The Ringer

Foxy42

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Simmons w Jackie Mac and Bob Ryan is tremendous. The total level of basketball knowledge on that pod is off the charts. Could any three writers for any of the four major sports beat their collective knowledge of the history of the game?
 

kenneycb

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It’s still rough around the edges and they kinda screwed me this year (but made me a lot of money last year) but I love listening the Ringer’s Fantasy Football pod. The chemistry between the three are close to Simmons, Ryan, and Fennessey just a much less refined pod in a good way. Their Rewatchables of the fantasy season should’ve sucked but was awesome, especially towards the end.
 

Bernie Carbohydrate

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One thing the Rewatchables and other Ringer nostalgia machine content has reminded me of is that for a lot of this stuff, you had to be there. I saw Beautiful Girls for the first time last year, and man, that is not a good movie. But maybe it would've resonated with me if I saw it when it came out.
Indeed. I saw Cyborg four fucking times when it came out in 1989...that moment when Gibson Rickenbacker says "It's what I do....get people out of the city" -- I was nineteen and knew I was searching for someone to get me out of the city....the city of my own thoughts.

Tried a rewatch on Thanksgiving and it left me cold.
 

Mugsy's Jock

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I’m curious what Spotify’s advertising strategy is wrt The Ringer. Seems like the only podcast of the 4-5 I listen to that’s full up with advetising is The Fantasy Football feed, which includes blue chip advertisers like McDonalds and Audi and Heineken. The regular NFL and baseball and soccer feeds, and The Rewatchables and The Watch and The Big Picture and even Simmons’ signature pod are practically commercial-free now — they take breaks, but usually just dip in and dip out, or maybe squeeze in a promotional spot for another Ringer podcast. One real ad/podcast, tops. Even State Farm seems to be taking a break.

I understand the advertising market is super slow between Christmas and MLK Day, but seems like this has been the case even preceding the holiday.

surprised they haven’t filled the time with their previously typical mix of podcast sponsors — frame and mattress and home security and recruiting services , etc — or followed the lead of local TV stations and used the time to run PSAs at least
 
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Leather

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Indeed. I saw Cyborg four fucking times when it came out in 1989...that moment when Gibson Rickenbacker says "It's what I do....get people out of the city" -- I was nineteen and knew I was searching for someone to get me out of the city....the city of my own thoughts.

Tried a rewatch on Thanksgiving and it left me cold.
Wait did they do Cyborg?
 

JCizzle

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Simmons w Jackie Mac and Bob Ryan is tremendous. The total level of basketball knowledge on that pod is off the charts. Could any three writers for any of the four major sports beat their collective knowledge of the history of the game?
I just finished this one and couldn't agree more. Definitely one of the top podcasts of the year for me. The level of respect they all have for the game is awesome.
 

Bernie Carbohydrate

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I just finished this one and couldn't agree more. Definitely one of the top podcasts of the year for me. The level of respect they all have for the game is awesome.
I was intrigued (and appalled) by the revelation that Parish and DJ kept track of the photos in the newspapers, noting that when the Celts won the pictures were of Bird and McHale, but after a loss the images accompanying the game reports were often of Parish of DJ. I am tempted to go through the Globe archives to see if this bears out...
 

JCizzle

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I was intrigued (and appalled) by the revelation that Parish and DJ kept track of the photos in the newspapers, noting that when the Celts won the pictures were of Bird and McHale, but after a loss the images accompanying the game reports were often of Parish of DJ. I am tempted to go through the Globe archives to see if this bears out...
If you do, I'll be interested in what you find. It certainly wouldn't surprise me and I don't blame either guy for feeling that way, even if it's not 100% factual. I think they mentioned Max felt the same way.
 

bankshot1

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Simmons w Jackie Mac and Bob Ryan is tremendous. The total level of basketball knowledge on that pod is off the charts. Could any three writers for any of the four major sports beat their collective knowledge of the history of the game?
I really enjoyed that mix of 60s, 80s and current Celtic history. The institutional knowledge they have is astounding. While Ryan has lost some of his fastball I could have listened to them for another couple of hours.

I so connected when Ryan opened the pod recounting the $0.25 MTA ride to the Garden (from BC) and $2.00 2nd balcony cheap seats. That was me in high school from ~'65-'69 taking the T from Riverside to the Garden for Sunday afternoon games.
 

Foxy42

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I really enjoyed that mix of 60s, 80s and current Celtic history. The institutional knowledge they have is astounding. While Ryan has lost some of his fastball I could have listened to them for another couple of hours.

