About this Episode
Wave to the camera - err, microphone
Any good pilot has to establish some characters, so the Screeners start out by introducing themselves. Josh leads with a story illustrating his questionable credentials as a movie critic, and everyone else points out that he’s also bad at telling stories.
C’mon, just a quick sound byte...
Up next is the lightning round - a round-robin question-and-answer where the only rule is that every host is given one minute or less to...ignore that they’re supposed to answer within one minute. Should JJ Abrams be directing Star Wars? What movies are you looking forward to this year? If you were writing a fan-fiction spinoff of Breaking Bad, which illegal substance would you have the main character produce? Only one of those wasn’t an actual question; don’t you wish you knew which one?
And the winner is...
Since the Oscars have dominated media news lately, much of the episode is devoted to discussing the nominees for some of the main (and not-so-main) categories, the winners, and those who got robbed.
The screeners go around the room to give their own top 3 for Best Picture. We also learn that it only takes 20 frames to shape Chris’s opinion of an actor and that no one but Chad has seen Django Unchained, but that not everyone cares.
The also-rans
Movies may be the focus of the episode, but there’s more to our show. Sprinkled throughout the Oscar musings and retrospectives of 2012 in cinema are some hints at the Screeners’ other interests.
The small screen
The next obvious screen is the one in our living rooms. Melody brings up shows some of us had tried very hard to forget, Chad expresses his love for bad soap operas, and Chris illustrates how you can want to love a show so much that you can convince yourself it’s good.
OK, so it’s the same screen - but a different medium
We couldn’t go a whole episode without talking about video games, but unfortunately, the big news in the gaming world is the PS4. Whoop-de-doo. There; that summarizes that segment.
Going mobile
No one wants to make Microsoft’s mistake and completely ignore the mobile industry, so Chris saves us all by bringing up an iOS game he used to love that’s recently been cannibalised by a gaming industry giant. We recorded before this came out, but a fair depiction of our opinions can be found over at Penny Arcade.
Cut!
We wrap up the first episode with a quick look into our future - because we’re also psychic. Bet you didn’t know that. Seriously, though, this show’s going to be a lot of fun as we get going, so drop by from time to time and let us know what you’d like to hear us argue about - or you can argue with us yourself if that’s your thing. See you next time!