Shot/Reverse Shot: Episode 106 - True Detective Season Two

Having greatly enjoyed watching and talking about the first season of HBO's anthology crime show, Matt and I decided to give the same treatment to the much more divisive second season. We also talk about the possible return of Deadwood and whether or not Vince Vaughn has become the white Eddie Murphy.

Shot/Reverse Shot: Episode 87 - Matt and Ed Have Nothing

There's no set theme this week, so Matt and I decided to have a wide-ranging conversation about the death of Terry Pratchett, the recently announced additions to the Ghostbusters universe, and the surprising developments surrounding HBO's The Jinx.

Shot/Reverse Shot: Episode 69 - Comebacks

In light of the news that Vince Vaughn and Colin Farrell have signed on to star in the second season of HBO's True Detective, and considering how that show played into the apotheosis of Matthew McConaughey's career resurgence, Joe and I decided to spend this episode of Shot/Reverse Shot talking about comebacks. We talk about comebacks that led to long, successful careers, comebacks that fizzled out almost instantly, and artists who we think deserve at least one more shot at greatness. We also reveal our plan to get hooked on heroin next year, so sorry for spoiling the surprise.

As always, you can stream the podcast using the link below, or preferably (from our point of view) you can subscribe using iTunes. If you choose the later, please rate it and leave a review because it helps us to get more listeners, and also gives us something to obsess over. Speaking of which, you can also Like us on Facebook, assuming that you do.

Shot/Reverse Shot: Episode 51 - True Detective

Artist's Impression of Joe Gastineau (left) and me.

Following on from our 2014 Preview, in which we singled it out as a show we were very much intrigued by, this week finds Joe and myself poring over the first season of HBO's True Detective, the finale of which aired last Sunday. In addition to wondering just how Dion Dublin fits into the broader mythology of the show, we discuss the aesthetic choices of director Cary Fukanaga, the influence that Weird Fiction had on the tone of the show, and address some of the criticisms of the show, in particular accusations that it is sexist and misogynist, rather than an exploration of sexism and misogyny. (Claims that I think have some considerable merit.) We go into a bit of detail about the resolution of the show, so please do not listen if you haven't seen the whole season.

We also find time to talk about where we think the show will go in the future given that creator Nic Pizzolatto has said that each year will focus on different characters. If HBO want to draw from their stable of past performers, and if the rumours that the next season will focus on female detectives turn out to be true, then I'd like to start the campaign for Melissa Leo and Amy Ryan to headline season two. I mean, I'm not going to start a petition or anything, but I'd just like to throw the suggestion out there and hope that finds purchase.

As always, you can stream the podcast using the link below, or preferably (from our point of view) you can subscribe using iTunes. If you choose the later, please rate it and leave a review because it helps us to get more listeners, and also gives us something to obsess over. Speaking of which, you can also Like us on Facebook, assuming that you do.

Hipsters and Slackers: A Conversation About Girls and Spaced

The cast of Girls: Allison Williams (left), Jemima Kirke, Lena Dunham and Zosia Mamet.

Over its first three seasons, the HBO comedy Girls, created by and starring Lena Dunham, has quickly established itself as one of the most discussed shows on television. While Girls' combination of hip references, self-reflection and a frank, honest approach to relationships both physical and emotional have set it apart, it's not a wholly unprecedented work. As a snapshot of a particular brand of aimless wandering and pondering, one most readily associated with people in their twenties who are trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives, it shares a number of key similarities, in terms of its plots, character types and general milieu, with the seminal British sitcom Spaced. Like Girls, Spaced - written by and starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes (née Stevenson) and directed by Edgar Wright - was about an aimless bunch of twenty-somethings which explored this same crucial age, albeit from a more pop-culture addled perspective, over two seasons which aired from 1999 to 2001.

After my friend, fellow History graduate and fan of both Girls and Spaced, Lewis Davies (no relation) said that he wanted to do a critical comparison of the two shows, I jumped at the chance to discuss two shows that I love, albeit for slightly different reasons. You can find that conversation below and you can follow Lewis on Twitter.

