Strange Aeons Radio

99 XMAS ON THE SMALL SCREEN!

December 24, 2020 Strange Aeons Radio Season 2 Episode 99
Strange Aeons Radio
99 XMAS ON THE SMALL SCREEN!
Show Notes Transcript

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Kwanza, Festivus, and a general Season's Greetings from Eric, Vanessa, and Kelly! While lighting the yule log, check out these Christmas Episodes of TV series we've picked out!

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Oh, I'm sorry, did I break your concentration? Somewhere between science and superstition? To show you Strange Aeons. Welcome Strange Aeons radio shivering over there is there. Yeah. icicles hanging from our air over there is Vanessa. Hi, Kelly, chilly day in my house you guys. almost Christmas everybody aware last time we recorded it was like mid summer now it's January. Yeah. Merry Christmas, everybody. Merry Christmas. I hope everybody is somehow figuring out a way to make this work. Yeah, I hope you guys are having a good time. In some way. Let me just throw out this isn't a film that I wanted to talk about at all. But since it is Christmas Eve, I'll just put this out there as a public service announcement. Remember how much we love the Santa Chronicles? Yeah, Santa Chronicles two is a piece of shit. I heard that it wasn't very good. I'm so bomb rushed out, you know, one of those rushed out things well, and also, you know, the joy of that first one was a really was a family movie. And it was all about family. This one they've stuck a villain into the story. And it sort of shows up pretty much. And it's just one of those things where you're like, I don't think this is what this needed. Is the villain. A kid? Yeah, it's the kid from for the Deadpool two. I think I caught like five minutes of it. And I was looking at it going. No. I really like that kid. But yeah, he's fun. And he's, he's chewing up the scenery in this, but it's just such a stupid idea that it's like no, no, this is better. Yeah. So anyhow, that's not what I wanted to talk about. What do you talk about? Yeah, give us what I do want to talk about is, you know, my love for YouTube just grows and grows and grows. And I was able to find the entire animated series of droids from 1985 on there. Oh, yeah. Which is the adventures of RTD to nc threepio. After our I guess it's before A New Hope. So it's in between? Yeah. And it's, it's made for kids. So go into it with that knowledge. I thought the animation was absolutely divine. It's made by a company called Nelvana who did one of my very favorite animated movies rock and roll poster right behind me. And it's very It looks very, very much like hand animated cells, you know, so it's just really fun and cool. It doesn't look like the the filmation stuff, which was what was happening at that time. cartoons. And a one of the other things I thought was interesting is so this was 85. And this has a speeder scene in it a like a racer scene that's kind of similar to the episode one racers Audrey squad racing. Yeah. And it also has a character named Kai Bo Ren. Which convinces me more and more that Lucas just made a book of names man that has passed through all all manner of people and they are just, you know, picking names from this book because Derek cook then. He sent me a Star Wars role playing game when they had from from the 80s or 90s, I guess. And one of the characters was named Mace Windu. Wasn't the Mace Windu from the prequels and Samuel Jackson, it was not even a Jedi. Like Mr. February I understand. You've been hired to do this here. I bestow upon you my book. You may only use names from here to page and it's like grovedale. Yeah. All right. Yeah, that looks really is it? canon still did that one stay in when they did the reworking of I don't think so. I don't see how it could be. It's very, very silly. No, yeah. But it was just a ton of fun. I watched all 11 episodes and and loved it. They are using all the sound effects from Star Wars. The music was written and performed by Stewart Copeland at the police. Nice. Excellent, so I just, I don't know. I loved it. I was of course, too old for it when it came out. To watch it What's you know what's super funny, Vanessa? Yeah, there was an age where I got too old for toys you wouldn't know by looking at my house. Clearly, I then fell back into an age where I was fine with toys. I don't think I ever stopped so you've at least got that up on me. All right. Well, you know guys go through that high school macho phase where I was like, man, no. childish thing. I definitely went through the phase like girls all I think all do where you start to hate Barbies or dislike Barbies, but I never liked them in the first place. So they really thrust upon me and I was like, where the? Why can't we play Ninja Turtles? But done it's always waiting to be played with he's got a staff. Can you hang out in Barbie's Dreamhouse? Oh, that's just gonna leave that. What did you watch? Yes, so actually speaking of Christmas films, but um, may not necessarily live up to the hype. And I checked out happiest Christmas on Hulu. I don't know this one. So this one is Kristen Stewart, Kristen. And Mackenzie Davis. The guy from shits Creek? Yes. And and the guy from shits Creek whose name I can't think of right now. I think it was character's name but he's uh, his dad is the son of that Eugene Levy, his son. Oh, okay. Just Eugene Levy. Um, and it's also got Aubrey Plaza in it as a secondary character. But the the concept is it's a lesbian couple and Mackenzie Davis is taking Kristen Stewart home for the holidays to introduce her to the parents, but it actually isn't out so has to hide her relationship as soon as they get there. Um, it's it's kind of built like this really cute See, Christmassy but sort of progressive film. And part of the reason why I wanted to watch it is I had been helping a little bit on this really cool project called jinxin deal is a holiday special, which is a holiday special by these two amazing drag queens that's going out on their personal channel on Vimeo and they are starring in this film to Oh, they're like some side characters that they run across. There's a problem with this movie. Here's a glaring problem with this movie. In most ROM coms you want a couple of guys together and like fix everything and in this one you really don't. Mackenzie Davis is the fucking worst girlfriend she's just the fucking worst and then Aubrey Plaza is like her other ex who got fucked over and is treating Christian sir really nicely and like hey, I totally understand I went through some of this stuff before and you're like these two people should be together with Mackenzie Davis is a very attractive lady I think she's incredibly hot but no it's not worth it not worth it is madness don't you can do better person so anyway, I'm happy his Christmas a lot of people really like it I just have that problem that particular problem is this a pass or a it depends on who you are. I