Episode 146. We're returning to the tech drama Halt and Catch Fire to discuss season two. The Giant has brought Cardiff Electric enough success that they've been bought out by another company, leaving Gordon with a huge paycheck to fund any personal project he can imagine, but he encounters some mental roadblocks to getting any idea off the ground. Donna and Cameron are working around the clock to build Mutiny into a powerhouse for online games and revolutionary community forums. Joe is trying t...
Mar 03, 2021•1 hr 35 min•Season 4Ep. 146
Epiosde 145. We return to the Valiant comics universe this week to read all three volumes of Livewire from writer Vita Ayala. Amanda McKee is a super powered human known as a "psiot" with the ability to interface with all kinds of technology, giving her the codename Livewire. After the government declared all psiots to be executed, she retaliated with a nationwide blackout, allowing her friends to escape but causing untold damage to other innocent people. Now she's living in the shadows as a wan...
Feb 24, 2021•1 hr 26 min•Season 4Ep. 145
Episode 144. For Valentine's Day, we watched season one of the Korean drama series Love Alarm. Jojo's high school is obsessed with a new app called Love Alarm that can read your feelings and "ring the alarm" of your crush whenever you come near them. Jojo doesn't need an app to tell her how she's feeling: she has a crush on the hottest boy in school, literal fashion model Sun-Oh, but may also be interested in Sun-Oh's best friend Hye-Jeong. As we follow these characters over four years, the worl...
Feb 17, 2021•1 hr 58 min•Season 4Ep. 144
Episode 143. This week we watched the 2008 crime film In Bruges, written and directed by Martin McDonagh. Ken and Ray are two hitmen hiding out in picturesque Bruges, Belgium after a job gone wrong, awaiting further orders from their boss. Ken welcomes the opportunity for sight-seeing while Ray is dying to escape the city and the guilt over innocent blood on his hands. As they await judgement in this form of purgatory, they learn about the proper consequences for their actions. Click here to wat...
Feb 10, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Season 4Ep. 143
Episode 142. We're starting another monthly series watching one show from beginning to end, discussing season one of the drama series Halt and Catch Fire, created by Christopher Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers. It's 1983, the dawn of the home computer age. Salesman Joe MacMillian leaves IBM on bad terms and goes to the small Dallas company Cardiff Electric, determined to make them into the next big player in the PC market. His scheme pulls in an idealistic software designer who wants to push ...
Feb 03, 2021•1 hr 52 min•Season 4Ep. 142
Episode 141. Gino Viteri from Crossplay is joining us this week to talk about the Netflix original drama The Queen's Gambit. After the death of her mother, young Beth Harmon is sent to an orphanage where the kids are given tranquilizer pills to keep them docile. The brightest spark in her life is her chess lessons, and Beth develops prodigious skill at the game. She begins a whirlwind career traveling across 1960s America winning championships, still addicted to pills and confused about normal a...
Jan 27, 2021•1 hr 33 min•Season 4Ep. 141
Episode 140. We listened to an audio drama this week, season one of The Amelia Project, created by Philip Thorne and Oystein Brager. The Amelia Project is a secret organization that you can call if you want to fake your own death and start a new life. Each episode is a case file recording between a new client and the unnamed Interviewer, exploring the client's problems, how they want to "die," and where they want to go next. There's also interstitial scenes of the daily lives of the charming but...
Jan 20, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Season 4Ep. 140
Episode 139. This week we read the 1989 DC Elseworlds comic Gotham by Gaslight from Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola, and we watched the 2018 animated movie adaptation. This is an alternate universe take on Batman where he patrols the streets of Victorian era Gotham City, protecting it from Jack the Ripper. The comic sees more of a focus on Batman as the "world's greatest detective," while the movie adds a burlesque dancer Selena Kyle concerned about the threat to herself and other women as Batma...
Jan 13, 2021•1 hr 26 min•Season 4Ep. 139
Episode 138. We're kicking off 2021 with a bang watching all of Daniel Craig's James Bond movies to date -- Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre -- in anticipation of finally seeing No Time To Die this year. Bond has recently received his 007 status and his license to kill when he enters a high-stakes poker tournament to defeat a terrorist banker and falls for the treacherous treasurer Vesper Lynd. As he goes on to face a water baron, a vengeful agent from MI6's past, and a sec...
Jan 06, 2021•1 hr 41 min•Season 4Ep. 138
Happy 5 year anniversary to us here at The Whatnauts. Kyle, Melissa, Ignacio, Gino, and Alan gather for an end-of-the-year party! We eat pizza, play trivia, discuss video games and movies of the year, give out Review Show awards, and tour through the history of The Whatnauts and talk about our podcasting goals for 2021. Thanks for being here and learning and growing with us, we're excited for the future! Check out Melissa's 2020 Review Show playlist here . Click here to watch a video of this epi...
