The Ringer-Verse - Ringer-Verse Recommends: January 2026 (Featuring ‘28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’)

Episode Date: January 31, 2026

New year, new recommendations! First, Ben and Daniel Chin suppress their rage and bloodlust long enough to discuss the sequel to '28 Years Later,' focusing on the franchise's unpredictable appeal, what makes the new movie so special, and (in a clearly indicated closing spoiler section) what they'd be excited to see in the final film of the trilogy. After that, other Ringer-Verse hosts, friends, and listeners salute unsung releases to cap off another monthly roundup of fandom favorites from TV, anime, movies, video games, books, comics, and beyond that were released recently but not yet covered in-depth on a full-length episode.Host: Ben LindberghGuests: Daniel Chin, Steve Ahlman, Arjuna Ramgopowell, Devon Renaldo, and Matt JamesSenior Producer: Steve Ahlman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver

problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfairadio.com. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner. Or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips.

Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those WeatherTech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need WeatherTech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Well, hello there and welcome into the Ringerverse, your Nexus feed for all things fandom. I am Bellenberg, senior editor at The Ringer and Button MASH host. Also, your Master of Ceremonies here at Ringerverse Recommends. We have a new year, and so we have a new edition of Ringerverse Recommends for you.

2026, coming in hot, we've had a ton to cover already. Night of the Seven Kingdoms, Fallout, Wonder Man. It has kept our feeds filled, which means that a few new releases have fallen through the cracks. And so as always, we convene here at the end of the month to talk about some releases in the nerd culture space that we have appreciated, that we want to shout out, that we haven't had a chance to devote an entire episode to. Had a lot of choices to feature on this month's episode and our main conversation considered the new Star Trek show, Starfleet Academy. I'm watching it. I'm a few episodes in. I've got mixed feelings. I'm not fully sold yet.

we'll consider it for a future month. I'm reserving judgment for now. Also, I am very happy to reveal for the anime heads out there. This has been a big anime month and a month. I'm very into Fri-R-R-R-N. My favorite show is Fri-Rin. And in fact, I think I found out about Fri-Rin on a previous edition of Ringaverse Recommends when Charles Holmes recommended it. Great call, Chuck, because I have now gotten into Fri-Rin and I am all the way in. Second season of that just came out. I'm still catching up on season one. Maybe we'll talk about that in a future month. But there was one obvious choice for our main spotlight conversation this month.

And it's a franchise that we have featured on other shows in the past, but just didn't have the bandwidth for it this month, which is where Ringiverse recommends come in. We will be talking about 28 years later, the Bone Temple. The latest installment in the franchise, the fourth film in the series just came out the middle of this month. And it's fantastic. I really love it. And so I'll be sitting down at a different part of this table in just a moment with my pal, Ringer staff writer, Daniel Chin. And we will go into an in-depth discussion of 28 years later the franchise as a whole, how far it's come, where it is now, what happens in the Bone Temple. We will start spoiler-free, for those of you who haven't seen it yet, just a general intro to the franchise and the film. And then we will have a clearly delineated spoiler-ific section at the end of that. conversation. So stay tuned for some speculation about the third film, hopefully forthcoming,

if you're into that. Of course, after that, we will have a few collected clips, not the full compliment of clips this month, but we'll have a few of our friends and hosts chiming in with their own recommendations. And then I will share a listener nomination, which as always was sent to Ringiverse Recommends at gmail.com, where we welcome your nominations for future months. keep them coming. I'm in the office today, as you can tell, better production values. The only downside is that no dogs allowed. So Grumkin is not here. My companion for every previous recommends episode. Don't worry. Grumpkin is waiting for me at home and maybe she'll be back in a future month, but that explains her absence here. So let's get to our conversation about

the Bone Temple. I'll be back to talk to you at the end of the episode. All right. Well, we are making ringerverse recommends history here because I have left my house and we are recording in person. This is unprecedented, but it reflects how much we like this movie that it was worth commuting for. And it is because we are talking about the latest and I would argue greatest. Is that a hot take? Maybe. But we'll get into it. But latest, definitely, that's an arguable film in the never know what to call it the 28 franchise

the 28 there needs to be a better name for this I was trying to figure this out too as I was writing it like my piece about bone temple like last week or whatever it was it's not great it's not great

especially because it starts with 28 days later so yes and now we're in the 28 years later and I don't know and now we have a colon and a like secondary times the 28 days

slash weeks slash years franchise the bone temple which is written by Alex Garland, directed by Nia da Costa, starring Ray Fines, Jack O'Connell,

Alfie Williams, Aaron Kellerman, and Chai Louis Perry. Also, I guess, Chi Louis Perry's prosthetic penis, which is a big draw, so to speak, as well. And Ray Feinze's penis

also makes an appearance in this film. I didn't mean to lead with penises like this, but I guess Samson does. Anyway, there's more than penises in the movie. We will talk about others.

things too. I like every movie in this franchise, but they're all very different from each other, I think. And I was thinking if you had to sort of sum up the essence of the 28 franchise to someone, because that's what we're doing here. Ring and Verse recommends, we're recommending this. Maybe some people have never seen it somehow. What would you say? How would you describe them? Because they're all zombie movies, obviously, but very different kinds of zombie movies. So what's the common thread here exactly? I think honestly that is part of the common thread, though, which I really love about this franchise,

is that they all are so different from each other. And I think just even beginning with 28 days later in 2002, it was a very different kind of zombie movie. Like it wasn't, I guess, the first one that necessarily had fast-moving zombies, but it really helped popularize it, and it just had such a frenetic pace to it that was really just bold and reinventive at the time. And I think every movie that they've had,

since, I mean, we could get to a 28 weeks later, I feel like that one, in my opinion, is kind of like an outlier where it felt a lot more commercial. Yes. But even in that sense, it was like a very different kind of movie in that way. So I think all of these movies, they have that through line of being a zombie movie, but they all reinvent themselves in really fun ways.

And I think Bone Temple does a really good job with that too. Yes, yes. And they have different casts, too, some different creatives. I mean, the first three movies have no characters in common, basically. It's a fresh start every time. and Garland and Boyle, I guess, are kind of the throughlines, the common threads, you know, with 28 weeks later is a semi-exception. They were involved, but not as integrally. But they're different kinds of zombie movies, different kinds of zombies even, right?

And, you know, Garland didn't write weeks. Boyle didn't direct weeks or Bone Temple. So it's sort of, you have just England, I guess. England isn't, it's the common thread here, basically. a quarantined UK, fast zombies, rage virus. But other than that, it's kind of just a big, gory sandbox that different people get to play in. And it's like, you don't know exactly what to expect, which I guess might be to the detriment from a financial perspective. We can talk about how the Bone Temple is actually doing at the box office.

