In this episode of the Portable Hole Podcast, Ryan George, Cinik, and Justin Gild discuss a variety of topics ranging from Cinik recent trip to LA, including his experiences at Disneyland and Dodger Stadium, to the political landscape in New York City. They delve into the implications of a new sequel to ‘The Passion of the Christ’, the recent indictment of Mayor Eric Adams, and the cancellation of the superhero trademark. The conversation also touches on the ethics of celebrations in combat sports, a review of the Vince McMahon documentary, and discussions about the new Penguin series and Agatha series.
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Keywords
Portable Hole Podcast, LA Adventures, Disneyland, Nashville, Political Scandals, Superhero Trademark, Combat Sports, Vince McMahon, Penguin Series, Agatha Series
Summary
In this episode of the Portable Hole Podcast, Ryan George, Cynic, and Justin Gild discuss a variety of topics ranging from Cynic’s recent trip to LA, including his experiences at Disneyland and Dodger Stadium, to the political landscape in New York City. They delve into the implications of a new sequel to ‘The Passion of the Christ’, the recent indictment of Mayor Eric Adams, and the cancellation of the superhero trademark. The conversation also touches on the ethics of celebrations in combat sports, a review of the Vince McMahon documentary, and discussions about the new Penguin series and Agatha series.
Takeaways
- Cynic shares his experiences from a recent trip to LA.
- Disneyland’s current state is critiqued as a cash grab.
- Justin prefers the quality of life in Nashville over New York.
- The Passion of the Christ sequel raises eyebrows.
- Mayor Eric Adams faces serious legal challenges.
- The superhero trademark cancellation opens new opportunities.
- Celebrations in combat sports can be controversial.
- The Vince McMahon documentary reveals troubling truths.
- The Penguin series offers a fresh take on a classic character.
- Agatha series is met with mixed reviews but has potential.
Titles
- Vince McMahon: A Documentary Review
- Agatha: A Mixed Bag of Marvel Magic
Sound Bites
- “California’s got crazy expensive.”
- “I think they’re in a lot of trouble.”
- “New York is just maybe what used to exist.”
Ryan George (00:35.967)
Welcome to the Portable Hole Podcast. I’m Ryan George and I’m here with Cynic and Justin. How are you guys doing?
Justin Gild (00:42.426)
Very good. Very good.
Ryan George (00:44.961)
So, so Cynic, you just got back from LA and it seems like you had an awesome time. How was your trip?
Cinik (00:51.652)
Well, Ryan, I could go on for a long time and the things I’ve seen and I’ve done, but it was a lot of fun. California’s got crazy expensive. It makes New York look cheap, but it was a lot of fun. Like I covered a lot of ground in the week that I was out there. Got to see a couple fantastic ball games and, you know, saw most of the sites. If you get on the TripAdvisor’s website of the top 10 or 15 things to do, I’ve been there and I’ve done that.
Ryan George (01:18.892)
really?
Justin Gild (01:19.6)
Was it overrun with crime and homelessness, like everywhere you went, like it was some escape from LA sort of deal?
Cinik (01:26.916)
I mean, it’s devolving into that. I stayed in Hollywood. That was where my hotel was. So there was quite a bit of homelessness. Say what you want about the city of New York, because we all have our, you know, experiences there. In LA, I saw a homeless guy get beat by a man with a bat because he stole from a bodega. So that was interesting. It was only one or two, you know, be good swats, but he caught him pretty good and chased him down the street. the shopkeep was spry.
Ryan George (01:46.391)
Okay, wow.
Ryan George (01:57.515)
Okay?
Justin Gild (01:57.892)
If it was in Tennessee, the guy would have been shot, so.
Ryan George (02:00.625)
Yeah.
Cinik (02:00.708)
Quite possibly, but I mean he did he did end up saying next time just ask so you know Maybe he was okay with giving him something but not having it taken from him, but
Ryan George (02:06.721)
Yeah.
Ryan George (02:10.913)
So beat him with a bat and then said, but next time, know, just, just ask me and I’ll, I’ll help you out. Nice. Weird. What was your, so how was the baseball game?
Cinik (02:14.86)
Yeah, Hollywood is an interesting dichotomy of personalities, that’s for sure.
I mean, the trip was centered around Shohei Otani and he delivered. It just happened to work out that we were at the game that they clinched the division for the West. He got the game winning hit. Mookie Betts broke the game open. It was a fantastic game. Other than a little bit of strife with an overzealous Dodgers employee, I had a really good time. Well, the time before I went to Dodger Stadium, I had more money than sense and I spent a lot of money on tickets.
Justin Gild (02:41.623)
Hahaha
Ryan George (02:42.537)
Okay. What happened with the overzealous?
Ryan George (02:51.041)
Mm-hmm.
Cinik (02:51.234)
And I sat in the super fancy dugout section, which was way too expensive, but they gave me a gourmet buffet and it, you know, it was free food and free drinks, anything you wanted for the whole game. Well, I happened to walk by that section and looked down the stairwell and there’s this amazing picture of Jackie Robinson. And I asked, is it okay if I take a photo of that? I wasn’t looking to go inside. I wasn’t looking to get on the stairs. And she’s like, And I’m like,
Ryan George (03:17.793)
Okay
Cinik (03:19.202)
I can’t step in and just take a picture of the mural. And she’s no. And then finally another employee made a relent and I got my picture and I just wanted to let her have it, but the game was more important than getting my just desserts.
Ryan George (03:34.581)
Wow. So you went to Disney as well?
Justin Gild (03:35.14)
You
Cinik (03:37.678)
Yeah, well, yeah, I mean Disney.
Ryan George (03:40.811)
How was that?
Cinik (03:42.392)
I think they’re in a lot of trouble, Ryan. And it’s not just on the creative end or the TV and movie end. The parks are kind of soulless. You would think that it would be overrun with characters, but it really isn’t. It’s money grab after money grab. I was there for three or four hours and I think I saw Gaston, who nobody cared about because I don’t even think they realized he was a character.
Ryan George (03:44.052)
What what?
Cinik (04:10.66)
I did see Disney on my, I did see Mickey on my way out of one of the parks and he had a little bit of a line, but I think they would rather sell you these photo ops, but it’s like, they don’t even have, so they have this queue system now. It’s called the lightning pass and you get to pay $30 to have this put on your ticket. And as long as the lines aren’t too long, then you can schedule a ride. However, if the lines are too long, you can now
Ryan George (04:26.837)
Yeah, it’s a mess.
Cinik (04:39.588)
paid to get in front of the line. So I mean, we only did it on one ride because it was the whole reason I went to the park. So you know, it was expensive. It was like $25 a person to get us on the ride. But the wait was an hour and a half at 10 o’clock in the morning. So I mean, we got to experience it and I was happy we did because I heard a lot about it. you know, we kind of moved on but it was a good day. And then after that, we did both parks and went to the angels game because that was our final day there.
Ryan George (04:41.411)
Yeah.
Justin Gild (04:42.82)
yeah.
Ryan George (04:51.948)
Yeah.
Justin Gild (04:52.987)
you
Ryan George (04:55.658)
Wow.
Ryan George (05:08.247)
Nice. I wonder how much different it is from Disney World in Orlando, because I didn’t find it to be that soulless. seemed like there was a lot of, we saw a lot of characters. Just the energy there was really cool. I’d never been to Disney World. I’d actually only been to Disneyland when I was like 13. But I found it to be enjoyable. Yes, everything is a cash grab.
