Explore every episode of the podcast The Good, The Pod and The Ugly
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| RERUN SPECIAL: THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE REMAKE (+THE IRON LADY) | 25 Sep 2026 | 01:16:46 | |
BEHOLD! A between season rerun! Next season is all about remakes and the movies that got remade. In prep we are shamelessly sifting through 6 years of episodes to find ones that fit! Last week we re-ran Frankenheimer's Manchurian Candidate episode from 2022 and this week is Demme's remake rerun, an episode also from 2022 (yeah, we peaked that year, we know). Below are the OG show notes: THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE & THE IRON LADY THEME SONG(S) BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| RERUN SPECIAL: THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE & THE TRAIN | 18 Sep 2026 | 01:47:24 | |
In preparation for season 18 we are rerunning a few of our older episodes that have either been remade or are remakes themselves. This episode is four years old. Next week we'll reurn our coverage of the MC remake. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE & THE TRAIN OG SHOW NOTES: THEME SONG(S) BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| 1X1 2 PART SIX: AUDITION **SEASON FINALE** | 04 Sep 2026 | 01:08:32 | |
Here, kiri, kiri, kiri! TGTPTU wraps Season 17 with return of former cohost Jack with his pick for a 1x1: Takashi Miike’s Tokyo extreme adaption of Ryu Murakami’s book of the same title AUDITION (1999). Miike’s film follows the journey of a TV producer and widower played by Japanese horror legend Ryo Ishibashi who, after nearly a decade of grieving and with the encouragement of his teenage son, decides to proverbially dive back into the dating pool with an inventive method for selecting a date: the casting couch. There he finds the love of his life, a former dancer turned aspiring actress played by model Eihi Shiina in her acting debut. After a few dates and a hotel getaway with this woman closer to his son’s age, the movie turns subjective and hallucinatory when, *** SPOILERS*** upon the TV producer unable to track down his missing girlfriend who has been untruthful about her past, he is reunited with her and she with him and his foot with a bone saw and eyes and bodies with needles after she’s administered a nerve agent. What’s real and unreal is lost as the TV producer unconscious with pain remembers or reimagines their previous dates and his sexual transgressions and/or fantasies with the aspiring actress and other women seen through the film. ***SPOILERS OVER*** And their dog dies. This ep, Jack gives zero facts; Ryan and Thomas swap roles and possibly bodies; and Ken reveals his fetish for feet and Billy Crystal. The hosts also reveal the theme for Season 18, and Season 18’s theme is revealed. (No, it’s only redundant if you don’t get the clue, meaning, the redundancy and repetition of the original statement are the clue, not to repeat ourselves like the films next season will do. Goddammit, okay. ***SPOILER*** for Season 18 we’re doing remakes.) THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| 1X1 2 PART FIVE: ZOMBIE (2) (FLESH EATERS) (1979) | 28 Aug 2026 | 01:01:35 | |
ZOMBI 2 THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| 1X1 2 PART FOUR: RESURRECTION (2025) | 21 Aug 2026 | 01:06:44 | |
RESURRECTION Covering the Buddhist classification of six senses (with the wrapping narrative doubling as vision and mind), the anthology movie occurs under the pretense of a man’s dream lasting a hundred years, a comp for cinema, especially apparent when in its opening silent film sequence an opium-addicted Nosferatu-esque man’s hunchback gets loaded with a film reel (don’t worry, it doesn’t make a lot of literal sense in the film either). That dreaming, dying junkie deliriant (don’t worry, this term is explained in the film (although your mileage from its definition might vary)) will become a variety of ages and male characters within his dream, all portrayed by the same actor, one Jackson Yee apparently of former boy band fame. These disparate characters include someone pursued by an intelligence agent in a detective story trying to get the bottom of a musician’s murder (hearing), a hungry looter cum amateur dentist inside a Buddhist temple (taste), a con artist magician who brings on a girl accomplice (smell), and a virginal thug on NYE 1999 in love with a vampire (taste). THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. | |||
| 1X1 2 PART THREE: STEEL MAGNOLIAS | 14 Aug 2026 | 01:20:48 | |
I do say, it’s been a week of Sundays since last we here at The Good, The Pod, and The Ugly last heard from our fairer counterparts, but don’t you worry your pretty little head holes, listener, Season 17’s concluding 1x1s will remedy this sad misfortune with a movie celebrating all the major Christian holidays of the South along with its beauty parlor culture, that is, to let the proverbial cat out the bag or to shoot a literal arrow strapped with fireworks into a tree, STEEL MAGNOLIAS (1989) to be commented on by pod regulars without one ounce of Y-chromosome in either of their bodies: Andi and Meg. Joined by regular host Thomas after his first-time watch, these three explore the teased up big and modishly short hair of the movie’s six main ladies who span the three generations of womanhood, and determine whom among their present friend group fits to each character. There’s the two-time Academy Award-winning Sally Field as M’Lynn, mother to then-nearly-unknown Juila Roberts’ diabetic but baby-crazy character Shelby whose relationship will provide the main drama. But also in M’Lynn’s and Shelby’s respective age brackets, Dolly Parton as the salon owner and logistically-challenged Easter egg mogul Truvy and her young new hire, the desperately abandoned-turned-holly-roller convert Annelle played by a two-eyed, samurai-swordless, and purposely figureless Daryl Hannah who will also get herself hitched and preggers after Shelby’s corresponding life milestones during the flick. And rounding out the six, as the matriarchs, the feisty friends Clairee and Ouiser (not to be confused with the homophonous California rock band Weezer), the former who cares about Olympia Dukakis when we can talk about how Shirley MacLaine who played the latter didn’t wear makeup for the role in order to appear more age appropriate and how the playwright who adapted his play for the screen said he was afraid the locals from his hometown upon which this mildly fictionalize account derives (his diabetic sister died from ongoing complications after childbirth) would identify and be upset when in fact many of the older women vied to claim herself as the basis for the Ouiser character. The film is directed by someone who got his start as a Broadway choreographer and, reportedly, was less than gentlemanly toward the actresses in the movie. It was shot on location by John A. Alonzo, the lenser of such greats as Harold and Maude, Scarface, The Bad News Bears, and Chinatown. This episode is no lead petunia. Our two guest-hosting, real-life Southern belles this week explain the movie’s title, the phenomena of home churches, and the veracity of a groom’s cake; take the listener on a food tour of the movie; spill tea from the town where the events of the play and later film occured; and overquote the movie from memory, all this after Meg gives the shortest plot summary of this, and perhaps any prior, season. Spoiler, there might be cannibalism in Fried Green Tomatoes. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| 1X1 2: PART TWO: FREDDY GOT FINGERED | 07 Aug 2026 | 01:09:28 | |
Friendly greetings, pod listener and follower of the TGTPTU. Stay excite: Season 17’s concluding 1x1s of very special one-off movies cultivated by show regulars continues this week with host Tom’s pick of a fellow Tom’s directorial debut, that being distant relative of Al Green and the rapper, the writer, the MTV’s late-90’s darling with a hit show and #1 single, the Tom of all trades, Ontario Canada’s very own (and once Drew Barrymore’s very own before she made what has to be the greatest regret of her life, I mean, even more than dancing on David Letterman’s desk or falling for the two killers in Scream or being Steven Spielberg’s goddaughter or in that third Adam Sandler movie, even if it meant she could later date Justin Long, that regret being her amicable divorce from…) Tom Green and his co-written and lead role in his romantic-inspirational-comedy magnus opus, FREDDY GOT FINGERED (2001). THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| 1X1 2: PART ONE: FREEBIE AND THE BEAN | 31 Jul 2026 | 01:21:17 | |
