Ep. 896 - The Social Reckoning

David Chen (0:20)

Hello, everyone, and welcome to The Filmcast, a podcast about movies. I'm David Chen, and a million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? However much money this movie made this last weekend.

That's cool. Probably not, though. Joining me today is Devindra Hardawar.

Devindra Hardawar (0:37)

I hope you're hungry for no reckoning.

David Chen (0:44)

Those are vague and oblique references to the fact that today on the podcast, we're going to be reviewing The Social Reckoning, a couple of housekeeping notes. First of all, Jeff Cannata is away traveling this week for the main episode, but he will be joining us for our review so you can look forward to our full conversation about The Social Reckoning together.

Devindra Hardawar (1:04)

Through the power of editing.

David Chen (1:05)

Through the power of editing. And it's movie magic. We can make it seem like he was here the whole time. And next week's episode, the week after the one you're listening to right now, we will be releasing that episode a little bit later than usual. In general, the podcast comes out Tuesday morning, Pacific time, every week.

It's almost like clockwork. But every now and then, we have a week where that doesn't happen. And we can't do that because of scheduling reasons. So next episode, it will be coming out a little bit later, probably 12 to 24 hours later than usual.

So do not panic. It's just scheduling reasons. So next week's episode a little bit later. All that said, we have a bunch of stuff to talk about today and what we've been watching before we get to our review of The Social Reckoning featuring Jeff Cannata. So let's get to it, Devindra Hardawar. Let's start with you. What is one thing you've been watching this week?

Devindra Hardawar (2:01)

Well, you know what? Apropos of The Social Reckoning, there's a new show from Robert and Michelle King about lawyers in Silicon Valley taking down tech companies and that's kind of cool. And honestly, you'll probably see more reckoning in this show. It's called Cupertino on Paramount Plus and CBS. You'll probably see more reckoning here than in The Social Reckoning because it's a TV show and it's by TV rules and not the real world where there are no consequences for most of these companies.

But Dave, I don't think you've listened to any of my advice to listen to Robert and Michelle King's shows.

David Chen (2:34)

I've heard this is like The Good Wife but for tech or The Good Fight but for tech, right?

Devindra Hardawar (2:39)

So guys, it's been over 10 years at this point. But starting with The Good Wife, I was like, David Chen, you should watch the series. It's very smart. You love a court procedural. You love courtroom drama. The Kings have always been interested in technology, which is kind of the cool thing. So they've already looped in tech-centric plot lines. There's an asshole tech billionaire in The Good Wife.

But basically any show these people touch, I'm there. They are making great watchable TV that feels kind of old school in the way it feels like old school network TV but it's also really smart, really funny, really sexy and they have really funny characters. But let's go down the list, right? You have The Good Wife, many, many seasons of The Good Wife. They did a spinoff of that called The Good Fight, which was like post-Trump, a little angrier. That was even more about social justice. Everything they do is great. Brain dead, brain dead. The 2016 election, they did a whole show about aliens taking over our brains and exploding politicians' heads. Incredible stuff. Tony Shalhoub stars.

What else? What else did they do?

Evil, Evil, which stars Mike Coulter. They're like, okay, fuck this. Fuck all this courtroom shit. We like the supernatural. We like the X-Files. Evil is like a psychological, it's a horror series with a really religious bent, starring Mike Coulter as a priest and Mike Coulter after he was Luke Cage. They're like, we love this guy, we love his presence. Anyway, Evil ran for several seasons. It's incredible. Everybody should watch it. My co-hosts have not. How many shows have I listed? Hundreds of episodes.

David Chen (4:23)

Well, I'm going to tell you, Devindra, that The Good Wife, I think has literally hundreds of episodes.

Devindra Hardawar (4:33)

It does.

David Chen (4:34)

Then The Good Fight is not a sequel, but a spin-off of it.

Devindra Hardawar (4:38)

It's a spin-off sequel with some of the characters.

David Chen (4:43)

By the time The Good Wife is coming at me as a good recommendation, I'm dozens of episodes behind and then Good Fight, it's like, well, I don't want to watch The Good Fight unless I'm watching it.