Category: Podcasts

It’s time for another adventure with the WHEEL!

With a myriad of topics and journeys for the Somethings to go on, what is it this week? Well the answer is right there in the title, but you should still act surprised.

From WandaVision to Dr. Strange, the Young Avengers, X-Men, and all of the movies pushed back – we are going to talk about what might be coming next for the House of Ideas.

Don’t forget to check out our friends at Quixotic Games brand new Kickstarter for the CORE WORLDS sequel and its expansion. CORE WORLDS: EMPIRES and NEMESIS that are not only live, but almost to goal!

Ok, here we Mephisgo!

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Why review two things when there are two of us, am I right? You see, there is a lot of television going on right now. If we were allowed to go places with water coolers, I don’t know how any work would get done with all the chatter about what we saw last night…

With that in mind, the Somethings were live on Twitch and reviewed not just one show, but two. One is about a team fighting evil at every turn, and the other is Evil! So hang with Hatton and Rob as we breakdown two shows that have gotten us through at least a little of our lockdown.

And don’t forget to jump on the Core Worlds Kickstarter, going on right now!

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Sometimes, a good movie comes out and you find out that it came from a book! Sometimes it goes an entire other way – where you see a movie and you wonder what kind or source material could have birthed such madness… or the worst of the worst… you love the book, and the movie you get doesn’t even come close to the experience you had with words on paper.

Those are the ones we’re talking about today – movies that nobody would mind if we got a re-try on. Movies that just didn’t do any of their words justice and the things we love and hate about them.

Before we start, we would like to tell you to check out our friends at Quixotic Games brand new Kickstarter for the CORE WORLDS sequel and its expansion. CORE WORLDS: EMPIRES and NEMESIS are going live on 02/02/21, and you don’t want to miss out!

Ok, here we snow! (a day early!)

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Why… are they called.. podcasts.

I don’t see any pod? I don’t see any fish? What are they casting? And why are they doing it in a pod?

Seinfeld, one of the top rated sitcoms of all time. The finale was one of the top comedy finales in viewership. Does the show’s legacy hold up? Does its finale hold to its legacy? The Somethings have a lot to say about Jerry and friends – but is it really a podcast about anything at all?

Ok, no soup for you!

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Oh, we heard you like yourself some Baby Yoda – well that’s why we are Grogu: 2 Furious coming at you with microphones loaded with Beskar and ready to take down a bunch of cylons… it’s the show that we all binged before Christmas – Mandalorian Season 2!

So settle in and relive some of your favorite moments in a show that has taken the world by storm and even made a Star Wars Sourpuss like Hatton giggle at the adorable machinations of a very hungry muppet.

Ok, and the way we go! (..get it?)

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Six Things That May Make A Show Bad

Because of the Something’s love/hate relationship with Lost over the years, I have found that there are certain things a television show does that make me wonder whether what I’m watching is good TV or not. Every situation and show is unique, of course, and for every item on this list, there is an exception where it’s done to great effect, but if you are watching the newest thing and you can count the number of times these problems arise over two hands in the first season, it just might be that you are watching a bad show.

1. What was the answer to the question?
There is a tense moment. Heroes have just run into a room, the villain is about to reveal a key fact, a group of hackers are pouring over a computer screen you can’t see, the camera pans slowly as everybody’s face goes shocked…annnnnnnnnnnnd we’re on the next scene. Now, more often than not, this is built for tension and we can hope that the payoff will come before the credits roll, but what happens when this sequence happens every episode? What about when it’s the same secret that is always told to everyone except the audience? It can get infuriating, aren’t we good enough to know?

Sometimes, these results come and you feel satisfied, but more often than not they are only the deus ex, the big surprise at the end, that made it safe for the good guys to win the day or the bad guys to live to fight another day. It’s the secret plan they had in their back pocket all along – that you knew they had since minute 15 and have only existed to confuse everyone along the way.

2. Why didn’t they ask twice?
“So what happened to my partner?” The hero asks the knowing intelligence agent of questionable morality.
“I thought we were here to discuss my Netflix Terms of Service?” the agent turns slowly and with purpose.
The hero slams his hands on the table, “THEY DON’T REVEAL THEIR METRICS!”

Now, maybe the hero was there for legal advice about his streaming service, but they did ask a question first. Rarely in television do characters go, “That’s not what I asked.” Instead, they respond to what they’re given. It’s a bait and switch being played on the viewer.. your mystery has been addressed, but can be pushed off until later. It lets you feel like it isn’t a forgotten plot point, but adds nothing to it. It’s a mental trick that works for a little while, but when characters are jumping topic to topic, ask yourslef ‘Would I have more answers if they had only repeated the question?’

