Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie

As we discover in this episode, Maggie loves change and Cam hates change. Guess how we each feel about the big news out of Blizzcon? Diablo IV just dropped the best season they've ever made but also kind of put the game out to pasture. Diablo V was announced. Destiny 2 was brought back from the dead. It's a lot to talk about, in addition to our traditional state of the game check-in, analysis of the seasonal campaign, respective class updates, and wrap-up questions about the future of the franchise. LINKS: Patreon, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, Cam's Books Feedback & Theories: [email protected] 00:00 Emotional Whiplash 06:44 Conflicted Impressions 13:46 State of the Game 21:48 Seasonal Campaign 26:50 Class Update: Warlock 29:44 Class Update: Necromancer 32:15 Diablo V Wishlist 39:04 The End of Diablo IV 43:03 Closing Thoughts

The shadow baby has finally arrived, and with it, the tragic end of Renly Baratheon — except that none of it goes the way we expected it to. In this episode, we dig deep into the first ever explicitly supernatural 'act of god' in this series, only to find that the god in question might not be the Lord of Light at all. Maggie tracks the hit rate of prayer in Westeros and searches for narrative ghosts. Cam questions the duality and prominence of Stannis Baratheon. We work together to uncover the couplet comparisons between these two chapters and develop an overarching theory about the God of Death that involves a particularly illuminating metaphor about email forwarding. LINKS: Patreon, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, Cam's Books Feedback & Theories: [email protected] 00:00 Fantasy Updates 01:48 Recap of Chapters 13:44 Roly Poly Renly 17:38 The Villain of ACOK 24:25 Divine Right, Redux 28:04 The Duality of Stannis 29:19 The Least Worst Option 31:15 Couplets & Crimes 32:38 Troubling Deaf Heaven 38:13 Who Killed Renly? 44:05 The Narrative Ghost 46:30 Depictions of Tragedy 49:50 Closing Thoughts

Expectations are the trap of all adaptations. This Resident Evil movie lives in many shadows: the beloved game series, the false impression that the trailers gave that this was a very straightforward scary movie, and the towering legacy of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead. But the wonderful thing is that this movie is still fantastic. Even if it's not 'the scariest movie of the year,' it might just be the best horror comedy of this century — and the very first one to truly speak to our modern sensibility. Put another way, this movie often feels like a Twitch streamer playing a horror game, and the effect is both incredibly immersive and wholly unique. LINKS: Patreon, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, Cam's Books Feedback & Theories: [email protected] 00:00 Theater Heckling 01:38 First Impressions 09:29 Jump Scares 11:20 Fear Factor 14:21 Very Short And Too Long 18:29 The Fury Road Comparison 20:34 The Non-Gamer Perspective 23:10 Game Design Onscreen 24:50 The Gamer Perspective 27:27 Loose But Faithful Adaptation 30:34 Austin Abrams & Aaron Paul 32:04 Marty Supreme 33:00 The Evil Dead Comparison 36:29 Twitch Era Horror Comedy 42:14 Buried Themes 44:13 Zach Cregger Check-In 45:17 SPOILER ALERT: The Ending 50:52 Closing Thoughts

Parasomnia terrified me in a way that I haven't felt since Oddity. This movie feels like it was made in a lab to appeal to us specifically, as a mashup of Insidious 1 & 2, Hell House LLC., The Blair Witch Project. James Ross II has created a powerhouse work of indie horror with remarkable emotional investment, under-your-skin creature design, a grounded and restrained directorial style, and some deliciously upsetting body horror. LINKS: Patreon, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, Cam's Books Feedback & Theories: [email protected] 00:00 Impressions 02:12 Insidious / Hell House 04:20 Emotional Stakes 07:48 Creature Design 11:24 Fear Factor 14:02 Closing Thoughts

It's never a bad thing for an indie horror to be ambitious, and Buddy is as bonkers and delightful as it is uneven. In this episode, we're trying to figure out why the conceit of this movie was so effective for us — and why the experience suffered when the movie moved beyond its premise. Topics include: three act structure, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, a spirited carpet tangent, and the jaw dropping commitment of Cristin Milioti.  LINKS: Patreon, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, Cam's Books Feedback & Theories: [email protected] 00:00 Impressions 02:10 A Story of Thirds 09:25 Our Core Dilemma 12:46 The Gimmick Problem 15:26 Blood & Honey 16:59 Closing Thoughts