Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie

Never let it be said that we here at Second Breakfast refuse to admit our mistakes. They've finally gone and done it: they made a great multiverse superhero movie. Not only is the story here thoughtful and refreshingly self-aware, but the art style – or should we say the 1,000 art styles – are deliriously delightful. This is probably the best cinematic experience of 2023.

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Discussion of The Lady of the Lake, Ch. 3 At first, this chapter seems like back-to-basics victory lap for our beloved Geralt of Rivia. But as we all know, onions have layers. Sapkowski peels, dices, and pickles this onion/chapter into a slowly unraveling pattern of bad habits and outgrown dynamics. Sexual politics are explored and challenged, Dandelion takes a stand, and Cam gets to drop a Die Hard reference.

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The second act of Diablo IV is full-on heavy metal. We've got three-headed beasts, a blood swamp, and a gigantic talking wolf. There are also startling, quiet moments of humanity exploring the Fat Goose Inn and the tragic remains of the Bear Tribe. After working through the story details and surprises, we check in on the progression of our four classes as we start to establish final builds. Ghost enemies push us to a breaking point, difficulty scaling still sucks, and we've never made this many poop jokes on the show.

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For this second Summerween episode, we're looking at one of Maggie's most formative horror movies. Black Swan is a movie we've been thinking about for thirteen years - the symbolism is so rich, the performances are so incredibly strong, and its insights into the desperation of the creative process are both profound and ever-evolving. As we return to the movie now, older and wiser(?), we have totally different reads on it than we did in 2010. This episode is a conversation between those perspectives, between us and our younger selves, and between this astounding work of art and its titanic creative lineage.

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Discussion of The Lady of the Lake, Ch. 2

The thing about curveballs is that you can never get used to them. Every time we think we've got the reigns of Sapkowski's story, he does something like this - introducing a second new framing device, making a colossal time jump, spoiling the end of the story, and spending fifty pages discussing bad endings / Arthurian legend. We've got commentary, we've got questions, and we've got some fantastic listener theories to work through. There's also a new character named Condwiramurs - and more than a few discussions about butter. Let's get into it!

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Diablo IV is finally here! As we play through the game, we're going to do a series of diary-style reflections where we reflect on story, gameplay, and progression. In this first act, we adjust to the revamped skill and inventory systems. Cam's got good news and bad news about the Barbarian and Sorcerer classes, Maggie's juggling minions with her Necromancer, and Tristan is pirouetting his way through Sanctuary with a Demon-Hunter-inspired Rogue. On the story side, we discuss Lilith's backstory blood petals, Vigo's sense of guilt and honor, Neyrelle's humanity, and the shocking new moral depth of this world. We also dive into the astounding visuals of the cutscenes and the pitfalls of difficulty scaling. Oh and Cam recaps Ralph Ineson's entire career. We're big fans.

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Flip open your Motorola Razrs and grab an Izze; we're heading back to 2008 and the "epic fail" that was the Cloverfield apocalypse in Manhattan. Summerween 2023 begins with this 85-minute panic attack that we were lucky enough to see recently on the big screen. We start with a discussion of the horror genre's association with jump scares, to try to figure out how this film sustains such agonizing tension without using any of the standard tricks. Then we look at the movie's poisonous, punishing moments of downtime, and the horrific butterfly effect that ripples through the story. Maggie contextualizes the film within American history, and we consider how the concept of catastrophe has evolved throughout the 21st century.

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Discussion of The Lady of the Lake, Ch. 1 Here we are – the beginning of the end. Sapkowski kicks off the final Witcher novel with his greatest curveball yet: a crossover into Monty Python. Maggie's got the essential context for all of the Arthurian legend littered throughout the chapter, and Cam has more than one hunch about the sudden turn into multiversal storytelling. Where are we, and where are we heading? It all starts (or ends) here.

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Diablo III is one of the most successful works of fantasy ever made, having sold more than 65 million copies worldwide. Between the three of us — Cam, Maggie, and Tristan — we have spent a startling amount of time in the world of Sanctuary battling demons and tinkering with our skill trees. It's been eleven years since the game released, and with this somehow being our 250th (!) episode, it felt like it was finally time to sit down and talk about this masterpiece. We're getting into everything — story, environmental design, art direction, all seven classes, buildcrafting, replayability, and legacy. All hail the Skeleton King!

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Discussion of The Tower of Swallows, Ch. 11

The Tower of Swallows goes out with a bang this week. For one thing, we actually find the tower, but there also unicorns, ghosts, dead people talking, and homicidal figure skaters. Sapkowski's writing has never been more fantastical, and parsing these pages brought us back to our Tolkien days. There's an incredible amount of resolution in this chapter, and plenty of new mysteries to discuss. Prophecy, metaphor, philosophy, murder - let's get into it!

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