August 29, 2025 • 60 mins
Welcome to the inaugural episode of our weekly roundtable episode, X-Ray Group Chat! Every week, Jason and Rosie will be joined by a rotating panel of producers and guests to discuss the things we’re most excited about in geek culture.
This week, Jason and Rosie are first joined by Joelle and Carmen to check-in on Alien: Earth now that we’re halfway through this excellent first season. Then Joelle breaks down a recent article in The Wrap about how Disney’s streaming strategy has hurt its biggest brands like Marvel and Star War. Then Ian joins to gush about the first episode of Peacemaker season two, and speculate where this show goes in a post-Superman world.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Warning, today's episode cantate spoilers for Alien Earth up to
the most recent episodes. That's through episode four end Peacemaker
season two. Hello, it is Jason Concepcion and on Rosey
(00:22):
Night and welcome to XRGC x ray Group Chat, a
weekly roundtable chat with our producers and special guests to
talk about the things that we are talking about regularly
and the things we're excited about watching in movies, TV's comics,
pop culture, and more.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
In today's episode. In the first segment, Joelle and Calm
And join us for a mid season Alien Eth check in,
which is appropriate because I woke up and the group
chat had been on fire about Alien Earth and that
is why XRGC exists to bring you into that group
chat life. In segment two, me and Jason will be
(00:58):
talking Disney Plus with Joel, and we check in about
the very first episode of peace Maker season two with
Ian and everyone will share what they're most excited to
do this weekend.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
But first, it's Alien Earth. Okay, Alien Earth. It continues
to be one of the best shows on TV right
now and we are delighted to be joined by super
producer Joel and super producer Carmen to talk about how
it's going in Alien Earth, and you mentioned it Rosie
(01:32):
the group chat, but I wouldn't call it erupting. I
would say this. I would say, well, I would say
this about group chat.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I think we're all with the messages in that chat.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I think we're all enthusiastic about Alien Earth, and we
all are big fans of Alien Earth. We're really enjoying it.
I think certain members of the wider XRGC citizenry also
have small criticisms that.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Exist.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
There are valid, There exists, and that's it, and when
talking about them, it can make it seem as if
there's a lot more antagonism than there really is. Because
I think the.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Show is fivery fund of the group chat.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Let's talk about it. Let's let's discuss this Chiel. Do
you want to characterize the conversations in the group chat
this morning?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
So we had a couple of interesting ones. I was
there with the one that really piqued my interest. So
we're talking a lot about style and substance and where
the line is on this show for that. So, like,
for example, one of the reasons I was so excited
to cover this show is in the pilot. You get
so many of these small cues where you're like, ooh,
is that a reference to this?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
And are we bringing this up?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Because you feel deeply as though there's so much underneath
that you can really dive into. And Jason, you made
the really sillian points that you were like, hey, you know,
some things don't quite add up. For example, we have
a sixty year old robot who's out in space. He
comes back, he is able to hijack a fresh off
the line bot. How what what is the reason? Why
were there no like issues or struggles there that should
(03:08):
have been you know, we're technologically advanced time, so that
should have come up.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
That should have been an issue.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
And it's the thing I'm been you know, we talked
about it a little bit with uh Peter Pan and
and the labeling isn't too much? Is it just defining
this character? Has it overtaken the show too much? And
I'm starting to get like, we're at the halfway point now.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I still have no Howie is.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
So good at doing the sort of deep dive stuff
that I am surprised that I was coming up with
the same situation. I started looking at the idea of
you know, this really great line, when is a machine
not a machine? That it immediately It's where I've sure
you're like, well, let me think about that in a
really deep way, but the show sort of answers it immediately,
and it's just like, these things are not machines because
(03:50):
they're part people. You're like, oh, okay, I'll try to
make themselves machines. I thought we might get into when
does I become not artificial? When is it genuine intelligence?
But we're not really trying to touch any of that
stuff as of yet. So I think that was one
of our main issues. I think the other thing we're
(04:10):
talking about a lot is, uh, the creatures and how
cute are these? I want one? I want to keep
it with me. I'm upsets.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I literally can't believe that you said that.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
After the episode where we see him how the I
work and goes into the sheep like that, as they
call it, the t o Celius, that was one of
the moments, especially in the discord and online, where I
think a lot of people went, Okay, wait a minute,
I need to never see that ever again.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
So you were like, I need one.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I know it's very cute. Yeah, I think it's very
cute as well. M. Carmen, Well, it's it's cute and harvine.
But yes, Carmen, you're you kind of like your You
helped spark the conversation today in the group chat and
with a few observations about the show. How would you
what are your thoughts about how the show is going
(05:12):
right now?
Speaker 5 (05:13):
Personally, I'm really enjoying it. I I do understand that
I am looking at things through like my nostalgic glasses.
The one thing I the one thing I you know,
pointed out in the group chat is that very very
small detail in episode three where Marrow pulls out like
a little it looks like a little motion sickness patch
out of his fingernail, and that he sticks it behind
(05:35):
slightly slightly here. I watched the episode three times. I
did not catch it until the third time I watched it,
and that is how he's able to like telepathically.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Community Again, something very interesting there about Moro's tech compared
to Prodigies tech. I say, I can still see an
interesting explanation for that. Potentially, sure something I would be
interested if this ties in with how Prodigy has risen
so fast. It did Prodigy just steal a bunch of
old whale and Utani tech that they used to help
(06:05):
out on, like is it not as high tech as
it should be? But I think it's a question that
you guys, rightly power that needs to answer. But calm
and one of the other things that you've been kind
of looking into on this is is the creature. So
let's talk about that question. We got four episodes left.
How are you feeling on the creature scale?
Speaker 5 (06:22):
So they've shown us so far. I mean, they've shown
us the tiosillus, which we think is very cute. I'm
still trying to figure out, like what what is his goal?
He just wants a body and just to be cute
and hanging out. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
I'm not sure what Maybe he becomes probably wants to
go home or something, and I think it's you know, also, yeah, well.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Maybe the eyeball like wants it's in the eye. Maybe
there is a different part of the xenomorph for something,
or a different alien creature that can see through the eye.
I did right, if we would get like an echo
there of how boy Cavalier is able to see through.
Speaker 5 (06:53):
The kids or like maybe over time like a like
a mind flare, like takes over the body, like over you.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Can see through the kids, but never when he needs
to lightly he's talking tomorrow. He's got a lot to do.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
He's recording his podcast so the kids can have the
full experience of Peter Pants stuff. He's out here in spot. Yeah,
he's like listening in on a Big Brothers conversation in
the hallway too, So there's a lot to be occupying.
Of course he's going to miss a couple of key moments.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Do you think it's a constant, twenty four hour recording
that he can go back and look at any time.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I'm sure it's recorded.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, I believe.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Not only that, but like in this sorry now, we're
much like the Eye. We're hijacking this conversation. But you know,
there's no way that in this future there isn't an
algorithm that listens and watches the videos and says, hey, right,
something weird happening.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Check this flag, red flag.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
Joelle and I talked about how one thing that I
appreciate about this series is that it stays true to
the retro tech of the original film. Yea, where where
when I was kind of confused, you know about and
Jonah we talked about this Prometheus and Alien Covenant. They
kind of like, even though they're still directed by Ridley Scott,
he like gives us upgraded tech in the ships and everything,
(08:18):
even though it's a prequel. So I do like that
we're staying true to that kind of retro tech of
it all. As for the creatures, though, I am really
excited to know more about the creatures that they haven't
shown us, because when we keep looking at that like
whole like containment room, there's actually like a bunch of
different creatures that we still haven't even seen. They're kind
(08:39):
of hidden behind obscurity, Like the glass is kind of foggy,
but there's like a dragonfly creature that they keep showing.
It looks like a giant dragonfly. I'm wondering if that's
ever going to come into play. And I'm still, you know,
four episodes and now, like what's going on with that
guy spray the wall?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
They keep showing us this guy. I gotta know, I
gotta know.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
I was wondering, you know, when I think about I
think about like pesticides and stuff, but then I also think, like,
is there any kind of way that what's being sprayed
is like trying to insulate this space from like outside
of fervors, and you know Marrow has just sort of
happenstance circumvented that. Or is it more about, uh, does
(09:25):
the place need to be cooled down for some reason?
Like we know we're in an island. We get a
lot of like misty, sort of springy vibes. I'm curious
if it's an environmental situation given how remote the space
is too.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
We get answers on that guy because.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
He's just been floating.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
I have a feeling that he might be a spy
for you, Tanny, or for Amazing Wayland, you know, like
a little little double agent sort of situation.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I love that. Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
I think that's really good.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Well, let's talk about the tech a little bit because
I think one of the conversations we were having visa
vis the style, which I think is really I mean,
this show looks great, the performances are amazing. The production
design is like top top top top top.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
Do they.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Hang on to certain visual cues from specifically the first
Alien film, a lot like the like the dissolved dissolve
transitions from There's a lot of stuff. Personally, I'm fine
with that. But but what it made me think of
is I think here's the thing that I respond to
(10:33):
in the show when I think about the criticism, and
again they're so minor because I think the show is great, great,
But I think one thing this show does really well
is it keeps you like in this enclosed area that
is filled with style and great performances and action and
amazing creature design, and it wants to keep you there
(10:54):
in this kind of like realm of nostalgia tinged sci
fi action and if you kind of like go behind
the velvet rope a little bit and peeling yourself over there,
that's when it kind of falls apart. And so that
for me is your mileage may very part of it.
I do think that that. Listen, a sixty year old
(11:17):
cyborg coming back from space, interacting with a corporation and
the products of corporation that didn't even exist when he
was when he left, and imagining that he'd be able
to somehow like hack a super advanced synthetic AI computer
(11:39):
humanoid body. It seems pretty crazy to me. Now, we
could come up with all different kinds of reasons why
it's possible, but that's the kind of stuff where I'm like, Okay,
that doesn't that kind of doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I think that is a good call. And I do
think that this so far has been a show that
the DPU dig into it, the more it feels like
it's slightly unraveling, which I think is like I'm excited
to see how the I believe the final four episodes
will probably do some work to change our feelings on
(12:11):
that because of just how absolutely positive the full season
rebuwial maybe not, maybe not.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
I mean, listens, didna may watch season five of Fargo,
the most recent season, there was a character who was
like a It was was like a highlander, was like
a nine hundred year old Welsh night assassin who has
been like a live okay multiple centuries, and like they
(12:39):
kind of scratched the service on that story and then
don't really like don't explore it at all, which you're
really just kind of left with it. So I think
that's kind of like that's kind of like a holly thing.
It's like lead.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I would say Legion has had some of those for me. Okay,
but finally, what are your because we kind of touched
on it a little bit here, but what are your predictions, Carmen.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
We were talking a lot about what happens with uh Prodigy.
Do you have thoughts on like how the downfall of Prodigy?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, because they don't exist when we get to Alien.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
Yeah, I mean Jason is already I mean Jason has
already talked about it, but just to like, I think
after watching episode four and we see at the end
that that xenomorph baby, the little baby xenomorph breaks out
of her brothers lung and almost like has like a
like like an imprinted sort of yeah vibe, like almost
(13:38):
like it's imprinted onto Windy.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
I think we're gonna get Windy leading the xenomorphs U
and tearing apart this whole Neverland Eyelight.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I think there's going to be a big yeah, be
easy to disappear like right away, you know, if it happens, all.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
Be like a Jurassic World sort of situation.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
I completely agree. I have one more O. The Eye
is very smart. We know that because it's been alluded
to anybody else really smart in this show.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
I know, Boy Cavalier and the Eye will become one.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I think, no, no, I think the Eye is going
to crawl into Boy Cavalier's body and we have to
see that.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
Maybe take over the road, something crazier, lusty stare between
the eyeballs and.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
What is this chemistry that's happening here. I had recapated that, but.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
I really love that theory. I'm still hoping for a
You Tommy swing through. I really want you to takes
them down. I think perfectly from the inside. I love
the spy theory. I think we're ready for an additional
heaping of corporate espionage in these next coming episodes.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yes, definitely yes. And that was like Vulcan, one of
our who's one of our most regular Discord users, had said,
like who does I to puss kill first? And why
is it Boy Cavalier? So I think, like the reading
is there the discord is basically like everybody says, they're
like looking at each other constantly, like they can feel
the pressure. So I think that would be very satisfying.
