the link

The state of the MCU is in flux. There have been a few releases in a row that, by my estimation, have been sub-par. I have been a sworn defender of Marvel, Star Wars, and all of the major IPs for a long-time, citing that everyone should just enjoy what we have because it really is a spectacle. But what happens when the writing wanes and the spectacle just starts to feel like the norm? Is it starting to become painfully clear that we have already peaked when it comes to Marvel content, or are we just at the bottom of the normal ebb and flow that this could follow for decades to come?

Also, which is the ebb and which is the flow? 

EDIT: I got ya'll. Well Wikipedia has got y'all, but you have to trust everything on the internet: The ebb is the outgoing phase, when the tide drains away from the shore, and the flow is the incoming phase when water rises again.

Anywho, we brought back Ethan Simmie from the 15 Minutes of Marvel podcast to talk about where Marvel stands, and where it's headed. For the first time on either of our pods, we disagreed pretty vehemently, and "She-Hulk" is the major culprit. No matter which side you're on, the argument is worth hearing.

Follow Ethan @EthanSimmie on Twitter, and follow his podcasts @15MinuteMarvel and the brand new @24minutesofA24! You can find his pods, and mine, on every streaming service you know, and probably some more you haven't heard of. We're out there. Follow, rate, fangirl, in that order.

For more behind the edit content, opinions, shameless plugs, and posts asking Shaq to come on my podcasts, follow @thelink_podcast on Twitter and Instagram, and if you've got some animating skills, hit me up, I have some ideas. 

Until then...we'll see you next Monday.

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If you're a sports fan, subscribe to my YouTube channel called MikeTheMush where we post at least weekly breaking down some of the biggest stories in sports, usually with a gambling spin for all of you who want to make a couple of extra bucks in the newly legal gambling world. Check out even more sports content @MikeMushSports on Twitter and Instagram where we're coming back fresh after a break over the summer, and we'll have some content and weekly picks for the football season coming soon!

Summer is winding down, but hoodie szn is coming, so that's not so bad. It also means that we can have our yearly debrief on the summer movie season, which last year felt more like a moratorium, but this year inspires some hope. The state of movies is stable, but still feels like it needs to figure out where it's going to land as the digital world continues to unfold. Some ups and some downs this year, but definitely some cash cows. Top Gun, Dr. Strange, and Jurassic World made killings, and if you include Minions, TJ might be the one doing the killing, but more on that when you hit the play button. 

If you're already playing it when you read this, great, because as the most frequent guest on the pod, you should give TJ a follow @omgitstjtrimboli on Instagram, and follow his other channel, The Adventure Outpost, where you can find plenty of fun content, including movie reviews, on both Instagram and Youtube.

Of course, give me a follow and some noties @thelink_podcast on both Instagram & Twitter where we'll be talking movies all week, all month, all quarter, all year, all decade, all century, all millennia if we're lucky. Do I regret not starting at nanosecond and working my way up even further through the units of time? Not really.

Until next time...

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If you're a sports fan, subscribe to my YouTube channel called MikeTheMush where we post at least weekly breaking down some of the biggest stories in sports, usually with a gambling spin for all of you who want to make a couple of extra bucks in the newly legal gambling world. Check out even more sports content @MikeMushSports on Twitter and Instagram where I'm at least 50% more irrationally confident on my takes than I am on the link (and that's saying a lot).

"Westworld" season 4 ended a night before the "Better Call Saul" series finale. I have been a long-time supporter of both shows. It's pretty likely that both could make my top 5 at the end of the year, and yet they both took such drastically different approaches and paths towards a finale, that it warranted comparing them within the same episode.

If you've watched both already, come on in, the water is warm.

If you haven't watched one or the other, have no fear, we follow the same format we always do when reviewing new things:

1st part = NO spoilers at all

2nd part = spoilers, but this time, the 2nd part is split in half: a "Westworld" section, and a "Better Call Saul" section, so anyone who has only seen one is still welcome too.

Then we close it out with some nonsense as always. Come for the breakdowns, stay for the nonsense, leave the gun, take the connoli.

For more thoughts on each of these shows, and the landscape of TV and movies in general, gives us a follow @thelink_podcast on Twitter and Instagram, and look forward to another big episode next week when we shift our focus from the small screen, to the big screen...or silver screen. Do they use silver? Does silver ward off vampires? Because that would link up nicely to this episode. Or is that werewolves? There was a Harry Potter 3 reference in this ep...

More of this rambling coming at you weekly.

Until then...

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If you're a sports fan, subscribe to my YouTube channel called MikeTheMush where we post at least weekly breaking down some of the biggest stories in sports, usually with a gambling spin for all of you who want to make a couple of extra bucks in the newly legal gambling world. Check out even more sports content @MikeMushSports on Twitter and Instagram where I'm at least 50% more irrationally confident on my takes than I am on the link (and that's saying a lot).

