SvB #82 - The State of Streaming Plus our She-Hulk Review

Theo and Mr Benja get excited about content we like to watch while under the influence. Then we get into some great shows and movies like The Woman King and Undercover Billionaire we watched over the past week. (4:04) Next  the guys get into the news around Netflix and their Ad Tier (40:34). Finally our Feature the State of Streaming looks at three categories of streamers The Leaders , The DGAF  and the Still Here Division before we go into our review of She Hulk (1:02:26)


[Digging in the Crates - 4:04 ] 

[News - 40:32 ]  

[SvB Feature -  1:02:15 ] 

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Show vs. Business is your weekly take on Pop Culture from two very different perspectives. Your hosts Theo and  Mr. Benja provide all the relevant info to get your week started right.

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Transcript

Theo: Welcome, welcome, welcome to Show Versus Business, Your weekly take on pop culture from two very different perspectives. I'm your host, Theo, in a line that have the man himself, Mr. Benja. What is up my man? 

Mr. Benja: Oh, what's up? Why? How you doing man? 

Theo: Let's go

Guy Dog. I'm hype man. I'm hype. What am a hype about this week for, hey, where everyone, We got a great show. Talk a little bit digging into crates. We're gonna do a little bit about, Hey, you know, there's some great streaming shows, there's some great shows in general, but you know, what are the best shows? So watch when you get a little bit of ne parade, a little bit buzzed.

So we'll talk a little bit about that. Then we kind of take out a new segment, you know, what you checking out. We'll do a little bit about She Hawk and give her our thoughts on that. News, a lot of great news, what's happening in Netflix, YouTube Alex Jones in the news, unfortunately, and we'll talk a little bit about that.

But really what we're excited about this week is our feature, The state of streaming, will go a little bit about all of these streaming services and what they're doing from content and from a business standpoint. So, with that being said, Mr. Benja, how was your 

Mr. Benja: week? Man, this week was actually really good.

Got my mind clear, let go of some nonsense so I could grab on to the, the next phase of my podcast and really take hold of it. It's coming. 

Theo: Take hold of it. Boy, I love it. I love it. Yeah, man, it's Q4 man. Man, same here, man. Just trying to get my business my, my day job, business in the healthcare technology sector, getting that ready to close out, but preparing for the future, but also thinking about, you know, this podcast and how we can expand it.

And, you know, I think we've been hinting at it. We're thinking about some, doing some new things with content, with video and stuff like that. So everyone be on lookout for that. Let's see what happened this week. Nothing too major. Just, you know, I had some good event this weekend, Some good brothers and just learning about life and that was been insightful.

So I really enjoyed that period of time. But yeah, man, I'm just living life, man. Just ready for you know, literally, you know, we only have like four weeks of like selling days, you know, in this business world. And then everything shuts down , middle of November for Thanksgiving and Christmas. You just, you might as well forget trying to buy, sell or per, you know, selling anything from a business standpoint.

So I'm pushing hard to kind of close out the year show. Mm-hmm. . 

Mr. Benja: So larger businesses just tend to ride out the end of the year with what they got and start worrying about buying again next year. 

Theo: Yeah, pretty much. Okay. I mean, it's, especially in my business, the healthcare techno sector, everybody's just on vacation at that point.

You know, it's like Thanksgiving's popping up and, you know, you got another week or two and it's like, you know, Christmas time, people taking all focused on that. So it's really hard to get people's attention. So you got four more weeks, push hard and. Wrap it up for the year. So so that's kind of where I'm at right now.

But yeah, I'm excited about it. 

Mr. Benja: All right. Yeah, just reminds me of a discussion I had when I was working in the games industry. We're talking about getting a not even a whole game, but a demo, something released, and they're like, Dude, why, why'd you schedule this like this? It's, it's gonna go to Sony in the middle of their holiday season.

No one's gonna look at it. It's gonna need some approval from some guy who's flown to, to Bali or something for the holidays. And like, you messed up. And I was like, I didn't 

Theo: know. Yeah, man. Yeah, man, I get it, man. People, yeah, they just, I get it and I got kids and stuff. It's just hard to focus on business at the end of the year.

But yeah, man. So just push hard. Everyone Q4 is here ready to take over. So if you don't look out for that. Well, Mr. Benja now man, let's, I think we got a lot of interesting things to talk about. So I, I'm gonna just jump right into it, man. Let's go ahead and do digging into crates. Mr. Benji, man.

So this is an interesting topic. Look, yeah, sometimes I partake of different substances. Oh, no, as a matter of fact why I do the pod, I may or may not be having a glass of something of red drink in my hand, , that helps with the communication channels. As you may have something as well, but you know, I think, you know, we enjoy our content, you know, sober and what's going on, but guess what?

There's sometimes you just, you just wanna watch something while you, you effed up, man. You just, you just wanna watch something. So, you know. Let's talk a little bit about that, Mr. Ben. What are some of your shows you watch and if you wanna talk about substances you on, that's fine, it's, and your court, but what do you kinda watch that just really kind of makes you go, Hmm, this is something that would keep my mind going while I may or may not be under influence?

Mr. Benja: Well, we talked about leaning in television where you're like really engaged and leaning in and watching, like, Yeah. Then lean back, you know, we're just like a little more relaxed and doing whatever, but this new category we were making here the Buzzfeed category, the Buzz Watch category, maybe we can call it them comedy, right?

This writes itself, but I, I really liked, I, I, I didn't know it at first, but a lot of the crazy stuff in anime that I would just make up. I, I, you know, I, I'd fill in a lot of the blanks in my head where it's like, Oh, okay, sure, yeah, I'm going along with that because it's anime. It doesn't make any sense.

He should have died. That explosion should have done this, or, but it all makes sense in the context of. And I realized one day I just happened to be beside myself, kind of. Literally, I was, I was floating like three feet above the couch 

Theo: on a Are you a Jedi, Mr. Ben? 

Mr. Benja: A Green Jedi. Yeah, I had, I had an edible going on and I was just like watching something, decided to put on some anime, man.

It was glorious . I mean, the colors, everything was moving faster. I mean, it was great. So yeah, I, I, it's a certain type of anime that's like, you know, anime in comedy and there's weird explosions in colors and moving fast. Apparently, I haven't tried this yet, but if you're on acid, you can kick it to the next level.

I don't, I don't say do that, but I knew some friends and they would always like, you know, get some whacked out colors videos with colors and lights and everything and just go to work. I was never a part of that, but after that one little episode in edibles, I got it. 

Theo: Mm mm An may is better. Inebriated under influence.

Is that what you're trying to advocate to the people? 

Mr. Benja: Yeah. I mean, you know, you may get complicated anime where, you know, 32 episodes into a 64 episode arc, you're like, Holy crap. I don't know what's going on. . You know, , but you're still enthralled, you know, you're like, Wait, wait, what's happening? But you can keep going because it's anime.

Theo: I love it. I love it. Okay. Yeah, we may try that. You know, so yeah, I mean, very similar to you. I just watched cartoons like, but I watched like, you know, funny cartoons, like Family Guy or you know, there's a show on Netflix called F is for Family. Yeah. And he's just laughing at everything. He's just like, Oh my God, this is the funniest thing I ever see in my life.

Oh my gosh. And you just, and you just laugh and laugh and like you said, just the stuff that you, you know, would chuckle just, Oh, that's, that's humorous. Oh, I see it at Joke construction. It was very well done. Then you're just like, Oh man, that's the best thing I ever seen in my life. You know? And just, so so that's kind of, I just, just sit back and just enjoy it.

Only cartoon that I really watch that, that makes me wanna rewind all the time. Freaking Morty cuz they have so much in it, so dense that you have to kind of, at least I do, I have to rewind it a couple times. We watch a few scenes and, and, and it's enjoyable, but like the jokes are fast and also the concepts are fast.

So you just like, Oh crap, what is going on here? , the references are fast and so it's like one of those shows that I probably would not do it under the influence. But all those other shows, just joke, joke, joke, you know, set up joke, set up, joke set up, set up joke, you know, it's like, oh yeah, I gotta just sit back and just let it just wash over me with the comedy, you know, Especially if I seen it 

Mr. Benja: before.

Oh yeah. So, So how did you first realize that? What do you mean? I mean, were you just thinking to yourself, you know, you got like the peanut butter and the chocolate where you're like, Hmm, I should put these together, or how did it 

Theo: come about? Well, you know, I don't want anything too heavy cuz then I start, you know, my mind starts thinking other thoughts on like, I don't wanna go there, you know, so I just like, they put something on like, that's light and easy.

Right. Especially before I go to bed or something like that. Sure. So to me that's, that's kind of, you know, kind of how that led is like, you know, there's nothing too dark here and these, you know, well, you know, there's some dark moments in some of the cartoons, but. Comedy cartoons. That's what I'm kind of like the family guys of the world.

American dad what's some other hot Bob Burgers? I don't know if you've seen that show. Yeah. Yeah, those 

Mr. Benja: are just remind me, I gotta watch BoJack. I still haven't 

Theo: done that. Yeah. BoJack Well I haven't seen that. That's a little dark. That's a little bit about depression. Maybe not. Yeah. Horseman. Yeah.

But yeah, so stuff like that was like kind of just real easy for me to kind of, you know, and I would watch it anyway sometimes before I went to bed. And so I was like, Ah, let me try that. So that would kind of appease me and help me golf to never, never lay. 

Mr. Benja: Yeah, I I almost wanna start doing reactions or like watching videos and playing 'em back cuz you know, I'm setting up a studio right now and that's one of the things I'm happy about this week.

Setting up a studio, gonna do some filming recording. I get a Google Nest and have my wifi all good from my studio area. But you know, having a reaction to like, some really bad Netflix stuff to find some of the worst stuff on Netflix. And apparently you'll get a copyright strike much faster if you denigrate the property as opposed to giving it a big ups.

So I wanna see how it works. 

Theo: Interesting, interesting. Yeah. See, if you just shit all on it, then they're gonna come after you potentially, Right. . But if you just say, Hey, I never seen this before, and it's pretty good. 

Mr. Benja: Yeah, they bother. Dude, I, I wondered why they were all so positive. Apparently two reasons the negative ones get gone and they're scared of getting hit with the negative strike.

So they keep it positive, which is hilarious to me. 

Theo: Interesting. Yeah. That's su a little bit because it's like, Yeah. There's no genuine generalness in the reaction. It's like, yeah, this is great. Oh my God. Oh, this is the best thing I ever seen. . Did you 

Mr. Benja: see that? 

Theo: Oh my gosh. . I mean, there's no, there's no detail in how much they like it or why they like it.

It's just generic stuff. Yes, There were colors and they were great and acting. They were actors and they said lines. I've never, That was amazing how they set lines, . Yeah. So just like, you know, very generic and that's never good. And type of watch entertainment. So anyway, Mr. Bench, what else are you watching, man, when you are in that state of mind?

You know, 

Mr. Benja: As I said, any, any dumb ish from Netflix or anything, anime and music videos. I that's part of my creative process. I'll just put on some music videos, maybe put 'em on the projector even to fill the wall. Get a little something, something to sip on, turn on some music that's not related to the music videos and open up a bunch of magazines and sketch books and stuff and have 'em.

It's a crazy little setup, but I just kind of walk around ideating and all this, this input just flying at me, coming at me home. Are you one 

Theo: of those artists that just take off their shirt and just like, got the paint all on you and just like, I'm ready. Where's inspiration coming from? Got the music, the videos.

I got all these stimulation. I'm, I'm hot now. , you know, got my shirt off. Are you ready to do it? 

Mr. Benja: Yes. When I, when I get like, fully in the idea mode, like the execution mode is a little different, but fully in idea mode. Yeah, man, you don't, I I can't have anybody around during that. 

Theo: You like almost manic A little bit. I mean, you know, you see those, those, those videos of like artists like in there, in their, in there that, that high end state, right.

Or it's just like in the flow, ah, I'm just creating, you know? Are you almost, almost manic where the ideas are coming so fast and furious, it's almost hard to kind keep 'em up, keep up with em. 

Mr. Benja: It is, it is hard to keep up with ideas because, and this is actually practiced for me where I let go. , a lot of the filtration that goes on.

Mm-hmm. , I'm like, No. What about that thought? Or what about this feeling? What about this sensation? What about this idea? You know, as I said, I got the music going and I've got books and magazines, comics, notepads around, and I'm just throwing down ideas like crazy, like as fast as I can taking audio notes sometimes.

And the thing that's weird is you actually have to tell yourself not to filter. If two thoughts just come flying by each other and it works, like, you know, older, dirty bastards playing and he's like, Motherfucker, ha ha. And right when he says that, I'm looking at a Batman comic and Batman's like, you know, jumping off a building or something, I'm like, Holy crap.

And that starts to lead me down this idea of this crazy dude jumping through across rooftops and whatever. But yes, just a, it's a whole letting go process and it's kind of fun, but it's, it's, it's kind of draining too. 

Theo: Yeah. No, I get it. I mean, that's what they say about writing, right? separate the the creating process from the editing process because, you know, it slows down to creation.

If you just always like, Oh, that's, that, that sentence is not perfect or it doesn't say this and you never create anything. But then, you know, you need the editing process because then you look back from the night before, it's, aw man, this whole page is shit. I didn't say anything relevant. And this just cross us all out.

So, you know, you gotta, you know, but you gotta separate the halfs. You can't do 'em at the same time. Mm-hmm. . So I've heard that before. So I, I and I, I've been in moments like that where I'm just, the idea is, you know, even in business there's a way you can be like that, right? Where you just like, ah, I just don't wanna think about this idea stupid and not, I just wanna just think of some new ideas to grow the business.

And I'm just like, Oh, this is, Yeah, you write this down, this is right down. And I, you're right. It, it is like amazing cuz you're just like, there's no wrong idea and you're just like, Oh, I'm flying. And then the cold light of day, you look at the ideas you wrote down, you're like, Huh, we can't do that. That's gonna cost a million dollars.

Yeah, that's a stupid idea. We did that last year, . Yeah. And it works. So why are you doing it now? So, but in the moment it is like, all things are possible, right? Yeah. You get excited about it. 

Mr. Benja: One of the coolest things really quick that ever happened to be not during one of those sessions, because those are pretty much to my myself for the most part to myself.

After doing one of those, I had a series of paintings part all partially finished or 18 of them. Oh. So I had 18 paintings in progress at once, and they were all just kind of sitting on the wall. And I remember this it was a Saturday or Sunday morning, I invited this girl over, She's buying a, a painting for her husband or her fiance.

She's like, Yeah, I wanna get him something nice and da da. I say, Yeah, come on by in the morning. So she comes by, I'm like, Hey, don't mind the mess. I was in my art mode last night. The entire living room areas just full of, as I said, sketches, pictures, images you can smell the ozone from the projector that's been playing all night.

Just like that. So she walks in and it's like, Cool, cool, whatever. And she sees one of the paintings that I was working on that I thought was garbage. And she's like, I really like that one. And I said, Oh, okay. And we kept on going about our discussion, but before she left again, she was like, Yeah, yeah, you really need to finish that one up.

And I was like, Okay. She stopped a second time. I gotta take this seriously. Yeah. Finished it up. People dug it. 

Theo: There it is. . Yep. You just never know. Artists is subjective. Right. And so yeah, it's an eye of the beholder. So, you know, he thought it was garbage. But that's, I guess, I guess it's the artist. There's no judgment.

