

So Dragon Age came out and they told people right away,

27:51

there's not going to be an expansion or this is not going to be in the DLC

27:53

for this. You got the game. And immediately people's reactions were like,

27:57

well, well, now we kind of got used to expansions.

27:59

And you'll see, we would like to get those.

28:01

And people realized, oh, wait, a no, this is a 70 hour game.

28:05

We're good. You guys gave us enough game for our money.

28:09

But on the adverse side of that, like I love me some God of war,

28:12

but that game you could beat in like 20 hours.

28:15

So it's, you know, it's it's okay, but it's a little bit less.

28:18

Right. It's it's definitely I think that's probably the go to length.

28:21

But there are plenty of games. It's 12. And if you're going to be spending $70 on a game,

28:25

you could pick from 70 hours to a down to 12 hours.

28:28

You feel cheated at 12 hours.

28:30

And then when the DLC comes out, you have to pay another 30.

28:33

You feel you feel screwed over.

28:35

And I think that's kind of the problem right now with the fan base, is trying to figure out how what is the value that we give to our time.

28:42

And I don't know if that's necessarily put down in stone anywhere yet.

28:45

Yeah. And those games that come out like half completed, it drives me nuts

28:49

because we've there's a good way to do that in a bad way.

28:52

We seen it done perfectly well with satisfactory

28:56

where they release it early, you pay a smaller fee

28:59

and you get to play it and you know it's not complete

29:01

and you get to, you know, work with the developers and see their updates

29:05

and, you know, they're communicating and building a strong fan

29:09

base and a big community. There's a whole lot more bonding and camaraderie between the players.

29:14

And then, yeah, finally, it's been years, but finally the full version comes out

29:18

and we get to play it and it's it's complete, it's cool, it's good.

29:20

And and everybody else can check it out too. If they didn't want to stumble through some, you know, roadblocks or have their,

29:27

you know, factory deleted from an update, then don't worry.

29:30

You know, it's now it's done.

29:32

But yeah, I think that that's the best way to go.

29:36

I mean, if you release a game that's incomplete, somebody sees the name

29:39

they play a little bit, they don't like it.

29:41

You know, if they're they're trying to sell it as a complete game.

29:45

Well, then I wouldn't go back to it if you told me this was a complete game.

29:48

And now I'm relying on DLCs or expansions to make it fun.

29:52

No, thanks. I don't play that game. Yeah.

29:54

I want to give a shout out to, Scott, who's been on the podcast a few times.

29:57

He's he's a huge fan of cyberpunk and specifically the expansion

30:02

that came out last year. Phantom Liberty was called.

30:04

And, he was saying, like, I wish this rule went in last year.

30:07

So Phantom Liberty had a chance. And what I'll say about that DLC and why I think it's like the best case

30:13

scenario is cyberpunk came out and it was disappointing

30:17

for a lot of people, many bugs. It could have gone through a beta,

30:20

but that beta process that you're talking about, Jonathan, is just PC games can do that, really,

30:24

but it would have been nice for that game to experience

30:26

that, right, to really hammer out everything and come out okay.

30:29

Instead it didn't. So, CD Projekt Red, the developers of that game, instead of and they're,

30:35

they're one of the better developers out there, with their customers.

30:38

And what they did is they went back to it, they hammered it out.

30:41

They reworked the game. And then the DLC that came out, the expansion that came out added

30:46

far more elements to the to the game, added a whole new level of story.

30:51

It fixed a lot of things, and even if you didn't buy it, all those fixes were still in place.

30:55

They still came out and I, CD Projekt Red did it 100%.

30:59

They deserve all the acolytes they can get.

31:01

I don't feel like that deserves game of the year because it's not necessarily a new game.

31:06

You are building on a frame that already exists.

31:10

That as I've said, that that's something just hit me all Ubisoft games essentially that way.

31:13

Right. Like the Assassin's Creed from one year. Is it ever says just a different color, but then nevertheless, you know,

31:19

there is something to be said about launching a brand new game or just adding to a game that it exists.

31:23

Yeah. All right. Speaking of a game that really exists that just keeps adding on Warcraft.

31:30

Warcraft celebrates 30 years and World of Warcraft celebrates 20 years.

31:35

And they did this big event. And this was in lieu of, BlizzCon, an event that we all freakin love.

31:40

Here at the podcast we go to, you are the only person hasn't gone down yet and we will fix that someday.

31:44

Someday. Hopefully we are going to fit Expo into the sky.

31:47

So, check us out on social media. We'll be sharing collectible stuff.

31:51

So I'm going to be going over the big announcements for the Warcraft and,

31:54

why the entire fan base has been electrified this week.

