Podcast Grab Bag: The Oscars, Moon Knight, Halo, & The Canadian Film Festival

Oscars, Halo, Moon Knight, Canadian Film Fest

Greetings programs and welcome back to the Awesome Friday Podcast. This week is a little different than most weeks, instead of two things we are covering a whole bunch of things in a grab bag format. There have just been too many things to narrow it down you see, so join us for brief discussions about The 94th Oscars and the slap heard ‘around the world, Halo, Marvel’s Moon Knight, and the films of the Canadian Film Festival.

There are streaming links for the films and series discussed here on this page, and the episode is live wherever you listen to podcasts (including an embedded player also on this page). Join us!

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Marvel’s Moon Knight is a bit disjointed

Moon Knight

Comics are weird. There’s no denying this simple fact, and there’s no use trying. This fact is universal and can be a barrier to entry for new fans. Sometimes 50 years of lore is a lot to wrap your head around. One of the great strengths of Marvel’s ongoing cinematic universe is that initially, at least, it distilled all that lore into something easier to swallow. Twenty-plus films later, its greatest strength is that when a new character walks onto the screen and says, “I’m a man with split personalities, one of whom in the warrior avatar of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu and I’m here to punish the wicked” most people’s reaction will be “sure, that makes sense.”

Of course, this can also be a flaw –as it is with Marvel’s latest series– in which there is so little explanation that there is almost no reason to care. There is no trial by which Oscar Isaac’s Marc Spectre obtained his powers or much in explaining his back story; he walks on-screen fully formed. Well, half-formed, because if you glossed over it in the previous paragraph, this is a man with multiple identities. This show is, in a word, a lot.

Being a lot isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker, but while there are many things to love in this series, there are just as many that make it a complicated watch.

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Podcast: ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ & ‘Pam & Tommy’

The Book of Boba Fett / Pam & Tommy

Greetings programs! This week on the Awesome Friday Podcast, we talk about two new series, both from Disney. First up is The Book of Boba Fett, which has aired five episodes and is struggling to figure out precisely what it wants to be. Next, Pam & Tommy, the upcoming miniseries starring Lily James, Sebastian Stan, and Seth Rogen, depicts a specific moment in 90s pop culture with staggering accuracy and honestly. 

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Review: ‘The Witcher Season 2’ is a cool, confident continuation and improvement of the story that began in season one

The Witcher

Let me begin this by saying that I enjoyed the first season of The Witcher. Some were put off by the multiple timelines and Geralt’s absence from some of the stories, but I was not one of them. If you were, you will be happy to know that the entire second season takes place in a single timeframe and that Geralt’s story is the main plot of every episode. On the other hand, if you were like me, well, you already like the show, and you’ll continue enjoying it because it’s good.

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Review: ‘Hawkeye’ premiere episodes are lighthearted fun

Hawkeye

The main complaint about Clint Barton’s Hawkeye as a character, at least when it comes to the MCU version, is that he’s boring. I’ve never quite thought that myself, but it’s easy to see where it comes from: he’s a spy that shoots good, and in most of the films, that’s kind of all he is.

What the new Disney+ series Hawkeye proposes is: what if that’s ok?

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Review: ‘Cowboy Bebop’ recreates the look, but not the feel, of the classic anime series it’s based on

It isn’t an understatement to say that the 1998 anime series Cowboy Bebop, directed by Shinichirō Watanabe, written by Keiko Nobumoto, and scored by Yoko Kanno, is a masterpiece. Binding together influences from around our world, in particular noir thrillers like The Big Sleep, westerns like The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, and science fiction classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey, it became a gateway anime for many –including myself.

Its 26-episode (and one movie) run is far more approachable than most anime series. Despite its near-flung future setting –where the earth is ruined, and the solar system colonized–, Cowboy Bebop became a stone-cold classic of the genre that holds up to this day.

It’s only natural that someone would want to remake it as a live-action series; the only surprise here is how long it took to do so. With such an intricate world and iconic characters, adapting it was never going to be easy. Still, while Netflix has wrangled a promising cast and put a ton of money into re-creating the future of the anime series, they managed to miss the mark.

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Home Video: Buy, Rent, or Stream Cowboy Bebop ahead of its live-action remake

As one of the most well-regarded anime series of all time, the live-action remake coming to Netflix is highly anticipated. The trailers show promise, but the original has a certain style and charm that will be difficult to replicate, but I am choosing to remain hopeful.

Either way, whether it’s time for a re-watch or if you’ve never seen it, now is a perfect time to revisit the anime series as well as the animated film they made a few years later.

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Review: ‘The Shrink Next Door’ is a showcase for Paul Rudd and Will Ferrell

The Shrink Next Door

How does one end up in a cult? It’s a question we’ve all asked ourselves at some point. How does someone end up entirely under the sway of another person’s will? The Shrink Next Door can’t answer that question for everyone, but it can answer it for Marty Markowitz, a successful but anxiety-ridden new york businessman who ended up in the thrall of his psychiatrist for nearly thirty years.

As with many shows that are based on real-life, the story is almost too much to be believed. Markowitz (played by Will Ferrell), struggling with his business and an ex-girlfriend, seeks therapy from Dr Isaac “Ike” Herschkopf (Paul Rudd). Herschkopf’s methods immediately stand out as skirting the line of professional ethics –he literally tells off the ex-girlfriend, in person, while Marty stands there nearly helpless– but Marty is enamoured. “People take advantage of you,” Herschkopf says, “but not anymore. I am going to take care of you.”

It wouldn’t be a series of things didn’t get weird. These eight episodes of television chronicle just how deeply Herschkopf ingratiated himself into Marty’s life, and serve to showcase excellent performances from stars Paul Rudd and Will Ferrell.

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Home Video: Great Films (and series!) from Director Mike Flanagan, and where to Buy, Rent, or Stream them

Midnight Mass

Over the last several years, Mike Flanagan has made a name for himself as a director of horror, and at the same time, become one of my personal favourite filmmakers. This past week saw the release of his latest project, the Netflix series Midnight Mass. To celebrate this, here are three great films and two series he directed.

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Review: ‘Star Wars: Visions’ offers some new takes on the galaxy far, far away, mostly

Star Wars: Visions

Star Wars is a franchise of epic stories, but the galaxy far, far away has always felt a little small. Planets with the population of villages, each only a short drive through hyperspace from one another. One thing that the franchise has needed for a long time is some expansion, some stories to push at the universe’s boundaries. Animation has been, for years now, the place where that has been happening, and Star Wars: Visions –a project in which Lucasfilm let several prominent anime studios tell Star Wars stories– is the latest series to do it. Mostly.

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