Shot/Reverse Shot

On this week's show, Ed is joined by returning guest, and producer of the upcoming London Podcast Festival, Zoë Jeyes to talk about The Leftovers, HBO's wildly ambitious post-apocalyptic drama which recently aired its third and final season (so lots of SPOILERS ahead). In addition to tracking the way in which the show evolved from season to season, debating the meaning of the finale, and marveling at Justin Theroux's a̶b̶s̶ acting talent, they talk about London Podcast Festival Presents: Wrestling, a day devoted to podcasts celebrating the wonderful world of kayfabe.

Apologies in advance for some of the audio issues in this episode. We tried to reduce them as much as possible.

00:00:00 - 00:04:23 - Intro/Ed & Zoë talk about the London Podcast Festival

00:04:24 - 00:57:50 - Ed & Zoë discuss The Leftovers

00:57:51 - 01:02:49 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Film critic (and newly minted podcaster) Nathanael Smith returns to the show to talk about the recently completed Polygon web series Car Boys, an immensely funny show about crashing computer generated cars which wound up being intensely surreal and moving. They also talk about Nathanael's new podcast The VOD Pod, a show which provides a guiding light for those looking for something good to watch on streaming services, and look back on the first six months of 2017 and try to figure out if cinema is dead or not. Ed also finally gets to rant about Kong: Skull Island.

- Tony Zhou's video essay about Satoshi Kon, which Nathanael references towards the end of the episode, can be watched on his YouTube channel here.

00:00:00 - 00:06:10 - Intro/Ed and Nathanael talk about The VOD Pod

00:06:11 - 00:19:25 - Ed & Nathanael share their highlights from the first six months of 2017

00:19:26 - 00:45:18 - Ed & Nathanael talk about Car Boys

00:45:19 - 00:54:29 - SRS Recommends/Outro

In this minisode, Ed breaks down Twin Peaks for newcomers (or old fans who may have forgotten the salient details) ahead of the long-awaited revival of the show. He lays out the plot (not to mention the subplots), the reasons why the show's original run fell apart, and why people are so excited about the return of a show which ended ignominously more than 25 years ago. Ed also pays tribute to Car Boys, the recently completed YouTube series from Polygon.

00:00:00 - 00:02:30 - Intro

00:02:31 - 00:32:51 - Ed talks about Twin Peaks

00:32:52 - 00:38:34 - SRS Recommends & Outro

In an episode years in the making, Ed sits down with historian and friend Jack Rhoden to discuss the work of Kevin Costner. In addition to talking about specific films from the actor/director's back catalogue, they examine his status as a movie star, the almost mythic way in which he is used by some filmmakers to evoke a sense of Americana, and the peaks and valleys of a career that has had plenty of both. They also manage to compare Costner to both Lyndon Baines Johnson and indie-rock stalwarts Spoon, which is a pretty decent spectrum.

00:00:00 - 00:06:10 - Intro 

00:06:11 - 01:03:21 - Ed & Jack discuss the career of Kevin Costner

01:03:22 - 01:09:23 - SRS Recommends & Outro

The much-anticipated (by a fervert and vocal sub-section of comedy nerds) return of Mystery Science Theater 3000, the comedy series which raised mocking bad movies to an artform in the '80s and '90s, finally came to pass this weekend as Netflix aired 14 new episodes of the show. Despite new faces, new voices and new writers, the show remains pleasingly familiar and relentlessly funny. In this very short minisode, Ed offers a primer on the series for newcomers and discusses why it's a good continuation of the series for old fans, and the ways in which it makes for a better revival of a long-dormant series than The X-Files did.

This past Friday saw the release of Five Came Back, a three-part documentary series adapted from Mark Harris' great book "Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War", which recounts the story of five legendary Hollywood directors - Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, George Stevens, William Wyler - who left their careers behind and spent World War II making documentaries and propaganda for the U.S. military, in the process creating a series of films which shaped how audiences understood the war, and marked a significant development in the history of documentary filmmaking. The experience also took its toll on the filmmakers, leaving them scarred and having a profound impact on their work and lives.

Ed is joined by fellow podcaster and writer Noel Thingvall (@NoelCT) to discuss the series, the works of the directors profiled, and Five Came Back's place within the Netflix catalogue. 

00:00:00 - 00:02:52 - Intro

00:02:53 - 00:56:27 - Ed & Noel discuss Five Came Back

00:56:28 - 01:01:51 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Jordan Peele's Get Out has been an early highlight of 2017: a suspenseful, funny, unsettling thriller that explores social anxieties surrounding race in America in a way which manages to be both subtle and undeniably pointed. It's a remarkable debut, drawing on everything from Rosemary's Baby to Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and its continued success in the US is a testament to Peele's ability to pinpoint and deliver a swift shock to America's nervous system. Ed is joined for a SPOILER-filled discussion of the movie, as well as the broader discourse surrounding it, by fellow critic and Key & Peele fan Nathanael Smith (@NathanaelSmith on Twitter).

They also get distracted and spend a portion of the episode talking about how great Gugu Mbatha-Raw is, because why wouldn't they? She's amazing.

00:00:00 - 00:04:19 - Intro

00:04:20 - 00:58:49 - Ed & Nathanael discuss Get Out (spoilers start in earnest at 21:00)

00:58:50 - 01:05:03 - SRS Recommends & Outro

In this episode - which, despite being inspired by a film called The Irishman and being recorded over St. Patrick's Day weekend, is categorically not a St. Patrick's Day episode - Ed is joined by critic and podcaster Kayleigh Donaldson (@Ceilidhann on Twitter) to discuss Netflix's recent acquisition of Martin Scorsese's long-gestating gangster epic, as well as how the growth of upstart studios and distributors like Netflix, Amazon, A24, Blumhouse and Annapurna Pictures are shaking up the status quo in Hollywood. There's also some talk about whether or not Jeff Bezos is trying to kill God.

Kayleigh's piece on The Irishman, "How Netflix Stole Martin Scorsese's Dream Project From Hollywood" can be found on Screen Rant.

00:00:00 - 00:01:30 - Intro

00:01:31 - 01:10:44 - Ed and Kayleigh discuss The Irishman, Netflix and Amazon's original film slate, the death of the mid-budget movie, Blumhouse. A whole bunch of stuff, really.

01:10:45 - 01:16:50 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Somehow, it's been twenty years since Buffy the Vampire Slayer debuted on the WB, a humble start for a show which would go on to build a huge cult following and fundamentally alter fantasy and sci-fi storytelling on television. To help unpack this momentus occasion, Ed is joined by Zoë Jeyes and Ellie Graham to talk about the highs ("Hush", "The Zeppo", "Once More with Feeling") and lows (that weird sex episode) of the series, its continuing metaphorical richness, and the vagaries of BBC scheduling.

00:00:00 - 00:02:23 - Intro

00:02:24 - 00:59:21 - Ed, Ellie & Zoë discuss Buffy the Vampire Slayer

00:59:22 - 01:04:31 - SRS Recommends & Outro

In this minisode (which in no way lives up to the term because it's just as long as every other episode but shush) Ed counts down the ten best films to ever win Best Picture from the Academy Awards. It's almost relentlessly positive, unless his picks enrage you. Listen to find out if they do!

NB: This episode was recorded before the Oscars ceremony, so, er, don't be surprised that I didn't manage to predict the weirdest damn thing to ever happen at the Oscars.