#81. 'Peacemaker'
Listen to this episode ↗on Substack, where the show lives now
The main event is James Gunn's Peacemaker on HBO Max, and the verdicts split hard along fandom-fatigue lines: JVL is rapturous, calling it "the Office but hard-R with superheroes" and mapping its ensemble onto Office archetypes (John Cena as the Dwight-esque simpleton, Danielle Brooks as the sane center of the office); Sonny likes it a lot too, especially John Cena's surprisingly funny performance and Jennifer Holland's Agent Harcourt, though he needles the show for leaning so hard on the well-worn "everyone here is secretly traumatized" plot engine; and Vic, running the numbers on the Quadrant system, scores it across the board at essentially A/A+ (plot an A, duration an A, action/violence an A to A+, sex/nudity an emphatic A++ for the bar hookup scene that cuts straight to sex mid-"Freedom"), yet admits he's personally just burned out on comic-book content and can't fully enjoy it despite the grades. Before any of that, the episode opens with its usual long banter block: JVL agonizes over whether to tell his son G-Money that his classmate Ezekiel's dad is "a filthy pirate" streaming Spider-Man: No Way Home at home, and Sonny gleefully role-plays turning the kid into an FBI informant while Vic offers his cousins' Filipino bootleg pipeline as an alternative; Sonny recounts a brutal household disease week (COVID for the three-year-old, strep for the six-year-old and his wife, a burst water main at preschool, and himself somehow still standing, Mr.-Burns-from-The Simpsons style); and Vic tells a genuinely eerie story about visiting his father, who turned 84 that day, and stumbling on two men wheeling an unbagged body through the mausoleum at 7:30 a.m., which spirals into Sopranos jokes about swarthy Jersey wiseguys. There's also a detour into box office (Spider-Man: No Way Home's continued dominance, Morbius getting bumped to avoid it, Scream's decent hold) and a very confused round of describing the show Yellow Jackets to Vic via a group text from J-Pod, which he initially and gleefully mishears as being about teenage girls literally eating each other. JVL closes the episode ranting about a jarring full-page New Yorker back-cover ad for adult diapers featuring several older women in bras and Depends, wondering aloud why the equivalent ad with men would be considered horrifying while this one gets called empowering.
From the show notes
Parenting advice. A health update. A ... body? And the first half of Peacemaker , now streaming on HBO Max (or "the Max" as some people claim it's called). Don't listen to this one with the kids, folks!
Full transcript
Guest00:00:00Have you ever heard of a guy named Peacemaker?
Sonny00:00:03No.
Guest00:00:04He is a trained killer. We've got trouble with that maniac. Joe, what are you waiting for?
JVL00:00:14That thing better not crap back there.
Guest00:00:15You can't house train an eagle, dude, not without stealing its soul.
Vic00:00:25Hello, and welcome to another edition of the Sub-Beacon. I'm Victor Matus along with Jonathan V. Last and Sonny Bunch. Just a reminder, the Sub-Beacon is now available through Patreon. Go to subbeacon.com. You'll easily find us. Please subscribe. Tell your friends. And don't forget about the Sub-Beacon merchandise store at tpublic.com. Gentlemen, how are we JVL? What's going on?
JVL00:00:52It is not often that I come to you guys. Looking for parenting advice, but that is how we are going to begin today.
Vic00:01:02Okay. Okay.
JVL00:01:04You will recall that G Money and I went to see Spider-Man No Way Home and he loved it and thought it was the greatest film ever made. He has been looking forward to Spider-Man No Way Home coming to streaming so that we can watch it four times a day the way children do obsessively with films they like. He comes home from school last week and one of his friends at Hippie Montessori school, Ezekiel, is telling him that he is watching Spider-Man No Way Home every single night at his house. What? And G Money wants to know why I cannot go and buy it. So I said to him, you know, I think Ezekiel probably is thinking of a different Spider-Man movie. He is probably thinking of Spider-Man 3. Far From Home. Carnage. And so G Money says, well, I'll ask him. And he comes home and I say, nope, nope, he's watching the one with Doc Ock and all the ones from the past and Doctor Strange and he can see it and, you know, why can't you just buy this for me? At which point I realized that Ezekiel's dad is a filthy pirate.
Vic00:02:17That's the only explanation, right?
JVL00:02:20So my question to you boys is, do I... Tell G Money that his friend's dad is a pirate or do I just sit around looking like the sad sack dad who isn't rich enough to buy to buy an Amazon Prime 1999 thing for him to be able to watch? Because I, I like to give my children everything. I don't like saying no to them. Well, here's what I don't like saying no to the girls. The boys will say no to here's what you do.
Sonny00:02:51Yeah. You take G Money to your local FBI. Office. And you you instruct him in the ways of the world by in in telling him to inform on his friend and their and his father who has who has violated the FBI warning that is at the beginning of all home movie things. It says if you pirate this, you can you face prison time, you face fines, hundreds of thousands of dollars, many decades in prison, and you send his ass to jail. And then you ask then you ask Ezekiel how much you like that that movie now. You ask you tell you tell Ezekiel you say Ezekiel how you how you like how you like Spider-Man now.
JVL00:03:34You couldn't no way home. You couldn't. Dad's got no way home, too.
Sonny00:03:37Hey, kid. Hey, kid, do you think you maybe should have gone to just go see it in a theater like a like a respectable consumer in society? No. Oh, I bet you bet you're real glad that you can watch it or you keep watching it now. Damage done. You can keep watching it forever while your dad's in pound me in the ass federal jail. How do you like that? How do you like that, boy? They do that. That's what you should do with your money.
