Overthinking It Podcast

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Episode 903: How Can You Run a Dystopian Government If You Don’t Know What Gilligan’s Island Is? Oct 27, 2025

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The year is 2025. The United States has devolved into an authoritarian, dystopian society where violence is used as a form of social control. In a stunning act of defiance, three brave podcasters–Pete Fenzel, Mark Lee, and Matt Wrather–fight back by analyzing the 1987 version of The Running Man, just in time for the Edgar Wright re-adaptation of the original Steven King novel to hit the big screens. We haven’t seen it yet, but it’s safe to say it will be very different from the quip-and-kill Schwarzenegger version that doesn’t really have anything coherent to say about the use of violence in entertainment, except, perhaps, “this is awesome.” But it does come down super hard against floral print button down shirts.

The panelists compare the movie to other notable examples where violence as spectacle is front and center: Gladiator, Robocop, and The Hunger Games. They also try to rationalize the role of the show in-universe as a method of social control, but mainly find that the world-building just doesn’t hold up as well as its higher quality contemporaries. But what the movie lacks in coherence and cohesion it makes up for with physicality and spectacle.

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Suggested Viewing

Spy Game (2001)
All the President’s Men (1976)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Indecent Proposal (1993)
The Natural (1984)
All Is Lost (2013)
Sneakers (1992)
A River Runs Through It (1992)
The Horse Whisperer (1998)

Episode 899: We Don’t Know. He Just Redfords Everywhere. originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]

Episode 898: One Hundred Percent Agree Sep 22, 2025

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Mark Lee, Matt Wrather, and Pete Fenzel weather a tough week in talk shows by looking to the classic exemplars and deconstructed scions of the medium, especially the internet talk show Subway Takes. Is the MetroCard in Kareem Rahma’s hand more or less postmodern than the microphone on Jimmy Fallon’s desk? Why does the 100% agree / 100% disagree formula work so well? Is that jacket a jacket? What is the role of celebrity in a medium where they ride the trains, just like us, rather than regale us in showbiz clothes like Joan Rivers and Betty White? Have we sold the past short, or have we misunderstood past senses of belonging?

Broadening their scope to the interview-intermediated podcast in the modern era, how does the authenticity the public seeks now different from the authenticity of the Instagram-filtered 2010s? And through it all, what is the work being done? And how do we know. In an era where Spotify, an audio app, can load a podcast, an audio medium, and default to video, everything we know seems balanced on the edge.