Summary
In this episode of the Portable Hole Podcast, the hosts discuss patriotism, baseball, MMA, documentaries, and upcoming movie trailers. They explore the meaning of patriotism and how it can be subjective. The conversation then shifts to baseball and MMA, with a focus on upcoming fights and events. The hosts also share their favorite and most horrifying documentaries. The hosts express their disappointment with the writing and character development in the Roadhouse movie, as well as the lack of internal logic and consistency. They praise the fight scenes and choreography, but criticize the music supervision. Overall, they find the movie to be a fun but flawed experience. The conversation covers the music, fight scenes, visuals, and overall thoughts on the movie. They then discuss the TV show adaptation of the Three-Body Problem, including the story, performances, and audio-visual elements.
Follow Portable Hole Publishing on Social Media
Youtube @PortableHolePublishing
Emaul us at [email protected]
Ryan (00:29)
Welcome to the portable hole podcast. I’m Ryan George and I’m here with my good friends, Justin and Cynic. How you guys doing?
[email protected] (00:36)
good. I was doing better before you challenged my patriotism. I’m an American, I like baseball, and not all of us are far left-wing socialist commies. So I just wanted to put that out there. They’re taking our jobs. They are. They are taking our jobs as podcasters.
Ryan (00:43)
Wait.
cinik (00:53)
Justin, can you just please say they’re taking our jobs just once?
Ryan (01:00)
If you’re listening to this, Justin, Justin’s wearing an American flag shirt, which it is funny how that has become like synonymous with being like hardcore on the right. It’s like it shouldn’t right? Like we’re all patriots whether you’re on like on the right or left. It almost feels weird wearing anything with an American flag on it.
[email protected] (01:16)
You know, patriotism, I feel, is the most meaningless word that could possibly exist. Because to me, I believe Kallen Kaepernick is a patriot, right? Because to me, he stands up for American ideals of using your voice to speak up and wanting to, within your rights, change things that are wrong with the country. To me, and there is a saying that patriotism, you know, dissent is the greatest form of patriotism. So I believe he is a patriot.
Ryan (01:44)
Well yeah, if you…
[email protected] (01:44)
but people on the right think that he’s a traitor. So it’s meaningless. And is their opinion more valid than mine? No, it’s not as valid as mine, but they’re still entitled to it.
Ryan (01:57)
Fair enough. You went from rallying against me being a socialist commie, as you said, to somehow maneuvering yourself to the left of me. So good job. So how are you doing, Sinek?
[email protected] (02:08)
Okay.
cinik (02:11)
I’m great man, happy about the start of baseball season. Can’t get enough, without a doubt next to MMA, probably my favorite sport. Even run a fantasy baseball league because I’m a giant nerd and my team came back from a 20 point deficit today so I can’t complain.
Ryan (02:14)
Yeah.
Bye bye.
[email protected] (02:23)
Hehehe
Nice.
Ryan (02:28)
Nice. Yeah. So it’s for anyone listening, we’re recording on opening day. So did you guys watch any baseball today? Okay. How about you, Justin?
cinik (02:34)
Yeah, I caught a couple games.
[email protected] (02:37)
Um, I was just checking in the Mets were postponed. So, uh, I didn’t have, I wasn’t really watching, just checking the scores.
cinik (02:44)
I think that’s two or three years in a row now. That’s like a tradition for you guys. Opening day is not opening day.
[email protected] (02:48)
Yeah. And it’s too bad because the Mets are like the best team in baseball on opening day by like a long shot. They never lose on opening day. If every day was opening day, they would be win. But unfortunately, there’s only one opening day. One opening day.
Ryan (02:54)
This is it.
Yeah.
cinik (03:00)
Funny enough, in the last two years, Adley Rushman for the catcher, the catcher for the Orioles, it was nine for nine on opening day. Like he was perfect up until his last at bat.
[email protected] (03:09)
There you go.
Ryan (03:09)
Hmm. Well, are there, speaking of MMA, are there any good cards coming up? I know there was like…
cinik (03:14)
Well, there is the Atlantic City card, but that’s not very big. But yeah, a week or so from now is UFC 300, which is just going to be a giant card, everybody and anybody at this point, other than Connor.
Ryan (03:23)
Who’s fighting on it? I’m forget…
who we will be talking about later actually.
cinik (03:31)
Yeah, we absolutely will. He showed up, but off the top of my head, it’s much like UFC 100 and 200. It’s absolutely stacked. It’s, it should be something that we, uh, we watch.
[email protected] (03:43)
Yeah.
Ryan (03:44)
Yeah, I’m sure. Is there is there a main event or I mean, it has to be right.
cinik (03:48)
Um, yeah, who is it? I think I want to say it’s Leon Edwards. Um, you talk while I pull it up.
Ryan (03:56)
Alright.
[email protected] (03:56)
Yeah, it’s, yeah, Gachie versus Holloway, Weili versus, Weili Zhang versus Yan Jian, on Alex Pereira versus Hill. Yeah, that’s a dope card. Yeah, Olivera’s fighting, you know, Zoroachian. Yeah, no, it’s, that’s a legit, that’s a legit card.
Ryan (04:11)
Oh yeah, okay. Yeah. You’re pretty sad card. Yeah. Oh, wow.
cinik (04:14)
Yeah, Pereira versus Hills, the main event.
Ryan (04:20)
Yeah, no, so… Oh yeah, something that definitely should find a way to check it out.
[email protected] (04:25)
Even the prelims, Holly Holmes fighting versus Kayla Harrison. That’s actually an interesting fight. When Aljo versus Kelvin Qatar is fighting on the prelims, on the preliminary card, that’s good.
Ryan (04:38)
Yeah.
Yeah. And how is Aldo still fighting?
[email protected] (04:45)
Did I say Aldo? No, no, Aljo, sorry, Aljo, Aljamain Sterling, yeah.
Ryan (04:46)
Isn’t… okay. But I isn’t… But Aldo is fighting still, right? I feel like he was announced for a card.
cinik (04:46)
No, no, Al Jo. It’s Sterling.
[email protected] (04:51)
Is he?
cinik (04:51)
Um, I haven’t seen him in a while, but yeah, he did fight within the last two years
Ryan (04:56)
Okay, yeah, I feel like he I saw something the other day with him fighting or announcement or something but uh
[email protected] (05:01)
He’s not, well, the surprising thing, he’s not actually, he’s not an old guy. He’s just been in it for so, I mean, he’s old in MMA years, obviously, but he’s younger than us, right? Doesn’t that freak you out?
Ryan (05:05)
Yeah, I guess so. He’s been doing it for so long. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
cinik (05:14)
Well, part of the big thing with Aldo, though, is that he hasn’t been knocked out. Like, he’s not suffering from Chuck Liddell syndrome. He’s gotten battered in a couple fights. He’s gone the distance in a couple fights, but he’s not getting knocked out on the reg like some of these other guys that are long in the tooth. Like defensively, he’s sound.
Ryan (05:21)
Yeah.
[email protected] (05:23)
Yeah.
Ryan (05:27)
Yeah, that’s true. And even at, and at his age, like he’s good enough that he’s, he’s better than a gatekeeper. And he still beats, you know, he’s beaten good guys. So I guess he’ll, you know, he can, he can stick around as long as, as long as he can, can hang.
[email protected] (05:27)
Yeah, that’s true. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, no. Yeah, you should.
cinik (05:42)
But if we’re talking about longevity on that card is Jim Miller and Jim Miller has fought on UFC 100, 200, and now it’s going to be 300, which is pretty fucking amazing.
[email protected] (05:46)
Yeah, that was that’s the crazy thing.
Ryan (05:46)
Mm-hmm.
Wow. Great. Yeah. That is crazy. Well, um, so we, I’m going to, we’re going to skip news for today. Cause we have a cheval, a packed episode. Yeah. It’s good to segue, uh, too bad. We’re not segueing right into that first review, but, um, but we got a packed episode with a few things, just some trailers and some reviews to go over. But before we get to that, um, are you guys watching Justin, you watching anything? Have you had a chance to watch anything?
[email protected] (05:59)
Well, the MMA is a good segue.
Yeah, too bad.
So I’ve been continuing with Shogun and then the stuff for today. So very much so.
Ryan (06:21)
Okay. How are you liking Shogun? So far it’s good. I really like it. I think I’m one episode behind, but I’m really, it’s, it’s still, still really good. How about you, Cynic? What are you watching?
[email protected] (06:31)
Totally good.
cinik (06:32)
Well, as of last night, I got hooked on Homicide New York on Netflix. And I’ll tell you, it’s from Dick Wolf, the guy that does Law and Order. And it’s about five or six hours of the best TV I’ve ever seen. Yeah. True crime documentary. And they talk to the cops, the DAs and the victims of these crimes. And they’re all stuff that I’m sure you guys being from the area, you’ll remember like the quadruple shooting over top of Carnegie deli, the
Ryan (06:37)
Okay.
Yeah.
Really?
[email protected] (06:43)
Really?
Ryan (06:50)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
[email protected] (06:59)
Oh, that’s awesome.
cinik (07:00)
the two kids that killed someone in Central Park and stabbed him like 50 times. Fantastic, like gripping. Homicide in New York. And it was well worth watching. And it was funny enough because they kept showing this one detective in this one case, and I said, you know, that really looks like my coworker. And turns out it was his brother. And I had two or three conversations with this individual. And yeah, so that was kind of a cool wrap around to the story.
[email protected] (07:06)
What’s the show called?
Ryan (07:07)
Okay. Yeah, I’ll check.
