Tessa 0:00 You know, I've been thinking a lot about life and how it's a game with very missable achievements. Sam 0:06 Well, depending on what you believe there'll be an option for multiple playthroughs but in this playthrough Are you playing as a paragon or Renegade? Tessa 0:13 Or you know, I don't know how far I am through this playthrough yet, but I will say I've taken a lot of resources out of random unlocked crates. Sam 0:37 Welcome to monkey off my backlog 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 at the podcast, Sam Morris, and with me is my co host and seven Alliance marine Commander Tessa Swehla kaizala. Andy is off again this week. So joining us in the third chair, his friend of the podcast, the man who understands nothing about jennex culture, Unknown Speaker 1:02 Colby Waddell was up and going to learn about atrex today. I think I made that joke last time. Sam 1:09 Still. This week, Tessa is welcomed to the Space Jam. Coby explains what a Mass Effect is. And I find out what happens when the devil takes a vacation from hell to star in a police procedural, which seems like a lateral move. Unknown Speaker 1:28 So Tessa, I was under the impression that everyone had a mandatory viewing of Space Jam as children. I definitely did as a child in North Carolina, and I think you are forced to watch Space Jam. Why have you not until now, Tessa 1:45 so I didn't watch Space Jam as a child. I am a bad millennial. Apparently, apparently, that's part of the millennial handbook that you have to love Space Jam. And I just didn't see it. And part of it's because my family is very strange. I've talked on this podcast before about how my family is conservative, but also, they like, like, it's okay to watch things that they like, but if they're not interested in it, it's just a cultural blind spot. So I never saw Jurassic Park growing up, I did finally watch it in my early 20s. I never saw like Ferris Bueller or any of those movies that like families like watch together. Instead, I watched things like Labyrinth as a kid. So you know, that's probably tells you a lot about my childhood. But I was alive when Michael Jordan and the bulls were a super team in in the 90s. But my family didn't watch basketball. So I just didn't know very much about what was going on. I was a very small child. In fact, I didn't actually know that much about him until I watched the mini series last year the last dance, which was an incredible like documentary miniseries and I really liked it. But I learned a lot about just basketball in the 90s just last year, so that that should tell you something about my childhood. I put off watching Space Jam for a long time because of this because I thought you know, there's a lot of nostalgia here people love this movie. I've heard several quotes from it. My my best one of my best friends growing up used to always do the I want to stay home and make cookies with you, quote, a lot growing up. So I kind of knew about that. But I you know, I'm a big believer in you can't share in someone else's nostalgia, right? Like this idea that there are films out there that are just, like packed full of that nostalgia. And if you miss the boat on them as a child, you can't go back like you can't you can't go back and do that. So I was very nervous to watch this film because of that sort of mismatch here. I again, from North Carolina went to the University of North Carolina, which as you know, we're Michael Jordan when Unknown Speaker 3:58 people around me have a very strong opinions about Space Jam in the positive direction, which makes me an outlier because I don't like Space Jam. Tessa 4:13 combo Sam 4:15 I don't I don't as a as a not millennial, I saw this in the theater as a teenager. I it's it's fine. Yeah, Unknown Speaker 4:23 it's fine. It's an extended Looney Tunes short. To me personally, if you want to complain about this, you can at real goose one I think that Steve it Yeah, go ahead and tell him how mad you are at me. Sam 4:40 I think this is a good place to also point out that our corrections department is at portly Island boy. Unknown Speaker 4:48 Yeah, so without the without the stall jet tinted glasses, Tessa, Space Jam. Good. Bad in the middle. Tessa 4:57 So I was surprised to actually See how much I liked this movie again because I was really not expecting to connect with it in the way that a lot of people do. Just a quick very brief one sentence summary here. Space Jam is I'm going to do it you can summarize Space Jam in one sentence. Space Jam is a nice dark Space Jam is a 1996 multimedia live action animated film in which Michael Jordan who plays himself must team up with the Looney Tunes. That's right, Bugs Bunny in the game to win a basketball game against invading aliens from a theme park who want to enslave the Looney Tunes as stand up comedy. That is the plot of Looney Tunes. Sam 5:47 The Looney Tunes also play themselves Tessa 5:49 Yes. Play themselves bugs appears in it as himself Daffy Duck. Yeah, it's it is the that actually a lot of people play themselves in this movie. And I don't think I would have necessarily recognized them. You know, most of them just by looking at them just because again, I wasn't plugged into basketball. But I did recognize some of them because of the last dance which I want to talk about some more in a minute. But like Larry Bird is in this movie as himself. Charles Barkley, there's this really great scene where he's looking mournfully through the chain link fence at these girls playing a pickup game of basketball, which is just great. Sean Bradley, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson mugsy bugs. I didn't know who mugsy bug what bugs was. So that was a really fun conversation. I got to have a Sam in the middle of that movie. Sam 6:35 I she invoked mud. Muggsy Bogues, and Larry Johnson, I don't know Colby, are you old enough that you see the starter jacket in your head? Unknown Speaker 6:44 My dad had a hornet starter jacket. And my oldest. My older sister had like a baby one when she was like five or six. So yeah, I think there's a picture of me somewhere with like the old Hugo Hornet mascot. I think the the Hornets came up to Greensboro to play like a preseason game. Because Greensboro for whatever reason has a 21,000 seat arena to the city. So yeah, I'm familiar with with grandmama and Muggsy Bogues. Tessa 7:23 There's also a lot of really, so the person I actually recognized playing himself was, of course, Bill Murray, which again should tell you something about my childhood Bill Murray is also in this as