Sam 0:00 So we went to the movie theater for the first time in 17 months. And I really want to know, why are movie theater chains showing ads that ask people to come back to the theater while they're literally sitting in a theater waiting for a movie to start? Andy 0:14 Hello, and welcome to podcast phone. The service that lets you know about great and wonderful new podcasts. Are you listening for a new podcast? Are you wanting to listen to a new podcast? Well, I've got great news for you. There's a wonderful podcast. It's called monkey off my backlog. So please go and download it and listen, or you can just do the thing and Wait just a second and you'll be listening to it anyway, because you have to Sam 1:01 welcome to monkey off my backlog a podcast where we exercise our pop culture demons by tackling our media to do list one week at a time. I'm your host, the lawful good character on this podcast, Sam Morris. Pause for Hello, and with me is my co host Tessa Swehla don't pause for Hello. And making his triumphant return is our other co host, the man who let me check my notes. Andy, Andy 1:28 hello. That's right. It's me the inspector of interruptions, the corporal of chaos, the wonderful the only d&d. Sam 1:37 In this episode, I find out what happens when you mix a first person shooter with binary choices and hours of television. Tessa listens to some records. And Andy tells us what he's been up to so far this summer. Before we get started, though, Andy, you've been gone for a while. And we haven't done one of my most favorite podcasts within a podcast while you've been gone. So it's been months. So I think it's time for an episode of has Tessa seen lost yet. On this episode of has Tessa seen lost yet. Tessa 2:19 Yes. Yes. Sam 2:20 I have. Happy birthday, Andy. I got you. Tessa watching last. Andy 2:26 Yeah, yes. How far into last Has she seen? Sam 2:30 All right. So Tessa, why don't you talk a little bit about how much you've seen. And and and I know most people listening have never heard of this show last. So maybe you want to say a couple of words about that as well. Tessa 2:43 It's such an obscure show. Like I don't know if anyone has actually heard of it outside the three people on this podcast. Andy 2:50 Oh, wait, are you talking about the 2001 reality show where they abandon people in the Mongolian desert and tell them to figure out where they work? Tessa 2:57 Yeah, no, I'm not. I am not talking about that show. I am talking about the ABC drama for lack of a better word that aired from 2004 to 2010. six seasons, although I've only seen and we'll only be discussing season one. So please no spoilers for me. But yeah, I watched the first season of lost and I have thoughts about it. Andy 3:19 We should be talking about this now. Or can we make this the teaser for the next episode? No, no, Sam 3:24 this is this is it. The notes are alive. Oh, okay, I did that for you. This was all a giant fake out. Andy 3:31 I appreciate it. Continue. Sam 3:33 Before before you get into some more details about the series. I just want to get this out of the way on a scale of one one being I was wrong. And 10 being I was so wrong. I'll never doubt you again. Where would you put waiting so long to watch the show on there. Tessa 3:49 about an eight. I don't I'm not gonna say that in all situations. I'm gonna you know, say like, Oh, I will never doubt you again. It's not that I like doubted you really about last. I mean, I was sure it was a good show before I started watching it. I just I put off watching last for so long. Mainly because so many people talked about how it was one of the greatest shows on television, it's kind of like breaking bad or the sopranos for me. It's like, the more you go on about it, the less I actually want to watch it. Because one, I don't know if it'll actually live up to the hype. And to it's sort of that contrarian like fandom, like if you're going to be if you're going to be just ridiculous about your fandom for a particular property. I just don't want to watch it. So that that was the thing with last for a long time. Sam would tell me to watch last and I would just put it off for like another year. Andy 4:44 loss is just fine. It's it's no it's no Breaking Bad. So anyway, well, Tessa 4:50 no, I'm just saying like comparing to like those were the other shows that I had these same feelings about is that like, people would be just like, an insufferable that was the So before they be insufferable with their fandom, and that would make me delay it another year. The other thing about last is that there are six seasons of it. And at this point is just like, that's just so much television. Like I didn't get in on the ground floor. That's just a lot. It's a lot. And of course, it was it was network television. So it's like, you know, almost a full hour show. It's 45 minutes to an hour. Question, Tessa, Andy 5:23 how many episodes of The Good Wife and the good fight? Did you watch in the same time period? Tessa 5:29 A lot. Andy 5:30 And how long was that show? Tessa 5:32 Let's see, The Good Wife has seven seasons, I've seen five of them. And the good fight has now four seasons, they just started their fifth season, and I've seen four of them. Andy 5:44 Uh huh. And that is that show is a would you say it's an hour long network television show? Tessa 5:50 Yeah, but the good fight got me in on the ground floor. You see, last I didn't get it on the ground floor. In fact, I