The Mark Dacascos Retrospective continues this week, as we discuss the anime/manga adaptation Crying Freeman. In the directorial debut of French director Christophe Gans, Dacascos stars as Yoh, a brainwashed assassin who sheds a tear after every kill. Tasked with killing a young woman who's witnessed his latest contract, Yoh instead falls in love with her, and hopes to evade his enemies as well as those who are controlling him.

For the first time since Clarissa (aka The Adorable Lil' Hypebeast) joined the podcast, your intrepid hosts have finally recorded an episode in person, to kick off 2026 right! We tried to hit up as many Philly cheesesteak spots as we could in the city of Brotherly Love, but we quickly learned our eyes were bigger than our stomachs.

In any event, we're starting the new year by doing a series on the direct-to-video classics of Mister Mark Dacascos, starting with the 1996 film Sabotage; After being severely wounded during a rescue mission gone wrong, former Navy SEAL Mike Bishop finds himself caught in a conspiracy involving arms dealers, the CIA, and the mercenary who shot him during said rescue mission.

We're closing out 2025 with a Netflix original film, as director Guillermo Del Toro brings Mary Shelley's science fiction/horror masterpiece Frankenstein to life like you've never seen it before. Oscar Issac stars as as the titular mad scientist, obsessed with creating life from death, only to succeed and ultimately regret his choices, while Jacob Elordi plays his creation, who wrestles with having no choice but to live seemingly without end and potentially alone.