Binary System Podcast

We Speak Geek

The latest episode of Welcome to Night Vale features the triumphant return of radio host Leonard Burton, all on his lonesome in the radio booth.

And the town.

And possibly the universe.

Get yourself something comforting to drink – and possibly a night light – because the side-effects from the Blood Space War are really, really bad.

Needing a distraction after that, the twins share a theory they found about how the switch from a character-driven to a plot-driven story may have made this last season of Game of Thrones a completely different creature from the previous seven seasons. This led to a discussion of another character-driven story (Adam Warren’s “Empowered” series), and a quick review of some artists who’s styles have evolved over the years, some successfully, others…less so.Read OnBinary System Podcast #178 – WTNV #148 “The Broadcaster”

The Binary System crew has finally caught up with all the Marvel movies! We…no, not Endgame, we watched that weeks ago. No, we finally watched Spider-Man: Homecoming! TWO YEARS after it came out. Honestly, we don’t have an excuse, some kind of Toby Maguire burnout?

Anyway, it’s a better-late-than-never episode, as we geek out over Tom Holland, the Vulture suit, MJ, and Ned “The Guy In The Chair” Leeds. After that we go over the  My Dad Wrote a Porno HBO special, Altered Carbon, the Hugo-nominated Record of a Spaceborn Few, and a possible short story involving diamonds, dirt, and zombies.Read OnBinary System Podcast #177 – Spider-Man: Homecoming

We now know why the internet was kind of going crazy after the latest Night Vale episode dropped.

It wasn’t just the very on-the-nose metaphor for what veterans go through when coming back from active duty, or the blistering take on the military industrial complex, and how leaders can only convince the population that they’re “winning” the war if the war never stops. No, this episode is particularly dark because Night Vale’s Blood Space War involves time travel, and now some very important people are being wiped from existence.

After the recap we talked about some of the Hugo Awards nominees like Paper Girls, Saga, and Monstress. And we also talked about Avengers: Endgame. Because of course we did. (Minor spoiler about Spider-Man being in Endgame.)(But you probably already knew that).Read OnBinary System Podcast #176 – WTNV #147 ” The Protester”

Elizabeth: Good lord, they threaded a lot of needles there.

Kathryn: (Grabs a bullhorn, climbs a step ladder, takes a deep breath) RIGHT?!

Both the East and West Coast branches of the podcast have seen Avengers: Endgame, during opening week no less. And we have some thoughts. (Understatement of the year right there. If you know us and you know who our favorite characters are, we have a lot of things to unpack.)

SPOILER WARNINGS. Seriously, we start spoiling all the things within the first two minutes of the recording, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet, you’ll really want to come back to this one later.Read OnBinary System Podcast #175 – AVENGERS: ENDGAME

Elizabeth: Good lord, they threaded a lot of needles there.

Kathryn: (Grabs a bullhorn, climbs a step ladder, takes a deep breath) RIGHT?!

Both the East and West Coast branches of the podcast have seen Avengers: Endgame, during opening week no less. And we have some thoughts. (Understatement of the year right there. If you know us and you know who our favorite characters are, we have a lot of things to unpack.)

SPOILER WARNINGS. Seriously, we start spoiling all the things within the first two minutes of the recording, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet, you’ll really want to come back to this one later.Read OnBinary System Podcast #175 – AVENGERS: ENDGAME

The scene: an elegant sitting room.

Elizabeth: My dear twin, what did you accomplish this week?

Kathryn: Why I caught up on that show you recommended. And you?

Elizabeth: Oh I finished that book you suggested!

Kathryn: We’re so productive!

Elizabeth: We should celebrate by seeing Endgame tomorrow.

Kathryn: Agreed. And by the way, your tea is just lovely.

They clink teacups.

Yeeeeaaaah, so none of that happened. We didn’t get caught up on shows, we didn’t finish any books, and you know it’ll be two weeks before we go see a Marvel movie. Oh, and Elizabeth’s tea is awful.

Okay fine, we did some things. Kathryn watched one more episode of Russian Doll and The Good Place. Elizabeth read a few more pages of the Limetown novel. So we talk about those, plus weird New York performance art, Frankenstein collaborations, and how the Alamo Drafthouse is militant about not talking during the movie, which is part of why we love them.Read OnBinary System Podcast #174 – We didn’t do our homework.

The scene: an elegant sitting room.

Elizabeth: My dear twin, what did you accomplish this week?

Kathryn: Why I caught up on that show you recommended. And you?

Elizabeth: Oh I finished that book you suggested!

Kathryn: We’re so productive!

Elizabeth: We should celebrate by seeing Endgame tomorrow.

Kathryn: Agreed. And by the way, your tea is just lovely.

They clink teacups.

Yeeeeaaaah, so none of that happened. We didn’t get caught up on shows, we didn’t finish any books, and you know it’ll be two weeks before we go see a Marvel movie. Oh, and Elizabeth’s tea is awful.

Okay fine, we did some things. Kathryn watched one more episode of Russian Doll and The Good Place. Elizabeth read a few more pages of the Limetown novel. So we talk about those, plus weird New York performance art, Frankenstein collaborations, and how the Alamo Drafthouse is militant about not talking during the movie, which is part of why we love them.Read OnBinary System Podcast #174 – We didn’t do our homework.

On this week’s Night Vale recap it’s time to grab a plate of imaginary corn with some theoretical butter and celebrate the birthday of Lee Marvin and…wait, hang on….we’ve been here before…

Yes it’s Lee Marvin’s birthday again. Every day is Lee Marvin’s birthday. The sun may go cold and the forests of the dark planet go silent and Lee Marvin will still sit in his house and have the same number of cornflakes for breakfast every day forever.

(‘Scuse us, we’ve freaked ourselves out and now we’re going to go hide under the bed.)

To cheer ourselves up, we also talk about the new Star Wars trailer and the ReyLo shippers (bless you guys: we don’t ship Rey and Kylo Ren but you sure have some nice fanart), and then mention The Good Place, Russian Doll, Umbrella Academy, Doctor Who, Narcos Mexico, and all the other shows that one or both of us really need to finish watching.Read OnBinary System Podcast #173 – Welcome to Night Vale #146 “The Birthday of Lee Marvin”

We learn a little more about an ongoing conflict rocketing across time and space in this week’s episode, as Night Vale welcomes home several returning soldiers from the Blood Space War. Among other things, we find out that the attackers are the Polonians from star system Lakaia 9352, our allies are Beings of Astonishing Structure from Battle Station Wolfgang, and John Peters (you know, the farmer) and his brother Jim had a father who was awesome. 

Fair warning, the creators of Night Vale drew some parallels in this episode with our own country’s treatment of veterans and it’s NOT SUBTLE. It’s also not wrong.

In order to lighten things up after the recap we switched over to (deep breath): the Hugo Nominees (Catherynne Valente and Lindsay Ellis, yay!), an idea for a work of team fiction, the movie Annihilation, the Zero Punctuation video game reviews, photo galleries from Wondercon, and catching a cold at Wondercon. Cough.Read OnBinary System Podcast #172 – Welcome to Night Vale #145 “The Veterans