Vic00:04:03They do that for pirate. I didn't know they do that.
Sonny00:04:05They do that for everyone.
Vic00:04:06Wow.
JVL00:04:07I'm not going to lie. I thought that's what Sonny's advice would be Victorino. Do you have advice? Yes. I just go and pirate it so that he can be popular.
Vic00:04:14I'll give you the email of my cousins in the Philippines and they'll just send it to you the way they have all the other screeners that we took from Sonny when he wasn't in the office. There are millions, millions, millions of Filipino dollars.
JVL00:04:29I want my kid to be able to fit in school. I want you all the all the popular kids, all the popular four and five year olds sitting around talking about how they get to watch this movie at home. And is my kid can be the only one not what would little young Victorino do could take
Vic00:04:43it to the next level. Like my good friend, my late good friend, may he rest in peace, who would seventh grade at a pirated Debbie Does Dallas. And let me tell you something really popular. Yes. May he rest in peace.
JVL00:04:56Really popular. He rented that out. He made you people pay for that, didn't he?
Vic00:04:59No. What he did was he borrowed it from another classmate who gave it to him for free, and then he rented it out to other kids anyway on VHS. Anyway. No, I mean, it would be interesting to say, hey, could you ask Ezekiel to get like, you know, find out like his contact information for his dad? And then you can reach out to the dad, say, hey, is it true you've got this and then you based with two choices, one to rat him out Sonny style or or to say, hey, can I say, hey, would you mind giving me a copy?
JVL00:05:31I don't think this is a physical media thing, Victorino. If I had to bet. Oh, you don't think they. Pirated a stream of it from somewhere.
Vic00:05:38You don't you don't think Ezekiel's dad went with him to the theater and videotaped it himself? Like, you know, with his phone.
JVL00:05:44I think this is something up on using like the Plex TV Roku app.
Sonny00:05:48What you should do. All right, Jamie. Seriously, what you should do, what you need to do is you need to what you need to do is you need to sit G money down in front of the television and explain to him intellectual property laws and say, this is what would happen if your if daddy did what Ezekiel's dad did and then turn on Oz. This is what would happen. Yeah, this is what would happen to your daddy. Do you see this man named who has to go to prison and has he lives he he lives with these not that's all the men. That's right. He lives with these bald men now and they do terrible things. That's right. Is your dad terrible things to do terrible things to daddy?
Vic00:06:29Do you want that is your dad's money is your dad's name Beecher? All right, that's that's what I maybe he'll maybe he'll be good. I would be friends with a guy named out of BC. That's what I would do. Howard hope to God.
JVL00:06:42Yeah. How are you boys? Sunny? Are things any better than last week? Because things are things were grim last week.
Vic00:06:48Yeah, what was it was all sorts of issues last week.
Sonny00:06:51This week has been better. This week has been mildly better. So I as maybe maybe I can't remember how much I talked about last week, but my three year old had COVID but was already essentially done with it was it was like a two day cold for us as promised COVID for the three year old like a mild cold that was great. I mean, not great, but you know, whatever he was back to normal. Like that. The six year old got strep. Oh, six year old got strep.
JVL00:07:21Strep is miserable.
Sonny00:07:22So strep not it. I think last week I thought it was I said it was a stomach bug as a virus of some sort.
JVL00:07:30No, you said it was strep. You said it was.
Sonny00:07:32Did I say it was strep? Okay. Well, strep. So it's it's strep. The she she had strep. My wife had strep and I am just existing in this cloud of disease and germs like swirling about the house like pig pen has run through it in a hazmat suit and I am still standing. I have not. I have not neither the covid nor the the strep and I am I am I'm still but it was it was a bad it was a bad couple of days because on Tuesday in Tuesday in particular bad day because in addition to the six year old being home with strep and my wife sleeping for like 18 hours because she had strep and spending the other six hours in her bed because she had strep the water main at the three year olds preschool broke. And he could not go to school. So three year olds at home full strength running around water main break water main break could not there was there was nothing to do with it so he's just running all over the house six year old is you know laid up in her bed she's feeling a little bit better because she is you know she's she's started her antibiotics or whatever but like the you know the she's feeling but she's still basically out of it and I'm I'm also like trying to do a full day's worth worth the work. I had a bull bull work goes to Hollywood that day I was talking to Janice Min the great Janice Min JVL I'm sure you have thoughts but the but the but the I I it was it was just it was just miserable just a just an absolutely miserable day luckily everybody is feeling better both the kids back to school life on a bad week when we do this everything will be great by next. I'm still I'm I'm trying to decide if I if my superhuman tiger blood has saved me from all of the diseases or if my body is just waiting for everybody to be actually fully healed and is just going to collapse that it's basically it's like it's like it's like you remember the Simpsons episode where they're trying to figure out how Mr Burns is still alive and it's all the diseases jammed to the door that's me right now all of the diseases jammed into my lungs and they're like we're trying we're trying to figure out who's best here right and but yeah I it was a bad week was not an ideal week but I got I got we got all I got I watched three hours of peacemaker and I watched rounders which we're gonna talk about on the bonus episode so I got lots I got lots of thoughts on this stuff we're talking about today and I can't wait to go pass out tonight as you say you look like the paragon
Vic00:10:20of health.
Sonny00:10:21I am like this close to just collapsing on myself because it's not and it's it's not just it's not just you know having to take care of both of the children essentially by myself for like three days or four days or whatever like and also you know take care take care of Beth because she's sick it's not everybody's everybody's miserable but like I'm also sleeping on the fold-out couch which is not the most not the most comfortable fold-out couch in the world it was it's it's it's fine it's like a four three day thing but I'm like.
