Don't Encourage Us

Topics discussed: Threshold (2005): CBS sci-fi series, 13 episodes, canceled mid-run — autopsy of what went wrong The transitional fossil problem: episodic format vs. serialized storytelling fighting in every episode Why the first few episodes' race-against-time momentum dies when CBS's episodic instincts take over The bioforming concept: aliens that don't invade but transform Earth's life into th...

Topics discussed: Conspiracy Theory (1997): developing it as a romance-conspiracy streaming series The Gibson/Roberts dynamic: why their complementary strengths made the romance work Season structure: each season wraps 2-3 real conspiracies into one narrative arc Jerry Fletcher's memory reconstruction: Memento-style discovery of his own erased past Devil's Advocate (1997): the double-game series c...

Topics discussed: "Chase the fun" as a development philosophy: how following what felt good to play shaped every major design decision The failed first attempt: Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars and what Psyonix learned from it From Unreal Tournament 2004 to Rocket League: the vehicle coding lineage Why accessible entry plus deep skill ceiling creates lasting games Cross-platform pla...

Topics discussed: Genre ambiguity as narrative design: the film holds alien, psychic, mystical, and mythological explanations open simultaneously for an hour The Eno performance: oscillating between pity and menace without resolution until the final act Found footage as resource management: how micro-budget constraints become creative advantages Kiyoshi Kurosawa cameo: the Pulse director plays him...

Three versions of The Shining compared: Kubrick's 1980 film, King's novel, and the 1997 ABC miniseries — plus Doctor Sleep (2019) as a sequel to all of them. Topics discussed: The sequel architecture problem: how Doctor Sleep reconciles two incompatible source versions Dan gets Jack's novel ending: self-sacrifice by destroying the hotel, transferred across generations Steam vs. Shine vs. Soul: wor...

Join the Hunt and go rogue with our hosts as they disassemble Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1 , discussing the impossible action, plot, and characters of the seven-quel.  Topics: The Ethan Hunt character problem: his behavior is a sociopath's, his dialogue is a hero's Hunt as a mirror of the Entity: both claim to save humanity while treating people as objects Dead Reckoning's exposition p...

The question isn't whether AI can write. It's whether AI-assisted creative work is still yours.   Topics: Mark Greaney's creative process: why the Grey Man author takes long walks instead of marathon desk sessions to keep action scenes fresh across 10+ novels Ghostwriting in fiction: Tom Clancy novels are still published under his name by other writers — how is that different from AI assistance? T...

Topics discussed: The pitch: magic slowly returning to modern Earth, tied to materials and geography The worldbuilding rule : supernatural creatures are determined by where the materials in their environment originate Why cities fall first: globalized supply chains create hybridized magical threats Alloy creatures : when materials from different regions combine, so do their mythologies The surpris...

Black Mirror Season 6 — episode-by-episode breakdown. Topics discussed: The series drift: from technology commentary to misanthropy Joan Is Awful: a statement piece about AI image rights that actors signed onto because they care about the issue, not the script Why the ending follows characters we've never met and resolves nothing about the legal system it critiqued Loch Henry: a passive protagonis...

Guest: Actor Matt Baughman Spoiler warning : we spoil the entire film. Go watch it first — it's worth it. One Cut of the Dead is available on Shudder (subscription) or to rent on Amazon. Topics discussed: Why the first 37 minutes are intentionally unwatchable and why you can't skip them The dual-role acting challenge: playing a bad actor vs. playing the person playing the bad actor Matt Baughman's...

Topics discussed: Why muting David Harbour's ghost eliminates all character development The reunion scene problem: a father seeing his daughter for the last time, and neither seems to care The casting swap argument: Mackie as the ghost, Harbour as the dad Christopher Landon's stated goal (80s family film mashup) vs. what the film actually delivers The car chase that forgets it's a kids movie: flip...

Topics discussed: Robert Kirkman's Invincible 's premise: what if Superman was your dad and turned out to be the villain? How the show uses DC character analogs to build and then betray expectations Omni-Man's moral argument: why "humans are insects" follows logically from Viltrumite values The ultraviolence question: purposeful brutality vs. gratuitous shock Multi-threaded storytelling: why the s...

