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PASSION OF THE CHRIST

“And in the ending days of two-thousand, twenty-five in the Year of our Bloodied Lord (R.I.P.), the three unwise men of TGTPTU shall gather and in their folly alloweth the unholy host Thomas to select the season’s Christmas-adjacent movie. And there will be great wailing and weeping and gnashing of ill-cared for teeth by his selection. Yet the episode shall not be mid. The hosts shall bloody nail it. And there shall be great rejoicing in one accord upon its record.”

-The Book of Ryan (or on its cover) 5:16-17, Revised New King Jim Edition

Yes, ho-ho-humbug, it’s our annual cross to bear: The Christmas-adjacent movie to end the year. In a rare moment of collective (fatigue / wisdom / pure awesomeness / mental constipation / fugue ß strike as appropriate), The Good The Pod and The Ugly hosts Ken and Ryan have allowed Thomas to pick the flick this season. He took a chance on a film he’d always wanted to but hadn’t seen, and that cinema selection took them to church! Tom picked the Mel Gibson co-written, co-produced, and solely(soul-ly?)-directed, Jesus story spoiler: THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (2004).

To their eternal credit, the hosts with no loyalty to any of the major- or bush-league Christian denominations managed to keep civil and polite, if not to each other then to the source material and Gibson’s passionate release. Ryan’s Catholic upbringing comes in handy for this, his third viewing, as he explains the church’s different classifications of visions and what parts of the film pull from scripture and which are attributable to a 19th century fever dream.

This ep, Ken talks sexy Satan, Ryan talks sexy Jesus, guest Jack has an unsexy hot take takeoff and landing, and his fellow Gen Z’er Tom sticks it to the olds after mis-Clarking. Skip to the end of the ep for a brief year-end recap of the best and worst first-watched and re-watched films covered in 2025 or skip further for spoilers from Ken as he shares his bulk-pricing Christmas presents for his fellow hosts.

In the new year, TGTPTU takes a Graycation (or is Going Gray or lets its Gray Pride shine) with the start of Season 16, tentatively titled By the Powers of (James) Gray’s Skull. And that’s the gospel truth.

Answer to the question raised during the episode: We’re Not Going to Take It.

Keith Moon wept.

THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.
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Podcast: goodpodugly
Ken: Ken Koral
Ryan: Ryan Tobias

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bRyan’s Song

While the squib portion has ended with a bang (and some whimpers), Season 15 continues to stretch to the end of Year 2025. This ep we celebrate the contributions to the pod from one of TGTPTU’s three hosts: Ryan. Exceptionally written show notes rarely get noticed by listeners and editing is the art of concealment, so given the injustices of the universe, hosts Thomas and Ken interview the pod’s newest host and its six-time theme song writer-and-performer Ryan regarding his compositions, his process, and his Swiftie fandom along with what to do when a musician knocks on your front door.

The human jukebox with self-described photographic(?) memory for songs regales listeners with tales like his childhood stardom on the California circuit before the Super Bowl sold out(?), but don’t worry, we interrupt Ryan to replay the bangers you’ve come to love between all the yabber.

Some might call this a filler episode. What’s wrong with filler? It makes otherwise fish-lipped host Thomas’s teeth flaps luscious and his butt badonkadonk. Also, it’s a free podcast, you ingrates. You get what you pay for except when it comes to these theme songs as they’re worth so much more than what we commissioned them from Ryan for. Some appreciators of dad humor might even say TGTPTU got them for a song.

So shut up and listen back over the years with your hosts.

Next week is a bye week, and we’re likely on smoko the week after that, but join us in mid-December for the final ep of the season and a seasonal holiday tradition as TGTPTU covers a Christmas adjacent film.

THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.
Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU
Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0
Bluesky: @goodpodugly.bsky.social
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g
Letterboxd (follow us!):

Podcast: goodpodugly
Ken: Ken Koral
Ryan: Ryan Tobias

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SPECIAL NOTE: SEASON 15 OF THE GOOD, THE POD AND THE UGLY CELEBRATES THE USE OF THE PRACTICAL AND DIGITAL EFFECT KNOWN AS THE SQUIB. IRL GUN VIOLENCE IS INTOLERABLE AND RENOUNCED BUT... CINEMATIC VIOLENCE WILL BE CELEBRATED IN A WAY THAT WILL DISTURB SOME LISTENERS.

TGTPTU books its final perp in the 20-movie-long shooting spree of Season 15 – Squib Games with—dead or alive, you’re coming with me—ROBOCOP (1987), a pod favorite.

Like last week’s film Walker (played by Ed Harris and not Peter Weller), this week’s movie concerns a man caught up in the machinery of his time, except Officer Alex Murphy (played by Peter Weller and not Ed Harris) is a character at least moderately sympathetic, despite his chosen profession. Similarly but instead of returning to the past to satire the violence of American imperialism, this week’s feature directed by Paul Verhoeven (his first American film) occurs in the Reagan-esque future of the 1990s to satire the violence of American corporatism. And while the commonalities between this season’s final pairing continue, the word count for these show notes is limited.

Jack is out this week. Filling his guest host spot is pod regular Erik W. Van Der Wolf from the Blood and Popcorn podcast.

This ep—while host Ken reveals the origin of his large-frame eyeglasses fetish, host Thomas introduces his replacement for regulating future seasons’ discussions, and host Ryan does research and independently comes to the wrong conclusion that RoboCop’s action scenes aren’t very good—guest Erik weighs in on matters of substance and industry with a slide deck and laser light/hologram show and talking points on how modern filmmaking trends might get in the way of the “lightning in a bottle” confluence of unexpected events that creates an amazing film like Verhoeven’s RoboCop and likely prevents another good RoboCop today, a problem not just of franchises but of the modern movie condition of IP and rebootquels. The 3D animation between slides is remarkable; the interactive hologram of Erik as a helmetless RoboCop, Ken as Cain, Ryan as the jetpack, and Thomas as the toxic sludge kill are all mind-blowing. Unfortunate that this is an audio medium. And there are licensing issues. And lawyers.

A special thanks segment and a limited version of our end-of-season film rankings conclude the episode. Also, Season 16’s director is announced.

I’d buy that for a dollar!

(The revivified, cybernetic remains of SF legend Harlan Ellison approach with hand extended to accept your dollar.)

((Post-postscript: There will be two more eps released this season (and calendar year) as i. sometimes you’ve got to sing for your dinner and ii. our three unwise men will finally be putting the Christ back into Christmas with 2025’s Winter Holidays episode.))

THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.
Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU
Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0
Bluesky: @goodpodugly.bsky.social
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g
Letterboxd (follow us!):

Podcast: goodpodugly
Ken: Ken Koral
Ryan: Ryan Tobias