The Ringer-Verse - 'X-Men 97,' the Criticism of Nostalgia, and 'Midnight Musings' | The Midnight Boys

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

Another episode of 'X-Men 97' is here and the Midnight Boys are back to talk about what they liked (12:29). They also have a discussion on the ins and outs of critiquing the state of fandom today, as well as their first installment of 'Midnight Musings' (67:25). Hosts: Charles Holmes, Van Lathan, Jomi Adeniran, and Steve Ahlman Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Social: Jomi Adeniran Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, everyone. I'm Mallory Rubin and I am thrilled to tell you that House of our has a new podcast feed. Joanna Robinson and I will now be with you twice a week with more of the deep dives you've come to know and love on the ring of universe. In addition to exploring all of your favorite nerd culture new releases, we'll have nostalgic revisitations, hype meters, hall of fame inductions, tropes courses, drafts, and more. All bad babies are welcome as we dive into Star Wars, Marvel, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, and beyond. Follow the new House of Our feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters.

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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 Trimfair Radio.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 road trip goes sideways. Ketchup goes rogue ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Welcome into the Ringerverse. This is, of course, the Ringers' Nexus podcast feed for all things, fandom. We are. Jomi, the Explanator at Dinner on you've got questions. He's got answers.

We are, Steve, the architect, almond, the builder, and tinker of things. We are, old man, van, he of the receding soon-to-be resurgent hairline, a.k.a. The grill master. We are. Coke, baby, Chuck, 24-carric closer, aka the brunch haughty. Together, we are known as of our midnight boys.

Follow us on socials, Insta Twitter, Facebook, TikTok for now, save Jomey's job. Social update. Join me a dinner. Hey, I want to shout out you guys. We're at 25 count Instagram. Appreciate guys hitting that follow. You know, hey, we made it.

We got some great stuff coming for you. I don't know if you guys saw this on Monday, but Ringyverse recommends new podcasts we're doing and we're putting some of the videos up on the socials. check it out. Check it out. Yeah, I use my laugh mic for ringer versus recommends.

Oh, word? I still haven't opened that shit. Here's the thing. I want to pitch y'all guys on this. Do you think I could get Bill Simmons in the ringer to pay for my haircuts? We're doing a lot more video now. You know what I'm saying?

Is that a business expense? I do think it's a business expense. Well, I think it just expensive and then get it back at the end of the year because they're not going to pay for it. They're going to look at you crazy. So you might as well... What?

Yo, the price. is black barbers get your money. The prices in LA are financing. I pay $100 per hair. What the fuck? Dog, I pay $80. I kid you not. 80.

For a tape or fade and just like nothing fancy. Nothing fancy, bro. Yeah. Stuff. Shout out to Trey. He comes by the crib later. But because he comes to the house.

And so I guess that's the reason. But once again, I keep telling people. The only reason why the barber comes to the house is because he was kicked out of several barbershops around LA. Yeah, because he can't be saying. I know why he was kicked out of these barberships. shops because this man and what he has said can never be mentioned. But how's the cut, though?

He's good. Oh, great. There you go. Yeah, but you can't get your, you can get it back on your taxes. I can't? Yeah. I get it all back on my taxes. Wait.

I'm serious, bro. Wesley's Midnight pocket watchers right now. All the fucking. Wesley Snipes is like, oh, interesting. All the goddamn accounts that I have, all the streaming accounts, all the streaming accounts, all of it. I got to watch it. Yeah.

I got to watch. It's a business. I got to have it. I don't, if I wasn't doing this stuff, I wouldn't have every single stream in account. I got to have it. I get back to Xbox.

I do button mash. Yeah. The Xbox goal. The IRS is listening like, no. I show them fucking evidence. Yeah, give them the receipts. Give them the receipts.

Yeah, I showed them evidence. When I started, the moment I started working at TMZ, everything. I go to the movies. expense, boom, the whole thing, because I got to be able to talk about the movies and stuff. My NBA league pass, all of that. All of it. All of it. Now, you don't get like dollar for dollar the whole thing back, but you get

business expenses back. People help you all. Entertainment. Shout out to the people, man. They still cracked my dumb ass for taxes this year, though. It was crazy. Wait, so are you now at the point where you just like, damn, they be taxed for people too much? No, not to that point yet. But I do want to know, though.

I do want to know, I don't, like, I paid. Are you looking at places in the Bahamas to maybe put a few. I would never do that, but I want to know where the money is going. Yo! You just want to see your dollars at work. I do want to know where the money is going. Okay, okay. Because if we building roads and we're helping out people, I see.

If I see one pothole on the way. I see my nigga barbecued and took over Haiti. if if we're doing stuff to stop and help patient people, I'm all good for it. If we're doing all that, I'm,

that's not where your taxes are on. I don't want to buy no predator drones. No, like, you know, re- What? It's what?

It's true. It's true. No, it's very true. I don't want, I don't want to, but, I mean, that's where the money's going. You know what I mean?

The money's going for that type of stuff. That's the level that I'm at. I'll never, ever, ever, ever, ever feel bad. about not paying my fair share because people need the bread, but I don't feel like

it's going to the right place. I don't. I feel like it's going to buy fucking explodable messages for Ethan Hunt. Oh, can we get to the show? Yo, what?

I'm serious. This message will self-destruct. That takes some technology. It's not free. It's not free. It's not free. You know what? Quick on that real quick.

Yo. Ethan Hunt got a crazy budget. Oh, man, ridiculous. Even when he's kicked out, he's got a crazy budget. He's still got the mask machine ready to go. How much those masks you think cost? Oh, that's a lot. 10K a mask.

10K? I was about to say like a million. Are you fucking nuts? 10K. I'm thinking about like the rubber ones that you could actually buy. A night at booby trap on the river in Miami that the strippers will be mad at you because Drake and Future, 10K for the mask. Steve, when you say stuff like that sometimes it angers me.

the mask is so much the mask is a biometric it makes your face it to another person that's way more than 10 matches the machine to make the mask is like a billion dollars okay okay the mask is very expensive Steve it's very well is it real though it's not real Steve is going to get Ethan Hunt killed I am sat at the computer right in the same four rooms away that Ving Rames was in that he was not on set for being like you need to run down the alleyway really fast, Tompkins. This lets you guys know. We're going to be grilling out. Oh, it's time.

All summer long. What do we say, the meat night boys? The meat night boys. Meat night boys. Dog, it's black uncle season. Van and Joe me teach me how to, like, grow. It's time. Charles had a fantastic idea that we're going to be grilling this summer. And, you know, pull up on us.

Pull up on us when we're grilling. I'm telling you guys. right now. It's a sincere invitation for anybody to send LA to pull up on us when we're grilling. The first hit of weirdness, you're out. Okay? Or at least share the grilling setups on socials.

You know? If you come to hang out with the meat night boys and you get two up in arms about any takes or anything like that, we're going to have you removed. We're going to have a security. We're going to have to remove. Programme!

Thank you so much for Universe recommends. I would like to thank Ben Falk and Lindbergh for putting that together. This Friday Mid-Edition returns with their monthly

comic check-in. Okay, you guys don't know what the fuck you guys are doing. No, Jomey got the schedule wrong. Okay, so whatever. They're checking in whenever they're gonna check in.

What's going on with the scheduling? No, it's fine. No, it's fine. Are you guys running a functional podcast? Yes, we are. Jomi, you can't show weakness in front of fans. You understand that, right?

You guys really, every single week, we thought it was talking about what's been in addition to you like, well, like, come on, come on,

no, the comics checking is, is happening. Also on Friday, Ben Falkin Lemberg joins the House of Arr to talk about bad batch and tales of the empire.

I'm looking forward to tales of the empire. Speaking of the Ringerverse, before we move on, I want to say something real quick. I know. I just want to make sure that the big time film heads

know what's popping here at the Ringer. Oh. So me and my sisters and nerd were invited to be a part of the mega-99 draft over at the Big Picture. We were invited to go over there. Very soon, we'll all be invited over there

and the Midnight Boys will take over. And I think that we plan our flag very directly. Mm-hmm. Okay? So let you guys know, it's a total ring of verse domination. Mm-hmm. First

Second and third Gold Silver and bronze We like fucking Jamaican sprinting You ran the podium We like

Oh not We fucking We fucking fucked over We We fucked over The film bro Fantasy and Dobbs got A little too comfortable

Y'all stepped on that corner A little bit All right Got Marla up in here I will say this though In fairness to it man She only has one person that she has to beat.

And that's Rob. The Amanda Rob rivalry, if you guys aren't paying attention to it. The Amanda Rob rivalry is so deep. And it goes back to the, where Rob just robbed her. It's very good. So she only cares about beating one person.

It is the Drake and Kendrick of white people beefing at the ringer. It definitely is. Definitely is. A good way on white violence. And if I'm being honest, we got some favorable draft choices. And Sean was doing double duty. Oh, no excuses.

No excuses? I'm just saying, I'm trying to be, I'm trying to be, I'm trying to make sure that I don't just throw my weight around too much here with my, with my, my colleagues. But I will say this, domination. And now this is what we'll do. I think it's only fair that we have a mega draft here on the Ringiverse. And we invite CR, Amanda, and Sean to participate. we'll give them the opportunity

We'll do a home at home We'll give them the opportunity To participate in a superhero movie draft Of our choosing So superhero movie draft Or I think because you guys went on their turf You did a super mega draft Do we open

The Black Superhero draft up again? Oh my God And we just do it A mega draft Hey man A mega draft That's what the fuck I'm talking about. This is an idea man to my left.

We got to see who's down for the cause. Sean, Amanda, and CR, you're invited to the black superheroes draft. We might just do a black negadraft. We might just do a black culture draft. Oh. We might just do it. Black culture draft. Let's go.

