We bring the Seen, Read, Played strong this episode. We talk online piracy and it’s real world consequences. Surprisingly, Andrew makes a compelling argument on something important. We expound on The Defenders and Game of Thrones. Andrew discovers fun articles posted by a favorite Twitter feed. Patrick devours Mystery on the Orient Express. Chris prepares to read Monstress Vol. 2 as soon as Andrew returns Vol. 1. Patrick and Christopher play Path of Exile. The Brothers will all download and play with a Legendary Listener when the Xbox One version drops this week. Chris continues to love Civilization 6, seeking peaceful coexistence with neighboring nations. Andrew updates Star Wars Battlefront and struggles through its “Survival” game mode.
Trivia is Oscar themed and turns out to be quite educational.
Episode Seventy-Seven: Disagreements, Arguments, and Internet Goblins
Recorded 8/1/2017
The Brothers Geek are extra Geeky and extra Brother-y this episode. We recap the most interesting content from San Diego Comic Con. We hope for the very best with the first trailer for Ready Player One and a new trailer for Justice League points to the DCEU finally getting the FUN. We can’t agree on the first 3 episodes of Game of Thrones. Chris and Patrick have seen Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets and encourage Andrew to see it. But there isn’t any rush. We each sing a celebratory chorus about the magnificence that is Dunkirk. Chris and Andrew convince Patrick to read Murder on the Orient Express. Chris as two different games of Civilization 6 going on. Patrick plays Fortnite and has to explain what that is to Andrew and Christopher. Andrew plays Cup Pong on GamePigeon and laments that it isn’t real beer pong. Chris admits he has never played beer pong and Andrew questions if he actually went to college.
Trivia is Agatha Christie themed and is impossible.
Episode Seventy-Six: Patrick’s covered in Poo Water.
Recorded 7/10/2017
The Brothers are back! Back in their respective cities and back to work! We all saw Baby Driver and Spider-Man: Homecoming. Surprise, surprise, each of us have strong opinions about both films. Chris is undertaking a complete re-watch of Game of Thrones before the new season starts up. Netflix has premiered a Castlevania animated series and Chris is hooked. Patrick is reading an intriguing mix of noir, magic and economics with The Black Monday Murders. He is also working to be current on Invincible. Andrew has stagnated on American Gods. He is very excited for the upcoming film adaptation of Murder on The Orient Express (check out the trailer below) and has begun that classic and will finish before the movie is released in November. Christopher charges ahead with Rat Queens. We all download the free to play Marvel Heroes Omega. An action RPG that could easily empty our wallets if we let it. Chris lays down some coin and buys Black Panther. He has no regrets.
Trivia is Game of Thrones themed! The new season premieres July 16th!
Episode Seventy-Five: We have been pronouncing “Gadot” incorrectly for years.
Recorded 6/5/2017
Words fail to express how excited we are to be recording again! Well, at least two of us are. One of us gets very annoyed rather quickly. We talk about all the things. We talk Wonder Woman. We give the actress from Israel who plays her the coveted “Not Ugly Award” and we learn how to pronounce her name correctly. Here’s a hint, she isn’t French. Chris learns the correct way to pronounce a book title has been reading for weeks and he spends some money at our local comic book store. Patrick recommends The Flintstones comic book. Really, he does. We talk American Gods, the version on screen and in print. Patrick returns to Fallout Shelter because he can play it on set. Andrew has high hopes for Destiny 2 following the reveal. Chris continues his relationship with World of Warcraft. Only his wife has been around longer than his WoW character, Atreidian. He does spend some time with the Witcher 3 when Atreidian isn’t looking.
Also, Andrew says “bananas” too much about this trailer for Baby Driver.
After months and months of speculation and hope and even more hope, it is finally here. Released Friday, 4/14 at the Star Wars Celebration The Last Jedi panel, the teaser has arrived. And we have watched it, a lot. We break it down shot by shot. The teaser creates all new ground for speculation and our theory postulated in episode Seventy-One appears confirmed. Click the link below and watch it over and over and let us know what you think.
It has been so long, we know you missed us. After a month and a half of technical issues and work and life and the need to get sleep. We are returned to you.
We have so much to talk about. We recap the latest movie trailers. We discuss Logan and Legion and The Expanse and The Magicians andLegends of Tomorrow. However, we don’t discuss Iron Fist, like at all. Read into that what you will. Andrew has started American Gods and will soon join the Neil Gaiman Fan Club. Patrick reads for his career and Chris is finally close to finishing Seveneves. The Brothers Geek Fireteam has returned to Destiny with the “Age of Triumph” DLC. Patrick is deeply disappointed in Mass Effect: Andromeda. Christopher continues to be happy with the latest expansions to World of Warcraft.
Trivia comes to us as a result of Andrew reading Buzzfeed article. The Boys love it and do quite well.
Episode Seventy Two: Don’t see Shyamalan’s Airbender movie, ever.
Recorded 2/15/2017
We begin this episode as we begin almost every episode, someone gets yelled at for doing something dumb. After we get that out of our system, our Re-watch is the series finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender. We spoil the entire series so if you haven’t watched it, what is your problem? Patrick poses the important question of what is each of the Brother’s favorite Star Trek: The Next Generation episode? We all saw John Wick Chapter 2. We try not to spoil that too much. Andrew describes a spectacular sequence in The Expanse novel Babylon’s Ashes. Chris and Andrew find a Game Pigeon game they do not enjoy. Patrick and Chris have embraced the mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes, neither will admit to spending any money on it yet though.
