This week’s brand new show is a whole lot of fun, with a cold open (about Dean’s former website), a special guest appearance (from Siren FM’s Alex Lewczuk), a discussion about why certain movies (especially in the “Star Trek” universe) seem like movies, whereas others seem like TV episodes, a review of Doctor Sleep, a celebration of Stanley Kubrick, an analysis of an all-time great movie monologue delivered by a powerhouse actress (Nicole Kidman), and a remembrance of actor-producer Kirk Douglas, along with a thoughtful conversation about the messy business of appraising legacies.

In many ways, this week’s show is a sequel to last week’s episode #534, with the promised celebration of Jeanne Moreau’s life and career, an email from a listener about Tom Jones’ “The Young New Mexican Puppeteer” and more from the British Film Institute List of “the 50 films you should see by the age of 14”.

Unlike most sequels, however, this show is even more irreverent, insightful and informative than last week’s!

The festivities commence with a clip of Dean on Australian television telling a (bestiality?) joke, and then after a special opening (a tribute to Glen Campbell), Dean comes out guns blazing, ranting about the internet speeds of his adopted land. After Phil calms him down, they discuss the news of David Letterman’s new show, they urge people to save the Salem Cinema (a jewel of the Pacific Northwest), they talk about an interview they did with the late Jim Marrs and they continue their discussion about the “death of discernment”, this time focusing on an appalling memo crafted by a then member of the National Security Council.

 

From there, it’s onto “Celebrity Deaths”, where, in addition to the Femme Fatale of the French New Wave and Glen Campbell, your friends in podcasting remember a Tony-winning star of Broadway’s “The Music Man”, the star of an early television western series turned right-wing anti-government activist, and the man inside the Godzilla costume.

Finally, Dean and Phil discuss a 1982 Australian western, a 1954 western that influenced the likes of Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah, the original King Kong, and the Will Rogers comedy Life Begins at 40.

Is Phil the love child of Patrick McGoohan and Remington Steele? Is Dean the love child of Kirk Douglas and Glenn Close? Probably, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg this week. Dean talks about the Podcast and New Media Expo in Ontario (California, not Canada). Some new releases are debated. Then Phil makes a shocking revelation about this crazy town. It’s a stinking pool of what? What’s that Phil? No, it can’t be true!