The 2025 Summer Hype Meter
01:36:34 Share

This message is brought to you by Apple Card. Earning daily cash back is simple. Use Apple Card right away with Apple Pay and earn up to 3% daily cash back on everyday purchases. Pretty straightforward, right?

Check out the Apple Card Daily Cash Calculator to see how much daily cash you can earn. Visit apple.co slash card calculator today. Subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch. Terms and more at applecard.com. Greetings and welcome to House of R, a Ringerverse podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. I'm Mallory Rubin.

She's fantastic. She's super. She's full of hype. It's Joanna Robinson. She's a squid game. It's me, Mallory. She's an alien heading to Earth. Wow, spoilers for this podcast. Listen, it's the summer is here. Yeah.

And your allergies are streaming. Yeah. And so is the content. Yep. I'm in firm spring allergy mode still, and we should be clear. Oh, okay. It's not technically summer. Not yet. But that's never stopped us before doing a summer height meter. I've long ago disassociated myself from the actual calendar. We will establish in short order the rules for today's summer height meter, which include the time parameter for today's exercise. But Joanna...

Before we dive into one of our favorite seasonal traditions, the aforementioned hype meter. Great. We love a hype meter. Let's linger in a different kind of hype for a minute. Let's look ahead to some of the other pods we will be doing this summer. I'm so excited. You were in LA recently. Yeah. We had a robust...

Planning conversation. Yeah. We've got a lot of stuff cooking. We're not going to go through a three-month calendar right now on the pod. We will be putting out some social media graphics to help everybody follow along. But let's hit some highlights and some of the things that people might really want to know are coming because they might want to do some watching or some re-watching to get set. What would you like to highlight for the group? And pals, listen, this is no Hall of Fame promises. These are like our actual summer plans. We

We don't invoke Hall of Fame and curse this whole thing from the start, Mallory. Roger that. Okay. Is it like saying Macbeth in a theater? Don't do it. Don't say Hall of Fame. Yeah.

Pals, I'm so excited for what we have planned for this summer. And one of the things we're doing this summer that we are starting right away next week is something we're calling Hot Nolan Summer. We've got two major anniversaries of Christopher Nolan films in June coming up quite soon. It is the...

Hold on to your butts. 20th anniversary of Batman Begins. Can't believe it. You left me gobsmacked when you told me this last week. I just cannot believe it's been 20 years since this movie. And her gob has been smacked ever since. Do you know what I mean? So we're going to be celebrating Batman Begins in June. In July, it is the 15th anniversary of...

Astonishing. Boom. So we are doing an Inception celebration in July. So those are two major Christopher Nolan anniversaries. But folks, we're going to do a lot of Inception.

We're not done. No. In August, we thought, hey, why don't we just pick a Christopher Nolan film we really, really love and just round out the summer? So I have bullied my way into picking my favorite, which is way up there on Mallory's list, but I don't think it's her number one. It is my number one, The Prestige in August. I love that movie. I know you do. I know. So we are so excited. So we're going to do Batman Begins, Inception, and The Prestige. It's a hot Nolan summer. So you should watch those movies with us. Yeah.

Will the cries for, and it's five years since Tenet, let's continue and make it hot and all and fall, carry the day? We'll find out. You know, send your requests backwards via email and I might consider it.

I'm really excited for this. We've already done a lot of our Batman Begins prep, and I had a blast and a fucking half with that. So I'm really excited to get to Inception, my favorite with the prestige. So that's Hot Doll in Summer. What else do you want to let people know about Mallory Rubin? As you just established when you noted that Batman Begins, a film that came out in 2005, is 20 years old. Yeah.

It's the year 2025. That's what became clear when you said that. Sure. And that means we're a quarter of the way into this year's century. Sure. Time to look back. We will be doing, in the back half of the year, a Best of the Century So Far series, where every month we will be picking a topic. Whether we will reveal that topic in advance is to be determined. Maybe a touch in advance. I feel like we can say this month's. I feel like we're set on this month's. We know this month's for sure. Do you want to say what it is?

Speeches. We're doing speeches from genre film and television. Our faves. The best speeches of 25 years. And 25 years includes...

Your Lord of the Rings, your Game of Thrones, your Harry Potter. There's a lot. There's a lot on the table. Many, many speeches. The apocalypse may be canceled. You know what I mean? Like there's a lot. There's a lot going on. So we're really excited to put down. And if you have suggestions, of course, hobbitsanddragons.gmail.com will probably do an honorable mentions section for you guys. Certainly. Did that sound like a good idea? Certainly. Didn't run that past you. Just said it. I think it's a must. I think there are going to be so many that...

Our anxiety will consume us, but let's be clear, and we'll say this at the top of that pod. It's not an effort to be comprehensive. It is an effort to share our hearts with you. Our faves. And that's so often what we do here, isn't it? The hottest of faves.

You know, Paul Atreides might make his way into the top speeches in a way that's honoring the fame of one Paul. I think it's pretty likely that Paul makes his way to my list. And did I consider that I shouldn't do it just so we didn't mention the Paul of Fame? I did. But listen, now we've said Paul of Fame like 18 times already at the beginning of this pod. So nothing will stop me now. Damn is broken. Nothing will stop me now. Here come the sandworms. Joanna. Mallory. What else might the bad babies...

want to boot up on the old streamers. Yeah. Fire up your Hulu's and fire up your Netflix's because this is what we got going on. So,

Stranger Things is wrapping up at the end of this year. And we've actually already gotten some emails from the bad babies who are going back and listening to some of our old Stranger Things coverage as they do their rewatch. Great news. We're going to do a formal rewatch of Stranger Things over the next few months leading up into the final season. So we will be covering season one and season two and season three. And we'll let you know when those are coming via that sort of infographic that we talked about. But we're going to take a close look back.

at when the children were actually children on Stranger Things, as opposed to full-blown adults as they are now. We're really excited for Stranger Things. And Stranger Things, if you recall...

The first season, I believe this is true, the first season came out in summer. And it just always, I know that like we've had Halloween release dates and all sorts of stuff like that, but it's just always felt like such a summer show to me. So even though we will be doing this rewatch into the fall, I'm just like really excited that we're doing, spending our summer with Stranger Things leading into the fall. Nothing will feel more...

Right and wholly than talking about season three of Stranger Things, the billy pool season slash mall season during the hottest Los Angeles days. I do not live in Hawkins, but still in the summer mood. I can't wait. That's Netflix. That's Netflix. I can't wait to revisit Stranger Things. We were going to rewatch it anyway. Why not pod about it together? I'm thrilled. And then. Yeah. There's another thing coming. Yeah.

We have at various points across our three and a half years together indicated that at some point this was a thing that we felt not only honor bound, but I would say soul bound to explore. And it is you revisiting a favorite, a true favorite, the favorite and sharing with me for the first time.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer. We are doing a Buffy the Vampire Slayer season one rewatch in August. It's our two-episode check-in on that season. It's a short little season, so we're going to do two episodes about that. Sort of similar to our Doctor Who rewatch that we did a couple years ago. So Mallory's first time through the series. It is my favorite show of all time. It is a foundational text to me. So sharing the things I love with Mallory.

I'm so excited.

out. Not that it invented all of them, but like it really popularized a lot of the storytelling beats that we turn to again and again and again, and really just did it in a way that is quite sticky and quite, I mean, people are doing Buffy the Vampire Slayer first time watches all the time. And anecdotally what I hear, I mean, like, yeah, there's some hardcore 90s cheesiness. There's a lot going on. But from what I hear, like it,

it stands the test of time. It really does. And so that's a biased opinion for me, but we're doing a Buffy watch in August. How exciting. And it's the beginning of what will be a long, you know, journey together as we, as we march toward the, the reboot, the new experience. And like, if anyone is listening, thinking, boy, like, do, do I have to watch the entire show first before I start listening to the pods? Or do I have to have a certain level of expertise? A,

Any level of fandom or exposure is welcome here because, like, you have a super fan and scholar like Joe, but then I have never seen the show and have always wanted to. And so we will have all sorts of different experiences and levels of familiarity with the Buffyverse that will be a part of this journey. So everyone is welcome. No spoilers beyond the episodes that we'll be talking about because I like to keep Mallory as pure as the driven snow. And...

That's what we're doing. I'm really excited. We have a bunch of other stuff that's happening. Yeah. If you're like, guys, what about all the stuff that's there? Of course, we'll be covering Super Bowl. We'll be covering Fantastic Four. We're going to cover the new season of Squid Game. We're going to do something around 20 years later. Something zombies. Obviously, all of that we will be engaged with. You'll probably get some sense of what that'll look like when we do our hype meter today. But it is going to also be...

A Summer of Nostalgia. And that is like just really fun. I can't wait. I'm thrilled. What a joy. All right. Spoiler alert.

warning for the hype meter today. I mean, you know, the same as any hype meter. We've been doing these for years now. Everyone knows the drill. We're not going to reveal anything like that would count as a spoiler for things that have yet to come out because we haven't seen any of them or read any of them yet. We don't know anything that's in a trailer, casting information, stuff like that is obviously not only fair game today, but like

things we will talk about to explain why we are excited about something. And if this is a second or third season or sequel, we might mention some of the things that we love about prior installments in a given franchise. But, you know, pretty moderate, pretty light on the spoiler warning front today. Should we just refresh everyone on the rules in case anyone's like, guys, you didn't do a spring height meter, I forgot. Or if anyone's listening for the first time, it's just like a rapid fire rundown of how we do these things. We love rules. Go for it.

