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Meander In Geek

Meander In Geek

Amblin’ Entertainment: Our hosts glide through various pieces of news and entertainment that caught their attention this last week. Andrew finds himself lost amid some very strange controversy around the game engine, Godot, while also quite enjoying Netflix’s queer teenage dramedy, Heartstopper. D. Bethel admits he’s a fan of the famed horror manga creator, Junji Ito, and found a lot to like in the first episode of the Adult Swim animated adaptation of his acclaimed work, Uzumaki, though it sounds like episode 2 may not quite live up to the expectations established by the premiere.

TOPICS:
(00:00) Intro – Andrew & D. break down The Night of the Living Dead
(04:04) Andrew breaks down the Godot game engine controversy
(12:19) D. Bethel is impressed (for now) with the anime (?) adaptation of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki.
(23:41) Andrew finds Netflix’s Heartstopper very endearing.
(41:09) Outro – D. Bethel & The Amityville Horror
(44:41) Outtakes

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • Brine and Brinstar” (31 October 2014): Where our hosts discuss George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.
  • Privilege of Ubiquity” (15 September 2023): Where our hosts discuss some controversy generated by a change in its licensing policy for developers using its engine.
  • A Relaxed Schedule” (20 October 2023): Where our hosts discuss another British sex dramedy, Sex Education.

INFO:

FEATURED MUSIC:

High Five Lag

High Five Lag

WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew is pleasantly suprised and intrigued by the recent CBS…reboot? remake? metacommentary?…of Matlock starring Kathy Bates. D. Bethel tries to intersect his professional and personal interests with the critical works about video games, comics, and movies from the French publisher, Third Editions. Specifically, he’s started a dive into Decoding The Last of Us: The Remnants of Humanity by Nicolas Deneschau, though they spend a fair amount talking about The Impact of Akira: A Manga [R]evolution by Rémi Lopez.

TOPICS:
(00:00) Intro – Our hosts are busy
(03:04) Andrew’s Week in Geek: Matlock
(19:54) D.’s Week in Geek: Decoding The Last of Us: The Remnants of Humanity
(40:09) Outro – That’s Called Friendship
(41:01) Outtakes

RELEVANT LINKS:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • Prime Time Crime” (5 March 2021): Where Andrew finds a lot to like and not like in the reboot of The Equalizer.
  • Attachment Point” (9 February 2024): Where Andrew reflects on five seasons of the Magnum, P.I. reboot.

INFO:

FEATURED MUSIC:

Dragon Crap

Dragon Crap

WEEK IN GEEK: This week, Andrew gets entranced (and a little ill) playing the hit indie rhythm game, Trombone Champ, while Dan gets charmed by the hit AppleTV+ show, Ted Lasso.

RELEVANT LINKS:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • Jerry Goldsmith White Noise Machine” (6 March 2015): Where D. Bethel talks about John Carpenter’s first album of instrumental music, Lost Themes.
  • An Existential Poem” (12 August 2018): Where D. Bethel talks about John Carpenter’s second album of instrumental music, Lost Themes II.
  • Toxic Delivery Mechanism” (12 October 2018): Where our hosts discuss another of John Carpenter’s incredible entries into the horror genre, Halloween.
  • Chasing Chickens” (17 July 2020): Where Andrew shares his excitement for an early AppleTV+ show, For All Mankind.

INFO:

FEATURED MUSIC:

Tummy Drums

Tummy Drums

NOT FAR FROM HOME: It was announced that Sony and Disney/Marvel had once again struck a deal that will keep Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, much to the joy of fans and to the benefit of both companies’ bank accounts. Having discussed the initial breakup back when it happened in August, Andrew and D. Bethel have a surprisingly heated discussion of this generally happy news.

THE STRANGEST HANDSHAKE: British tabletop company, Games Workshop, announced that it will be licensing one of its beloved properties––Warhammer 40,000––to American comic book giant, Marvel Comics, to make a line of comic books. This is interesting because both of Games Workshop’s original Warhammer line and especially its Warhammer 40,000 line have deep lore and continuities that has our hosts wondering how well it will translate to a comic book series.

RELEVANT LINKS:

RELEVANT EPISODES:

  • Ghost Highway (23 August 2019): Where Andrew and D. Bethel talk about the great Sony-Marvel contract dissolution of 2019.
  • New Dangers (20 September 2019): Where, briefly, D. Bethel and Andrew display their light wrestling knowledge in the light of AEW’s strange storyline built around a jock heel wrestler insults his opponent for liking Dungeons & Dragons.