But creatively speaking, it's really exciting and refreshing, not knowing what's coming next. Definitely. I mean, I think it's the only kind of movie where 28 years, later ends with a bunch of guys and a whole group of people wearing track suits coming in. Tracksuit Mafia. Yeah, Tracksuit Mafa is coming in, doing flips and all these things. It feels like a whole, like, completely different movie. Yeah.

And it's coming in in the last, I don't know, like 10 minutes of the movie. And yet with like Danny Boyle directing it, it just felt like very natural in a way. It's just like I feel like no other franchise, no other movie can really get away with that kind of thing. Yeah. Even within the movie, it's like the original is, it's like three different movies in once. Yeah. There's like the isolated London all on his own just wandering around. And then there's the like, you know, in the city trying to survive, meeting up with other survivors.

And then there's the whole third act with the soldiers and the countryside. So it does change a lot, which I guess can be jarring because you just don't know what you're going to get. But in a lot of other franchises, when you have franchise fatigue, it's because you do know what you're going to get. And so it's like it's nice to be able to go all over the world and know what McDonald's will taste like. but then also how high is the ceiling, I guess? It sounds like it's pretty good. But yeah, it's just, you know, it's kind of, it's different from, from everything else and in sort of an exciting way. Another thing that stands out to me is that weeks, at least, and days, the first days, don't really have human villains so much.

You know, there are flawed people. There are bad dads in both of those movies, I guess. And there are the Americans kind of killing everyone. in weeks, but we didn't mean to, you know, we had to do it to stop the spread of infection, I guess. And so other than at the end of the first movie with the soldiers, you don't get that kind of like walking dead trope of the culty, sadistic, power hungry, roving bands or leaders, but you do get that in the Bone Temple for better or worse, I think maybe better. But that's another way in which it sort of strays from that zombie formula.

It's like, you know, usually the zombie story, it's about how the real monsters are the people. And that's kind of true, but not really in these things. It is actually that the monsters are kind of the monsters, but they're scary monsters, you know? They move fast. Yeah. And I think a big part of it was, at least moving from 28 years later to 28 years later, Bone Temple, was that one of the sort of villains, at least one of the big threats is Samson. Yeah.

But, you know, the big alpha, he's made up to be this hugely scary zombie. And they completely subvert that in the second movie in a really fun way, where he becomes a protagonist that you really start to empathize with. He's a teddy bear. He's cute. Yeah. And have you rewatched? Have you gone back and watched the old ones anytime recently? Because I did, I guess, before 28 years.

That's another thing. It's like, you know, the first one comes out in 2002, then there's a five-year gap, then there's a 20-year gap, and now there's a six-month gap. Yeah, yeah, all over the place. The franchise is all over the place. But how do you think those hold up or, you know, I watched them at the time, but it's different going back and watching them now? Yeah, I did the same thing as you, where I re-watched it ahead of 28 years later. Yeah. I mean, I still love the first movie.

I think it held up a lot. I still, I don't know. I feel like the one part of it that didn't really hold up that well for me was the soldier third act. Yeah, yeah. It feels a little like crammed in there or like that could have been a other movie or something. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's the way I felt. And 28 weeks later, again, like going back to just being a much more commercial movie,

it felt super different from like what Boyle really started off, but Boyle and Garland started off with the whole franchise. I do find it really interesting that, especially when, when Boyle and Garland take the trilogy back, when they take the franchise back, they also kind of completely wrote off 28 weeks later. Like in a line of text in the opening, like, scroll. That is such, it is an outlier, but not a bad movie, right?

Yeah, yeah. You know, it's more commercial and more just sort of standards down the middle zombie horror, but like it's good at that. Great cast, too. Great cast, yeah, renters in this thing and Rose Byrne and Idris album. Yeah. It's just a totally, it's a departure, but every movie is. kind of a departure. But yeah, I guess it's still considered canon to the degree that that even

matters, but everything that they advance in that movie is just immediately rolled back in years. So it's like at the end of 28 weeks later, the zombies are, are in Paris, right? Right. It has a shot in front of the aisle tower, right? Yeah. And then 28 years later, it's just like, nah. They stopped the advance. And now it's just England again, poor old England. And also, I think the bigger difference than that, actually, is that in weeks, all the original infected just die, right? Because in days, they're wondering how many days do we have to hold out here? Right. Right. Sooner or later, they'll just starve and die. And then they do in weeks, like the initial wave, they've all died off by that point.

And yet here we are in 28 years later. And is it the same strain? Is it like a new generation. Yeah, yeah. It's interesting you think about it. There's not much lore exactly. It just, it kind of doesn't matter. It's just like you're in this situation and you have to find a way to survive, but there's no indication of like, why didn't they all starve and die then? What changed, right? So it is, it is jarring to watch years immediately after weeks if you watch them kind of in chronological order, but there's not a lot of consistency there, I guess, you know,

maybe, maybe it doesn't matter. But yeah. One other way it changes is that, so in the original, okay, so I went back and rewatch them too, and they're, you know, the original is great. And like super iconic and influential, too is the other thing is just that the fast zombies. And it's not even that the zombies are fast, but how quickly the virus spreads. And you'd think like you can't go back from that because everything else seems so slow and stayed in comparison. But then we, we did. And we had 15 years of walking dead after that. So I guess you could go back. but it is so much more kinetic and riveting when you're always like 20 seconds away from possibly just being converted. The cinematography, though, in those are kind of like product of their time, I guess, just because the first one,

it was a conscious choice just to be sort of lo-fi and, you know, low-res and handheld in sort of cinema verite kind of style. And watching it now on a giant, like, 4K TV, it's very blurry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it didn't age super well, I guess, in that respect. And I like that kind of like shaky cam, you know, ground level, street level thing.

Although it's not as if it's a documentary or, you know, like someone isn't in the universe filming. So I found that a bit distracting now. Plus, both of those movies have a lot of that 2000s kind of quick cutting, shaky camera. Just it's really hard to tell what's happening in any. in any action scene, and the years movies look a lot different in that respect. Yeah, I mean, even with the jump to years, I thought it was interesting that they did kind of reset the visuals where it still had a lot of that, like, frenetic, like, shaky camera

kind of thing, but it was just a more modern take on it. And a lot of just, I think that movie in general was just resetting. Like, they did kind of just brush off the events of 28 weeks later. but there are a lot of things that even happen in that move like the immunity is another part of that where it's just like you would think that the fact that there are people that are immune to the virus but can still spread it is going to be like a big thing moving forward

and they kind of just reject that. Yeah. But I do think it's interesting like Boyle had this style that he kept with for 28 years later and then DeCosta doesn't try to just recreate that which I think is great because she makes it her own too with Bone Temple and it's a very, very different kind of visual style, but it's another way that it's just brought to 2026.

