Speaker 1: Today's episode contains mild spoilers for a variety of this
Speaker 1: year's best stuff. Oh anyways, Jason gets up to own
Speaker 1: and I'm Rosey. Night and welcome back to xt revision
Speaker 1: of the podcast where we dive deep into your favorite shows, movies,
Speaker 1: comics of pop culture. Conday over my our podcast. We'll
Speaker 1: ring you three episodes a weekly.
Speaker 2: News sometime in today's episode, twenty twenty five Favorites, it's
Speaker 2: our award show.
Speaker 3: We are going to be awarding our favorite books, TV, comics, games,
Speaker 3: and all our favorite things that stood out to us
Speaker 3: this year.
Speaker 2: And before we jump in, guys, it's me again, back
Speaker 2: with the production note. For the holidays, we are sharing
Speaker 2: some short stocking stuffer episodes with you that will help
Speaker 2: you decide what beautiful books to buy for your friends,
Speaker 2: what FI movies and TV to explore, and some little
Speaker 2: festive treats along the way.
Speaker 3: So keep out an ear for those throughout December.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the twenty twenty five X ray Vision our
Speaker 1: Favorite Stuff Awars. It's me, It's Rosy, just talking about
Speaker 1: what our favorite stuff is. Yeah, let's start with the
Speaker 1: year twenty twenty five in movies, it was a fantastic
Speaker 1: WHI year in movies, some of the standouts. Let's just
Speaker 1: mention some movies that we liked. Let's just and then
Speaker 1: we'll talk about our favorite Superman, the long awaited Superman.
Speaker 2: Wow, unbelievable, so fun, so fresh, so colorful, so joyous,
Speaker 2: just ten out of ten, big fan. Great set off
Speaker 2: to the DCU. What's going to happen next? We don't know,
Speaker 2: but at least we have Superman and David corn Sweat.
Speaker 3: What a blessing.
Speaker 1: A wonderful year in horror, including weapons including bring Her Back,
Speaker 1: including depending on how you classify this one in the
Speaker 1: Moody the Monkey, including five nights at Freddy's two including
Speaker 1: the final vout, many other final destination to the Long Walk,
Speaker 1: well kind of time, Frankenstein, Frankenstein. Just an incredible season
Speaker 1: for horror, and then just a lot of you know, gosh,
Speaker 1: a lot of surprises, really, including I think probably the
Speaker 1: biggest surprise, which is the box office breaking success of Sinners,
Speaker 1: and more and more movies from tours being released on
Speaker 1: streamers like Netflix. For instance, No Bombox Draight Kelly, which
Speaker 1: is out right now.
Speaker 3: Actually delightful movie. I would love to see it in
Speaker 3: the cinema. You know what, it was.
Speaker 1: Okay for me? Have you handed for me? But I
Speaker 1: enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, I watched it last night. It
Speaker 2: was Yes, I was in the glow of the Christmas
Speaker 2: lights and it was a perfectly sacering kind of like
Speaker 2: what it's like to be a star.
Speaker 3: But I gotta say, would I have enjoyed it more?
Speaker 3: Probably if I'd seen it in the Magic of the
Speaker 3: Movie Theater. Yes, Netflix, I would have. But again, George Clooney,
Speaker 3: Big Hitter, Noah Bound Back.
Speaker 2: I mean also one of the biggest kind of stories
Speaker 2: of this year, I would say, is and this will
Speaker 2: come into play when we talk about one of our
Speaker 2: favorite movies of the year. But like movies that performed
Speaker 2: very well critically and failed at the box office, and
Speaker 2: movies that performed.
Speaker 3: Very badly critically that succeeded at the box office.
Speaker 2: Obviously one of the biggest stories there being Paul Thomas
Speaker 2: Anderson's One Battle after Another incredible office poison, box office poison,
Speaker 2: unbelievable roll out.
Speaker 3: If you lived in la you felt like it.
Speaker 2: Was the first time that Star Wars and New Hope
Speaker 2: had come out, and you were there and you were
Speaker 2: thinking about you needed to get into that screening at
Speaker 2: Man's Chinese Theater.
Speaker 3: You needed to be in there, Bro.
Speaker 2: That's how it felt to be trying to get into
Speaker 2: a screening of one battle after another in VistaVision in
Speaker 2: La You felt like it was the biggest movie in
Speaker 2: the world. It was being carried by those incredible performances
Speaker 2: by Teona, by Regina, by Chase, and you know what,
Speaker 2: Eventually it didn't necessarily make the money they expected. The
Speaker 2: Dad audience did not come out, but we still got
Speaker 2: an unbelievable, crazily beautiful looking.
Speaker 1: Movie, and by all accounts, in its early days, that
Speaker 1: is the film that appears to be running away with awards.
Speaker 3: Absolutely no question, at.
Speaker 1: Least the narrative awards ry point in the season. Okay, Rosie,
Speaker 1: your best movie of the year.
Speaker 2: I think that for me it has to go. I
Speaker 2: know that this conversation has changed. It has been a
Speaker 2: crazy year. It's felt like it's gone on forever. So
Speaker 2: it might be a shock that this movie even came
Speaker 2: out this year, But I still stand by that the best,
Speaker 2: most important, coolest movie of the year was Sinners. That's
Speaker 2: an unbelievable movie. I'm still standing by Sinners. That is
Speaker 2: my Rosy Cool Stuff Awards. Stuff I liked extro Vision Award.
Speaker 2: I'm giving it to Sinner's Best Movie of the Year, Jason,
Speaker 2: watch yours.
Speaker 1: My favorite movie of the year is One Battle. Another
Speaker 1: is you know, very close up there. All apologies to
Speaker 1: Chloe Joe and Hamnet, which I have not seen yet.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say I'm eager to see.
Speaker 2: Let us give a disclaimer here, some of the best
Speaker 2: of the Year lists are.
