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#267 The Champ of Crossing The Streams (Bonus Ep72) – Great TV binge watching suggestions!

Need TV binge suggestions? You’ve come to the right place. We’ve got you covered.

In this bonus episode, we discuss a couple of great binge suggestions:

  • Servant (from live ep  8)
  • Champs (from live ep 56)
  • Beckett (from live ep 37)

Crossing the Streams features discussions of TV shows and movies available on streaming services. It is hosted by Jeff Dwoskin and co-hosted by Howard Rosner, Ron Lippitt, Bob Philips, Marci Kozen Stifter, and Sal Demilio.

Special guests also join the show on a weekly basis. Each episode features a segment in which the hosts recommend a TV show, movie, or documentary for listeners to consider binge-watching. The segments are taken from live recordings of the show.

Join us LIVE every Wednesday at 9:30 PM ET / 8:30 PM CT

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/CTSYouTubeSubscribe  

Follow "Classic Conversations" on your fav podcast app!

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 desire Jeff Dwoskin, your host of classic conversations and your guide through this bonus episode of crossing the streams. What is crossing the streams? It's where we answer the universal question. What should I be binge watching next? I just finished watching something and now I gotta watch something else. We've come to the right place. We have over 125 hours of binge watching suggestions on our YouTube channel. And right here right now we're gonna beam three segments from three of those live shows right into your ears all the way back from Live episode 837 and 56 coming atcha we got champs Beckett and servent crossing the streams is a great time it's me my co host gasps we come together we talk about shows we've been enjoying and it's not always the most recent show sometimes it's deep cuts. So this is where you come to find all the hidden things in the streaming channels that you are paying for. All right up first we have champs with Bob Phillips from Live episode 56 Bob loves going into the boxing shows and documentaries so get ready for a punch out a passion I don't even know why did I say that? I don't know take it away about if chance boxing documentary. Bob is boxing or that Sal is to Christmas?

Bob Phillips 1:53

Well, I do I have to admit to a an obsession, a predilection a fascination with all things boxing. So I'm going to I'm going to rip through this one pretty quickly. I'm going to hit the high points. Okay, this is a documentary that was made in 2014. And usually the ones that I review here are about a specific boxer or a specific event. And you know, I kind of talk about their lives and their impact on the sport but this one, this one really details. Three well known boxers one named Bernard Hopkins who is probably the least well known, but if you're a boxing fan, you know him as the guy who won the Light Heavyweight Championship at 49 years old and had been a middleweight champion defended his title 19 times in a row which is just incredible. I mean, that's something like 10 years he was he sat atop the ranks of that it's just

Unknown Speaker 2:50

spent some of his prime in prison.

