Blazing Caribou

Dissonance Theory  doubles down on the confusion in many respects, offering some tantalizing hints about Ford’s plans without actually explaining them, showing Dolores slipping a little further down the rabbit hole, and catching up with the Man in Black as he hunts down his mysterious maze.

The maze also turns up in Dolores’s memory, and in the drawing of a little girl on the street, so even if we don’t have any immediate answers on it, at least there’s a sense of things getting tied together. It is, according to the Man in Black, the last mystery of the park, the one which introduces stakes that actually matter. So that should be interesting.

Westworld has emerged this fall as the geek obsession TV show, a gunslinger’s LOST about which people can’t stop talking and theorizing and debating. Don’t worry; Massively OP is not suddenly becoming an entertainment website, but I hope you’ll indulge me for a round of Westworld in this edition of Working As Intended because in every episode of the show, I see the MMORPG genre: our players, our proclivities, and our many, many problems.

And that’s by design. The show’s premise is that in some sci-fi near-future, wealthy people are able to pay their way into an elaborate, real-world theme park, where corporate game masters and engineers and designers control high-functioning human-like robots (“hosts”) in an Old West setting to create whatever role-playing or entertainment environment the guests are seeking. The players can interact with the robots in extremely realistic ways, from playing cards and having sex to going on scripted quest adventures — and even murder.

In this week’s celebrity smackdown episode ‘Shittens‘, (Yes! They are a real thing) we are joined by a couple of hilarious writers from TV. Joe Imbrugio Vs. Casey Jost. Joe writes for Impractical Jokers and Casey is a writer/comedian for Jimmy Fallon, and brother to Colin Jost from Saturday Night Live.  

In this episode of Geek Cinema Society, Brett Stewart, Nicole Davis, David Luzader, and their guest, Fletcher Bumpus, delve into 1973’s ‘Soylent Green.’ Starring the late Charlton Heston, this science fiction thriller takes place in an overpopulated, polluted future. It’s the year 2022, and “soylent green” is a popular form of manufactured nourishment. What if, though, it isn’t what everyone thinks it is? The Geek Cinema panel explores this classic film.

For listeners who would like to follow along and treat Geek Cinema Society as a film club of sorts, we will be watching ‘Predator’ next week! Following that, we’ll be watching ‘Labyrinth.’

Connect with our hosts and guest! Brett Stewart | David Luzader | Nicole Davis | Fletcher Bumpus

In this episode of Geek Cinema Society, Brett Stewart, Nicole Davis, David Luzader, and their guest, Dominic Cichocki, delve into 1981’s ‘Heavy Metal.’ Based on the ‘Heavy Metal’ magazines, this R-rated animated epic explores manifest evil, dystopian futures, and excessive breasts. (Seriously, it’s basically a fourteen year old’s mind.) How does the film stack up today? Is it worth revisiting? What about the portrayal of the film’s female characters? Also, John Candy is here. The panel digs in and discusses it all!

For listeners who would like to follow along and treat Geek Cinema Society as a film club of sorts, we will be watching ‘Soylent Green’ next week! Following that, we’ll be watching ‘Predator.’

Connect with our hosts and guest! Brett Stewart | David Luzader | Nicole Davis | Dominic Cichocki

HBO’s Westworld hosts edged closer toward rebellion in episode 3, “The Stray,” which this week sidelined the Man in Black (and largely Maeve as well) to focus on Dolores’ evolution, William and Logan’s splintering bromance, and plenty of hinty-hint intrigue among the backstage team.

The question of exactly what “being conscious” means – the elusive tip of that pyramid diagram

Trivia Geeks is the internet’s most unpredictable game show, where anything can happen and usually does! Each week Kari Simms and Imran Javed battle it out with their celebrity guests to win trivia supremacy over the internet. Watch host Shawn Burns try to herd these cats into submission.  We are joined this week with a couple of hilarious guys from around the circuit.  Tony Southcotte Vs. PJ Jacokes so let’s enjoy the hollandaise…

Two guys named Paul plumb the depths of the oceans to learn more about octopuses on this week’s Varmints podcast! Join our intrepid explorers as they try not to use long science words, talk about Dr. Otto Octavius, and learn all sorts of cool things about these wonderful cephalopods!

Logan and William come to Westworld for a good time, but the latter is reluctant to indulge in episode 2 of HBO’s Westworld series, “The Chestnut.”  Though Bernard secretly questions Dolores to make sure nobody has tampered with her, Dolores’ contact with procuring madame host Maeve results in her malfunction as well. Maeve is taken in for maintenance but unexpectedly awakes and witnesses damaged hosts, including Teddy, being hosed down. The Man in Black abducts outlaw Lawrence from his own hanging, demanding that he tells him the location of the maze. Lawrence’s daughter gives him his next clue. Ford vetoes Sizemore’s new narrative calling it cheap titillation that underestimates the guests. They will use Ford’s narrative instead.

Last week we were introduced to the characters of Westworld.  A LOT of characters. Not to mention a wealth of storylines.

What we know:  Westworld is an “amusement park-like” environment dreamt up by it’s creator (Ford) that have all these storylines that intertwine, and create a typical day in the west.

In this episode of Geek Cinema Society, Brett Stewart, Nicole Davis, David Luzader, and their guest, J-F Dubeau, delve into 2014’s ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier.’ The second entry in the ‘Captain America’ franchise, ‘The Winter Soldier’ is regarded as one of the finest in Marvel’s cinematic universe. Is ‘Winter Soldier’ all it’s chalked up to be? The panel has mixed opinions. Get your pitch forks at the ready, Marvel fans! (Brett wasn’t a fan…)

For listeners who would like to follow along and treat Geek Cinema Society as a film club of sorts, we will be watching ‘Heavy Metal’ next week! Following that, we’ll be watching ‘Soylent Green.’

Connect with our hosts and guest! Brett Stewart | David Luzader | Nicole Davis | J-F Dubeau

Join two guys named Paul as they head up to the Great White North to learn all about wolverines on this week’s edition of Varmints!