I mean, you know, you create something and you just don't know. Right. It, it gets to a point where you just gotta put it in the world and see what other people think. You may have some judgments on it, but you're just like, I don't really know. Just in the market. Right. And so, just gotta put it out there.

Mr. Benja: Right. I mean, it's scary. The artist's insight changes because he's not, he has no longer has that same reference point as a viewer, it's impossible. Yeah. So he knows where he knows where he's going. And if something's really good to the artist, it's generally really good to the people also. Okay. But there's, but there's some stuff that's just like, you have no clue.

You kind of shrug your shoulders. Like, I don't know, somebody else gotta listen to this. If. Yeah, . 

Theo: Okay. I love it, man. I love these talks, man. About the artists. Yeah, man, dude. Just a, just an interview style. I know you do that with other artists and creators and your, your, your main, your other podcast. But we'll love to kind of do a deep dive on with you because, just fascinating to me, you know, that's why we call sober show versus business, right?

I'm just so, like, analytical, just like, Oh man, how you make money off of that man. Just, just a lot of energy. You making shit . 

Mr. Benja: But that's why I had to, that's why I had to, Oh, we'll talk about it in a second, but Yeah, 

Theo: exactly. No, no, no. The only thing I just wanna say, just, yeah. Game of Thrones content. I mean, just, I mean, I watch Game of Thrones so much.

I just, you know, if I'm in that mode, I'm watching that stuff and then you start seeing the, the, the, the acting. You're like, why they act that way, or, you know, it's like you get very critical of everything. You're like, this is very self serious. And then why they have this music play in the background constantly.

So you just see all the production things that just. Or they, they do to kind of give you that emotion, right? The music is so, I, I never noticed it till I'm like, in that state of aeration, and it's like, they, they always know exactly where to put that moment. They put that button on stuff to give you that extra, or the way they light stuff, right?

It's just like, yeah, no, this person's lighted a little different now. Or they try to make them beautiful. And so you see all that. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I kind of love that part. I, I started seeing the seams and the production and so Game of Throne is one of those where it's just, it's such a, a fantasy and stuff.

When you're kind of in that state, you start seeing all this, you say, Wait a minute, that makeup is not good, or that their hair style is crazy, or, Yeah, this plot does not make sense. So anyway I'll talk about that next in another show show we'll talk about later. But you know, when they start, you start seeing the holes, it's almost like you see the code in the matrix, right?

You're like, Oh, they have to do all this to kind of, you know, blur the line. So you just get immersed in it. But they didn't do that. And, you know, then you'd be like, Oh, this is garbage. I can't watch this . 

Mr. Benja: Well, that's a, that's, that's your mind letting go of a lot of I mean, especially if you're on alcohol, which is like, you start to, your, your judgment gets impaired.

That's basically what alcohol is doing to you impairs your judgment for the good or for the bad. So normally when you're in a story, you're thinking, I'm supposed to follow this, this, this, and this. And your mind automatically puts up blind. To all the other, other stuff. Mm-hmm. . So it's like getting on a roller coaster.

You're not supposed to like look down and see how the, you know, the, the carriage is sitting on the track or you know, who's pulling the lever or whatever. You're just supposed to focus on the ride in front of you. So that's what 

Theo: happens. I love it. I love it. Yeah. So man, anyway, so anything else there?

Mr. Benja: Nah, I don't know why though. But Game of Thrones is good to check out. Inebriated. I don't know. It's, I don't know why it's, 

Theo: it's cuz there's a lot of shit going on man. It just a lot , you just, your mind just wanna sit there and it's not hard stuff. It's not like tin, you know, you like, ah, my brain hurts, you know?

Yeah. But, or Westworld, right? Oh yeah. I gotta go to Reddit and figure this out, you know? Yeah. You know, and my neat ready state is more like, Oh, Dragons, you know, I, we, we we're doing that now , so let's some practice. 

Mr. Benja: Hey dog, The dude, the dude got really blue eyes, man. I mean, not like, I like Sweden blue. I'm talking about like blue motherfucker.

Yeah, exactly. . But yeah. That's weird. 

Theo: the Night King. Why his eyes so blue? I don't understand that. What does that mean? So anyway, yeah. That's, that's the kind of questions I have. So anyway, let's, let's, let's do our next segment Mr. Er. What you checking out , what you is the last time we talked. 

Mr. Benja: All right.

So now we both checked out a She huk and we're gonna talk about that in a little bit in, at the end of the show. Spoiler. We're gonna go spoiler towards the end and give you our thoughts on that. Hot hot property right there. 

Theo: That hot D oh, sorry, say that out loud. 

Mr. Benja: That's game. That's Game or Thrones.

Hot D Game. Throne got got, Yep. . But yeah, Jim Walters Hot D sorry. We'll talk about she in a bit. You'll get the jokes when we get there. But no, I've been, I actually went out and watched the th love and thunder, I forgot. Totally forgot to watch it. It just fell off my radar. I see why people are talking about it the way they are.

You've seen it, right? I have. I have. You have? Yeah. I didn't think it was strong in any direction. Mm-hmm. , that's, it wasn't bad. It just really, really wasn't strong. 

Theo: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Would they leave any impression on you at all? 

Mr. Benja: I mean, okay, so you had the, the villain, the, the, the as guardians, the kids Valry.

Lady Thor, Thor, I'm, I'm just going through all the main plots and arcs they tried to carry, You had gore, the God butcher. You had, I guess eternity if you want to consider that whole concept of walking through to eternity. All this stuff. You had all these ideas going on and absolutely none of it was compelling.

Mm-hmm. or even Ner and Storm bringer their relationship as, as weapons that are entities of themselves with slight bits of agency, I suppose. They just, none of it was strong of a story. So the whole time I just kind of sat there like, this is happening. It shit in soon.

Theo: Yeah. Yeah. Good points. It, it was like just a string of jokes, you know, went after another, you know. Sure. Some stylistic things with the black and white, you know you know, motif. But yeah, man, I mean, you know, I, you know, Christian be, you know, he's trying to do what he does to try to, you know, put some pathos in there.

But yeah, I mean, yeah, I think yeah, it's starting to show the seam a little bit and so I think people are kind of like, Huh, you know, what's, what's nice with Thor? Right? The mar mcu. But just in, in general, like, you know, I, I see why, you know, Chris Hemsworth wants to keep working with Taco. Why tt? But I think the challenge is, you know, can he just not be a one trick pony and just, you know, everything's just like kind of a wink and a smile, right?

In these type of, can he create something that's interesting, compelling, Right. You know, so that's gonna be, you know, his challenge. The director but Chris Hemsworth, you know, I guess he wanted to keep doing this because he felt that, you know, Waki did take him to the next level. But we'll see. I mean, he is supposed to be quote unquote doing a Star Wars movie Waki, but I don't want it now.

See? Yeah, I know. It's kind like, Yeah. Is he, I mean what's her name? The one that was gonna do the one she did Wonder Woman. She was supposed to do a Star Wars movie, Right? That got pushed or didn't. That's not happen. Remember the guys from Game of Thrones, they were supposed to do a Star Wars movie.

Yeah. That got pushed. Everybody. 

Mr. Benja: Yeah. Everybody that should be doing one isn't doing one and well, 

Theo: Go ahead. I think they, I think we have a case for Tony and Dan Gilroy, who are doing Andor. They need to make a Star Wars movie. Cause Andor is on fire. We don't, we're not gonna talk about this once you get caught up.

Mr. Pja, I know you've been hearing the rumblings, but Andor is there. 

Mr. Benja: You're, you're watching that. So give us a little bit of a, an update on where you are. Yeah, 

Theo: I mean, just saw the six episode. Fantastic man. It's, it's really giving us a different take than the day felon vision of where Star Wars could go.

I talked, we talked about this a couple couple of podcasts go around, Hey, this is a different direction. It's more grounded. Star Wars. It's definitely not tied into some Jedi mythology or even Bonnie Hunter mythology. It's just like, this is just regular people trying to do their best to live their lives.

And you never seen that before in Star Wars? No mention of Jedi, No mention of no crime syndicate, no issues with Job in the hood. Yeah. I mean, it barely had cute little Androids Joys walking around, barely. So it is, it is really almost not like even Star Wars anymore, you know? Yes, you have some, the Thai fighters and the Empire, but really it's just almost like a spice story.

And, and to me this is like, this could be the take for the future of Star Wars if they do it right. So we'll see. But it's, it's, it's, it's doing some fantastic things. 

Mr. Benja: Some people say that would, that sounds boring. Just by talking about it, it's like, what do you, what do you say? 

Theo: Well, you know, I think people went spectacle with Star Wars, right?

I mean, that's what we grew up on, you know? Oh, wow. They bought up a planet. Oh, they got Lifesavers. Oh, Dar Vader. You know, it's just like, you know, it was just a massive amount of stuff that they just threw at us. Yeah. About this world and mythology. And he was just like, I want it all put in my veins. But now, if you're trying to create something sustainable that you gotta, I mean, you know, show versus business, you gotta ground it in characters that make sense and that are believable.

Were good acting and things that make sense, you know, from a, and it can be boring at the beginning, but once you ramp it up, then you like, Oh, now know why this character's like this, Right? Why he has a lifesaver, or, I know why this character does this and now I care. And now it's more compelling, but takes a moment to get there.

And that's what TV does. Just we'll talk about maybe later, you know, Hot D, you know, like Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon. You know, it was slow going, slow going, slow going, which, you know, TV can do that sometimes, but this last episode it got, it got grave reviews because they, they built it up where now you understand this character and what their motivations were from the whole point of the series up to that point.

And it made everything in context a lot better. Now, should TV be like that should be so slow and all preamble? No, probably not. But because there's so much content, I mean, they are kind of starting to do that more and more and you know, if you invest the time, then you start seeing the payoff and you're like, okay, it was well worth the time.

Cuz they, you know, Ray subtly put that information in your head of why these characters matter and now you're invested. You're like, oh, it's kind of like what's it, it's like you know, the rocket ship, you know, it takes a long, it takes a minute to kind of get up, you know, get going, but once it gets into that atmosphere, it's gone.

You know, it's like, and that's kind of like what they're doing. They're just kinda like, you know, grounding you, and yet you'll fast forward and do some parts that seem boring and all that stuff. But man, once they get off to take off speed, you know, hit that, hit that atmosphere, they're gone. So anyway, so I like, I dig Andora and I, I dig and I, I see what you're saying about door love and thunder.

It's just missing too much spectacle on what's going on there. So I think they need to figure that out going. 

Mr. Benja: Yeah. Everything you talked about building characters setting up a world, taking your time throw love and thunder did none of that. It was just, no, not 

Theo: unsweet 

Mr. Benja: tea and being from the south, that's an insult.

Theo: Well, I, well talk about this next one. I got two. I'll talk in a second. But the, what you got next at the door, love and thunder. All 

Mr. Benja: right. So the hype it's just a, I like street wear. I used to really be into it. Knew some of the guys from a lot of the street warehouses down in San Diego and la I was into that.

So I watched the hype simple stuff. You, you know what to expect. It's one of those reality shows. But jumping back into a reality show, I decided to go ahead and watch Undercover, Billionaire Grant Cardone, all episodes. I haven't done it in a wild dog, 

Theo: but I cracked out, Wait, wait, wait, wait. So I see, see you.

See you hit that from me. You hit that from me. You knew what Yes, I did. You was doing so I saw the first two episodes and then this disappeared and I assumed it was like behind some pay wall, but I guess now I can watch it because Discovery and HBO max it together. Is that correct? So if I just do a search, I can find it.

Mr. Benja: No, I found some random Vimeo page with the listed, so 

Theo: Okay. Send it to me. Yeah, I will. say less. What'd you think? 

Mr. Benja: It got me hyped dog. I, and I really needed, I really needed that. Like, I got up, watched like two hours worth and was like, Man, that was good. Went to do something, turned it back on, watched the rest of it.

I started, I started taking notes, man. I was like, you know what? A lot of this is just his playbook and these little thing he runs up against, like somebody, somebody starts stalling. I was like, Well, let me call and then I'll make sure we'll get back with you. And then all of a sudden it cuts to Grant Cardone doing interview style, where he's like, See, well, people gonna try to do, they're gonna try to slow you down.

They're gonna try to stall. You can't let them think, you gotta get in there. You've already done the thinking form. You gotta tell him what to do. . And then it cuts back, It cuts back to like the, the you know, situation he's in and grant's like, Hey man, I, I'm okay with that. We can just go ahead and do it right now.

The guy's like, Oh, I just told you I was gonna call him in the morning. No, no, no. Let's call him right now. Well, he is probably in bed and said, Look, what, what's his address? I would drive to his house. . 

Theo: Yes. 

Mr. Benja: It just, it just started. He's on, This dude was on a roll, man. And for those of you don't know really quick undercover billionaire, it takes somebody with a billion dollars or close to a billion dollar evaluat.

And net worth. And they take that person drop minus city with a hundred dollars and like a, a beat up car or a beat up truck and say, Can you make yourself, can you make a million dollar business or a million dollars worth of assets in 90 days time? And that's the whole goal. So he got in there and he just started going crazy in this city.

And he's an entertainer man. So I was into it. I got really, really inspired and I'm gonna be an asshole to some people because of it. 

Theo: Mm. Okay man. Good recommendation. I need to go check it out man. So send me the link and cuz like I said, I think I got to like episode three before it kind of went behind the paywall and forgot about it.

Huh? 

Mr. Benja: It was hard to. 

Theo: Yeah. That's just like, Dude, why'd you do this? Cause I even liked the, the other, the two women, right. I liked the Monique who was Timberland's old lady, for lack of a better word. They worked together, then she went off and did her thing. I think her name was Monique Mallet. I met her.

Yep. Before, I mean, but the way she went about her business, I, I, I kind of liked, she, she wasn't like a Grant cordone, but, you know, she was confident, but it was more kind of like a, a smooth way. She did it. She's like, You need people to help you. You know, she was trying to do her, her, her smoothie business or some kind of health business, and the way she kinda went about stuff, I was like, Man, that, you know, it, it was a good contrast to Grant Cordone, right.

Who was just, ugh. But she was just more kind like, you know, massaging things, you know, like, Hey, I'm gonna pitch it to a hundred people. They're gonna gimme a couple hundred dollars. We're going to, you know, get this business off the ground. And then the other woman, she was, you know, she said like, I've always been a seller.

I was, I was selling since I was 16 and I never knew her in my life. And she was just like, I'm gonna, you know, she was in that, that, that bed and breakfast doing her thing. So I, I, it was a, I like the concept because it shows you, you know, I think they kinda liked it too, because like, you know, I wanna prove to everybody, you know, Yes, I have all these resources now, but, you know, I, I, I, you always think in the back of your mind, you're like, Hey, you know, could I do this if I had nothing?

And I think that's always a good challenge. So uh, Okay. Thanks man. I, I'll go check it out. 

Mr. Benja: Yeah, it's definitely, we're checking out just to see how people react negatively to. Grant being 

Theo: braggadocious, but I gotta believe some people knew who he was. There was, there was one guy, he did his own little podcast and all that he kind of ran up on, he knew who Grant Cardone was.

Mr. Benja: No, just this one. Dude. Grant was doing in the middle of his spiel. And the dude was like, Hey man, who are you? ? And Grant was like, I, I, I told you I'm, I'm Louis Curtis. And he's like, Nah, who are you? ? What kinda game you playing? Get out running. And he just like starts talking grant grant's, like get outta my office.