himself. There's also a lot of really recognizable voice actors. Dee Bradley Baker is and this Billy West, Danny DeVito, Maurice lamarsh. If you know anything about animation over the last 20 to 30 years, those are all big players in in voice acting, and so I knew more about that side of it like the pop culture side of it than I did about the basketball side of it. This movie again, I really wasn't expecting it. I didn't know Michael Jordan played himself in it. I just assumed they were all going to play characters. So I thought that sort of meta fiction of the film was really interesting. I have a lot more to sell Jeff for Looney Tunes than I thought that I would like watching it. I was really transported back to you know, my childhood watching Roadrunner cartoons and Bugs Bunny cartoons and you know, seeing I didn't watch as many Tweety Bird stuff but Tweety birds like a big deal in in Space Jam. So I I really enjoyed that. I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. But you know, Bugs Bunny is always going to be like this gender euphoric trickster character who just sort of comes in and steals the show and and I enjoyed that, that element of it. I also thought that the mixture of live action and animation was really good for the 90s like, I was actually really impressed on how seamless that was. My question for both of you is does this take place in the same universe as Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Unknown Speaker 8:59 No, by the way, he Framed Roger Rabbit and movie I did not watch until very very recently. I don't believe it takes place in the same universe because I feel like isn't there like a portal situation going on in Space Jam to get Michael Jordan there? Sam 9:15 Yeah, so the the WB area is in the center of the earth so it's it's not the same universes Who Framed Roger Rabbit? It's the same universes Kong Vs. Godzilla. Exactly. Yes. Because Because what they didn't show you I mean, so this was 1996. So like, this is before. So right now Kong is down there. He is like taking over for Bugs Bunny. He is now ruler of the the tune verse. Yeah, that's real until Disney buys Warner Brothers. And then yes, they are in fact in the same universe. Unknown Speaker 9:52 This is actually the all of this Congress is Godzilla Space Jam is just a way that the big week movie producers trying to tell us that there is life at the center of the earth. Tessa 10:06 It's all actually just conspiracy like Center of the Earth stuff. I like it. Unknown Speaker 10:12 It was all there the whole time and we took it as entertainment. Tessa 10:16 The other thing I wanted to mention before we moved on is the soundtrack to this film is, I mean, even just watching it and hearing it, I could see why it went six times. It's certified as six times platinum, which is like a huge thing for a movie soundtrack. Of course, unfortunately, the big song for me is by our Kelly and so there is that that I believe I can fly which earned him two Grammy Awards, but there's a cover. fly like an eagle by seal. Sam 10:48 That's the cover. Yeah, that's a cover. Oh, no, it's happening. That was real. That was real. I heard this, but but Colby and looking up from Steve Miller is now fly like an eagle. The Joker you know some people call me the space cowboy. No, girl. Yeah, what's that one called? big ol jet airliner now Wow, now keep on rockin Unknown Speaker 11:27 baby. Oh, Unknown Speaker 11:28 I'm sure if I heard them I'd be like, Oh, yeah, that song Right, right. Right. Right. Right. Sam 11:33 I gotcha. Also, like what else was on there? Like technotronic was on there. Tessa 11:39 pumping up the G which Sam 11:40 I love how I love how like oh, pump up the jams on something. Let's buy it again. Cuz you know i'm sure jack James would come out by that point. And like it was on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle soundtrack. It was just like but yeah Tessa 11:52 also basketball Jones by Barry White and Chris Rock the monstars anthem because that's the team that of aliens the monsters because it's monsters and all stars all put together. That's by be real Busta Rhymes Coolio. LL Cool. J and the Method Man. I tell them Hi. goes like this. Yeah, this is a really good soundtrack. Like I was actually more impressed with the soundtrack than I almost was with anything else. Sam 12:18 There was a there was a time the 90s in the 90s were it there was a time where soundtracks there were some legit soundtracks. I mean, like the last two Batman soundtracks are better than the movies. Which by the way, you've got again seal kiss from a rose. Art Kelly also did a song called Gotham City. Unknown Speaker 12:36 Did Prince do Batman 89 or he did the whole thing. Sam 12:41 It was like, it was like when Jay Z did The Great Gatsby soundtrack. Except there was a lot more prints on it. Like he had some features, but it was mostly just prints. He does a song with Kim Basinger and the 90s I miss it Unknown Speaker 12:55 when they went out. My next time on the podcast will be me talking about those Batman movies cuz I've never seen them. I mean, Sam 13:03 jeez. Oh, man. Unknown Speaker 13:07 The 90s are like a black hole of pop culture for me for the most part, because it's I was too young to have nostalgia for them. And the stuff that my parents cared about was more like 70s and 80s stuff, because they were too busy having kids in the 90s. So Sam 13:23 yeah, I mean, like I have, man, I just remember so I can't I have to say this because you're here thinking about one of my most fond Michael Jordan memories. I don't like Michael Jordan. So one of my most fond memories, is the dream team because I got to root for him. Because he was on the team with everybody. It did like and I remember so they McDonald's had like a triple cheeseburger value meal. And so I ate a lot of those. By the way Christian lightner was on that team Colby. Unknown Speaker 13:53 Yes, he was fruit. I mean for when I was I was gonna say for no reason. But there is one reason that Christian wait. Tessa 14:02 Well, let me ask you this Colby before I move on to the next part, but the last part of my discussion. Did you watch the last dance? Unknown Speaker 14:08 Yes, I watched the last dance I watched it live and the the uncensored version, which I think is the way to watch Tessa 14:17 a way to watch dance. So like did you remember like I just again, I was I was a child and I wasn't paying attention to basketball because it just wasn't around like on in my house. Was this something that you remembered being talked about in your house or that you