Don't Encourage Us

By Don't Encourage Us

Most people watch a movie. Some people can't stop reverse-engineering the decisions inside it. Don't Encourage Us is for the second group.

Each episode takes a film, series, or creative property and e... more

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FAQs about Don't Encourage Us:

How many episodes does Don't Encourage Us have?

The podcast currently has 55 episodes available.

Don't Encourage Us episodes:

July 24, 2023The Last of Us: Why FEDRA Isn't the Villain the Show Thinks It Is
We open with a look ahead at upcoming episodes covering Remo Williams (1985), the Expeditionary Force audiobook series, Chrysalis (2020), One Cut of the Dead (2017), and Invincible (2021).
Then: a deep dive into the first two episodes of HBO's The Last of Us.
Topics discussed:
Why FEDRA's actions seem justified and the show hasn't earned its villain framing

The game killed an ally via FEDRA soldiers — the show made a different choice and it may cost them

Cordyceps transmission logic: if it's not airborne, why does a bite matter more than a scratch?

The tendril signal network: how does a fungus without a nervous system communicate instantly?

Is the show accidentally executing immune humans with its scanning protocol?

The Walking Dead structural trap: can two characters sustain a multi-season series?

Zombie genre saturation: is this the wrong time for another post-apocalyptic show?

What parallel storylines could prevent the show from becoming a repetitive survival march
Train alongside Remo Williams on YouTube or Tubi
Celebrate Columbus Day with the Amazon Audible Audiobook
Chrysalis is everywhere but here it is on YouTube:
One Cut of the Dead is available on Shudder or to rent on Amazon
Tag along with Invincible's wild ride

Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
1h 16min
July 17, 2023Story Break: Jagged — Building a Yeti Horror Film from Scratch
We develop an original horror film concept in real time — three ice climbers, an uncharted Himalayan peak, and a creature that's been there longer than anyone knew.
Topics discussed:
The Jagged pitch: climate change opens a never-summited peak, elite climbers document the ascent, things go wrong

Creature feature vs. ecological thriller: two different films from the same concept

Found footage structure and when it serves a story

How late can you introduce the monster? Seeding vs. surprise

Character arcs in horror: self-centeredness as a fatal flaw

The Descent and Prey as structural models

The community-Yeti relationship: sacrifice, warning, or ecosystem?
Also in this episode:
Lin-Manuel Miranda on the Always Sunny podcast breaking down The Nightman Cometh

Noma closing: what the death of the world's best restaurant says about the industry

The Dana Carvey Show documentary: Too Funny to Fail

Phil Hartman, News Radio, and the Andy Dick story

The Dice Man (1971): randomness as identity deconstruction

Happy Endings and New Girl as attempts to clone Friends
Links:
Listen to the Gang talk about The Nightman Cometh! https://thealwayssunnypod.com/blogs/news/the-nightman-cometh-its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia
Read more about The Dice Man (1971) here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dice_Man
Head to CBS News to find out more about the Jon Lovitz and Andy Dick feud: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lovitz-speaks-out-on-dustup-with-andy-dick/
Get to Noma quickly before it closes and use this article to help pass the time on your flight: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/noma-restaurant-closing
Re-live comedy history on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/movie/too-funny-to-fail-the-life-death-of-the-dana-carvey-show-c6c29995-0c40-4442-aed6-156bd11e2d9e
Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
1h 10min
July 10, 2023Aniara (2018): When a $40K Swedish Film Answers the Big Questions Hollywood Won't
Guest: A. Mert Erdem — filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist (azmimerterdem.net / Instagram: @artamnesis)
Topics discussed:
Aniara (2018): a $40K Swedish sci-fi film based on a 1956 Nobel Prize–winning epic poem

The Mina parallel: an AI comfort device and the main character follow the same arc — absorb despair, project hope, self-destruct

Religion as social structure: why the film may argue that abandoning structured belief accelerates collapse

The captain's pragmatism: stripping burial shrouds as the moment ritual dies on the ship

The cult sequence: when manufactured religion replaces authentic belief

The astronomer as acceptance: the bubble-in-glass speech and what it means about meaning

Extreme close-ups on a micro budget: how the camera work creates claustrophobic intimacy and prevents logical questions

The artificial probe: 2001-style ambiguity that fits because the film doesn't try to resolve it

The final shot: a habitable planet six million years too late — hopeful or devastating?