Vic00:10:50I'm not getting a lot of sleep yeah I you know what I don't get I sleep with sick people I don't care well I was because you have Wolverine blood you're immune to it yeah the superhuman blood so today is actually my father's birthday hey happy birthday Dr. Mattis Dr. Mattis 84 years young and he's doing he's doing just fine. A weird story and I want you and I and I'd love to know what your opinions are of this. This is a really weird story and then and then some happy thoughts so the weird story first so I said how was your day what did you do so you know of course he went to church in the morning and then after that he went to the mausoleum to visit with my mother but then he says when he was there he bumps it was 7:30 in the morning so it was really early because he says for some reason it's always open I don't know if that's necessarily true but he says it's always open he says you know so he goes at 7:30 bumps into these two guys who were pulling pushing a stretcher with a body on it. Like not in a casket not in a casket but like in a bag with a cloth over it and he said they were startled and he was startled was like oh sorry I'll go ahead and they went ahead what when you say two guys yeah I assume they were two oh guys this is Jersey this is Jersey a couple of guys let me just say this it's we got a perfect place we got a
Sonny00:12:15perfect place to keep this body and most of the walls and stereotypes.
Vic00:12:20How could your father describe these gentlemen well you know what the funny thing is the funny were they oily whenever because they were swarthy were they swarthy whenever whenever I've gone there I always know you know I always make make jokes there at the puzzling about most of the walls they're like whole whole walls of just Italian names it's just whole walls including Capone I mean that's that's it I mean Capone is there you know and it's really quite strange so I don't know isn't that odd and so I was driving to work when I called him and I said wait a minute. Repeat that again what do you mean I said so like because it's a month it should be in the in the casket by now and he goes no no it was like in in in like just in a bag and a cloth over it what could be going what do you think that is I asked Kate she's having
Sonny00:13:03the body out or putting it back in yeah we don't know we don't know like could it be
Vic00:13:07like oh hey uh maybe there was uh maybe uh bodies being uh reinterred like from somebody
JVL00:13:14needed a body I don't know man that's the question do they need a body to disappear
Vic00:13:19or do they need to produce a body I'm telling you or it's like oh maybe there's like somebody demanded an autopsy or something you know like oh and then so they have to go in and get it and then they're bringing it back in but isn't that odd like this isn't this isn't this isn't the funeral home that's very strange it's very strange okay so if anyone has thoughts
Sonny00:13:42and so you're you're saying your your dad is gonna wake up with a horse head and I don't
Vic00:13:46know because he saw it and uh this week that's what you're saying if people it's quite possible if if people have theories usually people know what they're
JVL00:13:54in the business people he didn't see nothing he didn't see nothing he didn't see that don't you people worry out there Dr. Matus didn't see nothing he was minding his own business
Vic00:14:03that's right no no no he was on his way to IHOP Chrissy Moltisanti is listening to this podcast that's right otherwise he is doing fine and cooking up a storm when we went to visit him over Christmas he seemed very eager to want to cook for us and so I said okay as long as we're not imposing so he's just okay make up some fried rice so he does this fried rice thing and honestly it's really quite adorable because he's turning into like an Asian Yoda you know the way he looked and it's like it's like being you know the Dagobah hut and he's like with a little stirring in the pot with a little stick hot eat hot food you know it's just very quite charming okay that's all I have everything else is fine uh you know what I noticed on Twitter by the way is uh NR now our national review is looking for a layout editor as in for a magazine how often do you
JVL00:14:54see that advertised a layout editor also no look I mean no disrespect national review magazine which is now edited by one of my very good friends Ramesh Panuru that magazine's interior layout is the type of thing that most five-year-olds could do that is not the
Sonny00:15:13most artistically legit it's a lot of three column pages a lot of columns it's a lot of
Vic00:15:18three column page I actually replied I replied on Twitter and said I am extremely proficient in Quark Express 5 thank you I'm glad you know what few people thank you very few people
Sonny00:15:29got the joke I know you go enjoy that one we switch to InDesign in like 2005 that's right and I remember because I started in Quark and like when I was when I was like six months in we switched to InDesign and InDesign is a million times better I wonder
JVL00:15:48what they run NR on because I you know as old as that the look the older your magazine is the bit the longer the chances that you're on a legacy system right I believe it's page
Sonny00:15:57maker lotus it's it's the they actually just print it out and on a printing press and they
Vic00:16:04cut the strips together that's funny what I you know what I what I and Ramesh actually replied is actually we're looking for people who get along well with others it was very funny what I should have said is that I'm also very proficient in AOL languages and AOL web crawler speaking of which over the weekend spider-man no way home climbed its way back to the top of the box office with 14 million following a plus thank you web loss crawler web crawler followed by a pod will remember because I did all these various I had to use certain the search engine it only took five minutes to get an answer followed by scream with 12.2 million well yes and it was Lycos web Lycos Alta Vista whatever and third place sing two with yet another 5.8 million alligator blood I'm hanging around
