Purely Academic with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman

The New Year and the THIRTEENTH SEASON  of The Weekly Stuff Podcast  (whoa!) begins with a lot of catch-up on what we’ve been doing over the holidays – playing Alan Wake II  and Pokémon,  watching anime, and more – and our review of the Doctor Who  Christmas special, “The Church on Ruby Road.” Introducing us to Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and Millie Gibson as new companion Ruby Sunday, thi...

In this special bonus episode, Jonathan Lack counts down the Top 10 Films of 2023!  You can read the text of this episode, and see links to full reviews of every film discussed, at https://www.jonathanlack.com/p/the-top-10-films-of-2023 Time Chart:  Intro: 0:00:00 - 0:03:18  Leftovers: 0:03:18 - 0:05:01  Honorable Mentions (#20-#11): 0:05:01 - 0:17:29  #10: 0:17:29 - 0:19:57  #9: 0:19:57 - 0:22:23...

The 60th anniversary mini-season of Doctor Who  has come to a rousing and surprising close with “The Giggle,” with David Tennant and Catherine Tate facing down Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker, and the expected regeneration into Ncuti Gatwa going in some unexpected directions. It’s a fantastic episode of Doctor Who  that makes the most of its very big swings, and gives us a lot  to talk about a...

Godzilla Minus One & Doctor Who Special 2 Reviews | The Weekly Stuff Podcast #485   It’s a very enthusiastic week here on the podcast as we not only get to talk about another great new Doctor Who  episode, but an even greater new Godzilla  movie! The first live-action Godzilla  film by Toho in seven years, Godzilla Minus One  is of the finest films in the franchise’s 70-year-history, a rousing per...

Doctor Who  is back! Both in the sense that we got our first new episode in over a year this weekend, and, more importantly, in the sense that we got our first new good  episode since 2017! This week marked the 60th anniversary of our favorite TV show here at The Weekly Stuff Podcast,  and brought with it the first in a series of specials reuniting David Tennant and Catherine Tate, writer/showrunn...

Happy Thanksgiving one and all! While the main podcast is off this week, we still wanted to give you something to show our gratitude for another great year, so Jonathan busted out a microphone, broke open a copy of his new book, 200 Reviews  – available now on Amazon! – and read 5 reviews as requested by listeners! The ones chosen were Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof,  the latest Fast & Furious  f...

It’s a giant episode with many topics today, led by an in-depth discussion of Insomniac’s fantastic Spider-Man 2  for the PS5. We break down the gameplay and story in spoiler-filled detail at the end of today’s show, mostly praising it but also debating whether or not the controversial MJ missions are bad – please take to social media and use #JonathanWasRight (they suck) or #SeanWasRight (they’re...

Happy Halloween! Last year, we celebrated the spookiest day of the year by talking about John Carpenter’s original HALLOWEEN from 1978, and this year we’re jumping ahead 30 years to talk about the remake directed by Rob Zombie in 2007, and its sequel from 2009. These films have a mixed reputation, but they’re worth revisiting and taking seriously. The 2007 remake is trying to be two movies at once...

Two of the most anticipated video games of 2023 launched this week, with Sony and Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2  for the PS5 and Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. Wonder  for the Nintendo Switch. We’ve been extremely excited for both, and so far, they haven’t disappointed. We give initial spoiler-free impressions of both games on today’s show, discussing how Mario Wonder  delivers a deliriously fun re-inven...

The fourth season of our sister series, Japanimation Station,  begins today with the premiere of Japanimation Station’s Kyoto Vacation,  our biggest podcasting adventure yet! We are taking a journey through the works of Kyoto Animation, one of the most respected and beloved anime studios in Japan, reviewing shows like Clannad, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, K-On!, Nichijou, Sound! Euphonium, V...

Today’s episode is all about 200 Reviews,  the new book by co-host Jonathan Lack, which contains, well, 200 reviews, mostly of movies, but also some TV and video games, some that have been seen before, and many that haven’t. You can buy the book now in paperback , for Amazon Kindle, and as a digital bundle with PDF and EPUB versions . We tell you all about it on today’s episode, with Sean intervie...

It’s a big week with lots of news here at the Weekly Stuff, including Jonathan’s announcement of his new book, 200 Reviews,  which releases this Sunday! He tells you a little bit about it on today’s show (and you can pre-order it on Amazon now for Kindle , with a paperback version coming soon!), and we’ll discuss it more next week. On today’s show, we discuss the triumphant end of the writer’s str...

