April 16, 2024 • 47 mins
https://letterboxd.com/needsintro/
mailto:needssomeintroduction@gmail.com
These titles aim to reflect the podcast's focus on science fiction adaptations, post-apocalyptic themes, and the examination of how video games like Fallout translate into television and other media forms, as well as discussions on other sci-fi series and movies.
In this episode of 'Need Some Introduction', host Victor discusses several post-apocalyptic science fiction adaptations, focusing primarily on the Fallout video game adaptation on Amazon Prime, and also touching on 'Three Body Problem' on Netflix and 'Invincible' on Amazon Prime. While providing a spoiler-free overview, Victor delves into full spoilers for Fallout, offers insights into the complexities of adapting dystopian tales, and reviews other related content. Additionally, Victor revisits topics from previous episodes, shares viewer feedback, and previews upcoming content including a review of Guy Ritchie's film 'The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare' and a season-long recap of the 'Shogun' series. The episode also features recommendations for related sci-fi materials and upcoming series, while engaging with the audience for feedback and discussions on future content.
00:00 Introduction to the Episode: Fallout and More
00:46 Circling Back: Updates and Recommendations
02:11 Upcoming Reviews and Series Coverage
05:12 Box Office Discussions and Industry Insights
13:38 Deep Dive into Invincible Season Two
21:42 Reflecting on Season Finales and Adaptation Challenges
21:50 The Three Body Problem: A Netflix Adaptation Review
25:08 Adapting Game of Thrones: A Comparative Analysis
29:41 Exploring Other Sci-Fi and Post-Apocalyptic Recommendations
33:19 Deep Dive into Fallout: The Video Game Adaptation
41:44 Spoiler-Free Review and Recommendations
42:08 Unpacking Fallout: Spoilers and Analysis
47:11 Final Thoughts and Upcoming Content
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Victor (00:00):
Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Need Some Introduction.
(00:03):
I'm your host, Victor, and in today'sepisode, primarily, I will be discussing
the recently available Fallout videogame adaptation on Amazon Prime.
But also, I'll be discussing acouple of other post apocalyptic
science fiction adaptations,Three Body Problem on Netflix, and
Invincible also on Amazon Prime.
(00:24):
which just wrapped up its secondseason about a week or two ago
now, and discussing the potential, complexities of these dystopian
science fiction adaptations.
Most of this will be spoiler free.
For Fallout, I will have full spoilers.
I will warn you when I get into thespoiler section of the Fallout review
in case you are watching along or ifyou have not finished the series yet.
(00:46):
Before all of that, I'd like tocircle back on a bunch of topics
that I've been meaning to getback to based on recent episodes.
First of all, check the show notes.
I'll have a lot of recommendationshere for other post apocalyptic
and other science fiction materialyou may want to check out.
I'll have links to them in the shownotes primarily via my letterboxd
(01:06):
I'll probably create a list.
I'll include it there.
So follow me on Letterboxd so youcan get some of these lists and other
reviews and other supporting materialfor expansions of reviews and lists
that I create here on the podcast.
Your feedback also is always appreciated.
Please reach out to us at needsome introduction at gmail.
com.
Also, I had a little survey via emailswith you who do reach out to us via email.
(01:30):
I just had a question, which ofcourse you can all participate in if
you have any opinion on what you arelooking forward to seeing in the next
few months or in the season upcoming.
And to a person, practically, the responsewas House of the Dragon, which we will
definitely be discussing here on the show.
By the way, did cover House of the Dragon,the first season here on the podcast.
(01:51):
So if you are a new listener, dotrack those down if you're curious or
just want to remember what happenedin that first season of the show.
And if there are other releases, moviesas well, by the way, that you are
interested in seeing, please do reachout to us, needsomeintroduction at gmail.
com.
With that feedback.
It helps me make a schedule ofmaterial here for the podcast.
(02:11):
Until then, what is upcomingin the near future on the show?
First of all, Guy Ritchie's newfilm is coming out this Friday, The
Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
And I will be reviewing that, whichhonestly I think is going to be
pretty inconsequential even in hisfilmography, but I am curious to see it.
He is on a little bit of a hot streak andI am pretty unapologetically a Guy Ritchie
(02:34):
fan, but also taking the opportunityto discuss the very successful.
The Gentleman series on Netflix.
So that episode should be outbefore the weekend or over the
weekend discussing that film.
And of course the gentlemanNetflix series as well.
And along with that, aretrospective of Richie's career.
a very interesting, if uneven, career.
(02:55):
And currently, I am in the midst ofputting together a very long, season
long recap of the Shogun series, theincredibly successful and incredibly
impressive Shogun series, which justdropped episode 9, one episode to
go at this point, just dropped thatepisode today as I'm recording this.
(03:15):
I have not had a chance tosee it, it just dropped this
morning, but I will definitely bewatching that in the near future.
We'll be adding it to my seasonlong recap and I'll be capping
that off in the same episode.
A live watch of the episode,commenting on it as I go through it.
Something I've done in the past with otherseason and series finales, most notably
(03:35):
the Succession series finale, which wasvery popular for us here on the podcast.
So stay tuned for all of that.
I'm pretty certain it willbe as impressive as the
rest of the season has been.
If you are behind on that, do catch up.
It is definitely going to beone of the series of the year.
And once Shogun wraps up next week, Iwill begin coverage of the HBO series
(03:56):
The Sympathizer, which is produced by andprominently features Robert Downey Jr.
and based on the Pulitzer Prize winningnovel, a novel that I am starting to read.
I think I'm reading it in tandem with the.
adaptation.
, if you listen to this podcastregularly, you know that I'm always
interested in adaptation of these works.
And over the course of that coverage ofthat series, also discussing the works
(04:17):
of the director Park Chan wook, who notonly directs most of these episodes,
but is also a producer on the series.
So some things you may want to add toyour watch list, the Gentleman's Series
on Netflix, which we'll be discussinglater this week, along with that new
Guy Ritchie film, The The Sympathizerepisode one is currently available on
HBO Max, and we'll be covering thatbeginning next week or late next week.
(04:40):
And of course, catch up on Shogun, episodenine out today if you weren't aware.
And if you haven't sampled that yet,Really, it's as satisfying as it gets
and considering everybody's lookingforward to House of the Dragon.
If you want this palace intrigueseries, this is the most satisfying
thing on the air right now.
And as a matter of fact, you may verywell watch that series and think, Oh,
(05:01):
this reminds me of Game of Thrones.
And of course it was aninspiration to George R.
R.
Martin's series of books.
So no coincidence there as well.
So check that out.
Okay, next up, I have a fewfollow ups on recent episodes.
Number one, I mentioned I wasgoing to have a box office
(05:21):
discussion on the current year.
And as I had mentioned andpredicted on that civil war.
review episode last week.
Civil War did indeed open atnumber one at the box office.
And not only did it open number one,it's actually A24's largest opening
weekend ever with over 25 million.
This is a 50 million production for A24.
(05:44):
So they needed this thing to make at least100 million worldwide, probably hoping
for something closer to 150 million.
However, this is an aggressive moveby A24 to move beyond their low budget
horror movies and genre films thatthey've been making up until this
point very successfully, by the way.
I mean, as a matter of fact, they won mostof the Academy Awards just two years ago
with Everything Everywhere All at Once.
(06:05):
And then The Whale, a film I do notlike, by the way, but does feature
a strong central performance winningbest actor for Brendan Fraser.
They basically swept allthe top prizes that year.
So A24 has been doing extremely well.
They've also had some very successfulTV productions, and this is a move to
appeal to larger budgets and bigger stars.
(06:26):
And it's seems to be paying off for them.
And also, as I predicted there,the film is very contentious.
There is a lot of chatter on the internetas to what the goal of the film is.
And A24 has kind of made a brandof being able to turn controversial
and even divisive word ofmouth into box office success.
(06:46):
So this probably is all working for them.
And I am curious to seewhat happens next week.
Does the divisive word of mouth leadto a big drop in box office ? Or
does it become a conversation point?
Therefore it becomes somethingthat everybody has to watch to
be part of the conversation.
TBD.
If you have watched it, do check out mycoverage of it in the previous episode.
Meanwhile, Godzilla vs.
(07:07):
Kong, or Godzilla X Kong.
This is crazy, by the way, that thefilmmaker says you're supposed to ignore
the X, then why is it in the title?
I don't know.
Anyway, the sequel to Godzilla vs.
Kong, which is called Godzilla XKong The New Empire, meanwhile,
has made over 400 million worldwideand continues to perform well.
It's number two at thebox office currently.
And this is actually interestingbecause, like Dune, And it was part
(07:30):
of this HBO Max, or now just Max,push by Warner Brothers, which led
to Christopher Nolan, who , had donealmost all his films through Warner
Brothers and been very successful withthe Dark Knight series there, obviously.
He actually abandoned Warner Brotherswhen he took Oppenheimer to Universal.
And then of course, thumb in the eye,they put Oppenheimer directly against
(07:51):
Barbie, which was Warner Brothersbig film last summer, and they both
won, which I don't, I think this wasintentionally supposed to hurt one
film or the other, and ironically, itturned into a huge success for both.
The Barbie film ended up makingaround one and a half billion
dollars, and Oppenheimer lost interms of total box office where
it's just under a billion dollars.
(08:12):
But for a film that is mostly peopletalking, a billion dollar box office
is extraordinary, truly extraordinary.
And of course then goes andwins the best picture as well.
So Nolan made out, Warner Brothersmade out, the controversy all
worked out for both of them.
But I bring all this up because Nolanactually abandoned ship from Warner
Brothers, so upset with the fact thatWarner Brothers was premiering their
(08:32):
movies day and date in theaters andon HBO Max at the exact same time.
And I was honestly a little surprised.
I thought this would completelycannibalize the box office of the
films, but then Dune came out andstill made over 100 million in the U.
S.
The Godzilla vs.
Kong film, the first one, also madeover a hundred million dollars.
(08:54):
And even better, overseas in both cases.
So I was very much of the opinionA, that they performed better than
I expected, considering peoplecould just stay home and watch them.
I had watched the first Dunemovie at home, by the way.
Did not go to the theatersduring the pandemic.
It's available to me day and date at home.
I'm gonna watch it.
And, , Even if I like it, I'mprobably not going to run out
to see it in the theaters.
(09:14):
So I was very much on board with a lot ofthis criticism that Warner Brothers had.
turned prestige film going,or at least spectacle into
something you just watch at home.
And this was what Nolanwas complaining about also.
So I bring all that up to say that thetwo biggest films of this year are the
Dune sequel and this Godzilla Kong film.
(09:34):
So Warner Brothers actually did anincredible job of making this film.
being able to launch Max.
In retrospect, this was a huge success.