Cinik (05:34.361)
Yes.
Ryan George (05:34.679)
But it was cool now a question for you. So you did do the rise of the resistance ride, right now So I when I texted you about it, you didn’t seem super enthusiastic
Cinik (05:39.086)
Yeah
Cinik (05:44.652)
I mean, it was compared to the other rides. It’s more current. I mean, graphically, it was fun, but it was like basically a go kart race in different steps. I mean, it was fun. It just it didn’t, you know, it didn’t knock my way off. You know what mean? Like for all I’ve heard about it, like IG, who’s on the show, you know, pretty much all the time with us. It was like, you got to ride that ride. You got to ride that ride. I did. And I thought it was OK. Like I wasn’t.
Ryan George (05:55.884)
Yeah.
Ryan George (06:09.74)
Yeah.
Cinik (06:13.952)
hugely impressed. I was more impressed with the setting of the ride than I was the ride itself.
Ryan George (06:17.375)
Yeah. Well, so I’m going to say, I would say two things then to that, like, cause I’m on, I’m more in line with IG where I thought, I thought it was amazing, but I do think a large part of the ride, it’s not just the ride itself, but it’s everything leading up to it. You know, once. so I think there is that one moment I won’t give away if you’re a star Wars fan and you were going to go to Disney. thankfully there was one moment that nobody, I didn’t read about or hear about. And when you get to experience that, that’s pretty kind of awe inspiring in that moment. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, right? Yeah. And,
Cinik (06:29.272)
Yes.
Cinik (06:44.353)
yeah.
Ryan George (06:46.173)
And that’s not even really the ride. So I think, the ride itself, I, so I think I probably enjoyed it a little more than you did. think, you know, yeah, it is basically a go-kart ride, but it’s a pretty fun go-kart ride. and enjoyable, but it is, it is a, it is an experience. Like it’s the entire thing. and what’s cool is like when you start the, when you started, you kind of think it’s the ride and it’s not really the ride. And so it’s cool. Now the, did you get to do the Millennium Falcon one? That one was uninspired.
Cinik (07:09.572)
I did. Unfortunately, unfortunately we had two very bad pilots, so we got nothing accomplished. It was like basically, you know, riding with your grandfather when you’ve probably should have took the keys from him. So that kind of sucked. One thing I did, did not like at all was we happened to go to Universal. We got up early one day and went over to Universal and, I bought us fast pass for that. And when you get over there, there’s maybe like three or four, rideable rides.
Ryan George (07:14.717)
Okay.
Ryan George (07:19.413)
Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan George (07:28.48)
Okay.
Ryan George (07:37.683)
Yeah. Okay.
Cinik (07:38.148)
and they’re all out of date. Like nothing’s been really updated. It’s been the same rides for probably 15, 20 years. it’s, and the mummy, at least in California, they’ve taken Brendan Fraser out. So it kind of took some of the character out of the ride.
Ryan George (07:51.678)
Okay.
Ryan George (07:55.177)
Yeah. So, Justin, how about you? Have you, what have you been up to? Like, I know you’ve had been in the city, right?
Justin Gild (07:59.455)
So I, yeah, no, I’m down in Nashville taking care of stuff down here. And yeah, I just, enjoy being in Tennessee very much, a lot more than New York these days. But I don’t know, I just like the quality of life. I like being able to travel around and, you know, not worry about parking. And of course I like the music. I like being able to go out and play. And on any given night you go out and you meet people and you play in a New York, there’s just none of that.
Ryan George (08:09.833)
Really? Why?
Justin Gild (08:27.323)
New York is just maybe what used to exist, but it don’t anymore. So that’s that. But of course the Mets did win today. So.
Cinik (08:32.878)
But if you take the music out of it, would you still enjoy the area as much?
Justin Gild (08:37.824)
No, I mean, it would be just living in Anywhere’sville, USA.
Ryan George (08:43.639)
So what about, did you ever consider New Orleans as a location? Because I feel like if you’re going somewhere for music, that is probably the best place on the planet. Yeah, that’s fair.
Justin Gild (08:47.8)
I love New Orleans. I love New Orleans, but it’s different music. The music there is for…
is partially touristy and local, but it’s not about the music business down there. Although New Orleans has made big efforts to bring the film industry in. So they’re starting to get more industry down there. They started that a few years back and people are now filming down there. There’s tax incentives for that. there’s been a push for that. yeah, New Orleans music, while I love it down there, it’s different. It’s a different vibe.
I love New Orleans very much. It’s one of my favorite places to visit. I don’t know if I’d want to live there.
Ryan George (09:32.031)
Mm.
Ryan George (09:35.307)
Yeah, that’s fair.
Cinik (09:36.448)
especially with what’s been going on with the infrastructure and the weather as of late. Yeah, not great. I can say the biggest win from the vacation was me being one of the whitest people in the world. I was in California for six days and didn’t get a sunburn. So that, you know, I can’t get through a baseball game without getting a sunburn.
Justin Gild (09:39.114)
yeah, just that’s yeah.
Ryan George (09:40.383)
Yeah. Yeah, bro.
Ryan George (09:51.763)
Okay.
Justin Gild (09:53.807)
Nice.
Ryan George (09:56.691)
Yeah. Although you do, it looks like you got some color. I don’t know if it’s the, it’s, the, video or the camera or not, but it looks like I got a little bit of color.
Cinik (10:04.684)
Yeah, I got a little bit of tan my arm and my face, but that’s about all it’ll go away.
Ryan George (10:08.701)
Yeah. All right. So let’s get to some news. So it’s been a few interesting news items that we’ll touch on. So the first thing, I just think this is a weird choice of sequel. I want to get your opinion on what’s more unnecessary, this or Joker, which is coming out this week. But The Passion of the Christ is getting a sequel. Literally, it’s called Passion of the Christ Resurrection, Chapter One.
and it’s supposed to, I guess it’s set to release in 2025. and it’s a sequel. It’s been in development for years. and then it’s going to explore events between Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection. also not quite sure how Henry Cavill, wait no not Henry, Jim Caviezel, is going to be playing the character, you know, now that it’s 20 years later, but apparently he will be reprising his role as Jesus.
So on the list of unnecessary sequels, Cynic, where do you put this?
Cinik (11:09.932)
Yeah, it’s pretty high. I mean, that movie made a ton of money when it came out and also on video and pay-per-view. so it was an eventuality that they were going to do this.
Ryan George (11:21.427)
sequel like of all the stories you don’t think need a sequel I mean I guess I guess there is some sort itself but like I know
Cinik (11:28.63)
and the romans may have agreed with you there
Justin Gild (11:32.326)
It’s a borderline exploitation film. And as was stated, it made a lot of money. So when you make a movie like that, you have a built-in audience. People are going to go see it. it’s going to make a lot, unless it’s terrible, unless the movie is horrible, it’s gonna do well. People aren’t gonna see it. there’s, you know, but is…
Ryan George (11:38.795)
I mean, so was the first one.
Ryan George (11:48.428)
Mm.
Ryan George (11:56.439)
I mean, yeah, sure. I mean, I think it.
