Get ready for a holiday treat as we dive into the Year-End Extravaganza on the Thriller Zone! We’re chatting about our fave holiday movies—everything from the heartwarming charm of *Elf* to the classic nostalgia of *It's a Wonderful Life*. But hey, we’ll also tackle the big question: is *Die Hard* really a Christmas movie? Spoiler alert: opinions are as divided as a fruitcake at a holiday party! We also reflect on the incredible guests we've had throughout the year, sharing laughs, insights, and a few unforgettable moments. So grab your hot cocoa, settle in, and let’s celebrate the joy of storytelling and friendship as we wrap up this year with a bang!

Takeaways:

1. The podcast dives deep into the magic of holiday movies, comparing classics like 'Elf' and 'It's a Wonderful Life' to more unconventional choices like 'Die Hard', which often sparks a light-hearted debate about what really qualifies as a Christmas movie.
2. Listeners are treated to a delightful recap of the year's top guests on the show, highlighting memorable moments and the unique stories shared by authors and creators, showcasing the podcast's commitment to celebrating literary greatness.
3. Throughout the episode, there's a strong emphasis on friendship and the connections formed through the podcast, with Dave and Tammy sharing anecdotes about their guests and reflecting on how those relationships have enriched their experience and the content they create.
4. The conversation wraps up with an engaging discussion about the upcoming projects for 2026, including exciting changes to the podcast format that promise to keep the content fresh and entertaining, making it a must-listen for fans.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. davide temple.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Scott Turow
2. Don Winslow
3. Meg Gardiner
4. Robin Cook
5. James Patterson
6. Joel Dicker
7. Marshall Karp
8. Lee Goldberg
9. Lisa Gardner
10. Kyle Mills
11. Steve Berry
12. C.J. Box
13. Emily Bessler
14. Jack Carr
15. Chris Hauty
16. David Baldacci
17. Gary Questenberry
18. Mark Gotlieb
19. Robert Gottlieb
20. David McCloskey
21. Harlan Coben
22. Janet Ivanovich
23. Adam Hamdy
24. Richard Armitage
25. Robbie Bach
26. Xbox

Keywords: holiday podcast, favorite holiday movies, Christmas movie debate, nostalgic holiday films, top holiday movies, Elf movie discussion, It's a Wonderful Life review, Die Hard Christmas movie, Polar Express analysis, holiday movie recommendations, year-end podcast recap, best thriller fiction of the year, podcast guest highlights, favorite podcast guests, author interviews, thriller genre discussions, top documentaries of the year, movie and TV series reviews, podcasting milestones, holiday podcast episodes, thethrillerzone.com and davidetemple.com

Mentioned in this episode:

LITC New 12-21-25

Life In Two Columns: Shit That Matters. And Everything Else. Get it now for ONLY $.99 in ebook or $9.99 in paperback on Amazon, and you can get in audiobook, read by me, for only $10.99 at DavideTemple.com

LITC New 12-21-25

Life In Two Columns: Shit That Matters. And Everything Else. Get it now for ONLY $.99 in ebook or $9.99 in paperback on Amazon, and you can get in audiobook, read by me, for only $10.99 at DavideTemple.com

LITC New 12-21-25

Life In Two Columns: Shit That Matters. And Everything Else. Get it now for ONLY $.99 in ebook or $9.99 in paperback on Amazon, and you can get in audiobook, read by me, for only $10.99 at DavideTemple.com

Hi, can you hear me?

I can hear you through the door.

Talk now.

Bobbidi.

Beep beep.

My hoozy.

What's it off?

Oh, the inevitable hoozy.

What's it.

Yes, sweetness.

Hi.

Hi.

Happy holidays.

What's your favorite holiday movie?

Just right off the top of your head.

Top of my head.

It's a tie between Elf and It's a Wonderful Life.

Oh, well, you got both spectrums.

Let's go nostalgic and then fun.

I really like Elf animated.

I mean, outside of the good old fashion.

Frosty the Snowman and Charlie Brown and Rudolph.

Yeah.

I love Polar Express.

Oh, I never think about it.

Yeah.

With Tom Hanks.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Oh, there's a heart warmer.

Yeah.

The people who say Die Hard, I always go, is it really.

Is it because it took place at Christmas, does that make it the best Christmas?

I mean, it happened on Christmas Eve and then he got back together with his wife and kids.

So it's a heart pole.

But I would never think of that.

Not to be judgmental, I would never think of that as a Christmas movie.

Well, there are.

There is a battalion of people that would say, yeah, that very thing.

It's.

It's the Christmas holiday and I'm like.

And good for them.

I mean, they might be a hater on me about, you know, Elf or Polar Express or.

I used to be, hands down, love, actually.

Right.

And then you came into my life and it's like, oh, I don't need that.

Like, that was such a romantic pull.

Like, oh, I want that.

And then you came into my life and now I have it.

So.

Yeah.

You say the sweetest things just because it's true.

Thank you.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Dave and Tammy year end extravaganza on the Thriller Zone.

Our last show of the year.

Wow.

How many did you do this year?

Do you know, off the top of your head?

This marks number 250.

Oh.

Oh, no, no, sorry.

In total?

Yeah.

This year, I want to say 36.

Wow.

Yeah.

Because it wasn't quite four.

A month.

Would have been 48.

Yeah, I think it was either 36 or 38.

I could go back and count it.

But it was impressive.

Yeah, it was.

And such great artists like you had some real bangers on this year.

I was so pleased because I got to meet a couple of my heroes, including Scott Turow, Robin Cook, most recently the guy who wrote Coma.

James Patterson kicked off the year, very first show of the year.

Yeah, yeah, it was.

It was a stellar year.

And then we Got into some great producers and publishers, and we went off the beaten path and just a fantastic year.

So grateful for so many people who showed up and, you know, just showed the love to us.

Yeah, yeah, it was really fun.

You had a variety of newcomers, some heavy hitters, and then you had some of your classic people return, and it's always fun to see what they're doing.

I mean, personally and professionally.

Yeah, I'm pulling.

I'm pulling up my cheat sheet.

Joel Dicker, who was supposed to be on the show last year, showed up, and he ended up being one of the most delightful guests of all time.

And then, yeah, to your point, couple of people that stood out.

Marshall Carp has become kind of a dear old friend.

A guy that I spend way too much time with is Lee Goldberg.