remembered seeing on television? Like what was your relationship to that to Michael Jordan and that team? Yeah, Unknown Speaker 14:37 that vessel? An interesting question for me because I feel like a lot of people my age have kind of a distanced sort of relationship with Michael Jordan. That isn't the that's just not how it is in North Carolina. Because, like you remember in that first episode, there's like a 10 minute recruiting video for universe North Carolina men's basketball. It's my favorite part documentary I love it is like there's a lot of talk about that 82 team that 1982 team with him and James worthy and Sam Perkins, ridiculous. Devaney names are on one college basketball team. You don't really see that anymore. Um, so I hear a lot about Michael Michael Jordan. I went to every home basketball game when I was a student at Carolina and I saw his name in the rafters. I have a weird sense. I'm histologia for a time I was never in the 90s. So there's a point guard two plays for two bowls now Coby white, and he is now in the starting lineup for the team. And they still play the same, like Intro music and they like lower to whites to do the same thing that they did when Michael Jordan was playing. And I got chills when he was first a starting lineup. And they said at guard from North Carolina, I was like, Who's Michael Jordan? So, yeah, I there is a weird kindness first algea because just because of the place I live, Tessa 16:12 I love that word fo selja that's, that's great, because I think that that's true for a lot of people about the 90s a lot of younger people I should say about the 90s but I don't know if I would have enjoyed Space Jam as much if I hadn't seen the last dance because I don't think I would have recognized as many people and I actually didn't know that he had quit basketball to play baseball. And until I watched the last dance like I had no idea any part of that and Sam made this great joke in the middle where he said oh yeah, we should like this. Space Jam like it should be part of the machete cut of of last dance like you should watch last dance all the way to the part where he quits basketball to play baseball, then watch Space Jam. Then watch the rest of last dance. Sam 17:02 Yeah, it just say it's part just just tell people it's it's the next episode. Tessa 17:05 Yeah, it's the next episode of The Last Dance is Space Jam. And I like I think that that's hilarious. Like I think that the way that this is like an alternate history version of how Michael Jordan quit basketball, played baseball for a while and then went back to basketball. Like the end and I think the last dance does a really beautiful job of laying out like why that happened and what was going on with Michael Jordan at that time. But I also like this version. Like I also like the Space Jam version, where he got back into basketball because Bugs Bunny begged him to play on a team with Sam 17:42 Colby Do you remember that? They actually he actually talks about his father dying in Space Jam. Yeah, he does. That's I was I was blown away I'm like you are comfortable with okay Unknown Speaker 17:55 all right. Yeah, and um quit quit quit to play baseball that story we're going with for for that two year absence that's what we're gonna say Sam 18:03 that's what we're gonna Tessa 18:03 say yeah, play baseball. Yeah, yeah. Unknown Speaker 18:08 Yeah, he didn't get suspended for gambling or anything secret Oh, and Unknown Speaker 18:11 that's just the film to definitely Unknown Speaker 18:14 click to play baseball. Oh, Sam 18:15 by the way so many real players but they had but Stern's not in the movie as Commissioner. They hired somebody. Tessa 18:22 Yeah. And like I they have a golfing in in the movie. Like he's playing golf with Bill Murray and Larry Bird and they gamble on it. Right? They're like, okay, whoever wins gets dinner like there's a lot of like pop cultural like winking going on. There's even a part where Bill Murray comes in. And Danny DeVito is he's voicing like the alien like villain. He's like the inaccurate is here. Like there's a lot of 90s pop culture going on in this. So I guess my recommendation would be if you have nostalgia or fo selja for the 90s. And somehow you have not seen Space Jam yet, which as Colby mentioned, most of you listening to this probably have seen it. But if you haven't, for some reason, I actually really enjoyed it. If you like Looney Tunes, if you like the 90s this is just such an odd movie that you probably will enjoy, but you probably won't be as invested in it as if you had watched it in your childhood. or live in North Carolina apparently. Unknown Speaker 19:21 Does that mean that we are all in on Space Jam a new legacy? Sam 19:25 I was gonna ask you that. How do you feel about a sequel? reboot? I don't really know. I know it has LeBron and I know they're they're toning down Lola's character, because that was the problem. What do you think? Unknown Speaker 19:43 I think that LeBron is a stronger actor than Michael Jordan which products true Jordan acting against nothing. For a large part of that movie is difficult, but he does not have the charisma that that Brian has on screen. I am I'm going to watch this movie, no matter what. I am a part of LeBron hive, a bronco hive. So we could talk about that offline. But Tessa 20:15 so I think it's Space Jam a new legacy, I believe is the title of the of the new film and it will be out on HBO and in theaters on July 16. Sam 20:25 Thank you, HBO max. Okay, Colby. As you know, I record this podcast with Tessa and Andy. So I'm gonna say something. It's been over a year. I'm gonna say something I've never been able to say on this podcast. Colby. Let's talk about sports for a second. So you just mentioned LeBron, who I also don't much like Michael Jordan. I don't like him. I really liked Coby though. I just want you to know it's not an anti like super mega goat of all time thing. And I'm really torn because I don't want the Lakers to win another championship even though they've always been my favorite team back since magic and the reason is if he wins one more ring you know what happens right? Yep, we start waiting on six it's always until he's got more rings than Coby he No, I will I will fight anyone who says it's all about rings. Unknown Speaker 21:18 No, I know I get that Oh, and like Kobe is my namesake. So like I have a little bit affinity for for Coby. But yeah, that's Michael Jordan ruin basketball conversations. He really supports conversations. And I watched it happen in real time. And it's it's incredible that week, we