By popular demand, Shana Mlawski makes her Overthinking It Podcast debut in this episode. She is joined by Mark Lee, Matthew Belinkie, and Peter Fenzel who overthink the Jonas Brothers concert movie, Watchmen, and other unfilmable things.
Warning: Watchmen (graphic novel) spoilers contained. We tried our best predict how the movie would end, so it’s possible (though highly unlikely) that we managed to spoil the ending of the movie as well.
Tell us what you think! Email podcast AT overthinkingit DOT com or call 20-EAT-LOG-01… that’s (203) 285-6401. And do us a favor and take the very short survey!
I had heard that there was a Maus film project in the work (animated, like you suggested), but Art Spiegelman was understandably reluctant to hand over the rights.
Lee, technically “angst” can be pronounced either way because it is a word derived from German
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/angst
but I believe the accepted pronunciation in the popular culture is “aŋ(k)st”
Speaking of being technical, can the money from all those upcoming advertisements go towards buying some of our overthinkers better mics and such?
@Shana – nice debut. You and Lee give good audio. The rest of you, lift your game. :P
Shana, nice to finally hear you join the rest of the Overthinkers! I was quite giddy when I heard your voice at the beginning. Don’t make it the last, pleeease?!
Yeah, Sarielthrawn is right in terms of audio, too- Belinkie and Fenzel were dropping in and out a lot, what’s up with that? ;)
Something I thought of when the penis was discussed: is that why it’s rated R? Or is it the violence? I mean, there is a different rant to have here about vaginae v. penises and how they influence ratings, but I’m curious about _Watchmen_ on its own and will leave any inquiries to just that. Any thoughts? Maybe it was violent enough that throwing the penis in there didn’t change its rating? Maybe that was the straw that broke the camel’s back? Maybe it shows up enough that it had to be R, so then the violence had more leeway? I can’t say- yet, I guess, since I haven’t seen it and can’t gauge how much, uh, screen time there is for it.
As I said somewhere else, one thing I can tell from the previews and casting of _Watchmen_ is how the has-been-ness of the characters is going to be played down- at least physically. Like you say, Shana, Dan is impotent and rather flabby and in his forties in the novel, BUT, Patrick Wilson is ripped and thirty at most; and Veidt is also in his forties and a perfect spectacle of the human body, while Goode clearly isn’t (he’s fit, but not as massive, and he’s too young). Oh, and I don’t think Dean Morgan or Akerman are old enough for their roles, either. I think this will, unfortunately, make them lose aspects of their characters that are important to who they are- and this could make the film less satisfying because it will be harder to swallow that any of them were in retirement or of the age to be as such, and the weaknesses any of them seem to feel inside when not in costume will be harder to see in their physical manifestations.
No, the trailers don’t tell you what it’s about- only a person that has read it would understand them.
The reason Veidt has people write a background for the monster is because the psychic flash it would send to kill those people instantly would also send images to those not close enough to be killed but still within range of being “touched” by it- so by imprinting a fake history into the minds of the humans living through the encounter, he thereby generates more evidence pointing to the squid coming from another planet/universe. There is, indeed, much method to all of his madness. Yes, it takes one crazy mo-fo; but nothing he does is random or disconnected, and that is part of why he is so massively horrifying. Call me crazy, but I see a parallel between Veidt and an episode from season two of _Babylon 5_ involving a guy called “The Inquisitor”… Anyone know what I’m talking about? Otherwise, I’ll stuff it.
I know other versions of the script included having Ozy as the head of a terrorist organization of some sort instead of making a squid monster. So maybe there will be a massive bombing with fabricated evidence linking it to some made-up entity that is clearly NOT a squid monster. Or maybe linking it to a scapegoat? See, I find it difficult to do the ending WITHOUT the squid, since the squid was manufactured as a fake alien that popped into our dimension by accident. Its supposed accident thereby explains away why it is the only one, why nothing else like that would ever happen again- but if whatever happens isn’t even supposed to be passed off as alien, getting the public to swallow it as a lone incident will be harder for Veidt, unless he somehow makes all of the “perpetrators” die in the process- and at that point, there would be no need for any hostilities between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. to end, since the third party threat would be gone. Granted, that’s close to the alien thing, but not quite the same- after all, that squid had an accident, so what if another does? If humans are the ones doing the killing, the only way to prevent any questioning why more doesn’t occur would be killing all “masterminds” or whatever (so yes, some sort of fake one-shot-massive suicide bombing). So meh, maybe it IS some sort of “alien” after all- just not a squid? Sorry, kind of thinking out loud/ typing as I go there.
Re: audio problems, it’s not so much the mics as it is this thing called the internet. All of you, your Bittorent downloads are clogging the tubes that carry our VOIP conference call. I order you to cease and desist.
Failing that, take the survey so we can sell ads on the podcast. We’ll take the money and establish a dedicated fiberoptic data line. k thx bai.
The Jonas Brothers are on Disney and everyone knows that Disney people don’t have genitalia. They’re like Barbie and Ken down there. Females are allowed to have boobs, but that’s it (See exhibit A – Miley Cyrus).
So it seems that fire hoses are as close as they can get… But surely someone from Disney should have thought about that a little bit more. Clearly no over-thinkers working on that project…
On the contrary, I bet it was overthought to the point of exhaustion and fully intentional. They aren’t stupid, nor are they that dense. Think of Miley Cyrus and her softcore photoshoot.
Actually I try not to think about Miley Cyrus wherever possible… and Disney too for that matter. Thoughts of the sort of BS that may be going on behind the scenes of kiddie entertainment kinda suck. Where’s the commitment to the g-rated ethos dammit? Oh wait, silly question…
Equinspire: I think Walt Disney would gouge out his own eyes if he could see what his company has become since his death. People have resigned because of it, actually, citing how so much of what goes on now is completely out of the scope of Disney’s vision.
Yeah, my audio problems tend to have to do more with my connection than my equipment – I have wireless Verizon DSL, which isn’t the best or most consistent in the world already – and I share it with a bunch of dudes. Sometimes my audio sounds great, sometimes it is just choppy and I have to drop off.
I couldn’t hear the overthinkers on my end, either, which is why I ended up dropping off the podcast this week.
Frowntown :-(
But I’ll be up and at them again soon! Hopefully the connection will work better. Sorry dudes and dudettes.
-Pete