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Home to The Playlist Podcast Network and all its affiliated shows, including The Playlist Podcast, The Discourse, Be Reel, The Fourth Wall, and more. The Playlist is the obsessive's guide to contemporary cinema via film discussion, news, reviews, features, nostalgia, and more.

  1. Aug 14

    ‘The X-Files: I Want To Believe’: Chris Carter On His 2008 Recut, Cutting A Mulder-Scully Kiss & The Story He Still Wants To Tell [The Discourse Podcast]

    After multiple films and revival seasons, “The X-Files” creator Chris Carter finally got another shot at his often misunderstood film, “The X-Files: I Want to Believe.” The new R-rated cut restores disturbing imagery, reshapes the music, and even strips away some of the Mulder-Scully relationship material. It also commits what a certain corner of the fanbase may consider the ultimate R-rated act: Carter cut the Mulder-Scully kiss. But don’t expect a “Snyder Cut” here. This cut is surprisingly shorter, with mostly very subtle changes for eagle-eyed fans. Now titled “The X-Files: I Want to Believe – Vrach Frankenshteyn,” Carter’s new version pushes the standalone thriller closer to the horror film he and co-writer Frank Spotnitz originally made. The movie reunites David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, years after they left the FBI at the end of Season 9, when a missing-agent case and a disgraced priest’s psychic visions pull them into a grotesque experiment involving stolen bodies and severed parts. On the latest episode of “The Discourse Podcast,” Carter joined host Mike DeAngelo to dig into what changed, why he traded some romantic material for bigger scares, and whether fans might ever see the larger Mulder and Scully story still sitting around in his head. He also discussed the unfinished business of Season 11, his conversation with Ryan Coogler about the “X-Files” reboot, and the horror fable he and his wife have made, “Queens for a Day.”

    ‘The X-Files: I Want To Believe’: Chris Carter On His 2008 Recut, Cutting A Mulder-Scully Kiss & The Story He Still Wants To Tell [The Discourse Podcast]
  2. Jun 30

    ‘The Agency’ Season 2: Jeffrey Wright & John Magaro Talk Spycraft, ‘The Batman: Part II,’ ‘Presumed Innocent’ Season 2 & More [Bingeworthy Podcast]

    “The Agency” approaches espionage less as a series of action beats and more as a study in information, perception, and control. The show is at its absolute best when it leans into that tension, allowing seemingly ordinary conversations to simmer with unease while drawing on its wealth of densely fleshed-out characters, each carrying their own agendas, vulnerabilities, and secrets. Conversations are rarely straightforward, motives are constantly in question, and even routine interactions can reshape the balance of power inside the CIA. In Season 2, the Paramount+ with Showtime drama deepens those tensions, following agents and analysts as personal loyalties, institutional pressures, and a growing sense of distrust begin to collide. But this time around the action and pacing is increasing by the second. Based on the acclaimed French series “Le Bureau des Légendes,” “The Agency” follows Michael Fassbender as Martian, a CIA agent whose personal and professional lives continue to collapse into one another. Season 2 picks up with Martian still trying to save Samia, played by Jodie Turner-Smith, while the agency itself is pulled into a wider web of internal suspicion, shifting loyalties, and a mole hunt that turns the office into its own kind of battlefield. READ MORE: ‘Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed’: Tatiana Maslany, Jake Johnson, David Gordon Green & David Rosen On Lonely Screens, Bad Decisions, ‘She-Hulk,’ ‘Spider-Verse’ & More [Bingeworthy Podcast] The series also stars Jeffrey Wright, Richard Gere, Katherine Waterston, John Magaro, Dominic West, and more. And truly, one of the joys of Season 2 is watching a cast this deep make even the smallest exchanges feel like fully loaded scenes. Wright, who plays Henry Ogletree, and Magaro, who plays Owen Taylor, both spoke with Bingeworthy host Mike DeAngelo about the new season, the ensemble’s unusual chemistry, and what it takes to make all that spy-world jargon feel lived-in rather than laminated.

    ‘The Agency’ Season 2: Jeffrey Wright & John Magaro Talk Spycraft, ‘The Batman: Part II,’ ‘Presumed Innocent’ Season 2 & More [Bingeworthy Podcast]
4
out of 5
35 Ratings

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Home to The Playlist Podcast Network and all its affiliated shows, including The Playlist Podcast, The Discourse, Be Reel, The Fourth Wall, and more. The Playlist is the obsessive's guide to contemporary cinema via film discussion, news, reviews, features, nostalgia, and more.

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