Moderate Fantasy Violence

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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This fortnight, bald men all over the bloody shop as Nick and Alastair discuss Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw.

But first, Alastair’s seen new-generation zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die, while Nick’s read the ethereal stylings of Sandman Universe: The Dreaming.

And then they hurl themselves under the speeding train which is Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw (10:55), including spoilers. If you think it’s possible to spoil such a movie.

And this episode wraps up tackling the biggest issue facing our world: who are the best characters to spin off? (32:19)

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This fortnight, Nick and Alastair cover the second season of critically acclaimed spy drama Killing Eve, last seen around these parts back in MFV #73.

But first, Nick’s wallowing in a woeful future with BBC/HBO drama Years And Years, while Alastair’s wallowing in the Britpop past with classic comic Phonogram by Kieron Gillen & Jamie McKelvie.

Then it’s on to the business of Killing Eve (10:36), as Nick gets the answer to his question from the previous episode: did this really need a second year?

You might be able to intuit the answer from this week’s related question: what takes you out of a story? (26:46)

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This fortnight, Nick and Alastair bring three straight episodes of Marvel adaptation coverage (following Dark Phoenix and Jessica Jones) to an end with Spider-Man: Far From Home.

But first, they’ve consumed other current and relevant things, such as hit Netflix show Dark and the HBO murder-sitcom Barry.

And then it’s time to swing off with Spider-Man: Far From Home (9:03), much to Nick’s excitement, including a dive into full spoilers about Mysterio’s true nature from 16:22.

Lastly, since this concludes not just MFV’s Marvel trilogy but the whole third phase of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, Nick and Alastair ask: did they nail it? (29:51)

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After years of heroic violence on Netflix (and coverage on this podcast), Marvel’s Defenders franchise comes to an end with the final season of Jessica Jones!

But first, Nick’s read Lies Sleeping, the latest Ben Aaronovitch urban crime fantasy novel, while Alastair’s watched the new What We Do In The Shadows show.

And then it’s time to get down on those Jessica Jones tones (8:47), with spoilers coming in pretty early, as our heroes investigate how the show bounces back from that disappointing second season and whether they can pull off a real ending.

Last of all, Nick and Alastair reflect on the whole damn six-show enterprise, which they’ve covered from the early days of the podcast, and send it off with the immortal question: WHO SHALL MOURN THE DEFENDERS? (31:08)

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