e330. The Immortal Legacy: Aging Actors and Endless Franchises

If you’re a fan of geek media, you likely noticed two important things from Marvel Studios last week. One was the long-awaited release of Deadpool & Wolverine. The second was the San Diego Comicon surprise that Robert Downey Jr. would be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe to take on the role of Dr. Doom.…

e322. 4 Killer Out-of-the-Box X-men Movie Pitches for the MCU

It’s somehow been five years since Disney’s acquisition of Fox and the impending promise therein of having the X-men added into the MCU. While we have … let’s just say feelings… about the idea of a single global megacorportation essentially owning the movie landscape in the US, that is perhaps a show for another day.…

e310. The Biggest Oscar Upsets and Travesties

We did a couple of shows in the lead up to the Academy Awards last week. You’ve heard us talk about why the Oscars still exist and what function they serve as well as given our picks and reviews for this years nominees. But there’s one aspect of the Oscars that we haven’t really discussed,…

e295. Superhero Fatigue & The Illusion of Change

An ongoing concern in the geekosphere world these days is the worry that “superhero fatigue” is setting in and the bubble is bursting. But the funny thing is, if you do a little bit of research, you’ll find that people have been complaining about “superhero fatigue coming soon” since before the MCU started. On this…

e267. Ages of Superhero Movies!

On previous episodes we have discussed the ages of comic book superheroes and the ages of Disney movies, but recently we started questioning if perhaps movie superheroes followed different structures than comic book superheroes… even if that’s where they are adapted from. This seemed like the kind of thing that we might want to discuss…

e228. Investigating the Style Cycle

We’ve all heard complaints that the current pop-culture fad du jour is getting repetitive. For instance, right now, it’s superhero movies. People are constantly complaining about “the MCU formula” where “all the movies look the same, they all have the same plot, and they all make all the same jokes.” Whenever some other company makes…

e223. The Cultural Impact of Ms. Marvel on Disney+

This Wednesday saw the season finale of Ms. Marvel on Disney+, a show that we have been thoroughly enjoying. However, there’s been a weird bit of reaction to Ms. Marvel and the MCU in general as of late. While the critical reviews of Ms. Marvel are overwhelmingly positive (it currently sits at a 98% on…

e211. #PCAACA22: The Presentations

Regular listeners of our show will know that the last couple weeks we have devoted to #PCAACA22, the annual conference for the Pop Culture Association. Two weeks ago, we devoted the show to our planning workshop. Last week, you got to hear us meet with other conference attendees to talk about how it went at…

e197. Serialization II: Electric Boogaloo (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Franchise)

Way back on episode 170 we did a show talking about Serialization. As is often the case on our show… we resolved nothing. But we did note that there was so much to talk about that the conversation needed to be continued on a future show. Well this is that show. It’s time for Serialization…

Call for Comments: The Return of Serialization II: Electric Boogaloo

From Hannah: On our 170th show back in July of 2021, we (finally) took a deep-dive into the concept of serialization. We discussed everything from (some) of the history of serialization, the economics, the question of “wholeness,” serialization and the Internet … but we also left a lot of questions unanswered. Which, to be fair,…