We might just do. You guys. Jomey, sack the fuck up. This is happening. So, wait, culture draft, are we talking about actor, rapper? We're going to figure it out. Okay, all right. We're going to figure it out.

We're going to use the categories, like actor, rapper, you know, like we go down the list. Comedian, historical figure, abolition. Civil rights. Here's the thing. I'm out. Okay, so, yeah, you're definitely, we have to make sure that this doesn't come across like, oh, an auction. We have to make sure Just draft your pick

Don't tell us why you like them, okay? Because we don't want to know their attributes Because that does. They're stat lines. Yeah, just draft your pick. Six, five, strong. Sixth of a lot. What's saying?

Just works just a natural athlete. What do you mean by that? Right. What do you mean? What's the 100 yards? Let's go. Okay, on today's show, we react to the latest episode

of the greatest show that's ever been committed to television, X-Men 97, and give you some of our first official midnight musings. Before we get into X-Men 97, we have to let you guys know that we will be spoiling X-Men 97, past episodes of X-Men 97, perhaps other things in X-Men comic lore, and in Marvel Comics lore.

Spoiler warning, Steve. We're getting ready to talk about many. You're listening to a reaction, Podcast. The spoilers are coming. Got to put you in to know. Only person that we can do that is Chuck Wagon.

Only way to do that is the Midnight Manifest. Chuck, take it away. All right. This is the Midnight Manifest for X-Men 97. Tolerance is extinction directed by Chase Conley

written by Bo DeMayo and Anthony Salidi. Cable informs the X-Men about the dystopian future he comes from where mutants have been enslaved to build a better world for bashing and the humans.

Despite his best efforts, Cable fails to avert to no-show because it's a point in time that can't change. Cable Scott and Gene visit Bashan's mother and the trio reveals the trio finds out that the villain was conceived by a father infected with the techno-organic virus, thus creating a superhuman robot, Sentinel Man. Bashan sets off his prime sentinel androids and they attack the X-Men and Dr. Cooper frees Magneto from Bashian and Sinister and the master of magnetism shuts down all of the

prime sentinels. And that has been the Midnight Manifest. Let's get into it. Let's get into it. Chuck, what you think? You know, it's cool. All right. Here's the thing. If I'm being positive, the Wolverine and Nightcrawler fight was sublime. Like some real deal. When he went through the bamp, when we finally see, I'd never, I could cry. That was so good. It's like, it's one of those ideas where you're just like, why have we never on screen seen the POV of either Nightcrawler or someone else getting bamed?

And when that shit happened, I'm like, all right, we're cooking. Like, we're cooking with gas. That shit looked amazing. You know, we're still a little goof mode With the powers they got Magneto Having enough ability He went to the North Pole All right, I was like, all right, man

But what I will say The Wolverine and Nightcrawler fight was Legendary. Sublime. What's stopping you from being As crazy about this show as I am? I just do not emotionally care what happens.

I'm just like, oh, that was cool. Do you not have an emotional attachment to Nimrod? Oh. No, Nimrod sucks. So dispassion. I also think it's like, I think the thing that's probably animating this a little bit is,

I know what happens. You know what I'm saying? Like, this is a very, this is almost kind of like a Wikipedia entry of an X-Men adaptation where instead of it being an entirely new story, it is just kind of doing a very, very good job of summarizing a bunch of stories. So I quite literally know what is, what's happening. Like, it's just...

It's cool. So you feel like it's too concentrated in order to have its own time in, like, certain spots. Like, if you had the summer story... All right, that's enough. It's the equivalent. It is quite literally,

because everybody's like, this is the best adaptation ever. And I'm like, nigger, I'm just like, if I want to go on Wikipedia and read what all the best... Are you smoking... That's literally.

It is! No, no, no. Guess what? How about this? What the fuck are you talking about the show? I hate the way that you walked away. That's you talk to... Yeah, that's you...

That's literally what you're saying like. That's exactly what you're going to hurt. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. No, no. Why had you asked me my opinion and then be like, that's enough, nigga, stop hating. No, no, no, no, no, no. I've had enough of the negativity.

It's time they get with the real. And this is what the real is. This is the best fucking shit ever. Look, let me, I challenge you. I challenge you, Chuck. Let me tell you why. Number one, I felt emotionally connected to everything. Let me tell you.

Just seriously, because I'm joking with. Chuck. Everybody's entitled to their only page, but I say this. Like, watching what the X-Men are up against. The X-Men are so super-powered, right? The X-Men are so super-powered. It's always so enthralling to me to watch the X-Men be these, like, super gifted underdogs. And there was a point in this episode where everyone

starts transforming into Prime Signals. and I actually was thinking in my brain I know we all know it's going to happen but I was thinking how are they going to win yeah I was literally everybody is transforming

into Prime Cindles at the X mansion I don't know who's insuring the X mansion it's at least once a month but that's what I love that's the blackbird in the comics

every other week is like we blowing up the X mansion I'm like bro if y'all just don't move to a fucking comment and Gene was like we got we really got to figure this out

this is the third blackbird we get in three months three months? What is who is paying for this? Like a like that jet is like how much is that? Like a couple of a million? 10K probably. I'd be honest with you though.

This is Professor Xavier is rich. Not that rich. He's not Tony Stark rich. He's got some vibrating reserves. He's very rich but I will say this. There's something nefarious that's going on in terms of the X men are doing something. Got to be. The X-Men got all the craziest shit.

Danger Room alone is like a bill. That's a. Billion. Syriro's got to be expensive. What? Cerebro's got to be expensive. All of that shit is expensive. Also, how much is the land in Westchester? That's a lot of land.

You know what I'm saying? Like, that's all world money. How much you think the property tax are there? That probably comes from like the slavery era though. He probably inherited that, right? Wait, is Professor X were his thing? Well, he's in New York, so it probably was. I mean, it wasn't notoriously a slave place, but still.

He didn't have to buy it. What I want to know, it is interesting. I would like to know, like, to know how much of the, X-Men's wealth comes from, you know, the trade. Anyway. But look, seriously, seriously, I'm loving the show so much. Literally every single part of this episode I love, I'm not even going to bullshit you. I love the Nightcrawler and Wolverine.

I love the storyline between Gene Gray and Cable and Scott. I'm so invested into her. her being there with her son, not son of the conversation between Nightcrawler and Gene, where he's explained to her what memories and connection really are. Roe being, I'm invested and connected to all of it. They actually got me a little bit to be into Bastion and whatever was going on with him and this childhood and the whole not. I think every single scene has some nutrition to it. Every single single.

I'm being serious, Charles. It's a short show. I'll stop after this. It's a short show, but I don't feel like there's a wasted scene in the entire show. I literally watched Sunspot

and Jubilee crash into a party chased by Prime Sentinels. The robots come in and they're just like, Sunspots like, yo, mom, they're trying to kill me. And she's like, damn, them robots that just flew into my building.

They seem like good people. why don't you go with them? I'm like, this makes no sense. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. But it does make sense. How? That scene is important for Sunspot to figure out how the Sunspot thing is not working as much as the rest of the stuff is. But let me tell you why that scene was important.

That scene was important because he's still caught between two worlds. And his mom, in a way, is like caught between two worlds, right? She's caught between the world of loving and wanting to be supportive of her son, but also still being embarrassed and feeling like it's a disgrace to have a mutant son. That scene pushes him into one camp and puts her into one camp. No, emotionally, I get the scene. But logically, I'm like, you said early, it wasn't working emotionally. I was like, well, because at the end, when they're let away and they put the mutant collars on them,

I'm like, guys, you just escaped from a whole mall. just to crash through a party and be like, you know what? My mom said I should go with the murdering robots. I'm just going to do that. I'm like, y'all are X-Men. What the fuck is happening? Well, it's not an X-Men.

It's not an X-Men if you got it. It's not an ex-man story. If you don't have to rescue Jubilee for something. So, you know. I mean, here's the thing. And I am being a little unfair because the sunspot Jubilee of it all is annoying me because this is probably, that is probably the weakest storyline. But it's, it's.

I mean, yeah, I mean, the take that, you're not connecting with these characters emotionally. I don't know where you're watching. But every single, like to Van's point, every single episode, it takes a beat and you learn something new about the characters. And this episode did a really good job with the rogue and in Gene

and the night crawler scene. It talks about how, you know, blood is blood, but family is by choice. And I'm like, damn. Yeah. That's steep to you? I mean, like, it's not deep. That's deep to you?

It's not. When it's a German accent, he's like, it's these blotts. When, for those characters, you know, for, for Gene to like try and get over that hump, like, I have Madeline's memories inside me. I can feel, you know, having Nathaniel growing inside me. Like, I can feel holding him for the first time, but I know it's not me. How do I then connect those? How do I relate to somebody who's not my, who's not actually my son, but I feel emotionally

connected to as my child? Right. And they have that heart to heart. And I'm like, oh, snap. Like, this show does the action well. It does the story well. Does the emotional beats extremely well. And, like, I think that's probably the strongest thing the show does.

And for you to, like, be like, nah, actually, it's not. I'm like, brother. So this is, all right, this is my issue. Because we're dealing with this as a culture right now, right? Kendrick fucking drops euphoria, right? Everybody got their opinions. if I don't like the record now all of it's a son

it's like all right motherfucker you just don't understand what he was really saying what do you mean? I'm like motherfuckas just can't be haters anymore if I don't if some shit don't if I don't fuck with it

it's just not enough for me to be like yo it's emotionally not working for me what do you make is want for me bro? Can I do you really want to investigate this for real? I do want to investigate this. Okay cool. So I think this is what the thing would be I think

anything that is always one way feels one note. So if you are, and by the way, I don't have that same criticism, you're open to do like whatever you want. But if we're investigating this for real, I think if you always like something, it's like people will lose faith in either form of criticism. Like if you always like something, people will be like, well, I can't get an honest assessment

of something from somebody. who always like something. And if you always dislike something, people will be like, well, I can't get an honest assessment of something from someone who always dislike something. But do I always dislike something? Because I think what's happening with X-Men 97, truly,

is that people are like, well, so many people like it, why don't you like it? And I've been firm in my assessment of why the show is not working for me. And then I'll come in here and be like, well, these are the things that I did like from the episode. Usually I've been like, oh, I like this part of the episode,

this part of the episode is working. But if I, like, from the beginning was just like, go, whether it is the animation, whether it is the way the story is told, whether it is the aesthetic, there are a bunch of things that just don't work for me. That's a fine critical take to have. But people being like, well, why can't you just have fun? It's a fine. Do you want to take you to get a happy meal, nigga? Like, I don't know. So look, look, look, it's a fine critical take to have.