guess it's from the look of what I've seen in the trailers yeah Dean and I might like it more because shits Creek you will you'll like his character because he is so yeah maybe people in this goofy and weird and fun to watch. I don't know whoever else is in it I that's the reason we're gonna watch it I think if you like holiday movies and you like something like love actually then yeah, like definitely check it out but just be aware it's not a perfect film. There's it's okay to be mad at it. It's it's fun throughout but there are definitely moments where it's like that was my I wonder if we're going to see you know, these kind of movies were really the territory of the Hallmark Channel and now I don't even know if the Hallmark Channel still exists. You Yeah, Hallmark Channel has a streaming they've done their first I think the as of this year, their first gay Mark special to which they have had a huge backlash from the religious community that mostly watches Hallmark Hallmark. I don't know what they're just community safe space hallmark movies. Yeah, people will be able to take comfort in knowing there is a Colonel Sanders there romantic drama going on many filmer. Have you seen the Maya Lopez, Colonel Sanders. Lopez looking like it's in a very, very different movie. You know? I've seen better gray hair effects on a porn movie. where a guy was supposed to be an old man? Oh no, man. He shouldn't be sitting on a top of a silver stallion with wind blowing his crappy looking gray hair as he's holding the woman off the side. That's sort of what this looks like it wants to be as far as the image the I see but but they get a lot of press out of it. I mean, it's a mini film I I'm curious. I'd like to see it. Yeah. That sounds insane. And how long is it? It's it's not full movie length, or they call it a mini film. So it's amazing says short film out loud or even just the money and walk out the room. Yeah, no, I would. I would watch that. Sure. Sure. Why not? recipe for desire. That's what it's called. Yes, that's right. Yes. bucket of love. At one point, the bad guy grabs Harland Sanders and said something like I'm coming for you chicken man. But you know, our extra crispy. Anyone want to watch him and never got to be watched? So you go watch the Spanish ghost movie? Oh, a Spanish goes. Yeah, another 2021 called don't listen. really seen this one? I've not even heard of this camera. It's It's my problem is I've got shutter integrated into my Amazon. So it's either prime or shutter? I'm not sure. But it's close to being good. No, I'm the Spanish create incredible horror films that the de Lucia have great short films I shot from Spain is insane. And orphanage was there. And it's it's not quite that good. But it's pretty good. It is a story of a guy who who his son is drawing the future. And they don't realize that for a while and things go wrong, they move into a big giant house and things go wrong. So it's very it's cookie cutter in its approach to being a story where they have the problems, and then they bring in the experts. But instead of being EMF, they're doing audio, or forgot what that's called, but they're listening for audio noises. And it's fun. But it's not. It's not, you know, I'm glad I watched it. But it's also another one that's definitely not going to sit on the top of the list by the end of the thing. But if somebody came up to me and said, I thought it was fantastic. I could see that. You know, it's interesting, because I'm wondering, you know, we're always looking for a new angle, and something like a ghost film or a zombie film, she's actually video game that just came out, maybe even a month ago, where each person plays, you go into a haunted house, and you play with your friends. And there's maybe like four people. And each one has like a different device. And when you have the audio thing and you're walking around, and it is a view, there's a VR version available as well like, your stuff. And you can only talk to the other people by pressing a button. So you can easily get murdered and attached by things which happened to me, and then be walking around in your ghost forum, trying to learn your friends and being able to tell them that but it is very creepy. And it does do that auditory thing where instead of relying on a visual scare, having an audio scare, I think that's it's interesting that these things are happening at the same time. Yeah, well, that's like Silent Hill, all those years ago, you get they, in order to find the ghosts, you get that little radio, right? Whenever you get near them, it makes this terrifying. And then you're looking because and they don't appear immediately. So you hear the noise and you go, where are they someone's gone, or the hell is it? But this kind of combines that. But then it also uses like heat detection cameras. So it's not just the audio, which is better. I mean, it's good. I would I would say watch it. Interesting question. Do you guys believe in ghosts? Yes. Yeah. I want to I've had enough weird shit going there. Maybe. But hear? Yeah. I want to feel like I've seen things. So I feel pretty. Camp ghost. Okay, what am I you killing? I'm not sure. Okay. I'm in the middle of the night when I hear a weird noise in the house. I absolutely believe it. In general, genuinely don't think I'd be back. Because it's Christmas. I decided to go with a rewatch of the classic holiday. Angel Heart was and I hadn't seen it since. Let's see, it came out when I was 17. And I saw it in the theaters. And I remember liking it. And I watched it again. I still like it. I think even even then in 87 I was, I felt like it was a very obvious movie. I mean, there's a twist at the end that I feel like you see coming about 15 minutes into the film. But everybody runs around as if they don't know it, and they sell you on not knowing it and even even dinero as Lewis cipher pretends he doesn't know what's going on well enough that you're like, Okay, I'll I'll go along with everybody. And I thought it was really really strong. No, I mean, if if a bit obvious. I remember liking it, but I have not seen that since probably the mid 90s. Man, it is a sweaty movie. Yeah. New Orleans, right. Yeah. That seems to be the I'd imagine it's sort of like rain in Seattle. If you see rain and movies, it really doesn't rain like this like that very often around there. I'm guessing New Orleans make it the same thing where it's hot and sweaty, but it's maybe not that hot and sweaty mostly. Yeah, this looks pretty grimy. But also also very sexy. You know, this was the Lisa bone a scene that got her fired from The Cosby Show. Yes, ironically, Bill Cosby had a moral problem with her doing that seem like oh my god. Wow, that didn't age. Well. You a little shit. Yeah. Yeah. I liked it, though. And I believe that that was on prime. So I think it's out there if you want to give it a try again. Nice. Cool. Well, also available? Well, actually, I think it's on shutter