Five years of Moderate Fantasy Violence! Happy birthday to this podcast on this very day, and to celebrate the world’s continuous improvement since they started in February 2016, Nick and Alastair dig into their personal vaults to bring out some real classics: Alan Moore’s character-redefining run on Swamp Thing and Alfred Hitchcock’s cinema classic North by Northwest.

But first, slightly more currently, Nick’s finally watched the second season of His Dark Materials, while Alastair’s up to the third run of Disenchantment. Both shows which got a pasting last time they appeared here – have things improved?

And then it’s back to the eighties, before either of our heroes were born, for Nick’s recommendation: the opening eight issues of Swamp Thing (9:47) by Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette and John Totleben, including the classic Anatomy Lesson issue and a lot of relatable plant material.

Finally, reaching even further back to 1959, Alastair suggests North by Northwest (27:55), Alfred Hitchcock’s influential suspense movie featuring Cary Grant, a beautiful suit and apparently no symbolism whatsoever.

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This fortnight, Nick and Alastair return to the blasted hellscape of 2020 to cover some leftover cultural scraps: last superhero movie standing The New Mutants and spinoff scifi sitcom Star Trek: Lower Decks.

But first, they mention a few more recent items to make the podcast seem vaguely relevant. Alastair’s watched French heist show Lupin, while Nick’s listened to the new albums by Sleaford Mods and Weezer.

Once that’s over with, time to witness the full horror of The New Mutants (13:52). Is this film an overlooked gem scuppered by the pandemic, or can you safely forget it happened?

Lastly, they’ve also watched the whole first season of Star Trek: Lower Decks (25:04). How much fanwank is too much? Is this a comedy, a drama or… something else? All this and more! (Also, mild spoilers for moments in later episodes, be warned.)

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!