INFO:

FEATURED MUSIC:

Episode 161 – Mustache Nonsense

Episode 161 – Mustache Nonsense

Image source: BBC

WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew gets impressed with The Bard’s Tale Trilogy remastered collection on Steam while D. Bethel watches Venom and, even though he enjoyed it, wonders why it’s hitting such a strong chord with viewers.

DOCTOR BOO!: With Spookytober drawing to a close, Andrew and D. couldn’t not talk about Doctor Who, so they dove into the archive to talk about what they argue may be one of the series’ scariest episodes yet, series 4’s “Midnight.”

LINKS:

  • Haddonfield Has a Posse.” Episode 7 of Halloween Unmasked, where John Carpenter talks about the two types of fear.

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
-“District Four” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
*Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Episode 160 – Business Exempt

Episode 160 – Business Exempt

WEEK IN GEEK: This week, it’s a dive into the Fall tv shows that both our hosts were excited to see as Andrew watches the first episode of Alton Brown’s Good Eats: Reloaded while D. Bethel reacts to the first three episodes of the second season of The Gifted.

GAMES WORKERS UNITE: In the wake of massive layoffs by developers like Telltale Games and Riot Games, The Vulture published an article under the auspice of being a “behind the scenes” look at Red Dead Redemption 2‘s development at Rockstar Games. The article sparked a lot of controversy, specifically around the (walked back) claim of the team working 100-hour weeks multiple times during 2018 to make sure this game is top of the line in terms of quality. These incidents bring again a highlight to the labor practices of game development, through which D. and Andrew try to wade.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

LINKS:

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
-“District Four” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
*Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Episode 159 – Toxic Delivery Mechanism

Episode 159 – Toxic Delivery Mechanism

image source: Universal Pictures

HALLOWED HALLOWEEN: The Spookytober topic for this week is the forty-years later direct sequel to John Carpenter’s breakthrough––and culturally important––hit, Halloween. This new movie, Halloween, sees the return of Jamie Lee Curtis to her role as Laurie Strode but instead of being the prey of Michael Meyers, it is he who becomes the hunted. Andrew and D. Bethel discuss the series and what they’re expecting/hoping from this new movie.

WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew gets his Metroidvania on with Chucklefish’s Timespinner and how eerily Castlevania: Symphony of the Night it seems to be at times while D. Bethel becomes enthralled with the first five episodes of the podcast audio drama produced by a collaboration between Marvel Comics and Stitcher (the podcast streaming website), Wolverine: The Long Night.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

LINKS:

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
-“District Four” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
*Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Episode 158 – Bluster and Impotence

Episode 158 – Bluster and Impotence

MEYERED IN CONTROVERSY: Richard Meyer and his “Diversity and Comics” YouTube Channel have been no stranger on this podcast with his leading the charge of the abhorrent ComicsGate dissention among comic book fandom. After gaining notoriety with his “Dark Roast” YouTube video (since deleted) that accused various popular industry creatives of committing sexual, devious, and illegal acts to get their way to the top, Mark Waid––among others––reached out to Antarctic Press to voice concerns with their decision to publish Meyer’s comic, JAWBREAKERS. After hearing those concerns, Antarctic Press terminated their contract with Meyer and went to the internet to spew bile in response. At the end of September, Meyer sued Waid for “tortious interference with contract” and “defamation.” D. Bethel and resident nerd lawyer, Andrew Asplund, dive back into this cesspool to navigate what exactly is going on throughout this new development.

NOTE: No comment made by Andrew during this episode constitutes legal advice or establishes client-lawyer relations.

TWILIGHT RETURNS: It was recently announced that the previously announced Jordan Peele-produced reboot of The Twilight Zone will actually star Mr. Peele himself as the host for the digital-only streaming service CBS All-Access. Andrew and D. talk about their excitement––and fears! (to make it spooky for Spookytober)––for the upcoming show.

RELEVANT EPISODES:

LINKS:

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“Disco Medusae” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
-“District Four” by Kevin McLeod (incompetech.com)*
*Tracks are licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Episode 148 – Bro-Bro Yo-Yo

Episode 148 – Bro-Bro Yo-Yo

WEEK IN GEEK: Andrew talks about the premier of the new (and final) season of Star Wars: Rebels while D. Bethel talks about Netflix’s new based-on-a-true-story-kind-of David Fincher-led crime drama, Mindhunter.

SPOOKYTOBER: In celebration of the scariest month of the year, Andrew and D. discuss a movie each that really, truly gave them the scaries. Andrew discusses the cult classic, Jacob’s Ladder, while D. discusses the forgotten gothic horror of The Others.

RELATED EPISODES:

INFO:

For all intents and purposes, that was an episode recap.

FEATURED MUSIC:

-“Stayin’ in Black” by Wax Audio