31:59

So I'm going to end with the big news, but I'll go over some of the other

32:02

the things, the smaller things real quick. First off, we have

32:07

all right, we have, heroes

32:09

Earth Stone, which is the card game, the digital card game.

32:12

It's based around with Warcraft. They're adding a StarCraft four StarCraft decks

32:17

so you can play with StarCraft stuff. And it's just a nice little nod to

32:20

one of the older Blizzard franchises that hasn't gotten a lot of love lately.

32:24

And you can play as Carrigan from the Zerg and you play as Protoss.

32:28

It's three, not for three decks.

32:31

Yeah. Just so you guys know, we didn't forget we have StarCraft here,

32:35

so it's still a viable, IP that we have.

32:38

And, Phil Spencer, who bought the company or his Xbox.

32:41

But the company has one of the things he told us at the last BlizzCon

32:43

is, like, I personally am a StarCraft fan,

32:46

I will make sure we have more StarCraft coming. Good to hear.

32:49

Surprised announcement and release.

32:52

The day that they were announcing everything is they remastered Warcraft

32:56

one, two and 330 year old game Warcraft one.

32:59

And it is an old school arts, like like StarCraft medieval, you know,

33:04

and the graphics are rough, but they did remaster two runs

33:06

well and the graphics are, I mean, from a two to a three.

33:10

Yeah, it's a 30 year old game, guys.

33:12

But yeah, it's it's definitely an upgrade. This is nothing that we didn't expect.

33:16

But the next classic, game is coming out is going to be Mr.

33:20

Pandaria Classic. So if you guys love one of the best character designed expansions

33:26

in the history of the Warcraft, we're going to able to return to Pandaria.

33:30

And also, they're going to be reopening new server and start reopening.

33:34

That makes sense. Opening new servers for, classic players, where you could start

33:38

from day one again on the Warcraft, playing the old villain.

33:41

No one's, and they'll stay that way so they won't be getting any upgrades.

33:45

We have a new expansion coming up where we're going to be heading out

33:48

and helping out for different Goblin factions.

33:50

And, the goblins are really going to get a highlight for this,

33:52

but you're going to be dealing with different cartels and kind of managing different cartels, and we're going to get a new sweet ride

33:58

that you can customize and have a drift and all kinds of stuff like that.

34:00

It's going to be really fun. And now the biggest news that has everybody,

34:05

every World of Warcraft content creator losing their mind.

34:08

And we've been asking for this for at least I know of 18 years.

34:12

We've been asking for this feature in world Warcraft. They have not delivered it.

34:15

It is player housing.

34:17

You will now have a house in World of Warcraft

34:21

that you can customize, make yourself fill with all your exploits.

34:24

Inside. It will be you owning a piece of Azeroth.

34:28

The content, the it, a piece of Azure that you own

34:32

and something you've been protecting over the last 20 years.

34:35

That's so cool. So I don't know about like non wild players, but

34:39

everybody that plays wow, that's like the metaverse just came real now.

34:42

Like you can live inside. Well you can have your own place, decorate it invite people over whatever.

34:47

Like yeah. Especially if they keep expanding on that.

34:49

I'm sure they'll have all kinds of cool stuff you can put in your house.

34:53

That's freaking awesome. That's cool.

34:56

I mean, I'm sure it doesn't really affect the the story of the game or by much,

35:01

but it affects your casual playing in that world by so much.

35:06

And we've been seeing it pop up in other games, player housing

35:09

like Wild Star, which was brutally underrated.

35:12

Game had some of the best player housing and for a lot of people became

35:16

the gameplay is just decorating your house.

35:19

And a lot of games kept putting this in and we look at cities,

35:22

I like to look at that. Is that a good example for this? Because we all get shipped and see these and you could kind of

35:28

change the sales on it and stuff like that. Pretty neat. But now you can name a ship, you can, you know, the color scheme.

35:34

You're like that will stay. You can put personal decorations on it

35:36

that represent the accomplishments you've done.

35:39

And now that ship means so much more. So when it sinks, it's really sinking.

35:42

Yeah, and that sucks. So now when you're defending as you're out there like,

35:45

hey, that's where my house is located, you know, there's a little bit

35:48

more stakes in the game because now you feel like you're actually a part of Azov, in a new way, you know.

35:53

And when there's like big battles, they can be like events where it's

35:56

a natural disaster kind of event, like this boss is bringing with him tornadoes.

36:01

So if your house doesn't, if you don't, he has destroyed

36:03

you have to be there that day to fight it and help defend.