And I know you. So it's a fine critical take to have If it's a what is it a fine critical take to have like every time Because if I watch the show and I'm like I enjoyed this part but I left feeling nothing I can't what do you want me to do with that? You know what? I mean you mentioned earlier that you feel like it's just like a Wikipedia

somebody right like you know this story And isn't that what like especially like fandom comic book stuff is? is just making stuff from a book? Is the Dark Knight just a Wikipedia summary? Or did Nolan and company take the best parts

of what makes Batman, the Joker tick, and then be like, we are telling something that can only be told in this medium. Now some people would be like X-Men 97 is doing that. To me, it's more so like

it has the fundamental problem and this is real nerd shit that I think that all X-Men stories have, which is like Claremont essentially is the North Star for most creators. So what we end up getting is people recycling Claremont stories

over and over and over again, which is fine. But I've seen a version of the X-Men 97 story so many times. So for me, someone who was steeped in X-Men lore, I'm like, okay, it's cool. Now, for a bunch of other people

who are just like, maybe they're not as deep into the trenches. I understand why X-Men 97 is giving them. them that feeling because it's just like, yo, these stories work. There's a reason people keep going back. You know what the funny thing is?

And that's why I think everybody needs to kind of loosen their grip on how people come at things. I think this is a good conversation I have because you feel like you've seen this all the time before. And I feel like I've never seen it. I honestly, I honestly feel like,

I honestly feel like I've never seen this. a fateful an adaption of the X-Men in any moving medium. I really do. Something that when I would read the comics and I felt like I was on edge, I felt like I was getting a superpowered soap opera. I felt like I was getting characters whose interpersonal relationships were carrying me from panel to panel. And then all of a sudden, boom, the X-Mansion explodes.

And I just really don't know. I know the stories, but I feel like the show has me on edge every single frame. I feel like it is new. So I think, and look, once again, that is why you have a podcast or why you have anything with diverse voices on it, with people who come at things from different angles of criticism and discussion. That is completely okay. I think that you would agree that you're more prone.

to dislike something than you are to like it. I don't think so at all. Nigger. No, no, no, I don't. No, because here's the thing, I've always, I always, because here's the thing from the beginning. Play stop the cat. No, no, no, no, don't play stop the cap.

I did. No, don't play stop the cap. No, because this is okay, because here's the thing. At least because we've gone back to this constantly, from where I come from. Like, I'm not a podcaster first. You know what I'm saying? I came into the industry as a writer and a critic.

It's just like, from the moment we started the midnight Boys, the things that I disliked about the MCU, the things that I disliked about superhero storytelling. And then the things I do like, I think I've been very, very clear and I haven't diverged on that too much. It's more so that for what the Midnight Boys covers, I think generally I'm at an age and a taste level now where I'm just like, all right, 90% of the shit is either like slop or baby food. So it's like it is very hard for me sometimes to find the things to get excited about.

And I know I'm not honestly alone because if my takes were so wild and crazy, the MCU would be doing better. DC wouldn't have to reboot. So it's like... I think that's a fair criticism. First of all, 90% of everything is slopping baby food. I agree. Okay. So the re, so there's two ways you go about something, particularly like us, right?

Since this is kind of, this conversation is kind of like a conversation, like a referendum on what it is. that we do. We, or not necessarily us, the space that we're in is a space where people are finding things to love. That's the space. There are food critics, right?

That go around to restaurants. And their job is to tell people essentially what their experience of the restaurant is like. Then there are foodies, people who go to places to enjoy food, That doesn't mean that they enjoy food all the time. It doesn't mean that they eat stuff that they don't like.

It means that their job is to go and eat food and go, oh my God, this is so good. I think sometimes what you feel is that you're a food critic in a foodie world when you're in this space. And this space is filled with a bunch of foodies and you are the Michelin critic that everybody from the bear and everybody, blah, blah, blah.

There's nothing wrong with that. But I think it's important that the audience understand the difference and you understand the criticism of you. Oh, here's the thing. I totally get the criticism and I will say this. I would not be on the show

because it wouldn't be interesting to me just as a critic if I wasn't approaching all this stuff from the place of my dad was driving me to the comic store everywhere. Wednesday. You know what I'm saying? I was wasting money. This is the stuff that like changed my life fundamentally, emotionally, opened my eyes. So my job on the show for me to be like getting the seat and just have fun is like, oh, I hold it to a standard of I viewed things that have changed

my life. I know how good these things can be, but also I know how lazy these companies are. I know in this IP era, they think that honestly, and most of the time they're right, fandoms will take any slop that you give them and be like, thank you, oink, oink. And I'm just like, no, we, we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. So people in the boardroom are like, all right, well, let's just do Ant Man fucking three. And these motherfuckers will be fine if it's shit. I'm like, well, no, give us a good story because these things mean so much. I think as a critic, I'm a lot of times, I'm just like, yo, if we don't take care of the toys, if we don't be like, nah, we're protecting what makes this special, all these companies going to ruin this shit and be like,

it's fine, this is going the way of the westerns. And I'm like, that has been the history of comic book storytelling, Star Wars, sci-fi, all this shit, ad nauseum, where it's like when enough money comes into the industry, they're just like, we are going to milk this for all its worth. And then the nerds have to spend decades being like, all right, we got to dust this shit off. We got to clean off all the muck. Because the people who really didn't love this shit, came into fuck it. It happens in hip-hop. So this is what I would say. I mean, it definitely does. I come at it from the opposite,

the opposite lens. Okay. But I understand your lens, right? They're bringing hip-hop into it. There is a purity that people get to when they're discussing hip-hop. I remember years and years ago, Peter Rosenberg, like Disney Kim and Oz on stage at Summer Jam. Yeah, was this the Starships?

Yeah, you remember this joint. And the reason why he did it is because, you know, Nikki Minaj is coming out, and Nikki Minaj is one of the best rappers of all time. Like, and she's one of the most important and influential rappers of all time. And she made Starships, which was a pop record,

and that was an affront to the, the purity, should I say, of, you know, backpackers or people that have been loving beats and rhymes from whatever, right? People that hold that torch, and fly that flag, I get it, I understand. The thing that I go back to is, did you like Starships? Like, and so that's the, and I'm not saying that you have to or if you didn't,

but the thing that I go back to is like, did you like Starships? Like, when Starships, what I didn't know from Peter at that time, and I can go back and look at it, is not whether or not he thought Starships was pop. Did it sound good to him? Like, did the record sound good? because you can take, you can use the best butter, you can use the highest quality ingredients, and you can make this amazing meal.

Or you can take cheap dough, drop it into a deep fry, and then sprinkle powder sugar on it, and when it comes out, that motherfucker will taste amazing. And 99% people can't tell it different. Right, right. And so the way that I look at it, at things is like to me there's

this meeting between technical mastery and elevated storytelling and then just how something makes me feel am I like oh my God like Phantom Menace

it took me days to realize that I didn't like Phantom Menace that the movie wasn't good it took me days to realize it do you know why because it ends with Dula the Fates Yeah so like when I left the theater, I was like, oh, fuck. And then upon reflection on the movie, I was like, oh, the movie itself wasn't

that great. But the feeling that I got is, I think, the thing that sometimes buoys people in fandom. It's, and that feeling, just last thing I'll say, that feeling is in part something that's connected to your childhood. I was going to ask that. It is in part something that these companies know. exists and something that they sell back to you, but it's real. It's like actual. It's like the bar for making me love something that's Star Wars is just way lower.

The bar for making me love something that has Superman in it is just way lower. And that is truth. Like that's true. Like if you go, you can give me a Superman story that's adequate, that's pretty good. Fucking Superman's on the screen. I'm there, right? I think when people don't come at it from that way, it feels alienated to some people,

but it doesn't mean that they are wrong. What you're saying, this is the thing that the reason why I love you and I love our show so much and I love what we're able to discuss is because I always tell people, the purest, the high critic, all of that, it elevates the art form.

It has to exist. You have to have it. Your art form isn't a relevant art form if it doesn't have high criticism. If it doesn't have it, then it's not being taken seriously. Do you think, because I agree with you, because I think when I started,

I wasn't bullshitting you. When I watched this episode, there was a moment in the Nightcrawler Wolverine fight where I was literally like, that thing you're talking about, that childhood wonder of, oh shit, I'm seeing something that I wanted to see

these characters do in animation forever. This is, because like, if you know the Wolverine in Nightcrawler shit in the comic books, they are the two closest mutants. You know what I mean?

It was just like an alchemy. I was like, yes, I love this. But I also think, what is probably alienating and I know it's alienating is like those are two totally different parts of my mind

where it's just like, I can watch something that's so transporting for like a couple seconds on screen and say that was dope. And then I can get to the end of the episode and be like, did you enjoy it?

And I like, I literally will sit there and I was like, well, no. And I'm like, well, why? And I'm just like, well, because you had to pause it a couple times. you checked your phone, you got bored. I'm going to check my phone whatever.

I could be watching fucking the godfather. I can be watching anything. I'm going to check the phone. But see, I'm not like that. Oh, I am. Like, I'm just, my brain is just like, whatever. That was the frustrating thing about Shogun to me. You can do it.

