Film and Television
44 episodes
#6106: なぜ日本は今も光ディスクを手放さないのか
新幹線を走らせる国が、いまだにブルーレイを買い続ける。最先端技術の国に残る、意外と合理的な理由を探ります。
#6074: The Worst Documentaries of 2026 (So Far)
Awards for the year's worst documentaries: recycled premises, infomercials, a two-week Instadoc, Mr. T's verdict on his own film, and Melania's 90-point critic-audience gap.
#5999: Who Teaches Actors Those Accents?
Dialect coaches break accents into six moves, not forty — and the science says imitation ability is a bell curve, not a gift.
#5823: Why Soap Operas Never End
Coronation Street has aired nearly 12,000 episodes. What the reset button, the archetype, and the missing consequence reveal about TV's most durabl...
#5680: The Teletubbies Were Engineered, Not Accidental
Every strange thing about Teletubbies was a deliberate design choice — built around how two-year-olds actually perceive the world.
#5657: When Bad Effects Break the Illusion
Birdemic's clip-art eagles, Plan 9's plastic saucers, and The Room's $6M greenscreen — when budgets break the illusion.
#5615: Philadelphia, Here I Come: Friel's Split Man on Stage
One actor can't hold Gar O'Donnell — so Brian Friel used two. Inside the 1964 play that split a man in half on stage.
#5557: Ten Disastrous Casting Decisions, Ranked
Excellent actors, spectacularly wrong roles — from Dick Van Dyke's cockney to Tom Hanks as a Wall Street snob. Ten mismatches, ranked.
#5414: Inventing Anna: The Real Tradecraft Behind the Con
How Anna Delvey ran a four-year con on Word docs, AOL addresses, and a supermarket burner phone — and what Netflix got right.
#5141: Teletubbies vs. Sesame Street: What Kids' TV Is Really For
Didactic or creative? The philosophy baked into every kids' show—from Sesame Street to Teletubbies to Bluey.
#5135: When Reluctant Travelers Make the Best TV
What An Idiot Abroad gets right about comedy, travel, and authenticity — and the rare shows that pull off the same trick.
#5134: Why Japanese TV Commits So Hard to Absurdity
Ten comedians who can't laugh, exploding rings, and a man who won a contest for 15 months — why Japan goes all in.
#5129: Reality TV's Strangest Shows: Nasubi, Fishtank & Total Surveillance
From a naked man in a room to live-streamed god-mode surveillance — the strangest reality formats ever made.
#5019: Designing a Kosher Korean BBQ Restaurant
What happens when K-drama food culture meets kashrut? We design a restaurant that bridges both worlds.
#4974: When a Culture You've Never Lived In Feels Like Home
Why K-dramas, Japanese aesthetics, or Kazakhstan can feel more like home than your own culture.
#4706: One Grain of Rice: The Art of Hyper-Specific Documentaries
From a single parking space to one grain of rice — why filmmakers make documentaries so narrow they shouldn't work, yet somehow do.
#4473: The Hidden Worlds We Build From Stuffed Animals and Baby Babble
Why do we keep imagining that toys, babies, and pets have rich secret lives when we're not watching?
#4472: How to Become Uncle Colm McCool
Five specific techniques to master the art of the impossibly long-winded story, using Derry Girls' most memorable character as your textbook.
#3663: Warm Absurdism: The Genre Daniel Actually Loves
What connects Nathan for You, Waiting for Godot, and The Matrix? It's not sci-fi — it's absurdist humanism.
#3625: The Hitler Sitcom and Other TV Disasters
From a Hitler sitcom to Cop Rock, exploring TV’s most spectacular and bizarre failures.
#3617: Takeshi's Castle and the Art of Absurd Japanese Game Shows
Why Takeshi's Castle, Gaki no Tsukai, and Ninja Warrior became global comedy phenomena.
#3616: 10 Strangest Kids' Shows Ever Made
From fart-powered blobs to a claymation Satan, these kids' shows will make you question every decision that led to them.
#3585: Friends, Fantasy, and the Real Twenties
What happens when your favorite sitcom becomes a blueprint for adult life — and reality doesn't match?
#3584: Why Rugrats Feels So Vanilla in Retrospect
Why does Nickelodeon's longest-running original series feel so hollow decades later? We unpack the design choices.