right now. I think it was on prime. I checked out a Christmas or film I've been meaning to get around to and the poster. It's been very intriguing. And I finally checked out, which was better watch out. Oh, I recognize that title. That's the one with the babysitter. The psycho. Right? Oh, yeah. Boy, man about a tonal change in the film. He I was not a fan. Oh, unfortunately, I think the acting overall was pretty good. But there was just something about it that just felt like unconvincing at every turn. And maybe it was because everything shifted so quickly. But even the house I was like, this doesn't feel like a real house like nothing about this feels real to me. And I don't know, I just wasn't, I wasn't super into it. I wasn't really thrilled with where it went. I was stressed as hell the whole way through, especially once I kid sort of takes off the mask. And I was like, and the best friend is an incredibly good actor. And I know I've seen him in a bunch of stuff since he's just sells it and he has so little to work with. He's just the douchebag best friend. And he really is such a good character in it. But um, yeah, it was fun. I remember liking this quite a bit, although it did also set off all my anxiety. Yeah, I do remember that. That very end scene being very satisfying. Yeah, yeah, that that did have a good moment for sure. Um, yes. And the boyfriends were were a lot of fun. Yes, it was. Those were some really good moments. I think it was just little things like there's a there's little things that get introduced, like there's a pencil underneath the carpet that gets introduced and the shines on it for frickin ever at the beginning. I'm like, I get it, we're gonna come back to it again. But I thought, Oh, it's gonna be used to like, fight off something not to hurt somebody. And that's just I don't know, it was a little things like that. That bug me was my experience with it was very different because I started to watch it and had to stop for some reason, like 1015 minutes and gone. Oh, well, this looks like a fun little home alone kind of Christmas thing. Yeah. Go back to watch. Holy shit. It's very mean spirited. You know, and maybe that's something I don't like about certain films. I think I'm starting to figure this out. There you go. I think that I became more of a fan of it because the director or maybe the writer, director, I mean, that was shot in Australia in the middle of summer. Really? Yeah. Oh my god. They did great. Yeah. That girl looks kind of sweaty at the end. Actually. I was like, man, she's she really went through something. And it was just super low budget. I think it was his first feature and it got him it's a very good first feature. Yeah, like serenely good in that sense. Um, ya know, it has a lot of good going for in definitely out of I don't. I feel like Christmas horror films have a rough time getting it right. So out of all the Christmas horror films I've seen It's up there. Well, switching subjects a little bit unlike Kelly, and you having your Christmas movies you just presented, I watched. There's a company called humble bundle. Oh, yeah, I know. What they do is they do promotional things where they package you a lot of times games, but then they also do graphic novels and comics and stuff, which I use. I bought a lot of like, I bought the whole run of spawn through that, and the whole run of which blade and turns out, I didn't even realize I purchased the whole run of The Walking Dead. Oh, hey, so I'm on Oh, I'm gonna finish this. See how it finishes. It finishes beautifully. Really? Okay, on the last couple, the last issue had me like, it's so good. It was a emotional level well done. And it makes me even more annoyed with the writers of the TV show. Where Rick Grimes is the heart and soul of the comic, almost from from issue one to issue what I think is like 170, for some weird, random last issue. And he is the heart and soul of that ending. And it is so well done. And then the series just kind of like cast a guy who I think he's got the charisma to pull it off. But then they write all this side characters as being far more interesting. Like, no, this guy should. And if they had done that, I think they would have had a longer run have a much better show. Interesting. And the whole thing is wrapped up at the end by Carl. Oh. Tell them what, three, three years ago whatever project? Didn't these hard copies then the Humble Bundle sells PDFs? Oh, yes. Get or whatever? different formats. So yeah, I'd recommend hop on their site, just subscribe to their email. And every few months are something that because they send something new maybe once a week, and most of the time, it's like games and coding books, all this kind of Yeah, coding books, so just ignore all those. But then every few months one shows up. And the most I've ever spent was probably $25. And that would have gotten me the whole Walking Dead. Plus probably 15 other Wow. novela really bundle a shitload of stuff. Doesn't it often go to charity, the comic books go to the comic book Defense Fund. Yeah, I don't know the games do as well like, because I met the Humble Bundle people on through my game life. Oh, sure. At one of like the Paxos or no, no GDC and they were very cool people. Very cool. Yeah. So I think a lot of it's for charity. If not, if not all of it. Yeah, I basically loaded all of them onto my iPad and and kind of forgot. What did good surprise, man. I need to know how that ends. But you know what shouldn't be a surprise that it ended strongly though, because Kirkman is you know, solid writer. So I just got tired of the show. And I think I i think i clocked out when they kill the draw about the show or the comic, the comic issue. 100. I think they call Greg. The Asian kid. Yes. Yeah. I'm totally forgetting him. Yeah, but I was just like, Glen Glen. Yeah, like, this was unnecessary. I know. But it was a rough moment. And I was laughing when the TV series caught up to that moment. And like, my best friend and her friend were like, Oh, my God, I heard rumor that this is what might happen, but they wouldn't. I was like, why you guys are stupid. They're totally gonna kill him. And then they did it. And they were screaming and crying. And I was like, yeah, wait, why were you you can't be surprised like you every indication This is gonna happen. Yeah, there's an interesting essay at the end that Kirkman wrote about finishing up the series and Oh, he wanted to make sure he didn't do what I he didn't say this, of course. But what I thought reading it do what the TV show has definitely done and gone way beyond its sell date. You know, I mean, yeah, like I really wanted to do a comic book that reached 300 issues. Then I wrote out my outline for beginning to end and realize there's no way in hell I'm ever reaching 300 issues without padding a bunch of stuff. So I'm just gonna end it where it should end. That's really nice. Yeah, and he's pretty good about that. Like, I've