Episodes - DESTROY ALL CULTURE: Recent Episodes

Aidan and Adam

An hour-long chat about science fiction television and movies.

somehow, still, a live dog.

Before Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan rebirthed the Rocky franchise with Creed, but after Sylvester Stallone kicked around the corpse of his own creation in Rocky V, there came the odd bridge of Rocky Balboa, a wistful and occasionally charming examination of what happens in the decades after the balloon of fame has slowly leaked into something wrinkled and dusty. Unfortunately, Stallone can’t trust us to watch that film, pushing the story into a fight so indifferently shot and edited that you can feel the entire series shrug its hormone-enhanced shoulders. But hey, let’s talk about it! Listen below or find us on your podcatcher of choice.

now there’s a live dog.

Did you watch Goodfellas back in 1990 and think “Hey, this should be a wacky comedy with Rick Moranis and Steve Martin”? If so, you’re in luck. You’re in so much luck.

Like Goodfellas, My Blue Heaven is loosely based on the story of Henry Hill, the mobster who went into the witness protection program. Goodfellas ends with a vision of Hill standing in front of an dull suburban tract home, haunted and disappointed, an anonymous schnook. My Blue Heaven starts at that very moment, as Steve Martin’s smooth criminal slides into suburbia like a streak of mercury. There, restless and bored, he meets his case handler, a buttoned-down bureaucrat played by Rick Moranis.

From that point on the film becomes a perverse buddy comedy, as Martin teaches Moranis to loosen his buttons a bit, and Moranis teaches Martin… well, nothing really. But he writes an extremely entertaining book! Listen to Adam and Aidan talk about sartorial tips and merengue lessons below, or find us on your podmaker of choice.

True facts about Joe Pantoliano:

He fought and defeated the last living dragon of the moorlands, but showed mercy at the last minute and spared its life. They’re now good friends and have a time share in Palmdale.
He once jumped back in horror and screamed “It’s the ‘haint of Loch Gullmar!” at a passing vehicle.
He had hair in the ‘80s, as evidenced in 1988’s Midnight Run.
He was cursed with invisibility in the seventeenth century by an ancient witch. What you see on screen is not Pantoliano but an ingenious moving matte painting that’s actually part of the background..

If you like these facts and want to hear more of them, try listening to Adam and Aidan talk about Midnight Run. Listen below or find us where the podcasts roam.

everybody cut, everybody cut.

What if normal, but dancing? What if dancing, but really bad dancing? What if James Dean, but Kevin Bacon? What if Natalie Wood, but Lori Singer? What if Sal Mineo, but Chris Penn? What if John Lithgow?

What if Foot… but Loose? Listen below, or find us where podcasts jump and twirl.

one dead lion, one live dog.

There used to be a sports league
The A-A-G-B-P-G-L
They used to play some baseball
They’d get out there and give them hell

Okay, I’m too hungry to come up with more lyrics. Adam and Aidan put on their baseball pants and talk about the baseball that isn’t Bull Durham. Penny Marshall’s A League of Their Own is a lightly-to-highly fictionalized story about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Adam and Aidan discuss the film’s choices and take time to bemoan the fate of the recent TV series. Listen below or find us on your podcaster of choice.

now there’s a live dog (whoops, it’s a dead lion)

Filmmaker and YouTuber Patrick Willems once attempted to define what he called a “vibes movie”. A vibes movie, more or less, is a film that prioritizes atmosphere and filmmaking elements over a coherent plot. Willems lands on Tenet as the ultimate vibes movie, but if Tenet did not exist (And who’s to say? Maybe it doesn’t!), Legend would surely land that coveted spot. What else but a complete dedication to vibes could explain Tim Curry’s enormous latex Beast outfit, Tom Cruise’s tiny leaf tunic, or the allergy-inducing forest sets?

This week, Adam and Aidan discuss Legend and all things Legend-adjacent. Listen below or find us where podcasts roam.

better to be a live knight than a dead hawk.

DRAFT #1
You know what they say: sometimes you hawke the lady, sometimes the lady hawkes you. That may not be the premise or the moral of 1985’s Ladyhawke (the ‘e’ is silent), but -

DRAFT #2
Few works of modern cinema adress the question of who hawkes the lady on the ladyhawke of world hawkeladies, but 1985’s Ladyhawke -

DRAFT #3
Lady, every morn you glow and turn into a hawke
You eat mice and stoats and hang out on my wrist
Night time, I become a wolfe (the ‘e’ is silent)
Sometimes I wonder if a wolfe and hawke can kisse

You know what, let’s go with #3. Adam and Aidan watched Ladyhawke, the breezy medieval fantasy actioner where magic is real and every hawk gets an extra vowel. Listen below or find us on your podcast aggregator of choice.

did we learn nothing from zardoz?

I don’t know where to start with 2012’s John Carter. Andrew Stanton’s first foray into live action, adapting a work that inspired most of the science fiction pulp classics of the 20th century, did not go well. Mired in production troubles and studio tensions, John Carter (of Mars???) bombed at the box office and produced a crater in Disney’s finances so deep that entire careers vanished into it.

Adam and Aidan were hoping that John Carter was due for a reappraisal. It was not, unless you’re of the select camp that enjoys a running joke in which Carter is repeatedly called Virginia. Listen below or find us your podcaster of choice.

a live woodbeast.

Every so often, Adam and Aidan watch a movie that feels like the equivalent of someone trying to write a 20-page English paper at 3 a.m. without having read the text. On the other hand, sometimes that mix of Monster Energy and desperation produces weird bursts of genius. How else to explain War Rocket Ajax, angry Wood Beasts and combative football in the court of Ming the Merciless? Honestly, it’s impossible to say whether Flash Gordon is any good or not (it’s not). Listen below or put your hand inside your podcaster of choice.

In 1968, fans of science fiction movies had two options (please don’t fact check this, there’s no need): 2001: A Space Odyssey or Roger Vadim’s Barbarella. Which movie was superior? Critics are still fiercely divided on the question (again, please don’t fact check this), but I can tell you one thing: Stanley Kubrick never thought to shoot an entire film inside a lava lamp, which certainly seemed to be Vadim’s ambition.

The real question is: what did Adam and Aidan think of this splashy, groovy, junky, barely coherent but extremely entertaining Matmos of a movie? Listen below, or find us on your podspitter of choice.

a live dog pretending to be a canadian.

Quick: who’s the least Canadian man ever to walk this Earth? Who resolutely refuses to embody a single particle of Canadian-ness? If you answered with Elliott Gould, you’d be right. So who better to portray a mild-mannered Torontonian bank teller who runs afoul of a psychotic criminal, played by Christopher Plummer, aka The Least Criminal Man of All Time?

That’s the main appeal of 1978’s The Silent Partner: watching two co-leads play so against type that the movie transcends its story and becomes a pure cultural object. Listen below as Adam and Aidan get into things, or find us on your podbeast of choice.

once a live dog, always a live dog

The Warriors! The million-meme spawning, reality-adjacent adaptation of a 2,400 year old Greek poem, transformed into a carnivalesque vision of a New York City run by elaborately themed gangs straight out of a Lucy Sante book. Best known these days for David Patrick Kelly’s “Warriors… come out to play-ay-yay” line, The Warriors feels like an elegy for something that never quite existed: an action movie with not much action, a musical that misplaced its score, a dystopia that barely redrew its map.

Come listen to Adam and Aidan as they discuss this weirdo classic. Listen below or find us on your podmachine of choice.

some dead lions think they’re live dogs.

Capitalism! Dream states! The non-narrative oneiric space of fulfillment that may be a train, or it may be the celluloid strip of film itself! Oh yeah, and Tom Cruise is there. Join Adam and Aidan as they break down Paul Brickman’s Risky Business. Listen below or find us on the podcasters of choice.

a live dog discovering that he doesn’t want to be a dead lion.

The year 1983 had its share of radical concepts, but perhaps none pushed the envelope quite like Mr. Mom, which dared to ask: what if a man… took care of his children? The answer, it turns out, is chaos and wackiness. Can a harried Jack Butler (Michael Keaton) figure out which ham to buy? How about keeping track of his kids in a grocery store? When his wife Caroline (Teri Garr) finds gainful employment, will the sexual lopsidedness of the arrangement completely unbalance the marriage? Will Jack ever figure out how to use the vacuum cleaner? So many questions - all of them tackled in this episode of Destroy All Culture. Listen below or find us wherever podcasts roam.

a buncha dead lions.

There’s something I need to clear up before I get to the end of this sentence: Young Guns, the movie, should be called Young People Who Use Guns. I thumbed this bad boy into my VCR, expecting a detailed treatise on the age of every gun shown in the movie (at the very least, a consideration of what constitutes youthfulness in a weapon). Instead, it’s a thoroughly entertaining ‘80s-era take on Billy The Kid? Not what I signed up for when I pulled it from the shelves of The Beta Barn.*

Look, the opening credits show every member of the main cast in closeup, certifying that they are in fact pretty young. Then they shoot their guns. A lot. What are they shooting at? Possibly the horizon. Are the guns themselves young? The movie never answers that fundamental question. A promise to us, the audience, made but never delivered.

We were so shocked by this basic failure of storytelling that we didn’t even address it in our discussion of the movie. We failed you, Young Guns failed you, the gods have turned their faces away in shame. Other than that, though, it was a fun film! Listen below or find us on your podcaster of choice.

*The Beta Barn was a video rental store in my hometown. Not, as it sounds these days, a storage facility for insufficiently masculine farmhands.

two guys destined for a ride to the stars, or maybe just mars.

(in which Adam and Aidan spend some time talking about the prequel to Waldo’s Hawaiian Holiday) (diversions include embarrassing high school anecdotes, soundtrack enthusiasms, and the terror of a man with a disintegrating mind driving endlessly and aimlessly through Los Angeles in a Chevy Malibu, death and transcendence slowly fermenting in his trunk)

a dead lion and a live dog

Upgrading. It’s all anyone’s talking about these days. Some people say you should upgrade, others say you should downgrade. The other day I heard someone make a convincing case that we should all degrade. How about that? People are wild these days, with all the talk about different styles of grading and the most appropriate prefix for the word. Someone came up to me the other day and said, “Mr. Destroyallculture, I like anterograde the best. I can’t help it”. And you know what? I respect someone who enjoys moving forward through time.