Speaker 3: Gonna include movies that.
Speaker 2: Because of the festival roll out this year, many critics
Speaker 2: I've seen that we have not seen. Me and Jason
Speaker 2: have not seen Hamnet, but we will have Joelle coming
Speaker 2: on to talk about Hamnet. We have not seen Marty Supreme,
Speaker 2: which many people are saying is one of.
Speaker 3: The best films of the year. Cannot wait.
Speaker 2: Also, just need to shout out my boy little Timmy
Speaker 2: Tim taking an a twenty four ping Pong movie to
Speaker 2: cc XP and acting like he was Tom Hardy promoting Venom.
Speaker 3: I love it.
Speaker 2: We need to see more of it. But they're going
Speaker 2: to be some of those movies that we haven't seen.
Speaker 3: New Valve the New like movie about the making.
Speaker 2: Of Breathless by clay and stuff like that we haven't seen,
Speaker 2: but these are the ones we have seen. Jason tell
Speaker 2: us why one bottle after another edged over the top
Speaker 2: for you this year?
Speaker 1: Just the It was a cathartic film that, especially in
Speaker 1: the times in which we lived, these fallen, rotten, toxic
Speaker 1: and utterly devoid of ethics type situation that we are
Speaker 1: currently living in, one battle after another, felt like a
Speaker 1: wonderful fantasy to live in for two hours and fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1: What a wonderful escapism that hits a person like me
Speaker 1: right in the fields. And a movie experience from Paul
Speaker 1: Thomas Sanderson that I haven't quite had before. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not he hasn't really made a popcorn. I guess
Speaker 1: you'd have to go back to Boogie Nights. He's a
Speaker 1: really made even that movie before and even then, and
Speaker 1: I just I enjoyed it like I would have enjoyed
Speaker 1: an action movie.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was exactly. It did feel like when you
Speaker 3: were in that cinema.
Speaker 2: That crazy car chase scene, like you felt like you
Speaker 2: were watching an eighties kind of schwartz the Enegger esque
Speaker 2: romp through these gorgeous cinematic landscapes.
Speaker 3: But there was this hope and this fury and this anger.
Speaker 2: And as someone who has been living in the South Bay,
Speaker 2: who's living in an area where you know isis stayed
Speaker 2: on the Terminal Island right now, we had like seventeen
Speaker 2: kidnappings yesterday.
Speaker 3: I you know, it's it's constant.
Speaker 2: There was something very visceral and different about seeing a
Speaker 2: movie that actually dealt with what was going on right now,
Speaker 2: even though you know, the moments we saw them break
Speaker 2: into the border patrol places and stuff was so earlier.
Speaker 3: It felt very visceral.
Speaker 2: You know, the Benicio del Toro character, the sense character,
Speaker 2: the way he was helping people. And there's been so
Speaker 2: many great critiques and call outs and thought pieces. You
Speaker 2: can read all about them. But I did think it
Speaker 2: was a movie that blew me away. But Sinners takes
Speaker 2: it for me. Jason, what is your most underrated.
Speaker 3: Underseen movie that you wish more people had seen this year? Wow?
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, underrated underseen movie?
Speaker 2: I will start because you did mention it. You mentioned
Speaker 2: it momentarily with Bring Her Back. I think Bring Her
Speaker 2: Back to Me is If Sinners hadn't come out, I
Speaker 2: would have been going all over the place talking about
Speaker 2: bring Her Back best picture. I mean, I still have
Speaker 2: been shouting it out. We had a great chat with
Speaker 2: the directors.
Speaker 3: You can watch it on our YouTube channel. I love
Speaker 3: the Philipo brothers.
Speaker 2: I think Talk to Us great, Talk to Me is
Speaker 2: a great movie, But Bring Her Back is a treatise
Speaker 2: o bleak.
Speaker 3: Existential horror on trauma.
Speaker 2: When I watched it for the first time, I felt
Speaker 2: like I was watching something like Your God is a
Speaker 2: Dog Tooth, like a movie that haunts you for so
Speaker 2: much longer than you watch it. And also as someone
Speaker 2: who you know, didn't have the best adults in my
Speaker 2: life as a kid. It sparked off this thought process
Speaker 2: for me about this year's movies, about how these movies
Speaker 2: are about horror that happens to children and the lack
Speaker 2: of agency you have as a kid. And I think
Speaker 2: that ended up being a through line for weapons and
Speaker 2: loads of other stuff that I loved, I.
Speaker 3: Mean, even stranger things.
Speaker 2: Me and Carmen were texting about how so much of
Speaker 2: it has those similar themes and there's something very interesting
Speaker 2: right now about children in horror and what we have
Speaker 2: fears of for children.
Speaker 3: But yeah, if you can deal.
Speaker 2: With a sad horror movie, and you love to feel
Speaker 2: like depressed and you want to go to Amac's bleak
Speaker 2: week Watch Bring Her Back. I truly think Sally Hawkins
Speaker 2: should have got an oscar for this performance.
Speaker 3: It's unbelievable. The young actors are unbelievable. Go watch it.
Speaker 3: Jason Wat's Yours.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with Steven Soderberg, the prolific Steven Soderberg's
Speaker 1: Black Bag, which is a delightful little indie spy thriller
Speaker 1: that turns into like one of the ultimate wife guy movies,
Speaker 1: like of Recent Memory, Incredible. It's a fantastic wife guy
Speaker 1: movie and just a delightful little puzzle box of a
Speaker 1: thriller that happens like in meetings, it happens on the phone,
Speaker 1: it happens over movies, and I don't want to You
Speaker 1: probably haven't seen it because I think it's a very
Speaker 1: It's the box office box office forty three million on
Speaker 1: a budget of fifty to sixty, so nobody saw this movie.
Speaker 1: But it's just.