I so connected when Ryan opened the pod recounting the $0.25 MTA ride to the Garden (from BC) and $2.00 2nd balcony cheap seats. That was me in high school from ~'65-'69 taking the T from Riverside to the Garden for Sunday afternoon games.
Ryan clearly hung back, partly I would guess because he is not as used to the technology / when to jump in, but Simmons did a nice job pulling him in. I would have loved it if they told stories from The Fours and Scotch N Sirloin for two hours.
 

johnmd20

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Simmons today. "Man, it was so obvious Henry would lead the league in yards and Rodgers would lead the league in touchdowns. Why didn't we bet them? Let's tuck that way next year."

Lol Willie. Simmons should stop talking about gambling like you can figure it out. It's very easy to get 100% on a test when you get the answer key in advance. Basically, you want to tuck away the fact that results are obvious after the fact. It's dumb.
 

JCizzle

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It’s been going on for years and one of the best parts of the show.
Agreed. If I want smart advice, I listen to their NFL pods with Sharp (even though he's been slightly disappointing in my opinion) or the other pod with Clark and Nora. I listen to Simmons & Sal for dumb entertainment.
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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Also that movie is TERRIBLE! It’s unwatchable!
I managed to never watch the movie, but did find it amusing that like 10 minutes in Bill gives examples and asks the question "is Mr. Holland just a straight up asshole?" Along with Mr. Holland's penchant for a minor which is also discussed, what a selling point for the movie! Now I really need to invest the time to watch this opus...
 

Bozo Texino

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Also that movie is TERRIBLE! It’s unwatchable!
I managed to never watch the movie, but did find it amusing that like 10 minutes in Bill gives examples and asks the question "is Mr. Holland just a straight up asshole?" Along with Mr. Holland's penchant for a minor which is also discussed, what a selling point for the movie! Now I really need to invest the time to watch this opus...
I've actually never seen the movie. I don't think I really want to.

It's a shame - there aren't lots of good movies about real, lifelong teachers. Often, we get movies about people new to the profession who are sort of "fish out of water" types - think Dangerous Minds. Hollywood churns out stuff like that. The best teacher movie I've seen is The Browning Version. In the 70 years since that movie's release, there really hasn't been much that captures that same feeling.

Summer School isn't bad, though. It's surprisingly accurate. I'm being serious.
 

8slim

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I watched Mr. Holland's Opus years ago, and I recall it being a real paint-by-numbers, melodramatic affair. Teacher pours his heart & soul into teaching, but neglects his own son. Then teacher builds relationship with said son. Then teacher who thinks his life's work was meaningless is told by all his former students how he saved their lives. Lather, rinse, repeat.

There are probably 1,000 other movies that are more "rewatchable" than it.
 

Pablo's TB Lover

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I've actually never seen the movie. I don't think I really want to.

It's a shame - there aren't lots of good movies about real, lifelong teachers. Often, we get movies about people new to the profession who are sort of "fish out of water" types - think Dangerous Minds. Hollywood churns out stuff like that. The best teacher movie I've seen is The Browning Version. In the 70 years since that movie's release, there really hasn't been much that captures that same feeling.

Summer School isn't bad, though. It's surprisingly accurate. I'm being serious.
Van Lathan went into it during the Dangerous Minds Rewatchable episode, but so many of these teaching movies age poorly because of the "white knight" tropes. Especially the inner city schools, as if all the other teachers just suck and once you get someone in their to do some real teachin' and actually see the contrast of the teacher's own suburban lifestyle to the communities they teach in, magically things improve. The public discourse in the real world is not much different, with many people ignoring the the childrens' difficult or non-existent home situations and proclaiming the poor performance of teachers in that community.
 

Bozo Texino

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Van Lathan went into it during the Dangerous Minds Rewatchable episode, but so many of these teaching movies age poorly because of the "white knight" tropes. Especially the inner city schools, as if all the other teachers just suck and once you get someone in their to do some real teachin' and actually see the contrast of the teacher's own suburban lifestyle to the communities they teach in, magically things improve. The public discourse in the real world is not much different, with many people ignoring the the childrens' difficult or non-existent home situations and proclaiming the poor performance of teachers in that community.
The Dangerous Minds pod was also helped by including Shea Serrano. It was nice to hear his thoughts considering he's actually been a teacher.
 

johnmd20

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I watched Mr. Holland's Opus years ago, and I recall it being a real paint-by-numbers, melodramatic affair. Teacher pours his heart & soul into teaching, but neglects his own son. Then teacher builds relationship with said son. Then teacher who thinks his life's work was meaningless is told by all his former students how he saved their lives. Lather, rinse, repeat.