And his brother Todd showed up.

God, that was.

That was a hoot and a half.

Yeah.

Speaking of returns, Lisa Gardner.

Kyle Mills showed up.

Oh.

Another one who had never been on the show.

And I remember thinking, wow, what?

Steve Berry.

Steve Berry.

I was thinking about him, and then, who's the author that lives, I want to say, Wyoming or Montana?

And you got off of a podcast with him.

Not this year, but the year before.

And I had shared.

I learned so much about grizzly bears and bears.

C.J.

boggs.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And he was back on.

I really like him.

He just has great energy and a really kind spirit about him.

He is one of the good guys.

Yeah.

He is a sweetheart.

And it's so funny.

When I first was introduced to him, I thought, cj, he'll never be on my show.

You know, he's too big, and he couldn't have been more delightful, and he was just charming.

And, yeah, we.

I learned a whole bunch about a whole lot of outdoor stuff.

Here's another one that I loved.

Emily Bessler from Emily Bessler.

Oh, my gosh.

That was.

And you.

Sorry.

It's like my mind and my mouth are missing.

What was fun about Emily Bessler is she's almost been this dark figure, you know, like, ooh, who is this person?

And what are they all about?

And she's like the woman behind all these big deals happening.

And then you have her on, and you guys immediately connected over growing up or having a connection with Virginia.

And you were off to the races right away.

Yeah, she is.

She is as delightful as they come.

And she.

Yeah.

Thriller Fest.

Because that was when you were fanboying over Jack Carr.

Jack Carr was just really starting to explode and he's now in the stratosphere, leaving us in his dust.

But yeah, I met her for just a blink and I'm like, oh man, she's something.

But yeah, so delightful.

Here's a Jack Stewart, my old friend Jack Stewart who's been here, what, three times now?

Yeah, yeah, I think you and Jack Stewart and Chris Hottie should have a round table.

I was, Chris was on deck to be one of the final shows of the year and we ran into a ginormous tech issue.

Now, Riverside has been challenging of late for some bizarre reason.

And Chris's audio and video was out of sync and I couldn't hear him and it was just a snafu.

But yeah, talk about a guy who always shows up and makes me laugh every time and it's so much fun.

He's just.

Goodness.

And then, yeah, I was in the room when you were trying to edit that and I looked at you at one point and it's like you had two audios going at the same time and neither one of them connected with the video.

Hopefully.

I've heard from other people that I, that I work with actually outside of this little podcast world.

They've worked with Riverside and just the comp.

Riverside's great.

There's a ton of upsides, but you know, they're.

They're pretty prickly when it comes to ease.

Yeah.

Well, what.

Has something happened?

And that particular day I found out that, that for about a 24, 48 hour period, there was something.

There was a ghost in the machine on the cloud or something.

So it was, it was screwing up a lot of people.

Anyway, back to the positive.

David Baldachi was another guy.

Yes.

Wow.

There's a guy.

I've been reading David Baldachi since.

He would, he would laugh at this.

But yeah, since a while, late high school, early college.

Yeah, yeah, it's been a while.

And talking about a craftsman, another guy who I've become really good friends with, we just hit it off instantly and he makes a couple of lists on the show and he.

Gary Questenberry.

Yes.

New fast friend guy came out of.

Nowhere, former Air Marshall and just has taken off like a rocket.

I think he's going to be a guy that we're going to be talking about for some time.

Another highlight, talking about Emily Bessler as we're doing our just highlight show.

Mark Gotlieb had been on the show before.

Mark Godlib I have massive respect for.

He's such a talented Guy.

But his dad, I.

Rumor was, I think Mark told me this, that his dad had heard Mark on the show, went down the hall because they work at Trident Media Group, went down the hall, said, son, do you think David.

Do you think I could get on David's show?

That's really precious.

He is.

And I said, of course, you're Robert Gottlieb.

And we had the best time ever.

Yeah, yeah, they did pass on my recent book, but that's okay.

That's the way the cookies crumble.

Scott Turreau, like I mentioned.

Oh, David McCloskey, he was going.

He was another one who was supposed to be on the show.

We had him dialed in for.

I think he was going to launch December.

And we were trying to talk right around Thanksgiving.

And he said, David.

He said David.

He said, I had been.

It was.

He had done like five podcasts that day, was chasing and yelling at the kids.

And he lost, yeah, lost his voice.

And then we lost track because his.

Both of our schedules got busy.

He's.

He's a really interesting interview too.

He's a smarty pants, so he's always fun to listen to and he has great intel and like, his whole, like his whole background is just fascinating.

I really enjoy the times that you connect.

He's got one of the most impressive backgrounds.

Now here's a guy I've got to mention, this guy, I met him again.

Thriller fest.

I remember I was running downtown literally in pouring rain to see Don Winslow sitting at the mystery Mysterious books were.

And he was being interviewed by Adrian McKenty.

And I've got a photograph of me and Don and Adrian chatting.

And Adrian seemed, he, he, he seemed kind of aloof, although he was really fantastic at questions and so forth.

But I think that's just.

But anyway, he came on the show, I said hello.

We were off to the races.

We talked as hard and fast as we could.

We came, became fast friends.

He's one of the most astonishingly funny, fast, well read cats I've ever met.

Yeah, I remember that day.

And you were excited to interview him for all of the normal reasons.

And then when you got done talking to him, which you guys were on for a long time on the podcast, but then you were also on for a long time after that, just chatting.

And I thought it feels like when you are on the line with Adam Hamdy.

Yeah, you and Adam Hamdy just click.

And you and Adrian McKinty had that same clickness.

My own terminology, I don't think.

Yeah, I do owe Adam a call.

We do.

We reached out recently.

He picked up a copy of my book.

Oh, Great.

About prostate cancer.

And we touched base and we said we would reconnect again.

But before we get off of that, and by the way, big hugs to you, Adam and Dean.

But how about the way that I wrapped the show with a guest right before this one, the one and only Richard Armitage.

That was.

Okay.

So in the world of fangirl, for me.

Yeah.

John Lindstrom last year was a total.

You have who coming on the show, and then Richard Armitage was the same reaction.

Like, what did you just say?

Hugh is going to be on the show?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wait a minute.

It's Armitage.

I don't.

You.

I'm sure you pronounced it correctly.

Oh, geez.

