Pop Culture Cosmos #455- Love, Death, and Robots Season Four, A Memorial Box Office Battle, And Is A Bad John Cena A Good Thing For The WWE?
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Welcome to the Pop Culture Cosmos. We're back with another episode of the Pop Culture Cosmos. It's Gerald Glassford coming right back at you here from the Pop Culture Cosmos. Peace in the multiverse, Lakers Fast Break. Truly appreciate you joining us. Radio stations around the world truly cannot thank you for continuing to play the Pop Culture Cosmos throughout the years.

And for everyone out there listening on podcasts and radio outlets out there, we cannot thank you enough for being a part of the Pop Culture Cosmos family. Indeed. But it wouldn't be a Pop Culture Cosmos without my good friend, Indeed. I've got one right here. Josh is doing a lot of happy hoardering right now. He's actually on location selling his wares with the Happy Hoarders. So unfortunately, he could not make it this weekend, but...

As always, the man who steps in and saves the day, it is the name apropos, the great one. He has returned. It is, of course, T.J. Johnson. T.J., great to have you back on, and thank you for providing the save once again, my friend.

Hey, man. Look, at this point, I don't even feel like I'm a guest. I'm just one of the other. I'm just one of the co-hosts. So I just happen to be on today. That's all it is. Absolutely. Sometimes you're asking me. Well, sometimes you're asking me to come on. Exactly. And I got to tell you something. Sometimes I'm asking you. So this was me asking you. I truly, truly appreciate it. Much to discuss for today, including something you wanted to talk to me about today.

the other day, but we couldn't get to it. In regards to the WWE and John Cena, we'll talk about that, plus also as well, we'll go ahead and preview the

Well, one of the biggest movie weekends of the year coming up. So I want to hear your thoughts on the Memorial Day weekend battle at the box office. And of course, also as well, I want to talk to you about Love, Death and Robots season four. Plus, what have you been playing as of late on the video game scene? But first,

You know, we talked so much about our time. I was going to send you actually a list of the ITN's top 10 final destination deaths the other day because after our conversation.

Just as far as that's concerned. They didn't count any of the beginning group stuff. They only counted the singular stuff. Don't ever go get a Lasix operation. I'll just say that. This 15-year layoff or 14-year layoff, depending on who you talk to, was a good one.

for Warner Brothers because Final Destination Bloodlines comes in $51 million here in the States or thereabouts and over $100 million total. So it basically earned exactly what it did overseas as it did here in the States. $100 million opening, the biggest ever for the Final Destination franchise. And we've always talked about

on this show about how horror movies are a backbone of the movie industry and how it is such a, it's such a lower risk, higher return as far as a possible franchise or hit series on your hand, The Conjuring. All those movies combined as far as the cost to make all those Conjuring movies probably don't add up to one

Avengers movie, to give you an example. Yet that movie series has probably generated close to a billion dollars in revenue. These horror movies, these low budget horror movies, and this was made actually on the higher end, about $50 million to produce. So it's actually one of the more expensive

Even then, it's still on the lower echelon of movies, or I should say it's right around the cut line as far as average amount of box office fare that comes today because there's so many $100, $200, $300 million movies that come out. This comes out at $50 million, doubles that in the first weekend.

The only thing is with horror movies, they're very front-loaded. So if this has any legs, this could see a nice profitability for Warner Brothers.

You know, I think we're in a bit of a, I don't want to say a horror movie renaissance, because obviously, you know, if I'm looking back at the movies like Sinners, it's horror-esque, maybe? I don't even know if I'd really classify it as horror, because it really wasn't scary. It was maybe more suspenseful, which I guess is still another form of horror. Needless to say, regardless, regardless.

As you mentioned, those movies are typically very, very low risk, very high reward, very high return. And I think it's pretty appropriate that Final Destination coming out 14, 15 years later is kind of keeping that same trend going. What I know about Final Destination, I haven't seen this new one yet, obviously, Bloodlines. I haven't seen that yet.

However, I will say that, as we talked about last week in regards to Final Destination, it's always been this movie series that's revered from the standpoint of nobody really wants to know how they're going to die until they want to know how they're going to die. And even when they think they want to know how they're going to die, they don't really want to know how they're going to die.

So having this idea that we can watch these final moments and how people are still fighting desperately to, you know, run away from these final moments or avoid these final moments when the inevitable ultimately happens. It's, it's kind of, it's kind of eerie. It's kind of a,

a glimpse into our own mortality in a more of a fantastical setting, more fantastical version of it. But, you know, this idea that people are trying to escape death or that death comes for us all and it comes in different ways no matter what you do to try to prevent it from happening, it's going to happen. It raises an interesting point or it raises an interesting thought if you allow yourself to go there. But,

More important than all that, I think it's just dumb fun. And it's just a dumb fun movie to watch. It's gory. It's a little bit of horror. It's a little bit of everything. And, you know, there are some scenes that are still going to make you cringe regardless. I mean, I've only seen the trailer. And the trailer of the guy or the person that's got the glass and the ice, just the idea, just the idea of that happening is enough to make me scream. It's enough to make me squeamish. And it's enough to make me just...

