The original saga of Mobile Suit Gundam reaches its spectacular climax with Char’s Counterattack, the 1988 theatrical film that reunites Char Aznable and Amuro Ray for one final conflict, and sees Yoshiyuki Tomino and company bringing these characters, their story, and the major themes of the series up to now home with astonishing aplomb. As the first original movie in the franchise’s history, Char’s Counterattack boasts incredible production values and some of the greatest animation we’ve ever ...
Sep 10, 2019•2 hr 13 min•Ep. 318
It’s time for another episode of The Weekly Stuff Podcast with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman, a weekly audio show that explores the worlds of film, television, and video games. You can subscribe for free in iTunes by following this link. Sean couldn’t record this week, and we didn’t want to let this week’s exciting, jam-packed surprise Nintendo Direct go unremarked upon for another week, so Jonathan grabbed the mic to do a quick solo podcast – and a surprise last minute guest was able to join...
Sep 09, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 319
After the abject darkness that was the ending of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, we come out on the other side to review and discuss its immediate successor, Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ, a show that appears lighter at first glance…but is it? ZZ has a bad reputation among Western fans, but we’d argue it’s a deeply misunderstood and underappreciated gem, an essential follow-up to Zeta Gundam that masterfully shifts the franchise’s POV, boasts stunning visuals from start to finish, and is chock full of great ch...
Sep 02, 2019•2 hr 24 min•Ep. 317
It’s an absolute explosion of entertainment news this week, with Spider-Man getting a divorce from the MCU, WB relaunching The Matrix franchise 20 years after the original, the unveiling of the Breaking Bad movie El Camino, Gamescom underway in Germany, Disney showing off all sorts of Star Wars, Marvel, and various animated and live-action content for the Disney+ streaming platform and theatres, and Sony losing their fifth Uncharted director in a decade-plus of trying to bring the game series to...
Aug 26, 2019•3 hr 20 min•Ep. 316
In this episode, Weekly Suit Gundam goes beyond its original missive of reviewing the original 1979 Mobile Suit Gundam by jumping ahead for a deep dive with the second series in the Gundam franchise, and one of the most beloved: Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, the sequel set in 0087 that sees new protagonist Kamille Bidan joining forces with the AEUG – and several familiar faces, including the mysterious, sunglass-wearing Quattro Bajeena – to fight against the fascistic takeover of the Earth Federation...
Aug 19, 2019•2 hr 31 min•Ep. 315
As summer comes to a close and our non-podcast lives get busy again, it’s a shorter podcast this week, centered around Jonathan’s thoughts after 70 hours of Fire Emblem: Three Houses on Nintendo Switch. It’s a very good game, great in many ways, and has many ‘series best’ superlative qualities. Why, then, does Jonathan feel so conflicted about it after playing so much? There’s a lot to break down and it makes up the bulk of the episode (all spoiler free), but we also make time for a few exciting...
Aug 12, 2019•53 min•Ep. 314
Our first ‘season’ of Weekly Suit Gundam comes to a close with a big, fun, celebratory ‘wrap-up’ episode. For our main topic, we discuss the series of theatrical films, released between 1981 and 1982, that compiled and reworked the original Mobile Suit Gundam into a surprisingly effective film trilogy that saved the series from its initial lack of popularity and helped launch the franchise into the stratosphere. That’s a great discussion in and of itself, but it’s not all! We also briefly review...
Aug 06, 2019•4 hr 1 min•Ep. 313
It’s the final stretch of Mobile Suit Gundam – episodes 39 through 43 – and if you thought a mere five episodes wouldn’t be enough to fill a full installment of this podcast, you clearly haven’t seen the absurdly jam-packed final push of this incredible show. With the strange, metaphysical concept of ‘Newtypes’ taking center stage, Gundam’s closing episodes are both its most action-packed and its most boldly experimental, as Amuro comes fully into his new abilities and Char tries to harness the ...
Aug 01, 2019•2 hr 20 min•Ep. 312
Our trilogy of The Lord of the Rings retrospectives comes to a close this week, as we dive deep with The Return of the King, the final installment in Peter Jackson’s legendary adaptation. Sixteen years later, does the film hold up as well as its predecessors, and what do we see in it now, older and in the context of a very different cinematic and cultural landscape, that we could not glimpse then? It’s a long conversation befitting this absolute behemoth of a film, but we also make time to talk ...
Jul 29, 2019•4 hr 7 min•Ep. 313
A packed week called for two podcasts, so we’re back for a second time this week to talk all the news out of Comic-Con, from trailers for Star Trek: Picard and HBO’s Watchmen to Marvel unveiling their entire Phase 4 slate, which was not only full of surprises, but some of the best superhero movie titles (and, in the case of Thor: Love & Thunder, title treatments) we’ve ever seen. We also have the abject terror of the Cats trailer to deal with, Jonathan reviews Disney’s new, very boring The L...