(15:19):
And I love Jason's read where it would actually be
a takeover rather than a killing.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, imagine he's set the scene Interior Prodigy Labs. Boy
Cavalier walks into the laboratory where people are discussing what's
going on with the synthetics. He's wearing sunglasses, big sunglasses.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Oh sunglasses, Jackie os.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Ill figure that out. I heard it well, this was delightful,
loving the show despite small like nitpicks, and can't wait
to have you guys back talk about it more.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
We're the break and when we come back, we're gonna
be talking about Disney and whether Disney Plus hurt the
Marvel brand and we're back. Thunderbolts is available to stream
(16:26):
on Disney Plus as of this recording, and so we
thought it'd be a good time to basically discuss what
the impact of Disney Plus the streamer has had on
Disney's wider brands, the Marvel stuff in particular, but also
like Star Wars and everything else. Super producer Joelle welcome
to back, Welcome back to x RGC. So long she's
(16:48):
back in again.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Conversations causing compensations in the group.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Jack So, what sparked this is a recent article in
The Rap by Drew Taylor. Joelle tell us about this story.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
It's a lot there's I mean, it sort of starts
with Kevin Fagy does this interview in June July where
he brings in a bunch of folks, this is really rare,
Like they don't frequently bring a bunch of reporters onto
the burbank Disney law you know, you're doing that visits
or whatever, and they get to ask him whatever they want.
And these are real reporters, so they're asking very real
(17:23):
questions and they sort of, you know, want to get
to the bottom of Like, hey, over the last couple
of years, Disney has had this mad rush of TV
shows and movies as a directive to Marvel, like, what
are your thoughts about that guy who runs Marvel? And
Kevin was candid and essentially he was like, hey, that
directive came up from above. It really hurt us to
have to rush these things out, and you know, it
(17:45):
was a struggle, and we're looking to do things a
little differently in the future. You know, he's obviously in
a position where he needs to remain pretty diplomatic. But
it got a lot of folks thinking about like the challenge.
Kevin even mentioned specifically the fact that the Marvels. You know,
here you have pree Life, who's part of a billion
dollar film in Mis Marvels or in Captain Marvel, and
then you have two folks who come from TV shows
(18:08):
Wanda Vision and mis Marvel that folks maybe didn't tune
into and they don't know who are the leads now.
I I am of mixed feelings on some of these thoughts.
I think we're looking at at Disney Plus like I
do think the Disney Plus of it all has hurt Marvel,
Like I think do we all agree on that at
like a base that the Disney.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Plus, I would say with I think with both because
of the Bob Chapek era of make as much as
possible to get people to subscribe. It was the big
subscriber push. I think that that encouraged them to rush
out stuff that wasn't ready, or change the release schedule
of stuff, and to push stuff I wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
It's I feel that Disney Plus, broadly speaking, the content
push did. As Figy states, I loute something value some
of the stuff around stuff. At the same time, while
I'm agreeing with your thesis, I'm also kind of like, well,
what were they supposed to do? And that's I guess
(19:12):
there's the Sony play in which they're just like purely
make stuff and then sell it, license it to other places.
But with the catalog they have you kind of always
felt like they had to get into streaming somehow. So yes,
I do agree that it watered shut down.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I think it wore stuff down, But I think do
they take COVID into I don't feel like I feel
like was also a chaos like agent in this because
obviously then you're putting TV shows out at different times,
like you know, One Division wasn't supposed to be the
first TV show. Stuff like that. And I also think
(19:52):
that the nature we say this a lot, but if
you make something good, then people are going to like it.
You know, it's not always an issue with like a
lack of knowledge people are. We knew, As Kevin Faig
has now said in a newer interview, it's not superhero
fatigue clearly because Superman did really well and it went
(20:14):
over five hundred mil, which Marvel has been struggling to
do since, like The Eternals, which by the way, had
a very impressive box office. I've now learned when you
compare it to Marvel movies that are coming out now.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
But here we go.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
But I do I know, I know I'm gonna stop,
but I do think, like, I think it's a good
important point and I thought this piece was really interesting.
But I also don't think it's like the only reason
that it's not working, you know, I think it's part
of the pie. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yeah, you mentioned Star Wars earlier, and like, I think
Star Wars we doesn't get as much of a break
because your movies were suffering before we got to streaming.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
But I think for your.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Marvel, what must be really challenging is like they were
aces and then streaming happened. They had one great TV
too great TV shows really, and then it was a
downward spiral of like suddenly everyone's like, has Marvel lost it?
And I think that's really a struggle. And what I
find very interesting is we, you know, maybe zoom out
and look at just the streaming of it all. When
we were in a broadcast only era, we understood that
(21:15):
there were different types of TV that's sold in different ways,
and in streaming, I think they're still struggling to figure out, like,
for example, Hope, a bunch of people really hate binge watches.
I think for the right shows, binge watch is perfect,
but they're different, and I don't think it's cemented entirely
across the industry of like this makes a good streaming
versus this is a good week to week. I think
(21:36):
similarly when you're thinking about Marvel TV shows instead of
you know, this is not to compare DC to Marvel,
but I think James Gunnas doone really well. Is like
he's like, my films are for broken kids from broken
homes who need a superhero like that. That's who his
films are for. And it's a really clear direct line.
(21:56):
It makes everything really easy to sort of gravitate to
or gravitate from if that's not what you want in
your stuff, and it's clear to the audience what they're
sort of coming in for. I think Disney has the
problem if we want to appeal to everybody and their
TV shows.
Speaker 7 (22:10):
You know, for.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Example, if we look at a Hawk guy and now
Hawkey is an older guy who's struggling your family, he's
come back, he's trying to be a different person.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
But then you get both.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Lena Belova and a young Hawk girl and they're really
cool characters. But this is not a show that I
think teenage girls would gravitate toward. But these are heroes
teenage girls would love. You miss the boat on bringing
in a lot of new people when you don't directly
advertise or try to attract or make a show specifically
for them. And I think that's a huge part of
Disney's problem.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Yeah, I was actually gonna say, I think that something
that's kind of interesting is a lot of these issues
are less about where the Disney Plus and its invention
impacted Marvel and more about how things were handled and
ad like an exec level at a higher up choices,
because that will also something that has impacted a lot
(23:03):
of these shows is a lot of them end up
being way sure. They get truncated. They decide as they're
losing money, to invest less or to cut corners, or
to say, hey, let's not do reshoots, let's just drop
this whole one six episodes like an Echo or something,
you know, iron Heart, And I think that their lack
of investment and belief once things started to go down,
(23:25):
and I know you have to cut money from somewhere,
I think those also are part of the issue. It's
not like Disney Plus came out and they put a
bunch of banger shows on and everyone was like, nah,
I don't need to watch us at the cinema, I
can watch it at home. I think it's to do
with that declining quality that Joel mentioned, and also, Joelle,
you make a good point because basically the other thing
(23:45):
I think is like you you pointed out something really interesting, Joe,
which is like they don't tend to advertise any of
that stuff, specifically two different audiences outside of the thirty
to twenty eight male demographic, which is they're seen as
their main demographic. But now they're struggling because Marvel and DC,
(24:08):
Marvel and Star Wars aren't necessarily delivering in the same way.
Now they're like, well, we need original movies to get
those men back into it. And it's like, guys, are
you even looking at who your audience is and how
it's changing or what people are watching. I don't think
it's about not having original IP, even though Kevin Faggy
did also try to say Fantastic for is basically original IP.
(24:32):
I think it's about, you know, Star Wars, you can't
keep that brand going off TV alone. That was never
gonna work for you and Marvel stuff. You know what,
you guys didn't have a plan. I'm sorry, but they
didn't have a plan post end game and they're still
struggling with that.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Well, I would slightly give me a hack. I think
that Listen. I think that a lot of this is
just gravity specific to Marvel right, specifically about MA A
lot of this is just gravity. You're not going to
continue to do end games for the next fifteen years, exactly,
I'm never going to happen. Then you have the fact
(25:09):
that the original cast was aging new contracts, et cetera.
You simply come to the end of a period story wise, professionally,
with the actors who're doing it, et cetera. Truly the
end of an era. And I just think that you
(25:31):
said mismanagement, and I think that that is the case. Listen.
I get where they were coming from when SHAPEK was like,
all these things are killing, why don't we put up more.
It's kind of like in basketball when you're like, you
see it young players like shooting sixty five percent from
the field, Like the answer is, you should be shooting more,
and so they shot more, and it turned to it
and it has and has diluted the brand that said
(25:56):
I feel like they're a victim a little bit of
their own of the expectations created by success.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
I agree, And that's why listen, my my pitch post
endgame was like stop, which you can't do because capitalism.
But like I sometimes think too, like we hear that
saying a lot of like, oh, well, it's a business,
you have to of course, it's a business. Of course
you have to make money.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
But our businesses, it's a storytelling business.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
That Art rosie.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
And it's confusing to me why that's never also a priority.
It's like, well, you know, we we had we didn't
have time to strengthen the brand. We lost our future
leader when Chadwick Boseman died. He was going to be
the the energetic entity.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Jonathan was going to the majors who speaking about planning,
was supposed to be the central antagonist. And yeah, it's
kind of like so many things.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Everybody look it throughout the comic book era, for the
comic book industry and the and this happens in movies too.
It happened with the Internet, it happened with dot com,
it happened all the time. A bubble is gonna burst, right,
And that thing is that, like Marvel's expansion was so
immense that there was always gonna be a time when
(27:16):
they couldn't keep it going at the same level. And
I think that is the issue. I think they should
have been trying out stuff that costs less money but
was interesting in different ways. We know a good TV
show can be made for less than thirty million, exactly
like There's And also I think Jason, that links back
(27:36):
to your thing about their own success, because they set
up an ecosystem where the only way you could have
success is if you make a billion dollar movie that
is never sustainable. That's not how capitalism works. It's not
how money works. You can't just keep making and then
there's gonna be a two billion and then a three billion.
Take a little step back. Look at the beginning.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
I talk about the fleet flip side of the coin,
and I agree with you. Central to this is just
like make better stuff. Okay that said, flip side of
the coin, no Disney plus True Marvel doesn't get as
watered down, although the structural problems would still occur. I
think there's a world in which we see no Star Wars.
If there's no Disney Plus, we have no True. There's
(28:18):
no I don't think they would have made for this
stuff that's like on its Disney XD or whatever.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yeah, Like I don't think they would have made another
Star Wars movie because they while during this period, so
we wouldn't have had anything.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
And so you would be reaching a I don't know,
decade plus with no Star Wars. So that's that's another
part of this to think of as well. I would
I would say that though the Star Wars offerings were uneven,
they've also they've been on balance additive and some of
the best stuff not even on the platform, but like
(28:52):
just beyond beyond in pop culture in general.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Yeah, it's not having and or would have been disappointing.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
We got it ironically, Like you know, people say, oh, well,
you know they've lost this, but I'll tell you something.
They were able to essentially launch a theme park off
of Disney plus stuff like that. Is how they've kept
it filled up is the Mandalorians there, Baby Grogu's there.
They they bring people in. Yeah, sure, now you're getting
(29:17):
a Ray or a Dark Luke Skywalker. But the reason
that the interest of the IP was still there is
because most people are just watching a lot of those shows. Now.
I want to my one of my oldest you know,
hammers that I've been nailing since we started talking about
this stuff. But like they also like should have put
some of that stuff on broadcast TV. That's my biggest
thing with Star Wars. I actually think if they'd put
(29:39):
the first season of The Mandalorian on broadcast TV, it
would have had a different kind of life. It would
have had a different kind of audience that was even broader.
But I do think you make a good point, Jason,
Disney Plus needed to exist, not just for the investors.
I mean we could have ended up if there was
no Marvel because of COVID, no Star Wars, because of Lucasfilm.
