The Weekly Stuff Podcast #125 - Thanksgiving catch-up and Doctor Who S9E10 & S9E11: "Face the Raven" & "Heaven Sent"

It’s time for another episode of The Weekly Stuff Podcast with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman, a weekly audio show that explores the worlds of film, television, and video games. You can subscribe for free in iTunes by following this link.

On this week’s very busy episode, we spend the first hour playing catch-up from Thanksgiving break; I review The Good Dinosaur and Creed, Sean talks Netflix and Marvel’s Jessica Jones, we give our thoughts on the new Captain America: Civil War trailer, and I wax poetic about The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which, after many years of trying to play, I finally played and beat on my vacation.

But the real meat of the episode is our Doctor Who discussion, as we catch up on the latest two episodes – the exquisite “Face the Raven,” and the all-time great “Heaven Sent.” If you have seen these episodes, you know there’s a lot to talk about. And we talk about all of it, including a really intriguing theory from Sean on where we might be going in next week’s finale. As we say on the show, it is a glorious time to be a Doctor Who fan, and we could not be any happier talking about it at length the way we get to here.

Enjoy, and come back next week for our breakdown of the Doctor Who finale and Series 9 as a whole!

  

Download and Stream 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #125 as an MP3

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If you have questions, comments, or concerns about The Weekly Stuff, or would like to write in to the podcast to have your questions read on the show, please e-mail dinochow@jonathanlack.com.

The Weekly Stuff with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman is a weekly audio podcast, and if you subscribe in iTunes, episodes will be delivered automatically and for free as soon as they are released. If you visit www.jonathanlack.com, we also have streaming and downloadable versions of new and archival episodes for your listening pleasure. 

"Doctor Who" Review: "Heaven Sent" (Series 9 Episode 11) - "Personally, I think that's a hell of a bird..."

I reviewed last week’s episode of Doctor Who, “Face the Raven,” in print given that we were unable to record the podcast after it aired. That’s not the case this week, and Sean and I will be getting together to record very soon, so we will be discussing tonight’s episode “Heaven Sent,” in full in a day or two. But “Heaven Sent” is an episode that knocked me out flat, more than any hour in this entire outstanding season, and the more I ponder it, the more I find myself wanting to write about it, if for no other reason than to work out my thoughts on what is, if nothing else, a tremendously audacious and challenging hour of television. So there will be a podcast discussion very soon, and I’m excited to hear Sean’s perspective on this one, but for now, I am itching to write – and I imagine fellow Doctor Who fans might be itching to discuss the episode as soon as possible, so why delay?

Spoilers for “Heaven Sent” coming up after the jump…

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #124 - Jonathan's Top 10 Favorite Bizarre Film School Stories

It’s time for another episode of The Weekly Stuff Podcast with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman, a weekly audio show that explores the worlds of film, television, and video games. You can subscribe for free in iTunes by following this link.

As you’re reading this, I’m in Arizona on vacation for Thanksgiving, so unfortunately, we weren’t able to talk about this week’s Doctor Who, or anything else that has happened in the past week (though I did review the latest Doctor Who in written form here!). But fear not! We will talk about all of that next week, and in the meantime, we banked an extra-special episode just for this occasion. As you probably know, I attend the University of Colorado Boulder, and as a film student there – in an excellent, outstanding film program, I should make clear – I have been exposed to some strange films. Some very strange films. Some films the content of which I cannot discuss in polite conversations. Some films I cannot honestly believe I even saw. And I’ve been entertaining Sean with stories of these films and experiences off the air for years now – so for the Thanksgiving holiday, we thought it appropriate to finally tell those stories on air. I have made a list of my Top 10 Favorite Bizarre Film School Stories, and when I saw ‘bizarre,’ I am probably underselling it. This list gets extreme – from stories of watching films depicting births and autopsies, all the way to a movie about sexual cannibalism. Yeah. We go there.

So a brief content warning is in order – this episode contains the usual bad language, in addition to a pretty overwhelming amount of discussion of graphic sexual and violent content. Don’t say you weren’t warned. And don’t blame me, either – I’m only the messenger. The horribly traumatized messenger.

Enjoy, and come back next week when we return to resume our Doctor Who discussions! 

  

Download and Stream 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #124 as an MP3

Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in iTunes!

Follow ‘The Weekly Stuff’ on Tumblr!

If you have questions, comments, or concerns about The Weekly Stuff, or would like to write in to the podcast to have your questions read on the show, please e-mail dinochow@jonathanlack.com.

The Weekly Stuff with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman is a weekly audio podcast, and if you subscribe in iTunes, episodes will be delivered automatically and for free as soon as they are released. If you visit www.jonathanlack.com, we also have streaming and downloadable versions of new and archival episodes for your listening pleasure.

"Doctor Who" Review: "Face the Raven" (Series 9 Episode 10) - "What’s the point of being a Doctor if I can’t cure you?”

As explained on last week’s podcast, I’m heading out of town starting tomorrow, which means Sean and I won’t have time to get together and discuss tonight’s Doctor Who on this week’s show. We have an episode pre-recorded, and ready to go out Monday morning, so you’ll be hearing from us – but we won’t be talking “Face the Raven” until the following week. Which is a shame, given that tonight’s episode turned out to be one of the most audacious and powerful installments not just in this all-time great season, but in the entire half-century-plus history of Doctor Who.

So yeah. I’m not going to wait a week to talk about this one. I used to write weekly reviews of Doctor Who, before our podcast discussions made them redundant, but I’m going to break tradition tonight and offer some written thoughts once again. Because if any episode warrants extra reaction, it’s “Face the Raven.”

Spoilers – many spoilers – for “Face the Raven” coming up after the jump…

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #123 - Nintendo News, Fallout 4, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Doctor Who S9E9

It’s time for another episode of The Weekly Stuff Podcast with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman, a weekly audio show that explores the worlds of film, television, and video games. You can subscribe for free in iTunes by following this link.

It’s a busy week on the show, as we have some major video game news and developments to discuss – including a new interface for the Xbox One and a major Nintendo Direct – in addition to two of the biggest releases of the year in Rise of the Tomb Raider and especially Fallout 4. Sean and I have spent a lot of time with these games so far, and neither disappoints. Alas, this week’s Doctor Who, “Sleep No More,” is the first of the season to feel subpar – although even then, there are lots of interesting things to talk about, rounding an episode filled with meaty discussions.

Lastly, a quick programming notice: While we speculate at the end of the episode as to whether there will be an episode next week, I can confirm we will have a show posting next week, at our usual time on Monday morning. It will not discuss the next episode of Doctor Who, as we have to record it early to accommodate some travel plans, but the topic we have in mind is a fun one. It’s something we’ve wanted to record for a very long time. Should be an excellent episode to tide you over during the Thanksgiving holiday, and then we’ll be back again the following week to catch up on Doctor Who.

Enjoy!

Download and Stream 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #123 as an MP3

Subscribe for free to 'The Weekly Stuff' in iTunes!

Follow ‘The Weekly Stuff’ on Tumblr!

If you have questions, comments, or concerns about The Weekly Stuff, or would like to write in to the podcast to have your questions read on the show, please e-mail dinochow@jonathanlack.com.

The Weekly Stuff with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman is a weekly audio podcast, and if you subscribe in iTunes, episodes will be delivered automatically and for free as soon as they are released. If you visit www.jonathanlack.com, we also have streaming and downloadable versions of new and archival episodes for your listening pleasure.