Ryan George (12:02.231)
Mel Gibson, yes, he’s still. Yeah. Interesting. I, you know, I do wonder if it’s one of those, know, like, like Avatar was the biggest movie ever and the sequel kind of, you know, did well, but not well by the standards that the first one did. yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And you know, you are going to get a large percentage of the country’s religious. They’re going to go see it. you know, wonder, wonder. Yeah. And I wonder what difference though, 20 years makes, right? Like Mel Gibson doesn’t have the best reputation in the world anymore.
Justin Gild (12:02.576)
Who? Yeah, yeah, well.
Justin Gild (12:16.016)
but for different reasons, for totally different reasons.
Justin Gild (12:23.396)
That’s part of the world.
Ryan George (12:30.635)
You know, the country slowly but sure, you know, slowly has been shifting more towards secularism. So not obviously there’s still, you know, I guess a plurality, at least a plurality that’s so bluesy.
Cinik (12:41.174)
It would be interesting to see though because it’s going to be two very different movies.
Ryan George (12:44.885)
Well yeah, I mean, what do do with the main character? yeah.
Cinik (12:50.361)
I don’t quite know where they’ll go with it, it, you know, because it was kind of frowned upon a bit for the violence in the first movie, and there’s really not going to be much of that in the second, at least from my understanding of the story.
Ryan George (12:51.679)
Juh.
Ryan George (12:58.913)
Yeah.
Ryan George (13:02.441)
Yeah.
You know, then, you know, how much of it or do they start, do they try to tell, does it go, there flashbacks? Are they gonna try to tell stories of Jesus’s like life growing up? Are they going to make it more, you know, and then it’s chapter one. So does that mean there’s gonna be a chapter two? Like where, where is this thing going? It’s, it’s, it’s strange. Like, are they creating the Jesus shared universe or whatever? Like it just does not, I don’t know. interesting, but you know, I will likely not see that just like, don’t think I’ve ever saw the passion of the Christ. So, we’ll see.
Justin Gild (13:19.28)
can bet on it. You can bet on it.
Ryan George (13:34.567)
so, another news and we’re just kind of going all over some, a couple of politics, a UFC thing, some, other comic news, but, in New York political news, mayor Eric Adams, current mayor of New York city. I was no long known for controversial antics was recently indicted on federal charges of bribery, wire fraud, and accepting donations from, from foreign officials. he asserts his innocence. Sorry. I’m waving around cause I don’t want my lights to go off. Hold on.
Cinik (14:02.308)
The boom goes the dynamite.
Justin Gild (14:07.718)
When’s our next D &D?
Cinik (14:11.064)
That’s a good question. That’s really up to you and Ryan. You guys are the busy ones. I’m always around.
Ryan George (14:15.319)
So, well, yeah, we could, we could schedule it after the show since we are live. so anyway, so allegations include that he accepted illegal foreign donations from Turkish officials in exchange for political favors, such as fast tracking construction of a Turkish consulate in Manhattan. He’s also allegedly laundered contributions through straw donors to secure millions in public campaign funds.
Justin Gild (14:15.746)
I’m open so I can do it whenever you guys figure. Saturday?
Ryan George (14:44.695)
And, there’s a number of crazy, allegations in, this, you look into it, it’s crazy. So, so Justin, do you think, Adams is long for this world as, as mayor of New York?
Justin Gild (14:55.186)
I think he’s, I don’t think he’s going to survive this. I think they’ll make a deal and he’ll, and he’ll resign. And that’s that. I haven’t looked at the evidence. Would I be shocked that he is completely guilty? Not one bit. Not one bit shocked. So I expect that most mayors would probably do stuff like this. He probably just got caught and maybe it was just not, it just wasn’t
done in a way that was kosher. So I’m sure all big mayors, lots of politicians do this sort of stuff, but it’s the way they did it. think he just, it probably was just too overt.
Ryan George (15:38.901)
Yeah, but he’s also, he’s had corruption, you know, kind of following him pretty much since he was elected. Like, you know, I remember hearing people say when he was elected, like, yeah, I don’t think he’s making it, you know, he’s making it through his entire term because there’s just so many things surrounding him. And he just seems like, it seems like somebody who’s, you know, kind of like a, you know, a Trumpian type, for lack of a better word, or somebody I think is a little bit more, you know, of a narcissist cares more, you know, mostly about himself, about publicity. And I don’t know how much he really cares about being like,
Justin Gild (15:42.704)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Gild (16:02.992)
He definitely is.
Ryan George (16:08.223)
you know, a mayor and actually like being, you know, an executive. so not surprised. and hopefully, you know, we get somebody in that is actually, you does, can do a decent job.
Justin Gild (16:10.682)
Yeah.
Cinik (16:20.962)
Well, it’s unfortunate for him and Bob Menendez and who was the other guy, Santos, that they don’t have the Supreme Court in their back pocket. And anything that gets said or done to them can just be washed away when it gets to the higher court. But that’s all good and fine. If we’re going to enforce these laws, why don’t we enforce the laws as far as the insider trading that goes on in the houses? I would like to see that done as well. There’s no reason that these public servants should go in and be rich and then come out wealthy.
Ryan George (16:26.591)
Yeah. Yeah, that’s true.
Ryan George (16:33.503)
Yeah
Ryan George (16:41.846)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ryan George (16:50.869)
Yeah, absolutely.
Cinik (16:50.87)
And that’s what’s happening. a hard investigation needs to be looked at as far as Nancy Pelosi goes, because she got mega rich while she’s been in that position.
Ryan George (17:00.661)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. think that that’s one of the major, think the major issue in our politics has to do with that and has to do with the money that’s involved and the fact that there are very few politicians on either side give the impression that they’re in it to be actual public servants and they all are doing it to either enrich themselves or people around them. And so it just leads to this kind of cynical attitude we all have about our politicians that they’re all.
Justin Gild (17:26.826)
I don’t think it’s cynical. think it’s honest. Bernie Sanders is probably one of the only politicians that is against this sort of stuff. And as you could see, he’s hated by the Democrats and Republicans alike. And I think that’s the one thing that Democrats and Republicans will agree on. Let’s make sure that we can get as wealthy as possible. They’ll support each other in it. They’ll fight like cats and dogs. But when it comes to getting money,
Ryan George (17:46.291)
Yeah. Well, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, yeah.
Justin Gild (17:54.63)
That’s the most bipartisan thing you’ll have.
Ryan George (17:56.095)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think that’s part of why, you I don’t know how true it is when they talk about like the Bernie to Trump pipeline. We had a lot of people who were kind of Bernie supporters who ended up shifting over to Trump because I think, you know, I think a lot of that, if it did exist, is because you have people that kind of felt that at least, you know, still Trump was kind of the populist and, know, very few politicians on either side really have that populist feel. Again, I don’t know how true that, you know,
pipeline was, but there are, you I know people who were Bernie supporters who ended up supporting Trump and, and it’s not really because of their ideology, because obviously ideologically they’re, you know, completely different worlds, but, you, know, they both did have kind of populist rhetoric. and, so I could see that happening because most, we, don’t trust many of our politicians, unfortunately. And I, and, you know, w no matter who wins this, you know, around, I don’t think that’s going to change all that much. You know, so.
Justin Gild (18:26.212)
make sense.
Ryan George (18:52.651)
Although I think we all like walls, so maybe that’s like an inching in the right direction. All right, so next one, the interesting thing came out. So Marvel and DC, I guess, had a patent on the word superhero or trademark. And recently the US Patent and Trademark Office canceled the superhero trademark, which was owned by Marvel and DC because they failed to respond to a challenge by a small comic company.
