We end with 2 Mikes yelling at 2 Popes & doom ourselves to hell. We begin with Eddie Murphy’s hosting of Saturday Night Live & wonder if he’s charming voters into submission. And in the middle, we review some great short films & react to some awesome trailers like Tenet!

What Is This Show? - 1:43

EDDIE MURPHY HOSTED SNL - 2:13

Favorite Sketchs - 3:30

Murphy’s Oscars Campaign - 5:40

SOCIETY/CIRCLE/GUILD AWARDS NEWS

Satellite Awards Announce Winners - 7:50

(What If The Oscars Were Voted Like Heismans? - 11:09)

Black Film Critics’ Circle Awards - 15:36

CRITICS SCOREBOARD:

Update - 16:41

Shame on the VFX Branch - 18:04

Ricky Gervais Is In Hot Water - 21:39

OSCAR TRAILER REACTIONS:

Tenet Trailer 1 - 23:17

Respect Teaser Trailer - 28:13

Downhill Trailer 1 - 31:18

The Woman in the Window Trailer 1 - 33:45

MAKE THE CASE:

AGAINST The Aeronauts - 36:27

FOR Walk, Run, Cha Cha (Doc Short) - 38:24

FOR Hair Love (Animated Short) - 39:41

SPOILER WARNING - 41:34

THE TWO POPES REVIEW:

Jonathan Pryce in the Best Actor Race - 41:55

Sidestepping That Which Cannot Be Sidestepped - 43:13

Highlights/Bests - 50:53

MAKE THE CASE: Jonathan Pryce - 54:10

MAKE THE CASE: Anthony Hopkins - 56:00

MAKE THE CASE: Score - 57:50

MAKE THE CASE: Adapted Screenplay - 59:28

Your Homework/PLEASE LEAVE US 5*’S - 1:03:05

What’s Next From MMO/Words of Wisdom - 1:04:33

Eddie Murphy hosted Saturday Night Live this past Saturday, and we begin by talking about our favorite sketches and his Oscars campaigning to open the episode. This of course breaks into a wider discussion on the Best Actor race that we’ll conclude at the end of the show.

The Two Popes reminds us of some previous Oscar nominees, and we have to dive into the plot somewhat. So we kicked our review of The Two Popes and most of our discussion on its Oscar chances to the end of the episode. Click play on your Netflix before joining us for that talk.

And in between those two segments, there’s a bunch of awards season updates, reviews, & yes, previews for you to enjoy. In our segment on Awards Season news, we breakdown the strange & wondrous winners from the Satellite Awards. Will they impact what happens with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association? We then discuss the Black Film Critics Circle Awards, update you on the overall critics award scoreboard, and briefly lament the new Ricky Gervais controversy.

If you enjoyed this episode, stay tuned for upcoming Oscar Race Checkpoints. We’ll be previewing the Golden Globes next week, then reviewing the Globes the following week, and we’ll have shows on the BAFTA’s and Guild noms, Critics Choice & SAG Awards, and of course, the upcoming Oscar nominations over the next few weeks. So do please stick with us through the holidays, and if you please, do rate us 5 stars on Apple Podcasts.

Let us know what you think of The Two Popes or anything we discussed in this O.R.C. We’re at MMandOscar on Twitter, and we are on Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and Gmail. You can subscribe / rate / review / like / share / & listen to us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Google Play, Tune In, Spotify, and just about wherever you listen to podcasts. When reality sucks, keep watching movies with us. We’re Mike, Mike, & Oscar!