Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! Discussion of The Lady of the Lake, Chapter 10 Holy Woodward and Bernstein, Batman! Journalist Sapkowski is back to doggedly track the butterfly effects following the end of the war and the "Peace" of Cintra. This chapter is a kaleidoscope of perspectives and injustices, and scurrying through it all are dozens of skeevy power players. The new world is full of Dijks...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! We've finally finished Diablo 4, after five months of dungeon crawling, demon hunting, and side questing. This sixth act is quite good, but it is haunted by all the same pitfalls and baffling quality of life downgrades that have made the game so frustrating for us. Our wrap-up discussion begins with the story revelations of this big finale, and then we move into a...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! Discussion of Lady of the Lake, Chapter 9 In three years of long-form literary analysis, we've never encountered a single chapter this dramatic or consequential. The sheer number of deaths and revelations is staggering, but as always, it's Sapkowski's ideas that really dazzle us. Maggie chases the threads of destiny and determinism through a hundred new curiosities...

Sir Michael Gambon died last week at the age of 82. In this episode, Cam takes a look back at Gambon's challenging, underrated, fascinating performance as Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter film series. Topics include: Why was Gambon considered the 'angry' Dumbledore? How did this character evolve over the course of eight films? How did Michael Gambon's performance build on and compliment Richar...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! Ten weeks and $950 million later, we're finally ready to talk about Oppenheimer. We've been hammering and polishing these ideas over the course of three viewings and an unreasonable amount of time listening to the score. Topics include: what do the black and white sequences "mean"? What happened to Jean Tatlock? What changes about the film upon subsequent viewings?...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! Discussion of Lady of the Lake, Chapter 8 The time has come for Sapkowksi to write his version of a sweeping epic fantasy battle – and it's nothing like whatever you're expecting. Sapkowski evolves into a war reporter, to lead us through an unending kaleidoscope of tragic perspectives and human atrocities. In doing so, he gives us what feels like his final, most de...

Get bonus episodes on  Patreon ! What if there was a Diablo game with hard-hitting combat, a satisfying skill tree, an easy inventory system, a great map, and a TEN-act campaign? Oh and what if it was free? Path of Exile is almost everything we wanted and didn't get in Diablo IV, and this episode is Cam's reflections on the game. Topics covered include: skills, inventory, gameplay, story, and mone...

Get bonus episodes on Patreon ! Swamps, snakes, salvation, oh my! Just as the game starts to wind down, it's finally getting great. This act features real character arcs, new mechanics, compelling loot, dramatic stakes, and hacked off body parts. This is the innovative fantasy horror roleplaying adventure that we've been waiting for. Listen to the end to find out what the hell the "Christmas Tree...

Get bonus episodes on Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/SecondBreakfastPodcast   We've been working on this episode for months. The Idol was transcendent, a whirlwind of traitorous reversals, doomed schemers, a nervously chattering Greek chorus, and a spectacularly haunted lead. But it is also by far the most pilloried and misunderstood mainstream work of art this year, with the media and social m...

Get bonus episodes on Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/SecondBreakfastPodcast   We've been rewatching the Harry Potter movies at Alamo Drafthouse, and Cam developed a theory based on the way Chamber of Secrets teases good and evil versions of Harry. Tom Riddle is the obvious counterpart here, but we think we've found another hairier, many-legged, icky version of evil Harry that reveals a great de...

Get bonus episodes on Patreon ! Discussion of the Lady of the Lake, Chapter 7 We're jumping back into the multiverse of madness today, as Ciri races through space and time towards the uncertain end of her legend. Maggie leads us on an art historical journey through unicorns and French tapestries, and Cam takes a closer, second look at the ouroboros: the reoccurring symbol that he now believes is a...

Writer, director, and editor Anthony DiBlasi joins us to discuss his horrifying masterpiece, Malum. This movie scared us silly when we saw it back in April, and we've been tinkering with these notes ever since. It is an enormous honor to actually be able to sit down with the man behind the curtain and talk through one of the scariest movies we have ever seen. Topics include: thrill ride horror, Fa...

Get bonus episodes on Patreon:  https://www.patreon.com/SecondBreakfastPodcast   In all seriousness, this might be the best animated movie we've ever seen. The script is wildly and consistently funny, the turtles are believable and painfully sympathetic, the creature design is out of this world, and the art style – the art style – literally made our jaws drop. Oh and did we mention that this movie...