didn't even consider watching it until the last episode had already come out. And there's a huge fandom a lot around lost. And that's not me disparaging the fandom. It's just huge. I mean, Andy 6:06 I really don't think there is but Tessa 6:08 no, there is like I the last recaps are legendary, like people talk about it all the time they rewatch it. I don't know that I've somehow managed to stay mostly spoiler free from the show all this time, although I would see like previews of the show occasionally, you know, in my, in my youth when it was still on. And I know the big ending, like I understand how last ended. So that's not really like a spoiler for me. But it is something that I've been surrounded by a lot of even though I have managed to pretty much stay on spoiled. Sam 6:40 So I think that, you know, after the show was over, I don't know that a fandom really exists today. I think it was kind of Jurassic Park style frozen ampere. At the end. During the show's run. There was a definite huge fan demo. Andy 6:58 But I think Oh, I remember I I was watching it. But yeah, there's no fandom now. Sam 7:03 Yeah, I think a lot of people walked away from it. And which makes it really interesting, because it's a it's, it's got a very dense mythology. I'm not talking about the show, I'm talking about what it means to have watched, lost, and it makes it intimidating. For for somebody to start, I think that's the the big thing here. And, you know, I don't think Breaking Bad is a better show than last, I think it has a better ending. But that's only because Breaking Bad probably has, in my mind, the best ending of a show that's run for multiple seasons. You know, I have a lot of complaints about the show, but it ended well. But overall, I don't think it's a better show. But that's definitely a point of contention with lots of people. Right? Andy 7:52 I think that the ending of last is good. But we're not talking about our feelings on the you know, we're talking about Tesla's feelings on the characters, the world building the polar bears of last Sam 8:05 right. And I think this is fascinating, because you heard her say that she thought she knew what the show was. And was it what you expected? Tessa 8:15 My expectations were, I actually don't completely know what my expectations were. I thought it was more of a survival show, I think than it ended up being like the main premise of last is that this plane with a bunch of passengers crashes on what appears to be an abandoned jungle Island. And they have to survive on this island. That's that is the at its most basic. That is the premise of the first season anyway. And I guess I thought it was gonna be more of like a, like action II like survival kind of show. I mean, I knew about the polar bears. I knew that there was like the mystery of the island. But I wasn't really expecting the way that they played with genre and the way they played with episode structure. And some of the other things that come into this particular show. The show was created by Jeffrey Lieber JJ Abrams, our friend, JJ Abrams. Sam is shaking his head, and Dave Damon Lindelof. So you should know pretty much all of those names. Last is maybe not the urtext of The X Files, but it definitely has given us a lot of screenwriting and producer talent whether or not you like JJ Abrams, whether or not you like Damon Lindelof or Jeffrey Lieber. Those are some pretty big hitters in terms of creativity in the TV, television industry in Hollywood, etc. Andy 9:51 So so like Tessa, one of the things about last in general, is that last makes its own kind of genre. It was one of the One of the big network televisions that mixed everything up and got people talking and it was, it was originally one of the I think it started the watercooler conversation. Again a lot of I remember in high school my teachers talking about it and I kind of talked about it with them. I remember the wonderful introductions for me as someone who like learns like the tragedy of a slightly more in depth character with Charlie and, and, and just many interesting characters. I remember the twist with with Ethan in the first season. I remember a lot of things it's it's such a wonderfully weird show and it does that because of the flashback bounce and telling you who the people were before they came to the island. Yeah, Tessa 10:50 so for those of you who are unfamiliar, perhaps with lost or who haven't seen loss because you were so resistant to it like I was or perhaps you lived in a hatch in the ground for for the last 20 years. The way that the episodes are structured is that each episode really follows a story on the island. It's kind of like arrowverse right? It has the a storyline of what's happening on the island and then the the storyline is the flashback for specific character. Sam 11:18 So like they got that Tessa 11:19 it's almost like the arrow that the show arrow was was trying to imitate last. It's almost like that. But yeah, like like Andy mentioned, this show has a large ensemble cast. I mean, I can't even I'm just gonna read some of the names from the first season. I know there are more people that come in later, but Naveen Andrews Emily de Ravin, who I love Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Maggie grace Josh Holloway, Malcolm David Kelly, Daniel Dae Kim Eugene Kim Evangelion, Lily Dominic Monaghan, Terry o'quinn, Harold Paranal, Ian Somerhalder, there's just a ton of people that you probably know from other television shows. Huge, huge and so ensemble cast. And what I think is so interesting is the way in which the first season at least is so invested in the characters that was the other thing that I didn't really know about this series is that it is such a, it's gonna be weird. I feel like this is gonna be a weird thing to say. But it's kind of a heartwarming series, in some ways. Like, it's definitely invested in the characters and the characters relationships with each other. And a big theme of the first season isn't just like, how do we survive on this island? But it's also like, how do we get catharsis on this island from like things that have happened in our past? How does this put those things into perspective? And how do these new relationships help us develop as people? So you mentioned Charlie, who's played by Dominic Monaghan, there's a few episodes that are focused on him and his drug addiction. There's episodes about Evangeline Lilly, what did Kate do? I still don't know i at this point, I'm convinced that she's like a Black Widow like type character. You know, they're the main character is more Andy 13:07 of a wasp than Black Widow Tessa 13:09 in the the sense that there is a main character which there really isn't in their show, but in the sense that there is the character of jack who is kind of a reluctant messianic character. And names are important in lost if you've watched last, you know, this, his full name is jack Shepard, which is like a really big deal. There's a character by the name of john Locke. And so there's a lot of these like philosophical ideas and like, like Sam said, like really dense mythology that I don't really want to get into here, because unraveling it slowly, is half the fun. But it it is so interesting to me how character focused This is while still maintaining a sense of tension and a sense of mystery, and a sense of like, there's other things going on behind the scenes. Sam 13:57 So really quickly. You know, the the thing that I think is fascinating about last is, you know, JJ Abrams had done Felicity I think alias was up and running at this point. So he was established as a pretty good TV guy. Carlton Cuse who they brought on very, very quickly is a is a grinder in terms of TV show running like he's he runs shows he just makes the work happen. He has done several shows, but he's also done a little known show called The Adventures of brisco County Jr, with Bruce Campbell. But Matthew Fox who plays jack Shepard is one of the most well known people in the cast because he played one of the main roles in Party of Five dominate money and of course, is a hobbit most of the others are relatively unknown at this point. You know, Evangeline Lilly goes on to play. The Wasp, Daniel Dae Kim is huge now from the show and from Hawaii Five O. Emily, Deborah then goes on to once upon a time and Of course, Vampire Diaries friend, he in summer holder. So I mean, there's just a lot of stuff going on there. And if you want to get into the mythology, while you're watching the show, find Jeff Jensen's ew recaps. Jeff Jensen went on to write Tomorrowland which Damon Lindelof directed. It was on the back of his recaps for the show that Damon Lindelof show ran that Damon Lindelof hired him to write a movie. That's, that's what la that's the effect of last. But anyway, favorite characters? Andy 15:35 Tom Redbird directed that Tomorrowland? Sam 15:39 Yeah, you're right. Andy 15:41 Sorry. Sorry. I just like I know this, because I was looking forward to tomorrow. And Tomorrowland was something I wanted to see. And it disappointed me. Sam 15:49 And it was a great movie. And I enjoyed it. And I've seen it multiple times. Andy 15:53 Well, we'll disagree here anyway, can Sam 15:55 top three favorite characters Tessa? Tessa 15:57 Well, Kate, obviously, Kate is a really great character, I really want to know what she did. But basically, for those of you who want more of a taste of the show, she is a character who was a prisoner on the plane who was being transported from because it's a flight from Australia to LA. As she's being transported. extradited from Australia back to the US to stand trial, she was caught by a marshal. And of course, the plane crashes. And so she's sort of hiding the fact that she was a convict from the rest of the crew, or from the rest of the people on the plane. And so there's a lot there. Again, we keep seeing flashbacks from her, but we don't know exactly what she did. So that is part of the part of the thing. Oh, my God, I can't remember his name. Is it art? Not art, not art. Although art has one of the most hilarious arcs of the entire season. But Hurley Hurley is everybody's best friend. I love Hurley. Hurley is the gentle giant of the group. You get a little bit of his backstory later in the season. And it is hilarious. I don't think I've ever laughed as hard as I did during that episode. But he is the guy who just goes around. He's so gentle. Everyone gets along with him. Even people who don't generally get along with people like Sawyer, who's kind of a aihole. Anyway. And he's just great. He has some of the best lines, he creates a golf golf course for them at one point because he's like, he can't just be about survival, like we have to do fun things to. And there is actually a moment in the show later on. And I don't want to spoil it for anybody. So I won't say exactly what happens. But there is a