Episode [368]- 2023 Pop Culture Draft-- January 4, 2024

The podcast that has showed great restraint and waited until pretty much the end of the year.

Participants

• Ian Karmel: recording this on December 29th, saw his last serious movie consideration 36 hours ago, pre-order T-Shirt Swim Club
• Sean Jordan: opening for the Sklar Brothers tonight at Healing Comedy Club, smash that subscribe button on YouTube
• David Gborie: heading to Snow Jam in Sioux Falls, was at the Denver Nuggets parade, getting a Red Bull
• Alison Herman: TV critic at Variety, responsible for everything on their 100 Greatest TV Shows list she agrees with, exclusively a Hailey Bieber strawberry glazed donut aficionado

Draft Order This week's winner of Rock, Paper, Scissors is Alison, scissors against two rocks — an unnatural victory. Alison sets the order based on the layout of faces on her Zoom screen. As Sean explains the serpentine draft: "It's like putting up Christmas lights. Back and forth." The order is Alison, David, Ian, Sean.

Round 1

Pick 1.1 | Alison Herman | Barbenheimer 

Pick 1.2 | David Gborie | The Taylor Swift Eras Tour (and accompanying film) 

Pick 1.3 | Ian Karmel | Succession (Final Season) 

Pick 1.4 | Sean Jordan | Jury Duty

Round 2

Pick 2.1 | Sean Jordan | John Wick: Chapter 4 

Pick 2.2 | Ian Karmel | The Bear (Season 2) 

Pick 2.3 | David Gborie | Bottoms 

Pick 2.4 | Alison Herman | Killers of the Flower Moon

Round 3

Pick 3.1 | Alison Herman | The Scandoval (Vanderpump Rules) 

Pick 3.2 | Ian Karmel | Ariana DeBose's BAFTA Rap 

Pick 3.3 | David Gborie | The Grimace Shake 

Pick 3.4 | Sean Jordan | The Mischief Big Red Boots

Round 4

Pick 4.1 | Sean Jordan | The Fall of the House of Usher 

Pick 4.2 | Ian Karmel | The Holdovers 

Pick 4.3 | David Gborie | The Denver Nuggets NBA Championship 

Pick 4.4 | Alison Herman | May December

Round 5

Pick 5.1 | Alison Herman | The WGA/SAG-AFTRA Strikes (and their resolution) 

Pick 5.2 | Ian Karmel | Olivia Rodrigo (GUTS) 

Pick 5.3 | David Gborie | The Arrest in the Murder of Tupac Shakur 

Pick 5.4 | Sean Jordan | Nate Bargatze Hosting SNL

Producer's Pick Isaac Lee | Ted Lasso (Season 3)

Honorable Mentions Beyoncé's Renaissance Tour; Stop Making Sense reissue; LeBron's scoring record; Draymond Green; New Jeans; Beef; Reservation Dogs; The Last of Us; Past Lives; Zone of Interest; Scavenger's Reign; Young Fathers album; Barry (series finale); The Late Late Show (series finale)

Quotes From This Episode

• "I felt like Homer Simpson eating the donuts." — Ian Karmel (on the overstuffed year in pop culture)
• "Picasso could have heard Aerosmith." — Sean Jordan
• "This is my Watergate." — Alison Herman's boss (on the Scandoval)
• "Stop putting hot people in weird stuff." — Ian Karmel (on Wonka)
• "It's good. We did a job." — David Gborie (doing his Nikola Jokić impression)
• "Angela Bassett did the thing. Viola Davis, my woman king!" — Ian Karmel (doing his Ariana DeBose impression)