Ben and Kirk discuss The Odyssey (2026).

Ben and Kirk talk about Disney+'s Maul: Shadow Lord animated series and where it shines and stumbles.

Ben and Kirk talk about the use of public domain materials in mainstream cinematic works like the upcoming "The Odyssey" film, and explore some new wrinkles on those issues raised by the use of generative AI. And, of course, they find some way to make it about Star Wars.

We go over the cultural phenomenon of The Backrooms and examine the IP issues with building a movie out of the zeitgeist.

Ben and Kirk revisit the 1980s and a change in regulations influenced the explosion of toy tie-ins to children's programming, and look at how theaters are changing from content to social experiences.

Ben and Kirk saw the Mandalorian and Grogu on opening weekend and provide their thoughts.

Ben and Kirk talk about why content creatives struggle to maintain the quality of new content for old IP. Is it time to put Star Wars out to pasture?

Dive into how and why we ended up with the MPA rating system, how it shaped generations of content, and how markets, culture, and foreign films forced Hollywood to adapt, all resulting in a brief golden age of child-centric adventure films in the first half of the 1`980s.

Since we used our usual year-end Star Wars holiday special time slots for Stranger Things last year, we're doing it now! Check out our thoughts on Andor season 2, Mando season 3, and the Tales of Jedi/Empire/Underworld anthologies. SPOILER ALERT.

Note: We had some microphone quality issues, you might get some overload here. We're trying to clean it up.

S08E01 - Public Domain Day 2026 by A Lawyer's Guide to the Galaxy Podcast