The 42cast

The 80’s were a time cartoons were becoming more and more popular. Greater channels and the rise of syndication meant that there was a lot of content out there. When you combine that with the rise of licensing and cartoons being created by toy companies, and you had a recipe sure to win over any child’s heart. In this episode we discuss our favorite cartoons of the 80’s and why we feel that they w...

Avengers: Infinity War was a unique event in the history of cinema. Never before had 18 movies and multiple franchises culminated in a single movie combining all of the franchises and giving payoff for the various stories. In this episode from the archives we do a deep dive into the storyline. We talk about the ways that all of the existing characters are handled. We talk about the epic scale of t...

Greetings, chums! The Tick has been entertaining us in various media for over 25 years. The Wild Blue Yonder is a fun character, often waffling between silly and profound, while telling offbeat superhero tales. In this episode we briefly discuss his comic origins before discussing his rise to popularity through the animated series on Fox Kids. We also talk about the two live action iterations, fir...

Video games have been a hugely popular form of entertainment since their debut in 1972. As an art form almost 50 years old, historians have started to take a look at the saga of video games, chronicling and analyzing how they came to be what they are today. One podcast endeavors to look at the history of arcade, console, and computer gaming history. That podcast is They Create Worlds . On that pod...

Our epic length recording about the life and works of legendary author, J.R.R. Tolkien, comes to a close. In this episode we ask whether The Hobbit truly needed to be three films. We also discuss the musical language of the Lord of the Rings movies. Bree mentions what it’s like to live near so much Tolkien history. Anji laments missing her chance to hear Billy Boyd sing in person Stephanie discuss...

We move on to part two of our discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien and his works. This time we talk about Tolkien’s love of language, and how that makes for a more convincing world and makes it more interesting to read. We also discuss diversity within Lord of the Rings, modern interpretations of the text, the overall theme of the story, and the character assassination of Faramir. As this is part two of a...

Over 65 years ago, Fellowship of the Ring, the first book in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings epic was published and literature would never be the same. That one work changed the way that fantasy literature was written and received by the public. It propelled a quiet academic into the public eye and has spawned a plethora of adaptations, interpretations, and imitations. In this episode and the t...

The Black Panther was a character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby back in the 1960’s. Portraying him as the ruler of a technologically superior African nation, Lee and Kirby showed just how visionary they could be in a time when the idea of a black superhero was controversial. Knowing the history behind the character and the potential for this movie, Marvel took it’s time introducing the charac...

The original Lost in Space was a contemporary series of Star Trek, but it never got the same kind of following as the other sci-fi series. The storylines tended to be far more immature and the special effects left a lot to be desired. Yet, in 2018 Netflix decided to reboot the series. Taking the basic idea of the original series, they modernized it’s tale of the Robinson family, lost far away from...

As we round out the year, we’re joined by Eric and Julia Lewald to discuss their work in animation, focusing on X-Men: The Animated Series and Exosquad . There are anecdotes aplenty as they detail how they broke into animation, working to get X-Men made the way that they want to, meeting Stan Lee, ideas that didn’t make it to the screen, and so much more. We also talk about Eric’s book, Previously...

Star Trek was an idea devised by Gene Roddenberry over fifty years ago. He wanted to tell a hopeful story about the future that not only entertained but showed the potential of humanity. His series was not considered a big success at the time, but it has lived on in reruns and numerous spinoff TV shows and spinoffs since the late 70’s. In this episode we take a look at “Star Trek” as a whole. We d...

Last Jedi hit movie theaters two years ago, and the reaction was unprecedented. It made its bank as expected, but the controversies both in and out of universe raged in a way that no single movie has ever provoked. With The Rise of Skywalker premiering this year, we decided that it was time to pull out our review of The Last Jedi. We discuss many of the issues and concerns that people have about t...

As Runaways season 3 rushes at us, we’re taking a look back to our discussion of season 2. Runaways was a surprise property for Marvel TV, taking a relatively new comic and placing it on Hulu during a time when Marvel was mostly putting TV content on Netflix. The first season achieved both critical and fan acclaim, garnering a renewal on Hulu was an increased episode count. In this episode we exam...