FREEBIE AND THE BEAN THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| NOLAN VOID SPECIAL: THE ODYSSEY | 19 Jul 2026 | 01:54:05 | |
ODYSSEY The tales of our quartet of heroic hacks hath concluded, and alas Season 17’s continued voyage to cover a single work otherwise shunned by the codes of TGTPTU would have to wait another day as the movie theater houses of IMAX and lesser film abodes have brought to the weary masses a film of epic proportions and grand length. That motion picture would be THE ODYSSEY (2026), and the man of Briton to foregather the talents of the camera-wielding Double Hoyte and the Talented Mr. Damon harkens back to adventures during TGTPTU’s Season 12 and is no other than Sir (IRL!) Christopher Edward Nolan. As your humble scribe is no soothsayer, he cannot in good faith foretell how the film will deviate from the classic work of Homer (blind and of Ancient Grecian fame, not Simpson of Springfield). Nor can yours truly hint at the reactions the hosts Ryan, Ken, or he, himself, Thomas will have, nor may he here throw his customary shade and poison the reader of such unnecessarily ramose sentences as herein contained toward his views on the film. Will adapting an oral tale later committed to archaic languages befall the fate of Aronofsky’s Noah (2014, covered in Season 11)? Will Travis Scott with his role as The Bard for Nolan surpass his previous acting credit in Harmony Korine’s Aggro Dr1ft (2023)? Will Jon Bernthal battle Robert Pattinson in a clash between the comic book titans The Punisher and The Batman? Will Bill Irwin’s cyclops surpass both his previous Nolan role as robot and that of whoever was the cyclops in Krull (1983, covered earlier this season)? Will the film contain or be structured so that the beginning and end meet in the middle, again cribbing TGTPTU’s patented pincer movement and leading to further litigation? Will there be an Iliad prequel? Of all this and more, I am humbly ignorant. But I will wager anyone a Way of the Gun DVD with postage paid that Irwin’s cyclops will rival that of James Marsden’s or Tye Sheridan’s. You can @ me using the contacts below. In two weeks, a homecoming as the 1x1’s begin and Season 17 draws to a close. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HACKS: PETER YATES #4 BREAKING AWAY *HACKS FINALE* | 10 Jul 2026 | 01:02:53 | |
This week, the Italians are coming! For the final lap of TGTPTU’s 16 rounds of episodes this 4x4, we cover hack director Peter Yates’s heartfelt, heartland sports underdog working class summer coming of age bicycle story BREAKING AWAY (1979). Guest Shannon returns despite no possible book report, the film instead being an original work by author Steve Tesich who would win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for this melding of two prior scripts based on his college years in Indiana and his bicycling teammate local to the area who’d become the basis for the movie’s lead character Dave Stohler (although he’d prefer to go by Enrico Gismondi for the first half of the film). Dave is portrayed by Dennis Christopher, although the script gives substantial time to each of his three friends who will enter the local bicycle race with him (and even do a few laps themselves): Mike played by a ripped Dennis Quaid; a lanky, goofy Daniel Stern plays Cyril; and actor Jackie Earle Haley of Bad News Bears fame (the one without Billy Bob Thornton) as the vertically challenged Moocher. In one of the best depictions of a 1970s dad in cinema, Paul Dooley plays Dave’s father, a used car salesman and former cutter (of stones, not self or lines) who doesn’t understand his eccentric son, while Barbara Barrie plays Dave’s mom who encourages his Italophilia and passions, a role she’ll reprise in the short-lived TV prequel series along with Haley. This week, hear about the state of fridges in AZ along with Republican-bashing by Tobias; Shannon explains the 80s TV show Punky Brewster; Ken identifies with Breaking Away’s dad character and conceives of this film as a bridge to the 1980s; and Thomas reveals the name of Roy Scheider’s (not Rob Schneider’s) wife. By the end of the ep, it is still undecided, although they go around in circles, whether Shannon or Thomas won their off-air bet regarding Ryan’s reaction to the film. While the hosts might be done with Hacks as their focus, the season continues. Next episode, we’ll be taking the high road in our feud with Chris Nolan over the rights to the temporal pincer movement™️ to test the waters of his new release before wrapping with a return to the 1x1’s to end the 17th Season of the first podcast to record from the PDX airport bathroom and raise former prime minister Margaret Thatcher from hell. Ciao! THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HACKS: PETER YATES #3 THE HOT ROCK | 03 Jul 2026 | 00:59:54 | |
THE HOT ROCK Season 17’s 4x4 Hacks continues with Peter Yates’s return to directorial form and TGTPTU’s return to contentious split takes among its hosts with the heist caper THE HOT ROCK (1972).
Based on acclaimed crime writer Donald E. Westlake’s 1970 novel of the same name as covered in this week’s special book report coverage by guest Shannon and regular Tom, and the first of Westlake’s comedic Dortmunder series, the film stars—three years after playing the Sundance Kid—Robert Redford as the lead character John Dortmunder, a recently released (paroled in the book) criminal with, it’ll turn out, stomach problems (not in the book) and a brother-in-law (unrelated to Dortmunder in the book) fellow criminal Andy Kelp, played by George Segal. Kelp ropes Dortmunder into a plan to heist a valuable diamond (an emerald in the book) for The Doctor (called The Major in the book) played Moses Gunn, a gem (the diamond, not Gunn, although many are fans of his work on stage and small and large screens) of great wealth and disputed ownership between two African countries, which doesn’t really matter much as Gunn’s character won’t get the treatment he does in the book. Mastermind Dortmunder and locksmith Kelp recruit two other thieves, the wheels who’s really into vehicles and likely can pilot a helicopter and the explosives expert who’s also the baby of the group who’ll turn out to be the son of a shyster lawyer (unrelated in the book) portrayed by Zero Mostel and his legendary eyebrows in a plot nicely summed by the flick’s British release title: How to Steal a Diamond in Four Uneasy Lessons. Adapted for the screen by pod fav writer William Goldman, the film excises a fifth heist (or sixth, depending on its additional double-cross book ending at an airport) from the book, which, okay, it’s not the book. The book is mid, and the movie its Temu version for those who’ve read the book. For the two hosts who haven’t read the book, the movie plays like an early draft of Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven or TGTPTU’s previously covered masterpiece Sneakers, which Ken and Ryan bait the youthful Thomas with The Hot Rock being a better film than Sneakers. Thomas bites and snaps hard. Meanwhile, also having read the book prior to watching Yates’ efforts at humor, guest Shannon fears the film takes so long getting started with Redford’s Dortmunder leaving prison that the movie might run out of filmstock before reaching its end. As mentioned at the end of the preceding Krull episode, Sleater-Kinney’s 1999 album of the same name took its inspiration from this movie. Toot! Toot! THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HACKS: PETER YATES #2 KRULL | 26 Jun 2026 | 00:58:06 | |
