The 42cast

The Punisher was the last of the Marvel Netflix series. The Punisher hadn’t been part of the original deal for the “Defenders” series between Marvel and the streaming service, but the popularity of the character in season 2 of Daredevil lead to quick negotiations and a series announcement. Dealing with the aftermath of Frank’s hunt of all those that he thought were responsible for the death of his...

Originally, Gotham was going to be the story of a young Jim Gordon fighting crime in Gotham. By the fourth season, any pretext that this was a show that centered on Gordon was gone. The cast was vast, and the characters shared the limelight. The series remained controversial among Batman fans due to the liberties that it took with the mythology, but it also attracted many more people who were inte...

Marvel’s Runaways brought the MCU to Hulu. As a continuity light series it allowed the focus to reside on the teen stars and their parents, as the youngsters realize that their parents are involved in horrific and evil goings on. In this episode, we take a look at how well the series succeeded in introducing the characters, what we thought of the pacing, the macro-plot, favorite characters, and wh...

Marvel’s Inhumans made history by being the only MCU series to not be renewed for a second season. With controversial choice of showrunner, Scott Buck, helming the show, the series suffered from poor ratings and poor reception from the fanbase. In this episode we examine the Inhumans series and examine what went wrong. In addition we examine the context of the show and the usage of the characters...

The Orville surprised everyone when it debuted. Advertised as a crass parody of Star Trek, the Orville turned out to be a far more sophisticated show than anyone including the network gave it credit for. In this episode we do a deep dive into the first season of The Orville, discussing the the characters and plots, but also talking about how it fits into the legacy of Trek and whether it and Star...

Timeless gained a second year because the fans demanded it. In a season with reduced runtime and a lower budget Timeless fought for its very survival and told another interesting story through time. In this episode we delve into the changes between Timeless season 1 and season 2, talk about the growth in the characters, and what we think of the evolving Timeless storyline. Sadly, this episode was...

In its 3rd year, Supergirl was fraught with problems. The showrunner was fired, and the show suffered from production delays. In this episode we look back at the season and talk about what worked and what didn’t. We’ll talk about how the show has changed and how we think that it should stay the same. We also discuss the character relationships and how they’ve developed from the beginning of the se...

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow became the underdog of the Berlanti universe. Coming out of a season 1 panned by critics and fans, Legends gained more solid footing in its second season. Now, we assemble a cast to discuss season 3 of the series. We talk about the major shakeups to the cast, how permanent we think they are, and what it means for the series overall. We talk about a new team up of villains...

Oliver Queen’s five year arc came to a close last year as the flashbacks to Lian Yu wrapped up just as Oliver finally made peace with his past. This week we delve deep into season 6 of Arrow to see how the series fared under its new direction. We talk about the new and returning characters, the DCCW’s Civil War, how much we want to see Slade again, and how Diaz stacks up against Chase. As usual, w...

Season 4 of the Flash raced off our TV screens last May, and The 42cast now looks back at that season and talks about the changes that the show went through. We talk about how DeVoe stacks up as a villain, how Wally was robbed, and why Ralph Dibny is the best thing to happen to the show in a long time. We also talk about characters who’s plot threads are dropped, do a look ahead at season 5, and d...

Black Lightning’s back to protect the people of Freeland, and The 42cast is back to give you your weekly dose of awesome entertainment. This week we talk about the first season of this latest DC CW superhero series. As always we talk about the heroes and the villains, but this time we also talk about what makes this series stand out amongst all of the other DC series. We also give our hopes for a...

The Gifted season 2 is on its way, so this week The 42cast looks back at season 1. We look at whether or not the series is a worthy adaptation of the X-Men storyline. We also talk about whether it benefits or hurts the series to use a mix of new characters and 3rd string mutants. Then, we look at the Disney acquisition of Fox and talk about how we think that may effect the media landscape and The...

Iron Fist season 2 drops today, so we decided to take a look at the last series to feature Danny Rand as Marvel’s Netflix Phase One comes to an end with The Defenders. Our panel of guests talk about how well the series worked in meshing the individual storylines together. We talk about how we liked the interaction between the character. We also discuss what we liked and didn’t about the series and...