You can do it. You can't do it. Like, Kalika wouldn't watch the show with me. Because I'd be like, hey, run that back real quick. She's like, bang. You got to get off your phone. Give me the phone. Give me the phone.

Give me the phone. Put it over here. Show's how far we come that I'll give her the phone. But like, like, give me the phone, come over here, whatever. Y'all been kind of quiet. What do y'all think? I understand both points. Ultimately, I think the foodie versus food critic thing makes sense.

You know what I'm saying? Chuck is the anti-ego of the spot. You know what I'm saying? Right, too? Yeah. You know, come in, you know, look at things a little differently with a little different lens. I mean, you're right. That's why this thing works.

And I think for this particular show, you know, like if we're going, going back to X-Men 97, I think, I think it's, like, I do understand your point. Like, you're, you're so deep into the X-Men well for, like, more than, like, probably, like, 99, you're probably the 99 percentile of people who know this stuff. So, again, like, Bree, like, seeing this has just seen the same story over and over again. But I think the, the other thing that separates it besides the fact that, like, you're one of the, of the OGs is just that, like, to see this on screen, whether it's, you know, live action, animation, whatever, never, to a van's point, never seen the X-Men act like this on TV. Never seen them act like this in movies.

So, I don't want to say, like, for the first time. Never? Really? We can't be prisoners at the moment. Okay, give it to me. When? Like, guys, there was an original X-Men animated series. that if we had podcast mics then,

we would have been saying the same shit. This is better. This is absolutely better. We're not talking about better, but we're like, we've never seen X-Men and a Lution. We got the fucking, this is better than X-Mobile. I remember how people were talking.

I remember how people were talking after Logan. I remember how people were talking after Days of Future's Patch. That's not the same thing. Just real quick, real quick. This is such a great conversation. We're actually midnight minute. Logan is more akin to what you said about the dark night. Now, Old Man Logan is a very popular and very important story,

but Logan is more akin to elevating Wolverine to high genre and Western and high art and doing that and taking the essence of the character and putting it on screen in this really brutal way. That's like not, and that exists obviously. But it exists in the comics. But that's not what I'm talking about here. What I'm talking about is the, that's a different take on the end of a character and almost a different world that you're in when you're talking about Old Man Logan. What I'm talking about is when I always looked at my X-Men on screen,

wherever they might be, I was looking at them and I was just hoping that they could get close enough to what I felt when I read the comic books. And this is there. It's come to life. Now, it's probably not recreateable in live action, but I think in a way that X-Men, the old X-Men comic, didn't, X-Men Evolution. I couldn't even watch X-Men Evolution. I wasn't a big fan of it.

So, so... But that's because the X-Men 97, though, is very... And this is like, this is also, once again, like, my fucking rotten critic brain, where it's like, X-Men 97, the thing I think people are celebrating is that it is kind of a one-to-one adaptation of a lot of different stories, where it's like, it is getting as close as you can

in a 30-minute format, and it's like, just artistically. I say this is just not about, these things, I say this is about a 824 movie should I see on Hulu, a one-to-one adaptation of anything to me is just not fascinating. It's just not interesting artistically. You know what I mean? I get you, but like, I'm not going to grade this on a curve because this is a show that's literally called X-Men 97.

It's not supposed to be something wildly new. This is supposed to sell me nostalgia, and this is supposed to be the thing that's going to be the adaptation of the things that you know and love. But you guys know I don't like nostalgia. And sorry, but we're liking this. I just think nostalgia is a weak. I think nostalgia is the weakest form of art to me.

Sure. And I think that like... Well, it's not an art. It's a feeling. And that's not something that you can inherently recreate. For Chuck, it's like if you're just going to sell me something that I've already seen before and slap a new coat of paint on it and just be like, remember that one thing you liked? Remember that?

Well, hold on over for a second. Hold on a second. If it was all about nostalgia, what we'd essentially do would be remake Return of the Jedi with the new cast.

Right. And so, so I mean, I'm just being for real. Yeah. They quite literally did that. It was called Force Awakens. I thought I was re-making.

I know, but that's what they... Well, I tell you, I wouldn't go see that shit. But, but... Be very clear. Just be very clear.

Yeah. Just be very clear. If it works. It would just be very clear. very clear. I'll go see that shit. But, but, I'll be interested

to see what they did with it. Wait, could they remake if they remade Empire Strikes back and it was just like, with a new cat. With Donald Glover. Like, I'm not thinking

to be good. Timothy Shalamason. He would play Luke, right? You would play Skywold. No, Salamese as Luke. Did you just say Shalamah? Did you just say Shalamah's lay?

No, no. No. Zendaya's. Oh. Man, we're cooking. Y'all see. Now, see? You wouldn't watch that?

You wouldn't watch that? That don't sound too bad. Hey, who's Darth Vader? Because they got to be black this stuff. Oh, shit. You got the, you got the Reese preacher, right? They've got the James Earl Jones reich preacher.

No, no, no, if we're actually... We're not, we got a black man in the suit now. Who's you cast as Darth Vader? Oh. The voice is so important, though. Yeah. Can we get like Brian Tyree Henry, maybe? No.

Nah. Can't wait. Did you? You tripping. You clowning, bro. Keep David doing it? He's kind of old, but. Well, you got to do it.

Vader got to be like 6, 5. I mean, not really, no, it's always been two guys. It's always just been a tall dude in the suit and then who's the voice. I know what I'm saying. So, like, we're talking about who's going to be in the suit right now. So who would be, you know. Oh, you know, he's not black, but, you know, he tries. If we're doing voices, I would love a Tom Hardy trying to do the dark thing.

He tries. Wait a minute. What I mean he tries? He's culturally, he's significant to us. Can we please elaborate? I just, I don't know. I can't explain it. He just feels like he's a part of us.

So I'll say this. And maybe also though, maybe this is advantage of old. Maybe this is a function of age because I think there are two things. Number one, of course, I'm not going to sit here and act like the nostalgia factor is not a nostalgia factor. but when I was looking at all of these comic books, and I'll say something about X-Men 97, we'll come back to this. When I was looking at and reading all of these comic books

and getting it all to this stuff, do you know what I would say? I would finish, and then I would be like, more. And for years, there was no more. You just had to wait. Yeah, I would be like, more, more. I'll be like, okay, cool, more. And like, we will go out and we would fill in the gaps.

Our imagination would feel, I would be like, more, more, okay, more. And that's like what happened. Okay, we have the X-Men. Okay, we have X-Factor. We have X-Force. We have like, we just more, more, more, more, more. And so when they started to expand and when we started to get these situations and these feelings and movies, and when they start to be, the more start to become, well, how much is enough?

Because there is too much. We can't get to a point where everyone gets spread too thin. And there's just not enough, there's not enough great talent out there to feed. the beast of how much of this I will want because I want to live in the life, live in the world like permanently. That's kind of how I coach. It's that Homer Simpson and hell with the donuts meme.

But do you think there's also a function of you, I'm probably the last generation where it's like I can still remember when like my parents got our first computer in the internet. But as I'm getting into middle school and high school, MCU is popping. The Nolan films are coming out.

I'm reading Claire, comics. I'm reading Ultimate X-Men. I'm reading new X-Men. So I'm coming from it where it's like, I grew up where it was just like, there was so much. Oh no, there was a lot for me too, but not on screen. But not to the level of it's just like, oh, I could pirate this shit online. I could go to the comic store. It was just like, and you're coming from an era where it's like, to your point, you had to wait for the movies to come out where I'm just like, it was all part of it. You know what I'm saying? Where it's just like, oh, I've been waiting for this all my life. And I'm like, oh, no, I grew up.

up in an era where I'm just like, I can remember when I'm like, this is too much. Right. Like, get this off my plate. Let me say something about X-Men 97 specifically. I'll tell you why X-Men 97 is, to me, as good as it is. We're comparing it to things that came before it, and that's important. So even when you talk about the Dark Night,

it's important to look at the evolution of Batman as a movie character by the time you get to Batman begins, about the time you get to the Dark Night. when you get to Batman Begins Nolan's take on Batman is to put Anthony Hopkins not Anthony Hopkins is to put Michael Kane

and Morgan Freeman and Christian Bell and Tom Wilkerson and all of these people in the movie in the movie right he is to a point where Batman can be taken seriously to that degree

that happens because number one the movie prior to that didn't take the character very seriously And so you can say, hey, I can give you an elevated Batman. But also it happens because there's a very serious take on the character that comes before then. A Gothic take, an avant-garde take, a take by somebody who's regarded as a realuteur when you're talking about Tim Burton.

And the character, in a way, not just by the movie, but by other people, by people like Frank Miller, by other people who had taken a spin of Batman, have been elevated to a place in American culture where it was like, this is a character that can be taken seriously. and when you see a Batman movie that's very grounded and very focused and very dramatically tight and important, it makes sense. You can't start like that. The camp of Batman that existed

in the 60s and even before this, all of those things are necessary steps to get there. X-Men 97, when I look at it, is a combination of all the best parts of the X-Men. The old comic book, the old animation didn't have as thrilling action scenes. number one because technology and the way that you animate

things like that has changed but also because of the way that they were able to build on every single other thing that X-Man comics and cartoons were doing they're able to look and say okay well this is the way people interpret the characters when they're reading them and this is then what gets put on screen so how can we make this a little bit cool a little bit different how can we differentiate this from the

the series in the 90s and from X-Men Evolution and from Wolverine in the X-Men and from all this. How can it be a little bit more serious? How can it be a little bit more sinister? How can we raise the stakes? Because it exists

in a space of it being the latest iteration of it, it has the opportunity to be, to combine elements of all of this stuff and give us something that feels new.

