The Review Show

The Whatnauts Grand Prix 10

The Whatnauts — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0600

We're celebrating 10 years of The Whatnauts with an end of the year "grand prix" because you can call anything a grand prix, there's no rules stopping you! Two people talking about pizza can be a grand prix!! Kyle sees a chicken. Melissa sees a big glove. Between the two of us, we've seen Tenet 3.5 times and Interstellar 1 time and we're going to try to understand both. We also give out the yearly Review Show superlatives, recap the F1 season finale and the Game of the Year awards, imagine a Scrabble game that takes up your whole house, and talk about cow cinema.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(05:01) - Cinema corner
(51:33) - Review Show awards and superlatives
(01:39:11) - Episode 300 again
(02:03:20) - Melissa's BIG news
(02:20:31) - Formula 1 corner
(02:36:11) - Pop culture lightning round
(02:43:10) - Detour to The Game Awards
(02:52:40) - Last bit of the pop culture lightning round
(02:55:16) - Outro

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The Review Show Awards: Superlatives & Top 10s

The Whatnauts — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 332. This is our final episode of The Review Show (we'll still be doing the same thing next year under a newly formatted feed) and we're looking back on over 300 episodes with lists! Lots and lots of lists! We talk about our favorite movies, shows, comics, and audio dramas, biggest surprises, best villains, opening credits, needledrops, robots, stunts, and celebrities playing themselves. We talk about "small weirds," obscure streaming shows that seemingly no one has ever watched except us, a sexy pinup calendar of The Tick, a talking motorcycle, and what if Netflix spent their entire budget on just one new season of Mindhunter.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(02:14) - What are we drinking tonight?
(04:00) - Episode 300 again
(05:48) - Let the lists begin!
(02:16:18) - A few extra shout outs
(02:24:44) - Shout out to Melissa
(02:26:29) - Final reminders
(02:27:45) - Outro

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The Americans s6

The Whatnauts — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 13:51:20 -0600

Episode 331. In our final regular episode of The Review Show, we talk about the haunting final season of The Americans. Philip has left espionage behind to focus on the legitimate family business to disastrous results, Elizabeth is in over her head with more demanding assignments, and Stan is finally realizing the spies he's been looking for may be his own neighbors. We discuss the pattern of broken connections between fathers and sons, Elizabeth's art studies restoring a missing part of her humanity, if any characters actually make it out of this show with a positive future, and whether we'd want to see a sequel series following the Jennings family years later.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(01:55) - Non-spoiler thoughts on The Americans s6
(10:14) - Housekeeping
(17:26) - Spoilers for The Americans s6
(01:27:07) - Review Show Bingo
(01:30:14) - Recommendations
(01:35:29) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:37:52) - Outro

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The Americans s5

The Whatnauts — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 330. Season 5 of The Americans sees Philip and Elizabeth juggling multiple cover stories, while Paige willingly turns towards espionage and Henry tries to stand on his own -- at the worst time possible. We discuss the great tragic comedy of Henry turning out to be the ideal American boy while his parents weren't looking, the wildcard Mischa storyline, the wedding, if anyone could ever truly love Stan without it being suspicious, and we have an argument about how many sets of pajamas Elizabeth owns.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(03:49) - Non-spoiler thoughts on The Americans s5
(16:45) - Housekeeping
(23:10) - Spoilers for The Americans s4
(01:44:14) - Review Show Bingo
(01:45:34) - Recommendations
(01:46:27) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:46:45) - Outro

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The Americans s4

The Whatnauts — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 329. We're back to our ongoing coverage of The Americans, talking about season 4. Philip and Elizabeth have to make choices that will devastate the lives of their unwitting informants, while Paige struggles under the pressure of keeping her pastor from revealing the family's secrets. We theorize about what the show will do with Henry and how he'll finally learn about his family's double lives, dignity for Martha, sudden and random deaths, how the show uses '80s pop culture sparingly and carefully, and past storylines coming back with unforeseen consequences.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(02:04) - Non-spoiler thoughts on The Americans s4
(08:59) - Housekeeping
(14:50) - Spoilers for The Americans s4
(01:27:46) - Review Show Bingo
(01:30:04) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:30:22) - Outro

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Garth Marenghi's Darkplace

The Whatnauts — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 328. This year's Halloween episode is on Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, a British comedy series from 2004. In this show within a show, Garth Marenghi is a horror author who writes and stars in a series about a cursed hospital, trying to deliver spine-tingling tales on a shoestring budget. We discuss the structure of the hospital drama intercut with fake interviews with the fictional creators of the show, how skilled the show is at being bad on purpose, the unnerving absence of any settings outside of the hospital, the musical number, and the bug boy.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(03:33) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
(16:02) - Housekeeping
(19:45) - Spoilers for Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
(01:11:12) - Review Show Bingo
(01:28:03) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:32:26) - Outro

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The Americans s3

The Whatnauts — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 327. We continue our mission with The Americans, talking about season three in this episode. Philip and Elizabeth are conflicted about revealing their spy history to their daughter Paige, and struggle against the constraints of their orders from The Centre. We discuss sad sack Stan, all the sex missions weighing on Philip, Elizabeth and the old woman in the repair shop, if Mischa is even real, the teeth scene, and the urban legend of the psy ops video game Polybius.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(02:37) - Non-spoiler thoughts on The Americans s3
(10:46) - Housekeeping
(15:56) - Spoilers for The Americans s3
(01:41:44) - Review Show Bingo
(01:44:17) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:46:55) - Outro

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The Americans s1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 326. We finally begin a show that's been on our mutual to-watch list for years: FX's 2013 spy drama The Americans. "Philip and Elizabeth Jennings" are undercover KGB agents who have been embedded in the US since the '60s, living as a married couple, raising children, and trying to fit in as a normal '80s suburban family -- and their cover is tested when an FBI agent moves into their neighborhood. We discuss the story's slow burn pacing, giving the Jennings kids their own unique character arcs, all the sex scenes, all the wigs, and using a real-world local TV commercial for plot foreshadowing.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(04:41) - Non-spoiler thoughts on The Americans s1-2
(22:49) - Housekeeping
(27:30) - Spoilers for The Americans s1-2
(01:42:05) - Review Show Bingo
(01:48:49) - Recommendations
(01:57:00) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:57:22) - Outro

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The Master

The Whatnauts — Wed, 03 Sep 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 325. To prepare for Paul Thomas Anderson's new movie One Battle After Another, we watched his 2012 drama The Master. A volatile vagabond crosses paths with a charismatic scholar with a cult-like following, and the two men form a bond that threatens the scholar's family and community of believers. We discuss the shifting power dynamics of who exactly is "the master" of any situation, the surprising sense of humor in this movie and in PTA's other works, anxious cinematography, and movies where a freaky little gremlin guy comes in to take over your life.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(03:56) - Non-spoiler thoughts on The Master
(16:49) - Housekeeping
(20:29) - Spoilers for The Master
(01:14:15) - Review Show Bingo
(01:17:01) - Recommendations
(01:29:49) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:32:19) - Outro

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Secret Identity

The Whatnauts — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 324. We read Secret Identity by Alex Segura, a prose novel set in the world of 1970s comic book publishers. Carmen Valdez is a publisher's secretary trying to break in as a writer, and when she finally gets the chance to introduce her own superhero, her co-creator winds up dead and her name is missing from the comic's byline. We discuss the myriad mysteries in this book beyond the whodunnit, the moral murkiness that makes it a noir story, the worldbuilding of fictional comic companies alongside the real works of Marvel and DC, and racking up bills taking informants out for dinner.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(01:57) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Secret Identity by Alex Segura
(17:17) - Housekeeping
(21:24) - Spoilers for Secret Identity by Alex Segura
(01:12:44) - Review Show Bingo
(01:16:15) - Recommendations
(01:27:32) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:29:43) - Outro

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The Terrifics vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 323. We read the first two volumes of The Terrifics, a DC story featuring fan-favorite characters from James Gunn's Superman, in a format that feels more like Marvel's Fantastic Four. The best of both worlds! Mr. Terrific, Metamorpho, Plastic Man, and Phantom Girl find themselves literally stuck together -- if they're more than a mile apart from each other, they'll all explode -- and have to turn themselves into a real working team to solve a multiversal crisis. We discuss Plastic Man's ability to be truly, mind-bogglingly ANYTHING, classic Jeff Lemire sadness, "science" adventures, and if Alan Moore has ever once in his life jumped.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(02:17) - Non-spoiler thoughts on The Terrifics vol. 1-2
(19:45) - Housekeeping
(23:34) - Spoilers for The Terrifics vol. 1-2
(01:15:08) - Review Show Bingo
(01:17:24) - Recommendations
(01:23:34) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:25:38) - Outro

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Poker Face S1-2

The Whatnauts — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 322. We watched the first two seasons of Poker Face, the mystery comedy show created by Rian Johnson for Peacock. Charlie Cale is a cocktail waitress on the run from her casino's mob goons because of her uncanny ability to tell when someone is lying. She travels across the country trying to keep a low profile as she takes odd jobs and stumbles into mysteries. We discuss the feast of character actors and extremely niche settings in these murder-of-the-week episodes, the escalation from small town petty crime to regional mafia empires to a serial killer nemesis, what the "Good Buddy" plotline could turn into, and we demand an episode of ONLY smokey-voiced character actresses.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Start
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(02:14) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Poker Face s1-2
(17:13) - Housekeeping
(24:17) - Spoilers for Poker Face s1-2
(01:23:29) - Review Show Bingo
(01:30:20) - Recommendations
(01:44:22) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:48:34) - Outro

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Raising Arizona

The Whatnauts — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 321. For our annual Nicolas Cage weekend, we watch our earliest Cage yet in 1987's Raising Arizona. In this Coen Brothers caper, an infertile couple kidnaps a baby from a family of quintuplets, intending to raise him on their own, until criminals and manhunters get in their way. We discuss the movie's sincerity, the iconic chase scene, the tattoo mystery, John Goodman screaming, and how every small town movie just takes us back to Napoleon Dynamite.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(01:59) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Raising Arizona
(12:47) - Housekeeping
(17:32) - Spoilers for Raising Arizona
(01:17:15) - Review Show Bingo
(01:19:09) - Recommendations
(01:32:21) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:36:20) - Outro

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Le Mans

The Whatnauts — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 320. We bring our racecar nonsense to The Review Show by watching the 1971 movie Le Mans, set in the real 24-hour motorsports endurance race through the French countryside. We discuss the film slowly building anticipation before the race actually starts, Steve McQueen's movie star identity intertwining with cars and motorcycles, waxing philosophic on the roar of the engine, and watch sponsorships.

Link to Patrick H. Willems' video essay on Grand Prix: https://youtu.be/JPnTm8C_OfY?si=iQKOwlgnMz2rSZVH

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(06:46) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Le Mans
(18:22) - Housekeeping
(23:14) - Spoilers for Le Mans
(01:20:03) - Review Show Bingo
(01:22:13) - Recommendations
(01:36:39) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:38:30) - Outro

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Superman: The Movie

The Whatnauts — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 319. We quick-change into our capes for an episode on Richard Donner's 1978 Superman: The Movie. This has all the classic Superman iconography you know and love, plus a complicated real estate scheme where Lex Luthor wants to sink the California coastline to make a new one. We discuss the strange pacing that makes you wait nearly an hour to see Superman in action, the surprisingly sincere romance (and horniness), Jor-El being a busy dad with two jobs, Midwestern wheat fields, how we expect James Gunn's Superman to emulate this or step away from it, and if we'll ever see a big-screen Superman with a mullet like that one comic from the 1990s.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(03:42) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Superman: The Movie
(13:36) - Housekeeping
(20:04) - Spoilers for Superman: The Movie
(01:30:17) - Review Show Bingo
(01:32:21) - Recommendations
(01:49:50) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:54:12) - Outro

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Faith vol. 1-3

The Whatnauts — Wed, 28 May 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 318. We return to the world of Valiant comics to read the first three volumes of Faith, from writer Jody Houser. Faith has always worked with a superhero team, but now she's setting out on her own to live in sunny Los Angeles and fight crime her own way, while keeping up a day job as a pop culture blogger. We discuss Faith's important role as a plus-size superhero and how the story doesn't need to call attention to how unusual that is, the endless barrage of nerdy references, mid-2010s time capsule moments, befriending your clone, and tips for going to your first comic con.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(03:22) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Faith Vol. 1-3
(19:22) - Housekeeping
(24:59) - Spoilers for Faith Vol. 1-3
(01:17:55) - Review Show Bingo
(01:22:01) - Recommendations
(01:32:22) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:34:32) - Outro

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The X-Files (1998)

The Whatnauts — Wed, 14 May 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 317. We want to believe in this week's episode, a look back at the The X-Files movie from 1998. This movie, sometimes known under the subtitle Fight the Future, was released in theaters between seasons 5 and 6 of the TV show but tells a standalone story. Mulder and Scully are fighting for their careers, their lives, and their connection to each other as they're embroiled in a plot to release an ancient alien virus into the world. We talk about how this movie goes big while staying close to the roots of the show, textbook moves for writing an investigative partnership will-they-won't-they romance, the bees, the grandson with the broken leg, and how this is unique in the history of TV shows being turned into movies.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(01:40) - Non-spoiler thoughts on The X-files Fight the Future
(18:44) - Housekeeping
(24:06) - Spoilers for The X-files Fight the Future
(01:22:36) - Review Show Bingo
(01:25:50) - Recommendations
(01:48:56) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:56:00) - Outro

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I Think You Should Leave

The Whatnauts — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 316. It's a Review Show first as we try to dissect a sketch comedy show with no traditional narrative, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. This show premiered on Netflix in 2019 and made a mark with its focus on absurd escalations to everyday awkward interactions. We discuss how the show reflects a post-pandemic lockdown hyper-awareness of social interaction, the lack of recurring characters, the buff boy contest, Dan Flash shirts, and how Karl Havoc plays better if you know the story of Jim Carrey undergoing CIA torture resistance techniques just to put on his Grinch makeup.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(02:52) - Non-spoiler thoughts on I Think You Should Leave
(15:49) - Housekeeping
(21:36) - Spoilers for I Think You Should Leave
(01:23:04) - Review Show Bingo
(01:26:41) - Recommendations
(01:46:07) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:50:03) - Outro

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I Was A Teenage Wereskunk

The Whatnauts — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:20:14 -0500

Episode 315. We watched the 2016 comedy I Was a Teenage Wereskunk, an homage to 1950s B-movies made on a shoestring budget. A teenage boy is sprayed by a magical skunk while he's trying to look at boobs and now he turns into a murderous skunk monster whenever he gets horny. We discuss how the movie is a deft parody of a variety of genres, the tiny house, the sexy pancakes, our new favorite character Deputy Gary, and trying to understand mid-century cultural tropes like beatniks and the Lover's Lane.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(03:30) - Non-spoiler thoughts on I Was A Teenage Wereskunk
(11:43) - Housekeeping
(17:53) - Spoilers for I Was A Teenage Wereskunk
(01:04:56) - Review Show Bingo
(01:09:50) - Recommendations
(01:24:53) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:27:30) - Outro

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Mulholland Drive

The Whatnauts — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 18:25:24 -0500

Episode 314. We pay tribute to the late director David Lynch by watching his 2001 film Mulholland Drive. An aspiring actress finds a mysterious amnesiac woman hiding in her new Hollywood apartment, sparking a close bond between the two women, and a search for truth and identity. We ask whether it's possible to spoil the ending of this inscrutable movie and discuss its origins as a failed TV pilot, clues that don't lead you anywhere, selves within selves, the symbology of the jewelry box, and how many times Patrick Fischler was cast in other movies as an homage to the Winkie's scene.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(03:42) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Mulholland Drive
(18:34) - Housekeeping
(23:47) - Spoilers for Mulholland Drive
(01:21:25) - Review Show Bingo
(01:25:30) - Recommendations
(01:47:41) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:52:12) - Outro

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Mobile Suit Gundam (compliation movies 1-3)

The Whatnauts — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 313. It's finally here: the episode where Kyle makes Melissa watch a Gundam. We watched Mobile Suit Gundam I-III, three movies on Netflix that are abridged compilations of the original 1979 TV show. In a war-torn future, young Amuro Ray finds his way into a mech suit and struggles with the moral conflicts of becoming a soldier losing members of his newfound family. We discuss how Gundam is more about the tragedy of war than it is about pew-pew-pew space fights, characters who are introduced just to die, what purpose the little kids serve in the story, discovering the sadness in your workaholic dad, and how the plot of The Big O sounds cool until you get to the part where the giant robots are named "megadeuces."

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(03:59) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Mobile Suit Gundam (compilation movies 1-3)
(23:58) - Housekeeping
(29:44) - Spoilers for Mobile Suit Gundam (compilation movies 1-3)
(01:15:37) - Review Show Bingo
(01:19:30) - Recommendations
(01:33:47) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:35:22) - Outro

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Love Everlasting vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 312. We read the first two volumes of the Love Everlasting, from Tom King and Elsa Charretier. This is a psychological horror comic about a woman who finds herself trapped in a series of stereotypical romance stories, never sure when she's really falling in love and when she's just going through the motions trying to get out of this story and escape. We discuss the variety of vintage romance comic tropes, the mysterious cowboy who enforces the rules of this world, finding true love at the end of your life, and comparisons to The Prisoner.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(04:01) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Love Everlasting vol. 1-2
(15:13) - Housekeeping
(21:18) - Spoilers for Love Everlasting vol. 1-2
(01:16:49) - Review Show Bingo
(01:19:19) - Recommendations
(01:33:31) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:37:21) - Outro

For All Mankind S3-4

The Whatnauts — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 311. We catch up to the current season of For All Mankind, as the show reaches the 1990s and begins the race for Mars, with a private company launching its own voyage alongside the USA and Russia. We discuss how the show has proven itself adept enough at drama in the early seasons to earn a few wild comedic moments now, having one specific human villain, and spending too much time on setup when we're ready to be introduced to a situation in media res. Kyle demands a sovereign colony on Mars. Melissa just wants Margo and Sergei to kiss again. We get very excited about homages to Lost.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(05:25) - Non-spoiler thoughts on For All Mankind s3-4
(16:30) - Housekeeping
(20:40) - Spoilers for For All Mankind s3-4
(01:53:10) - Review Show Bingo
(02:00:25) - Recommendations
(02:07:02) - What we are discussing next episode
(02:08:48) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

For All Mankind S1-2

The Whatnauts — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 310. We watched the first two seasons of For All Mankind, an Apple TV+ drama that looks at an alternate world history where the space race never ended, with each season jumping forward years to see a new era of exploration. We discuss the balance of tense space missions with equally tense interpersonal drama at home, how the show feels sprawling but also limited in only showing us the American or Russian side, breaking narrative rules, surprisingly nuanced supporting characters, and one of the best season finale cliffhangers in TV history.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(02:44) - Non-spoiler thoughts on For All Mankind s1-2
(18:13) - Housekeeping
(23:42) - Spoilers for For All Mankind s1-2
(01:38:31) - Review Show Bingo
(01:48:52) - Recommendations
(02:00:30) - What we are discussing next episode
(02:01:13) - Outro

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Sunshine

The Whatnauts — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 309. We're talking on Sunshine, and don't it feel good! We watched the sci-fi thriller from director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland, about a space mission to launch a nuclear bomb that will revive the dying Sun and save Earth from death by ice age. The mission is thrown into chaos when the crew hears a distress signal from the first ship who attempted this mission and failed under mysterious circumstances. We discuss the cast of breakout stars and how the movie feels like it could be a hit new release this year and not a box office flop from 2007, strange stylistic choices, cosmic horror, a troubling haircut, and just what the 20th Century Fox logo is supposed to be. Is that a building? Can you go inside??