I've read a number of his series and you know, they They usually do feel pretty like satisfied like invincible. Yeah, that's what it should and has done well and I also think that image I mean, if this was a Marvel comic you just get a new writer and new artists and you would keep going you know image allows their creators to just say that was the story I wanted to tell. Yeah, image is so brilliant about that and that's something i mean it's it's just like blumhouse it's like such a risk when you pick up an image comic it's either gonna be great or terrible but but yeah, like they I love the risks that they're allowed to take yeah well cool Shall we take a little break you guys come back and we are talking TV holiday specials fix up your house when you come to calm strange wholesale has got it strange as the carpet and flooring to bless low prices just for you. Go visit selection come see mines in West Monroe. Back access was kind of your choice. In order it was my choice suggested by other Mr. Lovely. Yeah, so we're doing Christmas episodes Christmas TV episodes. So I guess this might be a shorter episode. It'll probably be a little shorter just because the nature of this is not going to give us a lot to talk about. That can't be the one I picked there's a ton of trivia This is way too much to talk about because I my episode is Doctor whose last Christmas seems to be the problem. Of course doctor is is I saw I'm not a doctor who watch is his last name, who he's just called Doctor Who. Yeah, I don't think he has any other kind of name shouldn't be doctor home. Doctor Who sounds better the doctor. I'm just kidding. That's my guess. It's real bad. Yeah. Anyway, this came out in 2014. The end of the 2014 season, which is kind of a tradition for doctor who they do Christmas episodes. Sometimes they tie very strongly into the series. And sometimes they're very much a one off kind of episode. I forget the name of the one I was going to talk about, but I started watching it and it was very definitely part of the series because it was a tenant's last season. So they did these big the big time or something that was called tau is like it's really it's a very Christmassy a lot of snow around. But that's about it. Yeah. So I went to last Christmas, directed by Paul wilmshurst who did the wonderful titled which means something completely different in the UK piste on the job. For those who don't know piste means drunk in the UK as opposed to not angry at nobody's gonna post law and order UK and just a ton of uk tv riffin rip Griffin is written by Steven Moffat. Who's wrote Sherlock was his the shirt recent Sherlock and he did coupling and a lot of Dr. Haley's Well, the main reason the new series reboot did so well. Yeah, he's also kind of a controversial guy. He ran into some trouble with female characters and female casting, but seems to have worked that out because he's still working on the show. Stars This was Peter couple days season as the doctor and boy he's done a lot was does that make it as a new season? or? Yeah, it's probably 2014 the new season rebooted. And I think it's 2000. Early 2000. Yeah, somewhere right around there. Which is when I watched I haven't watched very many of the original but Yeah, wow, this this should have got the rotten tomatoes. So you know, here we are. Real quick for this is 92 from the critics and 80 from the crowd. And that's like an overall series, this particular episode overall and that series is 100. And like 95 or something like that very, very highly rated capacity is going to be in the 2021 Suicide Squad is the finger Hosie. Really. Wow. The adorable Paddington to. Yes. And the also very good Torchwood. I know him for my very rude shower. Oh, yes. He was like in it, I think. Yeah. That was one of the main ones. Yeah, a lot of cursing. And Jenna Coleman plays the companion. You might know her from Captain America. The First Avenger is Connie, and British show called Victoria and playing Santa Claus. Nick Frost. So good man, he is great as Santa Claus. The doctrine clarifies their last Christmas. They're trapped in the Arctic base under attack from terrifying creatures who are sort of elleni this is fun because it one thing Doctor Who does really well is there scary episodes. They have some scary ass episodes, especially the Weeping Angels. And this is a nice little creepy one. It starts off with the companion Jenna running into Santa Claus on the roof. So it's a nice exchange between her and there is elves that are they're trying to explain what they're doing. And it moves to a outposts in the Arctic. There's a strange thing where there's people, their faces are covered with things and you see them start to figure out trying to figure out what's going on. The idea is these creatures get into your heads. And if you think about them, they start to eat you. Mm hmm. So it's this great scene where the woman who goes in there starts playing this weird song. So she starts dancing, and it's fun and goofy looking and silly. So that is, and they use illusions to trap their victims in this way. So once you start thinking about them, you get yourself into a loop start to destroy you. And Nick Frost kits as a sim to say that again, because he has really fun. There's a lot of wonderful dream logic in this episode. And things that you Oh, that's a strange choice. And then you watch the rest of the episode. Oh, I see what they're doing there. That's is that because is most of this the action happening inside somebody's head then? Sort of? Okay. Yeah, kind of phased out with Kapolei. During that his season might because I didn't like him. But because we did a cable cut and Doctor Who was no longer not currently available in any streaming. Yeah, so I haven't watched it since but watching this episode, I'm going I've got to start watching again. It is so good. It's funny, but it's also kind of creepy. That see Pope some weird facts. So this is doctor. So if I wanted to go into trivia, I could talk for several episodes. Yeah, this has been around since what 58 or ever is when the first season started. Disappeared almost entirely in the 90s and then rebooted very successfully in the 2000s. Let's see. Here's a weird one. Michael truck sign of Patrick Troughton, and brother of David Tryon makes his first appearance in Doctor Who. Patrick played the second doctor in the classic series of Doctor Who's and has appeared throughout the series ever since. They do make strong references to alien they even actually like say this is like that movie alien. And this is where things get weird. As far as you know people finding weird trick This is where shows like Doctor Who and Star Trek and that are kind of go Okay, you're stretching. Let's see the film was directed by aliens directed by Ridley Scott. Scott was a trainee set designer who was assigned to design the Daleks. However, Scott had to back down because of a schedule comment was replaced by somebody