I prefer to leave it to the movies to tell me if I should upgrade or not. And let me tell you, Leigh Whannell’s 2018 cyberthriller Upgrade makes a pretty convincing case for not grading at all. Sure, it seems like a pretty good bet at first when you have full control of your body and a voice in your head helping you solve the mystery of your wife’s murder - hell, maybe you’re the protagonist in one of those revenge thrillers that have been so popular over the last decade - but soon you’re made to witness your own body perform a series of horrifically violent acts in the name of satisfying your desires. Maybe, you reflect, you haven’t been upgraded at all. Maybe you’ve been downgraded and consigned to a kind of obsolescence. Darn. Should have stuck to fixing vintage cars and looking like Tom Hardy.

Listen to Adam and Aidan discuss Upgrade below, or find us on your podmachine of choice.

the burden of civilization rests on these live dogs.

What would you do if you woke up to find that 99.9% of life on Earth had turned to red dust, and the only who people who survived were screw-ups, mad scientists and introverts? If you’re one of the Belmont sisters, the answer to that question is shoot guns, go shopping and save children from vampiric scientists. Along the way you’ll learn the value of civilization, or something. Or maybe not.

Night of the Comet is a strange creation, a hybrid of goofy Valley Girl comedy and Omega Man-style apocalyptic thriller. Its appeal and endurance rely on its the way it navigates between genres, ending up as a drama about a sibling relationship that just happens to feature murder-happy zombies and vampiric scientists. Throw in Chakotay from Star Trek Voyager as a love interest and you’ve got yourself a movie.

Listen below or find us on your podmachine of your choice.

schrodinger’s live dog/dead lion

In recent years, the output of ‘90s-era Joel Schumacher has come in for reappraisal. His commitment to a maximalist aesthetic and gonzo production design now looks like auterist camp in comparison to the washed-out frames of digital filmmaking.

Here at the offices of Destroy All Culture, it is our sincerest hope that Flatliners, Schumacher’s gothbrat opera of transgression and redemption, never gets slated for reexamination. Flatliners is an immensely silly movie that features some of the most unintended comedy sequences of all time, including several scenes of Kiefer Sutherland get beaten up by a child.

Here is a partial list of things that Flatliners wants to scare you with:

children
women
children singing nursery rhymes
children with hockey sticks (okay, that one’s legit)
women delivering pickup lines
weird trees
blue lights
oversized American flags

And more! Listen below for an in-depth discussion of the movie, or find it on your podthingy of choice.

eight live dogs.

“I’ll tell you. Nobody handles garbage better than we do.”

Fun fact: if you listened to one episode of Destroy All Culture per day, then you started listening to this podcast exactly one year ago today! One entire year of our voices, piped into your ears on a daily basis. Frankly, we’re a little concerned for your mental health.

Anyway, today we’re talking about the sheer perfection of a movie set in the town of Perfection, Nevada. It’s Tremors, aka the Michael Gross Career Plan. Adam and Aidan talk about the effects, the script, and the ongoing appeal of the creature feature B-movie. Listen below or find us on your podcast machine!

the epitome of a dead lion

It’s the start of what we call Spooky Season in the Destroy All Culture house. To start, Adam and Aidan watched 1987’s The Lost Boys, a movie that launched the careers of Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Patric, as well as instilling the notion of the Coreys as a kind of ‘80s pop gestalt entity. Topics discussed include: Lost Boys as a foundational ‘80s text; the time Aidan went to a Tina Turner concert and saw the oiled-up saxophone guy; the pleasures of seeing Dianne Weist and Edward Herrmann in a movie largely aimed at teens; and whether the whole bit with the Coreys worked.

Adam’s take: Edward Herrmann’s vampire character actually survived this movie and ended up moving to Star’s Hollow.

Aidan’s take: the Surf Nazis did not die in this movie. Instead, they were sent to a post-apocalyptic future where they ruled the wasteland (until they died).

Note: during the podcast, Aidan wonders aloud about the identity of the punk girl who’s briefly seen kissing a rat in the opening montage. According to the 80’s Movie Rewind, the woman is named Carrie Stevens, a regular on the San Cruz punk scene. The rat was named “Rat-rat”.

Welcome to Part Two of our MoviesThat Happen to Star Aaron Eckhart miniseries (MTHtSAE II). Can you picture Aaron Eckhart as a gruff-but-loveable biker? Casting director Margery Simkin and director Stephen Soderbergh sure could! Throw a bandana and some muttonchops on that chiseled face and ta-da: movie magic?

Fortunately for America, Eckhart’s character is not the focus of Erin Brockovich. Instead, we follow Julia Roberts as Brockovich, a working-class single mother who stands up to the stuffy corporate lawyers (yay!) and the obese woman at her workplace (yeah?) and the snippy Black woman at her workplace (uh…) as she bravely fights for a settlement on behalf of victims of corporate pollution (yay again!). Of course, many of the plaintiffs received only a pittance, which is not mentioned in the movie (okay). On the other hand, we get to watch Brockovich being handed a cheque for two million dollars at the end (ffs).

Honestly, this was an exhausting watch, an antiquated bit of proto-girlboss biopic-ery void of tension or dramatic movement after the opening twenty minutes. Soderbergh seems to know this, occasionally building out moments that challenge the protagonist, only to drop it in favour of the next sassy retort or deeply unpleasant insult delivered by a righteous Roberts who loves punching down just as much as up. Brockovich is the only real character in a world of ciphers and foils, and the few characters who assert any agency eventually leave. On the plus side, Roberts and Finney deliver great performances. And there’s that one guy who looks like the most 2000s Mighty Mighty Bosstones fan of all time. We see you.

Look, this is what happens when you let the earth’s magnetic field get out of hand

[Morning at the Destroy All Culture house. Aidan is mumbling in his sleep, his forehead beaded with sweat, his eyeballs swivelling back and forth beneath closed lids. Adam enters.]

ADAM: Aidan, are you okay? What are you saying?

AIDAN: cuh… cuh… orrrre…

ADAM: What’s that? Caw-hor?

AIDAN: cuhhhh…. orrrre…

ADAM: Cuh-or?

AIDAN: Core… core…

ADAM: Core?

[Aidan’s eyelid flip up, his eyes glowing with the fire of Earth’s depths]

AIDAN: Core… core. Core! Core! Core!

ADAM: Core! Core! Core!

ADAM AND AIDAN: CORE! CORE! CORE!

AIDAN: You know, we should talk about 2004’s The Core, starring Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Stanley Tucci, Delroy Lindo, Richard Jenkins and even DJ Qualls.

ADAM: I’ll go put on some coffee.

three live dogs taking a break from slaying lions

Never have there been more references to Saskatchewan in a feature film than 1977’s Slap Shot, a sports fantasia disguising itself as a working-class drama. Listen below or find us on your podcast machine of choice.

Such dead lions, these two.

In 2020, John Patrick Shanley adapted his successful play “Outside Mullingar” to a feature film, with results. Adam and Aidan have different opinions on the nature of those results.

“Because… we live here”.

Is there anyone on Earth who looks less like Apple founder Steve Jobs than Michael Fassbender? Scientifically speaking, no. Researchers have identified several species of paramecia that bear a greater resemblance to Jobs than Fassbender. Nevertheless, Fassbender radiates a kind of blinkered intensity that could only belong to a monomaniac on Jobs’ scale. Pair that with Sorkin’s script and it makes for a surprisingly gripping and focused portrait of obsession. Listen below or find us on your podcaster of choice.

a live dog who should have been a dead lion.

Who would have thought to make a movie about Ray Kroc, a man with the personality of a Big Mac wrapper? The people who made The Founder, I guess.

sigh.

Here’s Adam and Aidan attempting to square their love of Aaron Sorkin with 1995’s The American President, a movie in which Michael Douglas plays the very best president. He’s almost brought low, but he fixes his problems by giving a big impromptu speech at the end, restoring America’s virility in the process. Is this podcast an autopsy? Therapy? Listen below (or find us on your podcatcher of choice) and decide for yourselves.

a dead lion reborn in the body of a live dog

Imagine a world in which Geena Davis became a bad-ass ‘90s action star. The Long Kiss Goodnight is like a dream of that world. And brother, it’s a pretty good dream. Listen below, or find us wherever your podcasts roam free.

four live dogs in a galaxy of dead lions.

One thing in the universe, besides death, is certain: there can be no final form of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The story has existed as a radio play, a series of novels, a television show, and a feature film. The 2005 movie has its defenders (one of whom is named Adam P Knave) and mortal enemies (one of whom is named Aidan Morgan). Listen below as they gently push back at each other’s opinions! If you’re still undecided on the quality of the film, you can go and watch it for yourself - but Aidan would advise against it.

That’s one live dog right there facing off with two virtual lions.

Every so often, a movie comes along that so perfectly embodies the moment of its release that it should be taught in history courses as the purest emanation of a given age. Such a movie is Jason X, a movie so 2001 that Stanley Kubrick is lucky he never lived to see it. A space ship with an interior that looks suspiciously like a Laser Quest franchise, populated by hot people in improbable knitwear getups? Hell yes. It’s the turn of the millennium, people. It’s time to take our horror franchises into space on a reasonable budget. Listen below as Aidan and Adam enjoy the hell out of themselves.

Also, there’s a David Cronenberg cameo. I don’t know what else you want from a movie.

she’s fucked. she’s so fucked.

Spoiler alert: Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) is fucked. She’s so fucked. Michael Clayton (George Clooney) isn’t the guy you kill. He’s the guy you buy. If this movie is about any one thing in particular, beyond the moral abyss of corporations and the ways in which community and meaning will pop up like connected air sacs on a sheet of bubble wrap, it’s about the wisdom of proportionate response. You can’t kill Michael Clayton because his kind is unkillable. He’s an interchangeable part of the machine. And if you don’t get that? If you push the Michael Claytons out of the moral abyss and leave him on the lip, casting his eyes around as he remembers the truth of humanity? Then you’re fucked. You’re so fucked.

It’s time for Three Days of the Condor, Sydney Pollack’s masterpiece of Cold War paranoia, a film which suggests that mild-mannered English majors can hold their own in a cat-and-mouse spy game - if they look like Robert Redford, that is. Listen to Adam and Aidan as they dissect the politics of their childhoods and place bets on how long they’d survive if Max von Sydow tried to murder them.

never has a live dog live dogged more.

Hold on a moment. Did they make a decent Terminator sequel, at long, long last? Well, kind of. It’s largely great! Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger are back, Mackenzie Davis is great as always, Diego Luna makes for a great robot. Even Natalie Reyes, who takes a bit of a back seat in the midst of all this nostalgic star power, acquits herself well.

