Guys Of A Certain Age

Sometimes The Guys go see the latest Marvel movie together in the theater, sometimes in the first few days after release.  Sometimes they wait till it shows up “free” on Disney Plus.  

Enter The Eternals.  2 hours 36 minutes times 3 people, plus bathroom breaks (no need for the RunPee app in the comfort of home), comes out to at least 8 hours - about a workday - devoted to this movie.  Was it worth it?  Listen as The Guys debate and discuss the strength of characters, the development of the story, and whether or not it was beneficial for dot-connecting future films in the MCU.  Warning: there be spoilers.  

And on this week’s episode, Jay has a lot of Pride in his Geek of the Week while Art really Reaches to come up with one.  Robbie has news from the future of a Celebrity Death Watch to surpass all others.  Don’t worry: it’s not The Guys.  

Everybody has a “best of” episode at the end of the year, recalling favorite movies, shows, books, music, etc.  The Guys even got on that bandwagon, and just about broke a hip in the process.  But in this episode it’s new ground that is broken.  

Only 2 weeks into 2022, and they have come to report their First Five Favorites: the movies and shows that got early nods for The Guys’ attention  (and one football game that Robbie deemed unqualified for such a list as this).  It’s like the first baby born just after midnight on New Year’s Eve, only much less important and The Guys didn’t make the local newspaper.  Struggling with what to watch?  The Guys have you covered, from butter beer to Boba tea.  (Jay still offers his Bowl of Sugar).  

Geeks of the Week take a quantum leap through a new and improved multiverse portal in a Tardis.  Get your 2022 off to a great start…by listening, of course.  

As 2021 came to a close, loyal Marvel fans got an unexpected (though much anticipated) gift from Santa … and Disney+ : the Hawkeye limited series.  

The Guys agreed it had all the things: humor, action, memorable characters,  even a salute to Christmas.  Origin and backstories were neatly juxtaposed with closure for at least one cameo hero.  And let’s not forget the appearance of the King.  No, not Elvis - the other one.  The bad guy.  Is Hawkeye forever a Christmas show, following in the way of Die Hard?  Listeners and Robbie can be the judge of that.  

Meanwhile, back at the Guy-Cave, Art goes to an electronics show (virtually, at least), Robbie reports the potential source of a new GOCA Death Watch segment, and Jay is listening to other podcasts besides this one again.  (Iron sharpens iron, right?) Listen with both Hawk-ears.  

Guy-der-men, Guy-der-men, friendly neighborhood Guy-der-men, wealth and fame, that’s a joke, having sponsors is such a yoke. (Not really.  Call us.)  Okay, the song went a little askew - you could almost say it had no way home.  

And by now, astute listeners (especially the three in Bulgaria) have surely guessed that this episode is the Guys’ highly anticipated breakdown of the newest Spider-Man movie, No Way Home.  SPOILER ALERT! Yep, they talk about all the Spider-Men, what this means for the future of Peter Parker, Peter Parker, and Peter Parker, and how they (they being Jay) love it when all the old villains come back.  

But that’s not all they’ve been watching.  Art has been catching up with Keanu and Robbie won’t look up.  Jay, meanwhile, has summoned the Tardis so hopefully he can buy some cool gifts for sale in 2016.  Listen once you’ve seen the movie, or heck - who needs a surprise?

It’s the new year and The Guys are already reminiscing about the old one.  The Best Movie list was a little easier to whittle down as the usual number of movies just didn’t come out.  

But the Best TV selections made up for it, since everybody was still home streaming.  And books?  Well, Jay went out of his comfort zone and listened to an audiobook on sports (pretty broad for a band geek), and science fiction wins the day for Art and Robbie.

More spoilers  - or just a rant? - involving Art’s Arachnid Tingle, Robbie takes on the title, “Lord of the Rap”, and Jay’s already wishing for next year’s Christmas toy.  Welcome to 2022, from Guys of a Certain Age!

The Guys just can’t get enough partying as the year comes to a close, but who should they invite to the New Year’s Eve Party?  

People from all over the galaxies will want to come, but there’s only room for fifteen or so extra guests.  So they limit the invitations to Star Wars actors and actresses through the years.  Most of their picks are still living, but the Guys don’t want to be too exclusive.  Listen to see if your name is on the guest list!  Because they know all the Star Wars celebrities are listening.

In Geeks of the Week, be ready for a Hawkeye spoiler, some Star Wars news that may or may not be confirmed by one of the party guests, and a sad goodbye to a talented Monkee.  

It’s the holiday season, so hoop-de-do and dickory dock, Guys of a Certain Age are fighting the clock.  So we party when we can, and it’s our party, so we invite who we want to.  Even if they’re no longer walking the earth.  

It’s the ultimate Christmas party, and the Guys each get 5 invitations (though some honorables are mentioned).  The only criteria is that they must be actors/actresses who have played a role, major or minor, in some sort of superhero movie or show.  

And they didn’t limit it to any particular universe, or to the living, for that matter.  The guest list they came up with is sure to make a party no listener will want to miss.  If only the party could be real.  

Wherefore art thou, Art?  It seems it’s once again Art’s turn to take a break from the rigorous Guys of a Certain Age recording schedule, and Jay sort of takes over the show.  

Finally, the cord has been cut on Jay’s Netflix DVD plan and the Twitterverse went nuts.  (It was about something else, but seriously - it’s nuts on there.)  To mark the occasion, he shares the last half dozen DVDs watched via Netflix - perhaps the last DVDs ever watched … period.   Then it’s catch-up time.  Jay was intrigued by the recent discussion on a Jay-less episode about Christmas lists, cheap thrills, guilty pleasures (and we’re still talking about gifts, people) and wanted to put in his two cents.  

For the Guys’ listeners in jolly old England, Jay suggests a play in the West End involving a broken shark and three slightly inebriated actors.  Robbie stays closer to home, with the announcement of two new series coming to HBO Max.  There are far less sound effects on this episode, but the milestones abound.  Don’t miss it.  

The holidays are not all about eating, but somehow food gets invited to all the parties.  And Christmas tends to bring out special dishes that generally don’t show up the rest of the year. 

In summer there are no gingerbread beach house-building contests, it’s a slow period for Reese’s iterations, and the Candy Cane Wonder Twins take the form of Starlight Mints again.  Be it fruitcake or egg nog, everyone has their faves and their absolutely-nots.  In this episode, The Guys prepare for a pre-holiday lunch by talking about iconic holiday foods. 

But before pulling a chair up to the dessert table, Robbie heats up the kitchen with a cookbook from an iconic holiday special, Art alerts the public to a new series bound to heat up Hulu, and Jay cools things down with an announcement about a comic series from the 1990’s that, of course, he just discovered.

It’s the holiday season, and that means … a mailbox full of catalogs.  Or at least it used to. 

Yes, Amazon got in on the game this year, and some of the old favorites like Sharper Image and LL Bean still have a printer in the office, but the OG of Christmas catalogs  - Sears and Roebuck - have gone the way of the dinosaur.  In other words, it’s almost impossible to find a real one, but they are all over the internet. 

In this episode The Guys explore ancient Sears Christmas Wishbooks from days gone by (60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, because those are the decades they remember better than yesterday), thanks to a website that scanned each and every page.  In other news, we learn that Scarlett is making nice with Kevin, Netflix breaks a record, and Robbie can’t take his lightsaber to Disney.