What Did We Miss?

Justified may have been a victim of the golden age of television. Matt and Tony both had it on their radar - how could it not have been - but for whatever reason the critically-acclaimed FX series never grabbed them. This week, they take the opportunity to finally catch up with deputy US marshall Raylan Givens, and the cast of cops and ne'er-do-wells of the show's Harlan County, Kentucky. They also discuss the show's source material, the novella "Fire in the Hole," and the novel "Pronto," both written by Elmore Leonard and featuring the cowboy hat wearin' lawman portrayed by Timothy Olyphant. As always, they'll discuss why they had held off on the show and why now seemed like the time to ctach up. They'll also discuss how a show about a "plays by his own rules" lawman and a white supremacist militias plays differently in the wake of the last few years, the differences between Raylan on the screen and on the page, and whether or not season one has them excited about continuing with the show.

Mike Mignola debuted his most iconic character, Hellboy, in 1993. Since then, Hellboy has punched his way through battles with Nazis, vampires, ghosts, floating heads, Lovecraftian cosmic horrors, and even Santa, all in the name of a days work and keeping the world safe. Matt and Tony have long been fans, but as with following anything that lasts for decades they've been in and out of Hellboy's regular adventures. Now that Hellboy's story has come to a definitive end, Matt and Tony caught up on the stories they had missed in preparation for the big red guy's final adventure: Hellboy in Hell. They discuss the mythology and circumstances that brought a reluctant devil to the underworld, Hellboy's "just a regular guy" attitude about scrapping with monsters and shunning his destiny, and why Mike Mignola's singular aesthetic makes Hellboy such a joy to read and revisit. Big time spoiler alert: This is a discussion about the "final" Hellboy miniseries. Plenty of warning is given before diving into details, but if you've ever been curious about Hellboy, maybe bookmark this one.

It's not all about the podcast, folks, which is why this week Matt and Tony are taking some time to talk about the stuff they watch, read, and what-have-you when they aren't cramming for a new episode. Since their end of 2020 roundup ran a bit long, they open things with a discussion about the comics and novels they've been reading in 2021, then dive into the films and TV that have been streaming for the first half of 2021.

It's easy to take a cursory look at the NBC sitcom Superstore and unfavorably compare it to The Office or Parks and Recreation. That's exactly what Matt and Tony did when the show premiered in late 2015. And altough the ratings for the show remained consistent throughout its six season run it never gained the sort of cult status and internet fame that its predecessor's enjoyed. Now that critics are finally catching up to the show it felt like the right time to give the show a second chance. They discuss the history of NBC's "must-see-TV" thursday lineup, the show's excellent and diverse cast, why it hasn't found the kind of audience that show's of its kind have enjoyed in the past, and its surpringly sharp political acumen.

Second albums are notoriously difficult to make. Expectations from critics and audiences alike can force an artist into a corner: not enough change and you risk repeating yourself; too much change and you risk alienating your fan base. Fiona Apple followed up her multi-platinum selling debut album, Tidal, by directly addressing her critics and confidently refining her songwriting. Released in 1999 and produced by multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion, When the Pawn... stood out from the burgeoning radio landscape of disposable pop, boy bands, and nu metal. Seeing as how Fiona Apple has been mentioned in previous episodes of WDWM, Tony felt it was time to see if her music lived up to its reputation, and Matt, a long time Fiona Apple fan, was only happy to oblige. They discuss the negative reaction to her interview in Spin Magazine and how that inspired When the Pawn..., Fiona's lyrical wit and complex rhyming schemes, her infamous MTV Video Awards acceptance speech, that incredible voice, and what makes this album a classic to this very day.

Welcome to our second annual Oscar episode! In honor of this weekend's Oscar ceremony, Matt and Tony picked a random year to see if any of that year's Best Picture nominees were blindspots. The result? 1949. The nominess: Hamlet, The Red Shoes, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Johnny Belinda, and The Snake Pit. They briefly touch upon Johnny Belinda and The Snake Pit before focusing on the three influential films that are still loved and discussed to this day: Hamlet, The Red Shoes, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Before getting to the 1949 Oscar nominees, they talk about the 2021 Oscars and how the pandemic affected the nominees releases and viewing expierence. Then they touch on what they did and didn't like about the movies from 1949, trends and themes that tend to pop up every year in the Best Picture nominees, expectations and biases of older movies, and how good it feels to still be able to find art that moves and surprises you.

