Today’s episode is absolutely jam-packed with entertainment news, after Warner Bros. decided to blow a hole in the theatrical market by announcing all their 2021 films will be released on struggling streamer HBO Max, and Disney held a 4-hour investor conference in which they announced or detailed 100+ TV series and movies, the vast majority heading to their (decidedly not struggling) streamer Disney+. Breaking down all this news forms the bulk of the episode, but we also review the latest two episodes of The Mandalorian at the end – spoiler: they’re good – fill you in on some games we’ve been playing, and explain why we won’t be reviewing Cyberpunk 2077, after a disastrous launch presenting the game in a nearly unplayable state. 

Time Chart: 

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:04:21

Cyberpunk 2077: 0:04:21 – 0:28:55

Stuff: 0:28:55 – 0:58:15

News: 0:58:15 – 3:07:05

The Mandalorian: 3:07:05 – 3:32:16

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Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

This week, our 10-part critical retrospective BATMAN ON FILM continues, as we revisit each of the theatrical Batman features in advance of Matt Reeves’ upcoming The Batman with Robert Pattinson. For Part 2, we’re looking at the birth of the modern superhero film genre with Tim Burton’s BATMAN from 1989, starring Michael Keaton as the caped crusader and Jack Nicholson as the Joker. It’s a fascinating film, one that’s full of things to praise – Burton’s direction, Danny Elfman’s score, the incredible production design, Keaton’s performance, and more – yet somehow adds up to less than the sum of its parts, with a choppy script and messy structure, and an inconsistent version of the Joker brought lazily to life by a very checked-out Jack Nicholson. But all that makes for a great in-depth discussion. Before that, we also check in on some recent games we’ve been playing – including Demon’s Souls on PS5, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim for PS4, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity for Nintendo Switch. And at the very end, we sing the praises of the latest episode of The Mandalorian, a Dave Filoni written and directed masterpiece that may be one of the best pieces of Star Wars media ever. 

Time Chart: 

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:04:52

Stuff: 0:04:52 – 0:51:51

Batman (1989): 0:51:51 – 

The Mandalorian Chapter 13: 2:30:04 – 3:13:54

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Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

Continuing from our first impressions of the PlayStation 5 last week, we dive deep with two of the biggest launch games: Bluepoint’s stunningly lavish remake of FromSoftware’s Demon’s Souls, and Insomniac’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. They’re two of the best launch titles we’ve ever seen, for very different reasons, and it’s a ton of fun to talk about all the intricate in-and-outs of Demon’s Souls remarkable level design and glorious new aesthetics, as well as the bold, emotional narrative choices of Miles Morales. After that, we discuss the first half of the second season of The Mandalorian on Disney+, which has matched and even exceeded expectations headed out of last year’s amazing inaugural run. News on Wonder Woman 1984 heading to HBO Max and discussion of whether or not Marvel should recast Chadwick Boseman’s role in Black Panther 2  round out the episode. 

Time Chart: 

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:03:58

News: 0:03:58 – 0:31:13

PS5 Impressions Follow-up: 0:31:13 – 0:44:32

Demon’s Souls: 0:44:32 – 1:50:52

Spider-Man Miles Morales: 1:50:52 – 2:30:39

Mandalorian Season 2: 2:30:39 – 3:08:40 

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Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

After quickly catching up on two weeks of busy global happenings and personal events, and celebrating the life of the great Alex Trebek, we dive headfirst into our first impressions of Sony’s brand new next-generation gaming console, the PlayStation 5! With a blazing fast SSD, a slick and surprisingly fully-featured UI, and perhaps the best controller ever packaged with a home console, the PS5 feels like a truly generational leap forward, and it’s got one of the most compelling launch line-ups we’ve ever seen. From the joyous experimentation of pack-in game Astro’s Playroom, to the jaw-dropping graphical breakthroughs of Demon’s Souls, to the cross-gen stunner that is Spider-Man Miles Morales, there’s no shortage of great content to play right out of the gate – and these are only the games we’ve personally played so far. We talk about all of that and more as we ring in the new console generation, and look forward to the years of gaming we now have in store. 

Time Chart: 

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:22:23

The Console Itself: 0:22:23 – 0:36:40

User Interface, Loading, and Backwards Compatibility: 0:36:40 – 1:24:30

DualSense Controller: 1:24:30 – 1:53:30

Astro’s Playroom:  1:53:30 – 2:26:09

Demon’s Souls:  2:26:09 – 2:36:38

Spider-Man Miles Morales:  2:36:38 – 3:20:20

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Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

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Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

This week’s episode was prerecorded a few days before the US election everyone reading this has already lived through, so after a few minutes spent catching up and reacting to multiple possible scenarios, we dive into the week’s main topic: A new episode of Weekly Suit Gundam, wherein we review Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, the first Gundam of the 2000s and one of the most broadly popular entries in the history of the franchise. It’s also a hell of a series – even if it took one of us a while to start enjoying it! – and builds to one of the best runs of episodes we’ve had the pleasure of discussing so far. It makes for one of our longest and most in-depth episodes, and as it’s long been one of our most requested Gundam topics, it was a real pleasure to try doing it justice. 

