Episode twenty-one! The podcast comes of age everywhere, just in time for the world to basically collapse. Alastair matches the mood with Hypernormalisation, a new documentary from Adam Curtis (available here if you have iPlayer access), while Nick is escaping into a surreal superhero dream with Grant Morrison and Richard Case’s Doom Patrol run.
Forcing ourselves into the present day, we take on Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them (6:45), a new film set in the past of the Harry Potter universe. To help us get to grips with this, we bring in blogger, booktuber and Potter-lover Claire Rousseau, last seen discussing Harry Potter And The Cursed Child with us in MFV #13. This leads to some continuity deep dives and, yes, EXTREME SPOILERS for the film, right from the get-go.
If you enjoy Claire’s appearance here, you can get more from her at ClaireRousseau.com, @ClaireRousseau on Twitter, or talking about books on YouTube.
Lastly, some links we mentioned during that segments – the politics of Fantastic Beasts by Gavia Baker-Whitelaw at The Daily Dot and the episode of The Mispronounced Item podcast in which Nathan Ditum discusses the Star Wars prequels.
We’ve also got a chat about Train To Busan (50:47), a Korean zombie film aiming to change the way we all see rail travel, and, on Nick’s recommendation, we look at Chew (62:59), the recently-concluded hit comic about food and flesh-eating, by John Layman and Rob Guillory.
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For the first time in a while, a deleted chunk from the last episode – Nick and Alastair talk about The Walking Dead and how it endures despite just being the same cycle of suffering again and again. (Well, okay, it’s mostly Nick as Alastair doesn’t watch it.)
Episode twenty! Another numerical milestone, and one recorded before the recent American electoral news, so no mention of that here. However, we do have intro talk of Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow and The Walking Dead from Nick, until Alastair raises the tone with indie film London Overground.
Meanwhile, in cinemas, we’ve got a review of Arrival (40:05), the new scifi/semantics movie starring Jeremy Renner and Amy Adams trying to speak to aliens, and then Lo And Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (53:26), a new documentary from Werner Herzog offering a slightly more uplifting view of technology than Black Mirror.
Episode nineteen, and it’s almost feature length this time! But in our defense, there’s a lot to get through. Before any of that, though, we’ve been attending live recordings of other podcasts, specifically 
Moving out of mainstream geek culture, we’ve also seen I, Daniel Blake (52:59), the new movie from Ken Loach about Britain’s none-too-fair welfare system. If you want to read Alastair’s take on the politics of this film, 
And then straight back into the nerdosphere, Nick’s recommended Alastair the first few episodes of anarchic sci-fi cartoon Rick & Morty! (68:14)
Episode eighteen, so the podcast has finally come of age! Nick also completes a major rite of passage as he finally finishes Twin Peaks, while Alastair is out partying at the London Film Festival.
And if you want the syllabus of post-Luke-Cage reading material Alastair mentions during the episode, 
The seventeenth division has landed! It’s a Brit-heavy episode, with opening talk about the current London production of Pinter’s No Man’s Land with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, plus the revival of 90s middle class soap Cold Feet.
Finally, Britain goes to enhanced war in Nick’s latest recommendation: grim WW2 superpeople comic Uber (50:07) by Kieron Gillen and Caanan White.
Our sweet sixteen! Other important milestones in this episode – Nick finishes watching Chuck after about a year and Alastair books his London Film Festival movies!
Lastly, Nick somehow hasn’t seen The Fifth Element (44:18), but Alastair’s latest recommendation will sort that out.
Fifteen down! Back on regular format after two reality-bending outings, starting with opening chat about Between Two Thorns by Emma Newman and the end of Outcast season 1.
Last of all, it’s time to get lo-fi with BBC Three’s romantic-yet-squalid one-room sitcom Him & Her (57:24).
One last hoorah for our Nine Worlds coverage – this is Nick talking in his hotel room moments before leaving the convention for the year. (With some heckling from his girlfriend.) Cut from our main episode for reasons of length and slight redundancy, but if you want one more chance to experience the con vibe, this is your moment!
Episode fourteen! We break our format for the second podcast running, but first, discussion of recent activities involving Twin Peaks and the Hackney Visions festival!
And lastly, as ever, Nick takes a look at Alastair’s latest recommendation: Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy Delisle (67:07).
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