#183 Crossing The Streams Goes Primal (Bonus Ep38) – Great TV binge watching suggestions!

CTS Announcer 0:01

Looking for your next TV show or movie to binge? Well buckle up, grab the remote and settle into your couch for this special edition of crossing the streams. We're here to help you tune in and get the most out of those 50 monthly streaming channels you're currently paying for. So without any further ado, here's your host of crossing the streams. Jeff Dwoskin

Jeff Dwoskin 0:29

Hey, oh, it is Hi Jeff Dwoskin host of classic conversations and your guide through this bonus episode of crossing the streams. What is crossing the streams? crossing the streams is where we answer the universal question. What should I be binging next? I just finished something and now I gotta watch something else. What should I do we have come to the right place. We got your back right now on our YouTube channel. We have over 95 hours of streaming TV binge watching suggestions just waiting for you don't have 95 hours while you are in luck because this bonus episode is going to beam three segments from various live shows right into your ears from Episode 5594 and 95. You can join us live every Wednesday at 9:30pm Eastern time on YouTube. We love our fans to join in on the conversation today we're going to discuss the holiday calendar that I was back with is a rom com and Dora and primal is a great show. Let's get going up first primal was Zach Wiseman. regular guests to the show. Take it away, Zach, let's talk about primal. This is Zach. The return of Zack wise. Yeah, hear about this one. I've

Larry Roberts 1:44

thought about watching this

Zack Wiseman 1:46

Oh, really? To hear your review? Yeah, I can tell you, you're gonna want to watch it. As soon as you get done this thing when I know I'm going to come on the show. I never really know what I'm going to talk about. So I usually watch a whole bunch of things. Anyway, I watched everything that's on Netflix every single day. I watch everything always. And I realized that recently is to the point where the writing is so bad in most movies, you don't really have to watch them. You can just kind of listen to them and you understand what's going on. But a lot of people when they see and hear all the stupid stuff I watch all the time they end up asking me what do you watch that you like? Or what do you watch when you just want to kind of just focus on something and the thing is I grew up watching cartoons I grew up watching Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Lab and Samurai Jack. And the thing that they all have in common is they're all created by the same person. They're all created by you know Genndy Tartakovsky, which is one of the most beautiful visionaries when it comes to visual effects and everything. He's also done the Hotel Transylvania, which you know, are some good, some not too good, but the thing is, you can always tell the art. Now, he has been working on a passion project for years and a lot of people, a lot of companies did not want to invest in it because of what the material was. But in 2019 Finally on Cartoon Network, now you can find on HBO Max is primal. Primal is one of the most engaging and beautiful things that I've seen. And I keep watching it over and over. Because there's no dialogue in this movie. There's no English, there's no subtitles, people don't talk because what this movie is about is about a caveman. And this caveman had a family and as he's out providing for his fame one day, he comes back and he's dinosaurs have eaten his family. So now he's full of rage, right? His name is spear because all he has is a spear. And he goes to kill these dinosaurs. So these dinosaurs just killed his entire family until a bigger dinosaur comes and kills that dinosaurs family. Now this dinosaur is alone, and it has one tooth, his name is Fang. Now spear and Fang inadvertently become the bestest of friends and probably the closest family members that you can find. Now you don't need to understand what they're saying. Because the point of the show is that they don't understand what they're saying. They can't communicate well, and they just trying to understand what it's like to become family with something that you kind of hate, which I think is what family is about anyway, and how to provide for people when you don't really know what they want, which is once again what it's like having a baby. I don't know what this thing wants. I don't speak its language. She doesn't understand me, but I gotta keep it alive. I gotta make sure this thing does not get eaten. I gotta make sure food comes in its mouth. So season one is split up in two different sets. You notice there's part one, part two, each of our five episodes long each episode is about 2025 minutes. So they're not a lot to take in. It's a lot, not a lot of time consuming. Just take the whole thing down. It got quickly picked up for a second season. This thing has been nominated for nine total awards and is one seven of those nine, including five primetime Emmys for great storytelling, visual arts, etc. Most of the story just revolves around this caveman who's full of anger and sadness because his family's gone. Everything he sees reminds him of his family and the only thing he has left is the thing that killed his family. So it's one of the most powerful storytelling devices. It's something that while I'm right while I'm one watching anything on Netflix, whether I'm reading and Netflix metrics in case I have to do that here, or I'm watching dark again to write stuff, most of the time, I can just let it wash over me, I understand what what I'm getting primed with something, I cannot do anything else while I'm watching. I can't look at my phone, I can't even talk to my own kid while it's on she comes to the room, she's 24 years old. And without understanding what I'm doing or anything, she'll just sit down and Amelie is sucked into the story. Because all that's in here is heart and the most amazingly constructed violence, a lot of violence is done for you know, Gore purposes or shock value. There's something so beautiful about the violence that is in this movie and the blood and gore, because it all means something it is from passionate places. It is you know, 20 episodes in total, you're looking at probably, I don't know, four hours, which is how I spent most of my days in front of TV anyway. But this thing will sit in your soul for some reason. There's something so beautiful and just so like just emotional and a capturing about, like I said, it's on HBO Max, you can you can grab it in, I suggest watching the first three episodes and just seeing how you feel because it will make you tear up and the fact that there's no words. It's just so gorgeous. Because that's the best storytelling show. Don't tell. That's what I say, wow. Yeah,