as a society as a society to talk about sports, at least in the United States cannot separate rings championships from the actual play on the court. The way that people talk about Russell Westbrook is ridiculous. Like the man has averaged a triple double for four seasons, if he will talk about him like he's a scrub. Like, the dude is one of the greatest players ever. He's just probably never going to win a championship and that's okay. Not everyone can win a championship. I'm not sure if you're keeping up with the Kwame Brown. situation that's been going on. But Kwame Brown was the number one overall overall pick in the 2001 season. I believe. He is straight out of high school, the second player second or third player to be taken straight out of high school. And he just wasn't ready for the league when he got there. A lot of people call him a bus. I guess he's a bust. Sam 22:37 Well, I mean, Garnet came out of high school too, right? Yeah. So Kobe and Garnet both did better. Unknown Speaker 22:43 Yeah, they definitely but LeBron better. And he was the third one. Right. Bobby Brown was the third one. And he had a 13 year career but he only averaged six points and everyone kind of clouds him because he wasn't as good as LeBron James state clown him because he wasn't as good as Kobe Bryant as Kevin Garnett, three of probably the top 20 players of all time. And Kwame amongst them. Not so great things that he said. But very funny things that he said. He said, If you make it to the NBA, you're not a bust. If you make it to the NBA, you're one of the 300 best basketball players in the world. Sam 23:24 And I can't believe I'm forgetting his name. The big guy who came out of college the same year LeBron came out of high school, you know, played for Denver played for the Knicks wasn't one of the greatest players never went to ring as well. Ah, mela not Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Right. Like, there's the Tony and Mike, were talking about this on part of the interruption the other day, the idea that we always said, if you're a good player, you win a ring. And now we've ruined it. So Unknown Speaker 23:54 yeah, know that Melo is another one. But Melo is is an interesting case. Because he is one of the players like Dwight Howard that analytics ruined, like analytics almost ran him out of the game. Um, for those of you who don't know, back in all say, like mid 2000s. And earlier, basketball was playing a lot differently until people realized, I don't know why it took them so long to realize, but they realize that three is 50% more than two. So if you only have to hit I know it sounds wild to think about, like 50% more than two which is a watt. Over the course of an entire game, you only have to hit 33% of your shots from three if you hit 50% from two. So you only shoot analytics say quote unquote analytics say I hate when people say that you should only shoot layups and three pointers. Melo operated in the mid range mid range jumper. Yeah, he would get his spot and get it off and he would get it off. Well, he shot them well. But a bunch of coaches tried to make them into a player that he wasn't. And he almost got ran out of the league for it. Sam 25:08 I really liked talking about this on the podcast because I think that a lot of people who aren't involved with sports don't realize how much of you know pop culture sports is. And specifically I want to ask you this question and then we'll talk about some other stuff. Unknown Speaker 25:25 I know I say as I'm wearing a Durham bulls hat, right? So movie I've never seen Sam 25:32 they go. So I recently discovered that the NBA Playoffs have begun. Because over the last year, time has no meaning anymore. You know, working from home, it just feels like it's hard to stop and watch something live. I remember I skipped school twice in my entire life. High school, middle school elementary school skipped it twice. One was senior skip day. And one was a memorial day. That was a makeup snow day. I said the males not running. The banks aren't open. And there's an NBA playoff day game. I am not expected to go to school. I skipped school to watch playoff game. Now again, I was surprised to learn that the playoffs began and and indeed they began late this year. Right You know, we're usually pretty deep in at this point. Tell us because if you don't watch a lot of sports at all, you may not realize there are as many storylines in sports as there are anything else you might watch, play or listen to. And the NBA is a soap opera. So give me your top three storylines for this playoff. Unknown Speaker 26:35 Okay, top three storylines. The Knicks are back in the playoffs. They won. I'm not sure when this when this podcast is going up. But the Knicks are back in the playoffs. They won a playoff game in the garden Madison Square Garden went wild Sam 26:50 update update. They're already out. Probably. Unknown Speaker 26:56 Yeah, probably already out. Um, but yeah, the Knicks being back in the playoffs the that fan base is ridiculous. No one can ever call them bandwagon because they will never stop rooting for the Knicks like the New Jersey Nets move to Brooklyn and nobody cared everyone at Berkeley. They are still Knicks fans. Sam 27:19 Yeah, that was that was my team back in the 90s with with Ewing and Starks and Xavier and Oakley I mean, today I can still like that was my team. Unknown Speaker 27:31 Yeah, the Knicks were super fun in the 90s Yeah, go New York go near go. Sam 27:37 Alright, what else got? Unknown Speaker 27:38 Yeah, that's a big one. The Lakers having to battle through the playing games. For the first time in everyone trying to duck them in the first round is a huge one. So this year, the NBA, they had a play in tournament where the seven, the seven seats or the seventh best team in the conference. Through the 10th seed had to play into a play, interplay had to play through a playing tournament to get to the actual playoffs. First time they ever did it. Some people said it was great. Some people didn't like it very much. I thought it was fine. But LeBron James and Anthony Davis, two of the best players in the league, both played for the Lakers. They were hurt for a large part of the year, which means that their record started going down down down till they got to the seven spot they had to plan to play in tournament then all of a sudden, the top of the West decided that they didn't want to be at the top of the West because the seven seed is going to play the two seed which means that you get a finally healthy LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the