There are probably 1,000 other movies that are more "rewatchable" than it.
And I bet the podcast ends up doing all 1,000 movies on that list. Bill has said repeatedly that they can't do every iconic movie every week. Eventually they will run out and saving some does make sense if he wants this podcast to last years.

If people don't care about Mr. Holland's Opus, they can choose to skip the episode. Like they could have skipped the Country Strong podcast. I have actually never seen Opus, but I still enjoyed the podcast. The Rewatchables is great no matter the movie and sometimes the worse the movie, the better the podcast.
 

Mooch

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I watched Mr. Holland's Opus years ago, and I recall it being a real paint-by-numbers, melodramatic affair. Teacher pours his heart & soul into teaching, but neglects his own son. Then teacher builds relationship with said son. Then teacher who thinks his life's work was meaningless is told by all his former students how he saved their lives. Lather, rinse, repeat.

There are probably 1,000 other movies that are more "rewatchable" than it.
What's funny to me about this Rewatchable is the reverence the hosts all have for the utterly cringe-inducing "Beautiful Boy" scene where Mr. Holland somehow magically erases the years of neglect and indifference for his only child by singing an off-key John Lennon song. And if you weren't paying attention to who it was about, changes the last word to his son's name to clear up any lingering confusion.

Blech.
 

Mystic Merlin

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To your point, ‘Armageddon’ is one of my favorite episodes to-date and is arguably the archetype for the series. I’m not even sure it is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but it is definitely rewatchable and great fodder for their format.
 

8slim

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And I bet the podcast ends up doing all 1,000 movies on that list. Bill has said repeatedly that they can't do every iconic movie every week. Eventually they will run out and saving some does make sense if he wants this podcast to last years.

If people don't care about Mr. Holland's Opus, they can choose to skip the episode. Like they could have skipped the Country Strong podcast. I have actually never seen Opus, but I still enjoyed the podcast. The Rewatchables is great no matter the movie and sometimes the worse the movie, the better the podcast.
Yeah, I didn't say it was an abomination that they did that movie, or that its an affront to me that they did an episode about it. And I'll likely listen at some point, for the reason you cited. That being said, they're not going to run out of movies to do.
 

johnmd20

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Yeah, I didn't say it was an abomination that they did that movie, or that its an affront to me that they did an episode about it. And I'll likely listen at some point, for the reason you cited. That being said, they're not going to run out of movies to do.
Sorry about that. It sounded like you were taking offense. All good.
 

8slim

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Sorry about that. It sounded like you were taking offense. All good.
No worries. I think doing episodes on Country Strong or Bridesmaids is great, because getting away from the movie favorites of the straight, middle-age, white male demographic is healthy and interesting. And needless to say, there's no strict definition of what is "rewatchable". I just found Mr. Holland's Opus to be a weird choice. I mean, I'm a nostalgia machine, and I can't say I've thought about that movie in 20+ years.
 

Shelterdog

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I'm in the middle of a cobra kai binge and listen to the karate kid rewatchables. It was hysterical but OMG, Simmons is kind of a nut who kind of seems to literally not get important parts of the movie. I know part of it is shtick but he really seems to be so stuck in a 1980s high school social life that he actually roots for Johny and against Larusso. Among the things I'd like to point out to him:

*Daniel--not Johnny--is the guy you should be rooting for

* There's no homoerotic tension between Daniel and Miyagi

* Daniel does not have "no friends" other than Miyagi; Miyagi is actually a father figure (and Daniel a child Miyagi never to to have).

* Shue liking Daniel isn't inexplicable--he's supposed to be the new kid, he's a smartalec, and plus, he's very very different from her asshole ex boyfriend.

* Daniel's clothes look funny because he's supposed to be the poor kid (and from newark in the 80s to boot)

* Cobra Kai were not driving mopeds

* The observations that the filming locations were not actually all that close and the movie is therefore unrealistic is noted.

* The superiority of Zoe Simmon's travel soccer team's soccer skills to Larusso's is also noted.

* Miyagi doesn't have these immaculate old cars because he's rich; he has them because he loves cars, is frugal, and has spent forty years collecting restoring and maintaining the.

