Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! House of the Dragon is not Game of Thrones, but neither is it the same show that it was in Season One. This uneasy evolution has continued to haunt our discussions, and more than anything, this episode — "Rhaenyra the Cruel" — is a collection of growing pains. In addition to our beloved audience polls (conducted every week on Instagram), discussion topics include:...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! Is emotional vulnerability a fatal mistake or a saving grace? Sansa attempts to perform he way through this chapter as a hundred classical fantasy archetypes explode and bleed out all around her. We track the possible futures that branch off from this moment of enlightenment, following the black-out indulgence of King Robert and the aggrieved nihilism of the Hound....

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon !   House of the Dragon is BACK, and we couldn't be more excited to dive into this world again. Friend of the show Tristan is here to partake in our rousing discussion of the Season 2 premiere. The infamous Blood & Cheese incident steals the show, and we debate the impact of what should have been a monumental moment for our characters. Maggie does a full deep dive in...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! Catelyn Stark might just be the most complex and rewarding characters in A Game of Thrones. This chapter is a cascade of memories and breadcrumbs that simultaneously resurrects the past and animates the future -- of House Stark, House Tully, and even Catelyn herself. Expect full books spoilers: We're going deep on Lady Stoneheart, generational echoes, poisoned nost...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon !   Maggie's biggest gripe with modern games has always been how inaccessible, unapproachable, and challenging they can feel to newcomers. Many games are designed with the assumption that players have already had experience with similar games, and as a person who didn't grow up playing anything beyond the original Super Mario or games on DisneyChannel.com, she often...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! In the space of a single chapter, Ned Stark has gone from a bumbling amateur detective to Batman --  or has he?  In this episode, we look at Ned's unsteady relationship with honesty in a world of liars. Maggie returns to the themes of femininity and unseen power that have complicated our Fire & Blood episodes over on Patreon, this time to examine the relationship b...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! Oh these are our favorite type of episodes: falling in love with a work of art we didn't expect to care about at all. Shout out to Tristan for bullying us into watching X-Men '97, and to Maggie for having a perfectly timed hankering for cereal. This is a conversation about reclaiming your imagination as an adult, our histories with the X-Men, the ritualistic experi...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! Samwell Tarly joins the narrative just in the nick of time, as an unlikely answer to the existential and immaterial problems threatening Westeros. Cam argues that Sam embodies the hope, forgiveness, and second chances that lie at the heart of GRRM's supposedly bleak and grim world. Maggie explores the Tolkien feints within this chapter, unspooling the echoes of fel...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! Furiosa is massively different than Fury Road. The tone, the pacing, the style of characterization — our first viewing was largely a process of adjustment and recalibration. But on after seeing it a SECOND time, the movie really opened up for us. This episode chronicles the journeys we went on through the Wasteland, our experience watching the very first Mad Max, a...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! The question that hung over Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was simple. What can this film offer that is different or better than Fury Road? As it turns out, the answer is Chris Hemsworth's performance as Dementus - a bonkers, fearless villain who somehow simultaneously evokes Charles Dickens, Jack Sparrow, Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, and the great Ian McShane. This is one f...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! Ned Stark may already be dead. In this chapter, Littlefinger eulogizes him to his face, capping off a series of three failed initiations into the world of liars and crooks that is King's Landing. Cam's diving into unseen spymasters and unnoticed liars, while also keeping an eye out for Bran Atreides the God Emperor and the conspicuously absent white walkers. Maggie...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! Oh it feels so good to say this: Diablo IV has never been better than it is in Season 4. Loot Reborn is a full-scale reworking of the game's core systems. The gameplay loop and recurring activities are stronger than ever, and for once in this live game, all of these great new additions are here to stay. The campaign is short and sweet – incredibly rewarding while t...