Bob Phillips 2:53

Yes, he did. And this now this this is like the worst This is the most poorly named document it's just just champs it doesn't mean anything. Yes, they were all chance. They missed a huge opportunity in this there's there's really no new ground broken in this except for some very subtle things that are brought out about each of the three. Bernard Hopkins Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield. Okay. And Howard you were talking earlier about 84 Olympics where this is I think where they missed their first chance to point up that this should not have been called champs it should have been they should have named it something like resurrections because each of these guys was born in absolute poverty. Bernard Hopkins tells a story about how you know there's six kids around the kitchen table and his mother's trying to figure out how to ration two cans of pork and beans and shove some flour in there. And you know, orange rinds, orange rinds, you know, so they can get off to school with with full stomachs just that kind of crushing poverty that most people don't make it out of. Well, Evander Holyfield, the same in Alabama born to illiterate parents, Mike Tyson, Brooklyn, we all know his story is the most well known. All of them start out with literally everything going against them, but then we all know that they make all kinds of money, lots of fame, but there are moments there's a moment and each of these men's lives that comes after their fame and fortune that the documentary talks about it touches on but really should have given given it the name resurrections, I believe because you know each of them hit rough patches as you know, Tyson in jail for rape comes out. Fights Holyfield gets knocked out next fight he bites Holyfield's ear off just just an endless bad streak for the guy. He was off his rocker Evander Holyfield. He started out his career, getting jobs out of the gold medal in the Olympics. He was disqualified for zero reason. Nobody to this day understands what he did or didn't do. They said he hid after the break it he didn't So he you know, his big chance they took it away from him. Tyson didn't even make that Olympic team. He was an alternative if you can believe that he wasn't even good enough to get on the at 14. And then what was it two years later, he was champ 20 years old. So all and Bernard Hopkins spent five years in jail after committing various felonies nine of them to be exact five years in a maximum security jail, where he learned to box and it came out turned his life around all of them. The documentary keeps keeps focusing on like this individual drive that they each had. But that's the same for every boxer for any champ. Anybody who makes it to that pinnacle has this insane drive inside them. And so that wasn't anything new. But they missed the point that all three of them also had a moment later in their careers like Bernard Hopkins winning it back at 49 years old when everybody just said you've got no chance and he said he appreciated that more than any other thing that he had accomplished in his career and his life. He's still got something like 50 million bucks in the bank is worth a lot of money. Tyson we know what what happened to him right? He made a comeback. In his an exhibition. He's now a multimillionaire again, but Tyson and I got to look at the time here. I don't want to take up too much. I don't want to get dark here. But there's a I'm gonna save Tyson's for left. Evander had his epiphany and his sort of resurrection after losing everything several years ago after being asked to help with the Syrian refugee crisis. And that's a that's a little known thing about him. He's a devout Christian, really good guy terrible with money. Oh my god, it made $200 million in the ring. And he has nothing, you know, I mean, he's just this shy of a greeter at Caesar's Palace, you know, while but he says he doesn't care. He just doesn't care. He's just I have a leading a very fulfilled life. I have children, I got a lot of things that are more interesting to me than fighting for an artist. I said, hit that, that 49 year old championship and Tyson. This is something I knew. So I knew a little about it. But I didn't know how it affected him until I watched this. This may be the most poignant scene I've ever seen in any documentary. Certainly, in a boxing documentary, he chokes up a couple of times, and the camera zooms in on him. And he's talking about how he was such he just he hated himself. He hated the fact that he'd blown, blown all his money and hurt people physically, mentally, let everybody down on and on and on, shows him looking out over the skyline of Vegas one night, saying, you know, he goes, I look at this view. And I think of all the drugs I did, and all the women I had sex with. And all the time I wasted. He says I never think of all the fights I had here. And all the you know, the belts I won and the glory, He says I don't care. And he's and they said, What, you know what woke you up. And so this is 2014. And I believe his four year old daughter had died, maybe a year prior. And they don't say how it was. It was an accident in the home. And he and his wife rushed her to the hospital. And she died there. And he was talking about how there were other people in that emergency room. There was two others who also lost children that it was such a horrible situation. And they were coming to comfort him. And he said in that moment, I realized just what a waste of my life was. I had these people who had just experienced these crushing losses coming to tell me they cared about me and the loss I just said he said and I'm gonna use in his vernacular now. He said, he said, you stupid motherfucker. You had everything. It was all in front of all. And you didn't realize this was all this was the most important thing. And he tears up. And that was about that was the time where his life turned around. And he started to you started to see him on different TV shows and not just cameos in movies and stuff. And he went on the road with a with a my story show, which was great. Yeah. Which was one that show. So good. extremely entertaining. Yeah. And so I was so moved by that. Because if there was any one guy who I never thought would hit that hit a part in his life where he said, Oh, my God, look what I've done. Look what I haven't done, and I'm right here right now. I'm going to change things around and he did. And Holyfield did not that holy field was out drinking and drugging all the time. But he just had this epiphany about what was really important. He didn't care about the money just didn't care at all. Hopkins is now helping young fighters not lose all their money. He's, you know, showing them he's trying to get a Union together. He's trying to show them how to lead their life once they you know, make some money. So it was a real interesting for me anyway, take on three different guys from three different parts of the country that had a lot of commonalities but a lot of differences and all three started out in the worst circumstances hit some really you know unbelievable highs staggering lows and then now we're just kind of sailing to just found peace I guess that was what's so intriguing to me.