* Simmons is correct that it's not "realistic" that Daniel wins the championship

** Daniel in fact won the championship because it's (1) a sports movie and (2) it's beside the point whether he won or lost because he learned something about himself along the way

*** Ok fine Daniel won because he had discovered "the secret" to karate and because Kreese's coaching performance was a combination of 2006 marty schotthenheimer's playoff coaching and 2008 Andy Reid's clock management.

* Russillo's reference to a young Elizabeth Shue as "lowkey thicc" was .... something.

And despite the many many insane things said-be they shtick or be they actually thinking cobra kai were the good guys--i loved very minute. Probably because it was so goofy, which is the real secret when it comes to his success.

As an aside, after ripping on Dobbins I think it's only fair to bash Russillo a little; that guy biggest fucking name dropping wanna be cool douchebro I've run across in a long long time. I'm not even sure what to with someone who's commentary on karate kid includes saying that the Shue character might be one of "those girls" who doesn't have hot friends even though she should be popular and have hot fronts. Also it doesn't reflect particularly well on Simmons that he hires some great diverse talent on their way up-- Rembert Browne, Concepion, Serrano, Jay Caspian Kang all come to mind--and his partner in crime is, like pretty much all of us, a white masshole.
 

Mugsy's Jock

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To your point, ‘Armageddon’ is one of my favorite episodes to-date and is arguably the archetype for the series. I’m not even sure it is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but it is definitely rewatchable and great fodder for their format.
Godfather III is a great "Rewatchables", and a great primer for rewatching the FFC recut. [Which, it seems, not many SoSHers have been interested in, oddly.]
 

PC Drunken Friar

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I'm in the middle of a cobra kai binge and listen to the karate kid rewatchables. It was hysterical but OMG, Simmons is kind of a nut who kind of seems to literally not get important parts of the movie. I know part of it is shtick but he really seems to be so stuck in a 1980s high school social life that he actually roots for Johny and against Larusso. Among the things I'd like to point out to him:

*Daniel--not Johnny--is the guy you should be rooting for
View: https://youtu.be/C_Gz_iTuRMM
 

PC Drunken Friar

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Which is a stupid reading of the films that ignores a lot of things, but it became this "hip" internet thing.
Yes, sorry for not posting more with more substance. I don't think this was made for anyone to actually think that it is to be taken seriously. I also don't believe that Zack Morris was a murderous sociopath.
 

CantKeepmedown

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The S3 writers for Cobra Kai even put it in an episode (someone during one of the board meetings yells, "I heard you were the one that was the bully!") to LaRusso. It was hilarious.
 

Cellar-Door

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I'm 100% team Daniel Larusso was a shitstain who deserved to get beat up
There are no good guys in Karate Kid
 

Shelterdog

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I'm 100% team Daniel Larusso was a shitstain who deserved to get beat up
There are no good guys in Karate Kid
Russillo is that you?

Hate to break it to you but that says more about you than it does about the movie. To help you out see if you can pick which three of the characters in this list are also bad guys:

Indiana Jones
Principal Rooney
Luke Skywalker
Rocky
Rambo
Superman
the bicycling townie guy who shave his leg in breaking away
Gandhi
Brad Wesley (the rich guy who has the guy with the big moustache from lebowski killed) in roadhouse
ET
the EPA guy in ghostbusters

Bottom line. In a movie for kids and teenagers there are good guys and bad guys. And the guys dressed up like skeletons who are beating the crap out of the new kid aren't the good guys. Even if Cobra-Kai is a bad ass name for a dojo.
 

Cellar-Door

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Russillo is that you?

Hate to break it to you but that says more about you than it does about the movie. To help you out see if you can pick which three of the characters in this list are also bad guys:

Indiana Jones
Principal Rooney
Luke Skywalker
Rocky
Rambo
Superman
the bicycling townie guy who shave his leg in breaking away
Gandhi
Brad Wesley (the rich guy who has the guy with the big moustache from lebowski killed) in roadhouse
ET
the EPA guy in ghostbusters

Bottom line. In a movie for kids and teenagers there are good guys and bad guys. And the guys dressed up like skeletons who are beating the crap out of the new kid aren't the good guys. Even if Cobra-Kai is a bad ass name for a dojo.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ferris-buellers-mr-rooney-guilty-in-sex-case/ Bad guy.

Cobra Kai aren't good guys, they're bad guys... Daniel LaRusso doesn't suddenly become not a shitty little thug because he runs into bad guys.
 

Spelunker

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Which is a stupid reading of the films that ignores a lot of things, but it became this "hip" internet thing.
Daniel LaRusso always sucked is basically the premise of Cobra Kai. It's not internet meme at this point, it's basically canon.
 

