In this second part of our two-part extravaganza on The Rings of Power the cast jumps back into talking about Middle Earth. In this episode they ask “What’s in a name?” as they wonder why anyone included a Hobbit. The Stranger’s gray identity is mooted. The cast discusses the geometry of rings and why 15 minutes may not be enough time to devote to …

It’s a trip back to Middle-Earth this week as the cast takes an epic-length at the Amazon Prime series, The Rings of Power. In this episode the cast discusses the logic of a series that can only use the appendices of Lord of the Rings as reference. They get into the types of stories that they’re choosing to tell and whether or not there’s a signifi…

You often hear that there’s too much TV to watch these days or that the market is catering to geeky interests on TV today. Yet, the 80’s saw it’s fair share of genre television for people of all ages. In this episode four people that were there (old fogeys) recount tales of the television of their youth. They also discuss whether 80’s television ho…

Indiana Jones has returned in a fifth installment of the titular franchise. In this episode we talk about the Dial of Destiny. We discuss revitalizing the franchise in the 21st century and how it compares to the prior attempt. We debate the Indiana Jones franchise’s potential for a continuation with other characters or a reboot. We also get into Na…

This week we delve back into the MCU on Disney+ to talk about Ms. Marvel. Join our cast as we delve into the comic origins of these characters. We’ll talk about what works, what didn’t, and what we wish they included and didn’t. We’ll also discuss casting and performances and what we thought of the tone of the series. We’ll also debate how this wor…

In this week’s episode we fire up the spore drive to arrive at Star Trek Discovery season 4. In this episode we delve deep into the storytelling, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of season length, using writers unfamiliar with Trek, and telling a narrative across multiple seasons. We also talk about how much we want to see more of the br…

The 42cast has reached 200 episodes! We’d like to thank our audience for making this possible. As a treat for this episode we’ve invited back our most prolific guests. We discuss what has been going on in the geeskisphere since Episode 100, and we give our opinions on what has been the good; the bad; and the ugly. We also talk a little about what g…

Our intrepid hosts are back as Nathan and Emma once again take center stage to discuss the topics near and dear to their hearts in a conversation recorded back in June of last year. This time they do their best to find a theme, but end up realizing that it’s a lot more fun to switch to any idea that catches their fancy at any given moment. Join the…

In the entire history of anime only two characters were considered to have had sufficient cultural impact outside of Japan to adorn the welcome materials given to international Olympic athletes during the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Those were Son Goku from Dragonball/Z/GT/Super and Sailor Moon. In this episode we talk about the phenomenon that is Sail…

The Flash film was announced back in 2014. Originally slated to release early in 2018 many were impressed at DC’s confidence in announcing so many films so far in the future. Over the the intervening decade, The Flash production would be placed on hold multiple times as the script faced an almost infinite amount of rewrites, directors came and went…

>Babylon 5 created a revolution in television in the mid-90’s. Series creator J. Michael Stracynski was told that science fiction would never succeed on television if it wasn’t Star Trek. Yet, the man had a dream and he fulfilled that dream. Conceiving of a series that would last for five years with a defined beginning, middle, and ending Babylon 5…

Hot on the heels of Disney’s announcement of Moon Knight blu-ray and 4K UHD sets, The 42cast brings you it’s review of the titular Marvel hero. In this episode we delve into Moon Knight’s comic origins, the changes made in later years, and the various changes made for the Disney+ series. We’ll discuss the use of Disassocative Identity Disorder and …

The 42cast is proud to welcome star of the stage and screen, George Buza, to the show. George is best known as the voice of the Beast in X-Men: The Animated Series, X-Men ’97, and Spider-Man (1994). He is the only voice actor for the animated series to also appear in an X-Men film when he played the trucker who brought Rogue to Alaska in 1999’s, X-…

Month’s ago, Seth Rogen made waves in the entertainment industry with his comments on criticism while guesting on The Diary of a CEO podcast. His comments spoke to the emotional pain suffered by entertainers who are the objects of negative reviews. His words called into question whether critics understand the impact of what they’re writing and impl…

From the beginning the Guardians franchise has proven to be a surprise hit for Marvel. Many anticipated that the first Guardians film would be a failure, but it garnered a surprising following and has been lauded by many as their favorite MCU films. In this episode we discuss the third installment of the Guardians franchise. We talk about the devel…

Fringe was a series ahead of its time. Tapping into the multiverse concept, the show brought a story about parallel worlds into a procedural paranormal investigation series. The series boasted a stellar cast necessary to juggle the hardcore scientific concepts explored throughout the series five seasons. In this episode we delve deep into Fringe. W…

