Episode 532 – One Ring, Two Lanterns, One Suspicious-Ass Bird

The Infamous Podcast

Episode 532 - One Ring, Two Lanterns, One Suspicious-Ass Bird

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Good Enough to Keep Watching, Not Good Enough to Stop Complaining

This week on the podcast, Brian and Darryl take a somber look back at three icons we lost this week with Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, and Peter Cullen, and the massive mark each left on pop culture. Then it’s back to the weekly watchlist as Ted Lasso tries to bring the Greyhounds together, Reacher digs deeper into an increasingly dangerous conspiracy, and Lanterns pushes Hal Jordan and John Stewart further into a mystery that is getting a whole lot more cosmic.

Episode Index

Intro: 0:07
Celebrity Deaths This Week: 4:46
Ted Lasso Season 4 Episode 4: 16:20
Reacher Season 4 Episode 5: 24:40
Lanterns Season 1 Episode 2: 3240

Celebrity Deaths

Dolly Parton
January 19, 1946 – August 25, 2026 | Age 80
Country music icon, songwriter, actress, businesswoman, and philanthropist Dolly Parton died August 25 after what her representatives described as a brief battle with cancer. Her six-decade career produced classics including “Jolene,” “9 to 5,” and “I Will Always Love You,” while her film career included 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias.
Parton’s legacy extends far beyond music. She helped build Dollywood into one of Tennessee’s biggest attractions and founded the Imagination Library, which has provided hundreds of millions of free books to children. Dollywood announced that the park would remain open following her death, honoring her belief that “the show must go on.”
Infamous angle: One of those genuinely rare celebrities who seemed to transcend genre, politics, generations, and even celebrity culture itself.
Tim Curry
April 19, 1946 – August 25, 2026 | Age 80
Actor, singer, and voice performer Tim Curry died peacefully at his Los Angeles home following a period of ill health. Curry became a cultural icon as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but his ridiculously versatile career also included Clue, It, Home Alone 2, Muppet Treasure Island, Legend, The Three Musketeers, and decades of stage and voice work.
He received three Tony nominations and continued working after suffering a major stroke in 2012 that left him using a wheelchair. For an entire generation of genre fans, Curry was basically the patron saint of unforgettable villains and weirdos.
Peter Cullen
July 28, 1941 – August 26, 2026 | Age 85
Legendary Canadian voice actor Peter Cullen died peacefully at his Los Angeles home surrounded by family. No cause of death has been announced.
Cullen became inseparable from Optimus Prime, originating the character’s voice in the 1984 Transformers animated series and returning repeatedly across animation, games, and the live-action films. He also voiced Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh and contributed memorable vocal work to Predator, Knight Rider, G.I. Joe, and numerous animated series.
The voice and personality he created for Optimus were inspired in large part by his older brother Larry, a decorated Marine veteran, whose advice to Peter was essentially that a real hero should be strong enough to be gentle. That philosophy became fundamental to Optimus Prime.
Infamous angle: For anybody who grew up in the ’80s, this one hits differently. Optimus Prime wasn’t merely a cartoon voice.

Ted Lasson (Apple TV)

Network: Apple TV
Genre: Comedy / Sports / Drama
Developed By: Jason Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence, Brendan Hunt, Joe Kelly
Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt, Jeremy Swift
Season: 4
Episode: 4
Episode Title: “Greyhounds’ Day Off”
Release Date: August 26, 2026
Episode Summary
Ted, Beard, and Coach Alice try to break up the cliques developing within the new team by canceling practice and sending everyone out for some forced bonding, eventually leading the group to pub trivia and considerably more trouble than Ted probably planned.
Meanwhile, Rebecca and Keeley attend a women’s football business summit where they encounter eccentric sports investor Zelda Southport, played by Tracey Ullman. Zelda’s aggressive approach to investing in women’s sports gets Keeley’s attention while Rebecca remains considerably more skeptical.
Roy and Keeley’s increasingly complicated relationship also continues, with Keeley challenging Roy to actually date other women before the two seriously consider getting back together.
Rating Out of 5, Boots Ain’t Messing Around
Brian: 3.3/5
Darryl: 3.1/5