Justin Gild (19:00.43)
you
Ryan George (19:22.191)
so as a result, four trademarks that were, four trademarks connected to superhero, think, super villain, are all now available to everybody. I didn’t even know that you couldn’t use superhero, but apparently now you can.
Justin Gild (19:36.494)
I didn’t know that either. In what context though, like…
Ryan George (19:42.423)
I, that is a good question. I’m not 100 % I think you could, I mean, you couldn’t, guess I would think you can’t, you couldn’t promote your characters being superheroes, but I, I’ve got to look and I feel like I got to think that we’ve seen superheroes being referenced in things before.
Justin Gild (19:45.764)
Like maybe you couldn’t make a movie called Superhero, like…
Justin Gild (20:00.528)
Well, you could have a superhero, but a superhero, there must be, I guess there’s a difference. But I’m trying to, yeah, in what context would you not be able to use two words that are free for anyone who speaks the language to use? So I’d be very curious to know in what context that trademark.
Ryan George (20:10.081)
Yeah.
Ryan George (20:21.099)
yeah, I would think that it’s gonna be in the context of a comic book, but or dealing with, you know, heroic and villainous characters, I guess, I don’t know. That is a very good question. I’m not sure the the exact, know, exactly how that works, because I feel like I’ve seen it before. But it was like something that it’s like news to me that it was canceled today or canceled.
Justin Gild (20:42.246)
Something also to consider, why you might not notice, is how many in mainstream pop culture, how much superhero stuff do you see that is not Marvel or DC?
Ryan George (20:58.551)
I mean, lot. No, mean, you’re a decent amount at this point. Yeah. There’s some, yeah. Well, in what medium?
Justin Gild (21:05.026)
Any medium. That like shows or that mainstream people watch, not like hardcore comic book viewers, but like someone like me who would like watch a show on Netflix or Amazon. How many of them are not owned by Disney or DC? Such as, like what would be an example?
Ryan George (21:22.049)
There’s a lot.
Ryan George (21:26.869)
Sandman? Preacher? The boys?
Justin Gild (21:28.482)
Okay. Yeah, all right, so spawn.
Cinik (21:29.333)
on.
the boys here.
Justin Gild (21:34.814)
I thought the boys was, yeah, I guess the boys was the only one I’d see. Okay. I did see Sandman. Yeah, the creature.
Ryan George (21:35.989)
Supercell?
Ryan George (21:44.671)
Okay, so it’s interesting, I guess that…
Ryan George (21:49.515)
They threatened legal action at some point. I’m not wondering how often they were actually utilizing it. Yeah, it’s interesting. It’s something to look into more. But again, I’m assuming that it’s in the context of video of media.
Justin Gild (22:08.176)
But if it’s a trademark, would have to be in print. So it’s not like a show could say, you can’t use the term superhero. Of course you can. But it would have to be something where you would use that word, that phrase. So that’s what I’m thinking. How many opportunities would there be for that? But I guess what do I know?
Ryan George (22:16.243)
Yeah. But if you’re marketing your things, you can’t market them as superheroes.
Ryan George (22:29.769)
anything if you’re if you’re if you’re putting together your outline of a show or you know a description of a show and it has heroes and villains you might not be able to say superheroes yeah so yeah let me at this point it’s like it is public domain so you know anyone can use it
Justin Gild (22:42.372)
You know, as are all the, as is Mickey Mouse now, right?
Ryan George (22:46.619)
Yeah, well the the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse. You can use that as yeah, as John Oliver has been using to hilarious effect, you know, the last year. But yes, Steamboat Willie is I think I believe like there was, know, like there was the Poo Blood and Honey horror movie. I believe there’s there’s like a Mickey Mouse. Yeah, it sounds.
Justin Gild (22:50.054)
I guess that’s what they worked out.
Justin Gild (22:58.852)
haha
Cinik (23:08.12)
I believe, yeah, there’s a Mickey Horror film coming as well at some point.
Justin Gild (23:11.984)
But you can use Mickey Mouse. You could just create your own thing and say it’s Mickey Mouse. Let’s say you had your own take on Mickey Mouse. You could create something with Mickey Mouse.
Ryan George (23:23.283)
I don’t know because I don’t know if he was referred to as Mickey Mouse in that initial comic or in that initial. Yeah. Yeah. But then it’ll be interesting. It’s like then Batman and Superman are supposed to be public domain in the next decade. And that will be interesting, you know, how if and how they’re used, you know, in the future and what kind of properties, what kind of things. But then it’s like even for Batman, it’ll be like with the purple gloves and.
Justin Gild (23:29.817)
Cinik (23:31.16)
I think it’s a likeness thing. I don’t think it’s, yeah.
Ryan George (23:50.229)
you know, the very first version of it, but it’ll be interesting. all right. Anyway, last thing we’ll talk about before we get into some of the stuff we’ve been watching. so, and you sent me this, and I guess there’s a larger discussion about, guess, celebrations, in, in combat sports. So, I’m not, I don’t know, I’m not sure if I’m gonna pronounce your name right. Aline or Eileen Perez, after winning a fight, basically twerked in her opponent’s face.
pretty tacky, you know, celebration. But I know you guys both are, you know, had had strong opinions on it. So say, give me, give me your thoughts on, on, why twerking in an opponent’s face is, is wrong and bad for the sport.
Cinik (24:32.526)
I’ve always been the Jim Brown type where you act like you’ve been there before. And I think defeating somebody physically, not just scoring a touchdown, not hitting a home run, but either knocking them out of their senses or putting them in so much severe pain that they submit either verbally or by tapping is more of a show of dominance than doing a dance directly in their face while they’re prone and potentially injured. And it just bothered me that…
Not only did she do it once, she did it twice because the girl tried to get up and then she turned her body to do it to her again. And I don’t know if there was bad blood leading into the fight or not, but I just felt it was unnecessary. I don’t love when they stand over top of a knocked out opponent. I don’t like when they dance or even do the crotch chop or any of that stuff. I just think that, you know, I love MMA because it’s so respectful. You know, they can beat the hell out of each other one second, talk mad shit about each other’s families.
And then once the fight’s over, it’s all done. It’s all taken care of. And for me, it’s just a continuation of the publicity leading up to the fight rather than the fight being at its conclusion.
Ryan George (25:43.137)
But what makes that different? don’t know that I agree. If you’re going to allow all that stuff leading up to the fight, why is it not okay to have that stuff after the fight?
Cinik (25:54.978)
Have we not reached a resolution?
Ryan George (25:58.327)
Not necessarily. Yeah, but that’s not nec-
Cinik (25:59.21)
You physically dominated somebody. So you would be a, you’re a competitor, you fought. So it would be okay for me to twerk over top of you after you got beat on national TV.
Ryan George (26:07.669)
Okay, so here’s what I would say. this is where there’s, think there’s two parts of that, right? So part is, is there bad blood, right? Cause I think if there’s bad, so obviously a lot of times in these situations, they’re doing and saying a lot of these things to promote the fight, right? They’ll both say it, right? And that’s why, yeah. And that’s part of, that’s kind of why a lot of times, even after saying the worst of things, they hug it out. I think that’s part of it. Also part of it is just like, yeah, when you’re in there against somebody and you’re both trying to beat the hell out of each other.