Hawkeye was the last in the first wave of Disney+ Marvel series. The show introduced Hawkeye successor, Kate Bishop, played by Hailee Steinfeld. It also debuted new character, Echo, as well as saw the return of Vince D’Onofrio as the Kingpin and Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova. In this episode we discuss the plot of the Hawkeye series. We talk about…

The 42cast is proud to welcome Chicago-area actor, teacher, and science-fiction fan, Stephen Pickering, to the show this week. Stephen joins the show to talk about his career in acting – starting with roles in movies like She’s Having a Baby and The Untouchables and most recently on the upcoming film, The Gray Girl. We discuss acting in different s…

The 42cast is proud to welcome back the one and only, Ms. Emma Dumont. In this episode, Emma comes on the show for the inaugural episode of EmandEn where she and Nathan talk about whatever strikes their fancy. This first episode was recorded on 5/27/2023, but various personal and technical hurdles kept us from sharing it right away. So, it is with …

Shazam was a surprise release from DC in 2019. The movie saw an effort to move away from the dark and gritty storytelling that had characterized DC movies since the late 80’s and move it back towards a more amusing bent. The movie was not as expensive as the more recent DC films so even it’s somewhat modest performance at the box office earmarked i…

Jessica Jones was a popular series as part of Marvel’s “edgy” series developed for Netflix. The series can currently be found on Disney+. In this episode we take a look at Jessica Jones season 3. We discuss the evolution of the characters and and the development of themes that extend back to the beginning of the series. We talk about the overall pl…

As Strange New Worlds comes back to our screens, our panel discusses the first season. We discuss the cast, how we feel about the depiction of the legacy characters, and what we think about the new ones. We talk about the overall series concept and whether we like a return to an episodic format. We debate the use of “Kirk” and how two clever twists…

The 42cast is proud to welcome members of the Odyssey Now project to our show! Odyssey Now investigates, educates, and develops information and hardware regarding the Magnavox Odyssey, the very first video game console. The Odyssey is 50 years old, so we thought it would be a great idea to highlight the tremendous work that these people do. To that…

Time travel is one of the classic expressions of science-fiction. H.G. Wells went there with his time machine and Hollywood has gone to that well many times and told us many stories with that idea as their basis. In this episode we do a deep dive on time travel. We discuss the methods and philosophies of time travel that we’ve seen in various stori…

Marvel seems to be getting bigger and bigger all the time. Recently, though, they’ve reversed course and brought us their tiniest tale of all. It’s a story with small stakes that’s about coming together as a family, commumication, and weird hobbies. Of course we are talking about Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Come with us as we talk about the …

Cloak & Dagger was one of the projects produced by the old Marvel TV group. In the days before Disney+, Marvel TV produced many hits including Agents of SHIELD and the six Marvel Netflix series. Out of all of those projects that received multiple seasons Cloak & Dagger seems to have been left behind. The two season series ran on the Freeform cable …

Although DC has had many television series in the last few years, Gotham was one of the strangest and most surprising. Lasting for five-years on the Fox network, the series showcased a Gotham city before Bruce Wayne became Batman. Despite some very unusual takes on some of the mainstays and minor characters of the Batman franchise the show thrived …

The hierarchy of power in the DC Universe has changed again! The comic world was shocked last October when it was announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran would help a new DC Studios division of Warner Bros. In the past few months, Gunn has been forthcoming with quite a few details about his plans for the franchise, including a discussion of what…

Black Panther was a tremendously successful film. Showcasing Afro-futurism within the MCU it became a cultural touchstone for people of African descent and those who weren’t, allowing them to bond over their shared delight at this fresh take on a superhero story. In this episode we talk about the sequel to Black Panther, Wakanda Forever. We touch o…

The 42cast is proud to welcome Emma Dumont to the show this week. Emma talks to us about her many talents including a lifetime in performative media as a musician, model, dancer, and actress. She discusses her interest in the STEM disciplines and why she feels that both engineering and psychology are so very important. Then she geeks out discussing…

Superman and Lois was a surprise hit in season 1 and we had overwhelmingly positive things to say about this show. This time we cover season 2. We do a deep dive and discuss the nature of the relationships in the show. We talk about Superman as a geopolitical figure and how that can make his heroicWe s complicated. We also get into the Bizarro univ…

The announcement of The Book of Boba Fett excited a lot of people. Continuing the story of the character from the Mandalorian, the set up implied that the titular character would assume the role of a crime boss, running his operations from the outpost of Tatooine. In actuality the show turned a sharp corner, depicting the former bounty hunter as a …

It seems like you can’t throw an infinity of rocks without hitting a movie, TV show, or book that uses the concept of the multiverse. In this episode we delve deep into the concept of a multiverse. We discuss the various types of multiverse utilized in fiction and get a little into the meta and in-universe reasoning behind it. We talk about why the…