Jeff Dwoskin 10:20

But I love when you talk about these shows. I love your passion. I really love about it. Yeah, it's it's wonderful. I love Howard's commentary too because I know he knows a lot about sports sells yeah

all right, Bob. Punch of passion would that have been better I'm not I'm not sure anything would have been better All right. Well Bob Thank you very much for your deep dive into boxing once again with champs definitely check that out. And up next Ron Libet is bringing us servant all the way back from Oh gee, Episode Eight. Take it away Ron. Servant M Night Shyamalan show on Apple TV. Plus, notice only does shows from Apple TV,

Ron Lippitt 11:07

I swear. That's not by design, but the last three in a row of an Apple TV plus here. So this show was conceived my by M Night Shyamalan dingdong, he's also the executive producer. And he directs actually for two of the first seasons 10 episodes and it's super interesting. I watched an interview with the guy and he actually pitched this show a few years back and it actually became a bidding war between all of the streaming platforms. That's how good the show was conceived in the script and the plotline and he ultimately decided to distribute the show with Apple, it was his choice. And he chose Apple because this I thought this was really fascinating. It tells you a lot about the streaming world that Apple was still looking for their house of cards, you know that like an acknowledgment that you know House of Cards was like the the dominant permanent setup for Netflix as the as an original originator of content right? You know, Apple is strong content like Ted last has done a great job, but they're still looking for that game changer of a show and, and everyone including Netflix, including Amazon who bid on this believes it very well is going to be this show. As I said it's 10 episodes, their 30 minute episodes, which is amazing for a drama 30 minute episodes super easy to binge the entire first season you can binge it in five hours. It stars Lauren Ambrose who if you don't know who she is, she was my favorite actress from the HBO show Six Feet Under she played the the creepy daughter who drove you know, drove the hearse around and it has Toby Campbell, who who you might know as Dr. Doom from the factory for that we place a celebrity chef in the show. Nell Tiger free for those of you who are Game of Thrones fans, she played Myrcella Baratheon and you later find out as Marcel Lannister, and then super strangely, Rupert Grint, does anybody know who Rupert Grint is? Yeah.

Bob Phillips 12:59

Ron Weasley,

Ron Lippitt 13:01

Ron Weasley from Harry Potter fame

Jeff Dwoskin 13:02

who is everyone's favorite redhead,

Ron Lippitt 13:05

as far as I can tell, wanting to make sure that he was never typecast, again as any kind of innocent character. Because this dude plays like the most dysfunctional alcohol trick you've ever seen in your entire life. He actually does a really, really convincingly

Unknown Speaker 13:22

dysfunctional alcoholic trick.

Ron Lippitt 13:25

So the show is about a grieving couple who just lost their baby and you're not really told what happens, at least, you know, not right away. But what's clear is that the mom play by you know, Lauren Ambrose, she's not handling the grief well at all. And the family decided to manage the grief by bringing home the super creepy realistic baby doll as like a temporary like coping strategy. And they're hoping this is going to like, you know, ease the emotional torment, but what happens is that the mom becomes super attached to the doll and she ends up like treating it like a real kid. Bathing it like trying to nurse it, like really crazy stuff right? And And then ultimately, hiring a an equally creepy nanny who's played by now Tiger for you, who ends up caring for the doll while the mom tries to restart her career as a reporter. And things from there if that is if that wasn't weird enough. They get super weird when at the height of everyone begging this mom to get help, but then she's actually losing it. The doll becomes a real baby. And the nanny continues that nanny stays the nanny continues to care for it is it absolutely nothing happened. And the rest of the show is all about this completely damaged family trying to piece this all together. And M Night is like slowly trying to answer your questions that we all have like Where the hell did this baby come from? What's with the nanny? She's just weird. Are there like supernatural superpowers at play here? Is the husband starting to lose his mind? There's all kinds of symbolism and religion the show, which you find in almost all the M Night Shyamalan movies, but I don't know, you know, M Night kills me because, you know, half of his movies I loved I loved Lady in the Water. I love sixth sense. But then he's the same guy that did signs which I thought was the biggest piece of shit ever. And, and he did village, which was really dominant waste of time.

