Talkin' TV

It was a jam packed weekend for movies, with Dom watching not one, but two movies this weekend, both returning films from his favorite directors, Michael Bay's Ambulance and the Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once! Dom is joined by Luk Reviews to finish off their Bayhem video they did on Thursday to talk about Michael Bay's new film, which stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Eiza González and follows two adoptive siblings turned bank robbers who hijack an ambulance and take two first responders hostage. Then, Dom talks about the new film from the Daniels who directed Swiss Army Man back in 2016, who's new film follows a Chinese-American woman, being audited by the IRS, who discovers that she has the power to exist in parallel universes and must help prevent the destruction of them all. The film stars Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huay Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Jenny Slate, Jamie Lee Curtis & James Hong, and is an absolute joy to watch. Be sure to keep tuning in for new episodes of the #talkintvpodcast every Monday.

We've reached the point of no return with this week's episode, Season 5, Episode 4 entitled "Sons of the Harpy." This is the episode where a lot of stupid stuff happens with little to no return, because unlike last week's episode where the story was actually pretty engaging despite the lack of payoff, here we're provided with stupid moment after stupid moment with little in-between to tie it all together. It's the real beginning to me of Benioff & Weiss' downfall with their critical reception, because this is the first of a series of episodes that are just poorly written with very little to actually excuse or justify it. Cersei enacts the plan to take over the city by restoring the Faith Militant, completely confusing poor Tommen & us the audience who are baffled by Cersei's lack of foresight as to the Sparrow's future actions. Melisandre attempts to seduce Jon with poor results, Tyrion realizes Jorah kidnapped him for nothing since they're both going to the same place, Jaime & Bronn arrive in Dorne, we're introduced to the Sand Snakes and Sansa says goodbye to Littlefinger, who conveniently tells her that Stannis is marching on Winterfell. We also get the next worst action sequence with the Sons of the Harpy's ambush of Grey Worm's troupe of Unsullied, wherein they proceed to kill everyone of them but Grey Worm, who has now inherited Ramsay Bolton's plot armor from last season. It unfortunately doesn't extend to Ser Barristan though, who meets his tragic end this episode attempting to help Grey Worm and his soldiers, a death that was so stupid even the actor who played Ser Barristan, Ian McElhinney, voiced his complaints with how he thought the character's death was poorly thought out. Keep tuning in for more episodes of Talkin' Thrones every Friday only on the #talkintvpodcast

We've got the next big superhero movie to review (Christ, we're really getting one of these a month now), and who do we have? Morbius. The Living Vampire. The next movie from the Sony Spider-verse, who's previous entries include Venom & Venom: Let There be Carnage, Morbius is a 2022 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Morbius, the Living Vampire, produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel. Directed by Daniel Espinosa and written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, it stars Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, alongside Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal, and Tyrese Gibson. In the film, Morbius becomes a living vampire after curing himself of a rare disease.

After announcing plans for a new shared universe of films inspired by Spider-Man characters beginning with Venom (2018), Sony began developing a film based on Morbius. Sazama and Sharpless had written a script by November 2017, and Leto and Espinosa officially joined in June 2018. Work began in earnest at the end of the year with further casting, ahead of production starting in London in February 2019. Filming was confirmed to have been completed by June 2019. Morbius premiered at the Plaza Carso in Mexico City on March 10, 2022, and was released in the United States on April 1, 2022, after being delayed several times from an initial July 2020 date primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dom & Chris are joined by Matt of Basic Entertainment to talk about the latest superhero dud. Join us every week for new episodes of the #talkintvpodcast

We're at the point of the show where Dom's problems really start to show with Season 5, Episode 3 "High Sparrow." As the title suggests, this episode is the introduction of the titular High Sparrow, the leader of the religious fanatical group known as the sparrows makes his appearance portrayed by Jonathan Pryce. The High Sparrow represents a very confusing element that comes to play in the later seasons, as the ideas behind the motivation of his character and his use of religious zealotism as a means of exacting some sort of philosophical revenge against the high lords for their destruction of the realm and plight of the commoners, but because of Benioff & Weiss' callous leap frogging over story logic points in order to reach their conclusion, it comes off as half baked like a majority of the second half of the show. Cersei realizes that Margaery is already making moves against her and attempts to retaliate by recruiting the High Sparrow to her side. Jon is faced with his first major decision as Lord Commander, Arya learns more about the House of Black & White, Littlefinger brings Sansa home, Brienne informs Podrick of her vow and Tyrion is kidnapped by an unlikely figure on his road to Daenerys. Be sure to keep tuning in for more episodes of Talkin' Thrones every Friday on the #talkintvpodcast