They were able to putmovies into movie theaters.
People who were willing to goout saw the movie theaters.
The people who did notwatched them at home.
And rather than dampening interestin the follow up, when they put
them exclusively in theaters,people went back to the theater.
(09:56):
So I did not predict this.
I actually thought this would be anegative outcome from Warner Brothers,
but I was wrong in this regard.
And, uh, Warner Brothershas done a pretty.
great job of threading that needle.
, and just to close the loop onthat, once again, Godzilla is
probably going to end up with atleast 500 million, probably more.
Meanwhile, the Dune film is approaching700 million and is still chugging
(10:18):
along, especially internationally.
Could hit 730, 740 worldwide,which is very successful.
Another film that came out during thepandemic was the Ghostbusters reboot,
Afterlife, which we discussed hereon the podcast , just last month.
And of course, since that conversation,Frozen Empire has come out in theaters.
I actually watched it.
It was mildly entertaining.
(10:39):
I think if you're a hardcoreGhostbusters fan, you're
probably going to enjoy the film.
If you liked Afterlife, you'reprobably going to enjoy this film.
But I don't know what kindof legs this franchise has.
This film may just make itto 200 million worldwide.
Did not see an uptick post pandemic,, that we saw for those other films
I just mentioned previously.
This one looks like it's going tounderperform versus the previous film.
(11:02):
So is there enough juice forthis series to continue?
I don't think so, honestly.
And I go back to all the way back toGhostbusters 2 and the question as to
does this franchise need to be turnedinto an extended universe at all?
And yet they keep trying to becausethere is something compelling about
that first film, the nostalgia for it.
(11:24):
But I think another reason isbecause the video games, the
animated series from years ago.
The side properties doseem to have a following.
So there seems to be this questionas to whether they can build this
back up into a full franchise.
But I think the feature films havealways said no, other than the first
(11:44):
one, there's really not enough thereto keep this franchise going, but they
may very well reboot the whole thingagain in five years and try again.
The last follow up topic I wantedto mention here was the Roadhouse
episode, at the time, I was thinking tomyself, well, why are they doing this?
Why are they calling it Roadhouse?
There was some pretty contentiousinternet conversation, people who
(12:05):
were fans of the first film, as if itwas some kind of untouchable classic,
which I honestly don't understand that.
I think the charm of that firstfilm is that it almost accidentally
is an entertaining film.
So the idea that people were thinkingthis was some kind of Religious
text was very strange to me.
Regardless of that, I did have this openquestion as why antagonize the fans?
Why call this thing Roadhouse?
(12:27):
You know, the fans that are going to likeit are probably not even aware of the
first film, the fans that are not goingto like it are going to come after you.
And I had mentioned, hey, if you just say,hey, Jake Gyllenhaal's gonna be jacked
and he's going to be making a winking,somewhat campy, charisma based punch
out film in the style of the originalRoadhouse film, that would be a pretty
(12:52):
attractive pitch to a lot of people.
And I had a question in thepodcast itself, like, why,
why are they doing this?
Why would they do it this way?
A film that I found entertaining,for the most part, by the way.
And I asked that question to myselfand thought, well, is it just
because, Hey, you know, even if peoplecomplain, just the name, the roadhouse
name will just attract some people.
. Maybe that'll juice the, the audience.
And it turns out that's exactly whatit was because that premiere on Amazon
(13:15):
prime was hugely popular , by far theirbiggest, uh, Movie premiere on that
service and it's as simple as thatIt's the name recognition for whatever
reason love it or hate it complainabout it or not We'll simply attract
an audience and that's in the endwhat they're trying to do So they know
better than me in this regard as well.
Okay before I get into thefallout review and commentary.
(13:38):
There are two more sciencefiction adaptations that recently
have been popular on streamingservices, that I wanted to discuss.
I'll start with my briefestcommentary around Invincible,
also available on Amazon Prime.
So if you are watching Fallout,do check out Invincible.
Invincible is based on a comic bookcreated by Robert Kirkman, who also is the
(14:00):
creator of the Walking Dead comic book.
And it is a satiric explorationof the mythology of a Justice
League type group of superheroes.
The main character in theseries is Mark Grayson, who also
is Invincible, the superheroInvincible, voiced by Steven Yeung.
And season one of thisseries is nearly perfect.
(14:20):
There's a maybe one or two episodesthat even they pay off in the long
run, although in the moment they seema little shaggy, but in general, a
very tight season one of that series.
And basically what we have is MarkGrayson, this teenager who's trying
to live up to his dad's standards.
His dad is basically Supermanin this universe of superheroes.
(14:42):
He is from an alien planet voiced by J.
K.
Simmons.
And the series explores this coming ofage, hormonal, pubescent metaphor, which
is very common in a lot of these comicbook adaptations, along with this dark
mythology around a super being, likea superhero, who doesn't age, who has
(15:03):
infinite power, living amongst humans.
And this father son dynamic is really,really powerful in that first season.
I mean, the payoff at the end ofthe season is really terrific stuff.
And minor spoilers onlyfor the first episode.
If you don't want to hearthis, skip ahead a few seconds.
At the very, very end of episodeone, only episode one of season
(15:24):
one, so I'm not spoiling much here.
After being introduced to thissuperhero character, this benevolent
force of good and infinite power andaspiration, he basically exterminates
the entire remaining Justice League.
And the rest of Season 1 isa mystery as to what is his
agenda and why has he done this.
And simultaneously, Invincible, whois attaining his powers, And, of
(15:48):
course, trying to live up to his dad'sexample, and then his dad's conflicted
feelings as he's trying to play bothroles, and the mystery unraveling, of
course, as to what's actually going on.
And it deals really intelligently, hasa lot of fun with this, there's a lot of
comedians who do the voice acting here.
It feels like a sitcom at times,like the goofy hijinks for these
(16:10):
second rate superheroes that have toreplace the exterminated superheroes.
Justice League., but simultaneouslydealing with these very deep issues of
this complex relationship between fatherand son, and then these questions of what
happens when you have absolute power,
and that basically all is in season one.
I won't tell you how it all wraps up.
Many twists and turns in that plot.
(16:31):
So do check that out.
If that sounds intriguing toyou, if you like the boys, for
example, definitely check this out.
I have burned out on theboys, to be honest with you.
This is a much better version to meof the boys is invincible itself.
So I prefer it . Also, if you wantto just throw this in as another
recommendation last year, we had GenV, which was a adjacent series to the
(16:51):
boys in the same universe of the boys.
And these characters are actuallygoing to be folded into the boys.
The Boys.
If you love The Boys, check that out.
Your mileage may vary.
I didn't really enjoythat series that much.
There was a tragic death.
One of the main cast members justdied recently in an, , motorcycle
accident, I believe, which has nowdelayed production of season two.
I mean, that's a tragedy, ofcourse, not a criticism of anything
(17:12):
other than that it is a delay onproduction for season two and how
they're going to handle that at all.
But for me, this season, the seriesitself was more of the same of the boys.
I was already kind ofburned out on the boys.
And to be honest, the way thatseason one wrapped up, it was
kind of just like, watch the boys.
I'm like, this is just a commercialfor the next season of the boys.
I, I just, it didn't.
(17:32):
It wasn't enough for me.
, if you love the boys and can't waitto see the next season, it might
whet your appetite a little bit.
For me, it just wasn't that intriguing.
I probably will watch season four ofthe boys this summer on Amazon prime.
It is on its way, I believe in Juneor July, yet another show that
I would draw your attention to.
If you like this kindof dystopian comic book.
or superhero dissections, theseexplorations of these character,
(17:56):
these mythological topics, with, ofcourse, a very dark sense of humor.
If you like all that, thencheck out Gen V as well.
However, for me, of all ofthese, Invincible is the best.
Season two of, , Invincible, actually,they dropped the first four episodes.
I know, I think Amazon was justtrying to keep their users engaged.
I think this was a mistake inhow they delivered the series.
(18:17):
They did four episodes backin November, I think it was.
And I didn't even mention it here on thepodcast, because as much as I loved season
one of Invincible, I thought the firsthalf of season two, so little happened.
It had three or four differentstorylines that all seemed like
they could support a full seasonof a show or more than a season.
(18:39):
And they would just hop aroundbetween these parallel stories.
And I thought there would besome kind of culmination point
in the first half of the season.
There was nothing there.
It was just basically themiddle of the season drop.
I don't think it wasdesigned to be a half season.
Once again, I think they justmade them available to keep
people on the hook, basically.
So I didn't even discuss it.
I was like, well, if there's anyrecommendation for anybody, wait
(19:01):
until the full season is available.
Well, now it is.
And just about a week ago, maybe a weekand a half at this point, the final
of the season two episodes premiered.
, it's a mixed bag for me.
I still recommend this very highly.
If you are a huge fan of Invincible,uh, if you, you're not a fan,
you're not going to be convertedby this second season of the show.
(19:21):
However, if you are a big fan of theshow, , this is more of the same.
It expands things.
So once again, no spoilers here, but.
Things are left in a very tenuousplace at the end of season one.
It does expand on that, but by definition,given that circumstance, some of the
most compelling aspects of the story arenot addressed for long periods of time.
(19:43):
There is a new bad guy who is only teasedthroughout the whole entire season.
season and then just shows up at theend and it's not a very satisfying
conclusion to him or his storyline.
And I have heard that this is verytrue to the comic book itself.
So it probably isn't a failure ofadaptation other than not improving
(20:04):
upon it in that season two for me justfelt like all set up for another season.
There still isn't at the end ofthat Uh, second season, not a lot of
culmination of a lot of these ideas thatare being addressed here some of the
main characters are most interestingcharacters from season one are just
teased here maybe in the first halfof season two and then have completely
(20:25):
disappeared from the second half.
So, maybe they should have brought ina little bit more for Season 3 to have
a more satisfying end point to things.
I still am very intrigued for how thisparticular storyline will wrap up in
the next set of episodes, which, whoknows, will probably be at least a
year before we see them, if not more.
So, a little disappointed in the amountof story that is covered here in Season 3.
(20:46):
Season two, a lot of digressions,even more so than season one,
where there's maybe like one or twoepisodes of Flab on this storyline.
There's probably, half the seasonis honestly a little bit of side
digressions that don't add too muchto the central themes of the series.
But all very watchable, all enjoyable.
The animation style is improvedbetween season one and season two.
(21:08):
The voice performances are terrific.
And there's some reallyknockout episodes here.
In an ideal world, in my ideal situation,we would have two or three fewer
episodes that, that we've seen here thatare honestly just digressions to me.
And maybe more of season three to have a,, more final end points to this storyline.
And then building to a season three.
(21:30):
Whereas here, I feel like we arealmost in the middle of a season here.
honestly, was like, Oh, isthe next episode available?
