Father Malone's Weekly Roundup - The Pitt, Daredevil: Born Again

Welcome back midnight views to Father Malone's weekly round up. I'm your host, Father Malone, and beside me here, boy, you've gotten big. This is Ripley Jean got nothing to say, all right bye. It's been a little while since the last round up in Depending on the platform you're listening to or viewing this, it might be a new sensation. Anyway, have y'all been thriving?

I hope you better all thrive. Now let's get some business out of the way. If you're listening day of it is not too late to get tickets to the Lovecraft and Libation show going on this weekend here in Las Vegas. Got my ticket, I'll see you there this coming Monday. We've got a new Hammerhouse of Horror.

That's Guardians of the Abyss. Only three episodes left in that particular series, and then Mike and I will be pulling up stakes and heading down to Norwich where they made one hundred and twelve episodes of arr Old Doll's Tales of the Unexpected. Oh. I want to thank you all for making Star trek Fest such a massive success. Just one film to go, and then that series is joining Admiral James T.

Kirk in the Nexus. Let's not forget that a version of him still exists there. I put out an away mission last week. That's the one where HP and I looked at the dueling Shatner and Nimoy performances in the detective series Colombo. And if you want more away missions, we'll be following Trek forever on the Patreon channel.

Link is in the show notes. And after that listener, it's Von Doomfest. Oh okay, where do we go this week? Not much in theaters. I refuse to see another movie with Ryan Gosling.

I'm sure Project Hail Mary is a fun time and I love those filmmakers, but I need a moratorium after the Fall Guy. We got another Supergirl trailer. I genuinely think it looks great, But now with the Warner Brothers sale, I'm feeling about Carazorel the way I felt about Black Adam in the months leading up to its release. As good as it could possibly be, isn't it just a dead end? Are they just going to replace James Gunn with some right wing drone?

Speaking of a witch? Did you hear about Andy were talking about Star Trek because he had a pitch for a movie and they didn't buy it, so I guess everything that followed was garbage. He thought, fans just want to watch Starfleet blowing up romulins. That same fear I have for the future of DC films, I have quadrupled quintupled when it comes to Star Trek. I have a very dim view of what Trek is going to be henceforth.

Luckily we have sixty years of proper thinking Trek to draw from. Anyone watched the trailer for the New Faces of Death, okay, hang on, Phases of Death was the one film everyone whispered about when I was a kid. This is the early eighties youngsters in that film may as well have been the actual videotape from Ringo, given its reputation. When I finally got my hands on a copy, which involved a videotape box switch at my local video store and an inattentive clerk, I had half a dozen friends who refused to watch it for fear it would warp their minds. In the end, there was very little It's real in the film, other than random bits of documentary footage that happened to catch something gruesome.

The fact of the matter is that any random Internet site will allow far more real and far more horrifying stuff into your home right now. So what do you do with an ip predicated on snuff in an Internet age? Fictionalize it and making how indistinguishable real and fake have become thanks to the proliferation of video sites like TikTok. This is the second film in a year to conquer the modern problem of Internet content sensor Lily Ryan Hard had to flick last year called American Sweatshop. This isn't that.

This is a proper horror movie, and God bless, I think that's all the trailer shit I have to speak about. Well, they did put out a new he Man trailer. I don't think I have anything to add since the teaser accept more evil than God damn it. And what the fuck is going on with skeletor do they realize that we've had decades of snarky, bitchy memes with this guy. It's kind of hard to put the menace back into the toothpaste tube, but they're trying, and I'm sure it's going to be terrible, although I'm still buying a ticket.

Let's talk the pit. I realized the season isn't officially over. There is one more episode by the time this there, so I can't speak with any finality on this year. When you think about it, can you ever really speak on the finality of a series until it's complete. Any new season's writing staff might undo everything you've come to expect.

But this isn't that kind of show. So onward we go or backward we go, because to talk about the pit you have to talk about er or really you have to talk about EW. That's emergency Award and back in nineteen seventy four, that was the title of the burgeoning novelist in filmmaker Michael Crichton's screenplay covering twenty four Hours in the Life of an Emergency Room staff. Crichton was an interesting fella. He attended Harvard University in the English track with a focus on writing.

When he was a freshman, as an experiment, he submitted a paper by George Orwell under his own name and received a bus and he decided if Orwell could only rise to that level, he figured writing wasn't for him and instead entered the medical school. For the rest of the nineteen sixties, he was publishing the whole time. I should note under the pseudonym John Lang. His own experiences with life in the Er are what led him to write e w IW. He wrote it as a follow up to Westworld, which he had just written and directed, but no studio wanted it, finding it too chaotic and technical, in other words, everything that made the show so revolutionary.