It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights, it's time to convince Tony of The Muppet Show's greatness on WDWM tonight! With the news that Disney+ had added The Muppet Show to its catalog, Tony admitted to a deep, dark secret: he doesn't really get the Muppets. Life long Muppet fan, Matt, jumps in to save the day and guide Tony through all of the ins and outs of the weird world of Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, and company. They talk about the pressure and expectations of being a first time viewer of a beloved show, the non-controversy surrounding the disclaimer attached to a handful of episodes, the show's terrific balance of allowing the guests to be themselves while still maintaining a space for plenty of Muppet hijinks, and its influences that range from vaudeville to old Hollywood musicals and yet still rooted in character based humor.

Every week or so another film critic Matt and Tony follows on Twitter mentions how Devil in a Blue Dress - written and directed by Carl Franklin from the novel written by Walter Mosley - is an overlooked gem of mid-90s cinema. Starring the always great Denzel Washington and featuring a stand-out cast including Jennifer Beals, Tom Sizemore, and a scene-stealing Don Cheadle, Devil in a Blue Dress is the story of how WWII vet and recently laid off Ezikiel "Easy" Rollins winds up butting heads against corrupt politicians and a shady private eye, all while exploring the underbelly of postwar LA while on the case to track down a missing woman. Matt and Tony discuss the differences between Mosley's novel and the film, how Easy fits into the tradition of hard boiled detectives, and how Easy's LA stand's in contrast to that tradition's predominantly white point of view. They also touch on the first of the novel's many sequels, how the racial politics of the post-war period still resonate with contemporary issues, and how Don Cheadle's wild performance as Mouse on-screen lives up to the character's frightening intensity on the page.

He's known by many names: Zev Love X, Viktor Vaughn, King Geedorah, and more, but most people know him as MF Doom. Amidst the calamity of 2020, MF Doom, whose real name is Daniel Dumile, passed away in October. The world learned of his passing several months later when his wife informed his fans via a Facebook post. Stunned by the rapper's death and the strange way in which the news was revealed, Matt reacquainted himself with the mysterious MF Doom and his music while also introducing Tony to the apotheosis of Doom's career: the album Madvillainy. Released in 2004 to critical acclaim and instant cult classic status, Madvillainy was a collaborative album with producer Mad Lib. Matt and Tony talk about the slightly morbid prospects of catching up an artist after they have passed away, the complex history and self mythologized backstory to Doom and his many aliases, and the rapper's comedic delivery and endless well of complex rhymes.

Who'd have thought that a comic about a samurai rabbit would have much staying power, but after 35 plus years, over 300 issues, a new show coming to Netflix, and a few appearances alongside the Tennage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Usagi Yojimbo is still going strong. Creator Stan Sakai has been the sole creative force since issue one, not only writing and drawing every issue but also inking and lettering. Sakai masterfully pulls from elements of Japanese folk tales and fedual Japan to create a story that trandsends genre and becomes a sort of alternate history lesson featuring anthropomorphized rabbits, bats, cats, rhinos, and more. Tony and Matt learned about Usagi via a guest spot on the orginal Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, but due to its long history and scarce accessibility to back issues they never gave it a chance. They discuss that long journey to taking the plunge into the gigantic world of Usagi Yojimbo, the comic's heavily researched connections to Japanease history, Stan Sakai's art style and the impressive scope of his sotrytelling, and the lasting influence samurai stories have had on western culture.

After two years of early-access, Hades - the latest game from critical darling developer Supergiant Games - got its official release last September. Set within the colorful - and drama-filled - world of Greek mythology, Hades is an isometric roguelike where players take the role of Zagreus, son of Hades, as he attempts to free himself from the underworld with the help of some horny Olympians. The buzz was instant and everywhere; Hades was one of the best, if not the best, game of the year. Based off of that instant positive reaction from press and gamers online, Matt and Tony took the endlessly replayable plunge down the river Styx to see what all of the fuss was about. They discuss the game's learning curve, Supergaint's reputation of polish and presentation, the addictive nature of the game, its deep systems and customization, and the charms of Hades' take on the gods and monsters of classic Greek mythology.

Schitt's Creek just finished up its 6th and final season in 2020. Co-created by and starring Eugene and Dan Levy, the show premiered in 2015 to decent reviews but a small viewership. It wasn't until the show made the leap to Netflix in 2017 that the show slowly started to gain an audience. Three years and hundreds of memes later, the show has become a bit of a cultural phenomenon. Along with the Levys, costars Catherine O'Hara and Annie Murphy all received acting awards at the 2020 Emmy ceremony. Tony and Matt, seemingly the last two people to watch the show, discuss comfort viewing, binge watching, the show's "no lessons" perspective on LGBTQ relatioships, and whether or not the series finale sticks the landing.

50 episodes and two years later seems like a good time to look back on the first 49 episodes and to talk about the beginnings of the show, where we've been, and where we hope to go. Join Tony and Matt as they talk about what they learned from the first few episodes of the show, each list their five favorite discoveries from the first two years of episodes, and preview some ideas from the coming year.

