Inspired by the hand-wringing over the middling performance of Red Sparrow and this tweet by Zoe Kazan, this week's episode is all about movie stars. How has movie stardom changed since the star system first took shape in the early days of Hollywood? Are there any movie stars in the traditional sense now that Hollywood is so franchise focused? Is stardom ultimately more harmful than helpful? Matt and Ed consider all of the above, as well as which recurring characters from Sex and the City they wouldn't vote for.

00:00:00 - 00:16:36 - Intro & News

00:16:37 - 01:05:12 - Matt & Ed discover Movie Stars

01:05:13 - 01:15:25 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Following on from last year, when Ed picked the best Best Picture winners in Oscar history, Matt and Ed join forces to highlight the times when The Academy got Best Director right. Also, since the episode was recorded mere hours before this year's Oscars, they try to predict the major awards so that their foolishness can be preserved for all time.

Inspired by some recent stories about people rediscovering ER, Frasier and Friends on streaming services, Matt and Ed spend this week's episode talking about the joy of eschewing the glut of new TV shows in order to dig into the classics, as well as what those older shows can teach us about how television, and culture more generally, have changed. They also discuss the great GQ profile of Brendan Fraser, what their great-grandparents would make of their current jobs, and the pitch for the Friends finale that Ed wrote when he was 16.

00:00:00 - 00:05:17 - Intro

00:05:18 - 00:21:11 - News

00:21:12 - 01:14:16 - Matt & Ed discuss discovering older TV shows

01:14:17 - 01:21:25 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Netflix surprised everyone last Sunday when they announced that the third film in the Cloverfield franchise would be debuting on their streaming service immediately after The Big Game, despite nobody having seen it and there being no advance hype or build up. But was this a bold new approach to film distribution, or the result of Paramount, desperate to offload a bad film, finding an outlet for it? Why not both? Matt and Ed address these questions and more as they address the considerable flaws of The Cloverfield Paradox, and the greater conundrum of Netflix itself; a service which has the potential to bring films to a huge audience instantaneously, but which more often than not serves as a place where films go to be forgotten.

They also discuss the first Solo trailer and others bits of Star Wars news, get excited about the forthcoming Black Dynamite followup, and note the deaths of John Mahoney, Reg E. Cathey, and Johann Johannsson.

00:00:00 - 00:04:35 - Intro

00:04:36 - 00:38:17 - News

00:38:18 - 01:23:21 - Matt & Ed discuss The Cloverfield Paradox and Netflix more generally

01:23:22 - 01:31:16 - SRS Recommends & Outro

In this episode - which, despite being inspired by a film called The Irishman and being recorded over St. Patrick's Day weekend, is categorically not a St. Patrick's Day episode - Ed is joined by critic and podcaster Kayleigh Donaldson (@Ceilidhann on Twitter) to discuss Netflix's recent acquisition of Martin Scorsese's long-gestating gangster epic, as well as how the growth of upstart studios and distributors like Netflix, Amazon, A24, Blumhouse and Annapurna Pictures are shaking up the status quo in Hollywood. There's also some talk about whether or not Jeff Bezos is trying to kill God.

Kayleigh's piece on The Irishman, "How Netflix Stole Martin Scorsese's Dream Project From Hollywood" can be found on Screen Rant.

00:00:00 - 00:01:30 - Intro

00:01:31 - 01:10:44 - Ed and Kayleigh discuss The Irishman, Netflix and Amazon's original film slate, the death of the mid-budget movie, Blumhouse. A whole bunch of stuff, really.

01:10:45 - 01:16:50 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Somehow, it's been twenty years since Buffy the Vampire Slayer debuted on the WB, a humble start for a show which would go on to build a huge cult following and fundamentally alter fantasy and sci-fi storytelling on television. To help unpack this momentus occasion, Ed is joined by Zoë Jeyes and Ellie Graham to talk about the highs ("Hush", "The Zeppo", "Once More with Feeling") and lows (that weird sex episode) of the series, its continuing metaphorical richness, and the vagaries of BBC scheduling.

00:00:00 - 00:02:23 - Intro

00:02:24 - 00:59:21 - Ed, Ellie & Zoë discuss Buffy the Vampire Slayer

00:59:22 - 01:04:31 - SRS Recommends & Outro

The Academy Awards are mere days away, and Ed is joined by returning guest Zoë Jeyes to talk about this year's nominees: the surprises (both pleasant and not), snubs and frontrunners that comprise one of the most interesting slates in years. They also try to predict who will walk away with the big prizes on Sunday, something which seems easier than usual this year, which probably means they're totally wrong.

00:00:00 - 00:46:21 - Ed & Zoë discuss the Oscar nominees

00:46:22 - 01:16:18 - Oscar Predictions

01:16:19 - 01:21:11 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Inspired by the US release of The Girl with All the Gifts, a fantastic British zombie movie that offers an exciting and emotionally complex take on the genre, Ed is joined by John Hunter to talk about the film, as well as the ongoing dominance of zombies in pop culture. They also try to explain the success of TV shows like The Walking Dead and iZombie, draw parallels between the rise of zombie fiction and the concurrent rise of superhero cinema, and discover unusual parallels between the zombie and Western genres.

Note: The zombie cop show Ed was trying to remember towards the end of the episode was Babylon Fields.