Sonny00:16:54box office thoughts well I mean just as expected spider-man no way home retakes the top spot scream hell better than I thought it would a 59% drop or whatever is better than these kind of legacy horror sequels usually have it did it did well what what is most interesting is that in the I I don't like three or four weeks ago Sony pushed the Morbius movie back to March or April or whatever right like remember that yes Morbius was supposed to come out this weekend so Morbius was gonna come out this weekend and then it was gonna be a jackass forever and moon fall the next weekend right and they they pushed Morbius back they didn't really say they didn't say exactly why but my hunch is they just didn't want it to compete against spider-man they just wanted to like keep letting spider-man rack up you know against no competition for the next few weeks a spider-man is now at one point six something billion dollars worldwide it's the sixth highest grossing movie worldwide of all time I think it's the fourth highest grossing or the fifth highest grossing movie domestically of all times I should have looked this up for started but uh but it's uh I think it's gonna have a hard time I think it's gonna have a hard time making that last 40 million to get past um to get past avatar which is I think what what Sony was hoping for I don't I don't think that's gonna happen domestically but uh and certainly not for I mean foreign it's doing a re-release I mean they they they would have to end up doing a re-release uh to to get that that
JVL00:18:36number Oscar weekend domestic right but you know when when nothing is out over the Oscar weekend yeah push it back in the IMAX yep that's what I'm thinking but anyway uh
Sonny00:18:47Spider-Man No Way Home huge huge enormous hit people love it uh Scream did okay it's fine what is Moonfall? Moonfall is the it's the Roland Emmerich oh uh oh yes of course the moon is literally the moon is falling yes I believe I saw the trailer crashing into the earth because there's a monster inside of it you know what's funny I feel like I saw it but in fact it was just a very
JVL00:19:10long trailer is it a monster or a Decepticon or is that no one knows well it's Roland Emmerich so it's
Vic00:19:16kind of like Michael yeah I would say it's just it's like yeah it's like in the it's in the it's
Sonny00:19:21because that was literally Dark Side of the Moon for Transformers that's right they were
Vic00:19:24Decepticons on the moon the astronauts saw it when they went behind kept that a secret yeah
Sonny00:19:30Moonfall I'm actually kind of excited for Moonfall because it looks big and dumb uh but but uh I think that could be that could be a fun movie I love Roland Emmerich I mean like I mean like the you
JVL00:19:41know which one was Roland Emmerich uh JVL which one was he with Day After Tomorrow was he yeah Day
Vic00:19:46After Oh he was Day After what Stargate Deep Impact or no no that was uh I don't think that
Sonny00:19:51was that was neither Armageddon or Deep Impact Armageddon was Michael Bay Deep Impact was like
JVL00:19:56Mimi Leaders 2012 it was Mimi Leaders that was weird 2012 2012 yeah 2012 that's right oh that's
Sonny00:20:04oh the and there was the there was the White House one there was there remember there was there was there was a Olympus Has Fallen yeah White House Down they did White House Down which kind of sucks I thought it was White House Has Fallen Olympus Down No okay no Olympus Has Fallen White House Down how dare you thank you question we're
Vic00:20:22actually not discussing any of the movies in the box office right now we're actually discussing this week a tv show Yellow Jackets Can I can I can I just step right in step right in here I want to make everybody so
JVL00:20:37we just a little peek behind the curtain we uh we have a little group text with uh with our friend John Podoretz and Victorino says what is this show Yellow Jackets which I legitimately did not know
Sonny00:20:52J-Pod sent us a chart with like the biggest shows and I said Vic I think you would really
JVL00:20:58enjoy this because it is a show about teenage girls eating each other out side eating just eating each other it was just but but they're outside when they're eating each other and what it is is and uh and Vic was instantly very
Vic00:21:15very very interested in it I didn't respond at all until uh and Pod jumped in to explain
Sonny00:21:22this was I said I explained it Lord of the Flies meets Alive that's what that's what it is so it's like it's cannibalism I haven't watched it I don't know it's a bunch of girls crash on their they gotta eat each other to stay alive it's like it's like Alive but also
JVL00:21:38with you know Lord of the Flies to stay alive that's why they have to eat each other um
Vic00:21:45yeah and and so it's like don't get excited it's a high school girls soccer team trapped
JVL00:21:50in the wilderness and decide to eat each other well yeah how does that sound to you well
Vic00:21:54you know so so that's the thing so one of two ways JVL was you know taunting me with this and then John and then J Pod was like no it's not what you think it's like and it's Sonny's like it's not like you what you think it's more like this Alive this cannibalism stuff and then I was like yeah let's go oh no I'm just kidding I didn't say that I just you know either way I've been curious uh uh you know if it's not one thing it's another
Sonny00:22:15so curious blue yes uh so I am curious yellow jacket that's right now okay hey nicely done
Vic00:22:21Sonny thank you we are we are not talking about yellow jackets we are in fact talking about the peacemaker on the max is that what people call it now the max and is it because
Sonny00:22:32everybody calls it the max nobody calls it I've been seeing it on screen it says the max the max people say HBO or maybe they say HBO max we call we the people call it the
JVL00:22:45max we call disney plus d plus that HBO max is is the max apple people call apple uh plus tv streaming premium service right that's that's what they all call it they all have
Sonny00:22:59to everybody everybody has to call it that nobody calls the peacock anything uh it's the cock everyone calls it you see the story about peacock lost 1.7 billion trillion dollars or some insane amount of money last year I mean it was like well I'm gonna be turning on this saturday night for the royal rumble oh is that is that included in the peacock
Vic00:23:22plus that's one good thing cock plus yep yeah good good plus cock so we are uh actually talking about peacemaker sunny how about a big boy review or jvl you felt you were very