So yeah, I’ve kind of catching up on what I spent the whole weekend watching, the three body problem. But one thing I did watch is called Quiet On Set. I think it’s a documentary series. I think it was on, let’s say investigation discovery, but we were watching it on HBO Max or Max, whatever it is now. But it’s kind of, it’s documentary about the, it’s like, it focuses on what’s the name? Dan Schneider, who
was the kind of major producer behind a lot of I guess Nickelodeon’s stuff in the early 2000s and all the way up until recently if you look at his credits but just kind of this chaotic and very toxic atmosphere that he created you know that he helped to foster that allowed for some really horrible things to happen to some people so it’s a very it’s a compelling documentary that takes a very dark turn.
But worth watching. It’s about, I think it’s a four episode mini series. So definitely something to watch. But be ready, it gets pretty heavy.
cinik (08:29)
Okay, we’re all fans of the documentary. What’s the most horrifying documentary that you guys watched? Like normal documentary, but then just took a turn for the absolute worst.
Ryan (08:40)
Do you have one in mind? Okay. Yeah.
cinik (08:42)
I do. The finding never led.
[email protected] (08:45)
Oh. But see, we knew, but see, I don’t see that as necessarily taking a turn. I’d read up a lot about that stuff before.
cinik (08:49)
Yeah, I… But the…
Ryan (08:52)
Yeah, but I guess the detail they went into was rough.
cinik (08:55)
Yes, yeah, the account from the kids that were molested is what really is haunting. And the fact that you have these people that their lives have been ruined by this, and you still have people defending Michael Jackson like he’s a hero.
[email protected] (08:56)
Yeah.
Ryan (09:00)
Yeah.
Yeah.
[email protected] (09:11)
Yeah, it’s.
Ryan (09:11)
Yeah. It is crazy. It’s so, it’s so weird. Yeah. When you, cause you do hear it. It’s like, I, even though you kind of, you know, what he was accused of to hear it from their mouths, it was, it’s so hard to like, it’s crazy that he’s still worshiped like is. Uh, you know, almost shocking, but yeah.
[email protected] (09:28)
Yeah, it’s weird. For me, look, we’ve watched a lot of documentaries on stuff that was knowingly terrible, like on war and things like travesties that we knew what we were getting into. So I’m not gonna mention anything like that because we know the horrors of certain things, but I didn’t realize, I forgot the name of the documentary, but it was on those triplets that were really popular during the 1980s and through that 90s.
Ryan (09:41)
Yeah.
Okay, yeah. Yeah. Three identical strangers.
[email protected] (09:57)
Yeah. And then what happened to them and that was dark. That went south pretty quick. So that was a pretty sad story of what happened to them.
Ryan (10:00)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, there’s a, the, like I, I remember that one, although I don’t, I don’t remember it being like a gut punch, but you know, it’s like, I got, it’s a great question. I got to think about it. I feel like I got to look up a list of like documentaries that I’ve seen where you’re, you know, you hit by a gut punch, like, like that. But, um, yeah, no, definitely this one, this one’s up there. Um, just where it goes, you know, cause it gets to a very, very dark place. I think it starts.
[email protected] (10:18)
Yeah, I’m sure more will come to mind where you’re not thinking that it was going there.
Yeah.
Ryan (10:34)
where it starts is like, okay, you know, here’s a guy pretty toxic set seems like a creep. And then it gets really, really bad for like an episode. It’s pretty rough, but, but recommended if you know if you do if you do like documentaries and it just in a world like we were too old, like, you know, this is kind of like the Nickelodeon in the early 2000s, obviously, not something that we would have been watching. But, but having like step kids that were kind of in that age range, and my siblings, you know,
[email protected] (10:41)
Yeah.
Ryan (11:02)
at varying levels. I’m aware, I was aware of all those names and a lot of what was going on. So it’s pretty crazy. But, um, all right. So we don’t have, you know, it’s funny. I don’t have news. And I thought about this. I don’t know that we talked about it going back to MMA and documentaries. What are your, maybe the, our favorite MMA documentary is a smashing machine, right? Uh, one of the early ones. Uh, do you guys know that the rock is playing Mark Kerr in a, in a bio biopic?
[email protected] (11:25)
Oh, yeah.
cinik (11:31)
Hmm.
[email protected] (11:31)
No, but I mean, he looks like him. So I mean, relatively, I mean, look, same build, almost same sort of skin complexion, like same hair, the dark curly hair, like not exactly. But you always I mean, you’re going to get a you know, actors are generally like the better looking versions of the main character. Yeah, that was a tragedy.
Ryan (11:33)
You think?
Yeah. And the thing is that the rock is still in, probably in Mark Kerr’s shape now, but I mean, he’s like, he’s north of 50. How is he, what part of Mark Kerr’s life is he playing? Like that’s the part I don’t understand. Like, cause-
[email protected] (11:57)
Yeah, he is. Yeah.
I don’t know, but look, with makeup and any digital touch-ups, you could see a realm where he’s…
Ryan (12:13)
Him passing for a 25 year old Mark Kerr destroying people in Japan like that. You really think they could do that?
[email protected] (12:17)
Yeah, I think so. I think, I think it close enough that, but, or, but look, as you said, it really depends on the, you know, it really depends on the way they go about it. So maybe, look, maybe you could do it where they like fog up the, you know, the screen. I don’t know, like make it look like it was in the past, like where they’re interviewing. Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much.
cinik (12:36)
You want them to crisco the lenses in order to pass the rock off as a mech marker. Listen, I don’t know. I’ve seen rock recently because he’s been showing up in WB and so that shows up in my timeline. He is starting to look his age a little bit. Like he is, he’s getting a little long of the tooth. He was 20 forever and now he’s looking, he’s crossing the bed into 40.
Ryan (12:38)
I’m sorry.
[email protected] (12:44)
Yeah.
Ryan (12:47)
Yeah, he is. He really is.
[email protected] (12:47)
Yeah.
Ryan (12:51)
Yeah. He’s in incredible shape. He looks his age. And I can’t believe that, you know, here’s the weird thing. It’s like, right, Mark Kerr at 40, 50 is not in incredible shape. So if Rock is playing like an older version of Mark Kerr, that doesn’t work because he’s not in that shape. And if he’s playing a younger version, so I’m curious to see what they’re doing with this, you know, or how they make, you know, how they make it work.
[email protected] (12:52)
Yeah, he still looks good. Still looks good for, I think, for Sage. Yeah.
cinik (12:56)
Yes.
[email protected] (13:07)
No.
I know, I know. There is something weird there, yeah.
Ryan (13:21)
because yeah, it’s like he’s got the body that can match, you know, somebody that’s that age, but he doesn’t, although he is doing some incredible work. Like, you know, I will follow, I’ve been kind of following what they’ve been doing with that storyline. And it’s actually got me excited to watch WrestleMania, like the stuff that he’s doing with Cody Rhodes. And they’ve actually been doing some great work there. So, but then I think after WrestleMania, at some point, maybe it’s in the summer, at some point he will be filming the Smashing Machine.
[email protected] (13:39)
Yeah.
So what I find strange about the whole thing is where’s the demand to know about Mark Kerr? Like it’s like who makes this
cinik (13:55)
There is none.
Ryan (13:56)
Yeah, I think, you know, I’m sure somebody, you know, obviously he’s an MMA, you know, he’s very much connected with MMA, whether he’s a big fan or not, right? Like at this point, even like the WWE and UFC are, you know, under the same umbrella at this point. I think it’s more like him trying to win awards, you know, like, or trying to show his acting chops. I think that’s what this is. There’s no demand for the Mark Kerr biopic, but I’m sure, but his story is a crazy story. Like I said, we-
[email protected] (14:24)
Yeah.
Ryan (14:25)
we watched, you know, I think, you know, it’s a great documentary about the smash machine was a great documentary about him in the midst of his career. So, you know, it is, it’s, it’s a sad story and it’s kind of a cautionary tale. So I’m sure somebody wrote a script or screenplay. it’s a guy that’s again, adjacent to the WWE and something that like he thinks he could do so, but I think this is his shot at like, you know, cause at the end of the day, like, um, the rock is the biggest, one of the biggest movie stars in the world.
[email protected] (14:29)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Ryan (14:54)
But if you look at the other pro wrestlers, I think Batista has gotten accolades for his work. And he’s actually, he’s been picked for roles because of his acting, not just because he’s a monster. And he’s very good at what he does. I don’t know that he has like the greatest range in the world, but like anything you’ve seen a Batista in, he’s been really good. Yeah, and then even like John Cena has been very good in his role. You know, he, again.
[email protected] (15:01)
Yeah, he’s a good actor.
No, but he’s good at what he does. He’s great at it. Yeah You accept it without question Seen is good. Yeah Yeah, he’s good Hey He does he does his job
Ryan (15:19)
not the greatest range in the world, but like I love him as peacemaker. He’s awesome in whatever he does. So I think it’s the Rock, you know, I think in a weird way, even though the Rock’s the biggest movie star, he’s kind of taken weirdly a backseat to like Cena and Batista. And so I think this is his chance to like say, hey, look, I can act, I’ve got chops. We’ll see.
[email protected] (15:33)
Yeah.
I read something that I don’t remember where I saw it about the rock playing Popeye. I think that would make sense. He would be perfect for that role, right? You see what I’m saying? Or is that too woke now?
Ryan (15:51)
I would say, I feel like The Rock just gets a pass for anything though. Like, you know, no one will call it woke. But no, actually, I could see Cena more as Popeye because I would think it’d be more of a, you know, I see him.
[email protected] (16:00)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
He’s too good looking for Popeye.
cinik (16:09)
Now you throw a prosthetic jaw on him, you’ll be fine.
Ryan (16:09)
Not necessarily. Yeah.
[email protected] (16:11)
I guess so, yeah. Yeah. Sina could be a good Popeye too. Yeah. He’s lovable. Like, look, you want someone for Popeye that kids like, right? But you know, kids like Sina, but they also like the rock. Kids love Sina. Yeah.
Ryan (16:14)
Yes, you know, so I think Cena could be a good pop.