We're counting down. We're counting down from 10 to 1. And our lists are surprises. I do not know what Joanna's top 10 is. She does not know what my top 10 is. But as usual, I think I probably really don't know what her top 10 is. And she probably knows what my top 10 is. That's usually...

I don't know. You dropped me a hint that there's a word you don't know how to pronounce. I know, but I think it's just a word I should know how to pronounce. That's either we have an overlap that I didn't expect we'd have or it's something else. I think it's possible. I think it's possible that this is... I would expect this to be on your list, actually. We'll find out. Here's my prediction. We always do predictions. I am going to predict that

the top four or five on my list are on your list in some order and that the bottom five with the exception of one of them are not on your list i have no idea if that's right but i think we will have like a like a five-ish of 10 overlap and but i don't know what order i think it's going to be the lightest overlap we've had in some time maybe

We'll see. There's some obvious ones that I know that are on your list that are not on my list, but like, yes, you know, yeah. That means, that just means our top. Are you kidding me? They've already started with the like EW cover stories and social. So like I shared with you, was it last night or this morning? Who knows what time is? We didn't sleep very well. We were texting each other at 1 48 in the morning. This is not ideal.

But there was like a Nick Holtz like trust fall video that was, I don't know. All of the Superman promos have been. They've gotten you with the Holtz marketing and no surprise there, honestly. If, Joanna, we do have overlap on our list, as always on a hype meter, we will discuss that title at the higher of the two spots. So if I have something at number 10 and you have it at number one, we will wait until we get to number one to discuss it. Eligibility.

Genre picks. If we could potentially, potentially cover a given release on House of R in the wider ringerverse universe, it can be selected today. Selecting something today does not mean that we will be covering it on the pod, but it means it could fit into our universe.

It also means that things that we would not necessarily cover on these pods are not eligible for selection, but it doesn't mean we're not excited for those things. They will just be covered elsewhere on the Ringer Podcast Network. For example, the bear, something that we cannot wait to watch, is not a house of our show. Unless there's like a time portal element of this season. That would be great. I'm prepared to make the case in a few weeks that F1 counts as a superhero movie. Stay tuned. Unless, unless.

Evan Moss-Bachrach shows up for the bear in his thing. Yeah, exactly. Costume this season. It's not one of our shows. What if Herbie joins Gus in the kitchen there? What would happen? Time frame. What?

What do we mean by summer? Thanks for asking. We don't mean what the calendar means. We never have meant that before. We will be starting our summer a little bit before the calendar technically turns to summer, and we will be ending our summer a little bit before the technical end of summer. So we are running our summer for the hype meter from today, June 12th through August. So anything that comes out the rest of June, anything in July, anything in August can be selected. Today...

The sub-role within that is the same as always. If it's still airing but previously started, can't be selected. However, if it starts in this run but then ends after it, it can be selected. However, did one of us slightly cheat? It could be. Listen, I respect it. If we're not cheating on these pods, what are we doing? We're not trying. Yeah, exactly. And on that note, we can, as always, each select one wild card. I don't know if either of us will be doing that today, but we can, which means...

Doesn't have a set date in the June 12th to end of August range, but it could reasonably be expected to come out in that span of time. At the end, after we finish our top tens, we might toss out some honorable mentions if there are other things that didn't make our list but that we still want to remind people are coming. Maybe John Carlos or Arjuna is just grievously offended by something we left off the list and wants to correct our error in real time at the end of the pod. That could happen.

Who knows? Anything else, Jo? Anything else? They seem like the type. They seem like the type to be like, well, actually. Actually, you know what? Carlos will let us know if we miss something. That is something that Carlos has done for me in the past, and I appreciate him for that. Anything else? No, except I have no regrets about my one cheat. It's at the bottom of the list, though, so we're just going to get it right out of the way and then move on with our lives. And I will say, I think, you know, a reason we're doing a lot of this. Is it like a restaurant opening? Like, I don't know.

What is it? How much of a cheat could it possibly be? You know, one of the reasons we're doing so much nostalgic content this summer is that, like, you know, things are not as robust as they've been in other years in terms of there's not, like, nine Star Wars and Marvel series on Disney Plus at a given time right now. So, you know.

The list was a little different for me to make this time, but I am excited about everything that's on there just to varying degrees. So we'll see. There was so much in the spring that we didn't even have time to do a hype meter. Yeah. You know? It's that Emmy's cadence. They're really slaves to that. Anyway, yeah, here we go. Let's get to our top 10. Let's do it. For the 2025, 2025.

Life is really just 20 years. It's just kind of melting away. Since Batman began. Something to think about. 2025. Summer hype meter. Joanna, kick it off with your number 10. All right, here is my cheat, and we're just going to get it right out of the way. It came out two days ago, so I'm just going to give myself a little bit of grace in this. I mean, it's just a flagrant violation of the rules. But it was just like two days ago. You know what?

There was a point in time. When we were going to do this on Tuesday. When we were going to do this pod on Tuesday. And that point in time was last week, honestly. So I think this is fine. Okay. So it's a book. It's called Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab. And this could not be more my shit if it possibly tried. The other rule I'm breaking is that I have actually already read this book. So like, I can't hype it. I just want to hype it for anyone who's listening. Yeah.

It's incredible. It's 500 pages of three different timelines of vampiric women throughout history and the ways in which their lives intersect. And it is...

so good. V. Schwab, who is one of my favorite contemporary sort of fantasy authors, she wrote The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, which sort of broke out, I think, beyond sort of the core sci-fi fantasy fans. I think a lot of literary fiction people picked up The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. And this is similar in that it spans a lot of

the way that that one is multiple points of view. She's also written like the vicious shades of magic series. Like, you know, she's been at this for a long time, but this is like something truly special. This is something that she says she's been working on for a very, very long time or something that she's had in mind for a very, very long time. Um,

strong interview with a vampire vibes coming off this thing. And apparently while she's on book tour right now, she's obsessively sort of rewatching the current TV show of interview with a vampire. This is just a Joanna word cloud. It's just for me. Her agent, full disclosure, her agent, who's like, you know, a loose pal of mine and a listener of the pod actually sent me like a message about this book. And she's just like, I have,

Two words for you. Lesbian vampires. I was like, send me the book. Sold. Send me the book. Sold.

So it's just, it's really, really good. And it introduces new, I've consumed so much vampire media in my days, and this introduced to me new concepts of vampirism, new sort of rules of vampirism. There are some like, you know, old established, you have to be invited to come in, silver, stake through the heart, all that sort of stuff is in there. But there's some other really interesting stuff that gets to the bottom of this idea of like,

and power and especially for women because this starts in like the 1500s like especially for women throughout history sort of what how can you claim power all this sort of stuff it's freaking fantastic and there are

and not so evil women and not so evil women who become evil women because what does time do to you and all this sort of stuff like that. So, and what is evil anyway? So yeah, it's just the most, I could not not recommend it. So Burial Bones in the Midnight Soil. It's so, so good. Sensational. Sounds incredible. Can't wait to read it.

Can't wait to talk about it. I think you'd love it. And then, you guys, did your book club do Invisible Life of Addie LaRue or did I dream that? So, I think I told you it was on our list is maybe what you're thinking. But then, two of the five people in the book club had read it already. Oh, okay. And we do allow rereads, but

Our rereads are like everybody's minds have melted and we've all basically forgotten this text and it feels like a good time to revisit it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not like two people read it and three haven't. I think you would really like Invisible Life of Annie LaRue and then maybe we should watch them Buffy and then have you read Bear Bones in the Midnight. Oh, interesting. Okay, so I should save it maybe for later in the summer. Yeah, maybe we want to get a little bit deeper into our vampire time together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

So I think this sounds like a great plan. There we go. I'm thrilled. Should we call it a day and just go read? All right. Bye. Oh, what a great way to start the pod. I love it. My number 10. Yeah. Is Ironheart. June 24th. This is just around the corner coming on Disney+. This is the final installment of phase five. Phase five has been a journey and phase five is coming to an end. I,

It's unclear exactly what is going on with the release of Ironheart, which was delayed for a while and now is coming. It's a six-episode season, and the first three episodes are releasing at once, which, like...

Is worrying, right? It seems like we don't and we don't know the release schedule for the three after that. So some trepidation in terms of shy of the echo binge. Exactly. It's some some some echoes of echo in that sense, in terms of the release schedule, what that might portend. Yeah. Despite that.

I really enjoyed our time with Riri Williams in Wakanda Forever. I just thought that it was a great character introduction and I'm looking forward to more time with the character. And in terms of like the what seems to be the framing of this season of TV and the way that it's been positioned in the trailers and just the description so far, this is

clash of tech versus magic is just sort of like conceptually compelling to me and sounds fun. And look, at the end of the day, Alden Ehrenreich is in this show. And I'm not going to miss an opportunity on House of R looking into your eyes on Zoom to say to you... To say, cocaine bear 2, make it happen. Hashtag make solo 2 happen. Close. Honestly, close. Close. So...

We'll see. You know, we'll see. I love Alden. We'll see. Yeah. We'll see if we ever get Make Solo 2 happen to trend again. Yeah, I hope the show is good. I hope it's fun. We always hope this stuff is good. Here's my question to you. If, as per potentially rumored, Mephisto does show up in this show. It would be the biggest thing that's happened in the history of the world. How will we celebrate it? That's a great question. I mean, it would be a monumental moment.

In our shared experience. I don't know. Would we collect maybe, and by we, I mean somebody else. To be clear. Every time over a year together that we said Mephisto. That's like a Cinderella assignment. That's like pick all the lentils out of the ashes for Cinderella. No. So many. So many times over the years. No one can possibly do this. No. You know, I think just the mere prospect of it is enticing. Certainly. Yeah.

