The game is afoot, all our buddies!
The Final Podblem is a Sherlock Holmes read-through podcast produced by the Semiautomagic, Inc. Podcast Network, wherein two buddies—one a Level 221b Sherlock Superfan and the other reasonably sure that a Lestrade is a kind of handsome vampire—go through the entire Holmes canon.
The Final Podblem contains examples of:
- A Shared Suffering: Nick and Casey both went to the same conservative Baptist school, though they didn't become pals until a decade afterward, and frequently bond over the way their psyches can't seem to be bent quite back into the shape they were before attending.
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Attention Deficit Creator Disorder: So far, the boys have decided to start a new podcast with every guest they've had on the program:- Andrew Orsie: Squirrel Scouts of America, a The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl read-through show
- Liz Leighton: The Final Podblem: Elementary My Dear Podson , a future season in which they'll watch through all of Elementary (Liz Leighton would also go on to join Andrew and Casey on Squirrel Scouts of America after Nick left to found his own Squirrel Scout Troop in Latveria)
- Paul Thomas Miller: The Final Podblem 2187: a future season in which they'll watch through Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century; though this idea came after they agreed to Elementary My Dear Podson, it was decided that this would constitute their Season 2 because it has only 24 half-hour long episodes, which is one-seventh the episode count and one-fourteenth the run-time of Elementary.
- Dylan Spencer is the exception, allowed because he already had another show on the network, Dice & Virtue.
- Author Appeal: There is a SOLID chance that any given episode will feature discussions about religion, Star Trek, wizards, other podcasts, cats, and/or linguistics.
- Berserk Button:
- Trust us, do not ask Nick for a blended, iced macchiato, or what you'll get is a venti wallop with five shots of knuckle.
- Casey has a lot of linguistic pet peeves, including words like kit, set and pack, the idea that there could be an individual instance of 'a cheese', and referring to dishes adjectivally by their contents, such as quinoa bowls or fajita plates.
- Blatant Lies: A staple of the show; as an acolyte of John Hodgman, Casey believes that truth is stranger than fiction, but nothing is as strange as lies, or as true, and as a result frequently tries to see what level of nonsense he can get past Nick's filters by interspersing it with genuinely—frequently more—bizarre true historical trivia regarding subjects discussed in the episode's story. Examples include:
- The sponsor of their first episode being Ol' Triple Granddad's Patented Soothing Crabwax
- Paul Thomas Miller pulling this on BOTH of the boys, convincing them that he was Arthur Conan Doyle's last living descendent.
- The Cast Show Off: Casey can spot an opening for him to use an accent or sing a tiny song from forty paces.
- Hurricane of Puns: God it is just endless.
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Jeez, a guy starts one measly little pilot episode of a podcast with a fake advert for Ol' Triple Granddad's Patented Soothing Crabwax and he has to promise he isn't doing it again every time things discovered in the Research segment get improbable, which is a lot.
- Once per Episode:
- "The game is afoot, all our buddies!"
- The Huxtable Award, wherein the boys select their favorite character from the story and explain why they deserve special mention; this is a reference to Thornycroft Huxtable, a character in The Adventure of the Priory School, who they felt was especially wholesome and deserved recognition.
- Over Complicated Menu Order: As a former barista, Nick has strong feelings re: people not knowing what the hell they're trying to order. See also Berserk Button.
- Ridiculous Future Inflation: In a recurring segment, the guys do some math and convert a mentioned sum for which they have no context, such as £200 in 1891, into something that they can at least begin to understand, such as $30,000 friggin' 2019 dollars.
- Shout-Out: Too many to list, but frequent instances include:
- "___, all our buddies!" is a loving remembrance of The Thrilling Adventure Hour.
- The Dresden Files: Casey's primary reference for detective fiction.
- Many other podcasts, including:
- Good Game Great Game, who was their first show-friend and one of whose number, Andrew Orsie, guest-starred in the Three Garridebs episode.
- The Greatest Generation, whose Two Pals Watch Star Trek And Discuss It format was the major inspiration, structure-wise, for the Podblem itself.
- Omnibus, a repository of deeply strange true history, exactly the kind the boys like to take major tangents to discuss.
- The Weekly Watsonian, published by the John H. Watson Society, which goes into frankly unsettling detail about each and every John Watson, real and fictional, you could name.
- Sophisticated as Hell: Something the guys at least aspire to, switching ably between nuanced discussion of social, religious or literary topics and things like describing the Villain Protagonist of another series of stories as "What if Holmes, but crime?" This is aided by the fact that both hosts adore profanity but generally shun vulgarity.
- Special Guest
- Season 1 Episode 10, The Five Orange Pips: Dylan Spencer, of Dice And Virtue and Semiautomagic Inc.
- Season 1 Episode 20, The Three Garridebs: Andrew Orsie, of Good Game Great Game
- Season 1 Episode 28, The Illustrious Client: Liz Leighton, of Squirrel Scouts of America
- Season 1 Episode 29, The Mazarin Stone: Paul Thomas Miller, of the Watsonian Weekly.
- Team Pet: An ever-growing roster which gains a new member seemingly every episode, including Prime Minister Polkadots (the fanciest cheetah this side of Chiswick) and his secretary and valet Mr. Quacksford the Dapper Duck, Fortunio, the Modern Chicken In The City Who Is A Goth and Werewolf Gene, a secretly sophisticated and urbane lycanthrope who has to act like a redneck because his neighbors will tolerate monthly maulings but would not suffer a high-and-mighty intellectual Wolfman to live.
- Trademark Favorite Food: The boys’ version of Lestrade appears to be something of a foodie, displaying a love of Benihana, boba tea, froyo, gourmet ramen, kombucha, beignets and mochi ice cream.
