The 42cast

Thirty years ago, a new animated series would take the world by storm. It would quickly become the most watched series on Saturday mornings and giving the fledgling Fox Kids programming block a distinct win. The series was a win for Marvel as well, introducing the X-Men characters to a generation of viewers and catapulting the affiliated comics to the height of their success. In this episode we ta...

Supergirl was a mainstay of DC’s CW offerings for years. Starting as a CBS show, it was moved to the CW with its second season and eventually integrated into the Arrowverse during the Crisis on Infinite Earths event. In this episode we discuss the final season of the series. We talk about the efforts that had to be made to write around star, Melissa Benoist’s pregnancy as well as the Covid-19 pand...

We’ve all had the experience. We see a movie that we know is truly awful by any measurable factor, but we love it anyway. In this episode we discuss the phenomenon that makes something “so bad that it’s good”. We talk about our favorite movies that fit that description and discuss our experiences with the specific media. We also get into what makes a movie “so bad that it’s good” different from mo...

Spider-Man may not have a way home but we do, as we get back to releasing our MCU episodes. Join us as we discuss Spider-Man: No Way Home. We discuss the various cameos and crossovers and how that impacted our interest in the movie and how we feel that it will impact the MCU going forward. We also talk about Peter’s development as a character and how his sacrifice will have ramifications moving fo...

This week we set the way-back machine for 2019 and a discussion of the entirety of Voltron: Legendary Defender. We talk about our favorite characters as well as what worked and what didn’t. We also talk about the storylines and decisions that we enjoyed as well as those that seemed to come out of left-field. We also get into relationships, characters arcs, and themes that were expressed in the ser...

The 42cast is proud to welcome star of stage and screen and former politician, Lenore Zann . In genre fiction circles Lenore is probably best known as the X-Men’s Rogue. In this episode we sit down to talk with Lenore about her career. She describes the struggles that actors face and gives us insight into voice acting, stage acting, and acting on screen. She talks about playing Rogue and about how...

Marvel has gone into the multiverse in a big way. In this episode we take a look at the biggest expression of that to date with What If. We discuss the series as the MCU’s first animation project. We discuss the What If concept and talk about which episodes worked for us. We also debate why this series had such a mixed response from the public and what we want to see from it moving forward. We als...

As we approach the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who, it’s time to take a look back at the beginning of it all. In this episode we go back to a panel from Chicago TARDIS 2016. In it we discuss William Hartnell the man and the first Doctor. We talk about the situation behind his involvement in the show and turbulent times in his later years. We discuss his performance as the Doctor and what he has bro...

It’s been thirty years since The Rocketeer graced the silver screen. A superhero story done in a 40’s pulp hero style, the Rocketeer may have been ahead of it’s time. It made only moderate profits in the theater, but has retained a cult following. In this episode we talk about what we think about the Rocketeer and how its aged. We discuss the rocket punk style, the acting, plot, and themes of the...

Loki was one of the most anticipated of the initial Marvel series announced for Disney+. Many had wondered how Marvel would handle the Loki variant that escaped during Avengers: Endgame. The series would eventually be incredibly important, setting up concepts that would be developed further in What If…, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. In this episode we d...

The 42cast is proud to welcome the newest addition to the ranks of the Doctor’s companions with Lauren Cornelius . Lauren is currently playing the role of Dodo Chaplet in First Doctor Adventures from Big Finish productions. In this interview Lauren sits down with us to talk about how a shy girl from Camden Town became the actress that we know today. Along the way we discuss her favorite types of s...

The Orville season 2 returned with further adventures of the titular exploratory ship. In this episode we talk about how we feel about the direction of the show. We’ll also discuss character changes both in personality and in the makeup of the cast. We also get into our favorite characters and favorite episodes. Along the way we give the die-hard Star Trek fans a reason to check this show out. We...

Roll models continues into its third and final episode. In this episode we do a deep dive to delve into what panel of GM’s think about player conflict, forbidding certain types of behavior, and how to flex games beyond their mechanics. We also talk about the costs of gaming and give some ideas on how to save money on playing RPG’s. We also discuss our favorite systems of all time and why those sui...