Larry Roberts 6:13

that sounds great. Practice that. I mean, that was such on mute because you agree with so much heart that we keep bringing you up here tonight. And man, that was just phenomenal.

Zack Wiseman 6:22

Yeah, I actually came here wanting to talk about dark, but it turned out that you guys have already spoke about that before. So I quickly switched to something that I am passionate about something that I know a lot about, and primal is stunning. Wow.

Christine Blackburn 6:36

Wow, those are big words. And I'm a little scared myself because I grew up during Clan of the Cave bear. You guys remember that? Of course. I saw that movie. Man. That movie freaked me I hated it. I hated it. It just was. It's not like that, right? It's not like that.

Zack Wiseman 6:53

No, no, no, it's not. It's not that kind of violence. It's a beautiful and emotional kind of violence that sometimes you need to protect your family. You need to get gritty. Sometimes you need to get your knuckles bloody to make sure that your daughter can eat you know, or your dinosaur named Fang can eat so no, it's well done.

Christine Blackburn 7:12

I'll tell you, then I'm gonna give it a shot. But look no guarantees because I don't like cute, though. It ain't cute. It's just cute. I don't like it. You know what I mean? Like

Zack Wiseman 7:24

there is nothing cute about this and trust me. Yeah, from from minute one. Your look. Wow, what's about to happen as family and then it happens. You're like, oh, that's way worse than I thought. What's this guy gonna do? It's like, oh, that's way worse than I thought. Oh, no, no, I'm sad for two episodes. But that now they love each amazing. No, yeah, well done. It is not it's not

Jeff Dwoskin 7:43

done. Don't be fooled by the fact that animated.

Christine Blackburn 7:47

Words. I'm psyched to see this. That's good. Now bring it

Jeff Dwoskin 7:50

well. And if it does upset, you just turn on ticket to paradise.

Christine Blackburn 7:54

No, if it upsets me, I'm gonna call you. I'm gonna complain. I'm gonna text you. I'm gonna write on all your social media. Yeah. And you're all in a lot of trouble.

Zack Wiseman 8:03

No, I need that. And I would love to engage in those conversations.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:11

All right, that was primal from Episode 94. Zach Wiseman, of next, Gerard Glassman. He was one of the original OG guests on crossing the streams making his return talking to us all about andorre Gerard is the host of pop culture Cosmos, check out that podcast later. In the meantime, here's andorre. So Andorra This is the latest Disney Plus,