Did I say it right to his face the wrong way?

No, I'm sure you said it right.

I am notorious for butchering words, so.

And names, so don't pay attention to me.

Yeah, I'm sure.

Richard, if I mispronounce, please forgive.

Yeah.

He was delightful.

Oh, my God.

We also had a little bit of technical issues, and he, he was so gracious because.

Oh, my God, I was.

You know, people think, oh, Dave's cool's a cucumber.

Everything just happens.

I'm like, I, you know, it's not always that way.

And when you have a, when you're a perfectionist and you, you work so hard to make everything dial in, and it doesn't go off flawlessly, you just.

But he was like, david, it's Riverside.

It's happened to me before.

Not a big deal.

Anyway.

Yeah.

So what a fantastic year.

Yeah, I, I, there's.

I'd love to say hi and love to all the people that were on the show.

Oh, Robbie Bach, the guy who, you know, behind the.

Let's say.

Oh, Xbox.

Xbox.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Just, Just a, Just a cram.

I mean, I crammed in as many as I could, considering that I was, you know, coming back off of the final round of treatments and just all the things going on in our life.

But, boy, what a.

What a killer year.

2025.

It's going to be tough to top that.

And I think I said this.

Who did I say this to?

Oh, I said this to Richard Armitage.

I said, the only person that I have not had on the show in four and a half years that I really, really, really, really, really wanted was Harlan Coben.

Harlan Coban would be such a great pull.

Well, there's Two reasons.

First of all, he's.

In my mind.

This is going to sound odd in one way, I want to say he's kind of like, in my mind, he's the.

This, this year, this decade, this century, Michael Crichton.

Because Michael Crichton was my hero growing up because he, he was the writer and the producer, blah, blah, blah.

And he's kind of stepped into that kind of a, an arena.

But.

High fiving and hugging and laughing and kidding around.

I'm like, oh, I could really party with this guy.

And then I took his master class and he's so dialed in.

But, you know, the thing is, every time I turn around is you very well know, honey, because you love all those shows is he's, he's got multiple TV shows on.

So I.

He's busy.

You mentioned something to me.

You have several connections to Janet Yovanovitch.

Did I pronounce her name correctly?

Ivanovitch.

Ivanovich.

And at one point I, I believe I mentioned it.

We were having a conversation and I said, oh my gosh, this would be great.

You could get her on the show.

And you said, you know, at a certain point, you know, authors at that level, they just don't do podcasts.

They just don't have to.

So that, that made me see things in a different light.

Like, regardless of the amount of connections, it just might be.

Not be something certain people do.

And I almost view Harlan Coben in that same vein.

Like, well, maybe just, you know, the guy's probably got a incredibly busy schedule, and so maybe he just doesn't, you know, when he's on CBS this Morning, maybe there's.

That's a priority over doing pod some podcasts.

And there's another show that I would be remiss if I did not mention because I was looking at the analytics behind it.

Just in the last couple of days.

One of the highest watched shows of the year happened on Thanksgiving week when Tammy Temple hosted the Thriller Zone on Nonfiction Friday.

Something that she came up with quite some time ago.

And I never got around to doing it, but.

But we finally did it and it blew off the charts with you hosting, which tells me they're really coming for you, honey.

Oh, I don't.

I know.

Well, thank you.

And it was a lot of fun.

I'm glad that we could do that and I'm glad that we could share your story in a way that you felt comfortable doing.

So.

Yeah.

And I almost bailed on that.

Whole project.

I wrote the book and I was really excited about the idea.

And then a few things happened.

Not the way I wanted to, we won't go down that path.

But they were really, really disappointing.

And then I got kind of overtly conscious about it and then I kind of fell off of the idea.

And then in some quiet moment I said, no guys have to know about this.

And so I went through with it and it's been selling well.

Yeah, the.

By the way, I, I should, I mean, geez, I can't, can't be talking about it and not show it.

I mean, there it is.

Life in two columns, Shit that matters and everything else.

Straight talk about managing prostate cancer.

Let me go ahead and do the plug now while I'm thinking about it.

This is a very quick.

As you can see, it's a thin little book.

It's 200 pages and it ends with some workshop stuff that you can, you know, copy off on your copier and take with you to meetings.

But anyway, it's, it's light and it's dark and it's happy and it's sad.

But I, I just got really encouraged to share the story and I am amazed at how many people have come up to me and said, or written me.

Yeah.

And said, David, a couple things, I didn't know you had prostate cancer.

And I'm like, oh, I guess I didn't talk about him as much as I felt self consciously as I had.

Second of all, I didn't know you went through all of that.

Third of all, I'm so impressed and surprised at your vulnerability.

I'm like, well, you can't tell this kind of a story and not shoot it straight because otherwise, you know, why?

Yeah, why do it?

So when I.

And then on top of this all I thought, you know what I'm going to do?

I came out of the gate charging a pretty, a pretty good price.

I mean, I'm an author as well.

I got to think about.

I said, you know, I'm going to drop the prices.

I'm going to.

I'm.

Because it's more important right now for me to get the word out.

So folks, if you're listening, you can get it on ebook right now for 99 cents.

Usually you'll run up, you'll sell a book and you'll let the go for, you know, 799 or whatever for months and months and months.

And I'm like, no, I'm gonna go 99 cents so that the barrier of entry is so frictionless for A dollar, you can read my Practical Memoir.

And if you're on KU Kindle Unlimited, you can read it for free, which I'd love for you to do, and tell everybody about it now.

So then I thought, well, the paperback, I think I came out at like, I don't know, 15, 16 bucks.

I dropped that down to 9.99.

So 10 bucks you get the paperback book and then the audiobook.

And I dropped that down.

Because, you know, if you're an author, you know how this system works.

If you're Amazon, they're taking a big chunk of.

Just hit Audible.

I'm going to put that up on the screen.

It just hit Audible.

So if you're one of those people like David, I don't know about ordering it from your website, it might not be secure.

Okay, fine.

Order from Audible or if you're an Audible member, you can listen for free.

Right.

So where can you do that?

Davide temple.com.

how you doing?

And as you said, the most important thing is to get the word out.

Get checked.

Yes, get the word out.

So thank you for putting up with that impromptu commercial, but it's important to me.

It's, it's memorable.

It's the end of the year and it's the holidays and look, everybody knows a guy, right?

