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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.
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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 MAY DISTURB SOME LISTENERS.

TGTPTU enters its final pairing of Squib Games (Season 15) with the 1850s (and 1980s) invasion of Nicaragua with WALKER (1987), a film by Alex Cox.

Beset with difficulties filming, beloved by many a cineast, bewildering to divers critics of its day, Walker tells the story of the titular William Walker, a filibuster (also known as a “freebooter”) who prior to the American Civil War took private troops to Nicaragua and toppled its aristocratic government under the principles of Americanism and Manifest Destiny before setting himself up as dictator. Written by Rudy Wurlitzer whose novel Nog got comparisons to and favorable praise from podfav scribbler Thomas Pynchon, the movie’s plot follows the structure of a biopic only to undercut its titular antihero’s self-(righteous/delusion/destructive ß strike as appropriate) bravado and speechifying with montages both of actual conditions caused by his actions and of anachronisms culminating in a helicopter airlift—a direct reference to the American intervention supporting the Contras—as the acid western melts guest host Jack’s mind.

What is arguably Alex Cox’s final feature film (although IMDB will credit him with allegedly ten or eleven films made afterwards), Walker (the film) was a triumph of determination and workarounds. The director and lead actor Ed Harris (not to be confused with next week’s film lead Peter Weller) took pay cuts and invested their own money into the passion project when political interference arose. Despite Cox possibly believing his Rated R anarchistic movie would be a hit with wide audience appeal, the movie was dumped in early December against populist cinema hits of that year with critics and audiences not a fan of a film about an unredeemable man like Walker (nor was at least one TGTPTU host).

Full of slow motion and juicy squibs, the Joe Strummer-scored film brings a punk rock sensibility pokes a finger in the eye of the historical biopic and leaves American nationalism blinking.

Now forgive us while we betray every principle we’ve ever had and those who supported us. (To paraphrase Walker, the movie not the character or historical figure.)

THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.
Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com
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Halloween

TGTPTU hosts take a breather from the ongoing eternal damnation that is Squib Season, but also from the big screen, to celebrate the season of spook with coverage of the six-episode BBC series: GARTH MARENGHI’S DARKPLACE(2004). A mainstay of the Koral Clan (original hosts Ken and Jack along with regular guest and songstress Andi) and frequently quoted over these fifteen seasons of the pod, the British mockumentary-slash-homage-to-bad-TV series defies easy summation, but your humble narrator of staggering talent will try:

The conceit of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace is that you’re watching a never-before-aired in Britain (it had a brief run in Peru), early-1990s, low-budget fright-of-the-week television series set in Darkplace Hospital (over the very Gates of Hell) and revolving around its main character Dr. Rick Dagless, M.D., a man more perfect and humble than yours truly if one can imagine such a fictional character existing. What adds a layer of complexity is that this main character Dag is played by the fictional author-dream weaver-visionary-plus actor (eagle-eared listener, did someone say Season 10 of TGTPTU early title confusion before settling on Side Hustle?), the pulp horror novelist Garth Marenghi who is actually played by actor Matthew Holness, the series co-creator along with the estimable real life author-actor-director-comedian Richard Ayoade who plays Dean Lerner, the series’ fictional producer and first-time actor portraying Thornton Reed, the Darkplace Hospital’s administrator and Dag’s boss. These two are joined in the show by Dag’s best friend and fellow M.D. Dr. Lucien Sanchez portrayed by fictional actor Todd Rivers as played by BAFTA-winner and What We Do in the Shadows (2019 spin-off TV series) vamp Matt Berry along with new hire Dr. Liz Asher, woman-emotions and psychic prone as fictionally scripted by the fictional Marenghi for fictional actress Madeleine Wool (IRL: Alice Lowe), the only one of the four fictional actors to not appear in the fictional actors’ commentary segments that intercut episodes of the show.

Fun fact: Three of the four main actors have gone on to write and direct movies of their own.

This episode Jack pops in; his pops Ken brings deep research on the cause célèbre, Holness’s inspiration for the Marenghi character, and Thatcher-contemporary: Gareth Morenghi; host Ryan doesn’t pop off; and Thomas can almost pronounce Richard Ayoade’s first and last name correctly (consistently getting at least half his name correct). Andi, originally slated to appear this ep, is nowhere to be found, presumed dead, but she was always like a candle in the wind: unreliable.

Well done, fellas and Liz.

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