From Mav: So a few weeks ago I made a random observation on Facebook about the upcoming Crow movie. Basically, I argued that if you were really and truly upset with the redesign of Eric Draven then you were being old and out of touch. Because the weird androgynous goth mime that barely made sense 35 years ago would be non-sensical as a character design if this were a new character today. The Crow is a counterculture superhero. And if he really had his origins in 2024, then he SHOULD look more like Twenty One Pilots than Nine Inch Nails. You don't have to like it... but that's how it is. Just like in 1995, we were updating the look of the X-men from what they looked like in the...
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e72. The Power of Cuteness
The Internet has two main purposes: porn and cute kittens. The reason people like porn is obvious… or if it isn’t… well, that’s a different show. But what about the kittens? Why do we like cute things so much? The answer isn’t as obvious as it seems. For one thing, cute is a complicated concept.…
Call for Comments: Harry Potter and the Strangeness of Wizarding Politics
From Hannah: Like a large majority of nineties kids, I have a fondness for Harry Potter. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read the original series because I’ve revisited them so many times (but I’ve only read Cursed Child once). Honestly, I prefer the Fantastic Beast movies to the Harry Potter series. The…
e70. Does Pop Culture Matter?
Live from Wizard World Pittsburgh! Shows like ours and… well, a lot of the rest of the internet are hopelessly devoted to popular culture: Comic books, movies, music, video games, sports, TV. All of the stuff that sophisticated people will tell you is rotting your brain and wasting your life. We like to think we’re…
Call for Comments: How do you read?
From Wayne: I’m a reader. I read a lot. I learned to read early from comics and children’s books and have never really stopped. Books have been my most constant companions and best friends. I grew up in a very rural place, with few opportunities. We never lived in poverty, but we also never really…
e69. So, let’s talk about Puerto Rico…
A couple of weeks ago, many Americans were surprised to turn on the news and learn that protests had seemingly suddenly erupted on the island of Puerto Rico demanding the resignation of the governor. This went on for several days until the governor relented and stepped down and then the story all but vanished from…
Call For Comments: Back to School College Survival Tips
From Mav: It you’ve listened to the show, you’ve probably picked up that all four hosts (and many of the guests) are college teachers. Add onto that, that between the four of us, we’ve been in school of one kind or another for like 100 years. That means we’ve seen a lot of shit! Some…
e68. Parallel Media
You ever notice that thing that happens when a movie studio releases a movie and then another studio releases a movie with pretty much the exact same premise at the same time and they’re so close to each other that it seems like neither could have copied from the other? It happens a lot! What…
Call for Comments: Can you judge a show by its pilot?
August 30, 2019
From Mav: Back when the Game of Thrones aired their finale, we devoted an episode to not just talking about that finale, but the idea of finales in general. We talked about what makes a finale succeed or fail and what some of the best examples were. How important (or not important) is it to…