It's been modernized. Yeah. Another change, I guess, is that in the originals, the infect, like there's only one kind of zombie, really. I guess in weeks,

there's the weirdly sort of intelligent or sentient kind of. But in years, suddenly we have like all these different zombie classes kind of in a Last of Us style way. Like you have the slow lows that are just dragging themselves. Like the crawler. Yeah.

Right. And then you have the sort of. standard run of the mill, really running. And then you have the alphas and just like all these different categories. And that's not explained either. It's just like, I guess the virus mutated or there are different strains or like this is long rage or something instead of the original rage. But who knows?

But that's like, did that enrich this world for you? Or was it like this is a jarring change to suddenly come back and find all these different categories of zombie? Yeah. I think that we really did enrich it because there are a lot of things that are just kind of implicit when you return to this world

after the passage of 28 years in the franchise at least. Yeah. And I think that's what's so effective about the reset that 28 years had is that you've just seen that, especially when you're starting on this remote island

where Spike lives with his family, you have a sense that this is just a completely lost time. Like, it's just, this place that's out of time. And then you have the Swedish soldier come into play later, and he's, like, showing, throwing Spike, like, things on his phone. And he's just like, why is your face all puffed up like that? Like, he just has no idea what's going on outside of the world.

He has never seen fillers. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So you just have this world-building sense that, you know, the world has kept moving on, but the UK has just been quarantined. It's been completely cut off. And I think that's a fascinating place to pick it back up. Yeah.

So in the Bone Temple, we have some carryover, not carriers, but we do have Kelson, who is this figure introduced in the original 28 years, played by Refines. He's this doctor who has constructed this ossuary, this temple, this monument to all the dead, and goes around with his skin painted yellow iodine, as he says, that evidently kind of kills the virus. And he's been on his own for a very long time. So he is eccentric, I guess you could say. But has a soft heart, has, you know, warm, warm fuzzy guy on the inside. And then you have Spike, who is sort of the protagonist of the first movie, the kid character played by Alfie Williams, who sets out on his own when 28 years starts, he is making his first trip out onto the mainland.

And by the end of that movie, he has set up shop, basically. He has left Lindisfarme and he's roaming on his own. And then he runs into the jimmies, which are just the central antagonists of this movie. So this is a bunch of blonde wig wearing, just unhinged gang that is following the lead of the main Jimmy, who is also, we see him as a kid in years. Right. And we know that he survives and his dad was a priest, a vicar who embraced the dead and was welcoming the apocalypse judgment. day. And so he's been on his own since then. His whole family is dead. And he has constructed this whole mythos. He maybe hears voices. He has positioned himself as the prophet of Satan, essentially.

And he has collected this gang of kids called the Jimmy's. So this is like modeled after Jimmy Saville, this notorious UK celebrity slash predator. That's the look at least. But the gang is very, it's kind of like a clockwork orange or the Warriors kind of gang, like super sadistic. And we pick up in years, Bone Temple, colon, Bone Temple. And immediately Alfie is, or Spike, is undergoing this hazing, this, you know, indoctrination ceremony into the Jimmy's where he kills someone, kind of in self-defense and also by accident. But immediately, it's bloody and it's brutal. and that sets the tone for this movie because it's pretty disturbing, actually, in a lot of ways.

Definitely. Yeah, and I mean, just that opening bit where it's just like, especially coming off of the end of 28 years later, you don't know if they're actually going to, you can kind of tell from the beginning of just the introduction of them that they're a little bit off, they're a little creepy. These aren't good guys. These aren't necessarily good guys.

But when you're just thrust right back into it, Like they have that soundbite that shows the original rage virus breaking out before cutting to right into the action of Spike in this faceoff. And I think it's really a bold choice to just throw you right back into it. But I really like that it just picks up really seamlessly. And especially just picking up off of Ian Kelson stories where I think this movie really shines. Yeah. Because I thought that he was a really compelling. character in the beginning, in part because he's made to be this like boogeyman.

And he just turns out to be this really lonely guy who's just been constructing this very bizarre, but oddly and like strangely beautiful. It is. Yeah. Bone Temple. And to make him the central character was just another way where I just was not expecting that to be the direction of this movie, especially to be this like bromance with Samson. There's much more dancing in this movie than it's been.

Lots of new wave, lots of nude dancing, caresses. They had to throw a loincloth on them, you know? At some point eventually, yeah. It's heartwarming in a way, but also, like, extremely disturbing. All the Jimmy stuff. Because, you know, these are kids who are just being brainwashed, indoctrinated by this just incredibly creepy sadistic dude who's, you know, creepier than in sin or.

even. Like, this is really scary stuff. On the flip side, though, there's a lot less rage. There's a lot less dead, a lot less infected in this movie, which probably some people are disappointed by, or that's another one of the adjustments,

is that this is a much more human-centric film, and it's really revolving around the jimmies and Spike and Samson and Kelson. We don't see Lindis Farm at all, so we have no idea really what's going on in that world. So we just completely lose that main thread from the first film. And it's just, I guess it's shifting it to a more mundane human level, which I think made me like it more. Because I guess there's diminishing returns really to the shock value of the rage virus and the infected.

Like it's creepy every time, but after three movies of that, I really like the shift in tone and focus here. So I don't know whether everyone else wins. or they feel like this is not what I'm expecting or signing up for in a zombie movie, but a lot less zombie action here. Yeah. And I'm with you on that too because you do want to see it keep evolving and be exactly what we've been talking about, like just be unexpected the way that this franchise always is. Yeah.

And I think it's just, it's use of having Samson in this way where he's like another primary character that you start to root for after you see him tear heads off of people. The same, you know. Just like mortal combat fatality. So wild. This whole spine. Yeah. And he looks like he's loving it too.

He loves ripping the heads off. And here he's just sort of nullified. And I mean, he's just like, he's tripping balls the whole movie, basically, because Kelson has this whole cocktail of drugs and sedatives and is able to just keep him pacified, basically. But not only that, he's trying to tap in. to his humanity and see if there's something of the original Samson left in this guy, which is an intriguing thread, I think, in the movie. Because, yeah, it becomes not just about keeping the dead at bay, but maybe even trying

to redeem them or cure them, which is, you know, it's always one way that a zombie movie or show can go. Like, how did this start? Okay, at the beginning of 28 days later, we see how it starts. So we know that there's a scientific experiment gone wrong. So there's no mystery about that the way there is in The Walking Dead. But as in the Walking Dead, other than, say, season one, they're not really pursuing a cure. No one's really holding out hope for that.