Set within the confined walls of a commercial airplane, tensions soar as a battle of wits unfolds between a resourceful passenger and a group of desperate hijackers. With each twist and turn, our hosts navigate the treacherous terrain of suspense, exploring the psychological depths of the characters. But first, listen in as one host pitches a controversial casting idea for the new Remo Williams se...

Topics discussed: The Destroyer pulp fiction series: 152 novels, multiple writers, decades of publication Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985): what went wrong with Dick Clark's franchise play Guy Hamilton directing: four Bond films to this — why his style didn't translate to 1985 The score problem: music that fights the action instead of supporting it Training sequences vs. Karate Kid (1984...

Spoiler warning: we spoil Chrysalis completely. Go listen to it first — it's worth it. Go listen to Chrysalis by SH Serrano : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Stt9eM22D2E Or read it on Reddit : https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/55v9e1/chrysalis/ Topics discussed: Chrysalis: AI wakes on dead Earth, builds a replicating army, and pursues vengeance across the galaxy Was the AI programmed for reven...

We open with a look ahead at upcoming episodes covering Remo Williams (1985), the Expeditionary Force audiobook series, Chrysalis (2020), One Cut of the Dead (2017), and Invincible (2021). Then: a deep dive into the first two episodes of HBO's The Last of Us. Topics discussed: Why FEDRA's actions seem justified and the show hasn't earned its villain framing The game killed an ally via FEDRA soldie...

We develop an original horror film concept in real time — three ice climbers, an uncharted Himalayan peak, and a creature that's been there longer than anyone knew. Topics discussed: The Jagged pitch: climate change opens a never-summited peak, elite climbers document the ascent, things go wrong Creature feature vs. ecological thriller: two different films from the same concept Found footage struc...

Guest: A. Mert Erdem — filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist ( azmimerterdem.net / Instagram: @artamnesis ) Topics discussed: Aniara (2018): a $40K Swedish sci-fi film based on a 1956 Nobel Prize–winning epic poem The Mina parallel: an AI comfort device and the main character follow the same arc — absorb despair, project hope, self-destruct Religion as social structure: why the film may argue tha...

Topics discussed:  How streaming algorithms manufacture viewer preference instead of measuring it Netflix 's big-budget strategy vs. the low-budget YouTube model nobody's tried Why platforms bury your saved content to push their recommendations The Pepsi vs. Coke taste test as a model for short-term data misleading long-term behavior Avenue 5 (HBO): a brilliant script undermined by direction that...

Part I — The Cult of the Creator (0:00 – 0:31)  Starting from Daniel Silva's spy novel Portrait of an Unknown Woman, the hosts examine how the fine art world assigns value — and how easily that system is exploited. The conversation moves from provenance and forgery into a broader question: why do we need to attach a single name to every achievement, and what does that cost us? In this section: How...

Top Gun: Maverick kept things simple in a franchise landscape that never does. The hosts break down the decisions behind that restraint and where the franchise can and can't go from here. In this episode: Why the most formulaic blockbuster in years was also one of the most disciplined The case for keeping Rooster simple and why more character depth would have been the wrong call The torch-passing...

The hosts of Don't Encourage Us ditch their original interview and dive headfirst into "Warzone," an original high-concept pitch: a gritty action thriller about an all-out, no-heroes conflict between a ruthless international drug cartel and a powerful terrorist organization. The hosts work through the full architecture of the film — three-act structure, dual lead dynamics, escalating set pieces, a...

The Lost City (2022) arrives with two recognizable stars, a massive production budget, and a formula that worked 40 years ago. The hosts take it apart to figure out why it's still flat — examining the structural problem at the film's core: two neurotic leads with no compensatory dynamic, a villain with half a motivation, and a stunt casting decision that inadvertently exposes everything the script...

⚠️ This episode discusses themes of suicidal ideation in the context of character development. If you or someone you know is struggling, please call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. VS. Series | Pulse (2001) vs. Pulse (2006) Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse ( Kairo , 2001) is one of the stranger objects in J-horror: technically rough, deliberately alienating, and built around a thesis —...

⚠️ This episode discusses themes of suicidal ideation in the context of character development. If you or someone you know is struggling, please call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. What's being developed: Gravity Lost — an original sci-fi short film about a man whose grip on gravity loosens as his grip on his own life does. The hosts work through character psychology, tone, gen...