Oh, there must be another one next week.
Nope.
That's the season finale.
It was literally that feeling I had.
I'm like, what?
This is the finale.
Okay, fine.
So I did enjoyed what was there,but not quite an exclamation point
here at the end of the season.
(21:50):
All right.
One more adaptation and the complexitiesand failings I think of adaptations.
Another very popular, probablynot as popular as they hoped,
season of sci fi television.
Definitely something they hope toturn into multiple seasons once again.
And this, of course, is the adaptationof The Three Body Problem on Netflix.
(22:12):
And this was based on aChinese novel written in 2008.
by Liu Cixin.
I am almost certainly mispronouncing that.
Apologies.
And honestly, I have tried to readthis book and could not get into it.
It's, it's so dense.
I believe he was a scientist before he wasa writer and it shows he has these huge
digressions on scientific theory, but themain storyline is so difficult to follow.
(22:37):
But this is a very,very well regarded book.
novel, which has won science fictionnovel of the year awards and was
massively popular around the world.
And this was adapted, had been actuallyadapted as a Chinese series a few years
ago, but then Netflix announced that theywere going to make a Adaptation, for the
platform, adapted by David Benioff and D.
(23:00):
B.
Weiss, along with Aleksandr Wu.
Of course, Weiss and Benioff mostfamously adapted Game of Thrones for HBO.
And I have to tell you, thisseries didn't work for me.
I watched it all the way through.
Episode 5 has one of the most stunning andgrotesque action sequences of the year.
It will definitely bea conversation piece.
You definitely want to watch thatas long as you're not squeamish.
(23:22):
But the rest of the series had a lot ofthe same issues I had with the book, even
though I didn't complete that, obviously.
It raises all these really fascinatingquestions, and maybe unlike the book,
I should say here, whereas the bookhas these deep and long and, for me,
too jargony digressions into these deepphilosophical and scientific concepts.
(23:46):
raises some really fascinating questions,but then doesn't have any space to
explore them in any interesting way.
And the characters are so sketched out.
I just didn't feel like anyof them were real people.
So honestly, there was just enoughintrigue, enough of me questioning,
what is happening for me tofollow from episode to episode.
(24:08):
I got through it.
But I really didn't enjoy it.
And I honestly can't recommend it.
I can't recommend it as somethingto watch unless you are a
hardcore science fiction fan.
If you love the books and you wantto see some of this imagery brought
to screen, perhaps you'll enjoy this.
Uh, for me, it didn't really work, butit does make me think again about the
difficulties of adapting something.
(24:30):
Some of the decisions made herein adaptation are terrible.
Uh, interesting and maybe importantto Netflix, for example, making the
cast in the novel, Almost All ChineseScientists, into a international, uh,
group of character actors, most ofthem recognizable from other things.
, also taking one character, and who'shaving philosophical discussions and
(24:52):
instead breaking them up into multiplecharacters so that those characters can
have these philosophical disagreements,obviously makes sense given the
fact you can't be inside someone'shead like you can in a novel, that's
almost essential for an adaptation.
So those things are actuallysmart in the way they are handled.
But for these two, Creators tohave done such an excellent job.
(25:12):
I think in the early seasons I mean youcan definitely I have criticism of the
final season of game of thrones for sureBut until you get there those first
few seasons of that show , which i'vealso read the books that they correlate
to I feel like they captured the essenceof the book they skipped things that
worked in the book, but weren't essentialto the streamlining of the story.
(25:33):
They bring in the philosophicaldiscussion about the wielding of power
and develop these themes , reallywell and balance the spectacle with
the philosophy and meditative aspectsof the material in Game of Thrones.
And honestly, as they get pastmaybe the second book, when R.
R.
(25:53):
Martin's, uh, George R.
R.
Martin's book series becameoverly bloated and verbose.
, I felt their streamlining, for themost part, worked , really well.
But I am, it's a head scratcher for meas to how this adaptation was done here.
It seems like anything that is worthexploring in any kind of detail is
(26:13):
given a few minutes of high schoollevel of engagement in the topics.
And there are some really fascinatingideas about extraterrestrial life of
what happens when you know, unlike,let's say, climate change, which has some
nebulous date in the future where it canhave hugely negative impacts on society
(26:34):
and obviously how we look the other way.
What if there was a doomsday date set instone, but it was in the far off future?
How many people would decideto meet the challenge head on?
How many people would just closetheir eyes and say, well, is that
really going to impact me or my kids?
It's probably not goingto impact anyone that.
I know.
But then of course you think, well,but your grandkids, your great
(26:56):
grandkids, they'll have impacts.
And then how far is yourempathy going to extend.
So all the different ways that the societywould deal with an impending disaster,
which is still so far off in the future,is actually incredibly fascinating.
Maybe a starting point for atelevision series instead of something
(27:16):
that is introduced in the 11thhour here and not really explored.
When for me, it feels like thatis the most interesting idea
within in the entire series.
So very disappointed . The only bigidea that I really latched onto was
barely explored and delivered solate so yeah, your mileage is really
going to vary on this if you're notinto this kind of really dense sci fi.
(27:38):
For example, my sister tried to watchthis, Celia, who's been on a podcast
before, and she is very hit and misswith these things, and she hated it.
She couldn't get past episode one.
I did work my way through it.
There was enough there for me tobe slightly intrigued, but yeah,
even I can't really recommend thisby the time we get to the end.
A couple things to call out though.
I do want to mention that that onesequence, I don't want to spoil
(27:59):
it here, but it's in episode five.
Everyone will know it when you seeit, which is just one of the most
stunning things you'll see on TVand really just so grotesque I was
just like, wow, this is incredible.
I can't believe this.
I'm watching this rightnow and really surprising.
, I guess you're not surprised if youread the book, but I hadn't read it.
So I was not expecting itand it was pretty insane.
, so spoil yourself on that.
(28:20):
You can practically watchthat episode by itself.
And, pretty much pick up enough contextbased on the first half of that episode.
And then, of course, thepayoff there towards the end.
The second thing I find surprisingis, , just the fact that this is such a
huge hit in China and that this wasn'tbanned, , not to be too reductive about
things, but not banned by the government.
(28:41):
Chinese government in the fact thatthis film opens with one of the
main protagonists, , father, who'sa scientist and a professor in a
university being beaten to death, , bya bunch of cultural revolution
infantrymen, or just, uh, self recruited.
radicals, something that happenedfrequently at the time, and how this
(29:02):
communist revolution basically threwout all of science, and threw out all
of any ideas from the West, and thisargument that just because something
is politically unpopular doesn't makeit a fact, you have to believe in
the science, and that's the argumenthe makes right before he's killed.
Of course, this kicks off theprotagonist's, , mission that leads to all
(29:23):
the events of this series decades later.
But more interesting to me is thisextremely negative view of the cultural
revolution, the communist culturalrevolution, and how the communist
government, despite all of itscensorship, allowed this book to be
released and so popularly distributed.
Okay, with that out of the way,I have some brief recommendations
(29:45):
for some other movies and seriesyou might want to check out.
in the vein of the series Fallout,which I will also be discussing here
later in this episode, and I'llhave spoilers in that commentary,
but I'll warn you when that comes up.
First of all, , speaking of a filmthat was lost in the shuffle due to
the pandemic, a film called Love andMonsters, in which Dylan O'Brien feels
(30:06):
like an outsider in this utopian societythat lives underground due to radiation
poisoning on the surface of the earth.
Sound familiar?
And he heads out on his journeyto reunite with this girl that
he was in love with before.
He had to live underground due toheavily mutated creatures above ground.
(30:27):
Sound familiar?
Very much in the tone of Fallout.
And even in the visual style, honestly,you could watch this film and just pretend
this is occurring in the world of Fallout,as long as you change the reason for
the mutations of the creatures on land.
Not a nuclear fallout, but rather ameteorite, I believe, striking the earth.
(30:48):
And Dylan O'Brien, I neverwatched him on his TV series.
is utterly charming here.
A lot of fun as he traversesthe countryside, this film,
despite barely getting a releaseduring the pandemic actually was
nominated for best special effects.
And I think the special effects areterrific in this film production
in general, really great.
What must have been a pretty lowbudget film is utterly convincing
(31:11):
here in this post apocalyptic Worldthat he lives in this very convincing
Realization of it and just looks great.
If you do happen to watch this checkout the underground imagery versus the
Fallout series Which probably was muchmore expensive and once again just much
more convincing in its production And justone more recommendation, not a comedy in
(31:31):
this scenario, but the series silo, theApple TV series, which takes place some
a hundred years or more in the future.
after some kind of nuclear fallout aboveground where people all live in these
underground silos which are revealedminor spoiler here is the second season
of the series going to be called silos.
(31:54):
, anyway, once again, a direct correlationsimilarity to the plot of the
fallout series here based on a novel.
In that case, my criticism, by the way,we covered silo here in the podcast.
Do check out the backcatalog for those episodes.
If you are catching up onit, season two is on the way.
, I was not that enthusiastic about seasonone of the series, especially as it
(32:18):
went along after the first few episodes.
But yet, am recommending season twobecause having my knowledge of the book
itself, the really interesting plotwise, action wise, philosophical wise
aspects of the material haven't evenbeen touched upon yet in the series.
And that's part of my criticism.
However, all of that iscoming in season two.
(32:40):
Basically, season one didn't even covertwo thirds of the Maybe two thirds,
probably around, they probably got tolike three quarter mark of the first book.
And all the really interestingstuff, all the payoff for that
is coming at the end of book one.
And we haven't even gottenthere yet is basically my point.
So if they continue a directinterpretation of the book one
(33:02):
into book two, season two isgoing to start off with a bang.
So that is why I'm looking forward to it.
, but do check that out.
Apple TV plus the incredible RebeccaFerguson at the center of that series.
And Hey, if you like fallout andyou want a more serious version
of this story, check out silo.
Okay, finally fallout.
This is a.
(33:22):
Adaptation of the video game.
We have quite a moment here of video gameadaptation successes, whether that is
in the family animation side of thingswith Sonic the Hedgehog, the third film
on its way and a TV series as well.
Spin off the Super Mario Brothers movielast year, a huge financial success.
And even on prestige TV sideof things, the last of us, a
(33:46):
huge success for HBO last year.
I believe the ratings for seasonone of the last of us was bigger
than every season of game ofthrones aside from its final season.
So basically maybe the second most viewedseason of any TV series ever for them.
And even the peacock seriestwisted metal, once again.
And that could be.
a series that's taking place in thesame universe of Fallout, the Anthony
(34:10):
Mackie Peacock series, Twisted Metal,a series that I do not recommend.
, maybe season two will be worth it.
