Nerd Lunch

This month's After Dinner Lounge concludes with Michael, Rob, and Pax talking about video game encyclopaedias, the new Birds of Prey comic, Jughead, books and comics by Charles Soule, Greg Rucka, Ryan North, and Kieron Gillen, Harry Potter, ‘80s Spider-Man comics, The Pope’s Exorcist, more Elvis movies, Batman ‘66, the cancelation of Winning Time, breakfast preferences, Blue Beetle and the current state of superhero movies, the second seasons of Dark Winds and The After Party, the Equalizer movies, Bottoms, and A Haunting in Venice.

Michael, Rob, and Pax gather again in the lounge to discuss what they've been listening to, thinking about, reading, and watching. And Evan Hanson stops in for a bit! In this episode, they dig into their favourite video games and Autumn traditions, various podcasts (including the impressive, new Remember That Show?), Jimmy Buffett, the second seasons of Foundation and Good Omens, Justified, X-Men and Star Trek comics, Asteroid City, Werewolves Within, The Menu, 1917, Attack the Block, Twitter vs Bluesky, Early Autumn by Robert B Parker, The Cincinnati Kid, John Hughes movies, and Hardy Boys shorts.   

In preparation for an upcoming episode of After Lunch After Midnight in which Michael and Jessica Hickman discuss the first three Universal Frankenstein movies, here's a rerun of a 2019 episode of the Filthy Horrors podcast where they and Darla Ecklund talked about the Mary Shelley novel and several adaptations of it.

Following up on Episode 132 from last year when we determined the Ultimate Literary Villain of All Time, Michael and Rob welcome Ben Graham and Paxton Holley to do the same with TV villains. Each panelists nominates four favorite boob tube baddies, then we put them into tournament brackets to discuss and vote. Will you agree with our choices? Did we leave off a favorite of yours? Listen and let us know!

Michael, Rob, and Pax return to the Planet of the Apes and dig deep into its subterranean (and substandard) sequel. 

Michael, Rob, and Karen discuss Roger Moore's first go as Bond and the mixing of British spy adventure with the blaxploitation and hicksploitation genres. It's a messy film with plenty to talk about in terms of what works and what doesn't.

Inspired by last episode's Dracula discussion, we're rerunning another episode of the old Filthy Horrors podcast. Michael, Jess, and Darla talk about all things Dracula: from the original novel to their favorite movies, comics, games, and more.

Michael and guest Becky Tyler take a bat-driven carriage through an overview of Dracula movies from 1922's Nosteratu to this year's The Last Voyage of the Demeter.

As mentioned in Episode 199, After Lunch is starting a new series of horror-themed episodes that we're calling "After Midnight". Jessica Hickman joins Michael to kick off with a discussion of Universal's trilogy of Creature from the Black Lagoon films: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Revenge of the Creature (1955), and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956).

Michael, Rob, and Pax wrap up this month's Lounge talking about Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, playlists for running, the Wham! documentary, Barbie, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, video games we've been playing, the Jungle Cruise movie, Justified, Secret Invasion, They Cloned Tyrone, and Classic Doctor Who.

Michael, Rob, and Pax chat about how reading goals affect reading enjoyment, death and funerals, life as a cartoon animal, Matthew Reilly’s YA book (The Secret Runners of New York), Old Habits (a Die Hard spec script turned novel), Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent, Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse comics, The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz, Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, current Star Trek comics, and Elvis and Ann-Margret movies.

Michael, Rob, and Pax visit the Planet of the Apes! Kicking off a bunch of discussions about the simian series, we start with a quick conversation about Pierre Boulle's novel before exploring the 1968 movie that started a phenomenon. 

Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger close out the Sean Connery era of the Bond films with Diamonds Are Forever. They talk about the return of Connery, whether it's a worthy follow-up to On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and the wisdom of hiring a jazz musician and Crispin Glover's dad to play assassins. The movie's directed by Goldfinger's Guy Hamilton and also stars Jill St John, Charles Gray, Lana Wood, and Jimmy Dean.

We're soon going to start a new horror-focused series of episodes called After Lunch After Midnight featuring Michael and his pal Jessica Hickman. It's sort of a spin-off of another podcast called Filthy Horrors that they did together with their mutual pal Darla Ecklund. So to introduce After Midnight, we thought it might be good to rerun the first episode of Filthy Horrors in which Jess, Darla, and Michael talk about their history with horror, the kinds of horror they like, and lots of examples of favorite horror movies, TV shows, books, and comics.

Michael and Rob wrap their Mission: Impossible movies watch-through (for now) with the new entry in the series: Dead Reckoning, Part One. They talk about all the spoilers and whether second viewings changed their perspective on anything. Well, one thing in particular, but sure, everything else, too.

Michael, Rob, and Pax finish this months Lounge with discussion about their personal movie rating systems, Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series, Daniel Pemberton movie scores, The Haunting of Bly Manor, the second season of Schmigadoon!, more about Ted Lasso, Kate Beckinsale in Love & Friendship, Nimona, modern Luddites, The Flash, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Alamo Drafthouse, their top three favorite comic book artists, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, maybe a little bit about the new Mission: Impossible movie, and much much more.

Michael, Rob, and Pax chat about farting soulmates, '90s revamped superheroes, Pax’s idea for a Batman ‘66 Season 4 crossover, Philip Marlowe in The Little Sister, Hammer Frankenstein and the Hammer House of Podcast, Men both Gray and Thin, weekly comics reading, crappy Spider-Man novels, the darkening of the Harry Potter books, and lots of other things.

Michael, Rob, and Delaney Graham continue their Star Trek Trek with season 4 of Discovery. Find out what we thought of the butterfly people, the new Federation President, all that jargon (The DMA! Species 10-C! The Orb! The Hyperfield!), and the most contentious element of the season: Zora. 

As Hasbro begins building its cinematic universe in real life, Michael and Rob welcome Jeeg and David May to talk about how they would do it. Following the MCU model, each person has picked a Hasbro game or toy to adapt into a movie that then connects somehow into the other movies, all leading to an Avengers-style crossover blockbuster. Madness or genius? You decide!

While Michael and Rob wait for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One to come out, they follow up Henry Cavill's performance in Fallout with another Cavill spy movie, Guy Ritchie's The Man from UNCLE.