So it doesn't surprise me that this movie is already grossed as much as it has in just a short amount of time that it's been out. And like you said, if it does have any legs, this could be very, very, very, very profitable for Warner Brothers, who, let's be honest, they need a bit of a win right now because they don't know what they're doing. They don't know their left from their right. They don't know their up from their down. And I don't know how they're really going to

They're putting they got to put a lot of money into DC, that's for sure. This whole new Superman, this whole new DC universe that James Gunn is doing, they're putting a lot at stake on here because Warner Brothers is just as of late, they just don't seem to have the answers. So with this movie, having the ladies that are hopefully having the ladies that we hope it does and and doing as well as it has off the front.

That's got to be a good sign. It's got to make Warner Brothers feel pretty good because they need a victory and they need one in a bad way. So I'm interested to see how the returns look in another week for this movie. Yeah, that's true. I mean, there should be a fall. There usually is with horror franchises, especially with the fact that there's going to be what we're going to be talking about here with the upcoming Memorial Day weekend here with what's coming up there. There's two big movies coming up there.

I do want to mention, though, that this is, like you said, the time now that Warner Brothers needs to make up for

a lot of losses that they've had because they had the Alto Knights with Robert De Niro. They also had Mickey 17 and Joker Folly Ado in the past calendar, past 365 days that have really done terrible numbers for them, which is a shame for me on Mickey 17. Cause I hear that's a really good movie. I got to catch that one. Sinners and Minecraft movie. They're recouping a lot of those losses and, and,

Again, after a first week, Final Destination Bloodlines is doing the same, which is good because, again, I don't want the movie experience to go away. I know that the recent threat of tariffs and whatnot kind of now put this industry in kind of an uproar. And I don't want to get too political on as far as that's concerned. I know that's something the industry itself has to deal with. And we'll see what the effects are of that long term.

But right now, just the fact are people going to the movies and right now, depending on the week, we either seem to be getting a little bit healthier or going right back down to what it was in a disappointing year like last year, if that's the case. So this weekend is going to be very interesting to see if it continues the, I guess, momentum

Early Momentum from Thunderbolts, which did okay. It's been doing okay. It's still number two at the box office. It hasn't been a failure. It hasn't been a hit, but it hasn't been a failure. So I guess that's good for Marvel at this point in time.

And then what we see here with Final Destination. So I think at this point, I think this weekend is going to be a key what's going on. But that leads us into our conversation for this upcoming weekend because you do have, of course, the Lilo & Stitch live action series.

I guess, remake of Lilo and Stitch versus Tom Cruise running. Oh, wait, there he's going. He's running again. There he is. Catch him. Yeah, exactly. My God, at 62, I'd love to be running like that, to say that. But when I reach that age, and the problem is I'm going to be reaching that age sooner rather than later.

But with that, it is going to be a battle at the box office. Both movies need to score and score well. Your thoughts on this weekend with Lilo and Stitch for Disney and Paramount's who's Paramount's been kind of quiet this entire year. So finally it's coming back to theaters with, I'll just say this mission impossible, whether this is the final one or not. It it's a dire situation.

need to be hit because of what we've seen with the Mission Impossible franchise. Yeah, absolutely. I would agree with you. I agree with you on a couple fronts. First and foremost, I think to your initial point in regards to the movie theaters and the movie-going experience and how we don't want that to go away, I would totally agree with you. I

But I would say that I don't think that the experience in itself is in jeopardy of really going, quote unquote, away. But I think consumers are being much more savvy about what they want their movie experience to look like. And, you know, I think we've talked about it a couple of times, but there are certain films where...

I don't really feel like I need to see this on a giant movie screen. I can really enjoy this in the privacy of my own home and not feel like I'm missing anything. There are certain films that...

absolutely 100% worthy of being seen on the screen. I'm talking Avengers type movies where big bombastic scenes, explosions, and very visceral, very visually aesthetic, visually appeasing things to see on the screen. There are certain movies that are very much more akin to that. And there are certain movies that are just not quite there, not quite

needing of that experience to be enjoyed. So I think consumers are just being a little bit smarter about how they want to spend their money, how they're going to spend their time and where they're going to spend it and doing what. So,

I don't think it's going to go away, but I think people are becoming much more cautious about it now, especially after COVID. It's like, do I really even need to put myself in the theater to see that movie when I could just watch it at home? Because a lot of things are going direct to streaming much, much quicker than they did, obviously, in the past. So that's to that. Now, in regards to...

Mr. Tom, I can't stop running. Cruz. Absolutely. One, I'm such a huge fan of the fact that he is so diehard. He is so much known, so well known for wanting to do his own stunts and wanting to continue to

to push himself to the limits. I think that's a remarkable thing. I think that's its own battle against time in and of itself. You know, we talk about, you know, Final Destination and our own mortality and understanding our own mortality. I think that's, in his way, his own battle against mortality, his own battle against time to say, I'm going to ride this thing as long as I can as far as being able to do his own stunts and be the actor that he wants to be. Yeah.

I'm here for it. What I'm here for is many more Mission Impossibles after this. I am agreeing with, I think this needs to be the last one. I absolutely think they need it to be a success, but I don't think they, I think Paramount needs it to be a success. I don't think Tom Cruise particularly needs it to be a success because, you know, he's Tom Cruise. But Paramount, being who they are, being in a position that they're in, they are desperately in need of a success. And I think there's a couple things that are going to help

This particular movie, in regards to that success, the fact that it's probably the last one, more than likely the last one, will help its legs because people may want to see how it ends. They want to kind of give it a bit of a swan song, almost like a retirement tour, you know, something of that effect. Maybe a little John Cena-esque. They want to go out with a bang. So I could see that kind of helping it as well.

