Tower of Babble

The prestigious Tobie Awards returns for it's 7th annual ceremony. In a bit of a change from tradition, the decision has been made to split the show into two parts. Part one, today, will cover the best of television from 2023. There was a lot of great shows to chose from, but your hosts, Julian, Jeremy, and special guest, Vince, deliver a varied list that has something for everyone. Of course the breakout hit from HBO, 'The Last of Us', gets it's fair share of love but outside of that, I dare you to guess where all the pieces fall. Next week, we dive into the best in film!

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1. The Bear S2

2. The Last of Us

3. Ted Lasso S3

Honourable Mention:

• The Bad Batch S2, Beef, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds S2, Star Trek Picard S3, Shrinking, Only Murders in the Building S3, Ahsoka, Star Trek: Lower Decks S4, Loki S2, Scavengers Reign

Disappointment:

• Secret Invasion, The Mandalorian S3

1. The Last of Us

2. Loki S2

3. Only Murderers in the Building S3

Honourable Mention:

• One Piece (Netflix), Gen V

Disappointment:

• Secret Invasion, Mandalorian S3, What If…? S2

1. The Last of Us

2. Beef

As the ToB Crew kickoff 2024, we begin by lamenting what we lost. If only we could return to the simpler times, pre-pandemic. Alas, this is not to be, so instead Julian and Jeremy rely on "ol' faithful", which of course means reviewing the latest news concerning film and television. Unfortunately, they immediately lose focus, perhaps subconsciously staying true to the nostalgic undertone that accompany the start of a new year, and enjoy a fun sidebar discussion about the state of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars in the early 2000s (We didn't know how good we had it back then). All of which was of course an offshoot of the news of John Williams un-retirement. Next the guys unpack some Star Wars news, and then lean into Marvel. Specifically the fresh legitimacy the Netflix 'Defenders' saga shows have received as Daredevil is pulled further into the MCU. They also save some time to review the Golden Globe winners and look ahead at the Emmys (which were happening live during the recording). All that and so much more on this week's episode of The Tower of Babble Podcast.

If you enjoy the show please subscribe and leave a nice review on Apple Podcasts, and check out Patreon.com/TowerBabbleCast to become one of our latest patrons.

• Trailers

• ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’

• Guy Ritchie’s ‘The Gentlemen’ series

• John Williams has canceled his retirement plans saying “If a film came along that I was greatly interested in, with a schedule that I could cope with, I wouldn’t want to rule anything out.”

• Star Wars

• Dave Filoni has been promoted to Chief Creative Officer of Lucasfilm.

• Dave Filoni, in a recent interview with EW, confirms what was seemingly firmly established in Ahsoka, saying that “if you pay attention to the films you understand that the Force is an energy field created by all living things. But it takes some commitment”.

• A ‘What If’ series for Star Wars is reportedly in the works.

• A new ‘Star Trek’ film is in development with Toby Haynes (‘Andor’) set to direct. This is described as an origin story set decades before the 2009 ‘Star Trek’ film.

• ‘Tron: Ares’ will begin filming after the holidays. It will star Jared Leto, Evan Peters, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Cameron Monaghan. It won’t have Joseph Kosinsky directing, or Daft Punk doing the score.

• Warner Brothers and Tom Cruise have agreed to a unique development deal - Variety

• ‘Fast X: Part 2’ will reportedly be a throwback to the first film with a trimmed budget and less major locations.

• Marvel:

• ‘Echo’ and the new “Spotlight” sub-brand.

  • Kingpin to be the “Thanos of the street level MCU”

• The entire ‘Defenders’ saga has been added to the MCU timeline on Disney+

• Eden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll will return as Foggy and Karen for ‘Daredevil: Born Again’

• Jon Bernthal says his return as The Punisher has to be right with “real sacred integrity to the source material and to what is at the core of Frank'' … “I’m gonna do my absolute best to make sure that, if and when we do it, we do it right.”

• The Golden Globes winners: https://goldenglobes.com/articles/diversity-front-and-center-with-golden-globe-nominations/ 

• Emmys look ahead

Mathew Vaughn thinks that Star Wars should have a reboot and only focus on the Skywalker family. “What are the Star Wars characters so hallowed that from 1977 you can’t re-do it for a new audience?”

