Episode 117. This week we watched the Amazon Prime original movie The Vast of Night. It's the late 1950s in rural Cayuga, New Mexico. The whole town is at the high school basketball game, but Fay and Everett are busy working. While she's transferring phone calls on the switchboard, Fay encounters distressed callers and hears a strange noise interrupt Everett's radio broadcast. Someone calls in believing they have the answer, and it could be a threat from beyond our world, hovering behind the clo...
Aug 05, 2020•1 hr 28 min•Season 3Ep. 117
We say “goodbye, friend” to Mr. Robot as we discuss its fourth and final season! After the Dark Army kills someone close to Elliot, he focuses everything on taking down Whiterose’s mysterious machine and her cabal that has been controlling world affairs and finances. We discover devastating Alderson family secrets, the origin of the Mr. Robot persona, and truths that Elliot has hidden from everyone, including himself. It’s a power struggle for all of society, and for Elliot’s own mind. Melissa's...
Jul 29, 2020•1 hr 37 min•Season 3Ep. 116
Episode 115. This week friend of the show Sam joins us to talk about the anime film Promare from Studio Trigger. Thirty years ago, people around the world suddenly developed unstable pyrokinetic powers. They decimated cities, killed millions, and became an ever-growing band of outcasts known as the Burnish. Burning Rescue is a fire-fighting team that works against a Burnish terrorist group in their city, until they find out what happens to these people after they're taken away from the crime sce...
Jul 22, 2020•1 hr 34 min•Season 3Ep. 115
Episode 114. This week we read the first four volumes of Hiro Mashima's shonen manga Fairy Tail. Lucy is a young woman with a talent for working with spirits contained in magical artifacts, and she wants to join one of the hottest wizarding guilds, Fairy Tail. She takes up with another fledgling guild member, the fire-breathing Natsu, and the two form a team to take on whatever odd jobs come their way in need of magical powers. With an ice wizard and a warrior of interdimensional weapons joining...
Jul 15, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Season 3Ep. 114
Episode 113. This week we watched season one of the supernatural crime procedural Lucifer, based on a character from the Sandman comics. You know the devil, right? This is him. He got bored of ruling hell and left to run a nightclub in Los Angeles, where he loudly tells everyone that he is the devil. When there's a murder outside his club, Lucifer gets wrapped up in the investigation, and particularly lead detective Chloe Decker. He can magically charm anyone he wants, but his powers don't work ...
Jul 08, 2020•1 hr 36 min•Season 3Ep. 113
Episode 112. Friend of the show Jacq joins us for a discussion on Mr. Robot, season three! Elliot has realized that deleting all of E-Corp’s financial records has worse consequences than he intended, and now he’s working at the company trying to restore that data. He’s lost connection with Mr. Robot, blacking out entirely when his other persona takes control and struggling to puzzle together what Mr. Robot has been planning. Are his two identities working against each other? Is Angela turning on...
Jul 02, 2020•1 hr 39 min•Season 3Ep. 112
Episode 111. This week we listened to the Marvels audio drama, based on the graphic novel of the same name by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross. The story features some favorite Marvel characters and is produced by audio drama all-stars like Paul Bae, Lauren Shippen, and Misha Stanton! It's 1967 and New York City is already dealing with protests about the war, civil rights, and the rising presence of mutants, when Galactus attacks. The Fantastic Four manage to beat him, and as the city picks itself back...
Jun 25, 2020•1 hr 35 min•Season 3Ep. 111
Episode 110. We went back to the origin story of the Marvel comics universe and read The Fantastic Four: Masterworks Volume 1, a collection of the first ten issues from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby back in 1961. When scientist Reed Richards, pilot Ben Grimm, Reed's girlfriend Sue Storm and her brother Johnny take an experimental flight to space, they return changed. They're developed superpowers! Some of them find this helpful, others find it a curse, but they decide to stick together and use their a...
Jun 17, 2020•1 hr 41 min•Season 3Ep. 110
Episode 109. We're continuing our monthly series on Mr. Robot and talking about season two! Since their hack to delete E-Corp's financial records, Elliot has decided to lay low and get his head on straight, still trying to find out what happened to Tyrell. Darlene is struggling to lead F Society to further action while avoiding the attention of the FBI. Angela is attempting to play the big business game and rise up the ranks of E-Corp to tear it down from the inside out. As the world is in shamb...
Jun 03, 2020•1 hr 37 min•Season 3Ep. 109
Episode 108. We watched the 2008 film Speed Racer, the Wachowskis' visually dazzling adaptation of the classic anime. Speed comes from a family of mechanics and wants nothing more than to be a racecar driver, even though a dangerous race killed his older brother when he was a kid. He's rising up the ranks of the sport and attracting big corporate sponsors, but the tempting deals are ruined when he finds out that they're fixing all the races. He teams up with the mysterious Racer X to sabotage th...