We could have ended up in a situation where Disney
(30:00):
could have been in a very dangerous situation economically anyway,
because what are they putting out at that point? So
I think it's like an interesting wallpool of options.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Here's where I do kind of agree with the some
of the thesis of this piece, which I urge people through.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yeah, the piece is great once you have.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
The Disney Plus all the other the content explosion even
beyond Marvel, with the extra Star Wars shows, new animated stuff,
the live action adaptations of the movies. You need to
It's like when you have a donut shop. If you
are walking past the window of a donut shop and
(30:41):
you see, like the shelves are empty and there's like
a tray with like a few scattered donuts. You're not
walking in. You want to see the shelves packed. And
so that's what they've been and are still essentially doing.
And that's just simply the logic of having your own
streaming network. It's gotta be pasted with stuff. And look
(31:04):
at the deals they've been closing in the last couple
of years with NATIONALEO Graphic and these kind of like
corporate media conglomeration deals have all been to just add
more stuff. Put more stuff in there. Give Christatic, give
one of the give Hemsworth a fucking show about him
working out. Yeah, I mean more National geographic stuff. Yeah,
(31:27):
put like the Hulu stuff in there. And and in
that sense, I do agree with this piece that, yeah,
water it down.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Definitely like en Mass, especially when you think about people
that are not like us and don't like live in
this every single day. For a normal person to go
from oh that's one movie a year that I go
or two movies a year that I go to with
my friends, and I'm really excited, and that's the time
I go to the cinema and that's where I spend
(31:56):
my money to oh, I can just access this at home.
That is a differential experience that I think from US people,
and in general was a COVID thing too that people
learnt to watch at home in a different kind of way.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
But I also think going from like a six hour
theatrical commitment to like a sixteen to eighteen hour multiple
TV series a movie.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Yeah commitment.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Ye, Like it's a lot, and especially if it's not
of quality consistently to bring people back in. I wouldn't
end this conversation if we can on this really interesting idea.
Here's the thing that like, if you're a girl who's
been into comic books, especially like comic TV and stuff
for a long time, like you understand pretty inherently, like
the studios don't really see you just frustrating. The male
(32:41):
thirteen to twenty eight demographic is a really specific one.
They go after to the fact that it killed teen
titans the first time around. They're like, well, boys, and yeah,
your numbers are crazy good and girls are obsessed and
you're not making them like the dolls or action figures
are closed to go along with it, so you don't
see your return on merch. You know in a Variety
article by Matt Donnelly, he's talking about you know, this
(33:04):
new push from Disney Rosie recording it earlier and saying,
you know, they're looking at original I peek content, anything
to do to get these guys back. It's so interesting
to me that it's still we have to get them back,
as opposed to how do we appeal to the base
Who's that's here?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Also like who's who stayed around? And yeah, who's stayed
around and who should be rewarded for that? I wonder
It's an interesting conversation for sure. Yeah, and I'm sure
we're going to keep having it throughout this year and beyond.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Well, thank you Joelle for joining us.
Speaker 8 (33:38):
Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back with
Peacemakers too.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
And we're back. We'd like to welcome in super producer
Ian to the program. Ian, how are you.
Speaker 7 (34:05):
I'm great, Ready to talk Peacemaker.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Let's talk about it. So we're just a small note
that we are hoping to get Peacemaker screeners soon, which
would allow us to get ahead of the cycle and
dedicate a full episode to Peacemaker, which we are watching
and which is really fun and let's get into it. Okay, So,
(34:28):
first of all, the retcon happens immediately on the previously
on montage that tells you about everything that happened last season,
where they replace the Justice League of Snider era with
the Justice Gang of the Current Universe era Smart Choice
(34:48):
a gun and Saffron Era, and everything kind of goes
from there. This is a story in which we pick
up our characters in the wake of the reveals of
Task Force X and the fallout from that. Peacemaker is
just kind of scuffling along hoping to join the Justice Gang.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
He We see him go into the inter dimensional hideout
that his dad had, and we learned a very important thing,
which is it's not just like a large space, it's
a crossroads of dimensions with I think it's ninety nine different.
I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah, I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
It wouldn't be infinite, but that's fine.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Yeah, and it kind of is also interestingly used as
like a galactic storage unit or something different.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Yeah, there's aliens in the area.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
So he goes down there and eagerly because he's like,
it's too cold to go out to let you fly around.
So let's fly around in the interdimensional hideout and eagerly
become fixated on this one door, scratching on it, scratching
on him. Chris notices that there are Peacemaker helmets outside
this store, but he doesn't go in, and so he
(36:11):
goes in the code apparently is the same as the
code that he uses to enter, and he finds this
beautiful interior of a home. It is his family home.
He sees that in this dimension, he his dad, White Dragon,
and his brother who is alive in this dimension. Captain
(36:31):
Triumph are apparently the top superhuman team in this universe,
topping the Justice Gang and everybody else.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Also incredibly hilarious that James Gunn cost his own ex
wife's tv X as his wife. He was James Gunn
was married to Pam from the Office, obviously the guy
who plays this in Triumph, And they even do a
fun little gag of it where they ask him how
he's going with his wife and she's like, oh, he's
with that jag Off in the office, so they know how.
(37:04):
I thought that was really fun. I think James Gunn
has a lot of fun with understanding the metatextual nature
of like celebrity and what we know about people who
are in TV shows and how that kind of ties
in with superheroes. I thought it was a fun note
and I.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Thought the redcns were were just they Well, it was
a super easy, efficient way to handle it.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Again, God showing off how to do it. You just
act like it doesn't matter and it won't mad to
the audience.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Months later, Atabio picks up Peacemaker on to take him
to this Justice Gang tryout, and we learned a bunch
of stuff about different people. Abido has broken up with
her partner. She is now an independent security consultant. She
has business cards and everything. It's not clear that that's
actually generating any income, and apparently Hardcourt and Peacemaker are
(38:00):
just on the skids at a Bio two. She's like
not speaking to at a Bio because of all the
blowback from when they blew up Task Force Ex's spot
in front of the eyes of the World. So they
go to this the Crank Toy store in the strip mall,
which is a wonderful reference to the second Batman the
animated series.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Right, very very fun stuff.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
And it's Maxwell Lord Hawk curling guy behind the window
and their microphone doesn't work is the gag, and so
they're the off switch doesn't work. So they're roasting Chris
all the time and he can hear everything they're saying,
and it gets it kind of lays out very smartly.
I think what the thesis of this season is going
(38:46):
to be and is can Chris deal with his like trauma,
can deal with his anger? Can he stop murdering people?
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Can you realize that that's not the best way to
live life like? And I think as well, again James
gun hit showing his kind of showing his power play
that look I can just casually put to people who
were just in a five hundred million dollar movie in
this TV show, you know, That's how it makes it look.
When girl and Guy godden a show up.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
He also really smartly and we have been wondering, like, Okay,
how's Peacemaker going to integrate with the gun Saffra Dceu
And I think part of it is the part of
this conversation where Maxwell basically says, listen, I'm asking you
about about your your murders. Because we're living in a
(39:35):
world in which as meta humans become more front facing
in society, people are beginning to get anxious, fearful, and
distrustful about them, and that is going to cause all
sorts of political problems. So we don't want that to happen.
And that's clearly going to be one of the overarching
themes of the.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Movies as well. Well. I think, sorry, what a smart
way like separate out your your adult like more mature
viewing stuff and your kids stuff.
Speaker 7 (40:06):
Yeah, yeah, And I mean I'm sure we're going to
get into this a little bit further after the recap,
but I think it's a great way. I think, you know,
a lot of questions people had is how is it
going to coexist with the family friendly Superman and then
you have this very adult, you know, dark show. You know,
there's an orgy scene in the middle of the episode.
But I think there's a way to make it work
(40:27):
with these tonal differences, because you know, I think you
have the characters kind of exist in their separate corners
of the same universe that reflect you know, those characters.
So you have a bright and hopeful Superman in this beautiful,
sunny metropolis, but you still have space for this gross,
hyper violent, sexual peacemaker corner. But then that also leaves
space to have like a dark, brooding Superman or excuse me,
(40:50):
Batman and Gotham, Yes, and those can.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
All those can.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
We get the Arkham references so we know that they're
teasing it, and then they talk about the breakouts they've had.
I think you're really onto something the Ian because also,
as you were saying that, this sounds so silly, and
I know an exec could probably be like get her
out of the room, But isn't that just real life? Like,
so we have to work out how to segment those
things away from each other. Not everything is a four
quadrant story or experience. And I think exactly that it's
(41:18):
very interesting that they kind of established that as a
kind of a friction that's going to be going forward
again meta textual understanding the conversations we're having and saying, well, ha,
here's how we're going to deal with.
Speaker 7 (41:32):
It exactly, And I think that just makes for a
more interesting story moving forward. You know, I want to
see a brooding, like moody Batman next to David corn
Sweat and like, what is what is an interaction between
you know, like if we ever get there, like a
plastic man and a peacemaker going to be or something
like that. You know, I think that would be really interesting,
you know, exactly.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yeah, I mean to the to the questions about tonal differences.
I mean, if they've already he's kind of already just
sleeping over that. That obstacle by having three members of
the Justice Gang in this show that as you mentioned,
Ian has a extended orgy scene, which we're about to
get to. We learned that Harcourt can't get a job
(42:14):
in intelligence because she's essentially being blackballed from the industry,
probably at the behest of Amanda Medler, who has an
ax to grind, she runs into Peacemaker. We learned that
there might have been a couple of dates or one
date or something. There's like a Japonian space something that happened,
(42:37):
probably on a boat. Chris obviously is feeling it a
lot more than Harcourt is feeling it, and says in
no uncertain terms that that's never going to happen again.
Chris goes home self, medicates with drugs, and somehow populates
his house with like literally thirty people. It looked like
(42:57):
Project X, but like Project Triple X.
Speaker 7 (43:03):
I also love how everybody is naked, fucking all over
the house. He's fully clothed, just like sitting.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
He just wants it around him.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
He's like, Okay, let's see how I feel.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
But even but even the drugs and kopious sex really
can't can't brighten the darkness. That is, you can't numb
the pain. We learned that outside. John Economis is keeping
tabs on peacemaker and still the test, still working for Argus,
(43:34):
which is hilarious. Actually at the behest of Rick Flagg Senior,
he's doing this, he gets a call from Adrian Lana.
Adrian's just working, like I think it was a pizza
place or was it a pizza place.
Speaker 7 (43:47):
It's an Italian restaurant.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
Italian. Yeah, so vigilante is just working a regular job.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Economists gets an alert that there's something interdimensional, something space
going on in that house. So he runs over. He
sees the orgy, but he also sees Chris standing in
front of what he will later term as a magic
tunnel and sees Chris go into it, and you know, like,
(44:17):
what do we do? The glitches happened again. They get
the alert all the way back at Belle Reeve at
Argus headquarters, Flag calls economists, they talk about the orgy,
and basically Rick Flagg Senior puts the pressure on economists
to like find out what's going on. We're at argust
(44:38):
Priority one alert, and we learned that that means possible
either alien invasion or imminent dimensional rift, which since the
events of Superman are going to be a thing that
the government is super secret on alert about.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
And this looks very similar to what we saw all
the kind of.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
It's an actae two dimensional crossroads, like it's gonna because I.
Speaker 7 (45:05):
Got the impression that after watching this and then thinking
back on Superman, what the like qu see, I believe
is what it's called the quantum unfolding chamber that you know,
Chris has access to in this house. What Lex built
was like kind of a janky like bootleg version he
just like figured out on his own.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
You know, that's so funny, and listen to an extent,
Argus is right, we've seen aliens.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
Walking around down there actually just casually.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
We don't know where all the doors go. So Chris,
in his depression, unable to numb the pain, goes to
that door, goes inside and finds himself in his family
mansion in a different dimension. It's beautiful palatial grounds. Then
(45:53):
a car pulls up and it's his alive brother alive
in this world, Keith aka Roy from the office aka uh.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Triumph.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
And then all of a sudden, Dad aka White Dragon
comes out and he's like, oh my god, the boys
are read together. Let's celebrate. They share a bottle whiskey.
