The Review Show

Kyle and Melissa and a surprise appearance by Ignacio are here for our annual year-end celebration! We discuss Avatar: The Way of Water, the antics at the Game Awards, very specific adult coloring books, the trailers for Oppenheimer and Barbie, our favorite podcast episodes this past year, what performed well and what we had the most fun recording, and all the benefits that Fringe brought into our...

Episode 235. We end our year with a blast from the past, watching Snow Day, a Nickelodeon movie from 2000. Snowfall suddenly hits a town plagued by an unusually warm winter, and everyone in the Brandston family wants to live their snow day to the fullest. A teenage boy makes elaborate plans to ask out the girl of his dreams, a father struggles to prove himself as the best news weatherman in town,...

Episode 234. To start a festive December, we watched 1992's The Muppet Christmas Carol. Michael Caine stars as Scrooge, confronted by three fantastical ghosts to help him look back on the lost joys and sorrows of Christmases in his life, and look forward to how he can change and help his community for the better. Gonzo plays Charles Dickens, joined by Rizzo the Rat to follow the action and narrate...

Episode 233. We're concluding our discussion on Zander Cannon's comic series Kaijumax, talking about the final two volumes! We expand our view on Kaijumax, visiting the court system, death row, and victim reconciliation programs at the prison. But business as normal grinds to a halt when an alien attack threatens Earth, and the kaiju are encouraged to volunteer for the war effort, in exchange for...

Episode 232. We read the first half of the comic series Die, from Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans. In 1991, a group of teenagers play a tabletop RPG, and find themselves sucked into the dangerous fantasy world. Decades after their escape, they return to try and find the gamemaster who didn't make it out. Time has passed as normal in the world of Die, and these adults have to face the consequences...

Episode 231. This week we watched Megamind, a 2010 animated film from Dreamworks. Megamind is an alien supervillain who lives to wreak havoc on Metro City and fight the superhero Metro Man. When his plans finally succeed and he destroys his enemy, he feels more empty than victorious. He trains a new superhero so he has someone to fight again, but as the would-be hero turns to the dark side, Megami...

Episode 230. We're continuing our coverage of Zander Cannon's comic series Kaijumax, talking about volumes 3 and 4 this week, and finishing up the series at the end of the month! Electogor is back in prison, this time accompanied by his young son. To protect himself and his family, he puts a hit out on an old foe -- who turns up dead before any other monsters can get to him. Meanwhile, Electogor's...

Episode 229. We finish off the Halloween season this year by discussing a selection of episodes from The Twilight Zone! We cover the mysterious isolation of Where Is Everybody?, the mob panic of The Monsters are Due on Maple Street, the wandering mannequins of The After Hours, the devilish twists of The Howling Man, the threats from beyond in Long Distance Call, and the omnipotent terror of It's a...

Episode 228. We watched season one of the Apple TV+ show Servant, produced by M. Night Shyamalan! After the death of their baby, a family uses a lifelike doll to help the distraught mother out of a catatonic state of grief. She believes this doll to be her real son, and hires a shy young woman as a live-in nanny. The girl keeps up the act, even when the mother isn't around. The husband is suspicio...

Episode 227. We watched the 1971 film The Abominable Dr. Phibes, starring horror icon Vincent Price! Everyone believed that Dr. Phibes died in a car accident while rushing to the aid of his wife, who died in surgery. But Dr. Phibes survived, disfigured and set on revenge. He's murdering each of his wife's doctors using schemes inspired by biblical plagues, with the help of his PhD in theology, his...

Episode 226. We read Shiver, an anthology of short stories by the manga master of horror Junji Ito! These nine unconnected stories show us everyday feelings and fears blown up into striking terror. A model taunts her painter, saying he'll never capture even a fraction of her unnatural beauty. A man's dreams start to feel like they're taking years and he barely remembers the previous day when he wa...

Episode 225. We're kicking off our spooky month with the horror-comedy films Happy Death Day (2017) and Happy Death Day 2U (2019), directed by Christopher Landon. Tree is a college student who already hates dealing with her birthday, and then she's murdered by a mysterious masked figure. She finds herself stuck in a time loop, living this birthday over and over again until she can figure out her k...