else. Like reaching Yeah, that is some trivial trivia Exactly. Or like, one of the women on the show went on to be on Game of Thrones. And at the end, when you see her after everything happens, she's looking at a list of things to do go watch all of Game of Thrones. This however, was the lowest Christmas Day rating for the show in 11 years. Wow. However, once it came out, it exploded. It became incredibly popular after it came out but for some reason, it just was not watched. And going on. Yeah, weird. But because like having lived in the UK, this is like a cultural event. This is like the thing you do. Everyone on Christmas days sits down and watches the new doctor who's special. Wow. So is it there's a lot of rumors about it being considered. So this doesn't sound like maybe it's as true as I thought that it's very much considered a children's show. No, it's wonderful. No, everybody watches. It's like a family show. It's like what everybody sits down to watch each week. Wow, that's cool. This was before it was written. I wasn't sure if Jenna Coleman was gonna be returning as the companion. So Moffat wrote a completely different ending. For this. And daring. They actually cast the lady I was talking about it does all the dancing was cast with the concept. She might be the new companion. And then Jenna came back said no, I'm coming back for another year. He had a different ending ready to go though, because he in case she did decide to come back because he wanted her to return. And so that was some of the trivia and stuff I said, you can get really a minute, even more and more and more. So I will just say, this is an awesome episode. If you don't watch Doctor Who and you like sci fi, go give it a shot. I don't know if I'd recommend starting with the older stuff. Because you got to be really forgiving. Yes. Yeah, that is anything before the 2001 Yeah, I haven't seen any of that. Because it's just it's a different beast. Yeah. It's kind of like Star Trek. The original series is a lot different feeling than something like DS nine. If you started off with your Star Trek world watching discovery. I'm not going to recommend you watch the original Star Trek for until you really dive into love. And it's exactly exactly until you're ready to do the whole like completionist Yeah, yes. And well, much like you. I also chose a well known well loved series, and I went with a Christmas TV special from X Files. This one is called how the ghosts ghosts Stole Christmas was the night before Christmas in a house full of ghosts, Mulder and Scully and their special guest hosts, Ed Asner and Lily Tomlin would show the way. The doors are all locked and they're here to stay. X Files and all new Christmas episode Sunday at nine eight central on Fox from December 13 1998. And it's from season six, Episode Six. If you guys don't know what the X Files is, I don't know. It was recently rebooted a way early actually. It's funny because on IMDB, if you look up anything Xbox related, it's really tough because it's not listed in 1993. It's up at the top of everyone's like, resumes because it's 2018. Now so yeah. So yeah, to two special agents, one of which, who believes in mysterious crazy things, and one who believes in science and yes, they go into work. Anyway, so as a director, this episode is actually written and directed by the series creator, Chris Carter. His first film was cameo by night, a TV movie. And then he did a couple of episodes of like Magic World of Disney, and something called brand new life. He did like four episodes. And then I and then like, blown? No, then he I think it was this. And only after this has he done stuff like Millennium which had 67 episodes and lone gunman mode pretty recently, but recently as she doesn't want I don't know, I don't know. These people have sporadic careers because it's really tough because I spent so many years doing The X Files that even when I looked up feeling Anderson gillean or Gillian Anderson. I always said Jillian. Yeah, but I don't know if that's correct. It's hard to know. And David Duchovny, like they both have really interesting careers where basically she wasn't in much of anything until X Files. And now as obviously, since when in some great things, which by the way, if you have not seen sex education or her stint in the crown, holy cow, you always go back and watch retro diaries. You want to send a lot more of Boulder. And yeah, I didn't realize so I never saw red shoe diaries, but I didn't realize it was going on. There were 66 episodes of it. And it went on from 92 to 96. So the same time he was doing X Files, he was also doing the show. Jeez, yeah, I didn't know. This is crazy to me. I don't know rich. I know what Richard diaries is, but I've ever watched it. I thought I know I always thought he just narrated it. He does. It even as a narrator and he's in a few episodes, still that's like a lot of extra side side Jake giggling but he's so David company he's been in 191 episodes of X Files. Before this he did Twin Peaks and he was agent Dennis slash Denise Bryson, one of my favorite Twin Peaks character so lovely so fucking awesome. And also was in don't tell mom the babysitter's dead and Beethoven as Brad. After he went on to be in California keishon and quirinius. That is a hell of a show. Californication is a hell of a show. I never watched it because I think I was so mad. He wasn't like held a grudge. It's got problems. he's a he's a boy on the show would not be as popular now. If it was made an hour at all. He is a sex is a very large portion of the early season. Oh my god. Um, yeah, it's really interesting, because Gillian is and Gillian Anderson. Someone will correct me a person Anderson was in 217 episodes. So obviously, they're just like, last was it just the last season he wasn't in? Or was it the I think the last season neither one of them are in. She was she stayed on for a season or two after he did but I. We watched and I watched a little bit after he left, and we stopped watching. Her attorneys really felt Yeah, he was just it just it. bikers talking about earlier with the walking dead. Somebody should have just said, You know what, let's just just add this. If you want to do this with some new people, maybe let's invent a new version. Exactly. This is one of those shows that like I grew up watching pretty religiously, religiously with my friends because it was spooky and different. And other. And I'm so there's so much I could talk about with this series. So I didn't I purposely didn't look up too much. Because I was like, I don't want to talk about ex felons at large. I'm just going to talk about this episode. Because there's just so much to talk about. This episode weirdly, only has four actors in it. So it's a very stripped down episode. It's got kind of just two locations, mostly just one location, the other locations inside of moulders apartment. But it takes place in this big mentioning house. So the other