In another long-ago recorded episode, Mandy and Michael spoke right after Sherlock Series 3 concluded. Listen in for our impressions back when our feelings were fresh!
In this long-go recorded episode, Mandy and Michael go over Ender's Game, both in book and movie forms. Listen as Michael struggles to hand over the reigns of directing discussion to Mandy and rudely steals her thunder multiple times. Meanwhile, Mandy jogs Michael's memory of the fantastic book with her scene-by-scene memory of the entire story.
This week Michael and Mandy did something a little bit different. This episode is a commentary audio track for one of their very favorite movies, The Nightmare Before Christmas , just in time for Halloween. Don't have time to watch it before Halloween? That's ok! It's a great Christmas movie too, so you can watch it any time between the two holidays without issue!
So go ahead, watch the movie as a refresher. Then load it up again, and listen to our instructions for getting the timing right to listen to this at the same time the movie plays.
Curious about the versions of Danny Elfman's This is Halloween bookending the episode?
Intro: This is Halloween performed by Panic! At the Disco Outro: This is Halloween performed by Marilyn Manson
Both are available in full on the Special Edition soundtrack of The Nightmare Before Christmas
This episode wraps up the length discussion of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Book 1 - Water. This episode touches the remaining chapters, including many many spoilers! Make sure you listened to episode 012 first!
This episode begins the temporary conversion of the podcast to one primarily discussing Avatar: The Last Airbender. This episode touches the first 8 "chapters" of Book 1 of the series. Spoilers abound! Take heed! Do not enter without watching the series first!
Book 1's discussion will be completed in the next episode of the podcast, so be ready!
After a too long hiatus, Michael and Mandy return to talk about their love of, and the need for, Dragon*Con and other cons in the concrete and the abstract. Digressions abound, including how to leverage fandom itself for:
Revisiting the thinking behind critique
Finding recommendations
Understanding others
Also covered: many other small topics, including a bit of what's coming for the podcast.
Welcome to our 10th episode! In this, Michael and Mandy finally wrap up the 3-part Harry Potter discussion. Lots of music, lots of discussion, and Michael getting tired, thereby resorting to using the word "like" way too many times.
So sit tight and enjoy this conversation about the finale of the Harry Potter series:
This week, Mandy and Michael continue the Harry Potter discussion with nothing but Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth and middle entry in the series. Make sure to listen to episode 008 first!
This week's episode begins our 3-episode spoiler-filled high level discussion on the Harry Potter series. We start with our thoughts on the series as a whole, then proceed to discuss the first three entries:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone [Philosopher's Stone]
In this week's spoiler free episode, Mandy and Michael spend an hour talking about children's media: why it's important, why its quality matters, and what some good stuff is.
This week we do a lot of talking about barriers to entry in approaching different media. Lots of non-spoiler conversation about comics, video games, books, movies, and television.
This week is a 2 hour discussion about Superman. This may seem a much more focused topic than our other episodes so far, but Superman as a character is a very broad subject.
This episode is a special treat, and Michael doesn't want to spoil any of it here. One thing: The episode is Man of Steel spoiler safe until 1 hour, 11 minutes in, and it's made very clear that the movie is about to be discussed. You're safe to listen that far if you still haven't watched the movie yet.
This week, Mandy and Michael discuss continuity in stories: when it's done well, when it should not be attempted, and the costs of doing it poorly when you could have just not bothered with it at all.
This is the premier, inaugural, introductory, and very first episode of Trivially Crucial. Consider this a meta-episode in which Michael and Mandy introduce themselves, the general ways in which they think about media, and discuss the importance of stories to normal life.