The Plot Podcast - Episode 19 - Pulse/Kairo (2001)

Dust in the Wind. What happened to Michi’s (Kumiko Aso) friend? From Pulse (2001).

It’s spooky season, so let’s have a review of famous 2001 J-horror film Pulse aka Kairo [Circuit], written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurasawa.

It’s literally a “ghost in the machine” plot, as it appears a group of Japanese students have found out the dead are trying to come back to our world through … the internet? Luckily, it’s 2001, so it takes a while thanks to dial-up.

While some of the deaths are horrific, none are anything I’d call gory by 2023 standards. And not as many jump scares as you’d expect from a J-horror picture.

And if sounds familiar, it’s because there was a 2006 American remake starring Kristen Bell and one of the guys from Lost who never seemed to become a breakout star. But dont make the mistake of watching the wrong one. The Japanese version is a somber reflection about loneliness and solitude, which certainly hits harder now in a post-COVID world. The other is a horrible remake that took the plot but not the soul of its predecessor. I mean, it’s so bad, that there’s a joke about it in another Kristen Bell movie (Finding Sarah Marshall).

The Plot - Episode One - Mission Impossible 1966

What happens when a safecracker breaks his hands? Willy (Peter Lupus) and Terry (Wally Cox) from the Mission: Impossible pilot episode.

We’re happy to debut a new podcast series in conjuction with the When It Was Cool network with the first episode of The Plot. What’s that, you ask? It’s going to be an examination of the spy/heist genre. It will look at film, television, comics, cartoons and whatever else that can fall under that umbrella.

First up, we go to the very top of the genre for me, the original Mission Impossible TV show, which ran on CBS from 1966 to 1975. Naturally, we start with the Pilot, which starred Steven Hill as Dan Briggs, the team leader, along with regulars Barbara Bain, Greg Morris, Peter Lupus, Martin Landau and guest star Wally Cox. We look at the background on the show and then some brief chat about the episode itself, where the team goes to a Caribbean country to stop a dictator from using newly-acquired nuclear warheads against the United States.

We also look at arguably the most-remembered episode of the show, Season 3’s The Execution. We have Peter Graves in his second year as Jim Phelps, the regular team and guest villains Vincent Gardenia, Val Avery and Lew Askew. The team needs to get the goods on a mobster trying to control food prices and must get a hitman to rat out his boss by making him believe he is days away from being killed in the gas chamber.

This episode was a little shorter than we planned, but didnt want to just add filler. It was the demo episode, so please forgive any hiccups or glitches. We’ll be back soon with another episode.

Thanks to Karl for the invitation. Make sure you sample the other shows on the When It Was Cool Network.

Episode 109 - Stray Cat Strut

The Injustice Society, from History of the DC Universe. Pencils by George Perez, inks by Karl Kesel.

(c) 2021 DC Comics.

We’re happy to welcome Karl Kesel (@karlkesel) back for his annual visit to discuss the latest Impossible Jones kickstarter. At the time of recording, there were two days left in the Impossible Jones / Polecat Kickstarter, which has been trying to reach its latest stretch goals in the final days. Karl tells about new character Polecat, what he has in common with last issue’s guest star Captain Lightning and some of the other new friends and foes in this issue. We also talk about the Even Steven back-ups this time around, with new origin stories being written by Alex Segura and Gail Simone. Karl also updates on us the state of the latest Section Zero project, on which he and Tom Grummett are still working. If you listen before the deadline, you can still pledge at impossiblekickstarter.com.

We also talk about some of Karl’s older work, starting with Final Night, the 1998 DC mini-series he created with Stuart Immonen, the Amalgam and Unlimited Access books and some of the projects he worked on with the late George Perez, including the great History of the DC Universe, written by Marv Wolfman, drawn by George and inked by Karl. We also discuss, in a wonderfully nerdy way, the differences between DC’s Who Who and the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

Parish Notice: By the time you listen to this, we might have a new podcast officially launched over at the When It Was Cool Network. If you’re a long-time listener of the pod, the subject of this new project will not be a surprise. Be on the lookout on social media when it actually debuts.