After a cold open wherein Phil sets the stage, the show gets started in mid-conversation as frequent contributor Jon Lawlor shares some of his thoughts about Aziz Ansari’s Good Fortune. The topic then turns to Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2002 film Punch-Drunk Love with particular emphasis paid to the way Anderson used music while shooting the film. This leads to Dean explaining the ways on-set music would be used in the silent film era, and how something called “click tracks” would be used in animation. In 2022 the great actor Stellan Skarsgard suffered a stroke and yet has been able to continue acting. The ways this has been achieved get discussed. The current heist picture The Mastermind from master filmmaker Kelly Reichardt is foremost in Phil’s thoughts, specifically why, despite universal critical praise, the film is being mostly hated by moviegoers, most of whom have seen it in multiplexes. Phil also shares with Dean and Jon the new set of questions he asks himself, and answers in writing, each night before bed.

It’s been a while since Phil brought out the ol’ Chillpak soapbox, but on this week’s show, it comes in handy as Dean and Phil delve into the huge show biz news in “The Explanation of the Week” involving late night shows, corporate mergers, bribery, evangelical Christianity, and Stephen Colbert. In “What We’re Reading” the teachings of Taoist philosophy go into the spotlight. The first two episodes of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” season 3 get reviewed and Phil defends the series from some recent criticisms about the show “not being about anything”. Then TV mysteries “The Residence” and “Poker Face” get discussed before the 1965 big-screen Agatha Christie-adapted mystery Ten Little Indians and 2024 Cannes winner for Best Director, Grand Tour, get reviewed.

Phil is in Los Angeles, Dean is back in home in Detroit (or its environs) and normalcy is restored on this week’s show. Dean offers up his final thoughts about Lisbon, shares the status of his ongoing home renovations, and weighs in on the in-flight movies he availed himself of: John Woo’s remake of his own The Killer and a zombie dog horror film from South Korea. Phil weighs in on a once-great television series that has jumped the shark and a great spy film from Steven Soderbergh that is meeting with box office failure. The state of the box office, film distribution, and what can be done to fix all of it gets analyzed. Then, in “Celebrity Deaths” two great character actors, two chart-topping music-makers, a heavyweight champion turned grillmaster, and a philanthropist who championed architecture all get remembered.

Your friends in podcasting have two more shows before they make their way (separately) to Europe and reconvene in Denmark! So, understandably, they have a full discussion agenda for this week’s show. They discuss the theft of thousands of art works from Venice and how a 1954 cinematic masterpiece helped in the reconstruction of one of the landmark buildings of that city. They discuss TWO “Live Events of the Week” and in so doing, discuss Shakespeare, Armin Shimmerman, and two of the most legendary Los Angeles stage actors. In “Celebrity Deaths” a chart-topping singer-turned-elected official gets remembered, as does a prolific character actor, a groundbreaking African filmmaker, and an influential poet and multimedia artist of the Beat era. The “SNL50” special gets discussed, as does an excellent new sports documentary series on Netflix. Finally, this weekend’s Spirit Awards (honoring the best in independent cinema) gets analyzed, and one of the most acclaimed animated films of 2024, one of the most acclaimed international films of 2024, and one of the most acclaimed documentaries of 2024 all get reviewed.

The first show of 2025 find Dean and Phil in good form and discussing a wide array of topics including the landscape and geography of NY’s Central Park, nature photography, the It Ends With Us controversy and lawsuit, and the near future of motion picture distribution both theatrically and via streaming. The truncated nature of this year’s mad dash Awards Season will get analyzed before the Netflix series “Man on the Inside” gets reviewed. Then, your friends in podcasting roll up their sleeves to re-examine Netflix’s 2018 film The Christmas Chronicles and offer their thoughts on the Ralph Fiennes-Juliet Binoche starrer The Return as well as the brilliant Nickel Boys and the reviled (and misunderstood?) Joker: Folie a Deux. Finally, thoughts regarding the suicide of filmmaker Jeff Baena are offered and Ralph Fiennes closes the show by being very “demure”.