Here, at least, that's something they're exploring kind of in a real way for the first time in the franchise. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, because in 28 weeks later, that is part of the interest. But in a very different way, too, where it was just like the immunity comes into their hands, or at least they think that this is a way that they can create a cure about it, but it becomes the argument of whether it's worth taking that risk. And here it's like it was just very unexpected

that it went that route. And it's unexpected for Ian Kelson too. So I think it's really fun to be on that journey with him where he's kind of just, again, he's so alone. Like Spike and Ila were the first people that he had seen in however long, you know, like decades. plus or two decades. I don't remember what he said. But he's formed this bond

with Samson. And I think the first movie does a really good job of setting that up, too. I think it's just the fact that Alex Garland has written this new trilogy all at the same time really shows because it really is such a clear thread through the three. Well, we'll see what happens if the third movie gets made and what the third movie looks like. But between these two movies at least, there's such a clear transition

between the two and the way that they just work together, I think is really great. I felt a bit bad for Alfie Williams because Spike doesn't have a whole lot to do in this movie. He's kind of like the hero of the first movie. Yeah. And it's a coming of age movie. And here he's just like trapped and traumatized the entire time.

He's just kind of like whimpering and horrified almost the whole movie. It's just like I hope he has a little more to do in the third movie if there is one because I'm just imagining like, boy, you had a lot of rich material. in years. And here you are just going to be staring at horrors and like throwing up the entire time.

Just terrified the entire movie. Yeah. I really at the, I mean, I don't know how, I guess we're already kind of in spoiler territory, but with Spike,

I really just expected him to just go home. Yeah. I thought that too. Just go home. He's 12 years old. The thing is, yeah, I mean,

I guess this is something people often say about, you know, captors or people who are kind of brainwashed by, you know, abducted, whatever. It's like, well, couldn't they have gotten away at some point in all of this? In this movie, they are, like, close to his home, right?

Because it's the same area. It's where Kelson is. This is within walking distance. And it seems like, well, can he just slip away and go back? Like, I know his dad's not a great dude, but, like, compared to Jimmy, you know? And so, but I guess there is the scene where he kind of tries to slip away. And it's just hard because they're always vigilant for this. Jimmy and his fingers, they're just like so disturbing.

I think more disturbing than any of the infected because, you know, they're just raging, right? And here, there's almost a little bit of sympathy for Jimmy in a sense because you feel like, okay, he's mentally unwell. Maybe he is hearing voices and attributing them to old Nick the devil. And also he was abandoned in a young age and who knows what he's had to do to survive and everything. but he's just constructed this entire religion, essentially. And there's a lot of torture. There's a lot of flaying.

There's some ransy snow action that goes on here. So if you're squeamish, if you have some misgiving, I mean, maybe you're out on a zombie movie to begin with, I guess. But this is, I think, more disturbing on a human level than just kind of, you know, the gnashing of teeth and the bloodshot eyes and the tearing out people's throats. because it's human on human crime. And for no discernible reason, right? Like his whole mission is basically to be the biggest batty

and to go around just offering charity, as he calls it, which is, you know, death of various varieties of painful death. And there's no purpose to it. Yeah. I guess he wants to just increase the size of his flock, but mostly he wants to maximize suffering. That's just what he's after to. And there is one scene, though,

where he finally meets Kelson. and they have this kind of candid, almost tender conversation. It's strange because you've seen him by this point just inflicting just terrible crimes on everyone he meets. And so you're immediately worried for Kelson. And yet they have this very civil exchange, you know? And they kind of understand each other. And you can almost see the inner Jimmy, who's just like arrested development, like never really grew up, was just imprinted with his dad's mania. when he was eight, and you do kind of feel for him.

I mean, you definitely want him to, like, get killed. But also, there's like a little bit of pity there. You know, it humanizes him, I guess, so that he's not just purely kind of a cartoon character of a bad guy. Yeah, now that was one of my favorite scenes of the movie. And I think it's just, it's so effective, too, because Jimmy is this character that's kind of stuck in time, but it's also like a past that he's misremembering,

and he's also just trying to recreate in his own image. Or however, he needs to cope with this new reality. But it is so effective because we saw what he experienced in the opening of 28 years later and just seeing his father, you know, lead a horde of infected and embrace that fate and seeing his sibling and his mother yet killed, like, all of that. But it's really interesting to go back to that scene. It's just because Ian Kelson is also,

doesn't really have that good of a recollection either. He's like talking about how he doesn't actually remember. He just remembers how, you know, there was a sense of stability in the world that's just gone now. But in terms of the specifics of what it was like, he doesn't really remember. I think it's just a really, really fascinating exchange. And again, like Ralph Fines,

performance. Got to call him Ralph at some point. At some point, it's Ralph. But his performance is, is really just so good throughout, and he's able to tow this line where he's just, he's clearly so brilliant,

but he's still been so messed up from being alone for so long. Like, nobody else in the world is going to give Samson this kind of chance, this kind of treatment. But it's just his kindness and his humanity comes out in a scene like that, like really, really well. And he just has this, like, again,

this humanity to him. that's so effective. And I mean, that the Iron Maiden pyrotechnic scene is just like one of my favorite scenes I feel like I've seen on a big screen in like a while. I think so too. Yeah, there's not to give too much away, but the action set pieces, there's not as much of that, not as many like huge hordes of sprinting infected, though there are some. But yeah, the big climax, like visually, emotionally, it is just humans, really. It's fine. It's just like he's, he's leaving it all on the field.

He's bearing it all physically, emotionally, figuratively. He's incredible. He's always great, obviously, but he has this kind of human quality in this franchise that even though he's off kilter and, you know, disconcerting off the jump because he looks like he's lost his mind. But then you realize that actually he's maybe the best adjusted person in this whole world, even though he says a lot. Yeah, it does. It's, you know, low bar maybe. But yeah, like he connects with everyone because they immediately just feel that human connection with him. Even if it's someone like Jimmy, you know, Sir Lord Jimmy, who's just like the most inhuman character here, they do kind of bond.

And we do as the viewers just like wanting to connect with this like, I want to go to the Bone Temple and just like hang out with Kelson and just like get high and have him drug me and stare at the same. the moon and talk about life. Like it seems great. But yeah, I like that scene too when he is talking about, yeah, it's with Jimmy and he's older than Jimmy. So he's like, you must remember really what the old world was like. And he's saying, I remember details and places and dates. But I don't really remember what it was like on a moment to moment level, except that we had that sort of sense of certainty that it felt like there was a strong foundation to the world. I really, I identified with that because, you know, we haven't been through rage virus outbreak, but there have been times in the past several years when it has felt like we're losing our moorings, whether it's

our own pandemic or political upheaval or whatever it was, where you do kind of question things that you took for granted. And it's like, well, no matter how bad things get, it can't get that bad. And then you think, wait, actually, maybe it can get that bad. So that really resonated, I think. So I appreciated their exchanges. is just great character. And even though Samson doesn't have a lot in the way of dialogue in this movie, really conveys a lot with the body language and just the eyes and the expression. So Lewis Perry just does a lot with a little in terms of, you know, lines.

