This fortnight, Nick and Alastair return to streaming TV, as you always knew they would, with The Umbrella Academy on Netflix and Muppets Now on Disney+.

But first, they’ve both been hitting the HBO sitcoms for some premium laughs – Alastair with Silicon Valley and Nick with Insecure.

And then it’s time for The Umbrella Academy (11:07) to wow everyone with their wacky antics, inconsistent time travel and dubious taste in music. Nick and Alastair manage not to spoil the season that much, although some plot events are mentioned.

Lastly, they’ve watched the opening three episodes of Muppets Now (33:20), so must answer the big questions: can the Muppets work in 2020? And… can you really review them like this?

Finally, if anyone in the MFV audience is interested, Nick has a new comics Kickstarter coming up, an urban fantasy crime story called And It Snowed. Click here to sign up for a notification when it launches (or, if you’re reading this during September 2020, your pledges would be much appreciated!).

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This fortnight, uninspired by recent releases, Nick and Alastair delve into the old days to each bring a recommendation to the pod-table. Alastair volunteers for popular child-slaughter movie Battle Royale, while Nick signs up to contemplative spy comic Zero.

But first, Nick’s gone even further into the misty past by reading a load of David Lapham’s classic indie crime comic series Stray Bullets, while Alastair’s making one token effort to stay topical with season 2 of Amazon’s Hanna adaptation.

And then they finally get onto the Battle Royale (13:52) island, with discussion of its trashy grindy gore, before trying to work out if they fully understood the ending. (So yeah, maybe some mild spoilers for this quite old film.)

Lastly, they go deep under with Zero (29:36), by Ales Kot and various artists (Michael Walsh, Tradd Moore, Mateus Santolouco, Morgan Jeske and Will Tempest, to be specific). And after the giddy bloodsport of Battle Royale, Kot’s here to make them wonder: is violence… bad, actually? 

Download the podcast directly in mp3 here!

Listen on YouTube over a static image here!

Subscribe on iTunes! Reviews welcome!

Get the show on Spotify!

Listen on Stitcher! Reviews also welcome!

Subscribe in multiple Android podcast apps here!