two actors who are in it are of course by the titles name the ghosts. And that's played by Lily Tomlin. Which is awesome. If you guys don't know or maybe you've seen her in grace and Frankie or nine to five, or one of my favorite roles by swing as Deborah Federer. She replaces other secretary. Oh, and I did not know this. She was the she's Miss frizzle and magic school bus and has always been I did not know. I mean, she's been in all of them anyway, and Asner has been in 408 things is the male ghost in this um, it was originally written for Bob Newhart and actually kind of written as a piece to show off Lily Tomlin a little bit but it was they were hoping that get Bob Newhart who turned it down. But as nurse been around, Mary Tyler Moore Sharon's down nothing. Yeah, literally when I looked him up. Oh my God. He's been in everything and using turn down anything. Like Yeah, he does video games he does. And he was in Boondocks. He was an American Dad. He was in the Star Wars video game. I was just like, What haven't you done? Sir? My favorite part is when he was on a an interview. I think it was on Adam Carolla show or something like that. But he just just went off and started talking about how there were no Jews in the two towers when they were hit by the data was like, Come again. It was like oh, and as nerds and nutjob like old crazy, man, I'm surprising. unsurprising to be honest. Um, so the plot of this episode is super fun. It's a monster of the week episode, so it doesn't really pertain to much of the outside plot. Mulder asks Scully to meet him on Christmas Eve at this kind of large abandoned Manor. He explains that during Christmas during Christmas Eve, online on nine in 1917, a young couple living in the house had a kind of lover's pact. So one killed the other and then the other killed themselves very Romeo and Juliet. Because they couldn't stand the idea of not being together if one of them died. They didn't want to be alone in the afterlife. They want to spend eternity together. So every Christmas Eve they appear and often try to invoke slash disturb other couples, potentially into maybe possibly murdering themselves. It's hard to know. It's hard to say. It's possible to predict these things. And Moeller wants to go and stick it out school. He's like, Yo, I gotta like wrap some presents, could you like, not right now. And then her car keys like magically disappear and he's like, I'm on I'm off in the house. And she's like, I guess I I'm going in the house now too, because I have nothing else I can't do anything else. Um, once they get into the house, and it's very much like a big spooky mansion, he kind of thing cobwebs and big clocks and beautiful ornate rugs, and the door slams shut behind them. They don't seem to care. I don't think they even checked to see this locks. They just are like that, no big deal. They hear some sounds and they follow it up to the top floor the whole way up. School you doing the whole? Well, these scary stories. These stories are actually just figments of our imagination and blah, blah, blah. And if you date it back to blah, blah, blah, blah. I was like, Oh my god, I forgot I forgot that this was a big part of the show. Holy cow. So they make it upstairs and they end up in this kind of library area. And things start to get a little crazy. The ladder that they use to kind of climb down into this sunken library disappears, things are shifting around, and they start to hear a thumping sound underneath their feet. They pull up the floorboards and discovered two corpses that are dressed in their clothing. One of them has bright red hair. Very strange. Um, they get pretty freaked out and decide that they're going to split up to try and find out more of what's going on. That's so smart. It's very clever and really the way to do it. So one goes out one door, the library and one goes out the other. And this is weird thing where I think Muller had tried to go through the door first and ended up coming into the opposite side. So there was like, okay, maybe we both leave at the same time we'll somehow break this spell. Anyway, but that doesn't happen. They get separated. So they're both in the same room, just not in the same room with each other. Moeller is then confronted with Maurice who asks him Why on earth he's there race and a fishing cap kind of a spunky old guy is like, Are you here to film one of those ghost hunter shows? Are you one of those guys? And well, there's like, no, it's like, oh, well, let me tell you, like it's it's pretty neat. And this old guy's super funny. Super just like toxin mile a minute. basically says it's his house. And you know, it's like, I don't know why strange people keep coming in here, but whatever. And we all know he's a ghost, but mother's not 100% Sure. In the meantime, Scalia encounters Lydia, who is they have a kind of more confrontational encounter because Scully is much more questioning and therefore Lydia is sort of like revealing her ghostliness a little bit sooner. But both ghosts start to play these head games with Mulder and Scully. They are doing their best to try and turn them on each other so that Scully will shoot Mulder and then molder will, I don't know what they want him to do. But anyway, they want them dead. Mother, basically they do start to do one of those psychology things but they break their personalities and their worst fears down. And so Moeller is told, you know, you're just afraid to be alone. you're filling the void with these endless searches into the unknown to give your life meaning. They tell scoli that she's forming intimacy through codependence and her only joy in life is really proving mother wrong. So they go for some deep cuts. Um, so then all of a sudden, we see Mulder appears and he shoots Scully, but then we also see Scully shooting mother, and then we watch them covered in blood dragging themselves down these stairs and then out the hallway. Like there is a lot of blood squeaking on along and like, I think Scully is closer to the door than molder. Anyway, like they're both like both kind of stopping holding their guns at each other and they're like, You shot me know You shot me? loose like, wait a minute. And he stands up. He's like, We're fine. Oh, I guess we are by and then they leave. And then we'll there sits alone in his apartment and school. He shows up and they exchange gifts, even though they said they would vary speed. This sounds like the sounds like this is one of those episodes that was kind of played for laughs It was I think it was to a certain extent there was there was definitely a lot of really fun moments. Both Lily Tomlin and Abner just, they were really on top of their game. They were extremely funny. They were just like a lot of jokes about like, Scully saying things about how you guys, you know, you're not real. There's not even a Christmas tree and At least homely going were Jewish. Little things like that. They really This episode