Spelunker

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Jul 17, 2005
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Russillo is that you?

Hate to break it to you but that says more about you than it does about the movie. To help you out see if you can pick which three of the characters in this list are also bad guys:

Indiana Jones
Principal Rooney
Luke Skywalker
Rocky
Rambo
Superman
the bicycling townie guy who shave his leg in breaking away
Gandhi
Brad Wesley (the rich guy who has the guy with the big moustache from lebowski killed) in roadhouse
ET
the EPA guy in ghostbusters

Bottom line. In a movie for kids and teenagers there are good guys and bad guys. And the guys dressed up like skeletons who are beating the crap out of the new kid aren't the good guys. Even if Cobra-Kai is a bad ass name for a dojo.
Lewis Skolnick was also a hero in an 80s movie: that doesn't mean that we can't realize now that he was actually awful.
 

johnmd20

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It’s still rough around the edges and they kinda screwed me this year (but made me a lot of money last year) but I love listening the Ringer’s Fantasy Football pod. The chemistry between the three are close to Simmons, Ryan, and Fennessey just a much less refined pod in a good way. Their Rewatchables of the fantasy season should’ve sucked but was awesome, especially towards the end.
They are a great trio. I don't even care about the fantasy advice, (although it doesn't hurt) I just think it's a fantastic podcast.

Also, their latest episode was a blast, their quiz about the gallons of water in the lake was truly one of the funniest podcast moments I've ever heard.
 

Leather

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* Russillo's reference to a young Elizabeth Shue as "lowkey thicc" was .... something.

And despite the many many insane things said-be they shtick or be they actually thinking cobra kai were the good guys--i loved very minute. Probably because it was so goofy, which is the real secret when it comes to his success.

As an aside, after ripping on Dobbins I think it's only fair to bash Russillo a little; that guy biggest fucking name dropping wanna be cool douchebro I've run across in a long long time. I'm not even sure what to with someone who's commentary on karate kid includes saying that the Shue character might be one of "those girls" who doesn't have hot friends even though she should be popular and have hot fronts. Also it doesn't reflect particularly well on Simmons that he hires some great diverse talent on their way up-- Rembert Browne, Concepion, Serrano, Jay Caspian Kang all come to mind--and his partner in crime is, like pretty much all of us, a white masshole.
It's very uncomfortable, especially in a post Me Too age, to hear adult men (wealthy, influential, to boot) openly judge and "rate" the attractiveness of women in any context. It would be one thing if Simmons left it at "X is very cute in this movie, too." But often he throws out a comment like "And I would have liked someone more attractive than X in that role. X doesn't do it for me." Or "How about instead of X, we get Angelina Jolie; hot, peak hotness 1999 Jolie. No?" It's...problematic, IMO, and always my least favorite part of the discussion.

Re: "rooting for bad guys", Chris Ryan harped a bit on the Home Alone episode that Kevin McAlester is a "total brat" in the early movie, and that is never how I viewed it. I always took the intro scene to be that Kevin is being perpetually overlooked and shat on by the rest of the family and he puts up with a growing list of compounding maltreatments (first by his cousin ("Kevin, you're a total incompetent") Buzz ("You couldn't sleep here if you grew out of my ass" plus the eating of Kevin's pizza and gloating over it), by the asshole uncle ("Look what you did you JERK!" [note: I cannot watch that with my kids without saying to my wife "If any of their uncles talks to our kids that way, I'll fucking slug him."] , and ultimately by his mother "You've been causing us trouble all night!") is unjust. That's the point; making the viewer remember a time as a kid when it felt like you were being ganged up on for no good reason, and feeling sorry for yourself and wishing you could run away.
 

8slim

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To close the loop on the conversation from last week... I listened to the Mr. Holland’s Opis episode of The Rewatchables. It’s great, very entertaining.
 

shlincoln

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I know why they do it, but Binge Mode's insistence to only reference other series they've covered when making examples in Binge Mode Marvel has some huge "please I'm begging, read any another book" energy
 
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johnmd20

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I know why they do it, but Binge Mode's insistence to only reference other series they've covered when making examples in Binge Mode Marvel has some huge "please I'm begging, read any another book energy"
The Podcast is pretty awesome, tho.

One thing that is funny about Binge Mode is that they feel the need to jam a defining theme about every episode or movie they watch. AND THIS MOVIE'S DEFINING THEME IS. . . ."ROCKS."