Episode 327. We continue our mission with The Americans, talking about season three in this episode. Philip and Elizabeth are conflicted about revealing their spy history to their daughter Paige, and struggle against the constraints of their orders from The Centre. We discuss sad sack Stan, all the sex missions weighing on Philip, Elizabeth and the old woman in the repair shop, if Mischa is even real, the teeth scene, and the urban legend of the psy ops video game Polybius.

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Episode 326. We finally begin a show that's been on our mutual to-watch list for years: FX's 2013 spy drama The Americans. "Philip and Elizabeth Jennings" are undercover KGB agents who have been embedded in the US since the '60s, living as a married couple, raising children, and trying to fit in as a normal '80s suburban family -- and their cover is tested when an FBI agent moves into their neighborhood. We discuss the story's slow burn pacing, giving the Jennings kids their own unique character arcs, all the sex scenes, all the wigs, and using a real-world local TV commercial for plot foreshadowing.

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Episode 325. To prepare for Paul Thomas Anderson's new movie One Battle After Another, we watched his 2012 drama The Master. A volatile vagabond crosses paths with a charismatic scholar with a cult-like following, and the two men form a bond that threatens the scholar's family and community of believers. We discuss the shifting power dynamics of who exactly is "the master" of any situation, the surprising sense of humor in this movie and in PTA's other works, anxious cinematography, and movies where a freaky little gremlin guy comes in to take over your life.

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Episode 324. We read Secret Identity by Alex Segura, a prose novel set in the world of 1970s comic book publishers. Carmen Valdez is a publisher's secretary trying to break in as a writer, and when she finally gets the chance to introduce her own superhero, her co-creator winds up dead and her name is missing from the comic's byline. We discuss the myriad mysteries in this book beyond the whodunnit, the moral murkiness that makes it a noir story, the worldbuilding of fictional comic companies alongside the real works of Marvel and DC, and racking up bills taking informants out for dinner.

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Episode 323. We read the first two volumes of The Terrifics, a DC story featuring fan-favorite characters from James Gunn's Superman, in a format that feels more like Marvel's Fantastic Four. The best of both worlds! Mr. Terrific, Metamorpho, Plastic Man, and Phantom Girl find themselves literally stuck together -- if they're more than a mile apart from each other, they'll all explode -- and have to turn themselves into a real working team to solve a multiversal crisis. We discuss Plastic Man's ability to be truly, mind-bogglingly ANYTHING, classic Jeff Lemire sadness, "science" adventures, and if Alan Moore has ever once in his life jumped.

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Episode 322. We watched the first two seasons of Poker Face, the mystery comedy show created by Rian Johnson for Peacock. Charlie Cale is a cocktail waitress on the run from her casino's mob goons because of her uncanny ability to tell when someone is lying. She travels across the country trying to keep a low profile as she takes odd jobs and stumbles into mysteries. We discuss the feast of character actors and extremely niche settings in these murder-of-the-week episodes, the escalation from small town petty crime to regional mafia empires to a serial killer nemesis, what the "Good Buddy" plotline could turn into, and we demand an episode of ONLY smokey-voiced character actresses.

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Episode 321. For our annual Nicolas Cage weekend, we watch our earliest Cage yet in 1987's Raising Arizona. In this Coen Brothers caper, an infertile couple kidnaps a baby from a family of quintuplets, intending to raise him on their own, until criminals and manhunters get in their way. We discuss the movie's sincerity, the iconic chase scene, the tattoo mystery, John Goodman screaming, and how every small town movie just takes us back to Napoleon Dynamite.

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Episode 320. We bring our racecar nonsense to The Review Show by watching the 1971 movie Le Mans, set in the real 24-hour motorsports endurance race through the French countryside. We discuss the film slowly building anticipation before the race actually starts, Steve McQueen's movie star identity intertwining with cars and motorcycles, waxing philosophic on the roar of the engine, and watch sponsorships.

Link to Patrick H. Willems' video essay on Grand Prix: https://youtu.be/JPnTm8C_OfY?si=iQKOwlgnMz2rSZVH 

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Episode 319. We quick-change into our capes for an episode on Richard Donner's 1978 Superman: The Movie. This has all the classic Superman iconography you know and love, plus a complicated real estate scheme where Lex Luthor wants to sink the California coastline to make a new one. We discuss the strange pacing that makes you wait nearly an hour to see Superman in action, the surprisingly sincere romance (and horniness), Jor-El being a busy dad with two jobs, Midwestern wheat fields, how we expect James Gunn's Superman to emulate this or step away from it, and if we'll ever see a big-screen Superman with a mullet like that one comic from the 1990s.

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Episode 318. We return to the world of Valiant comics to read the first three volumes of Faith, from writer Jody Houser. Faith has always worked with a superhero team, but now she's setting out on her own to live in sunny Los Angeles and fight crime her own way, while keeping up a day job as a pop culture blogger. We discuss Faith's important role as a plus-size superhero and how the story doesn't need to call attention to how unusual that is, the endless barrage of nerdy references, mid-2010s time capsule moments, befriending your clone, and tips for going to your first comic con.

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