Speaker 3: Too thriller kind of vibe.
Speaker 1: It's like, I mean, a lot of the film is
Speaker 1: like can can this long married couple rediscover like the verve,
Speaker 1: like find each other hot? Really really fun movie, Black
Speaker 1: Bag You Kill It's where is it streaming on Netflix
Speaker 1: right now?
Speaker 3: Or it's streaming right now?
Speaker 1: Okay, find it on Amazon Prime streaming service.
Speaker 2: Alight makes me happy because, as a Boo mentioned in
Speaker 2: the comments as we were recording this, rage Joan Page
Speaker 2: one of our recurring conversation topics, he's getting some.
Speaker 3: Walk in that gig. And guess what, guys, He's coming
Speaker 3: back to Netflix for an erotic thriller. He's returning to
Speaker 3: the homeland.
Speaker 1: Here's a fun story about Reggie Junt Page. My wife
Speaker 1: and I were had forgotten his name and we were taught.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, look, there he is on the
Speaker 1: he was doing ads for I think BMW maybe, and
Speaker 1: I was like, there he is. Fuck what's his name?
Speaker 1: You know? Like, and he's on he was supposed to
Speaker 1: be bond and like. And we were trying to figure
Speaker 1: out his name and I was like, oh, I think
Speaker 1: I have it. And then I was like, and this
Speaker 1: is the name that got us there, I said, I
Speaker 1: feel like it's something like Jamaica Paul Incredible, incredible.
Speaker 2: Just like happens.
Speaker 1: And so that is the name that got us to
Speaker 1: incredib J Jhon Page.
Speaker 3: Classic, and he's gonna be back.
Speaker 1: Guys, He's going to be back, the handsome almost bond
Speaker 1: ray j John Page. Let's take a quick break and
Speaker 1: we'll be back with more best of five. And we're right,
Speaker 1: let's go to books.
Speaker 2: Ooh, I love to talk to you about books.
Speaker 1: I'd love to talk to you about books, Rosie. What
Speaker 1: are some of your favorite books of twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: or that you read in twenty twenty five? Before you
Speaker 1: get to your top pick, my favorite book did not
Speaker 1: come out in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's really normal, right, Like, Okay, So
Speaker 3: I have read some incredible books this year.
Speaker 2: I was blessed to get send an early copy of
Speaker 2: this really incredible book called a Eternal Ruin that is
Speaker 2: a sequel by an author called Tai Jess Germu. It's
Speaker 2: like a crazy supernatural fantasy just like totally immersed me.
Speaker 2: I've been reading a lot of a lot of fantasy
Speaker 2: and a lot of horror tinged fantasy. This year's definitely
Speaker 2: been rare for me because I am usually not a
Speaker 2: literary fiction guy. I'm definitely more of a mainstream or
Speaker 2: ya or romanticy or even just nonfiction.
Speaker 3: But there were two books that.
Speaker 2: Definitely fit into that this category this year post This
Speaker 2: incredible book I read at the beginning of this year
Speaker 2: that really did change my perspective on books, and it's
Speaker 2: probably my biggest pick, so I won't mention it, but
Speaker 2: it was a Japanese translated book that got me into
Speaker 2: more like female literary fiction in the horror space. So
Speaker 2: two of my faves that I read this year was
Speaker 2: Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Vien.
Speaker 3: It's basically about two twin sisters.
Speaker 2: One of them gets married off to like a sexy,
Speaker 2: hunky lord of the manner, very very gothic romance, and
Speaker 2: they find a bog woman all the woud yeah, and
Speaker 2: she becomes obsessed with the bog woman and the bog
Speaker 2: woman's history, and it's this incredible, gross textured, fantastic gory
Speaker 2: horror that's about love and about sisterhood and it's very
Speaker 2: gothic and very fantastic. What was one of your favorit
Speaker 2: reads this year?
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I read a lot of stuff that I
Speaker 1: didn't like this year fiction wise, but I read a
Speaker 1: lot of nonfiction that I really enjoyed. Let's see, what
Speaker 1: did I read that I liked. I read a old
Speaker 1: book that is a New York Review of Books re
Speaker 1: release called The Gallery by John horn Burns. It is
Speaker 1: a a story about a gay soldier in World War
Speaker 1: Two and the kind of the aftermath of World War
Speaker 1: Two came out. When did this come out? Hold on,
Speaker 1: let's say it came out in the forties. Here nineteen
Speaker 1: set in nineteen forty four, and it's it's shocking, and
Speaker 1: it's in the fact that it came out in the forties.
Speaker 1: It's a really really like gripping emotional read just about
Speaker 1: that really takes you to a place in time. It's
Speaker 1: not just like the chaos of and rebuilding in post
Speaker 1: World War two in Italy, but the kind of like
Speaker 1: the way that this gay soldier has to find these
Speaker 1: fleeting moments to have connections with other people that then
Speaker 1: are just over and done and you have to because
Speaker 1: this is like something that is a risk to his
Speaker 1: life and to these others. Incredible book. And then nonfiction,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I've read so much stuff that is like,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? I read this book called Tallyrand,
Speaker 1: which is a biography by the British writer Duff Cooper.
Speaker 1: Came out in your early twentieth century. That's about this
Speaker 1: Marshall Tallyrand, who was a French politician for like the
Speaker 1: end of the French monarchy, the French Revolutionary government, Napoleon,
Speaker 1: and then the reinstitution of the French monarchy. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: every one of those regimes like hated him, distrusted him
Speaker 1: and didn't like him and thought about exiling him or
Speaker 1: like putting him to death. But then they go a
Speaker 1: little bit down the road and be like, fuck, he
Speaker 1: is really good at his job.