Even as I'm seeing these stories and I'm familiar with them, the experience of X-Men 97 feels new. It feels like something I haven't gotten before, even though I know what's going to happen. It feels like a difference. And last thing I'll say, the feeling of newness is also a feeling of fulfillment because I don't want to be loved to everyone who did other X-Men films and everything that was on screen. I enjoyed some of those movies. Some of them were great.

Some of them were not great, right, with the run of anything, right? But when I would watch them, it would be like this. Give me an example. Hugh Jackman is great as great as Wolverine, right? He's great. He's fantastic as Wolverine.

He is a movie version of Wolverine. Yes. Like, he's a 6'1, like movie version of Wolverine. He's not the nasty. short, beer-guzzling gremlin of the comic. And it's fine. It's fine because

you realize that, okay, if we're going to do a movie version of something, it has to be slightly different. It's a movie, right? When I say this is a faithful adaption, these are the actual X-Men. Yeah. Fighting how they fight, fucking how they fuck,

getting into all of the stuff that they get into. This is, these are the real X-Men. And like, sort of the transposing yourself to, okay, this is how they act and this is what they are on the screen, which is always that little bit that you have to give to the creators. It's not necessary here. That's why I'm so in love with this show. I just get my X-Men, as Xavier would say. And so last thing I'll say about is I'm having so much fun with it because of that.

But if people are not, if there are some people who, and I know some other people who are like, I just kid stuff. I get it. Well, because also, I think I'm also coming from this where it's like, to me, X-Men 97 is actually a return to basics,

which I think, honestly, the line has needed. Because when I come into the X-Men, where you have to think about it, right? Where it's like, that first X-Men movie, what they had to prove to people

with the technology they had then is like, you can take these characters seriously. There's a reason that they're in leather. And once Fox gets the, X-Men, even in the comic books, year after year, you get House of Them, all right, most of the mutants don't got their powers anymore. Then it's just like, all right, the inhumans are the motherfuckers you should care about because Disney does not own the rights to the X-Men film

franchise and TV and all that shit. So I think it's been years and years, whether this is in comic books, in TV or everything, where you're like, the X-Men kind of got so far from the essence of what they were that I do think that you need a pallet cleanse. of X-Men 97 to be like, you do not need to over-complicate these characters. The love triangle between Wolverine, Cyclops, and Gene works. The brother-sister dynamic between Nightcrawler and Rogue works. The soap opera elements of this works.

Even if this is too, like, I probably just a little bit too childish for me and my taste and where I am at life, I can take myself out of it critically and be like, just for the line, what is coming with the MCU, Disney owning X-Men. I do think that this is a great proof of concept that you do not need to

over-complicate this shit. For a good movie, you could be like, yo, what do we love about these characters? And it's not really the powers, and it's not really all the bullshit. We love the fact that these weirdos make us feel seen. We love that everybody got a family, everybody got

fucked up dynamics. And I will give that to X-Men 97, where it's just like they know, like to your point earlier, Jomey, the road The Rogan Nightcrawler shit just works. It's simple. It's not teaching me anything new, but I'm like, yo, don't reinvent the wheel

with these motherfuckers. Put them in their suits. Let them argue with each other. And I do think X-Men 97 does that well. Steve, what are you going to say? I completely agree with you with that last point, Charles. I really, really have been liking the simplicity of that storytelling when it comes to you, very small moments.

And that's really... I find it happening with the best animated stories that I could find because you don't have a lot of time to waste time. When you want to get something across very well, it takes very good writing or at least very simple writing, very effective storytelling to say when Nightcrawler got abandoned by his mom and rogue didn't treat him like an enemy, that's what the beauty of found family is. To say that in something not only effectively but elegantly is a lot of skill that I see on the screen. And that's what I've been really loving a lot about the X-Men. I think the show,

to your point, Steve, does a really good job of taking, you know, these big, ideas, these like, you know, import moments and distilling them and making them really simple. I think the thing that really, really illustrates that this week, aside from the rogue, microloging conversation, was

the Magneto was right scene. You know, because if you're not, you know, super well-versed in the comics, if you just watch the movies and stuff like that, like Magneto's obviously the bad guy. He's the person at the end of the day, they got to beat. Sometimes they team up. At the end of the day, it's always McNeil and his people versus Charles and his people.

And for the show to unequivocally and unilaterally, looks in the eye and be like, guys, Magneto was right. It's the thesis of the show. It's the thing that really gets us going. And like you can see, like, even from episode two, he has that scene where he's got all the people in the air and he's doing his thing. And you're like, okay, he's making points. But at some point, he's the evil guy.

He's going to be proven wrong. He's going to be proven right. And we're going to end up fighting him at the end. And for them to look us in the eye and be like, that's not what we're doing. Magneto, Magneto was right. Everything he's been saying has been correct. It's not something that a lot of people have seen and not something a lot of people have heard. And so you're like, oh, wow.

You know what I mean? This is, again, one of the first times in me. I think people have seen that. So, yeah, it's going to resonate different way. People are really going to rock with the vision. So at the end of the episode, Magneto let it out a gigantic EMP, right? Yes.

And like, nuked all of the signals. Yeah. Yeah. Can he do that at any time? Why did Gambit have to die? That's what I'm saying. I think that was like, it was probably like the nuclear deterrent of peace where we're like, all right, fine, you keep your nukes over here. We'll be...

What the fuck are you talking about? This makes no. No, no, no, no. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Let him cook. Let him cook. When Magneto was just like, All right, fine. Keep your sentinels if that makes you feel safe. Whatever.

We can kill them at any time or like, I got some shit in my pocket that we can like go to war if we want to go to war. The illusion of peace and the like nuclear deterrent that we both have in our pockets, when we agree to peace, if we know that they're not going to be used, fine, whatever. Don't, you don't, you can keep them. It doesn't matter. The dismantling of those weapons is the actual thing that once one person has a bigger stick and the other person takes away that stick,

that's when like an actual problem happened. and that's what Magneto actually did. He takes away that stick. Well, you know why this makes no sense, guys? Currently on X-Men 97, they have three people who could have stopped the fucking Sentinels in Genosha. They have Magneto. They have Rogue who can just take Magneto's power.

And then they have fucking Morph who can do whatever the fuck he wants every episode. All right. So I'm literally like what is happening. Hold on for a second. I'm reading something real quick. So when Magneto did this, he couldn't have just done it where he was. He had to go to the North Pole.

Yeah. So he probably couldn't have done it right there in Genocia at the moment. He would have had to go to the North Pole in order to do it. So, Gannon is. Shenanigans, bro. I mean, the one thing we do...

It's not whatever. Comic book bullshit. We're all having fun here. Come on. No, because what this show does anytime this is an old old X-Men nerd, this show does it all the time. It's like, when a motherfucker

when a motherfucker got to be an old mega level mutant, they do it everything. When the fucking big ass handles come, they're like, oh my gosh, what can we do? We can't save anybody. I'm like, get the fuck out of here. You're complaining that Eva Frost wouldn't be booted up with Sebastian. I'm going to say Sebastian Stan. I mean, this is what I mean.

I'm the keeper of this shit. Also, also, the thing that annoyed me this episode, Gene Gray 8 really just ain't shit. She kissed fucking Wolverine. And then she comes into this fucking episode. She's like, damn, you my child, put on the seatbelt cable. Da-da-da-da. we on a family trip. I'm like, Gene, pick a side.

Because any single time Cyclops is crying about Madeline, she's like, yo, fucking man the fuck up. Stop crying over your baby mama. And now she's trying to step up. You can't have it both ways to you. No, that's just trying to weed in to, I'm your real mom. Well, he died. Well, she died.

So, you know, at that point there's no really. So she couldn't support, she couldn't support her sister in life. But in death, once there's no more competition, now you want to beat a mom. Now you want to be booed up with sidewalks. It ain't shit, right? It's bad.

Well, I mean, again, you're, I don't want to say you're being disingenuous, but there's a whole scene about how I know that's not my son, but I have memories of giving birth to him. Like, I feel attached to him. You couldn't have said that before you yelled at your husband being like, hey, I know your baby mama's fucking dead and you had to give your kid away, but fuck all that shit. I'm here now.

I think this is the good shit. I think this is the genius. This is the good shit. what it's about. This is what it's, this is really, though. This is the genius of the show was that, like, that's kind of how humans work, though. We're not, oh, yeah, we're not all unilaterally like, oh,

this is you supposed to do this, so you do this. We all have different wavelengths. Hey, you're going to make mistakes. You're going to do dumb stuff at the end of the day. Doesn't take away from how you're feeling, though. Your husband is the leader of the X-Men. Gene, leave that shit at the door. Our people are dying. Come on. But that's not what the X-Men are. That's never what they've been

about. Come on, man. And you know what. You know what. This is why I side Klops was cheating with her with Emma Frost. That's why he was with Scylock. That's why he's with all the shardies because Gene don't know how to act. No, no, no. He's with all the shardies because Gene is fucking annoying. This is toxic.

How? How? Gene always got some shit with her. There's a problem with Gene. We've got this conversation. Yeah. He's always got a problem. I'm sorry.

I don't give a fuck. Gene always. Sometimes Siklops just want to come in and watch Sialok do. a whole fucking martial arts routine naked with the size. Sometimes he don't always want to like a conversation, a deep conversation about somebody's fears

and a phoenix's about to take over. You're trying to wake up and get a sandwich in the middle of the night. Gene is levitating on her bed trying to fight off the phoenix force. You know what I'm saying? It's like... You got to perform an exorcism every other night.

Exorcism every other night. You never know what she's going to turn into this space demon. It's a lot. It's a lot. And then you have to perform. have white queen who has, you know, a fucked up background as well. Right.

But at least she's cool. And she gets, here's the thing, Emma, she's never trying to lock anyone down. She's like, yo, let's just get this over. Yeah, but she's a serial shitster. Who cares? Who cares? Hey, if someone who's out in the street, I would rather have an Emma than a gene. I'm going to be honest.