Happy New Year WDWM-ers! No need to relitigate the trash that was 2020, it's time to move on and discuss all of the pop culture, both new and old, that brought Matt & Tony comfort this year. They hit on all of the movie, music, TV, books, and video games they consumed over throughout 2020. Drop 'em a line with any glaring omissions or disagreements, and stay tuned for two week's when they return to exploring the stuff they've missed!

Whether it's Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Muppet Family Christmas, or any other number of annual holiday classics, everyone has their favorite Christmas special. Tony and Matt look to see if they can replicate that warm, fuzzy holiday feeling, and add something new to their annual viewing by catching up on some vintage TV holiday specials. First up, Matt introduces Tony to The Judy Garland Christmas Show from 1963. Judy and her children invite friends and family into their studio "home" to sing a mix of broadway numbers and holiday classics. Next up, Tony finally catches up on The Year Without a Santa Claus. Maybe not as fondly rembered as some Rankin-Bass classics, though a favorite of Matt's family during his youth, this 1974 stop-motion special finds Santa Claus coming down with a bad case of the flu and looking to take the year off from his Santa duties. Mostly known for the characters Heat Miser and Snow Miser, will their brief appearances be enough to convert Tony? Last, but certainly not least, Tony and Matt watch the TV special that features the now famous Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth duet sung by Bing Crosby and David Bowie, Bing Crosby's Merry Olde Christmas. They discuss the connections between this special and the Judy Garland one, surreal musical digressions featuring Twiggy, the strangeness of the Thin White Duke's appearance during perhaps his weirdest musical phase, and the lasting appeal of this particular Christmas special format.

Seven years, five acts, and one podcast later, Matt and Tony finally explore the sad, dreamy world of Cardboard Computer's critically acclaimed Kentucky Route Zero. The game, which has rolled out episodically over the better part of the last decade and is now finally complete, is deceptively simple: a contemporary take on the narrative-focused point-and-click adventure game about a delivery man making what very well might be his employer's last shippment. Things get strange right away when his destination doesn't appear on any maps, and the only way to get there is by finding the titular and extra-dimensional(?) Route Zero. What follows is a ten-hour meditation on financial ruin, substance abuse, death, being a wage slave, crippling debt, memory, our relationship to media and technology, and more. Given its fanbase and critical reputation as one of the games of the decade, Kentucky Route Zero is the perfect topic for WDWM? - a game that lots of people have had lots to say about for a lot of years. Do Matt and Tony think it lives up to the hype? Go counter-clockwise until you come to the statue of David Lynch made out of moldy 8-track tapes, then turn around and make three clockwise loops and stop at the Emotional Sewage Treatment Plant to find out!

Welcome to The Stillness, a world where an apocalypse is a generational event. Where individuals with the ability to shape and control the elemental forces of the earth are exploited, oppressed, and reviled. Where, in the beginning of The Fifth Season, book one of N.K. Jemisin's award-winning The Broken Earth trilogy, the world ends for the last time. Matt and Tony weren't familiar with author N.K. Jemisin prior to this episode. While not exactly a household name, her work has earned widespread acclaim and recognition within the sci-fi/fantasy community. With The Fifth Season, Jemisin became the first African-American author to win the Hugo award for best novel. She has also earned the distinction of being the only author to win that award for three straight years for three entries in the same series. Though the characters, setting, and events of The Fifth Season are all larger than life, full of supernatural powers, and a deep well of lore, Jemisin draws from the fears and injustices that have been dominating conversations in America: social and racial inequality, representation, climate change and inaction, systemic racism. As all great sci-fi, The Fifth Season takes the everyday, adds a dose of the fantastic, and becomes a new lens through which to examine our own past, present and possible future. Matt and Tony dive into this, the novel's partial second person perspective, its big twists, and its world building.

Sara Faith Alterman grew up with strict restrictions on what she could and could not watch. She discusses this in her moving new memoir, Let's Never Talk About This Again, which explores the contradiction between her strictly PG-rated upbringing and her late father's secret career as the author of raunchy sex books, and her efforts to help her father revive his writing career after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Sara is also a producer for Mortified, which is a stage show, a podcast, and a Netflix series where adults share the things they wrote as teenagers with a live audience. This is how Tony met Sara in 2009, and based on the first piece Tony "performed" for the Mortified stage, Sara chose to cross Raiders of the Lost Ark off of her list of blindspots. Matt, Tony, and Sara discuss her book and Mortified, as well as growing up with strict rules around TV and movies, what Sara knew about Indiana Jones before her first time with the film, movies under the influence, and aspects of the film that have not aged as well as others. Follow Sara on Twitter (https://twitter.com/SaraFAlterman) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/sfaforeffort/), and grab a copy of Let's Never Talk About This Again (https://www.grandcentralpublishing.com/titles/sara-faith-alterman/lets-never-talk-about-this-again/9781538748671/) at your favorite independent bookstore. To learn more about Mortified, visit GetMortified.com (www.getmortified.com), subscribe to The Mortified Podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mortified-podcast/id964902342), or check out The Mortified Guide on Netflix.