Yeah. But he's also just like the physicality of what he's doing too is also like, you know, it's the combination of the two of them is really. It's really fun too. Like, there are dance sequences. Like, yeah. It's, yeah, I don't know what it was, but it just, I got this feeling from this movie where I've liked all the movies in this franchise, but this one I just connected with more on an emotional level. Like, this was more special to me in a way than all the others, which all have their merits and their strong.

But this one just felt so distinctive. And I just, I connected with it in a way. that I hadn't with the other movies in this franchise. So that's why I was saying arguably greatest because I think it's actually my favorite film in this franchise. I mean, I might be with you too, honestly. And I think what really separates it for me at least is Ian Kelson. I think having that character come back

and to really have a clear development from the previous movie. Like it's, as we were saying before, it's not a franchise where you have characters that are in multiple movies and to see him become the central character here. And just to have, he's just, I think, the perfect vessel for them to kind of tell the story that and the interest that they have in this franchise of kind of just showing what's happened to the UK after it's been cut off for almost 30 years and just what this virus has done and how it's transformed this little slice of the world in so many different ways. Yeah. My only note, I guess, on the appearance of Kelson is that in that big show stopping scene you referenced earlier where he's putting on a whole show and he's got this dark eye makeup on. and he just, he looks like Voldemort, like exactly like Voldemort, kind of took me out of the scene because I'm like, that's Voldy.

That's he who shall not be named, right? And it's like crossover, you know? Yeah, yeah. That was a little jarring, just the similarity in appearance. I think he like channels it in a way that's really fun. Yeah, maybe it's intentional even. Yeah, that's the way I felt it because I felt like he was drawing on it. But then there was also just like this humor in it.

Again, I don't want to give too much of the specific details of it. But just there's such a humor to his character where he's just going along with some of these things. So I think you can kind of see in his performance too where he's just putting on a show as well. So I think that's what's really fun about it. So I think we're not alone in really responding to this movie. We're kind of alone in having seen it, unfortunately, which until Ring ofverse Recommendance comes out and then everyone says, oh, Bone Temple, we should check that out. then we'll get the Ring ofverse Recommend to bump. But in terms of, like, critic ratings, user scores,

it has the highest IMDB user rating of any movie in this franchise, highest letterbox rating, highest Rotten Tomatoes user score, highest Rotten Tomatoes critic score. So among people who have seen it, they do really seem to love it. And I don't know whether that's just because only the diehard 28 lovers are seeing it. And so it's kind of a selective sample. It's like if you've seen it so far, you probably like it. Plus it hasn't been out that long.

So you've gone to see it in theaters. You must be into this series. But then again, I don't know whether this would even appeal to some segment of the like established 28 days, weeks, years franchise. Because it's so different from the others, I don't know that liking those previous movies is that great a predictor of this one. But it has been, you know, I hesitate to say flop, but it's definitely underperformed. It's opened a lot lower than years did, even, which I'm sad to see because I really like it, and I also want them to make a third movie. So do you have any thoughts on why this doesn't seem to be cashing in? Yeah, I mean, it could be so many things.

And I'm really bummed out by it, too, because I want to see this movie do well because I really enjoyed it. And I hope that this, whatever happens, I mean, hopefully it turns it around somehow. Yeah. But you just don't want to see it kill the franchise or kill the trilogy from happening after they only just greenlit it, I think, in December. I mostly blame Sony, I think, for this. Because, I mean, part of it is just like putting movies out in January. It's not historically going to do that well at the box office anyway. There's a lot of factors working against it just even beyond the merits of the movie itself, just being an R-rated movie, zombie movies.

I was really just trying to think about whether it was effective from like at least a box office standpoint of releasing the movie so close together with the other one. I know. I kind of feel like it wasn't. From a consumer and from a viewer, I thought it was awesome because it's so rare for it to be like such a seamless transition where the same sets are used, the same locations are used. I didn't have to rewatch it. Yeah, exactly.

You don't have to rewatch it. It's fresh in my mind. Yeah. Exactly. But then with like a child actor, like Spike, like with Althe Williams, he's the exact same age. Like that never happens. Yeah. There's no loss of like the main cast that they're looking for with this.

I think from a creative standpoint, it's super impressive just to see how quick of a turnaround it was. And for it's still not just feel like they were tacking it on for, I would say, cash grab, but it's not making the cash to award that kind of name. Yeah. So I think, I mean, part of it too is just 28 days later franchise, 28 years. Again, like, what do we even call this franchise? I think that that speaks for itself and that it's not exactly a major franchise that's going to be having people flock to the theaters. And I feel like there was minimal marketing. I think all these factors, like it could be any combination of it.

I took a picture of the theater where I saw this and I got to show you this and I'll get Steve to throw this up on the screen so everyone, here's... Oh, no. It looks like post-Zombie apocalypse. Yeah, yeah. If you zoom in, there is the back of one head up there. So it was me and this one other guy in this theater and like Nicole Kidman and big swinging dicks on this, just watching the prosthetic penises, me and this man in a theater by ourselves

separated by one row, which was great. like no one was distracting me, but now in defense of this movie, it was at 10 o'clock screen. I was going to say, I was going to say, in fairness to this movie, that was a 10 p.m. screening. Out of a weekday, no less. True. Yeah. What theater was this? It was on 84th Street.

84th Street. Yeah. So, yeah, I just had to. It's still frozen snow and, you know, all these things. It's cold out here. Extenduating circumstances. Yeah. Who goes to see a movie at 10 o'clock on a Wednesday?

I just, my daughter was in bed. Like, I got to take movie time when I can get it. Fair. So that's probably why. Yeah. But that is also sadly sort of reflective of the broader appeal of this thing. And I do think, yeah, sometimes even though as a viewer, it's great to have this quick turnaround for the audience, you know, six months.

I mean, it's kind of like the solo, a Star Wars story problem maybe. Incredible classic movie. Everyone agrees with me. But, you know, just kind of flooding the zone. And maybe people aren't ready for another film in that franchise yet. Also, maybe just the colon bone temple. Like, did people know what this was? Was it, does it seem like a spinoff or sort of like a side quest?

Like, are people even aware that this is a trilogy in theory? Like, and also, I guess, I mean, you don't know this until you actually buy a ticket and watch the movie. But the tonal shift and the lack of just zombie action, if you're looking for that, you're not getting as much of it here. Maybe you don't want the sort of like buddy dromedy of Kelson and Samson or just like the, yeah, like it's it's quieter. It's calmer at times at least. And so maybe this is not, maybe that didn't help with the marketing also. Yeah, yeah. And just people don't exactly know what to expect from one film to the next.