Yeah. Kids love Cena. Kids love him more than the Rock. Yeah. No, so I think I could see Miss Pop.
cinik (16:28)
Another year or two, he’s gonna have Popeye’s haircut. It’s going fast. Have you seen those pictures? The back of his head is starting to look like the front of mine, unfortunately.
Ryan (16:34)
Yeah, he’s holding on.
Yeah. All
All right. So let’s get to, let’s get to our reviews. I was going to do another trailer, but we could save that for next week. It was Penguin. So yeah, we can say we can save that. So
cinik (16:46)
What was the trailer?
Oh yeah, we can skip that.
[email protected] (16:53)
Wait, they’re making a movie based on a Batman villain? I’m shocked.
Ryan (17:00)
Okay. Yeah. A show based on the Batman villain, but yeah. Yeah. So they’re doing a, they did a, well, we’ve got, and then we have the Joker musical coming out.
[email protected] (17:01)
Oh, a show? Better yet. Now a whole show.
cinik (17:07)
Well, we’re making a show based after a Batman villain that was based after a Robert De Niro character. That was not the Penguin.
[email protected] (17:08)
It’s very surprising, very surprising.
Ryan (17:14)
Yeah. That well, I will say this, um, in various iterations of the Batman, whether it’s been on TV, in video games, in comics, we’ve gotten a variety of different versions of that Penguin character because there’s some you know, there’s some where he’s very comical, like, you know, the Danny DeVito version. There was a great this great the great Tell Tale Batman game. I don’t know if you played that. But
[email protected] (17:28)
That’s another thing where just an infinite world of.
Yeah.
cinik (17:41)
Mm-hmm.
Ryan (17:41)
But the version of the Riddler there, I mean the Penguin there was totally different. Then you got like the version that, you know, the animated series and you have the version comics. So I think it’s a character you kind of get various iterations of it, but you’re right. It was very much like a Robert De Niro kind of. Pretty much, yeah.
cinik (17:56)
Well, yeah, he was Al Capone from the Untouchables is what he was.
[email protected] (18:01)
Has there ever been a legit like Robin, like, you know, good show? We need a good Robin. He needs to be gay. It needs to be woke. He should definitely be some minority persuasion. That’s.
cinik (18:06)
Really in the comics.
Ryan (18:07)
Yeah, I mean, not in the movies, no.
I don’t know if you’re joking or not. Well, you know that apparently, like the old, the Schumacher Batman, what’s his name? Marlon Waynes was supposed to be Robin, apparently. But, you know, like I…
[email protected] (18:28)
Okay.
That’s sometime down the road, you can be sure.
Ryan (18:34)
It’s interesting. I don’t think, so the Batman that we tend to get in the movies, which is generally a more, somewhat more kind of realistic take of a superhero, I don’t think Robin works with that type of a Batman. It’s dark, you know, like, so like, in fact, like, like the patents in Batman, like I love that movie and I don’t see him working with the Robin. But the good thing with, I think what they’re trying to do with DC now is I think they can make other Batman movies with other.
[email protected] (18:44)
Yeah.
until you make it work.
Ryan (19:04)
you know, other tell other stories, because it would be good to see, you know, various versions of Robin, of which there are many. So we’ll see. But yeah, I don’t think we’ve gotten like a real legit Robin on the big screen outside of like the 66 Batman.
[email protected] (19:16)
And it could be, it could be like, it could be a, you know, like, it could be sort of like a dark comedy action sort of deal. It could be something like that. It could be slapstick. It could be, you know, Cobra Kai style, something like that. Like there’s all sorts of ways to go about it. It doesn’t have to be, you know, like with now it’s true with Batman. Now it’s sort of in, you know, Joker and everything it’s become, it’s become dark. Right. It’s become synonymous with, with more like a dark idea, but it doesn’t have to be. So.
Ryan (19:23)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, it doesn’t have to be. But I think that that’s the version that I think people wanna see on the big screen. So we end up getting that over and over. And I get it, but that’s the thing is that they can tell different stories. So hopefully, we do get that. Cause there’s, I mean, there’s so many stories to pick from that I think it would be interesting to see. I’ve never been a fan of Robin, so I’m cool without it. Although, there are versions of the story with his son who becomes a version of Robin that I actually think would be pretty interesting. So we’ll see.
[email protected] (20:10)
Yeah.
Ryan (20:14)
We’ll see how that goes. All right. So let’s get to our first, uh, first of two, uh, movie reviews today. You know, it’s like we cut the news so I could get to the movies shorter and somehow we’re still, we’re 30 minutes in now, but, um, all right. So first of the two reviews, we’re going to start with Roadhouse. So Roadhouse is a remake of the 1989 movie starring Patrick Swayze. Uh, yet another reboot or remake. Uh, but this one stars Jake Gyllenhaal and he’s an ex UFC fighter. So I like how they kind of updated it. Ex UFC fighter named Dalton.
[email protected] (20:25)
Yeah.
Ryan (20:44)
who finds himself as a bouncer at a road house. And he’s there basically because a group of generic villains and Conor McGregor are trying to force the owner out. So this movie is a little,
So before we get started, I’ll ask both of you guys, I’ll start with you, Sinek. Were you a fan of the original Roadhouse movie? And did you have any expectations of this coming into it? Yeah. Okay.
cinik (21:06)
Ryan, I’ll have words with anybody who wasn’t a fan of the original Roadhouse movie because it was fantastic.
[email protected] (21:11)
Yeah, hard not to like. It’s like one of those movies that before you had everything that you could possibly want to watch at your fingertips. Like if you were scrolling, you know, it was late and you know, you were having a snack or something, you were scrolling through TV. I always used to watch TV while I would, while we would eat. And it was on, you would say, Oh, I’ll watch this. I’ll watch Roadhouse, you know, and you would stay and you would, whatever, whatever part of the movie it cut in, you would watch it till the end. And then that was it. And you would be satisfied with it.
So that’s, to me, that’s like Roadhouse. You’d always watch it whenever it was on, if you happen to be watching live TV at that moment.
Ryan (21:46)
So we’ll go through this when we’re reviewing this since we’ve all seen it. And, uh, all have thoughts, I think, uh, we’ll go through our review process. So basically reviews, we’ve got five categories, story, performance, the fields, internal logic and consistency and audio visual. So we’ll kind of talk about each one, um, individually, uh, some may have more and more, more to talk about than others. And then we’ll kind of give our overall review. So, uh, first part, uh, Justin, uh, the story is fairly similar.
with some changes to the original. But what are your thoughts over on the story, on the writing, pacing, things like that? What are your thoughts? I know you have some.
[email protected] (22:23)
Um, I thought the thought that, well, first off, just, I just thought that the movie should be renamed shit house. So it was, um, yeah, the, the writing was the worst part of all of it. Um, it was, uh, just all over the place and without the creation of one interesting character, well, actually with like half of an interesting character.
cinik (22:29)
Oof.
Ryan (22:30)
I’m sorry.
Thank you.
[email protected] (22:51)
and we’ll get there and not for the right reasons too. Just, you never like, they hint that Dalton is aloof and becomes actually like Jack Reacher traveling around with no real identity or no real goal because maybe he killed or injured his close friend in an MMA bout where the ref wasn’t able to stop him.
for the only time in history where that’s happened. Well, I guess it has happened in other events, but so like basically he goes on spoiler alert. You could put up a little banner that says spoiler, right? Not that it really has much to do with the plot and he’s depressed or somehow he’s carrying it with him, but it doesn’t really go into like why is that then? They just says, oh, he throws a screw and he’s loose, but he doesn’t become, he’s like, like they make him sound like, oh, if you push him too far, he becomes crazy.
Ryan (23:29)
Yeah, I probably should have said that at the beginning. Yeah.
[email protected] (23:50)
But that’s not really true. They never really push him too far and he never really becomes crazy. He just does what he’s supposed to do, which is to beat up the bad guys. The villains were even worse, right? Like the real bad guy is off screen. You don’t even know who he is, right? And his son is taking over and who’s really poorly written. You have no insight into his personality besides that he’s a spoiled brat
Ryan (24:09)
Thank you.
[email protected] (24:20)
criminal father basically gave him everything. And he’s terrible and none of his real motivations, it’s weak. There’s a bunch of goons, which find that goons are goons. And then you have Conor McGregor’s character, who is this psychopath, but we don’t know anything about him besides, he’s just a psychopath. He’s just a hired guy who happens to be a psychopath. We don’t know how he gets mixed up.
with the main criminal who you never even hear about, who actually sounds interesting. So, and then look, everything is just, I mean, so many consistency problems and they try to like write issues, why the cops don’t get involved to try to cover the fact that every night is like, World War III in a bar and just, it’s just one, it’s just.
painful to get through. I think it was just the writing was just, it was one of those, where is the adult in the room that says what the hell is going on? It seems like it was written by some kid in high school trying to, you know, wanted a college admission to a film school. Like it’s just.
Ryan (25:21)
So…
Yeah.
So, Sinic, your thoughts on the story. Ha ha
cinik (25:41)
Justin, you joyless slut.
[email protected] (25:47)
I guess there were some good parts. We’ll get to the good parts with the writing.
cinik (25:50)
The I mean the movie was fun. Is it citizen gain? No, it’s not. I mean then some of the motivations and Goals of the characters could have been a little more formulated before that through another but remember that we’re watching a direct to Amazon movie Which is like a direct-to-video movie for people our age, you know It didn’t hit the theaters and there’s a reason it didn’t hit the theaters but for what it was it was a lot of fucking fun and Good
Ryan (25:54)
Yeah.
Yeah.
[email protected] (26:15)
Ugh.
