Moderate Fantasy Violence

This fortnight, our (festive) heroes (festively) re-enter the (festive) jungle with Jumanji: The Next Level! And Nick, forever behind on cinema, also finally (and, yes, festively) watched the first one.

But before that, time for the recommendations section, where Nick’s catching up on former podcast subject The Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett, and Alastair… defeats the point of the segment with his discussion of the BBC’s recent War of the Worlds adaptation.

And then they log into the great game with Jumanji: The Next Level (7:06), drawing inevitable questions about what exactly we want from our sequels. New stuff? Old stuff? More of the same stuff?

And then, remembering it’s late December and this is probably our (festive) Christmas episode, we settle down in the living room after the main event for a big pointless theoretical (festive) argument: which is the best Doctor Who Christmas special? (19:30)

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This fortnight, it’s 3.5 hours of power as Nick and Alastair tackle Martin Scorsese’s gangster mega-epic The Irishman!

But first, Alastair’s dissecting Alien with new documentary Memory: The Origins of Alien, while Nick’s caught up with DC’s cult favourite villain team-up comic Secret Six, by Gail Simone, Dale Eaglesham, Nicola Scott and more.

And then they sit their arses down for a long spell to watch The Irishman (11:07), complete with some ending spoilers after a short while. To the extent it’s possible to spoil this movie.

Finally, after that epic sit-in (which Nick watched in three separate sessions), they ask: What makes a good 3.5 hour movie? (30:50)

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This fortnight, Nick & Alastair saw the first two episodes of the new His Dark Materials adaptation from the BBC and HBO!

But first, Nick’s caught up with Netflix’s popular women’s wrestling series GLOW, while Alastair’s acquainted himself with the latest re-release of Apocalypse Now – The Final Cut.

And then we get into His Dark Materials (10:50), the latest adaptation of Philip Pullman’s beloved novels starring James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson and Dafne Keen. Alastair has a deep love for these books – can the show live up to them?

Small spoiler note: inevitably, Nick and Alastair can’t get through this review without mentioning a few plot points from later on in the book series.

All that done, they ask this week’s big question: whatever happened to British sci-fi/fantasy on TV? (27:27) The bleakness of the answer will shock you.

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Nick and Alastair face an awful future in horrendously named franchise sixquel Terminator: Dark Fate!

But first, Alastair’s zoomed off into Netflix space show Another Life, while Nick’s dived into past podcast material yet again to catch up on the second batch of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina episodes.

And then they lunge into the grim scifi concept of more than one-hundred MFV episodes and more than five Terminator films to review Terminator: Dark Fate (10:52), with… surprisingly few spoilers. Good work, boys.

Finally, as Terminator takes a cybernetic swinging blade to its own continuity yet again, Nick and Alastair ask: Do the plots of past films matter? (29:31)

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Nick and Alastair made it to the century! One hundred podcasts! Has… the world improved yet?

Oh well, never mind. To celebrate, they’re covering the new Breaking Bad epilogue movie El Camino, then recommending each other some teenage favourites: A Room For Romeo Brass and Transmetropolitan.

But first, Nick’s seen recent HBO the-teens-aren’t-alright drama Euphoria, while Alastair’s made his annual rounds of London Film Festival and seen… all kinds of stuff.

And then they’re on to El Camino (13:10), to find out what happened to much-abused relatable meth cook Jesse Pinkman after Breaking Bad finished.

With their present day obligations discharged, Nick and Alastair dive into some celebratory nostalgia, trying to bring you some insight into what the hell they’re about (if ninety-nine podcasts of chat wasn’t enough) by throwing their youthful media favourites in for discussion.

First up, Alastair brings in Shane Meadows’ debut feature A Room For Romeo Brass (20:36), a thoughtful British comedy drama featuring an early performance from Paddy Considine, and then Nick chucks out Transmetropolitan (35:03), the gonzo cyber-punk journalist comic by Warren Ellis & Darick Robertson.

And with that, it’s time to move on. To MFV #101, obviously.

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This NINETY-NINTH fortnight, Nick and Alastair launch themselves screaming into the discourse with a review of the new Joker movie!

But first, Alastair’s giving Disenchantment another disenchance with its second season (after MFV shrugged at it previously), while Nick brings us the last ever instalment of his extremely sporadic iZombie coverage.

And then it’s time to explore the chaos at the heart of our so-called society with Joker (10:15, lapsing into ending spoilers from around 21:30).

Finally, the dark, morally unsettling question of the week: To what degree are you supposed to empathise with villains? (35:21)

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This fortnight, Nick and Alastair watch the entire first season of Amazon’s superviolent superhero supersatire The Boys!

But first, Nick’s started watching premium computer show Halt & Catch Fire, while Alastair’s gone to see new crime movie Hustlers.

And then the boys crack into The Boys (9:57) with surprisingly few spoilers, and a lot of thoughts from Nick about how it compares to the original comic by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. As well as some not-too-detailed discussion of the sexual assault aspects of the storyline, just so you’re aware.

Finally, this fortnight’s big question: Is it realistic to portray superheroes realistically? (33:04) Weirdly, they manage to cram a minor storyline spoiler for the latter half of The Boys season 1 into this. Be warned.

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This fortnight, a fully-grown Nick and Alastair return to the traumatic scene of their first ever revamped episode to confront evil clown Pennywise in It: Chapter Two.

But first, they discuss some other podcast blasts from the past, such as Orange Is The New Black (via Nick) and Descender (via Alastair).

And then, at last, they return cautiously to the old town of It: Chapter Two (10:27), with not too many spoilers for once, to see if it’s as scary as they remember.

And then, after taking a look at this particularly extreme case study, Nick and Alastair ask: How do you cram a novel into a film? (21:04)

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This fortnight, it’s an X-Men X-Travaganza, as Nick and Alastair look at the final season of Legion, plus the relaunch of Marvel’s mutant comics in House of X & Powers of X!

But first, Nick’s ever-loyal to the Marvel theme with Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD season 6, whereas Alastair’s gone wildly off-piste by watching the new Tarantino movie Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. (Nick saw it with him.)

And then they dig into that final season of Legion (14:44) – after a raft of glowing reviews for previous seasons, can they end on another winner? Includes full-on finale spoiler chat from 31:59.

Lastly, much to Nick’s delight, back to the comics with the opening issues of the House of X and Powers of X saga (39:26), getting into spoilers up to the end of Powers of X #3 pretty quickly.

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