JVL00:23:36passionate about this and this was your idea or i i love this show so much i'm not sure if you want to start with me but i see here why don't we go with you let's do it let's go i'm gonna do it okay i'm gonna do wow assert yourself if you recall the last time we saw the character of the peacemaker portrayed by john cena was in james gunn's remake suicide now the suicide squad or suicide the suicide sequel the sequel sequel slash reboot the suicide squad where idris elba shot him in a throat and then uh an entire building collapsed on him so the character of the peacemaker you might have believed was dead this series also written and mostly directed by james gunn he's first three episodes i think um and he may direct more later begins with john cena's character sitting in a hospital and a doctor saying to him well you were shot in a throat and buried underneath the building but you seem okay to me right clavicle right yeah it's just the clavicle it's just your right clavicle just don't raise your arm above your head and go to your physical therapy that is the tone of the show this is you know this is one i i've said to you guys over and over and over the super hero ip can is not just about superheroes you can do anything with it right you can do noirs you can do drama you can do action you can do buddy cop well the peacemaker is a sitcom it is the office imagine if office was hard r but with superheroes in it it is hard that's what this is and it is hysterical it's very very funny and i dare say kind of original and it follows the story of the peacemaker as he thinks that he is going to be free from having been in jail but instead gets immediately roped back into doing black ops work and he is a sad sack and a simpleton who doesn't really understand anything that's going on around him in the world and he is part of this dysfunctional office family and it's hysterical he is the rain wilson character from the office uh we have the john krasinski character in the uh in in the what's the actress's name she plays a a black lesbian danielle brooks oh yeah who's fantastic who is the only normal person i like in this office uh and and her wife who stays sort of you know quasi off screen but sometimes on screen is uh krasinski's boyfriend or krasinski's girlfriend from the office and you can see all of these they're they're just sitcom characters all of these people and it's hysterical and it's great and it's fun and it's original and everybody in america should be
Vic00:26:36watching the peacemaker well not even i wouldn't say not everybody like the little kids oh i like
JVL00:26:43superhero movies let's see this one okay that might not work sonny make ezekiel watch it yeah
Vic00:26:50ezekiel saw this last year yes you could say he saw it last year with the uh with the uh chinese uh subtitles okay uh sonny what did you think about this i i like it i think it's i i
Sonny00:27:05i was very skeptical going into it because i uh something about the tone of the suicide squad rubbed me the wrong way and i was like i don't know yeah i didn't like suicide i don't know about this uh it's kind of but it it works for all the reasons jbl says it is it is very it is very much like a workplace sitcom comedy um john cena is wonderful in it just like he he is he is genuine it's funny he is he is genuinely funny in a way that the rock thinks he is or wishes he was and i i like i can't help but feel like we are uh we had the wrong the wrong giant male wrestler action
JVL00:27:52hero for for i don't know 10 years or so i just i disagree because i think john cena is a terrible actor but james gunn has figured out how to use him perfectly because john cena's problem is that he is ridiculous when he's acting serious and so he simply acts seriously while everybody else around him is doing broad comedy and it makes his bad acting work a laugh
Sonny00:28:19riot yeah i i see but i don't think he's i don't think he's a bad actor in this i don't know i i i i think he's very good uh i my favorite character is um uh the the other the other female agent jennifer holland oh i like her uh who's played by jennifer holland agent agent amelia harcourt um she is she's she's fantastic in this uh and um you know look the the story here's the thing that vaguely annoys me about this it is like so many other prestige dramas and so many other pieces of unnecessary nudity that you hate right no no no that's fine there's not enough of that frankly we need to get more of that no what what what it doesn't even annoy me it's just it just feels tired and played out is that the whole thing the whole thing is about trauma right the whole the the whole this whole goofy superhero show is actually about trauma in the way trauma you know hurts us and shapes us and it's not just john cena's peacemaker character who was abused by his racist like literally you know he he has he's a character his the dad is played by uh what robert patrick um and he is he's wonderful he's wonderful he's wonderful um but you know the the dad is like the grand wizard of you know the kkk but he's he's actually literally a character called the white dragon he's like uh you know um and and you know it's all about how he you know warped his his son into being a terrible killer and you know is disappointed that he's not like a vicious bigot and um you know and like on top of that you have the the the uh the character who is played by i'm sorry i'm just looking it up again here um the character uh who is played by danielle brooks uh again is like her out of her she is she is uh she is related to amanda waller um who is of course the big heavy from suicide squad and and the suicide squad uh and she you know again it's like she comes from this this you know terrible family and like what is it what does it actually mean and uh that that is and and the other and we haven't even mentioned the vigilante who was maybe my favorite character on the show the like goofy the goofy murderer yeah uh is what he is what he is he's just like the goofy murderer he's like he's he's explaining you know sometimes i have to kill you know a murderer or a rapist or the guy who does the graffiti and it's like and it's like and it's just very funny because he's he's insane and deranged and it like it it it works with the way that character plays it but again he is like he is a he is a a person who has suffered trauma and is like you know uh very very sad on the inside and everybody's trying to figure out how to be you know happier and like okay all right
JVL00:31:17i'm sorry you're gonna go right to trying to pick this thing apart sonny and that that drives me
Sonny00:31:22crazy i enjoyed it i enjoyed the first four episodes a lot i again i like went in i went in very hesitant and i just ripped through all four episodes i really liked it because it is funny and unexpected it's it's funny he has a pet eagle it's funny and it's doing it's doing funny things and it's very well written and it's very well acted and the special effects are like this show looks like it costs 10 times what like boba fett looks like it costs and they're not doing any and there there are no real big like action no it just outside of the first episode there there are no like giant shots right they have do we know that i hope so because i really
Vic00:31:57that's what i was thinking is that because it's some you know it's so i mean i yeah look i like
Sonny00:32:03the show a lot i'm just i'm just like there there is there is a little bit of it that i'm just like
JVL00:32:07okay everybody is so done any hugging and learning yet i just they're getting there i don't want hugging and learning i wanted to stay dark i understand the trauma stuff i i hope that that remains subtext and not it's not even subtext it's
Sonny00:32:22text it's just text it's the text of the relationship between peacemaker and the father
JVL00:32:27i look at this show and i thought to myself this is gonna kill the quadrants it's gonna love it