moment during his episode later in the season that has one of the most cathartic moments on television that I've ever seen involving him and I cried like it was just such a like moving piece because he's such a ridiculous character and he's just kind of there for comedic relief and to like, be there but his episode legit made me cry because it was just so like heartwarmingly like, I can't even describe it. I you'd have to watch it. Let's see who's my third favorite character? Andy 18:01 Is it? Is it Boone? No, Shannon? Tessa 18:05 Shannon is is actually kind of a great character, but she's definitely not one of my favorites. Ah, Vincent. Yeah, actually, Vincent the dog is my third favorite character. I can't believe he survived that plane crash. It makes me laugh. No. I also really love survival Andy 18:22 of a dog makes you laugh. No, no, he Tessa 18:25 makes me laugh. He makes me laugh because he just keeps showing up like he's just like rat running around this island. And like, half the time he's with his like, owner and half the time. He's just like, around. It's just very funny. Andy 18:38 Hold on. I have I have one other character that I think I think you probably love a lot. And I think that character is son. Tessa 18:48 I do love son. Son is great. I wasn't really sure what they were gonna do with Daniel Dae Kim and Eugene Kim's characters at the beginning of the show, but I really do love sun I feel like she's very compelling. She has a really interesting arc. Yeah, their relationship is just really interesting to me because especially because like they don't speak English and like people have a hard time communicating with them. Daniel Dame Kim's character is such a jerk at the beginning but like even he you start to realize that he has like other motivations for being there. Yeah, I think that this is just a very character for thing and that's not the entirety of the show, but it is definitely at the heart of the show. Sam 19:32 Andy really quick. Who are your top three Oh, gee season one characters. Andy 19:37 Oh, gee season one character. Well, number one art. I think art is is wonderful. Rose is well, no, uh, so my favorite characters are probably one I really like Rousseau. Rousseau. Rousseau is awesome. I really really loved lock it's so hard because I've seen the first two seasons so much that they that they bind together because what's your name Fast and Furious isn't in there yet right? Sam 20:10 She cameos in the finale but other than that there are no other non oh geez. Andy 20:16 I really think I really think Charlie i think i think Charlie, Charlie and seed the their characters really really just just just wonderful. Sam 20:28 So my my three favorite characters from last only one of them is one of the oh geez. And that's of course, Hurley, Hurley is without a doubt, the best character on the show period. The first time I watched the show, I really also liked side and and jack just because like, it's easy to see the show through his lens for me, which was kind of the point. Okay, enough about characters. This has like 17 different genres going on. Want to talk about that? Tessa 20:56 Yeah, so I kind of described it as a drama at the beginning, mainly because I feel like the word drama emphasizes the inter personal relationships of the characters, which, like I said, is at the heart of the show, but this show isn't just about people surviving on an island. It's a science fiction show. It's got horror, it's got survival drama, you know, a good part of the first chunk of the season is about like, Hey, where do we find clean water? Hey, where do we find shelter? Should we stay on the beach? Should we go into the you know, these caves that we found? What is the signal that's happening, you know, in the on the island, so there's a lot of that there is also a lot of mystery, like we mentioned, in the very first episode, they find and kill a polar bear on a tropical island, there is a monster that, you know, they stocking the island and who kills a couple of people, there are perhaps other people on the island. You know, there's all of this sort of mystery and horror going on as well. The other thing that I was really impressed with is the way in which episodes would shift genres, like there would be an episode that was very like survival family drama style episode, and then it would be followed by an episode like the one that focuses on Claire who's played by Emily D ravine that almost reminded me of a Rosemary's Baby type horror episode. Claire is pregnant, and there's a lot of drama around, like her pregnancy in this particular series as well. And so in her flashback, she's like being told, you know, your, your child has to be raised by you, or they'll turn out evil, you know, like, it's very, very like, is she giving birth to the Antichrist, like, what, like, what is happening with this child, and then that will be followed by an episode with Charlie dealing with drug addiction. So it kind of shifts these genres not just in the way that the island is presented and the struggles that they have on the island. But it also shifts genres between episodes, like some of them lean a little harder into horror, some of them lean a little harder into more of like a con man spy thriller, when it comes to Kate. Some of them lean a little harder into like survival and family drama. And I just think that that is so interesting. It gives them so much flexibility in the