The Talking Room: Adam Savage Interviews Damon Lindelof

20 thoughts on “The Talking Room: Adam Savage Interviews Damon Lindelof”

1. Thank you for yet another wonderful one-on-one interview, Adam!

   Your interview with Damon Lindelof did not disappoint. 🙂

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2. That’s the same level of detail I love to see in a nerdy interview. Brilliant!

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3. I know that is Carey Grant saying “now let’s go into the talking room” but from which movie?

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4. The Philadelphia Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fub0KDi0eUg

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5. Another great interview! The Talking Room is quickly becoming the jewel in the Tested crown.

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6. Thanks!

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7. Did anybody see Cowboys and Aliens? Was it any good?

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8. Another great episode of talking room. I would love it if you guys made these episodes available as mp3 downloads too! Can this be done?

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9. I will never forgive Prometheus. If I could only unwatch that movie.

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10. Always love The Talking Room segments.

    Sidenote: I would buy a Blu-ray or DVD sets of these. Like in sets of 6 or 12 episodes. Just a thought.

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11. I liked it, but may be in the minority? :p I thought it was over the top, cheesy fun.

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12. good thought. i would record commentary for these too.

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13. I appreciate what he’s saying about trying to tell a different story with regard to the approach to Prometheus, as well as the thematic aspect of created life and I guess on that front they succeeded somewhat. Unfortunately the entirety of the film just feels like zero actual thought and dare one say research* went into how a science team (even a privately funded one) landing on a hitherto undiscovered planet would actually conduct operations. Instead we’re treated to a litany of unscientific and idiotic actions coupled with a bunch of jump scares, some truly dreadful dialogue and trite motivations. Compare and contrast with the original Alien and the downfall of the crew there (who weren’t even scientists) was brought about solely through the actions of Ash breaking contamination protocols.

    * For all the occasional references to Vince Gilligan in the talk and how he improvises things, I think it’s fair to say that there’s a degree of rigour to his approach and that he and his team thrash out and at least look into subject matter beyond their understanding even if ultimately they bend the rules a bit for the sake of dramatic impact (as demonstrated by the Mythbusters debunking). No one minds a bit of dramatic license (as evinced by the overall reception of Gravity) because a feature film isn’t necessarily meant to be a documentary in terms of accuracy. But when you basically throw out any sense of credibility in terms of how an exploration would be conducted and how people with particular skill sets would operate in a truly alien environment then you’re kind of asking to be lampooned.

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14. No it was not.

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15. I appreciate what he’s saying about trying to tell a different story with regard to the approach to Prometheus, as well as the thematic aspect of created life and I guess on that front they succeeded somewhat. Unfortunately the entirety of the film just feels like zero actual thought and dare one say research* went into how a science team (even a privately funded one) landing on a hitherto undiscovered planet would actually conduct operations. Instead we’re treated to a litany of unscientific and idiotic actions coupled with a bunch of jump scares, some truly dreadful dialogue and trite motivations. Compare and contrast with the original Alien and the downfall of the crew there (who weren’t even scientists) was brought about solely through the actions of Ash breaking contamination protocols.

    * For all the occasional references to Vince Gilligan in the talk and how he improvises things, I think it’s fair to say that there’s a degree of rigour to his approach and that he and his team thrash out and at least look into subject matter beyond their understanding even if ultimately they bend the rules a bit for the sake of dramatic impact (as demonstrated by the Mythbusters debunking). No one minds a bit of dramatic license (as evinced by the overall reception of Gravity) because a feature film isn’t necessarily meant to be a documentary in terms of accuracy. But when you basically throw out any sense of credibility in terms of how an exploration would be conducted and how people with particular skill sets would operate in a truly alien environment then you’re kind of asking to be lampooned.

    I have heard these complaints ad naseum about Prometheus, and I don’t really buy them. As if scientists never do anything irrational. Plus, we’re talking about tainted, unethical lunatics who would initiate such a mission in the first place, and the money-hungry unethical losers who would agree to go along with it given the ludicrous premise. Clearly these are not the best of the best, these are bad scientists who are doing this for unscientific reasons in the first place. These are hardly the people you can expect to do things by the book. If they had gone by the book, this mission would never have been launched.

    That being said, Prometheus does have some stinky dialogue, and I can’t tell if it was the writing or the delivery, or both, but the scene regarding infertility was incredibly cringeworthy. I still really enjoyed it because hey, when I go to see a prequel to Alien, I’m not necessarily interested in the characters, I’m interested in the world, the aliens, the biology, the effects, the android, and on all of those fronts Prometheus delivered for me. It took the already disturbing xenomorph biology to a whole new level of disgusting and terrifying. That doesn’t excuse it on those other fronts necessarily, but Alien was never about dialogue and characters, so for me it was a matter of setting my expectations appropriately.

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16. I have heard these complaints ad naseum about Prometheus, and I don’t really buy them. As if scientists never do anything irrational. Plus, we’re talking about tainted, unethical lunatics who would initiate such a mission in the first place, and the money-hungry unethical losers who would agree to go along with it given the ludicrous premise. Clearly these are not the best of the best, these are bad scientists who are doing this for unscientific reasons in the first place. These are hardly the people you can expect to do things by the book. If they had gone by the book, this mission would never have been launched.

    Weyland is a rich & smart guy. This idea that he’s going to hire a bunch of second rate scientists without a brain cell between them for a mission of this importance to him personally makes no sense whatsoever.

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17. I have heard these complaints ad naseum about Prometheus, and I don’t really buy them. As if scientists never do anything irrational. Plus, we’re talking about tainted, unethical lunatics who would initiate such a mission in the first place, and the money-hungry unethical losers who would agree to go along with it given the ludicrous premise. Clearly these are not the best of the best, these are bad scientists who are doing this for unscientific reasons in the first place. These are hardly the people you can expect to do things by the book. If they had gone by the book, this mission would never have been launched.

    Weyland is a rich & smart guy. This idea that he’s going to hire a bunch of second rate scientists without a brain cell between them for a mission of this importance to him personally makes no sense whatsoever.

    That’s not what I said though. They’re not stupid, they’re people who are smart, but will take shortcuts and bypass traditional ethical scientific protocol, hang the consequences, as long as it gets them results (hence the name of the film). Plus, Weyland is desperately grabbing at straws, trying to find the secret of immortality by following a couple of likely delusional archaeologists into space to find the creators of mankind. That’s not something a rich smart guy does in sound mind.

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18. What a fantastic interview. These guys have great stories.

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19. Im sure many would agree with me, interviews with Phil Tippet, Dennis Muren and the like, would be fantastic, esp because they are not interviewed much and when they are its about a specific project they are working on or having to dutifully sell, I particularly would be interested on their careers that had to change, one making the choice and the other having no choice, many arts especially those in cinema, media and print had to change with the times, some dont make it and others do, they did make it and finding out their journey with many stories along the way would make for a very entertaining and enlightening watch.

    -Simon Rose

    http://www.simonrosefx.com

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20. Fun Video!

    Interesting info on his ‘birthing’ idea that made it into prometheus.

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