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(02:28) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Sunshine
(16:29) - Housekeeping
(20:42) - Spoilers for Sunshine
(01:08:12) - Review Show Bingo
(01:11:20) - Recommendations
(01:22:40) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:25:20) - Outro

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The Bourne Franchise

The Whatnauts — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 308. It's an explosive start to 2025 as we watch all of the Bourne franchise: the trilogy of The Bourne Identity, Supremacy, and Ultimatum, the not-really-a-reboot The Bourne Legacy, and the attempted return to form with Jason Bourne. These movies follow an amnesiac secret agent as he attempts to uncover the corrupt government program that took his memories in exchange for deadly skills. We discuss the context of action cinema in 2002 and how the series adapted to industry changes like cinematic universes, the Matt Damon screen persona, the unique values of the oft-maligned Bourne Legacy, DVD bonus features, the Bourne Stuntacular at Universal Studios Orlando, and how these movies all have the same end credits sequence.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(02:02) - Non-spoiler thoughts on the Bourne franchise
(20:28) - Housekeeping
(26:16) - Spoilers for the Bourne movies
(01:40:38) - Review Show Bingo
(01:49:42) - Recommendations
(01:56:55) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:58:49) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Whatnauts Grand Prix 09

The Whatnauts — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 09:00:00 -0600

Kyle and Melissa are here for a chill end-of-year celebration, looking back on our year in podcasting and looking ahead to our 2025 goals. We give out our Review Show awards, play a game of "What the Hell Were We Talking About?", run through our recent cinema experiences, talk about fancy cocktails and fancy mansions, and finally share our thoughts on the weird twist in the otherwise conventional neo-noir show Sugar.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:03) - Welcome
(02:17) - Cheers to nine years of The Whatnauts
(04:59) - Melissa's holiday parties
(09:04) - Have we done anything else for nine years?
(13:02) - Break number 1
(13:04) - Kyle's got his pizza
(17:36) - Alcoholic slushies and other drinks
(27:03) - The mansion tour
(37:07) - The Review Show awards
(01:21:43) - Break number 2
(01:21:45) - Kyle's got his Old Fashioned
(01:24:08) - What the hell were we talking about?
(01:42:25) - A quick check in on our fantasy movie draft
(01:47:53) - The Cinema Corner
(01:55:54) - Spoilers for Sugar
(01:57:46) - The Cinema Corner round 2
(02:07:42) - Out of Alcatraz
(02:13:41) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Severance S1

The Whatnauts — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 307. In our final Review Show of the year, we rewatched Severance before season two premieres in January! Employees at a shadowy mega-corporation can choose to undergo a "severance" procedure, where their brain is divided between work memories and personal memories. A group of severed employees who know nothing outside of their office start to wonder what the purpose of their work actually is, what their outside lives are like, and what it'll take for them to escape. We discuss the myriad mysteries of the show and how the character motivations are the most compelling secrets of all, Ricken's attempts at philosophy, the seemingly empty company town, new departments we want to see in season two, and Cobel's "Hey Arnold" shrine.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(02:36) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Severance
(17:39) - Housekeeping
(22:23) - Spoilers for Severance
(01:50:01) - Review Show Bingo
(01:54:20) - Recommendations
(02:14:49) - What we are discussing next episode
(02:19:02) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Escape at Dannemora

The Whatnauts — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 306. We watched the 2018 limited series Escape at Dannemora, from director Ben Stiller. In this drama based on true events, two inmates start affairs with a civilian prison employee, and manipulate her to get them the tools they need to break out. We discuss how everything falls apart after the escape, the diegetic soundtrack of 2015 radio pop hits, tiny doll pants, and how a reference to Happy Gilmore has actual thematic resonance to the story.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(02:08) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Escape at Dannemora
(16:42) - Housekeeping
(22:41) - Spoilers for Escape at Dannemora
(01:18:15) - Review Show Bingo
(01:21:28) - Recommendations
(01:30:59) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:32:23) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Contact

The Whatnauts — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 305. They should've sent a poet... instead they got podcasters. We connect with Contact, the 1997 sci-fi drama from director Robert Zemekis, based on a novel from Carl Sagan. Dr. Ellie Arroway has spent her life listening to the stars, and the stars finally have a message for her. Humanity scrambles to decode an alien transmission and determine what to do with this new knowledge, and what it means for their very concept of facts vs. faith. We discuss the story's approachable and universal take on "lowercase f" faith, the eccentric billionaire who lives in a plane, that legendary mirror shot, and the rare sci-fi story that's comforting more than it is cautionary.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(03:18) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Contact
(20:45) - Housekeeping
(26:18) - Spoilers for Contact
(01:12:32) - Review Show Bingo
(01:17:37) - Recommendations
(01:31:13) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:35:44) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The X Trilogy

The Whatnauts — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 304. We watched Ti West's horror trilogy of X, Pearl, and Maxxxine. These movies take us from a 1970s adult film shoot turned deadly to a farmgirl's suffocating small town life in 1918 to the neon sleeze of 1980s LA. We discuss the sense of history in each of the films, repeated patterns of aging and feeling trapped and becoming the person you swore you wouldn't become, dual roles and special effects makeup, if character actor Toby Huss has become too well known to just be used for a couple minutes, and screaming at a scarecrow.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(04:46) - Non-spoiler thoughts on The X trilogy
(19:32) - Housekeeping
(24:25) - Spoilers for The X trilogy
(01:18:53) - Review Show Bingo
(01:20:34) - Recommendations
(01:29:49) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:32:00) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Zatanna

The Whatnauts — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 303. We kick off October with a look into DC Comics' dark magic side, reading Paul Dini's run on Zatanna. Our heroine is both a working stage magician and one of the most powerful magical beings in the universe, as she juggles solving supernatural crimes with maintaining her performance schedule. We discuss how Zatanna is more iconic than any actual real world female magicians, the story's sense of place in San Francisco, killer puppets, Brother Night, and the "please, just let me sleep" genre of heroes.

Watch the video version of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(03:13) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Zatanna
(18:52) - Housekeeping
(24:00) - Spoilers for Zatanna
(01:15:56) - Review Show Bingo
(01:19:49) - Recommendations
(01:32:13) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:34:59) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Zodiac

The Whatnauts — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 302. How has Kyle never seen Zodiac? That's the real mystery. Shametember corrects this error as we discuss David Fincher's 2007 true crime thriller. This movie follows the investigation into the Zodiac killer across decades through the perspective of detectives, journalists, and the few survivors of his attacks, all based on real accounts. We discuss the unnerving atmosphere and bizarre side-stories that are just as haunting as the main mystery, the atypical plot structure and pacing, Jake Gyllenhaal looking like a human Muppet, and how we see Fincher continue these themes in his show Mindhunter.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(05:14) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Zodiac
(26:14) - Housekeeping
(31:18) - Spoilers for Zodiac
(01:30:16) - Review Show Bingo
(01:35:48) - Recommendations
(01:46:20) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:49:03) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Looney Tunes: Back in Action

The Whatnauts — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 301. Shametember kicks off this year with a movie that Melissa has somehow never seen -- 2003's Looney Tunes: Back in Action, from Joe Dante, the director of the Gremlins films. In this live-action and animation hybrid, Bugs and Daffy join a globe-trotting adventure with an aspiring stuntman who needs to save his action star father from the villainous chairman of Acme. We discuss the frantic plot and non-stop visual gags, celebrity cameos, product placement, Steve Martin's confounding performance, and our desire for a new version of Looney Tunes that's a surreal psychological drama starring Jesse Plemons as Porky Pig.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(05:22) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Looney Tunes: Back In Action
(16:24) - Housekeeping
(21:08) - Spoilers for Looney Tunes: Back In Action
(01:15:38) - Review Show Bingo
(01:21:07) - Recommendations
(01:37:23) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:39:36) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Review Show: The Theme Park

The Whatnauts — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 12:49:54 -0500

Episode 300! To celebrate our 300th episode, we're breaking our usual episode format to imagine a theme park based on the movies, shows, comics, and audio fiction we've covered in the past 299 episodes. Ideas include: High School Land, a Speed Racer roller coaster, a Mission:Impossible stunt spectacular, a carnival booth that will tell you if you're going to hell or not, a secret chicken restaurant that you can only find if you bribe a newsie, a town of endless parades, and a walkaround Michael Clayton breaking up fights between other characters.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Let the party begin!
(47:58) - Housekeeping
(52:10) - Back to building our park
(01:37:57) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:40:47) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Prisoner

The Whatnauts — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 299. We are not numbers! We are free podcasters!! Our topic this episode is the 1967 British sci-fi mystery show The Prisoner. After suddenly resigning from his intelligence bureau, a spy known only as Number 6 is kidnapped and imprisoned in the eerily idyllic Village, where he's challenged with bizarre mind games until he gives up whatever terrible secret made him resign. We discuss the rotating cast of actors playing the Village's leader Number 2, the killer bubble, the mod coastal fashion aesthetic, a truly strange series finale for the ages, the show's place in TV history and its continuing influence, and who we would want to see in the oft-rumored Christopher Nolan adaptation.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(05:22) - Non-spoiler thoughts on The Prisoner
(17:51) - Housekeeping
(23:38) - Spoilers!! The Prisoner
(01:42:06) - Review Show Bingo
(01:48:10) - Recommendations
(01:55:16) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:59:57) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

The Whatnauts — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 298. French cinema month concludes with the 1964 musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It's the 1950s in a quaint French town, and young Genvieve is despondent over her boyfriend being sent off to war, and coming to terms with marrying a more sensible man whom she should love but doesn't. We talk about how the movie is sung through in its entirety and defies common musical structure, the vibrant color palette, why Genvieve's mom doesn't just marry the suitor herself if she adores him so much, and how we wish the movie was more about the industry specifics of umbrella design.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(03:03) - Non-spoiler thoughts on The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
(14:44) - Housekeeping
(19:43) - Spoilers!! The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
(01:12:59) - Review Show Bingo
(01:14:45) - Recommendations
(01:25:15) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:32:15) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Titane

The Whatnauts — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 297. In honor of the Paris Olympics, we're covering French cinema this July, starting with Titane. This is a 2021 horror movie about a woman who has sex with a car and becomes pregnant with a car baby. We discuss how strange the movie is beyond just this initial premise, the murder spree, the dance sequences, and a firefighting brigade made entirely of orphan boys.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(03:27) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Titane
(09:44) - Housekeeping
(13:35) - Spoilers!! Titane
(01:09:18) - Review Show Bingo
(01:13:09) - Recommendations
(01:22:12) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:24:20) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Family Man

The Whatnauts — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 296. We continue our tradition of watching a Nic Cage movie every 4th of July weekend, and it's Christmas in July with the 2000 magic realism holiday rom-com The Family Man. Jack Campbell is a successful businessman living a solo jetsetter lifestyle when he's transported to an alternate world where he stayed with his college sweetheart and settled down in the suburbs. We discuss how the story fails to stand out in the catalogue of Christmas movies, the lack of compromise in the family vs. career struggle, the inexplicable and underutilized cowboy father-in-law, actual angel Don Cheadle, and whether or not this was the movie that Kyle vaguely remembers watching someone else watch on an airplane once when he was a kid.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(00:55) - Non-spoiler thoughts on The Family Man
(17:30) - Housekeeping
(18:25) - Spoilers!! The Family Man
(49:23) - Review Show Bingo
(50:24) - Recommendations
(56:40) - What we are discussing next episode
(59:48) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Bear s1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 295. We donned our aprons to talk about the first two seasons of the culinary dark comedy The Bear, in preparation for season three later this month. When a world class chef has to return home to Chicago and take over his late brother's failing sandwich shop, the whole staff struggles to adapt to their personal loss and new professional goals as they work to revamp the restaurant under a punishing deadline. We discuss the show's mix of dread and coziness, the well-rounded peripheral characters, the frenetic editing, a car full of discarded Arby's cups, and how the "Seven Fishes" episode will be studied for decades to come.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(02:03) - Non-spoiler thoughts on The Bear s1-2
(15:10) - Housekeeping
(19:53) - Spoilers!! The Bear s1-2
(01:40:04) - Review Show Bingo
(01:43:46) - Recommendations
(02:05:41) - What we are discussing next episode
(02:11:36) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Chew vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 294. We chow down on the first two volumes of Chew, the 2009 comic from John Layman and Rob Guillory. Whenever Tony Chu eats something, he gets a psychic impression of its history. He can see where produce was grown or how meat was slaughtered, or if he bites a dead body, he can see that person's last moments. He uses this power as an agent for the FDA, solving bizarre food-related crimes in a world where where chicken has been outlawed and is now treated as an illicit substance. We discuss the nonstop antics, scribbled-in background jokes, the narrative's slow release of info on the deadly bird flu that led to the chicken ban, and character designs modeled after actors from Lost.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(01:20) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Chew vol. 1-2
(10:37) - Housekeeping
(14:50) - Spoilers!! Chew vol. 1-2
(01:01:43) - Review Show Bingo
(01:05:13) - Recommendations
(01:14:58) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:16:05) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

North by Northwest

The Whatnauts — Wed, 22 May 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 293. We run from a bi-plane right into a discussion on Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 thriller North by Northwest! Roger Thornhill is caught up in a web of espionage and danger after he's mistaken for a secret agent, and this humdrum advertising exec has to play the action hero to get out of this conspiracy alive. We share our experiences going to the Fathom Events theatrical screening for this movie's 65th anniversary, its influence on spy stories, the surprising amount of humor, unconvincing makeout scenes, and Kyle's galaxy brain theory about how the main characters are dead at the end of the movie.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(02:49) - Non-spoiler thoughts on North By Northwest
(15:51) - Housekeeping
(20:32) - Spoilers!! North By Northwest
(01:14:34) - Review Show Bingo
(01:18:41) - Recommendations
(01:27:09) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:30:49) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Planet of the Apes Trilogy

The Whatnauts — Wed, 08 May 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 292. In preparation for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, we caught up on the trilogy of Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017). These films act as a prequel to the original 1968 movie, showing how apes gained human intelligence and eventually drove humans out of their civilization. We discuss the sub-genres in each movie, from prison break to political thriller, the impressive mo-cap performances and thoughtful world-building, if a gorilla could really ride a horse, and the "Old Spice" aesthetic of epicness from the late 2000s.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(03:40) - Non-spoiler thoughts on The Planet of the Apes Trilogy
(16:22) - Housekeeping
(20:23) - Spoilers!! The Planet of the Apes Trilogy
(01:13:15) - Review Show Bingo
(01:19:31) - Recommendations
(01:27:36) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:29:05) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Slow Horses s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 291. We conclude Apple April by watching season one of the Apple TV+ espionage drama, Slow Horses. MI5 agents who have notorious failures but who aren't incompetent enough to be fired are demoted to Slough House, an outpost where they do menial tasks under the command of the misanthropic Jackson Lamb. This team of misfits has a chance to prove themselves when they stumble upon a kidnapping conspiracy that may have been orchestrated by one of their own M15 bosses. We discuss how the show builds on its ensemble cast and knows exactly when to give you more time with a supporting character, the balance of dumb mistakes with genuine clever spycraft, and a scene where Gary Oldman farts that will make all dads stand up and clap.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(04:05) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Slow Horses s1
(13:52) - Housekeeping
(20:04) - Spoilers!! Slow Horses s1
(01:00:49) - Review Show Bingo
(01:07:32) - Recommendations
(01:15:29) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:19:35) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hello Tomorrow!

The Whatnauts — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 290. It's Apple April, where we're exploring content from Apple TV+. This week is the first season of Hello Tomorrow!, a 2023 workplace dramedy set in a retro-futuristic world. Jack Billings left his family behind to become a traveling salesman for Brightside, a timeshare development on the moon. When his son unknowingly attends one of his sales seminars, he decides to take the boy under his wing as a new employee, waiting until the right moment to reveal that he's his long-absent father. This isn't Jack's only secret, and the moon might not be the ideal destination he promises. We discuss the show's themes of hard truths vs. gentle lies, what it means to believe in a dream and fake it until you make it, the impressive production design, and robot hands.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(04:03) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Hello Tomorrow!
(15:40) - Housekeeping
(19:05) - Spoilers!! Hello Tomorrow!
(01:20:54) - Review Show Bingo
(01:24:15) - Recommendations
(01:37:11) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:42:26) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Us

The Whatnauts — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 289. We're discussing Jordan Peele's 2019 horror film Us, about a family whose beach house is invaded by horrifying dopplegangers of themselves, after the mother survived an encounter with one of them when she was younger. We discuss the puzzling origin of these doubles and the unnerving abruptness of the movie's ending, dream logic, liminal spaces, and buff nerds.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(01:35) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Us
(13:41) - Housekeeping
(17:21) - Spoilers!! Us
(01:05:04) - Review Show Bingo
(01:13:16) - Recommendations
(01:21:27) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:24:37) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Weathering With You

The Whatnauts — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 288. Friend of the show and master of electricity Ignacio Rojas joins us to talk about Weathering With You, a 2019 anime movie from director Makoto Shinkai. 15-year-old Hodaka runs away from home to start a new life in Tokyo, where he meets Hina, another teenager working to support herself and her kid brother. Hina is secretly a "sunshine girl" who can summon the sun and banish clouds, which the two use to earn money during an intensely rainy season, but the power could cost Hina her life. We discuss how this compares to Shinkai's earlier film Your Name, the accurate Tokyo settings down to a real McDonald's, themes of finding your own happiness on an alternate path in life, and your "senpai" being a 10-year-old with two girlfriends.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(07:41) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Weathering With You
(16:26) - Housekeeping
(21:34) - Spoilers!! Weathering With You
(01:08:09) - Review Show Bingo
(01:12:30) - Recommendations
(01:19:07) - What we are discussing next episode
(01:22:00) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Human Target

The Whatnauts — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 287. We read the 12-issue DC limited series The Human Target, from writer Tom King and artist Greg Smallwood. Christopher Chance is the Human Target, a secret operative you can hire to masquerade as you and take the hits from your enemies. He drinks a poison meant for Lex Luthor and has only 12 days left to live. He's determined to use this time to solve who is behind this assassination attempt, and all signs point to a member of the Justice League International. We discuss how much DC knowledge you need before reading this story, the juxtaposition of classic noir tropes with a bright mid-century art style, and comparisons to the prolific poisoning-based story The Emperor's New Groove.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(03:01) - Non-spoiler thoughts on The Human Target
(15:52) - Housekeeping
(20:26) - Spoilers!! The Human Target
(01:12:27) - Review Show Bingo
(01:15:14) - Recommendations
(01:24:35) - What we are covering next episode
(01:26:48) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Moonlighting s1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 286. We watched the 1985 detective show Moonlighting, an early "dramedy" and legend in will-they-won't-they romance. After a crooked accountant steals her money, former supermodel Maddie Hayes bets everything on her one remaining business asset, a small detective agency. She teams up with the goofy but effective PI David Addison, and the two bicker and flirt while solving a variety of odd crimes. We discuss the jarring shifts from poignant drama to screwball comedy, the receptionist who answers every phone call in rhyme, David bringing Chester Cheetah energy, romantic soft focus lenses, and a standout Christmas episode.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(02:13) - - Non-spoiler thoughts on Moonlighting
(20:29) - Housekeeping
(25:20) - Spoilers!! Moonlighting
(01:12:06) - Review Show Bingo
(01:19:48) - Recommendations
(01:29:44) - What we are discussing next week
(01:34:17) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Blue Eye Samurai

The Whatnauts — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 04:00:00 -0600

Episode 285. We watched season one of the Netflix animated series Blue Eye Samurai. At the time when baby Mizu was born with blue eyes, all outsiders were banned from Japan and the only white men known to be in the country were heinous criminals. After growing up an outcast, Mizu is now an adult trained in the sword, determined to find and kill those men. We discuss the impressive fight choreography, the surprising amount of blood and sex, horny poetry, and characters with speech impediments.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(04:24) - Non-spoiler thoughts on Blue Eye Samural
(15:28) - Housekeeping
(21:22) - Spoilers!! Blue Eye Samurai
(01:16:06) - Review Show Bingo
(01:20:49) - Recommendations
(01:26:10) - What we are discussing next week
(01:28:24) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Ghostbuster Franchise

The Whatnauts — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 04:00:00 -0600

Episode 284. The Whatnauts answer the call to discuss all four movies under the Ghostbusters banner: the 1984 original, the 1989 sequel, the 2016 soft remake, and the 2021 "rebootquel" Ghostbusters: Afterlife. We discuss how the franchise has always appealed to children even when it wasn't made for them, how anyone can become a ghostbuster, city pride, spooky paintings, when do homages start to feel repetitive, Stephen King vibes, and what we want to see from the new Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire movie later this year.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(03:54) - Non-spoiler thoughts on the Ghostbusters franchise
(16:52) - Housekeeping
(21:48) - Spoilers!! The Ghostbusters franchise
(01:44:59) - Ignacio joins the party
(01:49:45) - Recommendations
(01:57:42) - What we are covering next episode
(01:59:35) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Whatnauts 8th Annual Grand Prix

The Whatnauts — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 05:00:00 -0600

Join us for the 8th anniversary retrospective, which we've now declared will be called a Grand Prix! Just try to stop us!! Kyle and Melissa gather for our annual pizza awards banquet for favorite Review Show topics, best performances, biggest surprises, and for the first time ever, a two-time Dream Date winner. We also debut a new structure for the Review Show and Captain's Log starting in 2024! Master of electricity Ignacio joins us for a rousing discussion on southern California theme parks, and we name our goals for the year ahead.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:16) - Welcome and banter
(05:53) - What's the deal with "Grand Prix"
(08:43) - Review Show awards
(51:46) - Housekeeping
(56:57) - Changes coming to The Whatnauts
(01:11:29) - Ignacio joins the party
(01:17:37) - Catching up with Melissa
(01:21:24) - Are we board game people?
(01:37:57) - Ignacio and Kyle's video games of the year
(01:44:05) - Melissa snaps us out of our video game haze
(01:51:44) - New segment: What the hell are we talking about?
(02:04:20) - Our most anticipated movies and shows of 2024
(02:14:36) - Goals for next year
(02:24:12) - Just a few quick interesting stats
(02:30:38) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Bob's Burgers Holiday Special: The Bleakening (s8e6-7)

The Whatnauts — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 04:00:00 -0600

Episode 283. Happy holidays! We're ending the year by watching a two-part Christmas special from the animated family sitcom Bob's Burgers: season 8 episodes 6 and 7, titled "The Bleakening." When the family's Christmas tree is stolen from a party at their restaurant, Linda and Bob search for the culprit to get their kids' handmade ornaments back, while the kids suspect an anti-Santa known as the "Bleaken," who will prevent them from getting any presents. We discuss Linda's sincere love for the cruddy ornaments, meeting other local business owners in town, and the show's original musical numbers.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(03:32) - Spoiler free thoughts: Bob's Burgers Holiday Special: The Bleakening (s8e6-7)
(12:40) - Housekeeping
(18:55) - Spoilers!! Bob's Burgers Holiday Special: The Bleakening (s8e6-7)
(35:05) - Recommendations
(41:53) - Pitching what we cover next week
(43:57) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Mask

The Whatnauts — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 04:00:00 -0600

Episode 282. Somebody stop us! We're talking about the 1994 living cartoon that is The Mask. Stanley Ipkiss is a hapless pushover who discovers a mask that, according to the original DVD packaging, "brings his innermost desires to wild, screaming life!" We discuss the Looney Tunes antics, impossible pajamas, piles of loose cash, the discovery of Cameron Diaz, and the '90s and early 2000s run of pulp stories harkening back to the '30s and '40s.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(02:43) - Spoiler free thoughts: The Mask
(18:52) - Housekeeping
(24:13) - Spoilers!! The Mask
(01:11:01) - Bingo check in
(01:13:28) - Recommendations
(01:24:41) - Pitching what we cover next week
(01:29:59) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hellboy vol. 10-12

The Whatnauts — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 04:00:00 -0600

Episode 281. We conclude our discussion on the original Hellboy comics, covering volumes 10-12, where Hellboy has to finally face his world-changing destiny and pay the ultimate price to stop others from using him in their malevolent plans. We discuss the one-shot stories bringing Hellboy to luchador matches in Mexico and the haunted woods of Appalachia, what the devil looks like if Hellboy has already taken the classic devil look, and how having your heart ripped from your chest generally means that you die.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(01:56) - Spoiler free thoughts: Hellboy vol. 10-12
(08:57) - Housekeeping
(14:09) - Spoilers!! Hellboy vol. 10-12
(01:05:05) - Bingo check in
(01:05:33) - Recommendations
(01:13:25) - Pitching what we cover next week
(01:14:51) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Velocipastor

The Whatnauts — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 04:00:00 -0600

Episode 280. We had an A+ time with this B-movie, Brendan Steere's 2017 bad-on-purpose creature feature The VelociPastor. After priest Doug Jones sees his parents die in a car fire, he travels to China to clear his head, and encounters a mystical artifact that turns him into a velociraptor. He decides to use this power for good, ridding his city of drug dealers and ninjas. We discuss the moments of genuinely interesting film technique, calling a man younger than you "son," our admiration for Carol the sex worker/doctor/lawyer with a heart of gold, and plans for the sequel.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

(00:00) - Intro
(00:04) - Welcome and banter
(02:44) - Spoiler free thoughts: The Velocipastor
(10:42) - Housekeeping
(15:08) - Spoilers!! The Velocipastor
(01:13:54) - Bingo check in
(01:15:48) - Recommendations
(01:25:38) - Pitching what we cover next week
(01:29:16) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Under The Silver Lake

The Whatnauts — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 04:00:00 -0600

Episode 279. We watched the puzzling 2019 neo-noir film Under the Silver Lake, written and directed by David Robert Mitchell. Sam is an aimless slacker who falls for a cute new neighbor, and after he finds her apartment suddenly vacated, he becomes determined to find the missing girl. A series of cryptic clues leads him through LA's hipster party scene all the way to a conspiracy in the shadowy upper echelons of society. We discuss the detailed codes and easter eggs hidden in the film, Andrew Garfield's wild physical performance, being too horny to fear for your own safety, and adult men drinking milk.

