SciFi4Me: The H2O Podcast

This week, we dip into the mailbag and riff off a suggestion from listener Dave, who asks us which shows we'd fix if we had the opportunity. Mr. Harvey, fresh off a session of Zombpocalypse Now with Mr. Adair, has been stewing over the inanity of Fear the Walking Dead , and so takes his shot at both Fear and The Walking Dead with a focus on the lack of hope in both shows. And Mr. Hunt turns to Got...

Maybe we should have waited to do this until episode 132 next week, because there are 132 shows on our list. It's a list drawn from a number of sources, and it includes just about every show and miniseries either on the air, about to be on the air, in production, on order, or in development — and it's most likely not complete, as it doesn't include some animated series or shows aimed at children's...

It's a reboot that's been brewing for a while -- the new Xena: Warrior Princess . And as we've heard by now, it's very likely that we're going to get a new Xena and Gabrielle, even though Lucy Lawless and Renée O'Connor are still of an age (and in shape) to reprise their roles once again. And despite the fact that Lawless is married to one of the producers, it's looking more and more like she's go...

"Space. The final frontier..." Those words are indelibly imprinted on the minds of generations of fans. Trekkers, Trekkies... doesn't matter which label you claim. And whether your favorite show is The Next Generation, Voyager, Deep Space Nine, Enterprise , the animated series, or the Original... they are all Star Trek . But we wouldn't have the spinoff series, the movies, the books, the video gam...

Now that we've got everything (well, almost everything...) put back together in the studio post-conventions, it's time to turn our attention to the upcoming fall TV season. Because it's right around the corner. CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC, CW, and the cable networks all have shows hitting the air starting this month, and the on-demand services aren't too far behind with genre offerings of their own. And ye...

The World Science Fiction Convention has come and gone this year, and you may have heard about this thing that we did — showing up with cameras and lights and microphones and our really spiffy metal sign Ray made, and broadcasting live from the event. It was unprecedented coverage, and we use that word a lot, but it's absolutely true — no one has ever done this in the history of Worldcon. Were...

This past weekend, we had the opportunity to set up shop at the second annual Kansas City Comic Con, and we took the show on the road, setting up in front of a captive audience to discuss all sorts of random items. Some of it you may have heard before -- in fact, we may have inadvertently invented a drinking game -- but it was all brand new for our live audience.

Director Ridley Scott recently got put in front of a microphone at the Venice Film Festival, where he opined about the state of affairs in Hollywood, and while expressing his opinion he stumbled into almost quoting renowned science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon: Scott: "I think movies are getting dumber, actually. Where it used to be 50/50, now it's 3% good, 97% stupid." Sturgeon: "I repeat Stu...

Tucked in between Star Wars Celebration Europe and the Television Critics Association press event, there was this thing called ?Comic-Con International in San Diego. You might have heard of it... This week, we take on the daunting task of trying to cover just a little bit about everything — and there is a lot of ground to cover. From casting news to new projects to expansions of existing franchise...

It's just one month away: the World Science Fiction Convention, known more colloquially as Worldcon. The 74th Annual event will be hosted by the MidAmericon II convention in Kansas City this year, and SciFi4Me will be front and center with unprecedented coverage from the floor of the event. The Hugo Awards. The Campbell Conference. Award-winning authors and editors. Plenty of panels and workshops....

Back in the day, there were movies that weren't part of big franchises. There were movies that were single stories, without the need for sequels. There were stories being told for the first time, with no reboot or remake or prequel or re-imagining or whatever. Nowadays, however, it seems that the modern cinema is populated only by such blockbusters and tentpole films that the studios distribute in...

At the suggestion of SciFi X/Y co-host Sonya Rodriguez, we discuss visual effects -- is it better to have everything computer-generated (CG)? Or are practical effects better? Consider that the original Star Wars trilogy was practical, while the prequel trilogy was CG-heavy (even though there were considerable practical effects as well). With the return of the original shooting model of the USS Ent...