And so if it's been 20 years for interest to build up, that's one thing or even five years, but six months. So I guess it's probably some combination of all of the above, but I hope the word of mouth, which we are giving it right now. I hope people check out this movie because it's great. It's just a really great movie. And DeCosta, I think, did a great job just like visually. You know, everyone's just kind of putting their own stamp on this universe. But it's just a really beautiful film too, just like the juxtaposition of the pastoral scenes and the rolling countryside and then the horror's. that are being perpetrated in those fields and valleys and hills.

But it's great to look at and just such striking imagery. So please go see the movie, you know? Go see the movie. We're recommending it. What else can we say? Now, I guess we'll stray into spoiler territory, sort of hard spoiler territory here just briefly at the end of this thing. So be warned, spoilers.

I don't want to dissuade anyone from seeing this thing in theaters or somehow. But, okay, so we talked a little bit about the pursuit of the cure and Kelson trying to appeal to and salvage some humanity from Samson, which he does with great success. And at first he coaxes a word out of Samson. He looks at the moon. He says moon. And then when he gives him this cocktail, not just of the sedatives and the morphine, but the antipsychotic drugs, he seems to return to it. himself, you know? And by the end of the movie, he seems to be more or less back to his, his old self. I mean, way bigger, I guess. You've got to be jarring to like wake up in the alpha

body. You're like, my dick is huge. What happened? I'm enormous. Assuming that wasn't the case before, which we don't know. We didn't see pre-Alpha Samson. But like, I wonder where this is going to go because Kelson, sadly, does not survive the film. And so is his research lost. Like, is Samson going to be the only one who comes back to his senses? Is this even going to be something that the third film, if there is one, picks up? Or will it just be dropped like the whole carrier question was?

Yeah, I mean, I think that's another thing that's so impressive about this movie. And what DeCosta is doing with this, too. And I guess, you know, Garland, who wrote it, is it feels like it's such a good middle movie where so much is happening in the vacuum of this film. but it sets up all these really compelling questions that you're raising here. And this third movie could just go so many directions where Samson could be one of the most important characters.

And I hope he is because he has this clarity at the end of the movie where he's actually speaking setting more lines than just the moon. Yeah. And we see he's flashing back to his old life. Yeah. He remembers who he is and what life was like before that. And another great scene in this movie is when he has become sufficiently human again that his pack turns on him.

Yeah, that's a great moment. And they no longer see him as the alpha or as the leader or one of them. And suddenly he's fending off all these like, you know, followers of his. That's the moment when you realize like, okay, he's he's now no longer infected or at least, yeah, he's sentient enough that they don't recognize him anymore. Yeah. Like even though he didn't have that many scenes on his own, I think they did a really good job of establishing his perspective in a really, really small amount of time. Even just like there was a early shot of where you're seeing what he's seeing.

And he sees the uninfected human, but looks like he's infected. Like this horrifying image that he's seeing. To the monsters, where the monsters, the whole station 11th. It's like, yeah, to the infected, everyone is infected. Right, exactly. And it's something that Ian Kelsen theorizes. And he says it later on where he's, you know, he's. He's wondering what it does to the mind, and he comes up with the idea that they have this form of psychosis

and that their mind is being clouded by the rage virus as well. And so he seeks to treat it. So just having that little moment early on and then circling back to it after he's taken this concoction that Kelson's made, just having that moment of clarity where you see him as a child, see him as an adult, and then just that moment where he just speaks and he says something like, sorry, I don't have my ticket, something like that. He's just picking up seamlessly where his mind last remembers. Yeah.

And it's really small moments, but it's so impactful. And it really just establishes his character in such a short amount of time. Yeah. I would hope that Kelson documented this research in some way. Like, you see him, you know, writing some notes. Like, he's got some papers. So in theory, if the whole place didn't burn down at the end, then someone could come along and see, like, oh, here's the formula. Here's the drugs that I have to.

Or Samson himself. I don't know how well he remembers what exactly Kelson was because he was high the entire time. Not sure if there's memory loss of just constantly being drugged. But if he remembers, oh, here's how I came back to my senses because Kelseyon gave me this. And maybe he wrote down, you know, here's the pill. Here's your prescription, basically. I don't even know if I want a third movie to just be about that, about curing rage or infected, which I guess would be a way to sort of neatly resolve.

everything if they want to have this be a just everlasting franchise and keep making more movies forever. If there is just a cure and it's not even just about containing it, but everyone's all happy in one big non-infected family at the end of this thing, I guess that's an ending. I don't even, I don't know if I want that really. I kind of, I don't want the third movie to be anything that I am already expecting. I guess that's the thing. It's like, you know, whatever I could concoct for where this would be going next is kind of what I don't want to happen because I just want it to be something that's completely out of left field again. Yeah. And I think, again, I think it's what's so effective about this, the way the movie ends and sets up the third movie because it could go so many

directions. And one thing that I'm still very curious to see if it's a thing is just the whole relationship with I Love the Baby from the first movie, because it seems heavily implied, at least, to me that this baby was Samson's baby. Yeah. With the infected pregnant woman that, that whole scene. Yeah. And because we don't... Another little wrinkle that I didn't even mention earlier about, like, new infected

law, they can have babies. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. There's so many things that they establish here without really telling you much, which I think is a great choice. Yeah. Because it leaves you to wonder what's happening with this.

Yeah, there's no like exposition scene in these... Right. Or at least in these latest ones where someone just kind of... catches you up. I mean, okay, like Linda's farm, we learn about the rules and how they've survived all this time, but there's no one who just, like, the data dumps just like, here's the lore, here's what you missed in the last 28 years, and someone just reels off all the developments. There's a couple lines of text, and then it's just show don't tell, you know? We just get our bearings as we go. It's like very natural when they do do it. It's like, it's Antarian Johnson.

I forget the name of his actual character. But as he's like walking out with Spike, it's like he's telling him all these things. But it makes sense. He's taking his 12-year-old kids. outside of the island for the first time. So it's just the fact that they're not holding your hand, I think, is a really good choice because a lot of these people don't know either. It's not like there's the internet anymore for them to track what's happening with the rage virus across these 28 years. They have no idea.

And really, the one person that seems to have a good grasp on anything is now dead. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that was an elegant way of just setting the scene, like laying the groundwork, familiarizing us with the rules. I always appreciate that because in movies, you can always kind of see, you know, They have to get that info in there somehow, and sometimes it's more transparent and obvious than others. So in this case, it's like, all right, I see what you're doing here. But it makes sense.

You made it make sense. The other thing that we haven't even touched on, of course, there's no post-credit scene. This is not that kind of franchise, really. But there is a final scene, which is pretty momentous. At the end of the Bone Temple, we see an old friend again for the first time in 28 years or, you know, 25 almost in real. life. Jim is back. Not Jimmy. Also kind of confusing. So many gyms, so many jimmies, but Killian Murphy is back. He's alive. He is raising a kid and they're out in the countryside. And at the very end, we see the intersection, you know, the lines cross, the streams cross.