Lock the doors, there's a fox on the loose.

When Chad comes on the pod, all hell breaks loose, and you really never know where things are going to go.

From Danny Trejo, to weight loss, to hidden cats, Aunt Esther's fox fears, BBMak, and Snuffleupagus' trip to the zoo in season 3 (thankfully they taught us to spell on Sesame Street), this episode will keep you hoping for that lime green hatchback you've always wanted...

...it's hard to write these descriptions.

For more behind the scenes, clips, reactions, and reviews to the biggest movies, TV, music, and just about everything else: follow me @thelink_podcast on Twitter and Instagram, and leave a review will ya? There's so many good words to throw in there; IYKYK.

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If you're a sports fan, subscribe to my YouTube channel called MikeTheMush where we post at least weekly breaking down some of the biggest stories in sports, usually with a gambling spin for all of you who want to make a couple of extra bucks in the newly legal gambling world. Check out even more sports content @MikeMushSports on Twitter and Instagram where I'm at least 50% more irrationally confident on my takes than I am on the link (and that's saying a lot).

It's extremely hard for me to nail down my favorite of anything. Bands, songs, foods, tv shows, movies...it's always changing. But, after my most recent re-watch, if you ask me right now, in this moment in time, as I'm typing this, my favorite movie of all time is Rocky.

That's worthy of me leaving a love letter to it. 

We went through the big moments, some that may get overlooked, tidbits, jabs, and crosses, not to mention Stallone's recent social media beatdown of Irwin Winkler, producer of the Rocky franchise and, unfortunately, owner of the character, which leaves Stallone earning less than 1% of the profits from the franchise, and technically no creative control over future films, which has been a point of contention lately.

The Academy Awards showed this movie love then, and I'm showing it love now. I'm not much for re-watching things as the listeners know, but Rocky? That's a full Sunday marathon. The Cold War ends today.

Follow me @thelink_podcast on Twitter and Instagram for a Rocky quotes all week and beyond probably.

Review the pod with a secret code word and you'll be etched into the right side of history. That's the link guarantee.

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If you're a sports fan, subscribe to my YouTube channel called MikeTheMush where we post at least weekly breaking down some of the biggest stories in sports, usually with a gambling spin for all of you who want to make a couple of extra bucks in the newly legal gambling world. Check out even more sports content @MikeMushSports on Twitter and Instagram where I'm at least 50% more irrationally confident on my takes than I am on the link (and that's saying a lot).

Sometimes we have to get real on this podcast. It's really up for debate whether this episode qualifies considering I started it with a musical number from the 1950s. Anywho, lately I've felt like there's been such a hive-mind opinion that social media is this evil creature that is taking over the world and that there aren't actual people behind it causing the problems that just happen to display on social media. There's a yin-and-yang to the digital world and cackling maniacally from its dark tower (not the Stephen King series, his endings tend to leave a lot to be desired), and too often I think people ignore the benefits of our connected digital world, and only seem to be focused on the negative and trying to eradicate it. Maybe it's a good thing to be cautious and skeptical, but it doesn't mean the good-side doesn't exist, and that we can't have hope to improve it even more. 

Plus, social media allowed us to take polls on some of the food fights in E75, so Laura came back on the pod to settle those in the outro this week.

If we're doing an episode on social media I'm damn well plugging my channel without needing a joke to hide behind. Oh God, does this Meta statement count as a joke? Does me capitalizing the "M" in meta a.k.a. the Facebook parent company count as a reference that could make someone blow air out of the nose in place of a laugh, which could potentially constitute this as a tiny little joke? If I said baby joke there, would you have imagined a family of jokes that has a child, potentially in a stroller with a boxing glove on it to represent the punch line? Now I want to go watch Rocky 3. All this and more @thelink_podcast on Twitter and Instagram.

Until next time...

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If you're a sports fan, subscribe to my YouTube channel called MikeTheMush where we post at least weekly breaking down some of the biggest stories in sports, usually with a gambling spin for all of you who want to make a couple of extra bucks in the newly legal gambling world. Check out even more sports content @MikeMushSports on Twitter and Instagram where I'm at least 50% more irrationally confident on my takes than I am on the link (and that's saying a lot).

Have you ever felt like you're alone on an island when it comes to your takes on food? Do you sometimes think...screw it, I like this island, I'm staying. Do you consider yourself picky? Are there weird quirks and rules you have with your food? Do you have thoughts on mayo?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, or even read those questions at all, this episode is for you, because frankly, I'm not sure how many people are reading the description if they're not going to listen to the pod anyway, or for that matter, are already listening. I'm sure you'll fall into one of those buckets. Food is fun to talk about though, and it's funny to me how different everyone's relationship with food can be.

Also Mayor McCheese is an elected official who deserves respect. #MMC2024

Until next time...