They're talking about and I think this is very clearly
an Easter egg to set up stuff. They talk about
a battle that Dad had previously with interdimensional imps that
had come out of I guess this dimensional crossroads, and
(46:26):
that they were then chased back into there.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Folks remember who sore an interdimensional imp and wasn't worried
about it during his titular movie Dedea it was Superman.
He was actually so unworried about it that he was
able to make out with Lois Lane. Also imps in
the DC universe. Why are immediately thinking of Batman all
these kind of fun things. I thought this was such
a good little tease for the future of.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
This Seacon thought it was so great and it's I
feel like, whatever happens at the end of the season,
it's gonna be about an invasion through this interdimension a crossroads.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Also, let's think about it, interdimensional crossroads, potential multiverse situations.
We saw a version of Superman, a clone of Superman
thrown into an interdimensional black hole at the end, and
a lot of people were thinking, Okay, bizarro criminal, you know,
do a little bit of a crime syndicate situation here.
We could definitely see something like that. So I think
(47:24):
this is really exciting.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
Okay, So one thing leads to another and Chris gets
confronted by the that world's version of himself and accidentally
kills that World's peacemaker Ian. What did you think of
this of this first episode Sea two.
Speaker 7 (47:46):
I really liked season one, so I was excited coming
into season two, and then knowing that it was going
to connect pretty heavily to Superman, it got me even
more excited. I thought it was a great intro episode.
I think the way they wreckon the ending of season
one was really smart way to do it. As you
guys mentioned, you know, just like this is the change
that's happened. Let's let's let's keep going, you know, let's
(48:09):
not dwell on it too much. And I think James
Gunn could have taken a Lazier easy way out and
been like, oh, actually everything from season one was in
a different dimension or we're following a different Peacemaker this season.
But no, it's just like they just changed it. We're
moving forward. And I think it's smart because it also
doesn't undo all of the great character development and character
moments from the first season, and I think keeping those
(48:32):
relationships intact was was really smart. I think the other
little connections throughout the rest of the DCU, like just
ties ties into Creature Commandos as well, you know, like
Task Force M was a direct response to the events
of season one and Piece Maker when Task Force X
got exposed. Rick Flagg Senior was introduced in that show
(48:54):
clearly going to play a very large role in this season.
He has a vendetta against Chris Fermer, his son, which
theory I've seen floating around. You know, we learn in
the the alternate dimension that Chris was dating Hardcourt at
one point and as they're currently maybe split up and
she's dating the jar Head right now, which what if
(49:16):
that's Rick Flagg Junior in dimension? You know that crazy?
Speaker 2 (49:24):
I would love that so much because I think one
of my biggest issues with Peacemaker season one was just
simply that I loved the Suicide Squad so much, and
I felt like Peacemaker was following a character I wouldn't
have chosen to follow from that film. But I ended
up really enjoying the first season. But this, I think
this episode hooked me in way more and I'm so
(49:45):
excited to see Frank Rio.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
As completely glad. I completely agree. I was basically left
feeling like James James Gun's got it. I mean, in retrospect,
season one of Peacemaker was kind of like him planting
a flag about Okay, here's where all this stuff could go.
Here's like a someone, Here's what I would do, Here's
(50:09):
how it could happen. But of course, like you know,
the flashes in it and like all the Zack Snyder
people because just in case and the confidence with which
he has moved past that to just do what he's
gonna do is uh is notable. And I was im like,
I loved season one. I thought this episode started off
(50:33):
immediately like on a higher life than any episode from season.
Speaker 7 (50:39):
Yeah, except for that intro.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
Yes, the intro, Daunce. I am happy because Frank Grio
is doing it, and I just feel like that's.
Speaker 7 (50:51):
To get the new actors in there. But the song
from the first season just so much cool.
Speaker 2 (50:56):
Okay, so aboo. Super producer put a great question in
the quit today, which is, I had no interest in
watching Peacemaker, but after watching Superman now I feel I
should question Mark, how would you Ian? How would you
answer that?
Speaker 7 (51:12):
I would say yes, just because I feel like the
of the connections it has to the movie and all
the characters that are reoccurring feel organic. It feels natural,
it doesn't feel shoehorned in. And then I really do
think the quc in this pocket dimension that technology is
going to play a big part in continuing to build
(51:33):
out the world and moving forward with whatever the ultimate
plan is for the whole franchise. I think that's going
to play a big part. So I think we're going
to get a really good understanding of that technology, how
it works, and the implications of it throughout this season. Also,
there are rumors that there are some really big cameos
coming later at the end of the season, to the
point where they haven't even released screeners for those final
(51:54):
few episodes, so I'm wondering, like, could we maybe see
one of the green Lanterns for the upcoming Lantern series
or something like that. You know is in one of
the ending episodes, so we'll see that.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
Great, Yeah, exciting stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:11):
I any quick predictions for the rest of the season
of Peacemakers.
Speaker 2 (52:17):
I think Ian you touched on something that really works,
which is the idea of one of the green lanterns.
How Jordan or John Stewart showing up. I think that
that is the easiest connect because it's going to be
an HBO show. Also, I think that them showing up
and essentially being like, why the fuck are you listening
to Guy Gardiner because we know that he's going to
(52:40):
be in that show too. We've seen him in Superman.
It seems like an easy crossover here. I would love
to see a little bit more hawk Girl, obviously, I
would love I would really love to see Corn Sweat
and his hope fil amazing. Superman kind of have to
rub up against this real a different tone, this different.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
Yeah amazing.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
I think eventually as well, because Peacemaker could press some
buttons for him that would not make that very supermanly,
I believe.
Speaker 1 (53:14):
I mean, they both have interesting I think there's a
world to to to expound on that. I think that
there's a world in which Peacemaker could say, Hey, my
childhood is what you would have had if Jorrell, like
your dad was still around. Oh man, that's what they wanted.
That's what they wanted you to be.
Speaker 2 (53:31):
That's what they wanted him to be. I love Oh,
I got goosebumps, Jason. That was really Yeah. I would
love to see that. Also, just want to shout out
John Cena. This man. If you didn't know he had
the juice already, the faces he makes and the the Kyrie.
Speaker 7 (53:50):
Moments to me, the interview with the Justice Gang when
they're just ripping him apart and you can see how
and he's like and the faces he's making are just
so sad and heartbreaking because he really thought this was
going to be his big break and they think he's
an asshole and an idiot. And then the scene after
he's talking with his dad and his brother and they
(54:11):
go to bed, he just breaks down crying because he's like,
this is a life that I could have had. This
is a family relationship that I wanted. Like heartbreaking, amazing acting.
John scene is cooking.
Speaker 2 (54:22):
You know. I think there's a little thing that he
did in that scene too, where it's like his sadness
is also knowing who his dad really is. Now, like
that would have been fake anyway. You can't have a family,
a great family life like that when your dad is
a member of the Ku Kok Klan and like a
white supremacist murderer. Like it just doesn't work. And I
think he John Cena has the chops to make that
(54:45):
feel like so layered when he cries.
Speaker 1 (54:47):
Two quick predictions. Yeah, Chris is gonna want to replace
Peacemaker for sure from that world. He's going to try
and do it, and ultimately is not going to do it.
He's going to be Rick Flegg Senior is going to
have to try and obviously stop him. But and here's
the rub Rick Flagg Senior is gonna think I can
(55:11):
have my son back exactly.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
Yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker 1 (55:15):
And I like, there's no reason why the Rick Flegg
Senior and Argus of that world wouldn't also be interested
in interdimensional stuff. And there's a confrontational and I think
we're gonna end with them shutting all of that shit
down in a way that's probably destructive.
Speaker 2 (55:30):
Also, I just have to say I will if they
get Joel Kineman back as Rick Flagg Junior in this,
a character I never cared about till I watch those
movies like I Will Die. That will be the cameo
that they bury me under, and I will be like, yes, please,
I'm in because that will be so well done. And
I think you guys have touched on something. I never
(55:50):
even considered that kind of crossover of the two worlds,
but I think that's what we're going to see now.
You guys have sold me.
Speaker 1 (55:58):
Let's welcome back our supers, Carmen and Joelle to join Ian,
Rosie and myself to talk about just the stuff that
we're going to be imbibing for this weekend. Our recommendations, Joelle,
let's start with you, y'all. RF Quong is back. Yeah,
I haven't read her boed air.
Speaker 3 (56:19):
Consistence Babbel is a fundamentally life changing read.
Speaker 7 (56:23):
For me.
Speaker 3 (56:23):
I'm not a person who deals well with their anger.
That book will help you tap into it in a
really serious way, and I'll do it in a dark,
academic setting.
Speaker 1 (56:32):
What a treat.
Speaker 3 (56:33):
She then had Yellow Face, which was a searing exploration
into both public the publication world, and folks who try
to profit off of races that are not their own.
Speaker 1 (56:45):
It is a fabulous book.
Speaker 3 (56:47):
Every time she like picks up her pen, she's reinventing
the like her own wheels. She's never kind of attacking
the same time period or structure. And I'm so excited
that she's diving into fantasy. She's giving us a with
Katabassies her new book, which just came out. I downloaded
it this morning and I cannot wait to start. But
it's another dark academic dive. This time it is inspired
(57:07):
by her own romance with her husband, which I think
is beautiful and lovely and I just can't wait to
get into it. And if you're reading it, please hit
me up on the discord so we can chat about my.
Speaker 2 (57:16):
Favorite I too will be reading it, Carmen, what about you.
Speaker 5 (57:21):
I've got a music thing going on this weekend. I
have a friend flying in from Denver to go see
Ethel Caine in concert with me to tomorrow this weekend.
It's going to be a whole weekend thing. We're turning
it into a whole party. So I say check out.
Will we tuck her? I will always love you. Great album.
Listen to Preacher's Daughter if you haven't. Yeah, I'm just
(57:44):
really excited to see her this week my third time
seeing her live, so really excited.
Speaker 1 (57:49):
Nice Ian, what about you?
Speaker 7 (57:51):
This weekend? Big WWE pay per view clash in Paris.
Speaking of John Cena, he's headlighting up against Logan now yeah,
actually no, the heel run is over. He's a face again.
Speaker 2 (58:04):
I was gonna say, God, I was gonna say him
being a heel against Logan. I was like, I feel
like Logan's definitely the heel in that situation. Okay, he's
a good boy.
Speaker 7 (58:15):
So yeah, big ww weekend. Looking forward to at ten
am on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (58:19):
Baby Jason, what about you?
Speaker 1 (58:22):
I am going to be playing Hell Everage two an Xbox.
Now that it's on Xbox. I got in a little bit,
you know, I want to see what all the fuss
is about. I did play it a little bit on PlayStation.
But I'm excited because most of my extensive video game
collaborator network exists on the Xbox and I'm just excited
(58:44):
to cut it up with some old pals. Rosie, what
about you?
Speaker 2 (58:47):
Mine is also a video game. I have got switched
to guys and the cozy gaming queens have told me
don't worry about the reviews of Tels of the Shayak.
Speaker 5 (58:59):
Just go.
Speaker 2 (59:00):
If you like to have a thousand different ways to
customize your character and you want to just make friends
with people by cooking them a group meal, then you
will love this game. And guess what. I played it
for like two hours last night, and it's so good.
And for some reason, every single time your hobbit's just
standing around, they're just serving outrageous like sassy looks. So
(59:21):
it's also hilarious. But yeah, very cozy, very fun. I
think cozy gamers are not going to be surprised by
the sort of glitches and issues that maybe a game
like this has. But I think if you love cozy gaming,
you're already playing stuff like Animal Crossing, Wildflowers, you know,
all of those good games at Stardu Valley. This is
(59:42):
very much that, but set in a hobbit world, and
I am loving it. So I'm appreciating the cozy gamer
community for encouraging me to step out. And it looks
beautiful on a switch too, so I'll be playing that
all we can. Baby, I'm going to be playing it
on my switch. One. Hey, someone's in commons, Well that's it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
For this episode the premiere episode of Extra GC. Thanks
for listening. We'll be back tomorrow with the biggest news
of the week. Woo bye x ray Vision is hosted
by Jason Sepsion and Rosie Knight and is a production
of iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
Our supervising producer is Abuza par.
Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
Our producers are Common Laurent Dean Jonathan and Bai wag.
Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
Our theme song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme
songs by Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and Heidi.
Our disc called Moderator
Warning, today's episode cantate spoilers for Alien Earth up to
the most recent episodes. That's through episode four end Peacemaker
season two. Hello, it is Jason Concepcion and on Rosey
(00:22):
Night and welcome to XRGC x ray Group Chat, a
weekly roundtable chat with our producers and special guests to
talk about the things that we are talking about regularly
and the things we're excited about watching in movies, TV's comics,
pop culture, and more.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
In today's episode. In the first segment, Joelle and Calm
And join us for a mid season Alien Eth check in,
which is appropriate because I woke up and the group
chat had been on fire about Alien Earth and that
is why XRGC exists to bring you into that group
chat life. In segment two, me and Jason will be
(00:58):
talking Disney Plus with Joel, and we check in about
the very first episode of peace Maker season two with
Ian and everyone will share what they're most excited to
do this weekend.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
But first, it's Alien Earth. Okay, Alien Earth. It continues
to be one of the best shows on TV right
now and we are delighted to be joined by super
producer Joel and super producer Carmen to talk about how
it's going in Alien Earth, and you mentioned it Rosie
(01:32):
the group chat, but I wouldn't call it erupting. I
would say this. I would say, well, I would say
this about group chat.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I think we're all with the messages in that chat.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I think we're all enthusiastic about Alien Earth, and we
all are big fans of Alien Earth. We're really enjoying it.
I think certain members of the wider XRGC citizenry also
have small criticisms that.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Exist.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
There are valid, There exists, and that's it, and when
talking about them, it can make it seem as if
there's a lot more antagonism than there really is. Because
I think the.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Show is fivery fund of the group chat.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Let's talk about it. Let's let's discuss this Chiel. Do
you want to characterize the conversations in the group chat
this morning?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
So we had a couple of interesting ones. I was
there with the one that really piqued my interest. So
we're talking a lot about style and substance and where
the line is on this show for that. So, like,
for example, one of the reasons I was so excited
to cover this show is in the pilot. You get
so many of these small cues where you're like, ooh,
is that a reference to this?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
And are we bringing this up?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Because you feel deeply as though there's so much underneath
that you can really dive into. And Jason, you made
the really sillian points that you were like, hey, you know,
some things don't quite add up. For example, we have
a sixty year old robot who's out in space. He
comes back, he is able to hijack a fresh off
the line bot. How what what is the reason? Why
were there no like issues or struggles there that should
(03:08):
have been you know, we're technologically advanced time, so that
should have come up.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
That should have been an issue.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
And it's the thing I'm been you know, we talked
about it a little bit with uh Peter Pan and
and the labeling isn't too much? Is it just defining
this character? Has it overtaken the show too much? And
I'm starting to get like, we're at the halfway point now.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I still have no Howie is.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
So good at doing the sort of deep dive stuff
that I am surprised that I was coming up with
the same situation. I started looking at the idea of
you know, this really great line, when is a machine
not a machine? That it immediately It's where I've sure
you're like, well, let me think about that in a
really deep way, but the show sort of answers it immediately,
and it's just like, these things are not machines because
(03:50):
they're part people. You're like, oh, okay, I'll try to
make themselves machines. I thought we might get into when
does I become not artificial? When is it genuine intelligence?
But we're not really trying to touch any of that
stuff as of yet. So I think that was one
of our main issues. I think the other thing we're
(04:10):
talking about a lot is, uh, the creatures and how
cute are these? I want one? I want to keep
it with me. I'm upsets.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
I literally can't believe that you said that.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
After the episode where we see him how the I
work and goes into the sheep like that, as they
call it, the t o Celius, that was one of
the moments, especially in the discord and online, where I
think a lot of people went, Okay, wait a minute,
I need to never see that ever again.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
So you were like, I need one.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I know it's very cute. Yeah, I think it's very
cute as well. M. Carmen, Well, it's it's cute and harvine.
But yes, Carmen, you're you kind of like your You
helped spark the conversation today in the group chat and
with a few observations about the show. How would you
what are your thoughts about how the show is going
(05:12):
right now?
Speaker 5 (05:13):
Personally, I'm really enjoying it. I I do understand that
I am looking at things through like my nostalgic glasses.
The one thing I the one thing I you know,
pointed out in the group chat is that very very
small detail in episode three where Marrow pulls out like
a little it looks like a little motion sickness patch
out of his fingernail, and that he sticks it behind
(05:35):
slightly slightly here. I watched the episode three times. I
did not catch it until the third time I watched it,
and that is how he's able to like telepathically.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Community Again, something very interesting there about Moro's tech compared
to Prodigies tech. I say, I can still see an
interesting explanation for that. Potentially, sure something I would be
interested if this ties in with how Prodigy has risen
so fast. It did Prodigy just steal a bunch of
old whale and Utani tech that they used to help
(06:05):
out on, like is it not as high tech as
it should be? But I think it's a question that
you guys, rightly power that needs to answer. But calm
and one of the other things that you've been kind
of looking into on this is is the creature. So
let's talk about that question. We got four episodes left.
How are you feeling on the creature scale?
Speaker 5 (06:22):
So they've shown us so far. I mean, they've shown
us the tiosillus, which we think is very cute. I'm
still trying to figure out, like what what is his goal?
He just wants a body and just to be cute
and hanging out. I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
I'm not sure what Maybe he becomes probably wants to
go home or something, and I think it's you know, also, yeah, well.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Maybe the eyeball like wants it's in the eye. Maybe
there is a different part of the xenomorph for something,
or a different alien creature that can see through the eye.
I did right, if we would get like an echo
there of how boy Cavalier is able to see through.
Speaker 5 (06:53):
The kids or like maybe over time like a like
a mind flare, like takes over the body, like over you.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Can see through the kids, but never when he needs
to lightly he's talking tomorrow. He's got a lot to do.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
He's recording his podcast so the kids can have the
full experience of Peter Pants stuff. He's out here in spot. Yeah,
he's like listening in on a Big Brothers conversation in
the hallway too, So there's a lot to be occupying.
Of course he's going to miss a couple of key moments.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Do you think it's a constant, twenty four hour recording
that he can go back and look at any time.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I'm sure it's recorded.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Yeah, I believe.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Not only that, but like in this sorry now, we're
much like the Eye. We're hijacking this conversation. But you know,
there's no way that in this future there isn't an
algorithm that listens and watches the videos and says, hey, right,
something weird happening.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Check this flag, red flag.
Speaker 5 (07:54):
Joelle and I talked about how one thing that I
appreciate about this series is that it stays true to
the retro tech of the original film. Yea, where where
when I was kind of confused, you know about and
Jonah we talked about this Prometheus and Alien Covenant. They
kind of like, even though they're still directed by Ridley Scott,
he like gives us upgraded tech in the ships and everything,
(08:18):
even though it's a prequel. So I do like that
we're staying true to that kind of retro tech of
it all. As for the creatures, though, I am really
excited to know more about the creatures that they haven't
shown us, because when we keep looking at that like
whole like containment room, there's actually like a bunch of
different creatures that we still haven't even seen. They're kind
(08:39):
of hidden behind obscurity, Like the glass is kind of foggy,
but there's like a dragonfly creature that they keep showing.
It looks like a giant dragonfly. I'm wondering if that's
ever going to come into play. And I'm still, you know,
four episodes and now, like what's going on with that
guy spray the wall?
Speaker 2 (08:58):
They keep showing us this guy. I gotta know, I
gotta know.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
I was wondering, you know, when I think about I
think about like pesticides and stuff, but then I also think, like,
is there any kind of way that what's being sprayed
is like trying to insulate this space from like outside
of fervors, and you know Marrow has just sort of
happenstance circumvented that. Or is it more about, uh, does
(09:25):
the place need to be cooled down for some reason?
Like we know we're in an island. We get a
lot of like misty, sort of springy vibes. I'm curious
if it's an environmental situation given how remote the space
is too.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
We get answers on that guy because.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
He's just been floating.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
I have a feeling that he might be a spy
for you, Tanny, or for Amazing Wayland, you know, like
a little little double agent sort of situation.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I love that. Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
I think that's really good.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Well, let's talk about the tech a little bit because
I think one of the conversations we were having visa
vis the style, which I think is really I mean,
this show looks great, the performances are amazing. The production
design is like top top top top top.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
Do they.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Hang on to certain visual cues from specifically the first
Alien film, a lot like the like the dissolved dissolve
transitions from There's a lot of stuff. Personally, I'm fine
with that. But but what it made me think of
is I think here's the thing that I respond to
(10:33):
in the show when I think about the criticism, and
again they're so minor because I think the show is great, great,
But I think one thing this show does really well
is it keeps you like in this enclosed area that
is filled with style and great performances and action and
amazing creature design, and it wants to keep you there
(10:54):
in this kind of like realm of nostalgia tinged sci
fi action and if you kind of like go behind
the velvet rope a little bit and peeling yourself over there,
that's when it kind of falls apart. And so that
for me is your mileage may very part of it.
I do think that that. Listen, a sixty year old
(11:17):
cyborg coming back from space, interacting with a corporation and
the products of corporation that didn't even exist when he
was when he left, and imagining that he'd be able
to somehow like hack a super advanced synthetic AI computer
(11:39):
humanoid body. It seems pretty crazy to me. Now, we
could come up with all different kinds of reasons why
it's possible, but that's the kind of stuff where I'm like, Okay,
that doesn't that kind of doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I think that is a good call. And I do
think that this so far has been a show that
the DPU dig into it, the more it feels like
it's slightly unraveling, which I think is like I'm excited
to see how the I believe the final four episodes
will probably do some work to change our feelings on
(12:11):
that because of just how absolutely positive the full season
rebuwial maybe not, maybe not.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
I mean, listens, didna may watch season five of Fargo,
the most recent season, there was a character who was
like a It was was like a highlander, was like
a nine hundred year old Welsh night assassin who has
been like a live okay multiple centuries, and like they
(12:39):
kind of scratched the service on that story and then
don't really like don't explore it at all, which you're
really just kind of left with it. So I think
that's kind of like that's kind of like a holly thing.
It's like lead.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I would say Legion has had some of those for me. Okay,
but finally, what are your because we kind of touched
on it a little bit here, but what are your predictions, Carmen.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
We were talking a lot about what happens with uh Prodigy.
Do you have thoughts on like how the downfall of Prodigy?
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Yeah, because they don't exist when we get to Alien.
Speaker 5 (13:14):
Yeah, I mean Jason is already I mean Jason has
already talked about it, but just to like, I think
after watching episode four and we see at the end
that that xenomorph baby, the little baby xenomorph breaks out
of her brothers lung and almost like has like a
like like an imprinted sort of yeah vibe, like almost
(13:38):
like it's imprinted onto Windy.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
I think we're gonna get Windy leading the xenomorphs U
and tearing apart this whole Neverland Eyelight.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
I think there's going to be a big yeah, be
easy to disappear like right away, you know, if it happens, all.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
Be like a Jurassic World sort of situation.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
I completely agree. I have one more O. The Eye
is very smart. We know that because it's been alluded
to anybody else really smart in this show.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
I know, Boy Cavalier and the Eye will become one.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
I think, no, no, I think the Eye is going
to crawl into Boy Cavalier's body and we have to
see that.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
Maybe take over the road, something crazier, lusty stare between
the eyeballs and.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
What is this chemistry that's happening here. I had recapated that, but.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
I really love that theory. I'm still hoping for a
You Tommy swing through. I really want you to takes
them down. I think perfectly from the inside. I love
the spy theory. I think we're ready for an additional
heaping of corporate espionage in these next coming episodes.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yes, definitely yes. And that was like Vulcan, one of
our who's one of our most regular Discord users, had said,
like who does I to puss kill first? And why
is it Boy Cavalier? So I think, like the reading
is there the discord is basically like everybody says, they're
like looking at each other constantly, like they can feel
the pressure. So I think that would be very satisfying.