There would be interest over the U, but it wouldn't be until Spielberg made Jurassic Park, and Crichton slipped in his old script, which had been updated over the years for various potential suitors, that the project would develop momentum, first as a movie that Spielberg intended to direct, and then finally where it belonged along as an episodic television series. That series, all fifteen seasons of it. While it chronicled the lives of dozens of attending and pediatric and oncology and surgery, Docks was really the story of John Carter of Mars. The pilot is his first day in the er. He's really the audience's proxy, and over the next fifteen years he'd be delightful and naive and strong and an asshole, and he'd run the entire gamut, eventually distancing himself to start his own clinic, but finally being drawn back into where it all began in the Er that was in two thousand and nine, Let's jump to two on twenty two.

John Wells, the man who actually ran Er for all those years and spent the interim shepherding another Chicago set drama, Shameless, through its lengthy life on Showtime. He and Noah Wiley and R. Scott Gemmel, another Er producer, approached Sherry Crichton, widow of Michael, about rebooting Er and continuing the further adventures of Doctor John Carter. When negotiations fell apart, Warner Brothers claims Sherry asked for millions more than any creator's estate would ever receive, while Crichton, still bristling over the lack of credit Michael Crichton had received on Warner's Westworld reboot, was unwilling to sign off on a Warner's proposal that Crichton would have no credit on future Er spinoffs, which is like asking Dick Wolf not to have his name on any new Law and Orders.

Wells, Wiley and company shifted their sights to a script that is entirely new, even if it is written by one of the very producers pitching it as a new er reboot, even though it's a medical drama set in an er and its stars Noah Wiley. And here's John Wells in his own words from the pitch he made to Sherry Crichton quote Michael's original screenplay was a day in the life of the er. Thirty years later, it is to be a fourteen hour shift for John Carter, now the attending physician. We would see Carter arrive at the beginning of his shift, follow him through the fourteen hours of his day, considering whether he can keep doing this work, and watching him regain his purpose and recommit to his profession.

Now, the first season of The Pit features Noah Wiley as an er attending physician Michael Robbie Rabinovitch, and follows him for a fifteen not fourteen hours shift, where he considers whether he can keep doing this and then regains his purpose and recommits to his profession. Now, I happen to feel that The Pit is a superior work to Er. I think it is far more immediate and impactful. My mom was an R nurse. Her mom was an R nurse, and during the height of that show's popularity, I remember asking her if she liked it, and she did.

However, she said, it's all fiction. There's no time for romance in the er, no time for deep relationship building with your patients. It's boom boom boom, and it's never ending. Mom loves the pit and there is so so much to love from the documentary camera work that manages to feel more cinematic and less the shaky cam esthetic that reared its head in the nineties and completely dominated the aughts. Its writing is top notch.

These guys are where they are in the industry because they are fucking giants when it comes to episodic TV storytelling, and personally, as I get older, I'm always heartened to see new talent emerge. John Carter was a first year attending, meaning he'd been through medical school. The interns here are kids, man, there's still students and they look like they're still in high school. It's very jarring. But then, like I said, it does my heart good to see that every generation has put out some fucking quality talent.

I love the young cast here, in particular Shaban Aziz as a twenty year old wonderkinn whose parents are both big wig doctors. Themselves in the same hospital. Other things to love Pittsburgh, Baby, what a fucking underrated city Pits is. I love it there, though I could never live there. Snow plus hills plus me behind the wheel equals damage through every car in my immediate vicinity, although maybe I would risk it if I didn't have this gluten bullshit and could actually enjoy a sandwich at Premante Brothers.

Oh man, it's like eating a cloud. I love how every time a show is region specific, one actor will take it upon themselves to do the accent. That's Kathleen Lanassa here. She won an Emmy for her portrayal of charged nurse at Dana Evans, and she did it with all the yins you can take. Oh, since we're talking about cast Fiona Durriff.

I only knew her first as Brad Duriv's daughter, and if you don't know him, you're a terrible horror and fantasy fan. Chucky the Halloween reboots Prima Worm Tongue. After that, I only ever saw her in those legacy Chucky movies and I felt like she never jibed with the genre, and I was right. Holy fuck, she is the actual revelation on the show put her in the real world, and it is just gold. The second season has been equally strong to the first, with relationships deepening and splintering, and the generalware of life in the emergency medicine game in the twenty first century wreaking havoc on everyone involved.

