Insights into Entertainment

Insights Into Entertainment: Episode 8 "Blockbusters and Brokenhearts"

April 08, 2019 Joseph and Michelle Whalen Season 1 Episode 8
Insights into Entertainment
Insights Into Entertainment: Episode 8 "Blockbusters and Brokenhearts"
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

This week Michelle and Joe delve into the labor disputes at Disneyland Paris that left the park littered with trash, we offer praise to Captain Marvel for breaking the one billion dollar box office mark, then we talk about the fiasco that the pre-sale ticket experience was for Avengers End Game this week, all part of our Disney Detective segment. In our entertainment news section we look at Netflix both raising it's prices and getting some support from the US Department of Justice in what is shaping up to be a possible fight with the Academy for eligibility at the Academy Awards.  Then we jump over to the music industry and talk about some health concerns associated with Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and a new album and tour coming from Celine Dion. We finish up with two great new picks in our Insightful Picks section including a new show suggestion from Michelle and another excellent podcast suggestion from Joe.

Speaker 1:

Insightful pocket by informative hosts. A podcast network.

Speaker 2:

Okay, welcome.

Speaker 3:

Come to insights into entertainment, a podcast series, taking a deeper look into entertainment and media. Your hosts, Joseph and Michelle Waylon, a husband and wife, team of pop culture, phonetics are exploring all things from music and movies to television and film.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 4:

Welcome to insights into entertainment. This is episode eight, blockbusters and broken hearts. I'm your host, Joseph Waylon and my lovely cohost Michelle Waylon. Hi everyone. How are you doing today, Michelle? Tired. How are you? Why, why would you be tired? I can't even imagine. Just looking at your shirt because I did a five k this morning. Congratulations. Thank you. So today we do have a good deal of news to get through. We have another addition of our Disney detective and we have some insightful picks to go through. Um, are we ready to jump right in? Let's jump right in. Go for Disney detective.

Speaker 5:

So it seems last Saturday morning there was a protest at Disney land, Paris. Uh, the company that they use to do the overnight cleaning, um, I guess has been having some labor disputes regarding wages, unfair treatment. So in protest, they basically littered the front of main street. I'm to the point where they had to have guests go a different way. They couldn't go through the main entrance to get in. And that's, that's very undesigned he like very and Disney like, and these are all over our streets here. Yeah. They had some handwritten signs in protest, uh, as well. Um, and there were photos of the, from the park showing toilet paper and other debris littering across a Disneyland hotel and main streets, middle entrance, uh, which was eventually closed off to, to the guests. This is not the first time that this company a has protested Disneyland, Paris overpay and uh, pay and conditions as spokesperson had said. So. Interesting. Nice to know that, you know, we're not the only ones that have issues with that. Well, and that's, that is the interesting thing because in the United States, um, they're far as we understand the cleaning crew in Disney, Disney employees, they don't contract out contracted out. So, but you kind of find that with, um, other parks in other countries how, um, you know, they use the Disney name. It's not necessarily Disney employees in different areas are contracted out. So I guess those two land powers owned by Disney, I believe Disneyland Paris is. So it was just possibly just a European thing. Yeah. I don't know. Could be interesting. Yeah. Interesting little fun fact for, uh, for Disney. Uh, so now onto captain marvel dumped and dawn breaks the 1 billion globally more. Uh, it generated 358 million in North America and 645 overseas. It is now the seventh film in the franchise to reach$1 billion. And it's the 18th Disney movie to gross over a billion. Um, and the 21 films that are part of the MCU have now grossed over 18.5 billion to date. So that's some serious numbers there. That's not too shabby for Disney. And for Marvel, well that explains why they can go out and basically buy everything that they wanted. This basically they can, there's there, they're not hard up for cash. Uh, and to kind of piggyback on that, obviously if you know, you're not aware, the Avengers presale tickets went on sale this past Tuesday morning and of course lots of issues. There were, um, Q issues with different sites like Fandango and AMC where you would log on and it would give you a wait time of an hour. And as your time went down, all of a sudden you got kicked out. Uh, kind of reminds us of when we were buying tickets for comic con. New York comic con is the same type of thing. Uh, I had a friend at work who he was having that issue. He came around and, you know, look, I'm at 45 minutes and then something had happened, crapped out and he had to, you know, go back in. Um, it's, that's the most frustrating. Oh, absolutely. When you're like, I'm so close. I'm in Fango. Uh, Fandango reported that going broke the first day. Presale record previously held by star wards, foot force awakened in just six hours. So that's pretty impressive. So obviously we got our tickets that day and I bought them, but it was probably two o'clock in the afternoon. Had No issue. I was, I did it through, through the mobile APP. No problem. Picked our seats, everything went, went smoothly. So