00:00:00 - 00:05:27 - Intro & News

00:05:28 - 00:20:25 - Ed & John discuss The Girl with All the Gifts

00:20:26 - 00:54:51 - Ed & John discuss Zombies in pop culture

00:54:52 - 00:59:19 - SRS Recommends & Outro 

Ed is joined by Kat Chirnside and Ryan Finnigan, the co-founders of Rare Giants to talk about their work screening films that have beneifted from restoration and preservation. In addition to talking about their debut screening - which will be of In Cold Blood at Sheffield Hallam's The Void on March 6th - they discuss films which blur the line between truth and fiction, as well as the passing of John Hurt.

Follow Rare Giants on Twitter - @raregiants

As some listeners may know, because we've been casually referencing it for months, Matt will be taking a sabbatical from the show starting in January so that he can go traveling around the Americas for much of next year. Since this is the last regular episode of the year, and we just passed the five-year anniversary of the first recording sessions for Shot/Reverse Shot, this week's episode is all about goodbyes in film and TV. Matt and Ed cover noble goodbyes, angry goodbyes, hopeful goodbyes, and a bunch of different flavours of farewell. They also wonder if they like Moulin Rouge!, consider the similar paths taken by the Fast and Furious and Mission: Impossible franchises, and co-create a sitcom about forgotten characters from other TV shows.

00:00:00 - 00:09:32 - Intro & News

00:09:33 - 00:28:15 - Matt & Ed say what they've learned from five years of podcasting

00:28:16 - 01:04:17 - Matt & Ed discuss Goodbyes in film and TV

01:04:18 - 01:11:23 - SRS Recommends

Matt and Ed are both battling illness this week, but they persevered in order to talk about loving imperfect art - those films and TV series that are close to their hearts despite having clear and glaring flaws. At the same time, Matt introduces the world to a new Star Wars character, and Ed reminisces about a wildly unsuccessful supernatural sitcom from the late '90s.

Also, this is the terrible Ruben Blades song that Ed sings terribly at one point in the episode.

00:00:00 - 00:16:00 - Intro & News

00:16:01 - 01:03:07 - Matt & Ed discuss loving Imperfect Art

01:03:08 - 01:09:58 - SRS Recommends & Outro

It's Matt's birthday! In keeping with recent (i.e. a year old) tradition, that means he gets to decide the topic for this week's show, but instead of discussing a single subject, Matt and Ed rattle through a series of them, including nostalgia, great buddy movies, and when it's appropriate to introduce kids to violent movies. They also pitch an idea for what the second season of HBO's Westworld will be about, and it is an ironclad, irrefutable fan theory, primed for that sweet, sweet SEO bump.

00:00:00 - 00:18:11 - Intro & News

00:18:12 - 00:52:33 - Matt & Ed discuss a bunch of stuff

00:52:34 - 00:59:16 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Inspired by Matt's nephew, who recently started studying film at A-Level, this week's episode finds the boys trying to develop their own syllabus of essential or gateway movies for newcomers to film, or those simply looking for starting points to expand their horizons. There's also a little bit of election talk at the start, so if you're sick of hearing about that then feel free to skip to the time code below.

Here is the essay about Leonard Cohen written by Sean O'Neal that Ed mentions towards the end of the episode.

00:00:00 - 00:04:20 - Intro; Matt & Ed discuss the US elect result

00:04:21 - 01:03:55 - Matt & Ed plot out the SRS Film Studies syllabus

01:03:56 - 01:08:19 - SRS Recommends & Outro

As a spooky Halloween treat, Matt and Ed are talking about the iconic monsters that formed the core of Universal's stable of creature features in the 1930s and 40s (including Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolf Man), and the influence they continue to exert over the subgenres that they helped to define. They also talk about the cinematic peak(?) of Dana Carvey's cinematic career, the end of Vine, and why you (yes, you!) should be watching The Good Place.

After a few weeks working on episodes separately, Matt and Ed are reunited this week to talk about Ed's trip to New York, the week's news, and the many instances where great directors have delivered absolute stinkers.

Here is The Ringer article that end mentions during the News section.

With Ed off gallivanting around Broadway like some cosmopolitan dandy, the reigns for this week's episode are in sole possession of Matt, who decides to get a little weird.

In a direct sequel to last week's discussion of how bad Suicide Squad is as a film in its own right, but also a spiritual sequel to our episode on the state of the modern blockbuster, this episode finds Matt and Ed using Suicide Squad as a prism through which to explore the worst tendencies of modern blockbuster culture, and how it is emblematic of a moribund summer movie season. They detail how hard it is for a film to turn a profit these days, why foreign box office is so rarely a saving grace, and the increasing toxicity of online discussion around blockbusters. They also pay tribute to Gene Wilder and Jon Polito, two actors they loved who passed away this week, and wax poetic about Jackie Chan and Patrick Ness.

It's been 50 years since Star Trek first entered the public consciousness, and five decades later, Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future is in surprisingly rude health. With the recent cinematic release of Justin Lin's Star Trek Beyond and slow drip of news about the forthcoming TV show Star Trek: Discovery, Ed sits down to discuss the series' various incarnations with writer and playwright John Hunter. In addition to discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the franchises and the reason for its longevity, they reminisce about drunken conversations about The West Wing, John's work with Slung Low Theatre, and Ed's paralysing fear of being challenged to a rap battle.