stories that they want to tell. But it also means like, we get to ask these questions about the characters that we probably wouldn't have if the question if the show stuck to a more conventional format. Sam 23:22 Alright, so closing thoughts, Tessa, recommend this to everybody else. Thinking about watching season two, Tessa 23:30 I think about watching Season Two pretty much every day and as soon as we're done with this season of the original series, I'll probably get back to it. I think about one of Star Trek sorry, the original series of Star Trek, I will probably get back to it. I really want to know what's in the hatch. Anyway, watch this show. If anything I've said appeal to you watch it Don't be like me, don't put it off forever. I've really, really been enjoying the show. And I think that there's something here for everybody. Sam 23:57 And I for one would like to publicly take this opportunity on monkey on my backlog to thank Tessa for putting up with me. And my insistence that she watched this and the and the experience of watching it with me where I'm looking at her like it's gonna be great. It's gonna be so good. You're gonna love it. And she hasn't killed me yet. This has been an episode. Has Tessa seen lost yet? Tessa 24:29 So Andy, speaking of mystery, and mischief. What did you do? While you were out on your on your leave your generous leave? Andy 24:39 Yes, my generous leave and I'm still waiting on the pay for that. I played a video game I played a video game and a long running series of video games. And I I want because I know both of you have some form of experience with with this genre of game or this franchise. And I want you to, to guess if you can, what franchise This is based on my description of the opening, which by the way, is actually an accurate description of the opening and is not like one of these like, Oh, you know what? I'm gonna be kind of vague about it and reference something else like no, no, this is this is exactly what happens in the opening, which is, begins with four dudes driving in a car, these dudes each look like they have gotten dressed, be running through a separate section of hot topic with their eyes closed, and just putting on whatever they could. But they're all for men about I would say like about, you know, early 20s, late teens, they're driving a convertible down the road, the convertible breaks down, and they're in the middle of the desert. And you can see, you know, kind of like a diner off off ahead. The first thing you have to do is take the main character, and with the other two of the other characters is push the car for about five minutes. And as you're pushing the car, they start bickering about whose fault it is. And the car keeps getting pushed. And then you hear stand by me. So you're hearing stand by me as these four friends are bickering and kind of laughing. You know, having wonderful dialogue over like, Okay, I'm tired. We should stop. We should stop. What franchise do you think would start a game with four characters pushing a car? To the lyrics? Or to the original version of standby? Sam 27:01 I'm pretty sure I know what this is. But I'm not gonna say it. I do have another answer, though. But Tessa, do you have anything? Okay, so this is Mass Effect Andromeda. I don't think that anybody has actually played this game. Because nobody seems to know what it's about. So I think that's what it is. Tessa 27:22 Is this a Grand Theft Auto game? Andy 27:24 Oh, oh. Sam 27:27 It's it's Final Fantasy, right? Andy 27:29 Yeah, it's Final Fantasy 15 no other game in the series even starts out remotely like this. It this actually feels like, like, like you're actually in like, the desert. And like, you're actually in Arizona. Like, like, like, it's it's bizarre. Tessa 27:46 When did this game come out? Andy 27:48 This game came out in 2016. Tessa 27:50 Is this the most recent one? Andy 27:53 Yes. Yes. Final Fantasy 16 has not come out yet. This game was in development for a very long time. It is the only mainline Final Fantasy. Must you count 14 but 14 is an MMO and no one counts. 14. The only one that came out on this generation of consoles. So it's the only next gen Final Fantasy so Tessa 28:14 why did it take so long for you to play it? Since you're such a Final Fantasy? afficionado? Andy 28:20 Yes. Well, one of the things that took me so long to play it is it was kind of kept being referred to as Oh, this game is incomplete. This game was not finished and they actually had to go back and add more content to kind of make the story make any sense and and i will tell you right now, even with this new version, which I played Final Fantasy 15 Royal edition, even with that game feels the story feels very in so Tessa 28:53 it's cyberpunk. 