KnockBack: The Retro and Nostalgia Podcast

When it comes to HBO's mega-hit Game of Thrones -- arguably the single most famous offering in the four decade-long history of cable television -- there's so much to say. Like, tons. Infinite amounts, even. So, we've decided to tackle Game of Thrones here on KnockBack with an episode dedicated to each season, in an attempt to do some justice to something so grand. The first 10 episodes set George...

While Ghost in the Shell began its life as a manga in the late '80s, the 1995 animated feature film that interpreted its story is what most people are familiar with. Created by renowned artist and writer Masamune Shirow and brought to the big screen by Mamoru Oshii, Ghost in the Shell deals with surprisingly heady subject matter: Science, politics, philosophy, and morality, amongst many other them...

It's no exaggeration to say that 2007's Uncharted: Drake's Fortune launched at the perfect time. Naughty Dog's Indiana Jones-and-Tomb Raider-inspired adventure was released exclusively on PlayStation 3 when the console was in dire straits, getting beaten badly on the market by both Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii. In fact, that era may be the lowest point ever for the entire brand. But, fo...

We love John Hughes here on KnockBack. The (sadly deceased) American filmmaker and writer is perhaps best-known for his work on the likes of Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller, and Home Alone. But before he got to any of those films -- and the rest of his legion of '80s masterpieces -- he undertook Sixteen Candles, which also happens to be his directorial debut after a series of writing gigs, includin...

This episode of KnockBack is for all you pretty young things out there. In late-1982, Michael Jackson -- already world-renowned both with his family band The Jackson 5 and via his solo vehicles -- released his most seminal work, the three-times Diamond certified record Thriller. While its title track may be what's most remembered these days, it's interesting to look back to the early-'80s, when Th...

The culmination of Sci-Fi's reimagined Battlestar Galactica series is exceptional. Airing between 2008 and 2009 and interrupted by the Writer's Strike, its final season may be one of the greatest runs of programming in television history. Religious, spiritual, scientific, and above all else human, BSG wraps up with a satisfying conclusion that forces us to confront difficult questions about our he...

Wes Anderson's filmography is pocked with remarkable films, and 1998's Rushmore is undoubtedly one of them. Starring Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray, Rushmore is -- in our estimation -- a movie all about dealing with pain: The pain of growing up, the pain of loss, the pain of emptiness. But, in traditional Anderson form, Rushmore's melancholy is accompanied by copious wit and humor that balances...

There's just no denying it: The gaming series Halo and the Xbox console are intrinsically linked, and will be forever. Indeed, Microsoft went and bought Halo mid-development to become its maiden console's killer app, and... well... it worked... because Xbox was unlikely to survive without it. Two decades-plus later, Halo remains one of the most important console franchises in the world, and yet, i...

So many of our remembrances are centered on our 'home territory' of Long Island, and the places where we would later call home, from Boston to Philadelphia to California. But what about the times we left, specifically for vacation with our family or friends? This week's episode of KnockBack is dedicated to those leisure-filled days and weeks of yore, when we had nothing to do and no expectations,...

Back in the late '70s, Ridley Scott and Dan O'Bannon released the seminal sci-fi horror movie Alien. It took more than half a decade to get a sequel off the ground, however, this time manned by none other than auteur James Cameron. It's with Aliens, with an S, that the quiet horror franchise-to-be became an action franchise with horror elements, and while it was a somewhat divisive move, there's n...

You may not be familiar with the concept of Shovelry, but veterans of 2014's smash-hit indie darling Shovel Knight will know all about it. Kickstarted nearly a decade ago by a new team called Yacht Club Games and launched to massive commercial and critical success, Shovel Knight is an ode to the NES era, taking liberal amounts of inspiration from the likes of DuckTales, Mega Man, Castlevania, Ninj...

We love music, and we don't focus on it enough here on KnockBack. We're endeavoring to change that, starting now. Music is tied up so intimately with nostalgia that it barely merits further explanation. Yet, for all of us, songs and time, songs and people, songs and a moment or an event, these are the connections we simply cannot escape. Here are 10 songs we love that also remind us of happiness o...

