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Legends of Tomorrow continues to be one of the most progressive shows on TV. You gotta love it when they have Thawne show up and yet the thing that we spend most of our time talking about is how they're handling sexuality. This show constantly doesn't care about what others might think and that's a good thing. Not only did they have Spooner come out as asexual but the storyline with Davis is really dealing with the conflict of faith and being gay. There are a lot of shows that deal with LGBT issues that talk about how some individuals struggle with their feelings because others are telling them their feelings are wrong or evil. But Legends is saying the quiet part out loud and has Davis feeling like he deserves to be punished by God for his sexuality. And it's great that Ava was there to step in and tell him that he shouldn't believe that. For as silly as this show gets, it's really great that it can still make these kinds of stories serious and genuine. 

And then there's Thawne. No one should believe that he's helping Sara and is completely reformed and isn't going to use this next 40 minutes to do something really terrible. There are 2 things that are certain: Death and Taxes. And Thawne has beat both (Remember he left that tax bill for Barry to deal with). 

We wrap up this episode talking about how the Arrowverse goes down first ballot Hall of Fame. When you look at where super hero television came from and the fact that no one has done more episodic superhero shows than Berlanti and crew and well, props are due. You don't have to like all the shows or even where they are now. But when you think back to the days of Smallville or even Lois & Clark from the mid-90's, it's not even up for debate.

 

Kriss and Dpalm record the Mailbag at the end of every month. If you want to send in your own questions and thoughts, email us: [email protected]

 

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There are two types of people in the world. Those who love Shakespeare and consuming it in the vast array of  . And then there are those of us that can't stand Shakespeare and are still annoyed by the fact that at some point growing up we were forced against our will to both read and reenact some play or monologue from Shakespeare. There is no in between. Either you love it or you hate it. 

Objectively, The Tragedy of Macbeth is probably the best adaptation of Macbeth on the big screen. The performances are great and it's a really good, overall movie. That said, the majority of audiences would never want to sit through 1 hour and 40+ minutes of Shakespearean english. Trust me, it's brutal. This is an extremely niche movie that's aimed at a niche audience. Which is fine. But it does beg the question as to why being aimed at a narrow niche audience never seems to be a problem for critics with films like this but then that same thing is used as a negative with other films. It's almost lazy in the fact that at this point, since all these films are basically remakes of the same thing over and over again. Yet that never seems to be a problem. 

And that leads to the real issue that needs to be directed at the film industry. The question really isn't if this is a good movie or not. For those that love Shakespeare, they'll love this. For those that don't, they'll probably never watch this movie beyond a few curious minutes when they see Denzel Washington or Francis McDormand and go "oh what's this?" and then promptly turn it off and go back to something else. That's the reality. The real question is at what point do we free ourselves from the outdated chains that are Shakespeare? There are so many other literary masterpieces and plays that are better that we could focus our time on. Instead every few years someone is remaking something by Shakespeare. Enough is enough. It's time to pack Shakespeare up in a museum and stop using this as some form of gatekeeping of true acting or directing ability. 

Listen as Ro, Kriss and Brandon discuss the Tragedy of Macbeth and why it might be time for us to move on to some other things.

 

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Director: Abi Damaris Corbin

Screenwriters: Abi Damaris Corbin and Kwame Kwei-Armah

Starring: John Boyega, Michael Kenneth Williams, Nicole Beharie, and Selenis Leyva

Cinematographer: Doug Emmett

Sundance Synopsis: Living in a cheap motel in Atlanta and separated from his wife and child, former U.S. Marine veteran Brian Easley is desperate. Driven to the brink by forces beyond his control, the soft-spoken, kind man decides to rob a bank and hold hostages with a bomb. As police, media, and family members descend on the bank and Brian, it becomes clear he’s not after money — he wants to tell his story and have what is rightfully his, even if it costs him his life.

****

Director Abi Damaris Corbin the John Boyega-led, debut is an hour and fifteen minute drama that takes places almost entirely inside of a bank. Yes, this (loosely) based on true events story is a hostage situation. With that  framework comes all the expected trappings of a mobilized police response, the appearance of the FBI, stressful encounters, tense and conversations between people inside and outside the bank.