This week we release out interview with Wendy Padbury from Chicago TARDIS 2018. Wendy played Zoe Heriot in the 5th and 6th seasons of Doctor Who alongside Patrick Troughton as the Doctor and Fraser Hines as Jamie McCrimmon. Since 2007 she has reprized the role of Zoe for Big Finish and has continued to play the character in audio dramas ever since. In this episode we discuss her work on Doctor Who...

Doctor Who is the longest running science fiction television franchise of all time. With this episode we kick off a series on each Doctor, as we discuss their contributions to the overall story of Doctor Who. In our first installment we discuss William Hartnell. We talk about the first Doctor’s character, Hartnell’s performance, behind-the-scenes details that informed the performance and varied th...

Justice League was the culmination of DC’s attempt to create an interconnected movie universe akin to Marvel’s Avengers line. Having introduced Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman in the previous films, the movie introduced viewers to The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg as the team banded together to protect all life on Earth from the threat of Steppenwolf. The production suffered some problems. Most no...

This week, green is the new black as we discuss season 7 of Arrow. Oliver Queen has been thrown in jail, and a new Green Arrow appears on the scene in the form of Oliver’s secret half-sister, Emiko. The Queen family tree may have more hidden branches than the Charmings’, but we ensure that everything is clear with our typical, somber commentary on the proceedings. We discuss how this season effect...

Four years and 2 networks into the series, Supergirl seems to have finally found it’s footing. In this episode we discuss difficulties of writing for the eternal optimism of Kara Danvers. We also discuss John Cryer’s surprising turn as Lex Luthor, Brainiac 5’s addition to the cast, and why a little moral ambiguity goes a long way in a series like this. Instead of a 5-minute controversy, this week...

After years of messing with the timeline, the Flash becomes embroiled in his daughter’s very own Flashpoint as Nora-West Allen joins the crew in season 5 of The Flash. In this episode we examine the ramifications of this storyline as it effects the past, present, and future of The Flash. We’ll also talk about the villainy of Cicada, why the Reverse Flash is always Barry’s greatest nemesis, ways of...

Before Black Lightning season 3 premieres next week, we do our review of season 2. We’re one cast member short this time, but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t jam packed the episode full of all the careful analysis, witty banter, and overall geeky hijinks of any other episode of The 42cast. We discuss the villainy of Tobias Whale, the awesomeness of the Pierce family, and discuss how well the soc...

Legion is a mind-trippy story about the most powerful mutant on Earth, who also suffers from severe mental illness. In this episode we stare into the abyss of season 2 and try to keep it from staring back into us. Along the way we come to conclusions, all of which are probably inaccurate. Still, we have a fun time. Along the way we talk about Gary’s teeth sweating, Anji reveals the true villain of...

Last year, before the wave of cancellations of Marvel Netflix series there was hope that we’d be getting these for a long time to come. This week, The 42cast pulls an episode from the archives from those halcyon days where we discuss Jessica Jones season 2. This season was controversial as many said that it lost some of what made the first season great. We address those comments as well as discuss...

Many people expected season 5 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to be the end of the series. It had achieved 100 episodes and much of that season seemed to be a wrap up. In this episode we talk about expectations vs. reality. Did the season work better as the end of the series or as just one installment in a continuing story? We also examine the links to the MCU at large and discuss whether that’s hinderi...

Come celebrate 50 episodes of The 42cast. Unlike other podcasts we’re not doing anything special. We’re just bringing you the same great reviews that you’ve come to expect from The 42cast. This time we discuss season one of Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger. The series is a bit of a looser adaptation than many other Marvel properties and skews far younger in the demographics. This week we discuss the seri...

Star Trek: Discovery relaunched the Star Trek franchise on TV after a hiatus of over a decade. Set before the original Star Trek series, Discovery’s slick look and darker tones evoked polarization in fandom as some gravitated towards the update and others rejected what they saw as an affront to Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future. In this episode we talk about those issues as well as the decis...