36:05

Oh, that's so cool. Little things were like, oh man, everything got knocked off the wall.

36:09

The little things like that just fun. Little game is up.

36:11

And then there's holiday events where you could probably decorate your house.

36:14

One of the things that I think, okay, so while the word craft is at its strongest

36:18

when it reflects back on, it's, again 20 years of being a game.

36:22

And we've gone through so many stories and some of the best stories.

36:25

We have a new podcast coming out that's going to focus on those stories.

36:28

And one of the so like for when Transmog came out, it's the ability

36:31

to change your armor, to look like anything you've collected in the past.

36:35

So then people would dive back into old dungeons, 15, 20 year old dungeons

36:39

to find pieces and stuff like that forgotten in time to then wear that.

36:43

And that became a new activity in World of Warcraft.

36:46

And there are some pillars in World of Warcraft that keep the game going.

36:49

Heavy dungeons, raid, stuff like that. And like

36:51

was one of the created a fashion industry really,

36:53

because before it was always about the stats. But now it's like, well, stats.

36:57

Stats can be, you know, carried over.

36:59

So I can actually. Wear something that looks cool to, well, suddenly the game just added

37:04

an entire new industry into the game.

37:07

What if you could go back into shadow shadow Keep and find a chair.

37:11

You like or tapestry you really like or whatever,

37:14

and you go back and run that dungeon hoping that the boss drops.

37:17

Maybe the plan. You don't do something to get the furniture,

37:20

but maybe the plans to how to build that chair that you like at its throne.

37:23

Suddenly people are running old content and taking advantage of, again,

37:25

20 years of history. I think this is the best thing that would work.

37:30

I could have announced and revitalized the the fan base

37:33

that was already slowly coming back after, they had a real Big Dipper.

37:37

Shadowlands. Dragonflight was a real big redemption for them.

37:40

They've they've turned to listening to the fans more.

37:43

This was huge. This was really huge in our corner of the world.

37:46

And, people are very excited about the game right now.

37:48

Yeah, I think that's freaking awesome. Now we just need Jonathan to come back to Willow.

37:52

Worker. And, it's tempting to my son now he goes to preschool.

37:56

So I have, you know, a little bit of time, but the the house empty.

37:59

I don't feel so guilty. But one of these days.

38:02

What is he looking back into. When you come back, what I think you should do is just make a level one,

38:08

and I'll make a level one with you, and we'll just do some quest and kind of.

38:11

We'll slowly open the world up. We don't need to get to doing some crazy shit.

38:14

Yeah. Yeah. We'll take it'll take a lot.

38:16

It definitely training wheels for a while. Yeah.

38:19

There's a lot out there that.

38:28

Let's go ahead and get into our reviews for the week.

38:32

John, we're going to start with the Penguin. I had a blast with this series.

38:37

Such a phenomenal series. Yeah. Can you give us your take on Penguin?

38:40

Go ahead and go full spoilers, by the way. So, guys, just warning, spoilers for Penguin.

38:44

No spoilers for Dune. Go ahead. Yeah, it's just a I an awesome show.

38:49

It's so dark and gritty. It's, obviously it carries on after the the the Batman, the new Batman movie.

38:55

And we see, you know, clips from it, like the flooding

38:59

of the city and stuff like that and the, the recovery efforts.

39:03

But they do such a good job at it, making

39:05

you kind of root for villains

39:08

and, you know, show you kind of a softer side of them or good side of them

39:12

and or very a justification of why they are the way they are.

39:17

And you start to really like them. And then they turn the knife kind of like then it's like, oh, wait, no,

39:23

that person is such a terrible person. I forgot about that.

39:27

So it's, it's back and forth.

39:29

I don't know, I can't I couldn't do a synopsis of the actual timeline

39:33

just off the top of my head, but, but definitely, I mean, they build up such good characters and,

39:38

and make you love them and then kind of regret that you love them

39:42

because you realize how terrible they are.

39:45

Yeah. What I like about this is the you're rooting for two villains, right?

39:48

But the villain in the story is oftentimes society, right?

39:51

Because obviously they've turned their Gotham has turned their back

39:54

on Crown Point, which is the poorest nation, poorest area of Gotham.

39:58

No power at all. And so when Penguin's coming in and offering people jobs,

40:03

like like Vic tells him, like, hey, you offer these guys jobs as dignity.

40:07

And that's something that Penguin looks back at his old, mob neighborhood mob boss, which is Rex.

40:11

And seeing like, hey, there's this guy that used to give us respect,

40:14

and I miss that. And so he's offering jobs and offering security

40:19

and bring the power back to Crown Point.

