Stole My Line - A Fireside Film Podcast
'Lanterns' Episode 2 Does Everything Right - Fireside Discussion

Grant:
This is the strength of what he's trying to do with the DCU of like, you can have super compelling, very, very interesting genre pieces that work, but are in a superhero setting with characters that people appreciate and love-

Drew:
True.

Grant:
-and universes that people already know.

Drew:
Yeah.

[Intro]

Drew:
Alright guys, Lanterns, episode two.

Grant:
Season one.

Drew:
Is it better than episode one? Maybe.

Grant:
Maybe.

Drew:
It kind of might be actually.

Grant:
Is this show, the entirety of it, better than almost any other superhero thing I've seen in the past five years?

Drew:
So far, yes.

Grant:
Maybe not "everything," but the majority of stuff. This is in the upper echelon of superhero content I've seen in the past five years.

Drew:
It is very good so far.

Grant:
About as good as that fire is right now.

Drew:
This is one of the best fires we've had in a long time on Stole My Line, by the way.

Grant:
Welcome back to Stole My Line, by the way, A Fireside Film and TV Podcast where we talk about movies and TV outside by fire. I'm Grant.

Drew:
And I'm Drew.

Grant:
Lanterns. Season one, episode two. Drew, what did you think of episode two?

Drew:
I thought it was very good. Also, if you haven't seen it, we don't really do know "no spoiler" for episode by episode. So we will be spoiling one and two. If you haven't seen it, it's very good. Go watch it and then come back to this episode.

Grant:
If you've seen episode one and haven't seen episode two, go back and watch our episode one review where we talk about episode one that is up on the channel.

Drew:
But episode two, I thought it was very good.

Grant:
I thought it was as well.

Drew:
I think it's a slower pace than episode one-

Grant:
Yep.

Drew:
-which I liked. There was a whole lot of moments where I'm like, "this is great." I think there's a lot of cross-editing on tension.

Grant:
Yes, I agree.

Drew:
Like, when a big tense moment would happen, we cut to the other story.

Grant:
Yep.

Drew:
I thought it was great.

Drew:
I think it's a great way to build anticipation throughout the episode. I think Hal Jordan and John Stewart have phenomenal chemistry.

Grant:
Would completely agree.

Drew:
I think the mystery is very intriguing.

Grant:
I think this episode, not that the first episode did a bad job of introducing the mystery because it introduced a bigger mystery of, okay, spoiler warning if you haven't seen it, Hal Jordan is dead in 2026.

Drew:
That's true.

Grant:
But most of the show was set in 2016.

Drew:
Right.

Grant:
So there's this question that the show opens with of like, "how did Hal Jordan die? Why is he dead?" But then this basically opens up a whole other mystery. And I mean, again, this is like the big thing of this episode is like manhunters and like that is the mystery of the season and that is a compelling mystery too.

Drew:
Very compelling. And the fact that anyone could be the manhunter-

Grant:
Oh, yeah.

Drew:
-and I mean, we're going to play this detective game all season, I assume, and then reveal it in like episode seven or eight, probably.

Grant:
Yep.

Drew:
But that is very compelling. At this point, we have like three big threads going through, and that is who is, what's like his name? Cannon? That's not his name.

Grant:
No, you're... Wait, you're- Macon?

Drew:
Macon.

Grant:
Yes.

Drew:
Who's Macon's boss?

Grant:
Yes.

Drew:
Who is the manhunter? And who killed Hal Jordan?

Grant:
Yes.

Drew:
All very intriguing. And I think the show currently, now granted, half of- I would say 70% of a mystery movie is the payoff.

Grant:
Oh yeah, totally.

Drew:
If the payoff is bad, then it kind of sours everything.

Grant:
Totally.

Drew:
But this is a great way to build tension and great way to build intrigue.

Grant:
Yeah. And like, you introduce more characters. You have John Malkovich (not true btw) in this episode. His character is introduced. Like, you have... Sinestro is introduced in this episode.

Drew:
Yeah, that's true.

Grant:
So like this... The show is starting to grow a little bit. The first episode did a good job of introducing us to what the show will be, and then this episode expands on it. We talked about this last week of, you know, will the show linger in 2026? Are we going to just go straight into the 2026 mystery, or are we going to go back to 2016 and spend most of the time in 2016, but wrap up a 2026 storyline? Which is kind of what True Detective Season 1 does with the time jumps, and it wraps up in 2012. We are back in 2016 for literally the entirety of this episode.

