September 26, 2024 • 32 mins
You have to battle our 7 evil podcast exes to listen to this episode! Jason and Rosie jump into the time capsule to revisit one of the best adaptations of 2023, Netflix’s Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. In the Omnibus, Rosie digs into what makes this particular adaptation of a beloved comic so different and so special.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hello. My name is Jason Concepcion and I'm Rosie Knight,
and welcome back to Xtra Vision of the podcast where
we dive deep into your favorite shows, movies, comics, and
pop culture. Coming to you from My Heart podcast, where
we're bringing you two episodes a week, every Tuesday and Thursday.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
In today's episode, in the Airlock, we'll step it out
of that airlock and into the time capsule to talk
Scott Pilgrim takes Off, one of the best TV shows
of the year on Netflix right now. It's incredible. In
the omnibus, I'm gonna be talking about why this particular
adaptation works and how it differs from other adaptations we've
seen before.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
But first let's pop open the time capsule to recap
Scott Pilgrim takes Off.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So, if you have seen in Scott Pilgrim Versus the
World That's right, then you likely felt or read the
first episode or read the comics you were like, oh,
I know what's going on. This is use beautifully animated remake,
and it's stunningly animated by Science Saru, and I'm sure
that's exactly what the creative team wanted us to feel.
(01:18):
We meet Scott, his bandmates Stephen Stills and Kim Pine,
his friends Young Neil, his seventeen year old girlfriend Knives
Shower Boo Scott, boo but yeay Knives. We love Knives,
but boo Scott, she's seventeen. After he falls for a
Netflix DVD delivery girl, Ramona Flowers, he ends up in
an awkward situation at the Battle of the Bands where
Knives is there and Ramona's there and it's just like
(01:41):
the movie and Ramona's first evil X shows up Matthew Patel,
and you think, oh, okay, yeah, we get it.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Scott's gonna beat.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Him and it's gonna go on like we think. No,
Matthew Pettel beat Scott in the first fight at the
Battle of the Bands, and Scott is seemingly killed and
turned into a pile of coins, which I legit screamed
when I saw it, like I was like, what the fuck.
I was like, oh my god, this is absolutely not
(02:07):
what I thought it was. And onto episode.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Two, Episode two, you'd think it certainly. Matthew Battel thinks
that his defeating Scott would get him entree into the
heart of one Romona Flowers, but no, Roona's rejects him
and blames herself for Scott's death. But don't do that, Ramona, also,
don't do that. Don't waste your time thinking about this guy.
(02:31):
But whatever. Gideon getting Graves, mister billionaire tech billionaire, guy
at the center of everything, gives up his company. Ramona
decides to go on a search for Scott, who she
believes might be alive somewhere. This must be faked or
where could he be. Matt takes over getting in Graves's
(02:53):
company and takes on the role of the new billionaire
in the.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
World, which is great. The idea that you can just
you you just win in a fight and then you're like,
I'm the leader, I'm the CEO of Yeah, I have
c we do that. Can we just go? Can we
just go and fight?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Sign this contract? Remember in the contract you said you
would give over everything, Gideon, And he's like, okay, yes,
we said, and this is where we should mention one thing. Yeah,
they got every actor from the Scott Pilgrim movie to
reprise their role in Scott Pilgrim takes off everybody.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
It's it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
It costs.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yes, Chris, you're talking about some of the biggest names
that have gone on to do these incredible things since.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Then, King Wells has been Karen Coulkin, Award winning, award
winning Kieran Culkin.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Like, there are so many unbelievable people who kind of
careers almost started here. I mean when pre Lawson played
MV Adams in the original movie, she was like nineteen,
she was a baby. So yes, we are now living
in a no Scott world in a Scott Pilgrim TV show,
and this is so bloody cleverless because really, Brian Ley, O'Malley, Ben,
(04:11):
David Garvinsky, they've realized that the best thing you could
do in Scott Pilgrim is make Scott a side character
and we basically get to explore all the different interesting
people that are surround Scott who we've met in the comics,
we've met in the movies. So one of those people
is sweet young Neil, and Young Neil has been inspired
(04:33):
into action after Scott's death. He's worried that his life
is going to end without him doing anything, so he
decides that he's going to write a screenplay. He struggles
to write it, but in the middle of the night
he sees a mysterious person and suddenly the screenplay is there,
so he's like, did I write it? Did I not
write it? And he is very sucked into this, which
(04:54):
he calls Scott Pilgrim's precious little life. And while he
is writing or not writing that, Ramona and destigates Scott's
death and finds out via security footage from the battle
of the band's venue that he was pulled into a
portal before.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Matthew could strike.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Love that, and we get one of my favorite series
moments here, which is Ramona and her evil ex. One
of her evil ex is Roxy, who she dated in
college and she said it was just a phase. In
the movie, they have a huge fight, beautifully animated by
Science Seru. But the best thing is they make up
because Romona actually takes responsibility for the fact that she
treated Roxy super callously and kind of just left. And
(05:31):
the show starts to reveal its true colors here, which
is this is a show about Ramona. Romona gets to
be the hero. Ramona gets to exist outside of just
being a trophy for Scott. And Ramona also gets to
be held accountable and help the people in her life
that she might have let down get some closure, and
we get to see that really huge moment and reunion,
(05:52):
and then we see Gideon Gideon Graves, who's real name
really Gordon.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Goose, Gordon Goose, finish him, Gordon Goose, and he seeks
refuge in none other than Scott Pilgrim's enemy, Julie Powers played.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
By Aubrey Plaza, who works in the coffee shop and
she works everywhere.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Works and then put works in air quotes.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
She done, she works, she works, she works. Yeah, she
just turns up everywhere. But guess what now, Gordon Goose
and Julie Powers are a little team and that leads
us into the next episode.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
So Ramona is now on a mission to find out
about this portal. So she decides next to confront her
one of her evil exes, one of the League of
Evil Exes, the famously brooding actor and skateboarder Lucas Lee,
to see if he's involved in this, played by none
other than Captain America Chris Evans.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
And by the way the way they animate, there is
a skating sequel in this episode. There is probably one
of my favorite scenes from.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
It looks like SX tricky, Like it's really great.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yeah, it's so stylized and so beautiful. And of course
Lucas is an actor, so why is he in town. Well,
he's been cast a skull, that's right in the movie.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
So Lucas has been, as mentioned, has been cast in
the movie based on Neil's screenplay titled Scott Pilgrim's Precious
Little Life, the very one that imagined Scott's life as
if he'd actually beaten Matthew Patel will as well. Scott's
(07:29):
sassy roommate is cast as himself, which is a wonderful move.
But of course there must be chaos, there must be action.
Lucas is caught dating the actress playing knives. Enter the paparazzi,
who are just interested in everything that Lucas does. There
(07:50):
ensues an action sequence in which Lucas must fight them off.
