Mildly Pleased

Instead of writing another Shocktober post, today I’m putting up our latest episode of The Pick. Keeping with this year’s Shocktober theme, we’re talking about one of the truly immortal horror franchises of the 2010s – Goosebumps! Ok, so maybe it’s less of a horror movie than a wacky comedy that aims to introduce kids […]

For Day 4 of Shocktober, we’re doing something different… something… INSIDIOUS! Screw the written word we’re doing this one in podcast form! In this episode, we talk about James Wan, Torture Porn, and Darth Maul. Check it out if you dare. Or should I say “SCARE?!?” John’s Little Pick: What the Golf? (Game) Sean’s Little […]

The first rule of podcasts is… nevermind, you get it. We’re talking about Fight Club this week, in honor of both Brad Pitt starring in Ad Astra and in honor of the worst kinds of white males getting their due in the upcoming Joker. While talking about Fight Club, Colin, Sean, and John wrestle with […]

Looks like it’s pick season, as we take a trip to Looney Tune Land while talking about the non-Space Jam sequel Looney Tunes: Back in Action. Well, actually we don’t go to Looney Tune Land so much as a cartoony version of our reality, which is rife with slapstick, self-awareness, and bizarre black-and-white cameos. This might […]

This episode we’re making our first foray into reviewing a movie currently in theaters on The Pick, as we take a look at It Chapter 2. John shares with us not only his thoughts on the film in question, but also its relation to the book it’s based on, the 1990 made-for-TV adaptation, and the […]

We’re back with a very sexy episode of The Pick in which we’ll be talking about Lawrence Kasdan’s 1981 directorial debut, Body Heat. We’ll discuss the film’s noir motifs, excellent performances, twisty-turny plotting, and copious amounts of sweat. Also, we introduce a new segment where we’ll be giving our own individual “Little Picks” to supplement […]

After ringing in this new podcast by reviewing Olympus Has Fallen, this week we’re talking about a movie that’s a little less, well, dumb. A Face In The Crowd saw legendary director Elia Kazan and writer Budd Schulberg teaming up once again after the success of On The Waterfront. As we discuss, A Face In The Crowd […]

Ever since Top Ten Thursdays ended back in 2016, we here at Mildly Pleased have been a bit inconsistent with our podcast output. With this new show The Pick, we hope to change that. It seems doubtful we’ll do this show every week, but I think we could strive to post one every week we […]

Fifty years ago today a bunch of hippies got high, slid around in the mud, and listened to Country Joe and the Fish… Or so we thought! Turns out there was more to the story. A festival was had Wood-something? Well apparently they made a movie about it and John and Colin watched it. Not […]

It’s the halfway point of the year, and you know what that means. It’s time for Mildly Pleased to share what movies, music, TV, and video games we’ve been enjoying this year, while making no claims that we’ve caught up with everything worthwhile. After all, we have ’til the end of the year to do […]

…And Rokk Talk is back again! This episode, we’re doing the same format as last – going through a band’s entire discography album-by-album (while joined by Sean Lemme). This time, we’re doing The National, those dapper boys from Brooklyn via Ohio now residing all over the globe apparently. We’ll also talk a little about the […]

Love ’em or hate ’em, Vampire Weekend have gone the distance and continued to reinvent themselves like few bands of their generation. On this episode of Rokk Talk, John and Colin break down Vampire Weekend’s entire discography, album-by-album. They also give their first impressions of V-Dub’s new album, Father of the Bride, just for those […]

Good storytelling does not rely on twists. It needs to be more than “what’s going to happen next?” If you’ve done it well, your story should stand up to a second viewing. Case in point: I’m desperate to see Avengers: Endgame again, but in no hurry to revisit Sunday’s genuinely thrilling, climactic episode of Game […]

As we find ourselves in the midst of Avengers: Endgame and the NFL Draft – two celebrations of grown men pummeling each other – we thought we’d class things up a bit. On this podcast, we offer our very own draft pertaining to the films each of us will review during the Criterion Month of […]

Do you believe in Rock and Roll? Well if you do and if you like the taste of cold gin, you’re gonna love this special episode of Rokk Talk. This week, John, Colin, and respected journalist/personal trainer/rock god Matt Carstens reflect on seeing KISS on their “End of the Road Tour”. Is the show worth […]

Do you have any idea how many blockbusters are coming out this year? Do you even know? Disney alone is releasing three remakes of animated classics, two Marvel movies, sequels to Toy Story and Frozen, and a Star Wars. A STAR WARS! And that’s just Disney! Will this be the year the box office implodes […]

It’s no longer 2018. In fact, it’s almost no longer January 2019. But that didn’t stop us from recording a podcast looking back at the best of what last year had to offer in film. Also, it wasn’t a bad week to do so, considering the Oscar nominations came out and… ooh boy, not a […]

2018 was once again a dizzying year for TV, with so many options that you’d think the efforts of three people watching a decent amount of TV shows would have our current television landscape covered. Yet, there are still plenty of critically acclaimed shows none of us caught up with, and you know what? That’s […]

How do you summarize a year like 2018? I think at this point, the whole “it’s depressing” angle is getting kind of tired. And yet, what other perspective is there on stories like children in cages, increasing production of greenhouse gasses, and a rapist being appointed to the supreme court – tipping the balance toward […]

We’re smack dab in the middle of Christmas season again, and you know what that means. Lots and lots of Christmas songs. Some of these songs are great, and some of them are ho-ho-horrible. So on this episode, John and Colin pick out their least favorite Christmas songs ever, and even rank them in a […]

After a long Dave Matthews-induced hiatus, Rokk Talk is back! On this episode John and Colin talk about Led Zep– er, Greta Van Fleet. Which by extension devolves into a conversation about Led Zeppelin, “new” classic rock, self-awareness, and forging your own sound (or failing to). You’d think a band with so little originality wouldn’t […]

It may be another year, another Shocktober. But this year we decided to do something different, by recording a draft of our picks for this year’s monthlong ode to horror movies. Granted, it’s not that new, since this is just the same thing we do to divvy out our Criterion month picks. But nonetheless, here’s a fun […]

Well, now the summer is over. It’s still warm out, but the kids are back in school and the smog has cleared (for the time being), so we’re calling it. Here’s a podcast where we briefly talk about some of our favorite summer media and also the main thing that happened, Criterion Month. I say […]

Before we jump headlong into Criterion month, here’s a look back at the best of pop culture from 2018 so far. Things move fast these days, so if you blink, you might miss a great album or movie or television show, or maybe even a quality video game. Here, John, Sean, and Colin try to […]

Hey everybody, there’s a Star Wars a-comin’! I don’t know if there’s as much excitement for the Solo: A Star Wars Story as there has been for the past few Star Wars movies. But well, I think Star Wars fatigue was somewhat inevitable. Still, from the TV promos I’ve seen, critics supposedly think Solo is […]