Once again WDWM goes bump in the night for another horror-themed episode, this time diving into 1978's Halloween. Joing Matt and Tony this week is Halloween first-timer Brian Kaminske. Brian isn't just the designer of the show's kickass logo, he's one of Tony's oldest friends, which begs the question: why didn't Tony make him sit down to watch Halloween back in high school when they were discovering such cult classics as Evil Dead, The Thing, and Dead Alive? As WDWM has proven time and again, better late than never. Everyone has a different take this week, as Brian joins Matt and Tony into exploring their relatonships to Halloween, what makes the movie work, and what types of horror keeps us coming back for scares every October.

Horror month is back! Author, archivist, historian, and lifelong horror fan, Janaya Kizzie, introduces Matt to Bill Gunn's lost masterpiece, Ganja & Hess. Funded in part due to the interest in blaxploitation films and released to obscurity in 1973, Ganja & Hess was a movie ahead of its time. With a recent restoration that restored some missing footage the movie is finally starting to gain the audience it so richly deserves. Then Janaya fills in a blind spot of her own with David Lynch's first film, Eraserhead. A personal favorite of Matt's, he guides her through the wonderfully weird world of the Lady in the Radiator, the shocking sounds and and even more shocking apperance of the baby, and the influential sets and sound design that traumatize audiences to this day. Follow Janaya Kizzie on Instagram at: Hidden Here Press (https://www.instagram.com/hiddenherepress/)

Jeff Ferrara from the Game Sharks Podcast returns! Jeff can often be found hunched over a computer or staring at his phone watching some form of competitive video gaming, much to his older brother Matt's confusion and consternation. On this episode Jeff tries his best to make the case for esports by showing Matt some of the more famous matches from this burgeoning industry. Video games included in the discussion are League of Legends, DOTA, Super Smash Bros., Tetris, Street Fighter, and many more. They also discuss how eports has gained in popularity throughout the world, the barrier to becoming a fan, how it's surpassing regular sports in viewership, and the steps the industry needs to take to become accessible to everybody. Jeff is one of the hosts of the Game Sharks Podcast, a weekly show where they discuss video game news, trends, and the stuff they're playing. Follow them on Instagram (@gamesharkspodcast) and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts!

Marvel Comics released some of their most recent popular and critically acclaimed comics from their paywall and made them available for everyone to enjoy during the pandemic. They included but were not limited to a six issue run of Kelly Sue Deconnick's Captain Marvel, the first six issues of Ta-Nehisi Coates' Black Panther, Jane Foster as Thor, Tom King's irreverant take on Vison, and the introduction of Kamala Khan as Ms. Marvel. This provided a perfect opportunity for Tony to catch up on some modern marvel comics and for Matt to revisit some recent favs. They discuss comic book reading habits, diversity of characters and creators, the difficulty of jumping into a new Marvel series with 50+ years of continuity, and the story telling potential of a limited issue series.

This week, in honor of the release of Bill and Ted Face the Music, Matt and Tony are talking about Freaked, the 1993 cult deep cut directed and co-written by Bill himself, Alex Winter. Freaked is one of those early '90s cable staples, the kind of movie that a lot of kids caught by accident (and probably when their parents weren't paying attention). Abandoned by the studio only to die quietly to empty theaters, Freaked is the quintessential cult film - lots to love and criminally overlooked. Winter plays a smug, Hollywood It Boy who gets roped into a plot involving an evil conglomerate, a carnival sideshow, and a group of grotesque mutants. It's all an excuse for gag-a-minute comedy, gloriously gross-out practical effects, and the sweet sounds of the Butthole Surfers. It is, in short, a hilarious and gnarly time capsule of whatever was in the air in the early '90s.