Ryan (26:15)
Yeah. So yeah, you know, no, no. You know, I tend to agree with you. Like I feel like you got something like this. You kind of grading on a curve a little bit. Like it was dumb fun. And I don’t, I think I went into it with low expectations. Um, I think the thing is, I don’t think you’re not wrong about the writing and about, and about the characterizations and about the motivations and all that stuff. I think I just didn’t expect it to give me.
cinik (26:29)
Oh yeah.
[email protected] (26:30)
I had no expectations.
Hahaha!
cinik (26:35)
Hehehe
Ryan (26:45)
any of that anyway. So I think, you know, yeah, it’s kind of dumb. The writing is pretty bad, but like, but fun bad. It does have, it has some humor, but you know, it’s funny to me. And we’ll talk about it a little more when we get to the, so I feel like they did Conor McGregor a disservice, cause you know, and maybe we’ll segue into a little bit performances now, cause I do want to mention that. So, and it connects to the writing and the performance. So,
[email protected] (26:57)
Oh, the humor was so annoying.
Ryan (27:13)
I thought Conor McGregor is great. Like he, he is clearly having the time of his life. He’s fully in it, right? Like it’s also probably the only role that Conor McGregor can play, right? But, but it’s like, he’s in the zone, right? This is his role, but they gave him so many cringe worthy lines that it was like they, the writing was, they were trying to do everything they could to like make him terrible, but he’s, he’s got such charisma and he kind of committed so much to the lines.
[email protected] (27:18)
Yep.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, I know.
Yeah.
Ryan (27:40)
Then I was like, all right, cool. I’m buying it. Although, but there were several times I’m like, Ooh, why’d they write that line for him? Because, you know, it was like, there was almost the worst. Yeah. Yeah, but I, that’s the movie. No.
[email protected] (27:45)
that one time where they’re in a life and death struggle and they’re like joking about like, it’s just, it’s like, look, if it’s an action comedy, that’s okay. If it’s a Jackie Chan movie, you expect it, but it wasn’t that. And then they just pulled it out on occasion.
Ryan (27:55)
But it kind of was an action comedy. Yeah, no, I mean, I feel like there was kind of that dumb humor throughout. Like I had a little bit disagree, but I think otherwise, like other than Conor McGregor’s performance, I thought Jake Gyllenhaal was fine, right? He’s a good actor. I think he played that role of, you know, he plays the role of like the, you know, the fighter while his kind of sarcasm. And I liked how, you know, when he was, you know, kind of…
[email protected] (28:05)
Meh.
He’s fine. Yeah.
Ryan (28:23)
asking about medical, you know, like, you know, do you have medical insurance? And kind of the way he was approaching conflict was entertaining. So I did enjoy that. Uh, but other than those two, everybody else was pretty much just generic, you know, generic villain, generic love interest. Yeah.
cinik (28:38)
And I really think that was by design. If you take Conor McGregor and put him in any movie of this type of genre, it instantly makes it better. And I don’t know, Ryan, if you’ve heard Conor talk in the last five years, he’s not on top of his game anymore. The dialogue they gave him is shit that he would probably say in a tweet. He’s really fallen off as far as being an edgy, on top of things guy. But he did really save this movie in several ways because he was the most interesting person on screen every time he was on screen.
Ryan (28:46)
Yeah.
No, could be. So, yeah.
[email protected] (29:01)
Yeah.
He was.
Ryan (29:05)
Exactly. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Tell me more. Any of your thoughts on any of the other performances or was it all kind of
cinik (29:12)
Well, I just kind of felt like Jake Gyllenhaal was a little too jokey. And I get what you were saying in the beginning, Justin, but I think it was the levels of violence that they were talking about. Like him, you know, basically ripping people’s arms off was what he was trying to avoid, where in the beginning he was literally just slapping people in the face and making them look silly in the beginning of the movie. So I think him being pushed was the level of aggression in which he took out on his adversaries, that he could go further, he could break your neck.
Ryan (29:21)
Yeah.
cinik (29:40)
but he’ll just slap you around and drive you to the hospital afterwards. So I kind of get that, but he was really a mic and a stage away from being a standup comedian in that movie. And I just didn’t think it was all the way necessary. Every good action hero needs a few quips, but it felt like every time he threw a punch, he had a one-liner. And by the way, that fight sequence made Evil Bean look like shit, because that’s who the referee was that let Jake Gyllenhaal’s character beat that other guy to death. So Eve, if this is your reaction time in real life, you need to go sit down for a little while.
[email protected] (29:50)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ryan (30:04)
Hmm. Heh heh heh. Heh heh.
[email protected] (30:05)
Yeah, yeah.
Surprised that it wasn’t Herb Dean that they didn’t get that.
Ryan (30:11)
Yeah. Well, you know, the other thing I would say with Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance, one thing I didn’t love is, so you brought it up, right? Like he’s somebody who’s got this kind of quiet rage, you know, that he’s obviously trying to bottle up this rage and that I never got. Like I never got that feeling that he was, he, his battle.
cinik (30:12)
Oh, I don’t think Herb Dean would even being in the movie Herb Dean would still broke that fight up before there was a fatal blow
Ryan (30:38)
was internal, that the entire movie, like he’s fighting not to allow that demon to come out. I never quite felt that. And I kind of, you know, again, I don’t know that we need that kind of performance, but he’s a good enough actor to do that. And so I don’t know that he quite did it. And I’d say there’s one other thing I would say that did throw me off. Eh, yeah, but there’s one other thing that did throw me off a little bit is just, there was some kind of tonal shift. So the movie is very jokey early on, and then people start getting murdered.
[email protected] (30:50)
You don’t need too much.
I don’t think he was given the material to do that.
Yeah, it’s true. I guess you’re right. Yeah.
Ryan (31:07)
out of nowhere. And that kind of shift was also, and that’s part of it. Okay. So, so like that’s part of the performance, right? Because I didn’t buy that he had this quiet rage that he was bottling and just, you know, he’s fighting as much as he’s fighting other people, he’s fighting himself to hold it in when he does just outright murder somebody. Like that just was a shock because I wasn’t, you know, wasn’t like that was the, the logical consequence to, to provoking him.
You know, it’s, I think that was all threw me off a little bit, but again, like we’re asking for, you know, we’re asking, you know, you know, we’re judging, you know, on a different, you know, we got to judge it on a curve, I guess, you know, with a movie like this.
[email protected] (31:43)
Yeah.
cinik (31:46)
Yeah, in the movie he’s fighting to stay away from a five and he jumps to a 10 and that doesn’t bother him and he goes right back to joking. And by the way, RIP, easy Reyes because that was a horrible way to go.
Ryan (31:52)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
[email protected] (31:52)
Yeah, it’s just consistency problems.
Ryan (31:57)
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, okay. So now that’s the next part. Next up is the feels. So like, you know, obviously there’s, there’s not a lot of, uh, you know, the drama in this is pretty well. So, so obviously with the feels, it’s like, it could be humor. It could be funny. It could be, was there major tension? Did you get to, was it sad? You know, whatever it is. Any, any mate, did your emotions jump at all watching this movie? Yeah.
[email protected] (32:06)
Oh, it gave me the feels. Ha ha ha.
Yeah, it did. It jumped to making it want to be over.
cinik (32:21)
Well, I can tell you that-
In my 40 some odd years of life, almost 50, I could have made it the rest of my life without a three minute long shot of Connor McGregor’s ass like it’s Dunkirk. Why did we not pull away from that after like 10 seconds of shock value? And why do I feel like I can now pick Connor’s ass out of a fucking lineup? Why did they do that?
Ryan (32:39)
Yeah.
Well, she’s got a very distinct walk. But yeah.
cinik (32:50)
He’s got a very distinct ass too. It’s crazy that we had to stare at that for as long as… I almost grabbed the remote and started fast forwarding like how long is this?
Ryan (32:58)
Like did they write? I wonder like when they were writing it, was that, was that part always written for Conor McGregor or was it? Okay. All right. So then that, that makes sense.
cinik (33:03)
Yes, I think it, no, I think it absolutely was written for Conor.
[email protected] (33:06)
Yeah, I’m sure it was. Another feel is annoying. This looks like, come on, like Connor walks out of the hospital after being stabbed 50 times. It’s like, calm. It’s like, look, okay. I’m okay with things being ridiculous when it comes to what people, what.
Ryan (33:24)
You’re okay with the boat, the boat landing on the roof of the, of the bar and everybody’s surviving but not…
[email protected] (33:28)
look. Yeah, I’m okay with. Yeah, like, because it’s ridiculous. But when you have something like that, it’s like, come on. It’s like, it’s just, I don’t know. It’s like, it’s like they are going to do a Roadhouse sequel where he becomes like Michael Myers or something like that. Like, is that I guess that’s like some weird like, combination that that’s the direction they’re going.
Ryan (33:51)
He might, there might be. Yeah, exactly.
cinik (33:51)
If it does enough ratings, I’m sure we’ll see another one. We may not see Jake Gyllenhaal because I’m sure that ship has sailed for him. But yeah, I’m sure that we’ll see that. That’s what they were doing. They were setting it up. So yeah, he’s going, the same villain’s gonna show up in another movie.
[email protected] (34:02)
Yeah, of course. I was just like, oh, come on.
Ryan (34:02)
Yeah.
All right. Well, so the next up, which we’ve all touched on is the internal logic and consistency. So I will agree. I think the movie was a bit all over the place. Um, although like to be fair, I don’t, I mean, I think the thing that annoyed me the most was kind of with the police, um, that you have the situation where there’s kind of corrupt police, but they’re kind of conveniently corrupt. Um, and then they follow the rules when it’s convenient. That was a little weird to me. So it was kind of a bit of like, you know, they had to writing yourself into a corner and then just, you know,
[email protected] (34:21)
Oh, so annoying.
Ryan (34:34)
yada yada-ing your way out. But any other major logical issues that you want to call out in the movie, Justin or Cynic.
