Podcast Portal: Van Damme It!

Welcome to Podcast Portal: a spontaneous column that will highlight podcasts of all genres that are lesser known or new shows that are worth giving a listen. With the medium continuing to grow, it is hard to acknowledge all of them. However, I am going to try and find as many noteworthy titles as possible to share and hopefully expand your mind to the greatest growing medium out there. If you have any podcast that you feel is worth adding to the Podcast Portal, please make sure to inform me whether through the comments or through an e-mail (information in sidebar). 

SHOW: Van Damme It!
HOSTS: Chris Gutierrez, Zach Nix
NETWORK: Benview Network
EPISODE BEING DISCUSSED: "1. Bloodsport (1988)"

With podcasts becoming and more prevalent in our culture, it only seems like time until every actor with more than 10 movies is going to get their own commemorative program. For instance, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, and Stephen Spielberg all have their own shows to honor their impressive contributions to cinema. Yet there's two people out there that believe that one obscure actor from the 80's is worthy of having his own show. That actor's name? Jean-Claude Van Damme. He does action stuff, and that's all that you're likely going to get from this episode.

From the network that has brought fine program recapping Community (Shut Up Leonard) and Spielberg (Benview on Spielberg) comes Van Damme It!, featuring Chris Gutierrez of the enjoyable Benson's Boombox. The whole point of the show is to honor Van Damme's work at length with his pal Zach Nix. While the better question is why this needs to exist, it still has a decent potential as the hosts are capable of recounting every single Van Damme trope and go into such detail about his physique that you begin to understand the poorly done homoerotic image that accompanies the episode. It's a show about people who love Van Damme, and that's really all you're going to get out of this.
As someone who knows next to nothing about the man's work, I approached the episode with some hope of understanding his appeal. If you're like me, which I'm sure 95% of the world is, you'll barely know any more than when you walked in. The fact is that I barely understand what Bloodsport is about, either. If there's one thing that I hope that these two work on, it is formatting their show to cover in a more coherent way the plot as well as the various tropes that the actor is known for. Still, they have all of the pieces there and sound like they're passionate. The only issue is making it interesting in a way that people care. 
It doesn't help that the tone of the show is confusing. Despite their love, they still have a resounding sense that Van Damme appears in exclusively awful movies. They don't even love Bloodsport despite using it as the launchpad for a new series. There's a lot lacking in their confidence that makes this sound more like a late April Fools Day episode. It could be part of their charm, but the rest of the content has to sound more like they care first. To their credit, they even admit that audiences should take a pass on judging this episode harshly. However, that doesn't bode well for whatever is likely to come next from them.
The fact is that this network has a lot of quality programs, and plenty of room to tackle obscure actors like this. I would like to think that there's a cult that can be made out of this show and that people will actually learn to care about Van Damme. The only thing is that the hosts need to stop undermining themselves at every turn and actually let their passion be front and center. There's a good show here and I do look forward to whatever's next. However, the first episode leaves a lot to be desired - as it's likely that the "Reception" section of Wikipedia is more informative than this episode inevitably is.


OVERALL RATING: 3 out of 5
WORTH A SECOND GO?: It's a mixed bag for sure. The real question is if it will get better. If it does, then I'll likely say yes. Maybe it might even convince me to watch his movies. 

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