MFV #10 – Orphan Is The New Black Explicit

orange-new-black-season-4-trailerWe hit double figures, and taking the zero in the number far too seriously, cover three different TV series beginning with O. But first, Nick rates his superhero shows and Alastair has loftier viewing tastes.

And then down to business: Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black begins its fourth year behind bars (4:18), new possession horror show Outcast reaches out for us (21:26) and we look back at Orphan Black’s penultimate season of clone chaos (38:27). Then end up running a death bet.

(Oh, and if you want to see some more Orphan Black thoughts, we covered the first couple of episodes of season 4 back in MFV #7.)

orphanblackFinally, Alastair recommended Richard Linklater’s Philip K. Dick adaptation A Scanner Darkly to Nick last week – is he okay with its heady mix of animation and drugs? (55:35)

So that’s #10! Download the mp3 here!

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MFV #9 – Prisoner Of Warcraft Explicit

dcrebirthEpisode nine, we’re doing fine! Or are we? After a brief opening chat about iZombie and the recent Captain America controversy, we plunge comics newcomer Alastair into the swirling heart of the latest DC superhero relaunch with the DC Rebirth and Batman: Rebirth specials (5:09), stare in fantastical bafflement at video game orc movie Warcraft (25:14) and develop crushes on Matt LeBlanc while covering the BBC’s Top Gear revamp (38:17).

Then our recommendations feature (51:48) goes on a bit longer than usual as we’re covering one of Nick’s favourite superhero comics ever: Black Panther (1998) #1-5 by Christopher Priest and Mark Texeira.

As ever, we spoil all our topics pretty egregiously. Use the timestamps to avoid any you’re sensitive about. Also, we suffered a few technical sound problems while recording it, but hopefully Nick has edited the bulk of them into oblivion.

Oh, and if you want to hear us talk more about the promotion and purpose of DC Rebirth, we did that a bit back here in MFV #2.

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Excessive Fantasy Violence #8A – Franchise X-Tensions

psylockeA couple of slightly superfluous minutes cut from our X-Men: Apocalypse segment, as we discuss possible storylines and spin-off properties for future X-Films, along with a pondering of Psylocke’s role and a small smattering of Hardcore Ending Spoilers. (Seriously, an element of the final showdown in X-Men: Apocalypse is just casually described. Don’t listen if you don’t want to know.)

And if you want to listen to the full podcast this was trimmed from, including our full X-Men: Apocalypse review plus Preacher and Green Room, you can click here!

MFV #8 – A Wave Of Your Massive Blue Smurf Hand Explicit

xmenapocalypseIt’s our eighth episode, the fourth to feature a major superhero movie! But at least there isn’t another one until Suicide Squad in August! We start with X-Men: Apocalypse (3:22), then move on to cape-free TV comic adaptation Preacher (23:34). After all that, we finally watch an all-original film, namely horror-thriller Green Room starring Patrick Stewart as a Nazi (43:21).

And then we leave the realm of narrative entirely for our recommendation feature, as Alastair suggests the Cammell Laird Social Club album by irreverent post-punk band Half Man Half Biscuit (53:27).

Spoilers abound, especially for the X-Men movie. Beware!

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Kill Command

One thing that I have learnt from being an amateur writer, attending writers’ groups and reading a lot of unpublished work, is that there are no bad story ideas, there are only story ideas that are executed badly. Romeo and Juliet is a story that is older than Shakespeare, but it endures because storytellers create original versions. A more recent example is Avatar: The Last Airbender (a good TV show) and The Last Airbender (a bloody awful film). Both essentially have the same story, but one tells it well and the other tells it appallingly.

With this in mind, I saw Kill Command at the Sci-Fi London film festival. On paper, Kill Command seems like a generic sci-fi film: a group of soldiers are engaged in maneuvers against new military AIs. There is a problem with the software, and the machines attempt to kill the humans. The soldiers find themselves in a fight for survival against an army of robots that are intelligent, quick-learning and deadly. Continue reading →

Canon Will Tear Us Apart – Love Interests Of Flash & Arrow

Hi! Nick here, and since there are no excess clips from our latest podcast (because we’re such fine pros), I thought I’d tap out a blog post for the website on something I’ve been thinking about lately – also a topic I can’t discuss at length on the show as Alastair doesn’t care at all. Yes, it’s the DC superhero twin shows Flash and Arrow.

