A quick note: we faced some unforeseen audio issues while mastering this episode — please excuse any rough patches in the sound.

Daniel leads off with his take on Good Cop Bad Cop, the CW cop-family dramedy about a talented-but-too-sympathetic detective, her estranged brother, and their police-chief father trying to mend a family while chasing a season-long mystery case. From there the conversation opens up into the wider DC/CW landscape — Titans, Batwoman, the visual-darkness problem running through Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, and Wonder Woman, James Gunn's brighter new Superman era, the upcoming Clayface movie, and Aquaman's uncertain future — plus the Paramount/HBO Max merger rumors and a rant about Hulu's playback rewind bug. A quick stop at Comic-Con news on Johnny Depp's Ebenezer Scrooge movie closes out the first half.

Then it's into Spider-Noir: Abhishek breaks down Nicolas Cage's Ben Reilly, the show's mix of 1930s noir and gangster-movie influences, Cage's own stated approach to the role ("70% Bogart, 30% Bugs Bunny"), the body-horror origin of his powers via a WWII POW camp experiment, and the much-discussed "Marvel's answer to The Penguin" comparison. Then the two dig into where the show falls apart — a pacing problem that got Daniel to stop watching partway through, and a fight scene in episode four that becomes the episode's biggest flashpoint — before landing on very different disappointment scores.

• 00:00 — Good Cop Bad Cop review begins (Daniel)
• 07:18 — Wrap-up Q&A, Season 2 status
• 08:33 — Tangent: The CW's track record for renewals
• 09:03 — Batwoman / Titans discussion
• 13:14 — The DC movies' visual-darkness problem (BvS, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Justice League)
• 19:23 — DCU rebranding under James Gunn, the new Superman
• 20:55 — Clayface movie announcement
• 24:39 — Aquaman's status / Jason Momoa
• 28:04 — Comic-Con news: Johnny Depp's Ebenezer (A Christmas Carol)
• 30:38 — Paramount/HBO merger rumors
• 31:55 — Hulu rewind-bug rant
• 36:04 — Segue into Spider-Noir
• 36:18 — Spider-Noir introduction and premise
• 38:49 — Nicolas Cage naming trivia (Kal-El, "Luke Cage")
• 40:53 — Cage's Coppola family history and name change
• 41:37 — Cage's stated influences: Bogart, Cagney, Edward G. Robinson
• 43:20 — Cage's "70% Bogart, 30% Bugs Bunny" quote
• 48:36 — The "Marvel's answer to The Penguin" comparison
• 49:37 — Plot mechanics and body-horror origin
• 50:19 — POW-camp mutation origin (revealed episode 6)
• 52:00 — Setting: 1933, tail end of Prohibition
• 52:34 — Pacing critique (Daniel)
• 59:02 — The show's two-episode-arc structure
• 59:28 — Amanda Schull reveal (Ben's fiancée)
• 1:04:15 — Wrap-up
• 1:04:19 — Disappointment ratings: Abhishek (6), Daniel (9)

Spider-Noir production budget — correction:Around 1:05:57, Daniel cites a production budget of "100 million," sourced from memory rather than a specific source. The widely reported figure for Spider-Noir's budget is approximately $400 million (unconfirmed directly by Amazon/Sony, but consistent across multiple outlets).

References

• Nicolas Cage interview material referenced: Coppola family/name-change history, influences from Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Edward G. Robinson, and the Moonstruck anecdote about pulling from German Expressionist film for an emotional beat. Clip: https://youtu.be/cjRnFoNso8c?t=38 (Moonstruck anecdote)
• Noir-adjacent episodes/references mentioned for comparison: Warehouse 13, Castle, Lucifer (Season 5, Episode 4).
• The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca flagged as reference points for the Bogart-era noir tone Spider-Noir is drawing from.

Abhishek gives his full take on Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Tom Holland's fourth solo outing and the first under director Destin Daniel Cretton. Covers the shift to a fabric-based, non-Stark suit, the return of organic web shooters (and the James Cameron/Sam Raimi history behind that choice), the new first-person web-swinging camera work, why the Frank Castle/Spider-Man dynamic is getting some of the widest praise of any element in the film, the Scorpion and Tombstone cameos, and the "overstuffed" pacing critique that's shown up across a wide range of reviews.

