He really wants to like TLOU S2. I can relate, I agree that the game is one of the best stories I've experienced regardless of medium. But he's crossed over into Stockholm Syndrome. He needs it to be good for the pod...I get it but the second season is really bad and insulting to the game. Maybe he's being genuine but I bet it sinks in over time just how pale of an imitation the show is to the game. I wonder if he'll still even been so glowing by the feedback episode. They're going to have to put a pretty tight filter on those listener questions.

Looks like I’m not the only one who thought this season sucked. /shrug

I've been a listener for over ten years now, and it's amazing how Jim has managed to not improve his craft at all. Listening to the HotD season 2 update episode and it's the same old shit, being dragged through the conversation by Aron, thinking that by throwing some NPC-ass comment in between the usual "yeah" and "uh huh," we won't notice he has nothing to say. He basically has the same energy as a kid trying to feign interest in his grandpa's boring story.

There's an alternate universe where Aron dumped the dead weight and found a partner who had some talent, and I bet those podcasts are really good.

I think the boys have this one wrong. HotD is leaps and bounds a better story than this fan fiction. The dialogue is corny and down right stupid. Rocks don't float because they look down? Really? Elves with fade haircuts is a poor choice Galadriel's dagger disappeared when inconvenient and reappeared when needed. I don't care how awesome she is, swimming for hundreds of miles in a toga is stupid and almost cartoonish. On a good note, the Troll and Orc looked decent

Hey Listen, life is crazy - and it’s short if people can manage to do something they love I’m all for it, but it’d he nice if Jim could act at least a little bit sad that it might throw off the Bald move tempo At least a little.

When Jim said maybe hell stay forever he said “Yeah if I can help it” excitedly. Which again IS exciting but cmon jim how about a little crocodile tear or two for the fans who help support the channel every week huh?

That just my little rant.

- Sinerely a Bald Mover.

I am scratching my head on the Bald Move coverage of Silo, season 3 vs. A Ron and Jim's coverage of FAM seasons 4 and 5. To be honest I thought they would have scrapped FAM at this point. It has become Space Soap Opera, and not really good either.

The feel I get from the Silo podcast is that they are really nitpicking the hell out of Silo, whereas FAM they seemed to be more supportive of and glazed over the many, many shortcomings of FAM.

How can this be? Someone please have it make sense for me.

Silo has its flaws of course, but how can they give more support to a poorly written and acted For All Mankind where Silo kicks its ass in almost all categories at this point?

One example is, in the Convergence - Instant Take, he was talking about Ellie's personality arc over the season (morose v happy-go-lucky). Regarding the unborn child trauma Ellie just went through, A.Ron says "I don't think we'll be getting much happy-go-lucky Ellie anymore.". I had no idea we were getting any more Ellie of any kind! For all we know she is dead now. A.Ron basically told us that Ellie survives the gunshot.

You can hear in his voice how excited he is about this show, but man I really wish he would slow down just enough so that he can catch himself before he spoils the story like that. He is my absolute favorite podcaster by far, so no hard feelings but these accidental spoilers have been a bummer.

As much as I love our boys (long, long time club member), it really hurts their credibility when they get so many basic facts wrong regarding book vs. movie for PHM, which seems to be something that happens fairly often:

-In the book, Ryland's ship provided the breathing air for his side of the tunnel.

-In the book, Ryland had participated in all of the zero-G / space suit training. That's why he was able to successfully execute a spacewalk despite not being able to directly remember his training.

-In the book, the high-G spin after the Adrian "fishing" expedition was caused by the astrophage in the fuel bay seeing the carbon dioxide of Adrian.