Hear ye, hear ye! Gather round fair people of podland and lend the bold knaves and jesters of TGTPTU your ears for Episode Two-Beyond-a-Dozen of Season Seven-and-Ten. Hark, forthwith the trio tell tale of the Atari-level ren faire, chopped Star Wars glory that is KRULL (1983). This second selection by host Ken to bookend the career of hack director Peter Yates, a two-time Oscar-nominated director (in 1979 for Breaking Away covered next ep and for his other film in 1983 The Dresser), Krull was an international production with a James Horner score and a young Liam Neesom and an as-young-as-he-maybe-ever-got Robbie Coltrane in supporting roles, although it should be noted the latter was redubbed by a Brit. Krull is a scifi-ish fantasy movie that opens with voiceover prophecies for events that will not occur during the film and closes with more of the same. It has a young prince who becomes king, lovers with the powers of fire on water, a merry band of criminals turned good, a cyclops, flying horses, a shapeshifter, a kid, a puppy, baddies with medieval weapons that shoot lasers unless the fight is within melee proximity, quicksand death, a legendary weapon of +2 spinning, the black void, and a giant head to be attacked and defeated Contra-style. What it lacked (NOTE: following list not exhaustive) was a convincing lead actor, coherent worldbuilding, box office success, and artistic merit. Beyond this, Krull belies both description and explanation. But listen anyway this week as the hosts try to find some rhyme or reason for its being while also competing to find the best worst-thing about the film, with Thomas accusing Ken of Krull and unusual punishment for his film selection. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HACKS: PETER YATES #1 BULLITT | 19 Jun 2026 | 01:18:43 | |
BULLITT Right in time for Father’s Day, TGTPTU with special guest Erik W. Van Der Wolf introduce their fourth of four directors for Season 17’s 4x4 HACKS with director Peter Yates entry into the Dad Film canon: BULLITT (1968). Starring the coolest Caucasian cat to strut the silver screen, the American Great Escapee himself, Steve McQueen (no, Zoomer, not that Steve McQueen, he’s Black and a director, British and alive) plays the titular SFPD Lt. Frank Bullitt responsible for protecting against organized crime the DA’s witness who, no spoilers if it’s in the first act, gets got in his safehouse hotel room. Bullitt’s partner also gets the gat and instead of a this-time-it’s-personal, Yates plays the action procedural as Bullitt keeps his gun(s) holstered and his artist-architect girlfriend groovy and there’s that car chase action sequence we all know and love. Robert Vaughn plays the DA whose actions not villainous but smarmy all the same; Jacqueline Bisset plays the girlfriend whose uncertain whether Bullitt’s dark world and hers of hope and peace and beauty can coexist; and Don Gordon plays his normal role (as he would later in Papillon and The Towering Inferno) as second fiddle to whomever McQueen (again, Zoomer, the White dude who raced cars and defied death in his spare time and might have had dyslexia, not the enfant terrible of British designer fashion) plays. Also, Robert Duvall plays a taxi driver. Scored by Lalo Schifrin, the West Coast jazz sound really swings to make a film that vibes like few others. This week, host Ken goes deep on McQueen, Ryan on Quentin Tarantino, Erik mansplains Dad Films to Thomas, and together guest and Zoomer develop a working dichotomy of Vietnam vs. WWII Dad-Films. We also learn !!!EXCLUSIVE!!! that Steve McQueen faked his death. That McQueen’s one hep cat, daddy-o. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HACKS: RERUN SPECIAL: PETER YATES, FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE FROM S14 | 12 Jun 2026 | 01:11:05 | |
As prefunk to next week's first Peter Yates episode, BULLITT, for his HACKS 4X4, we re-present our first Yates film, covered last year, THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE. Coyle is so good and co-host Ken's befuddlement so severe that Yates also directed KRULL is what eventually led to this season of HACKS. Below is the sadly prescient original show notes for our Coyle episode written by show note genius, Thomas:
NEXT WEEK: Peter Yates, HACK, Episode #1: BULLITT. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HACKS: RON HOWARD #4 THE DA VINCI CODE | 05 Jun 2026 | 01:05:38 | |
Season 17 of TGTPTU calls a wrap on its third of four directors in its 4x4 this week with Ron Howard’s THE DA VINCI CODE (2006). Starring Tom Hanks, father of musician and male model Chet Hanks but also known for leading roles in such earlier Howard films not covered on this podcast as Splash (1984) and Apollo 13 (1995), with a grotesque haircut as supersleuth symbiologist Robert Langdon from Dan Brown’s 2003 best-selling page-turner of the same name, the movie is a bunch of nonsense that got some Catholics upset for suggesting Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the disputed son of a disputed desert deity, had children, likely through consensual intercourse unlike the legend of his siring. Howard’s The Da Vinci Code also has great French actors used poorly in this flick mostly set in France and at least one Jellicle cat, one Sony Spiderman villain, and one Avenger (MCU, not BBC) actor of British lineage to help out the American Langdon in his quest for an ultimate truth that could rock the world to its core assuming it’s not flat (see Revelation 7:1 and Isaiah 11:12, ya heathens). Holy host Ryan goes above and beyond in his research for this ep; the son Jack passes the season’s assignment; the father Ken is unimpressed by the chase scenes; and Doubting Thomas in real time processes that the female lead is the same actress as the titular Amélie (2001). If you like anagrams and unstimulating action sequences, this might be the movie for you. Skcus eivom siht. P.S. You know that I am Opus Dei. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HACKS: RON HOWARD #3 COCOON | 29 May 2026 | 00:58:54 | |
TGTPTU’s olds take a break from handing out shiny nickels and Werther’s Originals warm from their pockets and yelling at clouds to join Gen Z cohosts Thomas and Jack for the latter’s third pick from Ron Howard, the child star turned hack director’s big studio, Industrial Light & Magic, four-quadrant blockbuster COCOON (1985). THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HACKS: RON HOWARD #2 HILLBILLY ELEGY | 22 May 2026 | 00:56:12 | |
TGTPTU’s good ol’ boys continue their binge with another director-hack four-pack, this time with that pilsner of directors, Richie Cunningham himself (Ron Howard) as we funnel a second watery intoxicant down our gullets and try not to puke with HILLBILLY ELEGY (2020). THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HACKS: RON HOWARD #1 GRAND THEFT AUTO | 15 May 2026 | 00:53:28 | |
Season 17’s halfway to the finish line, and the TGTPTU boys are back from break revving their engines, ready for the next four in their “hack” director line-up. Jack’s pick coming in third is Ron Howard, starting with his first film in the big chair, the “smash-‘em-up” smash success (for a Roger Corman feature) GRAND THEFT AUTO (1977). THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HACKS: EDWARD DMYTRYK #4 WARLOCK | 01 May 2026 | 00:53:40 | |
Season 17’s second four from a hack director concludes this week with the final film by Edward Dmytryk under discussion, a color saddles-and-stirrups flick WARLOCK (1959). Arguably a better title of ≪L'Homme aux colts d'or≫ in its French-language release, Warlock as a two-hander Western covers the entry into the unincorporated community of Warlock by Henry Fonda’s Clay Blaisedell, a legendary gunslinger who owns a pair of golden six-shooters and, separately, the evolution of Richard Widmark’s Johnny Gannon from reluctant outlaw cowpuncher to sheriff of Warlock whose prominent citizens earlier lacking a sheriff had contracted Blaisedell to clean up. Homoerotic tensions arise between Blaisedell and Anthony Quinn’s Tom Morgan when Blaisedell decides to pursue romance with a significantly younger woman in lieu of their money-making vigilante partnering ways. Sheriff Gannon’s character also finds a love interest as the movie builds toward <<SPOILER>> its final act, a post-shootout shootout between Blaisedell and Gannon with no Morgan to watch the former’s back. And no plot summary would be complete without mention of Star Trek TOS’s very own DeForest Kelley as “Curley” Burne, a member of Gannon’s former gang with some magnetism remaining in the character’s moral compass. This week, Thomas expands on a list of movies whose misleading titles lead to disappointment; Ken expresses he’s not fonda Fonda in this film; and Ryan soft-shoes the homoerotic tension. We’re taking a week off before shifting gears and entering the demolition derby that will be our next four in the 4x4 starting with Ron Howard’s debut film Grand Theft Auto. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HACKS: EDWARD DMYTRYK #3 THE CAINE MUTINY | 24 Apr 2026 | 01:09:15 | |