Iron Fist season 2 is about to hit Netflix, so this week we’re delving back into season 1 with people familiar with the comics. We wanted to know how their opinions would differ from our panel in episode 15, and we had some surprising results. We also discuss the fight choreography and what’s really needed to sell kung fu action before we look ahead at season 2 and talk about what we’d like to see...

This week we go off-med as we discuss season one of Legion, the TV series about David Haller an incredibly powerful mutant with more than his fair share of personality. We talk about the characters, it’s placement in Fox’s X-Men universe, and what we want to see out of Legion and all of the mutant properties as they continue. This week Anji and Mike , and Mark join the cast.

This week we talk about video games again as we sit down with author and Game Scholar, Leonard Herman . We discuss growing up with video games, how Leonard got into writing on the subject, and some of his memories of Ralph Baer; the inventor of video games. Leonard has been been writing articles about video games since the early 80’s. He’s one of the first authors to write about video game history...

Hold on to your quarters, this week we discuss the arcade phenomenon as we talk about 30 years of experiences playing the games and hanging out at the locations. We go over our favorites, how the games affected the console market and vice versa, and how arcades are making a comeback as adult venues. This week James and Wil join the cast, and Kevin makes his triumphant debut. Show Notes: Spider-Man...

It’s been over six months, since Thor: Ragnarok hit theaters. Teaming up Thor with the Hulk, the film boasted a higher humor content than previous movies in the Thor franchise and also ended up being the highest grossing film in the series to date. This week, the 42cast talks about the movie, it’s place in the Thor franchise as well as the MCU in general, and what we’d like to see out of the franc...

Last year was the year of time travel shows. Most of them were canceled, but one series, Timeless, turned back the clocks and changed its destiny. In this episode we take a look back at Timeless season one to discuss it’s premise, characters, cast, and why we felt that this show is worthy of going on. We also talk about what we think didn’t work and how we’d like to see the show continue. This wee...

This week we interview Will Meugniot . Will has spent over forty years as a storyteller in the comics and animation industries. We talk to Will about his influences, career, and get some of his thoughts about the current state of Marvel and DC television and film. We focus on his work in the 90’s on X-Men: The Animated Series, Conan the Adventurer, and Exosquad. Check out his Amazon page linked be...

We all know of examples of fandom behaving badly, and in this episode we delve into the question of whether or not fandom is “broken”. It’s a complicated issue as we examine the interaction between fans and creators and how fans relate to other fans. We talk about how things can go South, how to know if you’re the problem, and give some tips on how to avoid things escalating. We define a “broken f...

This week we talk all about Heroes, the NBC drama that took the world by storm back in 2006. Heroes treated the idea of superpowers in a serious manner and paved the way for so many series that we know and love. Just about everyone agrees that Heroes started strong and then fell apart, but no one agrees on the when and how. In this episode we try to get to the bottom of that and examine if the Her...

Back in 2015, Marvel and Sony announced an unprecedented deal to allow Marvel to use Spider-Man in their movies and for Marvel to allow Sony to use some of their characters in a Spider-Man movie. No money changed hands, and both studios reaped the rewards. This week we dive into Spider-Man: Homecoming and how it stacks up to previous attempts to do Spider-Man on film. We talk about how this versio...

This month, Big Finish is opening the door on a brand new set of adventures featuring the first Doctor and his companions as you’ve never seen them before. Fresh from Twice Upon a Time , David Bradley has stepped back into the role of the first incarnation of everyone’s famous Time Lord, but this time he’s joined by his costars from An Adventure in Space and Time to play Ian, Barbara, and Susan. W...

Third time’s the charm as we delve into the third season of Gotham with this episode of The 42cast. It’s a story of crime wars, mutated freaks, and political machinations as we discuss the coming of Ra’s al Ghul, the Penguin/Riddler war, and the return of Jerome. We also talk about what we’ve liked and disliked about the show as a whole, and what we expect out of season 4. This week Michael ; Mike...