We've heard them before. Or we've at least heard some of them. Those crazy notions, the theories and speculations that lead people to believe certain things about stories -- things we never see, things that never become canon, except in our heads. This week, not only do we delve into the world of the fan theory, we also do it on camera and launch what may be a regular thing: H2O both on SciFi4Me R...

It's that nebulous otherworldly thing: the viral video. Like unicorns, Leprechauns, and high-paying jobs, the viral video is rare. It's unique. And there's no formula that determines when a video will blow up the internet. So when video of a woman laughing hysterically whilst wearing a Chewbacca mask is the thing blowing up the internet, it becomes worthy of notice and discussion. What is it that...

Following up on last week's episode, we delve into our lists of stories we probably should have already read or watched, but for various reasons just haven't yet. From 2001: A Space Odyssey to Asimov's Foundation to Ringworld and all points in between. The shows we haven't seen yet -- or just fell away from for lack of time or interest -- and the stories that intimidate us. We take a look at sever...

In this episode, we go on walkabout through a field of topics -- Darryl “DMC” McDaniels (of Run-D.M.C.) is now making comic books, and our journey takes us from rap music to the 90s movies and their treatment of women as objects to admire and possess. Along the way we look at the recently announced DC Animated projects, Mr. Harvey's art, and the absolutely bonkers meta-textual possibilities of Sha...

This week, we introduce you to a new segment we're developing for July: The Essentials , a series of articles and videos that introduce topics to people who might have missed it the first time around. Just about every topic is fair game, because somewhere out there someone hasn't seen Star Wars or Lost or LEXX or... name your flavor. So we're going to be sharing the "Essentials" about a topic, and...

Episode 115 takes on special meaning for us. Not only do we get to record live -- we were out at Planet Comicon -- but we also celebrate our 100th episode with SuperheroStuff.com as our sponsor. This week, we answer questions from our audience, and oddly enough our talk circled around the DC Comics television shows more than anything else. But we did talk about some other things, and if we've miss...

Coming out of our discussion last week, we work off of Doug's suggested topic: the willing suspension of disbelief. It's a critical element in genre fiction — that agreement between the artist and the audience that certain parts of a story are there and they make sense within the story. You have to be willing to accept things like transporters, aliens, telepathy, time travel, and all manner o...

This week: edging closer to the 115th episode, where we'll give away a SuperheroStuff Hero Box. Bouncing off an e-mail from Doug in California, we put it to our iTunes/iPhone app listeners to help Doug find the rate button in the app. If you have any assistance you can render, please send us an e-mail. Also: at what point do you lose the need to tell a particular story? The fall of Anakin Skywalke...

Word came down this week that the online magazine SF Signal  was shutting down, and we take a moment to examine the narrowing field of geek journalism in the wake of changes at io9. Plus: more controversy surrounding the Hugo Awards! (surprise) And are they ever going to reboot I Dream of Jeannie ? We talk about why it might not be such a good idea as we await Barbara Eden's appearance at Pla...

Back on our regular schedule, and this time we're discussing a topic that probably should come with a warning label.  The comic book industry, and by extension the comics community at large, has been abuzz with discussion about the termination of employment for Shelly Bond at Vertigo Comics, which somehow led to an even bigger discussion about the allegations of sexual harassment by a senior...

With apologies for the delay, this week we look at a number of items in the news, things blowing up the Internet, things that matter, and things that don't. Every now and again, we find ourselves having to discuss sad news, and this week we talk about the loss of Prince and his influence on the genre. His work on Tim Burton's Batman  had more of an impact than some people realize, and we take...

Another week of numerous news items, so we take some of the more notable ones and opine: Star Wars , Blake's 7 , Batman v Superman , Nosferatu , American Gods , and Jackie Earle Haley. We kick things off with a funny from Mark Hamill and a rant about The Killing Joke. Plus: Deadpool , Avatar , Tales From the Crypt ... and will Captain America be the big hero at the box office in May?

Quite a few things to sift through this week, not the least of which is that new trailer for Rogue One that fell upon the masses. How excited are you for the next installment in the Star Wars franchise? Because that's what it is now, in full force. Plus we discuss the changes in the release date for Wonder Woman , along with the rest of the lineup for the DC Movie Universe.  And then there's...