The big news in gaming this week – and probably all year, and maybe all decade – was news of Microsoft’s intent to purchase Activision Blizzard King, one of the last major third party publishers standing in the West, for $69 billion, an astronomical and purely theoretical sum of money that makes us extremely depressed about the capitalist hellscape we all inhabit. After attempting to wrap our heads around that news, it’s on to another adventure in the world of Gundam, as our journey through the ...
Jan 25, 2022•2 hr 18 min•Ep. 438
For our first Gundam discussion of the New Year, we’re beginning our journey through Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, the 6-part theatrical OVA created between 2015 and 2018, based on Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s manga of the same name. And to give this great series the royal treatment it deserves, we’re covering it one episode at a time! For this week, we’re discussing Part I: Blue-Eyed Casval, where we return to Universal Century 0068 in the Republic of Munzo, where a young Casval Rem Deikun and his si...
Jan 18, 2022•2 hr 19 min•Ep. 437
For our first episode of 2022, we’re taking a look back at the best video games of 2021! It was a slower and more unpredictable year for games than we’ve had in a while, with more releases impacted by pandemic delays and the new-generation consoles continuing to be hard to find, but there were still plenty of truly memorable highlights, from the madcap horror insanity of Resident Evil Village, to the thrillingly silly assassinations of Hitman 3, to the first new Metroid 2D adventure in almost 20...
Jan 11, 2022•3 hr 39 min•Ep. 436
In this special bonus episode, Jonathan Lack, co-host of The Weekly Stuff Podcast, shares his Top 10 Films of 2021 (and more!). You can read or follow along with the text version of this piece at http://www.jonathanlack.com/2021/12/jonathan-lacks-top-10-films-of-2021.html 2021 was yet another terrible year for the world, but it turned out to be one of the greatest years for cinema in my lifetime. The last time I felt this strongly about a year’s worth of movies was 2014 – and before that, 2007, ...
Dec 31, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 435
For the final Weekly Stuff Podcast of 2021, we are reviewing Lana Wachowski’s The Matrix Resurrections, the new entry in the Matrix franchise coming a whole 18 years after Reloaded and Revolutions landed in 2003. We did full in-depth revisitations of the original Matrix trilogy on episodes 398, 401, and 402, and this discussion is a great follow-up on those conversations, as we dive deep with this ambitious, challenging sequel that sees Wachowski updating the Matrix – the world and the character...
Dec 27, 2021•2 hr 26 min•Ep. 434
We’re here to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays with our 4th annual Weekly Stuff Podcast Christmas Special! After reviewing the Pokemon Christmas Bash album in 2018, reading through a Western-themed Evangelical Christian rendering of A Christmas Carol in 2019, and reviewing the extremely festive/psychosexual Christmas masterpiece Batman Returns in 2020, we’re back for another season of mayhem – and this time, it’s a crossover with Weekly Suit Gundam! For this Christmas, Jonathan has ...
Dec 25, 2021•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 433
Hollywood’s biggest release of the year is here with Spider-Man: No Way Home, the third entry in the MCU’s incarnation of Spidey, and Sean and Jonathan disagree on it pretty heavily at the outset. Sean liked it a lot, while Jonathan…didn’t. But it makes for a really engaging discussion where we find more consensus than initially anticipated, and Jonathan finds himself wanting to give the movie another chance in the future. Before the big Spidey review, though, we also talk a bit about playing Pe...
Dec 21, 2021•3 hr•Ep. 432
This week saw both the big video game advertising show called The Game Awards and the release of Halo: Infinite’s surprisingly good campaign, and we discuss both of those before diving into another Weekly Suit Gundam extravaganza reviewing the second season of Iron-Blooded Orphans. It’s safe to say we were big fans of the first season, and as the length of this podcast can attest, we are even more invested in the big thematic, narrative, and emotional swings the show takes in its second and fina...
Dec 14, 2021•5 hr 11 min•Ep. 431
After taking last week off due to the Thanksgiving holiday, we’re back with a veritable menagerie of stuff for you this week. First up, we hit two pieces of news – the first teaser trailer for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One) and a Bloomberg report about Sony planning a new PlayStation subscription to compete with Xbox Game Pass – before diving into a big array of game content. Sean talks about getting the Xbox Series S (which Jonathan has too), and replaying all the Halo campaigns...
Dec 06, 2021•2 hr 45 min•Ep. 430
We’ve finally arrived at the most recent mainline Gundam TV series on our Weekly Suit Gundam journey! But before diving into that, we also give thoughts on Halo Infinite’s multiplayer launch, Jonathan’s early impressions of Pokemon Brilliant Diamond, and more news about the unfathomably awful environment that is Activision Blizzard. Then it’s on to 2015’s Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans. Tackling the theme of child soldiers more directly than Gundam ever had before, Iron-Blooded Orphans...
