Season 2

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile / Knock Down the House / Tuca & Bertie / American Gods Season 2 Wrapup

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.

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Barry Season Two Opener and American Gods Episode 204

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”.

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American Gods 202 – “The Beguiling Man” and 203 – “Muninn”

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…

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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. 

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The Punisher and Star Trek: Discovery

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!

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The Deuce – 209 – Inside the Pretend

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!

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The Deuce – 208 – Nobody Has to Get Hurt

Jim and A.Ron are here to gush about the penultimate episode of this season’s The Deuce, “Nobody Has to Get Hurt”. Of course, that means that someone will have to. The person who gets the hammer felt shocking and also inevitable in hindsight. There’s a lot of story left to unfold, the question now is how much resolution will we get and how much will be irrelevant once the show fast forwards to the 80’s. We consider Eileen’s career trajectory, Frankie tempting fate, the fall of House Pimp, and much more. See you back next week!

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The Deuce – 207 – The Feminism Part

Jim and I checked out the latest episode of HBO’s The Deuce, “The Feminism Part”, and boy, just a lot happened. There’s mob money, murder, attempted murder, betrayals, breakups, Bobby’s kid lost his virginity! The stakes can be as low as Vince losing himself for a few days tending bar in sleepy Vermont towns, or as high as a dead prostitute washing up and into Detective Alston’s case load. That’s life on The Deuce. 

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The Deuce – 206 – We’re All Beasts

A.Ron and Jim blow all the doors down on the latest episode of HBO’s The Deuce, “We’re All Beasts”. It provokes a lot of meta discussion about progressive politics, America’s long lost battle against vice, and offensive analogies. We also talk about Eileen’s guerrilla film-making campaign for what looks to be the very watchable Red Hot. Finally, A.Ron reacts to a 70s-era porno! 

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The Deuce – 204 – What Big Ideas

A.Ron and Jim are down to talk about the latest episode of HBO’s The Deuce, “What Big Ideas”. The Deuce drops another couple of bodies, which draws the increasing attention of the Public Morals Task Force. Unfortunately, that attention is incompetent, corrupt, or often both. Bobby and Vincent have trouble dealing with their involvement in the flesh trade, even as Abby and Dorothy beat the streets trying to organize and help their fellow women, often to little result. Also, C.C. innovates, Larry is packing, and Frankie’s misadventures running the dry cleaning entertain. 

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