After a long grueling battle, Lucas and Ramona patch things up.
She helps him sneak out the studio, and just as
an agent is dropping him, Lucas assures Ramona that he
has nothing to do with the portal. We also get
like a wonderful flashback in which we see how Lucas
(08:12):
and Ramona first started their relationship. It's actually like quite touching,
and it brings up something that I love about this series,
which is, you know, Scott's a dick and he's very careless,
and that's there in the comic, and that's there in
the movie, and that's there in this But also this
is a story about breakups, about breakups and being young,
(08:35):
about how do you about how when you're young you
feel everything like ten times because you're feeling it for
the first time, and you get breaken up with and
you feel like, this is the worst thing that ever happened,
and how could this be done to me? And you're
such a the person who broke up with me is
such a villain. And then all of a sudden, it's
your turn to break up with somebody and now you're
(08:58):
the villain. And this story encapsulates those feelings about what
it's like to all of a sudden be on the
other side of it where you have to be the
bad person that tells someone that you don't have the
feelings anymore, and what that is like, and how that's
just like a part of life. And I think it
does it really well. It's so winning. It's so great.
(09:35):
Back to our story, enter evil ex todd Ingram envs
superpowered vegan boyfriend, of course, deriving his power from the
power of veganness. He decides to audition for Scott by
arriving through the portal. This leaves Ramona thinking very suspiciously
(09:57):
about what's going on, and we're onto the next episode.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
So from here things get even more meta, where Scott's
ultimate evil x Envy from class at Demonhead played by
Brie Larson, is cast as Ramona in the movie, as
Wallace is cast as himself. He's on the set all
the time and he decides he's gonna seduce Todd and
that goes well for them. They have a little affair,
and then just when it seems like the movie might
(10:22):
get made, Matthew Patel returns and reveals he is the
new studio owner and he shuts down production on Scott
Pilgrim's Little Life, but young Ile's friends suggest to him,
why don't you turn it into a stage play where
you play Scott. How about that? Don't worry about Hollywood,
just do that, my friend, And then we're on to
the next episode. Only three left. Now things are getting crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Every episode has an incredible action set piece. That is,
it feels like it's like twenty percent of the episode,
and each of them you think you've seen them all,
and you think, if you understand Scott Pilber, that you're
going to know what the action se'es. And they're not
like that. Each one is like its own different flavor.
(11:07):
You mentioned the Lucas Lee skateboarding scene. Every one of
them is different in its own way. We meet up
again now with Gordon, who is transitioning to being this
homeless guy who is crashing at somebody else's house and
doesn't have a job and doesn't have a lot to do.
(11:30):
But Gordon has kind of struck up a interesting friendship
with none other than top Hollywood actor, although kind of
on the downside of his career, Lucas Lee. Meanwhile, Ramona
has decided to confront Julie. She reveals that Gordon, who
has been crashing at her place, has been too depressed
to do anything at all, literally.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Anything at all, any plans.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
He's just sitting around being friends with Lucas Lee.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
They head back. As head back to Julie's place, they
suddenly notice a robot that has been a lot of
different places is also there at Julie's What's this robot?
Doing here. The robot, once Ramona notices it, just leaves,
just gets up and leaves elsewhere. Stephen and Knives come
(12:20):
up with an idea for, as Rosie mentioned, the stage
play version of Scott Pilgrit's Precious Little Life. Ramona figures
out that the Katayangi Twins, the Evil Ex's part of
her Evil X league, created this robot to be vegan
(12:40):
and it created the portal. Then sex Ba ba bomb
drops a bombshell on Ramona. Neil didn't write the play.
How could he have written the play? He woke up
and then he had a tire screenplay. There's no way
that happened. Somebody's like Okham's Razor, Neil, you didn't go
to sleep and wake up with a full screen play
on your computer. Somebody else wrote it? Who did it?
(13:04):
Who could have done it? Finally, whom Scott does show
up on Romota's doorstep, validating her theory, but with a
twist that he claims he set the whole thing up himself.
And we're on the next episode.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Dune, And in the perfectly named penultimate episode to Scott
two Pilgrim, which is just so good, we learn that
Scott's future self is the one who pulled him through
the portal because in the future after you know, Scott
defeated Matthew and the Evil exes him and Ramona got
(13:42):
married yay, happy ending, No, because they ended up getting
a divorce. So future Scott wanted to pull young Scott
out and say, don't even get into it, man, Like,
don't even try to win her over, because you're all
end up heartbroken and you end up.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Like me Scott.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Young Scott doesn't buy it, but I think it's a
really interesting deep episode where we get to have this
kind of conversation about the fear of commitment and like
what if your life doesn't go the way you expect
it to, and you know, it's kind of the ultimate breakup,
the breakup after you've been married, Like it's a show
about breakups throughout your life, and this one has just
destroyed this guy and kind of turn him into like
(14:24):
an old man Logan type kind of Lono in a
dystopian universe, hanging out with the Captain Yagi twins and
their robot. And the sad truth is that he just
can't get through to Scott even though it's it's like
I get it but Scott is just like what you're
talking about, Like, I don't know what's going on. And
then we meet old man logan version of Ramona, who
(14:45):
are gonna call future old romonaat by the way, she
looks great, dude, truly, she's looking looking stunning, and she
helps Scott get back to the past, also revealing it
was her who wrote the screenplay because she love Scott
and she wants him to remember the version of their
life that they could have if they won. And they
(15:05):
came together and we're very happy, even if it was
just for a little while, and we're on to the phenal.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Scott and Ramona figure out that none of the Evil
Exes are behind any of this. During the play, things
go from extremely chaotic and crazy when a deranged even
older Scott, even older Scott teleports Scott, his friends, Ramona,
(15:32):
and the League of Evil Exes away, revealing that he's
the mastermind behind this whole thing, because like, why not
throw in an extra Scott? We need an extra Scott
m hm.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
At this point, we got so many Scotts, so many Ramonas.
Oh yeah, because what's something I didn't mention is that
when Scott and Ramona get back from the past to
the past, and they think everything's okay. They can't kiss,
that's right. It's like a force field that's stopping them
from kissing. And that is what even older Scott has created.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Why because he doesn't want Scott, young Scott, any version
of his previous selves to fall in love with Ramona.
He wants Roona out of his life so he doesn't
become this twisted and sad old man who can't get
over the fact that Ramona doesn't want to be with him.