Every one of us knows a guy.

A guy got me here.

Right?

I needed a mom and a dad.

So clearly.

True.

Good.

Good.

Yes, very good.

So there.

Every guy.

Everybody knows a guy.

And one in eight men will get prostate cancer.

Think about that.

Yeah.

Anyway, back to the Christmas show.

Yes, folks, in case you didn't know, Tammy and I do this thing.

We.

It used to be like top 30, then it was top 20.

I think we're going to do top 10.

It's the holidays.

We've bought a new home.

We've got holiday festivities to attend to, we've got family to go visit, we've got a car in the shop, we got a new dog.

Since last we spoke, if you haven't listened in a while, there's just a heap of stuff going on.

So we boiled it down to top 10 favorite movies, top 10 favorite television series, and for me, top 10 favorite thriller, fiction books of this year, documentaries as well.

Yeah, documentaries in there.

We're going to Include those inside of the movies.

Last year we did podcasts.

My podcast love really hasn't changed in a year.

And who needs to be repetitive or redundant?

So, yeah.

So here's what we're gonna do.

We have top 10 movies now, folks, if you remember from last year and the year before, and maybe have.

Is this our.

This is our third.

That's our third.

Holy thing.

Wow.

You look so good tonight, by the way.

I just wanted to say, folks, are you watching this on YouTube?

You should.

She is as beautiful as it gets.

Thank you.

That's nice of you.

Well, I just.

I should have said that earlier.

20, 20.

20.

All right, so here's the thing.

Tammy and I were talking as we were making this list, and I was surprised at the.

I think the word is dearth.

Dearth means lack thereof.

Right.

I believe I'm right.

If my dictionary doesn't fail me, the lack of great movies.

Now, there were some really killer ones, but when you think about 365 days, we'll call it that way.

We're almost there.

You'd think there would be a lot more movies that are just, like, not the case.

Right, hon?

Correct.

I mean, for me, I had to do, like, my.

I think I have eight top movies.

I have a few that hit my boo hiss list.

And then I have a few that I'm looking forward to.

And then I did break out my documentaries.

All right, so let's do this.

Why don't you just.

We.

We did this whole back and forth, and I don't.

I don't want to do.

Oh, here's my number one.

What if.

What's your number one?

Which.

Here's my number four.

Screw it.

Just throw me.

Just go through your ten, and I'm gonna.

I'm just gonna jump on because no.

Doubt we probably have the same.

In some situations.

And I think what's interesting is, like, my view of a Boo hiss, you could say, but that from a.

Direct.

From a director standpoint or a story standpoint or creative standpoint, like, this is what was interesting about that movie.

And so I think that's a very interesting.

Again, we're using interesting.

I think that's very, very interesting dialogue.

Well, again, to put a finer point on that, we watch all content together 99% of the time.

Yeah.

So it stands to reason, baby, what is the movie that we watched the other day and we were really having a hard time enjoying it.

But I really enjoyed the way it was shot.

And I, I made a point of the lighting and the, the.

The.

The meaning behind the lighting and the purpose and the, the way the cinematographer was doing his thing was.

Wasn't the one with Julia Roberts, was it?

After the Hunt, Was that the one?

I think so.

And it was.

It's beautifully shot and it's really.

It's really charismatic in a lot of ways.

And Barry.

Golly, that's a. I.

We did.

Neither one of us liked it.

I don't want to say anything disparaging because I love Julia Roberts, but.

And to wrap.

Put some wrapping around my boo hiss.

My boo hiss is.

You know, there are a few movies I was really looking forward to because I so liked either Round One or like this.

Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, like the list of actors.

Michael Stahlberg.

I was really wanting to like this, and I just didn't.

And you kept pointing out, but look at how the director has the husband doing this.

And in the background, this is happening.

Or look at the light or, you know, he's using this nuance.

And that is fascinating to me because as a viewer, I don't have.

I don't have that educational background to understand that where you do.

So that.

That is what brings an interesting conversation around.

Movie watching, TV series watching.

Yeah.

I gotta say, when I get.

When I really get into it, like I do sometimes, it really does make me want to direct another film.

I mean, I've only directed, what, three or four shorts and one feature film which we sold to Amazon Prime.

But, yeah, there's something about that visual medium of storytelling.

All right, so why don't we do this?

Why don't you just go ahead and shoot out of the gate?

How many top movies do you have that you love?

Let's just do the.

Your love.

Let's do top three.

Do it.

I loved F1.

I loved J. Kelly and I loved Sinners.

Okay.

I loved Mission impossible.

I loved F1.

We've watched it now.

We got off that movie.

We bought a membership to F1 on the F1 channel, which I think we watched one show of.

We watched F1 again.

And then just the other night, within the last 10 nights, we watched it again, and it was just as good.

Yeah.

Golly, it's a good movie.

Who doesn't like a good racing movie?

Yes.

Yeah.

And let's see.

So your top three.

The fall guy was my number three.

So mission F1 fall guy.

Because fall guy, Ryan Gosling.

Oh, yeah, I forgot about that one.

Just love Me, some Ryan Gosling.

So kind of along that spoofy thing.

I loved Good Fortune with Keanu Reeves.

That was so delightful, wasn't it?

That was great.

Let's spend a minute on Good Fortune a second.

Here's why.

Because you've got the guy who started out with Bill and Ted's excellent adventure, and you still.

Some people still see him as that.

Then you have the Matrix, which made him a billionaire.

And then you have John Wick, ass kicking mofo.

So he comes along and plays a Gabriel, an angel.

An angel with small wings who is responsible for stopping people from texting and driving.

That's his one job.

And then he becomes human and blah, blah, blah.

It's so freaking charming.

You have got to watch it.

I loved it.

Good point.

And Seth Rogen is in it.

And Aziz Ansari.

Yes.

Sarah, Sandra.

Oh, so just great cast.

Super fun premise.

Nona's.

I really liked that with Vince Vaughn and the Nonas that came out to cook at the Italian restaurant in Brooklyn.

I forgot that movie.

Yeah, that was super sweet.

I liked Wake Up Dead Man, Knives Out Mystery number three.

That was the best of the three, don't you think?

I liked the first one.

And I would say the first one and the third one are equal for me.

I have a guilty pleasure, which was nobody.

That is my.

Oh, yeah, I liked him.

I'm dropping his name right now, but he.