Drew:
Yeah, we don't address it at all.

Grant:
Which I think is good.

Drew:
I liked it.

Grant:
Yeah. It leaves a lingering big question over the whole season that keeps everything compelling, even if you solve a smaller mystery, like, even if the mystery of the show is solved in episode 6, and we still have two more episodes, I'm still going to be so hyped for the last two episodes because I know there's a bigger mystery and bigger stakes, and potentially it could spill into later seasons.

Drew:
Yeah.

Grant:
So, yes. What did you think of- because the characters get split up-

Drew:
Yeah, that's true.

Grant:
-so what did you think of each of their respective arcs kind of within the episode?

Drew:
I liked it a lot. I mean, I think from a character perspective, Hal Jordan is kind of a jerk-

Grant:
Yeah.

Drew:
-especially in this episode. He doesn't care, at least, he doesn't perceive to the audience to care about John Stewart's training, and he's just, like, kicking him to the curb, and John Stewart says this in the episode.

Grant:
Yeah, it's like, he's in... sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off.

Drew:
Nah, you're good.

Grant:
He's in this middle area of, like, he knows he's above basically every other human.

Drew:
Right.

Grant:
And he's kind of sick of the fame, to a certain extent, but also he's not, like, head over heels for, like, being a Lantern either.

Drew:
True.

Grant:
So he's in this middle ground of, like, "I'm a celebrity, and that's fun, but I also don't love being a Lantern even though I am a Lantern, and I benefit from it remarkably."

Drew:
Yeah.

Grant:
I'm like, he isn't, like, the Lantern cadet that just loves every single thing about the Lanterns, so.

Drew:
That is true. And I think something with an A and a B storyline in a single episode that can be- that some shows have suffered from is the A story is super intriguing, and the B story is boring as frick.

Grant:
Not the case.

Drew:
Think Stranger Things 4, California, every time you're in California, you want to get away.

Grant:
Yep. Game of Thrones, any Bran storyline, I'm just ready to be done with Bran.

Drew:
Right.

Grant:
Yep.

Drew:
I would say the A and B story here are equally intriguing.

Grant:
No, 100%. Now, this is a miniature story within-

Drew:
Right.

Grant:
-one episode, but, I mean, it was kind of set up, even in the first episode, how and John don't really interact - I mean, they have a lot of scenes where they interact and they do stuff together - but this isn't a buddy cop thing.

Drew:
Right.

Grant:
They are separate solving similar or the same mysteries throughout the show, but, like, they are doing it in different manners, whether it's a plot device that gets them separated or they just get mad at each other and separate. But I don't know, I think, specifically, John's storyline, because at first I was like, "okay, he's just an errand boy, whatever," but then it gets super, super intriguing.

Drew:
Yeah.

Grant:
So.

Drew:
Yeah, I mean, I think that story arc completely reframes the first episode.

Grant:
Yes.

Drew:
Because you think the aliens are the bad guy, that's the tension point. They blow up the sheriff building and you're like, "okay."

Grant:
Yep.

Drew:
And then it gets reframed to whether this is true or not, we don't know yet, but like, "hey, the manhunter's came and basically killed us off."

Grant:
Yep.

Drew:
"And we need to find him-

Grant:
Yep.

Drew:
-or he's going to kill you off."

Grant:
Yep.

Drew:
And then there's the ticking time clock of, like, "48 hours, we're going to come and blow up half of Nevada-

Grant:
Yep.

Drew:
-to ensure he's dead." That's intriguing.

Grant:
Yep.

Drew:
And something else that stuck out to me, too, is when he, when John gets back, he still tells Hal everything.

Grant:
Yeah. I've seen a little bit of internet discourse about this, but I think this makes sense.

Drew:
I think it makes perfect sense.

Grant:
Because John has kind of been trained to be a Lantern.

Drew:
Yeah.

Grant:
Like, like in his mind, being a Lantern is a, is a, I don't want to say like a "holy" thing-

Drew:
Yeah.