It's an tense standoff that from the outset makes it clear Easley is at a crisis point and is willing walking towards tragedy. Boyega turns in a solid performance of a mild-manner man desperate to be heard. Unfortunately, while the narrow focus on the hours inside the bank work beautifully to showcase the almost instance militarized response of law enforcement, it does little to ground the audience otherwise. 

Corbin's script underserves this stellar ensemble made up of Nicole Beharie, Michael Kenneth Williams, Selenis Leyva, Connie Britton and Olivia Washington at almost every turn. The characters avoid being poorly drawn characters due only to the caliber of the actors. The slight is made more obvious by the skill demonstrated by smartly designed scene transitions and set composition. There's a hollowness that not even Boyega's emotional performance can fill. 

As a gateway to understanding that desperation always has a cause and ably pointing out the multi-system failure that triggered Easly's last ditch effort to be heard, 892 is far more successful. With slick slight of hand and strategic placement of flashbacks, Corbin designs an indictment of the convolutedness that is the Department of Veteran's Affairs. 

There's a lot here to unpack, unfortunately not enough of it focuses on U.S. Marine veteran Brian Easley. 

On the podcast: Ro and guest Britt dig into 892

892 may veer off course when it comes to being a serviceable biopic or even ably handling the complexity of Easly's plight but, it will absolutely raise your anxiety level and provoke. 

Spoiler-free, but theme heavy, discussion with guest critic Britt W from popculturereviews.com where we dig into what works - and what doesn't - the set arrangement and filmmaking that went into designing the narrative - and what's the take away from a story that focuses less on the central character in order to 

And like all good festival conversations, the topics veer to other projects screening and the impact or ways they can inform each other.

Highlights: 

* Why watch documentaries: 

* What 892 pulled into focus for Ro

* Festival Documentary Riotsville, USA recontextualizing police response evolution as we know it

* How Film Festivals help you find a new ways to connect to narratives and different perspectives

* The director's eye in developing the main character and scripting

* Wherein Ro forget the name of Last Flag Flying

* Discussing where 892 concludes

* Why 892 should provoke questions about US systems that run agencies like the VA 

How bout 'em? No, I'm not making fun of the Cowboys (yet), but I am still talking 41 years between titles for the team between the hedges. This week, we've got lifelong UGA fan and writer for DawgSports Jason Smith on the show to talk about the way the world changed January 10th. Make sure to read his blog linked below, and bring a tissue or three. Go Dawgs.

Guest: Jason Smith - @jasonisasmith - For Those We Love Who Should Be Here

 

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First Character Corner episode of 2022 and it's a Pull List. There are a lot of comics for Kriss and Dpalm to talk about. The biggest problem? There are so many great and good comics out right now. It's really hard to keep up. Of course this is a good problem to have (unless you're on a budget). At this point with so many good books out there, the best thing to do right now is to not only follow titles but writers. 

On the DC Side, if you see that James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson and Tom Taylor are writing a book, you should be reading it. Tynion's Justice League vs Vampires isn't canon but is pretty good. Taylor's Nightwing also continues to be really good. Williamson is on Batman and of course that is good. If you have a DC Universe Infinite subscription, now is a great time to pick up on Bendis' run on Superman and Action Comics as well as the story he's telling in Justice League.

When it comes to Marvel, the Star Wars books are still great. War of the Bounty Hunters has ended and leads right into Crimson Reign. With certain characters from these books popping up in the Disney+ shows, good money could be placed on seeing more of the Crimson Dawn popping up more and more. On the super hero side, much like DC, it's worth picking a few writers to catch up on. Kelly Thompson has been doing wonders on Captain Marvel and it's definitely worth catching up on. Chip zdarsky's Daredevil is fantastic.  If you see anything written by Donny Cates, Jason Aaron or Kieron Gillen, read it. Gillen is actually going to be writing Immortal X-Men come March and after the events of Inferno, definitely can't wait to see what he does there. Gillen is currently writing Eternals (which is fantastic) and considering Marvel is teasing a future Avengers vs X-Men vs Eternals event, things could get very interesting.

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Legends of tomorrow is back from break and so are we. This episode gives us a look at what's been happening with the evil Android team of Legends. It also carries on the theme of "What makes one human?" as we see that Gidget (evil Gideon) is controlling the evil androids by removing the most human parts of them. This becomes true with what happens to the android version of Sara when she's reprogrammed to just be an assassin and reduce her leadership skills to keep her in line. What makes this really work is that we've seen this in previous seasons with Sara struggling to accept that she's more than just an assassin. So to see Gidget reduce the android version of her to that was a good call back.

We also do a mini-Mailbag episode and cover some listener emails from the last few months, CW sale speculation as well as David Ramsey's potential Justice U show. Kriss also has a confession to make about The Batman. 

Kriss and Dpalm record the Mailbag at the end of every month. If you want to send in your own questions and thoughts, email us: [email protected]

 

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Go Dawgs.

Watch anything good Monday night? On the heels of the first UGA National Football Championship since 1981, we've got Hater of the Year early candidate Nata Edwards to try - futilely - to bring me back to Earth. Not today Satan! We also talk NFL Black Monday, preview playoff matchups, and review our Podcast Week NFL Over/Under picks.

Guest: Nata Edwards - @NataTheScribe

 

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We're ending 2021 with the beginning of the end. We've started Hickman's epic Avengers/New Avengers run. This is one of our favorite runs. We've covered it several times from Comic Book Book Clubs on premium to when we cover individual characters like Black Panther, Iron Man, Captain America, etc. This time we're covering it from the perspective of looking at how Hickman sets up and builds out this really long story. If you read these books in their individual release date order and not by the volumes, the story tends to hit a bit different. You start to realize things like, Avengers is really just Tony babysitting Steve and building out a more powerful Avengers team after the Illuminati mind-wiped Steve. Avengers also introduces us to The Builders & Builder Code as well as the fact that the Universe is sick. It's like reading Avengers shows you the symptoms of the problem while New Avengers shows just how bad the illness is. 

We end this first part right before the Infinity event starts up. Part 2 will cover that before we hit the home stretch to Time Runs out.

As we bring 2021 to a close, we did want to take a minute and thank all the fans that have stuck with us over these rough last couple of years. Between the pandemic and outside obligations, Dpalm and I have struggled to keep pumping these episodes out every month. We've still managed to do about 1 every month though. While we can't make any promises because no one knows what the future will hold, we're hoping in 2022 to get back to our regular, 2-episodes a month cadence. For episode 99 we'll do a Pull List and talk about all the good comics that are out there that we haven't had a chance until now to catch up on. And then for episode 100, we're going to head back over to DC (finally) and dive into the Legion of Superheroes. Thanks for sticking with us all these years and we hope you all have a safe and happy holidays. 

Issues:

* Avengers Volume 5: Issues 1 - 17

* New Avengers Volume 3: Issues 1 - 8

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Kriss, Ro and Dpalm are back to wrap up this season of Hawkeye. While it was one of the shows that might not have been on the top of the list for us before it dropped, it really turned into one of the best Disney+ series. It feels like Marvel got better and better (on top of already being really good) with each series they dropped this year. With Hawkeye, they did a really good job of filling out the characters of Clint, Kate, Yelena and even Natasha while also building up future stories with Maya. This series had some really great emotional moments. We also want to see more Kate and Yelena together. 

And then there's "The Big Guy". Bringing Wilson Fisk into the MCU officially (it's still up in the air how much of the Netflix shows will remain canon) was great. He's clearly gotten a physical upgrade and we don't think he's dead for a second. 

 

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The Flash Armageddon event wrapped up pretty nicely. We get a conclusion to the Thawne/Allen rivalry (for now) with Barry saving Thawne's life by removing his speed. We also get a visit from Mia who seems to be sticking around for a while. Looks like we might end up with a bit of the story they were trying to do with the Green Arrow spin off. 

What really works for this episode is that it centers on Barry being a hero and what that means. In this case it means deciding if they should let Thawne die or help save his life, despite all that he's done. With a little nudge from Joe, Barry and Iris make the right call (until of course Thawne gets his speed back and kills again). 

And then there's the gold boots. Finally. Taken 8 seasons but they're finally here and they looked great. More of this please

Kriss and Dpalm record the Mailbag at the end of every month. If you want to send in your own questions and thoughts, email us: [email protected]

 

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