Fade to Lack

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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.

Monday, December 21, 2020

The Weekly Stuff #357 – The Mandalorian Season 2 Finale Spectacular!

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 Apple Podcasts by following this link.

Disney+’s outstanding Star Wars series The Mandalorian brought its second season to a bold, surprising, and spectacularly satisfying conclusion this week, and we dive deep not only with this amazing episode, but also what it portends for the future of the series, where the saga of Din Djarin could go from here, and all the possibilities for Star Wars TV moving forward. Before that, though, we also talk about the games we’ve been playing – including 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, One Piece Pirate Warriors 4, and Spider-Man Remastered – before covering the latest developments in the sad, infuriating saga of Cyberpunk 2077, after Sony delisted the game from PlayStation Network in the midst of what almost amounts to a full-scale recall of this incredibly broken game.

Enjoy, and come back on Thursday for our special Christmas-themed retrospective of the festive(?) Batman Returns!

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:03:40

Stuff: 0:03:40 – 0:28:27

Cyberpunk News: 0:28:27 – 0:51:56

The Mandalorian: 0:51:56 – 1:50:23

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Download 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #356 as an MP3

Monday, December 14, 2020

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #356 – Cyberpunk Problems, Disney and HBO Max Announcements, Mandalorian S2E6-7 & More!

Today’s episode is absolutely jam-packed with entertainment news, after Warner Bros. decided to blow a hole in the theatrical market by announcing all their 2021 films will be released on struggling streamer HBO Max, and Disney held a 4-hour investor conference in which they announced or detailed 100+ TV series and movies, the vast majority heading to their (decidedly not struggling) streamer Disney+. Breaking down all this news forms the bulk of the episode, but we also review the latest two episodes of The Mandalorian at the end – spoiler: they’re good – fill you in on some games we’ve been playing, and explain why we won’t be reviewing Cyberpunk 2077, after a disastrous launch presenting the game in a nearly unplayable state.

Enjoy!

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:04:21

Cyberpunk 2077: 0:04:21 – 0:28:55

Stuff: 0:28:55 – 0:58:15

News: 0:58:15 – 3:07:05

The Mandalorian: 3:07:05 – 3:32:16

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Download 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #355 as an MP3

Monday, November 30, 2020

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #355 – Batman on Film Part 2: BATMAN (1989) with Michael Keaton

This week, our 10-part critical retrospective BATMAN ON FILM continues, as we revisit each of the theatrical Batman features in advance of Matt Reeves’ upcoming The Batman with Robert Pattinson. For Part 2, we’re looking at the birth of the modern superhero film genre with Tim Burton’s BATMAN from 1989, starring Michael Keaton as the caped crusader and Jack Nicholson as the Joker. It’s a fascinating film, one that’s full of things to praise – Burton’s direction, Danny Elfman’s score, the incredible production design, Keaton’s performance, and more – yet somehow adds up to less than the sum of its parts, with a choppy script and messy structure, and an inconsistent version of the Joker brought lazily to life by a very checked-out Jack Nicholson. But all that makes for a great in-depth discussion. Before that, we also check in on some recent games we’ve been playing – including Demon’s Souls on PS5, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim for PS4, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity for Nintendo Switch. And at the very end, we sing the praises of the latest episode of The Mandalorian, a Dave Filoni written and directed masterpiece that may be one of the best pieces of Star Wars media ever.

Enjoy!

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:04:52

Stuff: 0:04:52 – 0:51:51

Batman (1989): 0:51:51 –

The Mandalorian Chapter 13: 2:30:04 – 3:13:54

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Download 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #354 as an MP3

Monday, November 23, 2020

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #354 – Mandalorian Season 2, Demon’s Souls & Spider-Man Miles Morales

Continuing from our first impressions of the PlayStation 5 last week, we dive deep with two of the biggest launch games: Bluepoint’s stunningly lavish remake of FromSoftware’s Demon’s Souls, and Insomniac’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. They’re two of the best launch titles we’ve ever seen, for very different reasons, and it’s a ton of fun to talk about all the intricate in-and-outs of Demon’s Souls remarkable level design and glorious new aesthetics, as well as the bold, emotional narrative choices of Miles Morales. After that, we discuss the first half of the second season of The Mandalorian on Disney+, which has matched and even exceeded expectations headed out of last year’s amazing inaugural run. News on Wonder Woman 1984 heading to HBO Max and discussion of whether or not Marvel should recast Chadwick Boseman’s role in Black Panther 2 round out the episode.

Enjoy!