Grant:
-but like it is the thing for him, at least for all that we know of his character right now. There's probably more backstory, but you know what I'm saying. And so in this moment of like tension, I mean, when he interacts with John Malkovich's character (still not true), whose name I can't remember off the dome, because I just watched the episode. But like, these guys are randos.

Drew:
Yeah.

Grant:
Like, they come out of nowhere, kidnap him, are basically like, "yeah, we want to get rid of these manhunters because they're bad and they're trying to kill everybody." And he's like, "okay," but then he immediately goes back to Hal and he's like, "okay, here's everything that just happened to me." But I think that makes sense for his character to go back to the Lantern that he knows that he's supposed to be mentored by, even if that is not the wisest decision, I do think it's the decision that he would make.

Drew:
I agree.

Grant:
But I want to hear your thoughts.

Drew:
No, I, the reason I like to do this, I think if I were in that position and Hal Jordan had been the biggest jerk for two episodes-

Grant:
Yes.

Drew:
-and I now had-

Grant:
Yeah.

Drew:
-serious information that I could use as leverage-

Grant:
With evidence, like, yeah.

Drew:
-with evidence to... and like, I think literally in the moments before John's like, "hey, what happened to your arm?" And Hal's like, "I got shot," but then he's like not giving him the full scoop of the information.

Grant:
Yeah.

Drew:
And if I were John in this situation, I would be like, "do you know what manhunters are?" And then leave it at that and use it as leverage. But he has enough like honor and discipline and respect for the chain of command to tell him everything. And I'm like, it is a great way to establish the difference in character between Hal and John.

Grant:
Yeah.

Drew:
And show that John truly buys this, like, gospel of the Lantern Corps and the chain of command-

Grant:
100%.

Drew:
-and everything.

Grant:
100%.

Drew:
Versus Hal's kind of rebellious nature.

Grant:
100%. Also, I have to correct myself (finally). I was saying John Malkovich, they look similar. It's actually Paul Ben-Victor-

Drew:
Okay.

Grant:
-that plays him. That's my bad. I don't know why I just thought they look similar. But yes, I mean, I don't know. I think the character tension has been built out well already in like, there's plot tension, there's a reason to solve the mysteries-

Drew:
Yeah

Grant:
-and then there's character tension.

Drew:
Sure.

Grant:
But then decisions are still made that make sense within the characters overall.

Drew:
There's also the tension of John and Hal are now both flirting with wives.

Grant:
Which is kind of crazy.

Drew:
I know. I'm like, "that's insane."

Grant:
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. And I think I've been lingering on the mystery of, like, "who is the manhunter?" I have my theories. I want to hear, Drew, if you have a theory.

Drew:
Currently, no. I mean, I, what's her name? Zoe, who is played by Poorna Jag...

Grant:
Ja...yep, you got that one.

Drew:
Jagannathan, that's-

Grant:
Sure.

Drew:
Yeah. That's wrong and butchered.

Grant:
Absolutely butchered that one. But it's okay.

Drew:
Who is Macon's wife?

Grant:
Yes.

Drew:
Feels super intriguing, super suspicious, obviously.

Grant:
Yes.

Drew:
Knows more than she's letting on. I feel like Macon is the obvious answer. I don't think it's Macon.

Grant:
No. I think the show is saying "you have to think it's Macon." It is not. Like, I think that if I had to give a guess right now, it's going to be Zoe.

Drew:
Sure.

Grant:
I also don't know, like, because there could be an even bigger plot twist, of like, "oh, what if it's Kerry?"

Drew:
Yeah, I thought that too.

Grant:
Like, and then you kind of go down the rabbit hole. Like, "well, it could literally be anybody in this town." So, like, I think that's where it gets super interesting and then the mystery becomes compelling because you want to keep watching to find out who manhunter is, so. I mean, we're basically just saying why this detective show is intriguing, but you'd be surprised at how many detective shows don't actually have a good mystery that's compelling.

Drew:
Yeah.

Grant:
So.

Drew:
This one has three.

Grant:
Yeah.

Drew:
I think something you said last episode, Grant, is you're like, "this is what Secret Invasion should have been." And the more I've thought about that sentence throughout the week and then watching this episode, I'm like... I mean, Marvel just missed. That could have been the most intriguing show...

Grant:
...Marvel had come up with.

Drew:
...of Marvel by a mile-

Grant:
Yeah.