Here are the YouTube videos we were referring to in the episode:
https://youtu.be/M2ZUJFhZz1s?si=tj-Yhbk6C3Xd6P63
https://youtu.be/PKhTETwj9mA?si=Dnpf15aBn6Fza-d_
https://youtu.be/ZAiY6Y0fsOI?si=OBBwR3JnYn0gVblC

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Persona

The Whatnauts — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 04:00:00 -0600

Episode 278. We watched the 1966 Ingmar Bergman film Persona. A young nurse is hired to care for an actress who went mute after a breakdown. The two go to a secluded beach house to recuperate, with the nurse constantly talking in hopes of coaxing her patient out of this psychosomatic state, while the identities of the two women start to blur. We discuss the avant garde imagery, the unnervingly sparse settings, and who that mysterious boy is supposed to represent.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hellboy vol. 7-9

The Whatnauts — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 11:58:55 -0500

Episode 277. Happy "Helloween" as we continue discussing the adventures of our pal Hellboy, with volumes 7-9 from writer Mike Mignola and new artist Duncan Fegredo. Old foes return to strike at Hellboy, and he learns surprising secrets about the human half of his lineage. We discuss the introduction of mainstream King Arthur mythology into this series based on more obscure folklore, making out with a goat, and crashing on a ghost's couch.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Mindhunter Season 1

The Whatnauts — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 15:01:08 -0500

Episode 276. We watched season one of the 2017 Netflix crime thriller Mindhunter, based on true events. In 1977, the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit begins a groundbreaking study into serial killers, traveling the country to interview incarcerated murderers to learn more about their patterns and processes, in the hopes of identifying future killers and stopping them before they start. We discuss the show's own haunting and darkly comedic patterns, making friends with the abyss, and exploding birds.

(00:00) - - Intro
(00:04) - - Welcome and banter
(04:04) - - Spoiler free thoughts: Mindhunter S1
(15:00) - - Housekeeping
(20:19) - - Spoilers!! Mindhunter S1
(01:31:01) - - Bingo check in
(01:31:38) - - Recommendations
(01:41:03) - - Pitching what we cover next week
(01:53:44) - - Outro

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Faculty

The Whatnauts — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 275. We watched the 1998 horror movie The Faculty, from writer Kevin Williamson and director Robert Rodriguez. A mis-matched crew of high school students come together when they suspect their teachers are being taken over by aliens, and they need to use a popular new homebrewed drug to kill the alien queen and save those who have been infected. We discuss the twists on traditional high school archetypes, a very subtle theater kid joke, alluding to sex but not actually seeing it, and standing in a lawn sprinkler.

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★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

The Whatnauts — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 274. We watched the 2014 black and white Iranian skateboarding vampire romance A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, from writer/director Ana Lily Amirpour. In the lonely town of Bad City, Iran, a young man working to pay off his father's debt to a local drug dealer encounters a mysterious girl who stalks the city at night, preying upon its oppressors. We discuss the mix of genres from spaghetti western to teen coming-of-age romance, how exciting a very slow scene can be, and how we wish there was even more skateboarding.

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★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Afterlife with Archie

The Whatnauts — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 273. We're kicking off our annual all-horror October with 2013's Afterlife with Archie comics, from writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and artist Francesco Francavilla. Jughead's beloved pup Hot Dog has been hit by a car, and when he asks Sabria the Teenage Witch to bring him back to life, he comes back wrong. Hot Dog bites Jughead, starting a zombie apocalypse in Riverdale. Archie, Betty, Veronica, and a crew of other traumatized survivors have to leave their town behind to go look for help. We discuss our limited personal contexts for the 80-year Archie franchise, how this series feels like a rough draft for the Riverdale TV show, and how vampires could fit into all of this.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hellboy vol. 4-6

The Whatnauts — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 10:32:28 -0500

Episode 272. We're continuing our ongoing monthly series reading Mike Mignola's Hellboy comics, talking about volumes 4-6 in this episode. Hellboy continues to deal with arcane magic forces trying to use him to summon an apocalypse, as well as the BPRD treating one of his fellow supernatural beings as a disposable tool instead of a teammate. Fed up with being a pawn in someone else's plans, Hellboy goes off to travel the world on his own, but finds it difficult to escape his past, even at the bottom of the ocean.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Sideways

The Whatnauts — Wed, 20 Sep 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 271. It's back-to-back Giamatti as we watch 2004's wine nerd movie Sideways! Divorced and depressed Miles takes his buddy Jack on a bachelor's weekend to California wine country. Jack wants to score some action before his wedding, while Miles just wants to lose himself in the pinot noir, struggling to reciprocate the advances of a friendly waitress at a local restaurant he frequents on these trips. As Jack's dalliances bring chaos to their vacation, Miles has to step up to help his friend, and learn to take better care of himself.

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★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Straight Outta Compton

The Whatnauts — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 270. To honor the 50th anniversary of hip-hop this year, we watched the 2015 biopic Straight Outta Compton, about the founding of N.W.A. Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E, DJ Yella, and MC Ren form the prolific rap group against the backdrop of their southern California town stricken by gang violence, hoping to bring catharsis to their community and control their own futures. The group faces censorship threats, police aggression, trickery from their manager, death, disease, and other tragedies, but their friendship and creative passion survives to this day.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

True Detective S1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 269. We watched the self-contained first season of the anthology crime series True Detective from 2014. Detectives Cohle and Hart investigate a seemingly occult killing of a young woman in rural Louisiana in 1995, chasing down myriad leads and eventually taking down the killer -- or so they think. In 2012, after new clues are brought to light and the two retired detectives are grilled by newer members of the force, the strained partnership reunites for a final showdown with the murderer who has quietly fed off this town for decades.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Hellboy vol 1-3

The Whatnauts — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 268. Our new monthly ongoing book club is reading Mike Mignola's original Hellboy comics from the 90s, three volumes a month until we've completed the series! Hellboy is a demonic being summoned by Nazi occultists in the 1940s, but adopted as a child into the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. He grew up traveling the world to investigate the supernatural and protect the innocent from the threats whispered about in folktales and ghost stories. As he closes each case, he also deals with the mystery of his origin and his true infernal purpose.

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★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Mockery Manor s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 267. We listened to season one of the audio fiction podcast Mockery Manor, from Long Cat Media. It's 1989 in England, and teenager JJ has a summer job at Mockery Manor theme park. She's joining her twin sister Bette, who's already settled into her job there and has developed her own alliances and romances with the fellow young workers, which doesn't help the tense relationship between these sisters. JJ feels even more isolated when she discovers possible missing persons and murder cases at the park, which could be connected to her own family.

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★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Newsies: The Broadway Musical

The Whatnauts — Wed, 16 Aug 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 266. Extra, extra! It's a Review Show first! We're covering a filmed production of a live stage performance with Newsies: The Broadway Musical on Disney+. It's 1899, and gangs of young boys are living on the streets and selling newspapers with the hopes of moving up in the world. When the publisher suddenly raises the prices the boys have to pay to get their papers, and refuses to compensate them for what they can't sell, the kids unionize and strike. With the help of a rebellious girl reporter, they get all the other young workers of the city on their side and make a stand for kids everywhere.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers vol 1-3

The Whatnauts — Wed, 09 Aug 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 265. It's morphin' time! We read the first three volumes of the 2016 Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers comics from Boom Studios, written by Kyle Higgins and Steve Orlando. After Tommy was brainwashed into becoming Rita Repulsa's fearsome Green Ranger, he defected to the heroic Power Rangers and is still struggling to fit in and shake off these traumatic memories. Rita keeps launching destructive attack plans as the Rangers adapt to a new team member they still barely know, who could take the team to new levels or spell their downfall.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Good Place S4

The Whatnauts — Wed, 02 Aug 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 264. We've reached the fourth and final season of The Good Place! The team works on a new experiment to purposefully coach people in another simulation to reach the actual good place, struggling to replicate their own personal journeys in becoming better people. When our friends finally get to spend time in the good place, they realize that it poses its own challenges and that infinite heavenly possibility may be an unsustainable way to live your afterlife, leaving the team to try and improve heaven as well as hell.

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★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Futurama

The Whatnauts — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 263. In honor of the sci-fi animated series Futurama being rebooted on Hulu, we watched seven episodes from across its earlier seasons, giving us a sampler platter of the show's comedy, emotion, mathematics, and multiple kinds of time travel. We discuss Parasites Lost, The Luck of the Fryish, Roswell that Ends Well, The Sting, The Late Phillip J. Fry, The Prisoner of Benda, and the latest series finale, Meanwhile.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Brady Bunch Movie

The Whatnauts — Wed, 19 Jul 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 262. To herald the coming of Barbie, we watched another movie about a candy-colored retro icon forced to contend with the modern world: 1995's loving satire, The Brady Bunch Movie. The Bradys struggle to collect $20,000 to save their home, while their unscrupulous neighbor tries to sabotage them, hoping to sell their land to develop into a mini-mall. As the family faces their own individual conflicts -- like jealousy, tattling, two dates for the school dance, and performing in a big talent show -- their bond remains strong and they're here to bring their sunny familial love to the entire neighborhood.

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★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr

The Whatnauts — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 261. We read the standalone graphic novel from Ram V and Filipe Andrade, The Many Deaths of Laila Starr. When humans become immortal, the goddess of death is out of a job. Her "retirement" is to be reincarnated as a human, and she arranges to live in the same city at the same time as the future inventor of immortality, with plans to kill him and get her old job back. She finds herself in a loop of accidental deaths and reincarnations across the years, encountering the inventor at different stages in his life, dealing with deaths of loved ones, and she learns what death and life truly mean to humans.

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★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Adaptation.

The Whatnauts — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 10:07:54 -0500

Episode 260. We celebrated our second annual "National Treasure Weekend" watching another Nicolas Cage movie, 2002's Adaptation. Charlie Kaufman is hired to adapt Susan Orlean's nonfiction book The Orchid Thief into a Hollywood screenplay. As he deals with the book's lack of easy narrative structure, his loneliness and low self confidence, and his identical twin brother Donald pestering him in his own journey to become a screenwriter, Charlie spirals into distraction. The movie is everything the screenplay within the movie is: layers of flashbacks, fantasies, and the natural history of the world itself circling around each other in a search for connection.

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★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Good Place S3

The Whatnauts — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 259. We continue our coverage of The Good Place by talking about season three, with the fourth and final season discussion coming next month. Michael has reset the timeline so the humans are alive again on Earth, trying to be better people after their near-death experiences, but he and Janet soon have to reveal themselves after too much meddling. With the realization that every action affects your points total to get into either the good place or bad place, the humans travel the world, encouraging their friends and family to lead better lives. Still, nobody is sure how many points you need, and they discover that there may be a flaw in the system that prevents even the best people from reaching the good place.

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★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Watermelon Woman

The Whatnauts — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 258. We watched the 1996 movie The Watermelon Woman, the first feature film directed by a Black lesbian. Cheryl is an aspiring filmmaker working in a video store and trying to make a documentary about a Black actress from the 1930s and 40s credited only as "The Watermelon Woman." As she works to uncover this woman's identity, she discovers a queer history that echoes her own personal romantic life.

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★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Clone High s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 257. We watched the original 2002 run of the adult animated show Clone High, which now has a new reboot season streaming on Max! Government scientists have cloned famous historical figures, who are now teenagers trying to navigate high school. Joan of Arc has a crush on Abe Lincoln, who has a crush on Cleopatra, who has an on-again-off-again relationship with JFK, while Ghandi just wants to party. The teens deal with romantic angst, living up to their historical counterparts, a mad scientist principal, and classic "very special episode" teen dangers like littering, smoking raisins, and appearing on the Canadian Spring Break Dance show hosted by Ashley Angel from O-Town.

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★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Krull

The Whatnauts — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 256. We watched the 1983 sci-fi fantasy movie Krull! Prince Colwyn and Princess Lyssa are to be married, for both true love and to unite their kingdoms to form a stronger army against the invading Slayers and their mysterious leader known only as The Beast. When the Slayers attack the wedding and kidnap Lyssa, Colwyn has to travel across the land of Krull to rescue her. He obtains the legendary Glaive weapon and a band of seers, sorcerers, and brigands to help him defeat the Beast and stop its reign of terror across the galaxy.

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★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Good Place s2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 31 May 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 255. We're back to talk about season two of The Good Place, and we'll be watching season three next month. Michael is continuing to reboot his hellish good place simulation, but Eleanor keeps solving the puzzle. He confesses his scheme to the humans this time, and asks that they team up with him to keep the lie going, to avoid punishment from his bosses. In exchange, they insist he join them for ethics lessons. As Michael and Janet both become more human, the humans realize all they've already been through together, and as they grow closer, they form a pact. They think they've figured out how they can get into the real good place -- but they'll only go if all of them can get in.

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The Wages of Fear

The Whatnauts — Wed, 24 May 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 254. We're kicking off summer with the sweaty, tense 1953 movie The Wages of Fear. A massive fire strikes an oil field in South America, and the oil company needs to transport nitroglycerin from one base to another, to cause an explosion to extinguish the fire. Four men take the job, desperate to earn the money to leave their small town. The terrain is rough, the nitroglycerin is volatile, and the men have to drive painstakingly slow if they want to finish this job alive.

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★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Spectacular Spider-Man

The Whatnauts — Wed, 17 May 2023 09:48:12 -0500

Episode 253. We watched the short-lived 2008 cartoon The Spectacular Spider-Man! A teenage Peter Parker, still new to being a superhero, struggles to balance his crime-fighting with going to high school, taking pictures for the Daily Bugle, being there for Aunt May, spending time with his friends, and dating, or even figuring who to date. Surrounded by a rogues gallery of foes and a wide cast of peers, he tries to keep his loved ones safe and his identity a secret.

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★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Good Place s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 03 May 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 252. We're starting another ongoing monthly series, talking about season one of the 2016 sitcom The Good Place, and we'll be back to discuss season two next month! Eleanor wakes up to discover that she's dead and has been sent to the "good place," a mysterious heavenly neighborhood where she has the house of her dreams and her true soulmate. This is a reward for all of Eleanor's good deeds on earth -- except this isn't the right Eleanor, she was sent here by mistake, and she's determined to keep that secret so she doesn't get sent to the "bad place." As she tries to learn to be a better person, she realizes that she isn't the only one keeping secrets, and there may be other imposters around her.

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Napoleon Dynamite

The Whatnauts — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 251. We return to our nostalgic favorite, the 2004 indie movie Napoleon Dynamite, to discuss why it still charms us twenty years later and ask if it has kept its cult classic status. Napoleon is a high-schooler in the small town of Preston, Idaho, trying to impress his peers, get his family to respect him, and find a date to the school dance. He deals with a delusional uncle, petty teen judgement, his best friend's run for class president, a time machine scam, and getting a steak thrown in his face.

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★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Flintstones (2016 comics)

The Whatnauts — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0500

Episode 250. We celebrate the milestone of our 250th episode by reading the silly and satirical 2016 Flintstones comics from Mark Russell and Steve Pugh. The Flintstones are living in a modern take on the same ancient city of Bedrock, dealing with issues like religion, politics, war, and consumerism, trying to be the best people they can as the help forge civilization itself.

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Super Mario Bros. (1993)

The Whatnauts — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0500

Episode 249. We can't watch the new Mario movie without taking a good hard look at the old one first. We watched the 1993 Super Mario Bros movie, specifically the "Morton-Jankel" directors' cut with unfinished extra footage. Mario Mario and Luigi Mario are brothers, plumbers, New Yorkers. When their new friend Daisy is kidnapped by goons who take her through a mysterious portal at her paleontology dig site, they follow her, armed with nothing but their wits and wrenches. The brothers fight to rescue Daisy and take down the megalomaniacal King Koopa and his machine that can evolve dinosaurs into humans, and devolve humans back into primordial slime.

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Arcane: League of Legends

The Whatnauts — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0500

Episode 248. We watched the first season of the Netflix animated series Arcane, based in the world of League of Legends. Amidst conflict between the high-class metropolis of Piltover and its neglected and crime-ridden undercity of Zaun, sisters Vi and Powder fight to stay alive and make a difference for their community. After a mistake that costs the lives of their friends, the sisters split up and meet again years later, when Powder is now known as the unpredictable terrorist Jinx. As Piltover scientists work to develop magical hex tech to improve their city, they find that Jinx and other criminals could exploit it, leading them to question if their invention should be destroyed.

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The Fast and Furious 7-9

The Whatnauts — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 10:00:00 -0500

Episode 247. We are now full members of the family as we finish all the movies in the Fast Saga: Furious 7 (2015), The Fate of the Furious (2017), F9 (2021), and some bonus talk on the spinoff movie Hobbs & Shaw (2019). The family rescues a kidnapped hacker who created an omnipotent software called God's Eye, with Brian enjoying one last action-packed job before he leaves for a quiet life with Mia and their kids, as the series honors the late Paul Walker. Then, the family believes that Dom has turned rouge on them, teaming up with the mysterious techno-terrorist Cipher, but Dom is only doing this to protect a special new member of the family. Finally, the long-estranged Toretto brother Jacob appears, embroiled in a plot that could end the world, as the family reunites with another long-lost member to stop him.

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Angelyne

The Whatnauts — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 10:00:00 -0500

Episode 246. We watched Angelyne, a five-episode limited series from Peacock dramatizing true events. A mysterious woman called Angelyne started putting up billboards for herself around Los Angeles in the early 80s, unclear about exactly what she was promoting, just that she wanted to be a star. She became a fixture of the city, driving around in the city selling her own merchandise out of the trunk of her pink Corvette. The city loved her but was puzzled by her, never knowing her real identity. Decades later, the Hollywood Reporter published an article revealing her origin, and we see how that expose came together and how Angelyne reacts to someone else trying to tell her story.

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Shazam and the Seven Magic Lands

The Whatnauts — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 10:00:00 -0500

Episode 245. We read the 2018 comic series Shazam and the Seven Magic Lands by writer Geoff Johns. Billy Batson and his adopted siblings find that whey they transform into their superpowered alter egos and visit the Rock of Eternity, they can travel to other magical lands. While exploring worlds of infinite amusement parks, talking animals, and living video games, they find the citizens aren't welcoming to strangers from other lands. They also have the villainous Dr. Sivana and Mr. Mind on their trail, plus the antihero Black Adam seeking their powers, and Billy's biological father has finally come to make amends to his son, but might not be who he says he is.

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Michael Clayton

The Whatnauts — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 10:00:00 -0600

Episode 244. We watched the 2007 legal thriller Michael Clayton, written and directed by Tony Gilroy. Michael Clayton is a "fixer" for his law firm, cleaning up messes for their prestigious clients. They're defending the manufacturer of a potentially carcinogenic pesticide when the head lawyer on that case suffers a mental breakdown, and turns against the client. Michael Clayton has to look after his friend's wellness and smooth over relations with the client, while investigating claims of evidence that could blow the case wide open, and dealing with his own personal debts that make it difficult for him to turn down any bribes to stay quiet in the face of dangerous corporate misconduct.

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The Fast And The Furious 4-6

The Whatnauts — Wed, 01 Mar 2023 10:00:00 -0600

Episode 243. We're continuing our ongoing monthly discussion on the Fast saga, covering Fast & Furious (2009), Fast Five (2011), and Fast & Furious 6 (2013). Brian reunites with the Torettos after Lettie is mysteriously murdered while trying to infiltrate a drug ring. Dom is already on the run from the law, and taking down Lettie's killer could make him a visible target to both criminals and police. Then the family hides out in Brazil, where they call upon all their past friends to help steal a bank vault belonging to the city's most powerful and dangerous crime lord, attracting the attention of federal agent Luke Hobbs. In the sixth film, Dom learns that Lettie is still alive, suffering from amnesia and working for a far more sinister group of thieves. The family joins forces to bring Lettie home, but they're putting other family members in grave danger in the process.

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The Handmaiden

The Whatnauts — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 10:00:00 -0600

Episode 242. We watched The Handmaiden, a 2016 South Korean film by director Park Chan-wook. In this erotic crime thriller, pickpocket Sook-hee takes a job as a handmaiden to the sheltered Lady Hideko, with the secret goal to convince her to marry Count Fujiwara, a fellow criminal who has hatched this plan with Sook-hee to steal the lady's riches. While the two women develop a close relationship, the scheme proceeds and opens up a web of betrayal, deceit, and unforeseen twists.