The Swedish cultural lens: what an American remake would change and lose

Harry Martinson: the poet who won the Nobel Prize and committed suicide four years later

Foundation series (Asimov): books vs. Apple TV+ adaptation, the psychohistory concept, religion as first empire-building tool

The backstory problem: how Dune, Lord of the Rings, Watchmen, and Black Panther solve it differently

IP development: what a Mars-side companion piece or short film treatment could look like
Links:
Explore the collected works of A. Mert Erdem at https://www.azmimerterdem.net/ and on Instagram @artamnesis

Read the Nobel-Prize Winning epic poem, Aniara, here: https://gsproject.edublogs.org/gs-texts/texts-used-in-2017/aniara-by-harry-martinson-3/

The Swedish independent film, Aniara (2018), is available to buy, rent, and stream with ads on most major platforms.

Head to Apple TV+ and stream The Foundation Series.

Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
1h 19min
July 03, 2023Is Netflix Making Bad Shows on Purpose? How Algorithms Shape What You Watch
Topics discussed:
How streaming algorithms manufacture viewer preference instead of measuring it

Netflix's big-budget strategy vs. the low-budget YouTube model nobody's tried

Why platforms bury your saved content to push their recommendations

The Pepsi vs. Coke taste test as a model for short-term data misleading long-term behavior

Avenue 5 (HBO): a brilliant script undermined by direction that kills its own jokes

MrBeast and the economics of algorithmic optimization

Jump-cut editing: why YouTube's visual grammar is replacing traditional film editing

YouTube's structural advantage over every subscription streaming service
Further reading and references:
Avenue 5 (HBO) — Hugh Laurie, Josh Gad, Zach Woods

Red Notice (Netflix) — the big-budget strategy in action

MrBeast's approach to thumbnail and watch-time optimization

The Cobra Kai / YouTube-to-Netflix pipeline
Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
48min
June 26, 2023The Cult of the Creator: Art Forgery, Attribution & Building a Creative Business
Part I — The Cult of the Creator (0:00 – 0:31)
Starting from Daniel Silva's spy novel Portrait of an Unknown Woman, the hosts examine how the fine art world assigns value — and how easily that system is exploited. The conversation moves from provenance and forgery into a broader question: why do we need to attach a single name to every achievement, and what does that cost us? In this section:
How 20% of museum art may be forged — and why the forgeries are good enough that it doesn't matter

Provenance explained: the chain of ownership that determines whether a painting is priceless or worthless

The Da Vinci workshop problem: when the student is as good as the master, what are you actually paying for?

Western attribution culture versus collective creation — is this a human instinct or a cultural habit?

Newton, the plague, and the accidental conditions that produce breakthroughs

The information age burial problem: world-changing ideas that are already out there but invisible
Part II — From Idea to Product (0:31 onward)
Using Canva as a visual brainstorming and design tool

Digital products on Etsy: stickers, planners, templates, invitations

Print-on-demand through Redbubble: how it works, what the margins look like

Shopify vs. marketplace platforms: the trade-off between traffic and margin

Building a physical product business: lessons from starting a candle company

Proof of concept before investment: testing with CashDrop, Venmo, and PDF brochures

Learning resources: Udemy, Coursera, YouTube tutorials References: Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Daniel Silva, Master Boot Record (artist), Wednesday (Netflix), Mindhunter, Knives Out, The Addams Family
Links:
Portrait of an Unknown Woman: https://danielsilvabooks.com/books/portrait-of-an-unknown-woman/

Canva: https://www.canva.com/

Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/

Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/

Audacity: https://www.audacityteam.org/

Master Boot Record: https://mbrserver.com/
Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
1h 8min
June 19, 2023Top Gun: Maverick (2022) The Billion-Dollar Paint-By-Numbers Hit
Top Gun: Maverick kept things simple in a franchise landscape that never does. The hosts break down the decisions behind that restraint and where the franchise can and can't go from here. In this episode:
Why the most formulaic blockbuster in years was also one of the most disciplined

The case for keeping Rooster simple and why more character depth would have been the wrong call

The torch-passing problem across legacy franchises: Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible, and the conditions that make succession work

How the unnamed enemy was a design decision, not a shortcut

The practical effects gamble: IMAX cameras on fighter jets and what it cost

The Val Kilmer documentary and what it adds to his scene

A sequel pitch built from the franchise's structural constraints

The IP rights lawsuit behind the property
Also discussed: Lock Every Door by Riley Sager, Reacher, The Grey Man, Bullet Train, The Lost City
Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
1h 1min
June 12, 2023Story Break: War Zone – Terrorists vs Drug Dealers
The hosts of Don't Encourage Us ditch their original interview and dive headfirst into "Warzone," an original high-concept pitch: a gritty action thriller about an all-out, no-heroes conflict between a ruthless international drug cartel and a powerful terrorist organization.
The hosts work through the full architecture of the film — three-act structure, dual lead dynamics, escalating set pieces, and a character arc framework built around a single shared question: what does it actually mean to be free when every institution you've climbed through uses that promise to keep you in place?
What's being developed in this episode:
The "no good guys" premise and what it demands structurally from character and plot

Why the Die Hard principle matters: how much plot does an action film actually need?

