Sep 21, 2026 · 1h 4m
Hollywood weighs consolidation as Lanterns tests superhero storytelling
Paramount Settles States’ Antitrust Lawsuit. Plus, ‘Lanterns’ Episode 6.
The episode connects Paramount’s proposed transformation of Hollywood with a close reading of how Lanterns handles power, identity, and mythology.
- 1David Ellison’s Paramount plans raise questions about debt, layoffs, consolidation, antitrust enforcement, and political influence.
- 2Lanterns turns Hal Jordan’s collapse and Jon Stewart’s development into a test of serialized superhero storytelling.
- 3The hosts debate whether Lanterns can use comic-book mythology to examine race, family, and social identity as Watchmen did.
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The hosts ask whether Lanterns can achieve Watchmen’s socially observant use of superhero mythology through its portrayal of Jon Stewart’s family, race, and identity.
The brief
Paramount’s proposed deal becomes a case study in Hollywood contraction: debt, redundancies, layoffs, antitrust enforcement, and political influence all complicate the promise of scale.
The hosts widen the lens through television housekeeping and HBO’s Javier Bardem drama, asking whether stories about billionaires can offer meaningful political or human insight.
Their Lanterns discussion centers on a soft relaunch after the Rushville disaster, with Hal Jordan imprisoned, Jon Stewart investigating, and major history conveyed through implication.
Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald weigh Kelly Macdonald’s performance, the Lantern succession, Guy Gardner, shifting timelines, and whether the serialized story would work better as a binge.
The sharpest question is whether Lanterns can make superhero mythology socially observant, especially in its treatment of the Stewart family, race, skin tone, and identity.