Stephanie Prange

March 15, 2023

On this week’s episode of the Media Play News podcast, hosts Charles Parkman and Charlie Showley finally reunite in person in-studio (Charlie’s office) after a long four month hiatus. First up is the Academy Awards, with Everything Everywhere All at Once sweeping with seven awards, including Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Charlie and Charles call out some other awards of movies they liked including Top Gun: Maverick for Best Sound, RRR for Best Original Song, and of course Avatar: The Way of Water for Best Visual Effects. The hosts look forward to Oscars 2025 when Avatar: The Seed Bearer wins another Best Visual Effects award. After recapping this year’s Oscars, Charlie brings up an idea that each Academy Awards year should be giving awards to 5-10 year old movies instead, when there’s been more time for viewers to decide which films are more impactful and culturally relevant. From the 2013 awards show, Daniel Day Lewis won Best Actor for Lincoln, an undoubtedly great performance, but ultimately in a movie that no one has thought about in years. Argo won Best Picture which Charlie is quick to eviscerate as a film that didn’t know whether it wanted to be a drama or a comedy.

Subscribe HERE to the FREE Media Play News Daily Newsletter!

HBO’s ‘The Last of Us” has come to a satisfying season finale, and Apple TV+ is hoping to capture the next wave of post-apocalyptic fiction with its upcoming show ‘The Silo,’ about a society of 10,000 people who live in an underground bunker after all human life on Earth has died. Charlie and Charles watch the trailer live and share their immediate thoughts afterwards. It looks very cinematic and high concept but, unless it pulls out an out-of-left-field twist, feels as though it will pull the typical “there are other humans after all” trope that movies, shows and games with a similar premise have done before.

Last they discuss a box set release of the first three “John Wick” movies, absolutely excellent action movies that have started getting bogged down in their own lore as each successive film gets longer and more tedious. The franchise’s fourth release, set to debut at the end of March, appears to continue that tradition, clocking in at nearly three hours long and has Charlie adamantly declaring he doesn’t have the patience to see it until it comes to home streaming release. Charles on the other hand is willing to make the trek out for the theatrical release, so stay tuned for its eventual review on the show.