Only took twenty-four podcasts, but Nick and Alastair are finally in the same room for this bonus year-in-review episode!
They attempt to talk down 2016 as a year in film and television, starting with a general chat about movies lately (1:19) before moving on to each listing their top five films covered in 2016 and negotiating them into a unified MFV top 3 without coming to blows (12:48). And if you want to read the good article about Arrival that Nick mentions during this bit, it’s linked here.
And if that wasn’t enough, they do the same for TV – a little broad discussion (27:07), followed by chart listings (39:05).
Finally, needing a little mutual back-slapping after all that controversy, they each give their favourites of the other’s 2016’s recommendations (59:55). All that and the first ever live incident of the Moderate Fantasy Violence drinking game!
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Twenty-three podcasts, just in time for the twenty-fifth of December! It’s nearly Christmas, and to celebrate, Nick and Alastair have seen An Inspector Calls and the Supergirl/Flash/Arrow/Legends of Tomorrow crossover. Neither of which are particularly festive. Oh well.
Next up, a rare MFV complete disagreement as both our heroes have seen Amazon’s Philip K. Dick adaptation The Man In The High Castle (22:48), but only one of them likes it much. Which host is the Nazi sympathiser? You’ll have to listen to find out. We’re also taking a look at Nate Parker’s new film The Birth Of A Nation (42:04), chronicling the 1831 slave rebellion of Nat Turner.
Then we reach a seasonal feature at last, as Nick finally watches Die Hard (53:10). Some say it’s the best Christmas movie ever. Does he agree? Is it even a Christmas movie at all? Rest assured, this will be discussed.
Twenty-two episodes of our podcast and somehow 2016 is still going! This fortnight, both of us went on London outings, Nick to the SMASH comics-chat event run by the 
Next, because we love Doctor Who and related media, we revisit teen-focused spin-off Class (37:18) now the first series is over, to see how it ended up. And yes, to justify covering it a second time, we’ll need to include some extreme spoilers. Also Nick complaining a lot about the Shadow Kin.
Finally, Alastair recommends Taxi Driver (54:59) directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro, a classic of modern cinema that Nick, unsurprisingly, has never seen.
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 
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 
If you enjoy Claire’s appearance here, you can get more from her at 
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).
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