Exciting and New · Jason, Andy, and Dana

S6 Mini 1 What are we watching?

January 5, 2026·38 min·3 clips

Emma Stone shaved her head for 'Begonia,' but is the movie good enough to justify it?

1. Exciting and New, Season 6 Mini 1, is a panel discussion with hosts Jason, Andy, Dana, and returning guest Zach, covering recent viewing across streaming platforms. 2. Zach last appeared on the podcast in August for the Ghoulies episode; his previous appearance before that was either Mortuary, Firstborn, or Jagged Edge earlier in the year. 3. The episode's loose format is a go-around where each host shares what they watched recently, with frequent crosstalk and shared reactions to titles everyone has seen. 4. The standout film discussed is Begonia (Peacock), directed by the director of Poor Things, starring Jesse Plemons as a rural conspiracy theorist who kidnaps Emma Stone's character believing she is an alien; Stavros Halkias plays a cop. 5. Both Jason and Dana independently watched Begonia without knowing the premise beforehand and report the same experience: theorizing about the ending midway through and being emotionally gripped by the score. 6. The group predicts Oscar nominations for Jesse Plemons ("definitely") and possibly Emma Stone, noting Stone shaved her head for the role. 7. Dana also watched One Battle After Another and debates whether Begonia or that film is better, ultimately preferring Begonia's emotional impact; Sean Penn is flagged as deserving a nomination for One Battle After Another. 8. Jason watched Stranger Things Season 5 and was notably moved at the end — citing the experience of watching these actors since childhood — while rating the cast's adult appearances unfavorably compared to Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Max (Sadie Sink). 9. The group discusses a specific Stranger Things Season 5 moment where Eleven needs to "recharge" and Jason expected Eggo waffles but received beef jerky instead. 10. Jason recounts the Chevy Chase documentary I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not, which covers drug use on the set of Modern Problems, his absence from the SNL 50th anniversary, and a Friars Club roast where no colleagues attended. 11. The Friars Club roast is described as featuring Lisa Lampanelli and Geraldo in an audience of strangers making drug-addict jokes, reportedly causing Chevy to cry afterward; the group notes the roast aired once on Comedy Central and was never repeated. 12. The documentary also covers Chevy's behavior toward SNL writer Terry Sweeney, including suggesting an AIDS-weight-loss sketch targeting Sweeney, and a Community set party where cast members publicly confronted him in front of his daughter. 13. Zach shares a We Hate Movies trivia anecdote: the tiebreaker question about how many current upcoming IMDb projects Eric Roberts has — the answer was 36, well above all panelists' guesses of 10-15. 14. Zach is rewatching Knight Rider (currently on Season 2) exclusively via the Roku channel app, having found it unavailable on other platforms; the group discusses streaming-platform fragmentation. 15. A Honus Wagner baseball card story emerges from Zach watching King of Collectibles Season 3 on Netflix: a family found their grandfather's ungraded Wagner card in a warehouse, and a graded-one copy is now worth approximately $7 million. 16. The Wagner card history is recounted: Wagner refused tobacco companies the right to use his image, so his cards were pulled from cigarette packs, making surviving copies extremely rare. 17. Jason built two Christmas Lego sets: Wicket the Ewok (1,010 pieces, 10 inches tall) and a Fender guitar with Marshall amp display (14 inches), and the group discusses the massive new Lego Death Star with 35 minifigures. 18. A Kindle Unlimited discussion involves Zach finding a literal placeholder bracket — "[insert name later]" — in a published e-book that had 3,000 reviews, and the group discusses AI-written books flooding the platform. 19. The tone is casual and conversational throughout, with crosstalk and tangents about streaming services, subscription fees, and Christmas presents dominating the second half. 20. Best suited for pop-culture fans who enjoy informal multi-host recommendation podcasts covering streaming films and TV, especially those interested in Begonia or the Chevy Chase documentary.

As heard by us

Easygoing hangout energy, old episode memories, and Stranger Things talk with Zach back in the mix.

This episode settles into an easy hangout, bringing Zach back into the mix and drifting from old episode memories into Stranger Things talk. The back-and-forth stays familiar: reactions, teasing, and a loose, good-natured pace that never tries to turn itself into something…

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Why you'd press play

For a loose check-in that starts with old movie recall and settles into Stranger Things chatter.

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