40:21

And representing the little guy you're rooting for Penguin this whole time.

40:25

And then, if we look at, Sophia Falcone,

40:28

she comes in who was persecuted by her family, thrown into Arkham

40:32

for ten years, comes out and just just shatters the status quo

40:37

and says, look, we're not going to be playing by your, rules anymore,

40:40

where you guys can get away with murdering women and stuff like that.

40:43

We're going to play by these rules. And so you're rooting for these people.

40:46

In the meanwhile, they're burning bodies and tearing down houses and stuff.

40:50

It's just terrible. But you're rooting for them.

40:53

And and it's again, it's against the system, stuff like that.

40:55

And then by the end you're like, oh, that's right, I did root for the bad guy.

40:59

Yeah. I went, Sophia takes out the family.

41:01

Like, well, I mean, that was a lot of people that were in that house.

41:06

Sure. They were kind of mean. They I mean, they were personally mean to her.

41:10

And, you know, she was in prison for ten years,

41:12

but like, damn, it was so cool how she did it.

41:14

But damn, that was crazy. Unless you save the kid and then you kind of always justifying it, right?

41:19

Like at least you saved the kids, so they're just not fully bad.

41:21

But then when you fast forward a couple episodes and we start to see her more and more collapse in decline and stuff,

41:27

and then when she goes to visit the kid again in foster care, you're like, wait, she's not necessarily

41:32

the same person who saved the kid the last time they had a conversation.

41:35

She might kill that kid. She didn't. Luckily.

41:39

Matter of fact, it was a another turning point for her.

41:41

But yeah, it was. She did a such an amazing job. Yeah, yeah,

41:46

I was there. Any themes I like that you pulled from the show?

41:49

Like, I like we talked about, you know, society being the villain.

41:51

But kind of. Arkham is also the villain, right? Because it made Sophia this, you know, rich, stuck up girl,

41:56

but not necessarily a bad person into a bad person.

42:00

Well, like we've seen through here, we've seen a lot of what we see in Joker

42:03

where, their insanity is actually just clarity and the, the people around them,

42:08

the city around them is what's really insane. And they're just trying to expose it

42:12

and, you know, by whatever means necessary, usually crazy stuff.

42:16

But yeah, it's actually just they're reflecting what,

42:19

what the chaos of the city, really is like exposing it.

42:25

And then I think there's something to be said about, fatherhood, fatherhood and mentorship.

42:30

We see Vic who who sees validation in, Penguin

42:34

and, Oz, who is constantly telling him, like, look at me up here.

42:37

And, you know, he's he's scolding anybody who interrupts his stuttering and

42:42

there again, that validation could be very manipulating

42:44

if if used incorrectly, that mentorship.

42:48

And but it's caught for a moment that he was actually giving

42:51

Vick hope and like he even turned away his girlfriend for that life.

42:54

So you were. Hopeful for him. So that was one of the biggest ones where it totally get built up

42:59

thinking like, oh, man, this kid's going to be his right hand man.

43:02

I don't remember Penguin having a right hand man, but this guy's going to be so good at it.

43:07

Yeah. I don't know how much spoilers we want to give away, but let's.

43:09

Go into it. Go ahead. And the penguin, I mean, after such a a good arc and everything,

43:15

and they're they're bonding and sitting by the lake and stuff like that.

43:18

And he I don't remember how he how he says it,

43:20

but you know, he's pulling him under his wing and stuff.

43:23

But he says like, well yeah, but you can't go on this next one with me.

43:25

And he kills him right there on the side of the, the lake, like, oh, man.

43:29

Your immediate reaction for that. So pissed off.

43:32

Yeah. I was like, but I mean deep, you know, you realize like, damn it,

43:35

I know I'm rooting for a terrible person.

43:38

Yeah. But I thought that there that these two can at least be terrible together.

43:42

Like he was doing so good together. And, you know. There's the thing where, like, pissed off at Penguin,

43:46

I'm pissed off at the shoulder, and I'm pissed off at me for trusting him.

43:49

Yeah, that's what it is. Yeah. You start to trust him,

43:51

but then he goes back to his girlfriend, who now he's now that, is successful.

43:56

She's willing to stay around a little more and kind of trust him a little more,

44:00

at least. You know, while he's so successful and it's like, well, fuck,

44:04

she's the next one, and his mom's the next. Nobody can be around him and be close because they're a liability.

44:09

So he cannot he can't care about anybody or he's going to have to kill him.

44:13

We see that. I think that was kind of the realization with Vic is like,

44:16

man, he's starting to like this kid.

44:18

And he sees that he could he has a lot of potential and stuff like that.

