fantasticbeatsEpisode twenty-one! The podcast comes of age everywhere, just in time for the world to basically collapse. Alastair matches the mood with Hypernormalisation, a new documentary from Adam Curtis (available here if you have iPlayer access), while Nick is escaping into a surreal superhero dream with Grant Morrison and Richard Case’s Doom Patrol run.

train-to-busanForcing ourselves into the present day, we take on Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them (6:45), a new film set in the past of the Harry Potter universe. To help us get to grips with this, we bring in blogger, booktuber and Potter-lover Claire Rousseau, last seen discussing Harry Potter And The Cursed Child with us in MFV #13. This leads to some continuity deep dives and, yes, EXTREME SPOILERS for the film, right from the get-go.

chew1If you enjoy Claire’s appearance here, you can get more from her at ClaireRousseau.com, @ClaireRousseau on Twitter, or talking about books on YouTube.

Lastly, some links we mentioned during that segments – the politics of Fantastic Beasts by Gavia Baker-Whitelaw at The Daily Dot and the episode of The Mispronounced Item podcast in which Nathan Ditum discusses the Star Wars prequels.

We’ve also got a chat about Train To Busan (50:47), a Korean zombie film aiming to change the way we all see rail travel, and, on Nick’s recommendation, we look at Chew (62:59), the recently-concluded hit comic about food and flesh-eating, by John Layman and Rob Guillory.

Download the podcast directly in mp3 here!

Listen on YouTube over a static image here!

Subscribe on iTunes! Reviews welcome!

Listen on Stitcher! Reviews also welcome!

Subscribe in multiple Android podcast apps here!

the-walking-dead-zombiesFor the first time in a while, a deleted chunk from the last episode – Nick and Alastair talk about The Walking Dead and how it endures despite just being the same cycle of suffering again and again. (Well, okay, it’s mostly Nick as Alastair doesn’t watch it.)

To hear the rest of our short Walking Dead chat, including thoughts on how they resolved the season 6 cliffhanger, along with longer segments on Black Mirror, Arrival and more, click here for MFV #20!

black-mirrorEpisode twenty! Another numerical milestone, and one recorded before the recent American electoral news, so no mention of that here. However, we do have intro talk of Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow and The Walking Dead from Nick, until Alastair raises the tone with indie film London Overground.

Our centrepiece this fortnight, though, is an in-depth chat about Black Mirror season 3 (6:35), covering all six of Charlie Brooker’s latest techno-horror tales. Are they as miserable as people like to say? Or is there… a twist?

arrival-amy-adamsMeanwhile, in cinemas, we’ve got a review of Arrival (40:05), the new scifi/semantics movie starring Jeremy Renner and Amy Adams trying to speak to aliens, and then Lo And Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (53:26), a new documentary from Werner Herzog offering a slightly more uplifting view of technology than Black Mirror.

Finally, we find out what Nick thinks of Alastair’s latest recommendation: surreal tower block sitcom 15 Storeys High (66:17) with Sean Lock and Benedict Wong.

Download the podcast directly in mp3 here!

Subscribe on iTunes! Reviews welcome!

Listen on Stitcher! Reviews also welcome!

Subscribe in multiple Android podcast apps here!