@fter Midnight on CBS is ending … and that’s a shame
@fter Midnight, a funny, intentionally stupid, unpredictable and entertaining late-night show, has been following The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for the last couple of years – and it comes from the same shop. Sadly, the week of June 9 is the end of the line; there won’t be a third season. And that’s a damn shame.
Random Number Generator Horror Podcast Number 9: Smart, Surprising, Intelligent (and fresh out of Night Vale)
Now, everybody knows about Welcome to Night Vale. What started as a strange little fiction podcast a few years back has grown into an international business all its own, with best-selling books and after-shows and merch and live performances that travel internationally, and in all that time and expansion, it has never lost its edge.
Now two of the creative cornerstones of Night Vale, writer Jeffrey Craynor and the indispensable writer and performer Cecil Baldwin, the voice of Night Vale itself, have a little side-hustle going: a celebration of horror movies with the charmingly ungainly title of Random Number Generator Horror Podcast Number 9.
Into the Deep is a completely forgettable shark-thriller on Prime … except for Richard Dreyfuss.
Into the Deep is a completely forgettable “modern-day pirates try to capture a little boat on the open sea and encounter a female defender who is more than they bargained for. With sharks.” ‘thriller.’ The only (and most interesting) thing about it is the inexplicable appearance of Richard Dreyfuss – in a shark movie, ffs. Yes, that Richard Dreyfuss.
The Weekly Planet: An Aussie podcast about comic book news, reviews, and rumors … and damn good fun
I know, just what you need: another podcast. But this one, from the far-off land of Australia, has a lot of the charm and energy of old days, and reminds you why you started listening to this strangely addicting medium way back in the day. Comic book, horror, science fiction and fantasy movie news, reviews, and gossip with a healthy dose of sarcasm.
Gogglebox: UK TV at its … finest?
Here’s an idea…
Choose about a dozen absolutely normal people out there – couples or families, married folks or siblings or best friends – and you don’t bring them into the studio, and you don’t interview them on camera. No. You go to their houses and you install what I assume to be a small, unobtrusive and non-intrusive camera right near their TV. One that it only on a few hours a day, when they’re watching specific programs that you producer-type have chosen for them in that week. Then you take all the footage from all those dozen or more groups, ou stitch the base parts of their comments and reactions to the shows – not reviews, at all, but their experience of watching these shows – and you send it back out to the world in one hour of almost found footage. Think it’s work? It already does. Gogglebox is a huge hit in the UK and has been for years. You’ll need a VPN and a little initiative to grab it here in the States. but it’s not only entertaining; it offers some real insight into what Normal People the world round think of ‘us’ these days. And it’s not pretty…
Slightly older but no less fascinating posts
Kennie JD: One of the Best Things About YouTube
YouTube has become too huge to truly comprehend, and most of the 'tubers that built their base from YT have either moved on, retreated, or sunk into scandal. But once in a while you stumble overcome with long-form content that is charming and insightful about its...
This Wretched Valley: survival horror with great promise … and something missing
I just finished Jenny Kiefer’s This Wretched Valley, by first-time novelist Jenny Kiefer … and I almost liked it. But there was something missing… and I wonder if anyone else felt it, too. You remember the podcast, Talking Scared, that I reviewed a while back? They...
Henry Thomas and the sequel to E.T. (no, really)
Here, come on down the rabbit hole with me. I went looking for some background on Henry Thomas for a review of The Fall of the House of Usher… and found an entirely different little gem: a very short, very special sequel to E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, posing as an...
How to Solve the Problems with the Emmies, Oscars, and All the Awards: Burn Them to the Ground
Let’s face it: all the entertainment awards shows, from the Oscars and the Emmies to the execrable Golden Globes are a terrible mess. Such a mess, in fact, the only decision might be simply to burn them all down and start over. I’m not usually an extreme kind of guy....
Maggie Moore(s) is Jon Hamm at his best …and there’s more where that came from
Jon Hamm has been doing some very cool stuff for the last couple of years --- and the smart, sweet, funny Maggie Moore(s) is a perfect example. This tight, quiet, smart little mystery/comedy/thriller has been knocking around for a few months, but it’s just been added...
Talking Scared, the best damn interview show of horror writers around.
There are plenty, plenty of horror podcasts out there, good and bad and mostly boring – especially boring for people who have been watching and reading horror for a long time. In most cases, jaded old horror fans will come to feel as if they’re waiting for the hosts...
The Great Pottery Throw Down isn’t a competition. Not really.
You know … competition is a whole different thing in Great Britain. I mean, sports, yes – your soccer, your rugby, your Olympic events – in sports, the British are so competitive they’re downright dangerous. But when it comes to … what would you call it? Recreational...
Why I Gave Up On Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon After Only 40 Minutes
I know – God, we all know -- that Rebel Moon was supposed to be big, I mean big, for Zack Snyder. His break away from superhero movies that he now professes to be tired of, his chance to show his real vision. Yeah, about that. From where I was sitting, it took less...
Nathan Fielder’s The Curse is nothing like what you’d expect. But what is it?
You know, I really hadn’t planned on talking about The Curse … not until I saw the last episode and now, I … I have to… I mean … what the hell? You know, I’ve never been a big fan of the ‘comedy of discomfort,” all the way back to Andy Kaufman and for that matter Don...
Marvel’s Echo is a ground-level, culturally complex superhero story (sort of)
Marvel's Echo, available on Disney+ and Hulu, is a major re-telling of a B-List Daredevil character, in a disorganized, risky and ultimately admirable but not completely successful attempt at telling a ‘deeper’ story despite the superhero genre. It’s far from perfect,...