This week, James fulfills a long-standing threat, one that has long since passed topicality and has transcended straight to the plane of despair: he reads Fifty Shades of Grey, out loud, for your... pleasure?

Some context: for years, whenever he's been in his friend Brittany's car, James has read out loud from the copy of the book she leaves in her back seat, exchanging the character names for their original Twilight fanfiction names, and with the sex scenes read in a Sean Connery voice.  For two years, he's threatened to do a Brandon-less episode where he repeats this feat on the show, and finally, he's made good on his promise.

It is pain.

But for you... pleasure?  Tune in to hear James' descent into madness as he drinks beer to deal with the awful writing, as well as his running, exasperated commentary and funny voices.  He even makes a contest out of it!  Guess how long he makes it before tapping out and maybe win a prize!

Life is pain.

He's not dead, just dead to us, amiright?  That's what he gets for taking a vacation, which is very different from what James gets when he goes on vacation (adulation, warm welcomes home).

This week, with Brandon out of the country leaf-peeping or whatever, James calls on friend of the show Scott Williams to fill in as guest host for an episode that won't be a repeat of last year's all-time-fewest-listeners WrestleMania special.  We swear.  We talk about comics and movies and James' overbearing narcissism (including a revisiting of the fact that he would like to wear a shirt with his own face on it) and everything!  We can't help it if SummerSlam was Sunday and Stephanie McMahon hossed all over the place.

After starting with a recap of why working in retail is the worst, the boys talk about their weekends, including movies (one new, one new-ish and one old), karaoke and the post-karaoke hungover breakfast.  Then some stuff, and then comics!  It's a miracle!  Mostly because Brandon isn't here.

Tune in next week for... something special?

This week, love is in the air, and not because the boys have finally made it official and gotten married.  Though that could still happen!  Danica can't be there ALL the time.

Ahem.

But no, love is in the air because both Brandon and James attended weddings this weekend.  One even featured guests making it rain while the DJ blasted the reggaeton horn sound effect, and surprisingly, it wasn't the one James was at.  But after returning (and a morning-post-wedding biscuit & sausage and Gatorade), it was time to get down to business:

New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

That's right, James' friends have started getting him into Japan's premiere wrestling promotion, and with the giant G1 Climax tournament ending this weekend with a spectacular final, he decided to share the love.

G1 Climax 24 Final Match Kazuchika Okada vs... by original_bonski 

Needless to say, James has already spent $100 on shirts.

After this, it was time for the weekly Gravity Falls discussion (come at us, Chris Haley!), a look at some great comics from the last week (like She-Hulk #7 and a couple of Guardians of the Galaxy-related issues!), and a discussion of how Mark Doyle and Scott Snyder are changing DC's Bat-line for the better, with yet another cool series announcement that happens to correspond with the debut of a major network TV series set in Gotham.  Coincidence!

This week, James is back from vacation and none too happy to discover that Brandon went back on his promise to have any episode James isn't here for be a greatest hits memorial episode devoted to extolling his greatness.  Keen listeners will remember this is a real thing Brandon has promised more than once.  Betrayal cuts deep.

Luckily, it's easy to get over it when Guardians of the Galaxy has finally come out in theatres and Gravity Falls is finally back on TV.  Spoiler alert: both Brandon and James really liked both!  Something about friendship and emotional genuineness and treating characters like they're not dumb.  Plus, bright colours!

After this, it's time for a discussion of comics they liked, like James Stokoe's Avengers #1 for the Marvel 100 Years kinda-fake event, or the final chapter to "Zero Year" in Batman.  It turns out comics are still pretty great!