No amount of quality was going to rescue Terminator: Dark Fate, which tanked at the box office and seemed to hand reactionary fodder over to the Dipshitosphere. Nonetheless, we talk about the highs and lows as the Terminator story draws to a close. Until the next time someone tries to kick at this metallic can. Listen below or find us on your podmachine of choice.

whatever.

Ahahahaha. This movie sucked.

“But,” you ask, “how exactly did it suck? Was it an earnest attempt to reboot the franchise with yet another trilogy-starter? (yes) Was it an egregiously miscast snorefest that tried to hit all points on the graph but somehow missed every single one? (yes) Did it convince you that Skynet is Genisys? (no, Skynet is Matt Smith) Is it a fact in the movie that Sarah Connor’s father used to take her to a concrete bunker under a bridge? (yes) Is that bizarre fact ever explained or explored?” (no)

Glad you asked that very long-winded multi-part question. Listen below for the answers, or find us on your podcast machine of choice.

hello domino’s? Do you deliver to the apocalypse?

Hey! Who wants a new Terminator movie? It’s got everything! It’s got the original T-800… with Arnold’s face CGI’d onto a bodybuilder. It’s got Sarah Connor… on a series of audio cassettes. And it’s got John Connor - in several scenes! Oh, and Kyle Reese pops up. But most importantly, it’s got checks notes fan favourite Marcus Wright, played by Sam Worthington. Who’s Marcus Wright? Oh, I thought you were a real Terminator fan. You could be forgiven for not hearing about Wright, because this is the first time the character’s appeared in the franchise. He’s the main character.

Oh yeah! Terminator Salvation is the story of Marcus Wright, a guy who was sentenced to death before the Machine-Human War but finds himself mysteriously alive in the future. Who is he? Really? Who is Marcus Wright? I hope you’re invested in the answer to that question, because that’s what you’re getting in Terminator Salvation. Listen below or find us on your podcaster of choice.

one lion soon to die, one cyborg, one live dog.

It’s time to answer everyone’s questions about Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Do you have any questions about Terminator 3, aside from Why was this made? and Where’s Linda Hamilton? There’s a small chance we might have the answer. Listen below or find us on your podnabber of choice.

a live dog in a world of soon-to-be-dead lions.

What is there to say at this point about Terminator 2: Judgment Day? That it’s a big ole crowd pleaser that updates the Wallace Beery wrestling pic for the ‘90s? That its florid sentimentality is the key to its success? That it’s a hell of a lot of fun? Maybe there’s nothing more to say, but we spend a solid hour saying it anyway on this week’s podcast. Stick around for the Destroy All Culture definitive ranking of all the Terminator films we’ve watched so far!

Next up: Terminator 3: Rise of the MacHines.

an undead lion.

Welcome to Destroy All Connors!, a DAC mini-series that looks at the Terminator franchise.

One morning in Rome in 1981, James Cameron woke from feverish nightmares. In his dream, a chrome skeleton emerged from flames. He started sketching his dream on hotel stationery. Three years later came The Terminator, a lean and twisty sci-fi horror about a young woman being stalked by a metal nightmare in human skin from the future.

Adam and Aidan talk at length about the movie, including the accusations from Harlan Ellison that Cameron had ripped off an episode of The Outer Limits called “Soldier” (Aidan actually watched the episode in question, and he is here to tell you that Cameron’s movie does not involve a kindly philologist taking in a confused soldier from the future). Listen below or find us on your podcatcher of choice.

something about live dogs and dead lions here. i don’t know.

Before we recorded this podcast, Adam promised to lead with a question that he promised would ruin my enjoyment of the movie. Little did he know that his question would actually UNCOVER THE KEY TO THIS MOVIE’S GREATNESS.

What is it that makes 1992’s Under Siege great? Is it the dolphin in that one shot from the opening sequence? Gary Busey in drag? The movie’s acknowledgment that the ideological void left by the end of the Cold War would be replaced not by a coherent vision of the global order but by hucksters willing to use the language of utopian ideals to cover up their crimes? Is it the idea that Steven Seagal is as good at making bouillabaisse as he is at driving knives through the lymph nodes of mercenaries? Listen below, or find us on your podcatcher of choice, to find out!

whatever.

In every life, some rain must fall. In every movie podcast, a Johnny Dangerously is going to happen. This is the movie that fueled a thousand dirty jokes for 12 year old boys in the ‘80s. Adam and Aidan discuss what works, what doesn’t, and why it was they decided to watch it in the first place. Listen below or find us on your podcatcher of choice.

a couple of dead lions, pictured here as live dogs.

Movie folks like to bang on about how good 1999 and 2007 were for film (it’s me, I’m the folks), but 1991 has to be a contender for the Great Years in Cinema pantheon. Barton Fink? The Fisher King? Hudson Hawk? Hell yes, Hudson Hawk. And of course, Thelma & Louise. 32 years later, this movie is still a banger, and one of Ridley Scott’s best. Listen to Adam and Aidan rant below (or find us on your podcaster of choice).

a couple of live dogs doing… whatever it is they do in this movie.

In 2001, Luc Besson, having conquered the known universe of Eurotainment, turned his eye to the last uncracked nut: the French-Japanese procedural family comedy “what if Chunking Express went insane” co-production. In everyone’s movie library, there’s one that we foist on others in order to initiate them into the circle of cursed viewership. Wasabi is Adam’s cursed movie. Aidan has seen it, and now, he will never be the same. Find us on your podcast of choice or listen below!

a live dog pretending to be (spoilers) a dead lion.

Adam P. Knave once famously described Ronin (1998) as “two car chases dressed up in a movie”. Luckily for all of us, the record button was on when he said it. Less famously, Aidan said “Yeah, yeah - uh - yeah, that’s - um - right”. Also, what was going on with Sean Bean? And the objectively hilarious resolution? What the hell is going on with this movie? Find us on your podcast of choice or listen below!

a live dog, a dead lion, a guy with a sign.

Toys is one of the weirdest mainstream movies of the 1990s. Barry Levinson, known for adult-oriented blockbusters and nostalgic reveries in the ‘80s, made his passion project in 1992, and boy was it a doozy. Toys is a riot of bold design choices, goofy performances and baffling story choices. It’s one of those movies where great and terrible ideas crowd into every scene, insisting on their own logic, until the only sanity-saving response is to throw up your hands and go with it. Also, don’t let Trevor Horn do your soundtrack, people. Listen below or find us on your podcaster of choice.

they are dead. they are robot jox! but they’re also live dogs.

What happens when you finally allow D.J. Kirkbride on the podcast? According to his rider, all Kirkbride appearances must be accompanied by a discussion of Stuart Gordon’s 1989 mecha-magnum opus Robot Jox. Written by Joe Haldeman, Robot Jox is a strange remix of The Iliad, but with robots and vat-grown humans. Would Homer, given the opportunity, have called his epic poem Robot Jox? We think yes. Listen below or find us on your giant mecha podcaster of choice.

why is that hair.

What do you when you’re coming off of a run of excellent films, including the nastiest low-budget crime thriller of the ‘90s and a generational cri de coeur about heroin use and Edinburgh street life? Well, you go a wee bit radge and end up making A Life Less Ordinary. Is it a crime thriller? A rom-com? A thesis on the nature of love? A comedy about angels trying to steer a couple towards true love? Sure, why now. Mostly remembered for Ewan MacGregor’s unflattering haircut and a Claymation ending that wraps up a loose plot point, it’s a fascinating and not uncharming misfire from Danny Boyle and John Hodge. Listen below or find us on your podcaster of choice.

what a live, live dog is this hawk.

What happens when newly-minted superstar Bruce Willis decides to co-write a screenplay? You get… Hudson Hawk, an unhinged live-action cartoon that feels like the spirit of Max Fleischer inhabiting a ‘90s action movie. What the hell is Richard E. Grant doing in this? What is Sandra Bernhard doing? What in god’s name is David Caruso doing? Why does Andie MacDowell spend so much time doing a dolphin impersonation? This freaking movie, man.

Listen below or sing along on your podcatcher of choice as Adam and Aidan shake their collective heads and bask in the over-the-top glory that is Hudson Hawk.

a dead lion singing about live dogs.

Part of the Robert Altman subset of The Random Canon, Nashville may be Robert Altman’s masterpiece. Adam and Aidan barely make a dent in this freewheeling, twang-heavy apotheosis of Altman’s attempt to capture substance through his particular style. Listen below or find us on your podplucker of choice.

the livest and coolest of dogs from strange days (1995).

Hello friends, and welcome to Destroy All Culture, newly conceived as an Angela Bassett stan podcast. From here on out, even when we’re not talking about Bassett’s performance in Strange Days, that will be the subtext.

Nonetheless, there are all sorts of non-Bassett things in Strange Days we’ll be discussing, such as other performances, script, shooting, mise-en-scène, music, and so on. Come with us as Adam tries to calm Aidan down about Angela Bassett. Listen below or find us on your podcaster of choice.

a live dog dealing with a soon-to-be-dead lion.

Welcome to one of Aidan’s favourite ‘80s cult sci-fi films. Also, welcome to an hour of Aidan trying to persuade Adam that The Hidden is a worthy addition to the canon of ‘80s cult sci-fi films. Is he successful? Spoiler alert: sorta.

Unfortunately for Adam, he’s not the one who does these writeups. The Hidden is a weird, rough gem of a movie that packs in gooey alien special effects with a pointed critique of Reagan-era greed and consumerism. You should watch this movie every Christmas with your family.

ADAM [imagined]: This movie was okay but it was derivative and kind of dumb. It looked like the filmmakers wanted to make a Terminator knockoff that was also a Thing knockoff, so I guess they succeeded?

AIDAN: You aren’t the real Adam so I win this argument. The Hidden rules.

ADAM [imagined] Foiled again or something.

AIDAN: Listen below or find us on your podcaster of choice.

now there’s a live dog.

Do you like relentless images of clocks? Are you looking for a movie obsessed with the minute details of printing presses? Are you nostalgic for a time when newspapers had their own printing presses? Are you nostalgic for a time when people read newspapers and didn’t get their worldview from @queefbugler420? If so, may we recommend Ron Howard’s The Paper? It has all these things and more (more meaning Michael Keaton, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close, Randy Quaid, Marisa Tomei, and every character actor ever assembled from the mid ‘90s). Listen below or find us on your podcaster of choice.

one day to be a dead lion, but for now, a live dog.

Get hype! Get ranked! Adam and Aidan are laying out season two of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on the table and sorting them out. It was an astonishingly strong season, but rankings by internet randos are a necessary and brutal process. Which one is best? Which ones didn’t quite work? You will know the definitive answer if you listen below, or find us on your pod emanator of choice.

in matters animal, vegetable and mineral, he is the very model of a modern live dog.

