Gobbledygeek

Deception is as American as apple pie. Elizabeth and Philip Jennings are well aware of this--they're Russian spies under deep cover as a suburban couple in the U.S., after all. Their new next door neighbor, FBI Agent Stan Beeman, threatens to throw a wrench into their long con. Over the course of The Americans season 1, there are plenty of twists, turns, betrayals, and confessions. Wesley "Wezzo"...

We've all been isolated, to some degree, for the last year. Austin Allan James' debut feature Who's With Me? , available for free on YouTube , perfectly captures the sense of loneliness and paranoia to which many of us have become accustomed. His film was also almost entirely finished pre-pandemic. Paul and Arlo talk with Austin about his clairvoyant powers, working on a shoestring budget, the ins...

This is a freestyle episode, so you better believe Paul and Arlo talk about all manner of goofy shit, but --there's also kind of a topic too? Look, we make this stuff up as we go along, get that look off your face. Arlo watched John Carpenter's 1981 cult classic Escape from New York for the very first time, and he absolutely loved it. He and Paul rave about the movie, its highly relatable cynicism...

We're all about lending a hand here at Gobbledygeek , so for this month's Four-Color Flashback , we're slicing and dicing our way through Daniel Warren Johnson's Extremity . The ultra-violent 12-issue series follows Thea, an artist who lost a core piece of her identity when a rival clan chopped off her drawing hand. As her father leads their clan on a bloodthirsty quest for revenge, she and her br...

When we're not contracting coronavirus, we're contracting people to work on our houses. And sometimes those people, too, can be a plague. Paul and Arlo commiserate over uncomfortable contractor experiences, uncomfortable evangelicalism, and the uncomfortable intersection of those two very uncomfortable things. In other news, baby-faced Paul got his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and had to dea...

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming. After two long years in the Marvel Cinematic Universe desert, since Avengers: Endgame and its postscript Spider-Man: Far from Home , Marvel's mightiest are back on the air. For the first MCU series on Disney Plus, we have WandaVision , a TV show that is very much about TV shows and what the medium means to us. The comfy-cozy sitcom rhythm of the...

What's more American than ruthless bastards sucking dry the poor, hardworking souls that make this country what it is--all in the name of progress? We're not just talking about capitalism here, we're also talking about the bloodthirsty monsters at the heart of Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque's American Vampire . For this month's Four-Color Flashback , Paul and Arlo sink their fangs into the fi...

In honor of the late Christopher Plummer, Paul and Arlo host a Geek Challenge with two films featuring one of Canada's greatest. First, Paul has Arlo watch Mike Nichols' 1994 horror (?) film Wolf , starring Jack Nicholson as a middle-aged book editor who finds the beast inside courtesy of a wolf bite (with a five-minute cameo from a scenery-chewing Plummer). Then, Arlo makes Paul watch Michael Man...

Two hosts, unalike in dignity, in fair Gobbledygeek , where we set our podcast. For this month's Four-Color Flashback , Paul and Arlo pull out a boombox blasting Romeo and Juliet side B. In Prince of Cats , Ronald Wimberly passes the mic to Juliet's cousin Tybalt, a sideways entry point into the events that lead to and inform the soapy classic. Oh, and did we mention this version stars a Black cas...

I am a podcast. This week, Paul and Arlo are joined by Wesley Mead to unravel the mystery of Derek DelGaudio's stage show In & Of Itself, now available on Hulu in a filmed version directed by none other than Frank Oz. Truth be told, if truth is a concept you believe in, the gang doesn't do much unraveling. No, that would be beyond the point. Instead, they discuss how the show makes them feel and w...

Ah, merry old England. A land of many fine tales as well as some pretty crummy ones. This week, Paul and Arlo explore both sides of English mythmaking in a Geek Challenge that hearkens back to the Middle Ages; i.e., the 1930s and 1980s. First up is a movie Paul has been trying to get Arlo to watch literally as long as they've been podcasting: Terry Marcel's 1980 sword-and-sorcery epic (?) Hawk the...

'Tis the damn season. Last summer, we convened the Three Heathens--Paul, Arlo, and A/V writer-director Joseph Lewis--to discuss Taylor Swift's first surprise album of 2020, Folklore . It was surprising not only for the nature of its release but for the folk pop/singer-songwriter shift it marked, becoming the finest achievement of Swift's career. On her second surprise album of 2020, Evermore , she...

First comes a podcast, then comes 423 more podcasts, then comes a baby who is doomed to think having a podcast host for a dad is normal. On the Gobbledygeek season 12 premiere, Arlo is revealed to be a babydaddy--and the kid isn't Paul's! Scandal! Arlo discusses life as the father of a newborn, which involves a good deal of poop. Paul has also had to deal with a good deal of poop, even though his...

