We kick off a new year of podcasting by finally dedicating an episode to one of our favorite franchises of all time: Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball! With the new film Dragon Ball Super: Broly hitting theatres later this month, we take a look back at the most recent TV series, discussing why it worked so well where other attempts to extend the story beyond the manga have not, and discussing each of the major arcs in detail. We also review the Doctor Who New Year’s Day special, “Resolution,” and come away feeling very glad we don’t have to talk about Chris Chibnall’s abysmal take on the series for at least another year. Jonathan also reviews the surprisingly enjoyable Aquaman and we look forward to the movies and games we’re most excited for in 2019.

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

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

In our final episode of 2018, we reflect on another amazing year in gaming with countdowns of our Top 10 Video Games of the Year. This was a rich, varied, and incredibly surprising year for video games, with some expected hits and out-of-left-field delights making both of our lists. There’s more crossover this time between our two countdowns than in recent years, but also some big points of departure, which makes for a really great conversation as we reminisce upon the year’s great games. 2018 has been the biggest year for our podcast ever, in more ways than one, and we’re so grateful to have had all of you along for the ride! Enjoy the show, and we’ll see you in 2019!

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

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

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

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

Since Monday fell on Christmas Eve this year, we thought we’d put together a special Holiday-themed episode this week, complete with gift-giving, Jonathan’s impromptu list of the best (and worst) Christmas movies, a shared rant about people who care too much about Die Hard being a Christmas movie, and more! We also chat a bit more about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Hitman 2, before arriving at our main holiday topic: A live reaction/review of the worst Christmas album ever recorded. I won’t spoil the album’s identity here, but suffice to say, it makes for one of the silliest and most entertaining segments we’ve ever recorded.

Enjoy, and happy holidays to all!

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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

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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

Spider-Man’s incredible year continued this week with the release of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the web-head’s first animated movie and the first to star Miles Morales. It’s also one of the best superhero movies ever made, not to mention maybe the single most innovative and imaginative use of CGI animation since Toy Story pioneered the format in 1995. This is a truly special movie, one with tons of heart, a lot of laughs, and a big dose of eye candy, and we dive deep with all of it. Jonathan also talks about his continued enjoyment of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for Nintendo Switch, Sean reviews more of Hitman 2, and we answer some listener mail to round out a really fun episode of the podcast.

Enjoy!

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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

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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

It’s another packed episode this week, as we give impressions on one of the year’s biggest game releases and dive into the depths of depression with the worst Doctor Who season ever. But before that, Sean and Jonathan go over all the news out of this week’s Game Awards event – including the most surprising DLC announcement in years – and give continuing thoughts on a variety of recent games, including Hitman 2 and the Persona 3 and Persona 5 dancing games, now available in English. Jonathan gives impressions of the amazing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for Nintendo Switch, and we then commiserate over the miserable experience that was the Doctor Who Series 11 finale. We talk about where the episode and the season went wrong, but also go deeper with the season’s treatment of diversity, arguing that a season that appeared progressive on the surface wound up being politically regressive in a number of ways, betraying the character of the Doctor and wasting an opportunity to meaningfully evolve the status quo. It’s one of the most in-depth discussions we’ve had about any topic in the history of the podcast, and we hope you’ll give it a listen.

Enjoy!

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:03:41

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

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

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

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

©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman

This is a clip from this week's full podcast, in which we covered a lot of topics, including this season of Doctor Who and its many creative failings. I wanted to clip out one part of that discussion and share it separately, however, because I think it's the most important part of our comments, and I think it speaks to something few critics are genuinely trying to grapple with this season: Have Chris Chibnall and the Doctor Who creative team done right by the character and the responsibilities of representation in their push for greater on-screen diversity this year? As Sean and I argue here, the politics of this season are actually shocking regressive and pro-status quo, and in creating the first female Doctor, Chibnall's writing has reduced the character to a shallow series of heavily gendered 'quirks,' with the most important character in the season, the character through whom all of the major themes flow, being the one middle-aged white guy on screen. It's a nuanced, complicated discussion, but I wanted people to hear this section if they hear nothing else, so it's excerpted here for that purpose. Enjoy.

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

On this week’s wide-ranging episode, we come back from Thanksgiving break to discuss two weeks’ worth of news, including the announcement that Neon Genesis Evangelion is headed to Netflix, while more Marvel shows like Daredevil most certainly are not, before giving continued impressions on a bunch of recent video games like Hitman 2. Jonathan talks about finally nearing the finish line in Dragon Ball Super, and finally discovering what insanely cool thing Goku did in Episode 116 that Sean lost his mind over this time last year. And for our main topic, we dive deep with the story of Red Dead Redemption 2, in full spoiler detail, now that we have both finished this very long, and very good, video game.

Time Chart:

Intro/Doctor Who Chat: 0:00:00 – 0:12:17

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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

In this pre-recorded post-Thanksgiving episode, we finally sit down to talk about one of our favorite games of the year, Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age. After 100 hours apiece and many happy memories, we have both completed this epic JRPG experience, and have a lot to say about what is easily one of the genre’s greatest accomplishments. We’ve talked about the game without spoilers a few times before, but for this episode, we go into full spoiler detail about the game’s story, characters, and world. And if you’re not into Dragon Quest, we also review the wonderful Creed II and discuss Kotaku’s recent in-depth report about Blizzard, the development of Diablo IV, and the creation of Diablo Immortal.

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:04:07

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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

In one of the single busiest episodes we’ve ever recorded, we pay tribute to the amazing life of Stan Lee, the face and voice of Marvel comics and one of the most dominant figures in modern pop culture, review Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, give first impressions of Hitman 2 and Pokemon Let’s Go, go over several pieces of news including Sony’s decision to skip E3 2019, and review the latest episode of Doctor Who, “Kerblam,” which may well be the worst – or, at the very least, most morally and thematically bankrupt – episode in the 55-year history of the series. It’s 4 jam-packed hours of content for your Thanksgiving week travels, time spent cooking, or if you just need to get away from your family and listen to us yell about British mass media.

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:03:42

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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

It’s another grab-bag style week, as Sean and Jonathan give updates on their progress in Red Dead Redemption 2, Jonathan reviews the outstanding Tetris Effect for PS4, and we go over some recent weird news about Final Fantasy XV. Jonathan tells the story of his nearly-doomed trip to Illinois to see a concert, and Sean gives us a mini-lecture on the (surprisingly gay) delights of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. And finally, we at last have a good episode of Doctor Who to talk about this season, as Vinay Patel’s “Demons of the Punjab” proved to be the first 13th Doctor outing with a strong story and solid character work, with a fascinating historical and cultural perspective to boot.

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:01:52

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