Justin Gild (26:22.03)
Yes, and there’s an understanding between
Ryan George (26:36.321)
you know, when that’s over, I think there’s a sense of relief. There’s a sense of com weird camaraderie that you have this person who’ve just like shared this experience with. but you know, if they take it too far, if they say things that stick with you, you know, that doesn’t end when the fight ends. And so I think part of, so to me, you know, if there’s bad blood from beyond that, then I’m almost okay with it because like, look, the fight might’ve ended, but whatever you said about my family didn’t end. And that doesn’t end it there unless we had a set agreement, like, Hey,
these are off limits and we’re going to say this, this and that. And the other thing, so I
Cinik (27:08.484)
The other wrinkle is that she missed weight by half a pound. So maybe let, she’s known for the twerking thing. She’s an up and coming star. She’s already, even though she’s only got four wins in a row, I think she may have 10 or 12 wins all combined, but she’s already compared herself to Khabib. Like she’s like, I’m the Khabib of this, so obviously she’s trying to make a name for herself, but worry more about the weight cut.
Ryan George (27:12.575)
Okay, yeah, that’s shitty.
Ryan George (27:21.131)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
She’s trying to make money. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it’s, is it bad taste? Absolutely. think all the celebrations are bad taste. that. So I’m not, I’m not pro celebration, you know, even like the, okay. No, no. Okay. Fair enough. Yeah. I think, okay. Standard. Yes. Cause like at the end of the day, like there is such a relief that, and there’s so much adrenaline that you can’t fault somebody for some celebration. doing things like that. Yeah.
Justin Gild (27:38.682)
Let me just, what about just standards celebrating with your team?
Cinik (27:50.756)
All the celebration’s fine, just do it away from your prone opponent so they can render aid to him or bring him back to his senses. That’s my only problem with it. I don’t care if they dance, I don’t care if I think it’s gagey, yeah, gagey back flips off the cage. I’m cool with all of that. It’s just don’t do it over top of the guy that’s been knocked out.
Justin Gild (27:54.948)
not at the expense of someone else.
Ryan George (28:00.665)
Yeah.
Ryan George (28:07.359)
Gitchy. Yeah.
Justin Gild (28:14.416)
Yeah, think that, so there’s a few things at play. I think that the, all the shit talking ahead, there’s, sometimes they literally say, let’s do this stuff to hype the fight. You could be sure between Connor and Floyd that they had agreed to do this. I remember one time after the fight, GSP Sarah part two, GSP says, we agree, he,
it all but said we agreed to manufacture hype because it just wasn’t, you had two good guys, so they needed to make tension over it. He like all but said that and then they hugged each other. then like Connor and perhaps, well, Chell was the first, right? But he brought it to an art form, right? And then Connor made a business out of it. So, well, and we see one instance where it stuck with
Ryan George (29:01.003)
first but
Justin Gild (29:12.45)
someone. It stuck with Khabib after he beat Connor, it turned into a whole, a riot basically. And that’s where it goes too far. I think that, that as a sportsman, sportswoman, there’s a sense of, there’s professionalism that you have to have. Celebrating with your team, great. But when you celebrate over someone you torque in their face, you stand over someone, you mock them after they’ve,
after they’ve lost. And now remember, within reason, maybe there’s a lot of adrenaline and someone just does something crazy, but then comes to their senses and then walks away. I could see someone just doing something impulsively because there’s so much adrenaline. That makes sense. But I think when you have a minute to calm down and yet you’re still taunting someone, it leaves a sour taste in your mouth. But here’s the thing. We all saw how Connor got wealthy. And although interestingly enough, Connor never mocked anyone after the fight.
You notice it was always before. He was very respectful after the fight. it’s interesting. taking that as long as he won, correct. Yes, against Poirier. he was. Yeah, he was. It’s true. He was very classless when it came to that. But the UFC is a name-based sport, right? So while the skill means a lot and winning means a lot, they know the…
Ryan George (30:14.241)
Yeah.
Cinik (30:17.11)
As long as he won. When he was laying on the floor after he broke his leg on Dustin Poirier, he’s still talking trash about his wife.
Justin Gild (30:39.312)
to make the money, you need to go up and you need to fight the bigger fights, you need to hype the fight. That’s what they want from their fighters. the reason why you see these types of celebrations, it’s understandable because they’re thinking about their career. If I get more eyes on me, I get more hype, more social media memes that I can make, I’m gonna make more money off of it. So I get it, right? If it wasn’t like that.
Maybe there would be less celebration, but you’re sort of stuck in this middle ground. It’s like, well, you want to be an athlete and be respected, respectable, but you also want to push your career.
Ryan George (31:15.413)
Yeah. There’s no union. They don’t have a pension. And so for a lot of them, it’s like, I need to make as much money as I possibly can because at end of the day, when I’m done fighting, there is, you I’m going to be coaching or doing something. And so I, you know, I can see the desire to like, I’m going to do what I can to get those hits and get the followers and get that big payday. Because, you know, UFC certainly does not care.
Justin Gild (31:19.12)
Yes.
Justin Gild (31:24.41)
very short window.
Cinik (31:41.344)
One of my favorite moments, even though I was a huge Connor Mark, was Khabib hovering over Connor while beating some senseless and saying, let’s talk now. You want to talk, let’s talk now as he rained punches down on him. And Connor’s like, it’s just business. It’s just business. He talked about his dad and his dad is the only thing in the world that means anything to him. And yeah, you played the right card. You got the guy upset.
Ryan George (31:49.255)
Yeah
Justin Gild (31:49.541)
haha
Ryan George (31:54.613)
Yeah. Yeah.
Justin Gild (31:59.067)
Yeah.
Ryan George (32:02.847)
Yeah, exactly. mean, that’s the thing is like, yeah, it’s like with any kind of trash talk. Yeah, you’ve got to, there’s always that risk that, you know, you’re going to say something that really hits a nerve and sticks with the person and then, you know, that’s it.
Justin Gild (32:13.638)
Although that’s part of it too, right? If you can say something that sticks with someone, that gives you an advantage. So the shit talking is a psychological warfare. It’s actually a strategy.
Ryan George (32:21.503)
Yeah. no, absolutely. But you also have to deal with the consequences as well, right? And that means the, you’re lying unconscious and the person celebrating, you know, however they’re going to celebrate. So again, I don’t know this particular situation, but I think it’s, you know, it’s like that’s, it’s encouraged by the sport. You know, I’m sure that they want that. There was a bunch of articles about it online. You know, we’re talking about her, you know, so like.
Justin Gild (32:27.352)
Yes.
Justin Gild (32:31.718)
Yeah, yes.
Ryan George (32:47.359)
I think all around it’s something that they’re going to take it, right? Because no publicity is bad publicity. you know, unfortunately that’s part of it until they start, you know, take a page from the NFL and start like, you know, banning certain celebrations.
Justin Gild (33:03.238)
Well, you put it into it if you find, if fighters were fine, a portion of their purse for taunting, but they will never do that. And maybe they’ll, if something is so egregious, they’ll say, well, now we’re finding you X percent of your purse. If you do that, that’ll put a fast end to it, but they’ll take it as far, they don’t want to do that. Cause as you said, they want this. They want the hype, they want the tension.
Ryan George (33:12.009)
Yeah, they would do that. No.
Ryan George (33:20.277)
Yeah.
I doubt.
Ryan George (33:30.165)
Yeah. All right. So let’s get to, let’s get to talk a little bit about what we’ve been watching. So I will start. Have you all watched some of the Vince McMahon documentary? wow. Okay. Justin, you haven’t seen any of it. Ooh, okay.