In 1988, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen was released, and the world would never be particularly different afterwards. One of the shaggiest of Terry Gilliam’s shaggy dog stories, the movie gained notoriety for its troubled production and its callous treatment of Sarah Polley. Adam and Aidan go over the highs and lows of one of Aidan’s favourite films from the late ‘80s. Listen below or find us on your podcaster of choice.

dudes rock, 1994

Who can argue with the sublime stupidity of Airheads? Michael Lehmann’s heavy metal update of Dog Day Afternoon (Rod-ney-King! Rod-ney-King!) is certainly not a masterpiece, but there are some inspired moments of goofiness, as well as committed performance from Brendan Fraser. Let’s get a petition for a cut without Michael Richards climbing through the vents in a lame Die Hard parody.

tfw you’re about to hitch a ride on the information superhighway.

In the spring of 1995, Johnny Mnemonic was released on an unready world as a would-be blockbuster. Instead, what the public got was a B-movie with arthouse sensibilities buried under beams of neon and plumes of fog. In 2021, director Robert Longo released a black and white cut of the film, unchanged except for a careful colour grading that turned its clanky ‘90s aesthetic into an alternate future noir. What other movie features a cybernetically enhanced dolphin and Dolph Lundgren as a deranged assassin-monk? No other movie but Johnny Mnemonic. In black and white.

two live dogs, but sometimes you kind of wish albert brooks’ character was a dead lion.

Hollywood loves taking apart the business of moviemaking, but satires on broadcast journalism are relatively scant. But who needs quantity when you’ve got Broadcast News? Holly Hunter, Albert Brooks and William Hurt play the world’s most toxic throuple as the storms of Reagan-era economics start bashing network television news against the rocks. Listen below or find us on your podcatcher of choice, which is a sentene that the characters in Broadcast News* could not imagine saying.

*Okay, it’s a love triangle, not a throuple. Let me have my dreams, people. They’re all I’ve got left.

remember when travolta was cool? i do.

The movie that poured a bottle of Perrier on the Elmore Leonard adaptation drought, Get Shorty is still one of the funniest and sharpest Hollywood satires ever made. Adam and Aidan make a case for why you should stop listening to them and just watch the movie. But if you’re determined to hear our thoughts on the matter, listen below or find us on your Applecaster of choice.

a dead lion and a live dog. or maybe it’s the other way round.

Hey folks! Ever wanted to watch California Split, but you’re barred by law from looking at George Segal’s face? Well, your horse has come in, because Ryan Boden and Anna Fleck made Mississippi Grind for just such an occasion. Adam and Aidan dig into this odd, dreamy character study about two gamblers who team up and head down to Mississippi for the score that will redeem their debts and wipe away all their problems. Just kidding, they can’t escape their problems. They’re their own worst problem. Listen below, or find us in that great Apple Podcast in the sky.

julia roberts wishing she was not in hook (1991)

In 1991, I saw Hook. I did not like it. In 2023, I saw Hook and did not like it again, but with the benefit of 32 years of experience and maturity, I found myself not liking it for different reasons. Despite my undying film snobbery, though, there are genuinely enjoyable moments in this strange tunneling into the anarchic joys of childhood. One thing’s for sure: Dustin Hoffman being mean to children will never get old. Listen below or rustle up an Apple Podcast for yourself.

live dogs, each and every one.

Some movies are perfect. Some movies have the coolest cast ever assembled. Some movies feature a Cray supercomputer hanging out in the background as a piece of set design. Sneakers is one of those movies. Listen below or Apple yourself a Podcasts.

collect call from a dead lion, will you accept the charges? the charges are nuclear apocalypse btw

If your child ever says to you: “Mommy/Daddy, what’s a cult movie?” you can pop out a Blu-ray of Miracle Mile. Like so many other movies we’ve talked about on Destroy All Culture, Miracle Mile largely takes place over the course of a single night, as Harry Washello (Anthony Edwards) attempts to flee the city with the girl of his dreams, Julie Peters (Mare Winningham). Why are they trying to get out? That’s both a spoiler and a twist that turns Miracle Mile from a meet-cute LA rom-com into a dread-soaked nightmare. Or it may just be a misguided tourism video for the La Brea Tar Pits. Who knows? Listen below or do the Apple Podcasts thing you do so well.

tfw you look out the window of the plane and you see a live dog

Nostalgia just isn’t what it used to be. On this week’s episode, Adam and Aidan talk about the strange and brilliant The Rocketeer - a movie that whiffed at the box office but has undergone a critical and popular reappraisal over the years. It’s like Master and Commander, if Russell Crowe had a jetpack and Paul Bettany was a struggling actress. Listen below or find us on Apple Podcasts or, as they say, wherever you get those dadgum things.

one live dog and one dead lion in a movie that valorizes dead lionhood.

For a certain demographic (Gen X and elder millennial men, I suppose), Master and Commander is a source of great pleasure. Maybe it’s the camaraderie between British tars (soaring souls, free as mountain birds etc.), the careful replication of shipboard conditions, the tense naval battles, or the joke about the lesser of two weevils (the best scene in the film by a nautical mile).

Or maybe they enjoy the way Russell Crowe squatted down over this movie and smeared his titanic ego over every frame. Don’t like it? Toe the line, nerd, we’re fighting the French. Listen below or spot us in dense fog with the podscope of your choice.

Live dog, no dead lioning.

Welcome to a lighthearted about a tragically deluded young girl who speaks to an imaginary audience and is clearly in need of institutional hel- WAIT EVERYONE ELSE CAN SEE THAT FOX? WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?

Casual listeners may wonder why two grown men are sitting down to talk about the live-action adaptation of Dora The Explorer. The first reason is that Adam kept assuring Aidan that it was worth watching. The second reason is: this movie is an insidious attack on our basic categories of reality. Dora is not an enthusiastic and slightly unhinged young woman who believes that an unseen audience needs help with basic Spanish; she is an object of imaginative quantum mass that distorts reality around her. Magic temples, musical numbers and talking foxes are all par for the course when she enters the scene. Anyway, listen below or find us on a lost iTune, somewhere in the heart of a dense internet.

the livest dog of all time.

The meta is strong with this one. In Robert Redford’s last feature film, the actor plays Forrest Tucker, an incorrigible bank robber who was known for being polite and charming as he cleaned out regional banks in several US states. Adam and Aidan talk about the parallel tracks of Redford and Tucker’s careers, as well as the way in which director David Lowery dives deep into the mythology of criminality and outlawhs in America. Most importantly, the film features Tom Waits in a supporting role, whose only stipulation for appearing in the film included the opportunity for a Waits-ian monologue. Which he gets. Listen below, or find us on your podmasher of choice.

Once upon a time, God in his lassitude made a John Patrick Shanley. Shanley looked around and called to God.

“What is my purpose?” Shanley asked.

“Go make movies, Shanley,” God said, shooing Shanley away.

“What?” Shanley said. “You created me to make movies and left me alone in this desolate universe? Just for that, I’ll make the most annoying, uneven, perversely enjoyable movies the world has ever seen!”

“Yeah, you do that,” God said. “I’m just making Pogs. Ha ha, Pogs”.

So Shanley made Joe vs The Volcano. One day God will watch it and perceive the magnitude of His folly.

charlie cale, the very definition of a live dog.

Just when you thought that television had become a junk yard of reality shows and prestige dramas, along come Rian Johnson and Natasha Lyonne with Poker Face. Adam and Aidan rank all ten episodes from season one. Listen below! Or, you know, find us on a podgregator of your choosing.

live dogs dancing on a dead lion

Fame! If you want to live forever/learn how to fly/feel it coming together/invoke tears in all who spot your approach, watch Alan Parker’s 1980 flick about students hustling and emoting their way through school. Listen below or locate us on your iTuner of choice.

now there’s a live dog.

Sooner or later, every Robert Altman fan has to come to terms with Popeye, the shambling edifice that sent Altman into Hollywood purgatory for the next decade. Adam and Aidan do a deep dive on the film, taking pratfalls and opening cans of spinach along the way. Listen below or find us on your podcatcher of choice.

four dead lions.

In 1996, Tom Hanks wrote and directed That Thing You Do! and the world would never be the same. For example, after 1996 you could refer to That Thing You Do! and not be accused of travelling to Earth from an alternate, Thing-You-Do-having dimension. Finally, Earth-Prime could lay claim to this charming tale of four Midwestern lads and their brief taste of fame.

Adam and Aidan review and discuss the highlights and peculiarities of That Thing You Do! - its insanely catchy tune, the best and most enduring part of the film; the joyful moment when The Wonders first hear their single on the radio; the peculiar lack of real conflict beyond the increasingly dull task of being a mid-tier music act in the ‘60s; and the deadly moment at the end, when Lamarr (Obba Babatundé) looks into the camera.

Lamarr, the only live dog in the movie.

Come on, Tom. Anyway, listen below or find us on your podcaster of choice!

Lori Petty in 1995’s tank girl (not pictured: a mutant colony of live dogs etc.)

In a just universe, Tank Girl was the movie that turned Lori Petty and into a massive star and Rachel Talalay into a big-budget movie director. Instead, we have to make do with this broken world, where the movie limped to screens in a cut so butchered that it often failed to make sense. Still, there’s plenty to love in what we get, from gonzo set pieces and animated interludes to Petty’s Looney Tunes performance. Are there any pretentious reviews out there calling her a distaff Mad Max? If not, you heard it here first. Listen below or find us on your podcaster of choice.

Dolph lundgren as he-man, the ultimate live dog.

By a large, Destroy All Culture hews to a certain standard in the films we cover. Qualified successes, neglected masterpieces, ambitious failures - that’s where we live.

Well never mind all that, because this episode dives into 1987’s Masters of the Universe. With the exception of Frank Langella’s interpretation of Skeletor as a skull-faced Richard III, this is a fiasco from top to bottom. But it’s unaccountably fun to watch and discuss. Listen below or find us on your podcaster of choice.

If ever there were a movie about a live dog (with a missing cat), this is it.

You fools! You thought Adam and Aidan were done with Robert Altman films, but no: we’ve only just begun. Altman’s take on Philip Marlowe feels strangely true to California noir: drenched in light, addled by sunstroke and nonchalantly shrugging off betrayal and doom as just another day in Los Angeles. As always, listen below or find us where you may.

if the sight of jeff goldblum in full tom mix gear doesn’t convince you to watch this movie, i don’t know what to tell you.

