Doom Patrol

Overzealous Recycling 012: We’re all fine here now, thank you

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

This past week’s routine was thrown out of whack by a hours-long wait in the emergency room. No worries. A bit of concern with my niece that would’ve been taken care of at the pediatrician or even urgent care had it happened during the day.

But everything’s perfectly all right now. She’s fine. We’re fine. We’re all fine here now, thank you. How are you?

— If you missed the last Overzealous Recycling, you can read it here —

This pass should say “10:10 PM.”

At some point during the third hour (of a total four; my sister was there for six hours), while my phone’s battery was sinking toward 10% charged, I began thinking about an obscure, nearly 25-year-old Saturday Night Live skit called “WR.”

Do you remember that one? George Clooney was hosting the show during his ER fame, so a parody of the medical drama was a natural (maybe lazy) idea. This was Season 20 — Feb. 25, 1995 — if you’re a diehard SNL fan and completist.

Unfortunately — and normally, this might be the thing to vex me the most in a particular week — there doesn’t appear to be an embed of the skit. But it is available on NBC’s Saturday Night Live website (though not the NBC app, as the site claims):

WR: Waiting Room

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Amusement Park Podcast 028: Oscars recap! Plus, True Detective, Doom Patrol and Trouble in Arrowverse

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

I’ve always been a fan of the Academy Awards, even when I wasn’t as much of a movie buff as I am now. Once upon a time, I let the Oscars dictate most of the movies I went to see. Now, it’s the other way around: I hope the Oscars reflect what I felt were the best movies of the past year.

For various reasons, I wasn’t as excited about the Oscars this year as I usually am. I didn’t even make an effort to see all of the Best Picture candidates, which I typically do. I had plenty of opportunity to see The Favourite, Green Book, and Roma, however. (And I’ll see them in the weeks to come.)

But there was still plenty to talk about with the Oscars, notably the show not having a host and a crowd-pleasing blockbuster like Black Panther being one of the Best Picture nominees.

— Show notes for Ep. 28 are available at the Amusement Park Podcast website —

We also dissected the Season 3 finale of True Detective. Overall, I enjoyed the season, especially Stephen Dorff’s performance as Roland West. The mystery was intriguing enough, though not the driving storyline for the season, as it turned out.

Please leave a review and rating on iTunes for us and a like on our Facebook page to help spread the word. You can subscribe to the Amusement Park Podcast everywhere you find podcasts:

You can also give us feedback at amusementparkpod@gmail.com and find us on Twitter and Instagram. We’d love to hear from you! Thanks for listening!

Amusement Park 027: True Detective, Doom Patrol and We Mourn the Punisher – and bonus thoughts

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

wayne_road

The Season 3 finale of True Detective is on Sunday, so we try to get in some theories and reactions to the season on the latest Amusement Park Podcast.

Maybe Chris and I would’ve had a bit more fun had we checked in every week, but I think we managed to put a couple of guesses out there regarding who the true bad guy is and how far up the whole conspiracy goes. And I got to voice my love for Stephen Dorff, who’s been tremendous as Roland West. It’ll be intriguing to see where his career goes from here.

We also react to the pilot episode of DC Universe’s Doom Patrol, which has the potential to be unlike anything ever seen in superhero TV. Fingers are crossed. Get weird and funny with this stuff, man.

https://soundcloud.com/casselberry/true-detective-doom-patrol-and-we-mourn-the-punisher

— Show notes for Ep. 27 are available at the Amusement Park Podcast website —

Since we also discussed Netflix’s inevitable cancellation of The Punisher (seriously, there’s no way Daredevil, Luke Cage and Iron Fist would be canceled, and The Punisher and Jessica Jones saved), I was reminded that there were a couple of things about Season 2 that I wanted to touch on, but didn’t previously.

I’m certainly self-centered enough to think Season 2 of The Punisher was speaking directly to me somehow. But there were a handful of intriguing coincidences that were extremely amusing.

First, the season begins in my home state of Michigan while Frank Castle is traveling the country and trying to get away from the events of Season 1. He ends up at a bar called Lola’s Roadhouse, which happens to be the name of one of my nieces.

lolas_roadhouse

Then at the end of the season, Castle and the young woman he’s been protecting throughout the story end up at a bus station. (I’ll try to avoid spoilers by saying why.) But the destination on the bus is where I currently live: Asheville, North Carolina.

punisher_asheville

punisher_asheville2

I haven’t encountered any murderous vigilantes, deeply religious contract killers, amnesiac soldiers, or Homeland Security agents with a major grudge during the past few years. So these parallels only apply so much with me. But still, I’ll always have a soft spot for Season 2 of The Punisher for these amusing coincidences. And I’ll be on the lookout for anything suspicious.

Please leave a review and rating on iTunes for us and a like on our Facebook page to help spread the word. You can subscribe to the Amusement Park Podcast everywhere you find podcasts:

You can also give us feedback at amusementparkpod@gmail.com and find us on Twitter and Instagram. We’d love to hear from you! Thanks for listening!