The Review Show

Episode 65. This week we listened to season one of the audio show Hadron Gospel Hour, a combination of sci-fi adventure and sketch comedy, from writer/producers/stars Richard Wentworth and Michael McQuilkin. Mike is a normal IT guy until obsessed scientist Dr. Oppenheimer steals him away to an interdimensional bunker, telling him his timeline is doomed and he needs help. The two of them travel thr...

Episode 64. We read The Wreckers Saga, an arc from the Transformers comics by James Roberts and Nick Roche. The Wreckers are a team of Autobots who fight the most dangerous missions behind enemy lines, trying to stay alive and keep their heads together. The war between them and the Decepticons isn't as black and white as it appears and they uncover terrifying secrets about their leaders, each othe...

Episode 63. We watched the 2000 animated sci-fi film Titan AE, from directors Gary Goldman and Don Bluth, with screenplay work from Joss Whedon and Ben Edlund. Earth has been destroyed and the surviving humans live scattered in space among the alien races, missing home and community. Salvage scavenger Cale learns his scientist father was working on a way to resurrect Earth before he died, and now...

Episode 62. We read the first two volumes of the Valiant Comics superhero buddy comedy Quantum & Woody. Eric and Woody Henderson are estranged adopted brothers, one straightlaced and one disastrous, who reunite when their scientist father dies. They stumble into an experiment in his lab and come out with unstable connected powers. Can they be a superhero team when they're barely ready to be br...

Episode 61. We watched Serenity, a 2019 film written and directed by Stephen Knight and starring Matthew McConaughey and Ann Hathaway. A fisherman is struggling to keep his business alive as he throws his resources into catching one infamously huge fish. His ex-wife offers him all the money he needs if he takes her new husband out on the boat and pushes him off, saving her and their son from a lif...

Episode 60. We watched Flavors of Youth, an animated anthology movie with three stories set in China, produced by Chinese and Japanese studios. Story one features a man reminiscing on how his favorite noodle dish has changed from restaurant to restaurant but was always there for him throughout his life. Story two follows a fashion model who worries about losing her career as her youth fades and th...

Episode 59. We watched the first season of Gravity Falls, a Disney Channel cartoon from 2012. Twin siblings Dipper and Mabel Pines are staying the summer with their great uncle at his sham of a "supernatural museum" in Gravity Falls, Oregon where they find a journal filled with real mysteries and paranormal secrets. Is Gravity Falls more exciting than they thought? It's a funny, heartwarming, and...

Episode 58. We watched the 2011 sci-fi action adventure film Attack the Block. It's Guy Fawkes Night in South London and a gang of teenage hoodlums kill what they think is a strange animal, but discover it's an alien monster that plummeted to Earth. As the rest of the intergalactic creatures congregate around their apartment tower, the kids have to scrounge for weapons and allies to defend their h...

Episode 57. We watched Brave, Pixar's 2012 fairy tale film set in a medieval and fantastical Scotland. Merida feels stifled by her life as a princess, and especially by her overbearing mother trying to groom her into perfection. When Merida follows a will o' the wisp into the forest and encounters a witch, she asks for a spell to change her fate by changing her mother, but the magic has disastrous...

Episode 56. This week we watched the Hulu original series Castle Rock. It's produced by Stephen King and based on the settings and characters from many of his novels. Lawyer Henry Deaver returns to his troubled hometown of Castle Rock, Maine, but stays longer because he discovers all sorts of mysteries. During his stay he ends up representing a mysterious prisoner from Shawshank Penitentiary. Deav...

Episode 55. We listened to the first two seasons of a sci-fi audio drama called The Earth Collective, from creator Mike Troup. Humans colonized a planet far out in space but find that the darkness is strangely deadly, and the civilization now lives in giant caravans that drive around the planet so they can always stay in the light. Joseph Crane is a mechanic in this society on the move, recording...

Episode 54. We watched an anime by beloved director Shinichirō Watanabe called Terror in Resonance, AKA Terror in Tokyo. Two masked young men calling themselves Sphinx plant bombs across Tokyo and taunt the police with videos full of riddles. We learn who these boys are are, but what do they want, and when will they stop? It's a fascinating crime drama from both sides of the investigation! Click h...