Um, ok. I finished watching the entire series The Wire this past weekend. I binge-watched the last 2.5 seasons or so, but watched the entire series beginning to end over the last 6 months. The last 2.5 seasons were watched over about a 2 week span. It’s fresh in my mind.
I didn’t watch the Wire when it was on HBO a decade ago. I have always read, in all my pop culture and entertainment reading and podcast listening, that the Wire was incredible and woefully under appreciated in modern entertainment culture. I heard and read references to Omar, and Bubbles, and Stringer Bell, and Bunk, and McNulty, and Prop Joe, never really understanding what those references meant. The references, however, were always made consistently in the tones of awe, amazement and reverence. I didn’t understand because I had never watched it.
I understand now.
The Wire is easily the best show I have ever watched. It has to be objectively considered, if not the greatest television drama ever, then top 3 of all time. (Sopranos, and [insert many contenders here] the other 2)
I know, I know. You haven’t watched it, and this statement seems ridiculous. I am here to shout from the rooftops that everyone in America needs to watch The Wire. EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE.
You are right to be skeptical. I absolutely support and encourage your skepticism. I will attempt to provide you with a rationale to investigate and evaluate it for yourself, and convince you why it warrants a Constitutional amendment requiring every adult in America to watch it.
The efficiency and effectiveness of its storytelling over 5 seasons is breathtaking. It follows a group of police officers in Baltimore from Season 1 all the way thru Season 5, weaving tales of drugs, politics, city management, blue collar workers, schools and newspapers in and around the core group. The show examines each of these areas of modern American life, not in a rote or check the box, I need to comment on this way, but in truly elegant organic storytelling. Honestly, I would call it Homeric.
What do I mean by that? Homeric in the sense that the tale is a compelling story, in and of its own right, with characters and plot that are beyond interesting, always engaging the viewer, and demanding attention at all times. And at the same time, every moment is a deep examination of modern American city life, its culture, pressures, power, and humanity. It’s a tale of us, a cultural touchstone for all time.
The show never loses sight of the humans at the center of it. Lots of shows want to be commentaries on, …name your Big Idea. Politics, or Power, or Crime. The humans in those shows are simply vehicles to move around to tell the big tale, or vessels from which flow Important Statements.
And note that it is not until late here that I mention race and race relations. The racism in the show isn’t one of the things it wants to overtly Comment on. The racism is simply a given. Of course the show is commenting on it, but the racism is not treated as a separate thing to be examined, dissected, and disapproved of. The racism, from everyone, is treated as an immutable part of everything that all the characters say and do. The show’s genius is found in its ability to depict the unconscious (and conscious) bias and racism in all the characters, without putting neon on it. And yet, every human watching gets it.
What the makers of the Wire mastered is grounding all that commentary in real humans, making real decisions, from which emerges the devastating view on all those big things other shows try to shout about. Every character evolves. Some evolve in the direction of extinction (real or metaphorically) and some evolve toward some version of success. I am still shaking my head at how they managed to sustain it over 5 seasons, with threads in every season stitching all the central characters together to create a tapestry of hope, love, faith, despair, frailty, chance, pragmatism and outright venality.
Humans encompass all of those things. The Wire depicts it all almost perfectly. It is a stunning artistic achievement. Add it to your bucket list of life, watch it, think about it, discuss it, and share it. It is transformative art.
Episode Seventy One: The Ghost in the Podcast
Recorded 1/31/2017
Ever wondered if three adult males can talk for 30 minutes about the title of a movie? We answer that question and it’s a “yes”. We discuss the reveal of the new Star Wars movie title “The Last Jedi”.
We debut our Re-Watch segment with “the Ghost in the Shell” (anime). It prompts all kinds of questions about consciousness, humanity and nature of self.
On the suggestion of a Loyal Listener, we debate what is the greatest fighting game of all time. Andrew yells “Hadouken” more than is necessary.
We, of course, talk about all the things we saw, read, and played. And even talk a little soccer while we are at it.Trivia is “The Expanse” themed and it is too easy.
Hey look! They are not all dead. The season one finale left on a huge cliffhanger. Quinten, Penny, Margo, Eliot, Alice, and Julia all went guns blazing after the Beast and got rocked like a hurricane only to not be completely wiped out thanks to double crossing Julia who made a deal with the devil (aka the Beast, aka Martin Chatwin)
.
From the season two trailers we knew how they were not all dead. The explanations seemed pretty simple and a little weak, but I can move past that. This episode seems to be mostly about where season two is headed. Penny gets his hands fixed but they are cursed–or something–by “Crazy Healing River Man.” Julia gets offered a way to cover up her post-rape emotional damage, but is so far resisting. Q, Alice, Margo and Eliot have become the Kings and Queens of Fillory (which is revealed in an hilarious 90’s trivia scene) so, Eliot stays behind while the rest go back to Brakebills in search of the missing Fillory armory books.
It seems like a good start to the second season. They’ve set up some storylines and hinted at directions the characters will go this season. The show continues to be dark and humorous. Fillory continues to be crazy and unpredictable, and I am fully excited for more! Also, is that healer lady in the beginning of the episode going to come back and fuck everything up for Q?