Gerald Glassman 8:36

we're 10 episodes. And as we record this, just want to let everybody know, I'm just gonna say right now, if you get a chance, I understand Star Wars has been very sketchy the past decade plus seemingly going back to the prequels, per se, this is some of the best Star Wars that has been made it since you know, the three movies, I think the Mandalorian season two was a big hit. But this also this, this first season of andorre, I think has been really, really, really strong because it's more character driven. It's not more place or battle driven. It's more character driven. And I think it's been for the benefit. I know if you're aficionado of Star Wars, you know that the character kacian andorre ultimately dies in Rogue One. So this is a prequel setting it up at the events for what he would go through in row one. But this also deals with the formation of the, I guess the different parts of the rebellion coming together and also the different parts of the empire gaining holding, gaining strength as far as behind the scenes as well. So those things are intriguing, but it's the compelling characters, not only Diego Luna, but also as well, Stellan Skarsgard, who is really, really great with his character that is trying to build a rebellion and tie into all these groups all together and get them to work with each other behind the scenes he is doing doing a tremendous job in the series. And then there's a surprise guest appearance for three episodes, four episodes almost, I think, yeah, three episodes. I don't want to say do because you said Mike a you don't want to add any spoilers, but I don't know if you said you've not read anything up on it. But there is a very familiar face who you know, usually behind the scenes that does a lot of outstanding voice actor work is one of the premier voice actors that's out there today also a director as well. He's done some live action work over the years. This is by far and away his best live action work ever. And I can't say again who it is. But if you've seen the episode or seen stories, you know who it is, he has just been tremendous. And it's Emmy worthy. To me, it's Emmy worthy, and has really made the show go in a great direction. Again, it's first show it doesn't give you those week by week, chills, chills, and thrills and spills and galactic star fights or anything like that this has been something much different and actually has been much better for it. And I like I said it's very character driven. And if you're into that, it is well worth the

Jeff Dwoskin 11:02

watch. I'm into that I like characters.

Gerald Glassman 11:05

But I get this was a departure from that. Because you know, Star Wars they always got to put an explosion here a battle against the Empire there and all that this was a departure. This is more of an adult oriented focused series. And I think that it's different and I like it for that fact.

Sal Demilio 11:22

So it's a series more than that a movie is a series

Gerald Glassman 11:25

Yeah, it's a series I have a feeling that if all goes well because it's been very highly claimed that it might want to go ahead for season two. But as of right now it's 12 episodes and again if there's 10 out there so far, and for the most part a couple of filler episodes but outside of that it's been really strong stuff.

Jeff Dwoskin 11:42

Yeah, they got a hard stop in a row going as funny. As George Lucas hired to direct sequel to Rogue One. I like Rogue One is one of my favorite movies outside of the original trilogy. And

Gerald Glassman 11:56

that seems to be the most the consensus so that's why I think it's really widely been been acclaimed as because they appreciate the character from where he went to with wardrobe one because Oh, it's not from rise of Skywalker that trash. Okay. Yeah, this is okay, I can watch this.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:13

I like the I think they never should have gone backwards. I always have an issue with like prequels, in general, I call movie movies. And I

Gerald Glassman 12:21

agree with you. But that's all they know, right now. They're not building upon it too much all they're doing is their next series. And well, I guess the film's coming up, eventually, whenever they decide to go ahead and make them they're going to go ahead and you know, get into a future of Star Wars. But right now everything is based off the past. And that's something that eventually they got to let go.

Jeff Dwoskin 12:39

I think Rogue One was the one exception because nobody really had any, like preconceived notions of that story. It was one line and a scroll that I don't think anyone really thought about. But like when you talk about like the movie solo with the Kessel Run and all these things and how he met you we or how he got his name. This I don't you know, or like in the prequels were like, oh, all the Stormtroopers are Boba Fett or Jenga fed and Oh, Anakin made see Threepio you know, everything has to tie together, nothing has to tie together unless you make the mistake of trying to go backwards and tie it all together, right? And so it's this andorre and Rogue One seem to break from that one model because there is no preconceived notions, and they're not trying to tie anything together, except the one event which is specific and vague enough at the same time to not make you worry, like, Oh, why did they do that? Oh, really his name. So

Gerald Glassman 13:36

just watch it.

Jeff Dwoskin 13:37

Well, that's because it's a built That's what I've always hated. Like, they built this great galaxy that they could do lots of these political stories in, man, the Mandalorian was amazing. Season two was great, but they had to bring Skywalker and

Mike White 13:49

I know that really ticks me off. So please just give us one thing without tying into the Skywalker storyline. It's like it makes the universe so small, or the Galaxy I should say so small and it's just always Luke and Anakin. And, and then when they have to tie in ray to being Palpatine I'm just like, Oh, really? Can't you just be somebody's daughter rather than has the time to Palpatine now,

Howard Rosner 14:15

I've given up on the Star Wars universe. I just, it's I don't know where exactly I think the seventh and eighth movie and by the night I just was done. I haven't watched Mandalorian or anything. I just couldn't do it anymore.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:30

Mandalorian is great and or is supposedly really great. And from what I've seen, it's really enjoyable and it does have a different feel. You don't feel like you're rich. Yeah,

Howard Rosner 14:39

I think you know, and we did that whole Star Wars themed episode A while back and I think I might have mentioned it then but I feel like as opposed to the MCU which look the movies and some of the TV since endgame have been crap, no question, but I haven't totally tuned out but I have with Star Wars because I think the Star Wars connection was too Like it was such a benchmarking in the in our in my youth I feel like it's gone so far afield of where it was in my youth and it's just a different thing now that I just lost interest along somewhere.

