The Screen Companion

Where's the Far East love?! The Killer, Fulltime Killer, and Lady Vengeance. What do they seem to do really well? What's totally bonkers from a Western perspective? Let's break out the soju and get into it. Guests: Jon & Andrew.

Using the power of cinema, one can visit new worlds. In the 2010s, there were plenty of sci-fi and fantasy environments to explore: Tron: Legacy, Dredd, and Mad Max: Fury Road; we crash through the silver screen into quite a range of made-up places. Guests: Max & Andrew.

The supernatural genre got a boost with the popular Stranger Things. Beating it by a decade, Carnivale was also doing spooky powers in a period setting. Netflix vs. HBO. The '80s vs. the '30s. A weirdo in a hospital gown vs. a weirdo in overalls. Let's discuss! Guest: Stacey.

Sports! Not all of us can geek out over it, but how about when it merges with film? In Field of Dreams and The Sandlot, not only is there a strong baseball component, but also fathers and sons; for when you miss playing catch with the old man. Guests: Pat & Jon.

Straight comedies are fine, but dark comedies add a dimension that makes the humor more impactful. In Death to Smoochy and Beetlejuice, the laughs have an edge to them. Guest: Jon.

Total nostalgia bait. Want to remember what it was like before Twitter and Instagram ruled high school halls? Veronica Mars shows that and more in telling the story of a junior P.I. navigating school and town politics in 2004 Orange County. Guest: Laura.

Budgets don't always have a proportional relationship to quality. The low budget flicks Cube and Texas Chainsaw Massacre prove that story and craft transcend spending copious amounts. Guest: Ian.

Licensed music can feel really heavy handed and included just to sell albums (at the expense of the movie). However, in Airheads and Can't Hardly Wait, the song choices are a plus. Revisit the '90s from two different ends, two opposite trends. Guest: Jon.

TSC is always pondering what themes viewers might be after when they're looking for content. You may have never searched for it before, but take note of War Dogs, Top Gun, and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock as movies with strong bromances. Guests: Stacey & Andrew.

Spotlight on rapper / actor Ice T, a guy known for a song called “Cop Killer” has also played a police officer in a Law & Order spin-off for 20+ years! Let's get into Trespass and Surviving the Game and celebrate his wild acting career! Guest: Jon.

Marathoning Mission: Impossible! In part 3 of 3, we're talking Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and Mission: Impossible - Fallout—the gasoline that stoked the fire of the franchise. Between the two movies, there's a shared villain and femme fatale, as well as the celebrated return of a character from M:I-3. Guest: Andrew.

Marathoning Mission: Impossible! In part 2 of 3, the Host vents his frustrations over the lowest grossing film in the series, M:I-3. Also, recall the glorious phoenix that came next—Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol—and re-established master spy Ethan Hunt's box office viability. Guest: Andrew.

Marathoning Mission: Impossible! Tom Cruise has shaped the franchise into a must-watch series. With a seventh and eighth already in the pipeline for release in 2023 and 2024, he has the potential to stick a landing few franchises ever do with that many entries under their belts. Part 1 of 3 covers Mission: Impossible and M:I-2. Guest: Andrew.

Fandom has an innate quality of splitting into different factions, made all the more pronounced when a property is long lived. Case in point: Star Trek. In this episode, we go on a perilous raft ride down a particularly contentious lane of Trek: the prequel series Enterprise (2001-2005). Guest: Andrew.

Journey on a perilous raft ride down a particularly contentious lane of Star Trek: the prequel series Enterprise (2001-2005). For a show that arguably weathered rougher seas than its predecessors, has it gotten better with time? Let's find out by running a full sensor sweep of its pilot, "Broken Bow". Guest: Jon.

Testosterone heavy movies aren't only about male chauvinism. They can motivate one to hit the gym or even inspire heroics in everyday life. The muscles, clenched jaws, and grunts in Conan the Barbarian and 300 aren't just homoerotic subtext, they also represent enviable spiritual strength. Let's get pumped! Guest: Stacey.

Film series can have a rocky start out the gate: maybe there are tone problems, or maybe it's so clunky / irrelevant that it should be stricken from the record. With 2 Fast 2 Furious and The Wolverine, you can ignore the preceding entries and be much happier. Completists be damned, just start the canon with these second movies! Guest: Jon.

Six years before Game of Thrones, there was another sword and shield epic on HBO called Rome. Nudity? Check. Violence? Check. Political machinations? Check. Rome (2005-2007) did it better; while the series only lasted two seasons, it was spared the controversy and enmity that GoT engendered in its fandom. Guest: Stacey.

Foreign languages can be barriers, but everyone can relate to childhood struggles like being the new kid or having trouble connecting with parents. Let's dig into El Sur and My Life as a Dog—youth trauma, here we come! Truly, universal themes that transcend cultural boundaries. Guests: Max, Andrew & Jon.

Sometimes you've spent all day thinking hard and just want something ridiculous to watch—a movie you can latch onto in a few respects and ignore the rest of it in favor of pure entertainment. Baywatch, Road House, and Die Hard 2 didn't win Best Picture, but who cares? They're fun! Guests: Pat & Andrew.

It's rare that a movie captures a time, place, and culture all in one go like the Ice Cube classic Friday (1995). It represents South Central, the '90s, and black culture for many. When you want to see a different perspective, watch this comedy and get immersed! Guest: Stacey. 

What ingredients are in a movie's failure? Let's do a postmortem on a trio of critical and commercial losers (Conan the Destroyer, The 13th Warrior, and Speed Racer). Perhaps thy're misunderstood victims of circumstance. Or maybe we're the ones committing crimes against cinema by defending them. Guests: Andrew & Jon.

Suffer through one final guest-less rant before the new season hits! The film is Executive Decision (1996), and the topic is suspense in action movies. Once again, the Host complains about new movies not being as well made as their (much) older counterparts. Big surprise.

In this solo article, I recommend two contrasting T.V. shows starring the versatile actor Lee Pace: Pushing Daisies (2007-2009) and Halt and Catch Fire (2014-2017). One is very sweet and the other is very bleak, so why not pair them together for an even better viewing experience?!

Another refined solo in-betweener episode, the Host shares a recommendation that came out of nowhere. Even if it sounds outside of your tastes at first (like it did his), give him a chance to convince you to watch The Purple Rose of Cairo.