It’s an exciting grab-bag of topics this weeks as we discuss some recent video game news from Sony and Nintendo, dive into a big ol’ bag of listener mail, and talk more about two of our favorite games of the year with Baldur’s Gate 3  and Armored Core VI.  A surprise Nintendo Direct and Sony State of Play give us plenty of video game announcements and trailers to talk about, including our best loo...

It’s a double-header on today’s podcast as we review two very different things from this summer that we both love passionately: FX’s Justified: City Primeval,  the sequel miniseries to the modern neo-western classic starring Timothy Olyphant, and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XVI,  the latest and among-the-greatest entry in the venerable JRPG series. Justified  is one of our favorite TV series, and...

We’re back after a month away with a “How I Spent My Summer Vacation” catch-up episode, and it’s quite the grab bag! Sean gives impressions of some recent video games including Armored Core VI  and the 4.0 Fontaine update of Genshin Impact,  while Jonathan tells us about unexpectedly becoming a fan of Sword Art Online  while researching his dissertation, and walks us through the giant stack of mov...

Seven years after Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi lit the world on fire with Shin Godzilla –  which we very vocally went crazy for! – the duo’s follow-up, Shin Ultraman,  is finally available for home viewing in the United States! Sean’s been gradually watching through the Ultraman  TV shows over the past few years, while Jonathan has only seen a few stray episodes, but we’re both in love with thi...

Today’s podcast, should you choose to listen to it, is all about one of the finest films of the summer, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.  Jonathan reviewed the film in non-spoilery details at the new JonathanLack. Com last week, but on today’s show, he and Sean dive deep with the story, characters, action sequences, and much more, and while there are a few disagreements, overall we’r...

After checking in on all the recent video games we’ve playing – including Diablo IV, Street Fighter 6, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,  and Final Fantasy XVI –  and hearing a very funny Ultraman  anecdote from Sean, we dive back into the Weekly Suit Gundam waters with our review of the second and final season of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury.  This season brings the story to a close with...

It’s a good ol’ fashioned grab-bag this week as we prepare for the launch of Japanimation Station Season 3 tomorrow night, July 4th, with the first episode of The Classic Adventures of Lupin the 3rd –  shameless plug, yes, but you should totally listen to this new season! Here on The Weekly Stuff, Jonathan talks about going through all the Indiana Jones movies for The Weekly Stuff Wordcast, and we...

The third season of the hit anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba  recently wrapped up its hotly anticipated third season, adapting the “Swordsmith Village Arc” of Koyoharu Gotouge’s manga, and as big fans of the series who have reviewed all the prior arcs, we’re here for a deep dive with another amazing season. This set of episodes introduces us to a cast of largely new characters, and is also whe...

It’s a video game-focused episode today as we continue gushing about Capcom’s outstanding Street Fighter 6,  Sean gives his first impressions of Diablo IV,  and we recap all the most interesting announcements and reveals from June’s various “Not-E3 2023” events, including the Summer Games Fest, Xbox’s showcase, and more. Is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth  shaping up to be something interesting? Is Pers...

Hosts Sean Chapman and Jonathan Lack give you a special look at Season 3 of Japanimation Station, THE CLASSIC ADVENTURES OF LUPIN THE 3RD, premiering July 4th, 2023! In this 8-episode season, we will be surveying 30 years of anime history through the exploits of the infamous thief Lupin III and his friends Daisuke Jigen, Fujiko Mine, Goemon Ishikawa, and Inspector Zenigata! From the original anime...

The sequel to one of our favorite superhero/animated films ever made dropped this week with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,  and has been lighting the world on fire – so you know we had to talk about it. Jonathan gave his thoughts in a written review over at the Weekly Stuff Wordcast – you should subscribe! – but here, we go into full spoiler detail breaking down what makes this movie so bold...

It’s a listener mail extravaganza today as we answer a big batch of questions from YOU, including: our thoughts on the rumored Persona 3  remake; the ongoing Writer’s Guild Strike and implosion of athe streaming business model; learning Japanese; the dumbest things we’ve ever done; what media we would save if we had to leave earth with just one VHS tape; the best/worst movie sequel titles of all t...

The biggest video game launch of 2023 is here with Nintendo’s highly anticipated The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom  for Nintendo Switch, and after a little over a week of playing, we’ve got thoughts! Jonathan was a big fan of Breath of the Wild,  while Sean was much more lukewarm on it, but we’re both greatly enjoying this shockingly expansive sequel, which builds and improves upon the pre...