One day Mephisto will be here on our screens. Will it be this day? I don't know. Ironheart. Ironheart. What's your number nine? I don't think this is on your list. We will not be covering it, I believe, because it is horror. But because it is horror, I believe it counts. And I'm going to give it to the I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot. Yeah, scary. I do have

horror on my list today though. Oh. But like, you know, sci-fi horror. The horror I can handle. Not like stabby stabby.

Fish hooky, fish hooky. Okay, so we are celebrating Sarah Michelle Gellar in August. This is her spouse, Freddie Prince Jr. And Jennifer Love Hewitt, the original cast members of I Know What You Did Last Summer, are coming back as part of this sort of relaunch from Jen Robinson, no relation. This is my favorite thing you do. Any moment the name Robinson, or it's even better when you do someone named Joanna. Yeah.

No relation. Yeah.

But Jen did the show Sweet Vicious, which I really, really loved. I've talked about it before. The Netflix film Someone Great, which was really fun, and Do Revenge or something. And so if you've watched any of those things, you get a sense for her style. She's just like, loves, you know, quippy 90s nostalgia sort of stuff. Really, really fun writer. And I'm really excited to see what she does with this. And the recent...

Way in which the Scream franchise went sort of back to its roots and brought like Neve Campbell back and all this sort of stuff. That was really, really fun and really, really effective. So this is possibly something we could see with this. So like it's low on my list because it's not like this is going to be the masterpiece of the summer. But I think it has the potential to really surprise all of us. And I'm really personally excited for it. So I know we did last summer, July 18th.

July 20th. That's a good date for a summer movie. I will not be watching this movie because I don't think it's something that I could handle, but I will say I thought the trailer was quite entertaining. Yeah. Yeah. Quite entertaining. I've never seen a single Scream trailer.

No way you did last summer film. I think you would really enjoy the original scream. You think I think you think I could hack it? Yeah. Yeah. You make it. My tolerance for the stuff has really gone up as, as you know, as we've discussed before. So maybe, maybe I could, maybe I could do it. Great pick. Thanks. Love it. What's your number nine? My number nine is also connected to a long running cinematic franchise called

Some stabby stabby here too, but not with knives, with fangs. Jurassic World Rebirth. This is my number eight, so we can both talk about it right now. Beautiful. Though, dismayingly, I was hoping your number eight would be my number eight and you would say the title first. Hmm. Okay. I can whisper it to you.

Is it a book, your number eight? Okay, I know what it is. You know what it is. I just, like, I don't know how the word is pronounced, but I struggle to say it. Okay. You can just say it for me when we get to my number eight, and then I knew you would have it. Okay. Jurassic World Rebirth comes out really soon, July 2nd. Fucking holiday week movie directed by Gareth Edwards, Godzilla, Rogue One,

Ish has recently discussed in one of our pods, The Creator, a movie that I enjoyed. Joanna, tell the people who is back writing this movie from the fucking OG days. David Koepp is here, who did Dollar Destiny, a movie that we really liked. Yeah.

David's got a mixed bag of a CV. Crystal Skull's in there. You know, there's some stuff in there that you're not thrilled about. But, like, we really like Style of Destiny, and David works on the Jurassic. Okay. The fact that Jurassic World is on my list at all is a miracle because I have loathed and despised the last several installments, basically every Jurassic World. So why is it my number eight? Um...

I don't know, Johnny Bailey? ScarJo? Yeah. Yes. Friend? Ed Screen? Like, I'm really excited for the cast. Yeah. I think this could potentially reinvigorate my excitement. It reminds me... The trailer reminds me a lot of, like, the King Kong movie with Tom Hiddleston, which I did quite like. You know what I mean? Like, there's just, like...

And there's something there that I don't know that it'll be as big as the first Jurassic World ever was, but I think it might be more my personal speed. And you mentioned July 2nd. You know what this smacks of to me? This smacks of let's go to the drive-in, which is something I really loved doing during COVID. And it has sort of stretched out. So, like, occasionally, like, I saw Top Gun Maverick at the drive-in. Like, you know, like, when COVID was over. Like, it's a summer thing.

Hmm. Let's go to the... And, like, I understand you're like, the sound's not great, the visual's not great, but the vibes are unmatchable. Never done it. Big summer movie at the drive-in. It's a great time. So, yeah, Jurassic World, rebirth. I quite agree. Yeah. I am way more excited for this movie than I anticipated being. Yeah. You...

You ran through the cast. I mean, this is just like a very exciting set of movie stars and performers. You did miss the, I would say, star of the show on the ensemble front, and that is Distortus Rex, a made-up dinosaur, because the plot of this film, as far as I can...

Yeah. Appears to be a go-to island to extract genetic material to make medicinal gains for mankind and then presumably die while doing that. Because on this island, there are not just dinosaurs, but the dinosaurs that were too dangerous for the park. Joanna? We were talking about this a couple weeks ago, and we were like, this is a great idea. This is a great idea. Yeah.

I mean, at least it's... And I like this idea of, like, we're trying to extract something. Like, we have a reason to go here and not, like, man's... I mean, it's man's hubris. It's always man's hubris. Of course. But, like, but it's not the exact same plot. Yeah. There's a slight twist. There's a slight twist here. Who do you think...

Oh. God. Great question. I mean... And is it Ed? It's probably Ed. And who do you think lives? I mean, Rupert's also definitely dying. Rupert and Ed are, for sure, there's no question, dead. Do both Johnny and ScarJo make it out? Or just a limping, bloody, bruised and battered ScarJo? ScarJo's the only one I feel confident makes it out. A very, like, run sort of, like, energy. Yeah.

Yeah, ScarJo's Zora is the only one I feel confident makes it out. On the Manspeepers front, I would like to just share, this list could have been four hours long, just a few select lines from the trailers. Thank you. Fortunately for us, all these species exist in one isolated place. What could go wrong? Here's another one. No one's dumb enough to go where we're going. Great. The worst of the worst. We're left here. And finally...

We put ourselves in a place we don't belong.

This is just like great. And I, so technically this is a sequel to Jurassic World Dominion, to be clear, not a movie I've seen. And the fourth Jurassic World movie, I saw it the first one and I was like, I don't really need to be seeing the rest of these movies. It's technically a part of that, but it's a whole new cast. And so it feels like a reset in a number of respects. The new cast, the new dinos, this new location, the word rebirth is just right there in the title, doing all of that clarification.

buying work for us. Like, I think that for people who have lapsed in their Jurassic fandom, it's exciting just the prospect of a bridge back in. So I'm, or a dinosaur into not only a renewed, rekindled fandom, but the gaping jaw of a genetically altered killing beast. I mean... It all sounds good.

It all sounds possible. It all sounds possible to me. One glaring error. We have forgotten to mention Mahershala Ali, who, of course, we are extremely thrilled is in this movie. And also if I... Superstar. Does Mahershala survive?

He's in the thick of a lot of the action in the trailers, which is always concerning. But I would love for Mahershala's character to make it out. That would be great. It would be great. That would be great. Really hope this movie is fun. Maybe Scar Jo dies and Mahershala lives. I mean, it doesn't have to be one person, but I kind of prefer it if it were just one person. I think that would be really fun. Because I feel like, I don't know.

All the leads make it out. I guess that's true of the original Jurassic Park. Anyway, Jurassic World Rebirth is my number eight on this list. Love it. What's your number eight? My number eight. Yeah. My number eight is a book.

By R.F. Kuang? Yeah, Calabasas. Is that how it's pronounced? Yeah. It's like Calabasas, California, but it's Calabasas. So that's what I thought. I have watched many videos of people talking about this. Great. Fantastic. Hobbitsanddragons.gmail.com. If all of the videos I've watched about this have led me astray and everyone's mispronouncing it, what did you think it was? Well, I will say it's just like in terms of the word, not the book title, but the word as like a...

Ancient Greek term for, you know, a hero's descent into the underworld. Yeah. Seems like some of the pronunciation guides go with a little bit more of a, a cuh? C-c-c-catabasis? Catabasis? Oh, catabasis. I don't know. Catabasis. I was just like, I really hope Joanna has it.

I believe it is. I believe it is catamasses, but please do. That is my inclination is to pronounce it that way. I have this much higher, which means we'll talk about it a little later. Great. Okay. Great. I can't wait for this fucking book. Can't wait to talk about it with you today. Can't wait for this book. We will talk about it whenever we get to it on your list. Do you have it at number? I'm just going to guess four. We'll find out. Very close. Okay. Okay. Number seven. What's your number seven?

Squid Game? You have it higher? I do. Okay. Your number seven? Not much higher, but I do have it higher. My number seven is Eyes of Wakanda. The four-episode animated miniseries coming on August 6th on our old friend Disney Palouse, as Andy Greenwald likes to say. I really like Marvel animation. I like this era of Marvel animation. You know, we loved X-Men 97. What if, I think, has...

The quality has varied over the course of the seasons, but at its peak, at its highs, it's been quite good and quite fun. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was, I thought, pretty entertaining. What's interesting is that this is being positioned as formally part of Phase 6 in the MCU continuity, which is a little bit different from how Marvel Animation has been deployed before as outside of the MCU.

sacred timeline, multiverse saga continuity. So I'm just like sort of curious from a story perspective what that means in terms of like what the plot focuses on, which characters are here, and how actively connected it feels to any other stories that are coming versus more just like it's...

set in the continuity and it's formally part of the phase. Our beloved sea snake is here. Steve Toussaint in the voice cast for this, so that's thrilling. Created by Todd Harris. This is, as we've talked about before, developed and EP'd by Ryan Coogler's Proximity Media as part of that deal. And yeah,

We've barely seen anything of this, that larger collection of coming soon Marvel previews. There was like a...

you know, 11 seconds or something, a little snapshot, but the animation looks really lovely. And, you know, the fact that it's a four episode miniseries and a contained story makes me like pretty excited about what they might be focusing on in the story. I'm just like really intrigued. And I think the overall hit rate for Marvel animation in recent years has actually been pretty high. So I'm looking forward to this show on August 6th. Great. What is your number six? Is that where we are?