Although does she not want to be with him? This
(16:20):
is another I think this is another asterisk in his career. Scott,
even older Scott, thinks that Ramona broke up with him,
when actually Ramona's like, wait, aren't we just like on
a break? Like didn't I just want to take.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Time anyway, Yeah, which is really funny because in the books,
which are really great they and I believe the first
the first volume is called Scott Bilgo's Prescious Little Life,
And something I really love about them is like they
do just they go on for so long that you
get to spend lots of time with these characters. And
there is just like a year where Scott and Ramona
(16:53):
just like aren't together and that kind of stuff happens,
And I love the idea that in this like Ramona
is like, like we can get back together, we can
do the work. But older Scott in the future has
just given up. He's like, no, we got divorced.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
There's nothing else to do. So it's really an interesting
kind of treatise on like commitment and how much you're
willing to make things work and how much you'll fight
for someone, and whether Scott even really wants to be
with Rona if she's fighting for herself rather than him
fighting the exes, So it's really interesting and they're in
like some strange limin or space. But luckily there are
(17:28):
three Ramonas as well as three Scotts.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
So the evil exes try to fight, even older Scott
because he wants to kill everybody and also wants to
make sure that his past self never falls in love
with Ramona. Ramona decides she's done running from her life
and she's accepted the choices that she's made and she
(17:53):
embraces her older self, merging to become Supermona. She sends
older Scott back to the future and successfully kisses Scott Pilgrim.
They return to the play just in time to catch
Gordon because shouts out to Knives, who figures out that
this is where you're gonna find everybody all together, the
(18:15):
Evil Exes, everybody. They're gonna be at ass play because
there's the live stage play that's happened. They're all gonna
be there. Meanwhile, Matthew, worn out by all the drama,
decides to return his properties and focus on being a
stage actor. Luke is, showing he's not just a pretty face,
takes up work as a barista, which he enjoys with, Yeah,
it's this is so good.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
I love the way that in the you know, in
the in the movie.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
In the books, when the Evil Exes are killed, they
become piles of coins that dead or whatever. I love
that they were like, here's what happens if they didn't die.
And there's you know, Lucas is like a barista and
everyone's going now watching him do his fancy like milk
shaw and he's looking all hunky and his ape friend.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Roxy helps Todd train to keep his vegan powers sharp
and then check that cut of Yngie Twins continue to
work on Robots, Wallace finds love in Paris after splurging
his film money on a vacation, and knives joined sex
but ba Bomb as keyboardist as it shouldn't have been,
(19:19):
with Envy occasionally joining when she wants to. Ramona continues
her work as a stunt double because she's a badass
and that's what she should be doing. In a mid
credits scene, just when you think it's all over, Gordon
and Julia back at it, seemingly plotting against Scott and
Ramona as we head into a possible season two.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Love this show. I loved Scott Pilgrim already. I love
Scott Pilgrim the movie. That was a hugely formative movie
for me. I love that soundtrack. I still listen to
it like all the time. I have course played as
Romona Flowers when I used to walk at the comic shop.
But I think this surpass is it.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
It's really really great.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Massively because it's so good, it's so surprising, it's so funny.
But then again, it doesn't work unless you have the
other pieces as companion work. So this, to me is
the perfect kind of adaptation. I think, if you're doing
the third, if you're doing the second or third reimagining
of a character, actually reimagine it. And this was done
with Brian Ley O'Malley, who is the creator who's been
(20:20):
listening to these conversations for twenty years, you know, since
the books came out, and I think him and Ben
David Garbinsky did such a good job making this accessible, beautiful,
really well made animated series that should have been released
weekly like X Men ninety seven. If that, even if
you just dropped the first episode and then had a break,
(20:41):
the conversation that would have happened around it.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Would have been so fantastic.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
And I mean, what an achievement to be able to
get all the cast back when that is just such
a massive, massive effort to get these huge Hollywood stars. Also,
another thing I love about it is that I love
the fact that they give Matthew Patel like this whole
character arc because he's the first person who gets killed.
(21:07):
He's a person of color, and in the movie it's
like he does have a great moment, a great musical sequence,
but he doesn't get much more than that, and I
love that they gave him this art care. But in
the end, he's like being a CEO is like really rough,
like I don't want a billion dollars, Like let me
just live my life as a working actor. I mean
it's to me. I just think it's almost a perfect adaptation.
(21:28):
It was totally once.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
It's really really great. And again, if you are a
Scott Pilgrim fan and you think I know this story,
you don't know how they did it this time you don't.
And they did something super smart, which is make Scott
Pilgrim really like a side character in his own story
until basically the end, like he exits episode one, and
(21:51):
then the entire middle of the series is about in
air quotes, these side characters, their stories, the things that
they're doing. There's some shocking romance in here, shouts to
Wallace and Lucas, Lee Todd. And it's great. It's really
(22:12):
really fun. It's got the energy of the comic and
of the original. The music continues to be fantastic. It's
just wonderful. The action is so good. It's up next.
Rosie is going to take you even deeper into Scott
Pilgrim takes off and tell you why it's one of
the best adaptations ever yet.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Welcome to another edition of the Omnibus where law, analysis
and understanding come together. Today, I'm going to take you
through why I think Scott Pilgrim takes off as one
of the best adaptations of all time. This is from
a piece that I wrote at IgM when the show debuted,
and I just absolutely was blown away by the way
that they chose to adapt this show. So adapting Brian
(23:10):
Ley O'Malley's beloved comic turned cult film for Netflix seems
like it would be an easy and relatively safe bet.
Scott Pilgrim's a fun, dynamic story that plays with the
tropes and trappings of manga and fighting games and has
an immense imbolt nostalgia and fan base, not because it's
been you know, nineteen years since the comic debuted, but
also because of the twenty ten movie and the cast
(23:30):
who have gone on to become some of the biggest
stars in the world. In case you haven't seen Eggar
Wright's charmingly stylized film or read the vibrant source material,
the story centers around the titular slacker, Scott Pilgrim played
by Michael Sira, who finds a girl of his dreams,
Romona Flowers played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and has to
fight has several Evil x's before he can date her.
Since twenty ten, the love for the film and comic
(23:52):
has only grown. The movie was one of those classic
movies where it didn't really make much much money at
the box office, but the whole cult hit once it
hit home video, and it's kind of wild that the
whole cast decided to come back for the Netflix anime version,
which was animated by the legendary Science Through Studios. But
what the streamer and creators O'Malley and Ben David Gribinski
(24:14):
managed to keep under wraps is that this isn't a
remake or a sequel, it's something else Entirely. During the
opening twenty five minutes of the twenty eight ish minute
first episode, it's easy to believe, as we spoke about
that you're watching a pretty much shot for shot and
beautifully animated remake of the film and the comics. We
see Scott and his band sex per Bomb. They go
to the Rocket, a local Toronto dive. Bar Ramona's first
(24:35):
Evil X, Matthew to Tell played by Satya, saw our
barber attacks but in a moment that, as I said,
literally Mami Yell, Scott loses the fight. It's an astonishing
twist that immediately reveals the show isn't what we think
it's going to be, and something that the title had
cleverly been hinting about all along. Scott Pilgrim is gone
and we're left to follow the fallout. It's a huge
swing that, after watching all eight episodes, absolutely pays off.