• Whiplash

• The Iron Claw

• Harry Potter

• Lord of the Rings
  

Maybe time works differently in the Star Wars universe because it feels like it was just yesterday that we were flipping over the calendar from 2022 to 2023. We were so young and naive. We didn't know a Hollywood strike would bring production of all our most anticipated projects to a grinding halt, and we hadn't yet learned to never trust a movie announcement from Lucasfilm, or that Mando S3 would land with such a thud. But here we are, a year later, looking ahead at another year of Star Wars. We are still waiting for the next movie in the franchise, while some of the best animated content is about to come to an end with the final season of 'The Bad Batch'. Plus, some intriguing new live action shows are just around the corner in 'The Acolyte' and 'Skeleton Crew', though we still don't know much about either one. It's a tumultuous time, so to kick things off on the right foot, Julian and Rachel take a moment to enjoy their Star Wars themed Christmas gifts before diving back into the nitty gritty.

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Julian and Jeremy recently sat down to record a Film Club episode and as it happens, they mad some extra time to chat about a few random topics afterwards. This is that conversation. Physical media vs streaming, Oppenheimer, Rebel Moon, Harry Potter, TV's, sound and home theatre setups. It's a hodgepodge of topics that will fit perfectly into your holiday podcast binging. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from all of us at Tower of Babble! See you next year...

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With every media company in some state of crises these day, it's nice to be reminded that there are things worth looking forward to, even if it's mixed in with a lot of other crap. You really need to try these days to cut through the noise. Fortunately, at least one new trailer dropped recently that made us feel alive again, 'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga', taking us back to the simpler times of bombastic explosions and a post-apocalyptical setting. As this weeks episode title suggests, yes it is a sequel (or I suppose a prequel as well), and yes, sequels in general have been on the top of Hollywood's mind as of late. Disney's Bob Iger, who has had a rough go of it recently, chimed in saying that Disney was going to pull back on the amount of sequels it was creating. Meanwhile, Sony, who can't help themselves, released a trailer for 'Madame Web', highlighting for everyone exactly why less sequels are needed. Julian and Jeremy discuss all of this, as well as a lay-up "Agree of Disagree" featuring Chris Nolan, which dovetails nicely into a conversation on 'Oppenheimer' to close things out. All this, and more, in the week's Tower of Babble Podcast!

If you enjoy the show please subscribe and leave a nice review on Apple Podcasts, and check out Patreon.com/TowerBabbleCast to become one of our latest patrons.

• Trailers

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

• Fallout

• House of the Dragon S2

• Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

• Madame Web

• The Boys S4

• Marvel/Disney

• Tom Holland discusses the potential of Spider-Man 4 saying “We have been in active discussion about it. I feel very protective over Spider-Man. I won’t make another one for the sake of making another one. It will have to be worth the while of the character.”

• This echoes Bob Iger’s recent comments about Disney wanting to be smarter about its sequel decisions after going sequel crazy as of late, saying “moving forward we will only greenlight a sequel if we believe the story that the creators want to tell is worth telling”

• Bob Iger has been in the press a lot lately. He also recently said that their creators at Disney have lost sight of what their job should be, entertain first, not messages. He went on to add that stories infused with “positive messages for the world” can be great but that it shouldn't be the primary job.

• A fun rumor, Sam Rami apparently is one of the top contenders for the directing job of ‘Avengers: The Kang Dynasty’ and ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’. 

• WBD

• David Zaslav says that it takes courage to write off movies for tax purposes. His quote: “what content is going to help us win? The content that wasn’t, we made a strategic decision on. It was difficult and painful but it was necessary.”

Chris Nolan on Scorsese’s comments about superhero films:

“Established titles can assure a return in audiences and give people more of what they want, and it pays for lots of other films to be made. But there always needs to be respect for the audience’s desire for something new. A healthy ecosystem in Hollywood is about balance between those two things” - AP

• Oppenheimer

• Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey

• Harry Potter: The Goblet of Fire (4)

• Invincible S2

• Scavengers Reign

• Blue Eye Samurai

We're hitting the ground running as we attempt to get back to a regular cadence this week with one of the biggest stories in Hollywood right now. If you've been listening to this show for awhile you know that we've paid close attention to the troubles that have beset Warner Brothers over the last few years. My have the tables been turned. Variety has put out a pretty scathing article (hit piece?) on the current state of Marvel Studios that didn't hold back in its indictment of the management (mismanagement) by Disney for what was, up until very recently, a nearly unblemished brand. Julian and Jeremy unpack how they got themselves in this situation and ponder what moves they can make to bring people back into the world Stan built. Meanwhile, of course, WB still manages to find it's way into the limelight with it's latest attempt to burry a film for tax credits, so of course that is touched on as well.

