Popular Antiquarian

There’s shenanigans afoot in our ongoing deep dive into Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog, the faintly baffling fantasy adventure series from the makers of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. A messenger from Ivar’s kingdom has a problem that urgently requires his attention and one of the garrisons on the border of Kells is apparently under siege. Could these two disparate events be connected? Yes. Obviousl...

We continue our deep dive into Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog, the action fantasy series set in pretend Ireland by Saban Entertainment best known for producing Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, with Aideen’s Choice in which Aideen the fairy desperately wants to become human for reasons that we are assured have nothing to do with her deep desire to romance Rohan. How does this turn out? Listen along to...

Our deep dive into Saban Entertainment’s Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog continues with an episode about a pagan festival that manages to avoid any kind of actual religious content and is remarkably light on content full stop. It’s mostly just the Mystic Knights pratting about in the vicinity of a harvest festival and sometimes that’s fine. Is this one of those times? Listen in to find out.

The deep dive into Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog continues with episode 16 in which Deidre suddenly finds herself thrust into a position of power when King Conchobar is taken ill. Is there more to his malady than merely handling an accidentally tainted conch shell? Yes. Yes there is.

Our deep dive into Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog continues with Battle of the Druids which features one of my very favourite things in all of entertainment, a guest turn from a classically trained British ham who absolutely understands the assignment. When Cathbad the druid’s old mentor Sithcheen rocks up unannounced everyone thinks he’s absolutely the bees knees but is there more going on than mee...

We are continuing our deep dive into Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog, the Ireland adjacent fantasy series from Saban Entertainment best known for Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. This time we’re focusing on the extremely horny fairy Aideen and it looks like her obsession with Rohan and disdain for the Princess Deidre might be about to put Kells in trouble.

The deep dive into Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog continues with episode 13 Tyrune Returns. This story follows on immediately from the previous episode in which a very annoying Irish fella accidentally on purpose released a three headed dragon from a lake. With Tyrune on the rampage it’s a race against time to free the helpful dragon Pyre from his bondage so he can take on Tyrune in a show down that...

We continue our deep dive into the Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog, the Ireland adjacent fantasy series from Saban Entertainment, creators of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. This is episode 12 in which several extremely complicated and unnecessary plans are hatched and Rohan behaves even more like a spoiled toddler than usual.

It’s time for episode 11 of Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog, Dragon’s Fury in which a former friend and ally turns on the kingdom of Kells and sets fire to about 30% of it. How will our heroes respond and how will your host manage to shoehorn in his psychology qualifications? Listen along to find out. 

The deep dive into Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog continues with episode 10, The War of the Little People. This episode is primed to please me because it shifts the focus onto Mider the dark elf, my absolute favourite character in the entire show. Have the script writers constructed a plot worthy of Ned Dennehy’s acting talents? Listen along to find out.

We continue our deep dive in the weirder corners of pop culture with Draganta, episode 9 of Saban Entertainment’s tokugatsu adjacent fantasy series Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog. Having obtained magical weapons, magical armour, and an entire working dragon Rohan, Deidre, Ivar, and Angus must now find the legendary warrior Draganta, something that proves a lot easier than you might have expected. Al...

Our ongoing deep dive into the power rangers adjacent tokugatsu TV show Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog continues as we explore part two of The Taming of Pyre in which Rohan, Angus, Deidre, and Ivar must do battle with four evil sentinels, a fire-breathing dragon, and their ongoing short term memory problems. Having lost their weapons in the last episode how are they going to deal with the challenges...

Episode 7 of Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog is a two parter! Very exciting. Queen Maeve has assembled all four of Mider’s diabolical sentinels to attack the mystic knights while they’re busy trying to tame a dragon that definitely doesn’t want to be tamed. There’s also a twist at the end that I definitely didn’t see coming. Listen along to find out more.