[email protected] (34:42)
Yeah.
cinik (34:44)
Good, Justin.
[email protected] (34:45)
Yeah, the whole movie was lacking of logical consistency. The whole thing didn’t make sense. Like, why would he turn down the, like, why would he turn down, he turns down the job in the first place. And then like, the second he’s like, oh shit, I need money, I’m gonna get the job. Like, it’s like, whoa, he really put up a fight. It’s like, why would he turn it down? He’s fighting for money, like, you know, and then he’s like, oh no, we’re gonna pay you a lot of money to fight, oh no, but I don’t want that job.
Ryan (34:47)
Yeah.
Thanks for watching!
[email protected] (35:14)
It’s like, from the very beginning, it didn’t make any sense. And then it just, yeah.
cinik (35:20)
Did either you guys start doing forensic accounting for that bar that how they were able to pay $5,000 a week? I’m like, there’s no way.
Ryan (35:26)
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
[email protected] (35:26)
I was wondering that too. I was like, I thought the same thing too. I was like, oh, okay, so how the hell is this place, you know, in the Keys, you know, I guess they, which I guess they make good money, but like they’re making that good money. And they’re also, they also make enough to like hire these, you know, professional bands to play. And I guess maybe, you know, maybe they’re playing for free. We’ll talk about that later as well. Another thing that annoyed me, but.
Ryan (35:47)
Yeah. Okay.
cinik (35:49)
Nobody gets to finish a set. Like, they hit one song into their set, it’s done.
[email protected] (35:51)
Yeah, yeah, it’s true.
Ryan (35:55)
Yeah. And well, the other thing that bugged me logic wise is, so it’s in Florida. Everybody’s got a gun in Florida. Yet the gangsters don’t have guns initially, but then later they kind of have guns, but he easily dis… So that was the other thing that’s weird is like, why weren’t they just completely armed at every situation? Like, why are you going after… Like once the…
cinik (35:57)
Ahem.
[email protected] (36:14)
Yeah, it’s, well, they tried to make one thing, oh, we can’t go shooting it up because the police, oh yeah, because the corrupt police that are working with you, it’s like, but you just can’t do it this time, I know, it’s just.
Ryan (36:19)
Yeah, but that… Ehhh…
Yeah.
Yeah, it was a little annoying. Okay, so and then the last category, audiovisual. So in this case, Justin, or Sinek, I’ll start with you. What were your thoughts on the fight scenes? How’d you like how they did it? I thought there’s some, they took some interesting artistic kind of choices on the scenes. What were your thoughts on the choreography?
cinik (36:43)
Oh yeah, they really did. I mean, they hit all the notes, the slow motion, the excessive violence, the, you know, I thought the fight scenes were the best part of the movie. You know, unbelievable as such, like Justin had said, in the end with Connor being stabbed multiple times, like he was fighting Wolverine, you know, but then he’s fine. But yeah, I thought, I mean, that’s basically what the vehicle was of the movie. We needed to get to the fight scenes. And I thought the fight scenes are the one thing that did pay off.
Ryan (36:56)
Yeah.
Yeah. So Justin, as an MMA fan, does Jake Gyllenhaal throw a good punch?
[email protected] (37:17)
Yeah, the fight scenes were good. That was the best part. Yeah, and it was obviously a lot of MMA influence and also a little kind of like Krav Maga, like sort of that stuff too. It’s like the modern martial arts, which sort of combines MMA styles with sort of military combatatives, not super fancy, you know.
Ryan (37:40)
Yeah.
[email protected] (37:43)
old school Kung Fu stuff. So yeah, the fighting was good. It was well choreographed. And it was exciting. So that was the best part. I think no one would have complaints about that. Clearly that was the bread and butter of the movie. And that part did deliver. But you mentioned, interesting, that the category is audiovisual, right? But I think for this, you need to separate the two categories because the audio…
Ryan (38:05)
Yeah.
[email protected] (38:14)
I did not like the music selection. And I saw what they were going for, because the original Roadhouse had the band playing and was playing blues. I think it was the same band that played in the original was a house band, which was kind of a cooler concept. So what they went with this, I don’t know, I should look into it. I think they tried to bring in real bands that were like, you know, from all over the United States. They tried to bring some group from New Orleans and this and that, but I didn’t really think that the music selections
Ryan (38:16)
Really.
[email protected] (38:41)
really were very good. I don’t think they fit the… I know they try to incorporate some of the band scenes in. They had a cage in front of them, which is kind of funny. But I didn’t like the music supervision. I didn’t think they chose good songs that were based or… And I thought the artists, the bands were good themselves, but I didn’t think they really fit in with… I saw what they were going for, where they tried to have these live bands playing while these rumbles were going on and that…
sort of thing that they did in the original movie. I just didn’t think it worked well. I didn’t like the music that they chose. There might’ve been one or two good songs, I think that fit, but I didn’t love the overall music supervision of it. You know, they think they, you know, it’s, I like the model, like if you ever saw the show Treme, where they would show like these extended picks of the live artists, but those were legit, they did their research and really chose some of the best of New Orleans music for that.
Ryan (39:27)
Mm hmm. Yeah.
[email protected] (39:37)
for that show. And this, I know they brought in different, it was weird. Like once again, it was sort of like, where’s the adults in the room that really knows what’s going on? I don’t think that the music was very well curated, personally.
Ryan (39:50)
Yeah. How are you, Seneca? Any thoughts on the music? Terrible. Okay.
cinik (39:54)
Um, it was terrible. It was terrible all the way through. It, uh, you know, I heard them doing a couple of weak covers, but that’s not the type of band that you. Yeah. It’s the, it’s not the type of bands that you want playing at a place like that. It’s that that’s for a tourist. When you’re having a rumble, you want, you know, a harder edged band. So it just didn’t fit into the whole thing.
[email protected] (39:55)
Yeah
Yeah, there was a weird inner Sandman cover too somewhere in there.
Ryan (40:17)
Yeah, it didn’t bother me all that much. The music for whatever reason. I was kind of like, indifferent. Like I had no real feeling. Yeah, that’s fair. That’s fair. Yeah. But as far as the visual part, I did think, I thought the fights were good. I like how they choreographed it. It’s always important if you’re doing a very fight heavy
[email protected] (40:29)
Well, indifference is not a good thing, right?
cinik (40:32)
the opposite of love, Ryan.
Ryan (40:47)
that I want to see what’s going on and understand the fights. I like that they really did a good job of choreographing it and also shooting it so that it’s not like a million cuts in between. And it was realistic enough, you know, that it never took me out of it while, you know, when they were fighting and not, you know, doing something crazy. But, um, but also like, you know, fancy enough that it was going to, you know, it was an entertaining and pretty brutal at points. I think there’s some parts where I just had to turn my head away. Cause it was like, Oh, I don’t, I don’t need to see that person’s, you know.
hand slit in half or whatever it was. Um, but yeah, but otherwise, you know, it was that, that part was fine. And probably the best part of the movie. Um, so, okay, so I’ll start with you, Justin. I think we know your opinion, so try to keep it short, but let me give you your final thoughts and a rating out of 10 for, for the movie.
[email protected] (41:31)
My final thoughts is that it should be called Shit House and my rating is a 1. Wait, can it be less than 1?
Ryan (41:40)
That’s pretty bad. All right. Uh, what we’ll say what? Wow. All right. Uh, wow. Okay. I’ll send it to you. Final thoughts and ratings.
[email protected] (41:41)
Okay, fine, 1.5, 1.5. The fight scenes were good enough to give it that 0.5.
cinik (41:50)
Listen, Amazon Prime is free. I mean, it comes with the delivery, which really what I spend the money for is to get things delivered to my house, sometimes within a day for free. So the fact that they’re throwing in any kind of entertainment, and most of the time the stuff on Amazon is very good. I mean, it killed two hours on a Friday night. My wife absolutely loved it. I enjoyed what I saw because I went in there with zero expectations.
[email protected] (41:51)
What?
Yeah, it is.
cinik (42:19)
It’s kind of like a date where you expect her to have a mustache and a beard and for her to high five you after everything you say and for her to have BO and maybe beer breath and she turns out to be an okay person. So I give it like a six, six and a half. I mean, it’s it was what it was advertised to be.
Ryan (42:38)
Yeah, I’m right there with you. I think six and a half is like a perfect score for it. I think that’s even the score it has on IMDB. Like, yeah, it’s not Citizen Kane. It’s not trying to be. It’s it’s a fun dumb movie. It’s pretty quick. It’s not overly long. It doesn’t overstay its welcome. It’s got some good action couple funny moments a lot of moments that are kind of cringe-worthy Conor McGregor hamming it up, you know, Jake Gyllenhaal, you know, again, he’s you know, this kind of like a list actor who
probably could have looked like a little bit better, you know, for a character that’s supposed to have this kind of darkness in him. But beyond that, yeah, it’s a fun dumb movie. And if you’ve got time and you wanna watch something that you don’t have to think too much about, it’s got some cool action scenes, totally worth it. But yeah, not the greatest movie in the world, but like a perfect like six and a half easy watch.
[email protected] (43:28)
So do we average our scores?
cinik (43:30)
So you’re telling me that a spoiled kid that gets his money from his father and becomes a corrupt real estate developer is the villain of the story? How unlikely is that?
Ryan (43:30)
Yeah
That’s a really good point.
[email protected] (43:43)
Yeah, I know. I just wish he could, I just wish like, he could have been more villain. He’s, you just, you didn’t, I didn’t really buy him as a villain. He was just like the annoying kid in the way, which I, which there wasn’t enough of that. All right, we could go on and on.
Ryan (43:50)
Yeah. No. Yeah.
cinik (43:55)
My favorite part of that movie though is when Connor speeding up on the boat and the villain looks out in the distance he goes, Oh, this fucking psychopath again. I laughed my balls off.