Dual lead construction and how to introduce a second protagonist 25 minutes in without losing the audience

The three-act escalation: from street-level enforcement to cartel compound invasion

Character arcs built around the myth of freedom at the top. Why both leads are wrong about what escape looks like

The twist architecture: how to plant evidence for a reveal without telegraphing it

Real-world source material: the Sinaloa cartel standoff and what truth-is-stranger-than-fiction means for action filmmaking
Story Break is a recurring segment where the hosts develop original creative concepts from scratch — screenplays, series, games, and formats that don't exist yet. If you make something with one of these ideas, tell us.
Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
47min
June 05, 2023The Lost City (2022): The Romancing the Stone Blueprint
The Lost City (2022) arrives with two recognizable stars, a massive production budget, and a formula that worked 40 years ago. The hosts take it apart to figure out why it's still flat — examining the structural problem at the film's core: two neurotic leads with no compensatory dynamic, a villain with half a motivation, and a stunt casting decision that inadvertently exposes everything the script can't do on its own.
In this episode:
Why putting two neurotic leads at the center of an adventure-romance breaks the formula

The Brad Pitt problem: when a supporting performance reveals what the leads are missing

What Romancing the Stone understood about romantic tension that this film doesn't

The deliberately obscured husband — sequel bait, or a missed story opportunity?

Daniel Radcliffe as a villain with half a dimension, and what adequate motivation looks like

The wig, the haircut, and what the film's visual choices signal about who Channing Tatum's character is supposed to be

Where the IP could go: the sequel pitch, and why the trailer has to do the heavy lifting
Referenced films:
Romancing the Stone (1984) | 21 Jump Street (2012) | The Rundown (2003) | Back to the Future (1985) | Stranger Than Fiction (2006) | Train to Busan 2: Peninsula (2020)
Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
1h 7min
May 29, 2023Pulse (2001) vs. Pulse (2006): What Happens When You Remake a Film That Isn't Trying to Entertain You
⚠️ This episode discusses themes of suicidal ideation in the context of character development. If you or someone you know is struggling, please call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
VS. Series | Pulse (2001) vs. Pulse (2006)
Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse (Kairo, 2001) is one of the stranger objects in J-horror: technically rough, deliberately alienating, and built around a thesis — that loneliness isn't cured by connection, it's just transferred. The hosts reverse-engineer why it works as art even as it fails as entertainment, then put it against the 2006 PG-13 American remake to examine exactly what gets smoothed out when a disturbing idea gets processed for a mainstream audience.
In this episode:
The dot simulation: the film's actual structural argument about relationships

Why the 2001 film's visual and audio choices are either intentional or catastrophically bad. Ambiguity is the point

What the remake gets right, what it can't help getting wrong, and what Wes Craven's draft might tell us

The surprise apocalypse as a horror device and why most films flinch

The cultural context: isolation deaths in Japan, the early internet

Where a sequel could go without violating the spirit of the original
Where to watch:
Pulse (2001) — free on Internet Archive
Pulse (2006) — free on Tubi
Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
1h 6min
May 22, 2023Story Break: Gravity Lost - Developing an Original Sci-Fi Short Film
⚠️ This episode discusses themes of suicidal ideation in the context of character development. If you or someone you know is struggling, please call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
What's being developed: Gravity Lost — an original sci-fi short film about a man whose grip on gravity loosens as his grip on his own life does. The hosts work through character psychology, tone, genre, visual language, budget constraints, and ending structure in real time.
In this episode:
The magical realism framework and why it protects the concept from over-explanation

The psychological core: passive coping, loss of efficacy, and the inverse Peter Pan structure

Why the ending cannot be decided in the writing — it lives in the edit

Low-budget execution: what you actually need to make this film

The Cixin Liu approach to hard sci-fi versus the open metaphysical version

What question you want the audience sitting with when the screen goes dark
Gravity Lost is an original concept developed on Don't Encourage Us. If you make something with it, tell us.
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Story Break is a recurring segment where the hosts develop original creative concepts from scratch — films, series, games, and formats that don't exist yet. No existing IP. No reviews. Just the work of making something.
Reach the show at [email protected]
Stop by and discourage us on Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, YouTube, and Threads
https://linktr.ee/dontencourageus
Listen to all the music we've discussed in every episode so far on our Encouraged Grooves playlist on YouTube and Spotify and find your next favorite song.
...more
55min

FAQs about Don't Encourage Us:

How many episodes does Don't Encourage Us have?

The podcast currently has 55 episodes available.