Cecily and A.Ron grab the mics to talk about the latest episodes of Hulu’s grim cautionary fableThe Handmaid’s Tale, Starz’s incredibly violent and erotic American Gods (00:26:18), and Cecily talks a bit about the latest season of Netflix’s Sense8 (00:52:30).
“Expenses”, the latest installment of AMC’s Better Call Saul, is a workman-like connective episode that really develops the themes of this season while delivering superior performances. We discuss Mike’s motivations to help the Cobbler / Nacho, Jimmy getting way too in to his mock scam of some dick who’s particular about his martinis, Kim’s difficulty in dealing with her help in tearing down a sick man, before delving into the depths of our Scotch ignorance in the mailbag.
Jim and A.Ron talk about the latest episode of The Leftovers, “Certified”. A very dark, powerful episode that has us rethinking how much sunshine and good feelings the finale is going to allow us to have before everything is said and done. We discuss when Laurie decided on her final course of action, Nora’s beach ball metaphor, the inability of Kevin Sr. to properly judge whether he ends up saving the world, and our thoughts and expectations for the end now that we’re only 2 episodes away. Because happy ending or sad, we’re going to be forced to say goodbye to all these characters we’ve grown to love and care for, and I for one am not ready!
Oh, man, the toughest week to call yet! The Leftovers, Better Call Saul, and Fargo all had particularly good weeks, and we still have to rank them for some inane, arbitrary reason. Who will be king/queen of the week? Also, we give an update on HBO’s Silicon Valley (00:09:36) before signing off for the week.
FX’s Fargo comes out swinging this week on “The House of Special Purpose”, delivering top notch black comedy and savage inhuman beatings with equal aplomb. Seriously, somebody should get an Emmy nom just for the phrase “fornicating with the cookware!” We try to figure out exactly how powerful Varga is, speculate on the Storage Queen’s prospects as an escape hatch for the Stussey crew, start to get suspicious of “New Chief” Dammick, and consider some of our listener feedback in a packed podcast episode.
Jim and A.Ron have seen Alien: Covenant, and declare it to be gorgeous, ambitious, and filled to the brim lofty ideas, but that it’s also really, really stupid. Which is a shame, since that’s a flaw that mired it’s predecessor, Prometheus. Ridley Scott still knows how to shoot a film, no doubt, but has he forgotten how to put smart, sharply defined characters in peril without them being the dumbest, pettiest humans alive?
Jim and A.Ron found a lot to like in the latest Better Call Saul, “Off Brand”. The sense of something new, new characters, new directions, old scotch paired with new beginnings. Just a whiff of that “new car smell” coming off the show this week. Plus, we can’t overstate how much fun it is to see Jimmy/Saul in his new role as crappy local TV commercial director guy.
HBO’s The Leftovers had a Matt Jamison episode in “It’s a Matt Matt Matt Matt World”, which means it was heavily thematic, absurd, inspiring, infuriating, and more than anything, Biblical in it’s intensity. Adding John, Michael, and Laurie, and a bunch of hedonists who’ve formed a cult around a 91 year old lion just makes it so much more so. We discuss Matt’s shifting relationship with his faith, a surprising amount on the human penis, and attempt to talk a few Leftovers fans off their emotional ledges.
This week was even harder to call than normal, and for Jim it came down to an artful final shot, and for A.Ron the combination of a powerful new villain and an appealing buddy cop team up carried the day. With a weak this good, there are no losers, only winners.
There is a whole lot to ponder in “The Narrow Escape Problem”, the latest episode of FX’s Fargo. Communist propaganda, meditations on the 1%, Joseph Stalin, bulimia, Ewan McGreggor playing a different Ewan McGreggor playing yet another Ewan McGreggor; an Ewan McCeption, if you will, biblical themes, our heads are just spinning. And Gloria with new found gal pal Winnie seem on pace to have this whole thing solved by the next episode. Which probably means the floor’s about to fall out!