Theo: That's what the guy says. And who are you, man? Seriously. 

Mr. Benja: Get outta with this girl. Yeah, no, it was a, it was a big black dude, a he ex football player grant ran into, He was trying to get him to buy into something. 

Theo: Black guy was not having at all. He's like, Nah, dog. Get out here with this mess. Grant walked out there.

Mr. Benja: He's  like, Yeah, man, that dude, he knows the streets, man. So he, he'll call

Theo: knows the,

Mr. Benja: which is true. 

Theo: He knows. I can't hustle that dude. can't, can't run him over. Uncle G Boy. Uncle G man. He's still doing this thing, man. Okay, I'll go check it out, man. Thanks, man. All right. I need that. Real quick, my couple things. The woman king finally had a chance to go check that out with VI Davis.

Man, that was a great movie, man. So I highly recommend it. I mean, I That's amazing that, you know, they created this from whole cloth. I, you know, scratch mm-hmm. , but it was just everything people say it is just inspiring and you know, the action was great and much better than you think it should be.

Right? I mean, I think it had to do with the acting everyone, the actors, like from Vi vi Davis to Las Lynch, she was the, in James Bond, she did phenomenal. I don't know if you remember her from James Bond, right? She, she kind of was like, supposed to be like double oh seven right when he retired. She was phenomenal.

She kind of, the way she carried herself was kind of like this cocky, like boxer, you know, just like, you know, had to chin up all the time. Kinda like a smirk on her face. Like, you know, you know someone, you know, she'd get excited, you know, wiping her mouth when she kills someone. You know, just kind like this rapid dog, but that just enjoyed it, drink whiskey.

And I was just like, Man, this is, This is awesome portrayal of like a woman who's just like a warrior who loves what she does, right? And so, Right. I never seen that before. And then even the ma the, the actors that played the, the, the, the kind of like the audience surrogate, right? They always have a person that's just like, hey, they're going, they're going train with this group of women warriors and you're gonna go through that training with them.

She was good, right? I mean, she was just like everything You wanted to be kind of like, you know, cocky a little bit, but also sensitive. So and then also gave you some history of just, you know, the slave trade in the 18, early 18 hundreds. And in West Africa, you know how unfortunately African, you know, who were battling, they were cap get captives and then, you know, send the caps into the slave trade.

And so it was, you know, definitely a sad point in history, but it was definitely a good history lesson. So highly recommend that movie. And then the last thing I had to do it, man, Coba Kai, man. This is what's kicked off our podcast. Finally binged off all 10 episodes of season five, Man. Still good man. I don't know what they're doing, man.

it's so good. It finds that right mix we talked about before of, of nostalgia. You know, kind of point see, you know, it's like, hey, you know, this is, you know, there's some, some deep stuff here about who you, you know, fighting yourself, fighting other folks, what you fight for, and also just that twist of just like, you know what, Let's not take this too serious.

Right? Let's just make fun of this. And they mixed it in perfectly, man. And and they bring, and they always bring back every, matter of fact, they're in Ra in Karate Kid three. So all the actors from Karate Kid three are coming back. All these actors that probably haven't acted in like 20 years of showing up and, you know, reprising their roles, right?

As the, And I'll show they love it, and they're like, Shit, no one called me and like, , 10 years, I'm getting a role. Hey, I'm here. So they, they, they had one scene too, and karate, you know with all the villains of karate one, two, and three, Johnny chosen and Barnes, Matt Barnes on the karate part three.

They teamed up together. , of course, they teamed us together not to fight Daniel La Russa, but to go after another villain. And the fact, and the funny part is, they were walking to go, you know, beat up somebody, Hey, talk shit about Daniel La Russa the whole time. Ah, man, he was a worst. I hated this. I did to him.

What? This is what I did to him. It was hilarious. Yeah. So, so if you haven't checked it out, go take it out, Mr. Benji. All right. Good. Good, good. So as you can see, you know, we we're still watching stuff, guys. Go check it out. So, Mr. Benja I guess we'll talk she hok later in the, in the pod. So let's go ahead and get into the news.

Hi Mr. Benja. Where do you wanna start? I'll let you go first. Let's see. 

Mr. Benja: I'll start with this one. Yo Google hadn't been releasing a lot of their, their, their revenues for a while, for YouTube at least. And people were always wondering, Hey, what's exactly going on over there? How are these ads doing?

What's the return? How much are you paying out to people? It seemed like everybody was happy, so they didn't ask too many questions, but Google started putting out some numbers on YouTube, and now people are asking, Is YouTube by itself not, not as a part of Google, but is YouTube by itself bigger than Netflix?

And some people have looked at the numbers and said, Yes, it is. Other people are saying, Well, let's look at other numbers. But I, I don't know. Is this, is this shocking? Have you heard of this deal? Is any of this interesting to you? 

Theo: Yeah, I have heard it that this is true. I mean, now YouTube ad revenue is huge.

Yeah. And you know, I haven't looked into the numbers yet, but that, that sounds about right. And man, that's why Netflix is, You wanna talk about it in a second, get into the ad business because man, it, it is so, it's massive amount of money in this. And and so YouTube has, you know, pioneered this. You know, Google has, let's be honest, you know, going back to, you know, keywords, right?

And so, you know, having video and stuff, I mean, you always ask me, have I paid for YouTube? You know, YouTube red so I can bypass commercials, say, Nah, I'm good. And so I'm always, you know, skimming these commercials. But I'm amazed about like, all the different companies that pop up on there, man, some local stuff, some influencers, some national brands, and it's just like, man, YouTube is getting paid.

So yeah, that, that sounds about right, man. Sounds about right to me. Yeah, 

Mr. Benja: they and they've added, you know, I didn't know this, but I've been on premium for a while now. They have pre, pre-roll ads before ads in the beginning, ads at the end, and there's a banner ad that's along the bottom and one in the side over in the comments, or maybe two sometimes.

So they're getting you with ads and they pretty much started the digital ad game with Google a sense, right? I mean, they really kicked it off so they know what they're doing. And here's an interesting little stat to, to kind of bolster this. They they did a comparison of Android users according to the hostel.co.

They did a study of Android users and found in the average monthly time spent on YouTube was 23 hours versus six hours for Netflix. Hmm. So, if you think about how little YouTube is spending on actual content, like don't, in fact, YouTube originals, they, they sold some of 'em off Cobra Kai Yeah. To, to Netflix.

So they're like, Hey man, you guys aren't doing too well. Here's some content . We don't want it cuz it costs money. We're just gonna go off reaction videos and this, this Swedish guy named Pew Pie. We're just gonna make money off of him. 

Theo: Well that's always the, the thing about YouTube, even when they sold, remember the Google when they first created, everybody's like, they sold a billion dollars to Google for people, for content.

They didn't even create, they just created a platform for people. So it's always been massively just amazing to me how how much value that, that that platform gets, you know, brings in you. I mean, Google saw it, right? That's why they paid so much back then and they get it. It is making itself well worth way more money now.

Cuz I guess they just say, Hey, this the evolution of where. Internet was going video, right? And so they kind of jumped on it quick and now they're in the battle. You know, maybe we'll do a comparison. TikTok versus TikTok. TikTok is, you know, killing the video game now with short form videos and just, you know, stuff like that.

So, and then now TikTok is also starting to get into the search game, which wait a minute, Google's like, Wait a minute. That's, that's, that's us, that's our battleground. You try to come, you kind of step into my hood, you trying to get into my hood to search, you know, seo. And so now like YouTube, YouTube is like, Okay, we got you the YouTube shorts, and they're talking about, we talked about this in the Wednesday pod 50%, almost, nearly 50% of Aded revenues gonna give to creators.

They're like, Okay, we, you try to get in our business, we're gonna get in your business. So I think YouTube and TikTok gonna be, I thought it was gonna be Instagram. I don't know, man. I think Facebook or Meta maybe maybe getting out this bus, you know, or is not really focused on this right now.

They're trying to be, you know, into the metaverse. So YouTube, Google versus TikTok is gonna be the battle we see over the next year. So that's my prediction. 

Mr. Benja: Yeah. And I'm hearing word that the government may be ready to jump in and do something with, to, And if you don't know, if you don't know, China has, they have this weird communist capitalist thing going on where.

You start to build up something and then at some point the government comes in and says, Do this. And you just do it because you're part of the Chinese government. And I started wondering about this, it's like, you know, they've been trying to make a super app, super app concept a thing for a while now where you just have one app for everything.

And I'm, I'm looking at China, I'm like, wow, they could actually do that cuz tos getting the search. What if they just said, Hey you TikTok, you merge with BYU and we're gonna force it BYU being a Chinese search engine. And it's like, yeah, that's, that's crazy when you start considering where that could go.

Like if somebody, if somebody forced like Apple and Google to merge or share data in order to knock somebody out, that'd be crazy. So it's just gonna be really interesting. Just thought of that when you were talking though. 

Theo: Nah, I love, I mean, you know, that's what we talk about this because the ramifications.

I agree with me. You know, I've been kind of doing some TikTok stuff, just kind of seeing what's going on. A lot of creators are pissed about this new SEO algorithm, right? Cause now they're like, you know, I can, my, my fathers ain't growing anymore. What's going on? So you got all these TikTok. You influencers, TikTok, growth experts, right?

Hey, you wanna know how you can grow your, you know, get, give gimme 30 minutes of your time. I'll walk you through a time. Yep. Lincoln Bio, you know, that kind of crap. And so it's just like, wow. So, you know, TikTok changes algorithm cause people went viral probably pre and probably really during the pandemic.

How many massive amount of people just went viral during the pandemic, Right? Hell, you even went viral, you know, or you said on some content previously. So it's not hard. And then it's kind of like once something starts going viral, it, you know, the likelihood that same content, getting more views, it's likely cuz they'll start pumping it out more.

But now people are seeing that that's changing. And so TikTok is kind of, you know, people are still on there, but I, I'm already seeing people like, Hey, I'm on YouTube now, go check me out there, you know, or sign up for my newsletter. . 

Mr. Benja: Yeah. No, ab absolutely nothing on TikTok is about staying native to TikTok.

Yeah. I mean the, it's not like everybody on there like, Hey, yeah, as you said Lincoln bio, check out my YouTube page, download my free ebook, go over here if you want more. Follow my podcast on Stitcher, whatever. Yeah, it's, I don't know what's next. Move is, but. It's gonna be a strange one. It's gonna disrupt 

Theo: it.

It, it looks like with search, right? That's what they're trying to do. Right? Trying to get into the search thing. Cause I got so many videos, people always posting them. They're really trying to get into search and now, you know, so now Google, they woke up to Sleeping Giant. They're like, Whoa, way. Hold up now.

this is our business. Keyword optimization. And you know, this, you know, it's like, wait, hold up. And then, so, so we'll see. It's gonna be interesting. Battle man. Between these two. I, I, I mean, people go where the money is. So if the creators say, Hey, can I transfer my users? Cuz they were, You saw what for a long time.

You just, you and it's probably gonna still happen for a little bit longer, at least. YouTube shorts, what they were doing is they were just doing a lot of TikTok, you know, they just pull a lot of TikTok stuff up there. Yeah. So slowly for sure that's gonna probably go away, right? But so I think so it's gonna be interesting, but it does sound like, you know, YouTube ad revenue is bigger than Netflix.

But we'll see how that changes. When YouTube, nows there a tier, which that was the news that got released this week and transitioning. So Netflix has set November 3rd to launch for the ad tier at around 6 99 a month. $7 a month. Yeah, man. Are you gonna go down to a little tier for Netflix? 

Mr. Benja: Nah, man, I'm off edge.

I can't do it anymore. It's just, it's painful to me. 

Theo: Man, $15, man. That's what you're paying now, if you get the high def version of Netflix, 

Mr. Benja: I, I'll get standard def for my for my bad Netflix videos. 

Theo: Yeah. I mean, I'm like you, I can't watch ads. I, I'll just have to keep that going. But they, you know, I'm gonna do some analysis on this.

They say it could, you know, decrease churn, could decrease password sharing. I mean, look the listening churn is increasing from q2, from q1 or from Q1 to q2, even though still kind of low, relatively speaking. But you and I had this conversation, you're, you know, you would turn off Netflix in a minute, right?

For a couple months, Right. Then 

Mr. Benja: I don't have it 

Theo: right now. Yeah, exactly. So , you're part of that. 4% of, you know, was it 200 million people? Was that 10%? 200 million, 20 million, 10%, 2 million, 1%, two. So you're really what. 8 million folks that are churn out on a quarter basis. So you're one of those 8 million, almost 10 million people that are churn out Netflix.

Which hurts, right? Because that's revenue, right? They're not getting from you on a monthly basis, which is 15 bucks that they could be getting for you. So that lifetime value, you know, how long they can keep you on a platform goes down. And so that helped that affect their revenue, right? And they're profitable, so they gotta stay profitable.

So the ad tier makes sense, right? So can they keep you on? And they know that people, even though they say they hate ads, they already see the numbers. Two thirds of who users are in the ad tier. So, and who has been doing this for a while. So it goes show you that, you know, people talk that they don't want the ads, but they'll stay on there and and they make a lot more, they make it roughly about $9 in average revenue per user because of the ads.

So that means how many ads they show people are excited about it so that, you know, the average they can charge more to advertisers mm-hmm. for CPMs. Right? And so they can get more. 

Mr. Benja: So is that saying that their ad tier is worth more to them than their regular standard definition tier? 

Theo: Good point. I, from Hulu standpoint, I don't know.

Right. I would say We don't, I think the jury sell all that, cuz Hulu is weird. It's co-owned by Comcast and Disney, so. Right. I have no idea what, no one else, what 

Mr. Benja: their goals are. Right. So, so yeah. If, if Netflix was sitting around and saying, Hey, here's a, you know, here are my, here are my two big money makers, the a tier and the lowest quality video tier with no ads.

Which one of those is actually more valuable to me? Is it the ad tier? 

Theo: Because then Absolutely. Absolutely. Because I, I even did the, the math on our outline. So the goal for Netflix should be about eight 50 a month in average revenue per user. Mm-hmm. . So that means if you're paying $7, you know, as a user, you know, per month plus and get eight 50 from me, from the ads that they show, that's roughly 1550, which is much more than the $15 they get for, for, for payers with no ads.

So that's their goal, but the challenge is, will they still get enough people to watch on that $7 tier to, to get to that $8 and 50 cents and add revenue Right. A month or, or average revenue. Because, you know, basically if I'm watching, you know, if I'm watching thousands of hours of content, you know, they can guarantee that they're gonna get this much revenue, you know, they get this much exposure for the advertisers and advertisers will pay more Right.

Cost, you know, based on the thousand users. And so you know, that's what their goal is. So we'll see what, you know, they're going, I think they're gonna see what they can do. But yeah, like I said, they're out the gate first, you know? Mm-hmm. , they had, they went from zero to a hundred and like, literally like six months, they, they went from like we're not gonna do this in Q1 to like q2, we're going do ads here, they q4 we gotta add launching service.

Like what . So that's fast, man. That's, that's amazing. So it is hilarious to me. So anyway yeah, that's the latest news there. Anything else on the news front? 

Mr. Benja: You know, I guess we mentioned it a little bit with this whole ad tier thing and streaming. It's it's, it's becoming weird. And, you know, we, we used to be back in the days of regular, not regular news, but where news was a lot more structured, it was a lot more stricter because there were so few outlets.

