Moderate Fantasy Violence

This fortnight, Nick and Alastair return to the Defenderverse for the full Marvel’s Daredevil season 3 experience, as sixteen-year-old Matt Murdock dresses in black and throws a great big tantrum.

But first, they look at such recent consumptions as the movie Peterloo by Mike Leigh, which Alastair has written more about on his blog, and Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, a show you may hear about again in MFV-land soon.

And then it’s into the dungeon with Daredevil (8:37) as Nick and Alastair find out whether this new season can reinvigorate the show by putting the Kingpin back on centre-stage, complete with inevitable disparaging remarks about past storylines involving the Hand.

Moderate spoilers throughout, pushing into hardcore ending details from 32:07 onwards. Oh, and if you’re into this topic, you may enjoy this bonus clip from the MFV #74 recording where Alastair found out Luke Cage was cancelled live on air.

For their follow-up question, they ask: does knowing the source comic change the viewing experience? (37:15) Of course, they’re doing this because the new Daredevil season draws heavily on classic comics storyline Born Again, which Nick and Alastair both read back in MFV #43.

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This fortnight, Nick and Alastair take on the first two episodes of Doctor Who to feature Jodie Whittaker as the thirteenth Doctor!

But first, Nick talks about his return to undead procedural show iZombie, while Alastair’s been off watching his annual assortment of cinema treats at the London Film Festival.

And then it’s time for the first two episodes (not the third, sorry, scheduling) of Doctor Who (13:11), beginning a new era of Chris Chibnall as showrunner and Whittaker as the first female Doctor. Can they possibly live up to expectations?

And then we ask related important question: how much do production values matter? (35:59)

This episode is sponsored (spiritually, not financially) by new comic The Little Deaths of Watson Tower, written by our very own Nick Bryan and drawn by Rosie Alexander. It’s a short story about a group of kids who are turned into tiny grim reapers and end up confronting death at various levels.

Check out Rosie’s excellent cover to the right, and if you want to check it out, click here to see more details, see interior art and buy it in either print or PDF form.

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This fortnight, Nick and Alastair go deep into hit BBC America spy show Killing Eve, as a British intelligence officer pursues a deadly international assassin with an increasing edge of obsession.

But first, they talk about other recent consumption, such as Alastair listening to the new Fucked Up album and Nick watching the latest season of Marvel’s Iron Fist.

And then it’s time for Killing Eve (9:34). It stays largely spoiler-free until a touch of full-on ending spoiler chat from 23:05.

Regrouping around 28:04, it’s time for this fortnight’s related question: what can James Bond learn from Killing Eve?

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This fortnight, Nick and Alastair check out The Predator, the latest movie in the Predator series, courtesy of Iron Man 3 and Kiss Kiss Bang bang director Shane Black.

But first, they’ve also experienced wrestling-based Netflix show GLOW and heavily praised BBC America spy series Killing Eve.

And now it’s finally time to enter The Predator (6:25). Alastair saw all the previous films, Nick hasn’t seen a single entry. Can he successfully talk out of Alastair enjoying the new one?

And then, coming off their experiences of this franchise, they ask: Does it matter if you haven’t seen the previous films? (22:28)

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This fortnight, Nick and Alastair dive into the standard fantasy world of Matt Groening’s new satirical animation Disenchantment. Can the man who created The Simpsons and Futurama do it again?

But first, Nick’s watching The Leftovers, the post-rapture drama from one of the men behind Lost, which Alastair’s gone to see puppets shag in The Happytime Murders.

And then they launch into Disenchantment (9:15), to find out if it can rise above its obvious medieval magic-castle-knight-mocking roots to find some real funny.

Lastly, they ask: Are fantasy tropes beyond satire? (22:26) And as ever, the question might hint at our feelings about the item being reviewed.

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This fortnight, Nick and Alastair check in with long-time MFV favourite and Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul as they kick off their fourth season.

But first, time to look at such recent consumptions as Nick reading Giant Days (the comic and the novel) or Alastair seeing new Spike Lee joint BlackkKlansman.

And then they return to Better Call Saul (10:39) to see how Jimmy and the gang are bearing up after last year’s big finish, along with a few mild spoilers (and one major reveal of a Breaking Bad character cameo) covering the first three episode.

Lastly, it’s time to ask: what makes a good prequel? (33:09) Are there any easy answers? How long will it be until someone mentions those Star Wars movies?

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Don’t worry, the sixty-nine jokes are small but perfectly formed, and then it’s on to Ant-Man And The Wasp, this year’s final Marvel film.

But first, recent cultural acquisitions, such as Alastair watching the new Mission Impossible film and Nick reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (and also mentioning the work of Daniel Ruiz Tizon).

And then Nick and Alastair launch into Ant-Man And The Wasp (7:42), this year’s last Marvel film and one interestingly working as a little superhero movie that could in the shadow of Black Panther, Infinity War and chums.

Of course, American audiences got the film around a month ago, which explains this fortnight’s related question: If you can’t release a film globally at the same time, is it still worth bothering? (24:15)

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This fortnight, after not one but two previous failed attempts, Nick and Alastair finally review Legion season 2!

But first, they talk about their recent consumption, such as Nick reading The Unwritten, a meta-fantasy-conspiracy comic by Mike Carey and Peter Gross, or Alastair watching Who Is America?, the new ambush-satire show starring Sacha Baron Cohen.

And then they finally get stuck into the Legion season two chat (9:18), including full and total spoilers for the whole thing and a content warning about one story point. Will it be worth the months-long wait?

Once that’s done, Nick and Alastair ask aquestion that… honestly has even wider relevance than Nick realised when he thought of it: How far can you twist your audience before they snap? (31:11)

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Nick and Alastair return to the mean streets of the Netflix-Marvel Defenderverse this episode, as they stride into Luke Cage season 2.

But first, Nick’s talking about The Handmaid’s Tale season 2 moving beyond the Margaret Atwood novel, while Alastair cheats on his own pop culture podcast with Slate’s Decoder Ring.

And then it’s time to head back into Harlem, as Nick and Alastair tackle Luke Cage (8:50) for the first time, ready to find out if they’ve finally picked up the pace. No real spoilers for this season but some discussion of major events in Defenders and the previous run of Cage.

Our related question looks at the memorable sense of place in this show, with the eternal dilemma: Can you take Luke Cage out of Harlem? (26:35)

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This fortnight, it’s the comics podcast of Nick’s dreams, as MFV covers the latest Hulk and Superman relaunches from Marvel and DC respectively!

But first, other recent consumption includes Nick watching Marvel’s Runaways TV show (so yes, on-brand), and Alastair heading briefly out of comics-land to watch Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

And then they head into the world of fictional strong blokes, to read the unsettling The Immortal Hulk #1 (6:52) by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett, followed by the uplifting Man of Steel #1 (15:48) by Brian Michael Bendis and Ivan Reis and Jay Fabok, showing us two very different ways of reimagining guys with abs.

And after that, after the success of last episode’s Marvel/Star Wars debate, it’s time to ask what these two comics can tell us about the forever-ongoing Marvel vs DC rivalry. (25:15)

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