Share
Low Key
Suicide Squad and the Destruction of Plot Armor
Season 1, Ep. 105
•
James Gunn's The Suicide Squad doesn't give its characters much plot armor — that enchanted substance, created by corporations and screenwriters, that protects bankable characters from dying, no matter what.
Will Bloodsport (Idris Elba) make it through the mission alive? Will Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie)? Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnamon)? Nothing is guaranteed, and it's no spoiler to say some of the characters we like most don't make it out of The Suicide Squad alive. Spoiler alert: The movie's called The Suicide Squad.
We talk about how the scarcity of plot armor makes The Suicide Squad far more compelling than most comic-book movies — as well as the state of DC movies in general.
More episodes
View all episodes
How Eddie Murphy Changed Comedy and the World
49:04|"Hippies are bad people who pretend to be good and punks are good people who pretend to be bad"Photo from Being Eddie. Netflix
Dads Watch Kids Movies: THE WITCHES
37:54|Jim Henson meets Roald Dahl in THE WITCHES. Let's talk about whether it holds up, whether it would work for modern kids, and why we wouldn't mind watching it again and again and again.A must-see if you love movies with dead parents, kids turning into mice, and of course... witches.TLDR: "I love this movie."—Keith
Highest 2 Lowest Needs More Highs and Lows
46:51|One of the greatest directors ever reunites with one of the greatest actors ever to make one of the most OK films
WEAPONS: Can It Be All So Simple? (Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers)
31:20|A VERY spoiler-filled discussion of Zack Cregger's wonderful WEAPONS.Please don't listen to this one without seeing the movie, OK?
King of the Hill, Still on Top
41:29|This episode, we talk about Hulu's very welcome revival of Mike Judge and Greg Daniel's King of the Hill, until Tim ruins everything with an obscene and inaccurate quotation from Silicon Valley.
Fantastic Four Goes Full Comic Book
35:29|The Fantastic Two, Tim and Aaron, discuss the Fantastic Four, which, unlike Superman, provides pure escapism. But we like them both.Here's Tim's article about this summer's comic book movies really embracing comic books.
The Goofiest Parts of Superman=The Best Parts of Superman
01:12:12|Also in this episode, we investigate: Is Jesus woke?
'Straw is No Exit for Black Women'
53:40|Tyler Perry's Straw has a misleading title — because it isn't a straw that breaks the camel's back in the film about a single mom (Taraji P. Henson) driven to extremes, but an absolutely nightmarish event that is only revealed in the film's insane final act.In this episode, Aaron, Keith and Tim talk about whether the movie takes place in hell, great movie twists and why they work — from Fight Club to The Sixth Sense — and the correct way to pronounce San Pedro.We wrap up by praising Tubi's Flew'd Out and the works of fantasy author Brandon Sanderson.
The Edgelord Games of Mountainhead
38:42|What is the message of Mountainhead? Aaron and Tim talk about the film as a condemnation of the gamification of everything in Jesse Armstrong's Succession successor.