May 28, 2020•1 hr 28 min•Season 3Ep. 108
Episode 107. We watched Satoshi Kon's 2006 mindbending anime film Paprika. A group of scientists have invented a device that allows them to travel inside of dreams and affect how they play out. They intend to use this for therapy but a former colleague is using the device as a weapon, bombarding people with intense fantastical imagery that overloads the dreamer and drives them out of their mind. Dr. Chiba investigates in the waking world while her free-spirited alter ego Paprika tries to fight b...
May 21, 2020•1 hr 25 min•Season 3Ep. 107
Episode 106. We read the first two volumes of Black Hammer, a comic by writer Jeff Lemire and artist Dean Ormston. Ten years ago, Spiral City's greatest superheroes faced off against the Anti-God in a battle to save the world, but they paid a terrible and mysterious cost to defeat their enemy. The heroes were somehow cast away to a farm in a small rural town, trapped by an energy field running along the town's borders. They have no idea where they are, what brought them there, and if Spiral City...
May 13, 2020•1 hr 27 min•Season 3Ep. 106
Episode 105. This week we watched the whimsical family adventures Paddington and Paddington 2 from director Paul King, to learn for ourselves why they're some of the most critically acclaimed films of the 2010s. Paddington is an innocent talking bear who travels from his sheltered jungle home to London, a city he only knows through idealized family stories. The city isn't as immediately welcoming as he hoped, but he slowly charms his temporary host family, bringing them all closer to each other ...
May 06, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Season 3Ep. 105
Episode 104. We're discussing season one of the USA drama Mr. Robot, and join us for another episode next month as we keep watching the show through to its conclusion! Elliot works for a cybersecurity company and deals with his social anxiety by hacking into the private lives of the people around him to get to know their true selves. He earns the attention of a mysterious anarchist called Mr. Robot and his "hacktivist" group, who want to bring down the world's largest conglomerate, deleting thei...
Apr 29, 2020•1 hr 34 min•Season 3Ep. 104
Episode 103. This week we read the first three volumes of the manga The Heroic Legend of Arslan, from the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist, Hiromu Arakawa. Arslan is the young prince of a country at war, trying to learn battle tactics and how to impress his aloof parents while he's beginning to question his country's harsh practices. When he's separated from the rest of the army during a devastating battle, he has to rely on a small band of outcasts to help him travel back to the capital city to h...
Apr 22, 2020•1 hr 26 min•Season 3Ep. 103
Episode 102. This week Melissa's friend Jacq serves as co-captain for a discussion on Parasite, a thriller from South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho that swept the Oscars this year. The Kim family is struggling to find steady work when the opportunity arises for their son to tutor the daughter of the rich Park family. The rest of the Kims lie their way into positions in the household staff, fabricating identities and making the Parks believe they're all strangers to each other. But the Kims soon d...
Apr 15, 2020•1 hr 29 min•Season 3Ep. 102
Episode 101. We conclude our monthly series on The Venture Bros by discussing seasons 5, 6, and 7, which catches us up with the show! Both generations of the Ventures are dealing with the secrets of their fathers as the family lineage becomes more complicated. The Monarchs and Henchman 21 explore paths outside of their typical villainous roles. Billy and White experience firsthand what it's like to be heroes with their own arch-nemesis. The show shifts its setting and evolves its cast of charact...
Apr 08, 2020•1 hr 50 min•Season 3Ep. 101
It's episode 100! We tried a new and special format for this episode. We challenged ourselves to a debate about one of our favorite story genres and asked, what is the best superhero movie? Kyle's champion: The Russo Brothers' Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Melissa's champion: Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2. Two humble New York boys face off! We discuss the strengths and flaws of both movies, how they fit into the larger superhero movie canon, and how they make us feel like we could be heroes. T...
Apr 01, 2020•1 hr 29 min•Season 3Ep. 100
Episode 99. This week we watched the true sports story Remember the Titans. Melissa had never seen it before, and Kyle had seen it dozens of times, since he's from the location of this story and it mentions his own high school! The year is 1970 and two segregated schools are integrating and forming a new football team. The coach is determined to make this the best season possible, no matter how tough he has to be, and team harmony is his top goal. Boys of all different backgrounds need to come t...
Mar 25, 2020•1 hr 23 min•Season 3Ep. 99
Episode 98. We're taking our first good look at X-Men this week and reading the 2012 graphic novel X-Men: Season One, from writer Dennis Hopeless and artist Jamie McKelvie. In this contemporary re-telling of the original comics, teenage telekinetic Jean Gray is upset about leaving her normal home and school behind to live at Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. She doesn't want to be trained for battle, even if it is to help mankind and show them that mutants can be heroes. It's also s...
