So now that I’ve more or less exhausted the archives of my other recent discoveries, I’m looking for some new blood. Here’s a few that I’ve checked out recently, though I’m pretty sure only one or two will become part of the regular rotation:
- Hollywood Babble-On – One of Kevin Smith’s Smodcast network shows. I long ago lost interest in the general Smodcast (around the time Smith started smoking pot a lot and refused to talk about Zack and Miri Make a Porno) because it was a little too meandering and often boring. It sounded like this one had a little more structure though, so I thought I’d check it out. Unfortunately, it made a horrible first impression. I feel like the entire first half of the show (40 minutes or so) was devoted to reading fan letters, which was excruciating. It’s also a show that’s recorded before a live audience, and it’s pretty clear that they’re playing to that audience and not the podcast. Once the show starts, it gets a little more interesting. I’ll probably give this another chance, but I’m guessing it won’t be something I look forward to every week.
- Doug Loves Movies – This is a podcast from comedian Doug Benson (of Super High Me fame) and is also a little on the meandering side, especially at the beginning. Oddly, it’s another show that is recorded with a live audience, and that shows through at the beginning of the show. Fortunately, that doesn’t last 40 minutes, and Benson does have some defined segments, most notably including the The Leonard Maltin Game, which is awesome and a lot of fun. He also seems to be pretty good at getting solid guests to appear (I really enjoyed the Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Kate Micucci episode, for example). I’ve only listened to a few episodes, but this could be something I grow into.
- NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour – This is very much like the Slate Culture Gabfest, so if you like that, you’ll probably like this. It’s basically the same format: the hosts talk about two major topics of recent pop culture, then talk about their favorite things of the week. Again, I’ve only listened to a few episodes, but I can already tell that I’m going to burn through these archives rather quickly and make this into a weekly listen.
- How Did This Get Made? – Another comedian show (notably lead by Paul Scheer), this one is pretty interesting. It basically revels in the glory of bad movies, which is something I actually find endearing and fun… but only really when I’ve also seen the movie they’re talking about. Fortunately, I’m a huge movie nerd and have actually seen a reasonable portion of the bad movies they’re talking about. Some of the stuff they pick on is mainstream, but there’s also some real obscure gems and Weird Movie of the Week caliber films they talk about too. Fun stuff, but not something I can really rely on…
And that’s all for now. At this point, I’ve actually got a pretty good stable of reliable podcasts to look forward to every week:
- Extra Hot Great
- The /Filmcast
- Filmspotting
- The Jeff Rubin Jeff Rubin Show
- Slate’s Culture Gabfest
- Onion AV Club Reasonable Discussions
And there are a few others that I hit up every now and again. Still, every so often, I find myself out of compelling stuff to listen to, so I’m always on the lookout for new stuff.