Everything gets a bit dark this week as The 42cast looks into the latest film to come from the DC Universe, Black Adam. We discuss this as Dwayne Johnson’s passion peace that he’s been trying to get made since 2014. We talk about the plot and themes and discuss whether they make any sense in the context of what we’ve seen from DC before. We also ge…

Picard season 2 continued the adventures of an older Jean-Luc Picard. This time the story added popular characters Q and Guinan and also explored Picard’s past and character. In this episode we discuss the second season of Picard. We take a deep dive into the plot and discuss whether the story elements worked together and how well they developed th…

Last year we watched the Arrowverse implode. Due to cancellations and a narrative divorce what had been a mega franchise with four different iterations was wittled down to just a single entry – The Flash. I this episode we review the penultimate season of The Flash. We discuss the characters, their trajectories, and whether we think they’re maximiz…

From Respeecher to Deep Fakes, we hear about it all the time. The technology continues to develop, so that studios can recreate the faces and voices of actors that have passed or aged out of certain roles. In this episode we discuss the implications of this technology. We talk about what it could mean for acting as a profession, the ramifications t…

Thor: Love and Thunder is the fourth installment in the Thor franchise. Once again pairing Chris Hemsworth with director Taika Waititi, the movie generated interest when it was announced that Natalie Portman would reprise her role as Jane Foster. Similar to Thor: Ragnarok the film had a strong comedic element that has fan opinion divided over this …

The Marvel Netflix series garnered a large amount of support in the brief time that they were available. With Charlie Cox returning as Daredevil it was only a matter of time before rumors spread of others of the Netflix “Defenders” being folded into the MCU. Jon Bernthal is at the center of many of those proving that there’s still an audience for h…

The countdown to the end of the Arrowverse continues. This week we take a look at Batwoman season 3. In this episode we discuss the use of Batman “legacy” elements and how that effected the story. We also get into the series controversial take on electroshock therapy and whether we thought that it went too far. We also talk about the interpersonal …

Marvel has generated a lot of buzz lately with announcements regarding the upcoming phases of their universe. This week we discuss the announcements from the SDCC and D23 2022. We’ll talk about our favorite announcements. We discuss the things that surprise us. We’ll opine on the direction that the MCU seems to be going and how we feel about it. Du…

It’s nothing but madness in our latest episode as we review Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Join us as we discuss familiar and unfamiliar stars in this Marvel movie. Along the way we discuss the multiverse, how it’s handled, and the ramifications for Marvel. We opine on the story, how well we think it succeeds in what it’s trying to do…

Thirty years ago, a new animated series would take the world by storm. It would quickly become the most watched series on Saturday mornings and giving the fledgling Fox Kids programming block a distinct win. The series was a win for Marvel as well, introducing the X-Men characters to a generation of viewers and catapulting the affiliated comics to …

Supergirl was a mainstay of DC’s CW offerings for years. Starting as a CBS show, it was moved to the CW with its second season and eventually integrated into the Arrowverse during the Crisis on Infinite Earths event. In this episode we discuss the final season of the series. We talk about the efforts that had to be made to write around star, Meliss…

We’ve all had the experience. We see a movie that we know is truly awful by any measurable factor, but we love it anyway. In this episode we discuss the phenomenon that makes something “so bad that it’s good”. We talk about our favorite movies that fit that description and discuss our experiences with the specific media. We also get into what makes…

Spider-Man may not have a way home but we do, as we get back to releasing our MCU episodes. Join us as we discuss Spider-Man: No Way Home. We discuss the various cameos and crossovers and how that impacted our interest in the movie and how we feel that it will impact the MCU going forward. We also talk about Peter’s development as a character and h…

This week we set the way-back machine for 2019 and a discussion of the entirety of Voltron: Legendary Defender. We talk about our favorite characters as well as what worked and what didn’t. We also talk about the storylines and decisions that we enjoyed as well as those that seemed to come out of left-field. We also get into relationships, characte…

The 42cast is proud to welcome star of stage and screen and former politician, Lenore Zann. In genre fiction circles Lenore is probably best known as the X-Men’s Rogue. In this episode we sit down to talk with Lenore about her career. She describes the struggles that actors face and gives us insight into voice acting, stage acting, and acting on sc…

Marvel has gone into the multiverse in a big way. In this episode we take a look at the biggest expression of that to date with What If. We discuss the series as the MCU’s first animation project. We discuss the What If concept and talk about which episodes worked for us. We also debate why this series had such a mixed response from the public and …

As we approach the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who, it’s time to take a look back at the beginning of it all. In this episode we go back to a panel from Chicago TARDIS 2016. In it we discuss William Hartnell the man and the first Doctor. We talk about the situation behind his involvement in the show and turbulent times in his later years. We discuss…