was super, super fun. I think they did a great job with it. The acting from Lily Tomlin and Ed Asner are just great they will bring it they are not half Harding it they come fully loaded. They they both reveal like their death holes. So I think Lily Tomlin is missing like a huge part of her stomach and as her lips up a hat that he's wearing and has a hole in his head and it's like light just popping through it these perfect holes. It looks super good. The house is nice and creepy, the things disappearing and reappearing. And you know, those head games are pretty fun. The things that didn't work that well thought it was there was a lot of logic rules, going down robot things that just didn't make any sense. Like I'm not sure why the ghost wanted them to kill each other. That was never really explained. I know that's the thing that they consistently do. And there's like a history of couples having kill each other, but not that we don't know why we don't know what they get out of it other than getting to be like the most haunted house, they do make a joke about. We were written out of the Gazette this year. Like, we're not even the top 100 anymore. Um, and like kind of the whole reason why Mulder and Scully tries for doesn't it's not super clear either. So that that's not great. Also, I had dialogue from Scully just debunking things as they're literally just walking around. The house is so annoying. It reminds me a lot of Dawson's Creek and maybe Dawson's Creek steals this from x miles. But we're Joey is just constantly doing these like, really smarty pants narration straight up whoever happens to be in earshot. It feels a bit was a bit irritating, but the nostalgia kind of won me over a little bit of fun trivia, watched by 17 point 3 million people on the initial broadcast. This feature the smallest cast and set for X Files up until season 11. And it was the cheapest episode of the entire sixth season to shoot. Both Tomlin and Asner were fans the show and Tom Lynn kind of nudge nudge hint hint wink wink at the production team that should be totally up for doing an episode. Last but not least, Gillian Anderson was very critical of the fake blood used for the episode because of the sheer quantity and how it quickly can coagulated and form this sort of gummy bear. Yeah, she was not she was not fan on it run into that before age. But yeah, no joke. I always has a really fun smell something for me sleep. Interesting smells. You know if you get that Ben nice stuff. It tastes like mint. Yes. They flavored it because otherwise it tastes like shit. Yeah, it really does taste bad. What about Oh, my turn. Well, you guys. I kind of cheated on this one. I would have I would have absolutely one this episode because I chose Episode Two of Tales from the Crypt and all through the house. to the client. Now he is shocked up from the man who gave you 48 hours. Need a little holiday fee? Shall I scan up the man Framed Roger Rabbit? You asked for it. You guys screaming I have this little number from Superman Superman. He sought to kill you. But you can count on my direct three deals from the June 10 on HBO. Warning strong content Parental discretion advised that's a good one. I've wanted to see this for so long. I thought it was a movie until you revealed it. I was like oh, that's why I haven't found it yet. Yeah, so from 1989 no budget or box office. Obviously no box office but I could find nothing for the budget either. The critics on Rotten Tomato give this an 82% this particular story was supposed to be the very first episode and they switched it to be the second episode. I'm not sure why because both of those episodes happened in June of 89. So it seems a little weird anyway, except that this is kind of a evergreen story. It is based on the segment from the 1972 film Tales from the Crypt. Then it's called and all through the house, which in turn is based on the original vault of horror comic book number 35 that had this as its story. Holy cow. Yeah, that was from 1959 I believe. And the reason I cheated is because this is basically a 25 minute movie. It's amazing. It is directed by Robert Zemeckis co director Back to the Future death becomes her Forrest Gump and Castaway, among many others. It is written by Fred Decker, who wrote Night of the creeps Monster Squad and the first two house movies scores and it is starring Mary Ellen Traynor, who has 47 credits including The Goonies Lethal Weapon and die hard. And Larry Drake, who was the bad guy and dark man and he played Dr. giggles and Dr. giggles let me just throw out a couple other names. It was produced by Richard Donner and Walter Hill and Joel Silver. And the music was composed by Alan Silvestri. So it's just this super high budget short film. Yeah. I love this episode, and I kind of wanted to do this kind of topic because of this episode. It opens with a woman killing her husband right off the bat with a fireplace poker and her husband is Marshall bell. You'd know him as soon as you saw him, but I always remember him as quato in Total Recall. Yes. And it's Christmas Eve. And she's, she grabs the fireplace poker and he's like, here Give me that poker, and she collaborates him over the head with it. The sharpen goes blank right into his skull. And he collapses on the table. And she immediately calls her lover while she's looking at the last will and testament says I did it. You know, she has to leave message and everything and then of course they're very young daughter comes down the stairs. Hey, Mommy, mommy's Santa's here. I heard a thump. If you're not aware, Tales from the Crypt, was very much as gory as it was, was very much a tongue in cheek. sarcastic humor horror. So all of this stuff is played very, very broadly. So mom brings it back up to bed and says, you know, he's not here yet. And he won't come if you're awakened. And the little girls like, Well, what do you want for Christmas, Mommy, and she's like, I already got what I want. So she as she goes downstairs, she wraps him up in a tarp and drags him outside where it's freezing, cold and snowing and all that. And of course, while she's outside, she misses on the radio, a public service announcement, talking about a escaped mental patient who is dressed like Sarah was, and everybody should lock their doors because he loves to kill women. Sure, so she misses all that. She drinks the body out, and drags it to an old well, where she intends to throw her dead husband in. But in typical Tales from the Crypt fashion, he suddenly lurches alive again, grabs her by the ankle, and she whacks him this day, making sure he is very dead. But just then, the deranged Santa, he's gotten the axe from the wood pile. she avoids it and escapes him running inside, and she calls the police and it's this great moment where she's talking to the 911 operator and saying she's got all this going on and and they're like, what's your address and she's about Sarah Addison. She looks outside