I know you don't have my number six on your list. I'm certain. Okay. What's your number six? Alien colon Earth? I have this higher. What a twist. I thought you would have that higher than I did. Interesting. My number six is not on your list. I'm just, I'm certain. Peacemaker season two. It is not.

I love this show. In honor of you and your love of Eagly, I'm excited. I knew you would have it, so I'm excited to hear you celebrate it. Thank you. Peacemaker season two comes out on HBO Max on August 21st, which is, if I counted correctly, and for those counting at home, three and a half years after season one.

Three and a half years, I believe, after season one, which is obviously not normal. I mean, it is increasingly normal, actually, in this era. And, you know, obviously it has a lot to do with James Gunn and the larger DC reset. What has he been up to? Well, we're going to stay tuned later in the podcast. We might get to some of that. It could come up. Who knows?

I really liked season one of the show. I was, I had pretty like moderate expectations for it, but I just thought it was very entertaining week to week. And as is often the case in a gun story, had a very intentional and then fully realized sense of self. It, the 11th street kids, this collection of misfits, obviously collection of misfits is something, is an area where gun loves to dabble. And this particular collection of misfits, the 11th street kids, just total misfits.

dipshit, violent maniacs, and they're a blast to watch. When it comes to misfits, do you prefer them ragtag or can you take or leave the rag and the tag? Like, how do you... It's a great question. I do love a ragtag group of misfits. Let me tell you what else I love.

Freddie Stroma's Vigilante, which I think is just one of the most inspired character renderings and performances in the history of television. It's wonderful. But of course, even Vigilante has to get in line behind Eagly, the true genuine breakout star of season one of Peacemaker. This is sort of like being positioned season two as a

To what extent, we actually don't know, but as a soft-ish reboot of the series so that it can fit into the new DCU continuity under the Gunverse. So there might be some stuff that actually doesn't connect fully between Seasons 1 and Season 2 so that it can now be a part of the new continuity moving forward. So I'm kind of curious to see how that feels and how that goes. Gunn told Entertainment Weekly that Season 2 is, quote, very much connected to Superman.

And it's very much connected to what comes after. Smart. Which is like must-see TV. It's a great way to, yeah, make sure people feel like they have to watch. Kind of puzzling conceptually, but then like, you know, you watch the trailers for these things, like Guy Gardner, the Hawkgirl, Maxwell Lord, they're just like here, right? In both properties. So you start to see the connections already. The quantum unfolding chamber from season one, Gunn has said is in Superman. Interesting to think about that. On the new front,

Let me say this is just... James Gunn, you absolute maniac. You're not going to dupe me into watching Peacemaker season one just to... He might not, but I might. Just to understand a freaking device in your Superman movie. I'm not doing it. I think when I didn't get you to participate in season one by telling you that at one point the titular Peacemaker...

sang basically impromptu karaoke in his underwear using a vibrator as a microphone, the ship probably sailed. I think we weren't going to get you if we didn't get you then. And you know what? So it goes. The much lauded dance sequence at the beginning of the opening here? Yeah, there's a new one apparently. New one coming. New one coming. So it could be that. It could be that that gets you. Sure. Uh...

On the new things, not only the new opening music and dance number, but listen, we got to talk about this. Van and I basically had like a shared, holy shit, I'm actually scared moment in the Ring of Verse group chat when we learned about this. That Michael Rooker is joining the cast. James Gunn has his favorites. Thrilling to see him here. He's playing Red Saint Wild. Okay, wonderful. Here's where it gets worrying. Uh-huh.

An eagle hunter. Oh, no. Who is being positioned as Eagly's nemesis and is seeking to kill Eagly. And let me just say this. No. Spoiler for season one, Eagly suffered some serious injuries at some point, and it was actually, like, traumatizing to watch. And I don't know if I can handle that. James Gunn would do that. He's never made us watch animals suffer before in any of his prior installments. Huh.

I'm also thrilled to tell you that Frank Grillo, Hart Jessup himself, one of the most important figures in the long tapestry of my life, is here as Rick Flagg Sr. seeking vengeance against Peacemaker for what Peacemaker did in Suicide Squad 2. A film I did see. Rick Flagg Jr. So it's all here. It's all happening. You know, it's never too late, Jo. It's never too late to discover the joy of watching Eagly and Vigilante. Just think about it. No pressure. I'll think about it.

about it long and hard. Okay, my number five is a book from R.F. Kuang called Possibly Catabasis or Catabasis.

Just definitely feeling it should be the first one there. Cotovices? I can't wait for this. Okay. So, remind me. Did you read Babel? Babel? No. That's another one. People like to pronounce it either. I've heard it both ways. Babel or Babel. Yeah, I say Babel. I say Babel. Depend it. This is August 26th. August 26th. Okay. Do I love a magic school? Poppy War Trilogy. Mm-hmm.

Fable or Babel. Mm-hmm. Yellowface. Yellowface, yep. RF Kuang has just been like crushing it across her writing career. Yellowface is like a sort of departure from her fantasy work into literary fiction. Really, really good scathing takedown of the publishing industry. Has returned home with another sort of like Babel in the world of dark academia story. Yeah.

about two enemies to lovers, potentially, students, who go to hell to rescue the soul of their academic advisor. Yes. So that, as we understand it based on the premise, they can get a letter of recommendation. Yeah. These are perhaps not great people, but R.M. Pong is really good at this. I was watching a...

a clip where she was talking about like the likability of her protagonist. And she's like, it's not my job to prove the moral clarity of a character to you. I just need to make them interesting. Like that's, that's the succession rule. I love it. Yeah, exactly. I love that. So Katabasis or Katabasis or however you want to pronounce it is, is a, like, it's a journey to the underworld. It's a, it's a story. It's Orpheus and Eurydice. It's like, you know, a dozen of different stories that we read. We, we talked about this

We did a tropes course on portal world stories, and we decided that Journeys to the Underworld did not count under the umbrella we were using because it's its own thing that has its own fancy, perhaps unpronounceable Greek name. So that is what we were dealing with here. And here's what I love about this. Okay, so it reminds me – the premise reminds me a bit of, like, some of the really fun sections of Leigh Bardugo's book, Hellbent. Yeah.

I've heard comparisons to Susanna Clark's Piranesi, which was a book I really, really loved. That was exciting to see. Yeah.

But what I love is it's got, like, the book talk girlies are like, I went out and I picked up Euripides and Virgil and Homer because I hear I should read these to get ready for Arfkwang's new book. And I'm like, yes! I have been sort of scouring the early reviews from people who got Arcs to see what they thought. And it's so hard because there's, you know, taste is widely varied, obviously. But...

The biggest complaint I saw from people who didn't really like it is there was too much mythological exposition. Oh, that's not going to be a problem for us. That's a fastball down the middle, baby. Let's go. That sounds wonderful to me. So basically, Ah Pong took all of this...

You know, it's similar to when Toni Garo is like, hey, I studied revolutions and rebellions for years and then I made a Star Wars movie. She's like, I've studied the underworlds and mythology of the underworlds. And I have crammed it all into this adventure. And I am, I'm really excited for this. August 26th. I can't wait. Using magic guided by myth. Yeah.

This is another version of lesbian vampires. It's like, what do we really need to know? Magic school into underworld? We're pretty much set. Yeah, I can't wait for this. I was watching a New York Times books video on the most anticipated books of the summer, all of which sounded interesting and fun, by the way. But when they got to this, I was just like,

I feel like my heartbeat rising. It's like, let's go. Should we do a book club? That sounds great. Yeah. Okay. That sounds great. I sent it to my book club right away and multiple people were like, can you tell me what's in the video? I was like, guys, consume the content. It's going to be a doorstopper. Both of the books that we've mentioned so far are doorstoppers. They're not like easy breezy summer reads, but I don't know. I will say having read...

Fairy of Bones and the Midnight Soil over just because I got the ARC months ago I sort of read it slowly over months like anytime I went to a pool I brought it like it was just like something I just got to marinate in for a really long time and I really enjoyed that so I don't know I might be in my doorstopper era but I'm excited I'm really excited for this book yeah I can't wait love a book club sounds like we've added something to our summer slate and I'm thrilled thrilled that's your number five okay my number five is Squid Game Squid Game season three Squid Game three June 27th soon

June 27th. You had this at 7. Okay, so you've got it at 7. I've got it at 5. Yeah, we had slightly different experiences with the first half of the season. You were much higher on it than I was. So tell me why you're excited for this conclusion. So, yeah, I think I enjoyed...

two slash part one, which is I think part of the reason why, you know, it didn't have the same impact for some people that obviously season one, which is like a, just, you know, we can't overstate like a phenomenon of historic proportions, but I still, and I did not think season two was as good or as memorable as season one. However, I still just found it. I don't know the,

the world is so fully realized and specific. I think the performances are, are great. The blend of, um, social commentary, political commentary, uh, genre exploration and experimentation, uh, aggressive violence and horror, but with like a whimsy, I just like totally always really enjoy the show. It's just so like unique to me. Um,

even though it obviously connects to other tropes and other worlds, like we talked about on the Big Pig Draft, Battle Royale, and the way you feel that energy and so much of the storytelling that has come in its wake. This is being positioned, whether anybody believes this or not is, I guess, up to them. It's being positioned as the end, right? As the final season. So to know how...