Spoiler warning: past the 26:21 mark, we get into full plot details and the ending. If you haven't seen the movie yet, this is a good spot to stop reading and go watch it first.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 — Premise / where the movie picks up after No Way Home
• 04:33 — The new suit: fabric over Stark nanotech
• 09:57 — The web shooter debate — organic vs. mechanical, Raimi/Maguire history
• 11:27 — James Cameron's unmade Spider-Man script and the puberty-metaphor origin
• 13:08 — How Brand New Day revives and escalates the "spider puberty" body-horror angle
• 14:24 — First-person web-swinging camera work
• 16:01 — Punisher and Spider-Man's dynamic (and the Odyssey/Bernthal connection)
• 17:47 — Scorpion (Michael Mando) and Tombstone (Marvin Jones III / Krondon)
• 20:55 — The "overstuffed" pacing critique
• 23:31 — The Insomniac Spider-Man games as a stunt/combat reference point
• 26:21 — ⚠️ Spoiler wall begins — full spoiler discussion from here to the end
• 45:47 — Disappointment rating (spoiler-free)

Corrections & Updates

PS4 vs. PS1 — correction:Around 23:53, Abhishek misspoke and referred to "the PS1 Spider-Man game." This refers to the 2018 PS4 Spider-Man game (Insomniac Games), not the original PS1.

Companion Episode

This episode was released alongside our coverage of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey (Episode 12). Jon Bernthal plays Punisher here and Menelaus there, and Tom Holland and Zendaya both appear in both films - worth checking out if you haven't already.

We open with the news out of Comic-Con: reactions to the Avengers: Doomsday trailer (including Dr. Doom's accent, Robert Downey Jr.'s reported paycheck, and the returning X-Men lineup), followed by new casting reveals for Ghost Rider and Black Panther, plus some Blade and Midnight Sons speculation.

Then Abhishek gives Daniel — and you — a full rundown of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey: the sound design and dialogue-clarity fixes Nolan built for this one, the Cyclops sequence, Athena's role in the story, the Trojan Horse flashback, the "Zeus's Law" theme running through the film, Scylla and Charybdis, and where the film's approach to controversial casting choices (Helen of Troy, Elliot Page's role) actually lands versus the online discourse around it. Wraps with a disappointment rating and a companion recommendation for anyone who wants more after this one.

Companion Episode

This episode was released alongside our coverage of Spider-Man: Brand New Day (Episode 13). Jon Bernthal appears in both (Menelaus here, Punisher there), and Tom Holland and Zendaya both appear in both films as well — worth checking out if you haven't already.

Timestamps

• 00:00 — Cold open / Comic-Con news segment begins (Emmy nominations, Avengers: Doomsday trailer reactions)
• 16:36 — Comic-Con casting news: new Black Panther, Ghost Rider
• 29:03 — Comic-Con news wraps, transition into The Odyssey
• 29:05 — The Odyssey intro / cast overview
• 33:51 — On sound design and Nolan's dialogue-clarity fixes
• 39:47 — The Cyclops sequence
• 44:20 — Athena (Zendaya), family dynamics, Circe
• 54:19 — Menelaus (Jon Bernthal) / Helen of Troy backstory
• 1:00:35 — The Trojan Horse sequence
• 1:08:38 — "Zeus's Law" (Xenia) thematic discussion
• 1:18:28 — Scylla and Charybdis / the sirens
• 1:41:33 — Casting discourse (Helen of Troy, Elliot Page/Achilles rumor)
• 1:47:25 — Final verdict / disappointment rating
• 1:52:24 — Companion recommendation: The Return (2024)
• End — Outro (companion note on Spider-Man: Brand New Day episode releasing same week)

Blade reboot — status update since recording:As discussed in the episode, Marvel's long-in-development Blade reboot (Mahershala Ali) had been sitting in limbo for years. Since this episode was recorded, the project has been officially confirmed cancelled, rather than simply delayed. The Midnight Sons / Ghost Rider crossover speculation discussed in the episode remains active rumor, independent of Blade's cancellation.

Halle Berry / Storm — clarification:In the episode we characterized Halle Berry as having ruled out ever returning as Storm. More precisely: Berry has confirmed she is not appearing in Avengers: Doomsday specifically, but has said she'd be open to returning as Storm in a future film. Not a permanent departure — just sitting this one out.

Casting Reveals Referenced

• Ghost Rider — Ryan Gosling (as Johnny Blaze, standalone film directed by Shawn Levy): https://youtu.be/GxmrNuHerEw?t=240&si=m7gLoZk7dH_Cb9d6
• Black Panther — David Jonsson (T'Challa II, Black Panther 3, directed by Ryan Coogler): https://youtu.be/GxmrNuHerEw?t=1564&si=j4l2wMeIVu53adsQ

Abhishek covers HBO's A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the Dunk & Egg adaptation set a century before Game of Thrones — including the "Yin Order" for watching the season (Daniel's suggested sequence, adjusted slightly by Abhishek), and a look at how it stacks up against Thrones' larger battles and The Witcher's messier flashback structure. Then it's War Machine, a movie recommendation for Abhishek from Daniel, and Timeless, a two-season time-travel show Abhishek's recommending to Daniel — plus a real H.H. Holmes history correction along the way.

