{"podcast":{"title":"Critical Darlings","slug":"critical-darlings-7771666","podcast_index_feed_id":7771666,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/THI7214278819","website_url":null,"image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/b70a2598-2185-11f1-9391-2f87e0e925cc/image/4c25862893adddea3f0c270dc90ba01c.jpg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Blank Check Productions","episode_count":39,"summary":"Welcome to Critical Darlings: a podcast about the movies everyone is talking about, one new release after another. Every week, critics Richard Lawson and Alison Willmore cover the latest film driving the conversation—from big summer blockbusters to festival favorites, buzzy streamers, and major awards contenders. New episodes every Thursday. We’re a Blank Check Production! To catch up on our first miniseries covering the 2026 Oscars season, check out Blank Check on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Stick around on this feed for new episodes going forward. Produced by Benjamin Frisch Subscribe to Richard's newsletter, ⁠⁠Premiere Party,⁠⁠ and read Alison's work ⁠⁠at Vulture. Follow @blankcheckpod on ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠!","last_synced_at":"2026-09-17T16:18:27.969877+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/critical-darlings-7771666"},"episode":{"title":"“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” Enters The Money-Verse  (with Griffin Newman)","slug":"spider-man-brand-new-day-enters-the-money-verse-with-griffin-newman","published_at":"2026-08-06T08:02:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/critical-darlings-7771666/spider-man-brand-new-day-enters-the-money-verse-with-griffin-newman","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/critical-darlings-7771666","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/THI8962138465.mp3","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/THI8962138465.mp3","summary":"Griffin Newman swings back from Spain, Europe, to discuss Spider-Man: Brand New Day! Brand New Day is likely the biggest movie of the year, maybe of all time, depending on how you count. From the seemingly bulletproof Spider-Man formula to the unquestionable star power of Tom Holland and Zendaya, we should have seen this coming! On this episode, we go long to discuss the special appeal of Spider-Men of today and yesteryear, the Tom Holland phenomenon, his perpetual boyishness, The Punisher Meets Archie, spider puberty, bathhouses, the X-Men and their soon-to-be integration into the MCU, in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, and wonder if the movie is maybe a metaphor for Gen-Z lockdown FOMO.  Next week, it’s The Sex Purge, AKA One Night Only! Email us: CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices","meta_description":"Griffin Newman swings back from Spain, Europe, to discuss Spider-Man: Brand New Day! Brand New Day is likely the biggest movie of the year, maybe of all t…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":6876,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/critical-darlings-7771666/episodes/spider-man-brand-new-day-enters-the-money-verse-with-griffin-newman/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/critical-darlings-7771666/spider-man-brand-new-day-enters-the-money-verse-with-griffin-newman.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}