Episode 854: Venom’s Superpower Is Friendship

Overthinking It Podcast

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After six years as the only Overthinker to appreciate these masterpieces, Pete Fenzel has finally convinced Matt Belinke to watch the Tom Hardy Venom movies. And it’s just in time, as Venom: The Last Dance is here to escort the series to its Comic Book Death (and inevitable resurrection). What follows is Matt and Pete’s deep dive on the whole Venom trilogy and its four pillars: amazing relationship-driven character scenes, shockingly deep cultural and psychological symbolism, plots that make no sense, and brutal comic book violence. It’s the rare series whose best parts are its filler, the best in-your-head “Space Oddity” singalong you’ll see in an IMAX movie theater with 12 people in it this year, and our second new movie in two weeks with a direct stand-in for Randy Quaid’s character in Independence Day. The discussion topics are symbiotic tendrils pulling us forward – away from parasitism, toward healthy attachment. And unlike these movies, we don’t bite anyone’s heads off.

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Further Reading

• The Dependency Paradox in Relationships, by Dr. Terry Levy, Ph.D., B.C.F.E., Director, Evergreen Psychotherapy Center and the Attachment Treatment & Training Institute, Evergreen, Colorado
• The Christmas Tree Is A Tradition Older Than Christmas, by Troy Bickman, Professor of History at Texas A&M University
• How to Access the Secret Stage: Statue of Liberty – Maximum Carnage Guide – Hidden Cutscene Guide, from AcidGlow on YouTube

Episode 854: Venom’s Superpower Is Friendship 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)]