And the original 28 days later cast, or at least one character, meets up with Spike and his new companion from the fingers. And as they are being chased, and besieged by infected, you know, Jimmy's kids, Das, like, or Jim. Important distinction, Jim versus Jimmy. Yeah. But also brown hair versus blonde wig. But she says, do we help them?

And he says, of course we do. And meanwhile, you know, she's been preparing for a test. He's been quizzing her on like World War II European history. And now we're back, you know? So this, I mean, this feels like in the hands of another creator or friend. franchise, like, this could be fan servicey and, like, you know, sort of heavy-handed way of tying it all together. Like, I'd be fine if we had never seen Jim again.

Like, hope he's doing well, you know, but, like, didn't need to know necessarily. How are you feeling about that reveal and seemingly setting up much more gym and everything kind of colliding at the end? Yeah, I mean, I thought it was a lot of fun. I'm really curious how I would have felt about it if I didn't know. about it going in because Danny Boyle was like very transparent about it like even like months before

but like right around the release of 28 years later when he was doing the press he was like talking about like oh yeah you know Killian's not in this one but yeah we're putting this in the spoiler section but we may not have needed to so yeah he probably know he's back but yeah but that said I mean it still feels surprising to see him back on screen and actually coming back

because to your point like it doesn't feel like the kind of franchise that's going to do it. And it's a little bit jarring in itself, but no less jarring, I think, than having the jimmies spring up at the end of the previous movie. Yeah. And I think because there has been such this huge passage of time,

I'm really curious to see what's happened to him this whole time. Like what happened in Naomi Harris is another question and if she's going to be in this third movie as well. Presumably this is their kids together. Yes. But we don't know exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

So, I mean, I don't know. I think he's also an interesting protagonist to come back to because he wasn't exactly this hero in the first movie. He starts off as being very much a fish out of water as anybody would be when you wake up in a hospital, which is why he's kind of the perfect protagonist for this kind of movie because he's just so scared and unsure of himself throughout. I think there's a huge switch where he becomes like Rambo

when it comes to the soldiers. That's, I think, part of why I wasn't a huge fan of it because it just felt so inconsistent with his character. The beginning of that was so influential when he wakes up in the hospital. Everything's deserted.

And they had to just like guerrilla film make that where they were just filming it on these deserted streets of London whenever they could. Basically, they ended up the budget to actually like rope off. And, you know, that was kind of ripped off in the opening of the Walking Dead

where Rick kind of comes to in the same way. And so many moments in that movie that movie that just the fast zombies in general, the moment when Brendan Gleason's character turns and it's like, glad there's a good dad in that movie at least because just like makes up for the bad dads in the later episodes. But yeah, he really evolves just over the course of that movie as he gets his bearings in this world. Seems like, you know, he's, obviously he hasn't descended into savagery the way that Jimmy did. And he's trying to keep up the education and the civilization

and the memories. And he's, he's looking great, you know, looking well groomed. Killion keeping it tight. Post Oppenheimer? Yeah. I mean, it's so like obviously he has retained, you know, kind of his essential humanity and is trying to pass that on. So he seems like he might be a good father figure surrogate, father figure, mentor for Spike, hopefully better than Jimmy was.

Yeah, yeah. Just like imagine them meeting him and like, what's your name, Jim? Like, oh, not again. Is that anyone else named something different in this world? But yeah, like, again, if he had not come back, I wouldn't have felt unfulfilled. Like, I'm okay with this timeline and these characters and this setting. But in Garland, I trust, I guess, at this point. Like, Garland and Boyle have made so many of my favorite movies and, like, sunshine and just, like, everything that they have teamed up on or almost everything.

So, I'm in. I just, I hope we get to see it. I hope they get to make it, which seems somewhat in doubt now, possibly. Me too. but I mean, I feel like with, hopefully, with Killian Murphy's star power too, I think that's probably going to help it. But I, yeah, I'm really curious to see where they could go with it because, again, there's all these different paths they could take with Samson. But now bringing Jim alongside that, too. It's like, it's opened up an entire new set of options.

I know. It is tough to lose Kelson, though, like the prospect of a-kelson-free movie. It's just like big shoes to fill. I guess, you know, as much as I'm looking forward to sentient Samson, yeah, it's going to be a big loss, you know, because he did kind of like he stole years and then to the extent that they built the second movie around him and it's going to leave a big void. But then Killian Murphy steps into that void. So hopefully he's equal to the task along with Samson. So just can't really recommend it highly enough. Like I hope that's coming through here that we just really like this movie. So go see. it because we want them to finish this trilogy. So highly, highly recommended. And I guess that'll do it for us. So Memento Mori. Memento A. Morris. And how's that? How's that? This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business. They keep companies

of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support, millions of business owners already trust Spectrum business. So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. This podcast is brought to you by Carvana. Selling your car should feel like one less thing on your list, not one more. With Carvana, it is.

Just go to Carvana.com. Enter your license plate or Vin, and get a real, offer down to the penny. No back and forth, no surprises, just an experience you can trust. Like your offer? Accept it. Schedule pickup, and we'll come to you with a check in hand. Your car, your timeline, your terms. Visit Carvana.com to sell your car today. Carvana. Pick up fees may apply. This episode is brought to by Paramount Plus. Beth and Rip are back in a new series Dutton Ranch. Kelly Riley and Cole has are returned and this time they're taken on Texas. As Beth and Rip build a future together,

Peace will have to wait as they face corruption, danger, and a ruthless rival ranch willing to protected secrets at all costs. Legacy is a beautiful thing, but only if it survives. Dutton Ranch starring Colehouser, Kelly Riley, Annette Benning and Ed Harris now streaming on Paramount Plus. We have a lot to thank British people for, right? Fish and chips, wine gums, taskmaster, and now my personal favorite game of 2025 and 2026,

power wash simulator. This game is nothing but therapeutic, and if you don't believe me, Oxford said so. So that has to mean something. No, it's a really great game. It's 2499 on your Nintendo Switch, but you can get it on Apple Arcade, Xbox, your Steam Machine. This game is exactly what it sounds like. You walk around, you power wash things, you make money, you buy bigger, better tools to power wash more things. And I'm talking playgrounds, houses, motorcycles, vans, SpongeBob, Big Guy, Pants O'K's house. It's great. There's nothing more I love to do on a Friday night than sit in my bed,

and instead of brain rotting, I can power wash something and feel a sense of accomplishment, gratitude, usefulness, if you will. So do yourself a favor, veg out, play Power Wash Simulator, and thank me later because you're going to have the time of your life doing it. What's up, Ringiverse, family. It is Arjuna here with my Ringiverse recommends, recommendation for January. And I'm going to go with Percy Jackson Season 2. Just wrapped up recently, you know, the second season and everything.