Speaker 3: We got him, and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's kind of a it is still just
Speaker 1: like a fascinating by our. And then I would say,
Speaker 1: if you want to be depressed, the Fort Bragg Cartel
Speaker 1: as a non fiction book about a about a drug
Speaker 1: ring run out of Fort Bragg, not incredible during the
Speaker 1: Global war or terror. But finally, the book that I
Speaker 1: enjoyed the most as a fiction book, and again I
Speaker 1: dislike a lot of books sadly that I read this
Speaker 1: year would be Sa Crosby's Blacktop Wasteman. Sa Crosby a
Speaker 1: crime writer whose stuff is just like bloody and brutal
Speaker 1: and like really wonderful, like modern noirs. I had not
Speaker 1: read a ton of his stuff before, but Blacktop Wasteland
Speaker 1: is one that just really hit it for me. And
Speaker 1: the opening like ten pages like description of the setting
Speaker 1: is fucking great. It's okay, I've really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: If you're pitching it, what's it like? The central log
Speaker 2: line of the story.
Speaker 1: A struggling mechanic gets caught up in a interstate crime
Speaker 1: ring and has to get his kind of shoot his
Speaker 1: way out of it while also working through issues surrounding
Speaker 1: his his feelings towards his father, who is a longtime criminal,
Speaker 1: and feelings that he has of responsibility to his own
Speaker 1: family as a person dabbling in crime.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2: My final two are definitely still in this kind of
Speaker 2: like genre is space. I read this another incredible twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five book called The Midnight Shift by Chunson Ran,
Speaker 2: which is an adaptation of a really really I mean
Speaker 2: a translation of a really popular Korean novel and it's
Speaker 2: like a queer treatise on loan, and it's about a
Speaker 2: nurse who or a woman who notices that there has
Speaker 2: been this spate.
Speaker 3: Of suicides at all people's.
Speaker 2: Home and comes to find out that maybe it's a
Speaker 2: vampire but it's really about modern loneliness and relationships and
Speaker 2: being queer.
Speaker 3: It's so good.
Speaker 2: But my favorite book of the year, which I'm in
Speaker 2: a copy from you, Jason, did not technically come out
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty five, but I've read it this year
Speaker 2: and it changed my life. I've sent it to so
Speaker 2: many people, I've bought it for so many women. It
Speaker 2: is the incredible novel. It's already won every award, so
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: It's gotten its due.
Speaker 2: And it is an incredible novel that originally was published
Speaker 2: in twenty seventeen but got an English translation last year
Speaker 2: called Butter by Asoko Yazooki, and it's about a woman
Speaker 2: who is a journalist who connects with a female serial
Speaker 2: killer through jail penman letters and begins this journey of
Speaker 2: understanding fatness and woman who and food and misogyny in Japan.
Speaker 2: But it's incredible because every single woman I have given
Speaker 2: it to, whether American, whether English, whether any race, any gender, Honestly.
Speaker 3: Anyone I've given it to immediately.
Speaker 2: Within ten pages text me and goes, oh my god,
Speaker 2: there's like no universal experience in the single like unique
Speaker 2: experience in the world, like even this incredibly specific book
Speaker 2: about a woman in her thirties in Japan who probably
Speaker 2: I think she weighs like one hundred.
Speaker 3: And four pounds.
Speaker 2: They talk about her weight a lot in the book,
Speaker 2: so she's incredibly slim by you know, Western standards. And
Speaker 2: yet every single woman who reads this book, which by
Speaker 2: the way, was recommended to me by by mother. That
Speaker 2: is how it like intergenerationally fantastic this book is. It's
Speaker 2: a mixture of true crime, it's womanhood, it's fatness, it's murder.
Speaker 2: It will also introduce you to some of the best,
Speaker 2: most simple and nourishing Japanese dishes. Me and my mother
Speaker 2: in law, me and my besties, We've been texted each
Speaker 2: other eating the books, the stuff from the book like.
Speaker 2: It is truly a fantastic book, and I love that
Speaker 2: we widened the scope because I cannot recommend it enough.
Speaker 2: It's it's just so engaging and kind of depressing, but
Speaker 2: in a good way.
Speaker 1: Up next, video games, Oh, interesting videos. I've had a
Speaker 1: few that have managed to grab me.
Speaker 3: Rosie.
Speaker 1: What are your some of your best games of the year.
Speaker 3: Again, I want to give a shower out.
Speaker 2: I want to give a shout out first to Dispatch,
Speaker 2: which I've only played a little bit of so I
Speaker 2: did not think it was fair to put it in here.
Speaker 2: But it is a sexy superhero episodic slice of life
Speaker 2: action game. It's so much fun. That animation is beautiful.
Speaker 2: I was my friend Kai is super into it. She
Speaker 2: was playing it last night and I was like, Oh,
Speaker 2: it's almost gonna make it.
Speaker 3: But I haven't played it enough. It's eight episodes.
Speaker 2: I've only played through like one, but I want to
Speaker 2: give it a shower because I think it's going to come
Speaker 2: up as one of the best games of the year.
Speaker 2: It's so much fun, my favorite games of the year.
Speaker 2: I'm starting off with one of the biggest releases. It
Speaker 2: was on this which to when I got my switch
Speaker 2: to which I have loved Mariocart World.
Speaker 3: I think it deserves to be up there. We've had
Speaker 3: so much.
Speaker 2: Fun playing it with our friends online, playing it with
Speaker 2: kids who come over, playing it with folks who want
Speaker 2: to try out the open world aspects, which I think
Speaker 2: we're a little bit overplayed. But generally the new tracks
Speaker 2: are fun. I love Mario Kart, I love all the
Speaker 2: new characters. It's really fun, and it's just been probably
Speaker 2: the game I spent the most time playing.
Speaker 3: My other.
Speaker 2: Episode would also be My other suggestion would also be
Speaker 2: this is really controversial, but I'm gonna have it because
Speaker 2: I like to have a hot take.