And this, this whole thing called journalism within Play. Well now it's kind of gone, you know, haywire and bloggers and everyone are talking about people. And what I'm getting at is the, the story just came out that Alex Jones is getting hit with a billion dollar penalty for misinformation. I'm using misinformation lightly.

He said a lot of things and propagated a lot of information that was not true about the Sandy Hook School shooting tragic incident. And he just went to talking about it like he does. And this is the kind of stuff that people have been doing for a while, just kind of saying anything and putting it out there.

But to get hit with a $1 billion, that's, that's an unexpected number dog to me at least. 

Theo: A Billy. A Billy. A Billy, yeah, man. Shout out to Lil. We Lil Wayne. Yeah, man. But you know, the stuff he was saying was out of pocket, man. I mean, I don't know if you saw some of the stuff he was, and he's been doing this for a while.

Yeah. And it's just saddens, you know, is, you know, saying this is a hoax, you know, all those little babies dying, you know, from this sick gunman that killed them and just saying it's a hoax and all that stuff. I mean, imagine if you were parent had kids that passed away from this tragedy already, the pain of losing them, never seen him again, but also dealing with this idiot that's just, you know, costly saying, you know, it's a lies of hoax and it, your tragedy doesn't matter.

So, you know, I mean, but also it was also a you know, this's another case too. We'll talk about a second, but I think, you know, the tide is starting to turn, I mean, You know Prop G got you know, a Galloway, you know, we talked about him, he does some marketing stuff. He talks about this. He said, Hey, there's, there's a case where, you know, yes, things seem bad, but then the antibodies kick in and they start, you know, making things a little bit better or, or create some equilibrium in society.

So with the internet, what we've seen is people just say whatever they want, right? Just garbage out. Right. Just blah, blah, blah. Say whatever, accuse anybody. But now it's any antibodies kick in where it's like, nah, you can't just say anything, man. You know, free speech, you know, is, is limited. Just like free speech is limited in the theater, Right.

You can't just yell, fire. So I think that's what this is a statement of. It's just like, you know, you can't just say random shit that's untrue or you're gonna be fined. And it was a statement, you know? Yes. To say that and, and prevent other people from doing that. Likewise, you know, with the fine, even though it's smaller, fine with Kim Kardashian, I think she was fine with something like a hundred thousand.

I mean, something minuscule for her, but, you know, she promoted 

Mr. Benja: for promoting, for promoting the the crypto Crypto, 

Theo: Yeah. For promoting crypto alleged and not really being a part. Of that, or even using it or just, you know, it was just using her name and just, you know, pumping at the stock. And then I think that stock, I mean the crypto coin went to crash with the trash.

Was she fine? Yeah, it was a scam. So she could, she was, she was fine personally. So now that's, so we could call the other influencers. She can't just pump and dump this stuff because some people gonna pay you. Then you gotta pay $250,000 to pump this, to pump this yeah, crypto. And then, you know, it was, it was one of those pump and dump schemes where they just give people, Bye bye buy, and they have no attention to bringing any value.

Right. Because as soon as they got high enough, all the original investors sold it out. And then the left had holding the bag where the last investors, so she got fined personally. So now these influencers are like, Oh, notice you can't just bump and dump these, these trash products and think you're gonna get away with it.

Yeah. This 

Mr. Benja: is the, and this is relevant to me at least because, and well, to us at least because as Gary V was touting back in like 2016 and 17, we're all gonna become our own media companies. And suddenly regular people can be held accountable for a random tweet. They say mm-hmm. putting out an Instagram video, It's, and they can just, you know, these companies don't feel like dealing with you.

You just get dropped. You just get penalized. You could get fined, you could get jailed. So this is starting to become a thing and even so much to say, Blogger, I don't even know what to call her. Blogger YouTuber socialite kind of person. Tasha k has been ordered to pay Cardi B $4 million. Mm-hmm. , she couldn't do it right?

She's like, I don't have this money. And they're like, We don't care. Keep coming with the money. She's fled to Africa. And so she's not around anymore. And Cardi V is calling up YouTube like, Hey, what can you do about this? And a judge said that YouTuber must well, I'm sorry. They called, they're trying to get YouTube to garnish her wage, her her payments.

So as a YouTuber, she can't even build the money and like send it somewhere. Any money she gets off of her YouTube channel, it might end up being garnished and going straight to Cardi B without just, which is interesting to me. You know, you don't think of YouTube as like somebody who the government can just come talk to and garnish your quote unquote wages.

They can garnish your 

Theo: YouTube money. It, it is a new day, man. The recession hit inflation's high. And you know, the garing wages of influencers, man, finding influencers. Man, What is going on, man? This is like, man, I love it, man. This is, this is like the pressure that makes diamonds, man. It's like, I mean, I feel in my business it's just like, it's not as easy as it was, man.

It's just like, yeah, everything's gonna be a grind now to get in these millennials, man, and these Gen Zers, man, they ain't ready dog. , , they got, they got, they got buy on that high of like, yeah. He just, just put your stuff out, you know, Look at this. I put money in stock. Market goes up, you know, Bitcoin, I'm making all planet Bitcoin.

You know, I, I do. To why you, I do all this. I'm making so much money. I do YouTube videos. I'm making money. La la. Now they got really big business people and think about the risk of what they say, what they do, you know, have, have lawyers to protect them on the downside. Have to think about marketing strategies, how to differentiate.

And that's hard, . So you can't just be out here. Hey guys, you know, I'm just sitting here, you know, my Lambo and we're going to show you how to make a million dollars. So yeah, this is gonna be interesting time, man, over the next year, man, who's gonna survive this, this shakeout? I mean, I'm sure you know, something else is gonna emerge and be successful, but you know, the ones that aren't they going, the law gonna fall by the wayside?

I, I predict cuz it's, it's hard out there. It's, it's not as easy as it was to, to stand out, make money in this market. Nope. So business. I love it. Sorry. That's it. 

Mr. Benja: I'm scared to say anything 

Theo: now cause Yeah, you might get fine. I love it. I love it. So let's move on. Let's go ahead into our feature, the state of streaming.

We'll talk a little bit about content and the business aspects of what's going on in the streaming wars.

All right, Mr. Benja, what you. Oh, well, you know what? I guess I'll kick it off cuz I kind of set it off initially. So yeah, I tell you a little bit. Yeah, I know. Usually you're the one that has the deep eyes, man. It gives you the context, but yeah, I got some content this time. So well, I guess what we wanna do is like, you know, it doesn't have to be all the con the streaming ones, just the major ones.

You know, the big three, we all know Warner Brothers, HBO Max, Netflix and Disney Plus. But I figured, you know there's two other tiers. One is like that. Don't give a fuck tier Amazon, Apple . Cause that's just not what they care about. And then the other one is we're still, we still here , which is the Fairmont plus NBC and NBC Peacock, you know, tier.

So, you know, I think we can briefly cover them, but you know, the big three, I think those, you know, warrant some, some, some bigger you know, bigger conversation. But I think yeah, so high level maybe we'll start with Warner Brothers. Discovery, HBO Max, what's, what's, what's, what's going well for them, you know and what, what they're doing and content.

And then we'll get into the business side of it. So we'll talk about both sides for each of the different streamers. Content. Man, we gotta it, we gotta do the, we gotta do it. Mr. Benja got hot. D Hot. Hot 

Mr. Benja: D What's that? G O T H O T. 

Theo: Look it up. Look 

Mr. Benja: it up. The best hashtag on 

Theo: Twitter now. Oh my God, man. I mean, it was right there the whole time.

How come we never saw it till just like, like it took like what? The third or fourth episode before some people start getting it, but yeah, Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon content is taken over which we kind of predict it to be fair. The Slow was the show. I, I've been watching show Mr. Bench.

I don't know where you are now with the show. It's getting better, you know, but you know, why does it take seven episodes for show to get good? It's just like, Oh my God. Yeah, But you know, it's a hot ip, you know, Game of Thrones. People are clamoring for it. And so it's finally starting to hit a stride.

And if you look on TikTok on Mondays, you know, you got got Hot Ds everywhere, man. And you know, people are doing that content out there and it's good to just have a show that a lot of folks are watching again, man, that you can, you know, read reviews, listen to podcasts, cuz we didn't really have that sense Game of Throne.

And so, I mean, you know, there's some other shows out there like succession and other shows, but it's not to the level of God Hot D And so it is something that, you know, you see the memes out there. I, I'm sure you seen the memes, Mr. Benji, even though you probably don't are, where are you at? Have you, you not, haven't watched any of it yet, have you?

Are you still, cuz you're not No, I 

Mr. Benja: haven't checked, I haven't checked any of it out. When I, when I sit down with Gamer Thrones, I wanna sit down with it so, I'm How many episodes again? Nine. 10. 10? 

Theo: Yeah. They got two more to go. Yeah. Twos, Oh, maybe, maybe we do a, we should do reaction of the last episode.

That'd be fun. All right. Try something up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so I'm, I'm, I'm hype, prefer that one, but I think the second last one might be better. We'll see this one that shows up tomorrow. We we're doing this on the day before Sunday, so Saturday. So but I digress. So, yeah, so that's really what's killing it right now for, for hbo.

What else they got for content? Mr. Benji, I know you just recently rejoined the fold HBO Max. So what are you seeing that from a show standpoint or the content standpoint? Is, are they doing great with the content? What's going on there? 

Mr. Benja: It's like, it doesn't matter because it's not getting promoted and it's not, they're not updating the, the app or the site to really allow you get to browse through things properly.

The, the search is still broken and it's just, it's just bad business over there, man. So I, it doesn't even matter what else they have. What, what was that show that just showed up? Yeah, it was just a random show that I'm scrolling through. Like, I, I, I look at all the DC stuff on there, right? Mm-hmm. , it's taken like months of, of messing with HBO Max to realize that Pennyworth was on there,

and I was almost mad at HBO Max. I. Yo, it's not like a great show, but it's part of the DC thing. I would've watched it anyway, you know, I would've gone through it. So, I don't know. I don't know what they're doing over there. They have a new Mortal Combat coming out animated movie, so that looks exciting.

But I got that through a Facebook ad. I I might never see it actually on HBO Max because I can't find it. 

Theo: Mm. I mean, that, that's the, the, the, that's the sad part of HBO Max. They probably have the best content out there cuz you know, they have the BUZZIES shows, Hot D being one of 'em, Succession euphoria.

Yeah. Those from other ones White Lotus that's coming back. But to your point even at the show that, you know, I convinced you to watch it, Mayor Easton, Right? It's just like mm-hmm. , they just know how to create great shows. But to your point, they just. Care that you find them just, just like who does that?

It's just like, you gotta work hard to find this great show that everybody's talking about. So it's just, yeah, it's very frustrating, you know, because the, the content is not matching up to the, the business strategy. And we know why that is. We would did deep dive, go check out our pot, you know, think it's like, you know, I'll let you guys know when I look it up, but we go a deep dive into what's happening.

The hbo yeah, Pod 74 to WB Show. Go check it out guys. Where we go deep, deep into what they're thinking about for their future. But really they got so much debt, high level Discovery bought Warner Brothers from at and t there's a lot of debt, over 15 billion. So now they're struggling to figure out how they're gonna pay, you know, debt, the debt loan you know, interest payments just like you do on the house.

So they're doing everything they can to make that money up. And part of that is the content strategy, like we talked about with the back girl moving, not getting released. They're just giving up content, not producing shows, they're doing layoffs, massive layoffs. One of the new stories that we didn't cover is that it get, looks like they're laying off executives from their family content.

Division. So they're looking at removing that We ever talked about animation may be kind of down on the down slope for Warner Brothers discovery. So they're just in cost cutting mode. And the rumors are that they're trying to just get lean and mean to be sold off to another right player. So make a long story short, you know, from business standpoint, you know or, and they're also licensing some of their best content.

Like a Batman show might show up on Disney Plus. So I think yeah, Warner Brothers is sad. They have the best product business strategy. Yeah, it is. You, you've, we seen this constantly, Well, this is rare. Usually it's like crappy product, you know, But they had phenomenal marketing, so, you know, that wins the market.

This is the time where they have a great product, but it's just like, you know, when it comes to content. But man, the business strategy is not matching, aligning at all. And so I think, you know, jury's still out, but I just don't see them, you know, like I said, when they make decisions like this short term thinking, leaning up, I, I predict that they're probably gonna be sold by next year sometime.

Mm-hmm. . 

Mr. Benja: Yeah. And what's funny is I've actually started looking into, started looking into Discovery Plus, and now I might get Discovery Plus and drop hbo.

I gotta get, I gotta get more undercover, billionaire dog. 

Theo: Oh no, they got you. They got you. I love it. I love it. So that's interest. Yeah. Let's get into Netflix, Mr. Benes. So content wise you know so Daher, that was a huge hit for them. Did you get a chance to check that out yet? 

Mr. Benja: I kind of don't want to.

Theo: I, I agree. I didn't want to either. But again, my, my wife, I mean, I be honest, she's the one that sucks me into the Netflix show, cuz I'm not a big Netflix watcher anymore, unless you know of things comes on or, you know, I hear. But anything that, that last three hit shows that, or four hit shows that came out on Netflix, she put me on the Queens Gambit what's it called?

The Squid Game and now Daher. I really didn't wanna watch it. Right. It's like I know what this is about. This dude's, you know, eating folks, killing folks. But it was better than you think, man. It's like after you get through that first episode, it was kind of grim some, but they kind of took your approach.

Did you ever see Ryan Murphy's what's it American Crime Story? They did a whole season about the OJ OJ trial. Did you see that? No. No. That was, that was great. That was phenomenal. They did that. He did that several years ago in fx where they actually. Looked at the OJ trial, but they did it from different perspectives.

So they showed from the media perspective, from Chris Darden's perspective, from o J's perspective. Oh, okay. 

Mr. Benja: I remember that. Yeah. I didn't like invest into that though. 

Theo: It was, I mean that's, you know how, you know, Sterling K Brown became a thing cuz he came off of that show and did some other stuff with h nbc.

He's like, you know, relatively bigger star than he was when he started that. The guy who played Johnny Cochran Courtney B Vans, that was phenomenal. So they just showed all the different aspects of that case. Right. And I think that's what they tried to do with Dahmer. They were like, Hey, yes, he's a silver killer, but the people who were killing were black and gay.

So they showed that aspect of it to showed the people, his neighbors, how they struggle. This dude was always complain, you know, like they could smell the rant, you know you know, flesh that was rotting in his apartment and he always, and they heard screams and they called the cops. Cops didn't do anything.

You saw it from the media side of it and then it was just like, they really kind of, you know, took it from all these different aspects. And so Okay. So it was way more interesting. It should have been you know, considered a gruesome nature. So anyway, make a long story short, do phenomenal people watched it.

And in Cobra High, I mean this is one of rare Netflix shows that they bought from someone else. And they didn't cancel, you know, after, because I guess they see the numbers man. It's at season five. That's unheard of for Netflix. You know, Netflix is like, cancel stuff season three, you know, season four there's, and this, this talks is gonna be season six and a movie, right?