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:03:58

News: 0:03:58 – 0:31:13

PS5 Impressions Follow-up: 0:31:13 – 0:44:32

Demon’s Souls: 0:44:32 – 1:50:52

Spider-Man Miles Morales: 1:50:52 – 2:30:39

Mandalorian Season 2: 2:30:39 – 3:08:40

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Download 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #353 as an MP3

Monday, November 16, 2020

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #353 – PlayStation 5 First Impressions Spectacular! Astro’s Playroom, Spider-Man, Demon’s Souls & More!

After quickly catching up on two weeks of busy global happenings and personal events, and celebrating the life of the great Alex Trebek, we dive headfirst into our first impressions of Sony’s brand new next-generation gaming console, the PlayStation 5! With a blazing fast SSD, a slick and surprisingly fully-featured UI, and perhaps the best controller ever packaged with a home console, the PS5 feels like a truly generational leap forward, and it’s got one of the most compelling launch line-ups we’ve ever seen. From the joyous experimentation of pack-in game Astro’s Playroom, to the jaw-dropping graphical breakthroughs of Demon’s Souls, to the cross-gen stunner that is Spider-Man Miles Morales, there’s no shortage of great content to play right out of the gate – and these are only the games we’ve personally played so far. We talk about all of that and more as we ring in the new console generation, and look forward to the years of gaming we now have in store.

Enjoy!

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:22:23

The Console Itself: 0:22:23 – 0:36:40

User Interface, Loading, and Backwards Compatibility: 0:36:40 – 1:24:30

DualSense Controller: 1:24:30 – 1:53:30

Astro’s Playroom: 1:53:30 – 2:26:09

Demon’s Souls: 2:26:09 – 2:36:38

Spider-Man Miles Morales: 2:36:38 – 3:20:20

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Monday, November 9, 2020

Weekly Suit Gundam #25 – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Review & Discussion

It’s time for Weekly Suit Gundam, a show exploring the world of Mobile Suit Gundam from The Weekly Stuff Podcast with Jonathan Lack & Sean Chapman. You can subscribe for free in iTunes by following this link.

Weekly Suit Gundam continues into the bold new world of the 21^st century with Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, the first Gundam of the 2000s and one of the most broadly popular entries in the history of the franchise. It’s also a hell of a series – even if it took one of us a while to start enjoying it! – and builds to one of the best runs of episodes we’ve had the pleasure of discussing so far. It makes for one of our longest and most in-depth episodes, as we break down the characters, music, digital animation, and so much more, including how the series starts by reconstituting the structure of the original Mobile Suit Gundam before exploding into something new, vibrant, and incredibly compelling, both for the time in which it was made and the world in which we’re watching it now. This has long been one of our most requested episodes, and it was a real pleasure to try doing it justice.

Enjoy, and come back next time for our last episode of 2020 with Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny!

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Download 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #352 as an MP3

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #352 – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Review & Discussion

This week’s episode was prerecorded a few days before the US election everyone reading this has already lived through, so after a few minutes spent catching up and reacting to multiple possible scenarios, we dive into the week’s main topic: A new episode of Weekly Suit Gundam, wherein we review Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, the first Gundam of the 2000s and one of the most broadly popular entries in the history of the franchise. It’s also a hell of a series – even if it took one of us a while to start enjoying it! – and builds to one of the best runs of episodes we’ve had the pleasure of discussing so far. It makes for one of our longest and most in-depth episodes, and as it’s long been one of our most requested Gundam topics, it was a real pleasure to try doing it justice.

Enjoy!

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Download 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #351 as an MP3

Monday, November 2, 2020

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #351 – Our Top 10 Favorite Books, Part 2

It’s time for the 351^st 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.

Continuing our 350 episode celebration spectacular, we’re counting down our Top 10 Favorite Books of All Time. Last week, Jonathan talked about Sherlock Holmes, his love of old wooden ships, and words of wisdom from Hayao Miyazaki, while Sean told us about his favorite Shakespeare play, several landmark works of literature concerning the darkness of the human condition, and explained how Moby Dick is in fact the gayest book ever written. This week, we finish our lists with our respective Top 5, spanning literal millennia of human history and several genres and tones, leading up to our favorite books ever written.

Enjoy, and thank you so much for following us for 350 (well, 351, now) episodes of The Weekly Stuff Podcast!

Stream The Weekly Stuff Podcast Episode #351

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Download 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #350 as an MP3

Monday, October 26, 2020

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #350 - Our Top 10 Favorite Books, Part 1

It’s time for the 350^th 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.