Speaker 3: Is it a best game of the year?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: Is it one of my favorite games of the year. Yes,
Speaker 3: Tales of the Shire very hated at release.
Speaker 2: By kind of big Triple A game review sites, but
Speaker 2: then the cozy game community kind of found it and said, hey,
Speaker 2: we're used to playing yankee games. It's essentially a yanky
Speaker 2: version of the cooking mechanisms from Zelda. You put on
Speaker 2: two communicate with people and make friends with people. You
Speaker 2: put on feasts. There is no money aspect. That is
Speaker 2: not capitalistic. It's all about just hanging around and hanging
Speaker 2: out with your friends and doing up your little shia.
Speaker 2: Very cozy for me, very controversial. The less controversial takes.
Speaker 2: We did have an incredible Game Awards episode where Aaron
Speaker 2: and a Boo talk a little bit more about Dispatch.
Speaker 2: But that's my controversial take. Jason, tell me your two
Speaker 2: runners up and then.
Speaker 3: We'll do the best ofs.
Speaker 1: My two runners up are Battlefield six, which I listened.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I just want to shoot people and Battlefield six
Speaker 1: understundable for me on a large scale, Ghosts of Yota,
Speaker 1: which unbelievable, a wonderful follow up to the to the
Speaker 1: first game in the franchise, Ghosts of Tsushima. It's just
Speaker 1: everything you want from a ghost game and more. But
Speaker 1: my best game of the year, My favorite game of
Speaker 1: the year has to be ARC Readers Crazy extraction third
Speaker 1: person shooter. What is an extraction shooter, you ask. It's
Speaker 1: a game in which you have to you enter a
Speaker 1: map where there are other players, but also computer controlled
Speaker 1: players who you're competing against in order to accomplish some
Speaker 1: mission and then get to an extraction point and try
Speaker 1: to leave without getting killed. And you're trying to get
Speaker 1: all your stuff that you gathered during your playthrough round
Speaker 1: and manage to get out. And it is arc Creaders
Speaker 1: is wonderfully tense. It's I just creep around gathering stuff,
Speaker 1: stealth not to shoot people, trying not to be heard
Speaker 1: by people, trying to never let people know that I'm around,
Speaker 1: and only shoot if I have to, and it is
Speaker 1: just an incredibly tense, fun experience.
Speaker 2: I love that this made your favor games of the
Speaker 2: year because you were on deadline.
Speaker 3: Until recently, so you are not going to play this.
Speaker 3: Jason was in the discord right now. Yeah, I like
Speaker 3: playing it.
Speaker 2: But but it was that good that it won you Okay, Mine,
Speaker 2: I've been thinking a lot about people have been having
Speaker 2: lots of good conversations online about the difference between like,
Speaker 2: you know, art and content and what do you take
Speaker 2: in and what makes you happy and blah blah blah,
Speaker 2: and when it comes to the game, that has just
Speaker 2: made me happiest that every time I play it.
Speaker 3: Feels like a release.
Speaker 2: Feels like I'm taking in some beautiful art somebody made.
Speaker 3: Is Tiny Bookshop. I've talked about it before.
Speaker 2: I cannot suggest it enough if you have a Switch
Speaker 2: one or a switch to the best thing. I think
Speaker 2: the reason it has so much life to it is
Speaker 2: that it is constantly updated or has a massive, massive
Speaker 2: quantity of real books.
Speaker 3: So when you are even though the game is relatively.
Speaker 2: Small choice based, you just put your books out, people
Speaker 2: come and buy them. You go through the day, and
Speaker 2: you can advise them, and it's essentially a point and
Speaker 2: click game because of the fact that you'll be recommending
Speaker 2: people books and you'll have books on your shelf and
Speaker 2: they'll want come in and say, oh, I really need
Speaker 2: like a ya for a kid who has never really
Speaker 2: read before. And then you can look on your shelf
Speaker 2: and you can have Clive Barker's The Thief of Nowhere,
Speaker 2: and you can have Ursula Legwynn, and you can have
Speaker 2: you know, Christopher Crestamanci, Like, it's really incredible to have
Speaker 2: the real books. And I think that's what kept pulling
Speaker 2: me back because every time there was a book I loved,
Speaker 2: or a nonfiction book or a comic book I never
Speaker 2: thought I would have seen in a video game, I
Speaker 2: take a picture of it and I'm like, this is
Speaker 2: so cute.
Speaker 3: So it has very affordable.
Speaker 2: Incredibly beautiful, great music, and just generally a really lovely experience.
Speaker 3: So I can't recommend it enough. That's my favorite game
Speaker 3: of the year.
Speaker 1: Up next, comics, Rosie, your favorite comic of the year. Who.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I'm going to shout out we are either
Speaker 2: will if they haven't been released yet, they will be released.
Speaker 2: But I've done two really great short interviews with two
Speaker 2: incredible comic book creators whose comics.
Speaker 3: Are on my best off list. That is why they
Speaker 3: are on the podcast.
Speaker 2: Leelan Canon unbelievable, chonky graphic novel. Perfect thing that you
Speaker 2: can give to someone who loves a voracious visceral read.
Speaker 2: It's about the titular canon, a chef in a restaurant
Speaker 2: and when we meet her, she smashed up the whole restaurant,
Speaker 2: and then the book kind of tells us how she
Speaker 2: got there. Very real and relatable to anyone who's kind
Speaker 2: of dealt with family issues, who's dealt with working in
Speaker 2: a restaurant, who's dealt with working in retail.
Speaker 3: So good Lie's art is amazing.
Speaker 2: Great interview too, Nathan Gelgood incredible comic, real politic.
Speaker 3: It's funny.
Speaker 2: If you like me and Jason, you will probably like
Speaker 2: the comic. It's lots of jokes about the realities of
Speaker 2: leftift infighting and movie loving, but it's all set in
Speaker 2: a movie theater. It's very silly. It's a talking animal comic.