Episode 53. We watched Birdman, the Oscar-winning 2014 film by Alejandro Iñárritu. Riggan Thomson is a former superhero movie star trying to be taken seriously as he writes, directs, and stars in a Broadway play. He's haunted by the role that made him big and the lines between Riggan and Birdman start to blur as tensions rise for opening night. Click here to watch a video of this episode. ★ Suppor...

Episode 52. This week we read a graphic novel called Spencer & Locke. Remember reading Calvin and Hobbes when you were younger? Well what if Calvin and Hobbes grew up to become hard boiled detectives? That is the basic idea behind Spencer & Locke. It's a fast-paced crime story fueled by the nostalgia of beloved characters that you won't want to miss. Click here to watch a video of this epi...

Episode 51. We watched Pen15, a Hulu original show where comedians Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle play themselves at age 13, growing up in the year 2000. They deal with bullies, crushes, oblivious authority figures, cigarettes, and choosing an AIM username -- all the classic milestones of becoming a young adult. Click here to watch a video of this episode. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Episode 50. This week we watched season one of the Umbrella Academy show on Netflix, based on the comics by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá. Eccentric millionaire Reginald Hargreeves adopted seven very special children, honed their superpowers, and raised them to be heroes. Now almost 30 years later, the estranged siblings reunite for their father's funeral and discover a conspiracy to kickstart the apo...

Episode 49. This week we watched Green Lantern: The Animated Series, a 2012 Cartoon Network show produced by Bruce Timm. Hal Jordan and his Green Lantern Corps patrol space for threats from new enemy lantern corps and emerging secrets of their own leaders. It has punching, space adventure, and deep thoughts on the natures of humanity and love, whoa! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Episode 48. We read the first two volumes of Captain Marvel, written by Kelly Sue DeConnick with art by David Lopez and Marcio Takara. Carol tries to save a planet ravaged by a mysterious disease, help an alien stowaway on her ship, protect her friends back on Earth from old enemies, take care of her cat, and more in this series full of fun space adventures! ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Episode 47. This week we watched season one of the anime Mob Psycho 100. Mob is a teenager with incredible psychic abilities who tries to keep his emotions contained to avoid them fueling and unleashing his powers. He has an apprenticeship with a con man "master psychic," other real psychic rivals in his fellow high school students, and a strained relationship with his younger brother. With stress...

Episode 46. We watched Perfect Blue, a 1997 animated film by Satoshi Kon. This is a psychological thriller about a pop singer who leaves that career behind to become an actress. With professional pressures, overbearing fans, and questioning her sense of identity, she's not sure if she's doing the right thing -- or if everything she's seeing is even real.  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Episode 45. We class our podcast up this week and decided to watch The Artist, a 2011 silent, comedy-drama film that won multiple awards from the Academy Awards to the Golden Globes and more. It follows George Valentin, a decorated silent movie star as his career begins to crumble amidst the rise of Talkies, movies with sound. As his stardom falls, Peppy Miller, a young aspiring actress, takes the...

Episode 44. We read Spider-Man: Blue, a graphic novel by Jeff Loeb and Tim Sale where an adult Peter Parker, now married to Mary Jane, reflects on meeting and losing Gwen Stacy back in college. It's a sweet and thoughtful story of the two loves of Peter's life, perfect for Valentine's Day! The Whatnauts Review Show is a weekly book club style podcast about all sorts of cool things from comic books...

Episode 43. We watched the first season of Pushing Daisies, a 2007 cult TV show created by Bryan Fuller. Ned has the power to wake the dead with a touch, and kill them again with another touch. He uses this to help a PI solve murders, but when one of the victims is his own childhood sweetheart, he can't stand the thought of losing her again. She's staying alive, even if it means the two of them ca...

Episode 42. This week we read the first two volumes of Wayward, an ambitious comic series by writer Jim Zub and artist Steve Cummings. After her parents divorce, Rori Lane leaves her lifelong home in Ireland to live with her mother in her native Japan. She has to adjust to a new country, an unfriendly high school, frequent monster attacks, and strange new powers that are suddenly manifesting withi...

Episode 41. This week we watched Big Hero 6, a Disney animated movie that adapts and improves on a 90s Marvel comic. Hiro Hamada, a young genius in San Fransokyo, teams up with a healthcare robot and a colorful pack of tech students to stop a masked villain who's stolen his inventions. It's a fun adventure that will soon debut as a new playable world in Kingdom Hearts 3! ★ Support this podcast on...