Episode 224. We're starting a new monthly ongoing series reading the Kaijuxmax comics by writer and artist Zander Cannon! Kaijumax is a remote island prison for huge monsters of all kinds: aliens, robots, nuclear disasters, and creatures from myth. Electrogor is a giant orange bugman and single father just trying to stay under the radar and keep his kids fed. When he's thrown into prison, he has t...

Episode 223. We read the first two volumes of the comic Once and Future, by Kieron Gillen, with art by Dan Mora and colors by Tamra Bonvillain. Hardened monster-hunter Bridgette has to bring her unsuspecting adult grandson Duncan into the family business when a magical artifact manifests the legendary King Arthur, bent on conquering modern-day Great Britain. In a world where myths can be brought t...

Episode 222. This time in Shametember, we watched the 1997 blockbuster Titanic, a movie Kyle had never seen and Melissa had never finished because she was a child and the sinking scenes were too scary! An elderly woman tells her story to a modern-day diving team exploring the shipwrecked Titanic, immersing the audience in her experience as a passenger on the ship, her realization of its doom, her...

Episode 221. It's Shametember again, when we pick movies from our "list of shame" of influential films we can't believe we've never seen. This week, we watched all three Godfather films, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel by Mario Puzo. Spanning the twentieth century, we see the Coroleones struggle to build and keep their place in the organized crime world, turning against each o...

Episode 220. We conclude our monthly coverage of Fringe by talking about the fifth and final season! Stuck in a dystopian future where the Observers have taken over, the team struggles to stay under their radar and uncover a forgotten plan that Walter created years ago. As they deal with both losses and reunions, the team confronts their greatest fears and how much they're willing to sacrifice to...

Episode 219. We watched season one of the Apple TV+ comedy The Afterparty, created by Christopher Miller! Following their 15-year high school reunion, a group of alumni have gone to an afterparty at the home of former student and current pop star Xavier. The night turns to chaos and Xavier is murdered. As a detective interviews the party attendees, they tell their story of the night's events, each...

Episode 218. We watched the new Netflix action movie from the Russo brothers, The Gray Man! A man code-named only "Six" is a secret assassin for a branch of the CIA. When he learns he's being used to kill enemies of his corrupt boss, he goes rouge, and a cruel mercenary who failed out of the program is brought in to hunt him down. Six tries to stay ahead of death, while also trying to save the kid...

Episode 217. Melissa is on vacation visiting Kyle for our first episode recorded in person! We're discussing a classic road trip story, 1979's The Muppet Movie. Kermit the Frog leaves behind his swamp with just a banjo and a dream to make it big in Hollywood. He gathers friends along the way, who will help him escape from a frog leg restauranteur who wants to turn him into a new mascot. Click here...

Episode 216. We're continuing our monthly discussion on Fringe, talking about the penultimate fourth season! The Observers have erased Peter from the timeline, but that isn't enough to remove Walter and Olivia's subconscious memories of him. Peter finds his way back to existence and struggles with rekindling his relationships with these alternate versions of his loved ones, as the team also faces...

Episode 215. We watched a German drama series on Netflix called The Billion Dollar Code, based on true events. In 1990s Berlin, a programmer and a digital media artist create software to virtually fly the user around the world and let them zoom in to see anywhere they want. They think they can make this program a success -- until Google Earth debuts. Years later, the team takes Google to court to...

Episode 214. We read the 2015 Starfire miniseries from DC Comics, written by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti. Starfire is an alien princess, a superhero, and now a citizen of Key West, Florida. She goes to the vacation town to try to live a normal life and better understand human customs and relationships. She's still called into action to fight monsters and save people from hurricanes, while sh...

Episode 213. We watched the 1968 Japanese kaiju movie Destroy All Monsters! Godzilla and other infamous monsters are living in the protected habitat of Monster Island, until they escape and begin attacking world monuments. The scientists trace this disaster back to mind-controlling aliens who want to distract the world so they can start their takeover in Japan. The scientists may be able to bring...

Episode 212. It's 4th of July weekend and we promised ourselves a Nicolas Cage movie at some point this year -- of course we're watching the National Treasure movies. Ben Gates's family has been mocked for generations for their belief in a hidden Freemason treasure trove, and he's determined to solve the clues to bring those treasures to the world, and bring a good name back to his ancestors. He h...