Vic00:32:33it did kill the quadrants uh so plot is an a uh it's very easy to understand as far as i know aliens okay uh how many episodes have you guys watched four three okay okay uh i watched
Sonny00:32:47the first four the fifth is actually we're taping this thursday night uh the fifth is actually up
Vic00:32:51now but we um it dropped on duration per episode is an a obviously uh action violence is an a
JVL00:32:58uh and not an a plus i give it an a the action violence is pretty good
Vic00:33:03uh you know it's funny i have it i forgot to uh i have like the parentheses from the last episode who does she do battle with that was encounter sorry that was from two episodes ago but it still gives i'll give it a plus and sex nudity is a plus plus just for the the the alien the alien in that first step that's it which by the so so he if i could just say it's over this is
JVL00:33:27so so let me set this up so he goes to a bar to pick up uh the peacemaker john cena to pick up the the handler and she wants no part of him she leaves and he in the course of him trying to pick her up he says to look i haven't been with anybody no i haven't been with a woman in four years that's right that's right it's funny anyway she walks out and he just looks around the bar and there is another girl sitting over at another corner table by herself and he just sort of cocks his head his hair wig weird things going on and the next thing you see uh he is in her bathroom plowing her from behind and as he's full on full on and as he's banging it out with her he just yelled freedom did that not kill you i watched
Vic00:34:17that i just thought about mike goldfarb i just yes that's right and i i really perked up uh because it's it's the way you know it's it's the way it used to be done in the old days which is you know it jumps right to it it's there's no sort of leading there's no leading to this no
Sonny00:34:31it just jumps to it ah man i haven't seen that kind of thing in ages but but that that is i i actually at the time when i was watching that thought is this specifically referencing the wrestler because there's an identical shot in the wrestler where he is like he's he's at a bar mickey works characters at a bar trying to pick somebody up and then it like smash cuts to him having sex
Vic00:34:54with her in the bathroom of the restaurant i forgot i'll have to look into that i forgot about that
Sonny00:34:59uh but i mean but and it's a sim it's a similar sort of thing like you know kind of goofy broken down guy looking anyway i like i was wondering if that if it was i didn't you know what what's
Vic00:35:09funny is you know and there's another scene later on with the the other woman uh who uh there's a scene with uh this other hostage the hostage and she's with uh both the vigilante and with peacemaker and she's you know obviously you see her from the top up and yeah at first you're like taken aback by it and the only reason why we're taken aback by it is because we don't see it anymore because there's just instances of that sort of gratuitous it used to be much more common
JVL00:35:38and we would be like oh okay it's expected i don't think it's gratuitous i think it isn't used for comic effect these scenes are funnier with it that's right that's what the directors tell the
Vic00:35:47actresses it's true so vic a a a plus it's like an a plus so it has an a plus quadrant score um what is the last what is the last product we watched i don't know an a plus it's been a very long time it's been a very long time i'll have to look back on that and i have it all on a file so i can look down and i'll just remember it'll just jump out at me when i remember something that it was across the board a plus but it was uh so it's great but i you do have to be sort of in the mood for this kind of a thing uh like so like on paper it crushes the quadrants but me personally certain scenes are great and then other than that i'm like ah i don't really care i'm just not really yeah i'm sorry you know i'm just not i'm just tired of the whole comic book thing
JVL00:36:34the scene where he is in the the hallway with the janitor and the janitor is like racist you kill all these minorities and he says no no it's just that minorities commit crimes at a higher rate and it's like what are you talking are you not looking for white people who are committing crimes and he finally says you know what i will try to kill more white people who are committing crimes will that make you happy the janitor says to him yes yes that's all i'm asking for did you weren't on the floor with that no no i wasn't uh i i was like ah yeah i don't know opening credits dance sequence the dance do you want to taste it
Vic00:37:08the dick yeah the the opening credits uh improve over time also by the way because as you get to know the characters better then you get to see them and identify them there including robert patrick doing dance moves which is also very funny because you're like what and i don't even think the first time i saw it i even picked up it was robert patrick which is very funny uh i think the cast is great i i like it there my expectations were low uh but there were moments even for me because i'm just not in the mood for superhero stuff anymore but there were moments in the series that even i laughed like even i'm like let's just get through this thing because i just gotta get through it that i actually stopped and laughed when they're looking through uh um adobeo is going through her you know showing from her phone images wasn't it funny in the middle of it is an image of her wife's thing i was like oh that's and the react you know what was actually very funny she is so great she's so i like her a lot but what was really funny is everyone's reaction worked on that at least for me it did and i thought that was very and her reaction is yes yes level of embarrassment yeah she is great she can do anything she's funny i like her i do want to know more i you know agent harcourt i i you know i was thinking it would be too soon if something happened now they're going
Sonny00:38:28to stretch that one out so to speak well i i uh the sorry uh i i i'm surprised i'm surprised that you are uh put off by the superhero stuff because there's really very very little superhero stuff in this it's not just a workplace comedy yeah it's really there's really not a ton of like there's not a ton of like big cgi violence which like is i like i just don't really i just don't
JVL00:38:53really care for the story you know judo master yeah throwing the cheat the spicy hot cheetos
Vic00:39:00so hard that it hurts him and like cuts his face with the spice which hurts him but it's it just but i thought it was interesting is that i mean dc has definitely decided that this is you know their way to distinguish themselves from marvel cannot do this because it's disney and they have a certain brand with kids if they i don't think they could do a a show or a movie that was a hard r like this both in terms of profanity and sex nudity right i mean so dead right yeah but sony