(24:58):
Scott's failure in subs quin disappearance allows the series to
spend time with its ridiculously stacked cast of characters. Highlight
include Scott's seventeen year old kind of girlfriend knives Chow
played by Ellen Wong, his call gay roommate Wallace Wells,
Kieran Culkin, and sexper Bomb's sarcastic drummer kim Pie Alison Pill,
along with all of Ramona's evil exes like the power
(25:18):
hungry Patel Vegan Clash, a demon head drummer bass player
todd ingram and the angsty lesbian hockey player Roxy Richtor.
Of course, there's Ramona Flowers herself, who gets to be
the hero of her own story here, rather than a
trophy to be secured through a series of badass fights.
That change speaks to another of the most powerful and
likely divisive choices that the show makes. Grabinsky and O'Malley
(25:39):
are constantly in conversation with viewers and readers who love
Scott Pilgrim in all of its forms. It almost feels
like an act of anti fan service that instead respects
the audience while challenging it to grow with the stories
and characters, rather than settling into familiarity. Of course, it's
a maturing of the story that makes sense O'Malley published
the first volume almost twenty years ago, and also makes
(26:00):
the series stand out from other adaptations. This is an
additive experience, one that weaves the characters in the world
that we know with extra context, clarity, and thought amid
the stunning animation and beautifully directed action that feels like
another game changing addition to the Netflix slate. There's a
focus on making amends and moving past the mistakes we've made.
Whereas the exes in the film will with dispatched post haste,
(26:20):
here they live on and Ramona realizes and often apologizes
for the impact she had on them. Knives gets to
exist out of Stockott's orbit, something that also happened in
the comics, but in an entirely new way. By realizing
she's a proficient musician, and with the help of Kim
joins Sex bebom herself. Other characters get expanded lives. Todd
falls in love, Lucas Lee finds his calling as a barista,
(26:41):
Julie reconnects with her old lover. As Scott for himself,
the show doesn't truly dispense with him, instead playing with
some delightfully fun comic book tropes to send him on
a journey to the future where he reconsiders and commits
to his relationship with Ramona. It brings a depth to
their romance that's always been a key part of the
draw of O'Malley's slice of life story. That's something that
(27:02):
the truncated timeline of the film only touched on, but
Scott Pilgrim takes off embraces it. Ana Manigucci, who also
scored the cult Scott Pilgrim versus the world video game
craft relaxing beats that create an enjoyably chill soundscape for
a quiet moment between the battles. While Hollywood is dealing
with what some would call comic book movie fatigue, Scott
Pilgrim takes off as a breath of fresh air. It's
a reminder of how vibrant and exciting an adaptation can
(27:24):
be when the people who love and know the source
material are willing to take risks. Pretty much every other
major studio could learn vital lessons from what Grabrinsky and
O'Malley have done here. Let's just hope that they heed them,
and maybe then the future of comic book adaptations will
look bright again. And you can read that article. It
ign along with many of my other articles. And yes,
I do truly think this is one of the best
(27:46):
adaptations that we've ever had. But we've had a great
year for adaptations because we also got Shogun, we got
House of the Dragon, which I love. So yeah, it's
a good year for adaptations. Thank you for listening, and
now let's do Who's Who.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
We like to end every episode with a series of
fast moving segments. This week It's Who's Who, in which
we will name our favorite multiverse slash multiple versions of
the same person stories. Rosie, what's your no? I'll start that,
Lena start with what Listen. Some people say, oh, multiverse,
(28:19):
the multiverses, all these multiverse stories. Look at all these
multiverse stories are very, very old, and that brings me
to my selection, which I think might be the OG.
I'm talking about eighteen forty three's banger Christmas Carol by
Charles Dickens. Oh shit, I think it might be the OG, folks.
(28:40):
I think it might be the original multiple versions of
yourself branching timeline story in which my brain, your gude
Ebenezer Screwedge, is taken by various ghosts to see moments
from his life, and then he's taken into the future
to see what life could be like if he continues
(29:01):
on his path of being a rich, miserately dick. It's
a great one. It's a classic.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
This is incredible. You blow in my mind because also,
I think in an incredibly meta take as well. It
is also probably one of the stories that has the
most adaptations, so each of them almost acts as its
own multiverse as well. I love that.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
That is such a good call.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Ten out of ten. Also, mup at Christmas Carol. Hey,
I just need to say it's the best Christmas Carol,
but I love all Christmas Carols equally. That is a
very good story, and I absolutely love that pick. I
think you're right that probably is the OG. Okay, I'm
gonna go for Okay, it's more of like a scary one,
So I'm gonna go for coral because I love Coraline,
(29:49):
I love the little I loved.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
The stop motion.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
I think Lika did an incredible job adapting it. And
I like that that is a kind of multiverse where
you go to a different world to come only to
basically realize we are in the right place, you know.
I like that story, like your home, where you actually live,
is where you should be. So I think that is
a really good one. I also do think everything everywhere
(30:12):
all at once. Man is up there with best multiverses
of all time. I mean, I still remember the first
time I watched that movie. Okay, another one blast from
the past, but it is getting a re release currently,
which I cannot wait. Is a Run, Lola Run, which
we used to watch so much when I was a charasie.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah, and and that you kind of get these different
versions of what could happen. And I really that was
a that was a perennial blockbuster sleepover pick when I
was growing up.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
I don't know why.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
I feel like I must have had housie friends.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
But yeah, we are blessed with many multiverses, not just
in the Marvel and DC universe, guys, there's so many
multiverses all over the place they're living. They're living it
up everywhere.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
There's a different in it. What what are the multi
versus and me and Jason, I don't know. We're probably
doing something else, probably just like watching some basketball or something,
just like a slightly different version of this universe. We're
just wearing a different colored T shirt. You don't know
how different the multiverses are. They don't all have to
be crazy, you know.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Do you think you're evil in any multiverse?
Speaker 4 (31:18):
Cash multiverse?
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Definitely? Come on, I would like to imagine. I would
like to imagine I'm not. But if there's really a multiverse,
if we're talking about like every timeline living alongside each
other like string theory style, I'm sure there is an
evil Rosie in one of those. Like as much as
I don't like it, there's probably an evil Rosie and
Jason and we probably do a really annoying podcast about
like I don't know, supplements or something.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Well, this has been an evil Jason and evil Rosie.
And that's it for this episode. Thanks for listening. Spoiler
bye x ray Vision is hosted by Jesus, Its Obscene
and Real Night, and is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
(32:03):
Our executive producers are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our
supervising producer is a Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen
Laurent and Mia Taylor. Our theme song is by Brian Basquez.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Laude, Kenny Goodman
and Heidi our discoored moderator.
