A more-or-less weekly podcast dedicated to all things geeky in pop culture and entertainment. We talk about everything from film and television to books, comics, video games, and more.
536 - Interview with the Vampire (feat. Eric Sipple)
Shall we begin like David Copperfield? "I am born…I grew up?" Or shall we begin about 120 years after Anne Rice's novel Interview with the Vampire took place, with AMC's brilliant TV adaptation shifting the story from Louis de Pointe du Lac as a wealthy white plantation owner in the 1790s to one where Louis is a Black man in the 1910s working the red light district to keep his family fed? That's one of the many brilliant changes Rolin Jones and his writers have made to Rice's beloved book, and Paul, Arlo, and Eric couldn't be happier. The gang discusses why these changes fit so well in a series driven by its characters' perceptions of reality; the beautiful work by a cast including Jacob Anderson, Sam Reid, Eric Bogosian, Bailey Bass, Delainey Hayles, and Assad Zaman; and why, yes, this Interview is just better than the book.
NEXT: it's been a while since we've had a Four-Color Flashback, eh? Let's take back the night with J. Michael Straczynski and Gary Frank's Midnight Nation.
BREAKDOWN
00:00:26 - Intro / Banter
00:07:55 - Interview with the Vampire
02:15:00 - Outro / Next
LINKS
"The Writers Who Invented Modern Television" by Eric Sipple, A Beautiful Rain of Frogs
Exploring the Complexity of Interview with the Vampire - A Video Essay by Seriesable
The Radical Rebirth of Interview with the Vampire - A Video Essay by Seriesable
MUSIC
"Devil Inside" by INXS, Kick (1987)
"Need You Tonight" by INXS, Kick (1987)
17 Nov 2025
535 - VAL-halla: The Doors / Tombstone (feat. Eric Sipple)
It is time once more to enter the gates of VAL-halla, our retrospective series on the late Hollywood icon Val Kilmer. Paul, Arlo, and Eric set their sights on what are possibly Kilmer's two best performances. First, in Oliver Stone's psychedelic biopic The Doors, Val embodies the Lizard King himself, Mr. Mojo Rising, Jim Morrison; and then, in George P. Cosmatos'--or is that Kurt Russell's?--glossy Western Tombstone, Kilmer brings new life to Doc Holliday. The gang discusses Val's generational run in the '90s; why The Doors works when most rock biopics don't; and debate the merits of '90s Westerns. Plus, a brief sojourn into the world of Alien: Earth.
NEXT: because journalism matters, we're doing an episode all about AMC's Interview with the Vampire. Molloy hive rise up.
BREAKDOWN
00:00:39 - Intro
00:21:00 - The Doors
01:11:27 - Tombstone
02:00:16 - Outro / Next
LINKS
Val Kilmer was electric as Jim Morrison in heroically ridiculous biopic The Doors by Luke Goodsell, The Guardian
The Death of Val Kilmer and the Power of Doc Holliday by Owen Strachan, To Reenchant the World
Choose Your Weapons (2025) Wisely by Eric Sipple, A Beautiful Rain of Frogs
MUSIC
"The Movie" by Jim Morrison & The Doors, An American Prayer (1978)
"A Feast of Friends" by Jim Morrison & The Doors, An American Prayer (1978)
11 Nov 2025
534 - Superman (feat. Eric Sipple)
Look up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's James Gunn's Superman, here to launch the writer-director-studio-head's brand new (?) DC Universe. It moves faster than a speeding bullet despite having more plot than the last five Marvel movies put together–and some of those plot points hold up better to the green-K gaze of our hosts than others. Paul, Arlo, and Eric break down everything about this new big screen Man of Steel, including a perfect cast, major deviations from Superman's origin, Gunn's unabashedly political script, fuckboi Jimmy Olsen, and so much more. Maybe the film doesn't leap tall expectations in a single bound, but a movie like this has much more up (up and away) its Super-sleeve than any billionaire skinhead would expect. Plus, the gang dives deep into the sewers for a read-through of IDW's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles saga.
NEXT: it's time once again to enter the gates of VAL-halla, as the gang discusses two of Val Kilmer's most iconic performances, namely as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's 1991 psych-biopic The Doors and Doc Holliday in 1994's neo-Western Tombstone.
BREAKDOWN
00:00:28 - Intro / Banter
00:13:15 - Superman
02:19:35 - Outro / Next
MUSIC
"Superman" by R.E.M., Lifes Rich Pageant (1986)
"Punkrocker" by Teddybears feat. Iggy Pop, Superman (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2025)
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.9 / 5
29 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
9 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 59 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
83
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
85
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