In this episode, John and Will discuss and debate the Mt. Rushmore roles for six of the best actors we've ever seen:

• Leonardo Di Caprio

Then the hosts assemble their dream teams, which combination of director, cast and musical artist would you like to see and what is the premise of the movie.

John and Will bring you 6 fresh suggestions for content viewing!

Will:

• Last Chance U

John:

• Philadelphia Women's Theatre Festival

In this episode, John and Will review the latest Quentin Tarantino film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. 

The hosts run through the plot, recount their favorite moments from the film and talk about their overall thoughts on it.

Then they give perspective on where this newest movie sits in the all time Tarantino rankings. 

Finally, the two discuss some of the controversial elements of Tarantino's scripts, namely the use of racial and homophobic slurs and violence against women. 

In this episode John and Will talk about what they've watched this past week.

In this episode of the Amused Podcast, John and Will recap the season (and possibly series) finale of HBO’s Big Little Lies. 

They discuss the future of the show and whether or not there will even be one. The hosts also discuss Andre Arnold’s potential involvement if the show ever did return.

Then they get into the episode recap:

Will opens the recap paying homage to Steady Eddie’s boxing training.

John and Will recount the touching moments Bonnie shared with her mom, who actually wakes up for a few minutes, before passing away. Bonnie’s closure with her mom, telling her she loves her was a great way to build towards the ending, where the Monterrey 5 enter the police station.

Next the hosts recount the brutal ass whooping Celeste delivered in court to retain custody of her children. She fought fire with fire, as John says. Celeste used all of Mary Louise and her lawyer’s tricks against them. She destroyed her in front of the court. The finishing move was a video she found on the twins’ iPad of Perry abusing Celeste, badly. 

Then they share how much they loved Ed and Madeline renewing their vows in a nice ceremony on the beach, officiated by their youngest daughter, Chloe. The whole family was in attendance, Chloe, Abigail, Ed and MAdeline. As the ceremony concluded the four of them had to run into the house because it started to rain.

And in the most frustrating, then satisfying, scene in the whole episode: Renata catches Gordon in his toy room playing with his trains. Gordon assures her they sold them but he gets to keep them because the collector knows he’ll take good care of them. Renata takes exception to this because they lost all of their other stuff, including the nanny. When Gordon quips that he needs something to play with now that the nanny is goe, Renata goes full on Mike Trout. She bashes the train set and other toys throughout the room. When Gordon tries to interfere she cracks him in the chest with the bat, which was the most satisfying moment of the entire series.

The show ends with the M5 entering the police station, together, presumably to tell the police the truth about Perry’s death. 

After the recap John marvels us with another edition of Twitter corner, featuring a great video from Michelle Obama.

While this is most likely the last episode of Big Little Lies that we get from HBO, it won’t be the last episode about BLL you get from Amused. Sometime in August they will be bringing back Ashleen, who joined us for a Game of Thrones recap, to review the entire series as a whole so stay tuned for that!

John and Will bring you their weekly What We’re Watching episode where each host brings you three suggestions of what they’ve watched in the last week.

This week’s suggestions:

1. Losers: Will’s first suggestion was an eight part docu-series on Netflix called Losers. This series focuses on athletes who have failed spectacularly, on big stages, and how they bounced back from those losses. The official IMDb description reads: “In a "winning is everything" society, how do we handle failure? This series profiles athletes who have turned the agony of defeat into human triumph.” The episodes focus on a boxer, a soccer team, a figure skater, a marathon runner, a dog sled racer, a curling team, a golfer and a basketball player.

Thank you for listening to another edition of What We’re Watching. This series hopes to bring our listeners fresh suggestions of what to watch every week. 

If you enjoyed the show please give us five star ratings on your podcasts app, sign up for our mailing list (below) and share the episode with your friends. 

The Bad Mother, Big Little Lies Season 2 Episode 6

In this episode of the Amused Podcast, John and Will break down season two episode six of Big Little Lies. Entitled, Bad Mother, this episode centered predominantly on the custody hearing for the Wright twins, Max and Josh. But we also got some insight into another “bad mother,” Bonnie’s mom. 

John and Will begin this episode by discussing a story broken by Indiewire about some behind the scenes drama behind the creators of the show. They discuss the turmoil between HBO/EP Jean-Marc Vallée and the director of season two, Andrea Arnold and pose what effects this may have had on the season.

Will shared a theory he found on Reddit about Corey’s real identity.

Then the hosts breakdown the episode. Corey addresses what he was doing at the police station by saying he was called in for questioning. He also makes it known to Jane that the cop investigating the case is planning to pit the Monterrey Five against one other, offering lenience to whoever talks.

They discuss Bonnie’s feelings towards her dying mother and the suggestion they “kill her,” followed by a deep dive into the monologue delivered by Bonnie to her comatose mother. This monologue uncovers a lot about her background and gives insight into her state of mind. It also casts some doubt on her marriage.

Then the pair talk about the state of Madeline and Ed’s marriage in light of the wild proposition put forth by Tori, the wife of Madeline’s former lover, Joe. 

Renata and Gordon go through a harrowing bankruptcy hearing/auction, punctuated by the former nanny claiming Gordon was paying her for sex (or “stress management”). John and Will then do their best to describe the greatness that is Laura Dern in yet another epic car rant where she shoves tissues into her husband’s (for now) mouth. 

Lastly, the hosts go through the riveting courtroom drama that takes place as Mary Louise’s lawyer ruthlessly questions Celeste during the custody hearing.

John’s MVP of the episode was Bonnie, while Will’s was Celeste for her courtroom performances.

John delivers another riveting edition of Twitter corner, where he shares some hilarious tweets and memes from the episode, many of which focus on Renata and Mary Louise. 

The two end the podcast discussing comments by the president of HBO about the uncertainty of a season three. 

Click here to listen to all of Amused’s Big Little Lies recaps and check back next week to hear their take on the finale.

John and Will review the latest installment in the MCU, Spider-Man Far From Home.

John and Will continue their What We're Watching series with six more recommendations including:

• Dumbo

John and Will review the A24, Ari Aster helmed folk horror film Midsommar.