Speaker 2: I love it, but probably my favorite comic of the year. Jason,
Speaker 2: you're gonna cover one of my runners up that was
Speaker 2: up there for my top so I'm gonna let you
Speaker 2: have that one.
Speaker 3: But I'm gonna shout out Stephanie Williams. We love her.
Speaker 2: She's got an incredible comic right now with an incredible
Speaker 2: artist called Leticia. It's called Roots of Magic. It's a
Speaker 2: cosmic horror comic based on the real life of Madam C. J. Walker,
Speaker 2: and it's about black haircare magic. All kinds of incredible
Speaker 2: real practitioners taking inspiration from it. Looks gorgeous. It's part
Speaker 2: of Ignition Press's first creator owned rollout. Just really the
Speaker 2: kind of cool shit an independent creative creator and.
Speaker 3: Publishers should be doing. I love it.
Speaker 2: I love Steph, so I want to give her that
Speaker 2: shout out to Jason.
Speaker 3: Let's talk about what was arguably the biggest release of
Speaker 3: the year.
Speaker 1: I mean, this was the biggest release by far of
Speaker 1: the year. It's on the New York Times bestseller list.
Speaker 1: In his Absolute Batman, I'm reading it in the trade
Speaker 1: paperback for issues one through six. Came out over the summer,
Speaker 1: so I picked it up. Unbelievable and it's fantastic, wonderful
Speaker 1: retelling of the Batman's story as a younger like twenty
Speaker 1: four year old blue collar batman who is doing his
Speaker 1: batmanning at night. Written by Scott Snyder with art by
Speaker 1: Nick Dragota, and one of the best. It's different folks,
Speaker 1: one of the best to ever do it. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it's just absolutely brutal and fantastic.
Speaker 2: If you guys have not checked out the Absolute relaunch
Speaker 2: from DC Comics, it is essentially it was thought that
Speaker 2: it would be their take on the Ultimate Universe from Marvel,
Speaker 2: which was kind of gritty and grounded, but instead they
Speaker 2: went the other direction. And what they did was they
Speaker 2: created a world that was essentially centered around the hopelessness
Speaker 2: and despair of Dark Side instead of the hope of Superman,
Speaker 2: which is your DC Prime universe.
Speaker 3: So this universe everything's terrible, the tragedy is more tragics.
Speaker 2: Even Batman is broke, Superman's raised and in tragedy does
Speaker 2: never gets the loving care that he gets ripped away
Speaker 2: from them.
Speaker 3: Wonder Woman is raised in hell.
Speaker 2: These are really big blockbuster ideas, and guess what they hit.
Speaker 2: These comics sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and we're
Speaker 2: so popular that Marvel recently ended their Ultimate Universe and
Speaker 2: it has been rumored will be relaunching. And I love that.
Speaker 2: I love Absolute Batman. It's one of the coolest redesigns
Speaker 2: we've ever seen. Great pic Jason and definitely like the
Speaker 2: comic book story of the year, like this was the
Speaker 2: success story. Next year we're getting Absolute Catwoman, Absolute Green Lantern,
Speaker 2: my dream. I'm trying to bring that absolute swamp thing. Guys,
Speaker 2: you know I got it, Wink wink, trying to bring
Speaker 2: that to the DC universe. But yeah, that great pic, Jason.
Speaker 2: I mean, what a year for comics. It's been crazy.
Speaker 1: Let's take a quick break and we'll be back with
Speaker 1: our best shows TV shows, TV shows, Heard of It
Speaker 1: TV and we're back. Okay. X Ray Vision Awards Television
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, your television nominees, and then your best
Speaker 1: Television Show of the Year.
Speaker 3: Okay, so I'm nominees. I'm going to start with The
Speaker 3: Share Company. I love this show. It's so good.
Speaker 2: If it wasn't for a certain show that came out
Speaker 2: very early this year, I probably would have put it
Speaker 2: as my top show because for me, it was just
Speaker 2: so out there, so funny, never missed. I loved Tim
Speaker 2: Robinson's weird ass behavior. He's so funny. Another one up
Speaker 2: there for me, which in a different year again, Cheer
Speaker 2: Company would have been number one. In a different year
Speaker 2: with less good TV, this could have also been my
Speaker 2: number one the Studio. I love that show.
Speaker 3: It's so funny.
Speaker 2: It feels so perfectly written for people like us who
Speaker 2: live in LA who deal with press junkets, who know
Speaker 2: that every time you go to a movie premiere it
Speaker 2: seems like the coolest thing in the world, but it's
Speaker 2: actually like a slog for everyone working it Like, the
Speaker 2: show just hit on so many levels for me, aside
Speaker 2: from the incredible cameos, I love the studio. That's definitely
Speaker 2: up a few. I want to throw in a couple
Speaker 2: of underrated ones. I feel the summer Hikaru Died one
Speaker 2: of the best anime of the season. You're gonna be
Speaker 2: seeing it as one of the best anime coming up.
Speaker 2: People are gonna be talking about it. It's one of
Speaker 2: those shows best to go in knowing as little as possible,
Speaker 2: go in expecting a sweet anime, come out just totally traumatized,
Speaker 2: which is how the best anime often goes.
Speaker 3: Also totally action packed.
Speaker 2: And my other one, which you can watch on Netflix,
Speaker 2: and I do think is part of a bigger story
Speaker 2: this year around the notion of how a lot of
Speaker 2: American TV, broadcast networks and streamers have started to look
Speaker 2: towards Canada. So when the CW was taken over by
Speaker 2: Next Star, they decided to just look to Canada to
Speaker 2: get all their programming. Recently, HBO Max has had a
Speaker 2: smash hit going absolutely viral, which I know a lot
Speaker 2: of people are talking about Heated Rivalry, which is a
Speaker 2: gay hockey drama which came from the youth TV channel
Speaker 2: Crave in Canada but has taken away very sexy.
