Purely Academic with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman

On the landmark 100th episode of The Weekly Stuff Podcast, we celebrate our centennial recording by counting down our Top 100 Stuff! What does that mean? It's a surprise. Listen to find out. Also discussed are Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Marvel and DC's respective film plans, and finally, some in-depth reviews of the latest four episodes of Doctor Who Series...

This week’s episode is rather short – we covered so much material last time, there wasn’t a lot left over – as we review the latest episode of Doctor Who, “Time Heist,” along with some other odds and ends, including the recently released demo for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS. Does the classic Smash Bros. formula really translate to a portable system? And even if it does, is that really suffi...

Bungie's Destiny is one of the biggest game releases of the year, and also one of the most divisive. We share all our thoughts on this ambitious, innovative shooter, before moving on to our weekly discussion of Doctor Who with the season's fourth episode, "Listen." Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscri...

It's a calm before the storm kind of week here on the show, with Bungie's Destiny right around the corner – a topic we are most excited to dive headfirst into – so we take it slow this time with thoughts on this week's big PS4 releases – the brand new, and fantastic, Velocity 2X, alongside the oft-recycled, but always enjoyable Minecraft (with accompanying vitriolic rant from Sean, one of the few...

The new season of Doctor Who is moving full steam ahead, and as always, we talk about the latest episode – “Into the Dalek” – in great detail at the end of the episode. But there were plenty of other topics to cover this week, from gaming’s depressingly misogynist week, to Nintendo’s big, confusing New 3DS announcement, to DC’s reported policy of outlawing humor in superhero films. All this, plus...

Continuing a longstanding tradition on the podcast, Sean and Jonathan offer an in-depth review and discussion of the new episode of Doctor Who, "Deep Breath." It's a hugely important episode, as the first story to feature Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor, but is it any good? Has Steven Moffat gotten over his worst instincts as a writer? And will Clara ever have an even partially consisten...

With Peter Capaldi's 12th Doctor incoming on the new season of Doctor Who, we spend an episode discussing our favorite TV show by revisiting other Doctor introduction episodes over the life of the series - namely, the 3rd Doctor story "Spearhead from Space," "The Twin Dilemma" from the 6th Doctor, "The Christmas Invasion" for the 10th Doctor, and "The Eleventh Ho...

It's a very busy episode, as we catch up on several weeks worth of film and gaming news, including all the biggest announcements out of Gamescom 2014, offer our thoughts on Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, and, of course, pay our respects to the late, great Robin Williams. Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscrib...

It's a rather loose, relaxed episode this week, as Sean and Jonathan break down some movie and gaming news, discuss what recent games they've been playing, and have a discussion about Bungie's 'Destiny' console beta. Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and...

After an unfortunate two-week
 break, we have returned with a jam-packed episode, in which we cover a wide
array of topics, from sharing thoughts on Doug Liman’s Edge of Tomorrow, to discussing the sorry state of PC gaming
platform Steam, to breaking down various bits of movie, gaming, and TV news – Doctor Who returns August 23rd!
– and a whole lot more. But the central topic is a look back at the...

Having broken down all the biggest E3 news and announcements last week, we return this week for some final E3 wrap-up, including our reactions to the first-look Alpha for Bungie's new game Destiny. Also discussed are Warner Bros’ supposed
 plans for an ambitious (and foolhardy) DC cinematic universe, and some 
final thoughts on Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs. Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up t...

With E3 well underway and all the major companies having delivered their annual press conferences - Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, Sony, and Nintendo - we pick apart all the major news, announcements, and developments from the conference thus far, analyzing what this all means for the new video games consoles, and for the industry as a whole. Enjoy! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date...

In what might be the busiest episode we have ever recorded, Sean and Jonathan catch up on two
 weeks worth of news – including the saga of Marvel’s Ant-Man following the departure of director Edgar Wright, and the 
announcement of the hilariously awful title for Warner Bros’ Batman/Superman movie – in addition to four major discussion topics: A preview of next week’s E3 conference, a quick review...

As listeners probably know by now, our favorite video game of all time here at the Weekly Stuff is Persona 3, and with the first installment in the game's multi-part film adaptation having just hit home video, we wanted to offer an in-depth review of the movie. "Spring of Birth" is definitely a different beast than either of us expected, and it makes for an interesting, lively discussion...

With Gareth Edwards' "Godzilla" reboot film now in theatres and doing major box office numbers, we offer an in-depth discussion of the film, with hosts Sean - a lifelong Godzilla fan - and Jonathan - mostly familiar with the original 1954 'Gojira' - bringing two very different perspectives to the table. Recent Halo news and some other video game discussion rounds out the episode. Enjoy!...

"The Amazing Spider-Man 2" is one of the worst films we here at The Weekly Stuff have ever seen, so on this week's episode, we tear the film apart in a long-form, in-depth review, discussing all the ways the movie fails simply 
as a piece of filmmaking, along with exploring how the film fundamentally
 misunderstands Peter Parker/Spider-Man as a character. Also discussed, at the top of th...

On this week's busy episode of The Weekly Stuff, we count down our Top 10 favorite comic-book superhero movies of all time, in recognition of the sheer number of superhero movies coming out this summer. Before the main topic, though, we cover a wide swath of recent news - from Star Wars casting to Hobbit name changes - Sean discusses a video he made with the new PS4 editing tools, and Jonathan off...

Sean and Jonathan offer an in-depth review and discussion of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, along with some thoughts on the departure of Martin O'Donnell from Bungie, recent PS4 developments, and Sony's strange plans for a Sinister Six movie. Enjoy! 
 Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION...

After discussing the recent video games we've been playing - including Bravely Default, Dark Souls II, and Luftrausers - and briefly covering some recent gaming news, Sean and Jonathan prepare for Captain America: The Winter Soldier by looking back at all of Marvel Studios' films to date, and reviewing some of the One-Shot short films included on the Marvel movie Blu-Ray releases. Read Jonathan La...

Sean and Jonathan offer an in-depth review and discussion of the first major post-launch exclusive for the PlayStation 4, Infamous: Second Son. Suffice it to say, we're both big fans, and there is a lot to cover. Also discussed are Jonathan's misadventures syncing (and losing) PSN trophies, and Sean's stories about his shiny new laptop. Enjoy! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date...

On this week's thoroughly random Weekly Stuff Podcast, Sean and Jonathan are joined by a special guest to talk about Dark Souls II, some more Wii U stories, and all the biggest gaming and movie news of the last week, including discussion of Sony's new Virtual Reality project, 'Morpheus.' Enjoy! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jona...

On this week's totally random, utterly free-wheeling episode of The Weekly Stuff, Jonathan shares the saga that was setting up his new, stupidly-purchased Wii U, Sean unboxes Dark Souls II live on the air, and we cover a bunch of recent video game news. Enjoy! Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMAT...

We offer an in-depth review of the new DLC for "The Last of Us," "Left Behind." How does it stack up to the main game, and what do we think of what it does or does not add to the universe of this masterpiece? Also discussed are the trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy, casting for Josh Trank's Fantastic Four, the shuttering of Irrational Games studio, and lots more. Enjoy! Read...

Hosts Jonathan Lack and Sean Chapman tackle a lot of news this week - including the incredibly tragic passing of Philip Seymour Hoffman, whom we pay tribute to here - from movie trailers to video game developments, before diving into an in-depth discussion of Series 3 of the BBC's 'Sherlock,' which just finished its American run on PBS. Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with a...

We kick off the new year with discussions of Sony's plans for video game streaming, the state of Nintendo, and a preview of all the movies and games we are excited to experience in 2014. Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: http...