, a much , lower budget, production ofa post apocalyptic world, but I'll
just throw that onto the bonfirehere as well of of recommendations,
if that's a proper metaphor.
If you love Fallout and you likethis vibe, this comedy, violence,
(34:32):
then check out Twisted Metal.
I did very much find AnthonyMackie To be charming in the role.
He's one of the producers on it, butthe production, how little of the story
progresses, but I did mildly say, well,maybe season two, really season one,
this is like a disease among thesestreaming services now is all a buildup
to what we want to see in, in season.
(34:52):
Twisted Metal, which is carsracing each other across the
country, which is basically wherewe land at the end of season one.
And boy, getting there is rough.
But that series has its fans, andI'm pretty sure there will be a
season two there at some point.
So yet another video game adaptationyou may want to check out.
But Fallout is already much moresuccessful than the Twisted Metal
(35:16):
video game adaptation, and wewill almost certainly be seeing
a second season of this one.
So if you listened to the podcast lastweek, you did hear me briefly mention
that I had seen the pilot episode ofFallout, and I was very enthusiastic by
the sprawling scope of it and productiondesign and the tone management of being
able to be very goofy and silly and yethave some darker elements introduced.
(35:41):
And what I would say is the rest ofthe season, I finished the entire
season, doesn't quite live up tothe pilot episode, but it's good.
It's good enough thatI would recommend it.
This comes from Lisa Joy and JonathanNolan, Christopher Nolan's brother.
And Jonathan Nolan , also directs.
The first three episodes of the season,the series takes place in an alternate
(36:02):
history where around the 1950s, I believeit is the cold war with the Soviets
leads to a nuclear apocalypse worldwide.
At the start of the series, we seein that time period in the 1950s,
Walter Goggins, the excellentWalter Goggins, always excellent.
is a Hollywood cowboy, but for reasonswe still don't understand has been
(36:24):
reduced to doing children's birthdayparties with his daughter in tow.
And at this moment, nuclear bombsstart detonating all over Los Angeles.
It's in a truly amazing sequence visually.
He jumps on his horse with hisdaughter, riding through the
mountains of Los Angeles while thecity is destroyed in the background.
(36:44):
We flash forward in time and wemeet Ella Purnell and her dad,
played by Kyle McLaughlin, wholive in an underground bunker.
The world is not livable, althoughradiation levels are low enough
where they believe soon that they'llbe able to return to the surface.
They live in this underground utopiansociety, but once again, shades of
(37:05):
love and monsters, she's unable tofind a good marriageable spouse.
And they decide to invite some of theresidents of the adjacent Vault 32.
They're from Vault 33.
There's an adjacent Vault 32.
There's also a nearby Vault 31.
And occasionally, residents movefrom one vault to the other, and
(37:27):
there is to be a wedding ceremony.
And things go badly.
I won't explain how.
Which all leads to Ella Purnell'scharacter, Lucy, heading out into
the wasteland on her mission.
Meanwhile, above ground, theearth is not uninhabited, but
rather is inhabited by aliens.
roving gangs of wild people.
So they've survived on thesurface, oftentimes mutated.
(37:49):
For example, Walter Goggins, onceagain, is not only playing this cowboy
in the flashbacks, he is this zombielike creature in the present tense,
horribly disfigured with his skinpractically burned off and no nose, which
apparently is common among these zombielike creatures we find on the surface.
Some zombies go pure zombie, like GeorgeRomero, flesh eating zombie style.
(38:14):
While some are still intelligent, butjust can't be killed, basically good
old shot to the head still works as youwould expect from other zombie stories,
but he is like the man with no name.
This is fistful of dollars.
This is Sanjuro.
He is a samurai for hire.
He is amoral and only looking out forhimself, but he is on a mission and
(38:37):
maybe not as craven as he appears to be.
And all of that is.
It's explained over the courseof this relatively short
series, eight hours long or so.
One more key player in the casthere above ground, Aaron Moten,
the actor playing Maximus, who's amember of a Halo like military group
who maintains the peace in the wildlands, the wastelands above ground.
(39:00):
But he is a squire for thesethese knights, as they're
named, wearing the armor itself,and he is bullied and killed.
has a tragic backstory and hasended up in this fascist police
organization within this totalitarianregime, which may be a sham.
Actually, at this point, wemay be looking at a completely
(39:23):
collapsed society at this point.
And everybody here is justpretending to maintain the order.
And basically this bullied andabused squire ends up inside
of one of those mech suits.
And these three storylines, thesethree characters, this very Western
set, wasteland, roving, zombie likesamurai hitman, and this armor clad
(39:49):
high tech warrior, and this girl who hasescaped from this underground utopian
society, are all on a collision courseto unravel this very large conspiracy.
of what actually led to their currentcircumstance, and what is the grand
scheme, and how are they all kindof pawns in this broader conspiracy.
(40:10):
As the story progresses, we movebackwards and forward in time.
Walter Goggins character connectsthese two timelines, since he
has lived this whole entire time.
Now this single minded revengemachine in the present tense, but
then this doting father in the pasttense, who even then was starting
to uncover a broader conspiracy,which leads to the events of today.
(40:31):
We really don't see a lot of what thatbroader conspiracy is, but that is all
tantalizingly set up for season two.
And the three main characters all do agood job of pulling you into the story.
Ella Purnell playing Lucy.
We've seen her here on the podcastpreviously, by the way, of course,
we have covered here season oneand season two of yellow jackets.
She played Jackie in yellow jackets.
(40:53):
Walter Goggins, of course, playingthe dual role of Cooper Howard
and the ghoul as he's known inthe present tense of this series.
Also play Cecil, bythe way, on invincible.
If you do catch up on invincibleand recognize the voice.
And Aaron Moten playing Maximus.
So do check out the pilot episode hereavailable on freebie as well, by the way.
(41:14):
So if you don't have Amazon prime, you cancheck out freebie for the pilot episode.
And I would say the rest of theseries, not as great as that pilot
episode, but if you are engaged withthat pilot episode, Stick with it.
I think it does set up apretty intriguing mystery.
A lot of potential for season two,but gives us a pretty satisfying
closure for season one as well.
(41:34):
Not as irritating as the unansweredquestions that often are the
case with these streaming shows.
I was relatively satisfiedwith the ending here.
So that's the end of thespoiler free section.
, if you're opting out before thespoilers, just a couple of quick notes.
If you'd like to support the podcast,I know we've had a lot of new
listeners in the past few weeks.
(41:55):
If you are new to the podcast andwould like to support us, recommend
this to your friends and family.
If they happen to be watching anyof these shows or are looking for
recommendations for things to watchand give us a positive review.
or rating on your podcatcher of choice.
Okay, here come the full spoilers.
So, the inciting incident of the plothere in the story is that during this
wedding ceremony that's been set up forLucy with the residents of Vault 32,
(42:20):
Lucy's dad, played by Kyle MacLachlan,Hank, is abducted and basically the
rest of the crew is left to die.
By the way, some of the leadership herein Vault 33 include Zach Cherry, for
example, from our beloved Severance, also covered here in the podcast.
Season two, finally coming of that show.
We will definitely becovering it here in a podcast.
(42:40):
And check out our season onecoverage of that series as well.
After Hank is abducted, the Vault 33folks are actually able to fend off these
outsiders from the surface, basicallymasquerading The invitees from Vault
32 turned out to be surface dwellers.
And they were on a missionspecifically to abduct Hank.
Lucy loves her dad and is committedto escaping with the help of her
(43:01):
brother, Norm, played by MoisesArias, and her cousin, who she
used to do cousin stuff with.
quote unquote, Chet,played by Dave Register.
And while Lucy is working her way acrossthe wasteland, they're investigating
underground and discovering thatthe people in Vault 32 had not been
killed by the scavengers, but ratherhad been dead for a very long time.
(43:23):
And what unfolds over the course ofthe season is what's actually been
going on in these underground vaults.
Through the flashbacks, we find outthat these vaults were being sold
to rich Americans as ways to protectthemselves from inevitable nuclear war.
We turn out this is very late.
in the season to discover that the bestway to maximize their profits was to
(43:46):
sell these underground accommodationsto the wealthy, and then to not only
protect against nuclear war, but toinitiate a nuclear war, therefore making
their product utterly vital, and moreimportantly, then hoarding that wealth.
Over time, as they say over and overagain, time is the differentiator between
being extremely wealthy and not, andletting that wealth grow over time.
(44:08):
So if there's a big idea here, thereis this criticism of the illogical
nihilism of pure capitalism.
But there are some other interestingthematic elements here as well.
We see that Lucy lives by the golden rule.
She always tries to do unto othersas she would have done unto herself.
And you see that butting upagainst the ghouls philosophy
(44:30):
of every man for themselves.
And by the end of the series, theytoo are very much aligned in their
investigation of this broader mythology.
They are both looking for Lee , Moldaver,played by Sarita Choudhury, who has
abducted Hank, and also, has been, alongwith everybody else, has been looking for
this infinite power resource, cold fusion,which has been hidden away in the head
(44:55):
, of a scientist that has escaped withthis priceless technology, this scientist
called Wilzig, played by Michael Emerson.
Who's worked before with Nolan onPerson of Interest, for example, and
of course, very recognizable from Lost.
He's just one of manycameos here in the series.
We have Michael Rappaport here as well.
(45:16):
Fred Armisen, looking much older thanthe last time I saw him, as well as Matt
Barry from What we do in the shadows.
Very entertaining herein relatively small part.
And there is a big action sequenceat the end of the series in the
final episode, where once again, wesee this pretty impressive budget
that they've probably been allocatedhere, used to its full extent.
So it is uneven.
(45:36):
But overall an entertaining watch anddoes explore some of these ideas a
purely amoral profit motive for everydecision by these powerful characters,
the illusion of security and what wesacrifice for that, counterpointing
of doing the right thing for the rightreason versus doing the selfish thing
(45:59):
all the time and almost a philosophicalexamination of those two things and
how maybe they balance each other out.
But primarily this is just a romp.
As I've mentioned before,these same creators were the
showrunners for Westworld.
Another series that had , many bigideas was much more serious than
this one here, but then struggledto deliver on those ideas long term.
(46:22):
There are ideas here.
But they are relatively secondary to thisepisodic odyssey across this wasteland.
And there's enough detail and enoughcharacterization and enough solid
performances here to make the wholeworld worth exploring and visiting.
Now, I have not playedthe video game at all.
Does this match up?
Is this better?
Is this worse?
(46:42):
From what I've heard, this isin the universe of Fallout,
maybe touches briefly.
On some of the mythology of that, but thestoryline itself is completely unique.
So you do not need to be afan of the video game to
follow along with this at all.
And if anything, it might be additiveif you are a fan of the game.
So if you have played the game.
