Guys Of A Certain Age

This week the Guys continue to practice safe social distancing with Jay actually taking it to the extreme by separating himself by both time and space (like Doctor Who!).

It’s a weird world we are living in, and it’s getting weirder.  

We’re all doing lots of things online, we’ve given up watching actual live sporting events, and we’re spending a lot of time indoors away from other people.  In other words: normal life for many in the geek-nerd community.  

Who better than the Guys to help you find fun things to do in quarantine?  This week they go really old school and talk about their favorite games past and present, and they’re not talking about Pac-Man.  It’s time to dig out the board games and all those decks of cards.  Now it's about Fishbowl,  Spades, Uno, Dutch Blitz, Rook, and marathon Monopoly.  If Amazon doesn’t have them, your local antique store probably does.  

And of course, there are some suggestions about things to watch besides college football reruns, including an updated YouTube video from the stars of Shaun of the Dead.  And yes, the microphones were a safe distance apart.  

As the world deals with COVID-19, attempts to "flatten the curve" have led to the cancellation of concerts, conferences, and sporting events including a favorite rite of spring, March Madness aka the NCAA College Basketball Tournament.

No strangers to self-quarantine, the Guys use their Geek of the Week segment to offer several alternatives to get you through the live sports and entertainment drought. Ideas include favorite sports movies, finishing off those series that you haven't quite made it through, and binge-watching offerings from a particular streaming service that you may not renew.

In the main segment, the Guys offer suggestions on favorite books that need to be turned into movies or limited series. With their varied and sometimes questionable offerings, the Guys' picks are sure to be huge hits. Well, at least until live sports come back.

Tech devices: can’t live without ‘em, can’t shoot ‘em.  (We’re not all Elvis, after all.) This week the Guys talk about the gadgets that  have revolutionized their existence - or at least make their lives a lot more … lively.  

With phones and RunPee off the table, the banter turns to smart speakers, reading aids, and chicken thermometers.  And in a classic moment of a certain age, they talk CPAP.  But first, it’s the Geeks of the Week.  The Dr. Who season finale just aired, and even Jay saw the chatter (though not the episode).  The corona virus affects an anticipated movie release, and 100 per cent autonomous human flight is literally on the horizon.  

And an exciting secret from the previous episode is revealed.  

Coming to you from alternate dimensions, the Guys are back to discuss the recent CW crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths.

"One podcast. One podcast only, please."

This week the Guys bring out the intel on Jack Ryan, Tom Clancy's CIA analyst turned field agent turned President of the United States. (And no, we don't mean Alec Baldwin's current portrayal of Trump.)

They take a look at the actors who have played Ryan on the big screen and in the new Amazon Prime series and, performing some analysis of their own, rate their favorites. They also rank the Jack Ryan movies and uncover some interesting facts about some of the supporting characters and who portrayed them.

Geeks of the Week include Jay's take on The Batman costume and some interesting facts about it and the upcoming movie. Art talks about becoming a huge Rian Johnson fan after seeing Knives Out and completely forgiving him for The Last Jedi (maybe). Robbie extols the virtues of Plex, an incredible media center application he is using to serve his video library that currently includes hundreds of movies and TV shows, but oddly no Jack Ryan.

This episode takes a deep dive into gaming - unfortunately, the Guys’ pool is pretty shallow.  

Thankfully we have Chortlecast co-host Jake back in the studio to help us navigate these strange new computer-generated worlds.  If you’re like Jay, and think the Wii is still the latest and greatest out there, or you still keep your Palm Pilot charged so you can play Tetris, Jake has suggestions.  (And one of them is not necessarily a membership to Gamefly.) They talk systems, games, exclusivity, hardware, software.  They talk definitions (such as ecosystem and love child) and acronyms (like MMO).  Think of it as a tutorial - Gaming for Geezers.  

In the Geek of the Week segment, Robbie expounds on all the television streaming services available, and gives an expert opinion on how You should watch the Tube, once you’ve finished listening to all the podcasts.  

Climate change, impeachment, healthcare - all those subjects were covered.  But it wasn’t a presidential debate…it was the Oscars!  And we watched it anyway.  Well, Art and Jay watched it - but that didn’t stop Robbie from having opinions.  

In this episode, The Guys go down the list of Oscar nominees, winners, and in some cases, non-nominated-but-should-have beens, and tell you all you need to know about the 92nd annual Academy Awards. And maybe some things you didn’t.  They even talk Razzie nominations,  though there were more “I didn’t see that” admissions from that list than the Oscars.  (Jay still defends his enjoyment of Cats in this segment.)  The Razzies served as Robbie’s Geek of the Week, as Art mourned the loss of a Wild, Wild West star and Jay asked the question: How many Quibi’s will it take before this podcast is over?

Is football really over?  Could it be true?  Well, of course not - XFL play starts next week!  

But the Big Game, the Superest of Bowls, happened yesterday, in all its advertising glory.  The Guys had big plans to talk about the relevance of championship games across sports in general, with how the Super Bowl fit into that, but mostly they just ended up talking about the commercials.  And they were awesome.  Most of them, anyway.  Will “these dudes” buy anything as a result of the millions spent on ads?  Unlikely.  But they still got a kick out of talking about them.  

Plus, in the Geek of the Week segment, Art sits in the captain’s chair and Jay rambles on about a study on pizza-slicing.  Sorry, no commercials.  

The Star Wars trilogy of trilogies may be complete, and current faves such as Jack Ryan and the Mandalorian may not be back till the fall, but that doesn't mean our screens won't be busy in 2020.   

In this episode the Guys look forward to all sorts of cinematic wonders in the year to come.  Marvel?  Eternally covered.  DC?  It's a Wonder-ful world.  Bond?  Finally.  Maverick is back, with Kenny in tow. Even the Ghostbusters return from the dead. 

And that doesn't even include all the streaming series that Art and Robbie think Jay needs to watch just to catch up. (Be sure to listen for the shocking revelation that even with an extended Disney+ subscription, Jay may still be the lone Netflix DVD customer.)