Hello. My name is Jason Concepcion and I'm Rosie Knight,
and welcome back to Xtra Vision of the podcast where
we dive deep into your favorite shows, movies, comics, and
pop culture. Coming to you from My Heart podcast, where
we're bringing you two episodes a week, every Tuesday and Thursday.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
In today's episode, in the Airlock, we'll step it out
of that airlock and into the time capsule to talk
Scott Pilgrim takes Off, one of the best TV shows
of the year on Netflix right now. It's incredible. In
the omnibus, I'm gonna be talking about why this particular
adaptation works and how it differs from other adaptations we've
seen before.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
But first let's pop open the time capsule to recap
Scott Pilgrim takes Off.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So, if you have seen in Scott Pilgrim Versus the
World That's right, then you likely felt or read the
first episode or read the comics you were like, oh,
I know what's going on. This is use beautifully animated remake,
and it's stunningly animated by Science Saru, and I'm sure
that's exactly what the creative team wanted us to feel.
(01:18):
We meet Scott, his bandmates Stephen Stills and Kim Pine,
his friends Young Neil, his seventeen year old girlfriend Knives
Shower Boo Scott, boo but yeay Knives. We love Knives,
but boo Scott, she's seventeen. After he falls for a
Netflix DVD delivery girl, Ramona Flowers, he ends up in
an awkward situation at the Battle of the Bands where
Knives is there and Ramona's there and it's just like
(01:41):
the movie and Ramona's first evil X shows up Matthew Patel,
and you think, oh, okay, yeah, we get it.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Scott's gonna beat.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Him and it's gonna go on like we think. No,
Matthew Pettel beat Scott in the first fight at the
Battle of the Bands, and Scott is seemingly killed and
turned into a pile of coins, which I legit screamed
when I saw it, like I was like, what the fuck.
I was like, oh my god, this is absolutely not
(02:07):
what I thought it was. And onto episode.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Two, Episode two, you'd think it certainly. Matthew Battel thinks
that his defeating Scott would get him entree into the
heart of one Romona Flowers, but no, Roona's rejects him
and blames herself for Scott's death. But don't do that, Ramona, also,
don't do that. Don't waste your time thinking about this guy.
(02:31):
But whatever. Gideon getting Graves, mister billionaire tech billionaire, guy
at the center of everything, gives up his company. Ramona
decides to go on a search for Scott, who she
believes might be alive somewhere. This must be faked or
where could he be. Matt takes over getting in Graves's
(02:53):
company and takes on the role of the new billionaire
in the.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
World, which is great. The idea that you can just
you you just win in a fight and then you're like,
I'm the leader, I'm the CEO of Yeah, I have
c we do that. Can we just go? Can we
just go and fight?
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Sign this contract? Remember in the contract you said you
would give over everything, Gideon, And he's like, okay, yes,
we said, and this is where we should mention one thing. Yeah,
they got every actor from the Scott Pilgrim movie to
reprise their role in Scott Pilgrim takes off everybody.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
It's it's unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
It costs.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yes, Chris, you're talking about some of the biggest names
that have gone on to do these incredible things since.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Then, King Wells has been Karen Coulkin, Award winning, award
winning Kieran Culkin.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Like, there are so many unbelievable people who kind of
careers almost started here. I mean when pre Lawson played
MV Adams in the original movie, she was like nineteen,
she was a baby. So yes, we are now living
in a no Scott world in a Scott Pilgrim TV show,
and this is so bloody cleverless because really, Brian Ley, O'Malley, Ben,
(04:11):
David Garvinsky, they've realized that the best thing you could
do in Scott Pilgrim is make Scott a side character
and we basically get to explore all the different interesting
people that are surround Scott who we've met in the comics,
we've met in the movies. So one of those people
is sweet young Neil, and Young Neil has been inspired
(04:33):
into action after Scott's death. He's worried that his life
is going to end without him doing anything, so he
decides that he's going to write a screenplay. He struggles
to write it, but in the middle of the night
he sees a mysterious person and suddenly the screenplay is there,
so he's like, did I write it? Did I not
write it? And he is very sucked into this, which
(04:54):
he calls Scott Pilgrim's precious little life. And while he
is writing or not writing that, Ramona and destigates Scott's
death and finds out via security footage from the battle
of the band's venue that he was pulled into a
portal before.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Matthew could strike.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Love that, and we get one of my favorite series
moments here, which is Ramona and her evil ex. One
of her evil ex is Roxy, who she dated in
college and she said it was just a phase. In
the movie, they have a huge fight, beautifully animated by
Science Seru. But the best thing is they make up
because Romona actually takes responsibility for the fact that she
treated Roxy super callously and kind of just left. And
(05:31):
the show starts to reveal its true colors here, which
is this is a show about Ramona. Romona gets to
be the hero. Ramona gets to exist outside of just
being a trophy for Scott. And Ramona also gets to
be held accountable and help the people in her life
that she might have let down get some closure, and
we get to see that really huge moment and reunion,
(05:52):
and then we see Gideon Gideon Graves, who's real name
really Gordon.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Goose, Gordon Goose, finish him, Gordon Goose, and he seeks
refuge in none other than Scott Pilgrim's enemy, Julie Powers played.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
By Aubrey Plaza, who works in the coffee shop and
she works everywhere.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Works and then put works in air quotes.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
She done, she works, she works, she works. Yeah, she
just turns up everywhere. But guess what now, Gordon Goose
and Julie Powers are a little team and that leads
us into the next episode.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
So Ramona is now on a mission to find out
about this portal. So she decides next to confront her
one of her evil exes, one of the League of
Evil Exes, the famously brooding actor and skateboarder Lucas Lee,
to see if he's involved in this, played by none
other than Captain America Chris Evans.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
And by the way the way they animate, there is
a skating sequel in this episode. There is probably one
of my favorite scenes from.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
It looks like SX tricky, Like it's really great.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yeah, it's so stylized and so beautiful. And of course
Lucas is an actor, so why is he in town. Well,
he's been cast a skull, that's right in the movie.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
So Lucas has been, as mentioned, has been cast in
the movie based on Neil's screenplay titled Scott Pilgrim's Precious
Little Life, the very one that imagined Scott's life as
if he'd actually beaten Matthew Patel will as well. Scott's
(07:29):
sassy roommate is cast as himself, which is a wonderful move.
But of course there must be chaos, there must be action.
Lucas is caught dating the actress playing knives. Enter the paparazzi,
who are just interested in everything that Lucas does. There
(07:50):
ensues an action sequence in which Lucas must fight them off.
After a long grueling battle, Lucas and Ramona patch things up.