Gerald Glassman 15:16

I can't say I blame you. I mean, you're like a lot of people out there and these latest three movies not Rogue One not counting notwithstanding the movies as far as the force awakens the last Jedi and of course Skywalker movie all three of those movies just really helped to tarnish and descend away a lot of people our age and even younger about way from the Star Wars franchise and Mandalorian has gained some of the interest back but this is different from Mandalorian and I think this is goes off a different beat this is more something that people who are not invested in Star Wars universe can actually get themselves into because it doesn't Yeah, it's in the Sci Fi setting it's in a Star Wars setting but because it doesn't really tie too much into the regular Star Wars that you know, or actually have come to not be appreciative of I think that's one reason why I think it really might work with some people that it normally wouldn't

Jeff Dwoskin 16:11

all right, that was an door and a lovely Star Wars conversation as well. Up next is Saudi familia doing with Saudi Emilio does best romcoms This is from Episode 55. The year was 2021. We were about to embark on 2022 and Sal brought us the holiday calendar take it away South validate calendar oh it was so sad for so festive

Sal Demilio 16:43

we always talk about this on the show you know since I've started my little Christmas movie watching here at the early December this is the fourth week Netflix is starting to figure me out so this is what they recommended. So I came up you know I turned on Netflix the other day and Jeff said what are you watching? I turned on Netflix I said okay whatever whatever Netflix tells me today holiday calendar came up so I think it's a perfect ending since the calendar will be turning here to 2022 like to wish all the crossing the streams and fireside people out there happy new year go blue they're gonna take us into the new year with a win and Ron lipids gonna catch one of the field goals would be nice,

Gerald Glassman 17:25

except on the upper deck but possible.

Howard Rosner 17:28

Wouldn't you also like to see sales recommended purchases from Amazon to match up with this? Like, don't you need Kleenex and I drop

Sal Demilio 17:42

bourbon drink edibles. Okay, anyway, let's not go into that. So anyway, this is called holiday calendar. It's another Christmas movie, this one out of all the ones that I've reviewed here, this one is the closest to all Mark move. Those other ones were a little bit better produced little better acting. This one is really really close to a hallmark This was actually came out in 2018, Netflix produced starts cat Graham, and she is a I love all these movies, I really want to write one of these movies. Now now that I've just seen them. I really think I could write them because you just need to do a lot of scenes in coffee shops, because there's a lot of scenes in coffee shops with the Christmas stuff. And that's easy to do with cops hanging up all over the place. And then they have a lot of scenes in like little downtown areas like a little Northville or a little like Northville is a town that we all know but you know that kind of the everyday Main Street town if you can film a romantic movie anyway. Alright, so there's a lot of that in this movie. And she is a kind of a not so famous photographer. She's a struggling photographer. Beautiful the whole cast in this thing is beautiful. Everybody could be like models and you know all that you know about that. It's a very, very diverse cast. Very good cast very funny. But anyway, she's a struggling photographer, and her grandfather she's obviously not lucky in love just like the other ones. She gets a advent calendar from her grandfather for those you don't know that's like a calendar that leads up to the events of Christmases. I'm telling that to a bunch of Jewish guys here on the show. But anyway, it goes. It's the events of of the calendar that leads up to Christmas. If you saw the poster there, it kind of almost looks like a little dollhouse, and it's got little windows and stuff. And a grandfather gives her this every time she takes like a piece out of the advent calendar, whether like she pulled out these boots and one of the golf courses a guy that always comes back into town. Every one of these movies comes you used to live in a town and he came back and she meets up his name is Josh and that's played by Quincy Brown. A very fine actor. He did a nice job. He comes back into town surprises her by going to the mall. She works at a mall she's the photographer The prizes are oh my god I haven't seen so long. What are you doing back in town? You know, that kind of thing. gives him a big hug and now he becomes like her friend again just like the other ones and she's trying to find love Oh, now the first present that she sees in this ad or the first little trinket that comes out of this advent calendar is a boot and this guy that comes back into town sees her like couple days later gives her a pair of boots. So as you can see everything that goes around this advent calendar comes back into her life. She pulls like this little Christmas tree out of the Advent little dollhouse calendar thing that you see on the poster there and all of a sudden she's on that main street that I was talking about. And this guy turns the corner. It's the most fake scene I've ever seen. But but the tree falls off the car and lands right in front of her car and she almost hits it but it was 15 mile an hour accidentally 10 mile an hour so he gets out of the car. Anyway, that little tree that came out of the advent calendar, all of a sudden a tree almost insurance, but she meets this guy, and his name is Ty she starts to do some weird stuff starts happening just like the last movie I reviewed. She goes to the hospital, she's hurt her wrist, she has to go to the doctors to get it checked out. He's the doctor the guy that almost hit her the tree. Unbelievable. 9 million people million doctors that's her doctor and anyway they start dating Josh is kind of a little jealous because he's the guy that just got back into town. He doesn't really want to tell Abby his feelings so he kind of just bites his lip and tries to be nice about her dating this Josh and or this tie. And that's how the movie goes on. She sees for 24 days. There's 24 different items. I mean, they don't show a story behind every item she plucks out of this advent calendar but it there's strange coincidences every time she pulls like she pulled like a little Nutcracker thing. She goes to a to see a play and the girl Sheen is going to see he's wearing a nutcracker outfit. You know that kind of stuff. So the whole movie is is that and it's kind of drags on a little bit. I don't know if Ross seems to be a rotten tomatoes guy. I don't know if you can lift this one up. But I think it got a horrible rating. Two meals. So it does lack a lot of what the other movies I watched it's just it just kind of dragged on. Like I said, very wonderful cast if you want a diverse cast was very funny.