The truth of the matter, though, is there's only so many times that we're willing to suspend our belief about what one person, what one mere mortal can do. We're looking at the Fast and Furious franchise as well as one of those. It's like, okay, guys, you're a little long in the tooth. We suspended our belief. We were about street racing, and now you're jumping cars out of the atmosphere onto cars.

whatever, like that's, it's, it's getting a bit ridiculous. I think the same thing can be said for mission impossible. It's always kind of fun to see Ethan hunting. The team, the IMF team can figure out ways to get out of these situations that they keep finding themselves in. You're listening to the pop culture cosmos, but the flip side is, you know, ultimately it's,

They probably won't make it out of every one of these situations. So at some point, you almost have to say, okay, enough's enough. Let's go ahead and move on to something different. I say that, but we're on 20 different Star Wars films. So I said it to say Paramount absolutely desperately needs a win. Like you said, they've been extremely quiet. Haven't been able to put out... Haven't put out very much. And we just...

have gone very, very dark. So I like to see them get a win on this as well. I like to see Tom Cruise go out on the Mission Impossible franchise with a win. And I think this has the potential to do just that. Just looking at the trailer, it feels...

like a finale it feels very much like a a culmination of of storytelling and it's got that nostalgia type feel to it where they're they're kind of acknowledging the past but not not going so so deep into it they're kind of just more hinting at it and i can appreciate that and i can appreciate them using that tactic to to to generate some sales because look man they they if they're gonna go down they're gonna go down swinging and i can uh i can absolutely uh

appreciate that never give up, never say die attitude, very much like another John Cena reference. Did you catch that? I've had a couple in this. I did. I did, my friend. Yeah, I did. But the thing is, okay, I really thought that last year, excuse me, 2023, that's how long it's been, Dead Reckoning Part 1, which is now just Dead Reckoning, it can now

I thought that was a good movie. I was disappointed that not enough people went to see it at the theaters for whatever reason. I thought that was actually a pretty good movie, one of the better installments in the franchise for me. Although I like and watch and would re-watch and have re-watched every single entity in

In this franchise. So I do like all of them to a certain extent. I can't rewatch all of them to a certain extent. I thought the last one was good. This one, I'm very excited to see how it plays out. The reviews have been all over the place from very good to, you know, I guess, okay or thereabouts. It's still got a positive rating on Metacritic. So people can take that for what it's worth.

With that, though, I think I am in agreement with you as far as the Tom Cruise part of it. At 62, I think this is and should be the last one that he's in. Do I think that the Mission Impossible IP should go away? You know, we live in Hollywood.

An age in Hollywood where there's nothing original or very few things original that come to life that get a full push. I think if you rest this for maybe five or seven years, it can refresh itself again. We just saw with Final Destination.

15 years uh it came back and look what happened uh it's it people are clamoring for it again i didn't know you know what i had to uh do my research i didn't know it had been that long since the final destination installments that that that was the biggest surprise for me not that this didn't do well or this did well but yeah the fact that there's been that big of a gap i just felt like there's

It's like, oh, wow. Okay. I missed it. Oh, it came out 2011. Last one. Wow. Okay. All right. Cause it's always been in our consciousness. Like you said, you know, you will never go behind a logging truck ever again. So sure. Well, exactly. So with mission impossible, I think I could see it under a different actor leading the way as Ethan hunt in a different format. I mean, those globe trotting adventures are,

I do love. I've got to be honest with you. Whether it's via secret agent or if they're chasing after gold or whatever, I've always appreciated those globetrotting, world-hopping adventures, whether it be Raiders of the Lost Ark or something on the vein of a James Bond or a Mission Impossible type deal. So be that as it may, I'm hoping that we will get...

either a mission possible installment somewhere down the line with a new actor as leading a franchise or something to replace that with a new franchise that takes over because we are in serious peril my friend of those type of movies going away because james bond we don't know what amazon wants to do amazon wants to bring out a james bond stuff like yesterday to pay off on its you know

billions of dollars investment into the james bond franchise but right will it with the brush back on that already will it fall upon deaf ears and with mission impossible this could be the last one is because based on sheer expense as well is the globe trotting adventure going away

You know, I think that's a great point. And I want to kind of backtrack just a little bit. I agree with you. I don't think that Mission Impossible in its current form can continue. A version of Mission Impossible, absolutely, where Ethan is taking on more of a mentorship type role, very, very akin to his Top Gun Maverick role.

Where he can jump in there as needed, but he's much more of a side character or maybe an overarching character as opposed to the main character.

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. He's a national treasure. It's this and Arby's this and Arby's that's what he needs to keep going. We need to have him continue on with both those. Yes, absolutely. But I would love to absolutely see, you know, something like this continue in a different,

in a different form. So the IMF team as it stands now needs to change. But as far as if we ever get another Mission Impossible-esque movie, that I'm completely fine with. Just not Tom Cruise doing a run and hanging off the side of a plane or jumping off of a building or another extended motorcycle fight, whatever. I don't know. I could name even more. But the point is, there's not so much more Tom Cruise. Now...