We've got another video game adaptation to hit, this time centering around the long awaited adaptation of the very popular series, "Halo." An American military science fiction television series developed by Kyle Killen and Steven Kane for the streaming service Paramount+, based on the video game franchise of the same name. It is produced by Amblin Television, 343 Industries, Showtime Networks, One Big Picture, and Chapter Eleven, and follows a 26th-century war between the United Nations Space Command and the Covenant, a theocratic-military alliance of several advanced alien races. Pablo Schreiber and Jen Taylor star as Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 and Cortana, with the latter reprising her role from the video game series, and are joined by Natascha McElhone, Yerin Ha, Bokeem Woodbine, Shabana Azmi, Olive Gray, Charlie Murphy, Kate Kennedy, Bentley Kalu, Natasha Culzac, and Danny Sapani. Development for a Halo television series began in 2013.[2] Killen was hired in June 2018, and the series officially announced a 9-episode order for Paramount+. Filming began in Ontario, Canada in October 2019, although post-production for the first five episodes was affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Filming eventually resumed in Budapest, Hungary in February 2021. Dom & Chris break down the troubled history of the production, what the adaptation does right versus wrong, whether video game adaptations will truly ever be great, and whether this show has legs going forward. Keep tuning in for more episodes of the #talkintvpodcast released every Monday.

Oh man, people, we've crossed the Rubicon. We're officially at the point where Game of Thrones transitions from being great to just...meh. Season 5 is such an interesting conundrum, because some of the best, most awesome moments of the entire show happen this season. The Dragonpit attack, Shireen's tragic death, Davos' speech to Jon, and of course, the real turning point of the show, Hardhome. It signifies a drastic upshift in the production, and a severe downshift in the storytelling, as this is the last season based on any of the books, in fact not one, but two books, both of which portray several different events happening at the same time, A Feast for Crows & a Dance of Dragons. Benioff & Weiss' decision to merge a lot of the major events from both books into one while leaving certain events out for next season is an odd one that proves more and more baffling as the years go on, as the consensus that Dom & Pat come to being that this season, while having some incredible moments, is ultimately streamlined in favor of rushing the story towards its conclusion, a decision that would haunt the legacy of the show and leave this season feeling very rushed and unfulfilled in hindsight. That being said, this episode does an incredible job of setting up the conflicts of the next two seasons, as we're introduced to two major antagonists that will face Cersei & Daenerys, with the Sparrows in King's Landing & the Sons of the Harpy in Meereen. We also get some major context around Cersei, Jon is given an ultimatum by Stannis, Sansa & Littlefinger leave the Vale and Varys offers Tyrion a new place. Keep tuning for more episodes every Friday only on the #talkintvpodcast

We've reached the end of another season of Game of Thrones, and if you ask Dom, the point where Game of Thrones officially drops off in quality. Season 4, Episode 10, entitled "The Children" is the end of a lot of our major character's arcs and also really a major ending point for a lot of the storylines we've been following for the last four seasons. Despite the Red Wedding occurring at the end of Season 3, Season 4 is the official end of a Storm of Swords, and also a pretty great encapsulation of everything that the fourth season was setting out to do, which is prepare us as the audience for the next phase of these character's journeys. Jon negotiates with Mance Rayder, Stannis arrives at the Wall, Daenerys is forced to imprison her dragons, Tyrion kills his father and Shae before escaping King's Landing with help from Jaime & Varys, Cersei finally reveals the truth to Tywin, Bran reaches the Weirtree and meets the Three Eyed Raven and Arya leaves Westeros for Braavos after witnessing the fight between Brienne and the Hound. All of these result in major changes for our characters that follow them all the way through to the end of the series, which is exactly what Pat & Dom are going to do as they begin the recap of the final four seasons in the build-up to the series finale. Be sure to tune into new episodes of Talkin' Thrones every Friday on the Spotify and Apple Podcast feed, only on the #talkintvpodcast