And I want to recommend it just because it's a really fun show. You know, Disney Plus has had a lot of hits and misses over the years. I know our Ring ofverse fans are well aware of that with all the Marvel and Star Wars shows and everything. But, you know, Percy Jackson is great. It's a really fun adaptation with the books. I think it's a better adaptation in the movies where it came out quite a few years ago. And it's, you know, season two kind of continues it and pushes it forward. And so, you know, it's all available right now to stream.

You can binge it if you want, which I think is always fun and sometimes better for shows in particular to just enjoy them and get through them and not have to wait week to week sometimes. So I think that's really great. And, you know, a nice thing about Percy Jackson is that, not. only has it been renewed for a third season. Third season is filmed, taped, and, as they just recently revealed, will be coming out this year, probably at the end of the year, but at least you won't have to wait, you know, 18 months or two years or three years for the next season. It is coming out. It is likely coming out at the end of this year, and the confirmed it's coming out this year. So, you know, the latest that could start is at the end of the year.

So that's really exciting to have as well, where you won't have to wait too long for more person Jackson. So I definitely recommend checking out, Jacks. What's up, Bringerverse. Steve Allman here with another recommendation for the month of January 2026.

I'm talking about a game that actually has been updated for a couple of years now and that recently got a brand new DLC. I'm talking about Cult of the Lamb Woolhaven. This is a add-on

DLC to the base game of Cult of the Lamb. And this is a massive improvement from the original game. Before I talk about that, Cult of the Lamb is something that I think that you guys might like.

It's got action rogue-like elements and it's got a little bit of Animal Crossing in there where you're farming, you're gaining new followers, you're tending to this flock, you're giving sermons. It's a very cute and

interesting art style of like this very like Gloomhaven children's story book with hyperviolent and often grotesque designs. It's really beautiful. And this new Woolhaven DLC adds split-string

co-op as well as a bunch of new features for your base and new areas for you to fight. So it's not a bit more of the same, but it's kind of a revitalization of this base formula and what made it so good. I'm loving it. I think you guys should really check it out. Woolhaven for a cult of the lamp. Hello, Ring averse. It's Matt James from Buttonmash. I'm back this month to give you another video game recommendation. And this month, I'm recommending a game that you play with one single button. It's called Rhythm Doctor. It's out on Steam and all those Xboxes. You play an intern at a hospital that treats patients by syncing up with their heartbeat.

And in each level, the music plays, and all you got to do is hit the button on the seventh beat of each measure. And that sounds pretty easy, but this is actually one of the more challenging and unforgiving rhythm games I've ever played. You'll often fail levels on the first try, but when you finally push through and a particular rhythm clicks in your brain, it's a pretty exhilarating experience. And despite the fact that you're only pressing one button in each level, each level somehow manages to feel very fresh because it introduces some new concept each time, whether it's silent beats or some weird time signature or treating multiple patients at once. The game's original music is fantastic and genre diverse, and it's got this modest pixel art style that does absolutely insane, surprising things during gameplay.

And despite being a rhythm game, Rhythm Doctor actually has some pretty interesting things to say about the intersection of healthcare and capitalism, which is a little surprising for a rhythm game. but if you feel like you have a decent sense of rhythm and you don't mind a bit of a challenge, I definitely recommend Rhythm Doctor. Okay, hope you enjoyed that chat. Usually, this is where I recap all of the picks, but a little behind the scenes inside baseball here, as I'm recording this, I don't know what all the picks will be, so I can't yet recap them.

But you know, because they just played and you just heard them, and there weren't that many of them, so you probably don't need to be reminded about what they were. But thanks to everyone for contributing their clips. this month. And one more person to thank our listener nomination, loyal listener and participant, J.B. Bonifacio, who has written in again, he's one of our anime fans, and he is stepping up with a recommendation that he sent to bring reverse recommends at gmail.com, and I will read his submission now. J.B. says, I'll never forget being back in undergrad in the 2000s when one of our friends

Tom said we should all watch Nardo. Why, we all said. It's basically Harry Potter, but with Ninja, Tom said. So in the grand tradition of simple but effective pitches, my Ringaverse recommends for the month of January 2026 is season three of the anime Jiu Jizu Kaysen out now on Crunchy Roll. Why, you all ask. It's basically a cult Harry Potter, I say. If you've watched the ring and the grudge, you know that curses are the manifestation of negative energies emanating from human beings around the world. But what if human beings could harness said cursed energy to be badass sorcerers? And what if, said badass sorcerers had to take on mystical entities that they'd make the ones in the ring or the grudge look like slimer in Ghostbusters by comparison. This is the central premise of one of the biggest anime of the last decade. How big is this show, you say?

Season one, which aired back in 2021, was the most discussed TV show worldwide on Twitter surpassing season one of Squid Game. Season two, which aired in late 2023, went on to be named by Guinness World Record and Data Science Firm Parat Analytics as the most in-demand animated TV show with a global demand rating 71.2 times that of the average TV show.

Wow, J.B, bringing some data to bear here. And what about season three, which again is currently out now? Well, episode four is the highest rated episode of the series on IMDB with a score of 9.8 out of 10. And everyone I've talked to that's read ahead in the manga, all say the same thing. They all say season three blows seasons one and two out of the water. All right.

Well, if that doesn't get you hyped, I don't know what will. Thank you, J.B, for the recommendation. Thanks to everyone who sends in recommendations to Ringiverse Recommends at gmail.com. Please keep flooding our inbox with your nominations for February and beyond. We have a lot on our radar. Stay tuned to both of our feeds, to the Midnight Boys, to ButtonMash, to everything on the Ring ofverse feed, as well as our sister feed, House of Our. We will, of course, have continuing coverage of Night of the Seven Kingdoms coming.

And we will finish up our fallout season two coverage with the Grandfifference. finale on ButtMash coming next week. So as always, thanks for supporting us. Thanks for listening. Thanks for participating. And thanks for encouraging. And thanks very much to Steve Allman for producing this episode remotely and to our Juno Ringo pal for as usual providing his senior podcast management. Thanks most of all to you, the listener. And until next time, I hope that you'll recommend the ringerverse. Feels like every product claims real protein these days. But real doesn't start on a label. It starts at the source.

Like real California milk from California farm families, it's real dairy delivering high quality, complete protein, with all nine essential amino acids to help build muscle, give you energy, and keep you satisfied longer. So keep it real. Look for the seal. Real California milk. Relax and let Ralph's delivery handle your grocery shopping

this week. We start with only the freshest items, then review your list and carefully choose each one. Then we pack it all up and deliver it in as little as 30 minutes so you can feel confident it's what you ordered. Fresh groceries, your way, with Ralph's delivery and pickup. And right now, enjoy free delivery on orders over $50. Ralph's, fresh for everyone.