In regards to Amazon and MGM and this whole bond, I think the idea of James Bond and, again, this whole one person taking on saving the world, I don't think it's ever going to go away, and I don't think it's ever going to get...

thing but in in that same respect they have to continue to find ways to make it fresh and i think that's the struggle with james bond and even you know to a lesser extent maybe even with mission impossible and all these other globe trotting franchises i mean we look at what sony tried to do with the the uncharted series with the with as as you know with nathan drake and

It has to be done in a certain way that's going to continue to garner our interest and say, okay, well, we've seen this before. We've seen that before. What makes this stand apart? And unfortunately, because this is Hollywood, they've got to figure out a way to make that a reality. They have to figure out a way to reinvent the wheel and try to find something that...

gives the audience something that they haven't experienced yet. And that's not going to be an easy thing to do when you've done Mission Impossible 17 or Fast and Furious 29 or whatever the case may be. It gets difficult. It's difficult to turn up new and exciting ideas. And I mean, these writers and these people are getting paid a lot of money to do it, but it doesn't make it any easier to do when there's a lot of pressure to get it right, especially when you've put in such an investment as MGM, as Amazon has done with MGM and the Bond franchise, that that's

It's a lot of money. That's not just, you know, chump change to them. That's a lot of money. And so you want to make sure that you get that right. You want to make sure that you strike the chord that needs to be struck because you want ROI. Everybody wants a return on their investment and, and,

They are no different. So I can get it, but I also understand that it's just not going to be an easy task to come up with something that's going to stick and is really going to garner the attention that it deserves from the audience. And it's going to be something that has enough legs to make it a worthwhile investment moving forward. I mean, it's...

God bless them for trying to figure this stuff out because as a fan, I'm looking back and I'm like, I don't know what more they can do. I don't know how much more, how much more they can push that envelope or how much more they can milk that particular franchise except to, you know, very final destination is let it die for about 10, 15 years. And, you know, then look at basically possibly bringing it back in a different form or a different format. So it's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out, man. I'm definitely curious, but I definitely hope nothing but the best for, for,

for Mission Impossible and for Tom Cruise and for Paramount. I hope to see them continue to figure out ways to make it work. We're Paramount Plus subscribers. My kids absolutely love Sonic the Hedgehog. That's all on Paramount now. They love it. I'm a fan. I just want them to continue to find ways to

to to make even more money and to be able to do you know more mission impossibles and things of that nature so they're going to find ways to stay relevant i just want them to be able to do so with the franchise that we've all grown up and loved over the years

Don't you even get me started on Uncharted and Tom Holland ruining that franchise. He didn't ruin it. That was Sony. Sony did that. No, that's because Tom Holland played the game and said, oh, I'd like to do... There had been various attempts to make the Uncharted film before that, but it took Tom Holland and Sony bending over backwards to say, anything you want, Tom, anything you want. Yeah.

him to do it. And yeah, let's just say it wasn't the prettiest thing. Now it, again, there might be uncharted on the way. It made $400 million in a time near, you know, and around COVID. So you can take for what that's worth. We'll see what happens, but it is of course this weekend with mission impossible and Lilo and Stitch before we head to the break of Lilo and Stitch, the live action remake from Disney and,

I think this one has a better chance of succeeding than the Snow White one for obvious reasons. They're not...

pissing everyone off before the movie debuts so that's a good thing uh lilo stitch has got lilo stitch it's it's popular but it's under the radar popular how should i say it's not you know there's a lot of big fans of it but they don't make a fervor over it like they do for other things

I think people are going to be surprised at the return this weekend for it. I think that people will be interested to go ahead and see it. I definitely think it has a shot as the number one movie this weekend over Tom Cruise. We'll see how that lasts, but

I definitely think that this will be a bigger success for Disney after the failure of some of its recent live action remakes. Mufasa, you know, that one obviously didn't start off great, but it had nice legs and it ultimately made a bit of money for Disney. Snow White did not.

But your thoughts, I guess, with Moana live action remake, which we'll talk about The Rock, I'm sure, here after the half hour break. That's coming up in the not too distant future. I think, again, there is some room left, I think, for Lilo and Stitch. And I think people will be surprised at the return that it gets this weekend. Well, you know, I'm interested to see what that return does look like. And I say it because there's a lot of there's a lot of we didn't ask for this going on at Disney.

We didn't ask for a live action Lion King. We didn't ask for a live action version of Mufasa. We didn't even ask for Mufasa. No. So there's a lot of this whole, you're giving me something that I never even asked you for. Nobody that I, I haven't seen any polls where they said, yes, make a live action, the Lion King. Yes, make a live action Mufasa.

Little Mermaid. Yes, make a live action, blah, blah, blah, blah. None of this stuff is being asked for. So no different than Lilo and Stitch. I'm a fan of the movie Lilo and Stitch, absolutely. But I also know that that movie came out years and years and years and years ago. So of course there's going to be a bit of a nostalgia factor for us as people that have grown up and remember that movie from our childhood. I don't know if there's enough nostalgia to...

warrant a live action remake of that. And I don't know if there's enough nostalgia to make that movie profitable. And I say that not to be a naysayer because again, I love Lilo and Stitch. But the truth of the matter is the audience for Lilo and Stitch, while granted they still sell merchandise, but the Lilo and Stitch audience has gotten older. So it's not this younger generation. And

A lot of times, you know, again, as the recent box office has shown, we're a little bit more funny about what we go and see at the movie theater. And I, if I'm being honest, I had no desire to see a Lilo and Stitch live action. I had no desire for them to even really revisit that franchise. But it's no different than me not having any desire for them to remade the Lion King or to make even a Mufasa or, you know, the Little Mermaid. So, yeah.