Matt checked out Sunny Day Real Estate's influencial 1994 debut album, 'Diary', way back in the late '90s and decided that it was not for him. 20 plus years later, an older, and hopefully wiser, Matt gives the band that defined the early sounds of emo music another chance. Along for the ride is Chris Revill, the enthusiastic host of the amiable podcast, 'Let's Chat!' After a back and forth conversation where the two discovered they had a lot of overlapping taste, Revill, a major fan of emo, pop punk, and ska music selected Sunny Day Real Estate as his blind spot. Along with a seemingly endless amount of tangents that spring forth from both host and guest, they discuss the music that defined their youth, whether or not you can enjoy an older band whose music has been pilfered by countless bands that followed, and the many breakups and history of the band. You can listen to 'Let's Chat!' here (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lets-chat-with-chris-revill/id809113340). Follow 'Let's Chat!' on twitter (https://twitter.com/LetsChatPodcast) and instagram (https://www.instagram.com/letschatpodcast/).

"What's Up, Doc?", Peter Bogdanovich's 1972 screwball classic, may be an atypical Barbra Streisand movie, but it was Matt's introduction to the singer, actress, and filmmaker. While maybe not the perfect intro to Streisand, it's still a personal favorite of Matt's, so it felt right to share with newcomers Brian and Christina of the Old Roommates podcast. They discuss the enigma that is Barbra Streisand, the many films that inspired Peter Bogdanovich, the greatness of Madeleine Kahn how, how screwball comedies had fallen out of fashion by the '70s, and just how much character development you need to make a wacky comedy like "What's Up, Doc?" work. Brian Masefield and Christina Walsh host Old Roommates (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/old-roommates/id1475619122), the only weekly podcast that revisits pop culture through a middle-aged lens. Find them on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/oldroommates/ (https://www.instagram.com/oldroommates/)

Jurassic Park is one of the most popular and influential big-budget, special-effects driven action movies of all time, and returning guest Chris Knott, of We'z Talkin' Weez' 2 Thee and the Blue Album Battle podcasts, has never seen it. Chris joins Tony and Matt to talk about the movie's lasting influence on modern blockbusters, its mix of practical and digital effects, Steven Spielberg's approach to action filmmaking, and why Chris has missed out on so many important science fiction and action movies. Tony and Matt share stories from their youth about the lasting impression Jurassic Park has had on them and the trio play a game of "what Steven Spielberg movies have I not seen." Chris Knott is a musician and co-host of the Weezer podcasts We'z Talkin' Weez' 2 Thee (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wez-talkin-weez-2-thee/id1440489049) and Blue Album Battle (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blue-album-battle/id1493487548)

Bill Bartholomew is the host of Bartholomewtown, a daily podcast with a mix of on-the-street reporting and interviews with Rhode Island politcians, buisness owners, and activists. Bill has played in local bands for nearly twenty years and this is how he meet Matt. The two play catch up and share stories about playing local shows, how the local music scene has changed, and how the DIY aesthetic applies to making podcasts. The far-ranging conversation covers everything from Bill's love of public radio and the genisis and inspiration for his podcast, to all things Rhode Island. In the spririt of What Did We Miss Bill introduces Matt to some of the local musicians and podcasters that he may be missing out on. Follow Bill on Facebook, and Twitter @BillBartholomew and on Instagram @Bartholomewtownpodcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts!

Tony has been vaguely threatening Matt with the prospect of doing an episode on a classic PC point-and-click adventure game for months, and at long last he's followed through on that threat. This week he finally gets his way by introducing Matt to LucasArts' classic 1993 adventure game: Sam and Max Hit the Road. Based on the comic book by Steve Purcell, the game is a comedy noir about a smartmouthed dog and a rabbit who solve crimes as a pair of freelance detectives. Blending Saturday morning cartoon style and slapstick with a side-eye reverence for mid-century kitsch and roadside tourist traps, Sam and Max might be the reason Tony's sense of humor is what it is. Joining them this week is Matt's brother, Jeff Ferrara. Jeff is one of the hosts of the Game Sharks Podcast, a weekly show where they discuss video game news, trends, and the stuff they're playing. Follow them on Instagram (@gamesharkspodcast) and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts!

There's a lot of TV. Like a lot. And for one reason or another, Matt and Tony just hadn't got around to Succession... until now. The story of a disgustingly wealthy family of disgusting people being disgusting to one another certainly fits in with the last couple decades of prestige TVs anti-heroes and morally bankrupt creeps, but did it work for our hosts? Matt and Tony dig into the show's first season, what there is to like and dislike about the Roy family, talk about how current events makes it tricky to spend so much time with these kinds of characters, and discuss where and how the show won them over after a difficult first handful of episodes. They also discuss the art of some of the show's more brutal insults, as well as the timeless effectiveness of a well delivered "F--k off!"

