The Review Show

Episode 211. We're continuing our discussion on Fringe this month, talking about season three! Olivia fights her way back home from the alternate universe, as "Fauxlivia" secretly takes her place, infiltrating the team and continuing Olivia's blossoming romance with Peter. Walter struggles to keep up with "Walternate" and his plans for revenge, while Peter deals with a mysterious machine that resp...

Episode 210. This week we watched the 2022 blockbuster action film from India, RRR! In a tumultuous time of colonialism and revolt, two strangers team up to save a community from a freak accident and become instant friends. One is on a secret mission to rescue a young girl who was abducted by the British general, and another is one of the general's top soldiers, sworn to find the man who is rumore...

Episode 209. We watched the 2003 HBO miniseries Angels in America, based off the Broadway play. It's the mid-1980s in New York City, the height of the AIDS crisis. A young man is dealing with his illness and a breakup with his boyfriend when a terrifying ethereal angel comes to him in a vision and proclaims him to be a prophet. As he struggles with his path forward, and how he can even survive to...

Episode 208. We read the first five volumes of the manga That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime by Taiki Kawakami, based on the light novel by Fuse and illustrator Mitz Vah. A bored 37-year-old salaryman dies and finds himself reincarnated as a slime orb in a magical realm. He can absorb creatures to gain their powers, and he soon amasses a library of skills he barely understands. As he adjusts t...

Episode 207. We're continuing the sci-fi drama Fringe with a discussion on season two! As shapeshifters and other threats travel from the alternate dimension to signal the coming war, Peter struggles with his own origin story in that dimension. Walter deals with the long-overdue aftermath of some of his worst decisions as a scientist and a parent. Olivia hones her psychic powers and tries to keep...

Episode 206. We watched the HBO Max comedy series Our Flag Means Death! Stede Bonnet is an aristocrat who leaves behind his unfulfilling domestic life to become a pirate. He brands himself as the first Gentleman Pirate, dressing in finery, avoiding violence, and encouraging his crew to talk about their feelings. When the fearsome Blackbeard boards his ship, he stays to teach the inexperienced Sted...

Episode 205. We read the first two volumes of the sci-fi Western comic East of West, from Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta. In a futuristic America broken up into different nation-states, three of the four horsemen of the apocalypse collaborate with a secret council of national leaders to enact a prophecy of destruction. The fourth horseman, Death, married and had a son with a human woman, and t...

Episode 204. We celebrate Kyle's move to Oklahoma by watching the 1996 disaster movie Twister! Bill and Jo are two passionate stormchasers in the process of finalizing their divorce. Bill is trying to start a new, quieter life as a TV weatherman when he agrees to join Jo on one last impromptu research trip. They designed a tracking device together that could help develop a more advanced tornado wa...

Episode 203. This week we watched both Deadpool movies and discussed how these R-rated meta action-comedies could find a place in the MCU. Wade Wilson is a skilled mercenary who is diagnosed with cancer, and turns to an experimental medical procedure. This experiment brings out his mutant healing ability, at the cost of terrible physical disfigurement. He hides himself behind a mask and becomes th...

Episode 202. We watched the first season of the 2008 sci-fi drama Fringe, and we'll be finishing the show over the next several months! Strange psuedo-science mysteries are appearing, and the FBI assembles a "fringe division" to investigate the pattern and larger source to these threats. Agent Olivia Dunham teams up with the eccentric Dr. Walter Bishop and his estranged adult son Peter, determined...

Episode 201. We read the first two volumes of Jason Aaron's Thor comics featuring the Goddess of Thunder! After Thor becomes unworthy of Mjolnir, he bestows his name and heroic legacy to the mysterious masked woman whom the hammer chooses as its next wielder. Our new Thor deals with the threats posed by dark elves and the Roxxon corporation, while trying to hide her identity as Jane Foster. Jane i...

Episode 200. It's our 200th episode! Finally, we really learn about the concept of reviewing things from the 2014 scripted comedy series Review. Forrest MacNeil hosts a show where he reviews life experiences based on audience requests, and he has a sworn duty to embody each assignment to the fullest and provide a rating of 1-5 stars, regardless of the damage this may cause him and his loved ones....

