LWJ&A – Episode 181
Cecily and A.Ron open up the mailbag and consider feedback for the latest episode of FX’s American Horror Story: Apocalypse, “Apocalypse Then”.
Anthony and A.Ron continue their deep dive into the characters and themes from their new book, “Gods of Thrones”. Now available on paperback! Today we’re talking about a polarizing character among the fandom, Catelyn Stark. What are the essential differences between Book!Cat and TV!Cat? What is her worst move in playing the Game? Who would win in an all-female Houseoff? How vital is Lady Stoneheart’s arc to understanding Catelyn, and why does the show skip it entirely? We discuss and debate all this and more!
Multiple viewings and hours of sober reflection have led us both to believe that Con Air is a bad movie. The plot is contrived, the accents are awful, and it’s perhaps the least “Cagey” performance in Cage’s entire career. And yet, maybe based on star-power alone, it remains a classic which simply must be watched.
A shocking discovery was made as we attempted to rewrite the cheesy classic, Con Air: It’s actually way harder than you think to fix this movie. Does that mean that the plot is actually better thought-out than we first assumed? Or is the fundamental idea so flawed that it’s simply impossible to film if you respect your audience? Or perhaps it’s simply a lack of imagination on our part? Any way you view it, we had to get real silly to make this one work, but we had a lot of fun in the process.
We kicked off the back half of Season of the Cage with perhaps his most mainstream film of all time, Con Air. Does that mean it’s inoffensive? No. Is it one of Cage’s more impressive acting jobs? Also, no. Is it even a good film? Again, no. But that also doesn’t mean it’s not a fun movie to watch. Jim loves it, A.Ron probably doesn’t, but you should decide for yourself as you listen to us make jokes over it.
We’re not saying the latest episode of FX’s American Horror Story, “Apocalypse Then” is a disappointment, exactly. But it sure wasn’t a success. Honestly, we’d have rather gotten a “to be continued” rather than a slap dash climax with a too long and puzzling denouement that offers a breezy, cheesy Harry Potter “all is well” wrap up before immediately blowing it up. It’s hard to shake the feeling that Cordelia’s coven, and indeed Michael the Antichrist deserved better, to say nothing of Hawthorne’s School and their Exceptional Young Men. Midway through the season we just wanted more, more! And we kept getting less, and less. Ah well, that’s what we thought. How about you! Meet you back here in two so we can hash it out on the FINAL FEEDBACK FRIDAY of the season!
Jim and A.Ron think this latest episode of Amazon’s The Romanoffs, “Panorama” is a mess. At best, it’s a mildly interesting yet gorgeous travelogue for Mexico City. At worst, it’s a poorly, written, directed, acted, and edited mess that seems to have no idea what it wants to say, and doesn’t know enough about the topics to offer any depth to the things it reaches for. The only thing that kind of works is the relationship between the two ridiculously photogenic protagonists, but they are also the least interesting of the premises. Our hope for this series is now that Weiner can make one really exceptional episode out of the next two, or the finale episode is truly “The One That Holds Everything” and somehow ties this all together.
Cecily and A.Ron open up the mailbag and consider feedback for the latest episode of FX’s American Horror Story: Apocalypse.