Nov 22, 2021•3 hr 47 min•Ep. 429
Today’s episode is dedicated to Trans Awareness Week and Mermaids UK, a group supporting transgender, non-binary, and gender diverse children and their families. We are running a fundraiser to benefit the group and encourage listeners to contribute. Please click here to donate. Today – November 16th, 2021 – is 20 years to the day since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone arrived in American theaters, the first film adaptation of (noted bigot) J.K. Rowling’s worldwide sensation. Jonathan was a ...
Nov 16, 2021•3 hr 41 min•Ep. 428
We finish our journey through the original Matrix trilogy this week with 2003’s The Matrix Revolutions, following up on our discussion of the original in episode #398 and The Matrix Reloaded in last week’s #401. We have some minor points of disagreement here, but largely share the view that The Matrix went out on a rousing high note, with a focused and propulsive final installment that puts big ideas front and center, and sees them through to an extremely powerful ending. It’s a great discussion...
Nov 08, 2021•3 hr 25 min•Ep. 427
In anticipation of this December’s Matrix Resurrections, we return to the world of The Matrix with 2003’s The Matrix Reloaded, following up on our discussion of the original film in episode #398. Jonathan is a passionate defender of the Matrix sequels, and Sean hasn’t seen them in many years, and while we don’t agree entirely on how much everything works in this ambitious second installment, we absolutely believe this is a dense, fascinating film full of big, compelling ideas that are very much ...
Nov 01, 2021•3 hr 5 min•Ep. 426
Our landmark 400th episode is one of our longest and most entertaining episodes to date, packed with news – including announcements out of DC Fandome and trailers for both The Batman (yay!) and Uncharted (nay!) – reviews – Sean talks Far Cry 6, Jonathan discusses the Xbox Series S and The Ascent, and we both give our thoughts on Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptation – and a whole lot of celebration! We read a big batch of listener mail, featuring some of your favorite memories from 400 episodes and...
Oct 25, 2021•4 hr 30 min•Ep. 425
This week’s show is another Weekly Suit Gundam spectacular, but before reviewing Reconguista in G, Jonathan gives some final thoughts on the outstanding Metroid Dread, and we discuss some recent Nintendo news, including the addition of Sora from Kingdom Hearts to Super Smash Bros., and the unveiling of Nintendo’s laughably expensive Switch online expansion. Then it’s on to Reconguista in G, the latest Gundam entry from franchise creator Yoshiyuki Tomino, and perhaps the strangest and most formal...
Oct 18, 2021•4 hr 20 min•Ep. 424
With The Matrix Resurrections arriving in theaters this December, we are finally – almost 400 episodes into this damn podcast – taking our long-awaited look back at one of the single most seminal films of our lifetimes: The Wachowski Sisters’ The Matrix, a movie that is either at or very near the upper threshold of how good it is possible for big Hollywood studio filmmaking to be. This is such an impossibly rich movie to discuss, with its potent, multi-valent central metaphor opening up countles...
Oct 11, 2021•4 hr•Ep. 423
This week’s show – kicking off our October “Road to 400” podcast episodes! – is a fun grab-bag of topics, as we review Deathloop from Arkane Studios, Sean gives first impressions of Lost Judgment from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios, and we cover a mountain of interesting news, from details on the imminent 2nd season of Kimetsu no Yaiba, to a surprise Nintendo Direct packed with interesting announcements and an absolutely horrifying slate of celerity casting for the upcoming animated Mario Bros. movie, an...
Oct 04, 2021•1 hr 56 min•Ep. 422
After reviewing the original Gundam Build Fighters and its sequel series Gundam Build Fighters Try on our last two Weekly Suit Gundam topics, it’s time to round out the original Build Fighters run by rounding-up the many OVAs related to this corner of the franchise. We begin with Model Suit Gunpla Builders Beginning G, the 2010 OVA that first introduced the concept of a Gunpla Battle-based anime, and holds up surprisingly well on its own, with great animation and mecha designs and a whole lot of...
Sep 27, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 421
It’s another Weekly Suit Gundam extravaganza this week as we dive into the sequel to the wonderful Gundam Build Fighters – Gundam Build Fighters Try, set 7 years after the original with a new cast of Gunpla battlers. It’s a divisive show in the Gundam fandom, and on this podcast! Jonathan loves it, though not without some reservations, and Sean is mostly unmoved by it, despite liking certain things quite a bit. It makes for an interesting and dynamic discussion, as we break down the ways the sho...
Sep 20, 2021•2 hr 27 min•Ep. 420
We’re diving into the Marvel’s latest movie this week, and it might also be one of their greatest: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a blast, featuring the best action set-pieces in Marvel movie history, the best performance in the studio’s long run courtesy of the legendary Tony Leung, and a heartfelt, imaginative story that confidently reinvents the title character’s world and mythos into something we’re all excited to see much more of going forward. We discuss the film at length in...
