Update: In spite of my earlier review, I found I could not stay away. I’m glad for that, because the last ten or so episodes have brought the good things I remember that first drew me to the pod. I’ve been thinking for a few weeks of making this update; hearing the sad news that the pod is going on indefinite hiatus finally motivated me.
Am i just capricious? Do i have any idea what I’m talking about? Probably not. I hope my earlier words were gracious even if critical, but i wanted to double down on my thanks again and pay proper respect to the fun and high quality Josh and Skye and their guests have brought for the last few months.
Blessings to y’all. If you do return in the future, I’ll be a glad and grateful listener.
——-
I’ve listened to this podcast for over a year now. It satisfied a hunger for quite a while, albeit in a comfort food / convenience store way. It was a bit like water cooler conversation+, which suited me because I don’t have money or motivation to watch all these movies (and shows) myself. But this year, the shine has been wearing off. This feels a bit ironic, since I believe this is the year when the podcast joined the holy post network (which I assume, perhaps wrongly, supplied greater resources). I have to recognize I am partly responsibile for my loss of interest, simply due to the fact that I live with chronically drifting attention. However I also feel like the show is growing a bit bland. My mind may be playing tricks on me, but I used to think these episodes offered more of a deep dive; actual analysis that would give me more insight on the movie than I could have achieved by just talking to my friends. But lately it feels exactly like that: pals casually chatting. Most of the would-be insights seem to be in the vein of ‘I liked it’, ‘it just works’, ‘I was bored’, ‘It was exciting.’ The commentary seems neither particularly cinophilic nor does it offer much of a distinct Christian lens (by which I suppose I mean reflections on how one’s reaction to a particular movie converses with one’s faith). Additionally, the show just feels less polished in recent months. The conversation sometimes seems to drift without a clear trajectory. Josh and Skye have both said ‘did I use this movie before?’ so many times that I have begun to quietly beg them to just make a spreadsheet. And I miss Jason, if for no other reason than he provided rapid answers to all the trivia questions that now slow down the conversation. I don’t want to be overly harsh. I still appreciate that Josh provides this show, because it’s still nice to pretend I’m sitting in the room with them. I am a huge believer in passion projects and don’t think they should live or die on the basis of third party opinions. I also don’t think everything needs to be subjugated to the tyranny of randomly selected crowd ratings. So why did I leave a review? I don’t know, I guess to say thank you, to pretend for a moment I really am part of the conversation, and to offer some hopefully constructive feedback. Nevertheless this baby belongs to the people who produce it, so do what ever you think is best and Godspeed. Thanks for the fun times.