Cinik (33:41.528)
finished it last night.
Justin Gild (33:42.756)
I have not, I’ve been waiting for my girlfriend to get here so we can watch it together.
Ryan George (33:48.887)
Okay, well, mean, yeah, yeah, it’s it’s it’s interesting. I’ll I’m interested to hear your thoughts. so they started filming it prior to like all these the major allegations that came up against him in, you know, 2022. Vince McMahon and a lot of WWF WWE talent are part of it. You’ve got like major stars, Hogan, The Rock, Steve Austin.
Justin Gild (33:51.856)
I’m excited for it though.
Ryan George (34:17.525)
you know, stars from, you know, way back when like Tony Atlas, are all part of this and yeah. And they give a lot of, you know, a lot. No, as if somebody who’s a fan, you know, grew up a fan and still kind of follows it, kind of tangentially, I was aware of a lot of the stuff, you know, what’s interesting and it’s kind of like, it’s, it’s, it’s Vince McMahon while tied into like a history of the growth of the WWF WWE. So.
Justin Gild (34:22.278)
Too bad the Ultimate Warrior wasn’t able to be on it.
Ryan George (34:43.147)
I feel like it was a mix of both. Like it wasn’t quite just about Vince McMahon, but also about how he created this behemoth. you know, but then it becomes clear, know, then they make clear that once these allegations came out, Vince McMahon basically canceled the last few interviews of it. and that combined with these being kind of ongoing, you know, legal issues, we don’t get much information on like these new things that have come up. you know, I didn’t find it to be horribly,
bias against Vince McMahon. think it is about him. And it definitely doesn’t paint him in a good light. But I didn’t find it to be like a hit piece as I think, you I know he put out a statement about it. But Sinek, what were your thoughts?
Cinik (35:28.772)
Well, mean, 90, 95 % of everything they covered is out there. It’s been out there, it’s been other documentaries. I’ll tell you what, I wouldn’t agree to a documentary unless I was making it. Because to get his kids and to get the people close to him on there, they had to sell it as like a career retrospective and not what it turned out to be was we got an honest accounting of who Vince McMahon was. And…
Ryan George (35:32.875)
Yeah.
Ryan George (35:43.286)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ryan George (35:52.394)
Yeah.
Cinik (35:53.666)
Yeah, mean, parts of it were rough. The one quote that stuck with me was, I think at the end of the first or second episode where he said, it wasn’t rape, but if it was, statute of limitations were up anyway.
Ryan George (36:05.471)
Yeah, yeah, that’s pretty rough.
Cinik (36:08.58)
I mean, I don’t know how you look into a camera and say that. Like, I just, that floored me. And I think that he got away with so much for so long and he was never held really, truly accountable for anything that he really thought that he could do anything. Like, I don’t understand this. It must have been the whole, he got off on the power dynamic that he would hire these women and then force them into situations and have to pay them off because it wasn’t one, it was like four or five women.
Ryan George (36:11.466)
Yeah.
Ryan George (36:15.627)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ryan George (36:24.01)
Yeah.
Ryan George (36:33.537)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cinik (36:36.942)
that multi-million dollar hush-hush settlements, or walking away papers and NDAs, it just, it shocked me that you’re a rich guy. He wasn’t, up until the end, mean, he wasn’t a terrible looking guy. You shouldn’t have to do all this. So it must’ve been the act itself of forcing the situation that must’ve got him off. But yeah, a lot of it was real rough. And a lot of it, like,
he doesn’t take accountability for anything. Not Owen, not Brett, not anything. Like he just doesn’t.
Ryan George (37:09.505)
Yeah.
Ryan George (37:14.529)
Sounds very simple. Sounds like somebody. Yeah.
Justin Gild (37:15.702)
Yeah, to someone. So would you say that off of this, off of watching it, that he is a complete sociopath or is he somewhere a little like just the narcissist, like is he far, you know.
Cinik (37:16.418)
Hmm
Ryan George (37:24.145)
Yeah, he’s a complete sociopath. I will say that there were a couple of people that have argued that, you have all these hours of stuff and you didn’t mention all the good stuff, the good that he’s done. think was a Bruce Pritchard was saying that when his wife was diagnosed with cancer and he sent her to the best doctors, and I know that he has done some good, right? But he’s a complete sociopath. That seems clear.
Cinik (37:25.508)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Ryan George (37:51.459)
And I will say, know, what I found most interesting and I wanted to hear more is about his childhood and how he grew up because it clearly, you know, how he grew up in his relationship with his dad who didn’t come into his life until he was a teenager seems to play a major role with him. And then the most moving part, I think, was then dealing with some of the stuff with Shane McMahon and Shane kind of dealing, getting, you know, kind of absorbing some of the same kind of trauma that he had and just wanting that kind of, you know, just wanting
acknowledgement from his dad and there is a move the one moving moment in it. I think it has to do with you know, the one time that Shane seems to get like the you know, that you know, stamp of approval from his dad and that yeah, it was like one of the more moving parts of it. He nearly killed himself. Yeah, exactly.
Cinik (38:35.332)
But what he had to do was near kill himself. Like, concuss himself and jump off something that was 20 feet tall and he nearly had to kill himself in order to get a reaction out of Vince. Meanwhile, know, Stephanie’s sitting next to Vince and she’s losing her mind because her brother is out there risking his life. And that was the thing about Shane and why the fans loved him is that he would show up, put on these amazing matches, do this crazy shit, and then go away. And then, you know, pop back up a year or two later. And yeah.
Ryan George (38:42.869)
Yeah. Literally, to get an attaboy, yeah, it’s kind of crazy.
Yeah.
Yeah, it-
Ryan George (39:01.003)
Yeah.
Cinik (39:04.738)
I mean, a lot of that was really hard to stomach. And I hope that Shane’s doing it differently with his sons. It seems like he is, because Vince Senior did it little bit differently to Vince Junior. He just wasn’t there. Vince Junior was there with Shane, but he always just dangled that fatherhood right out of reach and always chose Stephanie at every turn.
Ryan George (39:11.795)
Yeah, it seems like he is,
Ryan George (39:21.909)
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Cinik (39:27.904)
Even when it came to line of succession, it ends up being Stephanie. So, you know, I really felt like the biggest loser in all this was Shane. you know, I hurt for him while I watched it. You know, growing up without a father myself, I understood what he was going through. You always wanting someone to accept you in that way. But I’ll tell you what, the MVP of that whole documentary was Tony Atlas.
Ryan George (39:30.516)
Yeah.
Ryan George (39:36.567)
Yeah.
Ryan George (39:52.331)
I was going to say that was my next question was who’s your favorite talking head? And yeah, he was great.
Cinik (39:55.604)
was totally it was absolutely Tony Atlas. He just he was hilarious and he was direct and he didn’t. Yes, he just did not give a shit. And that was great.
Ryan George (40:00.233)
Yeah. He’s so honest. It was, yeah. Yeah. There were a couple of lines where I’m like, well, I can’t believe he just said that, but he did. And he meant everything and was.
Cinik (40:10.424)
yes, well he talked about their use of women in the 80s and he’s like, we weren’t great people. We abused the shit out of women. you could tell that there was a lot of people that are still on the edges of the business that didn’t want to just speak directly, John Cena. John Cena didn’t want to say anything to step on anybody’s toes. He’s got a loyalty to Vince McMahon, but Tony Atlas really told it like it was.
