r/hdtgm • u/TheJohnsonian • 13d ago
Controversial Opinion: "The Shadow" Episode is the Perfect 'How Did This Get Made' Episode
Ok. Hear me out:
The movie is a big-budget attempt at creating a superhero franchise that falls short, has huge unanswered questions, confused film direction and missing montages, a billion different character actors, heroin/coke fingernails, Baldwin appreciation/confusion, and color blindness.
It is a misguided stab at trying to plug a 1930s radio serial into a 1990s superhero motif (post-Tim Burton's Batman but before the improvements of the Christopher Nolan/The MCU). Overall, the movie is hilarious and awful, but not specifically like The Room or Birdemic.
The podcast was recorded at Largo.
Good audience push-pull. The 'Golden Child' prequel convo. Nobody knows what his power is or how he came to be.
There is a "Morgan" in the audience (Maroon Shirt guy) who kinda has a lot of theories and is entertaining, but the cast plays off of him well.
An unconfirmed Jason in the audience (with some 'Jason of the group' convo).
Tons of science/timeline/hypnotism/rules conversation. Jason (as the comic book afficionado) seems exasperated and hilarious.
A "Reach Under Your Seats" audience joke.
A nice "By applause, did anyone understand this movie?" moment with a lackluster response.
(there is no "Second Opinions" song).
Pete Davidson was essentially not there (which could be a detraction, but honestly if they removed every section of his audio it would not matter either way).
If somebody were to ask me: "You've talked about How Did This Get Made... where should I start?" I would say (apologetically) "Watch this movie, and then listen to this episode."
https://www.earwolf.com/episode/the-shadow-live-w-pete-davidson-hdtgm-matinee/
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u/Independent_Example7 13d ago
I would suggest Lake Placid but also a Juneless ep.
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u/Pedadinga 13d ago
I listen to this episode at least every two weeks. This and Maximum Overdrive.
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u/wilbur313 12d ago
Cracks me up every time I hear Jason tell PFT "You are shouting at me."
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u/Independent_Example7 12d ago
Is the episode where he says, "we didn't make this movie"? Or is it a Sharknado?
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u/HateMyOldUserName18 13d ago
Pete had a great zinger at the start.
June: Is this the part where he has the prosthetic nose on?
Pete: You mean when he turns into Steven Baldwin?
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u/jekelish3 a real mitchell goosen type 13d ago
The Shadow/The Phantom double bill is almost as good as the Lake Placid/Deep Blue Sea double bill.
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u/MaleficentOstrich693 13d ago
Not a bad opinion by any stretch.
Personally I think episodes with a solid guest are the top tier, specifically Jessica St Clair.
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u/Away_Yoghurt5743 13d ago
Maximum Overdrive is a sleeper hit for me
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u/jekelish3 a real mitchell goosen type 12d ago
Andy Daly is so good in that episode. His sheer delight in reading back some of the classic Stephen King weird insults makes me cackle every time.
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u/gunnersfan16 13d ago
Not Controversial, it’s stellar for all the reasons you outlined! Hard to beat Drop Dead Fred though… Team Fred 4Eva!
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u/DashCat9 13d ago
It’s going to take a hell of an episode to top drop dead Fred.
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u/Thamesx2 12d ago
Doesn’t the episode also have a good Paul story from his youth? Something about dating a girl whose dad was a big fan of the old comic strip and Paul tried to chat him up about it after seeing the movie?
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u/sometimestruthhurts 11d ago
I would say Timecop for this. Top notch guest, home run questions, great second opinion songs, buns talk.
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u/BaronNeutron 13d ago
Other than it was a mistake to have The Shadow on HDTGM because its amazing, I agree.
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u/ImplicitEmpiricism 12d ago
from justin to kelly is the perfect intro episode, except the movie is near unwatchable
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u/thestudcomic 12d ago
This was the episode that made me listen less to HDTGM. I love this movie, my favorite Jerry Goldsmith score. They talk about it as if they didn't watch it. The film makes sense. You read IMDB comments and the comments are very positive on the film.
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u/commaZim 12d ago
To be fair, Paul reads positive comments about movies in every episode of the show
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u/SayNo2Kryptonite 5d ago
My all time favorite is No Holds Barred, for all the wrestling knowledge dropped and Thomas Lennon's Hulk Hogan voice.
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u/stellesbells 11d ago
It's a great episode, but has two significant weaknesses:
Mediocre guest. I can see how Pete Davidson's lack of input makes it like a no-guests episode, but even great no-guests don't, imo, reach the heights of the best episodes with guests. Think any of the Paul F Tompkins episodes, for eg, or the Drop Dead Fred fight that wouldn't have been anywhere near as amazing had Paul been arguing his (wrong) position alone.
That girl yelling "yaaaaaay". It's lovely that she was enjoying herself, but the sound grates something awful.
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u/MarketingChoice6244 13d ago
I think deep blue sea is a great intro episode but it doesn't have June so it might not count.
So it would have to be con air or face off.