For our latest milestone of 350 episodes – halfway to 700! – we add to our previous ‘canon’ lists – Top 10 Movies for Episode 200, Top 10 Games for 250, and Top 10 TV Shows for 300 – with something a little bit different: Our Top 10 Favorite Books! Literature isn’t something we talk about a whole lot on this show, but it is of course a big part of our lives, especially for Sean, who got an English degree in college and works as a high-school English teacher. And books, just like any piece of media, say a lot about what we value, what inspires us, and what we want to share with the world, so this is a really exciting set of lists to talk about. And a long one, with lots of excerpts to read and context to give, so we’ve split it into two parts, with #10 – #6 on our lists in today’s episode, and the Top 5 coming next week in Episode 351.

Enjoy, and thanks for following us for 350 episodes of The Weekly Stuff Podcast!

Stream The Weekly Stuff Podcast Episode #350

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Download 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #349 as an MP3

Monday, October 19, 2020

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #349 – Batman on Film Part 1: Batman (1966) with Adam West

This week, we’re kicking off a new miniseries that’s been in the works for months – BATMAN ON FILM, a 10-part critical retrospective of the caped crusader’s theatrical film history, coming over the next year in advance of Matt Reeves’ The Batman with Robert Pattinson, and at a time where the cultural conversation around policing in America has given us reason to re-evaluate the character and where he fits in the world of 2020. We begin today with Batman (1966), the film based on the classic TV series starring Adam West and Burt Ward, and featuring a team of classic villains played by Cesar Romero, Burgess Meredith, Lee Meriwether, and Frank Gorshin. It’s a brilliant comedy that’s a ton of fun to talk about, but its satire is also a lot smarter and more culturally engaged than perhaps meets the eye, and it’s arguably a take on Batman we need now more than ever. Sean and Jonathan also talk briefly about their continued experiences with Genshin Impact and Hades, and go over the PlayStation 5 user interface unveiled this week.

Enjoy!

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:09:21

Stuff: 0:09:21 – 0:32:46

News: 0:32:46 – 0:50:33

Batman 1966 Review: 0:50:33 – 2:26:59

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Monday, October 12, 2020

Weekly Suit Gundam #24 – Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team Review & Discussion

Our OVA-a-thon concludes with one of the most universally beloved and undeniably entertaining series in the Gundam pantheon, The 08^th MS Team. Taking a ‘boots on the ground’ approach with no newtypes or ace pilots as heroes, the OVA follows a mobile suit team in a Vietnam-esque setting during the One-Year War, and provides some of the best action, animation, and mobile suit designs in the series. We gush over the lush production values and incredible set pieces, discuss the vibrant cast of characters, puzzle over how best to categorize the bewildering 12^th episode (and why this should really be considered an 11-episode series), and also touch on the compilation movie Miller’s Report. The 08^th MS Team is one of those works it’s impossible for any Gundam fan not to love, and getting to celebrate it at length here is a lot of fun.

Enjoy, and come back next time as we move forward into the 2000s with Mobile Suit Gundam SEED!

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Download 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #348 as an MP3

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #348 – Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team Review & Discussion

This week kicks off with Sean and Jonathan talking about some PS5 news, as the console got a full teardown and backwards compatibility detailed, before discussing Genshin Impact and Hades in greater detail. Then we take a quick trip to Sean’s Beta Corner to talk Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War, before diving into our main topic: Another Weekly Suit Gundam discussion, this time about the 1996 OVA Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08^th MS Team, one of the most universally beloved and undeniably entertaining series in the Gundam pantheon. We gush over the lush production values and incredible set pieces, discuss the vibrant cast of characters, puzzle over how best to categorize the bewildering 12^th episode (and why this should really be considered an 11-episode series), and also touch on the compilation movie Miller’s Report.

Enjoy!

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:01:42

News: 0:01:42 – 0:24:36

Genshin Impact: 0:24:36 – 0:40:25

Hades: 0:40:25 – 0:52:18

Sean’s Beta Corner on Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War: 0:52:18 – 0:58:27

Gundam: The 08^th MS Team: 0:58:27 – 3:27:29

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Download 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #347 as an MP3

Monday, October 5, 2020

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #347 – Genshin Impact, Hades, Minecraft in Smash, Listener Mail & More!

We cover a lot of ground in this week’s episode, from news including multiple weird Spider-Man announcements (movie and game) to a discussion on the state of movie theaters and releases amidst the pandemic, plus some new game impressions and a big bag of listener mail! To start, Sean gives some early thoughts on Genshin Impact, the Chinese free-to-play game that mixes Breath of the Wild with Gacha mechanics, and Jonathan discusses his early love for Hades, the latest critical darling from Supergiant. Then we go over the news, including the unveiling of Steve (and Alex) from Minecraft joining Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, before diving into the listener mail, where we discuss where our Persona 5 Royal review is, what’s in our backlog, questions about movies and TV, and possibly commit ourselves to a very dumb topic for December of 2021.