I think it's going to be interesting. I think Disney's invested themselves into these live action remakes and I think Lilo and Stitch was kind of just the next progression in that line. I just don't

I don't know if the legs on this are going to be long enough to really sustain a live action version of it, if that makes sense. I just don't see it. And it doesn't mean that it won't happen. I'd love to be proven wrong on this. However, if history has taught us anything, it's that these live action remakes and redos have not really panned out in the way that Disney has hoped that they would.

So I just, I just don't see it, but I'd love to be wrong. I'd love to be wrong, especially about, especially about little on stage. You know, I absolutely love the old stage. That was one of my favorite movies growing up was the old stage. So I would love for this to succeed. I just don't, I don't, I don't know if it really, really will, if that makes sense. Yeah. It's going to have some legs for the box office for this weekend. It'll, it'll be number one. It'll absolutely be mission impossible. However,

However, I think that second week drop-off is my concern. That second week drop-off is going to be something fierce. You're listening to the Pop Culture Cosmos.

Once again, it is, of course, the Pop Culture Cosmos. It is the great one, along with me, Gerald Glassford. Thanks so much again for joining us. TJ Johnson is here with us talking about the world of pop culture. Again, if you have any thoughts on what's going on with the Memorial Day weekend and what movies you might be checking out, if you have thoughts on that, please let us know, popculturecosmos at yahoo.com. But my friend, there's still much more to talk about on today's show.

I did want to mention to you and out there, there was an Under the Radar. Speaking of Under the Radar things, as I mentioned before, Under the Radar on Netflix was a release, my friend, because this is the thing with Netflix. Netflix, again, they just throw stuff at the wall and sees what sticks with their audience. And one of the things that always gets thrown out there doesn't get the fanfare, I think at times it should.

is Love, Death, and Robots. It's a very interesting animated anthology for me. I always check it out because not just for the stories that it has, but I want to see the different studios that work on these different stories. They're usually anywhere from five to 15 minutes long. How are

cutting edge some of them actually utilize as far as their technology. I do know the creator of Love, Death, and Robots did make Amazon's Secret Level, which I did not have all the warm fuzzies when I watched it.

It wasn't as consistently good as a product overall, as I've seen from Love, Death and Robots. And Love, Death and Robots has had some really great moments and had some really not so defining moments over the years.

but Secret Level I don't think came in and were close to what Love, Death & Robots came in. So I was kind of concerned heading into Love, Death & Robots Season 4. What would the collection be like this year? And I'll tell you, my friend, first off, if you are going to see it and you're not familiar with it, again, an anthology of animated shorts dealing on various subjects, whether it's science fiction or otherwise, I do want to stress that it is very,

Very, very TV mature rated. If you're not prepared for that, it is very mature rated on a variety of topics. It deals with it, whether it's religion, whether it's violence, whether it's things of a sexual nature, it does everything.

broach all those topics and then some uh whether it's in an amusing way or otherwise so again it is very tvma so if you're not into that i'm not going to try and tell you otherwise but if you can handle that and appreciate it for what it is this is probably the best season of love death and robots overall because of the consistency of very good to great

animated features. There's only one that I thought was kind of let me down. That was a live action with a lot of animated stuff integrated with it that probably wasn't the

A best representation of what it... It kind of sticks out, and not for the great reasons, I should say. But otherwise, all the other ones are definitely worth watching. And whether or not you think they're very good or great, I'll leave it up to you. But my friend, have you had an experience before with Love, Death, and Robots? You know, I have had the experience a couple times. I've done the first couple seasons. And I'm with you. And it's really kind of the...

the draw and or the good and the bad with anthology series, right? Because they're a culmination of different directors and different visions and different ideas of what this world could be or could not be. Very similar to like a Black Mirror, which I thought had a phenomenal season this year, by the way, but that's another conversation for another day.

No, actually, we'll touch on it because you and I have both seen it now. I saw it when it originally released, season seven. I think it's the best season. I think Netflix has, whatever they did, this is the best season of Love, Death, and Robots, and this is the best season of Black Mirror overall. Well, there you go. So with that being said, I didn't watch last season's Black Mirror, or last, yeah, season three of Black Mirror, or not Black Mirror, Love, Death, and Robots. So I'd be interested to check out

this version or this season's worth of Love, Death and Robots, especially because of how successful they were as far as I'm concerned with Black Mirror. I thought Black Mirror, again, season seven was probably, agreeing with you, was the best that they've had. And I think that they reinvented what they did or they reinvented the way that they went about trying to tell these stories. And while they're still anthologies, they still seem to be kind of an overarching thing. And I think that's

really what can do it for an anthology series as long as they kind of still have an overarching storyline or overarching plot or some type of connective tissue. Maybe that's the word I'm looking for. You look at things like the Twilight Zone from back in the day and they all told stories of wonder and creepiness and sci-fi, but they didn't seem to have a connecting thread or connecting tissue. And I think that's

that's something that anthology series do need. They need to have some type of connective thread that keeps the story, even if they're not directly related in the same realm of what universe, whatever, whatever, however you want to call it, they keep it in the same book, even if they're not in the same chapter. Right. So with black mirror, having done that and it kind of keep it in the same chapter, even if it's not the same book, um,

It definitely made for a much easier to follow anthology series. Love, Death, and Robot in the past did not do that. So if season four is a lot more like season seven of Black Mirror, then I think they're going to have a winner on their hands as well. But I see Netflix is really putting money and putting time into and investing into these anthology series.

And, well, Black Mirror paid off. So I'm much more keen to check out Loved at the Robots now than I was, you know, obviously two years, two seasons ago. So I'm hoping for the best with this. I really am.

