After inhabiting the White House but before examining the Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin created a show that sought nothing less than to fix the most important American institution of them all: Saturday Night Live. We launch what will eventually become a multi-episode discussion of STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP (2006-7). Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

You've seen Air, you've seen Blackberry, and are you ready for the Corporate I.P. genre to reach its baroque period? We discuss Jerry Seinfeld's UNFROSTED (2024), a comedy about the invention of the pop-tart, and attempt an ideological reading of a comedian who has stubbornly resisted ideology. PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/523-from-freezer-103971720

A new campaign to boycott Canada's biggest grocery chain raises a plethora of issues about how monopolies work in Canada, and what role governments and consumers should play in combatting them. On this special episode, Luke welcomes writers David Moscrop and Mitchell Thompson to discuss the Loblaws boycott and Canada's grocery-store oligarchs, the Weston Family. PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/103770757

In the election year of 2004, an ultraviolent subtitled right-wing Christian movie became a genuine cultural phenomenon and political lightning-rod. We finally discuss THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (2004) and theology according to Mel Gibson. PLUS: the White House Correspondents Dinner, the Columbia encampment, and the one optimistic takeaway of a discouraging week. Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus "This Is How Power Protects Itself" by Jack Mirkinson - https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/columbia-ccny-cuny-protest-nypd-police-brutality/ "Mel Gibson's Martyrdom Complex" by Frank Rich - https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/03/movies/mel-gibson-s-martyrdom-complex.html "The Gospel According to Mel" by Christopher Hitchens - https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2004/03/hitchens-201102 The Mel Gibson/Diane Sawyer interview - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ecnfe530IE

We had to do it. We heard that GOD'S NOT DEAD: WE THE PEOPLE (2021), the fourth entry in the Evangelical film franchise, goes all-in on the culture wars of the Trump years. We welcome back our official God's Not Dead correspondent Alex Shephard to discuss the wackiest entry yet. PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/103293856

If all of our current class hierarchies were eliminated, what would replace them? This question is at the core of TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (2022), the art-house hit that show the limits of being an "equal-opportunity offender." PLUS: campus protests, keffiyeh bans, and the state of the publishing industry. Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus "No One Buys Books" by Elle Griffin - https://www.elysian.press/p/no-one-buys-books "The Delusional Triangle of Sadness" by Armond White - https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/10/the-delusional-triangle-of-sadness/ "Triangle of Sadness" review by Richard Brody - https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/triangle-of-sadness-reviewed-were-on-a-yacht-and-were-puking "Triangle of Sadness" review by Gabe Klinger - https://letterboxd.com/gabeklinger/film/triangle-of-sadness/

Less than a decade after the revolutionary potential of the May 1968 protests, Robert Bresson's THE DEVIL, PROBABLY (1977) follows a disaffected youth in a world full of evil who asks: Is life worth living? It's a hard question, but we do our best to answer it. Join us on Patreon for an extra episode every week - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

Aiming straight for the zeitgeist, CIVIL WAR (2024) is a disaster movie for the post-January 6th America. But in deliberately removing any politics or ideology from his vision of a country at war with itself, Alex Garland has made a movie that is rigorously, even militantly unwilling to say anything. PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/517-civil-war-102614736

By the third entry of the God's Not Dead franchise, its creative team had clearly started listening to their critics. The result was a kinder, gentler right-wing Evangelical Christian drama that sought to heal divides... and failed at the box office. We welcome back New Republic writer and our resident God's Not Dead correspondent Alex Shephard to discuss GOD'S NOT DEAD: A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS (2018). JOIN US ON PATREON FOR AN EXTRA EPISODE EVERY WEEK - https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

When he emerged on radio, he was celebrated as a pioneering black star in a white entertainment landscape. By the time of the Civil Rights Movement, he was regarded by many a symbol of black subservience. In this solo documentary episode Cohost Will considers the career and thorny legacy of Eddie Anderson, the actor and comedian who played "Rochester" on The Jack Benny Show. "Jack Benny and the Golden Age of American Radio Comedy" by Katherine H. Fuller-Seeley - https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520295056/jack-benny-and-the-golden-age-of-american-radio-comedy This episode first appeared on the Michael & Us Patreon. For an extra episode every week, join us at https://www.patreon.com/michaelandus

With the world in flames, it was time to have a little fun. We return to one of our all-time favourite discoveries, checking in on John Cleese's mind-bogglingly awful GB News chat show THE DINOSAUR HOUR to see how or if it has evolved since its debut. PLUS: What exactly do conservatives mean by "Marxism"? And Will uncovers a right-wing Evangelical book from the 1950s that exposes the dark heart of Hollywood. PATREON-EXCLUSIVE EPISODE - https://www.patreon.com/posts/515-escape-from-102297790