Sonny00:39:30that's right but no no it was 20th century fox it's on deadpool is owned by uh is owned by disney now
JVL00:39:36and it made too much money for them not to go back to that but i think they'll have to keep that as a fox right i mean will they put the disney logo in front of it i don't know fox does not exist
Sonny00:39:46anymore it would have to be a 20th century studios and i don't think they're producing any more films under the 20th century studios label yeah yeah it would have to be it would have to be some sort of i mean it would they'd have to like resurrect buena vista yeah remember remember buena vista as part of disney so victory was there like adult label you're not into that
JVL00:40:06i'm just shocked that i'm the one who's super i know and you guys are i just i like it i i watched
Sonny00:40:12all four again i watched all four episodes back i watched three hours of of peacemaker i was like yeah i like this this is fun i'm excited for gorilla grodd to show up yes they're clearly hinting at the missing gorillas it's gonna be you know it's gonna be it's gonna be like the butterflies versus gorilla grodd or something i assume i don't know the way they wave aside all
JVL00:40:36of the conventions of comic books and and just announce to you that they're just not going to worry about right so judo master the bad guy gets shot like little right in the sternum and uh you're like oh that dude's dead and john cena's like uh yeah you know like we he's probably not going to die because these these martial arts guys some of them what they do is they have so much control they can shift around their internal organs and they you know they can like move a kidney up to where their heart should be and the kidney turns into a heart people looking like what is wrong with you and then judo master is still alive he's not dead just because you don't have to right it's a it's a stupid comic book movie you can do that in this you can play with it i don't the victorino when john cena is in that chick's apartment while she's in the bathroom like getting ready to kill him he's looking through the album it's like cinderella and rat and all those 80 and then he starts singing but he's singing in
Sonny00:41:36her in her uh her vibrator like he grabs something that he just wants to use as a microphone right and he's just unironically singing it's like her vibe i mean it's
Vic00:41:47that's just it's just not doing it i don't know the man who thought the green book was the height yes and i still do i still maintain it was interesting uh but and this is like again it hits all the notes but it just i'm just not you know i'm just tired of seeing these
Sonny00:42:02you're just too grown up yeah i don't know i'm just tired of this comic
JVL00:42:05books i'm just tired of it i'm sorry i bet your son would think this is the funniest thing ever
Vic00:42:16that's where you draw the line and the the profane it's like goodfellas level profanity i think it's
Sonny00:42:22like it's really it really is there it is it is jarring in a way again to to watch one of these
JVL00:42:29properties in that sense but the disquisition about sugar tits and what sugar tits means which is a sweet cheeks sweet cheeks and then the only time in my whole life i've ever heard the word sugar tits is from mel gibson during his like when he was i thought that was a when he was drunk
Sonny00:42:47mel gibson oh wow i uh yeah sorry it's uh it's it's a good show it's good yeah look again you
Vic00:42:55know what i mean it's fine you'll love it listeners are gonna love it it's it it got an a plus on the plus on the quadrants i just personally what more do you want from us jbl all right well we haven't
Sonny00:43:05even talked about his eagle i love the eagle eagly the eagle the hug from the eagle it's great it's
JVL00:43:10amazing so i i'm not prepared to say that dc is better than marvel oh because marvel has a level of consistent quality except for eternal sucked you know and that really just but i think it is fair to say that dc is absolutely the more creatively interesting right between joker
Sonny00:43:35but that's been true for this like the last 10 it's been true for literally the entirety of the
Vic00:43:40last i mean not telling batman you're saying because marvel plays it safe marvel plays it
JVL00:43:47safer is what you're saying yeah i mean marvel doesn't do stuff that's terribly risky i don't think um artistically risky uh bleak joker was a real risk um harley quinn which i stand behind i love it i think that's a great movie is is very risky you know i guess aquaman is i mean aquaman was from that period where it wasn't really risky they didn't do anything interesting releasing the snyder cut huge risk and it paid
Vic00:44:16off i i just think it's admirable yeah uh and uh of course uh the batman when does that come out
JVL00:44:25uh it comes out in march i think really soon i have not seen a trailer yet though i did i saw
Sonny00:44:30the trailer before spider-man yeah yeah there've been there've been trailers and there's two is it good yeah a robert pattinson you want a batman movie this is gonna be a you want a year one you want a gritty year one batman movie with uh colin farrell playing the penguin and
JVL00:44:46you know it's good yeah maybe a movie about how batman begins it's pretty much it that's it this is uh is it gonna be an origin story is it gonna be crime alley are we gonna see more i don't know
Vic00:44:59i don't know speaking unclear speaking of which what is this other thing i see on speaking of dc it it's it's uh alfred the origin story of alfred pennyworth pennyworth which is on is that also on
Sonny00:45:11hbo i think it's just like a cw show isn't it it's on the back so i think it's on the man i don't
Vic00:45:17know i'm just thinking that's i don't know i don't know if all right i take it back maybe dc isn't all that much better okay you know it's hit or miss james gunn by the way he so what was his marvel he did marvel as well right didn't guardians of the galaxy guardians of the
Sonny00:45:29first one and then he got cancelled first two he did the first two then he got cancelled because uh somebody no well remember it's very funny actually looking back at how this happened uh roseanne got cancelled oh for her racist joke about valerie jarrett and then in retaliation uh some of the alt-right adjacent people were like what about james gunn he used to make jokes about pedophilia and then there was like a there was a there was a big uh there was a big kerfuffle for like 24 hours about that and disney was like you're out guardians of the galaxy three and dc hired him immediately warner brothers hired him like the next day they were like come do whatever you want um and so he came to do the suicide squad uh and then very quietly marvel and disney rehired gun uh like three months later they're like all right come do guardians of the galaxy three it's fine now nobody cares anymore yeah that's how it works that was that was how that whole thing broke down do you have any thoughts on i'm just outraged you