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The Left Right Game

The Whatnauts — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 10:00:00 -0600

Episode 241. We listened to the audio drama The Left Right Game, created and written by Jack Anderson and starring and produced by Tessa Thompson. Alice is a journalist who finds the story of the Left Right Game, an urban legend where you drive your car in a left turn, a right turn, a left, a right, on and on until you pass into another dimension. Alice joins a caravan of cars trying to go farther into this world than anyone has before, led by a friendly but mysterious veteran of the game who may be keeping secrets about the dangerous landmarks they pass on the road.

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Red Sonja (Gail Simone)

The Whatnauts — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 10:00:00 -0600

Episode 240. We read the complete three volume run of Red Sonja, from writer Gail Simone and artist Walter Geovani. Red Sonja is a legendary hero in her fantasy world, known as the devil with a sword, slaying foes for whoever will pay her in gold, meat, and alcohol. She defends a small plague-ridden town from an old friend who's been driven mad by the shared trauma they both survived, she ferries the six greatest artisans in the land to the farewell party of a dying king, and she fights against the unforeseen consequences of a wizard's curse for her to never forgive anyone as long as she lives.

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The Fast & The Furious 1-3

The Whatnauts — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 10:00:00 -0600

Episode 239. Crack open the Coronas for our first monthly ongoing series of the year, covering the Fast & Furious saga! We watched The Fast and The Furious (2001), 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), and The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006), with the next three movies coming next month. Brian O'Conner is an undercover officer infiltrating the street-racing scene in Los Angeles, trying to stop a group of mysterious drivers from stealing 2001's most precious commodity: DVD players. He bonds with the Toretto family, and struggles with choosing this bond over his mission when he finds they might be involved in the thefts. He then goes to Miami to bust another criminal boss, supported by an all new colorful team of racers. Finally, we meet high schooler Sean, who's been sent to live with his estranged father in Japan after he's busted for another street race. He's the champ where he comes from, but now he has to learn the art of drifting to defeat an opponent with dangerous yakuza ties.

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Swiss Army Man

The Whatnauts — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 10:00:00 -0600

Episode 238. We watched Swiss Army Man, a 2016 film by the Daniels, the directorial team behind Everything Everywhere All At Once! Hank is shipwrecked on an island, at the end of his rope, when a body washes up on shore. He's able to ride the flatulent corpse back to the mainland, where the body slowly wakes back up sentience. Hank calls his new friend Manny, and teaches him what it means to be alive again, reminding him about love and all of life's tiny joys. Using Manny's whimsical undead powers, the two journey through the wilderness back to civilization.

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Puella Magi Madoka Magica

The Whatnauts — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 10:00:00 -0600

Episode 237. We watched the 2011 anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica, a deconstruction of the magical girl genre. Madoka and her friends fantasize about being magical girls, but when they meet a classmate who really has this secret identity, they learn about the dark bargain you have to make to gain that power. A cute alien creature asks you to sign a contract, granting you any wish, in exchange for your services battling evil witches. There's no way out of the contract, and you'll almost certainly become corrupted and turn into a witch yourself. But when you can have your heart's desire, and protect your community and your closest friends from danger, is the sacrifice worth it?

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John Wick 1-3

The Whatnauts — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 10:00:00 -0600

Episode 236. We're kicking off 2023 with the action-packed John Wick franchise, covering the first three movies in anticipation of the fourth chapter releasing later this year. John Wick is a retired assassin who is reeling from the death of his wife, focusing on caring for his beloved car and the puppy that his wife adopted for him before she died. When his car is stolen and his dog is endangered, John returns to his violent past to take revenge, and everyone in the criminal underground takes notice. Old business contacts call on him to return favors, and he finds himself fighting for survival against the rules, traditions, and punishments of the High Table of this secret assassin community.

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7 Year Anniversary Retrospective

The Whatnauts — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 12:06:33 -0600

Kyle and Melissa and a surprise appearance by Ignacio are here for our annual year-end celebration! We discuss Avatar: The Way of Water, the antics at the Game Awards, very specific adult coloring books, the trailers for Oppenheimer and Barbie, our favorite podcast episodes this past year, what performed well and what we had the most fun recording, and all the benefits that Fringe brought into our lives.

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Snow Day

The Whatnauts — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 10:00:00 -0600

Episode 235. We end our year with a blast from the past, watching Snow Day, a Nickelodeon movie from 2000. Snowfall suddenly hits a town plagued by an unusually warm winter, and everyone in the Brandston family wants to live their snow day to the fullest. A teenage boy makes elaborate plans to ask out the girl of his dreams, a father struggles to prove himself as the best news weatherman in town, and a young girl tries to take down the town's dastardly Snow Plow Man to achieve the mythical two snow days in a row.

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The Muppets Christmas Carol

The Whatnauts — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 10:00:00 -0600

Episode 234. To start a festive December, we watched 1992's The Muppet Christmas Carol. Michael Caine stars as Scrooge, confronted by three fantastical ghosts to help him look back on the lost joys and sorrows of Christmases in his life, and look forward to how he can change and help his community for the better. Gonzo plays Charles Dickens, joined by Rizzo the Rat to follow the action and narrate this heartfelt classic.

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Kaijumax vol. 5-6

The Whatnauts — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 10:00:00 -0600

Episode 233. We're concluding our discussion on Zander Cannon's comic series Kaijumax, talking about the final two volumes! We expand our view on Kaijumax, visiting the court system, death row, and victim reconciliation programs at the prison. But business as normal grinds to a halt when an alien attack threatens Earth, and the kaiju are encouraged to volunteer for the war effort, in exchange for reduced sentences. On the outside, Electogor is able to reunite with his daughter, and other inmates find unexpected connections in the midst of war.

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Die vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 23 Nov 2022 10:00:00 -0600

Episode 232. We read the first half of the comic series Die, from Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans. In 1991, a group of teenagers play a tabletop RPG, and find themselves sucked into the dangerous fantasy world. Decades after their escape, they return to try and find the gamemaster who didn't make it out. Time has passed as normal in the world of Die, and these adults have to face the consequences of the desperate choices they made in their youth, especially as they realize this may be a place where other real-world players have become trapped.

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Megamind

The Whatnauts — Wed, 16 Nov 2022 10:00:00 -0600

Episode 231. This week we watched Megamind, a 2010 animated film from Dreamworks. Megamind is an alien supervillain who lives to wreak havoc on Metro City and fight the superhero Metro Man. When his plans finally succeed and he destroys his enemy, he feels more empty than victorious. He trains a new superhero so he has someone to fight again, but as the would-be hero turns to the dark side, Megamind has to step up and become the hero his city needs.

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Kaijumax vol. 3-4

The Whatnauts — Wed, 09 Nov 2022 10:00:00 -0600

Episode 230. We're continuing our coverage of Zander Cannon's comic series Kaijumax, talking about volumes 3 and 4 this week, and finishing up the series at the end of the month! Electogor is back in prison, this time accompanied by his young son. To protect himself and his family, he puts a hit out on an old foe -- who turns up dead before any other monsters can get to him. Meanwhile, Electogor's ferocious daughter is in the women's wing of Kaijumax, which sees its own share of threats from the guards and in-fighting that could turn into all-out war.

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The Twilight Zone

The Whatnauts — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 10:00:00 -0500

Episode 229. We finish off the Halloween season this year by discussing a selection of episodes from The Twilight Zone! We cover the mysterious isolation of Where Is Everybody?, the mob panic of The Monsters are Due on Maple Street, the wandering mannequins of The After Hours, the devilish twists of The Howling Man, the threats from beyond in Long Distance Call, and the omnipotent terror of It's a Good Life.

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Servant s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 10:00:00 -0500

Episode 228. We watched season one of the Apple TV+ show Servant, produced by M. Night Shyamalan! After the death of their baby, a family uses a lifelike doll to help the distraught mother out of a catatonic state of grief. She believes this doll to be her real son, and hires a shy young woman as a live-in nanny. The girl keeps up the act, even when the mother isn't around. The husband is suspicious of the girl's origins and motives, and the unusual effects she's having on the household. After an impossible event, the family struggles to piece together this mystery and learn how to keep on living.

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The Abominable Dr. Phibes

The Whatnauts — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 10:00:00 -0500

Episode 227. We watched the 1971 film The Abominable Dr. Phibes, starring horror icon Vincent Price! Everyone believed that Dr. Phibes died in a car accident while rushing to the aid of his wife, who died in surgery. But Dr. Phibes survived, disfigured and set on revenge. He's murdering each of his wife's doctors using schemes inspired by biblical plagues, with the help of his PhD in theology, his stylish assistant, an animatronic band, a vat of brussel sprouts, and other inexplicable details in this bizarre film.

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Junji Ito’s Shiver

The Whatnauts — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 10:00:00 -0500

Episode 226. We read Shiver, an anthology of short stories by the manga master of horror Junji Ito! These nine unconnected stories show us everyday feelings and fears blown up into striking terror. A model taunts her painter, saying he'll never capture even a fraction of her unnatural beauty. A man's dreams start to feel like they're taking years and he barely remembers the previous day when he wakes up. Fans are willing to kill for the rare recording of a song that was sung from beyond the grave.

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Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2U

The Whatnauts — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 10:00:00 -0500

Episode 225. We're kicking off our spooky month with the horror-comedy films Happy Death Day (2017) and Happy Death Day 2U (2019), directed by Christopher Landon. Tree is a college student who already hates dealing with her birthday, and then she's murdered by a mysterious masked figure. She finds herself stuck in a time loop, living this birthday over and over again until she can figure out her killer's identity. In the sequel, just when she's managed to escape, a campus science experiment throws her into another time loop in a slightly different universe. Tree has to solve another murder, while deciding if she should stay with the surprising benefits of this universe or return to the world she came from.

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Kaijumax vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 10:00:00 -0500

Episode 224. We're starting a new monthly ongoing series reading the Kaijuxmax comics by writer and artist Zander Cannon! Kaijumax is a remote island prison for huge monsters of all kinds: aliens, robots, nuclear disasters, and creatures from myth. Electrogor is a giant orange bugman and single father just trying to stay under the radar and keep his kids fed. When he's thrown into prison, he has to deal with gangs, prejudice, unscrupulous guards, the uranium drug trade, and the struggle to escape and get back to his family who have no idea where he's been.

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Once & Future vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 10:00:00 -0500

Episode 223. We read the first two volumes of the comic Once and Future, by Kieron Gillen, with art by Dan Mora and colors by Tamra Bonvillain. Hardened monster-hunter Bridgette has to bring her unsuspecting adult grandson Duncan into the family business when a magical artifact manifests the legendary King Arthur, bent on conquering modern-day Great Britain. In a world where myths can be brought to life, the family has to embody these archetypal characters to gain their power and turn the tide on these famous stories to prevent the destruction of their country.

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Titanic

The Whatnauts — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 10:00:00 -0500

Episode 222. This time in Shametember, we watched the 1997 blockbuster Titanic, a movie Kyle had never seen and Melissa had never finished because she was a child and the sinking scenes were too scary! An elderly woman tells her story to a modern-day diving team exploring the shipwrecked Titanic, immersing the audience in her experience as a passenger on the ship, her realization of its doom, her fight for survival, and the whirlwind romance that helped save her life.

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The Godfather Trilogy

The Whatnauts — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 221. It's Shametember again, when we pick movies from our "list of shame" of influential films we can't believe we've never seen. This week, we watched all three Godfather films, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel by Mario Puzo. Spanning the twentieth century, we see the Coroleones struggle to build and keep their place in the organized crime world, turning against each other and abandoning their moral codes as they attempt to protect the family legacy.

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Fringe Season 5

The Whatnauts — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 220. We conclude our monthly coverage of Fringe by talking about the fifth and final season! Stuck in a dystopian future where the Observers have taken over, the team struggles to stay under their radar and uncover a forgotten plan that Walter created years ago. As they deal with both losses and reunions, the team confronts their greatest fears and how much they're willing to sacrifice to return to the world to what they knew before.

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The Afterparty s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 24 Aug 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 219. We watched season one of the Apple TV+ comedy The Afterparty, created by Christopher Miller! Following their 15-year high school reunion, a group of alumni have gone to an afterparty at the home of former student and current pop star Xavier. The night turns to chaos and Xavier is murdered. As a detective interviews the party attendees, they tell their story of the night's events, each seeing the world through the lens of a different film genre.

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The Gray Man

The Whatnauts — Wed, 17 Aug 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 218. We watched the new Netflix action movie from the Russo brothers, The Gray Man! A man code-named only "Six" is a secret assassin for a branch of the CIA. When he learns he's being used to kill enemies of his corrupt boss, he goes rouge, and a cruel mercenary who failed out of the program is brought in to hunt him down. Six tries to stay ahead of death, while also trying to save the kidnapped niece of mentor, the only man in the CIA who believes he can still trust.

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The Muppet Movie

The Whatnauts — Thu, 11 Aug 2022 11:47:53 -0500

Episode 217. Melissa is on vacation visiting Kyle for our first episode recorded in person! We're discussing a classic road trip story, 1979's The Muppet Movie. Kermit the Frog leaves behind his swamp with just a banjo and a dream to make it big in Hollywood. He gathers friends along the way, who will help him escape from a frog leg restauranteur who wants to turn him into a new mascot.

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Fringe Season 4

The Whatnauts — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 216. We're continuing our monthly discussion on Fringe, talking about the penultimate fourth season! The Observers have erased Peter from the timeline, but that isn't enough to remove Walter and Olivia's subconscious memories of him. Peter finds his way back to existence and struggles with rekindling his relationships with these alternate versions of his loved ones, as the team also faces the return of familiar old threats we thought were defeated.

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The Billion Dollar Code

The Whatnauts — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 215. We watched a German drama series on Netflix called The Billion Dollar Code, based on true events. In 1990s Berlin, a programmer and a digital media artist create software to virtually fly the user around the world and let them zoom in to see anywhere they want. They think they can make this program a success -- until Google Earth debuts. Years later, the team takes Google to court to prove the massive company infringed on their patent for this revolutionary software.

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Starfire

The Whatnauts — Wed, 20 Jul 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 214. We read the 2015 Starfire miniseries from DC Comics, written by Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti. Starfire is an alien princess, a superhero, and now a citizen of Key West, Florida. She goes to the vacation town to try to live a normal life and better understand human customs and relationships. She's still called into action to fight monsters and save people from hurricanes, while she struggles with everyday problems like flirtatious suitors, job hunts, and grocery shopping.

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Destroy All Monsters

The Whatnauts — Wed, 13 Jul 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 213. We watched the 1968 Japanese kaiju movie Destroy All Monsters! Godzilla and other infamous monsters are living in the protected habitat of Monster Island, until they escape and begin attacking world monuments. The scientists trace this disaster back to mind-controlling aliens who want to distract the world so they can start their takeover in Japan. The scientists may be able to bring the monsters back to their side, but can they also defeat the aliens' secret monster weapon, King Gidorah?

The Whatnauts present The Review Show, a weekly book club style podcast for all sorts of pop culture. We cover a variety of genres and mediums — movies, TV shows, comics, anime, manga, audio dramas — picking out a specific piece of entertainment that we can cover in a week's time. Every episode, your intrepid co-hosts Kyle and Melissa dive into the media of the week (with a spoiler warning!), give recommendations, and take turns pitching the next topic. For one episode a month, we check in with continuing coverage on a longer title, like a full TV series or comics run, and follow it all the way to the end. Join us for fun discussions on a wild variety of entertainment you should know!

Check out our other podcasts here, or wherever you get your podcasts. If video is more your thing, then check our YouTube channel. And if you like what we do, support us on Patreon to unlock early access to most of our podcasts as well as exclusive episodes and more. You can find us on Twitter and we would love to have you join us on our Discord server as well.

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National Treasure 1 & 2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 06 Jul 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 212. It's 4th of July weekend and we promised ourselves a Nicolas Cage movie at some point this year -- of course we're watching the National Treasure movies. Ben Gates's family has been mocked for generations for their belief in a hidden Freemason treasure trove, and he's determined to solve the clues to bring those treasures to the world, and bring a good name back to his ancestors. He has to face the unthinkable, stealing the Declaration of Independence to access its hidden puzzles, and save it from careless thieves. Then he has to face the unthinkable again, kidnapping the President to gain his knowledge of the arcane Book of Secrets.

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Fringe Season 3

The Whatnauts — Wed, 29 Jun 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 211. We're continuing our discussion on Fringe this month, talking about season three! Olivia fights her way back home from the alternate universe, as "Fauxlivia" secretly takes her place, infiltrating the team and continuing Olivia's blossoming romance with Peter. Walter struggles to keep up with "Walternate" and his plans for revenge, while Peter deals with a mysterious machine that responds only to him and his unique role to play in both of these universes.

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RRR

The Whatnauts — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 210. This week we watched the 2022 blockbuster action film from India, RRR! In a tumultuous time of colonialism and revolt, two strangers team up to save a community from a freak accident and become instant friends. One is on a secret mission to rescue a young girl who was abducted by the British general, and another is one of the general's top soldiers, sworn to find the man who is rumored to attack the manor. As the two men learn of each other's pasts, they find that their friendship may be stronger than any conflict between them.

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Angels in America

The Whatnauts — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 209. We watched the 2003 HBO miniseries Angels in America, based off the Broadway play. It's the mid-1980s in New York City, the height of the AIDS crisis. A young man is dealing with his illness and a breakup with his boyfriend when a terrifying ethereal angel comes to him in a vision and proclaims him to be a prophet. As he struggles with his path forward, and how he can even survive to follow that path, his journey intertwines with other New Yorkers experiencing their own illnesses, secrets, and dreams.

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That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime vol. 1-5

The Whatnauts — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 208. We read the first five volumes of the manga That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime by Taiki Kawakami, based on the light novel by Fuse and illustrator Mitz Vah. A bored 37-year-old salaryman dies and finds himself reincarnated as a slime orb in a magical realm. He can absorb creatures to gain their powers, and he soon amasses a library of skills he barely understands. As he adjusts to his new life, he forges friendships and a community of loyal allies who see him as the hero he never was on Earth.

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Fringe Season 2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 09:00:00 -0500

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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Our Flag Means Death s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 25 May 2022 09:00:00 -0500

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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East of West vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 18 May 2022 09:00:00 -0500

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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Twister

The Whatnauts — Wed, 11 May 2022 09:00:00 -0500

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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Deadpool 1 & 2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 04 May 2022 09:00:00 -0500

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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Fringe Season 1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 09:00:00 -0500

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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Thor: Goddess of Thunder

The Whatnauts — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 09:00:00 -0500

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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Review

The Whatnauts — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 09:00:00 -0500

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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Sitcom Special: Community & Arrested Development

The Whatnauts — Sun, 10 Apr 2022 13:09:05 -0500

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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Godzilla (1954)

The Whatnauts — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 09:00:00 -0500

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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Black Swan

The Whatnauts — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 197. We watched Darren Aronofsky's 2010 psychological thriller Black Swan. When ballet dancer Nina is cast in the prestigious role of the swan queen in Swan Lake, she's determined to make this a perfect performance. She begins cracking under the pressure of the rehearsals, her overbearing mother, and confusing attractions and rivalries within her dance troupe. As she struggles with performing the darker half of the role, she starts to see glimpses of her own dark other half.

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Batman: Court of Owls

The Whatnauts — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 196. We read the Batman story Court of Owls, by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. This was the start of Batman's New 52 storyline, and it's a great place to jump in for new readers! Gotham City has long heard of the Court of Owls, a secret elite council who controls the city through its assassin called Talon, but most people believe it's just a ghost story. Batman himself investigated it and found nothing. But when he's attacked and thrown into a mysterious underground maze, jeered on by figures in owl masks, he realizes that Gotham City has secrets that even its greatest protector could never understand.

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Knights of Sidonia vol. 9-15

The Whatnauts — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 195. This month we finished reading the sci-fi manga series Knights of Sidonia by Tsutomu Nihei. The scientists of Sidonia are continuing to experiment with human/gauna hybrids, but they're not all as successful as Tsumugi. Tanikaze's domestic life grows with new housemates and new romantic rivalries and tensions. The pilots try to distract themselves from ongoing battles with a popularity contest, but all their bonds are at stake when a member of the Sidonia's immortal crew has a disastrous new plan to try and save humanity.

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Brimstone Valley Mall s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 09:00:00 -0600

Episode194. We listened to season one of the audio drama podcast Brimstone Valley Mall, created by Kristen DiMercurio. It's 1999, and a group of demons are working clandestine jobs at a mundane suburban mall, inspiring shoppers to sin. They also play in a rock band! When their lead singer disappears, the rest of the band scrambles to find him before their big New Years Eve concert, where they need him to summon the intense demonic energy to incite the Y2K apocalypse.

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The Incredible Jessica James

The Whatnauts — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 09:00:00 -0600

Episode193. We watched the 2017 Netflix romcom The Incredible Jessica James. Jessica is a twenty something playwright in New York City, dealing with rejection from theater companies and from her ex-boyfriend. She meets Boone, who's still reeling from his own divorce. A new potential relationship, a reliable friendship, and the bonds she has with the students in her theater workshop help Jessica stay confident in her life's path.

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In the Mood for Love

The Whatnauts — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 192. We watched In the Mood for Love, a Chinese film from the year 2000. In 1960s Hong Kong, two couples move in next to each other in a crowded apartment building. One husband soon leaves for an extended business trip, and one wife goes to care for a sick mother. The remaining Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chen realize that their spouses have run off to have an affair with each other. As they connect over this grief, they begin to fall in love, but refuse to start their own affair and sink to the level of their cheating spouses.