Bob.

Is it Bob something?

The commercial has him just a big fist.

Just.

It's just good.

It's, it's, it's guilty pleasure.

By the way, I want to go back to Jay Kelly.

I don't know what I was expecting out of George Clooney and Jay Kelly.

That was one of the most charming movies I've seen in a while.

It was so deftly done.

Charming as hell.

You love George Clooney.

You kind of get agitated by him and at the end you just want to go give him a hug.

Just write just a charming movie.

Yeah.

I mean, the realization of watching your life go by and that and the awareness of the choices you've made.

I owe a lot to George Clooney.

I'll share on another show someday.

But I just, I admire him so greatly.

And Adam Sandler was.

Oh, I mean, all of the acting was really good.

I love Laura Dern.

She's great.

Adam Sandler was off the charts.

Good, Great.

Yeah.

All right, here's.

Here's one that I really, really, really wanted to love because I loved the first one.

Ah, the accountant too.

Same boo hiss list.

Boo.

Hiss to the mother.

Boo.

Freaking hiss.

And how about in the same vein, loved Den of Thieves.

How many times have we watched Den of Thieves?

And den of Thieves 2 was laughable.

Two movies that really should have just rocked.

But here's the personification of why you don't always need to do sequels.

Yeah, the Accountant, they just went.

They jumped the shark, kicked the shark in the teeth and sent it home.

Horrible.

Anyway, are there any movies that you're looking forward to watching that maybe haven't.

Like, we're big streamers, except like big blockbusters.

Before I answer that, I want to say one that we, we, we.

We have talked about and it's a little bit uncomfortable to watch.

It's a little strange.

It's a lot strange.

It's odd.

It's really quirky as hell.

Hail.

But I somehow enjoyed it maybe because of the actors.

And that's Begonia.

Yes.

Jesse Plemons and Emma Stone.

You made a comment when we were watching it and you said, wow, Emma Stone is a real risk taker.

And she is.

You're so right.

That was a good story.

And I was in it the whole time.

And it can get a little kooky.

You have to have a little patience.

If you're into.

If you're into off the beaten path movies with a little bit of strange factor, but risky, that is best.

Bess says it doesn't all.

I wonder what we're going to be saying about Jesse Plemons, like 10 years from now.

You know, he's.

Some of the stuff that he's done from.

Was it Year of the Dog?

Yeah, a few years ago.

A few years ago and then Civil War.

And.

He is.

Not.

To compare him to Philip Seymour Hoffman is not fully fair because Philip Seymour Hoffman was probably one of the greatest actors of our generation.

But I think he's close to it because of his range and his commitment.

Yeah, he.

He dives into that thing.

You never see him flinch, you never see him wink, you never see him cheat.

He, he, he is a phenomenal actor.

I would love to work with him.

Oh, my God.

Talking about it and talking about a brave soul.

All right, let's see.

You asked me, what am I looking for?

The one movie on the top of my head that I cannot wait to see.

Reuniting the two guys who launched an entire Hollywood career with Good Will Hunting is Ben and Mat in the Rip.

Yeah, that's gonna be out in just a few weeks.

January.

I'm excited about that.

Yeah.

Cannot wait to see that.

I can't think of any others, but I know you must have some because you wouldn't have asked that question if you had.

I'm.

Well, there are.

There are a few kind of going through the Golden Globe nominations and seeing what else is out there that we haven't seen.

Like, some of the foreign films look interesting to me, but instead of going down a rabbit hole, I would say if I'm going to pull one out.

That I've been watching is Smashing Machine with the Rock.

And he plays the boxer.

Oh, yeah.

I'm curious to see his range.

He's had a real transformation and a real battle with the system.

He said, you know, he had gotten into the business and people put him in a pigeon.

Pigeon hold him.

And he said, I. I didn't.

I wanted to do something different.

Which is funny because he did a wrestling movie, which is how he launched his career.

However, between the prosthetic makeup and the way he approached the story and the way he disappeared into the role.

Yeah.

I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if he got an Oscar for it.

Yeah.

I'll save the rest of my list.

We can talk about the movies we liked next year that are probably on my list.

There is one that I really wanted to like again.

I wanted to like it.

I sat down and talked with Mike Gross, my best pal in the world the other day.

He said, have you seen it?

I said, I saw it.

I like the director, Paul Anderson.

I. I wanted to like it.

I love me some Leonardo DiCaprio because I think he's brave, but one battle after another.

I'm not saying it's bad.

I just didn't get it.

I mean, he was.

He had one.

He had one frequency in that movie.

He didn't let up.

He didn't change it.

He didn't do anything magical.

I. I don't want to.

I don't want to badmouth it because everyone's raving about it, but maybe that's part of.

And I said to Mike, I said, you know, part of the reason is people rave, rave, rave, rave, rave.

And then you go into it expecting this, and then you're like, okay.

I thought it was entertaining, for sure.

I looked at you a couple of times.

It was hard to understand as this, like, comedy drama.

Maybe there was a little bit of that in there, but I felt the same way, too.

Definitely not on the boo hiss.

Listen, not on the boo hiss list.

Just.

Yeah, I'm glad we watched it.

It doesn't make my top ten.

Yeah.

All right, well, folks, we're Going to take a very short break.

And when we come back, we're going to dive into our top 10 television streaming series right here with the Dave and Tammy Year End Extravaganza.

Stay with us.

And we're back.

Welcome back to the Year End Extravaganza.

I'm Dave.

That's Tammy, the most lovely and talented.

They say it every year.

They want more Tammy.

Well, that's nice.

Thank you.

I can't ever get enough of my Tammy.

How you doing?

Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp.

All right, why don't you lead us off with the top 10 television series?

Now this, folks, if you know anything about Dave and Tammy, we love us some content and we can be a little brutal sometimes in our reviews of certain things, but if we're fans, you ain't got no doubt that we're fans.

Right, honey?

Correct.

So I have like my top seven or eight and then I have good tv.

Well, give me your top three.

Let me.

I want to hear your top.

The three that really rocked your world this year.

The Pit, The Diplomat, Mobland.

If I was going to say my top three, I was going to say Mobland, The Dip.

No, no.

The Diplomat, Mobland and the Pit.

Yeah.

I mean, they're just awesome.

The.

The best writing on television in those three.

Yeah.

Well.