Again, like you said, when these anthologies series, it's going to be what is connecting with you, what is not. Because again, they're different visions from different studios, from different directors. Exactly. And that's what anthologies do. And when you come across a season that for the most part is appealing to you,

with all these different stories that tells you that they're really done. They got out of the way to really do a good job. And cause anthology, like you said, it's rare that all of them connect with you. And even with,

This one, Love and Death and Robots, again, very good to great on almost all of them except for one for me. And that to me is, I'll take that ratio. I'll take that ratio every single time because that means I'm invested. I'm intrigued and I'm interested in seeing what comes next, whatever story comes up next when you have a good story.

or an anthology series like we've seen this season from, you know, as far as Black Mirror is concerned, which I thought was consistently great throughout. And I think that's... Which episode on Black Mirror appealed to you most? I really like number one. I like number one too, yeah. I really thought that was really hitting the heartstrings, tugging the heartstrings on that one. And I mean, Paul Giamatti, come on.

Paul, yeah. I just was going to say that. You can't get any worse. That's amazing, Paul Giamatti, which is fantastic in there. Yes. He carried that one absolutely by himself on his story. And then the first one, Rashida Jones, I forget the British actor's name, who plays her husband. That one was very interesting and very noteworthy for... And even Netflix, when the Netflix says...

ago to it it's so funny because they poke fun at themselves with that first one uh if you go ahead yeah exactly so uh i agree with you i think those were the real highlights but uh overall a really really good uh series and then of course the last episode the the um the i guess the sequel

to the Star Trek. Yes, that one was really good too. Not quite as good as the first time around, but still pretty good. Yeah, still pretty good indeed. USS Callister Into Infinity. Yes, yes, Callister. That's right. That's right. USS Callister indeed. The sequel to it, but they finished that off in a satisfying way enough for me. I thought it was good. And

And then again, just really solid overall. So if you guys are into anthology series out there, please let us know your thoughts on Black Mirror Season 7. Very, very strong performances in that one. And then also as well, I know the one that's getting the most pub, though, out of that one is the one where

um it's the girl coming back for revenge on her high school classmates i know that one is getting a lot of pub um i thought it was that one was good but i just didn't think that was the best one of the lot personally uh speaking but that one seems to be getting if you know which one i'm talking about right yeah i do uh it's the um it's

It's the one where she goes after the classmates and tries, you know, builds revenge on them. Yeah, I think it was the second episode. I think it was Betty Noir. Yeah, they're in the advertising business. Yeah, they're in the advertising business. And yes, it goes awry. And yeah, it's...

I thought that was good, but again, I know that was getting a lot of pub for a lot of reasons. I don't know why, but yeah, the season overall, it was very good. So go ahead and check out Black Mirror Season 7. And then, of course, don't forget to watch Love, Death & Robots Season 4. They're both there.

And then while I was there, I came back to Netflix for the first time in a little while. Of course, much to my surprise, one of my favorite go-to movies, Starship Troopers, happened to be back on. I had to go ahead and make sure and get a run through on that. Yes, go ahead and check it out today on Netflix. And if you have thoughts on the anthologies for Netflix,

Black Mirror and Love, Death and Robots, please let us know at PopCultureCosmos and Yahoo.com and support Starship Troopers as well. I'm telling you, I was so sad when I found out that they are going to remake a Starship Troopers, but they're going to do it based off the book. And

Yeah. So I don't know. I don't know. They're actually going to do it. Yes. I read it a few months ago. I said, talked about on the show with Josh that there, that Neil Blomkamp, if you know, from district nine, he's going to take it from the, from the book. And the thing is, okay, the, the, you know, the Paul Verhoeven version, the Paul Verhoeven, he read the chart and tried, started to read the book when trying to make sure he had adapted this, this movie.

adapted the movie back in the 1990s, couldn't get through the book. And I'm like reading, I saw a few years ago, I tried to read through it. I couldn't get through the book. It's just, it just, it's not, you see the basis of what could be there. And I really liked the fact that they went in a completely different direction in the movie. Yeah. The book is just, it's,

It's just boring. It's just boring. It's just that simple. And I did not, I don't know how many people, I mean, I don't know how many, I don't know how it's sold as much as it did. Well, I'm assuming it's because back in the day, sci-fi movies back, sci-fi books back in the day just appealed

to so many peoples, but it was just hard for me to get into as far as the book. So I can understand that, but yeah, Neil Blomkamp supposedly is going to redo that, but I've always pitched to Josh on the show, how a Starship Troopers series bringing back the old crew that's still alive. Yeah.

Plus, you know, bringing a new fresh meat into the grinder, as they said in the movie, would be just outstanding. Just doing that over a series with the bugs, a new invasion from some bugs and dealing with that. I just think that would be a winner. But, you know, that's just me. I've been saying that for years. Yeah.

Hey, it can happen. We're talking about Hollywood here. It could happen. I don't know. It would have happened already. But again, it all depends on Netflix. If Netflix sees all these times that they've put on Starship Trooper over the years and has garnered enough millions of views, they'll talk to Sony and they'll greenlight it. But we'll see what happens there.