She helps him sneak out the studio, and just as
an agent is dropping him, Lucas assures Ramona that he
has nothing to do with the portal. We also get
like a wonderful flashback in which we see how Lucas
(08:12):
and Ramona first started their relationship. It's actually like quite touching,
and it brings up something that I love about this series,
which is, you know, Scott's a dick and he's very careless,
and that's there in the comic, and that's there in
the movie, and that's there in this But also this
is a story about breakups, about breakups and being young,
(08:35):
about how do you about how when you're young you
feel everything like ten times because you're feeling it for
the first time, and you get breaken up with and
you feel like, this is the worst thing that ever happened,
and how could this be done to me? And you're
such a the person who broke up with me is
such a villain. And then all of a sudden, it's
your turn to break up with somebody and now you're
(08:58):
the villain. And this story encapsulates those feelings about what
it's like to all of a sudden be on the
other side of it where you have to be the
bad person that tells someone that you don't have the
feelings anymore, and what that is like, and how that's
just like a part of life. And I think it
does it really well. It's so winning. It's so great.
(09:35):
Back to our story, enter evil ex todd Ingram envs
superpowered vegan boyfriend, of course, deriving his power from the
power of veganness. He decides to audition for Scott by
arriving through the portal. This leaves Ramona thinking very suspiciously
(09:57):
about what's going on, and we're onto the next episode.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
So from here things get even more meta, where Scott's
ultimate evil x Envy from class at Demonhead played by
Brie Larson, is cast as Ramona in the movie, as
Wallace is cast as himself. He's on the set all
the time and he decides he's gonna seduce Todd and
that goes well for them. They have a little affair,
and then just when it seems like the movie might
(10:22):
get made, Matthew Patel returns and reveals he is the
new studio owner and he shuts down production on Scott
Pilgrim's Little Life, but young Ile's friends suggest to him,
why don't you turn it into a stage play where
you play Scott. How about that? Don't worry about Hollywood,
just do that, my friend, And then we're on to
the next episode. Only three left. Now things are getting crazy.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Every episode has an incredible action set piece. That is,
it feels like it's like twenty percent of the episode,
and each of them you think you've seen them all,
and you think, if you understand Scott Pilber, that you're
going to know what the action se'es. And they're not
like that. Each one is like its own different flavor.
(11:07):
You mentioned the Lucas Lee skateboarding scene. Every one of
them is different in its own way. We meet up
again now with Gordon, who is transitioning to being this
homeless guy who is crashing at somebody else's house and
doesn't have a job and doesn't have a lot to do.
(11:30):
But Gordon has kind of struck up a interesting friendship
with none other than top Hollywood actor, although kind of
on the downside of his career, Lucas Lee. Meanwhile, Ramona
has decided to confront Julie. She reveals that Gordon, who
has been crashing at her place, has been too depressed
to do anything at all, literally.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Anything at all, any plans.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
He's just sitting around being friends with Lucas Lee.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
They head back. As head back to Julie's place, they
suddenly notice a robot that has been a lot of
different places is also there at Julie's What's this robot?
Doing here. The robot, once Ramona notices it, just leaves,
just gets up and leaves elsewhere. Stephen and Knives come
(12:20):
up with an idea for, as Rosie mentioned, the stage
play version of Scott Pilgrit's Precious Little Life. Ramona figures
out that the Katayangi Twins, the Evil Ex's part of
her Evil X league, created this robot to be vegan
(12:40):
and it created the portal. Then sex Ba ba bomb
drops a bombshell on Ramona. Neil didn't write the play.
How could he have written the play? He woke up
and then he had a tire screenplay. There's no way
that happened. Somebody's like Okham's Razor, Neil, you didn't go
to sleep and wake up with a full screen play
on your computer. Somebody else wrote it? Who did it?
(13:04):
Who could have done it? Finally, whom Scott does show
up on Romota's doorstep, validating her theory, but with a
twist that he claims he set the whole thing up himself.
And we're on the next episode.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Dune, And in the perfectly named penultimate episode to Scott
two Pilgrim, which is just so good, we learn that
Scott's future self is the one who pulled him through
the portal because in the future after you know, Scott
defeated Matthew and the Evil exes him and Ramona got
(13:42):
married yay, happy ending, No, because they ended up getting
a divorce. So future Scott wanted to pull young Scott
out and say, don't even get into it, man, Like,
don't even try to win her over, because you're all
end up heartbroken and you end up.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
Like me Scott.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Young Scott doesn't buy it, but I think it's a
really interesting deep episode where we get to have this
kind of conversation about the fear of commitment and like
what if your life doesn't go the way you expect
it to, and you know, it's kind of the ultimate breakup,
the breakup after you've been married, Like it's a show
about breakups throughout your life, and this one has just
destroyed this guy and kind of turn him into like
(14:24):
an old man Logan type kind of Lono in a
dystopian universe, hanging out with the Captain Yagi twins and
their robot. And the sad truth is that he just
can't get through to Scott even though it's it's like
I get it but Scott is just like what you're
talking about, Like, I don't know what's going on. And
then we meet old man logan version of Ramona, who
(14:45):
are gonna call future old romonaat by the way, she
looks great, dude, truly, she's looking looking stunning, and she
helps Scott get back to the past, also revealing it
was her who wrote the screenplay because she love Scott
and she wants him to remember the version of their
life that they could have if they won. And they
(15:05):
came together and we're very happy, even if it was
just for a little while, and we're on to the phenal.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Scott and Ramona figure out that none of the Evil
Exes are behind any of this. During the play, things
go from extremely chaotic and crazy when a deranged even
older Scott, even older Scott teleports Scott, his friends, Ramona,
(15:32):
and the League of Evil Exes away, revealing that he's
the mastermind behind this whole thing, because like, why not
throw in an extra Scott? We need an extra Scott
m hm.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
At this point, we got so many Scotts, so many Ramonas.
Oh yeah, because what's something I didn't mention is that
when Scott and Ramona get back from the past to
the past, and they think everything's okay. They can't kiss,
that's right. It's like a force field that's stopping them
from kissing. And that is what even older Scott has created.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Why because he doesn't want Scott, young Scott, any version
of his previous selves to fall in love with Ramona.
He wants Roona out of his life so he doesn't
become this twisted and sad old man who can't get
over the fact that Ramona doesn't want to be with him.
