Special thanks to Kristen, who commissioned the first season of the BBC’s trippy futuristic social horror anthology, “Black Mirror”, for her husband Chris. Merry Christmas, Chris! We had a great time watching and an even greater time bantering about the crazy situations depicted on the Mirror. From pig porking to winning an argument with your loved one that you might rather lose, we try to tackle it all. Thanks again Kristen and Chris!
The first half of season 7 wasn’t exactly what we hoped for but it should have been what we expected. We dip into the feedbag one more time for the year to consider what we’ve seen and what’s to come. We’ll be back in February in some capacity so until then, enjoy your holiday and have a great 2017!
Jim and A.Ron put season one of HBO’s Westworld in cold storage by talking about our overall thoughts, opinions, and hopes for next season. Then we consider a giant sized mailbag where we discuss scalp maps, the nature of consciousness and free will, the impact of self aware robotic hosts on fast food chains, and much more. We’ll be back whenever Westworld returns, but we never really go away. In 2017 we have an early line up including The Leftovers, Better Call Saul, Game of Thrones, among others. Hope we see you around!
AMC’s The Walking Dead entered it’s mid-season hiatus last night with the episode, “Hearts Still Beating”, which had Jim and A.Ron asking if their hearts were still stirred by the drama on screen. Your mileage may vary, but we found it doing just enough to make up for the missteps this season, and promising just enough up tempo pacing that we’re, knock on wood, excited for it’s return in February? That maybe losing more than a 1/3rd of it’s audience in a season will scare the creative and studio types enough to stop dicking around and get serious about bringing this show to some sort of satisfying conclusion. In addition, we talk about mysterious boot person, the reunion of one of television’s most potent bromances, express concern for Maggie’s ripped uterus, and show mock concern about the show’s latest shocking death.
A.Ron and Jim are very pleased with how the violent delights over season one would up having violent ends in the finale episode for Westworld, “The Bicameral Mind”. Sure, maybe the first third of the episode was merely review for a class that has studied their podcasts and their reddit. But once Hector and Armistice got their hands on the P90s, it was pedal to the metal until the conclusion that we found extremely satisfying. Not only that, it setup season two so well that it’s almost criminal that we’ll have to wait until 2018 to find out more. But you won’t have to wait that long for Watching Westworld, we’ll be back next week for a wrap up podcast where we’ll consider your ideas for next season, including theories, thoughts on consciousness and sentience, casting suggestions, and who knows what else. See you then!
A.Ron and Jim are pleased to note that “Sing Me A Song” is an improved, if far from perfect episode of The Walking Dead. We discuss invisible Jesus, Carl being gun shy, Rosita being unreasonable and Eugene proving her claims of cowardice true, Spencer’s Latin studies finally paying off, and Rick and Aaron up to something awesome that unfortunately we’ll have to wait until next week to actually see. All this and a ton of feedback, coming your way!
Hey there, long time no talk Mad Men, huh? I’m here to officially say that we’re not going to be doing the Mad Men retrospective we discussed on the wrap up podcast. Bummer, I know, but! We do have a cool piece of content that was going to be part of that coverage, a behind the scenes…
Many more puzzle pieces fell into place over the weekend as HBO’s Westworld deployed episode 109, “The Well-Tempered Clavier”. But there is still a lot left to uncover. Why did Dr. Ford deploy the reverie code? What is his ultimate intentions for his new narrative and indeed future of the park? What are those sentient robots doing hiding up in the hills of Westworld? And what does the Man in Black intend to do with Delores once he finds her? We’re excited to see how things wrap up next week, as we’re hoping to get a glimpse of how Nolan and Joy intend to expand this series going forward. See you then!
Jim and A.Ron wonder if it’s all worth it anymore after seeing a historically bad episode of AMC’s The Walking Dead, number 706, “Swear”. Aside from being the dreaded single POV focus episode featuring a second-tier character, so much of this made no sense and seemed pointless. From the zombie action sequences involving improbable combinations of dump trucks and sand, to the 538th, 539th, and 540th time we’ve heard one character bemoan the degradation of humanity to another, to questionable directorial and editing decisions, a lot of time and effort was spent to tell us of the existence of a community with an axe to grind against the Saviors that is heavily armed but suffering a shortage of effective warriors. Gee, where ever could we find a place that is disarmed with a crew of killers with itchy trigger fingers? We’re just one broken promise away from getting that creamy peanut butter inside that chocolate folks. Oh, and Heath has gone missing. “PPP” is somehow involved. And Tara has some weird tattoo. And we have feedback! Is this thing on? Is anyone still listening?! YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE OUT THERE! THEY AIN’T US! HERE’S NOT HERE!
Jim and A.Ron take in the latest episode of HBO’s Westworld, “Trace Decay”. Timelines are continuing to proliferate (we’re up to four now, in case you’re keeping score at home), everybody is still potentially a host, and William is probably the MiB after all. But there’s a lot of nice stuff here, from the increasingly evident narcisism and nihilism of Dr. Ford to Bernard struggling to cope with his new station in life. And hooboy, is this “upload 35 years worth of Westworld madness into this Abernathy guy’s head” plan of Hale’s going to be a glorious trainwreck or what? Lots of stuff to look forward to, and keep in mind we’ve got just two short weeks before god knows how long of a hiatus. So savor all the timelines, hosts, and idiot techs while you can.