Jul 24, 2019•2 hr 30 min•Ep. 313
Last week, we offered the first half of one of the coolest podcast topics we’ve ever done, counting down our 10 Favorite Video Game Soundtracks! This week, we’re back with Part 2, diving deep with our top 4 choices and sampling nearly 100 different wonderful pieces of video game music along the way. Touching on several of our most beloved gaming franchises, along with some surprise deep cuts, and listing a bunch of honorable mentions, this episode is another fun celebration of the music we love ...
Jul 22, 2019•2 hr 23 min•Ep. 313
The end is near for Mobile Suit Gundam, as this set of episodes – #26-38 – finds the crew of the White Base becoming fully integrated into the Federation’s forces, visiting the military’s biggest base of operations, and returning to space for an assault on the Zeon stronghold of Solomon and, finally, a duel…in Texas! It’s another sterling set of episodes, this bunch more action-packed than ever, but also dense with revelations and major plot developments, culminating in a series of major reveals...
Jul 18, 2019•2 hr 35 min•Ep. 311
There’s little we love more than a good video game soundtrack – the music that connects us with our most treasured gaming experiences, drawing us in with emotion, grandeur, thrills, and wonder. There are so many great ones, we’ve wanted to count down our favorites for a while, and this week, we’re doing just that – it’s our Top 10 Favorite Video Game Soundtracks! Sean and Jonathan have each compiled their own Top 10 lists, Jonathan’ brother (and actual musician) Thomas has sent in his own, and w...
Jul 15, 2019•2 hr 45 min•Ep. 311
The golden age of Spider-Man continues, with Far From Home, the latest MCU movie, arriving on the heels of Into the Spider-Verse, Insomniac’s Spider-Man video game, and Spidey’s recent appearances in the Avengers films – and the hits just keep on coming, because Far From Home is an absolute blast. It’s a wildly entertaining, wonderfully funny film with a good heart and a lot of creativity, one that manages to both take Spider-Man to places he’s never been before (geographically and thematically)...
Jul 08, 2019•2 hr 34 min•Ep. 310
As we hit the middle stretch of Mobile Suit Gundam and discuss episodes 14 through 25, the show gets increasingly dark, with the challenges faced by the crew of the White Base growing ever more perilous. We’re introduced to new foes like M’quve and Kycilia Zabi, alongside the inimitable Ramba Ral and his companion Hamon, enemies who present Amuro and Bright their fiercest opponents yet, but are also perhaps the most honorable and upstanding characters on the series to date. As the lines between ...
Jul 04, 2019•1 hr 52 min•Ep. 309
You’ve wanted it. You’ve asked for it. You’ve waited for it. And now, it’s here – the Game of Thrones episode of The Weekly Stuff Podcasts. Both hosts have seen the entire series, and now we’re here to digest the entire thing, and the unmitigated creative disaster that was the final two seasons in particular. What happened to the writing, what the heck was up with that ‘capture a wight beyond the wall’ plan, why is Euron Greyjoy the worst character in the history of television, and what happens ...
Jul 01, 2019•3 hr 8 min•Ep. 308
Back on Episode 277, we started our latest movie retrospective series, looking back at Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings film trilogy with The Fellowship of the Ring. A few months and many delays later, we’re finally back to talk The Two Towers, the second film in the trilogy and another masterful entry in this all-time great work of cinematic storytelling and craftsmanship. With the Fellowship scattered and the action moving East towards Rohan, The Two Towers expands the world of Middle Earth a...
Jun 25, 2019•3 hr 23 min•Ep. 307
After giving an overview of the Mecha genre and talking about the first two episodes last time, we dive deep into the meat of Mobile Suit Gundam on this week’s episode, discussing Episodes three through thirteen, a stretch which sees Amuro struggling with the surmounting stress of piloting the Gundam, Bright navigating his unexpected leadership, and Char deliciously manipulating supposed friend Garma Zabi to mysterious ends. It’s a terrific set of episodes that establishes the show’s episode str...
Jun 20, 2019•2 hr 10 min•Ep. 306
It’s a loose and freewheelin’ show this week, as we recover from the madness (and boredom) of E3 2019 with some additional reactions on reports from the show floor and swap some stories about anime and movies before diving into our main topics, each of which has left one of our two hosts beleaguered. For Jonathan, it’s trying to get into Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the most recent game by FromSoftware, which is so difficult it’s making him question every life decision he’s ever made; for Sean, it...
Jun 17, 2019•2 hr 49 min•Ep. 305
It’s that time of year again! E3 2019 is upon us, and as is long-standing custom on this podcast, we break down every major press conference in excruciating detail, from the “throwing s*** at the wall to see what sticks” approach of Microsoft, to the “kill time for an hour until we show off Doom Eternal” approach of Bethesda, to the “we had one cool game to show but we’re spending 90 minutes here anyway” strategy from Ubisoft, to the “totally nail the reveal of Final Fantasy VII Remake but then ...