Ryan (44:04)
Yeah, that was pretty funny. It was just kind of like his character just was like this, you know, it was like, uh, just this like force of nature that existed outside of everything once he was on the screen. So it was, yeah, no, it’s like he was, he was having a good time. So you know, watch it just for Conor McGregor being just weird. But yeah.
cinik (44:15)
He was like cable guy. He just kept showing up.
Ryan (44:26)
I mean, like, if we average our scores, I think it’ll be like a four, but I think Justin’s just, I think you had, for whatever reason, you had some high expectations with this movie.
[email protected] (44:35)
Well, look, it was called Roadhouse, like…
cinik (44:37)
He’s like, I tuned into this thinking it was Shawshank Redemption.
Ryan (44:41)
Ha ha
[email protected] (44:42)
Well, look, there are other versions of this movie that I like a lot more, like the crank movies or something like that, which are just these high octane, sort of great one liners, lots of fighting that are better, just pace better. And it’s like, yeah, they don’t focus too much on the character, but they do it just enough so that you’re not annoyed by them. So like that would my…
Ryan (45:00)
Yeah.
What you
[email protected] (45:08)
that to me that’s like a better versions of this type of movie.
cinik (45:11)
Well, let me ask him a question. All right. What would your score been, Justin, if it wasn’t named Rowhouse?
[email protected] (45:13)
Yeah
Ryan (45:14)
Hehehe
[email protected] (45:19)
What did I give it?
cinik (45:21)
Yeah, well, if you take away the stain, which is Roadhouse. Sorry about that, Patrick Swayze. You take away the blight on its name. And we just we call it shithouse like you named it. What would you what would you write it?
[email protected] (45:36)
Probably a 6.5.
Ryan (45:38)
Exactly. No, yeah, it’s like, I think that’s, yeah.
[email protected] (45:43)
I don’t know, I wouldn’t give it that much, but I don’t know. I’d give it probably a, I’d probably give it like a four or something like that, but it’s just like.
cinik (45:52)
But your score would have went up because it’s not being held to any standard at that point. It’s just a movie.
Ryan (45:53)
Yeah. And, you know, but you know, to be fair, you made a good observation. It is basically, he’s basically Jack Reacher, right? Like, you know, so that’s pretty much, I mean, like, it’s kind of funny, like, they’re, like, if you took this entire story, this could be Jack Reacher, this could 100% could be a Jack Reacher novel. Like he just shows up in, because that’s what he does. He shows up in a random town.
[email protected] (45:56)
I think you.
Yeah, it’s true. They ripped that off too.
It could be a, it could be a reacher.
Ryan (46:19)
He meets people, somebody’s in need, he helps them, he unravels some kind of criminal activity, he beats up a bunch of guys, kills a few, and then there’s a big action at the end, he saves the day, and then he’s off. I mean, it’s crazy. No, no, no. 100% feels like somebody wrote a Jack Reacher book or story and was like, well, I can’t use the name Jack Reacher.
[email protected] (46:33)
What are the odds that this was actually a Reacher episode that they wrote and they like said, well, we can’t use this, but how about this idea?
Ryan (46:47)
What could I do? And like, Oh, I’m friends with the producers of whatever. Let’s read Root Roadhouse. You know, like it is crazy actually that it, like, I’m not going to stop thinking about that. It is pretty much, it’s pretty much a Jack Reacher story. Wow. All right. Well, that’d be great. I did like never occur to me. All right. Anyway. Um, so, uh, our next review. So this one will be a little bit shorter cause I saw the full season. So I’ll kind of give my full season thoughts. Um,
[email protected] (47:00)
Yeah.
Ryan (47:15)
But the three body problems, I want to see if you guys are in for the long run or if one episode is enough for you. So basically the three body problems. So the double D’s of Game of Thrones fame. I think for the first six seasons of Game of Thrones were, you know, could do no wrong. And then for the last two it was hit or miss. Some people liked it, some people didn’t, some people, you know, absolutely hate them and would never watch anything by them again. But I think
this, you know, one, but they did prove that they, they can adapt material in, onto TV and do a good job of it, obviously with Game of Thrones. And so this time they took another very popular series, the first novel of which is called, uh, the three body problem. And, uh, so it’s a very, so I’ve read the three books in this series and they’re very, very dense books. Um, it’s kind of hard sci-fi.
And it’s a bit of a tough read. Also, it’s translated from Chinese. So it’s originally written by a Chinese author. It’s translated and it’s a lot. Like you really have to pay attention to it and there’s a lot going on. I think there’s a lot of room potentially for it to get lost in exposition and the science-iness of it, where you really wanna find a way to combine that science and narrative. So I’m interested to hear your guys’ thoughts. So Justin, I’ll start with you. So after one episode for you,
[email protected] (48:27)
Mm-hmm.
Ryan (48:38)
How was, was this a story that’s interesting enough and engaging enough for you to continue?
[email protected] (48:43)
So this is exactly what I thought. They throw a lot at the first, you know, for the first episode, like all the flashbacks to, you know, Communist Revolution China, the scientists, then a little bit about the, you know, the sort of like disgruntled intelligence guy who works there, officer.
which he actually was a funny line. He’s like, I fire up, which was a funny, I forgot how they said that was sort of a funny line. So yeah, there was a lot in there. And then they have their, you know, the stuff with the video game or the virtual reality, you know, which is sort of like, you know, I was worried it was a little bit too close to something. Ryan and I have been writing, but it’s not at all. So I’m not concerned about that. And so yeah, they throw a lot at you at first with these.
And then with everything going on, and at the end, they finally handed what they’re getting at, they’re making communication, right? So this is what I thought. This could be fantastic, it could be great if they find a way to correctly route all of these plot lines, or it could really fall apart. So if it’s not done well.
So that’s just like, if I haven’t, you know, from someone, and I know that it’s popular, so it seems like people are enjoying it and people don’t generally enjoy things that aren’t good too often, or it doesn’t last for too long, but see people seem to be enjoying it. So it seems like they do a good job of, of sort of wielding, you know, of putting together all the plot lines. So I’m definitely intrigued and I’m excited to move forward with it if they indeed are able to do it because.
Ryan (50:03)
Okay.
[email protected] (50:32)
The premise in everything there seems very, everything is in place for it to be excellent. Now, I guess the question would be moving forward whether they are able to execute everything properly.
Ryan (50:43)
Yeah. So Sinek, your thoughts so far on the story?
cinik (50:46)
I thought the story was slow and overly complex. I didn’t have my phone on my hand on purpose because I kind of figured it was going that way right away. I have a feeling you’re going to alienate probably 80% of your audience that you’re gonna need a moderate to medium, higher IQ to understand the story. The characters were fairly unlikable because you just…
Ryan (50:49)
Yeah.
Yeah.
cinik (51:14)
don’t identify with a physicist, you know, you can’t identify with someone of a higher intelligence. I love the fact that they went with Benedict Wan, but it was a weird choice for that particular part. Like, seeing him be a detective, it was just jarring to me. Maybe he’s too recognizable. I absolutely, I love John Bradley in Game of Thrones, and I hope he works forever.
Ryan (51:16)
Yeah.
Yeah. Interesting. Okay.
cinik (51:43)
I hated his character. Absolutely, it was over the top, not funny. Yeah, it was like, hey, let’s make the most obnoxious guy in the room. And they did. I mean, the stuff shot during the Chinese revolution was beautiful. It was hard to watch. It was sad. It was probably some of the best parts of the show. But I have a feeling that this isn’t going to catch on the way a Game of Thrones did, because the premise is just…
[email protected] (51:47)
Oh yeah, it was too forced.
Ryan (51:48)
Mm-hmm.
[email protected] (51:53)
Yeah, people don’t act like that in real life. I agree.
Ryan (51:55)
Yeah.
cinik (52:12)
super fucking complicated. And I’ll hang in for more than two or three episodes to see if I can, but if I’ve got to ask questions to my wife what I’m watching, usually I’m the one answering questions. But if I’ve got to ask, like, what was that about? Then, you know, like this countdown that they continuously went to, but somehow this lady knows why and how you can shut it off. There was a lot about it that I didn’t like.
Ryan (52:30)
Yeah.
So yeah, I think it is very complicated. That was my biggest fear with the show is there’s a lot of exposition to get through and that can be just, you could do that well and you could do it poorly, right? And I think, and the show does it in some good, some bad. I think there, especially in that first episode, there are a lot of moments where you have two people talking to each other and it’s not natural because it just feels like, okay, they wouldn’t really speak to each other like that if they were actually talking. But we have to.
make them talk to each other like that because it’s, you know, we need to explain things to everybody. And so I get that. I do think though, all things considered, because it is a very tough story to adapt, I do think that they did a good job of adapting it. Like there is a lot going on. And I think I would, I would be interested to see where you guys are after like three or four episodes. You know, there is a lot of exposition, there’s a lot of science and a lot of like what’s going on. And so by episode three,
we largely know where this story is going. And so I think that, and having watched the entire season, I think they do a good job of getting you the story and making it understandable. My actual issue, and then obviously I’m taking this a bit further than from where you guys are at this point, but basically, so it is really, I’m not gonna spoil much, but obviously it has to do with communicating with aliens, and there is a threat.
And so once we find out what the threat is and how they are, it’s very cleverly done and it’s really interesting. So I actually want to, I would be interested to know when you guys get to that point where you figure out what the threat is, you know, what your thoughts are at that point, cause it is very interesting and cleverly done. And once you get there, it builds to a huge moment. It’s basically like this shows like red wedding moment. Like there’s a, there’s a, there’s an episode, I think it’s episode five.
that it builds to that is phenomenal. And the way it’s executed is brilliant. And again, they nail that moment. Where the problem with the show is, is that it builds to this huge climax in episode five, and then we still have three more episodes, and it kind of just drags. And so what ends up happening is you build to this big moment in episode five, that I encourage you to get to if you’re okay at this point, and then you get three episodes of setting up the next season.