Episode 199. We’re doing another sitcom trade, where we make each other watch shows we love that the other person has barely seen. Kyle brings us the pilot of Community and the episodes “Contemporary American Poultry” and “Remedial Chaos Theory.” Melissa brings us the pilot of Arrested Development and the episodes “Staff Infection” and “Good Grief.” We discuss faking your own death, chicken strips...

Episode 198. We watched the original Godzilla movie from 1954! When fishing boats are destroyed off the coast of a small Japanese island, the authorities search for answers while the older locals recall legend of a mythical sea beast. An ancient creature now affected by dangerous radiation, Godzilla emerges and begins to attack Tokyo. As the citizens evacuate in a panic, scientists struggle with t...

Episode 197. We watched Darren Aronofsky's 2010 psychological thriller Black Swan. When ballet dancer Nina is cast in the prestigious role of the swan queen in Swan Lake, she's determined to make this a perfect performance. She begins cracking under the pressure of the rehearsals, her overbearing mother, and confusing attractions and rivalries within her dance troupe. As she struggles with perform...

Episode 196. We read the Batman story Court of Owls, by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. This was the start of Batman's New 52 storyline, and it's a great place to jump in for new readers! Gotham City has long heard of the Court of Owls, a secret elite council who controls the city through its assassin called Talon, but most people believe it's just a ghost story. Batman himself investigated it and...

Episode 195. This month we finished reading the sci-fi manga series Knights of Sidonia by Tsutomu Nihei. The scientists of Sidonia are continuing to experiment with human/gauna hybrids, but they're not all as successful as Tsumugi. Tanikaze's domestic life grows with new housemates and new romantic rivalries and tensions. The pilots try to distract themselves from ongoing battles with a popularity...

Episode194. We listened to season one of the audio drama podcast Brimstone Valley Mall, created by Kristen DiMercurio. It's 1999, and a group of demons are working clandestine jobs at a mundane suburban mall, inspiring shoppers to sin. They also play in a rock band! When their lead singer disappears, the rest of the band scrambles to find him before their big New Years Eve concert, where they need...

Episode193. We watched the 2017 Netflix romcom The Incredible Jessica James. Jessica is a twenty something playwright in New York City, dealing with rejection from theater companies and from her ex-boyfriend. She meets Boone, who's still reeling from his own divorce. A new potential relationship, a reliable friendship, and the bonds she has with the students in her theater workshop help Jessica st...

Episode 192. We watched In the Mood for Love, a Chinese film from the year 2000. In 1960s Hong Kong, two couples move in next to each other in a crowded apartment building. One husband soon leaves for an extended business trip, and one wife goes to care for a sick mother. The remaining Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chen realize that their spouses have run off to have an affair with each other. As they connect...

Episode 191. For this monthly special, we read volumes 1-8 of the sci-fi manga Knights of Sidonia by Tsutomu Nihei, and next month we'll conclude the series with volumes 9-15. Nagate Tanikaze has lived his entire life alone in the depths of a massive spaceship, experiencing the world through his grandfather's stories and old training simulators. When he ventures out into the rest of the ship, he's...

Episode 190. We watched the new HBO Max miniseries Landscapers, a creative dramatization of a true crime story from England. Fifteen years ago, Susan and Christopher Edwards buried the bodies of Susan's parents in their garden and told everyone they moved away. Now that their secret is out, the couple is separated and put through intense interrogation to determine if this was a murder for money, o...

Episode 189. We watched Jane Campion's 2021 drama film The Power of the Dog. In 1920s Montana, a rancher brings home a new wife and her teenage son, much to the annoyance of his curmudgeonly brother. He taunts and intimidates these new additions to the household, until someone goes to extreme lengths to try and stop him. Click here to watch a video of this episode. ★ Support this podcast on Patreo...

Episode 188. It's a new year, it's the future! We watched the entire Matrix series, including the new Resurrections movie, and The Animatrix anthology of short films. A man called Neo leads a dull life, finding excitement through his hacker identity, until he learns that he's been living in a simulation. He can reinvent himself, learn to take advantage of the simulation around him, and become The...

Kyle, Ignacio, Melissa, and Alan reflect on the movies, shows, and video games of 2021, and what we covered in our podcasts The Review Show, The Captain's Log, The Reactor Corps, and Crossplay this year! It's a night of pizza, statistics, and 2022 goals. Click here to watch a video of this episode. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★