first round where you really don't want to play them for until the conference championship teams like the nuggets, taint games to get away from the Lakers. And the Clippers the Los Angeles Clippers, which is my third storyline. Duct v. Tried to duck the Lakers who are now up to one in their series. He gets a son so it was probably a good move. But the Clippers Oh my favorite team to clown because the Clippers are there the Milhouse? Sam 29:16 That's perfect. And that is so good. Unknown Speaker 29:21 They didn't want to play the Lakers so bad that they tanked themselves into the four spot to play the Mavericks who got them up out the playoffs last year. So the Mavericks are mad because Dave, because the Knicks are not the Knicks Good Lord, the Clippers pretty much said. Yeah, we don't want to play them. But yeah, we'll play you We'll beat y'all and we'll just play the Lakers later. And now they are down in their series and Luca is being ridiculous. Luca Dante Chu is a Slovenian I believe basketball player who was a rising star. He's like When you want to 22 years old over has been playing professional basketball for years and years overseas. He's just picking the Clippers apart and I'm excited to see what year 10 Luca looks like down the line. But those are my storylines. Sam 30:16 I have to ask you one more question. Quick, quick question. quick answer. Does Brooklyn win the whole thing? Yes. No. Defense isn't good enough. Oh, poor poor beard. Unknown Speaker 30:27 I know. Yeah. Defense in the NBA nowadays defense does still win championships in the Lakers have the best defense in the league on the Lakers and six in the finals against against the Sixers. I don't think the nets are gonna make it out. Okay. Sam 30:43 All right. So, because Andy's not here, it's not going to be a podcast if I don't ask somebody. So I'll ask you Colby. You've been watching any anime lately? Yes, actually, what's got? Unknown Speaker 30:53 I've been watching Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. I had I don't watch much anime at all. But I was told by a certain portly Island boy that feels yalls complaints. It was a it was a series worth checking out. So I've been checking it out. And I like it a lot. Sam 31:12 Cool. And that's been the enemy segment for today's episode. Now, I have on here that I'm gonna ask you about video games. But I think this is perfect. You literally only play NBA touquet sometimes interrupted by FIFA. So why are you playing Mass Effect? What's up with that? Unknown Speaker 31:29 So I was not an Xbox kid. I was a PlayStation kid. Always been I had the one growing up through the five now. So I literally never had a chance to play Mass Effect. And then one day, my timeline very recently on Twitter exploded and I had to learn what a shepherd was. Sam 31:52 And um, after some coaxing, and cajoling, I decided to pick up Mass Effect legendary edition quickly in case you're somebody listening, who has not heard of Mass Effect. I feel like if you haven't heard of Mass Effect, or Space Jam, or both, you've just gotten a lot out of it. I mean, I feel like we've done a surface. What is Mass Effect? Unknown Speaker 32:13 Mass Effect is a video game a RPG action RPG where there is oof man, I did not come with Sam 32:26 Oh, one sentence description of Mass Effect. Yeah, Unknown Speaker 32:30 it's uh, you guys say it the galaxy from aliens, which is something I'm going to get into in a bit. Tessa 32:38 So I have to ask because I am a huge Mass Effect fan. I am now halfway through mass effect to the legendary edition. But I have played all three games before and I love them so much. They're not perfect, but I love them. How did you set up your character? Like what was your What did cuz you can pick from a couple of different backgrounds, a couple of different classes. You can play male or female like what was your What was your method going into playing this game? Unknown Speaker 33:06 That's a great question. I so I've set up my shepherd. It's a male Shepherd, who's black with cornrows? I love it. And the I picked soldier is my class. And I think I pick war hero. That seemed like something closest to what I'd want to play. The other stuff seems sort of copy, which we can get into again more later. But I think that choosing to play as a black character in this world kind of unlocked a lot of very interesting sort of interactions with other characters that I didn't notice before, especially, um, Captain Anderson, who was the first human Spectre. So in the Mass Effect series series, a council that kind of runs the entire Milky Way galaxy, that's a governing body. And they have this sort of, for lack of a better term Secret Service of elite soldiers, elite agents who go out and they take care of the stuff that the council needs taking care of for the good of the galaxy. And Anderson I'm not sure if he at least presents black to me. I'm not sure if it's one of the things we're like, when I was a kid and I was watching Arthur Arthur, the character the aardvark was also black just any character kind of had any sort of slight coding was black to me but him being a specter and having that taken away from him and then the next specter comes along who is also a black character me kind of opened up some stuff that I don't think was ever intentioned but was very interesting for me. Sam 34:52 So let's let's talk about racism toward aliens, which is a huge part of this game, no matter how you play it. I mean, right? It's there. It's there. How do you feel about it? What have you tapped into here? Unknown Speaker 35:05 It's weird. It's it's super weird how they, how they decided to so another big part of Mass Effect is the dichotomy between Paragon and Renegade where Paragon is supposed to be like the virtuous always tell the truth. waffle good sort of character where is the the renegade is kind of on the chaotic side where you kind of do things for yourself and also apparently makes you a little bit racist against but you encounter a lot of human characters that have a strong disdain for aliens. I'm not sure where or why it comes from. I think that the main one is spoiler alert, by the way, I guess for Mass Effect, was one of the big ones is Ashley, who I decided to let die is incredibly racist and tried to flirt with me also. And I think that there's another way to show like human humanity's hesitancy towards aliens without going full bore racism because I think they say in the game is something like 23 or 26 years since we first see aliens come into this world come into our