The Review Show

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 her team together. Also, a musical episode!

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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 Stede how to fight, and Stede teaches him the more gentle pursuits of life. As they co-captain the ship together, their bond blossoms into romance.

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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 this child will be the harbinger of doom. Separated from his wife and trying to redeem his reputation for betrayal, Death travels the barren landscape in search of his son.

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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 warning system, and today's intense weather looks like the perfect time to experiment. As their ragtag team drives across Oklahoma, they reconnect and realize they could have a life together again -- if they make it out of the storm alive.

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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 the vigilante Deadpool, hunting down the scientists who put him through this experiment. He teams up with some X-Men, finds and loses the love of his life, saves mutant children from a cruel orphanage, and travels through time, all while delivering snarky narration.

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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 to follow every lead -- and find secrets buried in their own personal histories.

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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 is honored by her new powers, even as they take a terrible toll on her health.

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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. Forrest reviews stealing, eating 15 pancakes, getting divorced, eating 30 pancakes, going to space, starting a cult, and spending the night in a haunted house, all with unintended consequences that tear his family apart and force him to the brink of death while he insists the show must go on.

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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, 2003 time capsules, and variations on sitcom structures.

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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 the moral quandary of killing a truly unique being and if their weapon against him will become a weapon that other countries use for war.

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