Player four, five, six, the story ends. How does the front man's story end? Like, I'm actually, I do feel like- Will they? Won't they? Will they? Won't they? Exactly.

I feel like I'm really invested in knowing what happens to these characters. I thought that in terms of season two, the return, the undercover infiltration, the uprising, those aspects were compelling to me. In terms of just what we've been able to glimpse in the trailers for season three so far, I'm like, fuck yeah. Bring back those freaky VIPs.

I, with their voyeuristic hard-ons and their weird masks, like, I need that kind of, like, weirdness back in Squid Game. Yeah. You love a voyeuristic hard-on. I do. I do. Exactly. It's true. The baby crying at the end of the trailer, just, you know, a great touch for anyone who watched season two and is like, I am really wondering what's happening with that pregnancy. Yeah. Uh,

curious but terrified to see how that all plays out and you know i think the biggest thing in addition to just having like slightly higher hopes for this final act than uh for season two is just like that it feels like a notable moment in terms of a meaningful shared experience over the last few years because of like how impactful like what a zeitgeist animating rare bit of monoculture experience season one was and i'm sort of just like those things are so so

so rare now. And when they're here, they're increasingly really fleeting. Like, it just doesn't last. And you could say that is even true about Squid Game, right? In terms of the difference between the experience around season and the conversation level around season one and season two. So I'm kind of like, even just the mere prospect of...

Maybe rediscovering that and reanimating it for the end is like really exciting to me. And I, my hope would be that that happened and people were like, oh, I want to know how squid game ends. And like, I got to see it. I got to watch it soon. I got to wait. I got, I got to be there at the beginning and like hear about it and talk about it with people like when the binge drops. So that's my hope at six episodes too. So it's like, it does actually feel like people can just like watch this in a day.

Definitely just one final season that they split up, which is just forever going to irritate me. But that being said, I'm excited to cover this with you. We are doing this, I think, over the course of two pods. We're going to split it over two pods. So we are definitely covering this here. Rob and I had covered it over in The Prestige. But if you're like, hey, we're going to cover it in House of Art, the final chapter. Yes. We covered this the first season together. We did. It was one of the very early things –

that we covered. Early days. You had just started. Yeah, I had just started. So it's suitable that we would end this journey together. But yeah, I mean, I think the reason that I'm more optimistic about this than I would otherwise be is this sense of an ending. Like whether or not

The show continues. I think this, I think the creator kind of wants to be done. Whether or not Netflix does more with this property as they have tried to do with like the reality show and like all the other things that they've done, we'll see. But I think this is going to be, you know, Li Zhengzhe is going to be done. I think like, you know, this, this element of the story is going to be wrapped up. Maybe they'll do prequels. Like, you know, like the Hunger Games is currently just like mining territory of prequels. You know what I mean? But like,

I'm so that idea of the promise of finality of a sense of an ending that is, that is alluring to me. So yeah, it's a great game. You and me, baby. Can't wait. Gotta get, gotta get, gotta like get geared up, man. We're like, it's a matching. It seemed like it was so far in the future. And here you just said the date. I was like, I got some rewatching to do. Okay. Oh man. Uh, where does that take us to your number four? It's Zom time. This is where I have this too. Zombies 20 years later. Yeah.

We've done vampires. Can't wait. We've done dinosaurs. We've done all sorts of things. Now we're doing zombies. Yes. Jack O'Connell, who I've always loved, but even more people seem invested in Jack O'Connell since his incredible turn in Sinners. Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Ralph Fiennes, basically doing like a Chris Eccleston. And Jodie Comer. Incredible cast. Phenomenal cast.

28 Days Later is one of my favorite, like... Classic. One of my favorite movies. Was for a very long time unavailable to stream, so it became this sort of, like, weird, I have the DVD over there. I have recently seen the physical media collection in your house, so I am certain that you and Adam have a copy. Yeah, I had a whole, like, spiel from him last night about... I guess there's some, like... There's some drama around the...

transfer and the quality on the he's got he's got takes and thoughts he's got takes and I am not informed enough to comment on that but we do we do have the media we should note that 28 years later which was you know sort of one of the first uh or 28 days later which is one of the first like digital films does look like it was filmed on a shoe so I don't know that I'm like overly I think that's the source of the like can it be viewed the way it's intended to be viewed if it's like

But I might be mischaracterizing what he was very ready to talk about. I am less ready. Yeah. And send us, send your screed. June 20th. Dude, this is in a week. In a week. We're like, there's nothing coming out.

Okay. Fire up the Squid Game binge watch on one screen and then the 28 Days Later rewatch on, I guess, 28 weeks later, I suppose. Okay. Anyway, 28 years later, I'm really excited for this. I don't love all zombie media. It's not my top tier favorite, but this world is one of my faves. And it's just a great cast. Just a real phenomenal. The cast is incredible, you know.

to know that there's another opportunity to talk about Craven the Hunter. What a joy, what a gift. Right. You know, you and some of the other people closest to me like to lovingly, gently mock me for my, my tendency to sometimes say this is my favorite thing. And I say that about 400 different things. Ray Fines is. Oh, I know. My actual favorite though. Like genuine number one. You can't sit. Harrison Ford is your number one. It's, it's,

They're the top two. Okay. It's different. It's a different kind of... Listen, Harrison Ford, American version, Ray Fines, UK version. Those are your top two. There you go. Domestic, international. You're allowed. Share top two. But if you try to introduce anyone else to your number one, I'm going to call bullshit. You are allowed to spot that. I'm sure at some point I've said, Colin Firth is the greatest love of my life. Like, without question, I've said that at some point. But what's your... Assuming it's not...

Lord Voldemort. What is your number one? He was a big part of my life well before that. No, no, no, I know, I know. Constance Gardner, probably, like, in terms of how hot he is or just the performance? Yeah.

I don't know. However you choose to define your... You know, it's all central canon to me. Like, I really love... I love Quiz Show. I love Constance Gardner. I love English Patient. I love End of the Affair. Like, just all of it, honestly. His entire filmography. You do love End of the Affair. Yeah, I do. I really do. I know that about you. Love the book, love the movie. Yeah. I mean, there's a really, like...

There's just a very, if memory serves, and I think in this case it probably does, there's just a very meaningful moment in a sex scene in that movie where he just like really moves his hand down to like, it's just, it's just very, it was just really formative. To guide a missile? Is that what we're doing? Exactly. Cinema. He's great. I can't wait to see him. He's having such a run of like doing weird shit. I love it. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, we are really in a little bit of our post-apocalyptic tale of the infected era here, you know, on House of R. So that's fun. Yeah. That's fun. I thought the first trailer that came out for this movie was like on the possible hyperbole, possibly. I mean, at front, one of the best trailers I've ever seen for a movie. The way that they use the voiceover of Rudyard Kipling's boots over the trailer. Mm-hmm.

I just thought mesmerizing. It was incredible. Like, I just... It was so fucking good. So I am excited to rewatch the first two films. I can't wait to go see this movie. We don't know exactly how we'll be talking about it yet, but we will be doing it in some form. And... We haven't mentioned that... I don't think we've underlined the fact that, like...

you know, this is Danny Boyle and Alex Garland. Yes. Back the original creators. I love Alex Garland, even when it gets like super weird. And this is just a more like straightforward version of Alex Garland. Um, refines for me, um,

He played Heathcliff. Yeah, he did. That's very memorable. In a very memorable way. Very important. That I will never get over, I think, in my lifetime. Incredibly special and necessary, honestly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's the best. Oscar and Lucinda, also very, very special to me. Okay. I'm Manhattan. I'm Manhattan.

I feel like we should do like a Ralph Fiennes celebration, call it One Fine Day, and figure out how to justify it being on House of R. I'll work on it. I think you just did. I think you just did justify it. Okay, we'll do the original Avengers movie. Yeah. We'll do Sunshine. That's genre. Yeah, the genre film. I mean, as you noted, he did play Lord Voldemort. Oh, did he? Okay.

I forgot. All right. How lies have fed your legend, Harry. Okay. Next, we're on number three. Number three. This is where I have Alien Earth. Okay. I believe you have mine higher and mine is Superman. Okay. That's fine. That's fair. That's fair to put it at number three. Yeah.

I was like, where is Joe going to have Superman? It's very fair. It's much higher than I've been placing it in my heart. Yes. I have it higher, so we'll wait to talk about that. But let's talk about Alien Earth, which is coming August 12th. FX and Hulu, eight episodes, double-up premiere, right? The new trend, the new favorite move. So we'll have two episodes in early August. And I guess this is my summer of horror, Jo. I guess so. I mean, 28 years later, Alien Earth, these are like sci-fi.

Horror? Tales? Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Yes. There you go. If it's a zombie, an alien, a dinosaur, a vampire, I can handle it. Just not a human going stabby-stabby. Not fishhook killers. Got it. But if it's in like a John Wick movie and people are stabbing each other, I'm fine. Fair enough. Fair enough. All right. There you go. Tell me why you're excited for

Alien Earth from Noah Hawley. Noah Hawley, whose work I almost entirely enjoy. I'm a huge Fargo fan, obviously. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion. Legion.

I'm not prepared to declare him my number one, but he's extremely close, if not. You know what I mean? He's very top tier. Are you prepared to give us some early Timmy O Alien Earth hair takes today? Oh, I'm pro. I'm quite pro, actually. I'm really into it. Great. This was like maybe the number one thing I've ever been tagged in, which was when the first image of him was released. And a lot of people needed to know what I thought of the hair. And I'm into it. I'm really into it. That's great. Great news. Uh...