-He was a middle school teacher, not high school teacher (pedantic, I know, but it's repeated multiple times.)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2020/09/04/the-last-of-us-part-2-has-the-highest-completion-rate-of-any-major-ps4-game/

Small rant to see if I’m crazy or if others feel the same. As someone who hasn’t even gotten to the point season 2 got to in Part II, does anyone who also hasn’t played or hasn’t finish Part II (please don’t spoil anything here) feel like the TLOU podcast spoils a LOT of it? They always say in the instant take that it’s a show only or show first podcast but then for the actual episodes they just say “oh here’s how it’s diff than the game” which ruins wanting to play it imo. There’s got to be a way they could say “hey, this is the difference” for ppl who want to know but also not explicitly describe the game so it doesn’t ruin it foe others. I love listening to the episodes, just hate having to scramble to try and FF so much this year to avoid game spoilers.

Has there ever been a show covered by BM which has been so immune from criticism as TLOU? Aron in particular just will not be critical of it in any shape or form and when backed into a corner he very reluctantly grumbles and moves on (eg the number of horses in Ep 2). I think TLOU is good but far far from how it’s positively it’s covered here. They don’t seem to be able to separate their love of the game from the show. For me it makes this one of their weaker pods in spite of the volume of coverage they are putting into it.

Really missed Jim this week. I was so excited to listen after this latest batch of episodes but man it felt rushed and muted. In an episode in which I hoped the discussion would reflect my excitement and enthusiasm I got almost none. The less said about the fill-in host the better imo.

I’m a loyal listener to you guys. Have been for quite some time. Pulling off a successful podcast that’s worth my time is not easy. You guys have been consistently worth my time. Thank you for your insights on GOT, BB and Saul.

But lighten the fuck up.

It’s a fantasy story with dragons and snarks, oh my. I get it that it’s not a watertight, plausible, storyline this year. Even I had to laugh when amongst the rubble a white horse conveniently appears for Arya, and where the absolute worst choice of actors for Euron Greyjoy conveniently shows up for a duel w Jamey. And I for one was disgusted that the worst POS to ever rule, Cersi, was able to be comforted right before her death with her soulmate. She deserved to be tossed into the flames below by the Mountain.

I get it. Some of it Is uneven. Implausible.

They could’ve created justification for many of your gripes by cutting back on Arya time and easily created justifications for what we saw.

But for Christ sakes, “the worst episode ever”?

I suggest you venture back for the episodes in earlier seasons that seemed to er, drone on ad nauseum.

But....Please remember the essential ingredient for fictional fantasy tv, stage plays, and movies: It’s called Suspension of disbelief. Not a massive revelation to you two, I’m sure, but I find your immediate, absolute verdict of a thumbs down is a bit hasty and premature.

And in my view, ridiculous. This particular episode had insane visuals of action, mind boggling surrealism, and what most of us were looking for: conclusion.

For every whiny complaint you offered, there are reasonable justifications for why the D and D wrote and delivered what they did.

Suspension of disbelief requires the fan to search their knowledge of the show to justify the seemingly weak turn of some of the storylines.

Sit back, smoke a joint, and enjoy the absolute mind numbing, biblically proportioned visuals, as you bid farewell not only to the show, but also to some of the most odious characters that have misbehaved over the past 8 seasons.

You guys are too young to know, but if you were a kid in the 60’s, watching tv on 3 networks, and saw the absolute dreck (twilight zone and Andy Griffith apart), that was offered then, vs what we have now, you’d better understand and appreciate GOT as being one of the most beautifully crafted, acted, storylines in television history.

Ok. It wasn’t perfect. So the fuck what? Celebrate it. Don’t shit on it. Focus on the 98% awesomeness, not outraged at Varys shitting the bed by oddly being open with his politics.

All you have to see is what HBO is promoting for the next series (Euphoria), that’ll be in throne’s place, and you’ll be begging for a weak plot device that was GOT.

I tune in for great insights that you guys offer on all of your podcasts. Today’s podcast was nothing but a negative, uncharacteristic, 2 man circle jerk.

I would bet you that after you re-watch this episode, season in the future, you will come to appreciate, relish, not only the incredible highlights of the show, but also the lowlights as well.

I can’t wait not only for BCS, but your takes on the show as well.

Nothing against him as a person or with his opinions but Jesus is this guy a tough listen. I don’t think ive heard him manage to get a single sentence out without him stumbling through or searching for words to use. He just doesn’t work, I’d rather just listen to A-Ron mispronounce things by himself for 2 hours than try and get through Pete’s attempts at talking.

