The 2025 Brekkie Awards
Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie
We’re back for the sixth (!) annual Brekkie Awards, a celebration of the most affecting and transformative art of the year. In this episode, we’re announcing winners, shouting out honorable mentions, and applauding Maggie’s ability to cheat in almost every category. LINKS: , , , Feedback & Theories:
info_outline![Crossroads of Ravens [Part One] show art](https://assets.libsyn.com/content/196873285?height=50&width=50)
Crossroads of Ravens [Part One]
Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie
Discussion of Crossroads of Ravens, Ch. 1-8 Surprise! We're returning to the wonderful world of chapter-by-chapter fantasy discussions with the latest Witcher novel, Crossroads of Ravens. In this episode, we're exploring the narrative paradox of introducing a character like Preston Holt in the ninth book of the series, young Geralt's illluminating / overlapping Faustian bargains, Sapkowski's tricky relationship with giving his characters "thesis statements," and the strange reputation inflation that happens when a franchise gets too successful. LINKS: , , , Feedback &...
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Krampus
Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie
The grand finale of our 2025 Advent Calendar is finally here, so we thought we’d finally talk about something festive! For this episode, we watched the modern holiday horror classic “Krampus”. Topics include: practical / digital creature design, the x-factor of onscreen family dynamics, key cinematic influences, and the existential, dread-inducing, high-pressure shadow of rewatchability that hangs over all holiday films. Merry Christmas! LINKS: , , , Feedback & Theories:
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Tier List: Bad Theater Etiquette
Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie
In this episode, we’re doing some very serious analytical work — creating the definitive tier list of all the worst breaches of theater etiquette we’ve ever witnessed firsthand. The vibes are frantic, the complaints are petty, and spirits are high. Happy Festivus! LINKS: , , , Feedback & Theories:
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Call of Duty: WWII
Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie
After the recent disappointment of Black Ops 7, Cam went back to 2017’s Call of Duty: WWII in the hopes of finding a simple, competently made FPS campaign. Instead, he found the most impressive, immersive, and profound game in the franchise — a largely overlooked modern classic that feels like a minor miracle in the current gaming landscape. LINKS: , , , Feedback & Theories:
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge
Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie
We try to mention "fun factor" in all of our gaming episodes. It's a mercurial, tricky concept that is too often overlooked in critical analysis. In this episode, we're celebrating an absolute masterpiece of fun — Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge. Topics include: arcade difficulty, colorful combat, and mechanical variety. LINKS: , , , Feedback & Theories:
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Terrifier: The ARTcade Game
Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie
This episode is a post-mortem of the shockingly unenjoyable Terrifier game. We’re trying to figure out where it all went wrong, and that question will take us through combat expression, enemy variety, core understanding of the source material, and a brief digression into the world of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. LINKS: , , , Feedback & Theories:
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Reflection in a Dead Diamond
Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie
Somehow, this French indie movie is both the best James Bond movie and best Batman / Catwoman movie ever made. In this episode, we’re investigating the endless, delirious style of Reflection of a Dead Diamond. Topics include: the art of rug pull revelations, how to balance realism and surrealism, and the enduring cultural influence of Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns. LINKS: , , , Feedback & Theories:
info_outline![Diablo IV [Season of Divine Intervention] show art](https://assets.libsyn.com/content/196599650?height=50&width=50)
Diablo IV [Season of Divine Intervention]
Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie
Diablo’s latest season is like a box of crayons that has one gloriously beautiful crayon inside of it — but the rest is empty. Functionally, this is a season without a story, and as much as we are adoring the new Paladin class, this episode is ultimately about how alarmed we are by the narrative precedent established by this Season of Divine Intervention. Topics include: difficulty curve, constant bugs, fun factor, the new seasonal powers, underlying systems reworks, the seasonal campaign, a class update about the delightful Paladin, and some existential wrap up questions....
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Powerwash Simulator 2
Second Breakfast with Cam & Maggie
In this episode, we’re exploring the calming, focusing, and meditative power of Powerwash Simulator 2, a game that Cam accidentally dumped fifty hours into — and found some measure of inner peace along the way. Topics include: the immortal attraction of color, what makes a great iterative sequel, and the thrill Maggie gets from pretending to farm. LINKS: , , , Feedback & Theories:
info_outlineDiscussion of The Two Towers, Book Three, Chapter Three
Join Cam and Maggie for a chapter that celebrates all things Pippin. I guess he’s our main character now, and Tolkien takes great pains to differentiate him from Frodo or Bilbo. The stakes are higher than ever – our new heroes don’t have a wizard’s protection or any survival skills. Merry and Pippin are launched into a great adventure, without weapons or friends or anything but some lembas bread. The orcs are developed into real characters and genuine villains. We learn about the infighting and resentment that plagues Middle-earth’s “evil” characters, and Cam gets to talk about Douglas Adams and his Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Later on, we revisit our discussions about fate and the original sin of Tolkien’s world (spoiler: it’s the fact that people keep torturing Gollum). And then, in the grand finale of our year-long investigation, we finally, definitively identify Tolkien’s narrator. It’s not who you expect it is.
In our Second Breakfast, Maggie leads us back into the world of horror with a breakdown of Insidious and Sinister. The films are explored for their surprising structural echoes of LOTR and Cam slips in a claim that this week’s chapter was horror. Oh no, I forgot, he also makes a Winnie-the-Pooh reference early in the episode. It’s a full-blown regression. We end the episode with a redemption arc for Zack Snyder and his wonderful, loyal adaptation of Watchmen.
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