44:21

But the fact that he likes him means if something happens

44:24

and he gets snatched up or whatever, it's going to weaken his mom.

44:27

So, yes, just get rid of him now. Yeah.

44:30

So yeah, he he would never have put in that situation with Sophia if it wasn't for his mom.

44:33

So I think you got to realize, like, I can't do that.

44:36

And then I, I just actually rewatched the series last night, too.

44:39

And his mom, who I knew, Francis Cobb, played by Deirdre O'Connell.

44:45

What a masterful performance.

44:49

And a person I can't stand. I hate his mom so much.

44:52

Yeah. So manipulative. Again, we see all that.

44:55

That manipulation he puts down on Vic he got from his mom, right?

44:58

Who was very much like, oh, you take care of me. She knew the whole time stuff. Yeah.

45:01

But she asked him like, don't let me be a vegetable looking out a window.

45:05

And the final scene we see with her is like, enjoy your big window, you know?

45:09

And she's crying and stuff. And it was like, I'm mad at her, but also, like, just kill her.

45:14

What are you doing? It's so sad. So brutal.

45:18

And the whole thing with him, and I love that episode,

45:20

but with him and his brothers and how he just, like, close the door,

45:23

he knew that they were drowning or or potentially

45:27

going to be dying out there, and it's, like, so twisted.

45:29

But I like how that that builds so much depth into his character.

45:32

Like why he is the way he is.

45:36

Yeah. It's just crazy.

45:38

The performances all, all around, I think are really good.

45:40

Christine, Milioti, Colin Farrell, Renzi.

45:45

Felice. That's, that right there is Sophia Oswald and Victor.

45:48

I think those three are going to be seen as Emmy contenders, for sure,

45:53

especially Colin. Underneath all that makeup and all that.

45:56

Have you put a what a masterful job you did in this?

45:59

In this? Definitely. Yeah. I'm sure he's going to win something.

46:01

I, I just saw recently that, Renzi Felice, who plays Victor in this,

46:06

was actually the voice of one of the characters in, Encanto.

46:12

You remember that cousin that was a shapeshifter? Oh. No way. Yeah.

46:15

He does. Do I like that kid? Yeah, he especially in that song, we don't talk about Bruno.

46:19

He's got, you know, one of the better lines in it.

46:22

Yeah. With the rats on his back and all that stuff.

46:24

He impersonates Bruno. Yeah.

46:26

Yeah. So I was like, what the heck? That's crazy.

46:29

And he does not set in real life. I mean, I think that's probably predictable,

46:32

but he had a voice coach that was teaching him

46:35

how to stutter properly, and that was excellent.

46:37

And people been applauding is how he's stuttering, the way people who stutter would hear that

46:42

and like, right. So like when he's alone, you don't see him stuttering

46:45

when he's trying to deliver a line to somebody else. He does stutter and he stutters in the right words.

46:49

Shout out to the voice acting on that, side characters as well.

46:52

Michael Kelly, Clancy Brown, Theo Rossi, who plays Doctor Julian Rush.

46:57

A lot of people are noticing that on his desk, and he's the therapist for anybody.

47:01

He, on his desk is the glove in the mask for Scarecrow?

47:05

I think we might have our next villain I'm gonna be focusing on.

47:07

I like it. So, do you think they're going to continue to do movies in the Batman,

47:11

you know, universe in the two months back. Coming and going?

47:14

Farrell said he already filmed five scenes for Batman two.

47:17

Oh, nice. Okay. Yeah. That's dope.

47:20

And this time he's going to be full penguin. He's got the suit now.

47:23

He's got his top hat. He's going to be full on Penguin. Now, you know,

47:25

what I love about this is I don't see this as competition with the MCU.

47:30

This is what we've talked about for so long. We want to see DC kind of do this darker, grittier, more, you know, true stories.

47:36

And, you know, MCU can stay in the fantasy and superhero genre.

47:40

That's great. But this is, I think, a better fit for DC.

47:43

I want to double down on your John. This isn't competing with DC either, because

47:48

James Gunn is making another Batman movie that's going to be the ones

47:50

competing against the MCU, and this one is still going to be allowed to keep making their movies.

47:55

So we're going two versions of Batman and one grounded, and one

47:58

will be Batman, with his Robins and family.

48:01

Like, we're going two versions of this. So if we get the best of both worlds.

48:05

Yeah, we'll get to both. See which one doesn't see.

48:08

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So do you want to be on speed?

48:10

Most of these want to be in the luxury boat world. Yeah. Good.

48:14

This was just. It was so well done.

48:17

The setting, it felt like Gotham.