Speaker 3: Hockey drama that's taken the globe by storm.
Speaker 2: And for me, one of the shows that I think
Speaker 2: was a big hit out of that acquisition acquisition space
Speaker 2: is Netflix took on the incredible.
Speaker 3: Show North of North, which is this.
Speaker 2: Really funny sitcom, warm Arctic indigenous comedy premiere on CBC
Speaker 2: in Canada.
Speaker 3: It stars Anna Lambey who stars as.
Speaker 2: Like a young INUK woman who is basically just like
Speaker 2: going through a lot of life changes and it's super funny,
Speaker 2: it's super heartwarming, it's not.
Speaker 3: Try, it feels very real. Gave me big primo energy.
Speaker 2: Honestly, the kind of sitcom where you just want to
Speaker 2: sit in it and spend time with the people.
Speaker 3: So I love that one.
Speaker 2: That was another one of my ones, and I think
Speaker 2: it's on Netflix so I'm like, guys, go watch it
Speaker 2: on Netflix that I got the screeners. I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: I recommended it to every who asked me for something
Speaker 2: that they can watch and not feel stressed. So yeah,
Speaker 2: that one's a really good one. Jason Wore are your
Speaker 2: runners up this year?
Speaker 1: My runners up? The Chair Company? Yeah, the wonderful, absolutely insane,
Speaker 1: The Chair Company, The Studio, which was somewhat divisive, but
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3: I love The Task, which is.
Speaker 1: You know, I think technically a limited series, but I
Speaker 1: thought was just like a wonderful, almost Shakespearean take on
Speaker 1: a crime drama pluribus, a latecomer to the to the scene.
Speaker 1: But I think one of the best TV shows of
Speaker 1: the year. But I have to say that the best
Speaker 1: show for me in this year and of recent years
Speaker 1: has to.
Speaker 3: Be and Or agreed reason too. I agree. It is
Speaker 3: just I couldn't even be like you take it and
Speaker 3: I don't take it.
Speaker 2: There were shows this year that I thought might compete,
Speaker 2: but no, maybe but no, And I love I definitely
Speaker 2: see Jason.
Speaker 3: I feel like you're in your like.
Speaker 2: Dad crime era because Task is so blacktop waste Lend,
Speaker 2: It's so in that space of that kind of like
Speaker 2: distressed guys fighting for what's right and doing their best
Speaker 2: for their families. I think in a way, the reason
Speaker 2: and Or hit so hard is it has a lot
Speaker 2: of those tropes that we understand because Tony Gilroy is
Speaker 2: such a fantastic writer who has worked in so many
Speaker 2: different spaces that it has a lot of those really recognizable,
Speaker 2: familiar tropes. But they were able to utilize the space
Speaker 2: setting and the big broad star wars of it all
Speaker 2: to tell a story that in its moments, in its time,
Speaker 2: felt like it was reacting exactly to what was going
Speaker 2: on in the world, even though it was made two
Speaker 2: years before, and it still I think at the end
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty five feels more powerful than it did
Speaker 2: at the beginning. And I love it and I'm so
Speaker 2: glad it's your pick, it's my pick, that's our that's
Speaker 2: our joint best TV show of the year that we love.
Speaker 3: That's the one. It's and Or.
Speaker 2: I don't think any other show touches it this year.
Speaker 2: Good job Tony Gilay, good job Diego Luna, good job everyone.
Speaker 3: What a show.
Speaker 2: And Jason, I'm gonna ask you as our big this
Speaker 2: is less of an award and this is our big take.
Speaker 2: Let's ask the question here x V XRV question XRV
Speaker 2: award question for next year?
Speaker 3: Will it be answered next year? We need to know, Jason,
Speaker 3: what's going on with superhero movies.
Speaker 2: We mentioned Superman, We loved it, but there were some
Speaker 2: other ones that didn't hit this year in the same
Speaker 2: way for us.
Speaker 1: It's it's true. Well, I mean clearly we are in
Speaker 1: We are in a transition period for superhero movies and
Speaker 1: for kind of the movie industry absolutely writ large in
Speaker 1: terms of like where are the hits coming from?
Speaker 3: Where are the where are.
Speaker 1: The blockbusters coming from? Sinners was a complete.
Speaker 3: Surprise people original idea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, people might try and reverse engineer it, but it's
Speaker 1: going to be really hard to do. That came in
Speaker 1: to a left field K pop K Pop, Zombie Hunters
Speaker 1: came out of like came out of like left field.
Speaker 1: Another like Five Nights of Freddy's is another one that.
Speaker 1: So I think that we're just like at a stage
Speaker 1: where the predictable route and formula that has worked for
Speaker 1: the last fifteen years, which is mostly which is IP
Speaker 1: and superheroes kind of doesn't deliver in the same way anymore,
Speaker 1: and people are just looking for something new from anywhere.
Speaker 2: And it makes sense because as we know trends, basically
Speaker 2: it's around a thirteen to fifteen year cycle, and I
Speaker 2: feel like superhero movies have been the predominant thing that
Speaker 2: always going to be there. They've always been there. We're
Speaker 2: still going to be talking about them, They're still going
Speaker 2: to be making a billion dollars. It wasn't so long ago,
Speaker 2: ded Pol Wolverine did just that. Yes, but it's like
Speaker 2: you said, original storytelling k Pop, Demon Hunters, Sinners, but
Speaker 2: you know, one battle after another, loosely adapted from a book,
Speaker 2: but still in that I would say the fin of
Speaker 2: a film that we don't often get and it was
Speaker 2: not exactly you know, Thomas Pinson's not IP that's getting
Speaker 2: people through the door, clearly, But like I think this
Speaker 2: notion of hey, okay, we had fifteen years of this,
Speaker 2: what does original storytelling look like? The fact that Fantastic
Speaker 2: Four is not the biggest story of this year is
Speaker 2: a failure to marvel simply on the fact that they
Speaker 2: needed that. But they can refocus, They can go to
Speaker 2: the X Men and also take some lessons from this year.