(47:02):
and are now watching the series and you'velistened this far into the podcast, drop
me an email, needsomeintroductionatgmail.
com.
Tell me if this is a goodadaptation in your opinion or not.
Okay, so that's the end of theepisode for now, this episode.
Once again, some homework for youif you'd like to follow along here
on what we're watching on the show,catch up or finish The Gentleman.
I still have not finished that seriesmyself, but I will definitely be finishing
(47:23):
the Netflix series, The Gentleman,a show I've been very much enjoying,
by the way, up until this point.
just haven't got aroundto finishing it yet.
Along with a retrospective Guy Ritchie'scareer and of course the latest Guy
Ritchie film in theaters this weekend.
And then expect a very long, I believe,episode of the podcast, , next Tuesday
or Wednesday, right after the releaseof the season finale of Shogun, a truly
(47:49):
extraordinary series of television.
So I hope you enjoy some of thoserecommendations and some of that
content and I'll talk to you soon
Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Need Some Introduction.
(00:03):
I'm your host, Victor, and in today'sepisode, primarily, I will be discussing
the recently available Fallout videogame adaptation on Amazon Prime.
But also, I'll be discussing acouple of other post apocalyptic
science fiction adaptations,Three Body Problem on Netflix, and
Invincible also on Amazon Prime.
(00:24):
which just wrapped up its secondseason about a week or two ago
now, and discussing the potential, complexities of these dystopian
science fiction adaptations.
Most of this will be spoiler free.
For Fallout, I will have full spoilers.
I will warn you when I get into thespoiler section of the Fallout review
in case you are watching along or ifyou have not finished the series yet.
(00:46):
Before all of that, I'd like tocircle back on a bunch of topics
that I've been meaning to getback to based on recent episodes.
First of all, check the show notes.
I'll have a lot of recommendationshere for other post apocalyptic
and other science fiction materialyou may want to check out.
I'll have links to them in the shownotes primarily via my letterboxd
(01:06):
I'll probably create a list.
I'll include it there.
So follow me on Letterboxd so youcan get some of these lists and other
reviews and other supporting materialfor expansions of reviews and lists
that I create here on the podcast.
Your feedback also is always appreciated.
Please reach out to us at needsome introduction at gmail.
com.
Also, I had a little survey via emailswith you who do reach out to us via email.
(01:30):
I just had a question, which ofcourse you can all participate in if
you have any opinion on what you arelooking forward to seeing in the next
few months or in the season upcoming.
And to a person, practically, the responsewas House of the Dragon, which we will
definitely be discussing here on the show.
By the way, did cover House of the Dragon,the first season here on the podcast.
(01:51):
So if you are a new listener, dotrack those down if you're curious or
just want to remember what happenedin that first season of the show.
And if there are other releases, moviesas well, by the way, that you are
interested in seeing, please do reachout to us, needsomeintroduction at gmail.
com.
With that feedback.
It helps me make a schedule ofmaterial here for the podcast.
(02:11):
Until then, what is upcomingin the near future on the show?
First of all, Guy Ritchie's newfilm is coming out this Friday, The
Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
And I will be reviewing that, whichhonestly I think is going to be
pretty inconsequential even in hisfilmography, but I am curious to see it.
He is on a little bit of a hot streak andI am pretty unapologetically a Guy Ritchie
(02:34):
fan, but also taking the opportunityto discuss the very successful.
The Gentleman series on Netflix.
So that episode should be outbefore the weekend or over the
weekend discussing that film.
And of course the gentlemanNetflix series as well.
And along with that, aretrospective of Richie's career.
a very interesting, if uneven, career.
(02:55):
And currently, I am in the midst ofputting together a very long, season
long recap of the Shogun series, theincredibly successful and incredibly
impressive Shogun series, which justdropped episode 9, one episode to
go at this point, just dropped thatepisode today as I'm recording this.
(03:15):
I have not had a chance tosee it, it just dropped this
morning, but I will definitely bewatching that in the near future.
We'll be adding it to my seasonlong recap and I'll be capping
that off in the same episode.
A live watch of the episode,commenting on it as I go through it.
Something I've done in the past with otherseason and series finales, most notably
(03:35):
the Succession series finale, which wasvery popular for us here on the podcast.
So stay tuned for all of that.
I'm pretty certain it willbe as impressive as the
rest of the season has been.
If you are behind on that, do catch up.
It is definitely going to beone of the series of the year.
And once Shogun wraps up next week, Iwill begin coverage of the HBO series
(03:56):
The Sympathizer, which is produced by andprominently features Robert Downey Jr.
and based on the Pulitzer Prize winningnovel, a novel that I am starting to read.
I think I'm reading it in tandem with the.
adaptation.
, if you listen to this podcastregularly, you know that I'm always
interested in adaptation of these works.
And over the course of that coverage ofthat series, also discussing the works
(04:17):
of the director Park Chan wook, who notonly directs most of these episodes,
but is also a producer on the series.
So some things you may want to add toyour watch list, the Gentleman's Series
on Netflix, which we'll be discussinglater this week, along with that new
Guy Ritchie film, The The Sympathizerepisode one is currently available on
HBO Max, and we'll be covering thatbeginning next week or late next week.
(04:40):
And of course, catch up on Shogun, episodenine out today if you weren't aware.
And if you haven't sampled that yet,Really, it's as satisfying as it gets
and considering everybody's lookingforward to House of the Dragon.
If you want this palace intrigueseries, this is the most satisfying
thing on the air right now.
And as a matter of fact, you may verywell watch that series and think, Oh,
(05:01):
this reminds me of Game of Thrones.
And of course it was aninspiration to George R.
R.
Martin's series of books.
So no coincidence there as well.
So check that out.
Okay, next up, I have a fewfollow ups on recent episodes.
Number one, I mentioned I wasgoing to have a box office
(05:21):
discussion on the current year.
And as I had mentioned andpredicted on that civil war.
review episode last week.
Civil War did indeed open atnumber one at the box office.
And not only did it open number one,it's actually A24's largest opening
weekend ever with over 25 million.
This is a 50 million production for A24.
(05:44):
So they needed this thing to make at least100 million worldwide, probably hoping
for something closer to 150 million.
However, this is an aggressive moveby A24 to move beyond their low budget
horror movies and genre films thatthey've been making up until this
point very successfully, by the way.
I mean, as a matter of fact, they won mostof the Academy Awards just two years ago
with Everything Everywhere All at Once.
(06:05):
And then The Whale, a film I do notlike, by the way, but does feature
a strong central performance winningbest actor for Brendan Fraser.
They basically swept allthe top prizes that year.
So A24 has been doing extremely well.
They've also had some very successfulTV productions, and this is a move to
appeal to larger budgets and bigger stars.
(06:26):
And it's seems to be paying off for them.
And also, as I predicted there,the film is very contentious.
There is a lot of chatter on the internetas to what the goal of the film is.
And A24 has kind of made a brandof being able to turn controversial
and even divisive word ofmouth into box office success.
(06:46):
So this probably is all working for them.
And I am curious to seewhat happens next week.
Does the divisive word of mouth leadto a big drop in box office ? Or
does it become a conversation point?
Therefore it becomes somethingthat everybody has to watch to
be part of the conversation.
TBD.
If you have watched it, do check out mycoverage of it in the previous episode.
Meanwhile, Godzilla vs.
(07:07):
Kong, or Godzilla X Kong.
This is crazy, by the way, that thefilmmaker says you're supposed to ignore
the X, then why is it in the title?
I don't know.
Anyway, the sequel to Godzilla vs.
Kong, which is called Godzilla XKong The New Empire, meanwhile,
has made over 400 million worldwideand continues to perform well.
It's number two at thebox office currently.
And this is actually interestingbecause, like Dune, And it was part
(07:30):
of this HBO Max, or now just Max,push by Warner Brothers, which led
to Christopher Nolan, who , had donealmost all his films through Warner
Brothers and been very successful withthe Dark Knight series there, obviously.
He actually abandoned Warner Brotherswhen he took Oppenheimer to Universal.
And then of course, thumb in the eye,they put Oppenheimer directly against
(07:51):
Barbie, which was Warner Brothersbig film last summer, and they both
won, which I don't, I think this wasintentionally supposed to hurt one
film or the other, and ironically, itturned into a huge success for both.
The Barbie film ended up makingaround one and a half billion
dollars, and Oppenheimer lost interms of total box office where
it's just under a billion dollars.
(08:12):
But for a film that is mostly peopletalking, a billion dollar box office
is extraordinary, truly extraordinary.
And of course then goes andwins the best picture as well.
So Nolan made out, Warner Brothersmade out, the controversy all
worked out for both of them.
But I bring all this up because Nolanactually abandoned ship from Warner
Brothers, so upset with the fact thatWarner Brothers was premiering their
(08:32):
movies day and date in theaters andon HBO Max at the exact same time.
And I was honestly a little surprised.
I thought this would completelycannibalize the box office of the
films, but then Dune came out andstill made over 100 million in the U.
S.
The Godzilla vs.
Kong film, the first one, also madeover a hundred million dollars.
(08:54):
And even better, overseas in both cases.
So I was very much of the opinionA, that they performed better than
I expected, considering peoplecould just stay home and watch them.
I had watched the first Dunemovie at home, by the way.
Did not go to the theatersduring the pandemic.
It's available to me day and date at home.
I'm gonna watch it.
And, , Even if I like it, I'mprobably not going to run out
to see it in the theaters.
(09:14):
So I was very much on board with a lot ofthis criticism that Warner Brothers had.
turned prestige film going,or at least spectacle into
something you just watch at home.
And this was what Nolanwas complaining about also.
So I bring all that up to say that thetwo biggest films of this year are the
Dune sequel and this Godzilla Kong film.
(09:34):
So Warner Brothers actually did anincredible job of making this film.
being able to launch Max.
In retrospect, this was a huge success.
They were able to putmovies into movie theaters.
People who were willing to goout saw the movie theaters.
The people who did notwatched them at home.
And rather than dampening interestin the follow up, when they put
them exclusively in theaters,people went back to the theater.
(09:56):
So I did not predict this.
I actually thought this would be anegative outcome from Warner Brothers,
but I was wrong in this regard.
And, uh, Warner Brothershas done a pretty.
great job of threading that needle.
, and just to close the loop onthat, once again, Godzilla is
probably going to end up with atleast 500 million, probably more.
Meanwhile, the Dune film is approaching700 million and is still chugging
(10:18):
along, especially internationally.
Could hit 730, 740 worldwide,which is very successful.
Another film that came out during thepandemic was the Ghostbusters reboot,
Afterlife, which we discussed hereon the podcast , just last month.
And of course, since that conversation,Frozen Empire has come out in theaters.
I actually watched it.
It was mildly entertaining.
