Important news first: Josh is back (for this episode, at least)! He’s taken a break from his new life of juggling childcare, work, and leaning in (dudes are allowed to do that too, right?) to talk about some of the most entertaining news in entertainment right now.

Idiocracies, Theocracies, and Dictatorships

First off in jump cuts, those wascally wegiswators are at it again, trying to classify anything on the internet that takes up more bandwidth than a Geocities site as a potential terrorist threat. You may have heard about net neutrality from John Oliver, and since it’s kind of a tech thing, normally Josh would only be covering this on the podcast he records inside his head. As you may have figured out, though, this could potentially affect Netflix, so the Screeners are all over it. This should be fun…

Next up, we’ve got another Biblical movie coming our way in December. Ridley Scott is taking on Exodus, subtitling it “Gods and Kings”. It looks epic, sure, but will it work? We’re sure Melody will love it, at least.

And now, for something completely different:  Chad’s already sung the (somewhat backhanded) praises of Seth Rogen and James Franco’s The Interview, but North Korea had to go and whine to the UN that the movie was actually an act of war, so we can’t help but talk about it again.

Oh, and because Josh heard Rogen and Franco’s names and really wanted to post this link somewhere again:  Watch this. You can thank us later. It was apparently shot on the set of The Interview, so there’s the tie-in, though we honestly don’t care if there’s a tie-in or not.

Speaking of Korea, there’s a South Korean movie opening around the country on demand while its theatrical release is still expanding. Snowpiercer is a unique sci-fi movie with a distribution model that’s gaining steam; have any of the Screeners joined the on demand bandwagon?

Well, At Least We’re Not Stuck in One Genre

This episode’s main event is a double feature, though the films could hardly be more different. We have a documentary about one of the most celebrated film critics in the history of film critics, and we have...a Planet of the Apes movie. Which is better? That’s like asking whether Beethoven’s music is better than Bob Dylan’s, whether Dickens wrote better than Hemingway...OK; we can’t keep that up. Just go ahead and listen - but before you do, guess which movie Josh hasn’t seen.

It’s That Time of Year Again...

The Emmys are upon us once more, and we think it’s in the podcast’s charter somewhere that we have to talk about awards shows, because what’s more fun than watching rich people in fancy clothes pat each other on the back, right?

Anyway, the Screeners don’t have time to talk about all the awards, but for this installment of the Cutting Room Floor, they’ve decided to take a look at the most traditionally “important” awards and predict two things about each:  which nominee will win, and which one should win. Come August 25, we’ll tally up the scores and give the winning Screener a golden...alright; we’ll probably just come up with some reason to mock them.

That about does it for this episode; join us next time for more Michael Bay bashing -- err, conversation about media! Don’t forget to join the conversation on Facebook!