Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! After the recent disappointment of Black Ops 7, Cam went back to 2017's Call of Duty: WWII in the hopes of finding a simple, competently made FPS campaign. Instead, he found the most impressive, immersive, and profound game in the franchise — a largely overlooked modern classic that feels like a minor miracle in the current gaming landscape. LINKS:...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! We try to mention "fun factor" in all of our gaming episodes. It's a mercurial, tricky concept that is too often overlooked in critical analysis. In this episode, we're celebrating an absolute masterpiece of fun — Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge. Topics include: arcade difficulty, colorful combat, and mechanical variety. LINKS:   Pa...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! This episode is a post-mortem of the shockingly unenjoyable Terrifier game. We're trying to figure out where it all went wrong, and that question will take us through combat expression, enemy variety, core understanding of the source material, and a brief digression into the world of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. LINKS:   Patreon ,  YouTube ,  S...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! Somehow, this French indie movie is both the best James Bond movie and best Batman / Catwoman movie ever made. In this episode, we're investigating the endless, delirious style of Reflection of a Dead Diamond. Topics include: the art of rug pull revelations, how to balance realism and surrealism, and the enduring cultural influence of Frank Miller's...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! Diablo's latest season is like a box of crayons that has one gloriously beautiful crayon inside of it — but the rest is empty. Functionally, this is a season without a story, and as much as we are adoring the new Paladin class, this episode is ultimately about how alarmed we are by the narrative precedent established by this Season of Divine Interve...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! In this episode, we're exploring the calming, focusing, and meditative power of Powerwash Simulator 2, a game that Cam accidentally dumped fifty hours into — and found some measure of inner peace along the way. Topics include: the immortal attraction of color, what makes a great iterative sequel, and the thrill Maggie gets from pretending to farm. L...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! Wake Up Dead Man is far and away the best Knives Out movie, somehow managing to be both a great screwball comedy and an earnest drama about faith. In this episode, we're exploring that dichotomy, and Maggie's hunch that this feels like two movies stitched together. Topics include: the boundless talent of Josh O'Connor, the narrative demotion of Beno...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! Maggie's journey as a gamer stretches from Baldur's Gate 3 on the PS5 all the way back to clicking away at 'homework games' on the family computer. In this retrospective episode, she's taking us through the top ten titles that define her as a gamer — fascinatingly presented in chronological order. Come for the Barbie shoutouts, stay for the evolutio...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! In an act of pure self-loathing, Cam attempted to create a list of the ten games that define him as a lifelong gamer. The first draft of that list had a hundred entries. In this episode, we're discussing his final, winnowed-down top ten. Somehow, none of the Halo games made the list, but don't worry, he found a way to fit in almost a dozen honorable...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! Man Finds Tape is a delightful, dread-inducing puzzlebox that deftly combines the found footage and faux-documentary subgenres of indie horror. In this episode, we explore the film's equally impressive high concepts and lo-fi effects by making enthusiastic comparisons to Hell House, LLC., Smile, and The Poughkeepsie Tapes. LINKS:   Patreon ,  YouTub...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! Sisu: Road to Revenge is more than the sum of its parts — and those parts are pretty incredible. This episode is a celebration of what is at once the best John Wick, Mad Max, and Die Hard descendant we've ever seen. Topics include: impossible origin stories, the importance of runtimes, and the marriage of slapstick comedy and deeply sincere drama. L...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! Forget Diablo, forget Path of Exile — Last Epoch might just be the best ARPG on the market. In this episode, we're diving into this nine (!) act campaign to discuss difficulty, art direction, skill trees, quest structure, class variety, fun factor, meta progression, and endgame activities. LINKS:   Patreon ,  YouTube ,  Spotify ,  Instagram Feedback...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! Besides being a perfect movie in its own right, Hamnet is also almost a one-to-one restaging of Robert Eggers' The Witch — one of our favorite movies of all time. In this episode, we're running through all the similarities and echoes we noticed, from a shared interest in female folk horror to pivotal exorcisms of oldest sons and impossible, undead f...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! This one's a real head scratcher. Keeper evokes so many of our favorite horror movies — The Witch, Barbarian, The Invitation, The Black Phone — and we love the creative team behind it, but the film just didn't work for us at all. In this episode, we're taking a closer look at the plot, performances, direction, and editing to figure out why. LINKS:  ...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! In this episode, we make the case that Stranger Things is the American Harry Potter — and more specifically, that Stranger Things 5 Volume 1 is strikingly similar to Deathly Hallows Part 1. Echoes include: victorious villains, dramatic camping, the death of innocence, hive mind lieutenants, and pirate radio broadcasts. LINKS:   Patreon ,  YouTube , ...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! Popcorn movies. Fun movies. Entertaining movies. These are the types of films that we take for granted. They're not the types of films that we usually give awards to, but that doesn't mean that they're easy to make. Predator: Badlands is masterfully engaging and relentlessly creative. In this episode, we're exploring the concept of a "fun factor" to...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! Does biting satire have to have a nihilistic ending? Do heroic victories undercut commentary about fascism? In this episode, we're taking a look at Edgar Wright's The Running Man, through the lenses of the following films: The Hunger Games, The Long Walk, One Battle After Another, Eddington, Gladiator II, and Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning....

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! Stranger Things is a remarkable medley of genres we love, but is it more than just a collage of pop culture references and influences? In this episode, Cam argues that the show begins as a work of fantasy before evolving into science fiction and settling into the realm of horror. We trace this journey through the following subgenres: high fantasy, u...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! Black Ops 7 is a fascinating blunder, and a major step backwards for gaming's biggest franchise. In this episode, we're working through the ten best and worst features of the campaign. Topics include: narrative surrealism, the future of the genre, weapon balancing, adaptive difficulty, and the unconscionable absence of a pause button. LINKS:   Patre...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! There's so much to love about Terrifier: The ARTcade Game, but after playing through the demo a few times, there's a lot that makes us nervous too. In this episode, we're breaking down all these conflicted reactions. Topics include: signature weapons, enemy variety, hit detection, and the always-important fun factor. LINKS:   Patreon ,  YouTube ,  S...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! The death of Michael Berzatto is The Bear's inciting incident, but the character remains a regular part of the story through flashbacks and cutaways. What is the narrative effect of these repeated resurrections and deaths? In this episode, we're continuing our exploration of grief art with a discussion of story structure, repetition, memory, and Car...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! Black Phone 2 is an exceedingly strange sequel: shuffling up the narrative prominence of all the central characters, switching horror subgenres, and tossing out the first film's winning formula. These are all admirably big swings for the creative team to take, but the real sticking point for us is the ending, which breaks the cardinal rule of grief...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! A year after its debut, we're taking an in-depth look at Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Beneath all the good faith (and bad faith) controversies, there's an interesting, immersive fantasy world here that is worth exploring. Topics include: character customization, combat expression, role playing, conflicting art styles, and the difference between writin...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! We're honored to be joined by Hell House LLC creator Stephen Cognetti for this wide-ranging interview celebrating the release of his final film in the franchise. Topics include: ambiguous endings, creative closure, the sequel business, audience expectations, continuing the franchise in a new medium, and fascinating deep dives into the structure and...

Check out Cam's latest novel / audio drama here! For die-hard fans of horror and fantasy like us, Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein might just be the perfect film — and it's also almost certainly the best adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel ever made. In this episode, Cam leads us on a whirlwind tour through the source material's intimate relationship with Doctor Faustus and some of this rendition'...