The Pod Knight Casts is a miniseries on the films of Christopher Nolan.
Summary[]
On the Avatarland/The Second Blank Check Mailbag episode, Griffin and David describe this miniseries as arguably their best, most consistent, and most listened-to miniseries so far. They also remarked on the stressful conditions under which it was recorded.
Christopher Nolan was an attractive potential subject for "Blank Check" because of the way he achieved status as a so-called blank check director, and especially what he did with his blank checks after he got there. Griffin and David even had a potential episode guest on the hook, a director (and Blankie!) who had a personal connection to Nolan and offered some great perspectives on the Insomnia episode.
But the main thing that convinced #TheTwoFriends to take the leap on Nolan was a pitch by Producer Ben. In particular it seems that the Inception episode offered the opportunity of an exceptionally bit-rich environment, which Ben took full advantage of in the studio and in post-production.
One of David's favorite films is Interstellar, so he was excited to get to that episode. At the time of its recording, Griffin was running on fumes due to his promotional schedule for The Tick and had about 60% of his voice left, but David more than made up for that with his own enthusiasm. In subsequent episodes David said that "you have no idea" how crazy this time was for Griffin and David and Ben, and that frankly it was a miracle that this miniseries was even listenable. And yet, not only is it good, but it also seems to have been the most listened-to miniseries of the show - at least through 2017.
It is not completely clear and was not explicitly announced at the time, but episodes in this miniseries do not have the "UCB Comedy" outro soundbite and may have been the first group of shows to be recorded after the show migrated from UCB to Audioboom.
This miniseries was preceded by the Pod Me If You Cast miniseries on the DreamWorks era of Steven Spielberg. It was followed by the Pod-19: The Widowcaster miniseries on the films of Kathryn Bigelow.
Milestones and Ephemera[]
- Ben nickname: Producer Bane.
- Rejected nicknames: Mebento, Ho’s al Ghul, Bendurance
Episodes[]
# | Title | Audio | Guest(s) | Blank Check? | Length | Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
114 | Following | 🔊 | No | 1:34 | 6/25/2017 | |
115 | Memento | 🔊 | Amy Nicholson | Guarantor | 1:52 | 7/2/2017 |
116 | Insomnia | 🔊 | Alex Ross Perry | No | 1:56 | 7/9/2017 |
117 | Batman Begins | 🔊 | No | 1:59 | 7/16/2017 | |
118 | The Prestige | 🔊 | Alison Willmore | Yes | 1:55 | 7/23/2017 |
119 | The Dark Knight | 🔊 | Yes | 2:09 | 7/30/2017 | |
120 | Inception | 🔊 | Yes | 2:01 | 8/6/2017 | |
121 | The Dark Knight Rises | 🔊 | No (?) | 2:00 | 8/13/2017 | |
123 | Interstellar | 🔊 | Yes | 2:18 | 8/27/2017 | |
124 | Dunkirk | 🔊 | Bilge Ebiri | Yes | 2:11 | 9/3/2017 |
306 | teneT | 🔊 | Yes | 2:37 | 1/10/2021 | |
436 | Oppenheimer | 🔊 | Marie Bardi | Yes | 3:08 | 7/30/2023 |
Ranking His Filmography[]
- Griffin and David shared their rankings on the Reddit voting thread (see below) after forgetting to record it on the final miniseries episode.
- The Blankies rankings were compiled from the Reddit voting thread found on the r/Blankies sub-reddit, where the results were also later posted.
Rank | Griffin | David | Blankies |
---|---|---|---|
1 | The Prestige | Interstellar | The Prestige |
2 | Memento | The Prestige | Memento |
3 | Insomnia | Memento | Dunkirk |
4 | Batman Begins | Dunkirk | Inception |
5 | Inception | Inception | The Dark Knight |
6 | The Dark Knight | The Dark Knight | Interstellar |
7 | Dunkirk | Batman Begins | Batman Begins |
8 | Interstellar | Insomnia | Insomnia |
9 | Following | The Dark Knight Rises | The Dark Knight Rises |
10 | The Dark Knight Rises | Following | Following |