I don’t know what to say about The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension that the header image can’t already tell you. Okay, let’s try this: genius scientist-rock star-martial arts master-experimental car driver-god among men Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) breaks into the 8th dimension, setting off a chain of events involving warring alien civilizations. In the meantime, there’s romance, action, an unexplained watermelon, a copious mashup of Orson Welles, Thomas Pynchon and old Doc Savage comics, and a set of kickin’ costumes. Listen below or podcatch us where you may.

Daniel craig as a seersucker-sporting live dog in glass onion

In this house - the house that Adam and Aidan built, a slow-moving juggernaut that slowly rolls over every piece of culture in its path, grinding it to podcast paste - we stan Rian Johnson, from Brick and Brothers Bloom all the way through to The Last Jedi and Poker Face. So it is with Knives Out and now Glass Onion, his second in the Benoit Blanc mystery series. If you didn’t enjoy Glass Onion or think it’s an uncertain follow-up to Knives Out, you will find little purchase on the obsidian slopes of our commentary. But hey! If you’re a fan of the movie and you want to hear your good friends Adam and Aidan discuss their enjoyment of the piece, listen below or find us on your iTuner of choice.

Before we get started, let me say one thing: actually, let it be two things: or maybe three things: one, Eric Robert’s hair reached its peak volume and glory in this movie; two, Adam picked this one and Aidan had nothing to do with it; three, Best of the Best is eye-wateringly bad, but it’s impossible to tear your eyes away from the damn thing. It never wavers from its mission, which is to tell the heart-stirring story of a ragtag team of American fighters going up against the Korean Tae Kwon Do team for honour and glory.

Not a single awful second is wasted in its dedication to telling the story of Alex Grady (Eric Roberts), a disgraced fighter who has one shot at restoring his former glory. Except it’s also the story of Tommy Lee (Phillip Rhee), who needs to overcome his most painful memories and defeat a) the leader of the Korean team and b) his inner demons. Pick a movie, ya freaking movie! You know what, two stories is fine. Especially if Eric Roberts kicks a man in the face. Which he does. Repeatedly.

Unfortunately, no one in Best of the Best appeared in any episodes of The Equalizer or Spencer: For Hire. We regret the vagaries of fate.

As followers of the Random Canon already know, Adam and Aidan are fans of strange ‘80s-era films in which dissatisfied protagonists angle their way out of the stultifications of adulthood by vanishing into the NYC demi-monde for a night or two. I mean, who doesn’t want to pick up and hit the road with Melanie Griffith’s Lulu, as Jeff Daniels does in Something Wild? Who doesn’t want to go on an impromptu date with Rosanna Arquette’s Marcy, as Griffin Dunne impulsively decides to do in After Hours? And if you’re a desperate, Susan-seeking Rosanna Arquette, why wouldn’t you want to swap places with a pre-fame Madonna and fall in love with Aidan Quinn? I tell you, life is sweet and the people are hot in Koch’s New York.

Directed by Susan Seidelman and written by Leora Barish, Desperately Seeking Susan may be one of the most entertaining and zippy movies of the ‘80s, a screwball comedy dragged through the gutters and dance clubs of the city. As a bonus the movie also stars the long-necked and lambent-eyed Robert Joy, who would go on to have a recurring role in The Equalizer.

a live dog (bryan brown) razzes a dead lion (cliff de young).

It’s F/X time! It’s murder time, but the murder is by illusion! Do you want to watch a hunky Australian visual effects supervisor (Bryan Brown) solve a crime with… F/X? Then we have the movie for you. Listen below or find us on your podcatcher of choice.

very much a dead lion, wondering if there’s time to apply for dead dog status.

In this week’s Random Canon episode, Adam and Aidan discuss a mutual favourite. Shallow Grave is a sharp-toothed neo noir film about three roommates (Christopher Eccleston, Kerry Fox, Ewen McGregor) who take on a new renter and discover a host of complications. And then there’s the matter of Cameron. Listen to the ensuing discussion below or find us on your podthingy of choice.

two dead lions, seen here as live dogs.

It turns out that Ford v Ferrari (2019), James Mangold's dramatization of the historic feud between Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari, is not part of the Snyderverse, and Aidan was naive to take Adam at his word. Nonetheless, a stirring film. Adam and Aidan discuss the ways in which the film embellishes and comments on the historical events of the movie. And they talk about all the other stuff they like. For once, they do not get sidetracked by snacks or Tom Waits.

Listen below, or find us on your iTuner of choice.

Along with After Hours and Into the Night (both previously covered), Something Wild is part of the strange voyeuristic subgenre of ‘80s films that pushes an average working Joe into a demimonde of crime and/or light kink (other entries include Blue Velvet and Desperately Seeking Susan). Listen to the live dog below or find us on your dead lion of choice.

This week’s entry in the random canon is California Split, Robert Altman’s exploration of addiction, friendship and co-dependency. Come for Gould’s antics, stay for George Segal’s sad sack portrayal of a man whose greatest joy is slowly corroding his life away. Listen below or find us on your podcaster of choice.

Here’s a question: What if Memento, that cognitively scrambled threnody of guilt and responsibility and shirtless Guy Pearce, had been a character study of alienation and loneliness (also guilt and responsibility) without the narrative gimmicks? But with Joseph Gordon-Levitt? If you haven’t given up on these sentences yet, I’ll tell you: you’d get Scott Frank’s The Lookout (2007), an underrated film about a young man (Gordon-Levitt) with brain damage who falls under the influence of local criminal Gary Spargo (a hella sleazy Matthew Goode). On the other side of the moral equation is Lewis (Jeff Daniels), his roommate and friend (although shepherd might be a better word for their relationship.

For those familiar with Scott Frank’s screenplays (Out of Sight, Minority Report, The Wolverine, Logan) the spiritual terrain of The Lookout is quickly recognizable: an alienated male protagonist struggling to stay on the right path but always veering off into tangled brush. The Lookout is Frank’s feature directorial debut, and it is clear that he’s wresting with a deceptively difficult screenplay, sometimes stumbling into the woods himself. It may not quite stand up as an overlooked classic, but it’s a melancholy and tight take on the heist genre.

Listen below as Adam and Aidan discuss what works and what doesn’t in The Lookout, or find us on your podauger of choice.

Greetings! Adam and Aidan, late of Pablo Fanques Fair (What a scene!), discuss Greg Mottola’s Confess, Fletch (2022), the third movie adaption from Gregory McDonald’s Fletch novels. Most people remember Chevy Chase’s ‘80s run at the character, with the slapsticky but enjoyable Fletch (1985) and the not-so-enjoyable Fletch Lives (1989). In place of Chase, Jon Hamm takes up the role of Irwin M. Fletcher, turning in a version of the character who bears a much closer resemblance to McDonald’s novels, albeit a bit older.

Did Adam and Aidan enjoy Confess, Fletch? Why yes they did. If you’re interested in the particulars of their enjoyment, as well as a general discussion on the Fletch run in print and on screen, listen below or find it on your podmachine of choice.

Also released under the baffling but evocative title The Salute of the Jugger, this is the strangest post-apocalyptic sports movie you’ll ever see. Rutger Hauer, Joan Chen and Vincent D’onofrio star in this tale of ambition, despair and beating people up over a dog’s skull. John Kenneth Muir called it “the Rocky of the dystopian genre,” and that’s about the best capsule summary you can get.

Adam and Aidan talk about its resemblances to Mad Max, the intricacies of The Game and its players (known as Juggers), and the elusive extended cut that adds several context-changing minutes at the end of the film. So skip your Rollerball. Do not go Beyond Thunderdome. And toss that ancient VHS copy of Robot Jox. The Blood of Heroes is here to kick your legs out from under you, whip you with a chain and steal your dog skull from your very hands. Listen below or find us on your podcast thingy of choice.

Whatever happened to chivalry? Does it only exist in 80's movies? I want John Cusack holding a boombox outside my window. I wanna ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey. I want Jake from Sixteen Candles waiting outside the church for me. I want Judd Nelson thrusting his fist into the air because he knows he got me.

What happens when the greatest aspiration of your adolescent life is to exist inside a teen movie? I suppose the answer lies in Easy A, the whip-smart star vehicle for Emma Stone. Adam and Aidan are pumping their fists and riding off on a lawnmower with this movie. Listen below, or, you know, iTunes us.

When Orson Welles finally left the studio system, he left (or was pushed) with a splash. Touch of Evil (1958) is the beautifully directed but kind of nonsensical story of a brown-daubed Charlton Heston and a padded Orson Welles in a tale of murder, sleaze and corruption on the Mexican-American border. Among its many charms is a truly gonzo performance from Dennis Weaver as a night desk clerk. Listen below or find us on your podmasher of choice!

Call it an organic 404. This episode, in which we talked at great length and great enthusiasm about A League of Their Own, has vanished. The connection interrupted, the audio forgotten, the record incomplete. Say, why don’t you go watch A League of Their Own on Prime Video? It’s fantastic!

Brendan Fraser and Monkeybone in Monkeybone (2001)

Let’s be clear: you don’t really watch Monkeybone. You sift through it, looking for the good movie buried under layers of bad editing choices and studio nonsense. In other words, it’s perfect for a podcast post-mortem. Listen below or find us at your podmill of choice.

D.E.B.S.! How is a movie that features a (misunderstood) villain named Lucy Diamond, a tartan force field (that matches the stars’ skirts) and a completely unmotivated lip synch scene to an Erasure song not a huge cult classic? Angela Robinson’s campy lesbian romance features ridiculous props, an even more ridiculous plot, and rarest of all for a lesbian movie, a happy ending. More movies like this, please. Llisten below or track us down on your podscatterer of choice.

They can’t all be hits. Or even particularly good. Aside from a brief appearance by David Bowie as a sleazy assassin, John Landis’ Into the Night is an unpleasant and slapdash affair. Jeff Goldblum delivers a career-worst performance, and a series of cameos from Landis’ director buddies fails to liven up the proceedings. On the other hand, it makes for an interesting counterpoint to Scorsese’s After Hours, in which a harried man in an unfulfilling job follows an alluring woman into a bizarre adventure.

Are either films as thrilling an adventure as listening to Adam and Aidan talking about them for an hour? Only one way to find out! Listen below or find us on your podcatcher of choice.

In 1979, Walt Disney Productions put the last nail in the lid of ‘70s science fiction with The Black Hole, a bombastic and misguided attempt on Disney’s part to shift gears from chintzy kid’s fare to more adult-oriented genre entertainment. 43 years later, Adam and Aidan refresh their memories and watch it again. Why, you ask. Why. Because suffering is its own form of pleasure.