and sees her dead husband, you know? She just says like, Fuck, I can't have the police here. So she just hangs up. Right after that the the Santa bashes his arm through the window she's standing next to and tries to grab her and she wax and she gets the axe away from him. She wax him really hard. And he falls over dead. So the phone then rings twice and she's like, what's going on? What's going on? So she answers it and it's the police. Now I don't know if even in 1989 the police were just making calls saying Hey, lady, lock your doors escaped mental. This but that is what is going on here. And as he's telling her this, you can see the wheels in her head. And she's like, Oh, what is he doing? Oh, he's carrying an axe and everything and be careful. He could kill someone she's looking out at her dead husband. She's like, ah, got an idea. And so she goes out there with the axe and very comical scene and tries to make it look like the axe killer killed her husband. But she can't look at him while she's swinging so she keeps missing him finally she she does look straight at him and buries the axe in his head. Gets a bunch of blood all over. Wood. She looks back then to the dead Santa. He's not that Oh no wait, it actually is she goes running inside to call the police and tell them that this has happened. She's She's acting very scared. Oh my God, this guy's out there. It's killed my husband and everything. And I'm like, Where is he now? And she goes, he's said, she looks out the window where he's supposed to be laying dead and he's not there. And she's like, Oh, shit. So it's all just very, very, very black humor. She ends up basically, you know, locking all the doors, but her daughter has come down because she heard a thump and kind of ends with the daughter holding the hands of the deranged Santa's saying, look, Mom, Santa is here. And we get this just amazing blood curdling scream from the mom. And then it goes, of course to the cryptkeeper Don't worry, kidneys, you know. Oh my god, it's so good. It's just fucking gorgeous looking at very little trivia on anything like this, except that it was actually William Gaines, who was the publisher of Tales from the Crypt. His son was the new publisher and the main producer of the series and he was there on set and really cajoled Zemeckis to get that scream out. At the end. He was just like, we got to get a bigger screen than this. And so Zemeckis finally got her toe. What do you watch it? You're like, that is a fucking great scream. If you heard that in the middle of the night, you'd be like, holy shit, somebody's getting killed. The one little piece of trivia I found was in 1994. Tales from the Crypt released a Christmas album, called have yourself a scary little Christmas. Nice, nice. Horror Christmas songs. Okay. And I'm like, I have to find this now. This sounds like a blast. sleigh bells. And yes, they the house. That is whenever somebody says the Tales from the Crypt HBO original series that is the episode that pops in my head first. Yeah. Without a doubt. It's so good. I mean, you could completely understand why they wanted to launch with this because it's just so strong. And you know, it's got a real history, you know, with the actual I haven't seen that Tales from the Crypt movie and so long that it made me want to find that and watch this segment. See how well they did it? Yeah. So very good. Yeah. So there's three things on your your Christmas Day, you guys can bring the family together and watch I think, or maybe it's so Christmas Eve, and you just want to warm up some hot cocoa and get on your Christmas letter and some interesting combination of episodes. Absolutely. I mean, I watched mine on YouTube. All of the episodes are available on YouTube. So I believe I watched mine. I want to stay on Hulu, but it's definitely all of X Files is available. satre HBO Max has all over Dr. At least all of the reason. Wow. Okay, I don't know if they've kept the original but man, they gotta Oh, for me to dip my toe. I watched a couple episodes of the tenant and I was like, I see why the checks. Like he's awfully charming. That's such a he's a good actor. It's that's, that's heartbreaking. I never made it past tenant because I couldn't. I couldn't like go I couldn't move on Jeff, the guy's name, but I also really liked him. He is great. He's what makes him so good. And this is why doctor who I think keeps working. He's totally different from Tennant. Yeah. And then Capaldi is totally different. That's just, I think I'm ready. It's been like, eight years. Well, so this being Christmas Eve, that means our next episode is going to land on New Year's Eve. A close and it will be an auspicious episode. That's right. Vanessa, do you want to tell them what we're doing? Or what are we doing? You tell me what are we doing? And until then, what we're doing it's gonna be a rundown of 2020 films. I believe it'll actually be December 31. When we get when the perfect Yeah. 24th 31st so we'll be talking about all of our favorite films of this past year. And you know, you might think well, how could there possibly be No, no, no number 100 is going to be the five the five movies of our five horror movies So will this be number 99? Is this is number 99. Right? Oh, so next? What next episode is Episode 100. That is correct. Oh my god. That's very exciting, guys. Okay, so this is a special episode where you get to know your, your hosts. Yeah. Okay, another one of before we've done our top five overall films, you know, like we talked about non horror films in it as well. This one's a little bit more straight horror. I think we talked about I mean, technically it's your pick. So you should describe how we're gonna do. This is kind of like The way that it was pitched I think was how we feel or what what five films we feel if we horror to ourselves. Yeah, the perfect door. Yes, absolutely. This can be a difficult one to title. It really is. Yeah. So but for annual how many thumbs are we talking about for the first episode for the 2020? rundown, and that will be our top five. Top five of the year, but we're gonna talk about Oh, yeah, well mentioned a lot. But during that time, we talked about a top 10 one time and then realize that's just a lie. Nobody cares. Well, people care just very specific people probably care. Alright, so that's very confusing. But next week, we are talking our five horror films The best describe us for Episode One 100 100 extravaganza and there's gonna be a little something special in there for all you. Yeah. Wait, wait. What are we doing? That's the show every day. See you in one week. Really. Our show is recorded somewhere high above Naval Station Everett at the nexus of all realities, and is engineered and produced by Eric Margaret. Our theme music is Strange Aeons part one by the band Nightshade is used with permission. Find Strange Aeons radio on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, wherever find podcasts