Drew:
-but they missed the mark so hard on that one.

Grant:
And I don't want to get like too deep into the "James Gunn experiment" because it is like an ongoing debate-

Drew:
Yeah.

Grant:
-online, chronically, and will be until it's over. But this is the strength of what he's trying to do with the DCU of like, you can have super compelling, very, very interesting genre pieces that work but are in a superhero setting with characters that people appreciate and love.

Drew:
True.

Grant:
And universes that people already know.

Drew:
Yeah.

Grant:
But then, like, hey, if you like the show, go watch True Detective season one. You'll probably really enjoy that.

Drew:
Yeah.

Grant:
Like genuinely, if you're new to all of this.

Drew:
I feel like that was kind of pointed.

Grant:
Pointed at you a little bit because I bought you a Blu-ray of it.

Drew:
Grant's been trying to give me to watch True Detective for like three years. And I will.

Grant:
It's great.

Drew:
I will.

Grant:
Every time I watch it-

Drew:
I will.

Grant:
-I'm like, "hey, it's still great."

Drew:
I will.

Grant:
But I do think that this is the strength of the DCU.

Drew:
Yeah, I agree.

Grant:
Whereas like, yeah, Supergirl was maybe a step backwards. Superman has its own genre flair that you either love it or you hate it. I think this is a step in the positive direction.

Drew:
I would argue - granted, haven't seen Clayface...

Grant:
And we haven't seen the rest of Lantern. So like this could end badly.

Drew:
That's true. But so far, even just based on marketing, Lantern and Clayface are the strongest parts of the DCU. And I don't think that's the intention. Like I think Superman and Supergirl were supposed to be the front runners. Superman...

Grant:
Superman was a strong outing, a strong intro to the DCU in a general sense.

Drew:
Sure, yeah. And I need to rewatch it. But in my head, it's just kind of aged as like this very bland superhero movie...

Grant:
Which...

Drew:
....with a little bit of James Gunn flair.

Grant:
Yeah, sure, sure. I think the appeal of that movie, and even in Supergirl, the appeal was David Corenswet's Superman.

Drew:
Yeah.

Grant:
I still really like him honestly.

Drew:
I think he kills it. That's true.

Grant:
Like he's great.

Drew:
Yeah.

Grant:
No, but I think that if we get more pieces like this, I'm going to continue to look forward to DCU projects. And all signs point to James Gunn is not going to slow down with the genre pieces-

Drew:
True.

Grant:
-because we're getting a Jimmy Olsen mockumentary.

Drew:
Mockumentary, yeah.

Grant:
Which is kind of hilarious honestly-

Drew:
It is hilarious.

Grant:
-that that's being made. But like, at least he's trying something different, I guess-

Drew:
He's taking swings and you have to respect that.

Grant:
You do. Even if the swings are interesting.

Drew:
Well, sometimes you hit like a single and that's fine. But sometimes you hit a potential home run with Lanterns.

Grant:
Yeah. Well, I mean, again, I am cautiously optimistic about the future of the DCU-

Drew:
Sure.

Grant:
-with this project. This might be a case-by-case basis, but.

Drew:
I think it will be, yeah.

Grant:
I don't know. I am excited for the rest of Lanterns. I have a question.

Drew:
Yeah.

Grant:
So we're setting this small town in, we're in Nebraska right now-

Drew:
Yep.

Grant:
-for like the majority of the episode. But then at the end of the episode, Hal Jordan just up and dips. And goes to space and another planet.

Drew:
True.

Grant:
Which I don't mind. I think it makes sense for his character. We will learn more next episode, etc., etc. My question for you Drew is how do you feel about the powers so far, like the Lantern powers that have been used within the show. And then also how do you feel about kind of bringing in the more, I don't know, I guess superhero elements to the show that is, I mean basically just like a crime drama that is-

Drew:
Western, yeah, yeah.

Grant:
-in a superhero universe.

Drew:
That's a good question. I think- I think it has potential to feel jarring. To me it doesn't. And I think, again, I have- I need to do more research probably for next episode.

Grant:
Yep.

Drew:
Of who the Lantern Corps is. Like I know, I've, I know Sinestro's name. I know he's important. I don't know why. And I know there are Lantern fans in the comments. And please enlighten us.