(10:39):
I think if you're a hardcoreGhostbusters fan, you're
probably going to enjoy the film.
If you liked Afterlife, you'reprobably going to enjoy this film.
But I don't know what kindof legs this franchise has.
This film may just make itto 200 million worldwide.
Did not see an uptick post pandemic,, that we saw for those other films
I just mentioned previously.
This one looks like it's going tounderperform versus the previous film.
(11:02):
So is there enough juice forthis series to continue?
I don't think so, honestly.
And I go back to all the way back toGhostbusters 2 and the question as to
does this franchise need to be turnedinto an extended universe at all?
And yet they keep trying to becausethere is something compelling about
that first film, the nostalgia for it.
(11:24):
But I think another reason isbecause the video games, the
animated series from years ago.
The side properties doseem to have a following.
So there seems to be this questionas to whether they can build this
back up into a full franchise.
But I think the feature films havealways said no, other than the first
(11:44):
one, there's really not enough thereto keep this franchise going, but they
may very well reboot the whole thingagain in five years and try again.
The last follow up topic I wantedto mention here was the Roadhouse
episode, at the time, I was thinking tomyself, well, why are they doing this?
Why are they calling it Roadhouse?
There was some pretty contentiousinternet conversation, people who
(12:05):
were fans of the first film, as if itwas some kind of untouchable classic,
which I honestly don't understand that.
I think the charm of that firstfilm is that it almost accidentally
is an entertaining film.
So the idea that people were thinkingthis was some kind of Religious
text was very strange to me.
Regardless of that, I did have this openquestion as why antagonize the fans?
Why call this thing Roadhouse?
(12:27):
You know, the fans that are going to likeit are probably not even aware of the
first film, the fans that are not goingto like it are going to come after you.
And I had mentioned, hey, if you just say,hey, Jake Gyllenhaal's gonna be jacked
and he's going to be making a winking,somewhat campy, charisma based punch
out film in the style of the originalRoadhouse film, that would be a pretty
(12:52):
attractive pitch to a lot of people.
And I had a question in thepodcast itself, like, why,
why are they doing this?
Why would they do it this way?
A film that I found entertaining,for the most part, by the way.
And I asked that question to myselfand thought, well, is it just
because, Hey, you know, even if peoplecomplain, just the name, the roadhouse
name will just attract some people.
. Maybe that'll juice the, the audience.
And it turns out that's exactly whatit was because that premiere on Amazon
(13:15):
prime was hugely popular , by far theirbiggest, uh, Movie premiere on that
service and it's as simple as thatIt's the name recognition for whatever
reason love it or hate it complainabout it or not We'll simply attract
an audience and that's in the endwhat they're trying to do So they know
better than me in this regard as well.
Okay before I get into thefallout review and commentary.
(13:38):
There are two more sciencefiction adaptations that recently
have been popular on streamingservices, that I wanted to discuss.
I'll start with my briefestcommentary around Invincible,
also available on Amazon Prime.
So if you are watching Fallout,do check out Invincible.
Invincible is based on a comic bookcreated by Robert Kirkman, who also is the
(14:00):
creator of the Walking Dead comic book.
And it is a satiric explorationof the mythology of a Justice
League type group of superheroes.
The main character in theseries is Mark Grayson, who also
is Invincible, the superheroInvincible, voiced by Steven Yeung.
And season one of thisseries is nearly perfect.
(14:20):
There's a maybe one or two episodesthat even they pay off in the long
run, although in the moment they seema little shaggy, but in general, a
very tight season one of that series.
And basically what we have is MarkGrayson, this teenager who's trying
to live up to his dad's standards.
His dad is basically Supermanin this universe of superheroes.
(14:42):
He is from an alien planet voiced by J.
K.
Simmons.
And the series explores this coming ofage, hormonal, pubescent metaphor, which
is very common in a lot of these comicbook adaptations, along with this dark
mythology around a super being, likea superhero, who doesn't age, who has
(15:03):
infinite power, living amongst humans.
And this father son dynamic is really,really powerful in that first season.
I mean, the payoff at the end ofthe season is really terrific stuff.
And minor spoilers onlyfor the first episode.
If you don't want to hearthis, skip ahead a few seconds.
At the very, very end of episodeone, only episode one of season
(15:24):
one, so I'm not spoiling much here.
After being introduced to thissuperhero character, this benevolent
force of good and infinite power andaspiration, he basically exterminates
the entire remaining Justice League.
And the rest of Season 1 isa mystery as to what is his
agenda and why has he done this.
And simultaneously, Invincible, whois attaining his powers, And, of
(15:48):
course, trying to live up to his dad'sexample, and then his dad's conflicted
feelings as he's trying to play bothroles, and the mystery unraveling, of
course, as to what's actually going on.
And it deals really intelligently, hasa lot of fun with this, there's a lot of
comedians who do the voice acting here.
It feels like a sitcom at times,like the goofy hijinks for these
(16:10):
second rate superheroes that have toreplace the exterminated superheroes.
Justice League., but simultaneouslydealing with these very deep issues of
this complex relationship between fatherand son, and then these questions of what
happens when you have absolute power,
and that basically all is in season one.
I won't tell you how it all wraps up.
Many twists and turns in that plot.
(16:31):
So do check that out.
If that sounds intriguing toyou, if you like the boys, for
example, definitely check this out.
I have burned out on theboys, to be honest with you.
This is a much better version to meof the boys is invincible itself.
So I prefer it . Also, if you wantto just throw this in as another
recommendation last year, we had GenV, which was a adjacent series to the
(16:51):
boys in the same universe of the boys.
And these characters are actuallygoing to be folded into the boys.
The Boys.
If you love The Boys, check that out.
Your mileage may vary.
I didn't really enjoythat series that much.
There was a tragic death.
One of the main cast members justdied recently in an, , motorcycle
accident, I believe, which has nowdelayed production of season two.
I mean, that's a tragedy, ofcourse, not a criticism of anything
(17:12):
other than that it is a delay onproduction for season two and how
they're going to handle that at all.
But for me, this season, the seriesitself was more of the same of the boys.
I was already kind ofburned out on the boys.
And to be honest, the way thatseason one wrapped up, it was
kind of just like, watch the boys.
I'm like, this is just a commercialfor the next season of the boys.
I, I just, it didn't.
(17:32):
It wasn't enough for me.
, if you love the boys and can't waitto see the next season, it might
whet your appetite a little bit.
For me, it just wasn't that intriguing.
I probably will watch season four ofthe boys this summer on Amazon prime.
It is on its way, I believe in Juneor July, yet another show that
I would draw your attention to.
If you like this kindof dystopian comic book.
or superhero dissections, theseexplorations of these character,
(17:56):
these mythological topics, with, ofcourse, a very dark sense of humor.
If you like all that, thencheck out Gen V as well.
However, for me, of all ofthese, Invincible is the best.
Season two of, , Invincible, actually,they dropped the first four episodes.
I know, I think Amazon was justtrying to keep their users engaged.
I think this was a mistake inhow they delivered the series.
(18:17):
They did four episodes backin November, I think it was.
And I didn't even mention it here on thepodcast, because as much as I loved season
one of Invincible, I thought the firsthalf of season two, so little happened.
It had three or four differentstorylines that all seemed like
they could support a full seasonof a show or more than a season.
(18:39):
And they would just hop aroundbetween these parallel stories.
And I thought there would besome kind of culmination point
in the first half of the season.
There was nothing there.
It was just basically themiddle of the season drop.
I don't think it wasdesigned to be a half season.
Once again, I think they justmade them available to keep
people on the hook, basically.
So I didn't even discuss it.
I was like, well, if there's anyrecommendation for anybody, wait
(19:01):
until the full season is available.
Well, now it is.
And just about a week ago, maybe a weekand a half at this point, the final
of the season two episodes premiered.
, it's a mixed bag for me.
I still recommend this very highly.
If you are a huge fan of Invincible,uh, if you, you're not a fan,
you're not going to be convertedby this second season of the show.
(19:21):
However, if you are a big fan of theshow, , this is more of the same.
It expands things.
So once again, no spoilers here, but.
Things are left in a very tenuousplace at the end of season one.
It does expand on that, but by definition,given that circumstance, some of the
most compelling aspects of the story arenot addressed for long periods of time.
(19:43):
There is a new bad guy who is only teasedthroughout the whole entire season.
season and then just shows up at theend and it's not a very satisfying
conclusion to him or his storyline.
And I have heard that this is verytrue to the comic book itself.
So it probably isn't a failure ofadaptation other than not improving
(20:04):
upon it in that season two for me justfelt like all set up for another season.
There still isn't at the end ofthat Uh, second season, not a lot of
culmination of a lot of these ideas thatare being addressed here some of the
main characters are most interestingcharacters from season one are just
teased here maybe in the first halfof season two and then have completely
(20:25):
disappeared from the second half.
So, maybe they should have brought ina little bit more for Season 3 to have
a more satisfying end point to things.
I still am very intrigued for how thisparticular storyline will wrap up in
the next set of episodes, which, whoknows, will probably be at least a
year before we see them, if not more.
So, a little disappointed in the amountof story that is covered here in Season 3.
(20:46):
Season two, a lot of digressions,even more so than season one,
where there's maybe like one or twoepisodes of Flab on this storyline.
There's probably, half the seasonis honestly a little bit of side
digressions that don't add too muchto the central themes of the series.
But all very watchable, all enjoyable.
The animation style is improvedbetween season one and season two.
(21:08):
The voice performances are terrific.
And there's some reallyknockout episodes here.
In an ideal world, in my ideal situation,we would have two or three fewer
episodes that, that we've seen here thatare honestly just digressions to me.
And maybe more of season three to have a,, more final end points to this storyline.
And then building to a season three.
(21:30):
Whereas here, I feel like we arealmost in the middle of a season here.
honestly, was like, Oh, isthe next episode available?
Oh, there must be another one next week.
Nope.
That's the season finale.
It was literally that feeling I had.
I'm like, what?
This is the finale.
Okay, fine.
So I did enjoyed what was there,but not quite an exclamation point
here at the end of the season.
(21:50):
All right.
One more adaptation and the complexitiesand failings I think of adaptations.
Another very popular, probablynot as popular as they hoped,
season of sci fi television.
Definitely something they hope toturn into multiple seasons once again.
And this, of course, is the adaptationof The Three Body Problem on Netflix.
(22:12):
And this was based on aChinese novel written in 2008.
by Liu Cixin.
I am almost certainly mispronouncing that.
Apologies.
And honestly, I have tried to readthis book and could not get into it.
It's, it's so dense.
I believe he was a scientist before he wasa writer and it shows he has these huge
digressions on scientific theory, but themain storyline is so difficult to follow.