And I think that’s the bigger problem for me as far as how the story was put together is that it is really good until, you know, one point. And then they kind of, there’s a makeshift story that, that does not really live up to, you know, whatever expectations you might have. And I think the other thing, the other issue, again, I’d be interested in hearing when you guys get to it is, uh, when it does, you know, when it does get to the, um, like when it does hit, hit it’s, uh,
Wait, we’re completely lost my, okay. That’s yeah. So when you do find out what the issue, what the threat is, it almost kills a sense of urgency. Uh, and there’s very specific kind of, um, analogy I have, which is basically how I won’t get to detail, but how we as a society respond to threats. And I’m not encouraged. Um, so the show gives us a sense of urgency that I don’t think would actually exist.
[email protected] (55:50)
Yeah.
Ryan (55:56)
And so I think that’s another issue is that there is not a sense of urgency because you know what the threat is. And because the threat is, is vaguely there, you know, I’m just not sure that the reaction would be what, you know, what they, I think they want you to feel, uh, at that point. Um, yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. No.
cinik (56:12)
Well, the problem we’ve reached in a society, Ryan, that even if there was a threat tomorrow, say there was an external invasion, people would just point fingers at each other anyway. They wouldn’t pick up guns and go defend the country. They’d be like, oh, it’s this guy’s problem, or, oh, Biden did that, or, you know. That’s the big issue. Like, if aliens showed up tomorrow, we would find a way to politicize it, and we just wouldn’t do anything about it. There would be no Independence Day. It would be, don’t cut off my direct TV.
Ryan (56:27)
Yeah.
Yeah, probably. Exactly. I mean, yeah, if COVID stopped me anything, it’s that. You know, we’re not coming together for the alien invasion, you know, so.
[email protected] (56:33)
No.
cinik (56:41)
Yeah. No, we really aren’t. One thing that I did see that I kind of made me feel a little weird about was the people approaching them in the bar and the way that they treated them because they were scientists and so far above karaoke. And I almost felt like that was their way of speaking to the rest of the people that didn’t get the show. Like, you know, we’re above you, we’re smarter than you are. We’re, you know, we’re.
[email protected] (56:59)
Yeah, it was… I agree.
cinik (57:09)
tackling the world’s complex problems and you’re pissing your life away in a bar.
Ryan (57:14)
You know, essentially, I don’t know that I quite got that. I felt it more as more of the writers just kind of being quote unquote woke, you know, if you want to say that, you know, more like, Hey, we’re, you know, like we’re, we’re female scientists and, and they’re treating us poorly or they treat us, you know, like we’re not smarter than everybody else. And I almost felt like it was almost like shoehorning in, um, that where we didn’t, wasn’t necessary, right? Like you have, okay, they’re scientists, let them be, you know, let them talk science, we don’t need them to then say like, we’re better than everybody else. And that was a little like a step.
[email protected] (57:42)
Yeah.
Ryan (57:44)
further than we needed, but I’m just, what were your thoughts on the performances so far? Like, so I know Cynic, you mentioned like nobody being super engaging. Do you have that same feeling, Justin?
[email protected] (57:45)
Some of the dialogue was weird.
Yeah, the characters are a little underdeveloped at this point. I don’t like, as you pronounce her name, Isaac Gonzalez. Like I have a major problem with her character. She’s too good looking. Like, no, no one is that gifted in life. You don’t get to be that good looking and that brilliant. That person does not exist. Not even, shouldn’t exist in a movie. It’s like, it’s hard just like, you know, it’s hard just not to stare at her.
Ryan (58:04)
Also, I think you’re, yeah.
Yeah.
[email protected] (58:24)
when she’s on screen and not pay attention to anything else. Like, so I just had, sorry, I had to rant off about that.
Ryan (58:31)
Did you run into that same issue, Zinick?
cinik (58:33)
You know, not really, but I just didn’t think she fit the part of a female scientist.
[email protected] (58:37)
It was weird. Like, yeah, she’s like, and she was, I didn’t buy the performance. And yeah, what was the I forgot the name of the actor who was obnoxious. It’s like, no, people don’t act like that. You’re out at dinner. And it’s like, you’re like, the very first thing you’re going to throw is, you know, throw everyone’s problems, you know, and start making fun of. Yeah, it was just the acting, the performances were weird. I liked what was the name of the? Yeah, I like the scenes in
Ryan (58:38)
I think the performance did not, like I didn’t buy the performance, yeah.
Yes, so-
[email protected] (59:07)
Yeah, as Cynic mentioned, the scenes in Revolution China were the best scenes and the best acted scenes, I believe. Like that was, there was a much more emotional connection to the characters and what they were going through in the modern time. It just seemed like these brilliant people, good looking people that have this great opportunity that are just troubled because they’re troubled.
Ryan (59:11)
Yeah.
cinik (59:12)
Yeah, by far.
Ryan (59:20)
Yeah.
[email protected] (59:35)
and they’re insufferables in some way, all of them. And it just, but I’m willing to give it the okay, right? If all the plot and the science all comes together and all these threads make sense, then I’m saying, okay, I can forgive all that, the sort of fake conversation and all the exposition, if it comes together. There have been other shows that are like that.
cinik (59:45)
Ahem.
[email protected] (1:00:03)
where at first they just like have to unload everything to set up the show. I’m willing to give it the pass for episode one if it long it continues, but it’s so funny that you said that because I was thinking about the sort of petering off after a while. I said, this show could really be great, but it also could be, I was really thinking that it could be good for a time. And then afterwards just sort of like, okay, I’ve had enough of this. It’s not going anywhere further.
Ryan (1:00:03)
Yeah.
Yeah.
It, yeah, I mean that, yeah, that’s an issue of the book, or you know, of how it is. And I think it was a tough nut to crack, I guess. I think there’s a world where they ended at episode five, like you could have almost made this season like a shorter season because of where it is. It’s tricky, because a lot of it is setting up the next two seasons, and so it’s still good. But they try to manufacture like a big climactic scene that doesn’t quite work.
[email protected] (1:00:31)
So I just got that feeling that it could be one of those shows. Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah, feels manufactured.
Ryan (1:00:59)
because it, you know, it’s, it, yeah, it’s like, if you, you know, like, I guess the analogy I’ll use for it to, well, no, I don’t want to, because then I would, um, I’ll give away what’s going to happen. So, um, I’ll, I’ll keep it at that. It’s just like, it builds to something that, that is, well, no, let’s say, you know, you have a crush on, um, you know, Elsa Gonzales. What was her name?
[email protected] (1:01:19)
I think I is spelled E I C A.
Ryan (1:01:20)
I, whatever, whatever. Like you have a crush, you’re going to meet her and you’re like, you know what? I’m going to shoot my shot. I’m going to, I’m going to ask her out. Right. Regardless of whether she goes out with you or not, it is a long shot and it’s not going to be the climactic moment in your life because it’s, it’s like, it’s, you know, probably not going to happen. Right. So, so that, you know, like that’s the, the level of, uh, of what we’re expecting is like something that’s a huge long shot that in the greater scheme of things isn’t really going to make a difference no matter what, whether it works or not.
It’s not going to make a huge difference. Um, and that’s what we’re left with those last couple of episodes, like building towards, and so that was the thing is just kind of anticlimactic. And again, like the threat itself is just not the biggest threat in the world. So it’s like that. I think that was the issue, but I was going to say with the, with the, um, with the performances, hold on one second. Sorry. I’ve got two dogs.
Two dogs trying to come in. Okay. So, you know, with the with the performances, I think you both make a good point. I think so you have the like the main cast right of these the Oxford five, and it kind of felt like a CW show right like everybody’s a little like you know they all look kind of like, you know, like, they’re all models, they’re all kind of like, you know, I don’t quite you know, a couple of them are pretty good performances but I don’t quite buy everything as much as like.
cinik (1:02:15)
What’s going on there, Michael Vick?
They do get it out, you better break it up.
[email protected] (1:02:30)
Yeah, absolutely.
Ryan (1:02:42)
you know, you would, and then you have like, you’ve got like Benedict Wong and you’ve got Jonathan Price and I don’t know if you’ve gotten yet to like Liam Cunningham and, um, the, the woman that plays the older version of the, of the woman that’s in the, um, in the cab, uh, I’ve got Rosalind Chao. So where’s the Rosalind or Rosalind or one of the other, but they, though, they’re all phenomenal, you know, but these are all like fantastic actors. So it’s like, I almost wish that they were the focus of the show.
[email protected] (1:03:01)
Yeah, she’s a great actress.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, the CW5, yeah. Yeah.
Ryan (1:03:12)
and not the kind of secondary characters, because they’re all, they’re acting circles around to me, the main cast. And this doesn’t really change. Like I think that the main cast, they’re fine. Nobody’s, there’s nobody that’s bad. And I do think that some of them get, yeah, so do it. So, I think that the main cast,
[email protected] (1:03:26)
The writing also isn’t great for the cast. Like it’s not only their acting, like they were given terrible dialogue.
Ryan (1:03:32)
Yeah, no, so it’s not, it’s not that. Yeah. So yeah. And that’s the thing. So, so it’s like where it’s not really like, it’s not as like, it’s almost like you get these fantastic performances by the secondary characters and then the main characters, it’s not as good. Uh, although I didn’t run into the same issue. I like Jonathan Bradley. I thought, I thought he’s, he’s great in it. Um, I didn’t think he was that weird. Um, although if you don’t like him. Yeah, he is. Yeah. I do think there’s also like a little bit of, um,
cinik (1:03:33)
Well, they’re giving they’re giving physics dialogue. That’s the problem.