(15:19):
And I love Jason's read where it would actually be
a takeover rather than a killing.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, imagine he's set the scene Interior Prodigy Labs. Boy
Cavalier walks into the laboratory where people are discussing what's
going on with the synthetics. He's wearing sunglasses, big sunglasses.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
Oh sunglasses, Jackie os.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Ill figure that out. I heard it well, this was delightful,
loving the show despite small like nitpicks, and can't wait
to have you guys back talk about it more.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
We're the break and when we come back, we're gonna
be talking about Disney and whether Disney Plus hurt the
Marvel brand and we're back. Thunderbolts is available to stream
(16:26):
on Disney Plus as of this recording, and so we
thought it'd be a good time to basically discuss what
the impact of Disney Plus the streamer has had on
Disney's wider brands, the Marvel stuff in particular, but also
like Star Wars and everything else. Super producer Joelle welcome
to back, Welcome back to x RGC. So long she's
(16:48):
back in again.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Conversations causing compensations in the group.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Jack So, what sparked this is a recent article in
The Rap by Drew Taylor. Joelle tell us about this story.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
It's a lot there's I mean, it sort of starts
with Kevin Fagy does this interview in June July where
he brings in a bunch of folks, this is really rare,
Like they don't frequently bring a bunch of reporters onto
the burbank Disney law you know, you're doing that visits
or whatever, and they get to ask him whatever they want.
And these are real reporters, so they're asking very real
(17:23):
questions and they sort of, you know, want to get
to the bottom of Like, hey, over the last couple
of years, Disney has had this mad rush of TV
shows and movies as a directive to Marvel, like, what
are your thoughts about that guy who runs Marvel? And
Kevin was candid and essentially he was like, hey, that
directive came up from above. It really hurt us to
have to rush these things out, and you know, it
(17:45):
was a struggle, and we're looking to do things a
little differently in the future. You know, he's obviously in
a position where he needs to remain pretty diplomatic. But
it got a lot of folks thinking about like the challenge.
Kevin even mentioned specifically the fact that the Marvels. You know,
here you have pree Life, who's part of a billion
dollar film in Mis Marvels or in Captain Marvel, and
then you have two folks who come from TV shows
(18:08):
Wanda Vision and mis Marvel that folks maybe didn't tune
into and they don't know who are the leads now.
I I am of mixed feelings on some of these thoughts.
I think we're looking at at Disney Plus like I
do think the Disney Plus of it all has hurt Marvel,
Like I think do we all agree on that at
like a base that the Disney.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Plus, I would say with I think with both because
of the Bob Chapek era of make as much as
possible to get people to subscribe. It was the big
subscriber push. I think that that encouraged them to rush
out stuff that wasn't ready, or change the release schedule
of stuff, and to push stuff I wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
It's I feel that Disney Plus, broadly speaking, the content
push did. As Figy states, I loute something value some
of the stuff around stuff. At the same time, while
I'm agreeing with your thesis, I'm also kind of like, well,
what were they supposed to do? And that's I guess
(19:12):
there's the Sony play in which they're just like purely
make stuff and then sell it, license it to other places.
But with the catalog they have you kind of always
felt like they had to get into streaming somehow. So yes,
I do agree that it watered shut down.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I think it wore stuff down, But I think do
they take COVID into I don't feel like I feel
like was also a chaos like agent in this because
obviously then you're putting TV shows out at different times,
like you know, One Division wasn't supposed to be the
first TV show. Stuff like that. And I also think
(19:52):
that the nature we say this a lot, but if
you make something good, then people are going to like it.
You know, it's not always an issue with like a
lack of knowledge people are. We knew, As Kevin Faig
has now said in a newer interview, it's not superhero
fatigue clearly because Superman did really well and it went
(20:14):
over five hundred mil, which Marvel has been struggling to
do since, like The Eternals, which by the way, had
a very impressive box office. I've now learned when you
compare it to Marvel movies that are coming out now.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
But here we go.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
But I do I know, I know I'm gonna stop,
but I do think, like, I think it's a good
important point and I thought this piece was really interesting.
But I also don't think it's like the only reason
that it's not working, you know, I think it's part
of the pie. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yeah, you mentioned Star Wars earlier, and like, I think
Star Wars we doesn't get as much of a break
because your movies were suffering before we got to streaming.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
But I think for your.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Marvel, what must be really challenging is like they were
aces and then streaming happened. They had one great TV
too great TV shows really, and then it was a
downward spiral of like suddenly everyone's like, has Marvel lost it?
And I think that's really a struggle. And what I
find very interesting is we, you know, maybe zoom out
and look at just the streaming of it all. When
we were in a broadcast only era, we understood that
(21:15):
there were different types of TV that's sold in different ways,
and in streaming, I think they're still struggling to figure out, like,
for example, Hope, a bunch of people really hate binge watches.
I think for the right shows, binge watch is perfect,
but they're different, and I don't think it's cemented entirely
across the industry of like this makes a good streaming
versus this is a good week to week. I think
(21:36):
similarly when you're thinking about Marvel TV shows instead of
you know, this is not to compare DC to Marvel,
but I think James Gunnas doone really well. Is like
he's like, my films are for broken kids from broken
homes who need a superhero like that. That's who his
films are for. And it's a really clear direct line.
(21:56):
It makes everything really easy to sort of gravitate to
or gravitate from if that's not what you want in
your stuff, and it's clear to the audience what they're
sort of coming in for. I think Disney has the
problem if we want to appeal to everybody and their
TV shows.
Speaker 7 (22:10):
You know, for.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Example, if we look at a Hawk guy and now
Hawkey is an older guy who's struggling your family, he's
come back, he's trying to be a different person.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
But then you get both.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
Lena Belova and a young Hawk girl and they're really
cool characters. But this is not a show that I
think teenage girls would gravitate toward. But these are heroes
teenage girls would love. You miss the boat on bringing
in a lot of new people when you don't directly
advertise or try to attract or make a show specifically
for them. And I think that's a huge part of
Disney's problem.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Yeah, I was actually gonna say, I think that something
that's kind of interesting is a lot of these issues
are less about where the Disney Plus and its invention
impacted Marvel and more about how things were handled and
ad like an exec level at a higher up choices,
because that will also something that has impacted a lot
(23:03):
of these shows is a lot of them end up
being way sure. They get truncated. They decide as they're
losing money, to invest less or to cut corners, or
to say, hey, let's not do reshoots, let's just drop
this whole one six episodes like an Echo or something,
you know, iron Heart, And I think that their lack
of investment and belief once things started to go down,
(23:25):
and I know you have to cut money from somewhere,
I think those also are part of the issue. It's
not like Disney Plus came out and they put a
bunch of banger shows on and everyone was like, nah,
I don't need to watch us at the cinema, I
can watch it at home. I think it's to do
with that declining quality that Joel mentioned, and also, Joelle,
you make a good point because basically the other thing
(23:45):
I think is like you you pointed out something really interesting, Joe,
which is like they don't tend to advertise any of
that stuff, specifically two different audiences outside of the thirty
to twenty eight male demographic, which is they're seen as
their main demographic. But now they're struggling because Marvel and DC,
(24:08):
Marvel and Star Wars aren't necessarily delivering in the same way.
Now they're like, well, we need original movies to get
those men back into it. And it's like, guys, are
you even looking at who your audience is and how
it's changing or what people are watching. I don't think
it's about not having original IP, even though Kevin Faggy
did also try to say Fantastic for is basically original IP.
(24:32):
I think it's about, you know, Star Wars, you can't
keep that brand going off TV alone. That was never
gonna work for you and Marvel stuff. You know what,
you guys didn't have a plan. I'm sorry, but they
didn't have a plan post end game and they're still
struggling with that.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Well, I would slightly give me a hack. I think
that Listen. I think that a lot of this is
just gravity specific to Marvel right, specifically about MA A
lot of this is just gravity. You're not going to
continue to do end games for the next fifteen years, exactly,
I'm never going to happen. Then you have the fact
(25:09):
that the original cast was aging new contracts, et cetera.
You simply come to the end of a period story wise, professionally,
with the actors who're doing it, et cetera. Truly the
end of an era. And I just think that you
(25:31):
said mismanagement, and I think that that is the case. Listen.
I get where they were coming from when SHAPEK was like,
all these things are killing, why don't we put up more.
It's kind of like in basketball when you're like, you
see it young players like shooting sixty five percent from
the field, Like the answer is, you should be shooting more,
and so they shot more, and it turned to it
and it has and has diluted the brand that said
(25:56):
I feel like they're a victim a little bit of
their own of the expectations created by success.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Correct.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
I agree, And that's why listen, my my pitch post
endgame was like stop, which you can't do because capitalism.
But like I sometimes think too, like we hear that
saying a lot of like, oh, well, it's a business,
you have to of course, it's a business. Of course
you have to make money.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
But our businesses, it's a storytelling business.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
That Art rosie.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
And it's confusing to me why that's never also a priority.
It's like, well, you know, we we had we didn't
have time to strengthen the brand. We lost our future
leader when Chadwick Boseman died. He was going to be
the the energetic entity.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Jonathan was going to the majors who speaking about planning,
was supposed to be the central antagonist. And yeah, it's
kind of like so many things.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Everybody look it throughout the comic book era, for the
comic book industry and the and this happens in movies too.
It happened with the Internet, it happened with dot com,
it happened all the time. A bubble is gonna burst, right,
And that thing is that, like Marvel's expansion was so
immense that there was always gonna be a time when
(27:16):
they couldn't keep it going at the same level. And
I think that is the issue. I think they should
have been trying out stuff that costs less money but
was interesting in different ways. We know a good TV
show can be made for less than thirty million, exactly
like There's And also I think Jason, that links back
(27:36):
to your thing about their own success, because they set
up an ecosystem where the only way you could have
success is if you make a billion dollar movie that
is never sustainable. That's not how capitalism works. It's not
how money works. You can't just keep making and then
there's gonna be a two billion and then a three billion.
Take a little step back. Look at the beginning.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
I talk about the fleet flip side of the coin,
and I agree with you. Central to this is just
like make better stuff. Okay that said, flip side of
the coin, no Disney plus True Marvel doesn't get as
watered down, although the structural problems would still occur. I
think there's a world in which we see no Star Wars.
If there's no Disney Plus, we have no True. There's
(28:18):
no I don't think they would have made for this
stuff that's like on its Disney XD or whatever.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yeah, Like I don't think they would have made another
Star Wars movie because they while during this period, so
we wouldn't have had anything.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
And so you would be reaching a I don't know,
decade plus with no Star Wars. So that's that's another
part of this to think of as well. I would
I would say that though the Star Wars offerings were uneven,
they've also they've been on balance additive and some of
the best stuff not even on the platform, but like
(28:52):
just beyond beyond in pop culture in general.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Yeah, it's not having and or would have been disappointing.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
We got it ironically, Like you know, people say, oh, well,
you know they've lost this, but I'll tell you something.
They were able to essentially launch a theme park off
of Disney plus stuff like that. Is how they've kept
it filled up is the Mandalorians there, Baby Grogu's there.
They they bring people in. Yeah, sure, now you're getting
(29:17):
a Ray or a Dark Luke Skywalker. But the reason
that the interest of the IP was still there is
because most people are just watching a lot of those shows. Now.
I want to my one of my oldest you know,
hammers that I've been nailing since we started talking about
this stuff. But like they also like should have put
some of that stuff on broadcast TV. That's my biggest
thing with Star Wars. I actually think if they'd put
(29:39):
the first season of The Mandalorian on broadcast TV, it
would have had a different kind of life. It would
have had a different kind of audience that was even broader.
But I do think you make a good point, Jason,
Disney Plus needed to exist, not just for the investors.
I mean we could have ended up if there was
no Marvel because of COVID, no Star Wars, because of Lucasfilm.
We could have ended up in a situation where Disney
(30:00):
could have been in a very dangerous situation economically anyway,
because what are they putting out at that point? So
I think it's like an interesting wallpool of options.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Here's where I do kind of agree with the some
of the thesis of this piece, which I urge people through.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yeah, the piece is great once you have.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
The Disney Plus all the other the content explosion even
beyond Marvel, with the extra Star Wars shows, new animated stuff,
the live action adaptations of the movies. You need to
It's like when you have a donut shop. If you
are walking past the window of a donut shop and
(30:41):
you see, like the shelves are empty and there's like
a tray with like a few scattered donuts. You're not
walking in. You want to see the shelves packed. And
so that's what they've been and are still essentially doing.
