Another week, another entry into the oeuvre of Mr. Bob Ross. Dive in with the Supka/Valley tandem as Bob experiments with some darker canvases, because as the man himself says, you can’t have the light without adding a little dark. That, plus some Super Bowl prop bets are on the line in this episode.
This episode the boys cover Season 6 Episode 1 and Season 9 Episode 6.
This week the boys talk a little Bob Ross…but they mostly dish on this new season of the BMFML, as well as the final rounds of the 2016 season. Details about new point totals, changes to the teams and drafts and the new season’s length are discussed. Let us know what you think!
This week we’re watching Season 14 Episode 8 and Season 24 Episode 12.
Join us for a special, 2017 edition of Wake & Bake where the boys discuss the Bob Ross section of Hobby Lobby, the best parts of 2016 and what 2017 holds for the boys and Binge Media.
This week we’re watching Season 6 Episode 9 and Season 17 Episode 5.
Back for their first episode in some time, Supka and Freak dish on all things Christmas in today’s Wake & Bake. Hear them talk about ornament collections, holiday foods and how they’re both now “slipper guys”. That, some dark canvases and the dulcet tones of our lord and savior Bob Ross await thee, so download now!
This week we’re watching Season 12 Episode 5 and Season 18 Episode 11.
This is it, ladies and germs. The moment of truth is upon us. Westworld is rolling into its last episode this Sunday and some of us are very excited to see where the show is taking us. I, from the beginning, have been in on this, so much so that it has become a weekly hobby of mine to do some reading about the show, some hypothesizing and to talk it out with friends. All this aside, the week before the finale is an important moment, because the very real possibility exists that this is the best the show will ever get.
Westworld is a show about mystery, specifically the central question surrounding what the show is all about. There are existential questions and implications of creating sentient life that have complicated answers. There are moments of stark reality that the show toys with regarding family and memory that are lofty, heavy themes to tackle. All of these things and more are still on the table, because you see, we haven’t seen the conclusion yet.
The wonder of a great second act/early third act in a story such as this is that the possibility of what is to come is truly unknowable. The Empire Strikes Back continues to be the strongest Star Wars film because that film delivers darkness, despair, foreshadowing and hope for the future. Say what you will about Return of the Jedi, but for many that film was a let-down simply because it ends the story, and all stories must end. Ending a story well is paramount to whether or not I can recommend it to someone, so a lot is at stake for this finale for me.
When you look at the great TV series of the past sixteen years, there are examples of both phenomenal and lackluster endings. The Wire, Breaking Bad and Six Feet Under still endure as examples of shows with good arcs for everyone involved and logical conclusions to those stories. Even Battlestar Galactica, a show that by all accounts should never have been as great as it was, finds a way to complete the story in a way that serves what came before it AND does not insult the fans. Shows like Lost, The Office (US) and almost everything on Showtime fail to show restraint in their storytelling and fail to stay true to their original ideas and conventions. The stark reality of Westworld is that the latter is a completely viable path for the show to take after this week’s episode, and although I’ve been saying this since the first article I wrote, I am worried that this is the best the show will ever be.
So for you Westworld fifes out there standing in opposition to the tyrannical hordes trying to convince you this show is a waste of effort (GC), good luck this weekend. I’ll be there with you, watching with baited breath, hoping the numerous mysteries and implications have been worth the wait. Do I think it will wrap up everything we want and leave us confident for the next season? I have no idea, but I do think it will be worth the experience. At the end of the day, if all this show gave me was Anthony Hopkins sitting in a room with Jeffrey Wright having a conversation, or having a battle of wits with Ed Harris, then it was worth it.
When I started writing for Binge Media, I felt it was a service that I was providing to a site that gave a lot back to me. In exchange for a bunch of awesome podcasts a week, I figured I could give back and provide them with some content for the site. Almost three years later and we’re still rolling, and I’m happy to still be here. However, complacency does no one any good, and when opportunity knocks, you make sure to take full advantage of it. It is with that sentiment in mind that I am pleased to announce that Binge Media will be covering this year’s Rhode Island Comic Con, November 11th-13th!
This will be my first Con, so I fully expect the coverage to be a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants affair, but Binge will be there in force to give you the inside scoop on what’s going down. Guests this year include Stan Lee, Gal Gadot, Kate Beckinsale, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Neal Adams, Billy Dee Williams, Millie Bobby Brown, Alice Cooper, Frank Grillo, Christian Slater and many more! This is being advertised as Stan Lee’s final Northeast Con appearance ever, so it should be a momentous occasion to say the least.
I’d like to thank Law and Moreno for allowing me to represent Binge at the Con. If anyone is planning on being there, be sure to hit us up on Facebook and let us know. Thanks y’all CS’ers and we’ll see you at the Con!