It's an important show. An honest portrayal of the heroic efforts of the medical industry is a good thing, especially after the past two decades of lionizing psychopaths and narcissists like on Breaking Bad Oh. Speaking of and speaking of acting dynasties, not only the drifts are on display, but Tiylor Dierden as neurodivergent second year resident mel King, who was awesome, by the way, absolutely fascinating to watch even when she's doing nothing at all, is the daughter of Walter White himself Brian Cranston. Anyway, I can't say enough good things about The Pit, except for the continued unsettled feeling about that lawsuit. It's argued that Sherry Crichton is already benefiting from er and what she's attempting here is extortion.

That the very creative film community is under threat because it's argued what the creators of the pit are indulging in are time warn TV Tropes. Er wasn't even the first EA. There was a sitcom set around an emergency room in the mid eighties, literally called Er, and certainly no show set in a hospital. It was anything to Michael Crichton. And if they capitulate, then the door is open for any show with a passing resemblance to another to be litigated into oblivion.

And I agree with all of that, except they brought basically this show to her and said this is the ER reboot, and she said pay me, and they said, oh, ours is entirely original. Now, I'm sure there's going to be a settlement, and I'm sure it won't affect the quality of the show. It's just a drag, a shadow cast on the entire affair that's impossible to ignore. Hit at hp J because thank you, hp You know the number eight sign that you're a lame superhero. You're only superpower doing at Charles Neilson Riley impression rips picked this week is Daredevil Born Again season two, which is a fucking mouthful, and Matt Murrack is back surveying the scene.

Well Echo locate the scene and dealing with Mayor Wilson Fisk and his army of personal goons, the anti Vigilante task Force. You realize that Disney is the only outlet standing up to the current administration, right the mouse Disney, Oh Disney, the corporate nightmare. They're a company for lame adults who can't get over their childhood and or took on the corporate and political intrigue that can lead to both fascism and revolution. And now two seasons of Daredevil kicking the shit out of Ice in its cadre of mass goons quite literally. On the one hand, it makes me beam with pride that this company and these characters, these beloved characters, are standing up for what we'd always believed in.

And on the other hand, I suddenly understand the needs of the audience in the nineteen thirties to escape. Is it any wonder that musicals became so fucking popular during the depression? Not at all. Trust me. I believe everything is political, and everything as of right for discussion and dissemination.

I just don't know if I'm getting quite the thrill I should from watching our hero's try amph against forces that we seem to be losing against in the real world. It's a queasiness that never quite goes away, And I realized there's nothing they could have done about the timing with the Epstein War that just started. But here we are, and where is that exactly? Obviously Hell's Kitchen specifically, and New York in general, But where in the plot have we found ourselves? Matt was unable to save Foggy from Bullseye.

He was, however, able to save Kingpin from Bullseye, a fact that should be driving his Catholic brain into the red zone. So Kingpin is the Mayor. I know I've expressed this before, but I always thought the biggest reach in Superman comics wasn't that there was a bizarre world with superpowered pets. No, it WASX Luthor getting elected president. How could this multiply convicted felon, who had shown over and over his contempt for humanity become president?

I no longer hold such criticism. Season one ended with Fisk declaring martial law, Murdoch on the run, and Punisher kicking the shit out of a bunch of Ice agents, who, like a lot of the militarist goons in the real world, have taken to using his symbol as their own. Season two debuted last week, and so far we've gotten three episodes of the eight episode season. The big plot here involves a half sunk freighter in the middle of the East River that was loaded with military style weapons that were to be unloaded and supplying to fisks growing army. Meanwhile, Daredevil and Karen Page, because they haven't killed her off needlessly yet, are out to expose the connection all the wild dodging FISKS goons, and Bullseye is still gunning for our favorite blind man, although Bullseye has turned into one of those enemy of my enemy is my friend type scenarios, with him not wanting anyone else but him to take Daredevil out, so if they get close to doing that, he swoops in and like a Guardian angel, he just fucking wastes everybody.

Fisk's Army of Ice agents have targeted vigilantes and have been pulling them off the streets and disappearing them to a black box facility in New Jersey. Speaking of Jersey, Michael Gandolfini, who was excellent on the HBO series The Deuce, plays a political flunky who's been made protege and is involved with deceased reporter ben Yurick's niece. Mad's a girlfriend played by Margarita Leviva. Hey, it's a deuce reunion of a deuce reunion. She's gone over to the Fisk side and is now using her psychiatric skills to frame up anyone Kingpin has deemed an enemy, including the Swordsman, who we were introduced in the Hawkeye series.

