In Grantland City, a hero is unlikely to rise anytime soon. But a podcast? That we can do. Chris Ryan and I dug deep — like, secret-hellish-prison deep — into the summer’s smartest (and best?) blockbuster (1:30). Everything was on the table: Anne Hathaway’s old-Hollywood performance, the movie’s complicated politics, and the constantly changing nature of thin ice. The only disappointment? Chris didn’t unveil his Bane impression.

From there, we celebrated Sunday’s brilliant episode of Breaking Bad (28:35), and Chris even found something to praise in the increasingly awful Newsroom (34:45). We also tackled the glut of quality trailers floating around the intertubes (38:45), from the lush Anna Karenina (although you should really check out the mind-bending “concept” trailer too), to the brilliant The Master and the shag-carpeted Argo.

Then it was time to mark the London Olympics with a dip into our Britpopping past (48:00). My Spotify playlist, “Lorries, Torches & Flats,” is a maximalist opening ceremony for all of the great (and greatly hyped) choons of the ’90s, from big guns like Blur to forgotten favorites like Kenickie.

In contrast, Chris kept a stiff upper lip, curating a dozen favorites for “Handbags and the Lad Mags” with the precision of a security guard at the Tate Modern.

We ended with a surprise recommendation for the Double Down Book Club (54:30): The Passage by Justin Cronin. It’s a tale of humanity’s bleak future after a vampire virus decimates the population. In other words, exactly how Chris and I felt after Suede broke up.

Listen to the podcast here:
ESPN.com Podcenter

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