Because our mascot is a turkey, and because we generally frown upon genocide, Paul and Arlo are spending Thanksgiving weekend discussing films with ties to Native American culture. For this Geek Challenge , Paul urges Arlo to watch Michael Apted's 1992 conspiracy thriller Thunderheart , starring Val Kilmer as an FBI agent who grows to embrace his Sioux heritage. In turn, Arlo makes Paul watch Jim...

For the penultimate Gobbledygeek of the year, Paul and Arlo return to an institution they dropped like a bad habit at the start of the pandemic: the Four-Color Flashback ! Vickie Willis Navarra, board member of the Comics and Popular Arts Conference at DragonCon, joins the boys to discuss Sandman Mystery Theatre: Book One . Matt Wagner's resurrection of DC's Golden Age hero Wesley Dodds, with art...

We're still here. The world spins on, at least for a time. In the aftermath of Election Day 2020, there are many variables. Will that loser leave the White House? Will the GOP's slow-rolling coup pay off? Will a Trumpian shadow militia form, leading to an actual Civil War II? As is the norm, Paul and Arlo have no answers, but they ponder these questions and many others. The boys recount their Elec...

Hello, kiddies. Are you ready for your deadtime story? Gobbledyween 2020 comes to a close as A/V writer-director Joseph Lewis joins Paul and Arlo in the Cryptkeeper's lair to discuss Ernest R. Dickerson's 1995 frightfest Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight . These hodunk, podunk, well-then-there motherfuckers discuss the insane cast, including William Sadler, Billy Zane, Dick Miller, and CCH Pounde...

This week, we want all our garmonbozia. Gobbledyween 2020 emerges from the Black Lodge as Brett Easton Hell Yes host Katie L. Wright joins Paul and Arlo to discuss David Lynch's divisive Twin Peaks prequel/sequel, 1992's Fire Walk With Me . The gang discusses the film's polarizing reception at Cannes (Tarantino hated it!), the surprising empathy Lynch and co-writer Robert Engels show toward both v...

Perfection, NV, pop. 14, is adding three more country bumpkins to its census: Paul, Arlo, and Jason Tabrys, writer for Uproxx and Den of Geek, who is returning to the show after a stunning two-year absence. The gang is here to continue the month-long horror celebration Gobbledyween by discussing Ron Underwood's 1990 creature feature Tremors . There is discussion of Kevin Bacon's small head, Burt G...

Leaves are on the ground. Blood is on the screen. It's time for Gobbledyween .   Take a break from the horror of the real world to join Paul and Arlo for that most venerated of Gobbledygeek traditions, the month-long horror movie marathon known as Gobbledyween. To kick things off for 2020, our pal Greg Sahadachny takes a break from the usual goofy stuff we stick him with (like the very goofy The S...

If you're seeing double--do not adjust your set. Paul and Arlo, podcasting's own dynamic duo, have done a Geek Challenge involving dos doppelganger dramas. Well, drama might be a strong word for such a picture as Peter Medak's 1981 spoof Zorro, The Gay Blade , starring George Hamilton as Don Diego Vega and his brother Ramon Vega, who are charged with taking up their father's mantle of El Zorro. Th...

For all you kids at home with a copy of Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary Deluxe Second Edition taking pride of place on your bookshelf--boy, do we have a treat for you! Paul and Arlo are back on their bullshit, running at the mouth about anything they damn well please. This week's subjects include: the extreme metal-ness of childbirth, Spider-Man: Miles Morales swinging onto the brand...

For another freewheeling freestyle extravaganza, Paul and Arlo cast their minds to everything from billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne to the inevitable end of all things. They wonder how they might write The Deli Counter of Justice in the harsh light of 2020 before the conversation mutates into a treatise on the relative fascism of Batman, an update on Arlo's progress through Andy Mulvihill's Action...

As Hamilton taught us, everything is legal in New Jersey. So we shouldn't be surprised that it was once home to Action Park, the most dangerous amusement park in the world. Eugene Mulvihill's vision of a lawless hellscape with pleasure as its only principle is the American Dream in miniature, with a guest appearance by Donald Trump himself! Paul and Arlo discuss the new HBO Max documentary Class A...

Paul and Arlo are doin' good, they're on some new shit: actually talking at length about music! A/V director and founding Gobbler Joseph Lewis joins the boys to rave about Taylor Swift's newest (and best) album, Folklore . The gang discusses how Folklore offers a more mature and introspective look at Swift's pop star persona, how the collaboration with The National's Aaron Dessner enhances her son...