I’ve been observing the difference in their love interest situations – Flash is still trying to put our hero together with Iris West, his original comics girlfriend/wife, whereas Arrow long ago ditched canon ladyfriend Laurel Lance (aka the superhero Black Canary) in favour of largely-unrelated-character Felicity Smoak. So which one has a better approach to wringing romance out of comic books? And how does one adapt long-running comic relationships into new TV shows without it getting odd? Well, let’s dive deep into that!

NOTE ON CANON: The old school canon love interest in the Green Arrow comics is Dinah Laurel Lance, so evidently the producers of Arrow do not think “Dinah” is a cool name for a main character.

NOTE ON SPOILERS: Spoilers up to and including around episode 21 of both shows’ current seasons, including any major deaths. Also a brief talk about love interests in Captain America: Civil War. You have been warned.

And now, to avoid anyone who didn’t want to see spoilers by accident, I’ll put a cutaway and a picture. Last chance to run.

Continue reading →

MFV #7 – Are Your Comics Telling You To Stick Your Head In The Oven? Explicit

orphanblackEpisode seven is here! If it seems like it’s come around pretty quickly, well, it wasn’t that long since last time. In this one, we’ve got a look at the BBC America clonefest Orphan Black (2:56), upcoming indie sci-fi film Tourbillon (16:06) and our glorious final thoughts on Daredevil season 2 (29:05).

Then in our never-to-be-named recommendation feature (49:17), Alastair checks out early Aaron Sorkin comedy-drama series Sports Night for the first time. Can it overcome his bafflement at the strange rules/team names of American sport? (He’s a pretty big Sorkin fan, so odds are good.)

As ever, timestamps provided above if you want to skip a segment to avoid spoilers. The Daredevil segment is particularly full-fat with ending details, for those who haven’t seen season 2 yet.

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Excessive Fantasy Violence #6C – Throne Rangers

game-of-thrones-season-6-poster_1280.0d11Back to our usual deleted scenes after a couple of specially recorded EFV specials – a clip cut from our Game of Thrones chat as we try to work out where some of our favourite lesser-seen characters have gone. What does Littlefinger mean to you?

Listen to the entire episode here, along with Civil War, Better Call Saul and Blue Velvet action!

Excessive Fantasy Violence #6B – Civil War Spoilers (pt 2)

CW-RUNWe are back with the second part of our specially recorded Captain America: Civil War spoilers side-chat – the first is here if you missed it – and as before we’re doing full maximum ruination from the very start so don’t listen if you don’t want to know. This time, we’re digging into the niggly details of the villain’s masterplan, the final fate of Bucky and what the ending means for the main Avengers characters and film franchise going forward. And then we drift so far off-topic that we are left with no choice but to terminate the conversation.

If you want to hear our full, slightly less spoiler-tastic review of Civil War, alongside Game of Thrones, Better Call Saul, Doctor Who and Blue Velvet, go here to get MFV #6.

Excessive Fantasy Violence #6A – Civil War Spoilers (pt 1)

Captain+America-+Civil+WarIt’s our first ever specially recorded Excessive Fantasy Violence special, so we can discuss Captain America: Civil War with full total spoilers! Seriously, we start picking apart the ending about thirty seconds in. If you don’t want to know until you’ve seen it, don’t listen to this clip. (And we also kinda spoil the end of the original Civil War comic from years ago, just FYI.) In this first half, we discuss the final showdown, how much it’s okay to show in the trailer and Alastair attempts (briefly) to unpick the real geopolitical implications of the Sokovia Accords. The second half of this chat is also up now, click here!

If you enjoyed this snippet and want to hear our broader, less spoilery chat about the film (along with other stuff), our full review is in MFV #6, which you can get by clicking here.

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