Ryan George (40:13.587)
Yeah. No, yeah. Yeah.
Ryan George (40:26.655)
Yeah. Talk. Yeah. Not Tony Atlas. And Bret Hart too. Bret Hart, think was pretty was was was also pretty good.
Cinik (40:36.162)
Well, mean, Bret Hart is, you know, he’s unfortunately going to die a better guy, not without reason, but he’s, you know, he’s still wrapped up in all that.
Ryan George (40:45.673)
Yeah, but I think I do think he was generally honest, at least about his own opinions. but yeah, I think, you know, it’s definitely worth watching. but yeah, there’s not a lot of new stuff. think more for me, it was like, I don’t think it was really a hit piece so much as like, Hey, there’s a story to tell. And I don’t know how you don’t tell the story this way. Like, I don’t know how you, guess they could try to paint him in a, in a nice light, but it would almost feel like shoe horn. It’s like, no, this is like, this is the guy, you know? And, and, and apparently he tried to buy it back. think.
Apparently there was a similar situation with Oprah. I mean, I don’t know how bad that documentary was, but she was able to buy the documentary back where Vince McMahon tried, but was unsuccessful in buying it back from Netflix. Yeah. Yeah.
Cinik (41:23.8)
Well, then tried to have Ari Emanuel, the head of TKO, it. And, you know, that didn’t happen for him. I’m glad they didn’t because this stuff needs to be out there. People need to know, you know, it very similar to the Michael Jackson situation where, know, if you’ve never seen Finding Neverland, never you wouldn’t understand the the depravity and the lengths that he went to. I think people it’s important to know the truth.
Ryan George (41:31.829)
Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan George (41:52.289)
Yeah, absolutely. All right. the next thing, you guys, Justin, have you watched any, let me ask you, have you watched anything recently? Okay, what you watched?
Justin Gild (42:00.366)
Yeah, a couple of things. Speaking of Sina, I saw a jackpot, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It’s sort of exactly what you want. It’s like when you go into a diner and you’re like, want pancakes, bacon, and eggs. And like, they make it exactly how you want it and that you eat it. And you’re like, that’s exactly what I wanted. That’s what it was. It’s a lot of fun. And it’s good. It’s low maintenance.
Ryan George (42:05.343)
Okay. Yeah.
Ryan George (42:21.397)
Okay. So yeah, I’ve heard it’s fun. So worth watching. Okay.
Justin Gild (42:27.48)
So I feel like a lot of what’s coming out is high maintenance. Like you have to pay attention. Like for instance, I finished House of the Dragon finally. But I remember having to go back and watch certain bits because I was just like, I’ve lost track of it. And it’s actually anxiety inducing because like, I miss something? Did I miss something? I’ve also started watching Penguin, which I thoroughly enjoy.
Ryan George (42:40.501)
Yeah.
Ryan George (42:49.523)
Yeah.
Ryan George (42:55.423)
Okay. cool. Okay. So let’s, let’s talk about that next. Yeah. Cause I was going to say, was going to, we’re going to talk about Penguin. So I’ve watched one episode. Yeah. So I’ve watched one episode of Penguin. Sinek, how many episodes have you watched so far at Penguin? Okay. All right.
Justin Gild (42:56.438)
as well. know know Cynic really enjoyed that as well. There’s certain aspects of about it that I really like.
Cinik (43:07.328)
I caught the second episode last night. Then they did this odd thing where they waited two weeks before. So we’re in LA and we only have regular cable TV. So we keep trying to catch the second episode of Penguin, not realizing that it wasn’t out till the week we got back. So it’s like we kept tuning in and kept catching the first episode. They really played the hell out of that show.
Ryan George (43:12.18)
Yeah
Justin Gild (43:12.783)
Yo.
Ryan George (43:21.503)
It wasn’t out. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what are you so, thoughts? Yeah. So Justin, your thoughts on, on for, episode one.
Justin Gild (43:22.48)
Yeah.
Justin Gild (43:31.994)
I like the setup and I know, look, it’s become super popular to give a backstory to a villain before he becomes who he becomes and to almost humanize them in some way that it’s been popular as of late. I just really enjoyed the way that they did it, especially because we grew up not thinking of the villains like, there’s all these Batman villains. How did they get there?
Ryan George (44:00.587)
Yeah.
Justin Gild (44:01.358)
And this tells one of those stories. I like the character. like that he’s a human being. He’s a bad guy, for sure, but there’s elements of him that are human as well. He’s bad, but he’s not completely bad. He’s not just some, just kill everyone. I don’t care what happens to anyone. is a little bit of redemption.
Ryan George (44:11.756)
Yeah.
Justin Gild (44:30.822)
And it’s all about his ego. I like the fact that everything is based on his ego. And it’s like, well, I’m going to do this for, know, I’ll show them. And it’s like, almost like he’s almost like a working man’s villain. And the performances, I thought, and just everything was really good, technically.
Ryan George (44:33.42)
Yeah.
Ryan George (44:37.834)
Yeah.
Ryan George (44:45.449)
Yeah, well, I like that the
Ryan George (44:53.599)
Yeah, no, I like that they did a few things that I enjoy. Like, so first is obviously it’s in the Batman universe. And I love the Batman. think it’s one of the better, you know, one of the best Batman movies, but it’s, it, does not feel bogged down by it. You know, Batman’s referenced and then we don’t hear about him. It’s not, we’re not worried about, we’re not worried about him. We’re not thinking about him. It’s the Penguin show. I also liked that they didn’t try to make him an anti-hero. You know, he’s not like Peacemaker or, you know, that’s the only that popped up, but he’s not like,
Justin Gild (45:07.386)
Yes, yes, they reference the Riddler, they reference a couple things.
Ryan George (45:23.445)
Walter White, you know, he’s a villain and he’s clearly a villain, but he’s, he’s got some charisma and they gave us a reason to care about, you know, not necessarily care about him, but care about what, what he wants. and, and then he, he finds his, his like the guy and he, shows some mercy. And then you have another person who’s like, okay, this is somebody who I can kind of root for it. Cause he’s just kind of a kid on the street trying to make his way. now that might change over time, but I, but I really like how they set things up. They give him somebody.
Justin Gild (45:25.69)
Yes.
Ryan George (45:52.391)
an adversary of sorts that’s even more evil than he is, it seems. And I think he does a really good job of setting things up. And it’s interesting with this Penguin character, because we’ve gotten so many iterations that I love the different iterations of this character, because you’ve got like the Danny DeVito version. know, you’ve got the, there was in the Telltale Batman games had a really interesting version of Penguin. There was the Gotham version. There’s even this new Batman animated show that has a female version of Penguin that I think is great. So I love that you have this character that like is like this rich fertile ground.
like to pull from. And I think it works because yeah, they’re not trying to make him too sympathetic, but, but he’s charismatic enough that we want to know what happens. And they gave him, you know, he, he wants something and we’re on the ride with him for it. How about you, Sinek, what are thoughts?
Cinik (46:37.196)
Yeah, I wish they wouldn’t have killed Michael Zegin so quickly because he’s becoming one of my favorite actors. Yeah, he’s really good. he’s from Miss Maisel to The Walking Dead. Like he was on rescue me and he was great on there as well. I wish they would have kept him around a little longer, but I did. It was a surprise when it happened. I mean, the show has been better than what I thought. It’s been more engaging, more intriguing. It’s it’s the second episode moves a little slower than the first.