With a new James Bond movie coming sometime this year, WDWM had globetrotting, action-heavy spy stories on the brain, which is how we landed on one of Matt's favorites, Steven Soderbergh's Haywire. Starring former MMA fighter Gina Carano - who recently had a standout role as Star Wars merc Cara Dune in The Mandalorian - Haywire isn't just her debut in a leading role, it was a film entirely built around and for her. Carano leads an insanely stacked supporting cast and steals the show from all of them in this down and dirty tale of mercenaries, double crosses, and international intrigue. She also gives plenty of brutal beatdowns in some amazing, no-frill action sequences that let her show off what made her a star in the ring and why she was a star in the making on screen.

When William Gibson's debut novel, Neuromancer, came out in 1984 most people didn't have computers in their home, never mind a conception for the what the hell cyberspace was. But Gibson wasn't just helping to create the new genre of cyberpunk, he was pointing to the future and how we'd all be interconnected through this "consensual hallucination" we call the internet. We might not have all of the cybernetic implants and body-mods - or cool hacker edge - but what our present lacks in superficial similarities to Gibson's neon-soaked dystopia it more than makes up for in the technological dependencies he predicted. This is Matt's first time reading Neuromancer, and Tony was excited to revisit. They discuss the challenges of approaching a seminal work of art, ignoring familiar tropes when going back to their original source, and wrestling with having an appreciation for something even when you aren't on its wavelength.

Black Widow is finally getting her own solo movie in the MCU, and Wonder Woman's much anticipated sequel is coming soon. With female representation in comics and movies in mind, Matt and Tony decided to take a look at the Image Comics series Bitch Planet. Created by writer Kelly Sue DeConnick - whose work on Captain Marvel shaped the direction of her big screen portrayal - and artist Valentine De Landro, Bitch Planet follows the lives of a group of female inmates who have been exiled to the titular prison colony... in space! The comic is a feminist take on women-in-prison exploitation movies, dystopian tropes, and sci-fi sports action movies like The Running Man and Rollerball.

This week Tony is sharing one of his all-time favorite games with Matt - Doom. Matt knows its reputation(and Tony's palpable excitement for it) but up until now had never sat down with the groundbreaking 1993 first person shooter. When Tony is able to get his giddiness under control, the guys discuss their early PC gaming memories, how Doom emerged to turn its creators into the driving force behind PC gaming's popularity and technical evolution in the 1990s, having fun even when you're cheating in a game, and the appeal to Doom's controversial yet tongue-in-cheek gore and chaos.

Hey WDWMers, we'll be back with our regularly scheduled episode (DOOM '93) on Wednesday, but we wanted to share this special bonus episode. Over the weekend, Matt and Tony hosted an Instagram live video where they talked about how they've been holding up since we've all started practicing social distancing amid the global coronavirus pandemic. Friends and listeners joined in through comments, and a few special guests dropped in as well. We hope everyone is safe and healthy out there!

It's Part Two of this special double episode where Steve Carroll and JP Camara, hosts of the wonderful podcast You Can Do It, Do It, join WDWM to discuss their mutual blindspot - The Beatles. For this episode, Matt and Tony assigned them a playlist made up of songs from the albums A Hard Day's Night, Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour, and Abbey Road (plus one bonus track from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) to give Steve and JP a foot in the door with arguably the most important and influential rock band, well, ever. Throughout this double episode - the WDWM White Album if you will - the conversation covers what kept Steve and JP at an arm's length from an otherwise inescapable band, their reactions to and the significance of the songs selected for this episode, Matt and Tony's own history with The Beatles, and the importance of having an open mind.

Matt and Tony have some pretty glaring blindspots, which is why they started What Did We Miss?, but this week's guests have a doozy. Steve Carroll and JP Camara, hosts of the wonderful podcast You Can Do It, Do It, join WDWM to discuss their mutual blindspot - The Beatles. For this episode, Matt and Tony assigned them a playlist made up of songs from the albums A Hard Day's Night, Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour, and Abbey Road (plus one bonus track from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) to give Steve and JP a foot in the door with arguably the most important and influential rock band, well, ever. Throughout this double episode - the WDWM White Album if you will - the conversation covers what kept Steve and JP at an arm's length from an otherwise inescapable band, their reactions to and the significance of the songs selected for this episode, Matt and Tony's own history with The Beatles, and the importance of having an open mind. Stay tuned for Part Two, which will drop next Wednesday!

For whatever reason, Tony's finger has always been miles away from the pulse when it comes to music. After every music critic shared their "Best of the decade" lists it became woefully apparent that he had a bajillion blind spots. To remedy that, Matt put a bunch of "best of" lists through a statistical gauntlet to come up with a consensus on what the top five records of the decade were: Robyn's "Body Talk" (2010); Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" (2010); Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly" (2015); Beyonce's "Lemonade" (2016); Frank Ocean's Blonde (2016). Matt and Tony talk about why Tony hadn't engaged with these or other big albums from the last decade, the secret shame of not knowing the work of personalities who loom large over our cultural conversations (looking at you, Kanye and Beyonce), and what connected all five of these records in defining the 2010s.

