Last year was the Summer of Threes: Moviegoers saw the third installments of such venerable Hollywood franchises as “Spider-Man,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Shrek,” “Ocean’s Eleven” and Robert Ludlum‘s Jason Bourne saga.

This summer? There are a few themes emerging:

More sequels! Duh! We get this garbage every summer, so why should ‘08 be any different? Get ready for new installments of “Indiana Jones,” “The Chronicles of Narnia,” “Hellboy,” “The Mummy” and (I’m not making this up) “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.”

Superheroes! Of course the movie studios are gonna take tried-and-true popcorn fare and drive it into the ground. “Iron Man” is already out and set the bar pretty high for its followers: “The Incredible Hulk,” “The Dark Knight” and, uhhh, “Hancock.”

TV Shows!  Who needs fresh, new ideas when you have decades of mildly successful TV shows to pillage? There’s “Get Smart,” “Sex and the City,” “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” and probably a few others we’re forgetting. Hey, they worked on the small screen!

Former ‘Saturday Night Live’ Performers Reaching The Nadir Of Their Careers! With “The Love Guru,” has Mike Myers finally made his very own “Stuart Saves His Family”? After seeing “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan,” will anyone remember that Adam Sandler once seemed likable? Is there anyone left who isn’t so completely sick of Will Ferrell‘s played-out shtick that they’ll actually pay to see “Step Brothers”?

In between pointless asides, we discussed all these things on our Summer Movie Preview podcast, during which you’ll learn that ... well, let’s just say the Couch Potatoes aren’t gonna be spending a lot of time at their local movie theaters in the next few months.

You can check it out here:
Couch Potatoes, Episode 35 [link]

Of course, you’ll also get all the latest geek news and the usual sundry stupidity.

As always, you can download the MP3 directly from the page linked above, or from the archived list on the left side of this page, or you can subscribe via iTunes by clicking on the logo to the left.