Reacher (Amazon Prime)

Network: Prime Video
Genre: Action / Crime / Thriller
Based On: Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child
Developed By: Nick Santora
Starring: Alan Ritchson, Sydelle Noel, Agnez Mo, Christopher Rodriguez-Marquette, Kevin Corrigan
Season: 4
Episode: 5
Episode Title: “Bridge”
Release Date: August 26, 2026
Rating: TV-MA
Series Summary
A seemingly random encounter aboard a Philadelphia subway pulls Jack Reacher into a conspiracy involving a missing flash drive, government operatives, hired killers, and information powerful people are desperate to keep buried. Season four adapts Lee Child’s Gone Tomorrow and drops Reacher into an increasingly tangled political and intelligence conspiracy.
Episode Summary
After a misunderstanding turns Reacher into Philadelphia’s most wanted man, he spends much of the episode doing what Reacher does best: escaping situations that should probably be impossible to escape.
Meanwhile, Jacob, Tamara, and Plum recover the flash drive Anna mailed before her death, along with her phone, but their attempt to finally get some answers turns into a violent confrontation with Lila and Amisha. Jacob gets his first genuine opportunity to strike back at the people responsible for his sister’s death.
The recovered evidence also starts bringing the larger conspiracy into focus. A photograph connects Congressman Sampson to a disgraced Indonesian general, but Reacher suspects another person in the image may actually be more important to the mystery. Anna’s phone also gives the group stronger evidence tying Lila directly to the killings.
By the end, Reacher and Tamara’s investigation leads them toward another confrontation while Jacob is taken hostage, leaving Tamara with a pretty awful decision to make.
And this one definitely supports the subtitle vibe we were talking about: there’s plenty of entertaining Reacher insanity here, but the season is getting increasingly dependent on everyone accepting some wildly convenient and increasingly ridiculous shit to keep the plot moving.

Rating Out of 5, How Many Ways Can One Person Escape the Police?
Brian: 3.2/5
Darryl: 3.25/5

Lanterns (HBO Max)

Lanterns
Network: HBO / HBO Max
Genre: Drama / Sci-Fi / Action / Mystery
Created By: Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, Tom King
Starring: Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Poorna Jagannathan, Laura Linney, Jason Ritter
Season: 1
Episode: 2
Episode Title: “Trust Fall”
Release Date: August 23, 2026
Rating: TV-14
Series Summary
Veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan is assigned to train former Marine and newly recruited Lantern John Stewart. Their relationship begins badly enough before the two are dragged into an investigation surrounding a bizarre killing in rural Nebraska.
What initially resembles an Earthbound murder mystery steadily exposes a much larger extraterrestrial conspiracy connected to the history of the Green Lantern Corps.
Episode Summary
Hal and John investigate a deadly shooting in an attempt to prove that an alien force was responsible, with their investigation increasingly pointing toward one of the Green Lantern Corps’ oldest mistakes: the Manhunters.
The episode digs deeper into the mystery surrounding Rushville while separating Hal and John enough to develop both characters individually. Sheriff Kerry also reveals that she originally came from Gotham, quietly expanding the show’s connections to the larger DCU.And then the episode drops the considerably bigger comic-book bomb: Sinestro, played by Ulrich Thomsen. The imprisoned former Lantern is positioned almost like the show’s Hannibal Lecter, someone Hal doesn’t trust but may need because Sinestro understands both Hal and the threat they are facing better than almost anyone.

Rating Out of 5, I Want My Bird (In Micky Roark Weird Russian Accent)
Brian: 3.4/5
Darryl: 3/5

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Our theme music is ‘Skate Beat’ provided by Michael Henry, with additional music provided by Michael Henry. Find more at MeetMichaelHenry.com.

The Infamous Podcast is hosted by Brian Tudor and Darryl Jasper, is recorded in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show is produced and edited by Brian Tudor.

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Episode 532 – One Ring, Two Lanterns, One Suspicious-Ass Bird