Bob Phillips 15:23

You saw that happening?

Ron Lippitt 15:26

I did not see that happening.

Bob Phillips 15:27

That's the biggest hit ever.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:30

Isn't that the one with

Bob Phillips 15:32

Mark Wahlberg?

Ron Lippitt 15:33

Yeah. So Mr. Gentle and it seems to have this thing where he's either scores, absolute winners, or sucky. And I have to tell you now I've watched that I watched the first season. As I said, it's a quick, quick binge, they're now two episodes into the third season. They're not doing the single episode per week, which sucks that I dropped it at all. So they're on episode three, for season two. And I have to tell you, this is a winner. This is an absolute winner. The ratings are through the roof powered. It's now the number one show in Apple TV plus their entire ratios. And it is they're saying it's going to be the biggest show on television with the exception of the Queen's gambit so wow. Yeah, so they're saying big things about it's I'm impressed by I think it's a super riveting show. It's not a horror show. Just so you guys for those people that don't like scary shows. This is not a horror movie. It's more of a kind of like a mystery supernatural vibe to it.

Bob Phillips 16:31

It reminds me the plot reminds me a little bit of artificial intelligence you remember that one? Yeah kid from you know that same and they get up they get a robot

Ron Lippitt 16:42

Yeah, it's it's similar the

Jeff Dwoskin 16:45

same kid from sixth sense. It was.

Speaker 5 16:48

It was like, it was like the show from the 80s with the little robot daughter I wonder

Jeff Dwoskin 16:58

Jerry Jerry's calling it out as a ripoff of the Kardashians. And then you convinced Jess Paul to actually invest in an entire streaming service so that's it that's a big win for you. It's a big win for me. Casey Ryan plots here where you can find Ron a show about a haunted submarine

Unknown Speaker 17:18

title he would be inhabit

Ron Lippitt 17:21

with with a roller coaster mixed in yes I think is the sky you missed i i love desperate for moolah that shows fantastic but but that's that's another another stream for another day. But you know, check it out. You guys. I really think this it's a very catchy show. It's not one of these slow roll shows you you get hooked to the very first episode asking the question I'm in.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:51

Alright, looks like another reason to dive into your apple Plus subscription. Thank you, Ron that was serving. And our final show. final segment for this episode comes from Live episode 37 Back in Saudi Familia is bringing the heat and if you're a redhead, make sure you stay to the end of a little warning for you. If you ever head over to the country of Turkey. Take it away. So let's start with move right back at this is number one in the top 10 in the United States on Netflix sounds away, buddy. All right.

Sal Demilio 18:28

Well, let me tell you how I got to watch this. And I don't know if you guys get this but I have never received an email from Netflix ever. I've had Netflix for I don't know four or five years. I've never gotten an email from them. I don't know if you guys get those but

Jess Paul 18:43

I don't think so I just like like

Sal Demilio 18:48

suggestions on what to watch and stuff

Jess Paul 18:49

and blown email in your inbox. Yeah, and

Sal Demilio 18:52

then I'll I'll obviously I'll open it up and it'll say watch back in. This is a movie you know, for you. What have I ever gotten?

Jeff Dwoskin 18:58

Next? I get texts from now you're really? Wow.

Sal Demilio 19:01

Wow. All right. So anyway, I wanted to say that I want to ask you guys if you guys got all

Jeff Dwoskin 19:08

my phones ringing my phone's Netflix. Yeah, they call Jeff. I should check.