world as humans. So a lot of these characters have memories from before contact and after contact. So I think that there is something really interesting there to tap into. That's not just I don't trust those sneaky. Tessa 36:48 If you play as a paragon, I do like that Shepherd, like has this evolving, like, Oh, yeah, like all of these human characters kind of distrust aliens, but then you recruit these aliens to be part of your crew. And that sort of like, starts like, if you play shepherded a certain way, you can start to kind of see like, Oh, well, there aren't that bad. Like, which is kind of an odd, like, way of playing that game. Like, I don't know how you felt about that, or how you felt about the alien characters, because then there's also alien characters that are racist against humans, which is really interesting. Unknown Speaker 37:21 Yeah, what one thing that's weird about the way that aliens treat humans is fascinating when they talk about how humanity human lives, or so short to them. a shepherd says that at most humans live like you're lucky if you hit 150, which I think in real science is what they say is like the about the cap that humans can hit is about 150 years old, maybe a little bit less. And you have these other these other races, he has other life forms that live for centuries and centuries. And they say that humans live, so impulse impulsively, and so rationally, and so intensely, because they have to, and that it's kind of incredible that humans have made it to this point where they had, they're able to make contact with these other aliens with these other races, without killing themselves first, which I think is a optimistic view of humanity, but also a very hopeful one. And that's the one part of the game that as far as like the alien human dichotomy that really resonated with me is there is so much hope for humanity that the writers put into it, that we can get to that point. Another huge spoiler for Mass Effect towards the end, I let the council die because I did not like the council. I feel like I thought that they got in their bureaucracy got in the way of progress. So I chose to get get rid of them. What I didn't realize is that humanity gets to lead everything going forward. Which is not what I intended whatsoever. Sam 39:15 Colby Colby, learning real lessons about sometimes when you think you do the right thing. Tessa 39:24 Well, that's what's so interesting about this game for me is that I do think sometimes the Paragon Renegade split, you can play more towards the middle and you can make decisions that are Paragon in the moment and decisions that are Renegade in the moment. So it's not necessarily that you have to choose one or another. But sometimes it can be very simplistic, right? Like, I make either the evil choice to like kill everybody or I like work with cops like there. Sometimes it can be like a little bit too black and white. But I do think this game does a really good job of highlighting unintended consequences or making you make impossible this Did you play the bring down the sky DLC? I did, where you have to choose. It's like the Spider Man choice where you have to choose between saving the hostages and letting the terrorists go or killing the terrorists or capturing the terrorists but like the hostages die. Like, I just think that's a really interesting choice to be presented with in a video game, right? Like, the idea of sometimes there are just impossible decisions, right? Unknown Speaker 40:28 Yeah, when I do these sorts of RPGs, I try to make the decisions that I think I would make. There are some times where where I like diet diverged, and I choose something. I choose something just to so I can get some more money so I can buy something cool. Which may be the decision that I would make in real life. Hopefully, this isn't used as evidence for something later on down the line, but for the most part, I think that the Paragon Renegade I think, vastly kind of lines up. But besides a couple spots where I would, you know, maybe law enforcement isn't always good. Consider that for a second. I've heard that in Mass Effect two is a little bit more nuanced, and I definitely plan on playing that soon. But I really liked Mass Effect for a game made in 2007. I know it was probably remastered and touched up, but like it controlled Well, the combat seemed tough, but fair, it never felt like the game was taking advantage of me which is something that I don't like in video games where they they force you to do I never felt forced to do something I didn't want to do the Ludo narrative dissonance if we want to use that word, Sam 41:43 I you know, I Mass Effect two is much better. Because Yeah, I do tend to like, align with the lawful, good and when playing Mass Effect. My thing is like, I want there to be an option where I say yes, but then I slap you or tell you you're a terrible person. That's what I want. Like ultimately the choices are like usually like yeah, I guess that's what I would do, but I wouldn't be happy about it. And I tell you, Unknown Speaker 42:07 yeah, no, for sure. I think that's a great they just need to have like one of the bumpers being the slap button. Unknown Speaker 42:18 button. I definitely Unknown Speaker 42:24 I definitely hung up on the council so many times because Tessa 42:28 the council is very annoying. I will have to say that as well. So really important question before I asked you if you recommended or not. Who was your favorite character besides Shepherd? I guess this is two questions. Who did you romance? Sam 42:43 Not actually your favorite character and why is it not Ashley? Unknown Speaker 42:48 I shut that down very quickly. I think my favorite character was actually Rex I did his side quest to get his his familiar familial armor back and I really think that the the warring alien vec has to be in this world where they are dying and they need this cure for a disease. I wasn't expecting that from this game. And I really liked talking to Rex even though I don't think game Rex like talking to me. So I really enjoyed that. But I i romant stumbly era era. Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure what do you ever change? What do you ever choices where I asked my friend if if tally was a choice, and she was like, No, I don't think you can. So Tessa 43:37 well. I will say in the later games, there are more choices as far as romance goes. So have fun with that. But also, the Rex genophage storyline will continue. So I I'm excited to see what choices you make in that regard. But overall recommend to people Unknown Speaker 43:55 Yeah, for sure recommend I liked Mass Effect one a lot. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. And hearing the way people talk about Mass Effect two makes me really excited to start that game. I'm not sure when I will. Because there's a little game called Ratchet and Clank coming out very soon. That I need to get my hands on because as my favorite video game series of all time, so probably wants to finish up Ratchet and Clank rift rift apart. I'll probably jump into mass spec too. Tessa 44:25 Alright, thrown over to Sam, I finally convinced you to watch Lucifer Sam 44:31 has an exclamation point. Tessa 44:33 Oh, I'm sorry. I finally convinced you to watch Lucifer. Sam 44:36 Yes. Yes, you did. The first time that I had seen this character Lucifer was in his little brief, very short cameo during crisis. So you know, I always meant to go back and watch this probably about after the 50th time you harassed me about it over the last five years. Unknown Speaker 44:54 Well, it always Yeah, it started in 2016. So yeah, the last five years, Lucifer if you don't know Kobe, Have you seen Lucifer? Do you know anything about it? I know a little bit about it. My fiance watched a couple episodes. She's very much into the procedure roll. sort of show but I don't know too much about it except it's Lucifer solving clues for Morningstar solving crimes, I think. Sam 45:19 Yeah, Lucifer is a is an interesting show, because it ran for three seasons on Fox from 2016 to 2018. As a police procedural, they canceled it. Netflix picked it up. It will ultimately run on Netflix for three seasons from 2019 to 2022 2023. Who knows? It's not really a police procedural anymore, apparently. But Lucifer Morningstar, who's played by Tom Ellis, who is excellent. This character is based on a character that Neil Gaiman created in his Sandman universe, originally on vertigo comics, so this is a DC property. Technically, what I thought was really interesting. This show was created by Tom Kapinos and he's not here to make fun of me for talking about who made what, but but Kapinos got his start on Dawson's Creek and created the David do cudney sex addict show Californication, and having seen a couple episodes of that show, I see it. This is that, and this is the great thing to the pilot was directed by Len Wiseman, who directed the first two underworld movies, and the last couple of diehard movies. The guy who directed the Lucifer pilot did the good underworld movies and the bad diehard movies. Fascinating. Fascinating. I mentioned Tom Ellis. I just really liked the people in this show. Lauren German is I don't know how much of a newcomer she is first time I saw her she plays the detective detective Chloe who was like a actor who was like in a Hot Tub Time Machine type movie, and then became a detective. So that's that's a really interesting thing. Debbie Woodside is in it as the big bro Angel. Amanda deal. dB Woodside is great. I'm 24, Buffy lots of other stuff. And then Rachel Harris, who I've seen on lots of things, but I saw her on suits, plays as a psychologist. It's just great. It's a it's a fun thing. And yes, you convinced me to watch it. Tessa 47:26 I'm not even going to try to pretend that I haven't seen the show several times. What is Lucifer about? Sam 47:31 So Lucifer, the devil, the one who got thrown out of heaven for misbehaving and got put in charge of hell specifically put in charge of punishment. He makes a big point about this in the series. He is not inherently evil. He misbehaved and was given a job to punish people who deserve it. That's he's very big on the finer points of this. But he has gotten tired of that role and just left hell just left. And so this is a few years, I think maybe three years later, where the show picks up. He's the owner of a big fancy nightclub in LA. He is one of his, his favorite demon is his his demon Friday maze is with him. And you know, there's a couple of storylines that start in the pilot. The first one is we see a man a deal has come back to try to get his brother to go back to hell. So that's running and it gets involved in a murder. And he just decides to start helping out as a police consultant to this detective who he likes. And something weird starts to happen when he's around her. He's no longer invulnerable. So that's it. That's all the threads of the storyline, basically involving Lucifer, there's, there's detective, sorry, his name is Dan. But Lucifer calls him detective douche. He's detected Chloe's ex, they had a kid together who's amazing. There's a lot of stuff going on here going, Lucifer goes to therapy. And the therapist is like he's talking in metaphors. That's that's it because he tells everybody who he is. And nobody believes them. It's good stuff Unknown Speaker 49:11 that's interesting that they they really lock in on that in charge of punishment side of, of Lucifer I have been I guess for about half a year now my friends started a Bible study group that we do every every week just doing deep dives into different stories of the Bible in the whatever you want to call them the devil Lucifer the adversary, many names I say way Michael Jordan ruined ruin basketball. Who wrote um, paradise or Paradise Lost? Yeah, Milton ruin how we talk about the, the adversary, or whatever. Sam 49:54 It's so true. Yeah. When I used to teach British literature in high school. I we We'll talk about that just the idea that most people's picture of the devil is not. It's not biblical. It's Milton. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 50:09 Yeah. It's all fanfic. But it's weird that like the, the, some of the most controversial parts of Christianity. It's mostly fanfic. It's mostly stuff that was written hundreds of years and then put into the Bible, or 1000s of years later and been put into Paradise Lost is fanfic. Sam 50:32 Write that down. Tessa 50:35 That's gold right there. And that is gold. Sam 50:38 We're done here. Tessa 50:39 I, I want to I have a couple things I would like to say about the show. But I want you to tell everyone why I was right about the show. Cuz you resisted for so long. You were just like, no, this is about Tessa and her comic books. And like Tom Ellis is just super pretty. And that's like, why she watches it. Why was I write about this show? Sam 51:00 Well, we're running short on time. So I'll go ahead and say what I'm gonna say, and then we'll finish up. I don't believe I ever said those things. I don't think that's true. I think that is apocryphal speaking, you know, we're really done. You know, I, I call