It’s calm seas and second helpings of strawberries this week as the TGTPTU boys cover their third of four curated Edward Dmytryk films, the multiple Oscar-nominated picture THE CAINE MUTINY (1954). Saving its then “issues” producer (and subsequent to this movie an issues director) Stanley Kramer’s bacon, Dmytryk delivered a bona fide hit picture adapting the already popular book by Herman Wouk about a fictional mutiny during WWII among American seaman upon the titular Caine. Deviating from the Broadway courtroom play starring Henry Fonda (who’ll show up in next week’s Dmytryk film), the movie hews closer to the novel depicting on screen and in glorious Technicolor events aboard the ship leading to the mutiny, leaving the theatrical adaptation’s courtroom drama for the third act. The movie would also add Yosemite National Park as a romantic getaway between its Ivy League, very mid, blonde protagonist and POV character Ensign Willie Keith played by a now relatively unknown Robert Francis who died tragically at age 25 after a plane crash and his character’s fiancée May Wynn played by May Wynn who changed her stage name to that of her character on the recommendation of Kramer. And for more on the plot, there’s IMDB, Wikipedia, and further resources on the World Wide Web if you don’t have a great-grandpa around to ask. The film would have seven Academy Awards nominations and no wins, with Bogart losing out to Brando (and Kramer to Spiegel) for On the Waterfront. This episode Ken and his metaphor get sweaty towards the ep’s end; Ryan reveals the thuggish life of Joan Didion; and Gen Z’ers Jack and Thomas settle the TGTPTU style guide dispute over how to pronounce “gif.” And now for an important announcement: Despite what your lying ears have heard, there has never been a recorded mutiny on TGTPTU. The truths of each episode lie not in their incidents, but in the way these three hosts in the battle for the Pacific Northwest meet the crisis of their lives. Now sound the Star Trek Original Series whistle, we’re coming onboard. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HACKS: EDWARD DMYTRYK #2 MIRAGE | 17 Apr 2026 | 00:57:46 | |
Mirage Dmytryk’s reworking of the uncredited print material (the 1952 novel Fallen Angel) created a film that exploits the conventions of the genre to obscure the film’s conceit and twist reveal, which is <<SPOILERS FOR REMAINDER OF PARAGRAPH, AND NO WE’RE NOT YELLING AT YOU, SORRY!, BUT MAYBE WATCH THE FILM BEFORE READING ON OR LISTENING TO THIS EP>> that the protagonist David Stillwell played by Gregory Peck has amnesia of the non-explosive kind (clarification for Matt Groening fans, yes, we see you Portland, Oregon whose citizens named their streets after Simpsons characters; Vancouver, WA, putting you on blast: when are you going to get onboard and do the same for your streets using Futurama characters?) and where were we? This amnesia seems to set yours falsely back two years, or was it two days, like this protagonist Stillwell who thinks he’s a cost accountant and meets Sheela played by Diane Baker on a stairwell that descends more stories than the building physically has. But with our introduction in media res to Stillwell proverbially and literally in the dark after power loss at the high rise that leads to this stairwell descent, the audience is set up for misdirection. Add in what seem cutaway scenes that might actually be flashbacks and vice versa, and the art of editing and our movie literacy actually impedes, as intended, our understanding the events of the film. Yet with the help of a scene-stealing Walter Matthau as novice private eye Ted Caselle and later a psychologist and throughout with Kevin McCarthy who plays Stillwell’s coworker Josephson in the employ of mysterious and powerful character The Major, Stillwell is able to piece together the puzzle of his missing and nonchronological memories. Using his cunning intelligence during the standoff at the film’s climax, Stillwell forces Josephson to make a moral decision, and the stakes couldn’t be higher: The Major wants to make nuclear war clean, i.e., make the use of atomic weapons feasible for the U.S. military, and Stillwell—not a cost account—has the equations to make it so. <<END OF PLOT/SPOILERS>> THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HACKS: EDWARD DMYTRYK # 1 MURDER, MY SWEET | 10 Apr 2026 | 01:05:04 | |
TGTPTU goes Old Hollywood this week with Ryan’s pick for his Season 17’s Hacks 4x4 director: Edward Dmytryk. As we learn this ep, the former Canadian, former movie editor, former son (California courts would emancipate him from an alcoholic father) Dmytryk would rise through the studio system starting off as a messenger in his teens to become a talkies director by age 31. At age 36, he’d dust off old studio rights to a previously adapted Raymond Chandler novel Farewell, My Lovely to make the first and earliest of the four films we’ll be covering this season: MURDER, MY SWEET (1944). Normally, we’d summarize a bit of the film in this paragraph. A typical cakewalk for yours truly, the task is not so simple this week. Despite various changes in plot (yet in keeping to the spirit of the book), the film’s casual, causal sequences of events and coincidences make little sense. In brief and in the famed detective’s first time appearing as named in film, Philip Marlowe is hired to do one thing, then another; the second thing is related to the first in a reveal at the end of the movie’s extended flashback. Notably, this structure of a bookend opening with the protagonist telling it as it was would become a staple in the noir genre. This week, Ken does extra research weighing in on Gay Lawrence adaptation; Jack reveals the perfect way to watch the movie while reading its Chandler source material; Thomas wonders if all Canadian directors know each other; and Ryan contributes remotely. Subsequently, tinny microphone subs in for fan fav squeaky chair who is on hiatus for this pincered pairing. WARNING: Episode contains hot takes on Reese’s peanut butter cups. BEHIND THE PAYWALL: Unprofessional tax advice for the 2025 Tax Year followed by a breezy seventy-nine-minute primer explaining baseball followed by a lengthier discussion for our platinum tier members. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HACKS: MICK JACKSON #4: THE BODYGUARD | 03 Apr 2026 | 01:06:09 | |
THE BODYGUARD TGTPTU’s first set of four Hack 4x4s concludes this week with THE BODYGUARD (1992), director Mick Jackson’s sleeper hit starring peak Kevin Costner and top shelf Whitney Houston. Allegedly offered to Jackson the day after the L.A. Story premiere, the plot of The Bodyguard is bigger than you remember or would expect, so if you haven’t seen it or not in a while, do so. Just know the script started with JFK’s assassination as a Steve McQueen + Diana Ross vehicle and, after 67 rejections over 2 years, went through 12 rewrites by Lawrence Kasdan until it landed with Kostner who wanted Whitney Houston and Kasdan wanted out of directing. Hence, Jackson steps in as premium hack. It would become the second highest grossing film of 1992. This ep, Jack stays scarce, Andi returns bringing Dolly Pardon facts, Ken reminds us Costner would later direct The Postman, Ryan flexes his family’s wealth, and Gen Z Thomas reveals a dark secret of how unamerican (or age-appropriate) his cartoon movie habits are having not seen a single Peanuts movie (NOTE: content may be edited or become exclusive behind the paywall) or 1999’s Oscar-sweeping American Beauty. Mick Jackson, if we should stay, we’d only be in your way. So we’ll go, but you know, we’ll think of you every step of the way… THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HACKS: MICK JACKSON #3 LA STORY | 27 Mar 2026 | 01:00:10 | |
Season 17’s Hack 4x4 continues as predictable as the weather in the City of Angels (no relationship to the previously covered film, and host Ken’s favorite motion picture remake, see S4,E4 for more on the Nicholas Cage movie with this sobriquet for a title) with this week’s third entry in the Mick Jackon canon: L.A. STORY (1991).
THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HACKS: MICK JACKSON #2 VOLCANO | 20 Mar 2026 | 01:02:12 | |
VOLCANO Expatriated British director Mick Jackson erupts on screen and sets Los Angeles on fire with his latest (to be covered in Season 17 Hacks) blockbuster film VOLCANO (1997). Suffering from a release date only weeks after another volcano disaster movie hit American movie theaters (Dante’s Peak), Jackson’s big-budget disaster movie flips the script on Threads (covered last week) with competency porn performed by seasoned actors at or some nearing the pinnacle of their career, including Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche and Keith David, as well as up-and-coming stars and character actors, most notably Don Cheadle, in this ensemble film reminiscent of the 70s disaster flicks. The primary focus is Jones’ Mike Roark, a divorced workaholic dad saddled at the start of the movie with a vacation and a tween daughter who, by the end of the film, will be unburdened by both when lava erupts and flows the streets of L.A. This surprising disaster leads Jone’s Roark as the head of the city’s Office of Emergency Management along with his number one Cheadle as the bureau’s assistant director and someone named Gator who likely works with them and might have teleportation abilities to team up with the egghead and infrequent glasses-wearing Heche character to divert the lava flow into the ocean with the help of a second-act David as a police lieutenant and a racist 90’s LAPD cop (not redundant in this film’s world), the LAPD’s demolition team, and a self-proclaimed “volcano version of Rodney King” (and no help from the White kid named Tommy). In the process, the city solves racism. This week, Jack’s away. Thomas provides alternative tag lines for the film; Ken uncovers information on the 86’ed sequel; and Ryan’s left to speculate. Spoiler: We love it! THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HACKS: MICK JACKSON # 1 THREADS *SEASON PREMIERE* | 13 Mar 2026 | 01:08:29 | |
THREADS A new 4x4 starts with a bang (and a lot of whimpers) as the gang begins their Season 17 coverage of hacks (i.e., directors for hire) with THREADS (1984), director Mick Jackson’s pseudo-documentary but fully anti-nuke made-for-TV movie. Cohost Thomas’s pick of directors to launch the season of hacks, Jackson got his start in film with the BBC in the late-60s as an editor. He saw an opportunity in the early 80s to express his anti-nuclear sentiments through a wry documentary in the guise of a consumer report for the BBC’s science series Q.E.D. (1982 - 1999) on the efficacy—or inefficacy—of fallout shelters and other measures disseminated by the British government for civilian response to a nuclear attack. Jackson sought a use for excess material on the horrors of a nuclear attack, including a chance to popularize a then little-known theory of nuclear winter. When the U.S. television film The Day After (1983) screwed the pooch with its competency of officials and heroic hopefulness (in Jackson’s estimation), he recommitted to his dark vision and the meaning behind the slogan that “No one wins a nuclear war” with Threads. Made during the highest Cold War tensions since the Cuba Missile Crisis, Jackson’s film shows the thin weave of society unraveling after the British city of Sheffield is nuked as a result of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. in a battle over Iran, developments simmering in the background over radio and preparative actions by the local government during its first 45 minutes. While a range of characters will be killed immediately or die slowly, the central focus of the story is Ruth, a young woman who becomes pregnant by her boyfriend, later fiancé, whom she’ll become estranged from after the blast. Ruth, unlike most, will survive afterwards for over a decade, migrating, scavenging, subsistence farming, selling her body, and trading with the sorry survivors. Her teenage daughter Jane born into the new, post-apocalyptic world survives Ruth only to herself become pregnant and the horror of what leaves her vaginal cavity is what ends this dark tale. This episode, the Ghost of Maggie Thatcher threatens return; Thomas seethes; Jack puts a cohost on blast (pun intended) for passing notes during recording; Ken talks sidewalk cuisine; and Ryan requests more dance numbers. Next week, through the temporal pincer movement™️ Threads matches with 1997’s Volcano, a pairing Ken, feeling his oats, entitles “Ash-to-Ash.” THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| GOING GRAY #8: THE IMMIGRANT *JAMES GRAY FINALE* | 27 Feb 2026 | 01:07:52 | |
With Episode 8, our hosts put their Gray Days behind them, wrapping the short Season 16 with THE IMMIGRANT (2013), or as it was a.k.a.’ed during its short development and prior to its delayed release “Low Life” and “The Nightingale.” James Gray teams back up with cowriter Richard Menello to write a period drama role explicitly for Marion Cotillard whom Gray met through her then-partner director Guillaume Canet during their work together on the oft-mentioned Blood Ties also released in 2013. The story follows the hard luck of Cotillard’s titular immigrant as her likewise Polish emigre sister is confined to a medical ward on Ellis Island during immigration while Cotillard’s Ewa Cybulska is offered an opportunity to remain in the States through the kindness of Joaquin Phoenix playing a pimp and former child immigrant named Bruno Weiss in the actor’s fourth and to-date final Gray film role. Cotillard’s immigrant forms a brief love triangle with Jeremy Renner’s magician and brother-to-Bruno character Orlando The Magician until he ***SPOILER*** runs off to Iraq to defuse bombs as one of the Avengers who just shoots arrows or something. J/k. It’s a Gray film. You know someone is going to die. Maybe it’s the magician. Maybe it’s the sister. Maybe both. Stay awake to find out, or give this episode a listen. This episode, Harvey Weinstein returns; Ken tries renaming the podcast; Ryan and Thomas are spot on in their estimation of the film; and our boys rank the eight-film oeuvre on The Gray Scale. Next week, we’re on smoko but will return with Hacks (mild pun intended; Surgeon General’s warning: do not consume the first episode of Season 17 if you’re preggers). THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| GOING GRAY #7: TWO LOVERS | 20 Feb 2026 | 01:08:38 | |
TWO LOVERS (2008) For Season 16, Episode 7, writer-director James Gray gets geometric with TWO LOVERS (2008), his third of four collabs with Joaquin Phoenix whom he puts into a love triangle with Gray’s only film to-date starring Gwyneth Paltrow or Vinessa Shaw. Gray leaves his crime trilogy behind with this contemporary piece focusing on the family and loves of Phoenix’s Leonard Kraditor, a manic-depressive pixie dream boy working for and living with his parents after a suicide attempt. Leonard finds himself caught between his id (depicted by Paltrow’s equally pixie Michelle Rausch) and superego (depicted by Shaw’s Sandra Cohen). Isabella Rossellini in a relatively (slight pun intended) quiet performance plays Leonard’s mother while Israeli actor Moni Moshonov reprises his father-figure role from We Own the Night to play Leonard’s father. For those enjoying the home version this season, the following Gray Bingo squares may be covered: 1) silent opening, 2) NYC, 3) Jewish family, 4) bare breast, 5) club scene, and 6) failed plan to escape to warmer climates. Guest Andi joins to betray her Southern roots by speaking when she has nothing polite to say as she ranks the half of Gray’s filmography she’s watched. Host Ken this episode does extra credit, having not only watched two prior film adaptations of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s short story “White Nights” but also researches cowriter Richard Menello and charts multiple love triangles in this film and throughout the films TGTPTU has covered. Cohost Ryan reveals his odd sense of humor. And cohost Thomas provides a list of terms defining people and what they love. These four on mic this week are split in half for their enjoyment of the film. Next ep, the stunning conclusion to Going Gray (working title) and the genre reveal of Season 17. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| GOING GRAY #6: THE LOST CITY OF Z | 13 Feb 2026 | 01:05:40 | |