48:19

That something that squeeze call that the first episode.

48:21

There's something about seeing those trains that are elevated above everybody that just feels like Gotham to you.

48:24

It's like that Chicago look, it felt like Chicago.

48:27

It felt like, man, I'm sorry. I feel like Gotham. It felt like the citizens there.

48:30

It was just crazy enough to exist.

48:32

What would you give us at a tangent, then?

48:36

It can't be far from a ten out of ten.

48:39

It was such a good show.

48:41

I mean, for for HBO.

48:43

I can't imagine this not being like another tentpole for them now.

48:47

I mean, everybody knows Game of Thrones is is a huge one.

48:50

But, I mean, I would put this at least just below Game of Thrones.

48:54

If this had as many seasons and all that stuff, then sure, it'd probably be a contender.

48:57

But one season to another, I think it's it's right up there.

49:01

So, I at least do like a nine, 9 or 9.5.

49:07

That is ten. You know what men love? Ten.

49:09

Yeah. Ten. Ten. I can't think I'm sitting.

49:12

You're trying to think of what I don't like about this show, and I can't.

49:14

I watched it twice, actually. I think of a thing I don't like about it.

49:18

The ending is so disappointing, but I'm more disappointed with myself

49:21

than I am as anybody else, honestly, because I'm like, it's like,

49:25

thank God when they pulled out, you see the bat signal

49:28

because it was so needy because you're like, oh, good, someone's going to kick his ass in the second,

49:33

right? But. Yeah, I can't think of anything they really did wrong.

49:38

I mean, there's obviously topics and stuff like that that are disturbing,

49:42

but that's just that's how dirty and gritty this is.

49:46

And I think this is a really good way of showing, like, the morality two of,

49:50

you know, the little man versus, because it's

49:52

kind of we'll talk about this often by sci fi, where they,

49:54

when they talk about social problems through the lens of sci fi.

49:57

So if you're like, oh, this is just a Star Trek show, but then you're like, learning about racism.

50:00

Yeah, this one, learning about the class disparity and stuff like that.

50:03

I think this is a good way of showing that, like through a Batman universe,

50:06

because Batman is not the right character to show you that he's a billionaire.

50:09

Yeah, Penguin is actually, Penguin is the right guy to show you this in this process.

50:13

Anyways, we kind of talked about it with Star Wars, but I love how

50:15

this is going to show us a perspective where now when Batman comes in

50:19

and he stops the bad guys, well, he's also taken away a bunch of jobs though.

50:24

He's breaking up, you know, a drug business,

50:26

he's taken away a bunch of jobs, and these families are going to struggle.

50:29

And maybe their neighborhood won't have electricity for another week because of it and stuff like that.

50:33

You know, Batman doesn't see the suffering of the people

50:36

as he just sees the crimes that are going on. And he follows the law even though he uses vigilante justice.

50:42

That's why Batman's the best dude. All his villains are.

50:44

So everything about them is like, it can be written into huge novels

50:47

about how big their stories are, with the complexity that they deserve.

50:51

And meanwhile, there are a lot of superheroes out there. I'll say Superman is more complex than people give him credit for it,

50:55

but there are a lot of people who are just like,

50:58

yeah, that guy's a bad guy who wants to take over Earth.

51:00

Yeah, these guys don't want to, like, destroy Gotham.

51:02

They need Gotham. Joker. The reason Joker is so fun is because he's not anything else.

51:06

Like the other Batman villains. He is the one that's just destroyed. Gotham is fine, I want chaos.

51:10

So there's something special with this show. I'm going to give it a ten out of ten. Deserves it. All right,

51:16

let's talk about Dune prophecy.

51:18

Going to keep the spoiler free. This is the first episode that came out, six part series.

51:23

And you have not had a chance to watch this yet?

51:25

I have. Not now, but I probably. Watch it tonight.

51:28

Okay, I will tell you, it is a slow burn.

51:32

This is a very slow show. It, it loses you a little bit.

51:36

I actually dozed off a bit.

51:38

I think that's because it's setting up so many things.

51:42

And when I was. I have brought a lot of notes for it.

51:44

We're gonna do a chart except for it as well.

51:46

It reminded me of those really good sci fi shows that would come out of his often.

51:51

I'm trying to think. What, like Skyfall.

51:54

Would I remember that one that was like, about the aliens or the good?

51:57

It's like I was gonna put them under the dome. Yeah, that came out.

51:59

Yeah, that was kind of a yeah, Stephen King thing, but like the first episode,

52:03

so much set up that is like, okay, this is going to get cooking eventually.