And that's just simply the logic of having your own
streaming network. It's gotta be pasted with stuff. And look
(31:04):
at the deals they've been closing in the last couple
of years with NATIONALEO Graphic and these kind of like
corporate media conglomeration deals have all been to just add
more stuff. Put more stuff in there. Give Christatic, give
one of the give Hemsworth a fucking show about him
working out. Yeah, I mean more National geographic stuff. Yeah,
(31:27):
put like the Hulu stuff in there. And and in
that sense, I do agree with this piece that, yeah,
water it down.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Definitely like en Mass, especially when you think about people
that are not like us and don't like live in
this every single day. For a normal person to go
from oh that's one movie a year that I go
or two movies a year that I go to with
my friends, and I'm really excited, and that's the time
I go to the cinema and that's where I spend
(31:56):
my money to oh, I can just access this at home.
That is a differential experience that I think from US people,
and in general was a COVID thing too that people
learnt to watch at home in a different kind of way.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
But I also think going from like a six hour
theatrical commitment to like a sixteen to eighteen hour multiple
TV series a movie.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Yeah commitment.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
Ye, Like it's a lot, and especially if it's not
of quality consistently to bring people back in. I wouldn't
end this conversation if we can on this really interesting idea.
Here's the thing that like, if you're a girl who's
been into comic books, especially like comic TV and stuff
for a long time, like you understand pretty inherently, like
the studios don't really see you just frustrating. The male
(32:41):
thirteen to twenty eight demographic is a really specific one.
They go after to the fact that it killed teen
titans the first time around. They're like, well, boys, and yeah,
your numbers are crazy good and girls are obsessed and
you're not making them like the dolls or action figures
are closed to go along with it, so you don't
see your return on merch. You know in a Variety
article by Matt Donnelly, he's talking about you know, this
(33:04):
new push from Disney Rosie recording it earlier and saying,
you know, they're looking at original I peek content, anything
to do to get these guys back. It's so interesting
to me that it's still we have to get them back,
as opposed to how do we appeal to the base
Who's that's here?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Also like who's who stayed around? And yeah, who's stayed
around and who should be rewarded for that? I wonder
It's an interesting conversation for sure. Yeah, and I'm sure
we're going to keep having it throughout this year and beyond.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Well, thank you Joelle for joining us.
Speaker 8 (33:38):
Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back with
Peacemakers too.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
And we're back. We'd like to welcome in super producer
Ian to the program. Ian, how are you.
Speaker 7 (34:05):
I'm great, Ready to talk Peacemaker.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
Let's talk about it. So we're just a small note
that we are hoping to get Peacemaker screeners soon, which
would allow us to get ahead of the cycle and
dedicate a full episode to Peacemaker, which we are watching
and which is really fun and let's get into it. Okay, So,
(34:28):
first of all, the retcon happens immediately on the previously
on montage that tells you about everything that happened last season,
where they replace the Justice League of Snider era with
the Justice Gang of the Current Universe era Smart Choice
(34:48):
a gun and Saffron Era, and everything kind of goes
from there. This is a story in which we pick
up our characters in the wake of the reveals of
Task Force X and the fallout from that. Peacemaker is
just kind of scuffling along hoping to join the Justice Gang.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
He We see him go into the inter dimensional hideout
that his dad had, and we learned a very important thing,
which is it's not just like a large space, it's
a crossroads of dimensions with I think it's ninety nine different.
I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Yeah, I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
It wouldn't be infinite, but that's fine.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Yeah, and it kind of is also interestingly used as
like a galactic storage unit or something different.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
Yeah, there's aliens in the area.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
So he goes down there and eagerly because he's like,
it's too cold to go out to let you fly around.
So let's fly around in the interdimensional hideout and eagerly
become fixated on this one door, scratching on it, scratching
on him. Chris notices that there are Peacemaker helmets outside
this store, but he doesn't go in, and so he
(36:11):
goes in the code apparently is the same as the
code that he uses to enter, and he finds this
beautiful interior of a home. It is his family home.
He sees that in this dimension, he his dad, White Dragon,
and his brother who is alive in this dimension. Captain
(36:31):
Triumph are apparently the top superhuman team in this universe,
topping the Justice Gang and everybody else.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Also incredibly hilarious that James Gunn cost his own ex
wife's tv X as his wife. He was James Gunn
was married to Pam from the Office, obviously the guy
who plays this in Triumph, And they even do a
fun little gag of it where they ask him how
he's going with his wife and she's like, oh, he's
with that jag Off in the office, so they know how.
(37:04):
I thought that was really fun. I think James Gunn
has a lot of fun with understanding the metatextual nature
of like celebrity and what we know about people who
are in TV shows and how that kind of ties
in with superheroes. I thought it was a fun note
and I.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Thought the redcns were were just they Well, it was
a super easy, efficient way to handle it.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Again, God showing off how to do it. You just
act like it doesn't matter and it won't mad to
the audience.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Months later, Atabio picks up Peacemaker on to take him
to this Justice Gang tryout, and we learned a bunch
of stuff about different people. Abido has broken up with
her partner. She is now an independent security consultant. She
has business cards and everything. It's not clear that that's
actually generating any income, and apparently Hardcourt and Peacemaker are
(38:00):
just on the skids at a Bio two. She's like
not speaking to at a Bio because of all the
blowback from when they blew up Task Force Ex's spot
in front of the eyes of the World. So they
go to this the Crank Toy store in the strip mall,
which is a wonderful reference to the second Batman the
animated series.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Right, very very fun stuff.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
And it's Maxwell Lord Hawk curling guy behind the window
and their microphone doesn't work is the gag, and so
they're the off switch doesn't work. So they're roasting Chris
all the time and he can hear everything they're saying,
and it gets it kind of lays out very smartly.
I think what the thesis of this season is going
(38:46):
to be and is can Chris deal with his like trauma,
can deal with his anger? Can he stop murdering people?
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Can you realize that that's not the best way to
live life like? And I think as well, again James
gun hit showing his kind of showing his power play
that look I can just casually put to people who
were just in a five hundred million dollar movie in
this TV show, you know, That's how it makes it look.
When girl and Guy godden a show up.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
He also really smartly and we have been wondering, like, Okay,
how's Peacemaker going to integrate with the gun Saffra Dceu
And I think part of it is the part of
this conversation where Maxwell basically says, listen, I'm asking you
about about your your murders. Because we're living in a
(39:35):
world in which as meta humans become more front facing
in society, people are beginning to get anxious, fearful, and
distrustful about them, and that is going to cause all
sorts of political problems. So we don't want that to happen.
And that's clearly going to be one of the overarching
themes of the.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
Movies as well. Well. I think, sorry, what a smart
way like separate out your your adult like more mature
viewing stuff and your kids stuff.
Speaker 7 (40:06):
Yeah, yeah, And I mean I'm sure we're going to
get into this a little bit further after the recap,
but I think it's a great way. I think, you know,
a lot of questions people had is how is it
going to coexist with the family friendly Superman and then
you have this very adult, you know, dark show. You know,
there's an orgy scene in the middle of the episode.
But I think there's a way to make it work
(40:27):
with these tonal differences, because you know, I think you
have the characters kind of exist in their separate corners
of the same universe that reflect you know, those characters.
So you have a bright and hopeful Superman in this beautiful,
sunny metropolis, but you still have space for this gross,
hyper violent, sexual peacemaker corner. But then that also leaves
space to have like a dark, brooding Superman or excuse me,
(40:50):
Batman and Gotham, Yes, and those can.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
All those can.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
We get the Arkham references so we know that they're
teasing it, and then they talk about the breakouts they've had.
I think you're really onto something the Ian because also,
as you were saying that, this sounds so silly, and
I know an exec could probably be like get her
out of the room, But isn't that just real life? Like,
so we have to work out how to segment those
things away from each other. Not everything is a four
quadrant story or experience. And I think exactly that it's
(41:18):
very interesting that they kind of established that as a
kind of a friction that's going to be going forward
again meta textual understanding the conversations we're having and saying, well, ha,
here's how we're going to deal with.
Speaker 7 (41:32):
It exactly, And I think that just makes for a
more interesting story moving forward. You know, I want to
see a brooding, like moody Batman next to David corn
Sweat and like, what is what is an interaction between
you know, like if we ever get there, like a
plastic man and a peacemaker going to be or something
like that. You know, I think that would be really interesting,
you know, exactly.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yeah, I mean to the to the questions about tonal differences.
I mean, if they've already he's kind of already just
sleeping over that. That obstacle by having three members of
the Justice Gang in this show that as you mentioned,
Ian has a extended orgy scene, which we're about to
get to. We learned that Harcourt can't get a job
(42:14):
in intelligence because she's essentially being blackballed from the industry,
probably at the behest of Amanda Medler, who has an
ax to grind, she runs into Peacemaker. We learned that
there might have been a couple of dates or one
date or something. There's like a Japonian space something that happened,
(42:37):
probably on a boat. Chris obviously is feeling it a
lot more than Harcourt is feeling it, and says in
no uncertain terms that that's never going to happen again.
Chris goes home self, medicates with drugs, and somehow populates
his house with like literally thirty people. It looked like
(42:57):
Project X, but like Project Triple X.
Speaker 7 (43:03):
I also love how everybody is naked, fucking all over
the house. He's fully clothed, just like sitting.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
He just wants it around him.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
He's like, Okay, let's see how I feel.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
But even but even the drugs and kopious sex really
can't can't brighten the darkness. That is, you can't numb
the pain. We learned that outside. John Economis is keeping
tabs on peacemaker and still the test, still working for Argus,
(43:34):
which is hilarious. Actually at the behest of Rick Flagg Senior,
he's doing this, he gets a call from Adrian Lana.
Adrian's just working, like I think it was a pizza
place or was it a pizza place.
Speaker 7 (43:47):
It's an Italian restaurant.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
Italian. Yeah, so vigilante is just working a regular job.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Economists gets an alert that there's something interdimensional, something space
going on in that house. So he runs over. He
sees the orgy, but he also sees Chris standing in
front of what he will later term as a magic
tunnel and sees Chris go into it, and you know, like,
(44:17):
what do we do? The glitches happened again. They get
the alert all the way back at Belle Reeve at
Argus headquarters, Flag calls economists, they talk about the orgy,
and basically Rick Flagg Senior puts the pressure on economists
to like find out what's going on. We're at argust
(44:38):
Priority one alert, and we learned that that means possible
either alien invasion or imminent dimensional rift, which since the
events of Superman are going to be a thing that
the government is super secret on alert about.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
And this looks very similar to what we saw all
the kind of.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
It's an actae two dimensional crossroads, like it's gonna because I.
Speaker 7 (45:05):
Got the impression that after watching this and then thinking
back on Superman, what the like qu see, I believe
is what it's called the quantum unfolding chamber that you know,
Chris has access to in this house. What Lex built
was like kind of a janky like bootleg version he
just like figured out on his own.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
You know, that's so funny, and listen to an extent,
Argus is right, we've seen aliens.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
Walking around down there actually just casually.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
We don't know where all the doors go. So Chris,
in his depression, unable to numb the pain, goes to
that door, goes inside and finds himself in his family
mansion in a different dimension. It's beautiful palatial grounds. Then
(45:53):
a car pulls up and it's his alive brother alive
in this world, Keith aka Roy from the office aka uh.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Triumph.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
And then all of a sudden, Dad aka White Dragon
comes out and he's like, oh my god, the boys
are read together. Let's celebrate. They share a bottle whiskey.
They're talking about and I think this is very clearly
an Easter egg to set up stuff. They talk about
a battle that Dad had previously with interdimensional imps that
had come out of I guess this dimensional crossroads, and
(46:26):
that they were then chased back into there.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
Folks remember who sore an interdimensional imp and wasn't worried
about it during his titular movie Dedea it was Superman.