Enjoy!

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The Weekly Stuff with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman is a weekly audio podcast, and if you subscribe in Apple Podcasts, episodes will be delivered automatically and for free as soon as they are released. If you visit www.jonathanlack.com, we also have streaming and downloadable versions of new and archival episodes for your listening pleasure.

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

Continuing our 350 episode celebration spectacular, we’re counting down our Top 10 Favorite Books of All Time. Last week, Jonathan talked about Sherlock Holmes, his love of old wooden ships, and words of wisdom from Hayao Miyazaki, while Sean told us about his favorite Shakespeare play, several landmark works of literature concerning the darkness of the human condition, and explained how Moby Dick is in fact the gayest book ever written. This week, we finish our lists with our respective Top 5, spanning literal millennia of human history and several genres and tones, leading up to our favorite books ever written. 

Enjoy, and thank you so much for following us for 350 (well, 351, now) episodes of The Weekly Stuff Podcast!

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

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Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

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Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

For our latest milestone of 350 episodes – halfway to 700! – we add to our previous ‘canon’ lists – Top 10 Movies for Episode 200, Top 10 Games for 250, and Top 10 TV Shows for 300 – with something a little bit different: Our Top 10 Favorite Books! Literature isn’t something we talk about a whole lot on this show, but it is of course a big part of our lives, especially for Sean, who got an English degree in college and works as a high-school English teacher. And books, just like any piece of media, say a lot about what we value, what inspires us, and what we want to share with the world, so this is a really exciting set of lists to talk about. And a long one, with lots of excerpts to read and context to give, so we’ve split it into two parts, with #10 – #6 on our lists in today’s episode, and the Top 5 coming next week in Episode 351. 

Enjoy, and thanks for following us for 350 episodes of The Weekly Stuff Podcast!

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in iTunes!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

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Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

This week, we’re kicking off a new miniseries that’s been in the works for months – BATMAN ON FILM, a 10-part critical retrospective of the caped crusader’s theatrical film history, coming over the next year in advance of Matt Reeves’ The Batman with Robert Pattinson, and at a time where the cultural conversation around policing in America has given us reason to re-evaluate the character and where he fits in the world of 2020. We begin today with Batman  (1966), the film based on the classic TV series starring Adam West and Burt Ward, and featuring a team of classic villains played by Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith, Lee Meriwether, and Frank Gorshin. It’s a brilliant comedy that’s a ton of fun to talk about, but its satire is also a lot smarter and more culturally engaged than perhaps meets the eye, and it’s arguably a take on Batman we need now more than ever. Sean and Jonathan also talk briefly about their continued experiences with Genshin Impact and Hades, and go over the PlayStation 5 user interface unveiled this week. 

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:09:21

Stuff: 0:09:21 – 0:32:46

News: 0:32:46 – 0:50:33

Batman 1966 Review: 0:50:33 – 2:26:59 

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Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

This week kicks off with Sean and Jonathan talking about some PS5 news, as the console got a full teardown and backwards compatibility detailed, before discussing Genshin Impact and Hades in greater detail. Then we take a quick trip to Sean’s Beta Corner to talk Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War, before diving into our main topic: Another Weekly Suit Gundam discussion, this time about the 1996 OVA Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, one of the most universally beloved and undeniably entertaining series in the Gundam pantheon. We gush over the lush production values and incredible set pieces, discuss the vibrant cast of characters, puzzle over how best to categorize the bewildering 12th episode (and why this should really be considered an 11-episode series), and also touch on the compilation movie Miller’s Report. 

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:01:42

News: 0:01:42 – 0:24:36

Genshin Impact: 0:24:36 – 0:40:25 

Hades: 0:40:25 – 0:52:18 

Sean’s Beta Corner on Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War: 0:52:18 – 0:58:27

Gundam: The 08th MS Team: 0:58:27 – 3:27:29 

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in iTunes!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

We cover a lot of ground in this week’s episode, from news including multiple weird Spider-Man announcements (movie and game) to a discussion on the state of movie theaters and releases amidst the pandemic, plus some new game impressions and a big bag of listener mail! To start, Sean gives some early thoughts on Genshin Impact, the Chinese free-to-play game that mixes Breath of the Wild with Gacha mechanics, and Jonathan discusses his early love for Hades, the latest critical darling from Supergiant. Then we go over the news, including the unveiling of Steve (and Alex) from Minecraft joining Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, before diving into the listener mail, where we discuss where our Persona 5 Royal review is, what’s in our backlog, questions about movies and TV, and possibly commit ourselves to a very dumb topic for December of 2021. 

Time Chart:

Intro and Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:17:59 

Genshin Impact: 0:17:59 – 0:33:17

Hades: 0:33:17 – 0:45:39

News: 0:45:39 – 1:42:56

Listener Mail: 1:42:56 – 2:27:24

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in iTunes!

Follow Jonathan Lack on Twitter!

Follow Sean Chapman on Twitter!

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

Subscribe to our YouTube channels! 

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation  

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff

Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman