Screeners Podcast

Seems like most of the Screeners are either lazy or...too not-lazy, so we only have two hosts this time. Well, two plus a very special guest—we won't tell you who it is, but you won't want to miss their review.

Two hosts means a pretty quick episode, but we'll be talking about Scoob! — mostly because there's an exclamation point in its title — and the new Damien Chazelle drama on Netflix, The Eddy. Is it a coincidence that Daniel was one of the only two people to show up to talk about a Damien Chazelle show about jazz? No, it is not.

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With both a movie and a season of TV on the schedule for this episode, we have no shortage of content to cover. You'll have to bear with us, though; it's a little heavy on the HBO. We can't help it—if you've got the goods, you've got 'em.

First up, a not-so-quick discussion: Universal has discovered they can make money streaming their movies. Who knew, right? Well, AMC knew (presumably), but was unhappy that Universal found out, so they threw a hissy fit. Do we have that story right? Let's talk about it some more, though; there's nothing like a public tantrum from a big company to take our mind off of things that matter. This is also why we follow Elon Musk on Twitter, by the way.

Then, onto Bad Education, a talent-packed true-crime feature about an infamous school embezzlement scandal. Bad Education is more salacious than it sounds, we promise.

But we digress. The season 3 finale of Westworld just aired on Sunday, so it's officially open season on a review of Aaron Paul trying to get robots hooked on meth. That's what he does, right? We haven't seen it.

How do you think HBO's doing this spring? Let us know in the comments and/or tweets!

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Special Guest: Tyler Howat.

Extraction. Chris Hemsworth's in it. All the cool kids are watching it, and we know at least April couldn't wait to review it. By the end of the episode, you should be able to tell if it's worth your somewhat-less-scarce-than-before streaming time, or if we should only let Jason Statham do action movies.

But that's not all! Reese Witherspoon is back in a Hulu miniseries that's nothing like Big Little Lies. We think. Little Fires Everywhere is available now in its entirety, and we'll tell you if you should binge it.

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Special Guest: Tyler Howat.

In these trying times, we need...escapist content, and lots of it. Movies usually only last a couple hours unless we're talking Scorcese or Jackson, and that's just not enough. How about a TV series? FX has one of those, and it's made by the Ex Machina guy and has Nick Offerman in it. Those are good enough reasons, right? Right. Let's talk about Devs this time.

And since we managed to pull Josh out of witness protection for this one, why not torment him by working on our Flickchart list? Sounds like fun, right? Well, at least for some of us.

Have you seen Devs? What should we watch next? Tell us these things, and whatever else comes to mind, on Facebook or Twitter. Please. We're starving for human interaction here. Chris hasn't seen an explosion on a wall-sized screen in a month. We're thinking of commissioning a Sarah McLachlan commercial on his behalf.

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You may have heard about an upstart streaming service called Quibi—at least, you probably have if you watched the Super Bowl. It's an entire platform built around the premise that people often only have 10 minutes or less at a time to consume media. When we pitched this idea to our our sweatpants drawer, it said, "Well, bless their hearts", but we're going to watch a few anyway. We might just watch the whole catalog—we, um, have the time.

Once we're done with that (short content gets a short review; see how that works?), it's been awhile since we've played Made You Watch, our favorite game for Screeners who like to torture each other. Each host picks a movie for another and forces them to review it. Chris still hasn't forgotten the last time he played this game; maybe that's why he's not on this episode.

And last but not least (or maybe it is; we haven't gotten to the review yet), we had to twist Daniel's arm to pull this off, but we're going to review Trolls World Tour. It's a movie that was obviously made for the big screen, and a much bigger room better suited to the delighted screams of a few dozen children high on popcorn and Airheads, but we watched it at home, because what're ya gonna do?

Your turn: pick a segment from this episode, and review it for us on Facebook or Twitter. Everyone's an armchair critic now that we're using actual armchairs for the job, so join us!

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Special Guest: Tyler Howat.

There are many possible reasons for the sudden overwhelming popularity of Netflix’s Tiger King docu-series.

Perhaps the most likely is that Netflix is hard-selling it everywhere—including, as we found out the other night, after the last episode of The Crown, despite the unlikelihood of that particular binge-watch combo.

Maybe it’s the cute little kitties...who can tear an adult human limb from limb.

Our personal pet theory is that, in these strange times, we all need some perspective about just how strange things could be.

Whatever the case, Joe Exotic (and...friends?) is here, he’s...definitely not straight, and we might as well just get used to it. This is his world; we’re just living in it.

And once we’re done talking about that, why don’t we take our streaming habits to other people’s couches—no, don’t worry; we’re not actually leaving our houses. It’s been awhile since we’ve done a “Made You Watch” segment, where Screeners dictate each others’ streaming schedules, if only for a moment.

Now, don’t lie: you’ve watched Tiger King too, right? Tell us about it. You know you want to. Find us on Facebook or Twitter as always.

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Special Guest: Tyler Howat.

Now that so many of us are looking at an extended staycation, the Screeners thought it would be a good time for a prequel to our Best of the 2010s episode. Why review one movie when we can review 28?

The real problem, of course, is what to call the decade we’re talking about. “The aughts” is too 20th-century, “the two thousands” takes too long to say, and “the zeros” is just...no. So we’re just refusing to name it altogether. The format hasn’t changed since the 2010s episode, but in case that was too many lifetimes ago to remember, we’ll cover:

If there’s anything we missed, you know where to find us! Send us a message on either Facebook or Twitter; we’re checking them...um, “occasionally” right now.

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Special Guest: Tyler Howat.

As you might have noticed, life is...different right now, and media is changing along with everything else. We have one more theatrical review for you—Disney’s Onward, but it seems like the only question will be “should you stream this once it’s on Disney+?” since you probably shouldn’t go to the theater by the time this episode is released.

Thanks to the, ahem, onward march of technology, though, there’s plenty of content to keep us occupied while we’re hanging out at home. There’s a whole season of Watchmen on HBO, for example, so let’s talk about that. Netflix is also a thing, and it’s the perfect time for a streaming-focused Top 3.

We know you have time to share your favorite streaming content with the rest of us on Facebook or Twitter, so let’s make that happen! Tell us about something we haven’t seen, and let’s get through this thing together.

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Fans of horror movies and reboots rejoice! This episode’s main feature is Blumhouse Productions and Leigh Whannel’s reimagining of The Invisible Man. The filme stars Elizabeth Moss, so you sort of know it’s going to be a departure from the H.G. Wells novel that is its namesake, but maybe that’s a good thing. Guess you’ll have to listen to find out.

Then, from fiendish to fiendishly difficult: It’s about time we revisited the IMDB game that we introduced awhile back and see who gets stumped by Will Ferrell movies this time around.

And when the episode’s over, don’t forget to share your spooky stories and deceptively challenging film trivia with us on Facebook and Twitter!

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There weren’t any compelling big releases this weekend, so the Screeners (including a couple estranged friends!) have decided to huddle around their mics and talk about what’s been on their own screens, big and small, recently. Netflix, networks, movies—we’ve got ‘em all, and we’re not afraid to make fun of them.

And since we have five—count ‘em, FIVE—hosts, let’s work on our Flickchart list a bit. You know where to mock our picks: Facebook! If you’re really mad about it, take the fight to Twitter too.

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