I fuck with Gene. You would rather date Gene Gray. I don't know. So listen, I fuck with Gene Gray. I love Gene Gray. But when I was a kid, I would be, always super annoyed with Gene Gray. Like, it was, I would always be,

Gene Greene, Jean Grey is great. And she's the center of some of the greatest X-Men storylines ever. She's also a genocidal. Damn. Gene, Jean is,

it's a lot going on. Not necessarily her fault, but. That's what, wait, so it's not, it's not the white person's fault. All right.

Genocide. Steve. Christ. So before we move on, we're going to move on to Midnight Musings. I want to let people know that was a very important conversation for us to have.

And I'll just say this before we move on. Like, the podcast itself and like what we are, we represent four distinct views on this. And that's why the podcast works. The podcast works. If we don't have a high critic on the podcast, our podcast doesn't work.

Because we devolve into, dude, that was cool. So, so, so, so, So the difference between us and a lot of other podcasts that are out there that are doing this stuff is that we have Charles. That's the difference. Yep. Like, just like, just like that. The difference between us and a lot of the other stuff is we have Charles.

And we will always, like, be wary of falling into different, like, tropes or bits or whatever. I do that. Like, I have to actually go back and watch. Matrix Reserrections while I was in D.C. and go, do I actually like this movie? And guess what? You fucking do? I fucking love it.

Get the fucking right. Come on. I have to make sure that I actually liked it, and it's not just a bit. Like, I'll fuck with the movie. But you got to check yourself every once in a while. Now, there are some things that don't make sense. Yeah, duh.

Like, half the movie. It's fucking vibes, though. Here's what I'll say, though. We spent all that time talking about Charles. We didn't mention no Dr. Duh. no Spider-Man, no Omega Red. Silver Samurai? So they were all in there.

Doom. I was starting to get confused at first. I didn't know what the fuck was happening. But there's another thing that, because you never know when Morph is going to turn into something. Yeah, I was like, you know that's Spider-Man? Are you have these people morph? Look, if Spider-Man, okay, if Morph turned to Spider-Man

and then start spinning webs, then I'm going to have questions. Right. At that point, I'm like, all right, come on, let's be for real. But that, even that is like a, a, pithy little thing to do because the X-Men have never had the opportunity to exist in the large, they're reminding us all the time, the larger

MCU that the X-Men exist in, and that we've already seen Silver Samurai on the on the Big Stream. Kind of. Really? Yeah, the Wolverine. I like that movie. I think it's all right. It's all right. That wasn't really the Silver Samarada. No. No, it wasn't.

But like, let's be clear. You guys are acting like I hate every single part of X-Men 97. There were parts of this show where I was like, there was like a little Easter egg. I usually hate Easter eggs, but I think I forget, it was one of Bashans thing. And they had like a little machine man plushy.

Like that's, like, do you not know machine man? Oh, I didn't see it. I don't know what you're talking about. Machine Man from Marvel. Like they had like a little like,

like a doll. Like a doll. Yeah. And I was just like, oh shit. This is like, that's little shit. Oh,

I missed it. Like I even see a silver samurai and Spider-Man. I'm like, you know why this is good? because you always be like dog why is this spider man helping the X-Men out but then you like dog his life like he's just he's in shambles he's in shambles

you know what I'm saying like he just lost Mary Jane he don't really got time to be going to the protest also I don't go right there in New York he needs to pick up a fucking axe and help somebody like he like it's like it's like Spider-Man was an axe

now you better lock in now you better lock it well yeah it's like I will say that I always want to do superhero comedy and I want to do And one of the sketches always wanted to do was how they figure out when they just gonna ignore shit.

Were they like snooze on that? The Baxter Building and Avengers Tower are both in Manhattan. I know, yeah. How do you relegate? So like when the Avengers Tower is getting attacked and the Fantastic Ford aren't doing anything, they're literally drinking coffee

like watching it happen from across town and not doing nothing. You don't think this is like the NBA where they're just like, that's a different conference. It could be. We don't need. even worry that's funny to me it's really you know i mean it really depends on like which building they the evil shows up on top of right so if they portal opens on top of baxter building avengers

tower like tony stark like tuxan goes hey that's not us hell i would love to see a hail from tony stark two backs two backs the tower and be like and like him and reed were beefing that day and then he's just got his coffee and he's just like read don't get along with nobody no but here's the thing here's the thing this is what i also love they don't even be helping out when it's their own specific ops. Like when Dr. Doom is like, I'm gonna give Fantastic for the weekend off.

I'm fucking with the Avengers. The thing in a human torch are going up to hell. Like, yo, we got all, we got all the secret reads on Dr. D. They're like, yo, wait, we got a free weekend? They're going to go to Long Island,

baby. Like, what you're trying to do? Doing different experiments and shit like that. You said, hey, the Hamptons. Long Island. I said Long Island. I don't know. Cancun on three.

The Hamptons are in Long Island. Oh, nice. I didn't know that. The Hamptons are on Long Island. Island. I didn't know that. Oh. How broke are y'all, niggas? Very. You're not from New York.

Very. So you got Cape Cod and the Hamptons. That's all I know. They'd be going up out there. I'm fucking with y'all. I've never been to the Hamptons before. This episode is brought to you by Borris Head. What if we told you the taste of deep fried turkey is now available at your local deli? Well, Boris Head just did that.

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Every ounce of dirt, sweat, and gears, every checkered flag and trophy raised, every lap, every race, every hard-bought place. They're all jammed inside every can of Nass Energy. High-performance energy for burning the Midnight Oil. in the garage and pedal to the metal human horsepower for the streets. Go ahead, crack open a can of Nas energy and get after it. This episode is brought to by Paramount Plus. Beth and Rip are back in a new series, Dutton Ranch. Kelly Riley and Cole has a 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 protect its secrets at all costs. Legacy is a beautiful thing, but only if it survives. Dunton Ranch starring Colehauser Kelly Riley, Annette Benning, and Ed Harris now streaming on Paramount Plus. All right, aside from Midnight Musings, that was great. Charles, go ahead.

All right, because Shogun is over and we're abiding our time until the great content, apocalypse of June, the midnight boys are keeping it light this week with a new segment. Midnight Musings, all four of us have prepared a topic for the group. It could be about anything, nerd shit, the discourse, whether Drake can say the N-word,

And we're going to discuss, Steve, you can't talk about the last point. Essentially, this is ringer-sanctioned tangent time. Who wants to go? Jomey? Jome, how about... Nah. All right, you know, I got a topic. Go for it.

You know, there was a lot of chuckles last week, you know? And I took it on the chin, and I learned to do this. You did what? Well, Jomey. You want to repeat that? Jomey, if you want to start. Shalby's ducking it. Shire you ducking it?

All right, let me finish. Guys, is the Midnight Boys a family? Do we tend to share everything with each other because this is a safe space? I learned some distressing news about Jomey. So Jomey don't be, you know how like Steve, when Steve got a shoddy, he's just like, he's bringing it out. He's like, yo, y'all did it da-da-da. Every time.

Not only has Jomey been ducking the smoke, he's been telling the little homies about this. So I'm up there doing, helping Jomey out doing a video and it comes to my attention that Jomey is out here in these streets treating our beautiful L.A. Queens, terrible. Oh, wow. He is kissing women on the forehead and then whispering to them, I don't have feelings for you like that. Jomi? And here's the thing, I know this is true. Whoa. Because Isaiah? Calm down.

Alaya had to be like, yo, go get, come get your man. Are you talking, my dear Alea, he's in on this? I will protect Alea to the ends of the earth. It's calm down. Alaya was disgusted with you, Jomey. It's calm down, okay.

Things did not happen sequential, or they did happen sequentially, but not immediately. It was like some time had passed. You understand what I'm saying? Just tell us what happened. I'm so sick of y'all beating around the bush with your toxic bullshit.

Yeah, because here's the thing you come at Van, you come at me every single week like oh doll you can't be saying that you toxic and shit now we catch you like why didn't you bring this to the table why do I have to hear this well first and foremost I did. Uh I mean this was like a while ago you know what I'm saying you know fresh out of college you living your life

you're doing your thing you feel me me somebody things are going good and then you know one day you wake up and they're not and it's like hey are you kissing women on the forehead and telling them I don't love you like that see that's where you you meet you first of all first of all I challenge you to speak regularly

Yeah, take the fucking woke voice the fuck. I challenge you to talk like you normally talk and just tell what happened. Yeah, no, you again, you meet somebody? All right, nigga. You talk in this one. That's not even the worst part. That's not even the worst part. What's the worst part?

The worst part is then our friends are the hard workers, your best friends here at the ringer when we were helping with the video. they're like, Charles, it gets worse. I'm like, how could it get worse? How could it get possibly get worse? So then I realized, do you know that Jomey has a move out here with the LA Queens? What's a move? With our black queens. Whoa.

So he takes women that he has no feelings for. That's not true. He has a specific place in the park where he likes to take all of them that overlooks the water. I like a picnic. He makes them a picnic. Oh, he cooks. Charcoterie board. Ooh.

And then he's kissing them on the forehead and saying, I don't have feelings. That's not, you're leading them on. That's nasty word, bro. Yes. You're stuttering. You're stuck as you know it's too. So, Jomi says I know a spot and then take you on a picnic.

No a spot. Here's the thing, though. You don't know, you don't know. You don't know. You don't like them until like a little later down the line. Why are you taking women into a picnic date that you don't have any feelings? What do you mean? You got to figure something out, right?

You go on a little dates or something. Okay. this is grotesque. No, no, no, seriously. This is so, this is, so. If you're going to figure something out, then you figure it out with drinks, you figure it out with coffee,

you gave me a dinner. If you're feeling. If you take any significant, I'm talking about, if you weren't feeling a woman and she was like, I want to take you on a picnic and make a security board,

I would be like, I don't think is that same. If you take somebody on something like that, they're going to think you're in love. Is this date three, date two? What do you? No, this is like, like six weeks into it. Oh, okay.

