Talking about how seemingly trivial things are in fact crucial to our lives.
Mandy and Michael chat about the first movie in the Harry Potter universe without a book predecessor. There's a lot to unwrap for the movie and the universe as a whole!
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Starting blooper included!
In time for Christmas, Mandy and Michael synchronized a viewing of The Muppet Christmas Carol and chatted at the same time. To listen to this, get the Theatrical release of the movie (iTunes, DVD, etc.) and sync up your viewing according to instructions spoken aloud in the podcast.
*Warning* Make sure any features of your podcast application that affect playback speed are disabled!
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Netflix's third Marvel show, Luke Cage, is the topic du jour. It's a powerful show relevant to modern race discussions with an unapologetic focus on Harlem as representation of Black America. Come for the superficial superhero discussion, stay for the intense social themes, and enjoy Michael and Mandy disagreeing at length on the nature of evil. This first season of Luke Cage comes highly recommended, so go watch it if you haven't yet.
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Magic and Sorcery makes its biggest impact in the MCU yet with Doctor Strange, and Michael and Mandy talk all about it. The film did a lot right while missing some major opportunities at the same time. It has plenty of material to talk about. The duo also does an Infinity Stone count to see where we stand as the MCU marches ever onward towards a central conflict with the incredible power of the Infinity Gauntlet.
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Mandy and Michael have a fun discussion in which they draft their favorite villains from all sorts of movies, games, television shows, book series, and comics. It's fun and kind of random!
This idea was outright cribbed from the excellent podcast, The Incomparable. These are some of Michael's favorite draft (and draft-ish) episodes of the show:
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Mandy and Michael talk about the first season of CBS's Supergirl just before the start of Season 2. They talk about aliens, love triangles, awkward production approaches, silly plot points, questionable writer decisions, and the most lovable pair of cross-universe superheroes this side of… anywhere!
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Mandy and Michael discuss Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the new play that picks up during the Epilogue of the original book series. There are wonderful things to love about the story as well as many things that cause discomfort in unwelcome ways. The discussion eventually takes a turn on the very nature of "canon" and differing opinions on how much control a creator has in defining it.
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*Note* If your podcast app supports chapter markers, you can use that feature to jump between show conversations.
In honor of the just-resumed Spring TV season, Mandy and Michael chat about all of Marvel's TV up to this point! This was recorded before the airing of Luke Cage or Season 4 of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and covers every Marvel show up to that point. Discussed, in order: Agents of Shield, Agent Carter, Daredevil, Jessica Jones.
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Mandy and Michael record live from Dragon*Con in Atlanta! This episode was recorded in meandering chunks across the Con weekend. It's pretty random, just like the con itself!
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Mandy and Michael talk about all three Ghostbusters films: the first two from the 80s and the recent estrogen-bolstered relaunch of the franchise. The films are talked about one by one, so feel free to listen to commentary about the first two and stop there if you haven't yet seen the newest film in the series.
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Mandy and Michael talk about all 11 seasons of Supernatural, the long and meandering tale of Sam and Dean Winchester, two often brave and sometimes idiotic brothers who both save and wreak havoc on the world around them. We talk about how strong the show is at times, how far it fell, and discuss whether or not the show is–and the brothers themselves are–redeemed after a precipitous fall. Spoilers abound, but for a change we don't think they matter. IfListen freely and decide if you want to watch the show at all, and what parts of it if so. Some of it is great and we're happy to steer you clear of the rest.
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Mandy and Michael talk the first 11 issues of The Wicked + The Divine. It's the modern day supernatural multi-pantheon ongoing comic written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Jamie McKelvie. The first bit is spoiler free, so feel free to listen and find out if you're interested!
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Mandy and Michael talk about Matt Fraction's Hawkeye. It's funny. It's goofy. It looks bad. (Ok, no. That's a reference. The comic actually looks fantastic.) You should read it before listening to this, but if you won't, listen to us and maybe we'll convince you to!
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Mandy and Michael talk about Joss Whedon's greatest (fact) work: The 2002 sci-fi classic space western Firefly and its conclusion movie Serenity.
We talk about amazing rogues, wonderful dialog, botched scheduling and production on the part of Fox, and more.
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Mandy and Michael discuss Captain America: Civial War, the third movie starring the Greatest American Hero, Steve Rodgers, which many have perhaps not incorrectly dubbed Avengers 2.5. There's plenty to criticize and discuss, regardless of how much they liked the movie, so brace yourselves for some character-by-character critique. Tune in to find out who Michael thinks the only 3 reasonable prominent characters (of a huge cast) are in the entire film. There are many many spoilers for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, so listen carefully!
Note: There was static on one of our sides in recording. We had the choice to make it so the static was present while both were talking or only on the side with audio issues. As it turns out, the version with single-sided static was much worse listening in practice because it was impossible to get used to the static when it came in and out for long stretches so it was deliberately left in on both sides. Please forgive us!
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In this episode, Mandy and Michael finally talk about Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the long awaited 7th Episode of the franchise. Disagreement and affection for the new movie abound in an *extremely* long look recorded when the movie was still in theaters. Buckle in!
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Just a little late for Season 2 of its show's debut, here's yet another long-ago recorded episode in which Mandy and Michael discussed the first season of the joint Marvel and Netflix project Daredevil.
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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!
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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.
During the episode this article from Mandy about Orson Scott Card is mentioned:
The Orson Scott Card Problem
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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
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