Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie

The Buffet is back in town, and our January round-up is a doozy! We begin with Poor Things and a discussion about scale, scene-stealers, and the relationship between plot and dialogue. From there, we move to Godzilla: Minus One for a chat about blockbusters, character work, and budgetary priorities. After that, we take a pitstop with Ferrari and consider the power of Adam Driver's physicality and Michael Mann's ethos of bluntness. Finally, we close out the episode with a dedicated conversation about The Iron Claw that spirals through several unusual comparisons to It's A Wonderful Life and the psychology of grief horror.

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Get bonus episodes on Patreon! Things are heating up at Winterfell. George is carefully restaging – and then pointedly pivoting from – the sexless murder plots of Macbeth. In this chapter, Catelyn and Ned officially evolve past their Scottish counterparts. The Jon and Ned echoes pay off in a tragic structural reenactment of Jon's birth and Catelyn's rejection of him. Ned's blindness stands in stark (teehee) contrast to Jon's gargoyle perception. Death and prophecy grow ever more intertwined.

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Get bonus episodes on Patreon! Fallout 3 released in the autumn of 2008, just as Cam's life completely exploded. 15 years later, he replayed a game he thought hated. Fallout 3 is a masterpiece, and this episode tracks the journey of revisiting such a time capsule so many years later. Memories, revelations, sledgehammer metaphors – wandering through the Wasteland again was a fascinating, powerful experience.

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Get bonus episodes on Patreon! Today we're tucking into a welcome feast – the Great Hall of Winterfell. On the menu: bread crusts, bacon grease, and possibly a brand-new literary device. Cam thinks he's discovered a new type of echo that uses repetition to boil down imagery and spark revelation. We also celebrate the introduction of Tyrion Lannister by attempting to label the ongoing trend of perceptive outsiders at the margins of this story. We're breaking out the red string and corkboard for this one to connect characters and themes – and maybe even the odd prophecy.

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Get bonus episodes on Patreon! Who doesn't love a little pomp and circumstance? Some glitz and glamour to close out a wonderful year of art? 2023 was chock-full of movies, books, comics, games, and shows that we loved (and loved talking to you about). In this episode, the fourth annual Brekkie Awards, we start with a big ole year in review segment before handing out awards in the following categories: best surprises of the year, best horror movie, best comic, best book, best discoveries from the past, and the big one — our three very favorite releases of 2023. Thank you for joining us on this roller coaster of a year! LINKS: Patreon, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, Cam's stories

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Get bonus episodes on Patreon! Down into the crypt we go! After three chapters on the periphery, we finally dive into the mind of Ned Stark, the daddy of Winterfell. Cam continues chasing death prophecies across three lightning-bolt moments from this chapter, while Maggie resurrects an old, classic theory to better understand the series' approach to fate and omens. We close by evolving our Macbeth comparison – George is throwing curveballs about Ned and Robert that will blow your mind.

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Get bonus episodes on Patreon! You guys weren't kidding, Path of Exile is ENORMOUS. The locations are boundless, the enemy variety is staggering, and the character customization is nothing short of incredible. But the bigger this game gets, the more there is to miss out on. In this episode we consider the idea that there is no one right way to play a game. It's all up to you – how much you engage with the story, the choice to use build guides, the decision to play end game content at all – these sprawling ARPGs can be whatever you want them to be.

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Get bonus episodes on Patreon! Sail across the Narrow Sea with us this week! Daenerys Targaryen introduces us to a whole new side of George R.R. Martin's world, and with her come new characters, new places, and new perspectives on prophecy. Echoes, of course, abound here: shades of the Stark children make their way into Dany's storyline (especially Jon), while the magical power and fated potential of a young girl remind us strongly of Sapkowski's Ciri in The Witcher series. Viserys' fierce entitlement strikes us (and the narrator) as pitifully weak, while Dany's motivations and desires align us unexpectedly with the Targaryens over Robert Baratheon. Plus, look out for Leftovers from one of our listeners.

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The Buffet is back, and we're open for business! On today's menu, we have a discussion of Eli Roth's glorious seasoner slasher, Thanksgiving; a frustrating reflection on Ridley Scott's Napoleon and the trouble with director's cuts; and an enthusiastic chat about the new film adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh's Eileen and the trend of ambiguous endings in literary fiction. We wrap things up with a wild card: 1997's Spawn movie, which is loud, ridiculous, grating, and possibly one of the best superhero movies ever made. To hear the full episode, subscribe to our Patreon HERE.

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Three chapters in, the themes of death and prophecy are only growing deeper and more complicated. In this chapter they swirl together to provoke an intriguingly incomplete echo of Macbeth. Maggie's also spotted a trend of opposing forces: the North vs the South, the old gods vs the new, the Starks vs the Lannisters, and more. We dive deeper into this idea with a cultural breakdown of pagan and Christian traditions. We also pause to appreciate and analyze the first happy marriage we've ever seen in one of these fantasy book discussions.

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