Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie

Join Cam and Maggie for a gleeful discussion of James Wan's Malignant. Spoiler alert for the whole episode - don't worry if you don't read the descriptions, we say it at the beginning of the episode. There's so much to talk about with this movie, and by golly it's just nice to see a filmmaker at the top of their game having this much FUN. Cam tracks all the moments of humor and wonderful over-the-top goofiness in Wan's earlier work to find the roots of all this movie's magnificent twists. Maggie has a problem with Gabriel's electricity powers. God, it's hard to write this description without too many spoilers - I'll just list the films we reference in our discussion instead: Halloween, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, The Invisible Man, Upgrade, The Evil Dead, The Conjuring, Insidious, Saw, The Haunting of Hill House, and Deadpool.

Because we both feel so positively about this wildly divisive movie, we invited our dear friend Tristan to join us for the second half of this episode and share his markedly different reaction to the film. That segment is also full of spoilers, and it was a lot of fun to record!

What did you think of Malignant? Send us your feedback and theories at [email protected]

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What a chapter title! Who is the Grey Company – is it the new, lean and mean fellowship led by Aragorn or is it the parade of metaphorical ghosts and literal corpses that now follows our heroes? Join Cam and Maggie for a spirited investigation of this question and many more. Aragorn really comes into his own here as the one true successor to Gandalf the Grey, and we've got quotes and theories galore! He's got his own Balrog moment, his own Council of Elrond moment, his own Palantir moment, even his own nod-to-a-secret-and-magical-past "Mithrandir" moment!

For Second Breakfast this week, we dive back into Christopher Tolkien's History of Lord of the Rings series for a gold rush of revelations and intriguing little behind-the-scenes nuggets. Learn about the early draft where Aragorn murdered Boromir, the Balrog's close ties to Saruman, the identity of the Nazgûl's winged mounts, and Gandalf's secret (terrifying) ability to manifest and project his thoughts into the physical world!

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Back to the books! Join Cam and Maggie for their first foray into Gondor, as Pippin takes the reigns of story and Gandalf the White becomes just as much of a disappointment as his predecessor. Oh and hey what's up with Denethor? Is he a magical, telepathic, wrathful leader or just a terrible father? Tolkien upsets the binary black / white imagery of Middle-earth here with the ominous white tree of Gondor and the moment where Gandalf the White is greeted as a bad omen. Daddy Gandalf also drops a chess metaphor that gives us powerful GOT vibes, and we examine all of Tolkien's little lessons on power that emerge from Pippin's grand tour of Minas Tirith. All this Gondor talk makes me miss Faramir – and I mean studly book Faramir, not that weirdo from the movie.

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Join Cam and Maggie for a discussion of David Bruckner's unnerving, masterful new horror film, The Night House. So many of our Lord of the Rings discussions have centered around echoes and twisted callbacks, and this film takes those ideas and runs a marathon with them. As a work of surreal grief horror, the story deftly avoids all the major modern tropes and pitfalls of the subgenre and brilliantly swerves into shocking, satisfying character moments. We spend a lot of time praising Rebecca Hall's knockout lead performance, which elevates the tight, efficient script with nuance, humanity, and a striking, grounded humor that we have never seen executed this well. There's also some analysis of the film's scary-smooth transitions into the dreamworld, and the narrative effect of Beth's restless journey. Reference points include Sinister, Hereditary, The Exorcist, and The Conjuring.

In our spoiler section, we unpack the film's ending with The VVitch as a touchstone, and then Cam goes on another (evidence-supported) rant about another story he likes really being a Faustus story the whole time. Is Maggie convinced? Listen to the end and find out - oh, and go support this movie. Independent, non-franchise horror is the spice of life, and the pandemic box office is pretty brutal right now.

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Discussion of The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers [Extended Edition] in Glorious 4K!

Join Cam and Maggie dive into the second half of Peter Jackson's glorious Two Towers adaptation and find a whole host of echoes across the Middle-earth filmography. Théoden goes full Thorin, Helm's Deep turns into the Battle of the Five Armies, the Ents save the day with water superpowers just like Arwen did in Fellowship, Aragorn has a near death experience mirroring that of Gandalf the Grey – there's a ton to talk about here. We also examine the big change this adaptation makes, the Scouring of the Faramir. Why is the "Boromir the White" that we know and love from the books so different here? Which characters do the changes serve, and are the filmmakers trying to set up a more dramatic arc for the character going forward? All of these questions and more are answered in this brand spankin' new episode of Second Breakfast. Also, someone finally calls out the rampant isolationism in this world – not that it makes much of a difference. Oh well.

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Join Cam and Maggie for a technicolor exploration of David Lowery's spectacular new film, The Green Knight. You know how much we adore A24 folkloric horror and this movie is quite honestly the bee's knees. Our discussion begins with an investigation into the calm surrealism that Dev Patel's masterful performance lends to the whole film, before we look at its episodic, almost color-coded story structure and Lowery's unique, modern twist on morality tales. There's also a great deal of love thrown to The VVitch and the casting crossovers into this movie (remember Boromir starring in the first season of Game of Thrones?)

