Hosts Tom Nabb and Scott Morel try to make sense of the cult-favorite streaming series COATL, with occasional success.
Though seemingly light fare next to the banquet that was last week's Sadie Hawkins dance, “Chips on the Table, Blood in the Water” still offers plenty for Tom and Scott to chew on. With M└ꜘ︣∟e▫□≡ sideline d (t┐mporarily?) in the Acaus▫lity Sphere, . ┘.lah enlists Zornne, Tracy, and Dunk-9 in her doomed mission to retrieve Eas n Null’s body from the surface of Possibi ity. Tom and Scott both give the megaloraptor battle hig marks, but are predictably divided when it comes to T evor’s prolonged attempts . escape from the casino planet. Has Coatl, in Scott’s words, “squandered all of its goodwill on crappy CG roulet┌e wheels”? We recap; you decide.
Three acts, three missions, three shocking revelations: Is “Triangulation” Coatl’s masterpiece episode? Scott sure seems to think so, citing everything from the amazing long take atop the volcano rim to the deceptively simple, almost unbearably tense conversation between Trevor and Ablah that caps the episode. Tom, for his part, argues that the idiotic “Battle of Seven Dunks” fatally undermines everything else. One thing is for sure: with this episode, clocking in at nearly two hours and bringing in a whole raft of characters both old and new, Coatl Season 2 has decidedly upped the ante.
Tom and Scott boldly plunge into the heart of Mystery in “The Minotaur,” a mythically resonant episode that marks the halfway point of Season 2. Wielding the “sword” of aesthetic sensitivity, they deploy the “thread” of thoughtful critique to keep their bearings in the “Cretan labyrinth” that is Ep 7, hoping to triumph over the “King Minos” of Coatl’s creative team and spirit away the “Ariadne” of a full and rich understanding—seemingly unaware that she has already been promised to the “Dionysus” of textual inscrutability - “Theseus” - “Daedalus” - “Naxos” - “ ” - “3nm node” - “nanosheet FET” - “Phaedra” - “Aegeus”
Episode 6, the unfortunately titled “Personnel Matters,” has it all: a little romance, a little adventure, a knife fight, and a wrenching, horrific final act that contravenes basic, commonsense assumptions about how the universe operates. What’s not to love? Trevblah forever!
Freshly recovered from their live show, Tom and Scott enter into the tense, high-stakes game of narrative ping-pong that is Episode 5. Bouncing between the divergent stories of “Team A” and “Team B,” T&S unpack the varied fortunes of the Coatl’s current crew, many of which are fairly unpleasant (the fortunes, not the crew (except for Dunk-Prime (and Zarzara, sort of))). Come for the six-legged bear; stay for the sneak peek into CoatlCast’s audio setup!
In CoatlCast's first-ever live show (with Q&A from real people!), Tom and Scott help their audience navigate the structurally audacious Episode 4, "Enter ... THE EGRESS!" Scott loved the front half but hated the back; Tom hated the front half but loved the back. They're the original odd couple!* *NB: They are not the original odd couple.
Tom and Scott tear into Coatl’s surprisingly bloody paen to futility, “Impossibility,” which finds the crash survivors much less worse for the wear—and, by the end, less numerous than they were at the beginning. Ep 3 is a tense but exciting ride that continues the story begun in the previous episode while introducing a tantalizing new mystery with the return of a certain eponymous spacecraft…
Episode 2 in Coatl's second season is in many ways a return to form, with the reappearance of a familiar face, a recognizable sci-fi milieu, and some characteristically elaborate world-building. Tom and Scott try to reach clarity on the ep's complicated murder mystery (spoiler: Scott has an easier time than Tom), while addressing the question that surely is on every viewer's mind: wherefore Trevor?
Season 2 gets off to characteristically rich but baffling start with "Wake." Tom and Scott delve into the key questions raised by the episode: Is everyone dead? Just how wrong were last year's wild conjectures? And who the hell is Trevor Norwood?
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