THE LOST CITY OF Z Before James Gray hung Brad Pitt on wires and took him to space, he first brought a different blonde to the Amazon (the rainforest) to encounter snakes, torrential rains, and an insect extracted from his ear during the shooting of he writer-director’s first Amazon (the company) Studios distributed film THE LOST CITY OF Z (2016). Charlie Hunnam is that blonde, the -e is intentional as that’s the more common British spelling and despite an American accent convincing enough to fool Gray, a man of many impersonations, Charlie’s a bloke. His Percy Fawcett protagonist is joined by fellow Brit and future Batman Robert Pattinson as the pair of British explorers (and WWI soldiers) map out the Bolivia-Brazil border in an adaptation of the nonfiction bestseller of the same name (although the Americans, per its author, say the final word-letter as “zee” instead of “zed”). Also cast and a contemporaneous Spiderman is Tom Holland as Fawcett’s son Jack Fawcett, who will take the place of Pattinson’s composite character Henry Costin in Percy’s final voyage back into the jungle to seek the titular lost city. For this sixth of eight Gray episodes, guest Shannon returns, host Ken stays ill, co-host Ryan gushes, and the lone Gen Zedder Thomas has read the book. Opinions are mixed this week, with guest Shannon believing the proper title of the film should be The Lost City of Zzz (snooze sound) while Ryan’s been Zed-pilled into believing it an amazing film. Next episode, potentially a very special guest who might have watched that week’s film. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| GOING GRAY #5: WE OWN THE NIGHT | 06 Feb 2026 | 01:06:29 | |
We Own the Night For Season 16 Episode 5, TGTPTU dives deep into what writer-director James Gray considers the conclusion of his NYC crime trilogy WE OWN THE NIGHT (2007) while also starting the first of two planned sizzurp episodes with host Ken sick and sipping on some strong cold medicine. And joining this top to the third temporal pincer™️ pairing is special guest and inveterate bookworm Shannon. For his third film, and second time being booed at Cannes (Harvey Scissorhands’ cut of The Yards being the occasion for his first), Gray after seven years in development had his first financial success with his unique, untrademarked combination of family drama, crime, and Greek tragedy. Together again but reversing roles from The Yards, Mark Wahlberg plays supporting as Cpt Joe Grusinsky while Joaquin Phoenix takes the lead as night club manager Bobby Green/Grusinsky. That slash becomes important as Bobby has adopted his dead mother’s surname prior to the start of the movie to distance himself from his brother Joe and their Deputy Chief cop daddy Burt Grusinsky, played by Robert Duvall. When Brother Captain Joe’s pursuit of a drug smuggler leads to his family being targeted by the Russian Mob who are also owners of Bobby’s club and his surrogate family, Bobby’s different last name comes in handy as he goes undercover for the po-po. Oh, and it’s a period piece occurring in the late-80s set in NYC, so cover those squares on your Gray bingo card. This ep, guest Shannon bumps on overwritten cop dialogue culled from Gray’s NYPD ride-alongs; former co-host Jack weighs in off-mic on Gray’s best use of CGI for rain during the car chase scene; Ryan suggests this is the last Phoenix role before he became too fussy, and Ken suggests it's the last of Wahlberg actually being interesting while effectively suppressing a cough; Ryan questions the merits of the temporal pincer movement being applied to Gray’s filmography; and Thomas considers it his favorite Gray film of the five he’s watched. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| GOING GRAY #4: AD ASTRA | 30 Jan 2026 | 01:08:42 | |
As if the fourth in a horror film series, this week TGTPTU goes to space! In Season 16, Ep 4 of Gray Matter (working title), Ken, Thomas, and Ryan discuss writer-director James Gray’s AD ASTRA (2019) as their unpatented pincer movement continues along the auteur’s eight-movie filmography.
THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| GOING GRAY #3: THE YARDS | 23 Jan 2026 | 01:05:09 | |
The Yards A family crime drama set in New York City with a sick mother, ambivalently abusive father figure, and nudity along with a role for Domenick Lombardozzi (The Wire’s Herc)? Get out your James Gray bingo cards, because Season 16 Gray Poop On (working title) persists with TGTPTU continuing in Episode 3 its temporal pincer movement covering the auteur’s second film THE YARDS (2000). Filmed on film in the spring and summer of 1998 but due to studio delays and reshoots not released until the fall of 2000, The Yards stars the still up-and-coming Mark Walburg as Leo Handler just out of jail and being led back into a life of crime by Joaquin Phoenix as Willie Gutierrez, the guy dating and soon betrothed to Leo’s cousin and possible love interest Erica Soltz played by a pre-Monster Charlize Theron. This trio of rising stars is supported by a trio of 70s hall of famers (James Caan, Ellen Burstyn, and Faye Dunaway) in a story about NYC train maintenance, government corruption, family loyalties, and the need for proper bannisters. Cowritten with Matt Reeves (opinions vary) and shot with multiple POV characters, Gray would find the story in the editing room (and subsequent reshoots) by winnowing it down to Walburg’s singular perspective only to have that story mollified (or straight-up mauled from Gray’s perspective) by a studio-noted happier ending. This ep, you won’t be getting Ken’s half-hour discussion with Ryan about Theron’s surprising nude scene, but Thomas will provide context for international and homeschool listeners in the U.S., Myanmar, and Liberia. Thank you for choo-choo-choosing to listen. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| GOING GRAY #2: ARMAGEDDON TIME | 16 Jan 2026 | 01:00:57 | |
Armageddon Time THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| GOING GRAY #1: LITTLE ODESSA *SEASON PREMIERE* | 09 Jan 2026 | 00:59:39 | |
LITTLE ODESSA (1994)
THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| CHRISTMAS ADJACENT 2025: THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST | 12 Dec 2025 | 01:15:16 | |
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. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| OBSCENELY POSITIVE SONGS FOR STRANGERS: THE MUSICAL EPISODE W/RYAN | 21 Nov 2025 | 00:40:15 | |
bRyan’s Song 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. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| SQUIB GAMES FINALE: ROBOCOP W/SPECIAL GUEST ERIK VAN DER WOLF | 14 Nov 2025 | 01:15:05 | |
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. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| SQUIB GAMES #19: WALKER | 07 Nov 2025 | 01:04:47 | |
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. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| HALLOWEEN 2025 SPECIAL: GARTH MARENGHI'S DARKPLACE! | 24 Oct 2025 | 00:39:41 | |
Halloween Well done, fellas and Liz. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| SQUIB GAMES #18: PREDATOR | 17 Oct 2025 | 01:01:52 | |
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. Finally, Squib Season (Season 15 of TGTPTU) returns to massive gunplay! This week the hosts repel into the 1980’s sci-fi quasi-horror bro-action all-muscle (except maybe Shane Black and/or Elpidia Carrillo) high-octane totally-bitchin’ jungle of some unnamed Latin American country to encounter PREDATOR (1987). Director John McTiernan’s follow-up to his 1986 freshman feature film (maybe named “Nomads” who knows? Pierce Brosnan and perhaps supportive family members, maybe the film’s producers, and apparently the up-and-coming action star Arnold Schwarzenegger had heard of and/or watched the moody low-budget flick), Predator would launch the moviemaker into the firmament and keep him in Hollywood’s heavens following up this constrained-budget film with every film dad’s favorite Christmas movie and then their favorite Russian seamen film (before making Medicine Man and Last Action Hero and falling to earth). If you don’t know the plot, why spoil it and who the heck are you anyway and why are you reading the show notes to a movie podcast? Seriously, let us know: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com. (Unless you’re AI, in which case, thanks for helping edit this episode!). This ep, dive deep into the production (teasers: James Cameron on a plane inspired the alien’s design + the Predator’s vision not shot on thermographic cameras + stunt-simian monkey + JCVD + Montezuma’s revenge + mods were made to the M134 Minigun to make Old Painless work on film) with hosts Ken and Thomas, shallowly with host Ryan, and enjoy some good ol’ action fun along with guest host Jack. And if you love butchered quotes and impersonations, this is the ep for you. Now, Ken, get to the choppa-block and edit this episode, you one ugly motherf--ker. You ain’t got time to read. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| SQUIB GAMES #17: MONA LISA | 10 Oct 2025 | 00:53:57 | |