JVL00:46:33didn't know serena i'm sorry no i'm not even outraged i'm hurt i i really thought this was
Sonny00:46:38the only thing that we could share and laugh about i just like are you gonna watch the rest of the show are you gonna keep watching the episodes i have to you're done you're done i'm done i'm done
Vic00:46:46just like three episodes you're out i'm done i have no i have back to you're back to the book
JVL00:46:50i gotta go back to finishing succession so sorry uh that's what i'm watching you know jbl are you gonna watch the rest of the show 100 in fact you frequently i don't i might watch the next episode episode five after we finish taping tonight you need to watch episode five of the book of boba fett pod's right you're gonna really love it i'm done with that show unless we're doing
Vic00:47:12more bonus episodes i like that show even i watched that are you kidding me the fifth episode
JVL00:47:18is the best episode by far it is this is widows all over again sonny i tried in fact nobody no
Sonny00:47:24but he's i've i've watched the fifth episode of the book of boba fett it's way better than the
Vic00:47:28rest of the book yeah it's it's gonna blow your mind away you're gonna be like oh my gosh and don't you just gotta it's not there's no member berries it's not not a lot of fan service
Sonny00:47:37just trust me just just watch it just turn it on and watch like the first five minutes you'll know
JVL00:47:42immediately you know what if it's for you or not you know what widows killed the quadrants too now that i'm remembering it i think that's it because it had everything it had everything it had good action it was it was not too long it had it was like two hours and 15 oh it was long it was a
Sonny00:47:57little long to me it was a little bit but it was way too confusing for it it was like local
Vic00:48:02politics he's not dead liam neeson is not dead why did he do this to her who's the six foot five
JVL00:48:10blonde girl that vic loves it's elizabeth the biggie and is it she's totally naked in it and you came out you you said yes i guess it's an a minus on the quadrants but i hate it i still didn't
Sonny00:48:21know no no no it wasn't it was not it was not this was this was an outrage because it was like it was like a c on plot and it was like it was like a duration it was like a duration duration why are you doing this to me but and and uh and i mean he was it was it was it was a ridiculous quadrant i will look the quadrants are alive as you know they're not if i remember correctly you gave sex and nudity like a like a b minus or something because you you just you have like zoned out when the actual i think i probably did and also hadn't he been drinking during widows too
Vic00:48:56no that was you know what that was just under the silver like that and that was genuine by the way like i was genuinely upset that about the movie and i forgot that i had come back from drinking when i watched it in felsea um very rare as you know that doesn't happen to me often um i will look back how drunk were you during peacemaker uh i i will look back uh uh in my files and i'll find the movie the last movie that did kate like peacemaker she hasn't watched it so you know i i did try to get her to watch uh that episode of book of boba fett but she said no she just walked
Sonny00:49:32away so it was just me did she did she watch has she watched any of the other ones yeah she thought
Vic00:49:37they were like the book of boba fett she did not like yeah she thought did she watch the mandalorian yes yeah she liked it okay okay uh any other thoughts that's it we stretched it out okay uh spirit of the week corrections shout outs anything hello goodbye uh jvl no okay that is all the time we're giving to this episode questions comments compliments tweet us at study bunch at victorino mattis again be sure to subscribe to us on patreon just go to subbeacon.com we're there tell your friends until next time
JVL00:50:23i'm turning on my phone all right before before you turn on your phone i want to set this up yeah so i don't know about you guys i still get the paper version of the new yorker because i'm a sucker uh and i love it i love it i love it i love print i love print so i get out my copy of the new yorker the other day and i just you know sometimes i like to start from the back of the magazine that's the thing that magazine readers do and so i open up the uh back cover the cover three c3 c3 in magazine parlance and this is the full page ad i see i have texted you boys okay now now we can look now look at your phones
Vic00:51:01oh that's not why why did you do that that was terrible why did you do that i thought i thought this was supposed to be the other thing i can't unsee that now i can't unsee that are
JVL00:51:16five women who are all of them both quite old uh and quite overweight and i mean quite overweight weight uh and all wearing nothing except for bras and diapers yes dry shield dry shield and i just would like to know who thought that this was a good idea i understand the the sort of girl power like we've got to be authentic this is i do not think that there is anybody man woman child or beast who wants to see this i understand depends i understand all this stuff yes this is all of us business right we will all be there someday so that is not why i am looking down at this but i am telling you that when i am there uh looking at something like this in the back of my new yorker is not going to make me think yeah you know what i'm going to go out and get me some
Vic00:52:24that's right now i was worried about my dignity but now i guess i can get it and and to to to put
JVL00:52:30a finer point on it imagine this exact same advertisement but with men right imagine how horrible would be to have five fat old men in their depends and nothing else staring there looking defiantly at the camera everybody would look at that and say yeah that's i'm sorry get out of here but because it's women it's like well it's empowering or something by the way it's c3 and also
Vic00:53:00three and it's four c it's a four color you know how expensive that is a four color ad on the uh
JVL00:53:08back i mean did you guys realize that that was a thing that happened in i i would expect that in the middle of people right so you're in the middle of a people magazine or something but the c3 ad
Vic00:53:20on the new york maybe they know their audience for the print edition
Sonny00:53:28i'm sure it's fine i'm sure it's fine
?00:53:30Thank you.
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