Wait, wait, see, this makes no fucking sense. I get so frustrated with you guys. What do you mean? This makes no sense. How do you not know that you don't like somebody after six weeks? Yeah. Okay, so this is like, because I didn't really start getting like dating until like post-pandemic, right? So, or not like post-pandemic, but after the pandemic.

It's like after 2020. This person you didn't start dating. Just in general. You didn't start dating until 2020. Not serious. Not like, hey man, like, you know, you go to college. Right. You know, there's a deeper issue here.

So you have some excitement. You have some fun, right? So you don't know how to treat black women's which. So you don't know how to date. This is obviously true. Maybe, maybe, like, I just. Oh, it's fantastically true. Probably.

You, like, if you, first of all, Jomi knows how to cook and knows how to like, and Jomi's also very fun and cool to be around. Also, in case I think, this is the problem and this is why I know you're dangerous. Jomi is a schmoozy. Like, he can talk to anyone, especially the shoddies. But, and I think that's the problem. Like, why are you not just taking them to drinks, getting to know them?

And then doing the fucking picnic shit and kissing on the forehead once you know that you actually want to be with these women. Okay, so again, the forehead, that was one specific girl. Okay? And I, and at that time, it was, man, we're really getting into it now. That time, you know what I'm saying? Did I have a lot of dip on my chest? absolutely. I will not argue against that. Well, I will say, though,

it was presumed, it was presumably copacetic. It was copacetic until it was it was. And then in that particular time, it was, it was, it was tough. I will, I do have to eat that one. That is, there's not idea. Were lessons learned? Of course. You got, okay. There you go.

There you go. Of course, it's been a minute. You got to live and learn. I have, I have not been outside like that in, in a long time. In addition, I need y'all to stop hiding. You know what I'm saying? Stop ducking the smoke. Stop ducking the smoke. Stop ducking the smoke. We are fucking family.

He's right. All right. Don't be telling Alea and fucking Kai and Isaiah and Kerm some shit that you want to bring to the table. And by the way, I think sometimes that you make

shakutery boards just because you like to make one and then you have somebody to eat it with it. You want to go out? I'm not inviting the midnight boys to a page. I don't get a picnic. Kisses him on the forehead and says

this level like that. I'll eat the chooker board, but don't do this to a woman is going home. She's like. She's doing her African ancestry trying to make sure that she's, you know what I'm saying? She's like, I want to make sure I can tell his parents what part of Africa my people come from. She's like looking at the gar.

What's the name of the clothes y'all wear where you call them? What, Akkadaz? What's the? That's the big one. I mean, like, we don't want to have time to get into it. Yeah. Anyway, this is mine. Mine is, my midnight musing is about Kendrick Lamar's response.

I want to know Charles fired the internet's up on Kendrick Lamar's response and guess what? I was closer to agreement with Charles. Oh! So let me tell you something. It's not that the response wasn't good, it was good.

I just thought that I've heard him rap better. Yes. The response was good. It was a good response. Like, it was good. I thought, like, at times, I've heard him rap better.

I've heard him rap before. His win. Well was kind of off in certain places. He was trying, like, Here's my issue, right? I think we're at the point where we get what it is. If you a Drake fan, it doesn't matter what Kendrick does. You're always going to be a Drake stand.

If Kendrick does something, you're just going to be on his dick. It's fucking fine. The Stan Wars are what they are. I think what is annoying me about this entire beef is that we've heard Kendrick and Drake rap better. And anybody who's telling me that push-ups or euphoria sounds as good as control, back-to-back. stay scheming,

any of the heart series, all the shit that we, like, know and love these Negroes for. You're lying. And the whole thing about this is like, can y'all tell me what this beef is about? Because they keep being like...

Yeah, they're just like, oh, no, no, wait, next, on the next record, I'm gonna tell you. I got you. I got you. These are just warning shots, but I really got there.

I'm like, bro, you want to know why, besides push a T being like, you are hiding a child, you want to know what made the story of Adidon so good, is there was no push being like, all right, I got all this information. He's just like, this is it.

You're a whack. Your dad wears Steve Harvey fucking suits. You are hiding a child. You tried to clean up your baby mama for IG, and your best friend is almost dying. All that shit is reckless. You want to know how I know it was reckless at the time? You had motherfuckers coming out of the woodwork being like, I had nothing to do with this diss. Get me, like, that's push a T.

He's an insane person. Like, shout out. Like, 40 didn't deserve that. 40's my man. Drake didn't deserve a lot of it. that's what beefing is. This back and forth of like, hey, I know some shit about you,

wait until the next one, and motherfuckers being like, that's just a warning shot, that's just a warning shot. Stop wasting my time. Either shit or get off the fucking pot. It's that I don't know if you've got to see that RDC World Video,

but it's like Walgreens versus CVS and they across the, they're on opposite sides of the parking lot yelling at each other. That's exactly what this beef is. Like, it's completely unscuous. Frankly, to your point, I don't think, you know,

like, the records are like fine, like they're good bars. Like, I think they're funny. But in terms of like, musically, brother, we've seen better. We've seen better. What's going on? And they are funny. We got to be.

Both of them are hilarious. Kendrick, Kendrick being like. Nothing about that. Yeah. That was funny. Don't say nigger no more. It's hilarious. It's just, it's like, it's funny.

Bring it up relevant points. When he mixed up. Relevant. Joel Austin with Haley Joel Osmond, that was so funny. Steve, we have to, before I get more advanced thoughts, we have to ask this. Right. What are your feelings on Drake? saying niggit and is he black to you?

Great question, Chuck. I, I, seems like, seems like he is. See? That's the wrong answer. That's the wrong answer. The right answer would have been saying absolutely enough.

Right. You could have just passed. You could have said no comment. This is what happens to you, Steve. This is what happens to me. Because there was no way to answer that question. Right. There is no way to answer that question.

It's like, you know, it's like there's certain, Certain questions that you, that people ask you. It's a chess move to say that I need to not move. Yeah, it's good. The whole thing, you know, we like Drake. But if long been, all I'm saying is, just tune in the higher than learning on Friday.

I got some thoughts. Right, of course. Oh, all right. So, Raffbee, like, needs to be, like, reassessed as far as, like, we need to know what the stakes are. It's not, here's things. That's not that complicated. It's not that complicated.

But, like, at least with this beef it is. No, it's like, make a song, talk your shit. Make another song. talk your shit. You know who really ruined the rap beef? The Monday morning quarterbacks, people stand sitting in the cheap seats that are just,

they're like, there were rap beats before the beef would come out. Oh, what are they going to say? What are they going to say? Sometimes we didn't even think about what they were going to say. Sometimes the records just popped up on us

and then they said what they were going to say. Take your shit up to Funk Flex, drop it. And that's it. So you're saying the internet ruined it. Yes. Yes. Because, yeah, again, like, people would have beef and somebody would get out

wrapped or somebody have the better song and you'd have to chalk it up like hey that's my guy but he got barred up right there bro yeah he loves him but nigga handle him right here's the thing I was a bigger like I love both the clips have some of my favorite fucking records of all time but I'm probably

a bigger Drake fan and I was like during that beef you were just like all right fucking he got washed push a tea wash it's the same thing I was in Philly with the Drake and Meek Mill shit and I was just like bro like even everybody in Philly was just like, all right, he got him. Like, it's just like, we've got it to a point with the internet, and I'm sorry for coming

at your man, but like academics needs to hop off. Like, come on, bro. He's doing tricks on it now. Yeah, come on, man. Bouncing. It's disgusting. It's crazy. It's disgusting.

You can't, look, look, look, he's a Drake fan. Charles is in the same industry as academics. He has thoughts. There it is. He's like, academics makes a lot more money than me, but I will just say, there's a reason why because I laugh a lot about like my soul is not worth that much

but I can damn sure see over the last couple weeks I'm like oh they got your soul for cheap hack goddamn I think what I would say is this everybody has their favorites and the fact that people have their favorites Drake has done a good job of aligning all the new media

criticism on his side and it's a little way it's a little Drake got no jumper with him Drake got... Basically Joe Bunner podcast. Not really. Kind of. Joe and Drake

kind of going back and forth a little bit. I mean, him and Act go back and forth all the time. Yeah, and then Drake got Act one. But Drake, Act has made no bones about the fact that he's been a Drake fan.

He'd been a Drake fan. But I'm like, to me, there's sometimes in this, and look, I learned it from being at TMZ. Sometimes access to people is very important to different people, right?

Drake seems like the type of guy that if you were too critical of him or if you were too if you kept it too real about him that you might lose some of the access to him that you have. So I think it might be a smart play

on the part of some of these people or they might think it's a smart play, should I say, to keep drinking their good graces. I mean, I think it is a smart play because all of this hip-hop new media if we want to be real, all these equity companies kind of nuked all of the places that used to actually have reporters and standards. And now we're kind of left with people that are not reporters and have no standards and essentially are like, it's pay to play.

And I'm just like, I get it financially. My career would be much farther along if I ever picked up the phone when people are like, oh, this rapper's mad. There's a reason why I don't do that shit because it's not worth it. dog, I didn't get in this industry to suck dick and be close to the next motherfucker. Who cares? But I'm just like I can't take a lot of the I can't take a- So the whole climate

of this and the standism and the refusal of people to give what you feel like is accurate and honest criticism bothers you. It bothers me because of hip-hop like if we're being real, hip-hop is so just cooked that I'm just like, damn, we should the little bit of relevance we have left for this black art form,

We just got to do better, man. Like, it's just never worth it. I'm like, the white people are just making money hand over fist. UMG is, like, laughing to the bank. Because we just, it's just shenanigans, man. It's taken away from the art. I understand, like, I still can't co-sign it, but I get Cole while you have to duck out.