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. Your TGTPTU hosts jump right into the Squib Season episode this week eager to discuss MONA LISA (1986), a neo-noir that’ll get squibby towards its end (or its original, comedic intro with its criminally bad British accents attempted in a reenactment of a forgettable moment from the film confiscated and presently being used as evidence by Scotland Yard). Co-written and singly-directed by Neil Jordan six years before The Crying Game, the film stars Bob Hoskins (five years before Spielberg’s Hook) as George, a role originally intended for Michael Caine (also in the film but in a significantly smaller and more sinister role as George’s crime boss Mortwell) but rewritten for Hoskins to bring in his comedic background and general warmth, even when playing a working-class British bigot. Playing opposite Hoskins as the film’s femme fatale is first-time screen actress Cathy Tyson as the high-end call girl Simone on the hunt for her missing friend and former coworker mixed up in drugs and the streetwalking and larger sex industry that affords them. Also starring Rubeus Hagrid from the Harry Potter movies (Robbie Coltrane) as Thomas (people in the film don’t get last names unless they’re of Caine’s character’s stature, in which case they don’t need Christian names), George’s best mate and collector of weird objects. The hosts do their darnedest not to bring up and discuss The Crying Game, instead focusing on amazing parts of the film at hand, including an elevated action elevator sequence and Hoskins’ acting. Also, how Jordan working on a tight budget reworked the London landscape to create a mood and show a side of London not typically captured on film. And in perhaps an episode first, sometimes provisional host Ryan does research!!! and is wrong about a music fact!?! And then, before you know where you are You’re sayin’ goodbye -Boy George THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| SQUIB GAMES #16: WAY OF THE GUN | 03 Oct 2025 | 00:59:30 | |
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. Yo, put the da bomb rap-rock mix CD on the Walkman, brush off your fly three-button boxy suit, and get your pre-9/1l cool on fo’ shizzle, home skillet, as TGTPTU breaks with its patent-pending temporal pincer movement to cover THE WAY OF THE GUN (2000). Before he (strike as appropriate: ruined / renewed / continued) the Mission Impossible film franchise but after winning the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for 1995’s The Usual Suspects, Christopher McQuarrie would write and direct this (strike as appropriate: possible war crime / secret masterpiece / neo-Western action-thriller satire), and land in director jail. Unlike a highly successful sequel he’d write and produce two decades later also with “gun” in the title, McQuarrie’s directorial debut was not “top,” nor would it receive any Academy noms for Orig Screenplay or Best Pic. Instead, it would be twelve years before McQuarrie would direct again when he’d write and direct Jack Reacher (the one ((strike as appropriate: starring / miscast)) with Tom Cruise). The Way of the Gun was purportedly McQuarrie’s attempt to unmake the antihero criminal movie popular by the late-90s by going further than other films had in making its felonious buddy protagonists not just unlikeable but reprehensible. Selected for the job, after many turned down the role, Ryan Phillippe who got a haircut and adopted a voice for the role of Parker (no relation to the Richard Stark series) and the always magnetic Benicio del Toro as Longbaugh. These two petty but also not-so-petty criminals happen upon a scheme during their brief road trip’s peeing in bottles, punching women, and distributing sperm to banks for quick cash, a plan involving kidnapping for ransom a surrogate mother named Robin (played by Juliette Lewis) who SPOILER ALERT whose baby doctor is her baby daddy who, despite having a different last name, is SPOILER the son of the expected father of the embryo that didn’t take and the plot gets (strike as appropriate: purposively complex / even dumber / more twisted / majorly buggin’) from there. Another Lewis, pod favorite and Juliette’s father Geoffrey, is introduced (strike as appropriate: losing / winning) at a complex variation of Russian roulette as part of James Caan’s Members-only posse who mount up for the film’s squibbiest moment, a finale at a Mexican cantina and whorehouse. O.G. host Ken casts Jonah Hill as Jonah Hex in a McG remake of the film while hosts Thomas and Ryan introduce Natural Born Killers into the chat, wondering if it not The Friends of Eddie Coyle for the 90s. Guest host Jack defends the movie’s inclusion in Season 15 as all that and a bag of chips and not wiggity wiggity wack. Next week is Robocop. Psych! My bad. That’s in the pairing after next. Follow and subscribe if you want the 411. Also, send an electronic mail down the information superhighway to thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com if you want Thomas’s copy on DVD. We outtie. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| SQUIB GAMES #15: MILLER'S CROSSING | 26 Sep 2025 | 01:04:01 | |
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. What’s the rumpus? This week TGTPTU gives the Coen Brothers movie classic MILLER’S CROSSING (1990) the treatment as part of its Squib Season, see. Lensed by Barry Sonnenfeld in his last frolic as the brothers’ cinematographer, Ethan Coen told the man with a golden eye that Miller’s Crossing should be a handsome film about men in hats, and Sonnenfeld delivers the goods with one spectacularly shot period piece from the Prohibition Era. The picture stars Gabriel Byrne as Tom Reagan, the hard-drinking, harder-gambling Irish consigliere who knows all the angles, who’s having an affair with his boss’s skirt Verna Bernbaum (played by Marcia Gay Harden, who shortly after filming would originate the role of Harper Pitt in Tony Kushner’s two-part play Angels in America, see Season 7 of TGTPTU for more!). Pod favorite John Turturro plays her brother Bernie, a conniving low-life crook who causes the friction in the ranks and can turn on the waterworks when needed. Jon Polito plays a loving dad allergic to the high-hat and with his right-hand J. E. Freeman playing the Dane (same year he’d star in Wild at Heart, see Season 4) they plan to take over the town from Albert Finney in one of his two roles as Tom’s boss Leo (the other appearance uncredited, spoilers during the episode for this Easter egg). Also, director and occasional second-unit-for-the-Coens-director Sam Raimi (and, can you believe it, brother of actor Ted Raimi from Hard Target covered earlier this Squib Games season!) shows up to plug a speakeasy patron grabbing air before himself getting gatted. And if you still haven’t had your fill, at this buffet of talent we even get a smattering of Steve Buscemi delivering ratatat dialogue for a scene. This ep, Jack brings the book report, Thomas the Danish facts, Ken reenacts the experience of watching Miller’s Crossing with him by dropping movie quotes throughout the episode, Ryan brings up Gabriel Byrne’s acting chops, and all four hosts harmonize on the greater good. Now get outta here. You’re stinking up the joint. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| SQUIB GAMES #14: FX | 19 Sep 2025 | 00:55:23 | |
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. Squib Games Season (S15) continues with an 80’s cable classic and special effects extravaganza, the eponymous F/X (1986). Director Robert Mandel best known for his 1992 drama School Ties had no major studio film to his credit when he was hired to direct the two top tiered Bryans: Aussie sexpot Bryan Brown as the Hollywood special effects guru Roland “Rollie” Tyler, an immigrant framed by crooked law enforcement in an intricate double-fake out murder leaving him a marked man, and Brian Dennehy (returning to the action genre, see First Blood from earlier this season) as Detective Leo McCarthy who plays by his own rulebook and likely soon up for retirement who suspects Rollie might be innocent. Pod favs Diane Venora (Bird, Heat, The Insider) has a minor role as the aspiring actress love interest and Tom Noonan (Manhunter this same year) plays a tall goon. Surprisingly for an action-intrigue movie set in the 1980s, there are a pleasant number of professional women getting the job done, although those who pop most on screen are Rollie’s and Det. McCarthy’s respective sidekicks. Mixing reveals on how effects are done in real life with FX in the reality of the movie’s world provides a great primer for this season’s gun play as well as lets the movie’s hero exact lethal revenge without having to hold a gun. Such a fun concept, the premise spawned a sequel five years later starring the two Bryans and five years after that a forty-episode, two-season Canadian TV series starring neither Bry/i/an. The hosts this ep spitball alternate castings for turning F/X from a action-thriller into a b-movie gorefest; Ken’s feels safe to share his big glasses frame fetish; Ryan’s presents a theory on why straight women wore out copies of their VHS’s; and Thomas gets the opportunity to mention both The Rage: Carrie 2 and Psycho III in nearly the same breath. Jack, this season’s visiting guest host and inspiration for Squib Season, is off again this week on some continental op but will return for next episode with the book report for Miller’s Crossing. Fun final fact: F/X is the first movie since TGTPTU Season 4’s Cage/Uncaged to have a forward slash (or a “stroke” for our speakers of British English) in its title. That prior movie, of course, was our first John Woo film covered. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| SQUIB GAMES #13: ELEPHANT (1989) | 12 Sep 2025 | 00:57:19 | |
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.
THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| DARREN ARONOFSKY SPECIAL: CAUGHT STEALING (WITH AND WITHOUT SPOILERS) | 04 Sep 2025 | 00:44:12 | |
This week, TGTPTU again interrupts its Season 15’s Squib Game coverage for something unique, a return to Year 1998 through film and to Scarf Season 11 with the new wide release from Darren Aronofsky CAUGHT STEALING (2025). According to one summary (to be read in the voice of Roger Ebert): In late-1990s New York City a former baseball player whose career was cut short by a tragic accident has his life turned upside down when his neighbor asks him to watch his cat while he is out of town. Austin Butler plays the ex-baseball player, and the stakes rise fast with a host of violent and quirky characters all after what the neighbor left behind. It is directed by Darren Aronofsky in what is a clear break from his previous films we covered last year. It’s CAUGHT STEALING on The Good, The Pod and The Ugly. This ep, host Ken talks screenplay writing’s twists, payoffs, and literally saving the cat; host Thomas brings up Clifford actor Martin Short and his (Thomas’s) disdain for late-90s three-button suits; and host Ryan fills in again as the human jukebox. One thumbs up, one thumbs down, and one thumb pointed hitching a ride for reasons covered by spoilers in the latter half of the ep. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| SQUIB GAMES #12: TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA | 22 Aug 2025 | 01:02:39 | |
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 WHICH WILL DISTURB SOME LISTENERS. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| 200TH EPISODE SPECIAL: WIM WENDERS, WILLY WONKA, DAVID LYNCH, QUENTIN TARANTINO, HAL ASHBY AND MORE! | 15 Aug 2025 | 00:51:20 | |
TWO HUNDRED EPISODES AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS 200TH EPISODE The Good, the Pod, and the Ugly boys take a break from their ongoing Squib Season to commemorate the pod’s 200th episode. With over 400 movies covered across 14.5 seasons, this also marks a great entry point for new listeners as hosts Ken, Thomas, and Ryan reveal the three films they consider as the most influential to their cineast lives. Exclusive to this episode: Chapter breaks to conveniently skip or relisten to your favorite host’s/s’ divulgences. Bo-Bo-Bonus: The three hosts (two of which are put on the spot) throw in three influential musical artists and writers. Extra bonus material: Ken reveals previous host Jack’s top three. Another fun episode to skip unless you’re a former prime minister of Britian enjoying her time in hell, the creepreditor (portmanteau of “creep + creator+ director”) of 20th Century Fox’s X-Men movie franchise, the listener from the end of time, or any of the pod’s legend and bits mentioned throughout this bicentennial ep. In that case, mbe listen. Cut from this celebratory episode are the hosts’ selection of their three horniest movies (i)“Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” (ii)“Beyond the Valley of the Dolls,” & (iii)“Hillbilly Elegy”; (i)“Cats”; (ii)“The Dark Crystal,” ¶ “Chicken Little”; and (i)“Incredible Shrinking Woman,” (ii)“9 to 5” & (iii)“The Late Show,” attribution not needed. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| SQUIB GAMES #11: CLEARCUT | 08 Aug 2025 | 01:01:25 | |
This week’s moving picture was selected by guest host (and Season 15’s Squib Games curator/raison d'être) Jack, canonically a Ted Kaczynski stan, as confirmed by his pick CLEARCUT (1991). This ep goes big on host Tall Ken trivia as he finds his notepad; reveals his chainsaw approach to episode editing; sees in Greene’s jeans and sneakers attire the spirit of Jerry Seinfeld (contemporaneous character, rather than actor or comedian or present-day Netflix movie director); and explains how he identifies people and sizes them up. Additionally, Ryan, Thomas, and Jack have sane things to say. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||
| SQUIB GAMES #10: TERMINATOR | 01 Aug 2025 | 01:17:39 | |
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 WILL DISTURB SOME LISTENERS. This week TGTPTU guns down the second half of our Lance Henriksen double feature with an episode recorded in the past and sent to the listener in the future as a digital file encoding the three core hosts’ discussion of writer Harlan Ellison’s (please, no more legal action, ATTN: Ellison’s Estate) sci-fi/80’s action/quasi-horror flick THE TERMINATOR (1984). Director James Cameron (and co-writer Gale Anne Heard) broke onto the cinema scene with this low-/mid-budget, high octane film and its titular, iconic creation. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the killer robot (technically an android but called a cyborg) Terminator sent from the future to eliminate Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor but followed by scrappy future soldier Kyle Reese, played by Michael Biehn, and you know the deal having seen T2 (1991); this first film is when Connor gets preggers and has awesome 80’s style and learns of the future badass she must, and does, become. Future fellow Cameron android player Lance Henriksen plays a cop, who may or may not die in the film, when Schwarzenegger’s T-800 delivers on his iconic promise to the precinct’s desk officer that he will return. (Schwarzenegger, as we learn this episode, did not want to deliver Cameron’s line as written as the English word “I’ll” was difficult for the bodybuilding immigrant.) The hosts this week (no Jack, no special guest Shannon) speculate on Cameron’s CB sexy talk when he was a truck driver, discover where Jack got his fashion sense, and express awe as how stripped down and fast-paced the story is. Ken fondly remembers the short-lived TV series Manimal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manimal), Ryan reveals the film to secretly be an 80’s slasher, and Thomas, bummed, reacts with atemporal microaggression by introducing earlier into the pod the concept of Roko's basilisk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roko%27s_basilisk but don’t click!). A least one Cameron shows up while a confused former prime minister of England makes a brief off-mic appearance. Harlan Ellison also enters the chat, and the listener owes us $1. Hasta la vista, absent special guest Shannon Connor. May your mission down Mexico way to find and protect Chaplain Amy be met with success. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Podcast: goodpodugly | |||