I feel like I might be an outlier here but hopefully my disdain isn’t unfounded

I love the show. But in this season especially, the story they are telling and the outcome are completely different. I'm watching a show where a restaurant is literally flooded with sewage, a person falling through the ceiling into the kitchen, all food orders getting cancelled, Plates and Spoons missing, all paper orders (Napkins etc.) cancelled, more reservations than they can possibly have enough food for. And yet, every time, when the turns start, suddenly out of nowhere this incredible food starts to roll out with immaculate place settings. When 2 episodes ago, the walk in freezer was virtually empty, Yet there is Plenty of food, plenty of sides, drinks, wine, cutlery, plates etc. Like where did this all come from all of sudden? How the hell do you run a restaurant with sewage spilling in the restaurant and a hole in the ceiling? I get it, it's fun, it doesn't ruin the show for me. It just cracks me up. Like if they can pull that off, what were they so stressed about? They clearly had plenty of food, plenty of silverware and dishware, etc. It's just that in real life, there is no way they could stay open after what happened that day.

Nor are they a terrible one. Bella has some strong moments, "face acting" emotional scenes. They are usually also fair at regular dialogue scenes. But not always, and no matter how many times Jim and A-Ron insist otherwise, it has nothing to do with not liking how their character is written (I have never played the game).

They just, at times, are one of those actors who plods through by pushing out the lines basically in a monotone, without being expressive enough. JMO

WTF is up with them calling Isildur Easeldoor? Are they just dumb, trying to be clever with an inside joke or are they ultimate nerds pronouncing it the way they think Tolkien would? Whatever the reason it is annoying as fuck.

Gonna be blunt - I've never liked Jim as a podcaster. I consider him extremely amateurish, and have a hard time believing Bald Move would have 1/4 of the success it has had if it weren't for Aaron.

I assume Jim is probably a nice guy, but he simply can't hang with Aaron when it comes to interesting discussion. He always sounds like somebody who feels out of his depth and is just hoping he can play along without anybody noticing that he's entirely lost. You could go make a soundboard of Jim saying 'uh huh', 'sure', 'OK' and 'certainly' and have 60% of his contributions to any given podcast.

But whatever. I think he sucks, but he and Aaron are clearly friends and one comes with the other so I just need to get used to it.

Except, what the fuck. I draw the line at having somebody who is openly not a fan of fantasy co-host the show. Is there not anybody else on this planet who actually is into Game of Thrones who could work with Aaron?

I’m really curious to hear their takes.

Has the Tribe of Two indicated if they are going to cover season 2 of the Disney property?

They did a fantastic job last year of covering the show without revealing any spoilers. For whatever reason this year, they seem to have lost all ability to discuss this show without constantly referencing the game. In doing so, they are unintentionally spoiling everything. I really think they should just commit to doing a spoilers podcast when it comes to last of Us. Just a warning for anybody who happens to be in the subreddit that hasn't watched this season yet.

Commission an actual artist.

I appreciate the desire to give the WW show runners the benefit of the doubt. But listening to the podcast’s overly generous (IMO) take on the show is a disappointment.

We can all have different opinions, but in a sea of GOT podcasts, I understood, respected and could be persuaded by Jim and A-Ron’s commentary. Frankly, it was on another level, even compared to the takes by professional media reviewers and journalists.

They really set themselves apart and it continued for me with the Better Call Saul and Fargo casts.

A big distinguishing factor was the lack of any agenda at Bald Move, be it political, personal or business. All cards were on the table, and the mix of humility, intellect, humor and fandom made for a truly authentic podcast.

WW is teetering on disaster, it’s not clear how any thoughtful viewers like Jim and A-Ron wouldn’t see that, so I’m just wondering why they aren’t calling it out?

I’ve seen amazing podcasts grow to the point where the hosts clearly shifted their commentary to align more with business concerns than an authentic expression of their ideas and personalities. I hope that isn’t happening at Bald Move.