2077 is what you're telling me. Andy 28:57 It is it is kind of a kind of like that. Except, you see, if you really want to understand the story of Final Fantasy 15 what you can do is watch the the movie that they that they released of Final Fantasy 15 called Final Fantasy 15 Kings clave and this was an animated final fantasy movie and people know the record of Final Fantasy movies being animated and, and, and not being good. Final Fantasy Spirits Within was a legendary bomb. And costs cost so much money. But it's a movie that takes place during the first like the first 10 minutes of the video game. So it's a it's supposed to be the movie that gives you the entire background of what's happening with all these characters that don't show up in the game. Like oh make sense to me also the the voice cast of Kings glave is like Aaron Paul and Lena Headey and Sean Bean And just like, wow, they they got some alias people to, to voice this and it gives you all the background and if you don't watch that movie, you have almost nothing to do there's even like a clip show of the movie in the beginning of the game. And it's like not a clip show that like, Oh, you know, covers the beats the story. It's a clip show that that be like, Oh, yeah, if you watch the movie, this will be a jogger of what happened and all the action. And it's, it's, it's, it's insane. Final Fantasy 15 is a story about the prince of a country, the prince is named noctus and his four friends and which features Gladio, who is a king's guard, and his loyal best friend, you have Ignis, who is his kind of Butler, and an other best friend. And then you have prompto, who is like the peasant boy that somehow fit in and gotten cool with this crowd. And their their journey, their entire goal is literally just to go and get noctus married, that that is how it starts, like somebody whose wife is waiting. Yes, yes, yes, is his future wife is waiting on the other side of the world for him to to, to get married. And this will join their countries together against against the third evil country named the Empire. This is supposed to be just a road trip. And as you can guess things don't go according to plan, like the car breaking down. And the evil Emperor actually invading the country. In the moments between Noctis leaves his his dad, who is the king leaves and starts heading out on this, the evil empire the Germany that whatever, invades and takes over the country in a matter of minutes. And his father's dead and now noctus needs to go and find the magical powers to help him to help him overthrow the Empire because he is the king and there's this whole Chosen One storyline and but that's the thing. What I'm sounding it sounds like it's all scattered scatterplot and that I'm like skipping things. But no, this is like how the game actually tells you this story. Tessa 32:29 So how was the gameplay? Andy 32:31 Oh, well, you played Kingdom Hearts. Yes. And it's a very, very weird mix of a Active Time Battle. The director of this game is also the director of Kingdom Hearts. And in many ways, this game feels like a prototype for a new kingdom hearts with mixing RPG battling with the turn base standard Japanese with also moving around and and real time action and pressing X to swing your sword. Except for what they what they do is they like have you hold X to do a combo. It's It's It's It's a weird mix. It works. Until it doesn't. It's a very weird, Tessa 33:18 Goofy and Donald show up at any point to help this Prince against the evil empire. Andy 33:24 No, no, unfortunately, nothing like that happens. But a fun little thing here is Final Fantasy 15 was originally a completely separate game that was announced in 2006 called Final Fantasy versus 13. Yes. So a spin off. No, no, no, it was not a spin off of 13 that. I don't know where you would get that idea, Tessa, I don't know why you would ever think that it's Final Fantasy versus 13. Okay, I don't know why you would think of anything to do with Final Fantasy 13 at all, which was a completely separate game that had no connection. And this was like, by all reports this this vs 13 was like the brainchild of of the director of Kingdom Hearts The creator of Kingdom Hearts and this is why Kingdom Hearts three took so long to come out his final fantasy 15 took so long to come out. But it's it's so much so the main character of verses 13 noctus was a very different character from his personality wise from the trailers wicked gang and a secret boss and Kingdom Hearts three is this version of noctus ah which is really interesting. He's saying he keeps saying things like they stole my name. They stole everything from me as you're fighting him in Kingdom Hearts three. So so it it's a little bit of a like you don't have any context for this character in Kingdom Hearts three. He's just a secret little fight Tessa 34:51 you have context for any character and Kingdom Hearts. Andy 34:55 Yes, I do because I've played all of them and I love them all. But And no one who's listening. This has context for this game. It's a very weird game. The the original version of the game literally is broken up into chapters. And the original version of the final chapter is just a boss rush. And the Royal edition actually makes the final chapter and entire thing so it builds up story instead of just oh, let's go to the bad guys layer and then fight 20 bosses it's actually Oh, the bad guys layer is here and we're going to have the entire the entire area of the bad guys layer be playable. It's weird. It's a weird game. I am weird because I have no way to describe what this game did to me. I recommend watching a YouTube video even though you have no interest by a YouTuber named super eyepatch wolf about Final Fantasy 15 and why it was a mediocre disappointment. And he he does a wonderful job describing the development was the problems the issues. Yeah, yeah, finally, that's 15 was weird. Do Tessa 36:04 you recommend that anyone play it? Andy 36:06 No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, unless of course you are a completionist like Sam who will one day after play Final Fantasy 15 if he