Show notes:

The "Yin Order" for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is Daniel's twist on the "Machete Order" viewing-sequence concept (originally coined for Star Wars) — more here: https://www.rodhilton.com/2011/11/11/the-star-wars-saga-suggested-viewing-order/

Get in touch:
Have feedback, corrections, or a show you want us to cover? Email us at [email protected]

Abhishek and Daniel dig into Season 2 of Taylor Sheridan's West Texas oil drama, Landman — Billy Bob Thornton, Sam Elliott, and a look at how Andy Garcia's casting quietly echoes a very different crime saga he's part of film history for. They also unpack the show's real-world wind turbine controversy, and break down where the season's characters land on the Asian Dad scale. Then Daniel makes the case for My Hero Academia, the long-running anime about a boy without a superpower in a world where almost everyone has one.

Show notes:

- Wind turbine energy payback claim (Landman, Season 1) — fact-checked by the Advanced Power Alliance: https://poweralliance.org/2024/11/26/landman-misses-the-facts-on-texas-wind-energy/

- Correction: we mention Cooper not knowing what "cerveza" means — on a rewatch, he actually does. Our bad!

- Godfather Part III quote reference — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UneS2Uwc6xw

Get in touch: Have feedback, corrections, or a show you want us to cover? Email us at [email protected]

Abhishek and Daniel are back after a short break, and this time we're covering more than one show. We're also introducing something new — the Asian Dad disappointment scale. Check the episode for the full breakdown.

First up: High Potential. Two seasons of Kaitlin Olson playing a genius LAPD cleaner, a D&D framework for why the show works and occasionally doesn't, and the French original that explains a key creative choice the American version made. Then Daniel makes the case for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.

Abhishek and Daniel cover the series finale of The Boys - Season 5, Episode 8: Blood and Bone. This week: Frenchie's will, Sage's exit line, a ballgag that ends Oh Father, the projection theory finally put to the test, one sentence for Becca, Butcher getting his humanity back and immediately reaching for the weapon, and a child named Robin. Plus - what's coming next from Uninvited Critics.

Abhishek and Daniel dive into Season 5 Episode 7 of The Boys — The Frenchman, the Female, and the Man Called Mother's Milk. This week: Oh Father opens with a gospel number that isn't just propaganda — it's a theological argument. Homelander dissolves The Seven in ninety seconds and puts Soldier Boy back in a box. Synapse weaponises Butcher's own conscience against him, and Hughie watches all of it. Deep gets exiled from the ocean, then asks a drowning man to turn sideways. MM tells Annie the story of a pigeon. And Frenchie makes a choice.

Abhishek and Daniel dive into Season 5 Episode 6 of The Boys - Though the Heavens Fall. This week: Deep gets handed a grenade disguised as a promotion, a dying fish named Jeremy, and the theory that reframes his entire arc. The Legend navigates old Hollywood charm under witness protection at Vought's AMC. The Boys head to a retirement home for supes. Oh Father and Annie face off over a mistake each one tried to save the other from. And the moment that changes everything - Soldier Boy, V1, and a love that turned out to be greater than hate.

Show Notes:

• Nicole Kidman AMC "prayer" ad - the original that Firecracker parodies in this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiEeIxZJ9x0
• Manhandled - Deep and Black Noir II's in-universe Vought podcast, including the dolphin interview. Draw your own conclusions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmURsfrFEbY

Abhishek and Daniel catch up on Mortal Kombat 2 and High Potential Season 1 before diving into The Boys Season 5, Episode 5. This week: Black Noir's secret life as a theater actor and the Bee Gees play that gets taken from him, the Democratic Church of America's religious franchise and what it costs one person in particular, Terror's dream life and what it reveals about Butcher, Sage's bunker plan and whether to take it at face value, and the Hollywood road trip that delivers the full Supernatural reunion - plus a celebrity poker game that ends exactly how you'd expect.

Show Notes:

• Correction: Karl Urban performs a London/Cockney accent for Butcher in The Boys, not his natural New Zealand accent — our mistake
• Karl Urban and Antony Starr both appeared in Xena: Warrior Princess before The Boys — Urban played Julius Caesar as a recurring character, Starr had two cameo appearances
• Simple Rick's Simple Wafers — Rick and Morty S3E7: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLqAFIMgpIU
• "Totes McGoats" — the Sprint ad that started it all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmUMg8r6ShQ