When it was published in 2011, Ernest Cline's Ready Player One got a fairly warm reception as a diverting mashup of pop culture, gaming, and accessible quest narrative, wrapped up in a warm, comforting blanket of nostalgia for the ephemera of the 1970s and 80s. Over the past seven years, its reputation has proven much more divisive, in part because of Cline's subsequent work, but mostly because the kind of geek culture he celebrated has become much darker and more complicated. Matt and Ed talk about all that in regards to the film adaptation, directed by Steven Spielberg, as well as Amazon's big-budget TV gambles and the dystopian potential of Birmingham.
00:00:00 - 00:25:48 - Intro & News
00:25:49 - 01:09:15 - Matt & Ed discuss Ready Player One
01:09:16 - 01:17:06 - SRS Recommends & Outro
361. Andor Season 1 (with Matt Risby)
360. Emily’s Leaving, Hiatus
359. News Round Up
358. Toxic Femininity
357. The Modern State of the Rom-Com
356. How We Would Fix the Oscars
355. Bad Movies We Can’t Stop Thinking About
354.Curation in the Streaming Age
353. Emily’s Birthday 2022
352. Best of 2021
351. The Lord of the Rings Films Are Old and So Are We
350. Musicians Acting
349. Perspective
348. Gimmick vs. Premise
347. The Six (with Arthur Jones)
346. Scary Moments in Non-Horror
345. The Fun of Sprawling Art
344. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (2020) / Malignant (2021)
343. What Makes a Good Rip-Off?
342. The Matrix Online is Canon!
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