Ed: So, Lewis, I guess the first question would be what do you consider to be the broad similarities between Girls and Spaced, other than that they're both shows about white twenty-somethings who arguably don't have any real problems?

Shot/Reverse Shot: Episode 43 - Distribution

We live in an age of astonishing technological advances, ones which have irrevocably changed our relationship to the art that we enjoy. As we seem to be inexorably drawn towards a tipping point where all physical media either disappears entirely, or merely becomes the realm of aficionados who really feel that they need to have all the extras, while everyone streams everything, the time seems right to contemplate what this future will look like.

It is this desire that drives the latest episode of Shot/Reverse Shot, in which Joe Gastineau and I discuss the ways in which streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu have changed how we consume television, as well as how On-Demand services have impacted, and will continue to impact, the cinematic experience. We also digress considerably, getting distracting by talk of monkeys on Segways - WE'RE ONLY HUMAN! - and Joe's disturbing plan to get Mannequin a cinematic re-release.

A few program notes for this episode:

- I apologise for the static that appears on my mic throughout the episode. It was picked up on the original recording and while I was able to lessen it in editing, I wasn't able to remove it entirely, but I didn't think that it was bad enough to spoil the episode. Sorry if you feel differently.

- The article I talk about at the end of the episode about how few students of television students have actually seen the great HBO dramas because so few people have access to them can be found here at the L.A. Review of Books. (Thanks to Paul Coughlan for sending me the link, which I couldn't find prior to recording.) My apologies to Anne Helen Peterson; I had not written down her name prior to recording, so could not credit her and erroneously referred to her as "he" during the course of the podcast. A dreadful oversight on my part.

- The news that Netflix has overtaken HBO (or at least is close to overtaking them) in total subscriptions had not broken at the time of recording, so we were not able to discuss it in depth. However, it does back up the notion that giving the audience cheap and easy access to content is a key component of the brave new world of streaming.

As always, you can stream the podcast using the link below, or preferably (from our point of view) you can subscribe using iTunes. If you choose the later, please rate it and leave a review because it helps us to get more listeners, and also gives us something to obsess over. Speaking of which, you can also Like us on Facebook, assuming that you do.

Shot/Reverse Shot: Episode 40 - The Wire

This week on Shot/Reverse Shot, Joe and I tackle a subject close to our hearts: HBO's epic examination of the drug trade in Baltimore/keen dissection of the corruption of American institutions The Wire. Over the course of a long, free-flowing conversation, we try to get to grips with what makes the show such a brilliant example of what television can do, why it is so atypical for series in the first place, and offer our thoughts on why it is considered to be one of the, if not the very greatest television shows ever made. We also talk about the show in some considerable detail, so beware of spoilers.

This episode was actually recorded last summer but kept getting delayed to a frankly ludicrous degree,. It's basically our The Day the Clown Cried, but more about the decline of the American city and less about clown-enabled genocide. Please bear that in mind if we make any comments which seem weirdly anachronistic in the more enlightened future of 2013. (It also has the now-abandoned Top Ten feature at the end, so is a touch longer than the episodes we usually do now.)



As always, you can stream the podcast using the link above, or preferably (from our point of view) you can subscribe using iTunes.   If you choose the latter, please rate it and leave a review because it   helps us to get more listeners, and also gives us something else to  obsess  over. Speaking of which, you can also Like us on Facebook, assuming that you do.

Review: Clear History (2013)

Nathan Flomm (Larry David) is a marketing executive who sells his shares in an electric car company that is on the verge of going public, then becomes a laughing stock when the company enjoys huge success. To hide from the hordes of people who mock him for losing out on billions of dollars, he moves from California to Martha's Vineyard and changes his name to Rolly DaVore. He manages to build a quiet life over the next decade, working as a carer for an elderly woman and generally being a pillar of the community, but his tranquillity is shattered when his former business partner Will Haney (Jon Hamm) arrives on the island with his new wife Rhonda (Kate Hudson). Rolly very quickly decides that this is the perfect opportunity to wreak vengeance on the man who cost him a fortune.