Dec 25, 2020•4 hr 33 min
Episode 137. For our holiday special and final episode of 2020, we go out on a musical note with the new Netflix movie Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey. Jeronicus Jangle was once the best toymaker around until his apprentice stole his greatest invention and his book of blueprints. Jeronicus loses his spark for building toys and closes up shop, and becomes estranged from his family. Years later, the granddaughter he's never met comes to visit to try to lift his spirits and find someone like her...
Dec 23, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Season 3Ep. 137
Episode 136. This week we welcomed the holiday season by watching 1988's Scrooged, a contemporary retelling of A Christmas Carol. Frank Cross is a TV executive planning a massive live broadcast production of A Christmas Carol for Christmas Eve, but big business is the only thing he has going for him. He's estranged from loved ones, and his colleagues regard him as heartless. All day on the 24th, he's struggling to keep the show running as he's being haunted by spirits revealing to him the error ...
Dec 16, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Season 3Ep. 136
Episode 135. We watched season one of the Netflix original anime series Great Pretender. Makoto Edamura considers himself the best scam artist in Japan until he's outsmarted by Laurant Thierry, a man who he thought was just a clueless tourist. Fascinated to learn his ways and eager to get his money back, Edamura follows Laurant to Los Angeles and finds himself deep in a false drug-dealing scheme that has more levels of lying that he ever could have guessed. He becomes a reluctant part of Laurant...
Dec 11, 2020•1 hr 43 min•Season 3Ep. 135
Episode 134. We finished reading all ten volumes of Irredeemable and wow what an ending! Tony is back on Earth, still set on destruction, and the world's few remaining leaders turn to their last hope, a secret weapon that could stop him but doom millions of citizens in exchange. Tony discovers the origin of his powers, finally getting an answer to the question that has plagued him his whole life, "why am I?" As the Paradigm struggles to preserve society, Qubit devises a plan to both save the Ear...
Dec 08, 2020•1 hr 37 min•Season 3Ep. 134
Episode 133. We watched M. Night Shyamalan's trilogy of unconventional superhero thrillers, Unbreakable (2000), Split (2017), and Glass (2019). Security guard David Dunn is the sole survivor of a massively fatal train crash who realizes he isn't just lucky, he's invulnerable, and he's always felt a duty to protect the people of Philadelphia. Art curator Elijah Price was born with terribly fragile bones, unsure of why he exists in this world, but sure that comic books have a core of truth to them...
Dec 08, 2020•1 hr 50 min•Season 3Ep. 133
Episode 132. We watched Rian Johnson's 2019 murder mystery Knives Out. A best-selling author kills himself the night of his 85th birthday party, leaving behind a family more concerned about their inheritance than they are about grieving, a nervous private nurse who may not be telling the whole truth, and a detective with a sense that this isn't just an open-and-shut suicide case. As the nurse tries to avoid the suspicion of the desperate family members, she learns that she was the one the author...
Nov 18, 2020•1 hr 39 min•Season 3Ep. 132
Episode 131. We read the first four volumes of manga The Drops of God by Tadashi Agi and Shu Okimoto. Shizuku Kanzaki is the son of a famous wine critic who's never drank wine himself. When his father dies, Shizuku finds that he legally adopted his wine critic protege and wants his two sons to compete for their inheritance. In his massive wine collection, he has named "Twelve Apostles," wines that exemplify the art form, and "The Drops of God," the greatest wine he's ever tasted. Whomever can id...
Nov 11, 2020•1 hr 32 min•Season 3Ep. 131
Episode 130. We're continuing our monthly coverage of the comic series Irredeemable, talking about volumes 5-7 this week. Qubit has sabotaged the team's attempt to kill The Plutonian, believing that there's still a way to solve the problem without putting death on their consciences. He knows of a secret force who can capture Tony -- but can anyone keep him locked up for long? We learn Modeus's true intentions in antagonizing Tony, and why he may be trying to help the man more than hurt him. In T...
Nov 04, 2020•1 hr 17 min•Season 3Ep. 130
Episode 129. For our final Halloween episode this year, we watched a Netflix original show from India, the ghost story Typewriter. An author of horror novels died mysteriously in his mansion decades ago, and the place has remained empty since then, believed to be haunted. The author's family is moving back into the estate and they uncover an abandoned typewriter, which sets off a chain of mysterious deaths and unnerving paranormal experiences. Dark magic took place in this house, and we follow p...
Oct 28, 2020•1 hr 32 min•Season 3Ep. 129
Episode 128. We watched Anna Biller's 2016 film The Love Witch, gorgeously styled after low-budget 1970s Technicolor melodramas. After the destruction of her marriage, a witch named Elaine moves to a new town and sets her sights on finding true love. She brews spells, seduces men, and when they don't turn out to be the love she's looking for, she kills them. She falls for the detective investigating her last murder and believes her romantic fantasies may be coming true, but her magic doesn't alw...