52:06

I know that right now is just dumping this stuff on me.

52:10

But this one has a far better budget. It feels like HBO, the setting,

52:15

the sets, the CGI top notch.

52:20

So I love that about it. The characters I'm invested in, there's one of them.

52:24

I just don't have my notes with me. I'm such a dork.

52:27

One of them, I think was. No, I don't have it there. Other, Desmond areas.

52:31

Desmond, I think, is going to be a real fun character to follow.

52:34

He's a mysterious character. We know he fails because this takes place 10,000 years

52:38

before the Bene Gesserit, and he's trying to stop the Bene Gesserit.

52:41

And we know they're still in Dune, so he doesn't doesn't do it.

52:47

But yeah, it's. And he's played by Ragnar Lothbrok from Vikings.

52:51

And I was like, oh, I love that dude. Yeah, but, any questions about Dune prophecy, John?

52:56

So do you see, I know we're probably going to need 2

52:59

or 3 episodes to really get a good feel for this series.

53:04

Because, like you're saying, it's such a I understand, too.

53:06

It's such a big world. And I think we're going to see a lot of, like, political drama

53:10

we've seen before, I guess, in the Dune movies, too. But hopefully a little, a little bit deeper.

53:14

But that means there's going to be a lot to establish.

53:17

But already from this first episode, do you think this can be a Game of Thrones

53:21

size series, like, are they trying to scale it that big,

53:23

do you think, I can see down the roots for that.

53:27

I could see that. But we're going to need to see some promised action.

53:31

We don't get any action on this.

53:33

Yeah, so we're going to need to see some of that. Like we get, like, twists and turns. Sure.

53:37

But a lot of that. But but that's kind of a highlight of the early game it Thrones right.

53:42

Where the politicians in the room. That's what this all is. Is that okay?

53:45

Yeah. Some of those like Littlefinger conversations and stuff so pivotal in the story.

53:49

And, you know, you just kind of you it's not the explosions

53:53

and the big battles and stuff, but it's like, man, that's that's where the drama's really at sometimes.

53:58

And this could be setting it up and they do a really good job.

54:00

I know I did not read Dune Sisterhood, which is what this is based off of,

54:04

but they make sure to drop the names Harkonnen and Atrocities a lot.

54:08

You know, you're getting a lot of the names

54:10

you recognize, even though it's 10,000 years beforehand.

54:13

And of course, something's going on in Iraq is there's big worms all the time.

54:17

It's it's amazing how there's one planet,

54:20

because it has a spice is just so important for 10,000 years.

54:22

And it's, I gotta say, a highlight of this.

54:26

Sorry to have to break my mind here.

54:28

This is 110 years after they, destroyed all thinking machines.

54:32

So machines with computers, they can do their own AI stuff.

54:36

And, that is a bigger thing than I thought they were.

54:39

Good. They're they're focusing on, I'll just kind of.

54:41

I'll do one little spoiler, but a kid has a little toy robot lizard,

54:45

and one of them kills it, and it is like, how dare you?

54:48

How does that even exist? Like, it's heresy.

54:51

And I was like, oh, explore that. That's interesting.

54:53

I did me think about that because in the future in Dune,

54:57

you have like the mints and the,

55:01

you know, the human computers and the people who stuff like that, that's exactly what these people are for, is for telling the truth out of people.

55:06

You don't want a computer doing that. So it's cool

55:08

to see kind of the early stages of them adjusting to this new world.

55:12

So I wonder if that's built into their religion at that point.

55:15

It seems like with a reaction like that,

55:18

that this distrust of technology must be like,

55:21

you know, that's blasphemy for you to to interact with intelligent technology.

55:26

You know, our God says that that makes you impure kind of a thing or something.

55:31

It's less the religion, but more like the Founding

55:33

Fathers are that you could tell like they're a tradie.

55:35

Such a very popular house was the leader of the army that took over the robots.

55:41

And the harkening to hated House was one that was seen as a coward

55:45

during the battles against the robots. So like, it's definitely part of like the like

55:48

how we would talk about George Washington and Ben Franklin. Yeah.

55:51

So when you see something like that's like somebody was saying

55:53

like burning American flag kind of thing, like that's like, what do you do?

55:55

You know, so that kind of vibe. Yeah. Okay.

56:00

That's cool. It's got a lot of promise. Yeah. And I have more questions than I had answers.

56:04

Which can be a good thing. But, it's the same thing that was said about Star Wars

56:08

that, like, pretty early on, and I never got shit answered.

56:10

Yeah, there's. Many, many good days for them to drop the first two episodes together.

56:14

I think so, yeah, I think so. But there's only six episodes this entire season.