Mar 18, 2020•1 hr 24 min•Season 3Ep. 98
Episode 97. We both watched season one of the Amazon Prime comic book comedy The Tick, and Kyle got confused and also watched season two! As a kid, Arthur witnessed a terrible superhero fight that not only claimed the lives of the heroes and villain involved, but also killed his innocent bystander father. As an adult, he's haunted by that trauma and convinced that villain The Terror faked his death and is still secretly controlling the criminal underground. A mysterious but earnest new superhero...
Mar 11, 2020•1 hr 39 min•Season 3Ep. 97
Episode 96. We're back with another episode of our ongoing monthly series covering The Venture Bros, now discussing seasons 3 and 4. Newlyweds The Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch are learning to be a successful criminal couple as she encourages him to pick a different arch nemesis. The Venture family find themselves under attack from new villains rising to fill the gap The Monarch has left in their lives. Dean is still harboring a crush on Triana, and Hank makes his first normal teenage friend ...
Mar 04, 2020•1 hr 26 min•Season 3Ep. 96
Episode 95. This week, Ignacio from Crossplay joins Kyle and Melissa to discuss the 2016 anime film Your Name. Taki and Mitsuha are a teenage boy and girl leading different lives in different parts of Japan, with no idea that the other person exists. They find themselves experiencing vivid dreams of living another life and discover that these dreams are real -- they've been switching bodies at random! The two leave notes to get to know each other and figure out this strange connection they've es...
Feb 26, 2020•1 hr 21 min•Season 3Ep. 95
Episode 94. This week we watched Wes Anderson's 2012 feature Moonrise Kingdom. It's 1965 in a small island town off the eastern US coast. Sam and Suzy are two troubled youths who fall in love through pen pal letters and decide to run away together, prepared with little more than Sam's scouting knowledge of the island. But they're being pursued by every adult they know, plus Sam's entire scout troop, armed with the same tracking skills. This island is preparing itself for the storm of the century...
Feb 12, 2020•1 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 94
Episode 93. This week we read the first two volumes of Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez's comic Locke & Key, soon to be a Netflix series! After their father is brutally murdered in a home invasion, the Locke kids move across the country back to his childhood home, a sprawling New England mansion known as Keyhouse. They're dealing with loss, fear, reinventing themselves for a new life, and now, magic. Keyhouse is full of mysterious keys that open portals to fantastic abilities, but the kids don...
Feb 05, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Season 3Ep. 93
Episode 92. We're starting something new on The Review Show! We're going to watch a longer series through to completion, covering part of it one episode a month. This month, it's seasons one and two of the Adult Swim cartoon The Venture Bros. Dr. Rusty Venture, former boy adventurer, hasn't grown up into the same dazzling super-scientist that his father was. Struggling with upholding the legacy, he drags his sheltered teen twins Hank and Dean around the world in a series of sci-fi misadventures,...
Jan 29, 2020•1 hr 25 min•Season 3Ep. 92
Episode 91. This week we watched the 2019 horror-comedy Ready or Not. Grace is marrying into a board game dynasty, and her new in-laws have a tradition when someone joins the family: on the wedding night, the whole family gathers at the mansion to play a game together. Grace picks the wrong game. She's going to hide, they're going to seek, but she discovers that they plan to kill her once they find her. Click here to watch a video of this episode. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★...
Jan 22, 2020•1 hr 24 min•Season 3Ep. 91
Episode 90. We read the first two volumes of The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage from Valiant Comics. Shan Fong-Mirage can speak to the dead, but she can't speak to her late husband Hwen. She's desolate and going through the motions of her life as a paranormal investigator, taking whatever jobs will give her the money to keep her and Hwen's home just as it was when he was alive. Her latest gig seems sketchy, but a mysterious spirit hints that she may able to find Hwen if she travels into the underwo...
Jan 17, 2020•1 hr 21 min•Season 3Ep. 90
Episode 89. We used our winter break to watch the entire BBC series Sherlock, a contemporary take on the classic Sherlock Holmes mystery stories. Dr. John Watson is a returning solider trying to find his footing in London again, unsure if what he really wants is a quiet life or a new kind of exciting battle to wage. Sherlock Holmes is a private investigator and deductive genius who can't sympathize with people as well as he can read them for clues. Together they're roommates, best friends, and p...
Jan 12, 2020•1 hr 33 min•Season 3Ep. 89
It's our 4th birthday! Wow. It feels like it's been forever. Whether you have stuck around with us since the beginning, or are a new listener, thank you so much. We could not do any of this without you. Melissa and Kyle have been chugging along, Mick and Ignacio have joined the crew, and we even started a new show, Crossplay. Here's to four more years! Click here to watch a video of this episode. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★...
Jan 10, 2020•3 hr 45 min
