Words and Movies

About Words and Movies

Sean Gallagher and Claude Call find two seemingly different movies and find the common thread between them.

Publisher

Sean Gallagher & Claude Call

Category

tv & film

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

18 Aug 2020

Latest episode

17 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

168 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   17 Oct 2026

   Reel 99b: Mini-series, Part 4 (Show Me A Hero, continued)

   Show Me a Hero is a 2015 miniseries that was produced for HBO and helmed by David Simon, the mind behind The Wire, Treme, The Deuce and Homicide: Life On The Street. So most of his projects are fictional with a dash of real-life in them, but this one is based entirely on a true story and relies only on a few typical embellishments (e.g. combining characters or rearranging events to fit the broader narrative). The title comes from an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote: "Show me a hero and I'll show you a tragedy." It's the story of Nick Wascisko, the former cop and (as the show starts) city council member in the city of Yonkers, New York, which is just north of New York City. In 1987 Yonkers was embroiled in a segregation issue involving public housing, which was clustered in a specific part of town. A lawsuit led to forced desegregation of the public housing, and Wascisko's efforts to make it happen, but it's important to note that he initially opposed the order. As the city resisted, the courts punished them with increasing fines, to the point that ordinary city services began to suffer because the workers couldn't be paid. Ultimately the city did comply with the order, and the entire lawsuit was settled in full in 2007, but unfortunately Wascisko wasn't there to see that part of it happen. COMING ATTRACTIONS: Many Podcasts like to mark their 100th episode with some kind of spectacular retrospective or something; we're going to do it with...chess! Next time around we're going to spend time with six hours and change of chess with the Netflix series The Queen's Gambit. Yes, it's about chess but it's about a lot more and you don't have to understand the game to enjoy this one. Join us, won't you?

2. 

   17 Oct 2026

   Reel 99a: Mini-series, Part 4 (Show Me A Hero)

   So to answer your first question: no, we didn't miscount. We're having a technical issue with Episode 98. If we can fix it, great and we'll release it when it's ready. If we can't, we'll have to re-record it. It's actually happened before, for a different reason, and while it's an interesting experiment to re-hash the discussion we already had, we realized that we don't really like doing it. Show Me a Hero is a 2015 miniseries that was produced for HBO and helmed by David Simon, the mind behind The Wire, Treme, The Deuce and Homicide: Life On The Street. So most of his projects are fictional with a dash of real-life in them, but this one is based entirely on a true story and relies only on a few typical embellishments (e.g. combining characters or rearranging events to fit the broader narrative). The title comes from an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote: "Show me a hero and I'll show you a tragedy." It's the story of Nick Wascisko, the former cop and (as the show starts) city council member in the city of Yonkers, New York, which is just north of New York City. In 1987 Yonkers was embroiled in a segregation issue involving public housing, which was clustered in a specific part of town. A lawsuit led to forced desegregation of the public housing, and Wascisko's efforts to make it happen, but it's important to note that he initially opposed the order. As the city resisted, the courts punished them with increasing fines, to the point that ordinary city services began to suffer because the workers couldn't be paid. Ultimately the city did comply with the order, and the entire lawsuit was settled in full in 2007, but unfortunately Wascisko wasn't there to see that part of it happen. Because Part 2 is also about Show Me a Hero, the show notes will again be more or less identical to these, Feel free to skip them.

3. 

   20 Sept 2026

   Reel 97b: Mini-Series, Part 2 (Lonesome Dove)

   In which we continue and conclude our discussion of Lonesome Dove. The mini-series is clearly not a strictly American phenomenon (as evidenced by our last episode), but there was a while when that could easily be the argument. It seemed as though mini-series were ubiquitous during the 1970s and 80s. The first by-definition mini-series in the US was probably The Blue Knight, which aired on NBC in 1973 and later became a regular series starring George Kennedy in the role originally played by William Holden. But the one that broke it all open for television was 1976's Rich Man, Poor Man, based on the Irwin Shaw novel. The blockbuster version of the mini-series came the following year, when Roots aired on ABC and became a cultural phenomenon literally overnight. Mini-series carried on into the early 1990s but were largely done in by budget considerations, especially since people were beginning to turn to cable and video as options for their viewing. And in my (Claude) opinion, part of the problem with many of these series is that their scope was quite narrow, or they were TOO broad. Roots' viewership, while still strong, dropped off over time because we were no longer following Kunta Kinte, but other characters a few generations removed. In the case of Rich Man, Poor Man, if you weren't interested in the basic story, you tuned out quickly. However: in 1989 a mini-series came out that was cinematic in scope, that followed the exploits of the same group of people over about two years' time, and had practically everything in it: love, hate, friendship, battles, heroes and villains, deaths (both expected and not), sacrifices and vengeance...it's like the Princess Bride of its time (Sean's probably gonna beat me for that one). That series was Lonesome Dove, based on the 1985 novel by Larry McMurtry. Lonesome Dove stars Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall as Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae, retired Texas Rangers who embark on one last cattle drive from the Rio Grande to the un-settled wilderness lands in Montana. The series also stars Diane Lane, Robert Urich, Chris Cooper and Anjelica Huston in strong supporting roles. If you haven't seen Lonesome Dove, do yourself a huge favor and check this version out. There are also sequels, prequels, a relatively short-lived (21 episodes) TV series, and I recently learned that it's coming back to Netflix as a drama series. What's not clear from the materials I've seen is whether they're sticking to the novel and being done with it, or if it's going to be another continuing series in that universe. But start with the 1989 original and thank me later.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Spotify

4.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 36 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

49

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

60

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Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.