The Review Show

Episode 110. We went back to the origin story of the Marvel comics universe and read The Fantastic Four: Masterworks Volume 1, a collection of the first ten issues from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby back in 1961. When scientist Reed Richards, pilot Ben Grimm, Reed's girlfriend Sue Storm and her brother Johnny take an experimental flight to space, they return changed. They're developed superpowers! Some of them find this helpful, others find it a curse, but they decide to stick together and use their abilities for good and serve New York City as its new superheroes, The Fantastic Four! They fight all kinds of madcap villains from the shape-shifting Skrull aliens to Namor the Sub-Mariner to Dr. Doom. We discuss the wacky charm of these comics and what we would do with the characters if we could reinvent Marvel's first family for our own 1960's adventure!

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

Episode 109. We're continuing our monthly series on Mr. Robot and talking about season two! Since their hack to delete E-Corp's financial records, Elliot has decided to lay low and get his head on straight, still trying to find out what happened to Tyrell. Darlene is struggling to lead F Society to further action while avoiding the attention of the FBI. Angela is attempting to play the big business game and rise up the ranks of E-Corp to tear it down from the inside out. As the world is in shambles and everyone's back is pressed against the wall, hard choices have to be made.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

Episode 108. We watched the 2008 film Speed Racer, the Wachowskis' visually dazzling adaptation of the classic anime. Speed comes from a family of mechanics and wants nothing more than to be a racecar driver, even though a dangerous race killed his older brother when he was a kid. He's rising up the ranks of the sport and attracting big corporate sponsors, but the tempting deals are ruined when he finds out that they're fixing all the races. He teams up with the mysterious Racer X to sabotage these business plans and show everyone that he can win the honest way!

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

Episode 107. We watched Satoshi Kon's 2006 mindbending anime film Paprika. A group of scientists have invented a device that allows them to travel inside of dreams and affect how they play out. They intend to use this for therapy but a former colleague is using the device as a weapon, bombarding people with intense fantastical imagery that overloads the dreamer and drives them out of their mind. Dr. Chiba investigates in the waking world while her free-spirited alter ego Paprika tries to fight back from the dream world, and it becomes a race to stop the unstable dreamscape from corrupting the waking lives of the whole city.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

Episode 106. We read the first two volumes of Black Hammer, a comic by writer Jeff Lemire and artist Dean Ormston. Ten years ago, Spiral City's greatest superheroes faced off against the Anti-God in a battle to save the world, but they paid a terrible and mysterious cost to defeat their enemy. The heroes were somehow cast away to a farm in a small rural town, trapped by an energy field running along the town's borders. They have no idea where they are, what brought them there, and if Spiral City is safe, or even still exists. All they know anymore is the farm and the suspicious gossiping community that surrounds it. Will they fight to escape, or resign themselves to forever hiding their true identities as they try to live the quiet life?

Episode 105. This week we watched the whimsical family adventures Paddington and Paddington 2 from director Paul King, to learn for ourselves why they're some of the most critically acclaimed films of the 2010s. Paddington is an innocent talking bear who travels from his sheltered jungle home to London, a city he only knows through idealized family stories. The city isn't as immediately welcoming as he hoped, but he slowly charms his temporary host family, bringing them all closer to each other and closer to being their happiest selves. He wins over many of the townspeople, but still has to escape being a museum exhibit in the first movie and a prisoner framed for theft in the second. Yes! A cartoon bear goes to jail and Rotten Tomatoes says this is a 100% good movie!

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

Episode 104. We're discussing season one of the USA drama Mr. Robot, and join us for another episode next month as we keep watching the show through to its conclusion! Elliot works for a cybersecurity company and deals with his social anxiety by hacking into the private lives of the people around him to get to know their true selves. He earns the attention of a mysterious anarchist called Mr. Robot and his "hacktivist" group, who want to bring down the world's largest conglomerate, deleting their financial data and making the debt records of millions of people disappear. Elliot joins in, even though this conglomerate is his company's most important client and he would be destroying the professional life of himself and his few friends. His mental state deteriorates as the stakes of the plan get higher and he becomes paranoid of everyone's motives, including his own.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

Episode 103. This week we read the first three volumes of the manga The Heroic Legend of Arslan, from the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist, Hiromu Arakawa. Arslan is the young prince of a country at war, trying to learn battle tactics and how to impress his aloof parents while he's beginning to question his country's harsh practices. When he's separated from the rest of the army during a devastating battle, he has to rely on a small band of outcasts to help him travel back to the capital city to help his family stop the ravaging invaders. But once he gets home, will anything in the life he's known still be intact?

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

Episode 102. This week Melissa's friend Jacq serves as co-captain for a discussion on Parasite, a thriller from South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho that swept the Oscars this year. The Kim family is struggling to find steady work when the opportunity arises for their son to tutor the daughter of the rich Park family. The rest of the Kims lie their way into positions in the household staff, fabricating identities and making the Parks believe they're all strangers to each other. But the Kims soon discover they're not the only liars in the Parks' lives and their mansion holds a dangerous secret that could destroy both families.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

Episode 101. We conclude our monthly series on The Venture Bros by discussing seasons 5, 6, and 7, which catches us up with the show! Both generations of the Ventures are dealing with the secrets of their fathers as the family lineage becomes more complicated. The Monarchs and Henchman 21 explore paths outside of their typical villainous roles. Billy and White experience firsthand what it's like to be heroes with their own arch-nemesis. The show shifts its setting and evolves its cast of characters, introducing new mythology and calling back plot elements from long ago, twisting the story tighter in on itself. Season 7 leaves us with big questions about how the Venture family will come together or be driven apart. We also spend a lot of time wondering about time travel!?

Loyal listeners may recall the end-of-the-year Review Show playlists Melissa has made with songs from and inspired by what we've covered on the show. She made a whole playlist just for this series, which you can find on Spotify!

Click here to watch a video of this episode.