Speaker 4:

the caveat to that is we're not going opening day.

Speaker 5:

No, we're going Sunday. But still, um, and I didn't even look, there were probably tickets still for opening day, but you know, all scattered throughout the, you know, the theater. So if we wanted to go, oh, you can sit here, you can sit here, you can sit here. Yeah. Going gets the family. Yeah. Not going to work out so well.

Speaker 4:

So that is what we have for our Disney detective. So moving right along to our entertainment news of the week.

Speaker 6:

Okay.

Speaker 4:

So Lo and behold, Netflix is raising their prices again. Oh my gosh. They're just like Disney. This, this has become an annual ritual for Netflix subscribers like us.

Speaker 5:

Well at least it's only annual and not, you know, multi, uh, annual like other,

Speaker 4:

it's true. And, and they've not reached the point of, you know, a cable company where they're going to try and bundle a bunch of other things in to try and get us to buy. And the prices are only going up a dollar to$2 for the highest level,$1 for the lowest level. That's not really unreasonable. And it's not, especially when you look at the fact that Netflix had budgeted a, what was it, 8 billion, uh, for new shows in 2018, uh, of that 8 billion, they, you know, they pulled down three Academy Awards and 23 and me. So it's, you know, you're getting volume, anger, getting quality program.

Speaker 5:

Yeah. And that's one of the things is they're definitely up there now as a, as a major contender for good quality Showzen and movies. You can't deny it at this point.

Speaker 4:

Absolutely. And of course this year they're going to be facing some additional competition from apple and Disney who were both starting their own streaming services. I don't think anyone realistically thinks that either of those companies are going to be taking a chunk out of Netflix anytime soon, just because of the limit of the amount of original content. Disney will, we'll be taking a bit of a chunk because they've already not renewed several programs and they're pulling all their movies over to their own service there. So potentially that could have some impact on Netflix. Bottom line. Yeah. Uh, in addition to, or in relation to our Netflix News, uh, the Justice Department has actually issued a, a letter, a warning, a notification, I'm not really sure what you call it. Variety had obtained the letter, um, from the antitrust division of the Department of Justice. Um, and this was in relation to a story we had discussed on a podcast where, uh, Netflix was going to be considering changing their qualification rules to eliminate streaming services like Netflix from being in contention awards. The Academy Awards, I'm sorry. They're going to be, uh, they were talking about changing the rules qualification wise to prevent companies streaming service to be able to flex from being qualified. Gotcha. Which was spearheaded by Steven Spielberg. Right. Um, so the basically the Department of Justice is, I guess getting out ahead of this one, I'm telling him them, you know, behave, it'll be interesting to see what, what happens with that. Yeah. It seems a little strange that they're, they're taking the initiative to go after them before they even have their board of governors meeting, which isn't due to occur until April 23rd before they even discussed the rule change, let alone implement it. Right, right. Oh, so it's just seems, you know, for a government agency, unusually proactive. Yeah. There's usually not, not that proactive. No. Um, the next story that we have here was, uh, uh, the rolling stones had postponed their new tour that was supposed to kick off April 20th in Miami Gardens, Florida. And initially it came out with a report that it was for health reasons for Mick Jagger. Um, they didn't release a lot of information, basically a state saying that doctors recommend that Mick Jagger not go on tour at this time, Mick and then released a tweet apologizing to the fans for that. But no real information. Come to find out he was getting heart valve transplant. Oh, okay. Uh, which was done earlier this week. He came through the surgery, um, with flying colors. Uh, apparently is recovering fine now and hopes to be back on tour soon. And you know, for an artist like Mick Jagger who, you know, you know, I'm a huge eagles fan, the eagles are typically accused of lawyering on stage. Right. They basically get out there, sit on stools and play the music. They don't move around all that much. No. They're not one for, for dancing around. But Mick Jagger, 71,

Speaker 7:

five years old, he's always,

Speaker 4:

he's a blur up there. Right. Yeah. So, and I can only imagine the, the stamina and in fact one of the comments that I had seen basically attributed his success with the operation and his expected recovery, quick recovery to the fact that the man has kept very good care of her.

Speaker 7:

Yeah. And that's the thing is, you know, I'm sure he's, he's well, um, pickled with all of the alcohol and a drug paraphernalia that's been in this system, but he's always very active anytime you ever see anything from any concert running around the stage, you know, always moving about. So yeah, like you said, that's probably why he did so well with the surgery.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. So when we wish him well and uh, it sounds like he's, he's already on his way to a speedy recovery. Yeah. Uh, next we have a Celine Dion has announced that she'll be releasing a new album called carriage and we'll embark on her first world tour in over a decade. Wow. Um, she's ending her Las Vegas residency, which to my surprise, she was there for 15 years and it did not seem like 15 years.

Speaker 7:

No, it didn't. It definitely didn't seem like it had been that long.

Speaker 4:

Um, she'll of course be kicking off the tour in her hometown of Quebec, Canada. You have to go home. Um, on September 18th, the tours scheduled to make over f stops it over 50 cities and she's expected to release her 12th album, uh, in November. Um, when, when asked, uh, she had indicated she felt motivated to create new music and get back on the road again since the death of her husband and manager whose name I will not try to pronounce because I can't, uh, but he passed away in 2016 and he had been with her for decades.

Speaker 7:

Yeah. Since she was a teenager. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

So that's, that's, you know, I could certainly relate to the fact that that's a difficult loss to, to come back from and to pick things up and get back on, on the road again, especially after you spent 15 years in Vegas. There has to be a certain comfort level there.

Speaker 7:

Oh, I'm sure. Plus, you know, she has the three boys or three. Yeah. Three boys. Um, you know, so I'm sure, um, I'm not sure how old the youngest ones are. Um, but I'm sure this'll be a nice opportunity to get out and not be, you know, stuck in Vegas anymore.

Speaker 4:

Yeah. This'll be the first world tour since her taking chances. World tour in 2009 so she took quite a bit of time off from touring for that. Uh, she's only 51. She looks fantastic for 51, so she's got a very long and storied career ahead of her. She's still got her voice, still got her. She's on top of the world. I think when she gets out she'll do well on shore. That was all the news that we had this week. I think we're a little ahead of schedule actually. Uh, I think we're safe to move on to our insightful picks of the week. Let's do it. So each week we go through the various things that we consume as far as media and entertainment. We picked something that we think the audience would like. We call that are insightful pick of the week. And as always I will bow to you to go first, my dear. All

Speaker 7:

right, thank you. Guess what? It's not from Netflix. That's astonishing. Is that because they raised the prices? I'm backing off of Netflix, actually. I'm not actually, I'm very know, very, very happy with Netflix and always a surprise to to log on to it and, and see something new or a new season of a show that I've already started watching. Um, but the show that I'm actually doing for my insightful pick for this week is a show, a new drama family is drama on a Tuesday nights on NBC called the village. Uh, it followed, this is us, which happens to be one of my favorite shows as well. Um, and since this is us, had their season finale last week, I believe this is now going to take over the, this is us time slot. I'm going forward for the next couple of weeks obviously while it's on. Um, so basically it's like I said, a family drama that takes place in Brooklyn and the setting is an apartment complex, an apartment building, and it's basically following the lives of the different tenants that are there. So you have, um, the one woman who's a single mom with a very creative teenager who is a nurse. And then you have the one law student who now has his grandfather and moving in with him. Then you have a immigrant, a mother, uh, who's recently divorced, who has some trouble with, uh, immigration. Um, then you have a, a veteran who's now returning from war and has a bit of a, uh, secretive pass that is starting to come out. Um, and then kind of the matriarch and patriarch of the apartment building, the older couple that basically they're the glue that keep everybody together and everybody looks out for everybody, um, is there and, and they're kind of the heart and soul of the building. Um, so it, it goes through the different challenges and stories, you know, that each, you know, is facing and, and it's just, you know, it's one of those, you don't have to think too much. You kind of just sit back, watch it, relax, enjoy it. Not as much of a tear jerker as say a, this is us. But definitely entertaining if you're into those type of, of shows, you know, a little bit of comedy here and there. Um, but mostly just, you know, a decent drama to, to watch, you know, at the end of the day, a relaxing before heading off to bed.

Speaker 4:

Very cool. Sounds like a good thing. Thank you. Thank you for your Pec. My pick this week is a going to go in a slightly different direction, which I often tend to do a, I'm going to actually put out a podcast that I listened to that you have turned me on to my dear. Oh my, that's, that's how many of your insightful picks have been something that I've, yeah, I'm a, I'm a cultural swine. I know. I don't, I don't watch anything on my own. It's okay. I could admit to that. That's good. So this podcast is called undressed historia produced by Margo Collins. Uh, it is the official description as each episode of undressed Historia Takes One woman from history and discusses her life and impact. Why were certain women remembered a specific way and should their legacy be different from what popular history dictates? Um, there's currently six podcasts in here. Uh, there's a couple of podcasts that are two part podcast, but generally they don't go over half hour. Um, what I really enjoy about the podcast is that Margo Dell's into a detailed historical analysis of these women. And it's not what you would typically see in any other documentary or read in a history book. There's that. Cause you know, you can't get around the fact of the historical significance of a Cleopatra. Right? Um, but after reading, um, or, or rather after listening to the podcast, you'll walk away almost feeling like a personal connection to these people. The level of detail that Margo goes into, she explores the characters and I say characters, I mean their historical figures. She explores them in a way that humanizes them and it makes them real people. Yes. Cleopatra is, you know, uh, a monarch, she's a huge historical figure. She's played a huge role in so many important things that happened in history, but she was a person and she was a woman and she was a woman in a time when women didn't do what she did. Um, so a lot of what, what the podcast goes into where some of the challenges, some of the conflicts, um, but some of the personal details that you've run into and, and when you finish listening to you, you almost feel like you could sit down and talk to this historical person. Whereas typical history recounts of such figures, place them on a pedestal where they're to be observed but not interacted with. Um, and she, she does a fantastic job in her detailed, uh, research in each of these topics. Multisource she draws her own conclusions. She's not, she's not pulling a conclusion out of a history book. So she pulls multiple sources together, draws her own conclusion. But I think more importantly invites the listener to draw their own conclusion. Here's all the facts. Here's what I think the facts mean. What do you think the facts mean? Uh, it's a very engaging, uh, podcasts that when you, when you finish it, you, you don't feel like you know more information necessarily as much as you know the person. Um, and it's a very unique take on, on history and historical figures. Um, undressed. Historic can be found, all major podcast distributions, including iTunes, stitcher, and pod paradise. You can subscribe directly to the podcast@undressedhistoriadotpodbean.com, or you can find the podcast on Twitter at history, under score pod, or on Facebook at undressed Historia podcast. That's my pick of the week. Cool. So I think that will wrap us up this week. I think it does. Um, we'll be back next week with another great podcast. Thanks for joining us, everyone. All right. Thank you everyone.

Speaker 2:

[inaudible].

Introduction
Disney Detective
Entertainment News of the Week
Michelle's Insightful Pick of the Week
Joe's Insightful Pick of the Week