You're listening to the Pop Culture Cosmos. But my friend, before we head on out, you wanted to touch on an issue. We couldn't connect after our show on Thursday on it, but we are now. And that is a WWE update, per se. And I know I do the State of Pro Wrestling here near the end of the month with my good friend John Orlando, but I've always liked touching on

the pro wrestling world with other individuals. And you have had a great affinity. We talked about WrestleMania. We talked about other things in the professional world, but it all emanates this year based off of one entity and one thing and one angle that is John Cena turning heel in his final year, supposedly. And I always say that with a caveat when it comes to pro wrestling, because they always seem to come back.

Your thoughts, you wanted to go ahead and share some on this John Heal turn so far. I am more interested, though, to say, you know, I was really excited about it at first. Now I'm more interested in Peacemaker season two instead. Well, I'm definitely have interest in Peacemaker season two, but that's a conversation for another day. In regards to this Heal turn, it's got a two things.

to appreciate this heel turn, you really have to allow yourself to go back about 10 years or so. Now, we got to remember, John Cena has been a staple in the WWE for a very long time. And when I say a staple, I'm talking about they've been able to rely on him day in, day out to carry the company post-Austin, post-Rock, post-Taker, like post... This whole post-Attitude Era wrestlers...

It was all John Cena. It was John Cena was the guy. And in being the guy, you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain. And John Cena was one of those guys that people just love to hate for no real reason. Okay, John Cena can't wrestle. Okay, he may not be the most technically savvy or the most technically sound wrestler that we have or that WWE has ever produced. However, he will entertain the hell out of you.

And he has done that countless times, countless times, countless times. So to appreciate this hill turn, you really have to go back 10 years when, I mean, he just had all kinds of heat and for no good reason other than people just tired of the goody, goody two shoe John Cena. Um,

Even in his goody-goody two-shoe, he had edge, but it was always he was still going to be the guy that shows up every day, does his best, loves on the crowd, loves on the fans. He was very much the version of Cody Rose that we have now, but he did that for his entire career up until his heel turn. So here's the problem that I have with the heel turn. And just roll with me for it, right?

This heel turn, truthfully, came out of nowhere. And the reason I say it came out of nowhere is it was literally all good, all good, all good. And then all of a sudden, it turned. And it seems to have been very, very abrupt. Seems to have been very, very out of nowhere. And I think that they were going for that kind of shock. They were going for that kind of, no way, this didn't really happen type of reveal. And I don't know...

I shouldn't say I don't know. I know for a fact that it didn't land the way that they wanted it to land. And there's a few reasons that I think that that is. And I think the most important reason or the biggest reason is The Rock and why it didn't land because of The Rock's involvement. And it seemed to be completely unnecessary for him to be involved in this dramatic heel turn situation.

and his overall presence on it really tainted it for a lot of people, especially because, as you mentioned, there was no payout for it at WrestleMania. So that naturally put a big, big

glass of uncertainty on the entire thing as it is. I think one of the other big reasons is because this really does seem like it's about 10 years too late to be in the twilight of his career. And, you know, when we talk about his retirement, he makes it very clear and he uses these words very, very carefully. He's retired from being an active wrestler.

So, no, I don't think he's ever going to go away from WWE. He's just going to retire being an active wrestler. You may see him come back in a very Undertaker-like role from time to time, come in, give a couple attitude adjustments, a couple five-knuckle shuffles, and you can't see me, and be on his way again to entertain the fans. But he'll never go away. Johnson is way too enthreaded, or he's just too intrinsic to WWE over the last...

two decades or so, he's never going to go away completely. So let's be clear about that. He might be done wrestling on a consistent basis, but he's never going to go away. He's going to be very, very similar to the person that he got into it with the most, and that was The Rock. He's going to be very, very similar to that. Now, what I would have liked to have seen is a gradual change. I would have liked to have seen a gradual turn for John Cena for his final run, and then maybe for his final match,

He turns heel. That's how I kind of would have played it out. I would have played it out over a year long. I mean, if we're talking about long-term storytelling, which apparently is the it phrase for WWE as of lately, or at least The Rock, long-term storytelling. If we're thinking about that, then the long-term story for this would have been his eventual descent into madness, if you will. You know, you either die the hero, you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

That would have been fun for him to have an eventual turn to just, you know what? I'm going to give you guys everything I have. I'm going to go out beating your best guy and I'm going to turn heel doing it and I'm going to ride off into the sunset. That would have been a hell of a story. That would have been a heck of a way for it to end, a heck of a way for it to go. And that would have left us being like,

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You can't end like that. That would have had us clamoring for more. We would have absolutely been putting hand over fist money for more of this, this content, if they'd have drug it out, but they didn't do that. So then what I was hoping going into Backlash that we've seen a new...

regime being built. I was hoping in some way, shape or form that it would almost be like these old Ohio Valley wrestling guys that, that have found their way to each other some odd years later and almost formed like a bit of an alliance, like, you know, like the old guard or something. I would have wanted them to have done something to really play into the fact that, you know, Randy Orton and John Cena both really kind of came into this together.

around the same time between himself and Dave Bautista, obviously he's no longer with the company, but all of these guys started off in an Ohio Valley wrestling and then kind of worked their way into the WWE and worked their way up the ranks and became these big superstars. But they all started from the bottom and now they got where they are. So I would have loved to have seen some type of camaraderie or some type of faction building with that

overarching theme in there. There are a lot of things that I would have liked to have done different, but I think my biggest problem with this heel turn, it's not the rock. That's not the biggest problem. He's definitely a problem, but I think the biggest problem is that it just feels like it's forced because they just didn't have something better to do.

