Top Plug of the Week

Saturday is our Highlander 2: The Quickening show for FlopTV, and you can still get tickets by clicking right here! Last time Dan gave us a tribute to forgotten mediocre movies, Stu interviewed one of the stars of Caddyshack 2, and Elliott summarized with aplomb. What delights will this episode hold? Join us for FTV and find out! — $7/episode, $35 for the whole season (+ticket fees). A season pass gets you access to ALL of the episodes, even those you missed live, with episodes available ON DEMAND for ticket holders through the end of February 2025!

The Plane Report

Audrey and I just returned from our first non-family, non-business trip since before covid. It was nice to get a true vacation for the first time in a long while, of course, but the TRUE flop-heads know what this means: DAN WAS ON A PLANE.

Since it’s an established fact of Flop House lore that my preferred way to consume media is on a shiny flying tube, I thought that of course this week’s newsletter had to run down what I put in my eye and ear holes.

DEPARTING TRIP - With the jetstream at our back and a redeye flight, I spent most of this flight asleep, but I did find time for the following

Movie: 4 minutes of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - Medium: Seatback screen - Grade: N/A

I started the new GxK thing, because I knew it had Dan Stevens in it, but I didn’t even make it to his appearance before thinking, “Why am I doing this? I don’t really enjoy these American kaiju movies,” and I turned it off in favor of greener pastures.

TV Show: One episode of the 6th season of Cobra Kai - Viewing Medium: iPhone - Grade: B-

Cobra Kai was a pretty great show in its first few seasons, interrogating the idea that “good” and “bad” exist as simple, fixed personality traits — showing how the underdog and… overdog(?) can switch places, and how time and circumstance affects character.

That said, by season six, Cobra Kai has turned into a wacky soap opera slugfest, devoted to bringing back every single character from the films in a series of ever-less-shocking reveals (although fingers crossed they land Hilary Swank before they’re done). The moral grey of the first seasons has been replaced by hysteria that an “evil” dojo might take over the world or something. By now, it’s basically speculative fiction about some kind of karate dystopia. Still, I enjoy watching it. Speaking of good and bad — the “good” elements may be gone, but the bad stuff has turned into delicious camp.

TV Show: One episode of Cross Viewing Medium: iPhone Grade: B+

I enjoyed Morgan Freeman’s pair of silly movies where he played Alex Cross, the preternaturally talented criminal profiler, but nothing really made me want to see a TV show about the character. I’ve just about had my fill of the (harmful?) myths of the mastermind killer (almost never a real thing) and the man who can GET INSIDE HIS BRAIN (ditto).

Then I saw that Aldis Hodge would be playing the part, and man — that guy’s one of the best we’ve got, able to convey both frightening intensity and warmth, and to switch between them in a moment. The show’s got the usual dopey serial killer nonsense, and it occasionally struggles with squaring the circle of addressing systemic racial issues in policing while having Alex and his partner being “the good cops,” but at least it cares enough to struggle. The cast and direction make the silly stuff go down smooth. Mostly this is high gloss trash, but you know what? That’s what I want in a thriller.

RETURN TRIP

Movie: Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom - Viewing Medium: Seatback screen - Grade: C

I dunno man. I watched the first Aquaman, so I felt some dumb completionist urge to check out the sequel. (I’d already had one false start and abandoned watching it about a year ago.) I felt like the first quarter of this sequel could’ve been cut entirely with no harm, only improvement. Once Patrick Wilson entered, things got better — he and Momoa had a nice mismatched buddy (or, in this case, brothers) energy going. But overall, it wasn’t much of anything.

For the sticklers out there: I have to admit, I used the “skip ahead 30 seconds” option pretty liberally during the endless CGI fights. If you want to discount my opinion, go ahead!

Movie: Am I OK? - Viewing Medium: Seatback screen - Grade: B-

I didn’t even know this movie existed, but folks on Letterboxd seemed to like it okay, and I was intrigued by Tig Notaro being one of the directors, and it starring Dakota Johnson, who — sorry haters — I like a lot, particularly in comedies.

The most reductive summary would be: it’s about two female friends, one of whom is finally coming out as a lesbian, after struggling to admit it to herself. The plot is so slight as to border on thin, but everyone’s really charming (including a small role for Elliott’s “Clueless” podcasting pal Sean Hayes), and it was really nice to see a coming out comedy where the plot wasn’t about the main character being romantically hung up on her straight friend (Sonoya Mizuno) — instead it’s about supportive female friendship, with Mizuno as Johnson’s biggest cheerleader, and about friendship endures, even after hurtful truths are aired. It never hits that next level, but it’s awfully sweet, and I’m glad I saw it.

TV Show: Two more episodes of the 6th season of Cobra Kai - Viewing Medium: iPhone - Grade: B-

TV Show: One more episode of Cross Viewing Medium: iPhone Grade: B+

Book: Evvie Drake Starts Over, by Linda Holmes Medium: Kindle Grade: A

See, Elliott? I can ALSO READ on a plane.

Anyway, I hadn’t read anything (well, anything book-length) by our esteemed recurring guest Linda Holmes, so I figured vacation was the time to correct that. Despite loving movie romcoms, I’ve never been a romance reader (internalized gender roles? perhaps!) but I was delighted by Evvie Drake, which hit all the great romcom notes without all the pitfalls (yes, there’s a “darkness before the dawn” moment near the end, but it feels real rather than some contrived bullshit). It’s funny and sweet, and leaves you with a warm feeling like maybe it’s possible for life to get better, which is something most of us could use right now.

Next on the Podcast:

Hear ye on main!

12/7 - Flop-feed-followers finally get to enjoy what UK listeners got to hear in person back in may, with the release of our live, Oxford show covering The Avengers (1998).

12/14 - Elliott was unable to tape with us, so Dan took the opportunity of some one-on-one time with his other co-host to get a little personal, with a mini he’s calling “Getting to Know Stu.”

Boys on the Side

If you can’t keep up with individual comics issues anymore, maybe (like me!), you’d like to pre-order the first trade paperback collection of Elliott’s work on Harley Quinn, so you can down it in a big gulp later on!

Most Fridays, as his schedule allows, you can find Stuart painting models on Twitch.

The most recent installment of my personal newsletter, Dan McCoy’s Special Interests was part two of my discussion on writing — this part was about how craft and instinct intersect. Sign up to get new essays delivered straight to your email!

Extra Credit

As mentioned earlier, Elliott’s the writer and host of a new, short-form quiz show called SmartLess Presents: Clueless, wherein he tries to stump Sean Hayes and rotating guests with various brainteasers!

It’s become a yearly Thanksgiving tradition for my brother John to invite me and my other brother, Robert, on his podcast Sophomore Lit to discuss some bit of Americana. This year, we discussed all of our “comfort reading” picks, instead. Give it a listen and THRILL to how much our voices sound like one another’s.

You Made it to the End!

As mentioned, we just got back from our first true vacation in years, and it’s not a REAL vacation until you force someone to look at your holiday snaps. So here’s a picture of me, cold-but-relaxed!