As someone who, like, loves one of my favorite scenes in the Alien franchise is Michael Fassbender bleaching his hair in Prometheus as he watches Lawrence of Arabia. It's really, really good cinema. Yeah.

Alex Lothar. I mean, Nemec's here, guys. Nemec himself. What more do we need? This is thrilling. Essie Davis, who I love, who's, you know, whether it's in the Babadook or Game of Thrones, always, always a good time. So, like, I am excited about this. You really like the Alien franchise. I do. Which is something I didn't know until recently. Yeah, I do. Why do you think it slipped through sort of your I don't do horror thing?

I think for me, my tolerance, even when I was younger and really like genuinely pretty cautious about things that might scare me and like disturb my sleep or make me afraid to walk into a dark room alone. Like I really like struggled with that stuff when I was a kid. As I've mentioned before, I think it has a lot to do with my good, my neighbor, my good friend's older brother making us watch child's play when I was seven, which just really fucked me up for quite a while. I will tell you this. I have never seen a child's play movie and I am okay.

It was so disturbing to me when I was a kid that I couldn't walk past a VHS cover with Chucky on it in a Blockbuster or Hollywood video without having a meltdown for years. But all that said, I think, like, I don't know, just something that is, like...

Action-adventure, sci-fi, space opera, like, the framings and the context for it made it less, just made it less scary to me. So even though it is scary and intense and heart-pounding and the suspense, you know, like, even just that, like, you know, no space, no dream concept, terrifying, but just something about it

Was easier for me to like, I think I didn't think it would scare me as much as so that it didn't. It's like so much of this stuff is like psychological with horror, right? At least for me and probably for most people. How much of that do you think was because of Jonesy the cat? That's a great question. I mean, it's a great question. You know, could go either way because that's a very like a welcoming, comforting thing, but also then another thing to be scared about.

So I have a lot to reflect on. Just the cat die.com. Yeah. Remind me, did you see Alien Romulus? Yes. Yes. I, as I think on the did the cat die front have mentioned to you before, I like, what was the night of with the cat, the great orange tabby, like couldn't finish the show without to

until Chris responded to my text to tell me if the cat would be okay. So that's a real source of anxiety for me in life in general. Anyway, yeah, I just, I love the franchise. You know, I remember like when Prometheus was coming out, that was like a day one at the theater thing for me. So I'm, I'm excited. I thought that the, the, the way that they've marketed this show so far, really appealing that, you know, we've gotten like more traditional trailers. There was a great trailer a week ago that

I think it was the first trailer, maybe not, but one of the earlier trailers, the gestation one, that was basically three minutes of watching the birthing process and the arrival. Like, so good. I have one, and as you know, I'm like a huge FX fan. I love most everything that they put out. I think they are fantastic.

The best of the best. With love and respect to my pals at FX, here's a note that I have for trailers. The most recent Alien Earth trailer had, like, several chyrons of, like, locations and dates. And I'm like... Mm-hmm.

I actually don't think you need chyrons in a trailer. Yeah. I don't think I need that. Yeah. Totally fair. Maybe one, but not multiple. Do you know? Do you in general absorb text in a trailer? Like on first viewing? Well, here's the deal. We have very different relationships with trailers, you and I. You're a trailer fiend. I love it. And I love that about you. I fucking love a trailer. And I'm making...

I don't always love to watch... I will watch it for work and stuff like that, but I don't always love to watch a trailer because I do like sometimes going in as fresh as possible and I feel like... No, honestly. It depends on the content. Like, I know. I understand what you're saying. I understand what the face to your face is making.

depends on the thing and it's like oh no I'm serious I'm serious no I know if I have an opportunity to see something like if I'm going to see it in a press screening I'm going to get screeners for this so I'm going to see Alien Earth before a

other people are going to see it and so i might just go in fresh right you know and then i will have seen more than other people see when they first watch it so i will be like yeah ahead of in my prep but for my own first time experience it will be fresh does that make sense totally i think that the the school of like thought that trailers just give away too much and then you hit the moment either like then you know too much or you hit a moment you're like oh like that's

Didn't land as well as it did in the trailer. Completely valid. I like... Yeah, I don't know why I've become... At some point... This is like dating back to college. Yeah. I just... You wanted to do a podcast episode this summer that was all about trailers. The best trailers. And I'd be like, I'm not sure. Because I... And it's funny because I do think that my obsession with trailers and a pre... Because I consider trailers like an art form on their own. And that does, if I'm being honest...

and maybe even often lead to me being disappointed. Yeah.

I've gotten myself so wiped by the trailer, which is this masterpiece, this finely crafted and curated masterpiece that is literally designed to amplify my anticipation. And then I'm like, this was fine. So maybe I should stop doing that to myself. But then at the end of the day, I'm like, you know what? At least we had the trailers. At least we had the trailers. Remember how good the Boba Fett trailers were? Let's fucking go. How dare you invoke Boba Fett?

Oh, God. Alien Earth. Can't wait. This is also pretty soon. I mean, August is further away than June 20th, but it'll be here before we know it. Thrilling. Time for my number two? I think based on the list, we have the same number two. Oh, no. This might be your number one. No. Yeah. Oh, interesting. Okay. What do you have at number two? Because I know what you have left. Yeah. So my two is your one and your three is my one. What's your two?

Yeah, it's something you don't have. Tell me. Oh, I know what it is. Yeah. Star Trek. Star Trek, Strange New Worlds, season three. Of course. What's wrong with me? July 17th. Of course. Star Trek, Strange New Worlds, season three. I just want to let you know. I haven't watched them yet, but I do have the screeners for the season. The day that they hit my inbox from the Paramount marketing team, which was, I don't know, like two weeks ago, something like that.

My first thought was Ben Lindbergh. And then immediately I had an email in my inbox from Ben Lindbergh that was like, happy days are here again. Like, we're so excited. Thrilling. For Star Trek Stranger World Season 3. I was out at like a pub trivia night recently where I met a couple of like hardcore Trekkies. Who are you going to find at a pub trivia night? Trekkies, perhaps. And all of us agreed that Star Trek Stranger World is like the best Trek we've seen in so long.

I've sung the praises of this show. Like, I don't know how many times I can. I probably can't sell you if I haven't already sold you on this show. I just want to let you know that it continues to be phenomenal. I do want to watch this at some point. I'm not... This is not like a... I was last talking to you because I know I have an agent inside your house, which is Adam. Adam fucking loves this show. I know that we will get you eventually. I sort of met more of the listeners who have heard me bang this drum a million times and they're like, yada, yada, yada, Star Trek, I stopped listening. I'm just...

It's a great show, and you're doing yourself a disservice if you're not watching it. It's a 10-episode season, as the previous seasons have been. Jonathan Frakes, who played Riker in Next Generation, is back to direct an episode. He directed a phenomenal episode of the previous season. I don't know anything about, like, because last season they did a couple really cool trick episodes. Like, they did this incredible music episode. They did an incredible episode where they brought characters from lower decks in.

so animated characters from their animated show, Lower Decks, into their live action show. So Jack Quaid was playing...

the animated character that he plays in Lower Decks and like it was so it should not have worked but it really really worked in terms of like it was believably grounded in reality but like enough of like a funky physicality that you're like yeah that's Boimler like I can see it so like they're really interested in doing these like really fun thematic episodes I'm really excited to see what they do in season three they usually do like a really good blend as the best the season does the show does with like

like wackiness and then like hardcore angst or thrilling action, a little bit of space horror, all that sort of stuff. The end of season two, spoilers for Star Trek, because this is a prequel to the original series. Spock is already here. Uh, who was already here? Kirk is already, Kirk joined the show. Now Kirk is here as like a recurring, uh,

Scotty joined at the end of... There was, like, a surprise at the end of season three. They, like, find him on a planet, and it was, like, Scotty's here. So, like, we're slowly amassing the original series team together. I'm excited to see who we add in season three, and I just love the show. Carol Kane is on this show. It's just, like, I just...

I can't praise it enough. I don't know what to say that I haven't already said to get people to watch this Star Trek show, but if you have Paramount and you're just sort of like, maybe I already watched all the Taylor Sheridan shows, like, why not check out Strange New Worlds? There is always another Taylor Sheridan show to watch, but also check out Strange New Worlds. Am I remembering correctly that Hot Bank Robber from Daredevil, Devlin, is in this season? Yes. Yes. Great news. Yes.

He was very interesting to me. Yeah. I had a happy moment where when I was like assembling some titles for, um,

honorable mentions that like are not things I watch or didn't make my top 10 but feel notable and then I realized that the show that I know you love so much was coming out in the short order here and I was like what a time to be Jo this is great I'm very excited I'm very very excited for it yeah I can't wait to watch this one day you're gonna love it you're gonna really love it I have no doubt genuinely no doubt it's just really fun they did like a really fun like sort of

comic swap episode. I don't know. I don't know how to describe it. It's just like they did like an alternate timeline episode. You know, they're just like, they just love playing inside the world of genre storytelling possibilities. And they're really, really expert at it. So I will say, this is the last thing I will say for people who have not, who are like, I never want to watch Star Trek show. If you really liked Star Trek,

The book's great, but the TV show The Magicians, it reminds me a lot of that in terms of like The Magicians was a TV show that was made by people who love genre television and spend a lot of time inside of genre television and just like love to play inside of the opportunities of, yes, Mallory's favorite, a magic school, but also just sort of like what can we do that is fun

fun and inventive and poignant and scary and sad and uplifting inside of genre storytelling. And Star Trek Strange New Worlds just really crushes it. Season three, very excited. Does anyone in Strange New Worlds turn into a fox and then fuck? Like in Magicians?

