Moderate Fantasy Violence

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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This fortnight, Nick and Alastair watch badly reviewed franchise-finale X-Men: Dark Phoenix!

But first, they look at some better-received material, such as Amazon’s Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett adaptation Good Omens and the hit Mister Miracle comic by Tom King and Mitch Gerads.

Then its time to get into the meat of the firebird with X-Men: Dark Phoenix (10:47). Is it as bad as people say? Have they provided a hard send-off to the franchise after nearly twenty years?

And then, considering all the spiralling rumours about this film, it seemed a good time to ask: To what degree does the circumstances of a film’s release affect our viewing of it? (32:16)

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Following on from last episode, where they asked a gaming YouTuber about a film, this time, Nick and Alastair ask two TV/movie podcasters (themselves) about a film based on a game – Pokémon: Detective Pikachu!

But first, Alastair’s made his annual trip to the Sci-Fi London Film Festival and saw Perfect, whereas Nick stayed at home and watched The OA season 2 on Netflix.

And then they sniff out the secrets of Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (9:57). Alastair grew up gotta catching them all, Nick is slightly too old – will this affect their enjoyment? In either direction? Could this be the best video game adaptation?

And further to that, the follow-up question: what about all the others? How do we make better video game movies? (29:03)

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At long last, Nick and Alastair are in the Avengers: Endgame, and to cover this epic team-up, they’ve recruited Jon from Many A True Nerd (stepping in for our advertised guest Claire Rousseau) to join the battle, and also run long. So very long.

But before they even get into that, they’ve got some recommendations for you, such as Jon’s thoughts on linguistics game Heaven’s Vault, Nick’s reading of some Horus Heresy novels and Alastair watching indescribable BBC bus show Don’t Forget The Driver.

After all that, Nick, Alastair and Jon finally start on Avengers: Endgame (16:34), complete with FULL TOTAL SPOILERS, individual character arc breakdowns, pondering where the Marvel media machine might go next and, inevitably, it all comes back to Jon’s love of weird Batman prequel show Gotham.

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