And now that it's here, I don't think that he really knows what to do with it. I don't think he knows what to do with it. I don't think they know what to do with it. I know this is supposed to feel awkward because he's supposed to be breaking wrestling and breaking professional wrestling. And this is that in a third, as he's made mentioned multiple times in his promos. He's the last real champion. But I think that this has all been very, very awkwardly done.

because this is the case of giving the fans what they want, but it's a little bit... It's also a case of too little, too late. And now that we're here, it's like I would have much rather him... Much rather not be here, but here we are, so now we got to kind of ride it out. But I'm hoping... I'm hoping that WrestleMania...

And even backlash kind of gave them a window to say, okay, we need to really find a way to right this ship. I don't know what...

What's going on between The Rock and Triple H behind the scenes creatively, if there is tension. I've heard numerous reports that there's tension between the two. I've heard numerous reports that they're not seeing eye to eye. I've heard reports that they're trying to work Triple H out of the WWE. I don't know what's actual. I don't know what's at work. I don't know what's factual or not. What I do know is whatever they're doing is just muddying the waters and is not really giving any type of...

definitive, this is the direction that we're going to go. And I think that's concerning, especially when you're squandering what is the twilight of a legend's career in John Cena in his final year. I feel like he deserves better. I feel like his character, his arc deserves better. And

I just don't feel like that's what they're giving him. And let me be clear. I'm not the hugest Cena fan. I was never the hugest Cena fan, but you can't deny his work. You can't deny his body of work. You can't deny what he's meant to the company for so long. And the fact that he, he was the guy that carried the company. You know, you have your, you know, your rocks and your Austins and your, your Shawn Michaels and your Bret Hart's before that. And, and your Andre the giants. And then right up there, you've got John Cena. I mean, 18 time world title world champion, uh,

He's considered the GOAT by a lot of people. And I don't necessarily buy into that. I think that's kind of the fun of the sport or of the spectacle of professional wrestling is you can really have fun with those ideas and those matchups. But I really feel like regardless of where he sits on your GOAT status or your GOAT category, your Mount Rushmore of the WWE, if you will, he deserves better than what he's been getting. And I'm hoping that they find a way to really

Really stick the landing. Obviously, the takeoff was a little takeoff was was abrupt. And the the the performance right now has been kind of I hope they land the ending, though. I really, really do, because he deserves that. He deserves to to have a legit story being told and to go out in a way that's really worthy.

of John Cena and how much he's meant to the WWE and how much he's done for the WWE. So it'll be interesting to see, but I'm not a fan of it thus far, but that doesn't mean that there's still time to fix it. There's still time to write the ship. So we'll see.

As much as I've had a problem with how they have executed the WrestleMania match itself and what they've done since with his character, it's hard to argue with the success. And I don't know if anybody would conceivably think it's the intelligent move to move Triple H out because whether you agree or disagree with his booking, I mean, if you heard the latest stock reports as far as from the heads of TKO,

Talking about, which owns, by the way, the parent company of the WWE, UFC, and professional bull riding. They're talking, when they talk about WWE, running less house shows, but being more profitable than ever. And the fact is, their premium pricing on their matches, especially their PLE matches, it's outrageous. But people are buying it. People are, 120,000.

uh over 120 000 people for for two nights here in wrestlemania and the place was flooded the streets were flooded with with wrestling fans that week i was there i saw uh in las vegas here on the strip where exactly the kind of uh enthusiasm for it so people are buying it uh summer slam people are buying thousands and thousands of tickets for the two night summer slam that's coming up so

We can say what we want, but in the end, the dollars and the representation is what counts. And right now, people are liking the John Cena heel turn, no matter how well or not so well it's being executed, my friend.

Yeah. And that's kind of what it really ultimately boils down to. You know, we've had conversations, we had a conversation just last week where we talked about the heart versus the brain. And, you know, the brain says this, but the heart says this. And what's better for business, the brain or the heart? I think in a situation like this, it's a tie. They both win and they both lose, right? Because if you go with the heart, the heart of it is,

It's not been fun storytelling, but the truth of the matter is people still tune in because they want to see what's going to happen next. I think people are just, they're invested. They're invested with the WWE. It's been an integral part of so many of our lives for so long. I mean, you know, I'm 40 and I remember watching WWF at the time back when I was 15.

five, six, seven years old. So it's been around for so long and it's such a staple in a lot of American homes and a lot of American culture where we put these people up on these literal pedestals and they're literal larger-than-life people who are up on these, doing these incredible things and these incredible feats and we've been eating this up for decades at this point. So I think people are invested. I would agree with you on that, that they're going to make more money. That's just what they are. But

Again, we have to consider that more money doesn't always necessarily make for a better product. It just makes for a more expensive one. And when you are in the business of entertaining,

I think it gets really, really easy to forget that you're in the business of entertaining, not just putting out matches and trying to make as much money as possible. I understand the business aspect of it. That's exactly what you're supposed to do from a business aspect of it. But if we're looking at longevity and we're looking at the overall business

and what it is and what it's supposed to be or what it can be, I think there's something to be said for strong storytelling tactics and being able to really tell a... being able to really illustrate a story or a dance, if you will, in a way that's going to resonate with people years down the line. So for TJ Johnson, this is Gerald Glassford. It's another beautiful day in paradise right here in the pop...

Culture cosmos. Trying to do it as well as you can. I'm not sure if I can. Well, you've done it 900 times now. Right. I'll keep working on it. And here's hoping, exactly, you have yourself a great day.