Jun 12, 2019•3 hr 57 min•Ep. 304
In the 40 years since its 1979 debut in Japan, Mobile Suit Gundam has grown into one of the most pervasive and beloved franchises in anime history – and this summer, we’re taking a look back at the series that started it all, by watching, reviewing, and discussing in depth all 43 episodes of the original Mobile Suit Gundam (aka Gundam 0079). Sean has been a big Gundam fan for years, but Jonathan’s never seen a single episode before, giving us two unique perspectives on the series as we set out o...
Jun 10, 2019•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 303
With E3 2019 on the horizon, we make predictions for all the big shows – Microsoft, Nintendo, Ubisoft, and more – before our full annual coverage next week. With the current generation winding down and Sony sitting this one out, what do we expect from this year’s conferences? We also talk about the latest, craziest trailer for Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding, the reveal of the confusingly-titled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Jonathan’s newfound love for Dark Souls after many years of Sean and...
Jun 03, 2019•3 hr 3 min•Ep. 302
What do we talk about this week? What don’t we talk about? We catch up on a trio of movies from the month of May, from the fantastic John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum, to the depressing live-action Aladdin remake, to the totally okay Detective Pikachu. We also go over the Game of Thrones series finale, and what a muted, unengaged ending it provided. But that’s not all, because we’ve also been playing some video games, like Team Sonic Racing, and the Alpha test for this year’s upcoming Nioh II. Thr...
May 27, 2019•3 hr 34 min•Ep. 301
It’s a fun catch-up kind of episode this week, as we cover some big news from the past two weeks, including the reported casting of Robert Pattinson as Batman, HBO’s Watchmen teaser, Disney’s terrifying decade-long release schedule, Nintendo’s Super Mario Maker 2 Direct, and more! Jonathan talks about his delightful descent into masochism playing Cuphead on Nintendo Switch, and works through his feelings on the last two very bad episodes of Game of Thrones before this week’s series finale. And f...
May 19, 2019•3 hr 6 min•Ep. 300
Next week, Detective Pikachu arrives in theatres, sure to become the biggest video game movie of all time. Twenty years ago, Pokemon: The First Movie took the United States by storm in a very different way, arriving at the height of the original Pokemon boom and bringing anime mainstream in the West in a way it had never been before. On this week’s show, we revisit that film – in both its English adaptation and original Japanese form – looking back on Pokemon’s theatrical debut before Hollywood ...
May 06, 2019•2 hr 58 min•Ep. 299
Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame is the biggest movie in the world right now, and we dive deep with this culmination of a series we’ve been discussing on this podcast since the earliest days of our show! It’s an amazing film in so many ways – on its own terms, but also as a cultural experience – and more than worthy of a long, in-depth talk about all the characters, set pieces, and the surprisingly cathartic sense of finality the film builds to in its closing act. Jonathan also talks about his experie...
Apr 29, 2019•3 hr 9 min•Ep. 298
We catch up on two weeks’ worth of news, from the first trailers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and the video game Jedi Fallen Order, to the unveiling of the Disney Plus streaming service, to the confusing reveal of the Xbox One SAD edition. We also talk about the addition of Persona 5’s Joker to Super Smash Bros, and Jonathan gives first impressions of the oddity that is Nintendo’s Labo VR. And for our main topic, we dive in to the first official details of the PlayStation 5, and talk abo...
Apr 22, 2019•2 hr 37 min•Ep. 297
It’s a packed show this week, as we give impressions of Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission, the first English localization of the Japanese card battle sensation, discuss Kotaku’s bombshell report on the troubled development of Bioware’s Anthem, break down all the problems with Funimation’s dubious new Dragon Ball Z 30th Anniversary Blu-ray set, and weigh in on the very stupid controversies currently miring the video game discourse – namely, whether games like Sekiro should have difficulty o...
Apr 08, 2019•3 hr 13 min•Ep. 296
This week, we review Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Yoshi’s Crafted World, two games that couldn’t seem more different, but weirdly wind up teaching a lot of the same lessons in how to create a quality video game. Before that, we also kick back and talk about some Stuff – like Jonathan’s first time playing the cult classic Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, or trying to explain the plot of Season 3 of The Flash to Sean – and hit some recent news items, like the passing of the great Agnes Varda, rumors ...
Apr 01, 2019•2 hr 35 min•Ep. 295
It’s a jam-packed episode, as we dive deep with Jordan Peele’s incredible new horror film, Us, Jonathan gives some early thoughts from a pre-screening of DC’s Shazam!, Sean shares initial impressions of FromSoftware’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and so much more! Sean also talks about playing the first three Devil May Cry days on some Colorado snow days, Jonathan reviews the documentary Apollo 11, and we cover a bevy of news, including Google’s new Project Stadia streaming platform and the realiz...
Mar 25, 2019•3 hr 19 min•Ep. 294