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Knights of Sidonia vol. 1-8

The Whatnauts — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 191. For this monthly special, we read volumes 1-8 of the sci-fi manga Knights of Sidonia by Tsutomu Nihei, and next month we'll conclude the series with volumes 9-15. Nagate Tanikaze has lived his entire life alone in the depths of a massive spaceship, experiencing the world through his grandfather's stories and old training simulators. When he ventures out into the rest of the ship, he's taken into the pilot program, controlling a Garde mech to fight the mysterious shape-shifting aliens known as the Guana. Tanikaze proves himself as a pilot as he awkwardly adapts to the strange new community around him.

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Landscapers

The Whatnauts — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 190. We watched the new HBO Max miniseries Landscapers, a creative dramatization of a true crime story from England. Fifteen years ago, Susan and Christopher Edwards buried the bodies of Susan's parents in their garden and told everyone they moved away. Now that their secret is out, the couple is separated and put through intense interrogation to determine if this was a murder for money, or a painful act of desperation to escape an abusive past.

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The Power of the Dog

The Whatnauts — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 189. We watched Jane Campion's 2021 drama film The Power of the Dog. In 1920s Montana, a rancher brings home a new wife and her teenage son, much to the annoyance of his curmudgeonly brother. He taunts and intimidates these new additions to the household, until someone goes to extreme lengths to try and stop him.

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The Matrix Franchise

The Whatnauts — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 188. It's a new year, it's the future! We watched the entire Matrix series, including the new Resurrections movie, and The Animatrix anthology of short films. A man called Neo leads a dull life, finding excitement through his hacker identity, until he learns that he's been living in a simulation. He can reinvent himself, learn to take advantage of the simulation around him, and become The One, the hero destined to take down the machines that have imprisoned mankind in digital slumber so that their biological energy can be harvested for power.

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6 Year Anniversary Retrospective

The Whatnauts — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Kyle, Ignacio, Melissa, and Alan reflect on the movies, shows, and video games of 2021, and what we covered in our podcasts The Review Show, The Captain's Log, The Reactor Corps, and Crossplay this year! It's a night of pizza, statistics, and 2022 goals.

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The Review Show Recap 2021

The Whatnauts — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0600

This is a special bonus episode looking back on the shows, movies, comics, and more that we covered this year on The Review Show. We discuss recurring narrative themes, favorite performances, dream dates, and give out the prestigious Skinboy Memorial Award for Supporting Players.

Listen to Melissa's annual themed playlist here on Spotify!

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8-bit Christmas

The Whatnauts — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 187. For our final episode of the year, we watched the new HBO Max holiday movie 8-Bit Christmas! A young girl begs her dad for a cell phone and he tells her the story of the gift he wanted most when he was her age: a Nintendo Entertainment System. The dad narrates flashbacks to 1988 illustrating the antics he and his friends got into trying to obtain an NES for Christmas, and the impact this quest had on his family.

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Love Hard

The Whatnauts — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Episode186. We watched the new Netflix holiday-themed romcom Love Hard. Natalie is a blogger who writes about her perpetual bad luck with dating apps. When she starts talking to Josh, the first man she really likes, she flies across the country to surprise him for Christmas. The surprise is on her -- he's been using the photos of a more handsome friend to catfish her. Natlie agrees to act as Josh's girlfriend to impress his family, as long as Josh helps her win a date with the hot guy.

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The Leftovers s3

The Whatnauts — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 185. We've finished all our Leftovers! When season three starts, it's almost the seven year anniversary of The Departure, and many people believe this is a special day that could either bring everyone back, or bring the end of the world. After the bizarre events that Kevin survived in season two, some of his friends and family now believe him to be a god. As Kevin considers his destiny, Nora discovers an experiment that could reunite her with her departed children.

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Kiki’s Delivery Service

The Whatnauts — Wed, 24 Nov 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 184. We watched Hayao Miyazaki's 1989 film Kiki's Delivery Service. Kiki is a witch, and when all witches turn 13, they leave home to live in a new town and practice their particular magical talent for a year. Kiki decides to put her broomstick to use delivering packages, but when a series of setbacks makes her lose confidence in herself, she risks losing the ability to fly too.

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Flashpoint

The Whatnauts — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 183. We read the DC comics event from 2011, Flashpoint, from Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert. Barry Allen knows the world where he is The Flash, where his mother was murdered, where he has friends in the Justice League. He wakes up one day in a world where his mother is still alive and he never became The Flash, and the familiar faces around him are behaving very differently. He'll have to confront his nemesis to set the world back to the reality it needs, even if it means losing his mom again.

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The Leftovers s2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 10:18:16 -0600

Episode 182. We're continuing our ongoing series on The Leftovers with season two, and look for our discussion on season three at the end of the month! We're introduced to Jarden, TX, the only town in the world where no one was lost to The Departure. Some people believe this place is magical, and flock to it like a holy site, disrupting the lives of its regular citizens. Kevin and his family move there for a fresh start, but when one of his new neighbors disappears, the town worries that it's an aftershock of The Departure and they're not so safe after all.

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Suspiria (1977 & 2018)

The Whatnauts — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 11:07:15 -0500

Episode 181. We watched the 1977 horror movie Suspiria from director Dario Argento, and its 2018 remake from director Luca Guadagnino. Both movies are stylistically and tonally very different but share the same initial plot: a young woman named Susie travels to study at a prestigious ballet academy in Germany, where she begins to suspect that the instructors are engaged in witchcraft and have sinister plans for their students.

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Something Is Killing the Children vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 180. We read the first two volumes of horror comic Something is Killing the Children by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera. Children have been disappearing from the small town of Archer's Peak, Wisconsin, and those that have been found are reduced to gruesome corpses. Erica Slaughter comes to town because she is a monster killer, it is all she does because it must be done, and she teams up with a bewildered young survivor to try and stop the monster before it kills again.

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Beetlejuice

The Whatnauts — Wed, 20 Oct 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode179. We're covering a Halloween classic this week with Tim Burton's 1988 movie Beetlejuice. The Maitlands are a young couple living a quiet life in their small New England town, until they die. Then they have to learn the confusing bureaucracy of the afterlife and how to scare off the new owners of the house they still "live" in. They've seen ads for a man named Beetlejuice who promises to exorcise the living out of the homes of the dead, but everyone warns them to stay away from this chaotic force of nature.

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Brand New Cherry Flavor

The Whatnauts — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 178. We watched the new Netflix show Brand New Cherry Flavor, a magical revenge thriller set in early 90s Hollywood. Young filmmaker Lisa Nova is trying to get her short film made into a feature-length movie, but when a producing partner takes advantage of her and signs a movie deal without her as the director, she swears to burn his life to the ground. She contacts a mysterious witch to grant her the powers to destroy her enemy, but with serious consequences to Lisa herself.

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Lake Mungo

The Whatnauts — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 177. To kick off the spooky month of October, we watched the 2008 Australian film Lake Mungo. This mockumentary follows the Palmer family coping with the sudden death of teenage daughter Alice, and their investigation when they find photos and videos that seem to show Alice after her death. While they confront the possibility of the supernatural, the family also confronts the secrets Alice kept from them in life.

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The Leftovers s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode176. We're starting another ongoing series covering one show to its conclusion, starting this month with season one of the 2014 HBO drama The Leftovers. Three years ago, there was a sudden unexplained event called "the departure" where 2% of the human population disappeared into thin air. Now, the rest of humanity struggles to find answers, closure, and purpose. We follow sheriff Kevin Garvey as he deals with the dissolution of his family and the rise of a cryptic cult in his small town.

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Looper

The Whatnauts — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 11:48:33 -0500

Episode 175. To conclude our Shametember series, time travel nerd Kyle needed to watch Rian Johnson's 2012 film Looper. Joe works as a "looper," a hitman who only kills bodies sent back to him from criminals thirty years in the future. When his own future self arrives, Old Joe explains that the future has been taken over by a tyrannical genius and he's there to kill the child who will grow up to be this terror. Young Joe has to predict his older self's movements and protect a child who is innocent -- but still dangerous.

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Aliens

The Whatnauts — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 09:05:39 -0500

Episode 174. Shametember is back! This is the chance for each of us to clear a movie off the "list of shame" of things we should've seen by now. Melissa named famous sequels she hadn't watched yet after seeing the first movies in those franchises, and this week we watched Aliens! This 1986 follow up to Alien sees Ripley awakening from her Nostromo escape pod a staggering 57 years in the future. She learns that Earth has already started a colony on a planet she knows is dangerous, and the xenomorphs have started attacking its citizens. She accompanies a squad of space marines to destroy the aliens and attempt to save the colony's last survivor.

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Digimon: The Movie

The Whatnauts — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 173. Alan and Ignacio are on the show this week to talk about The Digimon Movie. We watched the dubbed American release from the year 2000, and the three original Japanese mini-movies that were edited together to make this American version. We see the digidestined kids throughout their young lives as they encounter their first Digimon egg, try to stop a Digimon virus from destroying the internet and setting off nuclear bombs, and help an American boy whose own Digimon has turned to the dark side.

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House of Leaves

The Whatnauts — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 09:46:04 -0500

Episode 172. Join us for a Review Show first, as we read the prose novel House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Photojournalist Will Navidson and his family move into a new house, and soon discover a seemingly unending dark hallway that opens up where there was no door before. Will films every step of his exploration into the house, which is eventually edited into the documentary The Navidson Record. House of Leaves is a book with an interesting structure: academic articles were written about the movie, a man named Zampano wrote a book about the movie and the articles, and a listless young man named Johnny Truant finds Zampano's notes after his death and edits the disorganized manuscript together, interjecting with his own footnotes along the way.

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Stowaway

The Whatnauts — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 11:34:59 -0500

Episode 171. We watched the 2021 Netflix sci-fi drama movie Stowaway. Three astronauts are on a two-year mission to Mars. They've just left Earth hours ago when a stowaway falls out of a compartment in the ship -- a launch engineer who hit his head, fell unconscious, and was accidentally sealed into the ship before takeoff. They can't turn back. A resupply ship can't reach them. It's a race against time for this team to figure out how their limited resources could possibly sustain an extra life.

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Passenger List

The Whatnauts — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 13:11:59 -0500

Episode 170. We listened to both seasons of the audio drama Passenger List, written and directed by John Scott Dryden and Lauren Shippen, and starring Kelly Marie Tran. It's been six months since Atlantic Flight 702 disappeared when traveling from London to New York City. The airlines declared that the missing plane was brought down by a bird strike, but college student Kaitlin Le refuses to accept this explanation. She knows her twin brother Conor is still alive and suspects that the airline and maybe even the US government is hiding something. To the detriment of everything else in her life, she's dedicated to pursuing every possible answer to find the truth.

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Princess Jellyfish vol. 1-4

The Whatnauts — Wed, 11 Aug 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 169. Kyle is back on the podcast with Melissa to talk about the romance manga Princess Jellyfish by Akiko Higashimura. Tsukimi is a young woman obsessed with jellyfish who lives in an apartment building only for otaku women, with no men allowed. When a friendly girl helps Tsukimi bring her very own jellyfish home from the pet store, she's intimidated by the stranger's beauty and fashion sense -- until she discovers this is a fashion-fanatic boy who loves wearing dresses. Her new friend Kuranosuke has to hide his identity from the other women of the apartment so they don't kick him out, which is the last thing he wants now that he's falling for Tsukimi.

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Check Please!

The Whatnauts — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 11:40:12 -0500

Episode 168. Friend of the show and brother of the co-host Jams Wilkinson is here to talk about the webcomic turned graphic novel series Check Please! by Ngozi Ukazu. Eric "Bitty" Bittle is a freshman on his university hockey team, looking to show off his figure skating skills, feed these hockey bros some real home-cooked meals, and gain the confidence to come out as gay. He finds a welcoming team, and a special connection with the captain Jack Zimmerman, who is trying to figure out his love life and his promising NHL career.

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Maniac

The Whatnauts — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 167. Friend of the show Jacq is back to talk about Maniac, the 2018 Netflix limited series from Cary Joji Fukunaga and Patrick Somerville. Owen and Annie, two lonely New Yorkers with their own unique traumas, enroll in an experimental psychiatric drug trial. They experience hallucinations where they're living wildly different lives but they're always connected to each other, an impossible mental bond that puzzles the scientists running the trial. Can Owen and Annie learn to support each other and move past their pain together, and can these scientists stop a glitching computer from destroying all of their test subjects?

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Folklords

The Whatnauts — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 09:32:34 -0500

Episode 166. Guest co-captain Audrey Stolze joins Melissa for a discussion on the graphic novel Folklords, from Matt Kindt and Matt Smith. Ansel is a teenage boy living in a medieval fantasy village who sees visions of our modern urban life. He's the only person in town wearing a suit and tie and using a handmade lighter instead of a torch. All kids his age must choose a quest, and Ansel wants to find the mythic Folklords, the forces controlling his world, to learn where his visions come from and if he really fits in here.

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Dark Season 3

The Whatnauts — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 165. We conclude our time in Winden with a discussion on the third and final season of Dark! We see an alternate timeline where Mikkel never vanished, Jonas was never born, and Martha grows to become the Adam of her world, pulling the strings and following her own plan to try to set everything right. As we learn more connections between the generations, we also discover the origin point of the time travel knot for both universes, and it'll take tremendous sacrifice to reset the town and stop the cycles from continuing.

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Kantaro the Sweet Tooth Salaryman

The Whatnauts — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 164. We watched a live-action Japanese comedy show on Netflix called Kantaro the Sweet Tooth Salaryman. Kantaro is a sales rep for a publishing company, but his true passion is sweets. He only took this job so that he could sneak away from bookstore sales calls to visit his favorite cafes in the area and blog about the desserts he eats. Can he keep this a secret when his new co-worker reads his anonymous blog and notices the pattern? Only sweet heaven knows!

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Dark season 2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 163. We're continuing our coverage of the German time travel drama Dark, talking about season two. Jonas travels forward another cycle to 2052 Winden, decimated by an accident at the nuclear power plant, and back to 1921 Winden, where the Sic Mundus society is beginning to take hold. He teams up with the older version of himself to try and prevent the cycles from repeating, but they struggle to find the true beginning point that they need to derail, and someone close to them is trying to sabotage their entire plan. Look for our episode on season three ahead of schedule in just two weeks, so we can finish the series before Kyle goes on vacation!

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Doctor Doom (2019)

The Whatnauts — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 15:34:33 -0500

Episode 162. We read both volumes of the 2019 Doctor Doom comic from writer Christopher Cantwell and artist Salvador Larroca. Doctor Doom has been framed for the destruction of a moon base designed by Reed Richards, and has no choice but to turn himself in and plead innocence. As he attempts to secure his freedom and keep Latvaria safe from political turmoil and a war at its borders, he's also haunted by visions of a possible future. He sees himself with a healed face, a loving wife and children, and a utopian world that owes its peace to him. How can he possibly get to that life?

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Dimension 404

The Whatnauts — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 11:06:39 -0500

Episode 161. We watched the 2017 Hulu original show Dimension 404, a fun sci-fi anthology of stories about technology and how it can affect our lives for better or for worse. The show covers dating apps, 3D movies, video games, surveillance cameras, and more, with protagonists dealing with loneliness, the desperation to win, or just the need to share your favorite 90s cartoon with your friends, but whenever you look up the show you can't find any proof it existed. And yes, Virginia, there is a Christmas episode!

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The Way of The Househusband

The Whatnauts — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 12:52:46 -0500

Episode 160. Alan Busbee joins us to talk about the Netflix original anime comedy The Way of the Househusband. Tatsu was known as the "Immortal Dragon" of the yakuza, a top-notch gangster who survived every fight. Now he's left crime behind to marry a busy career woman and devote himself to domestic life, bringing his mob boss mentality to grocery shopping, cooking dinner, and doing the laundry, as his old cohorts and rivals try to reconcile the hitman with the homemaker.

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Dark s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 11:21:28 -0500

Episode 159. We're starting another monthly series covering one show through to its conclusion, talking about season one of Netflix's German sci-fi drama Dark! It's 2019 and a small rural town is struggling after the disappearance of a local boy. Tensions rise as more kids disappear, and we see how this has happened before in 1953 and 1986. There is a time travel portal hidden in a cave in the woods, with mysterious forces trying to use it to change the past or maintain it as it was. Characters' lives intersect and loop, and there are as many interpersonal secrets as there are metaphysical mysteries.

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The Kid Detective

The Whatnauts — Wed, 26 May 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 158. We watched the 2020 movie The Kid Detective, a very dark comedy from writer and director Evan Morgan. Abe Applebaum started a detective business out of his treehouse when he was a kid, and successfully solved over 200 cases… but couldn't solve the disappearance of his secretary, fellow middle-schooler Gracie Gulliver. He's never forgotten about that case, even now as a struggling man in his 30s. The town that once loved him has lost all interest in him and he's hired for only the most menial of mysteries, until a young girl asks him to help investigate her boyfriend's brutal murder.

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The Mitchells vs The Machines

The Whatnauts — Wed, 19 May 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 157. We watched the new Netflix original movie The Mitchells vs. The Machines, from some of the creative team that brought you Into the Spider-Verse and Gravity Falls. Katie Mitchell loves her family but has never quite fit in with them, and she's excited to go to film school and be surrounded by people who understand her. The family tries to bond during a road trip across the country bringing Katie to college, but there's one major roadblock: an army of robots programmed by a scorned AI is capturing every human and launching them into space.

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I Want To Eat Your Pancreas

The Whatnauts — Wed, 12 May 2021 15:22:08 -0500

Episode 156. We watch the 2018 anime film I Want To Eat Your Pancreas. It is an emotional tale about a boy who befriends a girl is his class who is dying. The story focuses on the relationship that blossoms between them and the lasting effect it has. This one will make you cry.

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The Unwritten vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 05 May 2021 19:00:00 -0500

Episode 155. We read the first two volumes of the the comic book The Unwritten by Mike Carey and Peter Gross.The world is obsessed with a book series about boy wizard Tommy Taylor, and this has made a minor celebrity out of Tom Taylor, the author's son and supposed inspiration for the literary hero. He becomes the center of a media storm when he's both accused of being a fraud and announced as the real magical Tommy destined to save everyone. As he looks into his past, he finds clues to the real legacy his father left him, and learns that truth and fiction can bleed together with dangerous results.

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Halt and Catch Fire s4

The Whatnauts — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 17:00:00 -0500

Episode 154. We're concluding our monthly series on Halt and Catch Fire with its fourth and final season! It is now 1993 and teenage Haley has inspired Gordon and Joe to create a search engine website that users can make into their home on the internet -- but Donna's investment firm is working on the same idea. Cameron's video game career is faltering and she is trying to find new professional and personal paths as she reconsiders her romance with Joe. When tragedy hits, the group's personal relationships become more important than ever and they need to find a new way forward.

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Pacific Rim

The Whatnauts — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 153. We watched Guillermo Del Toro's 2013 movie Pacific Rim. Huge monsters are suddenly rising out of the Pacific ocean and wreaking havoc on coastal cities. Humanity bands together and creates equally huge robots known as jaegers to fight against the kaiju, piloted by cybernetically linked partners. A veteran whose brother died while linked to him and the adopted daughter of the jager program's commander, inexperienced but determined to fight, team up and form a bond strong enough to pilot one of the few remaining jaegers in a last ditch effort to stop the source of the kaiju for good.

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In Another Room

The Whatnauts — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 152. This week we listened to the audio drama horror story In Another Room, presented by The Violet Hour and adapted from E3W's immersive theater experience. Paranormal investigator Wendy Morrow stays the night in an infamous haunted mansion and becomes trapped there, seeing over 130 years of ghost stories play out in front of her -- and the ghosts can see her too. Each episode focuses on a historical haunting in a different room of the house as Wendy attempts to find the origin of this house's malevolent energy and what she can do to help bring peace to the ghosts.

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Pokemon: The First Movie

The Whatnauts — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 151. In honor of our 151st episode, we're revisiting our childhoods this week watching Pokemon: The First Movie, Mewtwo Strikes Back! Mewtwo is a new Pokemon engineered by Team Rocket scientists, cloned from a fossil of the ancient Mew. He awakens to incredible psychic power and an existential crisis -- why was he made? what is his purpose? how does he fit into the world as a clone? He invites several trainers to his fortress, including Ash and friends, and attempts to clone their Pokemon for a tournament to prove the strength and value of clones and why they should inherit the world.

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Halt and Catch Fire s3

The Whatnauts — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 150. We're back for more relationship drama and crooked business dealings in Halt and Catch Fire season three! Mutiny is growing in San Francisco and Cameron and Donna see conflicting paths for the company, which could derail further progress if they don't find a way to compromise. Joe's new company is launching its own anti-virus software, built on programming that should be credited to Gordon, and he experiences unforeseen challenges in trying to make it free to the public. A young programmer leaves Mutiny and approaches Joe with big ideas, and this secret side project could mean disaster for people at both companies.

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The Devil All The Time

The Whatnauts — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 149. We watched the Netflix original movie The Devil All the Time, a Southern Gothic tale set across the 1940s to 1960s following several interconnected families. Following the tragic deaths of his parents, young Arvin is sent to live with his grandmother, who has also adopted the orphaned daughter of family friends who died under mysterious circumstances. Arvin grows up protective of his new family, but when he takes violent actions to defend his sister, he opens them up to unforeseen tragedy that has him running from the law and running into a serial killer.

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My Hero Academia s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 17 Mar 2021 09:15:27 -0500

Episode 148. Alan Busbee from Crossplay joins us to discuss season one of the superhero anime My Hero Academia. In a world where 80% of people are born with a "quirk," Izuku Midoriya wasn't. He's dreamed his whole life of being a hero like his idol All Might, and is determined to make it into the hero academy even if he doesn't have any superpowers. When he gets the chance to meet All Might in person, the hero reveals that his mysterious power is one that can be shared, and he wants to grant it to this promising young student. Izuku can have the power he's always wanted, but he's still lagging behind his peers and his inexperience means the power could tear him apart.