Listen below, or find us on your podcaster of choice.

Some months ago, when Adam proposed to Aidan that DAC shift its format to do regular deep dives into movies, Aidan could not have known that it was all part of Adam’s diabolical plan to have someone else end up watching The January Man.

Possibly one of the weirdest but most entertaining misfires* in cinema, The January Man stars Kevin Kline as a disgraced NYPD lieutenant brought back into the fold in order to catch a serial killer. The movie features one of the most over-the-top performances of all time from Rod Steiger, who looks confusingly like Carol O’Connor here. Why does he look so much like Carol O’Connor? And why is he screaming at Danny Aiello? These are the real mysteries of The January Man.

It’s a serial killer mystery that doesn’t care about the killer, a romantic comedy completely cynical about romance, a political corruption story that gets sidelined for a family drama that gets sidelined for a wacky tale of boho misfits solving crimes. It’s The January Man and it’s a hell of a lot of fun. Listen below! Or podcast us of choice.

*Adam may contend that The January Man is not a misfire, but Aidan writes these summaries, so too bad.

It’s time to talk about Star Trek: Strange New Worlds! One of our favourite seasons of television comes to a close, which is sad, but it gives Adam and Aidan an opportunity to talk about it. It’s great until Aidan starts complaining about Star Trek and Star Wars fandom. Hoo boy. Fortunately, Adam rescues the episode from the rant corral by guiding it into the wider pastures of the differing natures of Trek and Wars fandoms. Speculations and hypotheses abound! So go on and listen below or podcatch it, choice-wise.

Can you believe that After Hours, Martin Scorsese’s offbeat arty comedy of absurdist dread, is not one of Adam’s favourite movies? Aidan can’t believe it, and spends an hour haranguing Adam for his failure of taste.

Just kidding! Aidan turns out be very understanding - and, truth be told, he found After Hours a little less satisfying in 2022 than he did when he was impressionable teen in the mid-’80s. But it still feels like a refreshing dip into a different sort of film for Scorsese, who was grappling with career and studio issues at the time and decided to go for broke with this tale of a Manhattan word processor who spends one chaotic night in the wrong neighborhood. Listen below or podcatch it of choice.

On this episode, Adam and Aidan go on the hunt for Dr. Strange, finding him in - where else? - Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness! What do they think of this one? Is it, you know, good? How does the Raimi of it all factor in to the storytelling? Did they respect Wanda Maximoff’s arc from Wandavision, or did they decide that the only acceptable story for the Scarlet Witch is to turn her into a baby-crazy villain? So many questions.

As always, listen below or find us your iTunes of choice!

A stranger comes to town and invites the men at the saloon to play a round of cards. At a later point, he’s running through deep snow, hunting hired assassins as the local church burns.

If you recognized the opening and closing scenes of Robert Altman’s MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER (1971), you’re the kind of person who’ll enjoy Adam and Aidan’s Random Films, a biweekly feature in which the hosts discuss a film plucked out of their heads and nailed to the chopping block for their inspection. Listen below or on your iTunes of choice.

Finally! Adam has watched Everything Everywhere All At Once, and now we can talk about it. Unfortunately, Aidan’s audio is extremely tinny and the quality of sound does not improve his mumblecore delivery. What are you going to do? Why, listen to Destroy All Culture. Natch.

Aidan watched Morbius, or as he calls “flop sweat in the shape of a movie”. Adam watched the original Top Gun. Plus: cognitive dissonance and Stranger Things, plus nonsensical MCU discourse,

On this week’s episode, Adam and Aidan discuss the impending end of the Arrowverse (but will this place become a Gotham Knights stan site? No) and wonder what could possibly come next. We also have a spoiler-free talk about Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and the second episode of Strange New Worlds. En. Joy.

Listen below or find us on your steampunk podcast machine of choice!

Greetings! On episode 265, Adam and Aidan talk about Ncuti Gatwa, Russell Davies and all things Who. Adam embarks on a Legends of Tomorrow rewatch. Aidan reflects on the curiously unsatisfying (for him) Moon Knight. Plus a Superman and Lois mid-season cliffhanger!

But really, we’re here to talk about the premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Was it exactly the Trek Adam and Aidan wanted? Listen to find out. Download below or find us on your iTunes of choice.

Greetings. Please take [a seat]. You are about to listen to [Eternal Void]. On today’s episode, Adam and Aidan discuss: the combined silliness and darkness of Legends of Tomorrow as epitomized by the fake hair on Robo-Nate’s fake arms, plus a brief history of Booster Gold; the relationship between Bizarro and the comedy-horror dimension of Superman; and the perfect bingeability of Amazon Prime’s Reacher. Listen below or Apple Podcasts us wherever you catch your pods of choice.

Wait, why is this the Rip van Winkle episode? You’ll have to listen to find out! And even then, you may not understand. Don’t worry about it. It’s fine. Plus, you get to hear Adam and Aidan opine on: the concept of the fixed point in time in Legends of Tomorrow (as well as the thoroughly absurd Time Bar); the use of Doomsday and Bizarro in Superman and Lois; the issues of late-run sitcoms as they present themselves in seasons 4-6 of Parks & Recreation; and the merits of 4400, the The 4400 reboot. Listen below, or Apple Podcasts us of choice!

Hello! It’s one of those, whadyacallim, episodes of Destroy All Culture. In this week’s episode, a discussion of Legends of Tomorrow pivots to a discussion of early reality television. Also on the docket: Naomi, Superman & Lois, Peacemaker and the comics history of Matter Eater Lad. Listen below or iTunes on your podcaster of choice.

What’s Adam’s take on Eternals? Refer to the title of this episode. Along with a discussion of The Eternals, Adam and Aidan go over the first three episodes of Peacemaker and the ‘80s action throwback parody episode of Legends of Tomorrow. Listen below or on your iTunes of choice.

Do you ever get the feeling that you’re caught in a time loop? Perhaps one in which you’re doomed to live out your days listening to episodes of Destroy All Culture? Well now you can replicate that sensation with over 250 episodes of the podcast! Yowza.

In this episode, Adam and Aidan talk about season six of The Expanse, the Doctor Who New Year episode, the comic greatness of Betty White, the meaning of Star Trek: Discovery, and the enjoyable hollowness of The Book of Boba Fett. Listen below or find us on your iTunes of choice.

Not many things make it to 250, folks. Some trees, a few lucky turtles (I think), and various rocks. Well, you can add Destroy All Culture to that august list. To mark our 250th episode, we talk about The Expanse, Hawkeye and all sorts of good things. Listen below or find us on a podcaster of choice.

On this week’s Destroy All Culture, Adam and Aidan talk about adaptations of the many cherished bits and pieces of science fiction from our childhoods. Is this wave of adaptations a good thing? Or - and hear us out here - is it a bad thing? Or more to the point, how do we handle material with clearly outdated ideas on politics, gender and so on? Do we want to see a mini-series based on, say, a late-period Heinlein novel? An extended Thomas Disch rant? But here we go: Asimov’s Foundation novels, which seem completely adaptation-proof, have been adapted.

On episode 240 of DAC, Adam and Aidan ponder the transformation of Jared Leto from actor to Obnoxiously Serious Actor. Do we mention Morbius? No we do not. Also on the table: the new Matrix Resurrections trailer and the experience of watching the first three Matrices. Plus a quick discussion of the season six finale of Legends of Tomorrow.

Adam recommends Centaurworld to Aidan, describing it as a “bag of weirdness the likes of which I’ve never seen”. Adam then recommends Heathen Chaos Potato Chips, with its panoply of three strange flavours. Aidan delivers a riposte with his experience of Herr’s Carolina Reaper Cheese Curls. After that, who wants to hear Aidan’s review of Shang-Chi? You do! We hope.

Adam and Aidan spend a few minutes discussing @m@z0n’s infuriating habit of sending you emails advertising the thing you just bought. Then it’s onto more Brooklyn Nine Nine, a little bit of Superman and Lois, and a middling episode of Stargirl. Listen below or get us on that Apple Podcaster.

Oh hey! The final season of Brooklyn Nine Nine is upon us. Adam and Aidan discuss the first episode and how it attempts to balance the demands of a workplace comedy with reflecting the general ACAB-ishness of the world. Also, predictions for Matt Ryan’s Constantine on Legends of Tomorrow. Plus more! MORE! Listen below or find us wandering around the hallways of Apple Podcasts.

Welcome to episode 236 of Destroy All Culture. This is the The Suicide Squad entry. Did Adam and Aidan enjoy it? Soooort of. We have complicated feelings, which we attempt to unpack. Then Aidan starts complaining about an old episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles for some reason. Someone get him a soda or something. Listen below or find us on the iTunes!

Here’s episode 235 of Destroy All Culture. Adam is putting Flash on notice. Superman and Lois continues to crush it on the way to the finale. Ted Lasso’s second season has started to land. Listen below or find us on an iTunes!

Gundpowder Milkshake? Gunpowder Milkshake. Adam liked it, Aidan… sort of liked it? We say amusing and witty things about the ridiculous Netflix action flick. We also talk about Flash, Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, Loki and Legends of Tomorrow. Find us on iTunes or listen below!

Is it Leverage: Redemption time? Yes it is. It is Leverage: Redemption time. As Metallica says, nothing else matters. Find us on iTunes or listen below!

We have arrived at episode four of Loki, the uncertain point of the series when the balance of quality could fall one way or the other. Adam also talks about The Fast and The Furious saga, but there’s a 70% chance at any given moment that Adam is talking about the Fast and Furious movies. Find us on iTunes or listen below!

On this week’s podcast: a discussion of the weird group dynamics in Legends of Tomorrow and other “found family” stories. Plus Superman and Lois, cosmic Marvel and more.

Just what is wrong with In The Heights? What’s wrong with it? Adam will tell you the one detail about the otherwise excellent movie that bugs him. And that’s just the first few minutes! Plus: Cisco’s exit from The Flash, Aidan’s meta-theory about Loki, and more. MORE! Listen below or find us on an iTunes.

It’s a ‘sode! Of Destroy All Culture! What more can I tell you? Flash, Superman and Lois, Legends of Tomorrow, the leaked Powerpuff Girls script, Cruella and the Disney Villain Syndrome, The Bad Batch and more. Listen below or find us on your iTuner of choice!

This week: the weirdness of living in the liminal space (ooh) of the not-quite-post-pandemic. Also, ghost pepper marinade. Oh, and Army of the Dead. Can’t forget that.

Given all of the things we can’t forget, why not memorialize it by listening to our podcast below. You can also find us on your podmulcher of choice.