In between seasons three of four of Sci-Fi's reimagined Battlestar Galactica series came a standalone movie. It's called Razor, and -- as the name suggests -- it focuses on the trials and tribulations of the Battlestar Pegasus, which we were introduced to in season two. Pegasus is commanded by an icy officer named Cain, who does whatever's necessary to survive. But Razor shows us a different side...

Back in 1978, something truly horrifying happened. Following the worldwide, blockbuster success of the original Star Wars in 1977 (which we now lovingly refer to as A New Hope), audiences waited for what was next. And while The Empire Strikes Back arrived in 1980 and set the world ablaze, there were a few stops along the way, and one of them was almost impossibly ill-advised, in hindsight. The Sta...

Surprise! For our 200th episode, we decided to cover one of the most-requested topics from our audience since we began KnockBack some four years ago. Avatar: The Last Airbender came to Nickelodeon in 2005, and its first season immediately raised the bar of what could be expected from a 21st century Nick that helped define the previous 20 years of children and teen television content. Full of heart...

Choice A or Choice B? We're met with this conundrum over and over again in life, and yet, there are certain choices that are far more consequential than others. This episode of KnockBack is dedicated to such forks in the road, where two or more options are presented, and whichever choice you make will resonate far beyond that point in time, perhaps for the rest of your life. From jobs and living s...

Everyone knows that Kill Bill was originally intended as one epic-length film, but Miramax ultimately convinced writer and director Quentin Tarantino to do things their way. The result is a second installment that's quite different from its first. Depending on how you look at things, of course, that may be a good thing. 2004's Kill Bill: Volume 2 is a far less violent, far more cerebral offering t...

If the blood-fueled havoc of Kill Bill reminds us anything, it's that "revenge is never a straight line." Quentin Tarantino's 2003 flick -- his fourth written-and-directed film -- was originally intended to be one long, four hour-ish movie, but they wisely split it in two. Thus, in Volume 1, we're left to consume the first half of the story, all about a nameless Bride fueled by a mother's rage. Fu...

The third entry in the Metal Gear Solid franchise is the first game to take us backwards in time. While the original two adventures took place slightly ahead of their release window, MGS3 takes place 40 years prior to its 2004 launch, and within is a captivating Cold War-slash-alternate history tale about the Soviet Union, some American (and other foreign) agents, and a vaunted, nuclear-armed supe...

1982's Poltergeist is a fascinating film to examine. It's a Steven Spielberg horror production that also wasn't, a movie with what was essentially a 'shadow director,' allowing Spielberg to navigate around contractual issues with ET, which he (also) directed, and which came to theaters at nearly the same time. But production curiosities aside, Poltergeist is akin to the collision of two Spielberg...

Our return to Battlestar Galactica brings us to what many consider the show's weakest season, and that's certainly a valid perspective. But the reality is that, while season three took some weird turns and bottlenecked the show with some frustrating one-offs that felt more procedural and drama, it's still full of emotional moments, excellent acting, and a continuation of a core plot that finds our...

While it's true that we ain't afraid of no ghosts, it's also true that we're not very fond of them, either. They are, after all, undead apparitions that seem to play by their own set of rules, and, well, it's time that they were busted. Thus, we queued up 1984's classic comedy Ghostbusters to draw some inspiration. With lots of brilliant minds involved -- Ivan Reitman, Bill Murray, Dan Akroyd, and...

While it's true that the first rule of Fight Club is not to talk about Fight Club, we felt like a two hour podcast of silence wouldn't be very enticing. Thus, we're willing to break the sacred code to present to you a discussion all about David Fincher's 1999 film based upon Chuck Palahniuk's 1996 novel. The story revolves around an unnamed man played by Edward Norton who encounters a man named Ty...

We, the Moriarty Brothers, are grown-ass men with houses, but that wasn't always the case. In our younger days, we -- like so many! -- lived in apartments, townhouses, and even entire homes with roommates, and such experiences are obviously rich for storytelling. So allow us to delve into our college years and early professional lives, and tell you about some of our living situations, from the mun...

Way back when, anime made its way to western audiences primarily via three important films: Akira, Ghost in the Shell, and today's topic, Ninja Scroll. Released in Japan in the summer of 1993, Ninja Scroll quickly meandered west, where it garnered a substantial hardcore audience during the VHS era and into the DVD era. That's especially strange, since -- back in its native country -- Ninja Scroll...