And just like that, 2022 has come to a close and over at Uncut Gems Podcast we have completed a fine year of talking about great movies and pushing our journey forward. Granted, it was a year peppered with challenges – from hurricanes to new jobs and everything in between – but we have somehow persevered, increased our productivity, got Randy to join the show as a permanent host and now we are all abuzz with what’s to come in 2023. But more on that at the end of this write-up. For now, here’s what happened in December 2022!

The first part of the month ended up devoted to a bunch of film which somehow fit under the umbrella of “underwater thrills”. We talked about Deepstar Six, The Deep and Leviathan on the main show and we also decided to record an impromptu Bonus Tie-in show about James Cameron’s The Abyss, which seemed doubly fitting since Avatar 2 was about to drop towards the end of the month. In any case, this is a series that I do think would have been rendered more coherent if we had substituted The Deep – which is more or less a poor man’s Dr No with Quint from Jaws posing as a treasure hunter – with something like Underwater, The Rift or Sphere. However, these three titles are now safely banked on what we call ‘the B list’, an ever-growing list of movies we want to get to one day. So, rest assured, “Underwater Thrills Reloaded” may be coming at some point this decade. Meanwhile, here are the episodes in the series we actually recorded:

Episode 97 (DeepStar Six)

Episode 98 (The Deep)

Episode 99 (Leviathan)

Bonus Tie-in 14 (The Abyss) (full episode on Patreon)

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Towards the end of the month, we decided to record a few episodes on 80s sequels – namely Gremlins 2 and Ghostbusters 2 – which also gave us an excuse to talk about their wildly successful 1984 predecessors as Patreon tie-ins. Also, the Gremlins 2 episode marked our crossing into triple-digit land as the 100th episode of our show!

Episode 100 (Gremlins 2)

Bonus Tie-in 15 (Gremlins) (full episode on Patreon)

Episode 101 (Ghostbusters 2)

Bonus Tie-in 16 (Ghostbusters) (full episode on Patreon)

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Finally, we put a bow on our year-long David Lynch Marathon by talking about Lynch’s arguable magnum opus – Twin Peaks: The Return.

David Lynch Marathon 13 (Twin Peaks: The Return) (full episode on Patreon)

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With that, we are now looking squarely into the maw of 2023, full of excitement and hope. In fact, the show will undergo a few cosmetic changes, mostly related to the way the episodes are mapped out across the calendar year. We have decided to change the haphazard way we used to treat thematically-tied series of episodes and now each month will have its own theme with three (sometimes four) episodes of the main show fitting within it, together with a Bonus Tie-in recording available on our Patreon. For instance, January 2023 will be themed around 80s space westerns and as a tie-in we have chosen High Noon, so stick around for that.

Also, we are launching a year-long series of episodes spanning between the main show and Patreon where we shall take a comprehensive look at the filmography of Steven Soderbergh with his more underrated works featuring on the main show and his more renowned hits finding their way onto the Patreon.

Finally, as the David Lynch Marathon came to a close, we found ourselves another auteur to delve into in a similarly comprehensive way. So, over the course of 2023 we will marathon all works of John Cassavetes! To get the most out of our podcast and listen to all those various projects we are embarking on, we strongly encourage you to join our Patreon (only 3 dollars a month) and if you do so in the month of January 2023, you will also receive a mug as a token of gratitude.

See you there!