And then my next level three would be the Agency, Task and Slow Horses.

Okay.

My next three, The Studio, the Agency, and Black Rabbit.

Oh, yes.

I have a little bit of a man crush on Bateman.

I can't.

I can't lie.

I had to go.

I had to go back and watch the studio and I really.

And I liked it and I got it and I liked it.

But there's like that show, there's like this anxiety thread in it because it's like, oh, my God, we gotta do this and we have to do it in this timeframe and we have to solve this.

Yeah.

And that when I'm working all day long, that hum.

Doesn't necessarily serve me well.

It gets me anxious.

Like, can I just have Xanax or a cup of green tea and a long walk?

Because, like, I can't watch anxiety tv.

Yeah.

You know what?

And to be fair, that did start out that way.

I knew when I saw it, by halfway through the episode, I.

My instincts went, this is going to be a smash hit.

But to, to your point, especially that one where Seth Rogen is, you know, he's head of the studio, and they're trying to.

Trying to hit magic hour, golden hour.

Anybody.

Anybody who knows anything about filmmaking.

There's a tiny window where the light is perfect, and it's about five minutes.

And the anxiety on that set was.

I was so wound up, I had to have a drink afterwards.

It was just nuts.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sorry, go ahead.

So we had this thing.

So as we talked about what was the Leo DiCaprio.

Leo DiNardo.

One battle after another.

Yeah, DiCaprio.

One battle after another.

And how we kind of looked at each other and thought, hmm, okay.

You and I had the same thing about Severance.

Right.

Like, I think I'm gonna like it.

We're three episodes in.

I want to like it now.

We're six episodes in.

I think we're gonna like it by the last episode.

We just couldn't.

Like, we weren't those Die Hards.

So, literally, Severance is on my list as a what?

And I only have it on my list because I went back and watched it.

And then after every episode, I listened to the podcast with Ben Stiller and Adam Scott, and it's like, oh, okay, now I understand what they were trying to do, and I understand, like, the nuance and the messages.

So for me, I'll continue to watch Severance.

I don't know if you'll ever come on board, but Severance was a what?

I'm trying to follow this.

I. I appreciated what it was trying to do.

There were moments I liked it.

Yeah.

It triggered something in me, and I cannot figure it out.

I. I should probably go back into therapy to figure it out.

But I.

Something just rubbed me the wrong way.

It's a brilliant show.

I don't want to take anything away from it.

I just.

It wasn't my cup of tea, but I'll tell you, I want to throw one in here.

Yeah.

That I. I saw pop up on the screen.

You know how you turn on your tv, honey, what you want to watch?

I don't know.

What do you want to watch?

Well, maybe this.

And you go, oh, maybe that.

And I saw this come across the screen several times, and I'm like, I'm not going to watch that.

And I'd see it again, and I'd see it again, and I'd see it again.

I'm like.

And I'm a romantic guy.

And I'm like, rom com.

I don't know.

But then we gave.

Nobody wants this a chance.

Oh, my goodness.

Guys, I can say to you, if you're a guy and you're A guy's guy.

I don't care if you're a guy's guy's guy.

You're probably, if you have a heart beating in your chest, you're gonna love this.

Kristen Bell is just as cute as pie.

And the other guy, the guy who is Adam Brody.

Adam Brody.

I don't know.

Okay.

Is brilliant.

But that story was so perfect.

It's like 30, 29, 30 minutes.

30 minutes, yeah.

Just delightful.

Yeah.

I really, it was a great surprise.

I have that down as like the surprise.

We had a few like good TV moments.

White Lotus, more for me, not so much for you.

I, I hooked on, I got, I got it near the end.

I, I did dig it.

Yeah.

Dope Thief, I like that.

Right up until about the last, I think the cat, that was a lead.

He just got on my ever loving last nerve.

But great show.

Powerful.

Yeah.

Dope Thief was great.

Department Q, that was like the British love that.

Good blue lights.

Oh yeah, that's good.

Irish Cop.

Irish Cop movie TV series, new season.

You know, again, what I like about some of the these like Department Q and Blue lights, you're not looking at mayhem.

Like you don't have the big highs and the big lows.

You have a nice little roller coaster for the episode.

Yes.

But you know, the brutality is not there.

And I'm all, I'm, I'm really into a good story and I don't need that highs and like the decapitations and stabbings and all of that.

I will admit though, I, you know, you give me some mob land, I can't get enough of it.

But then you turn around and you watch this really charming blue lights and then laram.

Com and you go, and after you see a couple of those, especially with the political unrest in the world today, and I'm not going to go down this rabbit hole because if I did, I'd probably tick off a whole bunch of people.

But we, we've just lost, there's a, there's a good bit of us that have lost our collective and we need to just like try a little kindness and, and graciousness and gratitude and peacefulness and harmony without getting on a box.

But.

Right.

Am I right here?

Yeah.

I, I feel like the grace.

Should.

Come from also people around explosive situations.

I, I, my sense is people are being pushed to a stress place and you see it bubble up on the road or in the grocery store over things that wouldn't normally create, ignite that type of, of a response.

But yeah, I think that what's happening in our world right now is just, you know, feel settled in this environment.

Well, I think we have covered the TV series, I will say a show that I tried to like and I.

And I. I liked it and then I wouldn't and then I did and then I wouldn't.

And I don't know why I was so wishy washy because it great acting.

But Landman, I just couldn't quite fully get my hands around it.

I think, you know, that is one for me too.

I want to really like Landman.

There's extreme behavior and.

And I think maybe for me, I need a little just more of that quiet sometime versus do I want another screamer in my head?

I don't.

I don't need another screamer in my head, you know.

Yeah.

But yeah, I would like to like Landman.

There are a couple, just two more that we did really like.

One was the Girlfriend Robin Wright directed.

Oh, yeah, that.

And then the Beast in Me.

We liked that.

We watched that recently.

That was.

That was keen.

Yeah.

I also have an honorable mention.

I don't do this very often, but.

And I only say this because I want to give props to my gal pal May Cobb with the Hunting Wives.

Yeah, that was fun to watch.

Yeah.

Now you watched it.

I watched itty bitty pieces of it.

It got a little bit too chick flick for me.

But I really admire May.

She was my very first guest.

Very first guest on this podcast in June of 21.

But yeah, and it got great reviews.

And I'm just so proud of her.