Get bonus episodes on our brand new Patreon!   https://www.patreon.com/SecondBreakfastPodcast   Discussion of The Lady of the Lake, Chapter 6 In this chapter we get Sapkowski working with two hands tied behind his back – no Geralt, no Ciri, no magic, no combat. But his signature ideas are all here in full force: destiny, free will, the problem of evil, war crimes, survival instincts, and the naggi...

Let's start with the good news —Tristan is back to chat with us about the next act of Diablo IV. The undercurrent of this episode is the volatility of a game that is so reliant on updates and patches that can wildly alter the gameplay experience. We happened to play this act during the reviled 1.1 patch, which made boss fights and combat feel like - as Cam says during the episode - swimming throug...

For this week's Summerween, we're looking at an all-time classic. J a w s is the ultimate summer horror film, but after rewatching it, we also think it takes a quiet tour through some of our favorite horror subgenres. There's a horror sensibility running through everything here, from the crafty script that overwhelms you with doomed mentors, to the legendary score and paranoid editing. And at the...

Greta Gerwig's Barbie is fantastic for so many reasons, but there was one idea that struck us particularly hard, and we couldn't let it go. Enjoy this solo column-style episode from Cam, wherein he passionately argues that in making this film, Gerwig has delivered us perhaps the best modern adaptation of John Milton's Paradise Lost in decades. Ryan Gosling's Ken is the perfect Satan for 2023, and...

An exciting development has arrived, years in the making. The show is about to change forever, but also – not at all. JOIN THE FUN HERE other links:  YouTube ,  Spotify ,  Instagram ,  Cam's stories send us your feedback & theories:  secondbreakfastpod@gmail.com

Discussion of The Lady of the Lake, Ch. 5   We're barreling towards the end of The Witcher saga, and in this chapter we finally get some answers. After we break down revelations about elves, unicorns, the Wild Hunt, and time travel, Cam launches into one of his patented Big Boy Theories – namely, that this chapter is a microcosm and restaging of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, full of tel...

Hey, remember a couple months ago when we were whining that they didn't make any good comedy movies anymore?? Well, they must have heard us. This episode runs through five fantastic comedies we've seen in the last few months. There's so much variety and talent here, from ensemble horror comedies, to classic New York rom-coms, action comedies, 2000s sex comedies, and nihilistic COVID-era farces. Th...

This year's Summerween is bringing the pain. As Above, So Below is once again the scariest movie we've ever seen, but it's also been designed in a lab to perfectly appeal to Maggie's medieval art history background and Cam's undying fascination with Faustus, Dante, and literary demons. This discussion runs through the uniquely varied style of found footage employed here, which deftly balances the...

Discussion of The Lady of the Lake, Ch. 4   This chapter of the final Witcher novel is the perfect complement to its predecessor. We continue through a messy, empathetic, nuanced interlude of fantasy, illusion, sexual politics, and self-awareness. We dig deep into Geralt's subconscious here – Maggie wonders whether his growth has brought him to a place of healthy emotional intelligence, while Cam...

At the halfway point of Diablo IV, we reach a crossroads. The narrative work here can be incredible, but more and more the game seems to be prioritizing the uneven gear grind and endgame. This episode explores some of the major tensions at the heart of the game. Maggie advances our ongoing discussion of power fantasies, difficulty scaling, and monotony in light of the tidal wave of boss fights pep...

Discussion of  Insidious, Insidious: Chapter 2,  and  Insidious: The Red Door James Wan and Leigh Whannell made the best haunted house horror movie of all time in 2010. Three years later, they made the best horror sequel of all time. And now, ten years later, with Insidious: The Red Door, we have a satisfying, startling, gorgeous finale to what might be the greatest franchise in the genre. This ep...

Never let it be said that we here at Second Breakfast refuse to admit our mistakes. They've finally gone and done it: they made a great multiverse superhero movie. Not only is the story here thoughtful and refreshingly self-aware, but the art style – or should we say the 1,000 art styles – are deliriously delightful. This is probably the best cinematic experience of 2023. Get bonus episodes on Sub...