He's Kate Bishop, current Hawkeye's uncle. I like that series quite a bit, actually, and I especially like that he's played by Tony Dalton, who was so fucking scary in the final seasons of Better Call Saul. The Swordsman is such an odd character to throw in here. Anyone remember when he was one of the emissaries of Evil or the Lethal Legion. They skipped this part in the MCU version of The Swordsman, but while Trick Shott was teaching young Clint Barton how to shoot arrows, Jack Ducane taught him bladed weapons.

Daredevil has always been the best of the MCU's television presence, which is staggering when you consider the fucking limitless possibilities for characters settings to choose from, and the one that rings truest, the one that we respond to greatest is just a guy trying to keep scumbags from fucking up his city. It becomes a little easier to believe when you consider how fucking perfectly cast this series has been top to bottom, the top being Donofrio's Wilson Fisk. Have you seen Donofrio in the past few years? The man is ripped. He's got to be wearing a big, old fat suit for the role.

And of course Charlie Cox as Matt Murdoch. For further reading, check out the previously crote about prohibition television series Boardwalk Empire, where a Cox portrayed an Irish Republican gun runner. That way you can continue to watch him not to do his own accent, and fucking thank god they brought back Deborah ann Wall as Karen Page, who has been from the beginning the actual lifeblood of the series. She's got that oddball combination of deeply wounded and fiercely indomitable just awesome. Foggy is dead, so you don't get any mention Elden Henson.

But it's the fighting, right, We're here for the fisticuffs. The Donnybrooks, the one take Hallway battles wanners in the Digital Age Army. I know I've covered this somewhat when I talked about Brian DePalma, but the length of a take used to be bound by the magazine on the camera. Now you can legitimately film an entire movie beginning to end without any interruption. You can also, thanks to the fact that it's ultimately pixels, manipulate any join between multiples and convince anyone that it was one long take.

The bloom is off that rose. That's usually not a problem when it comes to an action scene. It can mean total immediacy and appreciation of the athleticism and choreography of all involved, or it can be like that fucking brawl in Guardians three set to the Beastie Boys, just an endless parade of look at me moments that don't have any stakes at all. Born Again Season two hasn't nearly approached that level of idiocy, but it's kind of getting close. And like I said at the top, ultimately, street level battles with cartoon versions of the paramilitary forces that are currently loose on our streets don't feel like a victory.

Even watching them get sniped by Bullseye. Okay, maybe watching them get sniped by bulls Eye, but that's just because Bullseye is such a fucking awesome character. Anyway, it's all very awkward feeling. Not helping is how very little time we spend with our leads. We've got three of eight episodes already on screen, and most of that time has been spent with Karen McDuffie, Murdoch's new law partner.

And there's an entire subplot with ben Yurick's niece and her cringey underground internet news posts even worse than those posts. And this is true of every mcu property. The Man on the Street interviews, stop doing them. You can always see an actor bursting behind the eyes that they've got a speaking role while they're trying to offhandedly tell us what a good job mayor Fisk is doing. And since I'm aiming at troops, all techts and dms on screen are exposition.

That's an exposition, dump, you lazy pastards. The novelty has worn off in any event, I don't care if any of the peripherals are canon or not. These characters are boring. I simply do not care about Fisk's Flunky's relationship with an internet reporter crazy. But I would rather spend that time watching Matt Murdock confess or detect something or meditate.

I'd rather watch him fold his cash than spend any more time with these people who aren't at Daredevil. Not like I won't keep watching. There's promise of a Jessica Jones reunion in the coming weeks, and the show is already filming it's third season, so I guess we're gonna be in the Daredevil business for a while. Don't let my queasiness throw you off. It is excellent television now if we can only get these folks onto the big screen with their penal Spider Man, stay tuned, true believers, and I think that's gonna do it for the roundup this week.

Thank you all for listening or watching. Like I said, it's a hammer house of horrors this coming Monday, and then start Trek and beyond the week after that. But you can hear both of them right now, and you'd be doing us a tremendous service if you would head over to the Patreon channel Patreon dot com slash fatherom alone or if money is tight, and I know it is You can do me a favor and just share this show or like it or subscribe for ripley gen I'm father alone. Try to enjoy the daylight.