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The Vision

The Whatnauts — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 147. To coincide with Wandavision, we read the 12-issue comic series The Vision from writer Tom King and artist Gabriel Hernandez Walta. The Vision has created a synthezoid family of wife Virginia and twin teenagers Vin and Viv, and they're attempting to settle down in the suburbs of Washington, DC and lead a normal life like the humans around them. But when a foe comes calling and one of the family members goes too far attempting to keep the rest safe, this begins a spiral of destruction and secrets that attracts the attention of the fellow Avengers, who start to question if The Vision is as heroic as he seems.

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Halt and Catch Fire s2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 146. We're returning to the tech drama Halt and Catch Fire to discuss season two. The Giant has brought Cardiff Electric enough success that they've been bought out by another company, leaving Gordon with a huge paycheck to fund any personal project he can imagine, but he encounters some mental roadblocks to getting any idea off the ground. Donna and Cameron are working around the clock to build Mutiny into a powerhouse for online games and revolutionary community forums. Joe is trying to settle down with a new fiancee and leave the tech world behind, but when he stumbles across a promising opportunity, he reaches out to Mutiny with hopes of doing right by Cameron this time.

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Livewire vol. 1-3

The Whatnauts — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Epiosde 145. We return to the Valiant comics universe this week to read all three volumes of Livewire from writer Vita Ayala. Amanda McKee is a super powered human known as a "psiot" with the ability to interface with all kinds of technology, giving her the codename Livewire. After the government declared all psiots to be executed, she retaliated with a nationwide blackout, allowing her friends to escape but causing untold damage to other innocent people. Now she's living in the shadows as a wanted terrorist, haunted by her decisions. As she investigates a school for psiot children and collaborates with a politician trying to give psiots a better name, she works to become a better protector of the people she cares about.

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Love Alarm s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 15:00:00 -0600

Episode 144. For Valentine's Day, we watched season one of the Korean drama series Love Alarm. Jojo's high school is obsessed with a new app called Love Alarm that can read your feelings and "ring the alarm" of your crush whenever you come near them. Jojo doesn't need an app to tell her how she's feeling: she has a crush on the hottest boy in school, literal fashion model Sun-Oh, but may also be interested in Sun-Oh's best friend Hye-Jeong. As we follow these characters over four years, the world around them is still wondering who even developed Love Alarm and how it'll change how people love each other.

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In Bruges

The Whatnauts — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 143. This week we watched the 2008 crime film In Bruges, written and directed by Martin McDonagh. Ken and Ray are two hitmen hiding out in picturesque Bruges, Belgium after a job gone wrong, awaiting further orders from their boss. Ken welcomes the opportunity for sight-seeing while Ray is dying to escape the city and the guilt over innocent blood on his hands. As they await judgement in this form of purgatory, they learn about the proper consequences for their actions.

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Halt and Catch Fire pt. 1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 142. We're starting another monthly series watching one show from beginning to end, discussing season one of the drama series Halt and Catch Fire, created by Christopher Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers. It's 1983, the dawn of the home computer age. Salesman Joe MacMillian leaves IBM on bad terms and goes to the small Dallas company Cardiff Electric, determined to make them into the next big player in the PC market. His scheme pulls in an idealistic software designer who wants to push computing to the next level, and an obsessive hardware engineer who is still picking up the pieces from his last failed project. This volatile team is determined to make the PC of their dreams, if they can all agree on what that is.

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The Queen’s Gambit

The Whatnauts — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 141. Gino Viteri from Crossplay is joining us this week to talk about the Netflix original drama The Queen's Gambit. After the death of her mother, young Beth Harmon is sent to an orphanage where the kids are given tranquilizer pills to keep them docile. The brightest spark in her life is her chess lessons, and Beth develops prodigious skill at the game. She begins a whirlwind career traveling across 1960s America winning championships, still addicted to pills and confused about normal adolescent life. She's the most renowned woman in chess before she's even 18, and she's grappling with reaching the top of her game and figuring out what to do with her life beyond that.

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The Amelia Project s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 140. We listened to an audio drama this week, season one of The Amelia Project, created by Philip Thorne and Oystein Brager. The Amelia Project is a secret organization that you can call if you want to fake your own death and start a new life. Each episode is a case file recording between a new client and the unnamed Interviewer, exploring the client's problems, how they want to "die," and where they want to go next. There's also interstitial scenes of the daily lives of the charming but mysterious staff of this organization. It's a dark comedy with a variety of standalone cases, and possibly a larger threat looming in the background.

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Gotham by Gaslight

The Whatnauts — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 139. This week we read the 1989 DC Elseworlds comic Gotham by Gaslight from Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola, and we watched the 2018 animated movie adaptation. This is an alternate universe take on Batman where he patrols the streets of Victorian era Gotham City, protecting it from Jack the Ripper. The comic sees more of a focus on Batman as the "world's greatest detective," while the movie adds a burlesque dancer Selena Kyle concerned about the threat to herself and other women as Batman's partner in crime-stopping action. We compare and contrast both versions of this exciting standalone story!

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James Bond (Daniel Craig)

The Whatnauts — Wed, 06 Jan 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 138. We're kicking off 2021 with a bang watching all of Daniel Craig's James Bond movies to date -- Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre -- in anticipation of finally seeing No Time To Die this year. Bond has recently received his 007 status and his license to kill when he enters a high-stakes poker tournament to defeat a terrorist banker and falls for the treacherous treasurer Vesper Lynd. As he goes on to face a water baron, a vengeful agent from MI6's past, and a secret criminal organization pulling all these strings, he's haunted by that failed romance and other personal tragedies, and is tempted to leave the spy game behind to start a new life with Dr. Madeline Swann.

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The Whatnauts 5 Year Anniversary Retrospective

The Whatnauts — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 09:00:00 -0600

Happy 5 year anniversary to us here at The Whatnauts. Kyle, Melissa, Ignacio, Gino, and Alan gather for an end-of-the-year party! We eat pizza, play trivia, discuss video games and movies of the year, give out Review Show awards, and tour through the history of The Whatnauts and talk about our podcasting goals for 2021. Thanks for being here and learning and growing with us, we're excited for the future!

Check out Melissa's 2020 Review Show playlist here.

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Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey

The Whatnauts — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 137. For our holiday special and final episode of 2020, we go out on a musical note with the new Netflix movie Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey. Jeronicus Jangle was once the best toymaker around until his apprentice stole his greatest invention and his book of blueprints. Jeronicus loses his spark for building toys and closes up shop, and becomes estranged from his family. Years later, the granddaughter he's never met comes to visit to try to lift his spirits and find someone like herself with a true passion for inventing. Young Journey is determined to bring her family back together, restore her grandfather's legacy, and prove her own creative skills.

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Scrooged

The Whatnauts — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 136. This week we welcomed the holiday season by watching 1988's Scrooged, a contemporary retelling of A Christmas Carol. Frank Cross is a TV executive planning a massive live broadcast production of A Christmas Carol for Christmas Eve, but big business is the only thing he has going for him. He's estranged from loved ones, and his colleagues regard him as heartless. All day on the 24th, he's struggling to keep the show running as he's being haunted by spirits revealing to him the error of his ways and how he needs to change his life to find true happiness and bring it to the people around him.

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Great Pretender s1

The Whatnauts — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 13:31:07 -0600

Episode 135. We watched season one of the Netflix original anime series Great Pretender. Makoto Edamura considers himself the best scam artist in Japan until he's outsmarted by Laurant Thierry, a man who he thought was just a clueless tourist. Fascinated to learn his ways and eager to get his money back, Edamura follows Laurant to Los Angeles and finds himself deep in a false drug-dealing scheme that has more levels of lying that he ever could have guessed. He becomes a reluctant part of Laurant's globe-trotting criminal team, trying to survive through rigged air races in Singapore and fraudulent art auctions in London.

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Irredeemable pt. 3

The Whatnauts — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 14:20:03 -0600

Episode 134. We finished reading all ten volumes of Irredeemable and wow what an ending! Tony is back on Earth, still set on destruction, and the world's few remaining leaders turn to their last hope, a secret weapon that could stop him but doom millions of citizens in exchange. Tony discovers the origin of his powers, finally getting an answer to the question that has plagued him his whole life, "why am I?" As the Paradigm struggles to preserve society, Qubit devises a plan to both save the Earth and give Tony a chance at starting over.

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The Unbreakable Trilogy

The Whatnauts — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 13:55:52 -0600

Episode 133. We watched M. Night Shyamalan's trilogy of unconventional superhero thrillers, Unbreakable (2000), Split (2017), and Glass (2019). Security guard David Dunn is the sole survivor of a massively fatal train crash who realizes he isn't just lucky, he's invulnerable, and he's always felt a duty to protect the people of Philadelphia. Art curator Elijah Price was born with terribly fragile bones, unsure of why he exists in this world, but sure that comic books have a core of truth to them and that superheroes and villains must be real. Kevin Wendell Crumb is a man with multiple identities taking over his life, fighting for control, and convinced that he contains a secret identity with beast-like strength and ferocity. What does the converging of these men mean for truth, justice, and humanity itself?

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Knives Out

The Whatnauts — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 132. We watched Rian Johnson's 2019 murder mystery Knives Out. A best-selling author kills himself the night of his 85th birthday party, leaving behind a family more concerned about their inheritance than they are about grieving, a nervous private nurse who may not be telling the whole truth, and a detective with a sense that this isn't just an open-and-shut suicide case. As the nurse tries to avoid the suspicion of the desperate family members, she learns that she was the one the author trusted above everyone else, and only she can be responsible for setting everything right.

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The Drops of God vol. 1-4

The Whatnauts — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 131. We read the first four volumes of manga The Drops of God by Tadashi Agi and Shu Okimoto. Shizuku Kanzaki is the son of a famous wine critic who's never drank wine himself. When his father dies, Shizuku finds that he legally adopted his wine critic protege and wants his two sons to compete for their inheritance. In his massive wine collection, he has named "Twelve Apostles," wines that exemplify the art form, and "The Drops of God," the greatest wine he's ever tasted. Whomever can identify these wines takes the whole inheritance! Shizuku teams up with aspiring sommelier Miyabi to learn everything he can about tasting and appreciating wine, and how wine can help you bring people together and better understand your world.

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Irredeemable pt. 2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0600

Episode 130. We're continuing our monthly coverage of the comic series Irredeemable, talking about volumes 5-7 this week. Qubit has sabotaged the team's attempt to kill The Plutonian, believing that there's still a way to solve the problem without putting death on their consciences. He knows of a secret force who can capture Tony -- but can anyone keep him locked up for long? We learn Modeus's true intentions in antagonizing Tony, and why he may be trying to help the man more than hurt him. In Tony's absence, The Survivor begins his reign as the world's new most powerful superhero, troubling both enemies and allies. The world could rebuild itself, but the cost on individual lives may be too high to pay.

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Typewriter

The Whatnauts — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 129. For our final Halloween episode this year, we watched a Netflix original show from India, the ghost story Typewriter. An author of horror novels died mysteriously in his mansion decades ago, and the place has remained empty since then, believed to be haunted. The author's family is moving back into the estate and they uncover an abandoned typewriter, which sets off a chain of mysterious deaths and unnerving paranormal experiences. Dark magic took place in this house, and we follow parallel investigations from the family, the local police, and a group of kids in a "ghost club," all trying to understand the past of the house's inhabitants and what malicious forces have been reawakened.

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The Love Witch

The Whatnauts — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 128. We watched Anna Biller's 2016 film The Love Witch, gorgeously styled after low-budget 1970s Technicolor melodramas. After the destruction of her marriage, a witch named Elaine moves to a new town and sets her sights on finding true love. She brews spells, seduces men, and when they don't turn out to be the love she's looking for, she kills them. She falls for the detective investigating her last murder and believes her romantic fantasies may be coming true, but her magic doesn't always do the trick and reality comes calling.

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Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E.

The Whatnauts — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 10:53:16 -0500

Episode 127. This week we read the DC comics series Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E., with issues written by Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt. Frankenstein, the big green monster you know and love, works for the Super Human Advanced Defense Executive, a high-tech organization that protects the world from arcane threats. He teams up with his estranged wife, the four-armed Lady Frankenstein, and a group called the Creature Commandos, featuring a vampire, wolfman, mummy, and fish lady scientist. They're here to stop the world from being overrun by the mysterious natural force The Rot, which threatens to deform and decay all living beings.

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Hannibal s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 05:00:00 -0500

Episode 126. To kick off the spooky month of October, we watched season one of the TV show Hannibal. Will Graham is a criminal psychologist who is pulled from his teaching position to work in the field, using his unique empathy abilities to put himself in a serial killer's head. After catching the murderer, Will can't get himself out of that mindset, and he turns to a psychologist colleague to help him cope as he investigates more grisly crimes. But does Dr. Hannibal Lector really have Will's best interests at heart? Is he doing him more harm than good? The man throws an excellent dinner party, but he seems to know too much about all these cannibalistic killings.

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Irredeemable pt. 1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 125. Time for another continuing monthly series! We'll be reading all of the comic book Irredeemable by Mark Waid and Peter Krause, and we started with volumes 1-4. The Plutonian is the greatest superhero the world has ever seen. He's incredibly powerful, kind-hearted, always there to save the day -- until the day he snaps and destroys his entire city. Now the world lives in fear of this rampaging hero turned villain, and his former teammates are realizing they never really knew this man. They have no clue where he came from, why he turned on everyone, and how he can be stopped. All they know is that The Plutonian can find them anywhere. When he can destroy them in seconds, every second counts.

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The Fifth Element

The Whatnauts — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 124. Our second half of the Shametember series is a cult classic sci-fi movie that cyberpunk Kyle should have seen by now, Luc Besson's The Fifth Element. Korben Dallas is your average New York guy in the 23rd century, trying to make a living in his flying cab, when a mysterious young woman dives into his vehicle and asks for help escaping from the pursuing authorities. She's the key to an ancient weapon that can destroy a galactic evil, and Korben has to figure out how to protect her, love her, and get through this bizarre ordeal alive.

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Dr. No

The Whatnauts — Wed, 16 Sep 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 123. Welcome to our first "Shame-tember" episode where we talk about a movie one of our co-hosts definitely should have seen before now, but hasn't! This week, Melissa goes back to where James Bond first started with 1962's Dr. No. Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate the death of a British agent and work with the CIA to find who is interfering with the NASA missile launches nearby in Florida. He learns of a mysterious scientist who intimidates the locals, and Bond infiltrates his lab with the company of a sexy new cohort, the professional seashell dealer Honey Rider. They find themselves in a suspiciously welcoming lair, invited to a deadly dinner with Dr. No.

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Tron Uprising

The Whatnauts — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 122. This week we watched the short-lived Disney cartoon Tron Uprising, set between the events of the original Tron movie and Tron: Legacy. A totalitarian regime is cracking down on The Grid, and a young mechanic named Beck wants to stand up for his fellow programs. The legendary hero Tron has been in hiding, but he reaches out to Beck and offers him the training he needs to be the city's new hero. Beck struggles with Tron's secrecy and his own double-life working at the lightbike garage and trying to help citizens as the controversial vigilante they dub "The Renegade."

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Sitcom Special: Seinfeld & The Simpsons

The Whatnauts — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 12:33:42 -0500

Episode 121. We're trying a special kind of episode showing each other a sitcom one of us grew up with, but the other person barely knows. Melissa needs to learn about Seinfeld, Kyle needs to learn about The Simpsons. We nominated three episodes from our show to talk about: Kyle picked The Chinese Restaurant, The Contest, and The Rye, Melissa picked Marge vs. The Monorail, Bart Sells His Soul, and The Mysterious Voyage of Homer. Time to find out who's master of their domain, and who's back in Pog form!

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Midnight Diner

The Whatnauts — Wed, 26 Aug 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 120. This week we watched the Japanese TV series Midnight Diner, which you can find on Netflix as just Midnight Diner (the original three seasons) and Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories (season four onwards, after Netflix acquired it as one of its own productions). Kyle watched season one of the original and Melissa watched season "one" of Tokyo Stories. Whoops. We still had an exciting conversation about this anthology series! The show follows a cozy late night diner where the chef is known only as "Master" and will cook you anything you want. Customers reconnect with favorite old dishes and poignant old memories, as they always seem to run into people from their past around this small dining counter. Every episode is a new dish and a new slice-of-life drama story!

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Superman: Rebirth vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 19 Aug 2020 20:00:06 -0500

Episode 119. This week we read Superman: Rebirth, the first volume of the deluxe edition that collects issues 1-13 from writer Peter J. Tomasi and artist Patrick Gleason. After the Superman of this universe dies, a Superman lost from another universe decides to stay here and fill his role. Clark "Smith" now lives on a farm with his wife Lois and ten-year-old son Jonathan. He fights any threat that comes his way but is most focused on his family, helping Jon adjust to his growing powers and learn what it takes to be a hero and a good teammate to other heroes.

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Murder on the Orient Express

The Whatnauts — Thu, 13 Aug 2020 17:09:42 -0500

Episode 118. This week we watched Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of Agatha Christie's classic mystery Murder on the Orient Express. Renowned detective Hercule Poirot is determined to take a break from solving crimes to enjoy a leisurely train trip, until one of his fellow passengers is murdered. Everyone traveling in that train car is a suspect. As he sinks deeper into the inescapable mystery surrounding him, Poirot finds that justice may be more complicated than just catching a killer.

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The Vast of Night

The Whatnauts — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 10:31:41 -0500

Episode 117. This week we watched the Amazon Prime original movie The Vast of Night. It's the late 1950s in rural Cayuga, New Mexico. The whole town is at the high school basketball game, but Fay and Everett are busy working. While she's transferring phone calls on the switchboard, Fay encounters distressed callers and hears a strange noise interrupt Everett's radio broadcast. Someone calls in believing they have the answer, and it could be a threat from beyond our world, hovering behind the clouds and waiting to strike the town.

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Mr. Robot part 4

The Whatnauts — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 18:51:36 -0500

We say “goodbye, friend” to Mr. Robot as we discuss its fourth and final season! After the Dark Army kills someone close to Elliot, he focuses everything on taking down Whiterose’s mysterious machine and her cabal that has been controlling world affairs and finances. We discover devastating Alderson family secrets, the origin of the Mr. Robot persona, and truths that Elliot has hidden from everyone, including himself. It’s a power struggle for all of society, and for Elliot’s own mind.

Melissa's penchant for playlists continues, and you can listen to a Mr. Robot fanmix she made on Spotify. Special thanks to friend of the show Jacq for help on this one!

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Promare

The Whatnauts — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 09:39:44 -0500

Episode 115. This week friend of the show Sam joins us to talk about the anime film Promare from Studio Trigger. Thirty years ago, people around the world suddenly developed unstable pyrokinetic powers. They decimated cities, killed millions, and became an ever-growing band of outcasts known as the Burnish. Burning Rescue is a fire-fighting team that works against a Burnish terrorist group in their city, until they find out what happens to these people after they're taken away from the crime scene. They see the fights across the city in a whole different light and learn that they all share a common threat that could really destroy the world this time.

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Fairy Tail vol. 1-4

The Whatnauts — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 114. This week we read the first four volumes of Hiro Mashima's shonen manga Fairy Tail. Lucy is a young woman with a talent for working with spirits contained in magical artifacts, and she wants to join one of the hottest wizarding guilds, Fairy Tail. She takes up with another fledgling guild member, the fire-breathing Natsu, and the two form a team to take on whatever odd jobs come their way in need of magical powers. With an ice wizard and a warrior of interdimensional weapons joining their team, they sure aren't going to help the guild's reputation for being too destructive in trying to get the job done.

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Lucifer s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 18:45:28 -0500

Episode 113. This week we watched season one of the supernatural crime procedural Lucifer, based on a character from the Sandman comics. You know the devil, right? This is him. He got bored of ruling hell and left to run a nightclub in Los Angeles, where he loudly tells everyone that he is the devil. When there's a murder outside his club, Lucifer gets wrapped up in the investigation, and particularly lead detective Chloe Decker. He can magically charm anyone he wants, but his powers don't work on her. Intrigued, Lucifer joins her as a consultant on her murder cases, learning more about the limits of his powers and the depths of human emotion.

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Mr. Robot part 3

The Whatnauts — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 13:36:22 -0500

Episode 112. Friend of the show Jacq joins us for a discussion on Mr. Robot, season three! Elliot has realized that deleting all of E-Corp’s financial records has worse consequences than he intended, and now he’s working at the company trying to restore that data. He’s lost connection with Mr. Robot, blacking out entirely when his other persona takes control and struggling to puzzle together what Mr. Robot has been planning. Are his two identities working against each other? Is Angela turning on him too? Does he have any chance of atoning for his mistakes and getting the world back to normal?

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Marvels (audio drama podcast)

The Whatnauts — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 12:19:45 -0500

Episode 111. This week we listened to the Marvels audio drama, based on the graphic novel of the same name by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross. The story features some favorite Marvel characters and is produced by audio drama all-stars like Paul Bae, Lauren Shippen, and Misha Stanton! It's 1967 and New York City is already dealing with protests about the war, civil rights, and the rising presence of mutants, when Galactus attacks. The Fantastic Four manage to beat him, and as the city picks itself back up in the aftermath, citizens start to question the true nature of the battle. Was there really a Galactus? What if the whole disaster was staged by Reed Richards' technology to make him and his team look better? Three reporters investigate the potential hoax and what it means for their city.

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The Fantastic Four 1-10

The Whatnauts — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 09:00:00 -0500

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!

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Mr. Robot part 2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 09:00:00 -0500

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.

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Speed Racer

The Whatnauts — Thu, 28 May 2020 16:21:34 -0500

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!

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Paprika

The Whatnauts — Thu, 21 May 2020 10:39:20 -0500

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.

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Black Hammer vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 13 May 2020 17:00:00 -0500

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?

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Paddington 1 & 2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 06 May 2020 09:00:00 -0500

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!

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Mr. Robot part 1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 17:00:00 -0500

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.

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The Heroic Legend of Arslan vol. 1-3

The Whatnauts — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 09:00:00 -0500

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?

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Parasite

The Whatnauts — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 14:03:24 -0500

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.

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The Venture Bros. pt. 3

The Whatnauts — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 09:00:00 -0500

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!

