After Lunch

As mentioned in Episode 199, After Lunch is starting a new series of horror-themed episodes that we're calling "After Midnight". Jessica Hickman joins Michael to kick off with a discussion of Universal's trilogy of Creature from the Black Lagoon films: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Revenge of the Creature (1955), and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956).

Michael, Rob, and Pax wrap up this month's Lounge talking about Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, playlists for running, the Wham! documentary, Barbie, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, video games we've been playing, the Jungle Cruise movie, Justified, Secret Invasion, They Cloned Tyrone, and Classic Doctor Who.

Michael, Rob, and Pax chat about how reading goals affect reading enjoyment, death and funerals, life as a cartoon animal, Matthew Reilly's YA book (The Secret Runners of New York), Old Habits (a Die Hard spec script turned novel), Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent, Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse comics, The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz, Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, current Star Trek comics, and Elvis and Ann-Margret movies.

Michael, Rob, and Pax visit the Planet of the Apes! Kicking off a bunch of discussions about the simian series, we start with a quick conversation about Pierre Boulle's novel before exploring the 1968 movie that started a phenomenon.

Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger close out the Sean Connery era of the Bond films with Diamonds Are Forever. They talk about the return of Connery, whether it's a worthy follow-up to On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and the wisdom of hiring a jazz musician and Crispin Glover's dad to play assassins. The movie's directed by Goldfinger's Guy Hamilton and also stars Jill St John, Charles Gray, Lana Wood, and Jimmy Dean.

We're soon going to start a new horror-focused series of episodes called After Lunch After Midnight featuring Michael and his pal Jessica Hickman. It's sort of a spin-off of another podcast called Filthy Horrors that they did together with their mutual pal Darla Ecklund. So to introduce After Midnight, we thought it might be good to rerun the first episode of Filthy Horrors in which Jess, Darla, and Michael talk about their history with horror, the kinds of horror they like, and lots of examples of favorite horror movies, TV shows, books, and comics.

Michael and Rob wrap their Mission: Impossible movies watch-through (for now) with the new entry in the series: Dead Reckoning, Part One. They talk about all the spoilers and whether second viewings changed their perspective on anything. Well, one thing in particular, but sure, everything else, too.

Michael, Rob, and Pax finish this months Lounge with discussion about their personal movie rating systems, Sherry Thomas' Lady Sherlock series, Daniel Pemberton movie scores, The Haunting of Bly Manor, the second season of Schmigadoon!, more about Ted Lasso, Kate Beckinsale in Love & Friendship, Nimona, modern Luddites, The Flash, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Alamo Drafthouse, their top three favorite comic book artists, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, maybe a little bit about the new Mission: Impossible movie, and much much more.

Michael, Rob, and Pax chat about farting soulmates, '90s revamped superheroes, Pax's idea for a Batman '66 Season 4 crossover, Philip Marlowe in The Little Sister, Hammer Frankenstein and the Hammer House of Podcast, Men both Gray and Thin, weekly comics reading, crappy Spider-Man novels, the darkening of the Harry Potter books, and lots of other things.

Michael, Rob, and Delaney Graham continue their Star Trek Trek with season 4 of Discovery. Find out what we thought of the butterfly people, the new Federation President, all that jargon (The DMA! Species 10-C! The Orb! The Hyperfield!), and the most contentious element of the season: Zora.