3. You waited until now to tell me?
I get that a show where we were privvy to every moment of car rides, jet rides, train trips, horseback sojourns, and rollercoaster uphills may get fairly boring. It makes sense for exposition to be dumped at times where you are visually simulated…. but… if the only time you ever get important, life-saving information is right as the characters are about to jump in the face of danger – something’s up.

“So, what do we have to worry about?” The captain asks, gun drawn, hiding behind a bunch of crates full of dolphin-safe tuna.

“Nothing other than the rocket launchers,” The monster-turn-informant says for the first time ever, shrugging with a wry smile that makes no sense since they are also in a place possibly filled with rocket launchers.

4. WHO DO YOU WORK FOR? Wait.. WHO DO I WORK FOR?!
Changing loyalties go hand in hand with action and espionage shows. Sometimes, like on Alias, the question of ‘who is who they say they are’ is done to amazing effect. Other times, in shows like Alias, it is a constant tennis match of never knowing if you are watching heroes or villains. Finding out the whole season has been the reverse of what you’ve seen can be an amazing and satisfying reveal. Finding out that the hero that was originally the villain was actually the villain, but for a different group of villains instead of the villains you learned previously were heroes… well, you get it.

5. Isn’t anyone normal!?
We pan from the protagonist to their neighbor who smiles jovially and waves while they are watering their plants. The minute the hero is out of shot the neighbor grabs their cellphone, ‘She’s on the move.’ Over their shoulder a mailman is delivering to the next person down the street and pulls a gun from the mailbox. All of this while a dog watches from across the street wearing a blinking collar made of C4, being walked by an assassin with a robotic arm.

A good show needs cool characters, fine… but is everyone in on the mystery? Is everyone a spy or a secret double reverse skip Draw +4 Mossad Cyberagent? Can’t our heroes just have one friend that aren’t in league with the Russians and just enjoys the Smiths and Scrabble night? If nobody in the show’s world is just a normal everyday schmuck, perhaps the show is relying a bit too much on that trope.

6. No, it’s not that.. it’s WAAAY more complex than that…
Chances are, if you’ve ever written a story, outline, game or otherwise – you’ve come up against your brain with a twist or reveal that, honestly, is kind of obvious. How else would any of what had happened before make sense? Or, perhaps you just never really thought out the answer so now you are continuing to complicate it to try and get yourself out of your own maze. Both of these are what happens when you aren’t trying to tell a story, but simply trying to keep your audience on their toes. The deeper your mystery gets, the more satisfying the payoff should be. So, when you get to the final chapter and all of the writers start telling you, ‘Oh it was never about the destination, it was about the people…’ you have every right to be ticked off.

I know that sounds like I’m leaning on Lost with that one, but tons of shows can’t help but over-complicate themselves to keep that seasonal advertising money rolling in. Lost, Battlestar, X-Files… of course you have no idea what happened – nobody does – not even the writers.

So there you have it – what shows have you seen that did these things well? What shows have done all of them? Let us know and we’ll see you next week!

Every week, the Somethings will be giving you a little something extra, so please check back every week for reviews, lists, cool finds, and more!

We are back live and streaming with our first hang-out party of the year – and what are we discussing? Well we’re going to an old favorite of ours, THE WHEEL! Which is a series of topics that now can appear randomly!

So we spin the wheel, make some deals, and Mash-Up two different movie franchises to make one brand new series to see whether we can get it pitched to the invisible director we are somehow stuck in an elevator with.

Want to join the party next time, head to TWITCH and follow so you don’t miss out!

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Before you get to our first brand new episode of 2021 – take a minute and head to our website somethingcast.com and take a look at the new layout. After 200+ episodes, we decided it was time to get with the program and instead of a regular old WordPress blog, we were going to go with a highly edited WordPress blog with new features all over the place.

Be sure to check back on Thursday for one that we’re super excited about, but you won’t see on your Podcast feed.

Now though – settle in, because as we’ve seen 2020 come to an end, the boys want to talk about some of their favorite movie deaths.. from the horrific to the tremendous, here are a bunch of characters who died in neat ways.

Ok, here we go!

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It’s the last of the Throwback episodes before we are back on the mic and doing what we do in 2021.

Since December is a five Something month, we decided to give you another episode from the archives that features this very thing. We talk about the show from 2019, so you’ll see how much we wanted to do and how little we’ve, in fact, done.

Last time in the DeLorean, Marty… strap in and Happy New Year!

Ok, here we go!

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Before we get to the episode itself, from the Somethings to you – we hope you have a safe and happy holiday, no matter where you are or how you spend it.

Now, since there is a very good chance you aren’t going to get to have your big blow-out Christmas Extravaganza, why not travel back in time with the Somethings to when we did just that live on the air. It is a lot less episode and a more like your group of friends hanging out at the end of the party, bloated with Nog and Cheer.

So come join the Something Christmas Party with MARCUS, ERIC, and TONY back from 2016.

Ok, here we GO HO HO!

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