Hooray for Hollywood? For better or worse, the Academy Awards are a good indicator of what critics and audiences have been talking about all year. So in honor of this weekend's ceremony, Matt and Tony picked a random year to see if any of that year's Best Picture nominees were blindspots. The result? 1973. That year's winner? The Godfather. Seen it, and worse it's been talked to death. But neither of them had seen any of the other four films up for Hollywood's highest honor, and two of them were pretty big blindspots. This week, Matt and Tony watch and discuss Deliverance, Cabaret, Sounder, and The Emigrants. They touch on what they did and didn't like about the movies, trends and themes that tend to pop up every year in the Best Picture nominees, and how the hype that comes with an Oscar nomination can get in the way of appreciating a movie for what it's actually trying to do.

Jackie Chan is a daring, one-of-a-kind performer with more than two decades of stunts and success on his resume prior to finally breaking in the States, yet Matt and Tony were really only familiar in his work from the Rush Hour movies. Looking to go back to some of the Hong Kong action movies that earned him is early fame - and his reputation as a daredevil perfectionist who is equal parts Buster Keaton and Bruce Lee - they dive head first into the first two installments of Jackie Chan's Police Story series. Written, directed by, and starring Jackie Chan (who sang the theme song to top it all off), the Police Story movies demonstrates the kind of go-for-broke fight scenes and stunts that puts him into a league of his own. Matt and Tony talk about the similarities between Jackie Chan films and musicals, the blending of humor and action, what makes Jackie such a charismatic action star.

Happy (belated) New Year WDWM-ers! Before we dive right into blindspots in 202, Matt and Tony took a minute to look back at their 2019 in pop culture. They hit on all of the movie, music, TV, books, and video games they consumed over the year. You'll notice some notable end-of-year exceptions, but they recorded this before the year was actually out. Otherwise, drop 'em a line with any glaring omissions or disagreements, and stay tuned for next week's return to exploring the stuff they've missed!

It's Christmas, and what better way to spend the day than podcasting about jolly old St. Nick. Matt and Tony revisit 1985's Santa Claus: The Movie. Unlike previous topics, Matt and Tony have both seen this movie before, but it's safe to say it's been about 30 years. It's a holiday "classic" that doesn't get a lot of attention, and it's easy to understand why - this is a very weird movie. They discuss the ambitious ideas they liked, the product placement they disliked, and why John Lithgow is always a treat. And elf puns. There are a million elf puns in this thing.

Fans pointed out that WDWM's Phish episode was missing a key component of what makes them so passionate about the band: seeing Phish live. When Matt and Tony recorded the episode over the summer they didn't know that an opportunity to see a Phish show was in the cards, but as luck would have it the band ended up doing two nights in Rhode Island the weekend after Thanksgiving. In this bonus follow up episode, the guys talk about their expectations and experiences after seeing Phish live at the Dunkin' Donut Center in Providence, RI on November 30.

Cats. It's coming to a theater near all of us later this month, but it's been a meme-worthy punching bag all year thanks to early trailers and the internet's never-ending hunger for things to ridicule. Sure, the new movie's CGI cast of cats looks kind of creepy. But do Matt and Tony have any skin in the game to either mock or stick up for Andrew Lloyd Webber's feline phenomenon? Nope, so here it is - the What Did We Miss? Cats episode. The guys talk about their familiarity with big Broadway productions and memories (sorry) of Cats as this strange thing they'd see commercials for during daytime TV when they were kids. They also talk about the merits and awfulness of cats in general, which they're pretty evenly split on. Then they dive into the music, the show's origins in T.S. Eliot poems, the performances, and the horny as hell characters in what they can't believe has been referred to as the "number one family musical of all time." Spoiler alert: Cats is pretty fuckin' weird, folks.

Despite recognizing the characters, Matt and Tony have never read a single Archie comic book. This week they fix that by sitting down with classic tales of teenage antics as drawn by Dan DeCarlo, the Archie artist who established the house style and solidified the characters' iconic looks. Joining them is Ayla Ahlquist, a Providence-based comedy writer and performer who was raised on the adventures of the Archie gang. Ayla regularly performs improv comedy at Wage House Comedy Theater in Pawtucket, RI (with Tony no less!) and is a cast member of The Empire Revue, Providence's long-running monthly variety show. The discussion covers Archie's origins and DeCarlo's deceptively simple style, growing up on Archie, Ayla's bias against the CW's modern reimagining of the characters, how Matt and Tony know as little as they do about the characters without ever having read any of the comics before now, and how easily the simple formula of Archie stories allow the gang to crossover with zombies, The Punisher, and the Predator.