(22:37):
But this is a very,very well regarded book.
novel, which has won science fictionnovel of the year awards and was
massively popular around the world.
And this was adapted, had been actuallyadapted as a Chinese series a few years
ago, but then Netflix announced that theywere going to make a Adaptation, for the
platform, adapted by David Benioff and D.
(23:00):
B.
Weiss, along with Aleksandr Wu.
Of course, Weiss and Benioff mostfamously adapted Game of Thrones for HBO.
And I have to tell you, thisseries didn't work for me.
I watched it all the way through.
Episode 5 has one of the most stunning andgrotesque action sequences of the year.
It will definitely bea conversation piece.
You definitely want to watch thatas long as you're not squeamish.
(23:22):
But the rest of the series had a lot ofthe same issues I had with the book, even
though I didn't complete that, obviously.
It raises all these really fascinatingquestions, and maybe unlike the book,
I should say here, whereas the bookhas these deep and long and, for me,
too jargony digressions into these deepphilosophical and scientific concepts.
(23:46):
raises some really fascinating questions,but then doesn't have any space to
explore them in any interesting way.
And the characters are so sketched out.
I just didn't feel like anyof them were real people.
So honestly, there was just enoughintrigue, enough of me questioning,
what is happening for me tofollow from episode to episode.
(24:08):
I got through it.
But I really didn't enjoy it.
And I honestly can't recommend it.
I can't recommend it as somethingto watch unless you are a
hardcore science fiction fan.
If you love the books and you wantto see some of this imagery brought
to screen, perhaps you'll enjoy this.
Uh, for me, it didn't really work, butit does make me think again about the
difficulties of adapting something.
(24:30):
Some of the decisions made herein adaptation are terrible.
Uh, interesting and maybe importantto Netflix, for example, making the
cast in the novel, Almost All ChineseScientists, into a international, uh,
group of character actors, most ofthem recognizable from other things.
, also taking one character, and who'shaving philosophical discussions and
(24:52):
instead breaking them up into multiplecharacters so that those characters can
have these philosophical disagreements,obviously makes sense given the
fact you can't be inside someone'shead like you can in a novel, that's
almost essential for an adaptation.
So those things are actuallysmart in the way they are handled.
But for these two, Creators tohave done such an excellent job.
(25:12):
I think in the early seasons I mean youcan definitely I have criticism of the
final season of game of thrones for sureBut until you get there those first
few seasons of that show , which i'vealso read the books that they correlate
to I feel like they captured the essenceof the book they skipped things that
worked in the book, but weren't essentialto the streamlining of the story.
(25:33):
They bring in the philosophicaldiscussion about the wielding of power
and develop these themes , reallywell and balance the spectacle with
the philosophy and meditative aspectsof the material in Game of Thrones.
And honestly, as they get pastmaybe the second book, when R.
R.
(25:53):
Martin's, uh, George R.
R.
Martin's book series becameoverly bloated and verbose.
, I felt their streamlining, for themost part, worked , really well.
But I am, it's a head scratcher for meas to how this adaptation was done here.
It seems like anything that is worthexploring in any kind of detail is
(26:13):
given a few minutes of high schoollevel of engagement in the topics.
And there are some really fascinatingideas about extraterrestrial life of
what happens when you know, unlike,let's say, climate change, which has some
nebulous date in the future where it canhave hugely negative impacts on society
(26:34):
and obviously how we look the other way.
What if there was a doomsday date set instone, but it was in the far off future?
How many people would decideto meet the challenge head on?
How many people would just closetheir eyes and say, well, is that
really going to impact me or my kids?
It's probably not goingto impact anyone that.
I know.
But then of course you think, well,but your grandkids, your great
(26:56):
grandkids, they'll have impacts.
And then how far is yourempathy going to extend.
So all the different ways that the societywould deal with an impending disaster,
which is still so far off in the future,is actually incredibly fascinating.
Maybe a starting point for atelevision series instead of something
(27:16):
that is introduced in the 11thhour here and not really explored.
When for me, it feels like thatis the most interesting idea
within in the entire series.
So very disappointed . The only bigidea that I really latched onto was
barely explored and delivered solate so yeah, your mileage is really
going to vary on this if you're notinto this kind of really dense sci fi.
(27:38):
For example, my sister tried to watchthis, Celia, who's been on a podcast
before, and she is very hit and misswith these things, and she hated it.
She couldn't get past episode one.
I did work my way through it.
There was enough there for me tobe slightly intrigued, but yeah,
even I can't really recommend thisby the time we get to the end.
A couple things to call out though.
I do want to mention that that onesequence, I don't want to spoil
(27:59):
it here, but it's in episode five.
Everyone will know it when you seeit, which is just one of the most
stunning things you'll see on TVand really just so grotesque I was
just like, wow, this is incredible.
I can't believe this.
I'm watching this rightnow and really surprising.
, I guess you're not surprised if youread the book, but I hadn't read it.
So I was not expecting itand it was pretty insane.
, so spoil yourself on that.
(28:20):
You can practically watchthat episode by itself.
And, pretty much pick up enough contextbased on the first half of that episode.
And then, of course, thepayoff there towards the end.
The second thing I find surprisingis, , just the fact that this is such a
huge hit in China and that this wasn'tbanned, , not to be too reductive about
things, but not banned by the government.
(28:41):
Chinese government in the fact thatthis film opens with one of the
main protagonists, , father, who'sa scientist and a professor in a
university being beaten to death, , bya bunch of cultural revolution
infantrymen, or just, uh, self recruited.
radicals, something that happenedfrequently at the time, and how this
(29:02):
communist revolution basically threwout all of science, and threw out all
of any ideas from the West, and thisargument that just because something
is politically unpopular doesn't makeit a fact, you have to believe in
the science, and that's the argumenthe makes right before he's killed.
Of course, this kicks off theprotagonist's, , mission that leads to all
(29:23):
the events of this series decades later.
But more interesting to me is thisextremely negative view of the cultural
revolution, the communist culturalrevolution, and how the communist
government, despite all of itscensorship, allowed this book to be
released and so popularly distributed.
Okay, with that out of the way,I have some brief recommendations
(29:45):
for some other movies and seriesyou might want to check out.
in the vein of the series Fallout,which I will also be discussing here
later in this episode, and I'llhave spoilers in that commentary,
but I'll warn you when that comes up.
First of all, , speaking of a filmthat was lost in the shuffle due to
the pandemic, a film called Love andMonsters, in which Dylan O'Brien feels
(30:06):
like an outsider in this utopian societythat lives underground due to radiation
poisoning on the surface of the earth.
Sound familiar?
And he heads out on his journeyto reunite with this girl that
he was in love with before.
He had to live underground due toheavily mutated creatures above ground.
(30:27):
Sound familiar?
Very much in the tone of Fallout.
And even in the visual style, honestly,you could watch this film and just pretend
this is occurring in the world of Fallout,as long as you change the reason for
the mutations of the creatures on land.
Not a nuclear fallout, but rather ameteorite, I believe, striking the earth.
(30:48):
And Dylan O'Brien, I neverwatched him on his TV series.
is utterly charming here.
A lot of fun as he traversesthe countryside, this film,
despite barely getting a releaseduring the pandemic actually was
nominated for best special effects.
And I think the special effects areterrific in this film production
in general, really great.
What must have been a pretty lowbudget film is utterly convincing
(31:11):
here in this post apocalyptic Worldthat he lives in this very convincing
Realization of it and just looks great.
If you do happen to watch this checkout the underground imagery versus the
Fallout series Which probably was muchmore expensive and once again just much
more convincing in its production And justone more recommendation, not a comedy in
(31:31):
this scenario, but the series silo, theApple TV series, which takes place some
a hundred years or more in the future.
after some kind of nuclear fallout aboveground where people all live in these
underground silos which are revealedminor spoiler here is the second season
of the series going to be called silos.
(31:54):
, anyway, once again, a direct correlationsimilarity to the plot of the
fallout series here based on a novel.
In that case, my criticism, by the way,we covered silo here in the podcast.
Do check out the backcatalog for those episodes.
If you are catching up onit, season two is on the way.
, I was not that enthusiastic about seasonone of the series, especially as it
(32:18):
went along after the first few episodes.
But yet, am recommending season twobecause having my knowledge of the book
itself, the really interesting plotwise, action wise, philosophical wise
aspects of the material haven't evenbeen touched upon yet in the series.
And that's part of my criticism.
However, all of that iscoming in season two.
(32:40):
Basically, season one didn't even covertwo thirds of the Maybe two thirds,
probably around, they probably got tolike three quarter mark of the first book.
And all the really interestingstuff, all the payoff for that
is coming at the end of book one.
And we haven't even gottenthere yet is basically my point.
So if they continue a directinterpretation of the book one
(33:02):
into book two, season two isgoing to start off with a bang.
So that is why I'm looking forward to it.
, but do check that out.
Apple TV plus the incredible RebeccaFerguson at the center of that series.
And Hey, if you like fallout andyou want a more serious version
of this story, check out silo.
Okay, finally fallout.
This is a.
(33:22):
Adaptation of the video game.
We have quite a moment here of video gameadaptation successes, whether that is
in the family animation side of thingswith Sonic the Hedgehog, the third film
on its way and a TV series as well.
Spin off the Super Mario Brothers movielast year, a huge financial success.
And even on prestige TV sideof things, the last of us, a
(33:46):
huge success for HBO last year.
I believe the ratings for seasonone of the last of us was bigger
than every season of game ofthrones aside from its final season.
So basically maybe the second most viewedseason of any TV series ever for them.
And even the peacock seriestwisted metal, once again.
And that could be.
a series that's taking place in thesame universe of Fallout, the Anthony
(34:10):
Mackie Peacock series, Twisted Metal,a series that I do not recommend.
, maybe season two will be worth it.
, a much , lower budget, production ofa post apocalyptic world, but I'll
just throw that onto the bonfirehere as well of of recommendations,
if that's a proper metaphor.
If you love Fallout and you likethis vibe, this comedy, violence,
(34:32):
then check out Twisted Metal.
I did very much find AnthonyMackie To be charming in the role.
He's one of the producers on it, butthe production, how little of the story
progresses, but I did mildly say, well,maybe season two, really season one,
this is like a disease among thesestreaming services now is all a buildup
to what we want to see in, in season.
(34:52):
Twisted Metal, which is carsracing each other across the
country, which is basically wherewe land at the end of season one.
And boy, getting there is rough.
But that series has its fans, andI'm pretty sure there will be a
season two there at some point.
So yet another video game adaptationyou may want to check out.
But Fallout is already much moresuccessful than the Twisted Metal
(35:16):
video game adaptation, and wewill almost certainly be seeing
a second season of this one.