Sal Demilio 19:17

They have a guy in the office that calls Jeff and tells him what to watch because of the show. So anyway, that's why I picked this movie. It was like I got an email and I'm like, I looked at it. I watch the trailer. I'm like, okay, cool. Watch this one. So this is a it's an action thriller film. It is directed by Ferdinando Seto. Philip Marino has not done much. He's got a lot of independent films. I kind of you know, Google him as well. Kind of a lot of international films and stuff like that. But this is this was a big break for him. As he got to do a film that was picked up by Netflix. It was in a festival. It stars John David Washington with I didn't know till after the movie that that's Denzel Washington son. So yeah, he is the star of it. And his girlfriend is played by Alicia, by candor. I hope I say that, right? Anyway, it's basically what the plot of the movie is. This couple, they're vacationing in Greece, and they get in a in a car accident, and they hit this, like, they go down this embankment, and they hit this, this house that's just in the middle of the woods, really, in the house. As he's kind of coming to in the car. He sees a little, he sees like a little kid and a girl. And that's it, and they just run off. And then there's nobody else in the house, that little kid and the girl comes in later. I don't want to spoil it. And this is funny, too. There's, I just pick up little things from movies sometimes. But the scene that they're driving down the road, they're vacationing in Greece, but there's like a lot of protests going on in where they're staying at their hotel. And they didn't want to deal with all the noise and everything in the protesters in the street. So they went like out in the Outer Banks of Greece to like kind of just hanging out for a couple of days. That's why they get into kind of some trouble. So they're driving back to their hotel in the middle of the night. He takes sleeping pills. And she goes, Oh, well, why don't you drive? And I'll take a nap. You know, I'll go to sleep. I'm like, Sure. First of all, if they wanted to do that scene with him with them crashing obviously, they had to do it. Why make him on sleeping pills. I didn't understand that part anyway, so that the crash happens. And now it's it's a basically, he gets mixed up in with the bad people because of that house that he ran into. And I don't want to spoil it. But there's this he's on the run, basically, he is on the run, is his girlfriend just doesn't make it in that crash. And then he is just on the run and the whole movie. And basically, I think I saw our buddy there that was on he said it's a little slow it is it's a little slow. It kind of keeps going he's always getting in and out of the chasing, you know, you've seen those in a lot of movie. You know, he's on a train and then the guys on the trains chasing them and they go into the different cars. You've seen those in different movie, there's that there's a scene through the woods and through, you know, canyons and he jumps off a cliff to get away from these guys. I mean, that part is very, very good. I will give this up for John David Washington, most of the movies him, I'll be honest with you. I mean, there's a lot of solo scenes with him. So he kind of carries a movie. And he's not that big of a star or anything. But I think he held his own. I mean, I you know, I'm not a professional actor, and I don't review acting as a profession. But from what I saw, I think he's a pretty good actor. And he did a nice job. I liked it. I thought it was a little a little long and stuff. And this is kind of funny to another scene areas. Right, James? That's what I wanted to Jake was the lead in black Klansmen. Okay. Yeah, that's right. You're right, James and, but I thought he was a pretty good actor, and especially for a lot of solo scenes, a lot of scenes where he's, he's banged up, you know, he gets kind of hit and shot and stabbed. And, man, the guy doesn't die, which is great. And then this was kind of cool. Like, okay, so his profession. He's a, like a computer programmer from Ohio. I mean, he just went to Greece for vacation. Well, there's a scene and I know he gets kind of crazy in this but there's a scene where you know, those parking garages that have the ramps that go up like they just spiral up and then you know, obviously the park Well, there's a scene where he is like 23 rolls up and then the car is going down the thing he jumps 20 Watt stories and times it and lands on top of the car as it's called, wow, wow, this guy for a computer programmer, this guy is one hell of an athlete or so I thought that was kind of you know, non believable, but okay, but overall, I thought it was a good movie. I really enjoyed it. I don't think it held your attention. It held my attention it really did run and it went by really fast and I enjoyed it that towards the middle it got a little long like it just like there were some scenes where I'm like, Ah, they could have cut that scene a little bit down but overall I thought it was a very good movie I get it for tomato sauce jars. I think if you're out there watching this and I didn't get flicks it and watch it because I thought it was worth it man I really do TV Guide made