56:18

Oh yeah. Jesus. Really short.

56:20

Are they going to get us hooked by the end of the sixth episode?

56:22

And then we're going to have to wait like two years for another.

56:24

So go watch Dune again. Which is Dune I think might be longer than Dune

56:29

one and two to be longer than the six episodes. Yeah, for sure.

56:33

The devil. Oh, it, but so far I'm really enjoying it.

56:36

Guys, if I were to throw a great out there, I would say a seven, because again, it is pretty hollow.

56:41

Or not hollow.

56:43

So open ended. There are so many more questions and then anything else.

56:46

It's a lot of setup. But I really love the world that they're setting up,

56:50

so I'm going to give it a rest right now. And I can't wait for that to go up.

56:54

And I hope it doesn't go back down. Yeah.

56:57

All right. We're going to be closing things out Jonathan, with our recommendations of the week.

57:02

I will start things off since I know that you're probably gonna be thinking about

57:05

it for a little bit here. Everybody's watching arcane, and we're going to do a review

57:08

for arcane once all the episodes are out, which is, like next week.

57:12

But people are starting to get interested in this world

57:15

and all the cool lore of this behind it. Well, lucky for you, Legal Legends has a ton of it.

57:18

And that's what this game that's shows based off of.

57:21

And so I would like for you guys to check out the multiple League of Legends

57:24

comic books. You could play the game itself, but the game itself doesn't have a ton of, lore in it.

57:30

But there's comic books. There are books about it. And specifically my favorite Keenan to follow up on is to Marcia.

57:35

There are I want to say it's Nine Kingdoms.

57:38

Big kingdoms in this, game of regions

57:41

and Damascus very much your your medieval.

57:44

You know, shining paladin warriors type of, kingdom, where they outlawed

57:49

magic and, and they nullify people's magic, stuff like that.

57:53

And then, Garen, who is like my

57:56

he's my favorite character to play, but he's also like, the head general

57:58

is constantly fighting against Knox's, and I believe it's his sister

58:03

that has magic and is trying to hide it, but uses it well, and he's a mage.

58:07

It's a wonderful story, full of lore.

58:09

So if you like arcane, which is just one city,

58:12

then I think you're going to love, the rest of the villages

58:15

in the very complex cities that are out there. So just start checking that out, guys.

58:18

Explore the world of Rune Tarot, which is the world of live legends.

58:22

Knowing,

58:24

for me, I haven't done much.

58:26

I don't think I've been watching anything new recently, watching old Star Trek again and stuff like that,

58:30

waiting for for another good show to come up. But I do have one on the horizon.

58:34

I can't wait to see it looks really good.

58:36

If you like Yellowstone, which there's more

58:39

Yellowstone coming soon to, it looks like this right up your alley.

58:42

It's called land, man. It's on, Paramount Plus with Billy Bob Thornton.

58:45

Yeah, that looks looks a lot like, kind of a Yellowstone spinoff, if nothing else.

58:51

Yeah, very similar vibe. So I'm hoping it's good.

58:55

I think it might be coming out this week.

58:58

I think it is. I've seen a lot of that. Yeah, yeah.

59:01

So check that out. Let me know. I'm gonna.

59:03

I'm probably gonna watch it soon. Whenever I can.

59:06

I loved him in Fargo season one so much.

59:08

Oh, yeah. What a good bad guy. Yeah. So, Yeah, I'm all about.

59:13

Yeah. Actually, he just did an interview, I believe, with Stephen Colbert.

59:15

That show is coming up this week, then. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

59:18

Thanks. So. All right, guys, land, man.

59:20

And check out Runeterra the rest of the world from arcane.

59:23

And thank you very much for hanging out. Let's go over a real quick thing.

59:26

We're gonna be at Fan expo in two weeks. So if you guys are headed to San Francisco,

59:29

Perico hit us up so we can meet up and chit chat about all things geek.

59:33

And we're also doing the pet pantry for raising money for the Elk Grove

59:36

Animal shelter. Link in the description if you'd like to join us there.

59:39

And then we're also spreading awareness of beauty's biscuits, which are wonderful homemade dog treats.

59:45

And matter of fact, I know mine are delivered right now.

59:47

I just saw the mailman come up on the cameras, and, they're

59:51

they're made by sunny. They're great dog treats that your dogs will love.

59:55

And if you use Code geek freaks, you get 20% off your order.

59:58

It is even without the bank and even without the discount code is very, very affordable.

1:00:02

So check that out, guys. All right. Thank you very much for hanging out with us this week.

1:00:06

We'll see you next time. Bye.