The Batman is a movie that courted controversy from the beginning. From the troubled origins of the film as a showcase of Ben Affleck a the dark knight to the casting of Robert Pattinson as the titular character, fans had many strong and vocal opinions of how the film would turn out. In this episode we talk about the finished film. We discuss the aspects of the character brought to the fore as wel...

Season 2 of Stargirl promised summer school hijinks. Instead it brought an expansion to the JSA mythos as well as a dip into horror and suspense. In this episode we discuss the tonal change to the series. We also talk about the new characters, the threat of Eclipso, and why we can’t get enough of the Crocks. Along the way we’ll also discuss what we want to see out of a season 3. Due to time constr...

Falcon and the Winter Soldier was the second of the MCU series released on Disney+. The series had the expected amount of action and intrigue, but surprised viewers with its hard hitting look at race relations in this country over a span of decades. It also expounded upon the effects of the Sakovia Accords and the Blip on the MCU at large. It took returning characters and gave them surprise twists...

We are proud to welcome back Eric and Julia Lewald as well as Larry Houston to our show. Marvel recently announced that a continuation of the ground-breaking X-Men: The Animated Series would stream on Disney+ under the title X-Men ’97. Eric, Julia, and Larry come on the show to talk about their role as consultants for the new series and what they can tell us about the new series. Along the way we...

Tabletop roleplaying games are a big subject, and we continue our discussion in our next installment of Roll Models. In this episode we ask our panel of experts about their RPG recommendations. They discuss the upsides and downsides of playing the systems and relate their experiences with them. They also discuss content creation for both worldbuilding and game mechanics and they detail where you c...

Across space and time comes a panel over one million years in the making. In this episode we take a step back into time and observe a panel from a bygone age of maskless, in-person convention gathering as we discuss the tour de force that is The Bill & Ted saga. We talk about the comedic greatness of the first film, the quest to do something new of the second, and speculate on what we want to...

WandaVision was the first of Marvel’s Disney+ releases. It faced the seemingly impossible task of progressing the story of Wanda and Vision despite the fact that the latter was dead. What followed was to date the most experimental of the MCU’s offerings, and one that had a wide distribution of opinions from fandom. In this episode we’ll talk about the series, how it utilized sitcoms to tell a stor...

Everything old is new again! After some surprising appearances in some recent MCU releases, Daredevil is relevant again, so we thought it was a great idea to finally make public our review of season 3 of that series. We discuss everything from the aftermath of The Defenders to how we feel that this is probably the end to his stand alone series. We discuss our thoughts for a possible season 4 as we...

The 42cast is proud to present our interview with Sadie Miller . Miller is the daughter of actress Elizabeth Sladen who was best known for playing Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who as well as in The Sarah Jane Advenutres. In this episode Miller talks growing up and gives various details about her mother and her exposure to Doctor Who. She also discusses her feelings about playing Sarah Jane Smith in...

From the beginning of the show we’ve been looking for an opportunity to talk about roleplaying games. With this episode we start a three part series doing just that. Join us as we’re joined by an illustrious group of content creators to discuss roleplaying games. We talk about what is a roleplaying game, what we enjoy about the format, different types of games, and what to do and not do to make th...

Welcome to the first ever Screen Reads. In Screen Reads we look at a movie through the lens of the source material that it’s adapting. In this episode we’re talking about 2011’s Ryan Reynolds film, Green Lantern as well as its antecedents; Emerald Twilight, Green Lantern: Secret Origin, and Green Lantern: Rebirth. We talk about the plot and characters of the Green Lantern film and how well they ad...

We have a lot of really great cast members on The 42cast, so after episode 100 and the conversations we had, we thought it would be good if we interviewed members of the cast. First up is Eric Ratcliffe . Eric is a podcaster, webcomic writer, and all-around geek. He and I will discuss his podcast and webcomic, but we’ll also discuss his geeky interests, toy collections, and what games he’s playing...