Ron Lippitt 24:25

TV Guide made a joke about the about the review of it they said you know it's it's about a guy who's on the run. Who's literally on the run most of the movies that he's literally running,

Sal Demilio 24:37

running. Yeah, sweating and just and always so that's what I'm saying that's why I thought he did a good job acting in it because he's not he doesn't really have many scenes where he's just you know, normally scripting and talk talking in the script. He's He's always banged up shot, stabbed, you know, he's got a shoulder motion.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:55

And nobody wants Outer Banks because change and

Sal Demilio 24:59

it's nice to have nice Thank you, buddy. Thank thanks for the input out Beckett. But anyway, yeah, I enjoyed it. Man. If on Netflix people out there definitely watch it when obviously everyone's watching it. It's number one. Yeah. And the top 10

Ron Lippitt 25:11

I guess I you know, I gotta check in. It sounds like

Sal Demilio 25:15

recommended to all three if you haven't watched it.

Ron Lippitt 25:18

So I will say this as anyone been to Greece, because I've been to Greece. And

Sal Demilio 25:23

oh, that's great point. Ryan, they show a lot of that, you know, they show a lot of Greece and stuff from high off is huge. My God, I didn't realize how frickin biggest. So

Ron Lippitt 25:31

Greece is an amazing place. And I won't go into a whole vacation, you know, story about about Greece. But it is an amazing place. And there are, you know, there's a lot of ways to get in trouble in Greece, right. But I will say this, right next to decrease is Turkey. And a lot of people who go to Greece go to Turkey, they you know, they go to the islands, because they share the same set of islands, and Ephesus, and a number of places. And what's striking, what's really striking is like, you feel the rule of law in Greece, and then you go like, one foot over the line into Turkey. And it's like, you'd be running Canada and running for the American Embassy to Turkey. It's just It's funny that

Jess Paul 26:13

I heard that before from somebody else who ventured there. And I remember after the review of their vacation, like well, I guess I never want to go there.

Ron Lippitt 26:22

It's just, it's just funny. So it's I'll have to check that out just because of the whole Greece.

Sal Demilio 26:27

You'll see a lot of that and just real quick about Turkey. I dated a girl that was a teacher in Turkey. She went to Turkey to teach she had red hair. She told me a story how her first couple of days there she was walking down the street. All these guys were like googling her and Gula you know, just all over her and calling. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:47

Getting on their computer.

Jess Paul 26:49

Like googling.

Sal Demilio 26:49

Yeah. Well, googly eyed, whatever. That's ogling her. That's that's just thinking. And so anyway, she tells me that she freaked out and she was like, What the hell is going on? Well, I guess in Turkey, if you have red hair, you are signaling that you are a prostitute. She has naturally red hair. So anyway, just quick story about Turkey. But that's the way it was when she

Jess Paul 27:15

had bit. I won't go to share

Sal Demilio 27:17

the color here. She went to the store and got dye and colored her hair and Wow. It was pretty redhead too.

Jess Paul 27:25

Damn, I know that to get that really nice, natural redhead like color. It's just so tough to make it look natural. Yeah.

Jeff Dwoskin 27:37

All right. So all right. So you guys all have three amazing recommendations. You got Beckett servant, and champs. I don't want to keep you. I know you got a lot to do. Go hop on the couch, find your cozy spot. Grab your own remote, cross your own streams. And I'll see you next time.

CTS Announcer 27:58

Thanks for listening to this special edition of crossing the streams. Visit us on YouTube for full episodes and catch us live every Wednesday at 9:30pm Eastern time. Now turn this off and go watch some TV. And don't forget to tell your family yeah, I'll be busy for a while.

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