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With crisp autumn leaves on the ground and the smell of pumpkin spice latte's in the air, it's easy to feel nostalgic about the summer that was. And what a summer it was (at least for Hollywood)! 2023 saw the resurgence of a more "typical" summer movie slate, having recovered as best as it could after COVID. Massive titles like 'Spider-Man', 'Indiana Jones', 'Guardians of the Galaxy' and don't forget the massive phenomenon of 'Barbenheimer'. It all came and went over the summer months seemingly in the blink of an eye. It was a whirlwind time that brought many surprises, both good and bad. Julian and Rachel unpack it all as they review the results of this year's Summer Movie Wager (credit to The Filmcast).

If you're wondering if you might have missed the preview episode at the beginning of summer, well put those fears to rest because there wasn't one! Unfortunately we weren't able to schedule that episode in time. Thankfully the website we use (link in show notes) keeps us honest.

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Spoilers! It’s a TIE at 43 points. I suppose it’s not really about winning and losing, but we can all agree that we prefer only one winner next year.

Take a deep dive into at all the details for the below scoring to see how exactly we ended up in a tie, and bookmark the site to play along next year at this link: https://thesummermoviewager.com/index.php?addPlayer=ToBCast%2Craewilki&playAlongOnly=&year=2023

There it is folks. The big finale for Dave Filoni's first full season of live action Star Wars. Though it was a little bumpy at times, most can probably agree that 'Ahsoka' brought it in the parts that matter most. Characters and emotional through-lines were strong, the plot satisfying, the action thrilling, and most importantly they were able to stick the landing. Sure, there's still plenty of unanswered mysteries, and with no clear understanding of how the story will continue (we have yet to hear of an announcement for a season 2) all fans can do right now is unpack the story so far. And in that regard, you're in luck, because that's exactly what Julian and Rachel are here to do. The pair of hosts do a scene-by-scene dissection of the entire episode, look back at the season as a whole, and do their best to predict where things might go from here (which turned out to be surprisingly hard to do).

If you enjoy the show please subscribe and leave a nice review on Apple Podcasts, and check out Patreon.com/TowerBabbleCast to become one of our latest patrons.

Last week, Julian joined friend-of-the-show, Axel, on the Daily DVR Podcast to discuss the dire future of streaming TV as Amazon looks to introduce ads to Prime, the end of the writers strike and how audiences have yet to feel it's deferred impact on content, and a light-weight discussion on Disney's 'Ahsoka'. Think of it as a companion piece to the Small Screen Star Wars content we've been delivering. At the end, the guys chat a bit about Canadian football of all things as well. Enjoy!

If you enjoy the show please subscribe and leave a nice review on Apple Podcasts, and check out Patreon.com/TowerBabbleCast to become one of our latest patrons.

It never ceases to surprise me how quickly 8-episode seasons of TV fly by. Here we are, already at the penultimate episode of the season (everyone's favourite TV related word, maybe only next to "titular"). With only the season finale left to rap things up, there's some anxiety amongst the fandom that there won't be enough time in only one episode to provide a satisfying finish to what has largely been a very successful season of TV. Both in terms of quality of storytelling but also fan reception. Time will tell how 'Ahsoka' will tie off it's loose ends, but with a "Heir to the Empire" movie on the horizon, it may not need to neatly wrap everything up. In terms of 'Part Seven' itself, it does the necessary job of moving all the pieces into place for a big finish next week while also providing some exciting action set pieces framed with strategy sessions with Thrawn. It had this tick-tack-toe feeling to it, as Thrawn, commanding his forces remotely, faced off and was forced to adapt as Ahsoka and our heroes responded to his moves. It made for a interesting dynamic that filled most of the episode. Oh, and we got a fun cameo as we checked back in with Hera and the New Republic. Next week is the big finale. We all hope it's got a long runtime as it has quite a bit to do, and as Thrawn said this week, the season lost the only thing it couldn't afford to lose, time.

If you enjoy the show please subscribe and leave a nice review on Apple Podcasts, and check out Patreon.com/TowerBabbleCast to become one of our latest patrons.