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Spider-Man 2 vs. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The Whatnauts — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 09:00:00 -0500

It's episode 100! We tried a new and special format for this episode. We challenged ourselves to a debate about one of our favorite story genres and asked, what is the best superhero movie? Kyle's champion: The Russo Brothers' Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Melissa's champion: Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2. Two humble New York boys face off! We discuss the strengths and flaws of both movies, how they fit into the larger superhero movie canon, and how they make us feel like we could be heroes. Thanks for coming along with us on this podcast journey these past two years!

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Remember The Titans

The Whatnauts — Wed, 25 Mar 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 99. This week we watched the true sports story Remember the Titans. Melissa had never seen it before, and Kyle had seen it dozens of times, since he's from the location of this story and it mentions his own high school! The year is 1970 and two segregated schools are integrating and forming a new football team. The coach is determined to make this the best season possible, no matter how tough he has to be, and team harmony is his top goal. Boys of all different backgrounds need to come together and be friends as well as athletes if they want to make their new school a success.

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X-Men Season One

The Whatnauts — Wed, 18 Mar 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 98. We're taking our first good look at X-Men this week and reading the 2012 graphic novel X-Men: Season One, from writer Dennis Hopeless and artist Jamie McKelvie. In this contemporary re-telling of the original comics, teenage telekinetic Jean Gray is upset about leaving her normal home and school behind to live at Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. She doesn't want to be trained for battle, even if it is to help mankind and show them that mutants can be heroes. It's also stressful being the new kid and the only girl on the team. Jean, Cyclops, Angel, Iceman, and Beast are learning to be heroes and successful young adults in this great intro book for new X-Men fans!

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The Tick s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 09:00:00 -0500

Episode 97. We both watched season one of the Amazon Prime comic book comedy The Tick, and Kyle got confused and also watched season two! As a kid, Arthur witnessed a terrible superhero fight that not only claimed the lives of the heroes and villain involved, but also killed his innocent bystander father. As an adult, he's haunted by that trauma and convinced that villain The Terror faked his death and is still secretly controlling the criminal underground. A mysterious but earnest new superhero called The Tick encourages Arthur to team up with him and finally defeat The Terror, saying that destiny is calling them to greatness. Can this bewildered partnership convince a city that their greatest threat is making a comeback?

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The Venture Bros. pt. 2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 04 Mar 2020 09:00:53 -0600

Episode 96. We're back with another episode of our ongoing monthly series covering The Venture Bros, now discussing seasons 3 and 4. Newlyweds The Monarch and Dr. Mrs. The Monarch are learning to be a successful criminal couple as she encourages him to pick a different arch nemesis. The Venture family find themselves under attack from new villains rising to fill the gap The Monarch has left in their lives. Dean is still harboring a crush on Triana, and Hank makes his first normal teenage friend in a surly local boy named Dermott, who may be already have ties to the family. Meanwhile, Phantom Limb still lurks in the shadows, plotting his revenge.

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Your Name

The Whatnauts — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 16:00:00 -0600

Episode 95. This week, Ignacio from Crossplay joins Kyle and Melissa to discuss the 2016 anime film Your Name. Taki and Mitsuha are a teenage boy and girl leading different lives in different parts of Japan, with no idea that the other person exists. They find themselves experiencing vivid dreams of living another life and discover that these dreams are real -- they've been switching bodies at random! The two leave notes to get to know each other and figure out this strange connection they've established. But when the connection is severed, the two go on an incredible heart-wrenching journey to find each other again and meet in person for the first time.

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Moonrise Kingdom

The Whatnauts — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 09:00:49 -0600

Episode 94. This week we watched Wes Anderson's 2012 feature Moonrise Kingdom. It's 1965 in a small island town off the eastern US coast. Sam and Suzy are two troubled youths who fall in love through pen pal letters and decide to run away together, prepared with little more than Sam's scouting knowledge of the island. But they're being pursued by every adult they know, plus Sam's entire scout troop, armed with the same tracking skills. This island is preparing itself for the storm of the century, figuratively and literally.

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Locke & Key vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 09:00:11 -0600

Episode 93. This week we read the first two volumes of Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez's comic Locke & Key, soon to be a Netflix series! After their father is brutally murdered in a home invasion, the Locke kids move across the country back to his childhood home, a sprawling New England mansion known as Keyhouse. They're dealing with loss, fear, reinventing themselves for a new life, and now, magic. Keyhouse is full of mysterious keys that open portals to fantastic abilities, but the kids don't know where they came from or how they work. Why does their father's murderer want these keys? Who is the cryptic spirit down the well that calls to them about the keys? Why was their father so insistent that this house would keep them safe if it seems full of dangers?

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The Venture Bros. Pt. 1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 09:00:27 -0600

Episode 92. We're starting something new on The Review Show! We're going to watch a longer series through to completion, covering part of it one episode a month. This month, it's seasons one and two of the Adult Swim cartoon The Venture Bros. Dr. Rusty Venture, former boy adventurer, hasn't grown up into the same dazzling super-scientist that his father was. Struggling with upholding the legacy, he drags his sheltered teen twins Hank and Dean around the world in a series of sci-fi misadventures, under the watch of aggressive family bodyguard Brock Samson. The family encounters foes of all kinds, including butterfly-themed villain The Monarch. He has sworn himself as Rusty's arch-enemy for unknown reasons, even when his partner Dr. Girlfriend tries to convince him he can do better. Join us next month when we discuss seasons three and four!

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Ready Or Not

The Whatnauts — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 09:00:50 -0600

Episode 91. This week we watched the 2019 horror-comedy Ready or Not. Grace is marrying into a board game dynasty, and her new in-laws have a tradition when someone joins the family: on the wedding night, the whole family gathers at the mansion to play a game together. Grace picks the wrong game. She's going to hide, they're going to seek, but she discovers that they plan to kill her once they find her.

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The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage Vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 09:00:36 -0600

Episode 90. We read the first two volumes of The Death-Defying Doctor Mirage from Valiant Comics. Shan Fong-Mirage can speak to the dead, but she can't speak to her late husband Hwen. She's desolate and going through the motions of her life as a paranormal investigator, taking whatever jobs will give her the money to keep her and Hwen's home just as it was when he was alive. Her latest gig seems sketchy, but a mysterious spirit hints that she may able to find Hwen if she travels into the underworld to fulfill the wishes of this new client.

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Sherlock

The Whatnauts — Sun, 12 Jan 2020 16:30:00 -0600

Episode 89. We used our winter break to watch the entire BBC series Sherlock, a contemporary take on the classic Sherlock Holmes mystery stories. Dr. John Watson is a returning solider trying to find his footing in London again, unsure if what he really wants is a quiet life or a new kind of exciting battle to wage. Sherlock Holmes is a private investigator and deductive genius who can't sympathize with people as well as he can read them for clues. Together they're roommates, best friends, and partners in crime-solving, often trying to live through life-threatening cases that hit too close to home.

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4th Anniversary Retrospective

The Whatnauts — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 18:26:33 -0600

It's our 4th birthday! Wow. It feels like it's been forever. Whether you have stuck around with us since the beginning, or are a new listener, thank you so much. We could not do any of this without you. Melissa and Kyle have been chugging along, Mick and Ignacio have joined the crew, and we even started a new show, Crossplay. Here's to four more years!

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The Last Christmas

The Whatnauts — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 19:11:56 -0600

Episode 88. For our final episode of 2019, we went with the holiday-themed comic The Last Christmas, by Deadpool writers Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan. In a post-apocalyptic world where he hasn't worked in years, Santa has lost faith in himself, but there's still one little kid out there who believes in him. Santa tries to resurrect his giving spirit and stop a band of marauders and zombie mutants from ruining this kid's Christmas. It's an irreverent action movie spoof with plenty of jokes and a little sparkle of heart!

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Gremlins 1 & 2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 09:00:38 -0600

Episode 87. We watched Gremlins (1984) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), from director Joe Dante, writer Chris Columbus, and producer Steven Spielberg. Billy receives a mysterious creature as a Christmas present and is warned to never expose it to bright light, never get it wet, and never feed it after midnight. When the rules are broken, the creature can turn into a destructive and chaotic gremlin! Billy has to save his small town from being destroyed on Christmas Eve, and years later, the gremlins come to his job in a New York City mega-skyscraper with goals to take over the big city.

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The Devil Is A Part-Timer

The Whatnauts — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 09:00:32 -0600

Episode 86. We watched the 13-episode anime series The Devil is a Part-timer. Satan escapes his dimension of angels and demons through a portal that sends him to modern day Japan, but he's too weak to return home. He has to invent an identity, rent an apartment, and find a job to make a new living here. He's determined to be the most powerful employee that fast food restaurant MgRonald's has ever seen! He's on his way to making shift lead when he learns that his heroic foe has also come through the portal and is watching his every move. Will he evade his enemies? Will he sell enough burgers?

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Primer

The Whatnauts — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 10:11:43 -0600

Episode 85. We watched the mind-bending sci-fi movie Primer, a 2004 indie feature from writer/director/star/everything Shane Carruth. Two engineers accidentally invent time travel and start reliving their days over again, learning the limits of this technology as they cheat the stock market for the money they could never get from investors. Each of them has personal goals for this time travel, and personal safeguards they've secretly put in place, and lies between these two partners threaten to tear the experiment apart.

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Ben 10 s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 22:03:24 -0600

Episode 84. We watched season one of Ben 10 a cartoon from 2004 created by Man of Action. Ben Tennyson is a normal boy on the worst summer vacation of his life when an alien device that crash landed on earth attaches itself to his wrist. The watch-like device gives him the power to transform into 10 different aliens, each with unique powers, for a short amount of time. So Ben does what any boy his age would do and tries to become a superhero fighting off alien threats along with his Grandpa and cousin, Gwen. However, the evil alien Vilgax isn't far behind.

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Living With Yourself

The Whatnauts — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 09:00:41 -0600

Episode 83. We watched the new Netflix original series Living With Yourself, starring Paul Rudd and… Paul Rudd?! Feeling depressed and unsuccessful, Miles tries out a mysterious spa experience that promises to make him into a new man, but he is shocked to find they mean it literally. He's been cloned, replaced by a better version of himself, and he wasn't supposed to live to see it happen. Now there are two Mileses, one house, one wife, one career. How can they share this existence?

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Happy Valley s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 09:00:20 -0600

Episode 82. We watched season one of the British crime show Happy Valley. Catherine is a older policewoman trying to keep drugs out of her small town. She runs into a kidnapping gone wrong and finds that a personal enemy from her past is involved and could threaten her family. This is a violent story, but tight plotting and strong characters made it a rewarding watch for us!

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Ghost Stories

The Whatnauts — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 09:00:54 -0500

Episode 81. To cap off October, we watched the British horror movie Ghost Stories, written and directed by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, based off their stage play. A paranormal investigator is contacted by his hero to debunk the three cases he could never solve himself. These tales of ghosts and demons make the investigator look into his own past, where nothing is what it seems.

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Harrow County vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 23 Oct 2019 09:00:31 -0500

Episode 80. We read the first two volumes of horror comic Harrow County by writer Cullen Bunn and artist Tyler Crook. Decades ago, the townsfolk of Harrow killed a witch who threatened to return one day, and it looks like 18-year-old Emmy is her second coming. Emmy is frightened of her new powers but is determined overcome the looming monstrosity inside her. She may be a witch, but she's going to be a witch her way and keep her life as normal as possible. Helping dad on the farm, exploring the local woods, talking to flaming skeletons in the graveyard -- you know, normal teen things!

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Paranorman

The Whatnauts — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 09:00:18 -0500

Episode 79. We watched Paranorman, the 2012 family feature from the stop-motion animators at Studio Laika. A young boy named Norman can talk to ghosts, an ability that his family and the rest of his small New England town don't understand. But when a witch killed there 300 years ago terrorizes the town and brings the dead back to life, Norman is the only one who can talk to the witch, determined to not just stop her but try to bring her peace.

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American Vampire vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 09:00:56 -0500

Episode 78. We read the first two volumes of Scott Synder's American Vampire comics. The outlaw Skinner Sweet is the first vampire made in America, and he possesses a set of powers unknown to the rest of his kind. We follow him through his origins in the Old West, to 1920s Hollywood where he turns a young actress into the second of these incredible new American vampires, and to 1930s Las Vegas where he's a key player in turning that town into "sin city."

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Bram Stoker’s Dracula

The Whatnauts — Wed, 02 Oct 2019 09:00:11 -0500

Episode 77. To kick off October, the month of spooks, we watched Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula. In this lavish Gothic tale, Dracula traps young barrister Jonathan Harker in his castle and travels to London to win over Harker's fiance Mina, who he believes is the reincarnation of his dead wife from centuries ago. But when Mina's best friend Lucy falls under his vampiric spell, Dracula's dark activities catch the attention of Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, professional hunter of the supernatural.

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Stumptown vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 25 Sep 2019 09:00:12 -0500

Episode 76. We read the first two volumes of Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth's Stumptown comic, ahead of it premiering as a new TV show! Dex Parios is a Portland-based PI with a history of gambling debt, failed relationships with men and women, and a younger brother at home to take care of. She takes cases on a casino owner's missing granddaughter and a rock star's missing guitar as she tries to make ends meet and keep her life and town in order.

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Rubber

The Whatnauts — Wed, 18 Sep 2019 21:12:49 -0500

Episode 75. We watched the truly bizarre 2010 film Rubber, directed by Quentin Dupieux. A tire awakens to sentience and the ability to blow up living creatures with his mind. A group of spectators watch from the hillside with binoculars as he rolls around a small American Southwest desert community, murdering and falling in love. A sheriff struggles to keep control over the tire, the town, and the entire meta-narrative of the movie.

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She-Hulk (2004)

The Whatnauts — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 09:00:51 -0500

Episode 74. We read the first two volumes of Dan Slott's 2004 run on She-Hulk. The east coat's top law firm for superhuman cases wants Jennifer Walters on their team -- but not She-Hulk. Jennifer struggles to reconcile her straight-laced bookish old self with the bold green powerhouse she's become, as she wages battles in New York courtrooms as well as the wild reaches of space.

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The Terror s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 09:00:29 -0500

Episode 73. We watched season one of AMC's historical horror show The Terror. This is an anthology series, so season one is a self-contained story! It's 1845 and two British ships are sailing through arctic Canada, trying to find a waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They become frozen into the ice, trapped for over a year, and need to start thinking about survival instead of discovery. There's in-fighting among the crew, food shortages, disease, and a rampaging monster with mysterious ties to local Inuit legend. Is everything around them trying to kill these men?

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Hip-Hop Family Tree vol. 1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 09:00:43 -0500

Episode 72. This week we read volume one of Hip-Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor. It's a non-fiction history lesson on the origins of hip-hop in 1970s New York, from house parties to the first record pressings, through to its introduction to mainstream audiences in the early 1980s. Educate yourselves, and go listen to the "Hip-hop Family Tree vol. 1" Spotify playlist that Kyle complied to accompany the reading!

Check out the playlist here!

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Annihilation

The Whatnauts — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 09:00:50 -0500

Episode 71. We watched Annhilation, a 2018 sci-fi/horror film from director Alex Garland. A meteor hits a lighthouse on the coast of Florida and the area around the crash site becomes a growing bubble of stunning and strange mutations, known as the Shimmer. Lena's husband went into the Shimmer on a military mission and wandered out a year later with no memories. Lena, with her own history as a solider and doctor, volunteers to go into this dangerous landscape, where the threat is more personal and more invasive than anyone has imagined.

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I’m In Love And It’s The End Of The World vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 09:00:44 -0500

Episode 70. We read the first two volumes of a manga called I'm in Love and It's the End of the World by Taamo. Mahiru Yanase has always lived in the shadow of her more popular twin sister Mayo and is resigned to being "the other Yanase." She believes that she is destined for disappointment and if anything good happens to her, something bad is sure to follow. It's her first day at a new high school and the charming Aoi Satomi takes a liking to her immediately, and as much as Mahiru likes him back, she's terrified to let herself have something good. Will her heart win out over her superstition?

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Sex Criminals vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Thu, 08 Aug 2019 18:05:45 -0500

Episode 69. There was only one choice for Episode 69: we read the first two volumes of the comic Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky. Suzie and Jon can both stop time when they orgasm and believed they were the only one with this power -- until they slept with each other. They're young, they're in love, they believe they're unstoppable, and they're going to rob a bank. But where there are sex criminals there are going to be sex police. Our couple has to confront other people with this mysterious ability, both enemies and allies, all while dealing with the normal perils of their new relationship.

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Titans s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 31 Jul 2019 09:00:14 -0500

Episode 68. We watched the first season of the DC Universe exclusive show Titans. Dick Grayson is a detective trying to distance himself from the Robin identity, Rachel Roth is a young girl haunted by a demon spirit, Kory Anders has no memories and is trying to piece together her past and her powers, and Gar Logan can turn into a tiger but he has never bitten anybody. Together they need to fight to stop an otherworldly door from opening here on earth!

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Sweetness & Lightning

The Whatnauts — Wed, 24 Jul 2019 20:25:03 -0500

Episode 67. This week on The Review Show we watched Sweetness & Lightning, a 12 episode anime all about good food. Kohei's wife has recently passed away and he isn't much of a cook. He doesn't have much time either being a full time teacher and having to care for his daughter. His daughter, Tsumugi, is in kindergarten and is just starting to tire of frozen and boxed meals. When one of his students offers them a meal at her family restaurant, Kohei ends up learning some of the recipes and techniques so he can feed his daughter well.

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Metropolis (Anime)

The Whatnauts — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 09:00:55 -0500

Episode 66. We watched Metropolis, a 2001 anime film based on a manga by Osamu Tezuka, written by Katsuhiro Otomo and directed by Rintaro. Metropolis is a city full of robot workers who are mistrusted by their human neighbors, and the top industrialist has secretly commissioned a highly advanced robot duplicate of his deceased daughter. He plans for her to be a leader of the city, but his adopted human son wants to destroy her, even if the girl has no idea of her true nature of purpose. It's a gorgeous sci-fi story with a lot of heart!

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Hadron Gospel Hour S1

The Whatnauts — Fri, 12 Jul 2019 13:33:58 -0500

Episode 65. This week we listened to season one of the audio show Hadron Gospel Hour, a combination of sci-fi adventure and sketch comedy, from writer/producers/stars Richard Wentworth and Michael McQuilkin. Mike is a normal IT guy until obsessed scientist Dr. Oppenheimer steals him away to an interdimensional bunker, telling him his timeline is doomed and he needs help. The two of them travel through space and time attempting to heal the multiverse-wide rift caused by Oppenheimer's experiment gone wrong, encountering bizarre scenes in one fractured universe after another.

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Transformers: The Wreckers Saga

The Whatnauts — Thu, 04 Jul 2019 13:15:40 -0500

Episode 64. We read The Wreckers Saga, an arc from the Transformers comics by James Roberts and Nick Roche. The Wreckers are a team of Autobots who fight the most dangerous missions behind enemy lines, trying to stay alive and keep their heads together. The war between them and the Decepticons isn't as black and white as it appears and they uncover terrifying secrets about their leaders, each other, and sometimes their own personal pasts. This complex story definitely has more than meets the eye!

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Titan A.E.

The Whatnauts — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 09:00:43 -0500

Episode 63. We watched the 2000 animated sci-fi film Titan AE, from directors Gary Goldman and Don Bluth, with screenplay work from Joss Whedon and Ben Edlund. Earth has been destroyed and the surviving humans live scattered in space among the alien races, missing home and community. Salvage scavenger Cale learns his scientist father was working on a way to resurrect Earth before he died, and now Cale is the only one who can unlock the plans. He joins a ragtag team and sets off in a spaceship to try and save humanity!

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Quantum & Woody vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 19 Jun 2019 09:00:16 -0500

Episode 62. We read the first two volumes of the Valiant Comics superhero buddy comedy Quantum & Woody. Eric and Woody Henderson are estranged adopted brothers, one straightlaced and one disastrous, who reunite when their scientist father dies. They stumble into an experiment in his lab and come out with unstable connected powers. Can they be a superhero team when they're barely ready to be brothers again?

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Serenity (2019)

The Whatnauts — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 09:00:30 -0500

Episode 61. We watched Serenity, a 2019 film written and directed by Stephen Knight and starring Matthew McConaughey and Ann Hathaway. A fisherman is struggling to keep his business alive as he throws his resources into catching one infamously huge fish. His ex-wife offers him all the money he needs if he takes her new husband out on the boat and pushes him off, saving her and their son from a life of violence. This movie has a wild twist that completely changes the game!

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Flavors of Youth

The Whatnauts — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 09:00:48 -0500

Episode 60. We watched Flavors of Youth, an animated anthology movie with three stories set in China, produced by Chinese and Japanese studios. Story one features a man reminiscing on how his favorite noodle dish has changed from restaurant to restaurant but was always there for him throughout his life. Story two follows a fashion model who worries about losing her career as her youth fades and the younger sister who is trying to relate to her and take care of her. Story three starts with a man discovering a cassette tape his crush recorded for him when they were teens and he races to find a tape player and reconnect with his lost love.

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Gravity Falls s1

The Whatnauts — Thu, 30 May 2019 09:00:10 -0500

Episode 59. We watched the first season of Gravity Falls, a Disney Channel cartoon from 2012. Twin siblings Dipper and Mabel Pines are staying the summer with their great uncle at his sham of a "supernatural museum" in Gravity Falls, Oregon where they find a journal filled with real mysteries and paranormal secrets. Is Gravity Falls more exciting than they thought? It's a funny, heartwarming, and often spooky coming-of-age story.

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Attack the Block

The Whatnauts — Wed, 22 May 2019 09:00:26 -0500

Episode 58. We watched the 2011 sci-fi action adventure film Attack the Block. It's Guy Fawkes Night in South London and a gang of teenage hoodlums kill what they think is a strange animal, but discover it's an alien monster that plummeted to Earth. As the rest of the intergalactic creatures congregate around their apartment tower, the kids have to scrounge for weapons and allies to defend their home.