ever wants to play Final Fantasy 16 slow to help. Sam 36:19 I haven't finished Final Fantasy seven yet. I know cheese. Andy 36:25 Sam, hold on Sam between Final Fantasy seven and Final Fantasy 15. You have these games to play. Final Fantasy eight. Final Fantasy nine. Final Fantasy 10 Final Fantasy 10 to Final Fantasy 12. You'll notice I didn't say Final Fantasy 11 because that's an MMO. And we don't talk about that. Final Fantasy 13 Final Fantasy 13 to Final Fantasy 13 three, then Final Fantasy 15 Tessa 36:54 a lot of games. Andy 36:55 Oh and Final Fantasy seven remake. Sam 36:57 Right? But that's not what I played this week. Andy 37:00 What did you play this week, Sam. Sam 37:02 Over the last month. I have been very slowly making my way through the 2016 game Quantum Break, which is the in universe quasi sequel to Alan Wake made by remedy published by Microsoft. It is a interactive story telling transmedia live action television show first person shooter thing, right and this stars the dude from Quantum Leap right? As a matter of fact, it does not it stars Shawn Ashmore, who you might know as Iceman Aiden Gillen, who you might know as little finger and Lance Reddick, which if you don't know who Lance Reddick is, I assure you you do. Of course, maybe, for me most prominently from fringe. Andy 37:54 First of all, people know Gillan from playing car keti in the wire and not from his amazing performance his little finger in Game of Thrones. Anyway, I just I just wanted to get that out there. More people probably know him as car caddy from the wire because everyone's watched the wire right? Have you watched the wire? It's a really good show. Tessa, Tessa 38:17 you just made me put it off for another year. Sam 38:19 The plot of Quantum Break. As I said it is in the same universe as Alan Wake Alan Wake is a writer a person who exists in this universe. What happened to him happened in this universe. Andy 38:31 I'm pretty certain that it's Alan Walker. Sam 38:34 So time is broken. And how do we fix it? That is the question of this game. The game is based around three characters, three friends, an inventor, a friend who takes advantage of that inventors technology for seemingly nefarious purposes, and the adventurers brother who is the playable character throughout the game. modeled after Shawn Ashmore, Lance Reddick plays a mysterious corporate executive, fixer type he basically is in cahoots with in Guillen's character. So it's a it's a pretty as far as like the core three and then Lance Reddick as kind of The X Factor. It's a pretty good narrative. The game is set up as the following. You get your little intro story, but you get dumped in pretty quick. It is a first person shooter for about two three or four levels depending on which of the 5x you're in. mechanics are an evolution of what you got from Alan Wake. So it was very easy to set back into that. Once you get to the end of a set of FPS levels you get to a junction point, you briefly take control of in gilens character and make a binary decision. And based on which of the two decisions you make you then watch a television episode. Like a 22 minute drama television show. It is not a cinematic. It is a actual television show with Ashmore Gillen rhetor, Redick, and a host of others and depending on the binary choice you made, there are several scenes within each episode that are different. Andy 40:20 In interesting note though, the television show. Shawn Ashmore, his character is played by Aaron Ashmore, his brother. Sam 40:28 Still now, still now also not true. But would we know the difference? Andy 40:34 You don't it but but it is it is actually a fact that his the character model is was done by Aaron Ashmore. Prove it prove me wrong. Sam 40:43 Prove me wrong. not ask me the next question. Andy 40:46 So did this weird format of having a a show a TV show in a video game? I game? It's a game, having a show in a game, that format work for you. Sam 41:01 So this is very different. The question wasn't successful. And did it work for me are two very different questions. And I will answer them both by saying this, which is the most surprising thing that you Intesa have ever heard me say in my life. I want to shoot things when I play a video game. I don't want to watch a TV show. You know what I want to do when I want to watch a TV show? That's right. I get sad because my life is so busy. And I don't have time to watch a TV show. And so I don't. But the point is, if I could I'd watch a TV show not play a video game. It's a really cool idea. Andy 41:40 I the most surprising thing still, to me that you've ever said, Sam, is that you are the lawful good character on this path. Sam 41:48 That was those were your words, not mine. Andy 41:52 Listen, that was done in irony. Because you were clearly not the lawful, good character. Well, Sam 41:58 okay, so would you like to weigh in on this one? No, I'm good. Do you think I'm awful good, Tessa 42:05 yet to be determined? Andy 42:07 You You are at best. at best. You are neutral. Good. Sam 42:12 That's, that's a cop or Thank you. Andy 42:15 Well, Tessa 42:16 here's the thing. I will say this. I think that because Sam is very contrarian. However, Sam actually needs rules. Sam does not like it when people break rule. Okay. So that's where the law Hold on. Andy 42:30 Hold on. Right, right, right. Here's the thing, though, how many games that I have done, has Sam taken seriously, and answered