Entertainment media is starting to get a little ridiculous. TV shows are being produced so frequently that before you know it shows like Ash Vs Evil Dead already have a second season rolling out, even though it feels like the series just premiered a month or two ago. This isn’t a bad thing, but it does require us, as film nerds, to be a little more selective with what we watch. It’s not a matter of picking out what is good or not, because the baseline of quality is now so high that more often than not a new series is going to be pretty good. Now it has really become a matter of seeking out the entertainment you really want to see. We’ve moved past the point of requiring everyone to watch Seinfeld and Mad About You every Thursday night. Now I find myself in need of some serious convincing before I pick up a new show or movie. Typically if the guys review something favorably on one of the podcasts, I’ll seek it out. If you, like me, look towards Binge Media for your weekly recommendations, then let me be the first to tell you this; of all the TV pilots I’ve seen in my life, I don’t know that I’ve seen one better than Westworld.
For those unfamiliar with the movie from which this series is based, here’s the synopsis; Jurassic Park with cowboys instead of dinosaurs. Got it? Good. The boys reviewed the movie on a recent podcast and we all agreed at the time that this is the type of story that should be remade since the first pass was lacking some depth. Not a bad flick, just could have been expanded upon. From the first five minutes of this pilot, it is clear to me that the creative team behind this series has a firm grasp on what they want this show to be, and I am in 110%.
Westworld starts as the story of Dolores, a woman living on the frontier with her parents who lives her days keeping positive and looking for the good in her world. She goes about her daily chores, riding into town to get supplies for the family where she runs into Teddy, the clear love of her life who has been away for some unidentified amount of time. Upon returning to her homestead with Teddy, Dolores sees an attack of some sort going on, prompting Teddy to ride in and save the day. As he does, he bests the two bandits who have murdered Dolores’ mother and father. However, a man dressed in all black, who is impervious to bullets (played by Ed Harris) starts talking about how he’s been doing this for “30 years”, then shoots Teddy and drags Dolores into the barn to have his way with her.
Cut to the next day, where the cycle repeats as if nothing happened, and we get the wider scope of what’s going on. Westworld is a playground for the wealthy and well off. Have the cash? Come on down for a totally immersive theme park experience, complete with prostitutes, guns, bandits, Indians and cowboys to help you live out your fantasy of having an adventure in the old American west. The operation, being run by Jeffrey Wright as a lead programmer and Anthony Hopkins, the doctor who first devised the idea of Westworld, operate from a technologically advanced control center located somewhere within the land that the park resides in. From here, they have complete control of the park, from the androids, or as they call them hosts, to the storylines going on in the world. From here the show takes us to some interesting places, not wasting any time in setting up both the conflicts in Westworld and also the more global plotlines revolving around the park management.
I like a story that finds a lot of rich thematic questions to present and expound upon. It’s part of the reason why Lost was so intriguing in those early episodes, what with not only the mystery of how the plane crashed but also how’s and why’s of who those people were. Westworld brings out the big guns, literally and figuratively, with some very solid action scenes featuring shootouts reminiscent of stuff we’ve seen from modern westerns 3:10 To Yuma, The Assassination of Jesse James or even The Proposition. That being said, there were some much more intriguing and surprising scenes where we get to see and understand the characters. My favorite moment in the pilot was when Anthony Hopkins, playing Dr. Robert Ford, questions a host whose software has clearly malfunctioned. The pervading question on my mind throughout the episode was whether or not these machines are becoming self-aware. The question doesn’t get answered, but I’m interested to see how the writers are going to deal with it. Ed Harris, stepping into the role of the Gunslinger/Man in Black role that Yul Brynner made famous in the original film, is pretty fantastic as the show’s current wildcard. We’re not sure what he’s doing or why but it’s clear he knows more than anyone else in Westworld, even seemingly operating outside the view of the park managers. It will be interesting to see where they take him before the series’ end.
From top to bottom, everything here is working flawlessly in the opener, so much so that I don’t know how I couldn’t be disappointed with what’s to come. The cast is chock-full of phenomenal talent across the board, from the aforementioned Anthony Hopkins to famous character actors like Michael Wincott and, of course, Evan Rachel Wood with maybe the most nuanced performance of her career. I know there is an overabundance of stuff these days to keep up with, but you need to be watching this show. It is thematically interesting, well written, action packed and well made. I can only hope the show runners have the gusto to keep this going for a full season.
After a temporary hiatus Supka and Freak are back easing you into your week with Bob Ross. The boys talk a little shop here and there, the recent emergence of a certain podcast and how amazing the Tumbler Sex God is (click that link and thank us later). What does all this mean, and who is the guy with the mullet seen below? All that and more on this week’s episode.
This week we’re viewing Season 13 episode 10 and Season 31 episode 11.