this something else off off mic. But Tom Ellis plays Lucifer with a really big energy, like, like, he lives to annoy other people. Like, he just, he, the more he likes somebody, the more he is going to, like annoy them and aggravate them. And that's me. That's, that is my personality. So like, what I really like about this show, what I like about all shows, and there have been more and more of them over the past few years, is when you make a show about me, I really appreciate that. I like that. I'm not saying I'm the devil. I'm just saying, I just really appreciate that, that energy, that and I one of the other things I really enjoy is the daughter Trixie is like a seven year old. I think she's seven, eight year old. And she just sees right through him. She just she's able to say you're see you're a good person. And he's like, I'm the devil. And she's like, you know, I just I really enjoy that. That's it. I mean, Tom, Alice really does make the show. Again, I never said he's super pretty. And that's why you watch it. And I don't I never said that. But like, this is one of those shows where the lead is the most important part. And it doesn't work without that. Talking about like The Good Wife, which was one of my favorite shows where I hated the lead, but I liked it because of everyone in the orbit. This is a show that has a really good lead. The other characters are good, too. But Tom Ellis playing this for his his gold, comedy, comedy cold. Tessa 52:53 What do you think about how la this show is? Because on this rewatch, because we've been watching it together, I've realized just how much the show engages with la culture, especially like he's in therapy, like he owns a nightclub, like a lot of the murders are about like, la culture and the way that like, you know, there is these oddities and eccentricities of being around all these people who are super rich. Sam 53:20 I'll tell you for sure. La procedurals and I've seen a lot of procedurals, although I never watched law and order NCIS I will take an LA procedural over a New York procedural any day, which shouldn't be a surprise to you. The closer was a really good la procedural, where you get to they dug in for several seasons. On that we were just talking about here, Cedric yesterday, as a matter of fact, a lot of kind of quirkiness. And that's, that's fun. I really do like the lateness of the show. It really just increases my desire to go to there so Tessa 53:52 well. And the fact that she's like an ex actor who turned like police detective I just think is a they keep milking that for laughs for sure. The other thing that I will say that I appreciate about the show, because you mentioned the punishment thing. Lucifer in the show is very much portrayed as like that youngest kid who like wanted attention and kept acting up and like his dad is kind of abusive, and threw him out of the house like and so I think that's a really interesting way to approach this character. And that's something that's really developed a lot throughout the series, this idea that like he is working through these issues with his family. And I think a lot of the humor from the show comes from the fact that he doesn't lie, like you said, like he just, he's, he's very upfront, like I'm Lucifer Morningstar. I'm the devil and it's like, nobody believes him because they just think he's insane or that, you know, he is talking in metaphors or whatever. And it's just it's very, very funny. From that point, point of view. Do you recommend Sam 54:53 after all, that, clearly answer's no, I do not recommend that at all. Yes. And the great thing about it It is is that we are recording this The day after New episodes have dropped. We're still very far away from that we're about close to the midway point in the second season, but I'm excited to watch it and keep watching it. And this fifth season, the back half of which I think Netflix is weird, dropped yesterday. And it was supposed to be the end. But it's not they're gonna do a whole nother season. So it's really great. As many shows get canceled before their time has come. This one got extended, surprisingly a couple of times. So it's the little show that could it's good time. All right next week. Tessa revisits the Shauna verse was station 19 and I'll be talking bond George Lazenby. That is Colby, thank you so much for joining us and making the jump from guest to guest host where can people find you online? Where can they listen to you a little bit more regularly. Unknown Speaker 55:57 Thank you for having me. Anytime you want me to step in, just let me know. Yeah, you can find me on Twitter at Colby complains probably making fun of the clippers. Never made varsity. Oh, we're taking like we aren't doing every week because it's just not too much talk about Brett we're going to be back in full swing once college football season is a little bit closer. And Martha and Coby grow up which is a monthly podcast with my friend Martha who has been on the show before where we just talk about what everyone talks about. We probably just released an episode about music or that episode is coming out soon. So check it out. Sam 56:30 I just did an episode of active age. I think it was last weekend, maybe two weekends ago. What is time and we the act th crew and myself we're talking about how much we enjoy recording with you. You're a delight. You're a pleasure to have in class. Tessa we where can we find you? Tessa 56:51 You can find me on Twitter and letterbox at suela Tessa Swehla is spelled sw EH la. Sam 56:58 Actually we took it we took a Shakespeare seminar together Tessa and I didn't grad school I literally have on the final paper this very old Shakespeare Professor wrote you were a pleasure to have in class. The first somebody finally said it I had to get here. I had to get here. I've been in school for like over 20 years at this point. Somebody likes me anyway. I know right? It was the one find me on Twitter at save underscore Morris nine fine indie on twitter at Andy noted. Find us on Twitter at monkey backlog. Email us at monkey off my backlog@gmail.com Let us know your thoughts about what we talked about today. Anything you'd like to see us talk about on future episodes, and anything else pop culture related? Our theme song is hot shot by Scott Holmes. It can be found on Scott Holmes music.com please rate review and subscribe on iTunes. Follow us on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon podcast, Google podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Get that monkey off your back Transcribed by https://otter.ai