I have been a car enthusiast my entire life. I have my current career because of it, met my husband because of it, and formed many lasting friendships because of it. We all know there is not one “right” or “wrong” way to be a car enthusiast, but there generally are a few things that basically every enthusiast has in common.
For example, we usually all have an unhealthy obsession with a car we’ll never be able to own (2005 Ford GT in Midnight Blue Clearcoat Metallic with white racing stripes, by the way). And to many, consuming media like Top Gear and the Fast and Furious franchise belongs in the same boat. I’ve seen basically every episode of the UK Top Gear, but I have never seen more than a single scene of a Fast and Furious movie. When I tell people this, especially other car enthusiasts, I usually get met with a look of surprise followed by “Not even Tokyo Drift?” No. Not even Tokyo Drift.
When I was approached by the publisher of this very website, Matt Hardigree, about cohosting a Fast and Furious watchthrough podcast I jumped on the opportunity. I thought “finally, I will be able to see what I’m missing out on.” And boy, was I missing out on a ton.
**Spoilers are below, so beware**
For starters, I haven’t been so abruptly slapped in the face with this much early-2000s nostalgia since the time I saw someone selling a bright pink Motorola Razr on Facebook Marketplace using the word “Vintage.” The outfits? Iconic. The cars? Iconic. Ja Rule, for some reason? Also iconic.
Aesthetically I think the first movie still holds up in 2026, especially with the resurgence of Y2K fashion and adjacent styles. Nevermind the world’s longest quarter-mile race, “danger to manifold” error screens, and random bolts being chucked out of Brian’s glovebox. The point of cinema isn’t to be technically accurate, it’s to be entertaining.
I find the pacing of the plot to be really well suited towards a feature film. Its total run time is well under 2 hours, so all of the action is crammed into a teensy little package, by modern movie standards. It feels just fast paced enough to keep you entertained while simultaneously ensuring that key plot points get more screen time. However, this does mean some of the secondary plots within the movie feel a bit rushed–like basically the entire romance subplot with Mia.
As much as I would love to dive deeply into all of my thoughts on this piece of cinematic history, if I did that you would have no reason to listen to The Fate of the Curious, The Autopian’s all new Fast & Furious watch through podcast.
Matt and I will be watching through the entire series and discussing it between ourselves and a few guests along the way. It’ll be my duty to get any guests up to speed on the series with no tools other than my brain, a whiteboard, and a three-minute time limit.
The first episode of The Fast and The Curious is now available on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and other platforms. You can also listen to it below or use the RSS to hook into your favorite podcast app.
These episodes should come out roughly every other week, so please subscribe so you don’t miss the next one!
Top photo: The Autopian/Universal Pictures
As someone who saw the original back in the day, I’m obligated to add that nobody called it “nahss” before this movie. It was nitrous, and the brand name was en-oh-ess.
After reading about this endeavor a few days ago, I decided to give these movies a chance as well. So far, I’ve seen the first two. I unironically liked both.
The original was good. Yeah, the car stuff is ridiculous, the characters were cliches (why does everyone have to be troubled?? I would have made Dom an upper middle class plumber with two kids and a happy marriage), and the dialogue sounds like it was written by chatGPT with the dial set to cringe (“I live my life a quarter mile at a time” – yikes – I wonder how many takes it took Mr. Diesel to deliver that line with a straight face), but it kept me entertained for almost two hours. The vehicles are cool, there was an adequate amount of action, and I liked the way they filmed the racing/car chases.
Only two things genuinely bugged me about the original:
A motorsports event called Race Wars. I was a borderline adult in 2001, so I know “race war” would have had the same connotation it does now. I expected at least some ethnic conflict, especially since a lot of the movie involved ethnic gangs. Weird choice.I believe the FBI and the local 5-0 would put resources into busting a ring of serial freight hijackers, but c’mon – their headquarters is a mountaintop mansion with an 8-figure view? There is a difference between suspending disbelief and suspending credulity. This is too far, even in this movie.I feel like movies exist along a spectrum between 100% art and 100% entertainment. Something like Schindler’s List would be on one side of the spectrum, and The Fast and the Furious is on the other. This movie is brainless entertainment with cars. I’m good with that.
I liked 2 Fast 2 Furious quite a lot more than the first one, though. This movie isn’t even trying to be a movie. It basically has no plot – what little plot exists is merely an excuse to show car porn, good looking women (I presume some of the dudes are also attractive), car chases, and destruction. Nothing wrong with any of that. If the original was 100% entertainment and 0% art, the second was 110% entertainment and -10% art.
I think it is better I watched these in my mid-40s than when they were new, though. If I saw these in my teens or 20s, I would have felt obligated to point out every flaw. I was kind of an insecure pretentious douche at that age (not uncommon), but as an adult with nothing to prove, I can watch these movies and appreciate them for what they are.
I will probably watch the rest of them, or at least as many as I can watch before they are removed from Netflix at the end of this month. I think I would like these movies, but maybe not enough to spend $3.00 to rent them on Amazon.
I’m very excited to listen to this, but I do have one major concern. You’re going to miss out on several “wait, what?!” experiences if you watch the movies out of release order. There’s still time! Let Matt know you want to see them in the order that they were released.
Beg to differ, knew someone who got into a semi-successful car thief career after watching Ryan O’Neal in The Driver 7 or 17 times (forgot) in the theater.
What a stellar movie.
Who won, who lost, and how it went down.
Seriously, such a fantastic movie. Ryan O’Neal never made a better movie (though he mystifyingly hated it). I strongly believe James Salis had it in mind when he wrote Drive, before it was adapted into a movie.
I watched the first Fast film. It was “meh” and I was target demographic when it came out, 25-year-old car guy. The cars were cool but overdone, in my opinion. As mentioned, car enthusiasts cover the gamut of styles. I like more understated styling. Second movie came out and I didn’t even make it 20 min into the 2nd Fast film before turning it off for how bad it was. I didn’t watch another until Hobbes and Shaw, which I thoroughly enjoyed. As a result, a friend talked me into watching Fast 5 or 6…and again was left with a sense of “meh”. I hope you enjoy your viewing more than I did. Like Vanillasludge says, no way to get that time back.
Fine, I guess I will watch them all again.
Caution…You can’t get your time back….or your IQ lost points
Oh you are in for a RIDE.