Sep 13, 2021•2 hr 27 min•Ep. 419
We were supposed to review Marvel’s latest blockbuster Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings this week, but in a strange twist of fate Sean arrived at the theater to find they’d just burst a pipe and had to shut down. So instead, we’re catching up on a few Marvel properties from 2021 we haven’t yet reviewed on the podcast: WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki, the first three Disney+ entries in the MCU canon, two of which we have slightly-to-mostly different opinions on, ...
Sep 06, 2021•2 hr 42 min•Ep. 418
After an opening segment where we discuss Sean’s final thoughts on Returnal, Jonathan finally jumping in 4 years later to Horizon Zero Dawn, and our reactions to the Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer, it’s time for another Weekly Suit Gundam extravaganza! This time it’s 2013’s Gundam Build Fighters, where Gundam leaves the world of life-and-death warfare and science-fiction (mostly) behind, and instead settles in for a slice-of-life sports anime centered around the Gunpla plastic models that have ...
Aug 30, 2021•3 hr 34 min•Ep. 417
After last week’s marathon Evangelion podcast , we’re back with a shorter, more grab-bag style episode, where we answer a chunk of listener questions on everything from Gundam to comic books to Super Sentai. Before that, though, we also have a big list of news items to get through, from the Great Jeopardy Host Debacle, to Halo: Infinite announcing it will release without co-op campaign or Forge, to the unveiling of the latest Call of Duty, to Criterion finally getting in on the 4K game, to Idris...
Aug 23, 2021•2 hr•Ep. 416
Almost two years ago, we reviewed Neon Genesis Evangelion upon its Netflix streaming debut, and promised that we’d come back to discuss Eva again if and when the 4-film Rebuild of Evangelion project was ever finished. And with the final film in Hideaki Anno’s lifelong passion project, Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0: Thrice Upon a Time, now streaming worldwide (alongside the first three films) on Amazon Prime, we’re keeping our word and then some, with our longest Weekly Suit Gundam episode to date! We dis...
Aug 16, 2021•4 hr 44 min•Ep. 415
For the first time since before the pandemic, we’re devoting the show to a brand new Hollywood movie: James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, the standalone sequel/very expensive apology for 2016’s atrocious, definite-article-lacking Suicide Squad, and while it’s not a film we both like equally, it’s definitely one we each enjoyed, and which offers a lot of fun things to talk about. Before the movie review, though, you’ll also hear Sean review some recent anime he’s been watching – including Godzilla: S...
Aug 09, 2021•2 hr 20 min•Ep. 414
Today’s main topic is another Weekly Suit Gundam extravaganza, as we finish up the underrated gem Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, but before that, there’s a solid 80 minutes of non-Gundam material, from Jonathan’s thoughts on David Lowery’s incredible The Green Knight to news of Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall leaving Doctor Who, to Scarlett Johansson suing Disney over Black Widow, and the ongoing dumpster fire that is Activision/Blizzard’s response to serious allegations of endemic harassment and di...
Aug 02, 2021•4 hr 13 min•Ep. 413
With its massive 2.0 update going live this past week, we thought it was finally time to devote an episode to our favorite ongoing video game, Genshin Impact, the open-world Gacha sensation with some of the best writing, visuals, music, and world-building in the industry. We dive deep with the new 2.0 expansion, which adds the Japan-inspired island continent of Inazuma, lots of new story and character content, and much more, but we also discuss why we love the game in general, and why Western ga...
Jul 26, 2021•3 hr 23 min•Ep. 412
Today’s main topic is another Weekly Suit Gundam extravaganza, but before that, we also give first impressions on The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD for Nintendo Switch, react to Valve’s announcement of the Steam Deck portable PC gaming console, and talk about Jonathan’s nostalgic binge of American TV classic ER, and the wonderful, helicopter-related absurdities of the network TV dramas of yore. But then it’s time for Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, Sunrise’s 2011 collaboration with video game giant ...
Jul 19, 2021•4 hr•Ep. 411
Our Batman on Film series reaches the end of the Christopher Nolan era with 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, the infuriatingly bad final chapter that amps the noxious politics, bad pacing, and frustrating characterization of the first two films up to 11. While Tom Hardy’s inspired performance as Bane is as entertaining as even, 9 years on it’s impossible to ignore the film’s terrible script, endlessly convoluted plotting, and elitist right-wing worldview complete with a strong dose of militaristic ...
Jul 12, 2021•3 hr 45 min•Ep. 410
After a little back-and-forth on the week’s stuff – including Jonathan finishing the outstanding Kimetsu no Yaiba ( Demon Slayer ) manga – and checking in on a few quick pieces of news, including Ghost of Tsushima getting a PS5 re-release in August, we dive straight into our latest Weekly Suit Gundam extravaganza with Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway. Premiering worldwide on Netflix this week after its debut in Japanese theaters last month, Hathaway is the first film in a planned trilogy adapting or...
Jul 05, 2021•3 hr 5 min•Ep. 409