So if you listened to the podcast lastweek, you did hear me briefly mention
that I had seen the pilot episode ofFallout, and I was very enthusiastic by
the sprawling scope of it and productiondesign and the tone management of being
able to be very goofy and silly and yethave some darker elements introduced.
(35:41):
And what I would say is the rest ofthe season, I finished the entire
season, doesn't quite live up tothe pilot episode, but it's good.
It's good enough thatI would recommend it.
This comes from Lisa Joy and JonathanNolan, Christopher Nolan's brother.
And Jonathan Nolan , also directs.
The first three episodes of the season,the series takes place in an alternate
(36:02):
history where around the 1950s, I believeit is the cold war with the Soviets
leads to a nuclear apocalypse worldwide.
At the start of the series, we seein that time period in the 1950s,
Walter Goggins, the excellentWalter Goggins, always excellent.
is a Hollywood cowboy, but for reasonswe still don't understand has been
(36:24):
reduced to doing children's birthdayparties with his daughter in tow.
And at this moment, nuclear bombsstart detonating all over Los Angeles.
It's in a truly amazing sequence visually.
He jumps on his horse with hisdaughter, riding through the
mountains of Los Angeles while thecity is destroyed in the background.
(36:44):
We flash forward in time and wemeet Ella Purnell and her dad,
played by Kyle McLaughlin, wholive in an underground bunker.
The world is not livable, althoughradiation levels are low enough
where they believe soon that they'llbe able to return to the surface.
They live in this underground utopiansociety, but once again, shades of
(37:05):
love and monsters, she's unable tofind a good marriageable spouse.
And they decide to invite some of theresidents of the adjacent Vault 32.
They're from Vault 33.
There's an adjacent Vault 32.
There's also a nearby Vault 31.
And occasionally, residents movefrom one vault to the other, and
(37:27):
there is to be a wedding ceremony.
And things go badly.
I won't explain how.
Which all leads to Ella Purnell'scharacter, Lucy, heading out into
the wasteland on her mission.
Meanwhile, above ground, theearth is not uninhabited, but
rather is inhabited by aliens.
roving gangs of wild people.
So they've survived on thesurface, oftentimes mutated.
(37:49):
For example, Walter Goggins, onceagain, is not only playing this cowboy
in the flashbacks, he is this zombielike creature in the present tense,
horribly disfigured with his skinpractically burned off and no nose, which
apparently is common among these zombielike creatures we find on the surface.
Some zombies go pure zombie, like GeorgeRomero, flesh eating zombie style.
(38:14):
While some are still intelligent, butjust can't be killed, basically good
old shot to the head still works as youwould expect from other zombie stories,
but he is like the man with no name.
This is fistful of dollars.
This is Sanjuro.
He is a samurai for hire.
He is amoral and only looking out forhimself, but he is on a mission and
(38:37):
maybe not as craven as he appears to be.
And all of that is.
It's explained over the courseof this relatively short
series, eight hours long or so.
One more key player in the casthere above ground, Aaron Moten,
the actor playing Maximus, who's amember of a Halo like military group
who maintains the peace in the wildlands, the wastelands above ground.
(39:00):
But he is a squire for thesethese knights, as they're
named, wearing the armor itself,and he is bullied and killed.
has a tragic backstory and hasended up in this fascist police
organization within this totalitarianregime, which may be a sham.
Actually, at this point, wemay be looking at a completely
(39:23):
collapsed society at this point.
And everybody here is justpretending to maintain the order.
And basically this bullied andabused squire ends up inside
of one of those mech suits.
And these three storylines, thesethree characters, this very Western
set, wasteland, roving, zombie likesamurai hitman, and this armor clad
(39:49):
high tech warrior, and this girl who hasescaped from this underground utopian
society, are all on a collision courseto unravel this very large conspiracy.
of what actually led to their currentcircumstance, and what is the grand
scheme, and how are they all kindof pawns in this broader conspiracy.
(40:10):
As the story progresses, we movebackwards and forward in time.
Walter Goggins character connectsthese two timelines, since he
has lived this whole entire time.
Now this single minded revengemachine in the present tense, but
then this doting father in the pasttense, who even then was starting
to uncover a broader conspiracy,which leads to the events of today.
(40:31):
We really don't see a lot of what thatbroader conspiracy is, but that is all
tantalizingly set up for season two.
And the three main characters all do agood job of pulling you into the story.
Ella Purnell playing Lucy.
We've seen her here on the podcastpreviously, by the way, of course,
we have covered here season oneand season two of yellow jackets.
She played Jackie in yellow jackets.
(40:53):
Walter Goggins, of course, playingthe dual role of Cooper Howard
and the ghoul as he's known inthe present tense of this series.
Also play Cecil, bythe way, on invincible.
If you do catch up on invincibleand recognize the voice.
And Aaron Moten playing Maximus.
So do check out the pilot episode hereavailable on freebie as well, by the way.
(41:14):
So if you don't have Amazon prime, you cancheck out freebie for the pilot episode.
And I would say the rest of theseries, not as great as that pilot
episode, but if you are engaged withthat pilot episode, Stick with it.
I think it does set up apretty intriguing mystery.
A lot of potential for season two,but gives us a pretty satisfying
closure for season one as well.
(41:34):
Not as irritating as the unansweredquestions that often are the
case with these streaming shows.
I was relatively satisfiedwith the ending here.
So that's the end of thespoiler free section.
, if you're opting out before thespoilers, just a couple of quick notes.
If you'd like to support the podcast,I know we've had a lot of new
listeners in the past few weeks.
(41:55):
If you are new to the podcast andwould like to support us, recommend
this to your friends and family.
If they happen to be watching anyof these shows or are looking for
recommendations for things to watchand give us a positive review.
or rating on your podcatcher of choice.
Okay, here come the full spoilers.
So, the inciting incident of the plothere in the story is that during this
wedding ceremony that's been set up forLucy with the residents of Vault 32,
(42:20):
Lucy's dad, played by Kyle MacLachlan,Hank, is abducted and basically the
rest of the crew is left to die.
By the way, some of the leadership herein Vault 33 include Zach Cherry, for
example, from our beloved Severance, also covered here in the podcast.
Season two, finally coming of that show.
We will definitely becovering it here in a podcast.
(42:40):
And check out our season onecoverage of that series as well.
After Hank is abducted, the Vault 33folks are actually able to fend off these
outsiders from the surface, basicallymasquerading The invitees from Vault
32 turned out to be surface dwellers.
And they were on a missionspecifically to abduct Hank.
Lucy loves her dad and is committedto escaping with the help of her
(43:01):
brother, Norm, played by MoisesArias, and her cousin, who she
used to do cousin stuff with.
quote unquote, Chet,played by Dave Register.
And while Lucy is working her way acrossthe wasteland, they're investigating
underground and discovering thatthe people in Vault 32 had not been
killed by the scavengers, but ratherhad been dead for a very long time.
(43:23):
And what unfolds over the course ofthe season is what's actually been
going on in these underground vaults.
Through the flashbacks, we find outthat these vaults were being sold
to rich Americans as ways to protectthemselves from inevitable nuclear war.
We turn out this is very late.
in the season to discover that the bestway to maximize their profits was to
(43:46):
sell these underground accommodationsto the wealthy, and then to not only
protect against nuclear war, but toinitiate a nuclear war, therefore making
their product utterly vital, and moreimportantly, then hoarding that wealth.
Over time, as they say over and overagain, time is the differentiator between
being extremely wealthy and not, andletting that wealth grow over time.
(44:08):
So if there's a big idea here, thereis this criticism of the illogical
nihilism of pure capitalism.
But there are some other interestingthematic elements here as well.
We see that Lucy lives by the golden rule.
She always tries to do unto othersas she would have done unto herself.
And you see that butting upagainst the ghouls philosophy
(44:30):
of every man for themselves.
And by the end of the series, theytoo are very much aligned in their
investigation of this broader mythology.
They are both looking for Lee , Moldaver,played by Sarita Choudhury, who has
abducted Hank, and also, has been, alongwith everybody else, has been looking for
this infinite power resource, cold fusion,which has been hidden away in the head
(44:55):
, of a scientist that has escaped withthis priceless technology, this scientist
called Wilzig, played by Michael Emerson.
Who's worked before with Nolan onPerson of Interest, for example, and
of course, very recognizable from Lost.
He's just one of manycameos here in the series.
We have Michael Rappaport here as well.
(45:16):
Fred Armisen, looking much older thanthe last time I saw him, as well as Matt
Barry from What we do in the shadows.
Very entertaining herein relatively small part.
And there is a big action sequenceat the end of the series in the
final episode, where once again, wesee this pretty impressive budget
that they've probably been allocatedhere, used to its full extent.
So it is uneven.
(45:36):
But overall an entertaining watch anddoes explore some of these ideas a
purely amoral profit motive for everydecision by these powerful characters,
the illusion of security and what wesacrifice for that, counterpointing
of doing the right thing for the rightreason versus doing the selfish thing
(45:59):
all the time and almost a philosophicalexamination of those two things and
how maybe they balance each other out.
But primarily this is just a romp.
As I've mentioned before,these same creators were the
showrunners for Westworld.
Another series that had , many bigideas was much more serious than
this one here, but then struggledto deliver on those ideas long term.
(46:22):
There are ideas here.
But they are relatively secondary to thisepisodic odyssey across this wasteland.
And there's enough detail and enoughcharacterization and enough solid
performances here to make the wholeworld worth exploring and visiting.
Now, I have not playedthe video game at all.
Does this match up?
Is this better?
Is this worse?
(46:42):
From what I've heard, this isin the universe of Fallout,
maybe touches briefly.
On some of the mythology of that, but thestoryline itself is completely unique.
So you do not need to be afan of the video game to
follow along with this at all.
And if anything, it might be additiveif you are a fan of the game.
So if you have played the game.
(47:02):
and are now watching the series and you'velistened this far into the podcast, drop
me an email, needsomeintroductionatgmail.
com.
Tell me if this is a goodadaptation in your opinion or not.
Okay, so that's the end of theepisode for now, this episode.
Once again, some homework for youif you'd like to follow along here
on what we're watching on the show,catch up or finish The Gentleman.
I still have not finished that seriesmyself, but I will definitely be finishing
(47:23):
the Netflix series, The Gentleman,a show I've been very much enjoying,
by the way, up until this point.
just haven't got aroundto finishing it yet.
Along with a retrospective Guy Ritchie'scareer and of course the latest Guy
Ritchie film in theaters this weekend.
And then expect a very long, I believe,episode of the podcast, , next Tuesday
or Wednesday, right after the releaseof the season finale of Shogun, a truly
(47:49):
extraordinary series of television.
So I hope you enjoy some of thoserecommendations and some of that
content and I'll talk to you soon
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