Ryan George (46:40.312)
Yeah. He’s so good. Yeah.
Ryan George (46:47.755)
Mm-hmm.
Ryan George (47:05.335)
Mm-hmm.
Cinik (47:05.967)
but it’s interesting to watch him problem solve out of these issues and kind of manipulate things so he comes out on top. And I don’t know where it’s headed. Like I understand that he’s gonna end up being like the head crime lord in the end that we get all that, but I don’t know how he gets there and that’ll be the fun part of the ride. And I also think that the kid that he’s running with will probably be sacrificed at some point to save his own life.
Ryan George (47:24.705)
Yeah.
Ryan George (47:33.493)
Yeah. No, but yeah, so solid so far really enjoying it. I will say, so I did see a movie over the weekend. I was trying to see Beetlejuice, which I still haven’t seen yet. I did go see, was it Speak No Evil? It’s good. James McAvoy’s a great villain. He has it. He’s able to do it. He was incredibly charismatic, but also plays that role really well, kind of creepy throughout.
Justin Gild (47:34.066)
I was thinking that too.
Cinik (47:46.36)
How was that? Cause we.
Ryan George (48:00.875)
but then just turns out and he, know, it’s a really well done movie. I think it’s really well done. Like it’s got the right amount of tension to kind of keep you on the edge of your seat. You know, it’s unsettling at times. And then as you learn more and more, I think the revelations work. You know, it’s a little bit of like, there’s some interesting moments like, you know, where like a lot of, you know, a lot of times, you know, the big things I get, you know, you have the characters, like there’s an easy way to get out of this situation and they don’t take it. And in this case, they do take it, but.
they keep finding their way back. And it’s really interesting how they play that. Because there’s a lot of like, there’s really good with kind of subverting your expectations. We’ve seen enough horror that we kind of know, okay, this is what’s going to happen. And that doesn’t happen. But then something else happens. And so it’s interesting. Then you start running through your own head, like what would I have done in those situations? So I think it’s really well done. think the third act kind of falls into, you I think with a lot of horror, the third act is always the kind of same thing. And, you know, maybe could have been done a little bit better. Maybe, you know, I think I might’ve had a…
Justin Gild (48:32.39)
you
Ryan George (49:00.321)
different ending if I was writing that. feel like maybe they, you know, did, I won’t say give too much away, but I didn’t totally love the ending, but it was a solid movie, totally worth seeing if you have time.
Cinik (49:12.664)
Well, the evil influence I’ve had on my wife who wasn’t a superhero fan at all, we were standing at the movies because we had a couple hours before between Disney and the Angels game. And we had the choice between See No Evil or Speak No Evil or what was the name of it? Speak No Evil or Deadpool and Wolverine. And she chose Deadpool and Wolverine. So we ended up going to see that again, even though it’s going to be released in the next day or two on Disney+.
Ryan George (49:28.289)
I mean, speak no evil.
Ryan George (49:32.349)
Okay. Again. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. and then last thing we’ll talk about, is Agatha all along. so I saw, I’ve not caught up with the third episode. I’ve seen the first two episodes. I feel, no, we talked about it this offline. I think the first episode, is unnecessary because of where things go, but I enjoy where it’s going in the second episode. I kind of liked the cast. I think it’s got a nice, interesting group of characters.
I like that it’s leading into the witchiness of it. The song is not as bad as it is in Star Wars because that’s the show, right? It’s kind of, it’s supposed to be kind of silly. But I’m enjoying it. think Catherine Hawn’s awesome and got a great cast. So I’m cautiously optimistic, although I know the ratings have not been good and it’s gotten some pretty piss poor reviews, but I’m going to stick with it. At least the first two episodes, you know, I’m in and like the first episode is not bad. It’s just like,
and unnecessary episode. What are your thoughts on it? Yeah.
Cinik (50:32.398)
Well, I’ll see it out. I mean, I’ll watch it till the end only because I do like Catherine Hong, but I mean, this would have been the perfect gig for Leslie Hedlund and maybe she would still have a job. You know, this is what she wanted Star Wars to be. And, you know, maybe she should have just went this route and it would have been like the path of least resistance. I mean, it was okay. I agree with you. The first episode was, I felt like it was a miss.
Ryan George (50:45.868)
Yeah.
Ryan George (50:49.738)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Cinik (51:01.048)
But the second episode was okay. I’m interested to see where it goes. I don’t have anything good or bad to say about it at this point. I did feel like the second episode drug a little bit, but I’ll hang in there because with it being Marvel, everything is connected. And there was that slight WandaVision feel to it in the very beginning, which I kind of liked, the slight connection to that.
Ryan George (51:23.861)
Yeah.
Cinik (51:28.356)
I think we might’ve saw Butt on Disney +, which surprised me.
Ryan George (51:30.839)
Yeah, we did. Yeah, yeah, that was not not expected. you know, so so far so good. Have you seen Agatha yet? Justin? Okay. All right. Well, if you have a chance, check it out. It’s definitely a fun, you know, good show. Any any other shows you guys want to call out that you’ve seen recently that you that you’d recommend?
Justin Gild (51:38.881)
No.
I will.
Justin Gild (51:50.394)
Well, I’m a little late to the party, but I went down the rabbit hole of not a show, but of watching Jubilee content. I don’t know if you’ve gotten into it, but it’s pretty interesting stuff and they’ve been doing it for a while where, but it’s interesting and it’s two pronged. So the content is interesting on the face of it. So what they’ll do is they will take
opposing views, like obvious people like, you know, Trump supporter versus anti-Trump supporter. They’ll do something like that. And then they’ll have them debate and blah, blah, blah. And then they’ll do stuff that’s, you know, potentially controversial. They’ll get someone like anti or people like LGBT that have converted and claim to not be versus people that are, and they’ll get them to talk. it’s interesting. then I, so,
I went down the rabbit hole and watched a lot of the videos and I found it very interesting because you want to see people talking about it intelligently and making points in the show. One of the shows is called Middle Ground while they’re trying to find a middle ground. then you then I started realizing that they hired professionals on both sides as part of the content when at first I thought it was just regular people. And then you could see sometimes people have talking points. Some people actually are like social media influencers that they had on.
So it sort of changed my view of it, but I still found it interesting. I liked some of the content, even though some of it is clearly contrived. And they make it seem like it’s there, it’s an experiment, we’re trying to, know, it’s a social experiment, we’re trying to find middle ground. And it’s like, no, you’re making content so you can make money, is what it comes down to. But some of the content is interesting to hear what’s said.
Ryan George (53:41.707)
Yeah.
Ryan George (53:47.573)
Maybe worth checking out.
Justin Gild (53:48.868)
I think you would like it. think it’s sort of up your alley a little bit. Cynic would probably detest it on all sides because you would hate everyone involved.
Ryan George (53:51.884)
Yeah.
Ryan George (53:59.091)
All right, well, that is it for today. yeah, as usual, all of our stuff is at portableholepublishing.com. You can find the podcast, newsletter, and all of our projects out there and coming up. So Justin, until next time.
Cinik (54:00.216)
I generally do.
Justin Gild (54:01.326)
Yeah
Justin Gild (54:21.561)
Watch out for the hole.
Ryan George (54:32.545)
That did not work. Okay. I was trying to add the outro.