Golly day.

She's living that dream.

Yeah.

Hey, what about a few documentaries?

Hey, bring them on, sister.

Hey, do you have any?

I don't.

Hey.

Okay, well, I know one that you loved was becoming Led Zeppelin.

Oh, God, yes.

Something I didn't anticipate it to be like.

I learned a lot.

Yeah.

Love Led Zeppelin.

Yeah.

Really enjoyed Mariska Hargitay's documentary, My Mom Jane.

That was.

I watched it on an airplane, I think, coming back from seeing the grandkids.

Yeah.

And it was so well done.

I mean, she seems like such an incredible person.

Her heart just.

She just seems to operate from her heart.

And her story was really incredible.

Jayne Mansfield was her mom.

Oh, wow.

Died in a car crash with her mom.

And the mom's one of the mom's new husbands.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

It's an incredible.

Her life is just really very interesting.

I did enjoy watching until I fell asleep on practically every single episode.

The American Revolution documentary with Ken Burns that you.

It's so good.

And I ended up buying it.

It was like, this is stupid.

I'm gonna watch it 16 times.

I'm gonna learn something new in every episode.

It felt like being back in.

In American history again.

And so well done, so informative.

And I love that about you.

You were.

You were.

When you find something you like, you just like, I'm buying it.

I'm going to.

I'm going to watch it 10 times.

And we always do that.

We'll watch it like two or three or four times and we go, baby, let's just buy this thing.

Yeah.

I mean, it's.

It's dumb.

So.

Yeah.

Impeccably done.

So well done.

Um, one, the story, one on one, the story of John and Yoko Ono.

That was really good too.

I think I watched that one of those nights that you were editing something and then my girl, Victoria Beckham.

Oh, yeah.

I kind of got lit up by her when I watched the David Beckham documentary.

I was just surprised by, like, the traditional mom and wife and how supportive she was throughout his career and how they told that story.

And then I wear a lot of her.

I.

Well, face.

Hello.

Done by Victoria Beckham.

I wear.

I wear her makeup.

Face by Victoria Beckham.

I wear her makeup.

Not her skin care anymore, but I wear her makeup.

Our skincare is by Clarins we learned about in France.

When we traveled to France and Italy, we.

We discovered Clarins.

Not Clarice, but Clarins.

So funny.

Which is why we look so fantastic.

So the story about Victoria Beckham, this documentary was she wanted to be a designer, a clothing designer for a long time.

And she ended up not being a typical, you know, superstar who says, hey, I like your clothes.

Let me slap my name on it.

For, you know, a certain amount of money, she actually went to school and learned how to become a designer and worked with a couple of really premier legendary designers to teach her how to design her own clothes.

And I respect that and I enjoyed watching that.

And then lastly, Stiller and Mira.

Oh, yeah.

Nothing lost.

Yeah.

And Stiller and his sister.

Very interesting childhood.

Wow.

Really learned a lot about their upbringing and just what it was like to be in that environment and the different between the mom and the dad and.

Yeah, it's very interesting.

Yeah, I so admire him and that whole family talking about just blessed with talent, for crying out loud.

Wow.

There's one.

I'm sorry, I'm, like, taking over.

Go ahead.

Last one and then I'll pass it back to you.

Dave, is I really so Funny when.

You call me Dave.

I want to see the Billy Joel documentary.

Yeah.

This music.

He's okay.

Well, I, I feel not as smart as you because I did not watch as many documentaries, but I'll tell you, I sure do like them.

You did them very well.

I'm going to shine on the top ten thriller fiction books.

Yeah.

Now this is always tough for me, if you very well know.

So it's not even, it's almost not even fair for me to do this because I love everybody that comes on the show.

Literally everybody's books were fantastic.

This may be one of the best years for thriller books that I've had since I started the show.

And they're all fantastic.

There is no one better than the other.

Matter of fact, I'm going to rattle off 10.

They're not even in my top 10 order.

They're just 10 that you like.

They're just 10 that.

When I went back and thought about the almost 40 that I read, these are the ones that just stood out.

And I'm not going to drill down on them because I'll do a little bit.

But I mean, again, I, how do I say it anymore without saying, like Jack Stewart for instance.

I liked everything that Jack Stewart writes.

If I, if I praise Jack Stewart all the time and I have him on the show all the time, people are going, is he a sponsor as well?

You know, so anyway, well, you just.

Like his work and you like him.

Root for.

He's a good guy.

I love me some Jack Stewart.

Yeah.

John.

Joel Dicker wrote a book called Wild Animal.

Now Joel is, I think he chatted with me from Switzerland.

Charming as hell.

Really loved our conversation.

A amazing book.

Kyle Mills, a guy who's been on the show a number of times.

Everyone knows Kyle Mills, probably in some ways, in some ways one of the most underrated writers, but really not really because everybody loves him and everything he writes kind of turns to gold and is charming and has always been kind to me and gracious.

And he wrote a book called Fade in which I personally felt like was one of my all time favorites of his.

Yeah, Megan Abbott is one of the most delightful gals.

I love talking to her.

She is such an interesting gal.

She's smart, she's intellectual, she's beautiful, she's funny, she can write, she can write your pants off.

I mean, it's crazy.

And El Dorado Drive was a hell of a ride.

Enjoyed that one.

Adrian McKenty, I mentioned him earlier, had more fun hanging out with Adrian McKenty.

I could literally do a podcast with Adrian McKinney.

I wouldn't get in many words.

Edwin Edgewise, because he loves to talk.

Kidding.

Adrian.

But hang on.

St. Christopher.

Oliver Reed.

You guys have a nice dynamic on the like.

Yeah, yeah.

He would kind of.

You'd go head to head and that.

Go ahead.

That's fun.

We like a lot of the same things and he's from the other side of the world, so it's just interesting.

Anyway, Eric, Rick's dad is probably one of the most talented writers.

Like when he wrote Lilith last year.

I'm still talking about Lilith.

You hear that, Shane Salerno?

I mean, I'm still talking about that book.

But his book Remote the six Holy Bananas.

Just mind boggling.

Tess Garrettson.

I recommend Tess Garretson to more of my gal friends.

I don't know why that.

But I have a lot of gal friend readers.

I think it about my sister and her partner and.

And I'm like this genre of hers, the.

The enclave in the mountains who were former CIA.