On this week’s Destroy All Culture: spicy snack foods, Legends of Tomorrow and a sampling of all the stuff we love. Listen below or track us down on your podmaker of choice.

This week on Destroy All Culture, the Adam/Aidan entity discusses the pleasures of The Mitchells vs. The Machines and the new season of Legends of Tomorrow. Plus we talk about the careful analysis of subway safety in the season finale of Invincible. Listen below or find us on your podcast shedder of choice.

It’s an episode of Destroy All Culture! I know, I can’t believe it either. Adam explains the plot of the new Mortal Kombat movie and it’s probably a better experience than watching it. And somehow we talk about Millennium? Also: Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Invincible and more. Listen below or podcast us of choice.

On this week’s Destroy All Culture, Adam and Aidan recall the days of seeing actual ads on television, and how neither of us see television commercials anymore - unless we’re in a hotel. Also: how to abuse TouchTunes. In the meantime, we also discuss the new crop of CW shows, the new Fast and Furious trailer (this one is about family?) and the brutal fun of Nobody. Listen below or find us your Podcast-o-matic of choice.

Look at us, trucking along in the face of overwhelming odds! In this week’s Destroy All Culture, Adam and Aidan discuss Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the Kung Fu reboot, the series finale of Wynonna Earp and the tangled history of The Empty Man*. Listen below, or find us on your Podcast Machine of choice.

Welcome to another episode of Destroy All Culture! Is there no end to these things? No there is not. Enjoy! Listen below or find us on your iTunes of choice.

Greetings! On this week’s podcast, Adam and Aidan discuss the relationship between Amazon’s Invincible series and the original comics run; plus, the reception of Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Sean T. Collins’ kaleidoscopic work of film criticism, Pain Don’t Hurt. Is it an endless exegesis of Patrick Swayze’s Road House? Yes it is. Listen below or find us on your iTunes of choice.

Well okay! The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has finally popped up on our Disney Pluses! And we discuss Zack Snyder’s Justice League, or “four hours of slow motion fuckin hot dogs,” as Adam puts it. Listen below or hunt us down where the iTunes roam.

Look, we’re trying to watch the new season of Riverdale, okay? We’re trying. But Riverdale, you make it difficult. And weird. Also discussed: Superman and Lois, Pacific Rim: The Black, and Adam’s rewatch of The Magicians. Listen below, or find us on your iTunes of choice.

Wandavision! Superman and Lois! The Tom Waits Cheetos story! It’s all here on Destroy All Culture. Listen below or download on your iTunes of choice.

In the run-up to Zack Snyder’s Justice League, we ponder the mysteries of the movie’s aspect ratio, followed by a discussion of Wandavision episodes 6 and 7, and Batwoman episodes 3 and 4. Aidan talks about I Care a Lot and Palm Springs; and Adam has seen Mythic Quest. So many items of note! Come note these items with us. Listen below or find us on your iTunes of choice.

The Expanse is over for another season! Adam is sad. Aidan is sad. Together they process their grief. Also, a new season of Riverdale starts! Adam and Aidan process their grief again.

Nothing yet.

Adam is not a huge fan of Batwoman, even with the new Batwoman in place. He doesn’t even like the costume addition of a “Hello my name is Batwoman” name tag. But! He enjoyed episodes 1-4 of Wandavision. So did Aidan. We all like a bit of Wandavision of a Friday and its meta-games. Also discussed: Schmack Schmyder’s Schmutice Schmeague, episodes 5.07-5.08 of The Expanse, Batman: Soul of the Dragon, Locked Down and 1986’s The Mosquito Coast.

Adam and Aidan ruminate on Disney’s long game. All Marvel, all Star Wars, almost no original IP. Plus, they rank the Marvel and Star Wars announcements based on their levels of excitement. Exciting! Listen below or find us on your iTunes of choice.

Hey folks, here you go, it’s a podcast, it’s a fragment out of the recent past, it’s a crystallized moment from late 2020, it’s a time capsule, it’s two guys talking about Star Trek. Also, a discussion on how to produce a weekly radio play in the age of physical distancing. And as a bonus, Adam is on a Supernatural rewatch. Listen below or find us on iTunes.

Adam doesn’t watch himself any Mandalorian, but Aidan does. And Aidan rambles on about the Ahsoka Tano episode, saying a whole lot of pretty obvious stuff, which Adam graciously entertains. Geez Aidan.

Anyway, after Aidan gets that out of his system, they talk about Star Trek: Discovery, Billie Piper’s panic-inducing series I Hate Suzie, and - and! - Hulu’s melancholy holiday delight, Happiest Season.

Supernatural is over, we watched the finale, and we have opinions. We’re dying, people. Tell us it’s okay.

But! After we wrangle out a discussion on the finale, we rank our personal top five favourite episodes of Supernatural around 45 minutes in. Listen below or find us on iTunes.

In this week’s Destroy All Culture: Adam returns clothing, Aidan commiserates. Adam tries to navigate Apple TV; Aidan commiserates. Other topics: fighting God (and winning!) in Supernatural; the joys of Ted Lasso; the weirdness of watching William Burroughs trying to shove a very stoned Terry Southern into an orgone box; and a bit of talk about Star Trek: Discovery and the unwholesome appetites of Baby Yoda on The Mandalorian. Listen below or find us on iTunes!

Here it is! The new intro. Just listen.

Anyway, welcome to Destroy All Culture, where we talk about Muppet memes, the episode of Supernatural with the infamous Castiel/Dean scene and the first two seasons of Star Trek: Discovery. In the back half, Aidan gets spooky and discusses the finale of Helstrom, BBC’s Ghostwatch and the saddest horror film in the world, Lake Mungo. Listen below or find us on the iTunes of your choice.

Seriously. We talk much too long about Fawlty Towers remakes (at least three) and Golden Girls spinoff series. Plus: a middling final season Supernatural episode leads into a talk about what constitutes a decent episode of Supernatural; a quick talk about late season one Star Trek: Discovery; and finally, Aidan compares the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit with the Walter Tevis novel, which he read before it was cool, and finds the series compelling but wanting.

INT DAY Destroy All Culture headquarters. ADAM and AIDAN are walking down an endless hallway.

ADAM: Hey, it’s episode 202 of Destroy All Culture.

AIDAN: What happened to -

ADAM: Don’t ask.

AIDAN: - to ep 201?

ADAM: I said don’t ask.

AIDAN: I’m asking anyway.

ADAM: The boys in the back messed up.

AIDAN: Figures.

ADAM: How’s that?

AIDAN: I figure.

ADAM: Can’t argue with that.

AIDAN: What’s up with episode 202?

ADAM: Sorkin, that’s what’s up. The West Wing reunion, the Trial of the Chicago 7 -

AIDAN: DONNA!

ADAM: Where?

AIDAN: Sorry, it was a pony.

ADAM: [20 minute monologue about everything that’s wrong with America]

AIDAN: Okay, but listen to the episode below. Or find us on iTunes!

Welcome to the 200th episode of Destroy All Culture! When you get to the 200th instalment of anything (podcast, hot tub payment, obscure sex act), it’s time to reflect, look back and evaluate. We at Destroy All Culture are having none of that. Instead we carry on as usual. This time we discuss season 2 of The Boys, the enduring joys of Halt and Catch Fire, and all kinds of everything. Listen below or find us on your iTunes of choice.

Here in DACland, we’ve officially reached the comfort viewing stage of the pandemic. Sure, we talk about mid-season Lovecraft Country and The Boys, but things get going when we discuss the kind of shows we like to watch as summer closes and the world stumbles into another wave of infections. Aidan discusses the wholesomeness of The Junior Baking Show and the Grand Guignol ending of Breaking Bad. Adam talks about the Whitney Cummings-Bill Lawrence that runs from Whitney to Undateable to Ground Floor. And Young Justice, which does not appear to be related to Bill Lawrence in any way, but we’re researching the matter.

Welcome to episode 198 of Destroy All Culture, where Adam and Aidan are weirdly obsessed with the future. What if Mulan were set in space in the 22nd century? How do Bill and Ted navigate the future, and why did they do it better than Nolan’s Tenet? Why does the far-future scenario of Raised By Wolves feel like it could be set in medieval Europe? And so on. Also, a discussion of The Boys’ white supremacy problem and a chat about the first three episodes of Lovecraft Country. Listen below or find us on your iTunes of choice.

In which Adam and Aidan discuss the ultimate generation-defining pop culture moment of 2020: Watching Bill and Ted Face the Music (which was excellent), then checking Twitter for other people’s reactions only to find out that Chadwick Boseman had died. Which was not excellent.

Content warning: Justice League trailer discussion. Aidan can’t stop talking about the sex scene from the Watchmen movie.

THE DCpocalypse/Fandome is upon us, and Adam and Aidan are gonna talk about it. They’re gonna! You can’t stop them! Unless you drive to their heavily guarded compound in the Carpathian mountains, sneak past the robot janitors, dodge the dogs and steal the shark coochie boards. If you take their shark coochie, Adam and Aidan will be too hungry to continue podcasting.

Anyway, give us a listen as we also discuss the finale of Stargirl, the Kyoshi novels, the end of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Wynonna Earp. Listen below or hunt us down on your iTunes of choice.

Do you sometimes wish the co-hosts of your favourite podcast (this one) would stop going on about genre entertainment and go on about home renos gone wrong? Because that’s how we start this one out. But don’t worry, we get to the genre media fairly quickly. Doom Patrol finale! Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.! Wynonna Earp! Star Trek: Lower Decks (is better than Star Trek: Picard)! Plus Aidan revisits season one of Twin Peaks, Adam recommends Netflix’s new Transformers series and Aidan goes on a rant about the mean-spirited reaction to The Last of Us Part II. Give us a listen below or find us on your iTunes of choice.

Welcome to episode 193 of Destroy All Culture, in which Adam explains to Aidan what a SMOF is. Aidan is mildly horrified. The discussion moves from there to an explanation of the economics of conventions and the fraught relationship between hotels and cons. Plus Doom Patrol and the new season of Wynonna Earp.

Hello. This is an episode of Destroy All Culture. Today we’re discussing the nexus between Constantine and Keanu Reeves; the nexus between time loop episodes and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D; and the nexus between deaths on genre television and Stargirl. So many nexuses! Listen below or follow us on iTunes.

This week on Destroy All Culture: Doom Patrol, Stargirl, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and banter for days. Listen below or find us on iTunes.

On today’s docket: Doom Patrol, Stargirl, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and all the other bits and pieces you love. Listen below or find us away on the iTunes.