Moving into the spoiler section, Cam twirls off the diving board into a big ole pool of Doctor Faustus comparisons. I mean, come on, Green Knight has demon conjuring, delayed consequences, and a purgatorial mid-life crisis – he's a simple man. We also take a closer look at Morgan La Fay, the person doing the actual demon conjuring. Finally, we return to The VVitch to discuss repressed sexuality, temptation, and cowardice – and then we spend a long time complimenting the ending to this movie. Daring, risky, thrilling, traitorous, shameful, unforgettable.

Support this movie, it is absolutely incredible: https://a24films.com/films/the-green-knight

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Discussion of The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers [Extended Edition] in Glorious 4K!

Join Cam and Maggie for an hour of Aragon worship and Théoden hate, in equal measure. The first disc of Two Towers is as much of a devastating villain showcase as the book was, and we're back to break down some new theories, callbacks, and even a call forward to the best moment in the Hobbit trilogy. Maggie is underwhelmed by the trees, but Cam wins her back with some Shakespeare anecdotes. We analyze the movie's markedly different version of Gollum (this one is still redeemable) and the decision to integrate the book's scattered storylines into a cohesive narrative. The franchise's relationship to comedic relief also seems to change in this film, and Saruman gets a lot room to be evil. Oh and there are Nazgûl, riding dragons this time, all sorts of cannibal orcs, a corpse-filled swamp, and that big spider waiting on the horizon. Come on, try to tell me these aren't horror movies.

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Join Cam and Maggie for a discussion of the fantastic new Netflix anime film, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf. Spoiler alert (and there are spoilers throughout the episode) – we loved this movie. As a standalone spinoff, a prequel, and a jumping-on point for the larger Witcher universe, wowza. We work through all the many tropes upended by this subversive movie, from the Han Solo rogue to the violence to this series' brutal pragmatism. Expect lots of comparisons and fascinating diversions from genre standards like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. Cam also explains why he thinks this densely plotted story was perfect for an animated medium, and basks in the new time-consuming agony of creating comics.

Stay tuned for a regular Tolkien episode this Friday (same bat time, same bat channel) covering the extended edition of The Two Towers.

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Discussion of The Two Towers, Book Four, Chapter Ten

Join Cam and Maggie for the grand finale of The Two Towers! Viking King Samwise finally gets his day in the sun, and we couldn't be happier. Cam has a new priori-incantatum-style theory about Sam being the last man standing from the original fellowship, and he thinks he's spotted the ghosts of Sam's past companions hidden throughout this chapter. We also look at Sam's experience putting on the Ring for the first time, and Maggie has a startling realization that might upset the whole magical hierarchy of Middle-earth. We ask each other some provocative questions too, including: Is Sauron a bad leader? Why does Sam narrate his thoughts in this chapter? (or is he talking to Frodo?) Will Frodo come back as Frodo the White? Is Shelob stronger than Smaug? As a special treat to our listeners, we actually have answers to most of these questions.

In our Second Breakfast, we play devil's advocate and reconsider one of our most confident positions – that loyalty to the source material is an essential part of successful book-to-movie adaptations. We discuss great counterexamples like Annihilation and The Shining before using a more historical angle to try to understand fandom and the vital role of storytelling in human evolution. From soap operas to religious texts, we have always had incredibly strong feelings about the stories we choose to invest in. This segment features more Al Pacino references than you would expect.

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Discussion of The Two Towers, Book Four, Chapter Nine

Join Cam and Maggie as they do their best to talk about a big spider for an hour without actually thinking about them. The concept of "grey magic" comes roaring back in these pages to throw off our understanding of magical hierarchies and the power players of Middle-earth. Galadriel and Shelob emerge as transcendent, mysterious forces that could singularly turn the tide of the battle against Sauron. Maggie and Cam debate the divine intervention of Galadriel's phial of light and the strange elvish voice that speaks through Frodo. Gollum's latest act of treachery throws a monkey wrench into the good and evil binary of Sméagol / Gollum and might have finally made the character irredeemable. Cam plays out a 'what if?' scenario exploring the alternate reality where Shelob kills Frodo and Sam and the rest of the fellowship has to complete their quest. It's very Game of Thrones and more satisfying than we expected it to be.

In our Second Breakfast, Maggie shocks the world by enjoying a superhero movie. She leads us through a discussion of James Gunn's The Suicide Squad that celebrates the film's reverence for comics, non-ironic humor, brutal dramatic stakes, and restless plotting. Cam tries to dilute some of Maggie's hotter takes about Marvel with lots of compliments about Daniel Warren Johnson's Beta Ray Bill comic run (the one about sad horse Thor, look it up).

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Feedback & Theories: [email protected]

Illustrated YouTube clips channel: https://bit.ly/2OT6RP3