CIA.

Yeah.

The summer guests.

Yep.

Golly day.

What a.

You can't put that book down.

A guy that I discovered, he knocked on my door.

I answered.

I read the book.

I could.

I. I think I read it.

Probably one of the fastest reads I've had.

We went to London.

We tried to make connection with him.

Thomas Trang wrote a book called Dark Neon Dirt.

Yes.

I talked to.

I've talked to everybody I know about that guy in that book.

Stunning fun read.

Thomas.

I still apologize.

I owe you a pint.

All right.

Marshall Karp has become a good friend.

Don't tell me how to die.

Talking about a guy who is chewing on a bone and won't let that bone go.

Every time I turn on social media, he's pimping that book.

And he should.

It's a good book.

I mean, he said goodbye to James Patterson and went his own merry way.

Of course, they're still best friends, but he's now my best friend, James.

So there.

Jimmy.

Bye.

Bye.

Don't tell me how to die.

Great book.

Gary Questenberry Homecoming.

Just this guy.

You're gonna be talking about this guy for years to come.

And I'm gonna wrap it up with Scott Turo because I read Presumed Innocent decades ago, and Presumed Guilty was just as good.

And again and again, I read 40.

They were all fantastic.

Those were the 10 that I whipped out on a cocktail napkin.

As I thought.

Okay, these are ones that just stuck out me.

But every one of you guys are fabulous runners.

If you Had.

I'm kind of putting you on the spot here.

Oh boy, oh boy.

Do you have any like top three guests that you've had even just from the time you started the podcast until now?

My number one favorite guest.

You are putting me on the spot.

Yeah.

Maybe because I'm such a fanboy and I think his work is remarkable and I, I cannot get enough of him.

And he's such a kind, gentle spirit and he's so wise and we've had, we've been able to develop a friendship which I appreciate is Don Winslow.

And when I got to sit down with him on his farewell tour which was pre return tour, it was amazing.

And how lucky for us that he is back in the mix and writing.

Cannot wait to see what he does next.

And he's already getting great press now he's talking about AI.

He's gone off the deep end on AI.

I. I don't know if it's Shane or who over at the story factory is doing what but putting together these ads.

AI ads with Don.

The latest one I saw, he's doing.

Doing a reenactment of Kill Bill and he's kicking a.

A room full of people's ass with knives and blood splattering everywhere.

It's.

It's a, it's an okay likeness.

Not really good.

I think you guys can do better.

But it's not bad memorable get.

I give you huge.

I'm talking about it.

And Don, you know he practically walks on water.

And by the way, you owe me lunch at our favorite little jaunt there.

And Cardiff number two would be.

I'm going to go back to Adrian because I just had so much friggin fun with him.

I mean that's talking about he.

Here it is.

You throw anything at him and I think he at me almost.

He can knock it.

He can hit it.

He's not gonna, he's not gonna wiffle ball that thing.

And, and when you.

And he asks questions, there's one little tiny pet peeve that I would probably like to have said something about along the way is I'm amazed at how many people sometimes don't ask questions.

And it is kind of interesting because you can not only learn something but it'll open up the conversation.

But.

And a third.

I don't know.

I've always been a big fan of Meg Gardner.

Yeah.

And we always have a delightful time together.

I mean see now I'm gonna go down and I'm thinking of all the people I have fun with.

I mean, yeah, but Isn't that nice?

It's like you have people that bring a lot to the conversation.

You have people that you have fun with.

You have people that no doubt have just like, you've always been a fan of Don's and looking forward to connecting with him socially.

And then on the podcast, and the same thing with Jack Stewart, Chris Hottie, how many friendships have you developed?

If we flew into a town where some of these people lived, you could call them up and say, hey, let's go have a coffee or let's grab lunch or dinner or whatever.

And they do it like.

Or if it, yeah, if it's David McCloskey and Jack Stewart, we're having bourbon or beers and you know, if it's Adam Hanby, I don't know.

We've never, never drank together before, but we always, always, always have really good, intellectual, deep, soulful conversations.

Well, this has been fun.

I'm excited to pick up and talk about how some of this stuff lands next year.

Like how did this show work out?

Or what movie did.

Yeah.

Did we kind of miss talking about.

I have been going back and forth about how to talk to about them.

I don't think I'm going to talk about them right now, but they're.

And it's going to be very exciting.

I like nonfiction Fridays.

I also like.

You came up with something.

True Crime Tuesdays.

True Crime Tuesday.

How about that?

True.

True Crime Tuesday.

I see.

I can't even say it.

True Crime Tuesday.

It's not.

But again, this makes it memorable.

Like, how fun would that be?

Get Mr. Joe Kenda back on.

Oh, by the way, folks, my wife is a bit of a statistician and Joe Kenda's shows, he's been on twice and one of his shows, or maybe both, I don't know if they're tallied total.

Probably one of the highest watch shows of the entire.

Oh, hands down, the entire show.

And P.S.

he wasn't even physically on the show.

He was on audio because he did not like, he didn't want to do anything that was not zoom.

I hate zoom.

I despise zoom.

I said zoom didn't even work.

Blah, blah, blah.

But the audio was fine.

And damned if his.

His numbers are the highest of all.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, sweetheart.

Yes, dear.

This has Been a very fun end of the year Christmas holiday.

Happy New Year.

Ho ho ho.

Podcast.

Yes, it has.

And you're always delightful.

You always show up prepared, you're always charming.

Everyone loves you.

Not as much as me, but they do.

And so many people say.

And I'm never quite sure exactly how to take it.

Dave, why don't you have more Tammy, please.

She's a really good co host, maybe even a better host.

Get her on more, would you please?

Thank you.

Yeah, you know, I wish you all very well.

I hope you will pick up the book Life in two Columns, Shit that Matters and everything else.

Because life is really kind of in two columns.

That's why the title came about.

It's My Journey through Prostate Cancer.

This book could save your life.

There's a great conversation with my urologist in there.

We have a heart to heart conversation.

It's funny, right?

Honey, pitch this for me.

Just as a little rap I get self conscious.

Life in two Columns is for anyone that is a caregiver, I. E. You know, I was your caregiver, I still am your caregiver.

As we continue our path, forging our path through this journey, it's, it's also for, I mean, I have a brother, I have a son, I have a father, I have a stepfather, I work with men, I have men that are friends.