What Did We Miss?

Jodie Vinson is a writer and editor, and is the Program Manager of What Cheer Writers Club in Providence, RI, which happens to be where we have the privilege of recording WDWM. When given the open invite to come on, Jodie gave us a list of her pop culture blind spots, but without thinking twice we settled on Purple Rain. Matt knew the album, Tony knew the movie, but Jodie was coming in blind for both. In this week's episode, the three of us gush over the album, the movie, and Prince's singular legacy as a pop star.

This week we're joined by Brian Raftery, film writer and author of the book Best. Movie. Year. Ever., which examines the films of 1999. At the time, Brian was just getting started as a writer for Entertainment Weekly, so he was on the front lines of a seminal year for film in a year where everything felt a little apocalyptic (ah, the quaintness of Y2K). What he wasn't doing was watching a lot of TV, so for this week's blind spot we'll be Brian's guides as he sits down with the The X-Files for the first time.

In this episode we discuss Brian's book and how we're still having the same conversations they were 20 years later, then we dive into four of our favorite "Monster of the Week" episodes of The X-Files: Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, Home, Bad Blood, and Drive.

This week Matt and Tony discuss Alison Bechdel's 2006 award-winning graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. For Matt, who discovered the book at a pivotal time in his life, this is a chance to revisit an old favorite with fresh eyes while Tony is going in blind, only knowing Bechdel as the source of The Bechdel Test. They discuss the mainstream praise Fun Home earned upon its release and the universal draw of coming of age stories. They also get into some personal territory as they use Alison's experiences with her parents to examine some of their own life experiences.

The guys have dabbled in the science fiction works of Ursula K. Le Guin, but this week they embark on their first adventure with her powerful and groundbreaking fantasy series, A Wizard of Earthsea. They discuss the snobbery in looking down on YA fiction, overlap between Earthsea and Harry Potter, Le Guin's progressive views on diversity in sci-fi/fantasy, the power of fiction as a friend when you're young and looking for someone who gets you, and how as her work changed along with her views on feminism throughout through her career.

Matt and Tony both had opinions about Phish without having ever listened to Phish. They're not alone. Tons of people have an opinion about Phish and their music, usually based off of their perception of the band's fanbase or the fact that culture at large has sort of given us all a pass on making fun of them. But in the true spirit of this podcast they've cast aside their preconceived notions and jumped head first down a rabbit hole of noodling, 20 minute songs, and an extremely dedicated fanbase to, at the very least, come up with their own actual opinions on Trey Anastasio and Phish. Joining them this week is musician and co-host of the Weezer podcast We'z Talkin' Weez' 2 Thee, Chris Knott. Chris is a long-time Phish fan and was a gracious tour guide. We asked Chris to put together a Phish playlist for us ahead of this conversation, which you can listen to on Spotify.

This week, the guys talk through the dense, reference-filled mythology of Adult Swim's The Venture Bros. For Tony this was a chance to revisit a longtime favorite, while Matt is realizing on his first watch-through that its everything he could have wanted from a TV show. They get into the obsessive level of detail, love letters to pop culture, surprising amount of heart, brilliant musical score, and questionable creative choices that have made The Venture Bros. stand out among Adult Swim's line up of talking fast food and late night stoner favorites.

This week, Matt and Tony explore the early, gritty works of director Penelope Spheeris, focusing specifically on her 1983 punk drama, Suburbia. They talk about her breakthrough punk documentary, The Decline of Western Civilization, her experiences chronicling the LA music scene over two decades, the success of Wayne's World, and the unfortunate and all too familiar career struggles she faced as a woman making movies in Hollywood. They also talk about objectivity in filmmaking, making more compelling heroes and villains through empathy, and how of all things, Suburbia probably made her the perfect choice for directing the cast of kids in The Little Rascals.

It's a special bonus episode! Tony is joined by the hosts of The Chuck and Brad Podcast, Chuck Staton and Brad Rohrer, to follow up last week's Fantastic Four conversation with a deep dive into the never-released 1994 movie adaptation. They discuss the charms and obvious flaws of low-budget cheese, why we think filmmakers have struggled to make FF work on screen, and Chuck and Brad share some details on their upcoming live comedy show, "Spider-Man: Bradley Drawn" at the Sea Tea Comedy Theater in Hartford, CT (June 27) and The Comedy Connection in East Providence, RI (June 30). Get more info at www.chuckandbradpodcast.com

It's clobberin' time! This week Matt schools Tony on vintage Fantastic Four as they discuss Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's dysfunctional super hero family. With more than five decades of stories, plenty of time and reality hopping adventures, and a few poorly received big screen adaptations under their belts, there's a whole lot of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing to choose from, so the guys mainly focus on 1966's Galactus Trilogy - a perfect example of Space Age adventure, Silver Age comics, and the weird wide world of the Fantastic Four!

Sometimes READ is better. Tony and Matt used the remake of Pet Sematary as an excuse to return to the source: Stephen King's haunting 1983 novel.

The guys go deep into what was scariest about the book and how both movies -- 1989's adaptation by Mary Lambert and 2019's remake/readaptation by Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kolsch -- tried with varying degrees of success to turn a father's slow decent into grief-stricken madness into creature features. Which version of Church the cat did we like best? Who was the better sitcom goof-turned-exposition-dropping-Mainer, Dick from 3rd Rock or Herman Munster? Ayuh, they answer these questions and more in this week's What Did We Miss?