Enjoy!

Time Chart:

Intro and Stuff: 0:00:00 – 0:17:59

Genshin Impact: 0:17:59 – 0:33:17

Hades: 0:33:17 – 0:45:39

News: 0:45:39 – 1:42:56

Listener Mail: 1:42:56 – 2:27:24

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Monday, September 28, 2020

Weekly Suit Gundam #23 – Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory Review & Discussion

After an unplanned two-month hiatus, we’re finally back to continue exploring the wide and wonderful world of Gundam, continuing our OVA-a-thon with Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, the 1991 OVA chronicling the adventures of Ensign Kou Uraki and his encounter with Zeon loyalist Anavel Gato. It’s a series that provides some of the highest highs but also many of the lowest lows in the entire Gundam franchise, with stupendous animation, great music, a few really strong episodes, and outstanding voice acting, but also some really shaky storytelling and character work and a final episode that may the single worst Gundam half-hour we’ve talked about so far. It makes for one of the best critical discussions about Gundam we’ve had on the podcast, and it’s an episode you won’t want to miss!

Enjoy, and come back next time for our next OVA review with The 08^th MS Team!

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Download 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #346 as an MP3

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #346 – Xbox Buys Bethesda, Super Mario Sunshine, and Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory

After an unplanned two-month hiatus, Weekly Suit Gundam – our sister podcast exploring the wide and wonderful world of Mobile Suit Gundam – is finally back, with a big in-depth review and discussion of Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory, the OVA series from 1991 that provides some of the highest highs and the lowest lows in the entire Gundam franchise, and makes for one of the best critical discussions about the series we’ve ever had. Before cutting to the Gundam talk, though, we also break down the crazy news that Microsoft is buying Zenimax, the parent company of Bethesda, giving the Xbox brand ownership of Doom, The Elder Scrolls, Wolfenstein, Dishonored, and so much more. It’s a big development with countless implications, so many we can barely begin to cover them here. And finally, Jonathan also talks about finally finishing Super Mario Sunshine for the first time in his life, and he and Sean commiserate over the gauntlet of endless frustration provided by one of Mario’s only notable missteps.

Enjoy!

Time Chart:

Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:06:20

Xbox Buys Bethesda: 0:06:20 – 0:40:14

Super Mario Sunshine: 0:40:14 – 1:08:52

Gundam 0083: 1:08:52 – 3:25:39

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Download 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #345 as an MP3

Monday, September 21, 2020

The Weekly Stuff Podcast #345 – Super Mario 3D All Stars, PS5 Showcase, Demon’s Souls, Final Fantasy XVI & More!

This week brought maybe the best gaming showcase event we’ve seen all year, as Sony not only unveiled the price and release date of the PlayStation 5, but also showed off the Demon’s Souls remake, gave us a good look at Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and most surprisingly, unveiled Final Fantasy XVI. It was a heck of a show, even if the pre-orders that followed were a disaster, and altogether, we’re more excited for the next generation than ever before. Jonathan also talks about Nintendo’s Super Mario 3D All Stars collection for Nintendo Switch, and discusses finally giving Super Mario Sunshine a chance after all these years.

And in light of the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we’re also making a political call to action this week, asking listeners to donate to the Get Mitch or Die Trying fund, which splits donations evenly amongst Democratic Senate candidates so we can get Mitch McConnell out of his job, protect the Supreme Court, and strengthen our democracy.

Enjoy!

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Download 'The Weekly Stuff' Episode #344 as an MP3

Monday, September 14, 2020

The Weekly Stuff #344 – Marvel’s Avengers Review, Xbox Series S, Mario 35 Nintendo Direct, and more!

It’s been a big couple of weeks for video game news, from Nintendo unveiling all their plans for Mario’s 35^th anniversary to Xbox (finally!) unveiling the Series S and their next-gen launch dates and pricing, to another round of announcements from Ubisoft. We break down all of that and more, including a check-in on the state of movie releases in the US for the rest of 2020. Before all that, we also check in on how life is going amidst the ongoing pandemic chaos, Sean reviews the latest DLC for Control, and we talk at length about Marvel’s Avengers, the wildly imperfect but also surprisingly compelling superhero game that launched last week.

Enjoy!

Time Chart:

Intro and Plaguecast: 0:00:00 – 0:25:08

Stuff: 0:25:08 – 0:47:13

Avengers Game: 0:47:13 – 1:30:50

News: 1:30:50 – 2:44:32

Stream The Weekly Stuff Podcast Episode #344

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