So yeah, they, they, they, they see the data, the numbers are there. And, and, and, and the funny thing is they've probably kept the same budget cuz it doesn't look, their production values have increased at all. . Yeah, they still filmed it down in Atlanta saying it's in La , which is not . So they still maybe Ralph Macho and Williams zk, they probably still, they probably got a little raised, but I doubt anyone else did

So they just like, you know, and I don't know why people still do it, I guess they just like, Hey, it's fun show. And it does seem like, you know, it's a fun show to kind and the actors love it cuz they kind of get in shape to be a karate experts and then the old actors love it cuz someone cares about them and brings them back.

I mean, they even got Elizabeth Shoe, Oscar winner, Elizabeth Shoe to pop up on this cuz she was in the first Karate kid. So I'm surprised that they don't get freaking Hillary Swank. She was in the next karate kid, so let's get her in there. So anyway, Michael, season five, man, you know, So anyway, Netflix is, Content wise, you know, they're gonna be Netflix, right?

They're gonna find ways to keep you engaged. You know, I mean, we talk about it, it's kind of like, almost like tv you, it is Lean Back tv when you watch your, your anme, you know, reality shows are there now. Daher, Cobra Kai, and then, you know, big Blockbuster TV shows are stranger things. So I think Contentwise, you know, I think they're okay.

You know, they're, they're, they're not like as high critically as HBO Max, but I think, you know, they're probably up there. Yeah, 

Mr. Benja: Yeah. I, I know, I know what you're saying. I just wonder, I mean, there's a place for that, that random, just, I don't really care watching stuff, and Netflix is good for that.

So, you know, I mean, they, they know stuff. They've got numbers and the, their algorithms and the data they're processing, you know, I mean, I don't think they have to get that much better with their content to really keep people. So they may just, they may have the right strategy and they're gonna do, they said they're gonna do that anyway instead of going for, they're gonna go for more quality.

They said, So should work out, 

Theo: shall see. Well, you know yeah, we shall see, you know, what the, the latest strategy is, right? The New Knives Out sequel. Did you see the original one? Knives Out With. Ryan Johnson. Daniel. Yeah. Ryan Johnson. Did you see the original? Yeah. Yeah. So that came in theaters right first.

So it's supposed to be a sequel and the movies again. Yeah. But they, they Netflix outbid everyone took it back and said, we're gonna stream it. Well guess what? Now they're gonna do a, a theater theatrical release now, cuz you know, they trying to play nice. And so 

Mr. Benja: Hold on. They're playing nice.

What do you mean? 

Theo: Well, they're trying to appease number one, the filmmaker and, you know, they're trying to look at a strategy cause we'll talk about a little bit next with h nbc, you know, Universal and Peacock. There's absolutely a strategy. And Warner Brothers absolutely a strategy now where they're trying to release these things in the movies as promotion material first as in a theater and tend to help drive people to go, you know, it's almost like it's a it's an ad for the streaming service, right?

You know? Yeah. You can watch it. It's in the movie. Go check it out. But if you could just wait five days, go show my Netflix. Right.

It's almost like a ch I mean, I know it's expensive way to kind of do an ad, but there's some numbers that show that, hey, This movie could do, you know, still get 50 million a box office and still make us money, you know, on streaming, you know, we release and they can, you know, change that window like Paramount did with a Top Gun, Top Gun supposed to come out in 114 days, but did so phenomenal over a billion dollars.

They just kept moving that, that, that, that, that window back to like, you know, four or five months. Yeah. And so they made all this money and they're going to, you know, drive people to the streaming service. 

Mr. Benja: Yeah. So the, the reason I, I wanted to stop on that and that makes sense is I heard another take and I wasn't sure what you, what you were gonna go with on your take or what you heard, but with this take I'm hearing people are saying that it's not that they're trying to play nice, it's that the theaters have still kind of bullied Netflix into releasing a movie in theaters to give theaters help.

Theo: I don't think theaters have any juice anymore. Okay. What you say they have? I 

Mr. Benja: don't know. , 

Theo: I mean, 

Mr. Benja: I love you to see the Women King. Yeah, go ahead. If it's saying, if Netflix is trying to get properties or get some videos, you get one or two things that people have seen in theaters, you know? And if, if you're playing, if you're not being nice with the theaters and they're like, No, oh, you're gonna start release movie.

Oh, you're gonna just start doing what you want. Oh, you're just gonna start. You know, trying to bastardize what we've built here. Okay, well we've got deals with you know, Disney, Lionsgate, and all these other people. We're gonna send our properties to Hulu. We're gonna send our properties Disney Plus Apple, Paramount, anybody but Netflix.

So I heard that take out there. As I said, this is just Hollywood people talking. I don't know how much validity that has though. 

Theo: Yeah, I mean, number one, they're not, Netflix is not getting any content from these studios anymore like that, like they used to. Right? Because they all have their shoot services.

So I don't know how that argument works out. And then secondly, you know, any original stuff, you know, they control that, you know how they wanna do it. Now, I think the thing is they, they're trying to get more quality. And so the, the movie strategy, you know, the movie is just not good, let's be honest. Right.

And so they're trying to figure out like if we do release it a movie in the theater is there gonna be better quality checks, right? If we do a traditional studio kind of release strategy before we kind of put 'em on our, our streaming service. Because it does seem like there's some, some, there's some missing ingredients, right?

When, when it gets go straight to streaming, maybe maybe the directors don't care as much, you know, cuz they got their money, you know, Oh, it's just gonna streaming. Who cares? Or the, or the editors, you know, Oh, I'll just, I'll stamp up all night. I don't God stay all night. You know, it's just streaming, you know,

Yeah. So I think there's some, some thoughts around like, they need to kinda make better quality and maybe, you know, releasing the theaters could, that could better quality evolve. Cuz now they're, you know, and it helps. And the filmmakers too, like it cuz I think there's some criticism now about filmmakers.

Like, I do all this work to make this movie and it shows up on someone's te you know remember 10 there was a debate that Chris Doland was pissed cuz it went to hbo max and, you know, people could watch 10 on their freaking phone, h iPhone. He was pissed. Yeah. Shouldn't be seen an imax. So, 

Mr. Benja: So then, okay, and that makes, that makes total sense now.

Okay. Is it a, a Hail Mary by Netflix to, you said it's kind of a co. You know, putting something out in the theater that could be akin to commercial promotion for the streaming service, Is that a bad sign? Like, my gosh, we need viewers so badly, we need to spend all this money to make it theatrical and then put it on our service.

Theo: Yeah, good point. That you're still out, man. I don't think they know. I mean, they kind of happens. We, you know, we talked about this, one of our text messages, like, what's gonna drive people to go see movies, right? Mm-hmm. , you know, theatrical. That's what they say. But what does that mean? You know? And, you know, I propose, I think you propose this, these four things you kind look at is something you never seen before.

You know, Is it, you know, fear of missing out. People talk about it, you know, second weekend, you know, people will love it. You know, I gotta go see it. Transporting you to another world, right? So that you can take you outta your own world, like sci-fi and fantasy you know, and then something to experience, like a horror film, right?

You know, horror film's the best experience in the theater where everybody's laughing, cry, you know, you know, shocked at the same time. Yeah. So it's. But after that, it's like, it's hard pressed to go out and see a movie, man. I've literally been you know, see the, the women king and they're saying it's, it's, it's dead as theater.

It's like the movies, the black Muslim movies are coming out once a month, if that. Right? It's like, you know, this month we're gonna have black Adam finally coming out next Friday, and then next month you have what we call it Black Panther, A lot of blacks in there, , Black Panther, Black Adam

And then, then in December you're gonna have Avatar. Yeah. So, you know, hopefully that's gonna help the theaters. But then after that, man, that's gonna be few. I mean, it's like the, the deaths of you know, this fall, how many, how many big movies came out from like, August until, what, October? Not many . So, so anyway, I think the theaters are kind of struggling and so I think the Netflix and other streamers can take advantage of that.

It's like, Hey, let's just release some movies and see what happens, Right. And play with that window. If it's success, then, you know, let it play. Right? And then we'll make our money later. But if it doesn't, you know, well, let's just move it over to a streamer right. In like seven days. So I don't know, man, to your point, you know, I think this jury's still out on what that does to the bottom line and what did that stuff from, but, but like, and I'll leave it at this Kevin Hardhat movie with Marky Mark.

It was called Me Day or something like that. I mean, you. Perfectly passable movie, even one day. Great. But there was no promotion. I mean, you know, of course, you know, Cameron Hart's gonna promote it, but literally it's like, who knew that movie came out? Right? Unless you like, you know, on Netflix and it pops up on your, your screen.

You like the more better blues. So you'll like, you know this movie, right?

Mr. Benja: I can't play with the busted 

Theo: lift. See? I mean, I know, I know you, you like Marky Marking a funky bunch, so you're like this movie. So so yeah, so it's kind of like the actors themselves, like, shit, you know, there is no marketing budget in this movie. I spent, I mean, you know, it was probably a lot of time, but maybe like two months of my life, right?

Trying to make this movie act in it and you know, it, it, no one even cares or even knows. And so that's gotta be eagle hit. So moving stuff to the theater can help and maybe get the actors to be more invest. Cause think about it, they probably gotta paid front for all this stuff, right? Did like, here's a movie.

We don't know how it's gonna do. Listen, assume it's gonna make a hundred million. Here's 20 million Kevin Hart, you know, See you later. Yeah. You know what? 

Mr. Benja: I hadn't thought, hadn't thought of these actors are such, they, they're, they're people persons, right? Mm-hmm. like, you know, they're all about talking with people, being engaged with people, understanding the character, getting in and out of somebody's psyche, et cetera.

And the, the live experience, the theater experience, red carpet, that whole buildup and everything is so important to them. And this is something I don't think about because I make a video game and I'm behind a computer. I send it off into the void and it's like, yeah, whatever man, it's gonna do this thing.

And I don't, I don't give a shit about seeing anybody in person, but these actors and all this, they get so behind that, that what you just said makes a lot of sense. Where it's like, you know what? There's a whole psyche and a, you know, Hey Manara, this thing is going to the theaters. Even if it's not good, I'm gonna tell my friends, we're all gonna hang out.

We're gonna do this. We're gonna, And yeah, that may be a way to get a lot more buy in from the Hollywood personality or individuals in general. 

Theo: Or, and you know, if they know it's gonna, I mean, it's gotta be, you know, I, I would assume they're people too. If it something about the theater, it's just Yes, they are people, well, you know, I mean it's like they, they see they're not gonna give a shit, right.

If it goes to TV or to someone's iPhone, right. It's kind of like, yeah, just, you know, I, you know, I'll do something passive but say, Oh, this gonna be in the theater, or Shoot, let me go work out, you know, cuz it's gonna be on the big screen. Let me make sure my face is clean cuz it's gonna be, my face is gonna be on the big screen.

So it's kinda like, you know, 

Mr. Benja: they feel it, they understand it. It's 

Theo: directors, actors, everybody. Now probably what's happening, that's why the lot of directors are getting pissed cuz they, they, they all assume, you know, one time even the ones that went to streaming, they may have told them, Oh yeah, it's gonna go to theater and it doesn't.

Then they're like, what the hell? ? Oh yeah, yeah. Then they're like, this is this messed up. So anyway Netflix is, you know, like I said, from business standpoint looking at theater is a distribution strategy for them, but that's gonna be hard toe cuz they don't have those channels like Disney or a Paramount or NBC Universal.

So I think that's the business model. And then we talked about briefly, but they're gonna launch their ad tier next month in last like two weeks or three weeks. And we'll see if that's gonna help them with their churn. So people pay less. So they're more likely stay on the platform and also help them with their revenue because now they can get added revenue right for people watching their shows and get paid.

So jewelry's still out for Netflix and their business model, but of all streaming services, the only one profitable, but they're also only one that, that's all they do. So if this don't work out , they are doa. So so anyway, you know, but I don't count Netflix out, so we'll see what they do. All right, Moving on.

Disney plus content wise, I mean, we, we talked about it and or haw, we'll talk about she a second. Good stuff, right? For the most part. 

Mr. Benja: I mean, they still got that brand dog and we knew that going in way back in the day when it started up. It's like, Dude, you got Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, Happy sailings, man.

Y'all got the brands. 

Theo: Yeah, I'm not gonna say too much about Disney. Plus we talk about them all the time. You know, like you said, they got the brands they got Marvel, you know Star Wars, you know, they find a way to make these shows relevant. You know, as far as business wise, they're looking at launching the ad business too, so that's gonna help 'em.

So yeah, and they're, of all the streamers, they're the ones that are probably gonna beat, you know, Netflix when it comes to average number of user users overall. I think they're like at two 20 or something like that. 220 million users and yeah. What else, what else is going on business side? 

Mr. Benja: You know, they haven't spoken too much about it lately.

I think they're kind of planning their rollout is their eCommerce initiative through Disney Plus. So your Disney Plus is gonna double as a way to buy Disney products, which is really interesting. The first streamer to really, really do this fully. I, I say fully kind of with quotes because I don't know how full of a integration it's going to be.

You know, if I finish watching like the She Holk series or whatever they have, they have tabs for episodes, details, extras. Are they gonna put a tab where it's like merch, you know, you go buy your Disney Plus exclusive, you know, a vs t-shirt or whatever. So yeah, you remember the Aons? Yeah, one of the up, I can talk about that a little bit later too.

But yeah, that there's a whole eCommerce initiative coming and it might actually. Better linked than what Amazon's been trying. I'm sure 

Theo: they're watching. I agree. Yeah, I agree. I think Disney, you're right, that we, I, we talked about this on one of our shows. The the Disney show we talked about, I think episode 61, we kind of go into like what they're thinking about from a business standpoint.

And then episode 79 we did talk about the the content they're putting out there. But absolutely, I agree that, that you know, that, you know, that bundling of their content, they're put in Disney Plus and then like we talked about, can you link that into your you know, I have annual passes Disney World, you know, content.

And now you can say, Hey, you know, it's all bundled together. I pay one price, can go to Disney World, I can go to see you know, the next what's it called, the next s of the Galaxy, but also get a ticket to go Disney World to go ride the ride. So I can see that coming and that's gonna be huge for Disney.

So so yeah, I, I think business wise, so, you know, we talked about this before, they get a a plus, cuz. A a because they, I think strategy contentwise are good and then business wise are good. So yeah, I'm not seeing them, you know, changing from that dog 

Mr. Benja: check. Let's put another bullet point under the business thing, because while you're talking, you're just like, Yeah, they got the parks and everything going on.

This is an unprecedented connection if they make it work from, you know, your Disney plus your streaming content app leading you into eCommerce, and also possibly into, you know, taking your, taking yourself off the couch and saying, You know what? I just finished watching the Ducktails Marathon. And then over on the side there's a tab that says, Hey, Disney on Ice is in your town next month.

Buy tickets now for Disney on Ice. I don't know if like any of you ever go to Disney on Ice, but I have. Yes. Yes, exactly. It's a whole thing, right? 

Theo: It is. Its, 

Mr. Benja: You didn't think I knew about that one, did you?

But yeah, it's like these live 

Theo: experiences. Oh, you grew up in Tallahassee, man. It was every there like once a month, man. Tallahassee, loved it. Yeah. The, what was at the Tallahassee Leon County Civic Center. Yeah. Man, I saw Brandy there. Yes.

Mr. Benja: Yeah. So that's an unprecedented connection though. All built on the brand, which is. Fascinating to 

Theo: me. Yeah. And you, and you kind of hinted at this too, I think there's gonna be a rise in these in person experiences, right? That people putting more money into it. You know, the pandemic after two years kicked our butt.

