This week on The Deep Dive: What Marvel could learn from The Blair Witch Project, why it's so much easier to root for rebels in fiction than in real life, a Victorian child would probably survive a Four Loko but chances are you wouldn’t be able to survive a day in the disgusting streets of Victorian London, the mysterious origins of Skull Trumpet, and the disproportionate success of white rappers.

If you haven’t already upgraded to The Rabbit Hole, you should (in my humble opinion). On Monday, I covered my top five favorite video essays of 2023, my 2024 in/out list AND I got a new microphone so the weekly podcast episodes are sounding pretty crisp if I do say so myself.

As always, don’t forget to catch up on The Deep Dive’s YouTube playlist and shop The Deep Dive merch here! 🐰

FILM

The Most Profitable Film in History by EmpLemon (22:40)

In 2023 cinema, profitability was the name of the game. Unfortunately for Hollywood studio executives, it didn’t really end up working out for them that way. In an industry where every movie is designed to be as profitable as possible, how can any film be truly hailed as a success? In this video, EmpLemon holds a post-mortem of 2023’s blockbuster hits, uncovering why IPs and sequels seem to be the only movies studios are willing to fund these days. If you need to spend money to make money, at what point is too much money being spent? With Marvel flop after Marvel flop in the years following the MCU’s late-2010s peak, it might be time to go back to basics – back to a time when found footage and a $60,000 budget led to a profit of more than a quarter of a billion dollars.

MEDIA

Are We Really Rooting For The Rebels? by Princess Weekes (29:58)

From Star Wars to The Hunger Games to Avatar: The Last Airbender, the average viewer is always rooting for the little guy going up against the man. So why do so many people miss the point entirely when it comes to real-life systems of oppression that imitate art? In this video, Princess Weekes examines that very question, using some of our favorite media of recent years as an example. How do classism, racism, and white supremacy seep into our opinions of and the way we relate to our favorite art? And why are we so easily able to relate to the Rebels, Katniss Everdeen, and the Earthbenders but can never seem to see ourselves in the Empire, the Capitol, and the Fire Nation?