Not yet, but... No spoilers. Just give them all the ideas for season four. Since you mentioned this is a prequel, did we say that Alien Earth is a prequel? Did we say that? We should say that if we didn't say it. Maybe we did, but it is a prequel to the 79 film. I mean... The Alien... Probably, obviously, but... The Alien timeline is... Yeah, it's a little... Forever exciting and unusual. Yeah.

Okay. But Tim is playing a synthetic, and that's why I mentioned Michael Fassbender and the bleach hair. Bleach hair on a synthetic is something that I'm excited about. Great stuff. Yeah. All right. So the next two things to talk about are Fantastic Four and Superman. Correct. Yes. So I have as my number two, the Fantastic Four colon first steps. And I have as my number one, Superman. Yeah. You have as your number three.

Superman. And you're number one. Fantastic Four. Fantastic Four. What do you want to talk about first? Let's do Fantastic Four. And then we'll end with your love letter to the cape. I'm going to tell you, this is the closest I've ever come to flipping them. I mean...

Yeah. It's a complete, it is a complete coin flip to me. It's 1A and 1B. Like, to put Fantastic Four at two doesn't really feel fair because I, like, just cannot wait for both. So something we were hoping, let's talk about the Fantastic Four. Something we were hoping for with Fantastic Four First Steps is it's like we've been constantly asking this question of, like,

Is Marvel back, baby? Like, and what does back mean? And will we ever be back to what we were before? And all this sort of stuff like that. I loved Thunderbolts. Same. Thunderbolts is not being characterized as a success for Marvel. Because of box office performance. Because of box office performance. And...

I'm actually kind of devastated by that in a way that I haven't been about a reaction to. People being out on Marvel for various reasons is none of my business. This one, I was like, I actually think they really did it with Thunderbolts. I thought they did a great job with it. I really, really liked it, and it's disappointing to me. I worry that we'll get the wrong lessons and that only your Deadpools and Wolverines...

or your Spider-Man No Way Home or whatever is, you know, is going to work and not your Thunderbolts. And that's not the lesson I necessarily want people at Marvel to take away. Fantastic Four. So what we expected was that Fantastic Four First Steps

was hopefully going to come after a successful Thunderbolt. So it's like, okay, Captain America debuts. It's, it's, we were worried about it. Didn't do very well, but we were like, okay, we'll do Thunderbolt. We'll, we'll have the Daredevil TV show and people will like it. Mixed bag. We'll have Thunderbolts and people will like it. Mixed bag, even though we really liked it. And then we'll be just zooming into Fantastic Four First Steps. That is not the ramp up that this movie is getting. It's getting a different introduction. Nonetheless,

The expectation has been that the introduction of the Fantastic Four, the eventual introduction in earnest of the mutants of the X-Men universe, that these are opportunities for Marvel to really sort of recapture, reanimate its audience. We could not be more excited about this cast. Pedro Pascal, of course, is...

I don't know, the biggest star in the world right now, according to my Instagram reel. I was going to say, certainly the biggest star in our mutual or our respective Instagram algorithms. It's like all, my entire feed, all of it. It's like Oriol Highlights and Pedro. A member of Mallory Rubin's harem, Vanessa Kirby. My wife. No, you can't say that because Rachel Brosnahan is also your wife. So it has to be a harem, does it not? It does have to be a harem. Yeah. She will be referred to in mere moments as my wife as well. Yeah.

We've recently discussed my wife, Rebecca Ferguson. You can have them both. You can have a harem of ladies. I'm just, I'm just great. You know, I just want these ladies to know they're not special. There's just like, they're all, they are special. It's just that they're all special. Okay. Is that how that works? All right. Pedro Pascal, a top tier member of Mallory's harem, Vanessa Kirby, Joe Quinn,

Eddie Munson himself. You saw that Eddie Munson's on the poster for Stranger Things final season. Hellfire, Hive, Rise. And then the aforementioned Emma Moss Bacharach. Yeah. Of course. And or fame and...

The bear fame and girls fame. Yeah, John Malkovich's baffling accent is here. Just like a lot of things. We talked about the trailer already. We spent a lot of time talking about the theme of family and also Herbie. Since we did our trailer breakdown, they're like, Franklin Richards confirmed. This is just out there now. Yeah. This is like, they're not hiding this anymore, which they were for a little while, and now they're not. So that's like, and it's just an incredibly meaningful thing.

Tell me what it means to you. Just a huge character to have, like, formally in the MCU at this point. Obviously, the Fantastic Four in general, but to know that Franklin Richards is going to be in this movie as a baby and then in the continuity moving forward, huge. I've enjoyed all the trailers. I think the, like, as we talked about, we've talked about this movie. I

I was trying to think. I was like, have we talked about this movie more than any movie that hasn't come out? Ad nauseum. We, you know, the hype draft, the trailer breakdown pod, the Thunderbolt stinger, spoiler, just our state of Marvel conversations, all of it. It's come up so much. But, like, all that's done is amplify my excitement for it. I think, though, as we've discussed many times, the retro-futurist vibe on their Earth, that thematic emphasis on family, the...

This post-origin story, they are established celebs, the biggest deal in their universe. Time frame focus, but still clearly finding a way to move in and out of time creatively to tell us what we need to know, the specter of doom. You know, I'm intrigued. We talked about this a little bit when we discussed the...

thunderbolts. I'm interested to see what the, you know, we know these characters are in Doomsday. We know they're going to be in Secret Wars. I'm interested to see if this, what is just a clear inevitable they are leaving their earth to join this wider story known thing does, if that saps anything about the experience of watching the story unfold. But at the end of the day, we don't know

all of the particulars yet. I don't know that it does for me. I think it can all depend. Like, we've talked about this a lot in a prequel space with something like Andor, where it's like, okay, we know where some of these characters are headed. Does that diminish anything? No, it almost, like, amplifies it. I'm about to say something that's perhaps completely counterintuitive to the fact that I have this as number one on my House of R Summer Hype meter draft. I kind of want to just sort of, like,

absolve the Fantastic Four first steps from the responsibility of like resuscitating the MCU. I want... I'm like so excited personally for this movie. I want it to not have the responsibility of like bringing audiences back or anything like that because like, yes, Fantastic Four is a huge aspect of the comic book world, but for the wider audience, you know...

People who aren't as familiar with comic books, they've experienced a couple subpar Fantastic Four movies. Are they necessarily that excited? Hopefully they're really excited for Pedro Pascal. Hopefully they love Eddie Munson. Hopefully they love The Crown or The Mission Impossible. Hopefully they love The Bear. Hopefully they're like, Matt Shackman, who's that? Oh, he did WandaVision. That ruled. So I hope people enjoy this. I think we're going to like it. This is just really definitely for us.

And I think I'm going to try to talk myself into not needing it to be any more than that. Something that we enjoy. Yeah. And I feel confident that we will. It's coming out Comic-Con weekend. July 25th, baby. Very exciting. Couple weeks after Superman. Big July. San Diego Comic-Con. All right, Superman. July 11th. James Gunn. The grand beginning of the James Gunn DCU era. Yeah.

We'll keep it simple. Nick Holt, as you already mentioned, as Lex Luthor. It's genuine, like, I have no notes stuff for both of us. Genuinely, that's it for me. Rachel Brosnan is Lois Lane. It's I have no notes. Nick Holt as...

Nick Holt as Lex Luthor is not only whatever this means. Not only my, like, Twitter icon has been for a little while. But it's also the icon I put on our group chat of, like, the movie drafters. And no one changed it or left the group chat after. Exactly. Which is what sometimes happens. Some of our House of R faves are here, like,

debuting characters, right? So Isabella Merced, who we've just spent a great deal of time with, is Dina. Here's Hawkgirl. Millie Alcock, Supergirl, will be entering our lives. That's exciting. I already mentioned when talking about Peacemaker, Grillo, Rick Flagg Sr., Nathan Fillion, another one of my faves, is Guy Gardner. Like, just the how lucky am I that all of this is happening thing. As discussed, when I selected this number one overall in the hype draft, which I have to be frank, might doom the film based on...

How the other selections I've made are shaping up. What have your other number ones been? Well, I took Daredevil in the third round. I think it took Mission Impossible in the second. Is that, like, great? It's so funny.

But again, the hype draft is not about anticipating quality. It's just about success, even so. I did look back at that and I was like, I don't know. I don't think that's how we've ever read the results of that particular thing. The fact that Superman in this film has a super dog named Crypto is just one of the most exciting things that has ever transpired. I can't wait. I love James Gunn's movies. I am really energized about his DC movies.

era. I'm really kind of fascinated to see how his sensibilities as a filmmaker meld with Superman as a character. That is actually still to me a little bit of an open question. One that I am really excited about and very open to. I did not love the new trailer that came out this week. I gotta say. And I will say...

And I'm trying... I have it as number three because I'm trying to join you in your enthusiasm for this film. A film that I've been much more skeptical about just because of, again, that marriage of James Gunn and Superman. I don't know. But like...

I had heard some rumors about them not screening it for all of press, and that is certainly... So maybe that's not true. I'll let you guys know if that winds up being not true. But that is not a great sign. Could it be it's so good they don't need anybody to talk about it in advance? You know what? I'm sure that's it. I'm sure that's it. Could be that. Could be that.