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! In his own words, this chapter had Cam feeling "puckish". Forgoing all the traditional ambiguities and symbols, he focuses on the character trend that quietly runs through these pages: a devastating comedy of manners and pretense that crushes the spirits of all our major players. Meanwhile, Maggie dives headfirst into the mythology, the metaphors, the dreams, and t...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! The Fall Guy feels like a passion project about passion -- it's a love letter to stuntmen, artistic craft, and the fading genre of romantic action comedies. It's also the best movie of director David Leitch's career. So why is the entire discourse surrounding the film about box office receipts? Join us for a little 'state of the union' about online film discussion,...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! This third 'Targaryen Checkpoint' delivers a whole new level of prophetic, high-concept imagery for us to discuss. Maggie focuses in on Dany and Viserys as avatars of the House of the Dragon's simultaneous rise and fall, before diving deeper into Viserys' ghostly, almost undead turn in these pages. Cam finds a corollary for all the White Walker breadcrumbs we've be...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon !   600 pages of expertly dramatized philosophy and theology, starring a giant worm with a human face – this book was written for Cam. Our discussion starts with the compounding, echoing relationship between all of the Dune books, before settling on the unexpected Nietzschean flair of Frank Herbert's God Emperor. Alongside the ghola, he's one of the central walking t...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! Every Arya chapter is Valjean screaming "Who am I?" at the audience, but this one in particular really is a carousel of futures. Cam examines the half dozen personas explored in these pages and the constant refinements of that central question. Are you your circumstances? Are you your defining characteristics? Are you your vocation? Maggie revisits the Stark childr...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon !   Grab your Leviathan Axe and hop in the boat: we're heading to the Lake of Nine today to discuss Maggie's experience playing (and not playing) the masterful 2018 God of War. Maggie has been going further and further out of her comfort zone with games, and God of War was no exception. But the world and the story gripped her so much that by golly she was going to ma...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! This week we're all the way at the edge of the world, and what do we find? Shakespeare! More specifically, Cam gets to talk about the Old Man archetype, which crops up here thanks to Lord Commander Mormont. The conversation spirals into a theory about omens, ignored warnings, and narrative vindication. Cam presents a relay race theory about Tyrion's role as the bri...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! The Tortured Poets Department isn't "about" anyone. This episode is an interrogation of that painfully wrong-headed way we talk about the biggest artist in the world. It represents an incurious tabloid toxicity and a strange rejection of creativity. An artist's experience CAN inspire their work, but that observation should be the tip of the analytical iceberg, not...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! Ned just made it to King's Landing, and it's already a disaster. Maggie investigates Ned's first day as Hand of the King, wondering how out of his depth he truly is, and if he has the capacity to learn. Cam leads a close reading that compares the series-long arcs of the Stark clan and the white walkers, illuminates the ice and fire imagery we keep noticing, and rev...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon !   Let's keep it brief: this season is as bad as the last season was good. On the menu we have ugly robots, boring traps, and a surprisingly long commute. As always, we're not just here to mindlessly praise or bash this game; we love the series and believe this discussion is both constructive and fun. We discuss the state of the game, the seasonal campaign, some cla...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! Since Jon doesn't like the 'Lord Snow' nickname, let's just call him the Direwolf of Wall Street instead. Jon's arrival to Castle Black brings with it three subtle narrative interventions. Cam leads us through the quiet parade of second chances given to Jon, some unwelcome Sansa echoes, and a few ghostly glimpses of the White Walkers. Maggie examines the ice and fi...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon !   "The entire universe with all of its Time is within me." The third Dune novel is not messing around. Herbert dives fearlessly into the further reaches of his creation and consecrates his central critique. The dehumanizing effect of absolute power is made literal. Monsters and gods take the places of previous meddlers. Recurring plot beats speak to an inevitable c...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon !   If there's any justice in the world, Monkey Man will be the next big thing in action movies. Dev Patel's directorial debut is an unflinching, crunchy, gnarly, creative step forward for a genre still largely living in the shadows of John Wick, Jason Bourne, and Tom Cruise. In this episode we explore that lineage and celebrate the innovations that Monkey Man brings...