Episode 6 sees the established formula very much in place as Angus has to claim his magical armour from a bored Irish character actor dressed like a fool while everyone else is distracted by a low effort monster summoned by the dastardly Queen Maeve who has other things to worry about, namely the low quality of the entertainers at her court.

It’s a double event here on Popular Antiquarian as HJDoom casts a jaundiced eye over episodes 4 and 5 of Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog, Tash Hound of Temra and Ivar and the Sea Serpent. Deidre’s after her magical armour but the script writers are more concerned with how that’s going to affect Rohan. In episode 5 it’s Ivar’s time to shine and you’d better believe he’s going to somehow make it all ab...

Episode 3 of Mystic Knights sees our heroes quest for the first bit of magical armour that will allow them to tame Pyre, the dragon of Dare which is the namesake of this episode despite being in it for all of three minutes. Will Deidre tell the boys off, will Angus find some way of embarrassing himself, and will Rohan develop some kind of personality? Listen along to find out.

We’re back with episode 2 of the Saban Entertainment fantasy action series set in a TV executive’s idea of what ancient Ireland looks like. Having assembled the main cast they are now sent to the actual land of Tir Na Nog to do magical trails at the behest of a tiny king with a terrible beard. Can they manage to persuade him to help them before the castle of Kells is overrun by the forces of Temra...

It’s time for a new season of Popular Antiquarian and this time our main focus is going to be Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog, the weird Irish themed Power Rangers knock off from 1998. In this first episode we’re meeting the main cast and trying to decide which one is the most irritating (it’s Angus). Join HJDoom for another deep dive into something that absolutely does not deserve the care and atten...

It’s comics time on Popular Antiquarian as my parlous state of mental health sends me scurrying into the comforting embrace of 1960s Batman, here represented by issue 350 of Detective Comics from April 1966. The Caped Crusader has allegedly met his match in the shape of the very stupid Monarch of Menace but what kind of quality does this retro comic represent? Listen along to find out. The Batman...

We’ve already covered Titanic 2 on the podcast and it was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen in my life so my expectations for Titanic 666 were rock bottom. Technically Titanic 2 2 being a sequel to Titanic 2 which is not itself actually a sequel to Titanic but if I think about it too long my head starts to hurt. Titanic 666 stars Jamie Bamber and Keesha Sharp and was directed by solid journey...

Apes. Monsters. We all know them. We all love them. We all admire them. Whether it’s King Kong, Godzilla or the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man it’s fair to say that everyone enjoys seeing something very large do violence to a populated area. These are exactly the kind of special effects laden movies that you might expect The Asylum to struggle with so their mockbuster of Godzilla Vs Kong definitely con...

Who doesn’t love a very cheap movie based on a successful film adaptation of a wildly successful novel written by a man who writes with all the grace and flair of a malfunctioning toilet? That’s what we get with The Asylum’s The Da Vinci Treasure, a mockbuster of the 2006 adaptation of The Da Vinci Code. They may not have Tom Hanks or Paul Bettany but they do have C Thomas Howell and a depressingl...

Edge of Tomorrow is great. A really solid high concept scifi action movie anchored by Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt’s undeniable chemistry. Age of Tomorrow, The Asylum’s mockbuster of the same movie is a little different in that it’s not high concept, there’s very little action, and the leads have the kind of chemistry you would associate with rotting vegetable matter. I can usually find something la...

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter was a somewhat unsuccessful film but that’s never been a barrier to The Asylum trying to cash in on someone else’s marketing budget. In this case they simply replaced the vampires with zombies and the budget with the contents of a child’s dressing up box. They do at least have noted character actor Bill Oberst Jr playing the lead but will that be enough to redeem thi...

It’s something of a double header this episode as I actually sat down and watched Morbius, the film that Dracula: The Original Living Vampire is mockbustering. Morbius, it may shock you to learn is not a good movie but there’s always the possibility that The Asylum will manage to turn out something even worse. Listen along to find out.