People wanna pay to do stuff outside or at places. And so, so I agree. So Disney's, you know, they're still kicking butt. All right, let's get into the other divisions. We'll go through these a little bit quicker. Amazon, Apple that don't give a book, division. So yeah, I mean content, I think Rings of power, you know, that was their, their big play.

But there have been some, you know, reports that yeah. Is not as hot as Hot D , but I dragon. But, you know, unless it's still am, you know, it's still doing decent enough. Right. You know, people are talking about it. And especially you love The Hobbit, you love you know, the, you know, all that, you know that kind of content, fancy content that's still, they're still good.

So I haven't watched it yet. Mr. Benja, have you watched it at All? Wings of 

Mr. Benja: Power? No. The season finale is online right now. I just went over to Amazon to check. First thing I saw was this big banner ad saying I should go 

Theo: watch it. Yeah. So I'm gonna probably, you know, catch up on it. Now that's done. See, you know, if it was decent or not.

My, my, my thing, my think, my guessing is it'll be okay, but it's gonna be almost like it's gonna be the It's gonna be the hot, but not without the D. Oh,

Mr. Benja: not a hot steaming pile of, 

Theo: Nah, man. It, it's gonna be that same fantasy stuff that you see and House of the Dragon, but just missing that little, that little d action man, that, just like that little, you know, cause basically Game of Thrones is ready to a right and, but they're trying to keep rings of, of power kind of in that family friendly stage, right?

So sure. So I'll check out the first episode. If it's decent, I might let my kids watch it with me and we'll, we'll, cuz they kind of like that stuff. All right, so 

Mr. Benja: we'll check this out quick. So I decide to try decided to jump on Amazon from a clean browser, which is basically one that I'm not logged in, no cookies or past information.

And it's hopefully it's, it's, it's not assuming anything about who I am, based on me being at the computer, right? Mm-hmm. . But yeah, still same thing. I logged in and there's this rings of power banner that's really interesting and specific, cuz right now they're pushing for the holiday gifts, getting ready for prime day and you know, Black Friday deals and all that, but rings of power at the very top.

It's got all of the, all of the sliders. So Prime video, watch the season finale. You hit the slider again, Amazon. Listen to the Rings of Power Official podcast. Hit it again. Amazon Music Stream the soundtrack. And it's, and then the next one is Alexa, where you can find the rings of power recipes for everything they ate on the show.

Damn. And buy it from and buy it. Amazon. Yeah. Exclusive content on your fire tv, which makes no sense to me. There's gonna be some garbage behind the scenes. No one cares about. Amazon books Travel to Middle Earth. Listen to the books on Audible. So, yeah, they covered all their bases. I'm, I'm wondering how much they hit from that.

Theo: Well, and that's why I said on the business side, I mean, is this helping 'em sell more toilet paper, Right? I mean, , you know, so that's the thing with these shows, not so much they're not caring about ratings or who wins what, but is it, is Prime is kind of like a lost leader for them. They just put it out there and they don't care how much they spend on it, but as long as it's driving engagement and they get more eyeballs just on the site.

They can, you know, sell you some, some, some toilet paper, some, you know, some audio book or something. Then success and, you know, we won't know that, you know, maybe reveal that on their next you know, 10 K report. Right. And their quarterly report. But I mean, so, so yeah, they're playing different game and I think also it's probably gonna help s Football, they found they got Thursday night football.

I guarantee that's helping drive some of the, you know, that's gonna drive their revenue for the foresee future. It's just, it's football man, , you know, people gonna find it and watch it. 

Mr. Benja: I wonder, I wonder if some aspiring young entrepreneur slash filmmaker has built a, a series or a show, like a, a story driven show, Not a, not a review show, but like an actual story based around products that are hooked into an Amazon affiliates program or a drop shipping thing where it's like every product on there, you just want to go?

Yeah. Click. I got one. 

Theo: Better for you. I got one Better for you. I'll see. So there is a Halloween movie coming out based on, You heard a Spirit, those little popup shops that show up around Halloween. Oh yeah. Spirit Halloween. Yeah. They're making a movie. Look it up called Spirit, the movie . What? So, What?

Yes, it's kind of very similar. See, we're gonna go back, I dunno if Oh, it is

Yes, go on. So it very similar to, you know, I go back, there's a movie back in they called Mac and Me, which is a movie Yep. McDonald's produce, right. To kind of, you know, and it, it goes back to Gary V but you know, the product is the story and the story is product. Right. And so to your point, can Amazon, I mean, you're right.

I mean, why not, you know, create stories around some of their top products. You know, especially the ones that they white label, right? With their home grant. What's their home brand name? Do you know? Amazon Basics. Amazon Basics, right? Take a lot of these Amazon Basics projects, products and put their best seller was, and just like, okay, look, I need you to make a, a movie that makes sense and all you can use is 10 pound weights bottled waters, and you know you know cups, you know,

It's just like, okay now dope

give brand. And guess what? If you creative person, you'll make good story around that. And there you go. Now Amazon, the movie, they probably won't call that, but you know, it'll be some movie they produce. I mean, it's just the maximum, maximum or series around it. You're right, man. Dude, man, we, we don't need to be telling people all these ideas 

Mr. Benja: that they, they haven't turned on the, they haven't turned on the spigot yet.

Switch. 

Theo: Cause you're right, man. I'm sure there's, they got enough money, like we talked about. They don't give a fuck. They got enough money higher, like the hottest. I mean, you know what would sell it? They just hired like the hottest writers in Hollywood right now. Hot director. They'll do it. Why not? It's a recession.

They got a beach house they wanna pay for here. Here's some here we're gonna give you 10 items that you got put in this movie and make a compelling story featuring these items. Go. 

Mr. Benja: I would even watch the reality version of the show that, that aired before the show or after it. I'd watch that too. . Oh, say, Okay, here, check this out cuz this is funny to me.

Here's the, here's the synopsis for Spirit Halloween I found on I Am Rotten Tomatoes when a Spirit Halloween store opens up in a deserted strip mall. Three middle school friends who think they've outgrown, trick or treating make a dare to spend the night locked inside the Halloween store at night, but they soon find out that the store is haunted by an angry, evil spirit who has possessed the creepy animatronic characters.

That's funny. The kids will need to embark on a thrilling and spooky adventure in order to survive the night and avoid becoming possessed themselves. Does that make, Who's in it? Oh, wait, guess who's in it? Go Who? 

Theo: Christopher Lord from. Back to the future. Yep. And Mar Mar, Marla Gibbs from 2 27. She's 91 years old.

Oh, right. Getting that paper. 

Mr. Benja: Getting that paper. That's right. Get it. So, 

Theo: I mean, why not, man? I mean, it's Halloween. I mean, it's perfect graph. It's ho I mean, Amazon can make a holiday special movie. I mean, it's a holiday movie. I mean, how many holiday movies they have? We went, we went through this list one time on one of our podcasts of all the damn holiday.

They got movies about, you know, L G B T, they got, you know, Indians, They talking about, you know, black folks. They're talking about interracial couples. I mean, they got all kind of holiday movies. Why not holiday movie about items They can make a cartoon. Yes. I've you right, man. They haven't, they haven't 

Mr. Benja: turned on the switch yet, man.

It's coming. It's coming. . 

Theo: I'm putting this out here. So if they do it, man, we, you know, we know they heard us . We should just, we should just pitch 'em. Just say, Hey man, look, I got a movie for you. These are your hot items that you sold in the last three months. Here's the, here's, here's, here's the script. 

Mr. Benja: on spec.

You get like a, you get like three, three of your boys, right? And like you're all coming from a shopping center, like one, one guy's hand holding a drone. The other guy's holding like a, a weed whacker, you know, and you're holding like some office supplies and you're all walking the elevator, right? When the door's closed, you turn around to the executive executive.

Here's a quick idea, All right? Imagine a weed whacker, right? And a guy's trying to fight his way through a force with the weed whacker, and then drones fall on him, right? And you're all acting this out in the elevator. That's how it's gonna start going down. And then that the very end, very end of the pitch.

You're like, and you can buy it now on amazon.com, , and then you, and then you slip a, then you slip a small Amazon gift card in his lapel, in his lapel pocket.

Theo: Sold

That's how you sell it, man. I love it. I love it. All right. So Amazon, they're okay, but you know, they're trying interesting things with content. Apple. And don't give a fuck division. I mean, I think what they're trying to do is like, they want Emmys, they want Oscar Emmys for tail lasso, two years in a row.

They wanna Oscar for Coda. Did you ever watch. 

Mr. Benja: Coda? No, I just watched 

Theo: Coda. Okay. Yeah, it's pretty cute. I mean, it's nothing, you know, but it, it's, it's, you know, we talked, I think we talked about this before, but it, it is, it's a classic screenwriting trick one on one. The irony is in the pitch, right, that the, the compelling reason to watch this in the pitch, What if a deaf family has a, a daughter that can hear who loves to sing, and it's just like, boom, you get the movie just in that one little pitch, right?

The conflict. So, how's she sing? And they don't know. She can sing and it ho how she talk to them, but she wants to sing and they, you know, so it's like, boom, the conflict's there and they created a movie about that and it won in our Oscars. So, so I think right now that content is really focused on China just went Oscars and Emmys, which is fine.

Cuz the rumor, the, the news, we, I think we talked about this emancipation, the new Will Smith movie about him being enslaved is still gonna be released I think this year. and, you know, very controversial because Will Smith is, you know, banned from appearing. He did, they didn't say he's banned from getting a, an Oscar, but he's banned from appearing for 10 years at the Oscars, which, you know, pretty toothless.

Yeah. But you know, Apple's gonna still push this movie out there. Right. And, and I'm sure Will Smith, he's, he promoted it, I don't know if he saw, he actually put something on YouTube. I don't know how much he's gonna be out there. But I mean, knowing him, we probably will be, Hey, you know, you know, be contr, be simple and, you know, just push it.

But Apple don't care, man. Apple is just like, Look, if we can get an Oscar outta this, we're just gonna keep, And so what are they getting outta this from a business standpoint? Man, I guess that's the, the challenge here. It does seem like it's just more what they call the halo effect. It's like, Hey, we got good content, we got good phones and we got good content, You know, keep buying shit from us, kind of thing.

Cuz it doesn't seem like they're, they're really trying to I would have severance. That's, you know, people like severance. Mm-hmm. . So that's another hot one for 'em. So I think for them, It doesn't seem like they really care what they produce. It's not like a Amazon where they're trying to get people to buy more toilet paper.

They're just trying to get people to buy more phones and keep it sexy so when they have another product, 

Mr. Benja: product, I was trying to find the words for it, but keep it sexy. Really hits home. Cuz yeah, if you're sitting down, you know, Hey I got it. My Apple, here's my Apple tv. Hey, sit down, have a nice little cup of you know, cup of Vno and let's let's watch an Academy Award winner on Apple.

It's like, yeah, I get it. Keep it sexy. I like it. 

Theo: Keep it sexy. So so that's, think that's what they're doing. So like I said, they're the metrics. They don't care about who's watching what or whatever. Their metrics are all about selling something. Right. And now they probably wouldn't, you know, go to, we can probably pitch them on like, Hey, I got idea about this Apple phone

They probably wouldn't go for that. Yeah. But you know, but guess check this out. You know, they have a policy, I think we talked about this, right? What's that? Have a policy that in any of their movies or TV shows that they show the bad guy, you know, can't have an iPhone . 

Mr. Benja: I love it. That I didn't know. I know they pushed the hell out of standard Apple products.

Like with the, the morning show. It was like Apple products. Everybody's using them. But I didn't know that about the villains or the bad. 

Theo: There was some TV show, I can't remember what it was, where it was literally a commercial. They were like, go into, like, I think that was like, remember back in the day, 24, Remember that TV show 24?

Yeah. I think they were trying to sell some, some computer, and Chloe, who was his you know, counter terrorism expert, hacker slash hacker for Jack Power, they did like a whole section where she was like, Look what we could do on this computer. . It was like a demo of this feature on this computer, like about 20 seconds in the middle of the plot, like, wait, what?

Is this the plot? Or is this a demo for like, you know, something gooey interface. But anyway so yeah, I, I see Apple doing more of that and just, you know, trying to promote, But to them it's just more about, this is nice until, I guess who's running Apple now? Dude, what's the guy's name over there?

It's not man, why about y'all? Blank. Man, turn on blank right now. Who's the guy? I see his face right now. Just can't remember who's the CEO of Apple right now? Oh, Tim Cook. Yeah, Tim Cook. Yeah. I, I think he just, as long as we, you know, we're keeping our numbers on Apple phones, it's just like, who gives a shit?

You want a movie? Your name is Oprah. Fine. You, you know. Oh, this great hot. You know, writer cuz they spent like a millions of dollars on one of my favorite books of all time Foundation Millions. Yeah. And no one gave a shit and probably would never see a lie day ever again. But I, because they had nothing to do with the books, but it was amazing.

And yeah. So, but they don't care. So anyway so that's what, what's going on there. So last but not least, the Steel Hill Division still here. We're still here, we're still, we're still trying. Paramount Plus NBC Universal. So I take you home, don't have any of these, right? 

Mr. Benja: Well, you know, I said I was about to get Discovery Plus, but I don't have any of 

Theo: these.

Yeah. So Paramount plus top big thing for them is like the content Top Gun Maverick is probably gonna be showing up there. So, and that was the biggest movie the year with billion dollars. That's gonna be huge for them in Yellowstone, which is gonna be which is one of their biggest TV shows right now with Kevin Carner they screwed up, gave some season rights to NBC initially, but they eventually, they're gonna try to get all of Yellowstone on their platform.

So that's gonna be huge for 'em. So I think they're doing good. I mean, you know, I might check that out if they do it. . Yeah. So you can see all of it. All of Yellowstones. Like I said, I think I binge on it like I got caught up to the season, the most recent season. I can see why people liked it. Season three was phenomenal.

They, they set that up perfectly. Season four was just kind of more the same. So it's kind of like, it's almost like Game of Thrones. It got got to the red wedding, it was like, Oh yeah. And they were trying to get back to that. They couldn't get game with those, never could get to those same heights. And I think Yellowstone may have done that with the, their season three finale and the season four was just not the same.

So anyway, content wise, I think, you know, I think they're going for that kind of middle brow heart of America, you know, Middle America kind of content, which is fine. And so that, that, that combined with their strategy looks like they're trying to just consolidate stuff. Oh, Paramont also got a lot of Star Trek content.

You know, they got some reality shows, a lot of mtv, VH1 stuff, Comedy Central stuff shows up on there. So you know, South Park guys, did you know this? I, I heard this. Did you know that the South Park guys are getting paid from streaming like 50% of all 

Mr. Benja: their content? Wait, not 50% of their content, they're getting paid 50% of the streaming revenue?

Theo: Yes. 

Mr. Benja: Huh. That's 

Theo: pretty good. Because years ago, cuz you remember, they, they, when we first saw those guys, they were on the internet. Remember? I, I never forget, I was the computer lab at the College of Engineer at fmu. and we used to watch South Park episodes around the internet back in the day. Yeah. And they, they were early event, you know, then they got, you know, Comedy Central or Bottom Out and said, Hey, you know, they said, Well, if we write this contract, anything that, you know, you put on the internet, you know, we want 50% of all that, you know, that you get from co you know, from that content that used to display there at the time.