Howard Rosner 22:08

33% audience was slightly higher at 39.

Sal Demilio 22:14

Okay, so there it is. Negative tomatoes. Yeah, it didn't move very well. I think I went I think I went and put in my fantasy lineup in the middle of this. I like my bedroom and just started putting my fantasy lineup and then I came back out I didn't, I might have lost a couple of doing anything I missed was maybe a couple of things she pulled out of the advent calendar. And then at the end, as you well know, she gets in a fight with her friend the friend the guy that comes back into town, she breaks up with the other guy and then at the end is a big group to do and they kind of realize that they're made for each other and better than just friends and and it's a mall there's a mall scene again, every one of these movies as a mall scene, they have a mall scene with a Santa and like I said, I really am going to write one of these next year. I'm gonna say this one is a three tomato sauce jars. Oh my gosh, yeah, move, as well as the other ones that I redo. This was the worst one that I reviewed out of the four and like Jeff said, if you want to go back into episodes 5253 54 or 5152 5354 don't see the fourth one you're giving this

Gerald Glassman 23:18

stunning pile of Christmas done

Jeff Dwoskin 23:21

three tomato sauce as a as a hobby as a holiday movie, though, if you're into those kinds of movies. Was it enjoyable? Because here let me before you answer, I'm on Rotten Tomatoes. These are the rotten comments. Okay. Okay, warm holiday romance is cute, but predictable. I mean, no negative review. I mean, it's more restrained than its predecessor apparently is a sequel, which ultimately means it loses some of the

Howard Rosner 23:50

sale date. You know, the premise that came from the first

Jeff Dwoskin 23:54

and here's it here's another negative one. This movie is like a sugar cookie. I happen to love sugar. I know exactly what you're getting and it has all the right ingredients but would have been even better with a little frosting on top as all these aren't like the most negative thing. Oh,

Sal Demilio 24:08

you know what? You just You just brought back some. The movie has literally no even close to a swear word. No nothing. No sexual innuendo there's it literally is a to be a kid's romantic movie. Seriously, it is clean as a whistle it's so that part of it is good because it probably can be seen by a lot of 1213 year old girls want to watch it that's fine. It's a very very clean and wet so Jeff you're right if you're guys with kids like you guys and you want to sit down and 1213 year old little girl wants to see a romantic movie that won't have any thing that you know she doesn't want to hear see. That's your right this is a movie like this is

Jeff Dwoskin 24:49

perfect for 12 year old girls. Sal All right, the holiday calendar sale bringing it I guess what You check that one out depends on your tolerance for a holiday movie goodness, you got that for your list. You got andorre You got primal so much. I don't want to keep your head down over the couch, grab your cozy spot, grab the remote, cross your own streams, and we'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 25:21

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