I followed Ed and Ron here from their hilarious appearances on the Goods from the Woods podcast - I wasn’t too interested in most pop culture and had basically never read a comic book, but those guys rule, so I had nothing to lose. I ended up enjoying this podcast immensely. Fast forward a couple of years to right now and I’m more invested into why movies are great, and I picked up some of my first comics last year (I’ve now read tens of thousands of pages, mostly due to inertia from this pod).
Ed, Ron, and Producer Bill are not just analyzing comics, movies, screenplays, writers, artists, ART - they are using those pieces of entertainment media to explore what makes HUMANITY great. They’re pulling apart bits of our culture to shed light on the triumphs, tragedies, complexities, and idiosyncrasies of the human condition. They’re cutting slices of Spawn, Princess Leia, Jack Kirby, PTA - putting them under a microscope, and seeing bits of you, me, and all of us. They are turning their analysis into capital-A Art. It’s all so sharp, witty, confounding, endearing, and occasionally frustrating (that’s a compliment). This podcast is funny on about 20 different levels - the type of deep humor that rewards your intelligence over and over. It’s a beautiful thing.
If you’ve somehow found this review and have continued reading until this moment, then you’re absolutely the type of person who would like this podcast. Pick out a few episodes which might interest you - listen. Give them a REAL chance. Your brain will enlarge (not dangerously), you’ll feel more media literate (a weapon in modern USA society), and you’ll emerge a better person (hopefully). This isn’t your 2nd cousin’s surface level comic book podcast (though they would probably like it too - Art is for everyone).
Ed, Ron, and Bill are a Cerberus of greatness - they’ve built something quite special with The Greatest Pod. Thanks, y’all, sorry it took me so long to leave a review.