You know, they pro, you know, p said whatever, and I think it was Viacom, then they said, Well, who gives a shit? Right? Who knows what this is gonna do with this content? So they get paid like something like 500 million a year something ridiculous, or they, or maybe lifetime earnings, but, but it's just something stupid for one show they've been doing for over 15 years.

So yeah, man. So anyway, so I, I, I heard that on a podcast recently, So, so make a long story short, Perma got a lot of different content and then they also have Showtime content where they're, they're trying to combine it two and so that you can have one platform to go to see all of it. CBS contents on there, and I think they also have football.

So you know, Paramount. I think, you know, they're just either looking to be acquired or gonna be acquired by someone. But the challenge with them is, is owned really by one, you know, kind of entity one, you know, I don't think they're trying to sell, you know, share with Stone and those folks. So it's gonna be interesting to see what they do over the next couple years.

But it's still plugging along. I mean, you know, I think this one part I listened to is called Ther and they said the only thing that matters in this business is hits. So as long as you keep having hits that people wanna watch, that can change any streaming service around. So if Paramount has a super hit, there you 

Mr. Benja: go.

Right? Yeah. Every, every media and, yeah, I'll say media and, and outside of entertainment, even every entertainment and media platform, they have a concept of a killer app. Or, you know, we, computers were called a killer app. Like if you wanted to get a pc, why are you getting a pc? Oh, it's got Microsoft Office on it.

Done. Okay, why are we getting an Apple? It's got Final Cut Pro and Avid audio on it. Done, you know, Super Nintendo, Why are we getting that? It's got Street Fighter two done. So yeah, every platform from toys, clothes, whatever, you always need those one or two pillar items that are gonna make people say, I'm going there for that.

So, yeah, I'm totally with you. 

Theo: Yeah. So I think that's kind of what they're looking at there. I mean, for their business standpoint when it comes to Paramount. So we'll see where that goes from there. And then NBC Peacock. So they also on, you know, Universal, So what's helping them is the football snl, which is repeats of old SNL and current SNL episodes.

They, they moved from Hulu over to their own peacock service and then movies, right? They got Minions for Kids, thoracic park and horror film. So one of their strategies was recently they did Hollywood Ends the new Michael Myers, you know, slash a film. Yeah. They released them both theater, They used that movie both on at the theater and on streaming, you know, day in day.

And so it's gonna be probably make 50 million at the movies, but then also, you know, it's gonna do well on streaming for them. So I think, you know, peop and then also it's, you know, it's fall season, it's still nbc, it's, it's a network television show, so if you like network television, that stuff is showing up on NBC Peacock.

So people kind of like that as well. And then were you about to say, 

Mr. Benja: I was just about to say that you know, you're talking about stuff kind of switching over. Yeah, Dad memorize. It's kind of a tangent we've done enough. No, no 

Theo: worries, No worries. Then from business standpoint, I think the short, short movie turnarounds is helping them drive, grow drive growth there, and so they're selling.

So the, be honest with you, Mc Peacock was the only streamer that grew lasts quarter. So I mean, it grew from like, what, 8 million to 10 million, but it grew. So kudos to them. Think about nbc is also interesting is that co-owners are, you know, they 30% of Hulu with Disney, and so that is very interesting.

You know, could they be bought out by Disney? You know, could they Yeah, yeah. Sell out, You know, so it's a lot of things that are going on there, So, so we'll see. My prediction for both of those, either they gobble up someone else, maybe Paramount Plus buys out hbo, Warner Brothers when they get rid of that debt, or NBC gets bought out by Disney, so I don't know how much longer they'll stay relevant.

In there. 

Mr. Benja: Does the, does the channel concept still work? Like, you know, you go to Apple or you go to one of your, I'll say operating system developers or dis distributors and say, Hey, listen, we're still gonna be ourself, but people have to buy for X amount of dollars. Is that a thing that is still going to be a.

Theo: I don't know, man. It's gonna be interesting. I mean, you know, remember back in the day, you know, you had mtv that was a brand, right? Right. Or you had, you know, Comedy Central, it was a brand. I was listening to a podcast and they said, Brands are gone. Man. You know, our, our generation remembers those brands, but it's like, you know, people don't know.

You mean like anything about this, like the TV 

Mr. Benja: channel 

Theo: brands? Yeah, the TV channel brands that you would, you know, I, I want my mtv remember that ass slogan? You know, it's like, no, I don't care where ridiculously, I think that's the name of the show shows over an mtv. No one knows if it's on MTV or just streaming show.

Right. I mean, it's all, it is like all in, you know, the only brand that matters is the streaming platform, Right. That you can watch your shows. Yeah. And so no one's cares if it's MTV anymore or Comedy Central. That's why the big Trevor Noah News was like, kind of interesting. He was getting what over what they said, not eight figures or something like that a year.

And they said you probably wasn't gonna have to re-up, They probably weren't gonna pay 'em as much. He said, Shit, I can make more money touring as a comedian across the world. I always do this. And so the next host is definitely not gonna pay 'em that much. And so Comedy Central is a brand is dying out.

They're, they're not creating any new scripted series. I think someone said they did the numbers. They said, Look, we, we get the same ratings for a original content here on Comedy Central as we do for a repeat of like, I don't know, South Park. Right? And they're like, Yeah, do we need to really create new content?

Nah, maybe every now and then, you know, cause you know, cable money still coming in even though it's slowing down. Yeah. But for them, Comedy Central is just like, you know, we're just showing repeats, man. . Yeah. Nothing new here. 

Mr. Benja: Yeah. It's funny, the I don't know if there's like a general, cuz with Amazon to get the Amazon channels, you have to have Amazon Prime, right?

Mm-hmm. can't just jump in and get a channel all by itself on amazon.com. I don't know. But what else is there with, I know on Apple, Apple TV is part of it kind of comes with your Apple computer, so you can buy channels that way. Now what about PCs? Do they have a way to, like, is there an Android or Google play?

Can you buy channels through that? 

Theo: I don't know. 

Mr. Benja: PCs? Yeah. Do people really care about PCs? Mm. I'll call. We'll have to call it Bryant. You probably got some some Linux Utu box set up to try and just try to stream Discovery Plus or Stars so he can watch Power. Oh really? Oh 

Theo: wow. . 

Mr. Benja: I'm not sure what, what Bryant 

Theo: watches.

I'm just giving him a hard time China to forget this out. Yeah, I just go ahead and buy it. So much easier now, than it used to be. So anyway well that's just our coverage of what's going on streaming world right now. Guys. Go check them out. You know, tell us what you think, who's winning, who's not, you know, But we'll do these check-ins every so often.

But like I said, I think consolidation's come in an overall, that's my assess assessment of what's happening. So let's get in before we close out. She huk the finale aired recently on Disney Plus. She Hulk show. Definitely was very interesting and so we'll talk a little bit about it.

I mean, really can't really, there's really no plot. It was basically a lawyer comedy show that they did they did that thing. So Mr. Benji, did you like the show and, you know, what is your high level thoughts on what, what you like, didn't like all that? 

Mr. Benja: So this thing I got right here, it's my, my Captain Marvel composition book that I picked up out of the bargain bin, No Shade on Captain Marvel.

I just happened, that's where I happened to pick it up. So I wasn't looking for it, but it was there. But I like it and it's where I put all my watch notes in and I started this specifically because of she Hope . And I was like, What the hell? There's so many random things happening here. I'm actually going to take notes during this show.

And man, they just kept surprising me. I was like, Huh, Did not see that coming. I'll write that down.

Theo: Was it a good 

Mr. Benja: surprise? Okay. I liked it far more than I enjoyed it.

Why you left? 

Theo: When you say you liked it, is that like you respected it so you, you, you like what they were attempting to do? Yes. I But you enjoy that experience of like, you know that, so that is basically something you would probably not wanna watch again. I highly 

Mr. Benja: respected it. I thought it was intelligent.

It did a lot of, its hit a lot of its beats. They tried new things. It was adventurous, It didn't care about certain things. He cared about a lot of things, so they had their definite. Things they put attention on and the things they veered away from. They had a, a voice, an audience, and I think it did good for the Disney brand.

So they hit a lot of marks off. You know, they checked a lot of marks off. But as far as me personally enjoying it, it's not my audience. I was very entertained by it just because of what it was, not bec not so much because of what they were giving me, if that makes sense. Mm-hmm. . 

Theo: Mm-hmm. . Yeah, I agree. I, I like what they were trying to do with it.

And you know, just a funny you know, slice of life type of show in vain of the character of She Hawk. Right? And we all know that she was kind of little, I mean, I don't remember. I mean, we talked about, I don't remember any kind of world break, you know comic books from her. But I do remember she was always talking to, you know, talking to us like Deadpool, right through the comic book.

Like, Hey, I'm in a comic book, so let's talk. So they kind of, you know, kind of taking that I reverence right to the TV show, which I liked. And then so, so overall I did like it cuz I liked the actress. I liked T and Malan and she was in Orphan Black, always kind of liked her. I mean, you know, and so, you know, I thought that was cute.

And then I thought every actor and it was pretty good. I liked all the actors in it what they brought to it. But I agree it was kinda like all the places. It was kinda like, eh, I see. Yeah. So do we wanna get into it? Like, you know I mean, you know, the, the, the ending is the one I think is everybody's kinda like commenting on Right, right now, the, the finale.

But before we get into that real quick overall though, you know, I thought, you know, I had some good moments, some, some funny moments very interesting. Mm-hmm. , but yeah, it didn't say like I was going anywhere, . It's just like, Hey, I'm just 

Mr. Benja: watching this. Well, well, that's, that I think was intentional and is one of the, one of the things I actually enjoyed about it quite a bit.

I enjoyed and liked this part of it, the characterization in building that up. Not that these characters went anywhere, but as you said, they had the character you know, Madison, they had the, the magician guy you had you had her, I forgot the name of the, the lawyer who was her kind of mentor slash assistant, other person who worked in the office with her you know, kind of kept the story going.

So they had all these characters with all these ideas, and I think this show really did a good way of setting up the Marvel world on a, on a very pedestrian level. It's like, Hey, this is how the world is, and no one's ever really put that out there and explained it to you. I mean, in terms of how Marvel.

The, the mcu how was regular life for people? And I think this really explained it and kind of set the tone in a way that a lot of the other shows haven't. Hmm. 

Theo: Yeah, I think so. They kind of set their own kind of agenda with it and and I kind of like, I respected them for that. Just trying to think.

I mean, you know, they just trying to give you different aspects of the, the Marvel Universe and show funny things. I like the fact that they were trying to you know, comment on, you know, we talked about this on Wednesday. They tried to comment on what the fandom was gonna talk about them. Right. You know, just the, the toxic masculinity with this of a she hope character and what does that mean to people?

So that was kind of funny. They were kind of, you know, commenting on what was gonna happen. And they also were making fun of just the. Avengers kind of thing. Right. You know, VNGs, you know what that means. And, you know, having a suit and who does your suits and then why everything fits so perfectly. And they were just trying making, you know, the tropes of funny tropes of that superhero cons, conceits.

If you really had these super powers, you know, how would you interact with other people? With the guy that I can't remember his name, the character, the actor that he basically, you know, he couldn't die, right? He, so he ended up marrying all these people and couldn't deal with conflicts, so he would kill himself, so didn't live and keep it moving.

So stuff like that, they were trying to give you you know, basic concepts of everything. Well also kind of, you know, probably it was trying to do a lot, let's be honest, like all the shows do, right? Mm-hmm. , they're trying to you know, kind of wreck con some of the Hulk stuff too with Abomination trying to explain Hulk disappearance and what he comes back to do and reveals at the end.

So it was, you know, and it just, his new character, so, you know, Sure. just, it's, 

Mr. Benja: it's a lot. Yeah. And well, well, you know, to that point with those characters, I don't think a lot of their point was to really tell a story, but now to your, to your point, it gave a lot of connecting glue to like Sean Chi abomination that, like when they said that Wong sprung him outta jail to, to fight in this fight club kind of thing.

I was actually kind of entertained by that. I was like, Damnit, they did another Thor too, where it's something I really don't care about. And Shawn Chi was far better than Thor two, just saying it's connective tissue, where it's like, okay, now I go back and I look more fondly upon Shawn Chi because of the connection to she hok and this abomination character who I didn't care about.

But I really loved the am Emil Blonsky character in she hok. That guy was golden to me.

Theo: I mean, you know, look, I mean, it was fun to kind of see these characters in different lights. Yeah, I kind of like that aspect of it. Tim Roth, right? I mean, you know, he's been around forever, right? And so, I'm sure he is. I didn't know he had a little you know, he had a little comedy bone cause he always played kind of heavy characters.

But I, you know, I, I dug it. I mean, you know, I think every, there was a lot of good characters in this and like Josh Ur, who played pug, you know that little, the guy lawyer, He was funny. I saw him on another show. He's funny in that. So that guy's just funny, just the way he talks to me is just hilarious.

Just like, Oh girl, you know, it's not me. You know how I do guys, You know, just, you know, real little smooth kind of talk to, but just like a nice guy, you know? You know, guys like that, right? Just smooth talker. But they're simple and they're nice. You're just like, okay, I know that guy. So so I think the actor, you know, the characters were fine, It's just the stories are just kinda all over the place.

So but overall I kind of dug it. 

Mr. Benja: Did it bother you? The cause a lot of the messaging wasn't just subtle, they would actually stop and turn to the screen and let you know if they're joking that they're like the, the, the whole thing about the intelligence mm-hmm. , like, you know, where you got this website full of disgruntled Intels, I think they even said at one point in the show just a bunch of disgruntled dudes angry at life and the exact kind of comments that we're going to show up on that episode.

They put in the episode. And I laugh because of that. Yeah. Like, she looks at the screen and is like, You can't do that. They're gonna write all these things in the internet. They're gonna say, she's too strong, she's this and that, and blah, blah, blah. They're gonna talk about my hair. Oh, this is just stupid.

I don't want to go on this site. And then they showed, like images of all those people commenting as if they just commented. And I'm laughing because I'm thinking, Doug , these are the exact comments that are getting Live tweeted out right now. Meta H upon Meta upon Meta. 

Theo: Hilarious. You know, the executive writer, she's, I think I told you, she, Jessica Gal, I think the, that's the writer's name.

She actually wrote for one my favorite shows, Rick and Morty. And so yeah, she's, yeah, she wrote The Awesome Pickle Rick, which that's what you haven't seen it. Yeah. So she's definitely up there when it comes to just creating great, great comedy. And so she came from animation and all that kind of stuff.

And so, so her creating this type of storytelling is you know, kind of interesting. So but yeah, I mean, you know. So let's get in. Do you wanna get into the finale then? Yeah, yeah. Let's go. Were you expecting that? Let's start 

Mr. Benja: there. No, I, I mean, was I, was I expecting that, that hard of a turn? No, I expected something to happen and I expected this kind of MCU connection where they would connect something to the next set of the younger Avengers or the mm-hmm.

But I thought it was gonna actually take a more serious. Where it's like, no, no, we're still mcu. Dun dun. Yeah. And then you kind of have gin like, well shit, I can't just play around to, She hope there're serious implications to everything I do. I kind of thought that was gonna happen. But they were like, 

Theo: Nah, bro, All in, they went all in.

So do we wanna just talk about it? So, but you know, if you haven't seen Spoil alert, we're just gonna get into that last final Oh, I thought we were spoiling anyway, but yeah, so let's get into it. Yeah. So, you know, they get to the third act like all these shows get to where, you know, we got abomination, you know, in full abomination form.

