“Auto Erotic Assimilation” is another landmark episode of Rick and Morty. It manages to be extremely funny, while tackling tough subjects such as free will, autonomy, racism, and ends with a major gut punch that never fails to land. Other things we ponder; the Smith family electric bill, the most vicious Beth v. Jerry fight thus far, and is Rick pan-sexual?
Morty has some troubled moral waters to navigate in Rick and Morty episode S02E02, “Mortynight Run”. Let his grandfather sell weapons to an assassin who just loves killin’, or chill with grandpa over at Blips and Chitz all day playing Roy? What ethos will eventually win out on R&M, Rick’s nihilism or Morty’s naive optimism, and what would…
Morty and Summer’s indecisiveness leads to a very uncertain existence in Rick and Morty episode “A Rickle in Time”. The story is clever, the visuals a feast for the eye, and hearts are warmed by the end. Eh, if not warmed, then at least microwaved. Also, Beth surgically saves a stricken deer’s life to the beat of copyright-safe Enya.
Jim, A.Ron and Cecily team up to take on the end of the world as envisioned by Amazon Prime’s Good Omens. Adapted from the novel of the same name by co-author Neil Gaiman himself, it offers a warm, funny, and human take on the Apocalypse, focusing on the unlikely friendship between a demon (David Tennant) and an angel (Michael Sheen) who have decided they like Earth like it is, thankyouverymuch, and team up to keep it that way. Then, Cecily and A.Ron talk about their thoughts on the conclusion of the sophomore season of HBO’s Barry (00:26:45).
We’ve got the whole crew together today, forming up like a TV-reviewing (and definitely the least rad) Voltron to tackle yet another Netflix original about piece about Ted Bundy, a powerful documentary on the fight to give power back to the people, a modern animated tale of the ups and downs of relationships and the final verdict on season two of American Gods.
Jim and A.Ron discuss their thoughts and feelings about the season opener for HBO’s hilarious and thought-provoking Barry, then Cecily swings by the studio to talk American Gods (00:31:07) episode “The Greatest Story Ever Told”.
A.Ron and Cecily are back and catching up on season two of Starz American Gods! We’re definitely seeing some of the weaknesses the critics and some disgruntled fans have been complaining about in isolated scenes; the road trip with Wednesday and Nancy being a particularly glaring example. But overall, we’re still in love with the…
Jim and I haven’t finished The Punisher season 2 yet, but we’ve seen enough to tap out. As we discuss in our spoiler filled review, The Punisher has the chief sin of these Marvel/Netflix collaborations; a bloated 13 episode runtime, and adds to it ludicrous character details and plot-points until this grimdark ultra-violent fantasy pushes through the drama boundary and hits unintentional comedy. 8 episodes in, we still don’t know why we should care about Amy, or what makes the Pilgrim tick, or why Frank let Russo off the hook when he should be worm food except, oh right, this is a 13 episode season instead of a more reasonable 8-10 episode season and if things made sense and had dramatic urgency they’d be five hours of content short.
We take a look at the first few episodes of seasons two of both Netflix’s The Punisher as well as CBS’s Star Trek: Discovery!
HBO’s The Deuce wrapped up it’s second season in fine style, with the finale episode “Inside the Pretend”. Simon and Pelecanos did an admirable job putting all their players in position to make the jump to the 80’s. The pimps seem on the wane, the porn industry is still waxing, but the men and women of the industry don’t seem to be enjoying their ascent as much as it would have seemed at this season’s outset. It’s hard to have a sunny outlook when people you care about wind up dead; that goes double when you’re the one doing the killing. Can’t wait to see how things shake up next year, we’ll see you then!