From the inner space of quiet, self-quarantine lockdowns, to the outer space of “Star Trek: Picard”, Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness take you on quite the journey this week! It starts with their latest observations about themselves and others in the wake of another week of isolation. Sadness, quiet and dehumanization are on the thematic menu! They then compare notes on their respective Easter celebrations, which leads to a discussion of a couple of classic musicals: 1934’s Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers vehicle The Gay Divorcee and 1948’s seasonal staple Easter Parade, starring Astaire and Judy Garland. The recent, modern classic, Uncut Gems gets championed by Phil, who tries to get Dean to overcome his trepidation surrounding Adam Sandler performances (and yet, Dean once championed You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, so go figure!). The second half of the show consists of Dean and Phil comparing the years in cinema 1973 and 1974, discussing all the notable films from those two halcyon years, in hopes of determining which year might challenge 1962 as the greatest year in cinema. Finally, your friends in podcasting beam up to the La Sirena to discuss and debate what went right and what went wrong in season one of “Star Trek: Picard”, a show so successful that a big-screen movie version is already in the planning stages.

Mere hours away (we hope) from launching their new website, your friends in podcasting weigh in on the breaking news of the Notre Dame fire,  some emerging (and fading) political figures, Clint Eastwood’s latest, Hugh Grant’s brilliance, the game-changing nature of Disney Plus, the delights of the two Paddington movies and more! They also celebrate the lives, of the wonderful character actor Seymour Cassel, the legendary actress Bibi Andersson, the porolific actor and voice actor Shane Rimmer, sci-fi novelist Vonda McIntyre, stand-up coomedian Ian Cognito, country music great Earl Thomas Conley, quiz show fraud Charles Van Doran, World War II hero Richard Cole, and two “Bond Girls”. Enjoy

Your friends in podcasting have been teasing episode #568 for weeks! They had really been looking forward to counting down their all-time favorite Mystery films and the final results prove to be a lot of fun. So, get those Netflix queues handy, because Dean and Phil will hit you with more than two dozen movies they discuss at length with four films actually finding a place on both their Top Tens. There are comedy “whodunits” from the 1930’s, foreign language allegories from the 2000’s, independent films that launched careers, classics from international masters that launched entire sub-genres, mysteries based on books, mysteries based on plays, mysteries set in the farthest reaches of space, mysteries full of post-war romance and cold war anxiety. The biggest mystery of all is after almost eleven years, how do Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness keep managing to provide an hour (plus) of free audio entertainment each week?!

On this week’s brand new, action-packed episode #544, Dean and Phil are discussing great movies again, as they count down their lists of the Top Ten Action Movies of All Time!

It’s the summer of 2007. The summer of ‘07. No, it’s the summer of 007! Dean and Phil go deep into the world of Bond. Enjoy! WARNING: NOT A COMPLETE EPISODE! In fact, it’s only 5 and a half minutes … Finding out what happened to the rest of it is certainly an assignment worthy of … Bond. James Bond.