We find out that the bad guy who's been talking shit about her intelligence Yeah. Got her blood and wants to talk to a Hulk himself. And so he turns into a Hulk Titan Titania, one of her villains that kind of pops up, you know, throughout the series, shows up for some reason. And then Bruce Banner pops up outta nowhere.

So now you got four folks ready to fight. And then in the right before that happened, she's just like, Hold up. This doesn't make sense. just like we all said, right? That what they always, it was like, Oh, this Marvel show. This is what it happens. And she's saying exactly what you think, you know, like, Oh, this is not, this is weird.

This shouldn't end like this, this is not my show. And she stops it. And then, you know, then you get into the title care as you on Disney Plus with the tiles and everything. Yeah. It it, And so for a second, I'm. What 

Mr. Benja: happened? , dude? No. During that, during that moment, she said something about breaking, like something broke or something needs to break, and then suddenly it's like your app broke.

Disney Plus app broke and then she broke through the wall. The fourth all kind of is, and she broke through the panel of the seed. And I, I suppose if you're listening to this, you've seen it, but she comes out of the She Hope panel from Disney Plus, as if you're still on the Disney Plus main screen.

And I, I didn't know what to think at this point. I was, I was fascinated beyond belief. 

Theo: Yeah. I, they win for it. I love it. I mean, and it all makes sense cuz they set this up. She breaks the fourth wall, right? She knows she's in story, you know, she kind of explains the storytelling and what's it about. So for her to kind of literally stop her third, her final act and just be like, I'm just gonna change the.

Made sense. So, you know, but it's just like very weird to see that. And so she did that. Then she actually goes, I forgot. She said Mar Avengers disassembled. And so, so I'm gonna find out what's going on. So she goes in there literally you know, mi I'm gonna go to the writer. I don't think she said she's going to the writer's room, but she basically went to the writer's room, the people who created the show.

And those are the real a writers of the show popping up . That, that some of the Yeah, some of them were, you know, some were actors, of course, but you know, the ones that didn't, the ones that talked all awkwardly, those are not actors. Right. You can, It's weird how you can always tell people who are not actors.

It's like, just something about the way we talk that you, if you're not actor, you just talk. So, you know, like, Hi, I am watching at TV show, . Just, Yeah, yeah. Whereas actors know how to just, you know, make it sound more natural. So anyway, she's in the writer's room and said, This is garbage. You gotta write this.

Then she says, Well, I'm going, you got, you gotta take this up with Kevin and Kevin. I was like, What? ? They said, Kevin, now spoiler alert. I knew they were going go a different route with it because the end when I, Cause I always watched up with subtitles. They actually had Kevin as an acronym. Oh. So I said, Oh, they're probably gonna do some kind of computer or something.

Cuz I saw it when I read it. Yeah. But if you just heard it and they just said, Kevin, you know, the spoiler of. Not being the Kevin, you think? Ry was a little bit more shocking. So, but they actually mentioned Kevin, that she has to take it up with him to determine what's going for Storyline. So, I mean, that was kind of interesting too.

And so now we're gonna say, Oh, we're gonna see Kevin Figgy. I guess, did you think it was gonna be Kevin Figgy popping up? 

Mr. Benja: Yeah. Yeah. Actually was like, okay, now they said, Kevin, where are we going with this? And I thought Kevin might make thought Figgy might make an appearance. Yeah, I thought so too.

Instead, it's funny, the, the robot had like the little hat on. I know.

I was like, Yo, how's this robot got like a piece of metal and it looks like the calf and you're like, Oh yeah, that's Kevin

Theo: Yeah. So it's just a robot and you know, just the most advanced, I forgot what Kevin stand for. I guess I got, 

Mr. Benja: I got it right here. Oh. What is it? Yes, Kevin is of course right when I say that I lose it. No. Kevin is the knowledge enhanced visual interconnectivity Nexus.

Theo: Just man, Theo stands for Theological Heaven Enhanced Organism. You know, just, Yes. Just figuring this out quick. I love it, man. So what did you think about that interplay about her story, You know, Hints of other stories and what, you know, you know, Kevin was explained to her. They did some, they said some very meta jokes about VFX folks.

Did you get that part too? That they're on another project? 

Mr. Benja: Yeah, exactly. 

Theo: No. Did you hear the sound? Did you hear the sound effect on that? Which one? No. Well, she, he said, he said, she said, Can you turn around? I can't, You know? Right. You're expensive. Right. So she had to, you know, change back into Jessica form?

Yes. A gen form. Excuse me. And she, and he, and then he said he said, Yeah, the vsx people on another project. And then there's a sound. Did you hear a sound? I missed the sound. Yeah. Black Panther. Oh, oh 

Mr. Benja: oh . No. Cause now you said that I remember the sound. I just didn't connect it. I 

Theo: was just, I didn't either.

I had to read a review. They said that, and then I watched it again and said, Oh, So yeah, little, little stuff like that, you know? Yeah. 

Mr. Benja: I also, if I'm not mistaken I heard them talking about we have to race off somewhere or run somewhere, and they used a pod race noise. Somewhere in the show. And I used to, I got my first surround sound system at the same time that I got my my, my pod, my episode one fan DVDs.

And I was blasting it like constantly. So I remember, I remember those noises and I think they, they made a Disney joke or reference Disney or like buying other companies and other properties. And they did that joke. And when they drove off, you heard like the little pod race noise. And I was like, What the fuck was that I got, I gotta find the exact same.

Theo: But yeah. Yeah. So just a lot of meta talk, right? I mean about you know, storylines and, you know how the stories always kind of crap out and they gotta do better and you know, they gotta do more for women demographic. And then I, you know, , the jokes are okay. I mean, you know, like I said, I like her rich.

The way she set that line about, she says I smashed walls four when she said four walls. Yeah. She said I smash fourth walls stories and Matt Murdoch. I was like, Oh yeah, there you go. Go get it girl. . Yeah, 

Mr. Benja: I got gotta, I gotta admit, when she made the face, I, I was kind of like, ugh.

Theo: So yeah, man, she did her thing, man. So then they kinda hinted at mutants and stuff like that, so, you know, it was fine. I mean, it was cute. That's what I. 

Mr. Benja: No, it was it was, it was interesting. It was this thing. I, I dug it and now I'm actually on the Marvel website now. They've got your she she hole gear.

They're talking about behind the scenes of building Kevin and all this. You know what, It's worth it, man. It was, it was definitely worth it to have this show in the stable of shows. I think it set up well enough, like Younger Avengers, some Daredevil stuff. I say younger Avengers because Hulk Sun shows up.

Theo: Hmm. Oh yeah, yeah. At the very end. We didn't really get into it. What'd you think of Daredevil? It's portrayal, Michelle. 

Mr. Benja: He's a lot lighter, obviously. Yeah, of course. Yeah. But I, I liked it. Yeah, he kind of actually took in a a mature Spider-Man vibe. What do you mean? Well, he did, he wasn't as stupid as Spiderman.

Peter Parker obviously, you know, he wasn't as much of a kid. That's what I mean by mature. You know, he's got his head on straight. He's like, Well, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. Gonna catch a plane unless you wanna, you know, So it was just kind of more serious and world wise, and then just the way he was hopping around and, Hey, we're gonna do it this way and this way, and I'm gonna hop this way and say, Okay.

It made sense. The whole daredevil thing, especially the way that she defeated him, even though, you know, he's like the classic character. She's like, Well, let me just clap. And it's like, okay, that makes sense. 

Theo: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I agree. I agree. It's funny, it's like you go to the website, I'm like, I'm on Marvel website.

You go Dare Devil. And they still have all the character, the actors that still play the different versions, like Luke K, Jessica Jones, The Punisher, Right. So yeah, so, and the King Pin. So maybe, you know, the actors, I don't know, maybe Iron Fest, he might not come back, but all the actors, why, why couldn't they come back when they do this Daredevil series?

Right. In some form or fashion. What do you think? Cause I thought the, the casting was pretty phenomenal, even you know, depends if they're, you know, available. But I, you know, on the sad part is I didn't watch The Punisher series. I may wanna go back and watch that to see. Wait, what? I know I didn't.

Mr. Benja: Oh my goodness. 

Theo: Is it that good? 

Mr. Benja: Definitely worth watching. Definitely, definitely 

Theo: worth watching. I need to go back to go check it out. But I mean, you know, that's phenomenal casting. John Bral, he's a great actor. And so he was in that. So I, I, he's so busy now. I don't know if he could come back, but shit.

Mike Colter ain't doing nothing. I mean, he's got this one show he's doing, but he ain't doing nothing. And Jessica Jones the actress there, she's not really doing a lot. So I could see him bringing him back. I 

Mr. Benja: think I think Colter, I don't know so much about Jessica Jones and the Richter Charact Riter doing Jessica Jones, but I know that Ironman, I mean Power Man, Luke Cage could definitely fit in this world of Marvel.

You mean he's just kind of like, you know, strong black man, indestructible skin, you know, with his little antics, the, you know, you want to go for coffee. It's like, I think it all works well for Disney kind of thing, especially seeing what they did with Daredevil. Good 

Theo: point. Yeah, good point. And you know what they were trying to do too at the end?

I don't know if you saw the season two of Luke Cage. Mm-hmm. . But they were doing that version of Luke Cage in the suit when he became like, you know, almost like a crime. He wasn't a crime boss, but he was just a little bit more slicker. Right. There was a, you know, in the comic books, he, he became a little bit more, you know, strategic instead of just wearing those little tight, you know, teases around all the time.

He start putting a suit on and he started kinda covering that. And, and I think I talked about this before, that's how I got introduced to Mike Colter as before. Cuz he was in a show called The Good Wife, where he played drug pen and every time he showed up he had a nice teller suit, but he was just like the, the most villainous person.

He was just like one of those guys. A smile that you be nice but he'll cut your throat . Cause he was so, I was like, yeah, bring that kind of Luke cage back. But anyway so yeah, so I, I like, you know, Charlie Cox did a good job. I mean, you know, , it's just, you know, her and him and her you know, she ho I don't know if that happened.

Did that happen? I don't know if that happened in the comic books that they got together. For sure. Why not? Makes sense. So you know, I'm glad he's not as an, you know, a little bit more, you know, open and, you know, it looks like they kept the gold one so they didn't confuse you with the red look or the black look he had and the, and the Netflix show.

But those, those are still on Netflix, so I can watch those anytime. So there you go. about one, didn't you close. 

Mr. Benja: Are they on Disney Plus? Yeah. Yeah. They moved him over there kind of quietly, but they moved him over there 

Theo: in preparation for this. Huh, interesting. There you go. Anything else, Mr. Benja? 

Mr. Benja: No, I'm, I'm looking forward to more from, from this whole Daredevil Netflix thing.

You know, we still got more connective tissue with like SCO cords as I said, younger Avengers, and, and I think it just did a really good job laying down that connective tissue that they're gonna need to do for the next phase Marvel movies. Yeah, I 

Theo: agree. So so I think I give a solid, she hope a solid solid b I mean, you know, I respect the effort and try and do something different.

I like the characters, but it's just too all over the place. I don't think there's anything, you know, that's, you, it is giving us some connective tissue, but it's not getting thing compelling. Right. It's not like, Oh, I gotta see, she hope, you know, season two, like tomorrow or I gotta see she hook in a movie, you know?

Mr. Benja: Yeah. I give it a solid a minus with no, absolutely no reason to watch it again.

None. It's like, no, it was, it was good and everything to me. I laughed, enjoyed it. I was actually entertained. But I think a lot more of that was because of the novelty and just the way they were telling it. Mm-hmm. . And it's like, how many times do I need to see that? I don't need those gags again. And it's not like, it's not like prime rate comedy, like Seinfeld or something where I need to watch it again and laugh at the, Look how they set 

Theo: that joke up.

It's genius. 

Mr. Benja: No. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It's just like, Oh, I didn't expect the robot to have a hat on.

Theo: Hilarious. 

Mr. Benja: I, I might watch it again. I might watch it again. For the whole, all of the discussions, as I said, the characterization was strong. All of the discussions that she hope had with abomination, with the therapy group, with her friends, That's really an interesting way of telling a character story if you just strip out all the other stuff and just listen to her conversations.

I rarely say that, but I, I really liked what they did there. 

Theo: Interesting. So you said exposition that got out was, you know, you revealed it through character interaction a little bit cleaner. 

Mr. Benja: Well, yeah. Like well, if we were talking about the, the evolution of storytelling like we do, and when she Hulk explained her charact, Usually, usually you know how you have in a classic story structure, you have a mentor to kind of pull you across.

Well, instead of having a mentor to pull her across, they did a more, a more Gen Z millennial thing where the person goes and figures it out for themselves by making mistakes. But they used abomination kind of as the mentor character to just say, Hey, it's okay for you to mentor yourself. And she thought through her own problems and did it.

Mm. So they were doing some pretty slick things there where I was like, Classic. I like it. 

Theo: Mm, interesting. Hey, real quick so they may have it, the Luke Cage or in dare double, but looks like my settings are set to TV 14 . So I have to set my settings. I try to figure out how you set that up to set it up to go above TV 14 to get Luke Cage and Yeah, cuz it said, I can't even see it because mines are set for TV 14, so that's interesting.

Mr. Benja: I love that Sad day. For you 

Theo: it says,

Yeah, this is, Yeah, I, Okay, I have to go. Don't need all that violent content. Yeah. Okay. So I have to go to, I guess, the website to change it cuz you can't do it on the app, which is good. So the kids can't see it. Okay. Yeah, I gotta play around with that. So 

Mr. Benja: do you have a separate profile? Do you have a separate profile for you And then the family 

Theo: and I don't, they all have access to the same one, so it looks like I got, if I wanna see the more adult content.

Okay. Like on yours, I'm assuming you can see all that Right. And any R rated stuff, cuz they have touchstone, they have a price of other content they wanna put up there that you can watch now. So 

Mr. Benja: Yeah. And you know, I sometimes I set up separate profiles just to, just to keep all my recommendations and things the way I want to.

Yeah. But I didn't do that for Disney Plus, but Yeah. There's a, I, I think I went into my profile one day and it, they had a little notification like by the billing or something and I was like, What's this about? And it's like, Hey TV MA is is here and you don't have a password set on your profile.

So I was like, Oh, okay. I set the password and turned it to. Or allow for any kind of content at that time. And since then it's been on. 

Theo: Okay. Yeah, I'll check it out. I'll see how that looks. Cuz I don't see nothing. I thought it's like, man, ain't nothing down here. So Yeah, 

Mr. Benja: the family gonna be like, Hey, how come, how come Dad has a separate profile 

Theo: that's for grow up?

Yeah. Just like this wine. It's for grown up son. Can't watch that. Yeah. 

Mr. Benja: Do you have a separate profile for Netflix? 

Theo: Yes I do. Yeah. Okay. So same kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, well, Mr. Ben, we're gonna go ahead, end it. Here's a good pod, long pod, but I enjoy the content we did. So, hey everyone definitely please like describing comment at show versus business on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Listen to us as Spotify, iTunes, wherever you listen to podcasts. Visit us on our website at show versus business. Wanna hear us live? Please check us out around Night Eastern, six specific Wednesdays on IG Live and Mr. Benja during his a d d experience. And that's what we do our weekly news check-ins. I, Mr.

Benja, have a great one. Peace.