Double Elvis Productions in partnership with iHeartRadio announce the new podcast “Citizen Critic” where hosts Scott Janovitz and Greg Conley discuss beloved slices of pop culture, whether it be music, movies, or television, and together riff on the reviews and critical commentary that occurred at the time. Episode 1, focusing on Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman film, will be distributed through the iHeartPodcast Network beginning today and can be heard now on iHeartRadio and everywhere else podcasts are available. New episodes will be available each Monday.
“As people who’ve each worked in entertainment, and of course as pop culture consumers in general, we’ve spent our lives perplexed by professional critics whose takes are so often at odds with our own,” explains Janovitz. “The instinct is to assume your own tastes are somehow culturally flawed. But there comes a time when you realize it might not be you. Come to find out that no matter how iconic or celebrated some work of art is, there’s always some dopey opinion from a critic who just did not get it. It’s a well-worn truism that everyone’s a critic. And that was before the Internet. Now everyone’s a critic, and everyone has a platform.”
“The first episode, on Batman, was an eye-opening experience. The newspaper critic’s assessment was obviously the result of taking the movie too seriously, yet she complains that it’s no fun. Put that alongside some dueling petitions regarding Michael Keaton, and some hysterical user reviews of the DVD and other Batman related products, and you get a nice little snapshot of just how intensely people want to convey their opinions. Voicing the opinion becomes more the point than the opinion itself.”
“I begged these guys not to make a podcast, but they wouldn’t listen to me,” said Executive Producer and ‘Disgraceland’ Host Jake Brennan. “Regardless, what they’ve come up with is hysterical, smart, mildly offensive at times and wildly entertaining.”
Listen to “Citizen Critic” now and follow the podcast on iHeartRadio to be alerted when new episodes are available.
About the hosts:
Musician Scott Janovitz and scientist Greg Conley are friends since college and have long trafficked in both high and lowbrow popular culture. Just like you, they’ve got opinions about movies, music, television, books, toasters, toiletries, and paint colors. What’s more, they’ve got opinions about other people’s opinions. With a shared frame of reference and a penchant for the absurd, Scott and Greg criticize the critics of their favorite things, taking on published professionals and screaming-into-the-void amateurs alike.