Yeah. I hope this is great. I really do. That's the thing. I really do. When we frame things as hype and the hype meter, I'm kind of like, it would be so great for DC to be good. It would just be so great. Even though the most recent trailer was not my favorite trailer, I have enjoyed the prior trailers, and nothing at this point, a month out from the film,

Well, dampen my enthusiasm for it. I'm unwavering in my hype at this point. I'm committed. So 1A, 1B, Superman, Fantastic Four, Crypto, take us home to the hype. Like, if these movies are great, what a great summer it will be for the nerdverse. That would be awesome. I think to your point about what is...

What Fantastic Four is carrying on its shoulders, I mean, both of these movies are carrying a lot on their shoulders, obviously, and a lot of expectations not only for the films themselves, but the wider cinematic universes that they are a part of. So, yeah, it's got... It could be a dynamite summer of rekindled hype and hope, and it could be a lot of, like, boy, the narratives are churning, July, depending on how things go. I would like to recap...

The 2025 hype draft right now. Yeah. Did I, in fact, take Mission Impossible as my second round pick and Daredevil on the third? And then I had Squid Game and Paddington. People liked Paddington. They liked it, okay. People liked Paddington? They liked it, okay. I listened to that Big Pick episode. It sounded like they had the best movie ever made. Sean was like, Middington on the draft and then was like, this is the most important movie-going experience that my daughter and I have had. Oh, well, sure. As a father of daughters. Okay.

I have, number one, a show that everyone universally loves, The Last of Us Season 2. Yeah. I mean, Sean, this is like, we've had drafts with Runaways, but Sean, it's not even, it's, no? Wait for it. Number two, Wildwood, which is definitely not coming out, so that was a miss for me. And in real time, Sean was like, Joanna, this movie's not coming out. And I stuck to it anyways. Yes, it is.

Thunderbolts, which we liked a lot. Great film. Yeah. Mickey 17, which I liked a lot, but I would not call an unqualified success. And then here's my Ace in the Hole, Sinners. I took Sinners in my draft, which is... That's dynamite. You had a good draft. Okay. Yeah. Again...

The point of a hype draft is not to predict quality. It's just to anticipate joy. But that's wonderful. Ben Hameen Lindbergh. Ben did Grand Theft Auto in the second round. I remember that. Yeah. Stranger Things season five. Okay. Grand Theft Auto. Yeah, which is not coming out. Severance season two. Okay. 28 Years Later. Oh. Star Trek Strange New World season three.

Okay, so pretty good. Pretty good. And Sean had Andor first. I remember that. Sean has Andor. Then he took Night of the Seven Kingdoms to spite me and that's not coming out. Fantastic Four, Avatar, Alien Earth. He went to wound me at the expense of the calendar. Alien Earth is a...

That's a good pick. So we'll see. Wait, what was his third round before Avatar? Fantastic Four. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's pretty good. Whoa. We'll see. Why did that fall to the third round? What's wrong with us? Night of the Seven Kingdoms is not coming out. Yeah. And that's a ding. It is, for sure. I have something. You're the only one who has everything, everyone on your list is coming out this year. Well, look. Oh, fat lot of fat. Oh, my goodness. That did me.

have the strategy this year was to pick stuff that isn't coming out this year because then it can't be bad this year. You guys are all galaxy brained it. You're like, well, only one idiot is going to actually pick shit that comes out this year and isn't good. Anyway, I think so far who's winning so far

I just don't see how it can't be Sean with Andor. Well, Andor alone could carry this draft. It really depends. It's one of the best seasons of TV ever. I agree. Yeah. I really agree with you. If Stranger Things is a banger, and 20 years later is a banger, then Ben could be competitive. But it's going to be tough to beat Andor alone.

Full stop. But maybe Superman's going to be the best movie we've ever seen, and then you're back in the game. And what if Squid Game is just wonderful, and we'll just forget that Daredevil Born Again ever happened, or Mission Impossible hyphen, Mission colon impossible hyphen The Final Reckoning ever happened, you know? I was so proud when I took Mission Impossible. It felt like I won. I'm proud of Sinners. Sinners is a great pick. I think I did something with Sinners. I'm surprised Sinners fell that far. Hype Drafts are weird. It was not...

anticipated. Yeah. You know? You could have had it on a hype meter, though, previously when it had, like... I like vampires. I don't know what to tell you. Yeah, fair. They're great. Vampires rule, so... So, any honorable mentions before we wrap today that you would like to throw out there? To be honest with you, it was a little challenging for me to get to 10. There was a comic book series that I... I will say there's a comic book series that I had heard some good things about that I tried to...

Like, I checked out of the library and I read the first volume to try to get – I was not really feeling it. But people seem to really like Superpowers. It's not for me, but people seem to like it. So if you are looking for a comic book to read and you like The Wicked and the Divine, maybe Superpowers is something for you. Great. Here are a few other things that are coming out in this span of time. Tell me. How to Train Your Dragon is coming out in mere days. Tomorrow? Today? Today?

Live action remake of a 2010 animated classic. I remain very puzzled by the need to remake this as a live action film so quickly. Very puzzled, but maybe it'll be great. No need. Maybe it'll be great. I have a little plushy toothless elsewhere in my home. Big fan of How to Train Your Dragon. Do you know who's toothless? My cat is so toothless coated. And also she literally has had to have several teeth pulled out of her mouth. Sweet bug. Sweet bug. Sweet bug.

Video games. There's a new Donkey Kong coming. Donkey Kong Bonanza. July 17th. Switch 2 Hive Rise. Every now and then I say to Adam, like, I want to play this one with you. I said that about this. That's exciting. I will mention him.

That Foundation season three comes out in July. My experience with Foundation, as you know, is that every season I'm like, I'm back. And then I watch it and I'm like, eh. Yeah. But then I, but I see the marketing material featuring a shirtlessly pace and I'm like, they got me again. Out, there's an Outlander. Yeah. Spinoff coming up. It's like a prequel. Yeah. Blood of my, Outlander, colon, Blood of my Blood. Stars has been in my inbox about this. Yeah. Same. Yeah. I, I,

I watched the first few seasons of Outlander and really liked the show, and then my viewing lapsed at some point. I remember really regretting it when...

Benjamin, the aforementioned Benjamin Lindbergh wrote a piece for the ringer.com. What a great website that I'm forgetting the exact word for word headline. I could Google it right now. It would take me 30 seconds, but I'm not going to, it was basically, can a hand job bring you back to life? If memory serves. And I was like, I should not have stopped watching outlander. That's what I'm learning right now. Uh, will this be when I make my way back to the outlander universe? It's possible. Could sure. Uh, Wednesday, there's another Wednesday season.

Part one? The, the, these, these. Netflix. Why? Give me a break. Why? Oh, you know what? You know what I wanted to shout out? Night of the Living Cat. This is a crunchy old anime coming in July that, as I understand it, the premise is if you pet a cat, you turn into a cat. Sounds great. Can I go back in time to Netflix and, and, and Netflix, if you're listening, please lean in closer.

I understand what you're doing here in divvying up your seasons. You're trying to extend your subscribers across financial quarters. Do you know one way to do that? Release your fucking shows on a weekly basis and then people will say subscribe to your platform for more than one binge weekend. Mm-hmm.

You know, as far as I know, you're not exactly suffering. Plenty of people are subscribed to Netflix. But if this is what you need for people to keep the IV hooked in their arm, have you heard of the week-to-week model? And we might cover more of your shows. A three-part drop for the final season of Stranger Things. Dropping it in three parts but not doing it weekly is... And on holidays just to, you know...

Yeah. Do special things to our holiday season. Sounds like a great thing that I'm sure was Ted Sarandos' idea. We did it. Guys, anything we forgot that you're like, how fucking dare they? Yeah.

Carlos, Arjuna, John, speak now for I Rolled Your Piece. You guys covered it well. Two things I'll shout out. Another video game, Death Stranding 2, end of the month for all you Norman Reedus fans out there. And then another anime, Dandedon, season two, early July as well. It's a really, really popular one. Adam loves that. Great one. All right. Great one.

Thanks, Arjuna. A little hype meter. Thanks, Mallory. Thanks, Joanna. I'm excited. I'm so excited for our summer coverage plans. Me too. I am just now realizing how quickly I'm going to have to get caught back up on Squid Game. Very exciting.

And I'm excited to show you Buffy. And I'm excited for people to read vampire books and underworld books and spend time with superheroes and dinosaurs and time travel and all the other things that we're excited about to share with you all this summer. It's going to be just a thrill, a joy, a blast. I will also on all of those rewatches and all of those pods be updating you on the Orioles who are... Summer saying they're back. Okay.

Okay. Yeah. That's what I heard, too. I heard they're doing pretty well. They're on a little bit of a heater, but the lineup's getting healthy. Okay. Could it happen? I visited Mallory's home for the first time last week. I got to meet Halo. You met Halo on his birthday. A monumental occasion. I got to see your office in person. It was so surreal to see the like...

The Zoom background that I've stared at for years in person was phenomenal. But my favorite moment was when I saw your TV screen, which I have 900 photos of on my phone because you just text me, you know, photos of the screen that you're watching at any given time. So I was like, wow, here's where myths and legends and memes get made. What a delight. What a joy. You're like, oh, my Funko Pops? I was like, no, your TV screen. Yeah.

With a telltale wood paneling around it. I know this well. By Funko Pops and their little stadium seating, a spice rack that I bought to put Funko Pops on. You said no. It's the fucking TV. It's the TV. Come back anytime. Thanks, Mel. All right. Thank you to Joanna. Thank you to all of the hopefully great stories that we'll be covering together this summer. And thank you to our hype squad today. Carlos Chiriboga. John Richter.

Arjuna Ramgopal and Joe Mia dinner on. Sorry. Is that usually my job? Bye.