Biker gangs, dead tech heiresses, and world-weary young gumshoes: Welcome to Veronica Mars. Veronica Mars has long held a reputation as a cult classic: Matt's long been a fan, but Tony missed it entirely during its initial run. Now, thanks to the recent Hulu revival, star Kristen Bell's higher profile, and an admiration for Raymond Chandler, Tony's got it on his radar and is ready to dive into the seedy underbelly of Neptune High. After discussing a few different TV shows at WDWM, the guys decide to limit their scope and focus on the show's pilot episode. They go beat by beat on the episode's stand-alone mystery, the characters, and the table setting for the world being set up. They also talk big picture about noir, and how the high school experience makes a great template for a lot of the tropes common to hard-boiled detective stories.

100 years makes a world of difference, especially when it comes to film. But the more things change, the more they stay the same, and even in the century since its release you can still see and feel the macabre influence of Robert Wiene's 1920 classic of the silent era, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. When people talk about German Expressionism in film, this is the movie they're talking about. Its DNA appears in everything - from Citizen Kane to Edward Scissorhands, from Dr. Seuss to Rob Zombie - and after years of hearing and reading about its impact on so many artists, Matt and Tony are happy to finally cross this one off their lists.

For part three of our run of horror episodes, we take their first steps into the New England Gothic world of Shirley Jackson. Jackson, whose The Haunting of Hill House was adapted by Netflix last year, has had a lasting influence on horror. For this episode, we're beginning at the end, with a deep dive into Jackson's final novel, the chilling, 1962 tale of two sisters and a house: We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Joining us this week is Emma Sarconi, Reference Professional for Special Collections at Princeton University's Firestone Library. Emma offers some insight into the world of special collections, including the sorts of artifacts and stories that personally make her work so special, as well as a background of Jackson's life and family to provide some additional context to this eerie tale of otherness and mystery set in small-town Vermont.

We're in week two of Horror Month, and our guest Jarret Blinkhorn is here to talks us through the HBO horror/comedy anthology, Tales From the Crypt. Based of the EC Comics that scandalized parents and senators in the mid-twentieth century, TFTC ran for seven seasons from 1989-1996 and translated comics into a super stylish, morally-depraved Twilight Zone, swapping out suave and detatched host Rod Serling for a rotting corpse of a Crypt Keeper who seems more interested in his characters getting mangled than learning a lesson. We focus on four episodes - Television Terror, Cutting Cards, And All Through the House, and The Ventriloquist's Dummy - to get a sense of what made the show a wicked delight: great guest directors and stars, a short-and-sweet run time, and a willingness to make big choices to capture the pulpy sleaze and atmosphere that made the comics such a scandal. And puns. Lots and lots of puns.

This week's episode kicks off Horror Month at What Did We Miss? with four straight weeks of creepy, crawly episodes. Kicking things off is the 1974 slasher classic, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which introduced to world to director Tobe Hooper and one of cinema's most enduring horror icons, Leatherface. For Matt, this is easily an all-time favorite. For Tony, well, he saw the remake if that counts (it doesn't). In this episode they discuss the origins of the film and Matt's relation to it, the surprising amount of humor, how the remake's excessive grime oversold the idea of the movie's murder house, how a lack of gore does not a PG-rated movie make, and the some of the stunning imagery that - much to Tony's surprise - made this a gorgeous grindhouse slasher flick.

Ken Reid is a standup comic from Boston, MA and the host of the podcast TV Guidance Counselor, where he welcomes a guest to flip through an old issue of TV Guide and talk about what would have been watching that week. Ken is a well of TV and pop culture knowledge, making him the perfect guide through the '70s workplace-cop-sitcom, Barney Miller. We discuss, among other things: how Ken collected such a massive collection of TV Guide issues, the grit and grime of '70s TV, Barney Miller and its ability to tackle big, progressive issues head on, Night Court as Barney Miller Jr., and lastly, as we head into October, Ken talks about a few of his favorite Halloween episodes of classic TV. Follow Ken on Twitter and Instagram: @TVGuidance Subscribe to TV Guidance Counselor on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/tv-guidance-counselor-podcast/id821665905

Jodie Vinson is a writer and editor, and is the Program Manager of What Cheer Writers Club in Providence, RI, which happens to be where we have the privilege of recording WDWM. When given the open invite to come on, Jodie gave us a list of her pop culture blind spots, but without thinking twice we settled on Purple Rain. Matt knew the album, Tony knew the movie, but Jodie was coming in blind for both. In this week's episode, the three of us gush over the album, the movie, and Prince's singular legacy as a pop star.