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If you're a sports fan, subscribe to my YouTube channel called MikeTheMush where we post at least weekly breaking down some of the biggest stories in sports, usually with a gambling spin for all of you who want to make a couple of extra bucks in the newly legal gambling world. Check out even more sports content @MikeMushSports on Twitter and Instagram where I'm at least 50% more irrationally confident on my takes than I am on the link (and that's saying a lot).

If you listened to E72, you heard my ups-and-downs with the Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney +, and a lot about how I thought it should have been edited down into a movie (which it was originally supposed to be).

Well, lucky me, I came across a viral sensation; outlets all over the place from Variety to IGN were touting that a fan-edit of Obi-Wan was catching fire across the interwebs. This mystery editor had taken the project from a 4.5 hour series, to a 2.5 hour movie, and the fans were loving it.

Even luckier me, that editor and film-maker is named Kai Patterson, and he agreed to come on the pod to talk about his work, the ups, the downs, the immense fan reactions, the specific choices, and everything that led to this moment. 

For all review-style episodes, we go spoiler-free before the ad-break, so nothing to worry about if you haven't seen either version of Obi-Wan yet. Plenty of looks into the film and editing world, Kai's backgrounds, and the process of making this happen from start to finish. Then, of course, we let loose with specific scenes, cuts, music changes, and defense of Jar Jar Binks (I will die on that hill).

Head to www.kaipattersonfilms.com to check out his work on the Obi-Wan Kenobi edit, his TikTok (where this all began), his YouTube with some of his other self-made short films, and plenty more. 

As always, follow me @thelink_podcast on Twitter and Instagram for more content, spread the word, write a review, tell your mom, pet your snoot horse, if you don't know what a snoot horse is, you obviously didn't listen to E72. It's a package deal folks. Become a weekly listener or you'll miss all these incredible tie-ins. That's a huge risk that you probably can't afford.

Until next time...

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If you're a sports fan, subscribe to my YouTube channel called MikeTheMush where we post at least weekly breaking down some of the biggest stories in sports, usually with a gambling spin for all of you who want to make a couple of extra bucks in the newly legal gambling world. Check out even more sports content @MikeMushSports on Twitter and Instagram where I'm at least 50% more irrationally confident on my takes than I am on the link (and that's saying a lot).

Chad is back for his 3rd episode on the pod, aren't there aren't many guests that get sillier. We did break down some movies, TV shows, political difficulties, and philosophical debates...

...we also got pretty far into Pizza Hut, nectarines, cheese wheels, Tom & Jerry, mobile games, and so many, and I mean SO many other topics.

Keep your head on a swivel, this one moves fast. Also your head is never really on a swivel or else you definitely have a decapitation and/or spine alignment problem. Your head can swivel, which is probably the more appropriate nomenclature. Nomenclature? Tommenclature...Tommen...Game of Thrones...we mentioned that too.

Just trust me and give it a whirl, if you don't have at least 2.5 times (the half being a small snort out of your nose to acknowledge the comedy), then you can just try again next week.

As always, follow me @thelink_podcast on Twitter and Instagram for more content, spread the word, write a review, tell your mom, pet your dog, if you don't have a dog, pet someone else's, but maybe ask first. 

Until next time...

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If you're a sports fan, subscribe to my YouTube channel called MikeTheMush where we post at least weekly breaking down some of the biggest stories in sports, usually with a gambling spin for all of you who want to make a couple of extra bucks in the newly legal gambling world. Check out even more sports content @MikeMushSports on Twitter and Instagram where I'm at least 50% more irrationally confident on my takes than I am on the link (and that's saying a lot).

I originally planned on having a guest for this episode, but I had so many thoughts on the state of extended universes (Marvel, Star Wars, the other ones I couldn't think of while recording), and how the newest Disney + show Obi-Wan Kenobi fits into that landscape.  

For all review episodes, we stick to the first-half, no spoilers rule, so if you haven't seen Obi-Wan Kenobi yet, have no fear, you'll be warned before spoilers start.  I enjoyed some things about this series very much, but I was also left feeling puzzled at times, for what this means for the characters, and for what it means for the biggest trends in film.  Plus we got to see Darth Vader again so that's worth talking (and memeing) about if you ask me. 

In the second-half, we let the spoilers rip, and broke down not only the finale, but the best and worst storylines of the season. Until next time old friend, may the force be with you. (oh and follow me @thelink_podcast on Twitter and Instagram but I don't think they said that part in Star Wars...yet).

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If you're a sports fan, subscribe to my YouTube channel called MikeTheMush where we post at least weekly breaking down some of the biggest stories in sports, usually with a gambling spin for all of you who want to make a couple of extra bucks in the newly legal gambling world. Check out even more sports content @MikeMushSports on Twitter and Instagram where I'm at least 50% more irrationally confident on my takes than I am on the link (and that's saying a lot).