On this week’s Destroy All Culture, Adam and Aidan talk about the season two debut of Doom Patrol. How does it measure up to season one? Is it the same show? Or have the corporate suits ruined it for everyone? Damned suits. Also, Motherland: Fort Salem and how to build a system of magic that works in a fictional universe. Listen below or find us on those pesky iTunes.

Welcome. What makes The Muppets muppets? What makes Community a community? Why is Stargirl’s Wildcat magic now, and why is that okay? Obviously you’re going to have to listen to Destroy All Culture or you’ll wander in the wilderness of ignorance forever. Listen below or find us on your iTunes of choice!

On this week’s Destroy All Culture, Adam and Aidan pause to wonder what God hath wrought, that He could let the world be populated with oddities like Legends of Tomorrow’s season finale, “Swan Thong”. Adam invents a new show called Legends of S.H.I.E.L.D. Both chew over the backstory of Stargirl and how it seems to be plugging into the DC series. Then they get distracted by Person of Interest trivia and everything goes downhill from there. Listen below or find us on iTunes!

That’s the post. Adam digs into the HBO Max experience, from the peculiarity of not being to assign an icon to your profile to the release strategy of putting out multiple episodes of their series to create a “mini-binge” experience. Then he ends up watching Love Life, which he describes as “not particularly well-written or directed or… anything”. Followed by a discussion of the greatness of Scoot McNairy and the new Sesame Street talk show. We also talk about the Americana of Stargirl, the Bane-ness of Harley Quinn, the surprise of The Vast of Night and the… the existence of the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. Listen below or find us on iTunes.

Remember when director’s cuts were something to look forward to? Well, may you be cursed to get more of what you enjoy, because Zack Snyder’s Justice League (not Justice League: Director’s Cut) is coming to HBO in 2021. Now the floodgates have opened and every screamer with a YouTube channel and a Twitter account wants a “director’s cut” of their preferred bit of media. A more Joker-y version of Joker? Sure! A new cut of the SW prequels? Okay! A gory cut of the Taster’s Choice commercials? Hmmm. Okay, now we’re getting somewhere.

Legends of Tomorrow and Harley Quinn. That’s what we’re going on about, because we love them so. Also: House of Lies, Difficult People and whatever other stuff bubbles up from the day-old soup of our minds. Listen below, or nose us out on iTunes.

After having watched the Westworld season three finale, Adam and Aidan come to the conclusion that Westworld is Lucy van Pelt with a football, and we are Charlie Brown, ever hopeful and rushing repeatedly towards that ball. And then the obvious thing happens. But it’s okay, we’re definitely not going to watch season four. Oh, definitely.

Warning: the first 15 minutes or so of this podcast is about the second season of Harley Quinn. Then Adam says “Have you ever heard of Cameo?” and the next 45 minutes is just a rabbit hole of talking about Cameo. Who charges only $25 for a personalized message? Who charges $500? Would you risk your money on a message from Azealia Banks? Or Kevin Conroy? Conclusion: we love Cameo.

Anyway, listen below or find us on your iTunes of choice.

Greetings all. Were you all waiting for the Legends of Tomorrow episode with the Supernatural crossover? So were we, and it was… not quite what we were expecting. On the negative side, no cast members popped up. On the plus side, the crew as zombies. We also talk about the trials of Syfy and all kinds of other exciting things. Also, should the TV gods bring back Mutant X? No. No they should not. Listen below or catch us on your podcatcher of choice!

Welcome to Destroy All Culture, where you can hear Adam and Aidan’s brainpans slowly fizzling as the months (months!) of pandemic isolation takes hold. We talk a bit about the disappointing mid-season episodes of season three Westworld. And it comes down to the question: why isn’t Westworld talking about the things that Westworld seems to want to talk about? Unsurprisingly, the chat spills over into Person of Interest and its evolution from a tech-flavoured procedural to a story of warring AIs. We also talk a bit about The Magicians, because I guess we’re not ready to let go.

Listen below or find us on your podcaster of choice.

We’ve hit that part of quarantine times when the tap of new television has begun to sputter and spit out oily brown stuff. So Adam and Aidan, weary and thirsty, turn their attention to older shows. Adam is rewatching Person of Interest (instead of Fringe, which turned out to be too focused on face melting for Adam’s enjoyment). Aidan has already turned back to The Magicians. Adam even went back to the Bad Boys trilogy, and has more to say about it than you imagine. Enjoy below, or listen to us on your favourite podcaster.

The Magicians! It’s done. Adam and Aidan loved the show and they loved the final episode. So if you want to hear two folks discuss how much they enjoyed the finale and the series as a whole, by all means come on in.

The second half of the episode is dedicated to the waking nightmare that is Cats. Aidan watched it and thought it would be fun to watch a bad movie, but it wasn’t even fun to watch. It’s kind of fun to kick around afterwards though. Listen to us discuss the heights and depths of pop culture below, or find us on your podcaster of choice.

*(‘lost, alien and horny’ are the three qualities needed for any CW show)

Greetings, people who enjoy reading introductory blurbs. In this episode of Destroy All Culture, Adam gets into the claustrophobic politics of Animal Crossing, the final musical episode of The Magicians is dissected in great detail, and Aidan delves into the concept of the Philosophical Host in a discussion of season three Westworld. Listen below or find us on your podcaster of choice.

I am aware that the title of this entry is not very good. Moving on.

In this episode we run far afield and talk about a number of things. So many things! The last pre-virus episode of Legends of Tomorrow (“Romeo v Juliet: Dawn of Justness”). The antepenultimate Magicians. The peculiar pleasures of the latest Charlie’s Angels. Fringe’s deep love of melting people (“let no face go unmelted” said JJ Abrams, and they carried out his diktat). A wobbly ending for Star Trek: Picard. A quick dissection of season 11 of Doctor Who. And lastly, why Altered Carbon should have been an anime in the first place.

Listen below or find us on your podcaster of choice.

What is this? Aidan and Adam not in concord over an episode of Legends of Tomorrow? Somehow Adam refuses to give “Mr. Parker’s Cul de Sac” the love it deserves. To be fair, Aidan is on the fence about this one too, even though most of the wacky sitcom parody moments turn Legends into a latter-day episode of Community. Will they ever agree with each other on anything ever again? Will the next episode right the Waverider? Who the hell knows.

Also discussed: The Magicians and its Untitled Goose Game cameo, the diminishing returns of Picard and Adam’s time travel conspiracy scenario regarding the New Mutants release date.

In which Aidan is mean to Pearl Jam.

Under discussion today: The Magicians: body swap episodes, finger snipping and how to call the moon a cunt. Also, the long-gone Terriers and the cerebro-pulp joys of Devs.

Journey with me, dear listeners, to the long-ago time of a few weeks ago, when coronavirus wasn’t chewing through our population and exposing the faults of our rapacious society. A time when Adam and Aidan could discuss the return of Terriers on Hulu, the publication of Adam’s latest novel Turn to Paige Never, the diminishing returns of Altered Carbon season two - oh wait, we talk about COVID-19 in Seattle. Innocence lost! Listen below or find us on your podplace of choice.

“Ha ha,” says Adam, “We should figure out the best television of the decade and talk about it.”

“Yeah,” said Aidan, “and we’ll make up a bunch of totally bullshit categories that will be really difficult to work with.”

“Wait -”

“Totally doing it that way”.

“No -”

“Going to be the best thing ever”.

Reader, that’s what happened. Listen below, or find us on iTunes!

In which Adam and Aidan hash out the first part of DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths. Do they have… opinions? Only time will tell. Listen below or find us on iTunes!

Welcome to the ongoing conversations of Adam and Aidan as they try to puzzle out the mysteries behind, uh, stuff. We get a little nostalgic about the time we met up in NYC and tried to record a podcast outdoors next to a fountain. What were we even thinking? We were not thinking.

In this episode: The Good Place (4.06) “does the thing”; what is “perfect television”? (the answer may surprise you); a massive improvement happens on Arrow (8.04); and so on. Listen below, or find us on an iTuner of your choice.

My notes for this podcast go as follows:

Adam got hit by a car
Aidan gets attacked by spice
The Good Place
HBO Max
All the CW shows
“Heaven forfend ‘round the riverbend”

I don’t know what that last one was about. Listen below or enjoy on the Apple Podcast of your choice!

And here it is! Discussed on the latest DAC: Batwoman, Supergirl and Titans. On the non-superheroic front, we also discuss The Good Place and Stumptown.

Oh hey, podcast listeners! Glad you could join us for this, the 156th episode of Destroy All Culture. In this episode Adam interviews noted film critic Aidan for his opinions on Joker, which was an edgy and controversial film in the same way a bowl of instant ramen without the flavour packet is edgy and controversial.

After that, the conversation settled on the first three episodes of the “glories of Stumptown,” as Adam puts it. Also discussed: the fifth season premiere of Supergirl, the series premiere of Batwoman, and… is that it? We didn’t even get to the Superboy episode of Titans, which is probably the best episode of the series so far. Listen below, or find us on iTunes.

Podcasts are a mystery

Every ep must stand alone

We sent 155 to the store

And it didn’t come home

In this week’s podcast, Adam and Aidan discuss many things - Ad Astra, Spectacular Spider-man, Chuck Wendig’s Wanderers and the final two episodes of Killjoys - but the real star of the hour is the flapping, honking, thieving and harassing goose, that avatar of avian assholishness from Untitled Goose Game. Adam won’t stop playing, Aidan won’t stop braying (he is, in fact, a donkey). Listen below or find us on iTunes!

In which Adam relates a heartbreaking story of his misbegotten attempts to acquire John Paizs’ movie Crime Wave, aka. The Big Crime Wave in the USA.

But lo, Young Justice has ended its third season, and its final episodes are ripe for discussion.

“What ho, episode eight of Killjoys has washed up on the shores of Podcast Harbour,” growled the swarthy sailor who brings us our pop culture properties every week. Bet you didn’t know that’s how this show works.

Oh, and Adam recommends the Dora the Explorer movie, much to Aidan’s surprise.

Aidan counters Dora with Ready or Not, one of the most delightful confections of blood and screams of 2019.

Oh, and Dark Phoenix. Aidan saw Dark Phoenix and wow what a shitshow. He also saw It Chapter Two, which was passable. Listen below or find us on iTunes!

Hey all. We’re talking about Young Justice, Killjoys, and the ethical consequences of consuming coffee if coffee itself were an abstract conscious entity. And a lot of discussion of the potential problems waiting for Disney+ subscribers. Plus Aidan remembers Hex, the short-lived British horror show. Listen below or find us on iTunes!