Oct 21, 2020•1 hr 33 min•Season 3Ep. 128
Episode 127. This week we read the DC comics series Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E., with issues written by Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt. Frankenstein, the big green monster you know and love, works for the Super Human Advanced Defense Executive, a high-tech organization that protects the world from arcane threats. He teams up with his estranged wife, the four-armed Lady Frankenstein, and a group called the Creature Commandos, featuring a vampire, wolfman, mummy, and fish lady scientist. They're...
Oct 14, 2020•1 hr 29 min•Season 3Ep. 127
Episode 126. To kick off the spooky month of October, we watched season one of the TV show Hannibal. Will Graham is a criminal psychologist who is pulled from his teaching position to work in the field, using his unique empathy abilities to put himself in a serial killer's head. After catching the murderer, Will can't get himself out of that mindset, and he turns to a psychologist colleague to help him cope as he investigates more grisly crimes. But does Dr. Hannibal Lector really have Will's be...
Oct 07, 2020•1 hr 35 min•Season 3Ep. 126
Episode 125. Time for another continuing monthly series! We'll be reading all of the comic book Irredeemable by Mark Waid and Peter Krause, and we started with volumes 1-4. The Plutonian is the greatest superhero the world has ever seen. He's incredibly powerful, kind-hearted, always there to save the day -- until the day he snaps and destroys his entire city. Now the world lives in fear of this rampaging hero turned villain, and his former teammates are realizing they never really knew this man...
Sep 30, 2020•1 hr 34 min•Season 3Ep. 125
Episode 124. Our second half of the Shametember series is a cult classic sci-fi movie that cyberpunk Kyle should have seen by now, Luc Besson's The Fifth Element. Korben Dallas is your average New York guy in the 23rd century, trying to make a living in his flying cab, when a mysterious young woman dives into his vehicle and asks for help escaping from the pursuing authorities. She's the key to an ancient weapon that can destroy a galactic evil, and Korben has to figure out how to protect her, l...
Sep 23, 2020•1 hr 38 min•Season 3Ep. 124
Episode 123. Welcome to our first "Shame-tember" episode where we talk about a movie one of our co-hosts definitely should have seen before now, but hasn't! This week, Melissa goes back to where James Bond first started with 1962's Dr. No. Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate the death of a British agent and work with the CIA to find who is interfering with the NASA missile launches nearby in Florida. He learns of a mysterious scientist who intimidates the locals, and Bond infiltrates his lab ...
Sep 16, 2020•1 hr 45 min•Season 3Ep. 123
Episode 122. This week we watched the short-lived Disney cartoon Tron Uprising, set between the events of the original Tron movie and Tron: Legacy. A totalitarian regime is cracking down on The Grid, and a young mechanic named Beck wants to stand up for his fellow programs. The legendary hero Tron has been in hiding, but he reaches out to Beck and offers him the training he needs to be the city's new hero. Beck struggles with Tron's secrecy and his own double-life working at the lightbike garage...
Sep 09, 2020•1 hr 34 min•Season 3Ep. 122
Episode 121. We're trying a special kind of episode showing each other a sitcom one of us grew up with, but the other person barely knows. Melissa needs to learn about Seinfeld, Kyle needs to learn about The Simpsons. We nominated three episodes from our show to talk about: Kyle picked The Chinese Restaurant, The Contest, and The Rye, Melissa picked Marge vs. The Monorail, Bart Sells His Soul, and The Mysterious Voyage of Homer. Time to find out who's master of their domain, and who's back in Po...
Sep 02, 2020•1 hr 46 min•Season 3Ep. 121
Episode 120. This week we watched the Japanese TV series Midnight Diner, which you can find on Netflix as just Midnight Diner (the original three seasons) and Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories (season four onwards, after Netflix acquired it as one of its own productions). Kyle watched season one of the original and Melissa watched season "one" of Tokyo Stories. Whoops. We still had an exciting conversation about this anthology series! The show follows a cozy late night diner where the chef is known ...
Aug 26, 2020•1 hr 32 min•Season 3Ep. 120
Episode 119. This week we read Superman: Rebirth, the first volume of the deluxe edition that collects issues 1-13 from writer Peter J. Tomasi and artist Patrick Gleason. After the Superman of this universe dies, a Superman lost from another universe decides to stay here and fill his role. Clark "Smith" now lives on a farm with his wife Lois and ten-year-old son Jonathan. He fights any threat that comes his way but is most focused on his family, helping Jon adjust to his growing powers and learn...
Aug 20, 2020•1 hr 30 min•Season 3Ep. 119
Episode 118. This week we watched Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of Agatha Christie's classic mystery Murder on the Orient Express. Renowned detective Hercule Poirot is determined to take a break from solving crimes to enjoy a leisurely train trip, until one of his fellow passengers is murdered. Everyone traveling in that train car is a suspect. As he sinks deeper into the inescapable mystery surrounding him, Poirot finds that justice may be more complicated than just catching a killer. Click...
Aug 13, 2020•1 hr 30 min•Season 3Ep. 118