Grant:
Yes.

Drew:
My understanding now is, if you have the ring, you are only limited by your creativity and what you can create.

Grant:
Yes.

Drew:
Which I think is cool enough? I think it has worked surprisingly well so far in this western world, even though it's been super scaled down probably.

Grant:
Yeah. Yeah, and we have elements of rules that are being introduced that I appreciate.

Drew:
Sure.

Grant:
Because I don't know the Lanterns super well. And this is a personal thing. I probably should know the Lanterns better. But like, we had rules last episode because he's in training. And then also we had the bird in this episode, which is super interesting. A new wrinkle to the show. So I am intrigued by the superhero parts of it. If anything, it makes it a little more palatable instead of like the classic superhero origin story where he gets his powers and then they figure out how they work and then they have their first fight. Like this is more interesting to figure out how these powers work-

Drew:
Right.

Grant:
-for me.

Drew:
And I think this show does a decent job of the exposition in this case of like, you have to recharge the ring. And keeping something alive without the ring is hard.

Grant:
Yes.

Drew:
And making a living thing is hard. I think if you had read the comics and he made a bird, you would have instantly known that. That would have been significant. We had not.

Grant:
Yes.

Drew:
So I think it's good.

Grant:
No, yeah. I think the show does a good job of making it palatable to new fans. And I want to hear more if you are a Lantern- like a Green Lantern fan, a Lanterns fan in general prior to the show, what you think of the show.

Drew:
Yeah.

Grant:
Because we've heard some mixed opinions of like, "man, I wish it was more abstract-

Drew:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Grant:
-and spacey and James Gun-y. "But then also I've heard a lot of people appreciate this show for what it is. Is there a middle ground? I don't know. I want to hear y'all's thoughts. That's kind of all I have on Lanterns season two-

Drew:
Yep.

Grant:
-episode, or season one episode two.

Drew:
Me as well. Educate us. If you like it, if you love it, if you hate it, if you don't like it, tell us why.

Grant:
Yeah. Should John Malkovich be in this show? Sorry about that one. That one was pretty erroneous. But I will not call him John Malkovich next episode. But yeah, let us know what you think of the DCU as a whole.

Drew:
Yep.

Grant:
Was Supergirl a massive failure? Are you excited for Clayface?

Drew:
We have a Supergirl and Superman episode up if you also want to watch that.

Grant:
Yeah, we've actually followed the DCU pretty closely and we will continue to do that.

Drew:
Yep.

Grant:
Are you into Marvel? We have a ton of Marvel stuff up on the channel. Drew, what do we have coming up on Stole My Line in general?

Drew:
Speaking of Marvel, we are going to talk about Doomsday.

Grant:
Yep.

Drew:
We're going to cover all the trailers, all the things. We're going to talk about Dune. We have a bunch of artsy movies around the corner.

Grant:
Yep.

Drew:
We have Fjord. We have Social Reckoning. We have, I almost said The Invite, not The Invite. The Debut-

Grant:
Yes.

Drew:
-by Jesse Eisenberg.

Grant:
Just saw that trailer.

Drew:
We got anything and everything, movie related, TV related-

Grant:
We have-

Drew:
-we're gonna talk about.

Grant:
-Spider-Man Hot Takes coming out later this week.

Drew:
True. That'll probably drop Thursday.

Grant:
We've got some other big stuff in the works.

Drew:
We have a video that we've been working on for probably two weeks now that is unlike anything we've ever done.

Grant:
Yep.

Drew:
We are really excited for it to come out. It'll come out September 1st.

Grant:
The idea has been circulating in our Stole My Line ideas chat for a while.

Drew:
For probably like six months. That video will also be paired with the biggest Stole My Line announcement to date.

Grant:
Yes.

Drew:
So stay tuned. It's going to be a big one. We're super excited.

Grant:
Our lips are sealed until that episode comes out. So subscribe if you're new to the channel.

Drew:
Yes. Subscribe.

Grant:
Thank you for being here. Tell me your favorite John Malkovich movie.

Drew:
Yep. Not related to Lanterns at all but we want to know.

Grant:
Yep. That's what we want to hear. We love you guys.

Drew:
We do.

Grant:
Take a break.

Drew:
And enjoy an HBO limited series.