Speaker 2: Look Superman was actually played it relatively safe, right, If
Speaker 2: something is true to the character, feels like it's at
Speaker 2: its heart, Like what was the big thing people loved
Speaker 2: about Superman? The fact he was, like, you know, running
Speaker 2: around and picking up squirrels.
Speaker 3: It was the little things.
Speaker 2: That made it feel like, that's Superman. I want to
Speaker 2: spend time with him. It's not about the world or
Speaker 2: the greater world. It's about is this Superman. I think
Speaker 2: Marvel can do that, and I think Marvel can do
Speaker 2: weird shit. They can take lessons from what worked this year.
Speaker 2: We know wonder Man is going to be coming out
Speaker 2: in January. That's going to be their first thing. I'm
Speaker 2: very excited. I think it's going to I think people
Speaker 2: are overlooking this show. I think they're overlooking ya Ya
Speaker 2: and his incredible potential, overlooking the creative team behind it.
Speaker 2: I'm hoping Marvel starts off strong next year with that one.
Speaker 2: And as for DC, I mean, we're looking at a
Speaker 2: world where, according to an email that Netflix sent me,
Speaker 2: they've already bought one of Brothers and it's happening and
Speaker 2: there's no antitrust laws.
Speaker 1: So Supergirl See it on Netflix.
Speaker 3: See it on Netflix exactly.
Speaker 2: Like, so I think that, like you said, Jason, we're
Speaker 2: in a new space, We're in a new transitional era.
Speaker 2: But the good thing is these stories are still here.
Speaker 2: The comics are stronger than ever, and we're going to
Speaker 2: keep seeing these great movies. But it's time for these
Speaker 2: studios to realize, you've got to do something a bit different.
Speaker 2: K Pop Demon Hunters Sony sold that movie to Netflix
Speaker 2: for twenty million dollars flat. They don't get royalties, they
Speaker 2: don't get toy deals. They didn't see the power of it.
Speaker 2: So even the studios who are making these places don't
Speaker 2: always know. But I think, by the way, looking at
Speaker 2: a spider.
Speaker 1: Us never know. Let's talk about that with with comic books.
Speaker 1: That was with the comic book kind of swell. That
Speaker 1: was the most predictable period of movie making probably in
Speaker 1: the history all the time, like maybe ever, you know,
Speaker 1: you just knew there was there was a stretch there
Speaker 1: where Marvel was like, this movie is going to make
Speaker 1: a billion billion, this movie is going to make a billionaire. Close,
Speaker 1: this movie is going to make a billionaire close. That
Speaker 1: is not how it works. You know, AI is coming in.
Speaker 1: Different predictive models are coming in it doesn't matter. If
Speaker 1: people knew how to make hits every single time, then
Speaker 1: they would do it exactly. It's so I just think
Speaker 1: we're back to a more quote unquote normal period of
Speaker 1: unpredictability that's also married to a unique period of business,
Speaker 1: like you know, corporations swallowing other corporations.
Speaker 3: I will say, guys, as well, look monopolies, they're bad.
Speaker 3: Not gonna defend it. We know that.
Speaker 2: But I will say in a way, there is an
Speaker 2: egalitarian nature to what is happening right now, where weird
Speaker 2: movies that should not have been making a lot of money,
Speaker 2: like Sinners. That movie, nobody thought it was gonna make
Speaker 2: that much money, and it was a smash it. It
Speaker 2: was critically acclaimed. It's a fantastic movie. It's an instant
Speaker 2: classic weapons, super weird horror movie that opened to crazy
Speaker 2: numbers like The Monkey, even making crazy money, like weird
Speaker 2: movies can break through.
Speaker 3: Counter programming is back. It can break through a little
Speaker 3: bit more so.
Speaker 2: Next year, superheroes are just gonna have to fight a
Speaker 2: little bit harder. And I think in that way, think
Speaker 2: about the reason that MCU is amazing, it's because nobody,
Speaker 2: you know, Fox had had their incredible X Men movies.
Speaker 2: They'd had their so you know, Sony had Spider Man,
Speaker 2: they'd had their big hits, but Marvel had not been
Speaker 2: able to do that with the characters they had, so
Speaker 2: they had to think outside the box. They had to
Speaker 2: do something different, and that is what inspired MCU and
Speaker 2: the two thousand and eight kind of superherover naissance alongside
Speaker 2: obviously the Dark Knight, again thinking outside the box with
Speaker 2: the way they approached it. So hopefully this will lead
Speaker 2: to that and we'll get some super good, weird shit
Speaker 2: coming in the next few years from these comics that
Speaker 2: we love, especially in a post absolute Batman world, Like
Speaker 2: there's no way that they're not trying to work out
Speaker 2: how to make an absolute Batman movie right now.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they're figuring. They're trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1: That has been the XRV Awards our Favorite Stuff of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. What's your favorite stuff? Get us and
Speaker 1: the discord tell us your favorite stuff. On the next
Speaker 1: episode of X ray Vision, we're diving into The Chair
Speaker 1: Company Finale and some more of our favorite movies that's
Speaker 1: in this episode. Thanks for listening. X ray Vision is
Speaker 1: hosted by Jason Concepcion and Rosie Knight and is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 2: Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 1: Our supervising producer is Abuzafar.
Speaker 2: Our producers are Common, Laurent Dean Jonathan and Bay Wag.
Speaker 1: Theme song is by Brian Vasquez with alternate theme songs
Speaker 1: by Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman and
Speaker 2: Heidi our discord moderator.