Well, he’s not weird, he’s obnoxious. And I’m not a huge fan of obnoxious people.
[email protected] (1:04:00)
for no reason, too.
Ryan (1:04:01)
There’s kind of shoehorned in some shoehorned in like a love story that we didn’t need, I think. And then like, there’s a whole kind of somebody gets sick that I, you know, like it’s there for a reason, but they spend too much time on it. So there was a lot of filler in the show, I think that could have been cut. But I still think overall, like it’s, it’s solidly done. Once you get through those first couple episodes where it’s a lot of exposition and like, okay, what’s going on? You know, and, and trying to figure things out.
[email protected] (1:04:06)
Yeah, yeah.
Ryan (1:04:29)
So I guess, I wanted to ask you guys now about the audio. So again, it’s audio visual will go to that, even though we’re not really going through all the categories like as we did with the other review. But on a visual side, did you, do you, anything stand out for you, good or bad? Like, did you like the VR scenes? Did they work for you? Did they not?
cinik (1:04:49)
I didn’t think the VR scenes were quite necessary. I just didn’t see how, I’m sure they’re going to fit into the story later, but I didn’t see where we need this in the story. Like you could tell the story without doing this.
Ryan (1:04:51)
Yeah.
Yeah, it does.
Yeah. It has a very, it has a place. It’s necessary. I’m mixed. I think when you get later on, it’s shot interestingly. Some good, some bad. Some is kind of really bad CGI. I do love the design of that helmet. It looks really cool. Like I’d love to have something like that, but I’m kind of mixed. Yeah.
cinik (1:05:03)
I’m sure.
If it was an X-Men movie, I would agree with you. It just comes out of nowhere and it really, it’s out of place to what we’re doing.
Ryan (1:05:24)
Yeah, you’ll, but you’ll see it makes sense. Um, and then the, so the sound, so the music is by Ramin, uh, Dua G or I should know, I forget to pronounce his name, but, uh, who does, of Game of Thrones fame. And what I found interesting is there’s a lot of familiarity. Um, you get a lot of the piano that you get in, um, in Game of Thrones. Uh, but I feel like it’s a step below Westworld and Game of Thrones. Like those are two of the best like TV sound, you know, soundtracks ever.
[email protected] (1:05:46)
Yeah, as always, we’re fine.
Ryan (1:05:50)
And this is good, but it’s not quite there, but it still has that, the elements. So you can kind of feel it there. I don’t know if you guys feel the same way, Justin.
[email protected] (1:05:57)
Yeah, it was nice. Nothing bothered me. I don’t think that it was the point because in Westworld, for instance, the sound and the music played a big role in it. They also paid a lot for it because they licensed old songs and did famous songs and did like I remember that one episode where they did that really weird version of Black Hole Sun. That was cool. I knew you liked that one.
Ryan (1:06:15)
Yeah.
Oh, that was amazing. So good. Yeah. Well, they did some amazing stuff with a lot of, they took all kinds of songs and, and played with them. So it was great. Yeah.
[email protected] (1:06:28)
Yeah, a lot of cool songs and it was so, it played a bigger stylistic role. And this is just sort of an undercurrent just to pad and support what’s going on, which I’m totally fine with, that’s great. And that’s how it should be most of the time. The visuals looked, the visuals look great once again, of course, going back to the communist revolution, those were the best visuals. The VR was fine, I don’t mind it. It’s like, look.
Ryan (1:06:39)
Yeah.
Yeah.
[email protected] (1:06:57)
They love incorporating this type of stuff. So I didn’t mind it. It was technically well done. So I don’t have any real issues with any of that stuff. So to me, production quality is meant to support the performances and the writing. And for me, it does that. So it’s all going to determine, for me, where everything goes.
Ryan (1:07:04)
Yeah.
Yeah. All right. Well, so, uh, Scenic, I’ll start with you, uh, final thoughts. And then will you continue watching the show?
cinik (1:07:33)
You know, Ryan, based off of what you’ve said, it gives me less.
[email protected] (1:07:38)
I know, now I don’t want to watch it anymore. It’s like, oh, I just watched five episodes.
Ryan (1:07:39)
Oh man.
cinik (1:07:40)
enthusiasm and drive to watch the rest of this because the Oxford Five I believe you called them I wouldn’t care less if they all died in a tragic golden corral buffet accident like I just wouldn’t I didn’t like any of them I wasn’t rooting for any of them the fact that one of them has the countdown and could potentially either you know pass away or not be on the show anymore kind of excited me a little bit I don’t know I mean
Ryan (1:07:49)
Thank you.
Yeah.
cinik (1:08:06)
I think I will just for my own self to see if I can kind of wrap my mind around the concept and keep up with it because I do like to challenge myself. I felt the same way about Westworld at points. I love the show, but it was a real hard follow. And sometimes you don’t watch TV for that. I love when things make me think. I don’t like when things make me toil. And that’s what I felt like I was doing during that episode was just toiling the whole time, trying to catch up.
[email protected] (1:08:29)
Yeah.
Ryan (1:08:32)
Yeah.
cinik (1:08:34)
And that’s not an enjoyable TV experience for me.
Ryan (1:08:39)
Justin.
[email protected] (1:08:40)
Yeah, I’m of the same belief. I think I liked it a little bit more than Cynic did because I saw the potential in the plot lines. So for me, I’m going to watch it. And yeah, you gave the non-spoiler spoiler. It’s like, well, I’m not gonna tell you the plot, but I’m gonna tell you that it’s not as good. So.
cinik (1:08:58)
Ahem.
Ryan (1:09:01)
Yeah.
cinik (1:09:02)
It climaxes way too early, which, you know, none of us know anything about.
Ryan (1:09:07)
Hahaha
[email protected] (1:09:07)
So it’s like, but look, I’ll give it the, there obviously people have different views and opinions. So maybe I’ll like it more after the climax. So maybe I won’t mind it as much when it’s winding down, but so I’ll keep watching it. Yeah.
Ryan (1:09:23)
Yeah. So, okay. So I’m the only person that I’m the only one that’s fit. Yep. So you’ll keep watching it. All right. So I’ll give my like quick little review. So I mean, I’ve said it, said enough, I think. Um, but I do think so. Like this is a, it’s a show that’s very high. It’s like a high, you know, this is very much like the high concept show.
cinik (1:09:26)
I identify with you more than you know, my friend.
Ryan (1:09:47)
and a high concept idea. And I think a lot of the reviews, when you look at the books is the same. It’s like the prose isn’t amazing again, but it’s translated. So I have no idea, you know, some of the dialogue and the characterizations are kind of one note, but it’s a really interesting idea. And I think in that way, I think once you get past episode two, you understand what’s going on for the most part. So it’s like the crazy, like sciencey part of it to a large extent, like after you get to episode two, you understand what the story is.
what’s going on and you can go with it. You know, like I said, I think it’s, you’re not gonna, I think it does struggle in that there’s no character that you really fall in love with, especially not like the, of the main cast. Again, the people that I really enjoy are not in it nearly as much. And so that does become a little bit of an issue is that there’s nobody to really root for, you know, if. Exactly, that can, yeah. Yeah, so it’s like the, of the other cast, it’s like the problem is you don’t care if any of them die.
cinik (1:10:37)
You mean the older established actors that can actually act? You mean those people? Yeah.
Ryan (1:10:46)
which a couple of them do, but like you don’t really care. And I think that, I didn’t say which ones, but I think that’s a big part of the problem is that, you know, it’s part of the performances, I think part of the writing, and maybe the writing more than the performances that you just don’t care about them as much as you do about the other characters. Like, again, there’s a tertiary character that dies. When they die, you’re like, oh, that really, in fact, a couple of times when tertiary characters go, again, this is kind of Game of Thrones, like where, you know, they’re not afraid to cut some head, chop some heads off.
[email protected] (1:10:48)
Spoiler.
Ryan (1:11:16)
I felt more for those characters than I do for the main cast. And I think that is a problem. That being said, if you’re okay with it initially, I love the concept. I think the story is really interesting. I’m a sucker for hard sci-fi and I think they do a very good job with it. There’s not a lot of major logical holes in it. There’s a couple of things here and there, but otherwise it flows well. I think the pacing is good, again, up until episode five. You do really get this situation that it does build to this one thing.
And it’s phenomenal. Like if you get to that point, like you can almost just shut it off there. Like get to get to that episode. You’ll know the moment when it happens and then you can just turn it off. Cause nothing else is going to happen at that point. Um, but I do think it, it struggles at the end. Uh, I, I am excited about the next two seasons, although I don’t know how they’re going to do it visually because it goes some crazy places and I really have no idea how they’re going to visually make those next two seasons work. But you know.
It’ll be interesting. I’ll keep watching the show and I think my overall rating I give it a solid 7.5 I think it’s you know, it’s not perfect. It has its issues But I think it is a solid adaptation of something that would is very hard to adapt and so solid 7.5 You know teetering on eight if we just got some better performances But but I recommend it especially if you’re a sci-fi fan It works if you’re fan of them if you read the books and liked it. I think it’s a faithful adaptation with
There’s another whole other issue in that like all the characters are new. Not all, but most of the main characters are all not in the books, but that’s a whole other story. But, um, but I think it otherwise is a faithful adaptation. It does a good job. It’s a good story. And, you know, again, if you don’t love the main cast, you will love all the, uh, secondary characters because they’re really good. But yeah, hopefully I, maybe I, hopefully I brought you back to maybe continue to watch it, but, uh, we’ll see.
[email protected] (1:12:48)
Hmm.
Ryan (1:13:04)
So anyway, I think that is it. Again, thank you guys for being on the show. And as usual, all of our stuff is at Port We’re on all of our social media is at Portable underscore hole. So until next time, Justin.
[email protected] (1:13:18)
Watch out for the hole.