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Brave

The Whatnauts — Fri, 17 May 2019 18:29:14 -0500

Episode 57. We watched Brave, Pixar's 2012 fairy tale film set in a medieval and fantastical Scotland. Merida feels stifled by her life as a princess, and especially by her overbearing mother trying to groom her into perfection. When Merida follows a will o' the wisp into the forest and encounters a witch, she asks for a spell to change her fate by changing her mother, but the magic has disastrous effects that almost tear her family apart.

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Castle Rock

The Whatnauts — Wed, 08 May 2019 09:00:01 -0500

Episode 56. This week we watched the Hulu original series Castle Rock. It's produced by Stephen King and based on the settings and characters from many of his novels. Lawyer Henry Deaver returns to his troubled hometown of Castle Rock, Maine, but stays longer because he discovers all sorts of mysteries. During his stay he ends up representing a mysterious prisoner from Shawshank Penitentiary. Deaver confronts the secrets of his past. He confronts the prisoner's past and how they may be intertwined. But as the mystery unravels, the town seems to fight back.

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The Earth Collective s1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 01 May 2019 09:00:11 -0500

Episode 55. We listened to the first two seasons of a sci-fi audio drama called The Earth Collective, from creator Mike Troup. Humans colonized a planet far out in space but find that the darkness is strangely deadly, and the civilization now lives in giant caravans that drive around the planet so they can always stay in the light. Joseph Crane is a mechanic in this society on the move, recording what he knows of history and trying to solve the eerie mysteries behind the only kind of existence that generations have ever known.

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Terror In Resonance

The Whatnauts — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 18:23:51 -0500

Episode 54. We watched an anime by beloved director Shinichirō Watanabe called Terror in Resonance, AKA Terror in Tokyo. Two masked young men calling themselves Sphinx plant bombs across Tokyo and taunt the police with videos full of riddles. We learn who these boys are are, but what do they want, and when will they stop? It's a fascinating crime drama from both sides of the investigation!

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Birdman or (The Unexpected Virture of Ignorance)

The Whatnauts — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 09:00:32 -0500

Episode 53. We watched Birdman, the Oscar-winning 2014 film by Alejandro Iñárritu. Riggan Thomson is a former superhero movie star trying to be taken seriously as he writes, directs, and stars in a Broadway play. He's haunted by the role that made him big and the lines between Riggan and Birdman start to blur as tensions rise for opening night.

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Spencer & Locke

The Whatnauts — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 09:00:30 -0500

Episode 52. This week we read a graphic novel called Spencer & Locke. Remember reading Calvin and Hobbes when you were younger? Well what if Calvin and Hobbes grew up to become hard boiled detectives? That is the basic idea behind Spencer & Locke. It's a fast-paced crime story fueled by the nostalgia of beloved characters that you won't want to miss.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

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Pen15

The Whatnauts — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 09:00:15 -0500

Episode 51. We watched Pen15, a Hulu original show where comedians Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle play themselves at age 13, growing up in the year 2000. They deal with bullies, crushes, oblivious authority figures, cigarettes, and choosing an AIM username -- all the classic milestones of becoming a young adult.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

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Umbrella Academy

The Whatnauts — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 09:00:09 -0500

Episode 50. This week we watched season one of the Umbrella Academy show on Netflix, based on the comics by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá. Eccentric millionaire Reginald Hargreeves adopted seven very special children, honed their superpowers, and raised them to be heroes. Now almost 30 years later, the estranged siblings reunite for their father's funeral and discover a conspiracy to kickstart the apocalypse that will need them to bond together as a family again in hopes of saving the world.

Click here to watch a video of this episode.

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Green Lantern The Animated Series

The Whatnauts — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 09:00:55 -0500

Episode 49. This week we watched Green Lantern: The Animated Series, a 2012 Cartoon Network show produced by Bruce Timm. Hal Jordan and his Green Lantern Corps patrol space for threats from new enemy lantern corps and emerging secrets of their own leaders. It has punching, space adventure, and deep thoughts on the natures of humanity and love, whoa!

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Captain Marvel vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Wed, 13 Mar 2019 09:00:34 -0500

Episode 48. We read the first two volumes of Captain Marvel, written by Kelly Sue DeConnick with art by David Lopez and Marcio Takara. Carol tries to save a planet ravaged by a mysterious disease, help an alien stowaway on her ship, protect her friends back on Earth from old enemies, take care of her cat, and more in this series full of fun space adventures!

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Mob Psycho 100 s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 09:00:49 -0600

Episode 47. This week we watched season one of the anime Mob Psycho 100. Mob is a teenager with incredible psychic abilities who tries to keep his emotions contained to avoid them fueling and unleashing his powers. He has an apprenticeship with a con man "master psychic," other real psychic rivals in his fellow high school students, and a strained relationship with his younger brother. With stresses like these, the psychic blasts are gonna fly!

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Perfect Blue

The Whatnauts — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 09:00:32 -0600

Episode 46. We watched Perfect Blue, a 1997 animated film by Satoshi Kon. This is a psychological thriller about a pop singer who leaves that career behind to become an actress. With professional pressures, overbearing fans, and questioning her sense of identity, she's not sure if she's doing the right thing -- or if everything she's seeing is even real.

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The Artist

The Whatnauts — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 09:00:57 -0600

Episode 45. We class our podcast up this week and decided to watch The Artist, a 2011 silent, comedy-drama film that won multiple awards from the Academy Awards to the Golden Globes and more. It follows George Valentin, a decorated silent movie star as his career begins to crumble amidst the rise of Talkies, movies with sound. As his stardom falls, Peppy Miller, a young aspiring actress, takes the stage and sees her career take off as she becomes one of the first big stars of these new Talkies. But the two stars just cant seem to get each other off their minds.

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Spider-Man Blue

The Whatnauts — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 09:00:22 -0600

Episode 44. We read Spider-Man: Blue, a graphic novel by Jeff Loeb and Tim Sale where an adult Peter Parker, now married to Mary Jane, reflects on meeting and losing Gwen Stacy back in college. It's a sweet and thoughtful story of the two loves of Peter's life, perfect for Valentine's Day!

The Whatnauts Review Show is a weekly book club style podcast about all sorts of cool things from comic books, manga, anime, movies, TV, and more. We stream new episodes live every Sunday at 12 noon EDT on our Twitch channel! If you miss the stream, it comes out on youtube and as a podcast a week later on Saturdays. Or you can get it early by supporting us on Patreon.

Here at The Whatnauts we produce a lot of podcasts and we would love to have your support. Get early access to all our episodes and other cool perks when you join our Patreon! For just $1 each month you can help us keep the lights on and help us keep growing.

Find us on twitter and facebook too!

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Pushing Daisies s1

The Whatnauts — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 09:00:16 -0600

Episode 43. We watched the first season of Pushing Daisies, a 2007 cult TV show created by Bryan Fuller. Ned has the power to wake the dead with a touch, and kill them again with another touch. He uses this to help a PI solve murders, but when one of the victims is his own childhood sweetheart, he can't stand the thought of losing her again. She's staying alive, even if it means the two of them can never touch. It's a crime show about romance, magic, and pie!

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Wayward vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 18:48:43 -0600

Episode 42. This week we read the first two volumes of Wayward, an ambitious comic series by writer Jim Zub and artist Steve Cummings. After her parents divorce, Rori Lane leaves her lifelong home in Ireland to live with her mother in her native Japan. She has to adjust to a new country, an unfriendly high school, frequent monster attacks, and strange new powers that are suddenly manifesting within her. At least she finds other powered kids to back her up!

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Big Hero 6

The Whatnauts — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 17:00:46 -0600

Episode 41. This week we watched Big Hero 6, a Disney animated movie that adapts and improves on a 90s Marvel comic. Hiro Hamada, a young genius in San Fransokyo, teams up with a healthcare robot and a colorful pack of tech students to stop a masked villain who's stolen his inventions. It's a fun adventure that will soon debut as a new playable world in Kingdom Hearts 3!

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Essex County

The Whatnauts — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 09:00:57 -0600

Episode 40. This week we discuss Essex County, a graphic novel by Jeff Lemire. It's comprised of three short stories all taking place in Essex County. The first follows a young boy obsessed with comics and superheros learning to grow up. The second story follow an older gentleman with Alzheimer's trying to recall his life and everything he has lost. The final story follows the town nurse making house calls to the townsfolk while we also see the story of her ancestor and how she came to live in Essex County.

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Mission Impossible 1-6

The Whatnauts — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 09:32:54 -0600

Episode 39. We are starting 2019 with a bang! This week we discuss all six Mission Impossible movies (so far), from the 1996 original to the most recent one, Fallout. Tom Cruise plays Agent Ethan Hunt of the Impossible Mission Force. These movies are action blockbusters at its finest. Come listen!

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The Whatnauts 3 Year Anniversary Retrospective!

The Whatnauts — Sat, 05 Jan 2019 09:00:52 -0600

Happy 3 year anniversary to us! The Whatnauts have been around for three whole years, and that's pretty awesome. Paul Kang, one of our co-creators, stepped down, but thankfully some new faces stepped up to help The Whatnauts keep the lights on. Kyle sits down with Jess Bever, Eric Manix, Melissa Wilkenson, and Belinda Garcia to chat about this past year and everything we have done here at The Whatnauts.

The Whatnauts does a couple different podcasts, including The Review Show and The Captain's Log. We live stream many of our shows and put them up on podcast services and youtube so you can listen or watch anywhere.

Find us on twitter and facebook too!

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Happy!

The Whatnauts — Sun, 23 Dec 2018 09:00:26 -0600

Episode 38. Merry Christmas! This week we discuss Happy! And we compare and contrast the comic book and the tv show based off of it. Happy! is about an alcoholic ex-cop turned hitman that has a heart attack. When he wakes up he can see a flying blue unicorn telling him to go save a little girl who was kidnapped by someone dressed as Santa. It is balls to the wall insane.

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Rise of the Guardians

The Whatnauts — Sun, 16 Dec 2018 09:00:55 -0600

Episode 37. This week we discuss Rise of the Guardians! Melissa pitched Christmas… adjacent films and Rise of the Guardians fits that bill perfectly. It follows Jack Frost as he is chosen to be a new member of The Guardians, a secret group of beings, like Santa and the Easter Bunny, who help protect the joy of the children all around the world. The reason Jack Frost is picked to join their ranks is because a new threat has arisen to destroy the world!

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Kino’s Journey (2017)

The Whatnauts — Tue, 11 Dec 2018 17:34:20 -0600

Episode 36. This week we discuss Kino's Journey: A Beautiful World - The Animated Series. Dang that's a mouthful. However, Kino's Journey is an anime that follows a girl, Kino, and her talking motorcycle, Hermes as they travel from country to country discovering new people and cultures while trying to find the beauty in it all. For this episode we watched the version of Kino's Journey from 2017, but there is also an older version from 2003 that is equally worth the watch.

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Little Shop of Horrors

The Whatnauts — Sun, 02 Dec 2018 11:43:38 -0600

Episode 35. This week we discuss Little Shop of Horrors! Who doesn't love a little Rick Moranis is their lives? Rick plays an unassuming florist that discovers a new plant that feeds on blood. But the more blood he gives it, the more blood the plant wants. Little Shop of Horrors is a horror comedy musical we are certain you will have fun watching.

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The Forest

The Whatnauts — Sun, 25 Nov 2018 09:00:11 -0600

Episode 34. This week we discuss The Forest, a French Netflix original crime show. It's a short six episode series about a girl who goes missing in the forest after receiving a weird phone call and a woman who can't remember her past.

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Wotakoi: Love Is Hard For Otaku

The Whatnauts — Sun, 18 Nov 2018 09:00:37 -0600

Episode 33. This week we discuss an anime all about office romance among otaku (That's basically a nerd for you uninitiated folks). Wotakoi: Love is Hard For Otaku follows a young woman who starts a new job but feels like she has to hide that she is an otaku from her other co workers. However she quickly finds that a few other coworkers are otaku as well, her interests are nothing to be ashamed of, and even love.

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Plutona

The Whatnauts — Sun, 11 Nov 2018 09:00:28 -0600

Episode 32. This week we discuss a graphic novel from Image comics called Plutona. It follows a group of young kids who happen to find a dead body in the woods one day after school. Does that remind you of Stand By Me? Well, what if that dead body was of the worlds greatest superhero? Then what if it all just gets worse? That… is Plutona.

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An American Werewolf in London

The Whatnauts — Sun, 04 Nov 2018 12:51:12 -0600

Episode 31. This week we discuss An American Werewolf in London. It's a horror comedy film both written and directed by John Landis of The Blues Brothers fame as well as many other hit movies. The film follow two friends as they are backpacking across the English countryside but get attacked by a werewolf along the way leaving one of them dead and the other doomed to become a werewolf in few weeks time. And goodness gracious the makeup and effects in this movie are amazing. If nothing else, watch this film just for that.

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Dororo

The Whatnauts — Sun, 28 Oct 2018 09:00:33 -0500

Episode 30. This week we discuss King Falls AM, which is a audio drama centered around the weird things happening in the town of King Falls and the crazy cast of characters that inhabit it. There are aliens, ghosts, possibly sea monsters, and more!

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King Falls AM ep. 1-25

The Whatnauts — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 17:45:59 -0500

Episode 29. This week we discuss King Falls AM, which is a audio drama centered around the weird things happening in the town of King Falls and the crazy cast of characters that inhabit it. There are aliens, ghosts, possibly sea monsters, and more!

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Venom: Lethal Protector

The Whatnauts — Sun, 14 Oct 2018 09:00:49 -0500

Episode 28. This week we discuss Venom: Lethal Protector, which was Venom’s first solo comic series. Venom moves to San Fransisco and tries to settle in only to get caught up in a plot that will kill a lot of people. It’s up to Venom to stop it! But Spider-Man still doesn’t trust Venom and decides to lend a hand and keep an eye on the situation.

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The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina vol. 1

The Whatnauts — Sun, 07 Oct 2018 09:00:36 -0500

Episode 27. This week we discuss volume one of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina! This is a horror comic about a teenage witch trying to balance the frightening reality of who and what she is with the desire to want to fit in and be normal. It's an awesome, and much more serious take on the Archie characters you might already know. Plus, it's getting it's own Netflix show this month, October 2018!

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The Dragon Prince

The Whatnauts — Sun, 30 Sep 2018 09:00:01 -0500

Episode 26. This week we discuss the brand new Netflix cartoon, The Dragon Prince. It's a fantasy story revolving around a war between human and elves, but it has dragons, magic, and... glow toads. Plus it's being written by one of the head writers from Avatar the Last Airbender, so you know it has a good pedigree.

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Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc. s1

The Whatnauts — Sun, 23 Sep 2018 17:43:29 -0500

Episode 25. This week we discuss Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc. season one! This is an updated version of our favorite mystery solving dog and his friends with a little more continuity that we are used to. Can Scooby and the gang figure out what happened to the original Mystery Incorporated?

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Godzilla 1-2 (Netflix)

The Whatnauts — Mon, 17 Sep 2018 18:04:44 -0500

Episode 24. This week we discuss Godzilla: Planets of the Monsters and Godzilla: City On The Edge of Battle. Both are Netflix Original anime movies with a futuristic, sci-fi take on the king of monsters. These are the first two movies in a trilogy, the third of which is due to be released late 2018. Does Netflix's version hold itself up against previous Godzilla stories? Come find out!

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Disenchantment s1

The Whatnauts — Sun, 09 Sep 2018 15:26:33 -0500

Episode 23. This week we discuss Disenchantment season one! Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons and Futurama is back at it again. Disenchantment season one is a ten episode animated series on Netflix. It follows a princess reluctant to fulfull her duties and trying to figure out her place in the world as she is accompanied by a small elf and a demon. Many adventures will be had.

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Iron: Or, The War After

The Whatnauts — Sun, 02 Sep 2018 16:28:39 -0500

Episode 22. This week we discuss a beautiful graphic novel called Iron: Or, The War After. It's an anthropomorphic spy-thriller set in a bleak world after a civil war with some fascinating characters. This books packs a hell of a lot in a small amount of space and does so excellently.

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Bubble

The Whatnauts — Sat, 25 Aug 2018 09:00:39 -0500

Episode 21. This week we discuss Bubble, a hilarious audio drama podcast that takes place in... you guessed it... a bubble. In which, the residents of Fairhaven live normal lives working jobs that has them fighting monsters from the Brush, the dangerous terrain outside of the Bubble.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Infinite Loop

The Whatnauts — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 18:09:10 -0500

Episode 20. This week we discuss The Infinite Loop, a sci-fi, time-travel adventure comic about a woman who falls in love with a person she is supposed to destroy. Will she do her job, or run away with the woman of her dreams?

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Wet Hot American Summer

The Whatnauts — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 11:23:29 -0500

Episode 19. This week we discuss Wet Hot American Summer. It's a comedy/spoof on teenage comedies from the 70s/80s and the memories of good old summer camp. It even stars some young up and coming actors like Bradley Cooper and Amy Poehler.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

House of Five Leaves

The Whatnauts — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 19:30:05 -0500

Episode 18. This week we discuss House of Five Leaves. It's an anime that follows a down-on-his-luck samurai that ends up taking a job as a bodyguard for a local criminal, but begins to question the morality of his decision. It's a slice of life show with a fascinating mystery that builds as it goes on.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

All-Star Superman

The Whatnauts — Sat, 28 Jul 2018 13:20:00 -0500

Episode 17. This week we discuss All-Star Superman! And for almost two hours. Whoa. It's a graphic novel by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly about what Superman would do if he found out he was dying. It's Morrison's love letter to Superman and filled with layers of metaphor and plenty of symbolism to unpack.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Star Wars Rebels s1

The Whatnauts — Sun, 22 Jul 2018 10:42:42 -0500

Episode 16. This week we discuss the first season of Star Wars Rebels. This was the first Star Wars cartoon that Disney produced after that had bought Lucas Film. Rebels also served as a follow up to the popular Star Wars: The Clone Wars which originally aired on Cartoon Network.

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American Gods s1

The Whatnauts — Sat, 14 Jul 2018 09:00:49 -0500

Episode 15. This week we discuss American Gods season one, based off of Neil Gaiman's novel of the same name.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Chow Down Champs vol. 1-4

The Whatnauts — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 11:20:01 -0500

Episode 14. This week we discuss Chow Down Champs, a manga about one high school's journey to bring their competitive eating club back to its former glory.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Valerian And The City of A Thousand Planets

The Whatnauts — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 13:12:46 -0500

Episode 13. This week we discuss Valerian! A fast paced sci-fi film based off of an influential French comic book.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Dept. H vol. 1-2

The Whatnauts — Mon, 25 Jun 2018 12:07:12 -0500

Episode 12. It's a murder mystery 20,000 leagues under the sea! This week we discuss the first two volumes of Matt Kindt's comic, Dept. H.

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Young Frankenstein

The Whatnauts — Sat, 16 Jun 2018 09:00:08 -0500

Episode 11. This week we discuss Young Frankenstein! It's Mel Brooks' hilarious spoof on a classic sci-fi horror tale.

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FLCL

The Whatnauts — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 09:00:08 -0500

Episode 10. This week we discuss FLCL, a high speed, in your face, classic anime from the early 2000s that just started its second season in 2018.

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The Fearsome Morning

The Whatnauts — Sat, 02 Jun 2018 09:00:48 -0500

Episode 9. This week we discuss The Fearsome Morning, an audio drama podcast about a young man landing his dream job as the assistant to the world's 14th sexiest man and host of his favorite morning show.

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Strangers in Paradise

The Whatnauts — Sat, 26 May 2018 09:00:25 -0500

Episode 8. This week we discuss Terry Moore's self published comic, and fan favorite, Strangers in Paradise vol. 1-2.

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Much Ado About Nothing

The Whatnauts — Sun, 20 May 2018 14:20:15 -0500

Episode 7. This week we discuss Joss Whedon's take on Shakespear's play, Much Ado About Nothing.

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Kids on the Slope

The Whatnauts — Fri, 18 May 2018 18:29:17 -0500

Episode 6. Kids on the Slope is one of Kyle's favorite animes, and we finally get to discuss it on this weeks episode. It's about a kid who plays classical piano switching gears and learning to play Jazz while making some new friends along the way.

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E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

The Whatnauts — Fri, 18 May 2018 18:26:38 -0500

Episode 5. This week we discuss one of the classics, Steven Spielberg's, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial! An alien is stranded on earth and befriends two young kids as they try to hide him from the adults and the police.

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Infinity Gauntlet

The Whatnauts — Thu, 17 May 2018 23:56:31 -0500

Episode 4. Starting this episode, Melissa joins the show as a permenant host. Kyle is super excited to have her on co-hosting duties. This week, we discuss the Marvel comic Infinity Gauntlet because we are so hype for Avengers: Infinity War!

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The Castle Of Cagliostro

The Whatnauts — Thu, 17 May 2018 23:52:48 -0500

Episode 3. This week we discuss an incredible adventure film, Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro, which was Miyazaki's debut as a director on a feature length film.

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Velvet vol. 1-3

The Whatnauts — Thu, 17 May 2018 23:49:55 -0500

Episode 2. This week Kyle discusses the spy thriller comic book Velvet, about a washed up old spy who gets pulled back into the game when one of the top agents at her workplace gets murdered. Many of her co-workers had written her off as an unassuming office secretary, but she is an incredible spy who just needs to shake a bit of the rust off. And she will need to do it quick as the mystery ends up going much deeper than murder.

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The Path s1

The Whatnauts — Thu, 17 May 2018 04:57:21 -0500

Episode 1. We have rebranded and relaunched the show! More details to come soon. This Week, I discuss season 1 of The Path, a Hulu original show about a man struggling with his faith after learning the cult he is apart of is lying. The Whatnauts Review Show is a weekly book club style podcast about all sorts of cool things from comic books, manga, anime, movies, TV, and more. We stream new episodes live on our Twitch channel! If you miss the stream, it comes out on youtube and as a podcast a week later on Saturdays. Get early access to all our episodes and other cool perks when you join our Patreon! Find us on twitter and facebook too!

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