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PODCAST

Tales From the Rec Room

Hello from Peak Show! Our new series is Tales From the Rec Room – a podcast that uses nostalgia as a jumping-off point for a discussion on pop culture, context, rabbit holes, pop psychology and more! Movies, TV, music, video games – did you first consume it via physical media in a rec room? Then we’ll cover it.

tv & film after shows

All Episodes

2:04:38

Crossroads

Tales From the Rec Room ·

2025/08/07

Would it even be a season of TFTRR without super best friend of the show Liz stopping by? Following up on our deep dive into millennial pop divas, we detour into pop star movie vehicle town on the weirdly slow cross-country road trip that is Crossroads. Were critics and audiences way too unfair to this movie or… was it actually kind of bad and we just feel guilty for everything else we put Britney through? Is it possible to include all this horrific subject matter in a movie targeted at tweens? Can

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2:16:12

Goodfellas

Tales From the Rec Room ·

2025/07/24

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a podcast host. Being a podcast host to me was better than being the president of the United States!Mynty Cicero returns to the podcast to discuss Goodfellas and, more broadly, the legacy of organized crime, the mafia, Martin Scorcese and his gangster movies. We go over the “film bro” persona that has been much discussed over the last 20 years and what role Scorcese and Goodfellas played in this. Bree tries to convince Mynt that Ray Liotta is a

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1:46:55

Super Smash Bros

Tales From the Rec Room ·

2025/07/17

No items, Fox only, Final destination.It’s time for our annual video game episode! Bree and video game culture correspondent Ted Raymond – host of Let’s Playmond With Ted Raymond – party (game) like it’s 1999 with a look back at Super Smash Bros and the franchise that followed. We discuss the divisive nerdiness and overcorrection that resulted in Melee’s pivot, the limitations of the cartridge era, Nintendo’s evolution to the party game platform and the very sexy Captain Falcon.

en-US

2:10:11

Harriet the Spy

Tales From the Rec Room ·

2025/07/10

Friend of the show Kelsey Goldman whip out their notebooks full of observations for their triumphant return to the mid-90s. In this fun and introspective episode, we revisit Nickelodeon’s first feature-length movie, Harriet the Spy. We discuss the evolution of the Kid Power genre, the movie’s meditations on the loneliness of childhood – which both of us experienced – Harriet’s iconic style and, of course, the career trajectory of the gone-too-soon Michelle Trachtenberg. There’s also a lot of

en-US

1:51:47

Yellowcard’s Ocean Avenue

Tales From the Rec Room ·

2025/06/26

Well-rounded multimedia producer and former music journalist Ryan Stephenson Price stops by to continue our journey through the early aughts and to go to where the podcast has never gone before: pop punk! Yellowcard’s violin gimmick didn’t win them a lot of fans with critics, but they were much loved by sort-of-angry teenagers everywhere – and then they sort of went away, and then came back, and then went away, but not really, and now they’re back again! We discuss the commercial rise of pop punk

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2:44:38

The Perks of Being a Wallflower with Helen Marukh

Tales From the Rec Room ·

2025/06/19

Former high school wallflower Helen joins Bree, who really should have been more of a wallflower in high school, to discuss the 1999 novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower. We discuss the pace of change in pop culture from the early to late 90s, how we see ourselves in Charlie, how to communicate deeply internalized feelings in a book versus a movie, how music shapes (or doesn’t shape) your adolescence and much more!This episode deals with issues of childhood sexual abuse and substance abuse.

en-US

1:57:18

The Butterfly Effect (2004) with Stephen Sajdak

Tales From the Rec Room ·

2025/06/12

Welcome to Season 3, where you can’t sleep at night, because everyone is screaming! We Hate Movies cohost, improviser and former Smash Mouth frontman impersonator Stephen Sajdak joins us to, for some reason, revisit the 2004 attempted Ashton Kutcher reinvention, The Butterfly Effect. We’d say Kutcher’s laughable attempt at a dramatic turn is the most offensive thing about this movie, but man, the mentally ill really get it, don’t they? In true TFTRR tradition, we go back to the best and the worst

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2:00:48

A Very Sunny Christmas

Tales From the Rec Room ·

2024/12/30

“You talk about things that are important to me, I’m gonna talk about Danny DeVito in that couch.”You really thought it was going to be a TFTRR special week without Liz? No way. Comms pro and hockey writer Liz shows up to discuss traumatic Christmas traditions, Rashoman-ing your own life, actors getting too pretty for their own good, the newfound stigma of rewatch podcasts and more. What were your favourite toys? What were your Christmas traditions? Turns out, we don’t care, we’re just watching

en-US

1:31:40

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

Tales From the Rec Room ·

2024/12/30

“Another sympathetic reaction is watching people above the age of 30 fall on their backs. How is he walking?!” New friend of the show Amber Flannery Field – the only good tour guide in New York City – stops by to discuss Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Strap the heck in for a discussion on the highly protected institution of the white American boy, the “clean-up” of New York City in the 90s, the racial politics of tourism, power, homelessness, violence and – look out below – Brenda Fricker. Settle

en-US

2:03:20

Marge Be Not Proud

Tales From the Rec Room ·

2024/12/29

“Would you buy an NHL game with Steven Lorentz on it?” “I mean… yes?” Shove this up your stocking! Bree and Mike Stephens get surprisingly all up in their feelings for a classic Christmas comfort watch: The Simpsons Season 7’s “Marge Be Not Proud.” We start Freud-raging, discussing the dynamic between mothers and sons, tough love, the lack of 90’s schmaltzy Christmas movies, the pain of Bart, and, of course, video game culture, uh huh?. Plus, a lot about Lawrence Tierney, that’s right. Well, try to

en-US

1:20:10

Urban Legend

Tales From the Rec Room ·

2024/08/22

After a summer of legendary audio issues, Bree and friend of the show Frederick Blichert cap off the season with a playful romp through a home viewing favourite (“favourite” might be generous for Bree), Urban Legend. The movie obviously apes Scream every chance it gets, which might make it the ultimate movie through which to explore the context of late 90’s blockbusters. In the fun of figuring out exactly what about this movie doesn’t work – when in fact there’s a bit about it that does work – we

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1:37:50

Mafia!

Tales From the Rec Room ·

2024/08/08

Welcome to the Jay Mohr Cinematic Universe, where your favourite comedy legends are apparently in mortal danger. Friend of the show Mikey “The Mouth” Stephens, having been heavily bribed and plied with favours and snacks, comes to discuss the infantile attempt at a mafia spoof, 1998’s Mafia! (also known as Jane Austen’s Mafia!, for some reason). Does this movie kind of work? (Mike says no, Bree says yes). What was the magic of the ZAZ-iverse (Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker) that was kinda missing here

en-US

1:47:17

Family Guy

Tales From the Rec Room ·

2024/07/25

Well, they can’t all be winners. Bree and sitcom retrospective expert José look back at the first three season of adult comedy “bad boi” Family Guy – the adult animation juggernaut accused of being everything from a Simpsons clone to one of America’s “worst TV shows for primetime viewing.” The show gained cult status thanks to the DVD box sets that littered many a rec room (hey, that’s the name of the show!) but… did it actually earn it? No, no, this show was just plain bad, even though teenage Bree

en-US

13 results

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