Bald Move Pulp - Kingdom, Black Earth Rising

Jim and A.Ron give their thoughts and opinions on the entire first season of Netflix’s Korean medieval zombie series, Kingdom, as well as the first two episodes of Black Earth Rising. Kingdom is much needed breath of fresh air in the mouldy zombie genre, with lush locations and sets, impressive costuming, excellent plotting and performances, and genuinely creepy and terrifying monsters. The boys both were very into the premise and promise of Black Earth Rising, but are worried two episodes in from the series penchant in getting distracted with Jason Bourne types of intrigue and assassinations as well as the complex and confusing personal lives of the main characters. Whether the excellent performances and important questions the show has to offer can overcome the clunky writing and execution remains to be seen. 

The World We Deserve - 304 – The Hour and the Day

Jim and A.Ron break down all the decade spanning clues of HBO’s True Detective’s latest episode, “The Hour and the Day”. Who done it? The priest? The one eyed man? The cousin? The pumpkin lady? We sift through the evidence and theories and opine about the excellent character work this episode, as we get ready for what promises to be some hellacious action going down at the Woodward residence!

Bald Move Pulp - The Punisher Season 2 Wrapup

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. 

Bald Move Pulp - Fyre (Netflix) and Fyre Fraud (Hulu)

Netflix and Hulu had dueling documentaries on doomed Fyre music festival, Fyre, and Fyre Fraud respectively. With slightly different focuses, the documentaries broadly outline how founder Billy McFarland built several ponzi schemes on the idea of selling a fictionalized “baller” lifestyle to young, naive, rich people and took them for a ride. Built on the back of a few dozen paid influencers and a long list of impossible promises, Fyre was supposed to be the event of the decade. Instead, it barely avoiding being a genuine humanitarian disaster. We discuss influencing, the morality of excess, and engage in the kind of barely contained glee at seeing narcissists fall from grace that you’d expect in this discussion of all things Fyre.

The World We Deserve - 303 – The Big Never

HBO’s True Detective continues to build their triple layer mystery over three decades in “The Big Never”. A lot of new clues come to light; the children being secretive in the woods; handwritten notes and maps; a photo of Will taking communion that looks suspiciously like the way his body was staged in death. Meanwhile detective West recruits Hayes to help with the re-opened case in the 90’s, and in 2015 Hayes has to face gaps and inconsistencies with the official investigation while being confronted by the ghosts of his past. All this plus a rollicking discussion of feedback and the latest theories harvested from the psycho-sphere!

The World We Deserve - 301 & 302 – The Great War and Modern Memory & Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye

We’ve checked out the first two episodes of HBO’s True Detective season three, and there is so much to talk about! Reliable unreliable narrators, parallel time structures, two macho, damaged cops who aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and get hands on with crime, and in the center, a missing persons case with strange, unexplained details. It feels a lot like season one, but Mahershala Ali brings a stellar performance to a character that is dealing with post-war trauma and racism in middle America. And don’t get us started on moon phases!

Bald Move Pulp - Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

Jim and A.Ron have explored the latest Black Mirror mindf$#%, Bandersnatch. Essentially a choose your own adventure book turned into an interactive Netflix app, Bandersnatch periodically pauses to ask you how the narrative should proceed as you attempt to guide a troubled young 1980’s programmer on the cusp of creating an acclaimed video game of the same name. With branching parallel storylines that can have outcomes that can be mundane, psychotic, or extremely meta, we ask if this is the future of television? We stay spoiler-free for a good portion of the beginning of this podcast, so if you’re curious if it’s worth your time feel free to listen up to the spoiler segment!

The World We Deserve - Season 3 Preview!

After three long years off the air, True Detective makes a season three comeback on the backs of Mahershala Ali and Stephen Dorff. We talk about the show’s premise and leads, our feelings about the franchise in general, thoughts on the promotional material and interviews we’ve read so far, reasons to hope that season three is a return to form after an arguable stumble in season two, and where things might go wrong. See you back here next Tuesday!

HOTD: A House of the Dragon Podcast - “Gods of Thrones” – “Fire and Blood” – Part 3

We’re back with a super-sized wrap up episode for our coverage of our new book, Gods of Thrones, as well as putting George’s Fire & Blood to bed as we consider the final third of the book, starting with “The Dying of the Dragons: Rhaenyra Triumphant”. Anthony and I get things kicked off with a discussion of Lord Cregan Stark and his “Hour of the Wolf”. Then I welcome our old pal Kim Renfro (follow her on Twitter!) back to discuss women in Westeros, our theories on Game of Thrones and GRRM himself. Finally, I interview illustrator Chase Stone, who did the cover and interior art for Gods of Thrones, about life as a professional artist, his work on Magic: The Gathering and The World of Ice and Fire, as well as his influences and techniques.