according to the rules that I set aside or answered according to the rules that Sam has put up? He Sam 42:46 makes a good point, Sam. I am the jack Shepherd of this podcast. Here's the thing. I like this game. I really did. The two things, though. So there are collectibles because of course there are I've made my peace with collectibles from Vice City onward. It's a necessary evil, I understand I get it, it is part of the sandbox, whatever. I'll do it. The problem with Quantum Break is you expect me to read those. And they can be 1000s of words of text, they combined to create audio snippets that are like minutes in length or video clips. And that's on top of the television. So if I did what you wanted me to do, remedy, and watched an episode of television, and then carefully read and watched and listened. We're talking about an hour. At least an hour between issues your lawful Andy 43:43 No, Sam, I right. Oh, you did? Oh, so you didn't because you're not locked. So I get Sam 43:48 so I closed. I win. So I get to the end of the game. And there are two things left to do. Go back and redo all the junction points to collect achievements, which I did. Did I go back and watch the new scenes? I did for one episode. But after that, I was like, I don't care this much. I'm not gonna do this. I don't I don't want to do it. I was happy with what I got. The scenes were good, but I didn't watch them. And then one, there's one big loose thread that is not explicitly tied up in the television episodes or in gameplay. So I googled it. Well, I should have read the notes you would have found out I'm like, dude, I collected them. Don't make me read them. So the same thing with cyberpunk. At least those don't go anywhere like most of the rest of the game. Tessa 44:37 I actually can't watch Sam play Mass Effect because it hurts me. He like skips through all the conversations and all the storytelling. It hurts me. Andy 44:47 Why? Why would you care about that? It's it's Mass Effect. The choices don't matter. Like literally that's the thing. The entire marketing thing was all like Oh, the choices matter and then you find out they don't they don't matter at all. I'm still angry. About Mass Effect three. Sam 45:01 But I haven't finished it. So I don't know. But the thing about these kinds of video games, to us is a very different video gamer than me and I admire her for that, like I aspire to know I don't aspire to be the video gamer that you are, because I know I could never be. But it's the kind of video gamer who actually enjoys the art, the storytelling choices, the design the experience, I just want to shoot things. Andy 45:25 Again, the lawful good character saying I just want to shoot them. You know, Sam 45:30 I thought about that. I knew you'd have something to say about that. I just want to point out that like jumping on goombahs heads is like a gateway drug to first person shooters. That has been the trajectory of my life. Andy 45:41 Are you sure it didn't start the first time that you walk? A dot? That you walk a walk a walk over a power dot? And then you realize that ghosts are afraid of you? It's a reverse horror story? Sam 45:55 Not really. I think I'm too young for that. I think the first words the first game that I remember playing is actually adventure. You know the Atari game with a little dot? That's the first game I ever remember. I'm pretty sure I played Mario Brothers before Super Mario Brothers so it'd be more accurate it was banging my head on bricks. Doo doo doo doo doo doo did tttt do anyway yeah. It was a fun game I think remedies doing some cool stuff. I like Alan Wake I recommended that I like Quantum Break. I recommended that Tessa is on record about control which is also in the universe. I look forward to playing that I think remedy is doing good. How Andy 46:35 does she feel about Alton delete What? How does she feel about alt and delete has not played them yet? Is Sam 46:41 that correct? Is that are those the expansions? Oh, I see. Alright, well. Fine. Fine. You're fine. Alright, are we good? Did we do an episode? Andy 46:54 We? We are good. We did an episode. We actually did an episode. We did a full episode. I Sam 46:59 think it's a good episode. I think I think it was solid. Actually. Andy 47:02 I think it's fun. And I think we're Sam 47:05 this is this is our birthday present to you. What are we doing next week? Tune in next week for our MCU 2021 round up. We'll be talking wandavision Falcon in the Winter Soldier, Loki and Black Widow. In the meantime, Andy, where can we find you online? Andy 47:24 You can find me online on twitter at Andy noted. Sam 47:28 Tessa, Tessa 47:30 you said that so accusingly. You could find me on Twitter at suela Tessa Swehla is spelled SW e HLA. Find me Sam 47:39 on Twitter and letterboxed at Sam underscore Morris nine. Send us your thoughts about the monkeys we talked about today what pop culture you've crossed off your list lately, which like for us to talk about on future episodes or anything else that comes to mind? Find us on Twitter and Instagram at monkey backlog. Email us at monkey my backlog@gmail.com our theme song is hotshot by Scott Holmes and can be found on Scott Holmes music.com please rate review and subscribe on iTunes. Follow us on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon podcasts, Google podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Get that monkey off your back Transcribed by https://otter.ai