He was actually so unworried about it that he was
able to make out with Lois Lane. Also imps in
the DC universe. Why are immediately thinking of Batman all
these kind of fun things. I thought this was such
a good little tease for the future of.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
This Seacon thought it was so great and it's I
feel like, whatever happens at the end of the season,
it's gonna be about an invasion through this interdimension a crossroads.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Also, let's think about it, interdimensional crossroads, potential multiverse situations.
We saw a version of Superman, a clone of Superman
thrown into an interdimensional black hole at the end, and
a lot of people were thinking, Okay, bizarro criminal, you know,
do a little bit of a crime syndicate situation here.
We could definitely see something like that. So I think
(47:24):
this is really exciting.
Speaker 1 (47:25):
Okay, So one thing leads to another and Chris gets
confronted by the that world's version of himself and accidentally
kills that World's peacemaker Ian. What did you think of
this of this first episode Sea two.
Speaker 7 (47:46):
I really liked season one, so I was excited coming
into season two, and then knowing that it was going
to connect pretty heavily to Superman, it got me even
more excited. I thought it was a great intro episode.
I think the way they wreckon the ending of season
one was really smart way to do it. As you
guys mentioned, you know, just like this is the change
that's happened. Let's let's let's keep going, you know, let's
(48:09):
not dwell on it too much. And I think James
Gunn could have taken a Lazier easy way out and
been like, oh, actually everything from season one was in
a different dimension or we're following a different Peacemaker this season.
But no, it's just like they just changed it. We're
moving forward. And I think it's smart because it also
doesn't undo all of the great character development and character
moments from the first season, and I think keeping those
(48:32):
relationships intact was was really smart. I think the other
little connections throughout the rest of the DCU, like just
ties ties into Creature Commandos as well, you know, like
Task Force M was a direct response to the events
of season one and Piece Maker when Task Force X
got exposed. Rick Flagg Senior was introduced in that show
(48:54):
clearly going to play a very large role in this season.
He has a vendetta against Chris Fermer, his son, which
theory I've seen floating around. You know, we learn in
the the alternate dimension that Chris was dating Hardcourt at
one point and as they're currently maybe split up and
she's dating the jar Head right now, which what if
(49:16):
that's Rick Flagg Junior in dimension? You know that crazy?
Speaker 2 (49:24):
I would love that so much because I think one
of my biggest issues with Peacemaker season one was just
simply that I loved the Suicide Squad so much, and
I felt like Peacemaker was following a character I wouldn't
have chosen to follow from that film. But I ended
up really enjoying the first season. But this, I think
this episode hooked me in way more and I'm so
(49:45):
excited to see Frank Rio.
Speaker 1 (49:46):
As completely glad. I completely agree. I was basically left
feeling like James James Gun's got it. I mean, in retrospect,
season one of Peacemaker was kind of like him planting
a flag about Okay, here's where all this stuff could go.
Here's like a someone, Here's what I would do, Here's
(50:09):
how it could happen. But of course, like you know,
the flashes in it and like all the Zack Snyder
people because just in case and the confidence with which
he has moved past that to just do what he's
gonna do is uh is notable. And I was im like,
I loved season one. I thought this episode started off
(50:33):
immediately like on a higher life than any episode from season.
Speaker 7 (50:39):
Yeah, except for that intro.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
Yes, the intro, Daunce. I am happy because Frank Grio
is doing it, and I just feel like that's.
Speaker 7 (50:51):
To get the new actors in there. But the song
from the first season just so much cool.
Speaker 2 (50:56):
Okay, so aboo. Super producer put a great question in
the quit today, which is, I had no interest in
watching Peacemaker, but after watching Superman now I feel I
should question Mark, how would you Ian? How would you
answer that?
Speaker 7 (51:12):
I would say yes, just because I feel like the
of the connections it has to the movie and all
the characters that are reoccurring feel organic. It feels natural,
it doesn't feel shoehorned in. And then I really do
think the quc in this pocket dimension that technology is
going to play a big part in continuing to build
(51:33):
out the world and moving forward with whatever the ultimate
plan is for the whole franchise. I think that's going
to play a big part. So I think we're going
to get a really good understanding of that technology, how
it works, and the implications of it throughout this season. Also,
there are rumors that there are some really big cameos
coming later at the end of the season, to the
point where they haven't even released screeners for those final
(51:54):
few episodes, so I'm wondering, like, could we maybe see
one of the green Lanterns for the upcoming Lantern series
or something like that. You know is in one of
the ending episodes, so we'll see that.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
Great, Yeah, exciting stuff. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:11):
I any quick predictions for the rest of the season
of Peacemakers.
Speaker 2 (52:17):
I think Ian you touched on something that really works,
which is the idea of one of the green lanterns.
How Jordan or John Stewart showing up. I think that
that is the easiest connect because it's going to be
an HBO show. Also, I think that them showing up
and essentially being like, why the fuck are you listening
to Guy Gardiner because we know that he's going to
(52:40):
be in that show too. We've seen him in Superman.
It seems like an easy crossover here. I would love
to see a little bit more hawk Girl, obviously, I
would love I would really love to see Corn Sweat
and his hope fil amazing. Superman kind of have to
rub up against this real a different tone, this different.
Speaker 1 (53:04):
Yeah amazing.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
I think eventually as well, because Peacemaker could press some
buttons for him that would not make that very supermanly,
I believe.
Speaker 1 (53:14):
I mean, they both have interesting I think there's a
world to to to expound on that. I think that
there's a world in which Peacemaker could say, Hey, my
childhood is what you would have had if Jorrell, like
your dad was still around. Oh man, that's what they wanted.
That's what they wanted you to be.
Speaker 2 (53:31):
That's what they wanted him to be. I love Oh,
I got goosebumps, Jason. That was really Yeah. I would
love to see that. Also, just want to shout out
John Cena. This man. If you didn't know he had
the juice already, the faces he makes and the the Kyrie.
Speaker 7 (53:50):
Moments to me, the interview with the Justice Gang when
they're just ripping him apart and you can see how
and he's like and the faces he's making are just
so sad and heartbreaking because he really thought this was
going to be his big break and they think he's
an asshole and an idiot. And then the scene after
he's talking with his dad and his brother and they
(54:11):
go to bed, he just breaks down crying because he's like,
this is a life that I could have had. This
is a family relationship that I wanted. Like heartbreaking, amazing acting.
John scene is cooking.
Speaker 2 (54:22):
You know. I think there's a little thing that he
did in that scene too, where it's like his sadness
is also knowing who his dad really is. Now, like
that would have been fake anyway. You can't have a family,
a great family life like that when your dad is
a member of the Ku Kok Klan and like a
white supremacist murderer. Like it just doesn't work. And I
think he John Cena has the chops to make that
(54:45):
feel like so layered when he cries.
Speaker 1 (54:47):
Two quick predictions. Yeah, Chris is gonna want to replace
Peacemaker for sure from that world. He's going to try
and do it, and ultimately is not going to do it.
He's going to be Rick Flegg Senior is going to
have to try and obviously stop him. But and here's
the rub Rick Flagg Senior is gonna think I can
(55:11):
have my son back exactly.
Speaker 2 (55:13):
Yeah, I think you're right.
Speaker 1 (55:15):
And I like, there's no reason why the Rick Flegg
Senior and Argus of that world wouldn't also be interested
in interdimensional stuff. And there's a confrontational and I think
we're gonna end with them shutting all of that shit
down in a way that's probably destructive.
Speaker 2 (55:30):
Also, I just have to say I will if they
get Joel Kineman back as Rick Flagg Junior in this,
a character I never cared about till I watch those
movies like I Will Die. That will be the cameo
that they bury me under, and I will be like, yes, please,
I'm in because that will be so well done. And
I think you guys have touched on something. I never
(55:50):
even considered that kind of crossover of the two worlds,
but I think that's what we're going to see now.
You guys have sold me.
Speaker 1 (55:58):
Let's welcome back our supers, Carmen and Joelle to join Ian,
Rosie and myself to talk about just the stuff that
we're going to be imbibing for this weekend. Our recommendations, Joelle,
let's start with you, y'all. RF Quong is back. Yeah,
I haven't read her boed air.
Speaker 3 (56:19):
Consistence Babbel is a fundamentally life changing read.
Speaker 7 (56:23):
For me.
Speaker 3 (56:23):
I'm not a person who deals well with their anger.
That book will help you tap into it in a
really serious way, and I'll do it in a dark,
academic setting.
Speaker 1 (56:32):
What a treat.
Speaker 3 (56:33):
She then had Yellow Face, which was a searing exploration
into both public the publication world, and folks who try
to profit off of races that are not their own.
Speaker 1 (56:45):
It is a fabulous book.
Speaker 3 (56:47):
Every time she like picks up her pen, she's reinventing
the like her own wheels. She's never kind of attacking
the same time period or structure. And I'm so excited
that she's diving into fantasy. She's giving us a with
Katabassies her new book, which just came out. I downloaded
it this morning and I cannot wait to start. But
it's another dark academic dive. This time it is inspired
(57:07):
by her own romance with her husband, which I think
is beautiful and lovely and I just can't wait to
get into it. And if you're reading it, please hit
me up on the discord so we can chat about my.
Speaker 2 (57:16):
Favorite I too will be reading it, Carmen, what about you.
Speaker 5 (57:21):
I've got a music thing going on this weekend. I
have a friend flying in from Denver to go see
Ethel Caine in concert with me to tomorrow this weekend.
It's going to be a whole weekend thing. We're turning
it into a whole party. So I say check out.
Will we tuck her? I will always love you. Great album.
Listen to Preacher's Daughter if you haven't. Yeah, I'm just
(57:44):
really excited to see her this week my third time
seeing her live, so really excited.
Speaker 1 (57:49):
Nice Ian, what about you?
Speaker 7 (57:51):
This weekend? Big WWE pay per view clash in Paris.
Speaking of John Cena, he's headlighting up against Logan now yeah,
actually no, the heel run is over. He's a face again.
Speaker 2 (58:04):
I was gonna say, God, I was gonna say him
being a heel against Logan. I was like, I feel
like Logan's definitely the heel in that situation. Okay, he's
a good boy.
Speaker 7 (58:15):
So yeah, big ww weekend. Looking forward to at ten
am on Saturday.
Speaker 2 (58:19):
Baby Jason, what about you?
Speaker 1 (58:22):
I am going to be playing Hell Everage two an Xbox.
Now that it's on Xbox. I got in a little bit,
you know, I want to see what all the fuss
is about. I did play it a little bit on PlayStation.
But I'm excited because most of my extensive video game
collaborator network exists on the Xbox and I'm just excited
(58:44):
to cut it up with some old pals. Rosie, what
about you?
Speaker 2 (58:47):
Mine is also a video game. I have got switched
to guys and the cozy gaming queens have told me
don't worry about the reviews of Tels of the Shayak.
Speaker 5 (58:59):
Just go.
Speaker 2 (59:00):
If you like to have a thousand different ways to
customize your character and you want to just make friends
with people by cooking them a group meal, then you
will love this game. And guess what. I played it
for like two hours last night, and it's so good.
And for some reason, every single time your hobbit's just
standing around, they're just serving outrageous like sassy looks. So
(59:21):
it's also hilarious. But yeah, very cozy, very fun. I
think cozy gamers are not going to be surprised by
the sort of glitches and issues that maybe a game
like this has. But I think if you love cozy gaming,
you're already playing stuff like Animal Crossing, Wildflowers, you know,
all of those good games at Stardu Valley. This is
(59:42):
very much that, but set in a hobbit world, and
I am loving it. So I'm appreciating the cozy gamer
community for encouraging me to step out. And it looks
beautiful on a switch too, so I'll be playing that
all we can. Baby, I'm going to be playing it
on my switch. One. Hey, someone's in commons, Well that's it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
For this episode the premiere episode of Extra GC. Thanks
for listening. We'll be back tomorrow with the biggest news
of the week. Woo bye x ray Vision is hosted
by Jason Sepsion and Rosie Knight and is a production
of iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
Our supervising producer is Abuza par.
Speaker 2 (01:00:29):
Our producers are Common Laurent Dean Jonathan and Bai wag.
Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
Our theme song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme
songs by Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and Heidi.
Our disc called Moderator
Hosts And Creators
Jason Concepcion
Rosie Knight
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