Although does she not want to be with him? This
(16:20):
is another I think this is another asterisk in his career. Scott,
even older Scott, thinks that Ramona broke up with him,
when actually Ramona's like, wait, aren't we just like on
a break? Like didn't I just want to take.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Time anyway, Yeah, which is really funny because in the books,
which are really great they and I believe the first
the first volume is called Scott Bilgo's Prescious Little Life,
And something I really love about them is like they
do just they go on for so long that you
get to spend lots of time with these characters. And
there is just like a year where Scott and Ramona
(16:53):
just like aren't together and that kind of stuff happens,
And I love the idea that in this like Ramona
is like, like we can get back together, we can
do the work. But older Scott in the future has
just given up. He's like, no, we got divorced.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
There's nothing else to do. So it's really an interesting
kind of treatise on like commitment and how much you're
willing to make things work and how much you'll fight
for someone, and whether Scott even really wants to be
with Rona if she's fighting for herself rather than him
fighting the exes, So it's really interesting and they're in
like some strange limin or space. But luckily there are
(17:28):
three Ramonas as well as three Scotts.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
So the evil exes try to fight, even older Scott
because he wants to kill everybody and also wants to
make sure that his past self never falls in love
with Ramona. Ramona decides she's done running from her life
and she's accepted the choices that she's made and she
(17:53):
embraces her older self, merging to become Supermona. She sends
older Scott back to the future and successfully kisses Scott Pilgrim.
They return to the play just in time to catch
Gordon because shouts out to Knives, who figures out that
this is where you're gonna find everybody all together, the
(18:15):
Evil Exes, everybody. They're gonna be at ass play because
there's the live stage play that's happened. They're all gonna
be there. Meanwhile, Matthew, worn out by all the drama,
decides to return his properties and focus on being a
stage actor. Luke is, showing he's not just a pretty face,
takes up work as a barista, which he enjoys with, Yeah,
it's this is so good.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
I love the way that in the you know, in
the in the movie.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
In the books, when the Evil Exes are killed, they
become piles of coins that dead or whatever. I love
that they were like, here's what happens if they didn't die.
And there's you know, Lucas is like a barista and
everyone's going now watching him do his fancy like milk
shaw and he's looking all hunky and his ape friend.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
It's so good.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Roxy helps Todd train to keep his vegan powers sharp
and then check that cut of Yngie Twins continue to
work on Robots, Wallace finds love in Paris after splurging
his film money on a vacation, and knives joined sex
but ba Bomb as keyboardist as it shouldn't have been,
(19:19):
with Envy occasionally joining when she wants to. Ramona continues
her work as a stunt double because she's a badass
and that's what she should be doing. In a mid
credits scene, just when you think it's all over, Gordon
and Julia back at it, seemingly plotting against Scott and
Ramona as we head into a possible season two.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Love this show. I loved Scott Pilgrim already. I love
Scott Pilgrim the movie. That was a hugely formative movie
for me. I love that soundtrack. I still listen to
it like all the time. I have course played as
Romona Flowers when I used to walk at the comic shop.
But I think this surpass is it.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
It's really really great.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
Massively because it's so good, it's so surprising, it's so funny.
But then again, it doesn't work unless you have the
other pieces as companion work. So this, to me is
the perfect kind of adaptation. I think, if you're doing
the third, if you're doing the second or third reimagining
of a character, actually reimagine it. And this was done
with Brian Ley O'Malley, who is the creator who's been
(20:20):
listening to these conversations for twenty years, you know, since
the books came out, and I think him and Ben
David Garbinsky did such a good job making this accessible, beautiful,
really well made animated series that should have been released
weekly like X Men ninety seven. If that, even if
you just dropped the first episode and then had a break,
(20:41):
the conversation that would have happened around it.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
Would have been so fantastic.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
And I mean, what an achievement to be able to
get all the cast back when that is just such
a massive, massive effort to get these huge Hollywood stars. Also,
another thing I love about it is that I love
the fact that they give Matthew Patel like this whole
character arc because he's the first person who gets killed.
(21:07):
He's a person of color, and in the movie it's
like he does have a great moment, a great musical sequence,
but he doesn't get much more than that, and I
love that they gave him this art care. But in
the end, he's like being a CEO is like really rough,
like I don't want a billion dollars, Like let me
just live my life as a working actor. I mean
it's to me. I just think it's almost a perfect adaptation.
(21:28):
It was totally once.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
It's really really great. And again, if you are a
Scott Pilgrim fan and you think I know this story,
you don't know how they did it this time you don't.
And they did something super smart, which is make Scott
Pilgrim really like a side character in his own story
until basically the end, like he exits episode one, and
(21:51):
then the entire middle of the series is about in
air quotes, these side characters, their stories, the things that
they're doing. There's some shocking romance in here, shouts to
Wallace and Lucas, Lee Todd. And it's great. It's really
(22:12):
really fun. It's got the energy of the comic and
of the original. The music continues to be fantastic. It's
just wonderful. The action is so good. It's up next.
Rosie is going to take you even deeper into Scott
Pilgrim takes off and tell you why it's one of
the best adaptations ever yet.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Welcome to another edition of the Omnibus where law, analysis
and understanding come together. Today, I'm going to take you
through why I think Scott Pilgrim takes off as one
of the best adaptations of all time. This is from
a piece that I wrote at IgM when the show debuted,
and I just absolutely was blown away by the way
that they chose to adapt this show. So adapting Brian
(23:10):
Ley O'Malley's beloved comic turned cult film for Netflix seems
like it would be an easy and relatively safe bet.
Scott Pilgrim's a fun, dynamic story that plays with the
tropes and trappings of manga and fighting games and has
an immense imbolt nostalgia and fan base, not because it's
been you know, nineteen years since the comic debuted, but
also because of the twenty ten movie and the cast
(23:30):
who have gone on to become some of the biggest
stars in the world. In case you haven't seen Eggar
Wright's charmingly stylized film or read the vibrant source material,
the story centers around the titular slacker, Scott Pilgrim played
by Michael Sira, who finds a girl of his dreams,
Romona Flowers played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and has to
fight has several Evil x's before he can date her.
Since twenty ten, the love for the film and comic
(23:52):
has only grown. The movie was one of those classic
movies where it didn't really make much much money at
the box office, but the whole cult hit once it
hit home video, and it's kind of wild that the
whole cast decided to come back for the Netflix anime version,
which was animated by the legendary Science Through Studios. But
what the streamer and creators O'Malley and Ben David Gribinski
(24:14):
managed to keep under wraps is that this isn't a
remake or a sequel, it's something else Entirely. During the
opening twenty five minutes of the twenty eight ish minute
first episode, it's easy to believe, as we spoke about
that you're watching a pretty much shot for shot and
beautifully animated remake of the film and the comics. We
see Scott and his band sex per Bomb. They go
to the Rocket, a local Toronto dive. Bar Ramona's first
(24:35):
Evil X, Matthew to Tell played by Satya, saw our
barber attacks but in a moment that, as I said,
literally Mami Yell, Scott loses the fight. It's an astonishing
twist that immediately reveals the show isn't what we think
it's going to be, and something that the title had
cleverly been hinting about all along. Scott Pilgrim is gone
and we're left to follow the fallout. It's a huge
swing that, after watching all eight episodes, absolutely pays off.