Because it's just... He looks like he had the most sense out of anybody. I mean, it was still, he still punked out. It was still fuck all that shit. But if I'm Jay Cole and I got a white mama, I'm not on that time anymore. Is he one of the good biracial's? If we want to be real, and this is just for all my light skins, you know, out there, I do not have a white mom or a white dad.

But here's a thing. We got to talk really quickly about the biracial's light skins. Take everything and just laugh it off. You know what I'm saying? If a motherfucker comes up to you, be like, dog, you wish you was white. You just got to let. Like, there's nothing funny or I can say to that. There's nothing Drake can say that is like ever, I'm just like, if Catch the Byrd, like, don't say the N word anymore.

It's funny. I would laugh. Like, you just got to take it on the chin, bro. Here's the thing. It is our weakness. You know how, like, Superman got all these powers. Lightskins got all these powers because the white people are like, we can trust you. And the kryptonite is, this guy's fucking cool.

The kryptonite is, you know, black people could be like, hey, yo. We don't trust you. We don't trust you because you got the job that I wanted because you tap dancing in front of the white people. So you got to take both. You got to take what comes with it. Am I wrong, then? No. I think all of that stuff is litigated by proximity to whiteness.

Sometimes when you feel it, it's alienating with black people. And sometimes, I mean, there are many ways to get it, though. I think, honestly, people are probably saying this about Drake, and this is probably the narrative because they feel like that's what will actually hurt them. You're like, that's the part of it if you've listened to them, they're like, I'll actually get under his skin. In interviews, he's admitted it gets under it. Because it's also funny because I'm like, we know what Drake's dad looks like.

You know what I'm saying? And not always Drake's dad is from Memphis. He's some black, black people. And also, he's very important. His family is very important. You know, Drake's dad is Larry Graham. Well, his dad is Dennis Graham, but his brother Larry Graham had been at the slap bass, Graham's Central Station.

Like that's very important funk music. Drake comes from, like, if we're being real, like, Drake comes from hip hop. He comes from black culture. He is a black man. But this is a beef and facts do not matter in a beef. The funniest thing wins. And I'm sorry, Rick Ross going white boy, white boy, white boy. That's just funny.

It's hilarious, bro. I bet you ain't got no Chevy white boy. But I will just say this. And this is some shit Jomey would pull. Also, Ross, weekend, future, all of y'all, y'all sit and let this man get some fake abs. and now y'all want to bring it up. Y'all didn't bring this up before if it bothers you so much.

What does this guy do with me? What the hell? Because you be ducking in spite. I'm just like when you don't got like you got to introduce shit to the to the forum. Were you accusing Jomi of having fake abs? No, I'm accusing Jomey of withholding shit that really like, no. Just bring it to the fucking forum. Bring it to the forum, Jomey.

Bring it to the forum. Jomey, you've been called out. You've been called out. Because Jomey was cackling last week. And when I was like, and when I learned this information, I was like, fucking push it to you. I was like, all right, bro. play the fucking music man.

No fun when the way they got the gun. Oh, don't. Steve, be careful. You've been laughing a little bit too much. We will have another midnight musings. Because in addition, y'all been chirping ever since Kerm Punkd y'all on X-Men drive. Oh, for God.

You're never letting that go. Shut up. What? Who cares? What cares about what? That's really all you got to say? You're acting like this was a stunt like it was the big picture. And it wasn't.

All I'll say is that no one's ever come on to Midnight Boys and punk me and Vance. It's crazy. Yeah, we have guests all the time. Many people come through. A lot of excuses. A lot of excuses. Jomi, why are you so,

Jomi, why is this? Because it's so stupid. It's sort of like the studio came up and said, all right, man, we got to, these things are getting too nice. We got to break these. We got to break these parts of art. This came to you with the script. This is what happens when you losing a beef.

It's just like some, bro. No, man. They really, because we're sitting there. We were in the room. Podcast ends. Hey, man. Hey, great show. Great show.

Awesome. I love that energy you brought. We felt great about it. We felt great about it. Kerm said y'all are hiding a child and y'all have. And it was cool. Yeah. That's fun.

That's the energy he brought. I love him. I love that. It was great. Literally all weekend. Man, y'all got bitched on the podcast. Yeah. Who was saying that to y'all?

You! You! Van was instigated It was Friday, Saturday, Sunday He was always up. You guys are done. This is a crime show now. But here's the thing I only bring it up now

because I know it gets on your skin Every single time. It doesn't bother Steve as much But Jomey fucking gives you to Go on video podcast Every time, bro. Jomey gives us what we want every time. Jomey don't like

You can't let them bait you, man. All right, let's get out of here. Wait, we're quick, though. And this is my midnight musing. This is the last one we'll do. I saw Challenges on Monday after the Ligginz got eliminated. I was like, I need to go clear my head. Jamal Murray game this again.

I got to go free myself from this pain. Trying to get bricked up in the theater again, huh? Did you get bricked up in the theater, John? I did not. I did not. Because while the movie is horny, it's also very, very, very, very good. And so I was watching. Charles, did you see it?

Charles saw it. Was it good? And this is my midnight. That was the soundtrack. Brother, are you, are you, are you high? I don't want to get to spoil this because Stephen Van, I've yet to see it. They're going to hopefully, as you said, see this weekend, this weekend. Hopefully, Van, you get to catch it.

Brother, like, I think specifically what, I don't understand why you don't like it, because it's quite like, like, the endings, especially, it's quite literally, like, it's an anime ending, bro. It ends like an anime does, man. Yeah, it's B.O. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. Guys, for everybody who's like, Charles, Charles, Charles, he only likes the high art, the 824, the bullshit.

This is me proven to y'all. I went to the movie. And it's like, here's the thing. I just think it's overhyped. Like, out of five stars, it's like, it's like, it's a three-star movie. It's, like, it's entertaining. I had a good time at the theater. I don't know if it's like, it wasn't life-changing, but I'm like, yo, Zendaya is a star.

I had a good time. I laughed a little bit. It wasn't everything that I wanted. But I was just like, I had a good, like, why can you? Can't we just have movies that I was just like, I was entertained at? Because it's either the best shit I've ever seen or the worst shit. And I'm just like, oh, it's good. Like, it was cool.

What's wrong with that? You saying that is crazy. What? You saying that is absolutely insane. How is it crazy? Because we'll get on here and be like, hey man. And movies fine. We had a good time.

He'd be like, nigga, that's the worst shit I've ever seen. Because usually it is. Because here's the thing. Luca directed this shit. He's not going to make a terrible movie. He made an entertaining, watchable movie that I just felt like it didn't deliver on everything that I wanted. And that's usually how my criticism would go

if I don't walk in here every day and be like, yo, I thought I was walking to the... This is the best shit I've ever seen. I thought I was walking to the Thruple movie and it turned out to be like way more engaging, way more entertaining,

way more like thought provoking than I thought it'd be. You said three out of five stars on the midnight meter. Where would you put it? Challengers on the midnight meter? So we can like relate, yeah. I would give it,

I would probably give it a seven on the midnight meter. seven or eight. All right. Okay. What did you give it, Jeremy? I give it an eight,

like eight, nine. Wait, what's wrong? It's the fucking fine. What's like, this is what I'm talking about? Once you put a number on it, that's fine.

Yeah. It's an enjoyable movie. It's not perfect, but I had a good time. I thought it was really good. You didn't like the soundtrack, though? Soundtrack is the best.

No, bro. No. Bro. You want to get me outside. You want to get me shooting. Play that at the club. I'll be in that thing. I was in my seat going crazy.

I was in my seat going crazy. I was like, yo, Trent Rist or Addis Kis Rast, y'all cooking right now. Come on, man. That wasn't bumping. He wasn't moving. That didn't move you? Is challenges on streaming or you got to go to TV? You got to go.

It's a good. Wait, take Lika on a, like, a nice day. Go see challenges. Don't take her on a picnic. Well, you can take on a picnic. Because y'all are, like, you're like, to get, y'all been together in a long time. Yeah, it's like, it's crazy.

Get her like a basket or something. You want to, you want to help with the secutory, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, you made the thing. You need any excuse to make an extrajudice. You know what I'm saying? Like, hey, you want to cook? Yeah, I love to cook, man.

Just tell me what you want, man. We'll get you to cheeses. I'm saying some meat, some prosciutto. Y'all don't like prosciutto? This is how I know your dog. Because you bring the prosciutto in the honey. Maybe I can show you a whole new world of cheese. Oh, man.

Oh, man. Let me tell you some. Man, you go to the, I never go to a farmer's market before my life. You know, that's it. That's all right. Thank you for much for checking out. Reeguvers recommends. This Friday minute edition returns with their monthly comics check-in.

Also on Friday, Ben Falkin-Lin-Berg joins the House of Ardivar to talk about Bad Batch and the Tales of the Empire. Credits. Our producer is Steve, the architect Alman. Jomey Adirond on Socials. Hashtack Picnic Bandit. That's a good nickname. This is a production from Arjuna Rampapal.

Chuck, take his out. Jomey's kissing women on the forehead. and taking them out for walks. And just like Kendrick said, I hate this way that nigger talks. Andrew Jackson is my number one op. It's like, yeah. What are your feelings on Andrew Jackson?

He needs to be off the bill. Who would you replace Andrew Jackson with? Who would we replace Andrew Jackson with? President or just like historical figure? Steve, don't panda. Don't say like Ray J. Ray J? Steve, like, Steve, that's the kind of shit that, hold on to

Steve do. Steve, like, it'll be like, okay, who should we put on the bill? Hold on. Okay. Let's put take hay on that bitch. If I can put, if you can put it up, put him on the bill. I think we should put dog on the bill. OJ. Simpson.

Like, you know what I'm saying? Steve, it's like, Steve, he sees this all the time.