(24:58):
Scott's failure in subs quin disappearance allows the series to
spend time with its ridiculously stacked cast of characters. Highlight
include Scott's seventeen year old kind of girlfriend knives Chow
played by Ellen Wong, his call gay roommate Wallace Wells,
Kieran Culkin, and sexper Bomb's sarcastic drummer kim Pie Alison Pill,
along with all of Ramona's evil exes like the power
(25:18):
hungry Patel Vegan Clash, a demon head drummer bass player
todd ingram and the angsty lesbian hockey player Roxy Richtor.
Of course, there's Ramona Flowers herself, who gets to be
the hero of her own story here, rather than a
trophy to be secured through a series of badass fights.
That change speaks to another of the most powerful and
likely divisive choices that the show makes. Grabinsky and O'Malley
(25:39):
are constantly in conversation with viewers and readers who love
Scott Pilgrim in all of its forms. It almost feels
like an act of anti fan service that instead respects
the audience while challenging it to grow with the stories
and characters, rather than settling into familiarity. Of course, it's
a maturing of the story that makes sense O'Malley published
the first volume almost twenty years ago, and also makes
(26:00):
the series stand out from other adaptations. This is an
additive experience, one that weaves the characters in the world
that we know with extra context, clarity, and thought amid
the stunning animation and beautifully directed action that feels like
another game changing addition to the Netflix slate. There's a
focus on making amends and moving past the mistakes we've made.
Whereas the exes in the film will with dispatched post haste,
(26:20):
here they live on and Ramona realizes and often apologizes
for the impact she had on them. Knives gets to
exist out of Stockott's orbit, something that also happened in
the comics, but in an entirely new way. By realizing
she's a proficient musician, and with the help of Kim
joins Sex bebom herself. Other characters get expanded lives. Todd
falls in love, Lucas Lee finds his calling as a barista,
(26:41):
Julie reconnects with her old lover. As Scott for himself,
the show doesn't truly dispense with him, instead playing with
some delightfully fun comic book tropes to send him on
a journey to the future where he reconsiders and commits
to his relationship with Ramona. It brings a depth to
their romance that's always been a key part of the
draw of O'Malley's slice of life story. That's something that
(27:02):
the truncated timeline of the film only touched on, but
Scott Pilgrim takes off embraces it. Ana Manigucci, who also
scored the cult Scott Pilgrim versus the world video game
craft relaxing beats that create an enjoyably chill soundscape for
a quiet moment between the battles. While Hollywood is dealing
with what some would call comic book movie fatigue, Scott
Pilgrim takes off as a breath of fresh air. It's
a reminder of how vibrant and exciting an adaptation can
(27:24):
be when the people who love and know the source
material are willing to take risks. Pretty much every other
major studio could learn vital lessons from what Grabrinsky and
O'Malley have done here. Let's just hope that they heed them,
and maybe then the future of comic book adaptations will
look bright again. And you can read that article. It
ign along with many of my other articles. And yes,
I do truly think this is one of the best
(27:46):
adaptations that we've ever had. But we've had a great
year for adaptations because we also got Shogun, we got
House of the Dragon, which I love. So yeah, it's
a good year for adaptations. Thank you for listening, and
now let's do Who's Who.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
We like to end every episode with a series of
fast moving segments. This week It's Who's Who, in which
we will name our favorite multiverse slash multiple versions of
the same person stories. Rosie, what's your no? I'll start that,
Lena start with what Listen. Some people say, oh, multiverse,
(28:19):
the multiverses, all these multiverse stories. Look at all these
multiverse stories are very, very old, and that brings me
to my selection, which I think might be the OG.
I'm talking about eighteen forty three's banger Christmas Carol by
Charles Dickens. Oh shit, I think it might be the OG, folks.
(28:40):
I think it might be the original multiple versions of
yourself branching timeline story in which my brain, your gude
Ebenezer Screwedge, is taken by various ghosts to see moments
from his life, and then he's taken into the future
to see what life could be like if he continues
(29:01):
on his path of being a rich, miserately dick. It's
a great one. It's a classic.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
This is incredible. You blow in my mind because also,
I think in an incredibly meta take as well. It
is also probably one of the stories that has the
most adaptations, so each of them almost acts as its
own multiverse as well. I love that.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
That is such a good call.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Ten out of ten. Also, mup at Christmas Carol. Hey,
I just need to say it's the best Christmas Carol,
but I love all Christmas Carols equally. That is a
very good story, and I absolutely love that pick. I
think you're right that probably is the OG. Okay, I'm
gonna go for Okay, it's more of like a scary one,
So I'm gonna go for coral because I love Coraline,
(29:49):
I love the little I loved.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
The stop motion.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
I think Lika did an incredible job adapting it. And
I like that that is a kind of multiverse where
you go to a different world to come only to
basically realize we are in the right place, you know.
I like that story, like your home, where you actually live,
is where you should be. So I think that is
a really good one. I also do think everything everywhere
(30:12):
all at once. Man is up there with best multiverses
of all time. I mean, I still remember the first
time I watched that movie. Okay, another one blast from
the past, but it is getting a re release currently,
which I cannot wait. Is a Run, Lola Run, which
we used to watch so much when I was a charasie.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Yeah, and and that you kind of get these different
versions of what could happen. And I really that was
a that was a perennial blockbuster sleepover pick when I
was growing up.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
I don't know why.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
I feel like I must have had housie friends.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
But yeah, we are blessed with many multiverses, not just
in the Marvel and DC universe, guys, there's so many
multiverses all over the place they're living. They're living it
up everywhere.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
There's a different in it. What what are the multi
versus and me and Jason, I don't know. We're probably
doing something else, probably just like watching some basketball or something,
just like a slightly different version of this universe. We're
just wearing a different colored T shirt. You don't know
how different the multiverses are. They don't all have to
be crazy, you know.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Do you think you're evil in any multiverse?
Speaker 4 (31:18):
Cash multiverse?
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Definitely? Come on, I would like to imagine. I would
like to imagine I'm not. But if there's really a multiverse,
if we're talking about like every timeline living alongside each
other like string theory style, I'm sure there is an
evil Rosie in one of those. Like as much as
I don't like it, there's probably an evil Rosie and
Jason and we probably do a really annoying podcast about
like I don't know, supplements or something.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Well, this has been an evil Jason and evil Rosie.
And that's it for this episode. Thanks for listening. Spoiler
bye x ray Vision is hosted by Jesus, Its Obscene
and Real Night, and is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
(32:03):
Our executive producers are Joelle Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our
supervising producer is a Boo Zafar. Our producers are Carmen
Laurent and Mia Taylor. Our theme song is by Brian Basquez.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Laude, Kenny Goodman
and Heidi our discoored moderator.
Hosts And Creators
Jason Concepcion
Rosie Knight
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