Today I bring you the greatest podcast in the history of podcasts of the greatest television show in the history of television. Yes dear podcast listeners, I bring you season one of…
HERCULES THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS.
Hercules the Legendary Journeys was a nineties syndicated telvision series starring Kevin Sorbo. It’s about a time of myth and legend in ancient Greece when the ancient gods were petty and cruel and they plagued mankind with suffering. Only one man dared to challenge their power. His name was the half god Hercules. Since he was half god, Hercules possessed a strength the world had never seen that was surpassed only by the power of his heart. During the series he travels the earth battleling bad guys. Often times these were the minions of his step mother Hera, the all powerful Queen of the Gods. Basically, whenever there was evil or an innocent was suffering Hercules was there to save them.
You’re welcome internets. You may procede to weep with joy.
Watch the trailer to Hercules the Legendary Journeys
Yeah, Doctor Who isn’t fantasy it’s sci-fi. So we’re bringing you a Fantasy Movie Podcast SPECIAL about Doctor Who! This way we can talk about Doctor Who and still feel like we’re not deluding the podcast’s theme. It’s a win/win right?
In this episode, we dicuss the new Doctor Who series’ (or seasons for us yanks) 1-6. There are no series seven spoilers in this podcast. We also don’t discuss much of the classic Who series. If you haven’t seen any Doctor Who this isn’t a very good introduction too it. We spoil major plot points even more than we usually do. This is for people who are already fans of the series. If you haven’t seen it, check out the trailer below and see if it piques your interest. This Doctor Who episode was requested by several listeners. I hope we don’t disapoint!
Avatar: The Legend of Korra is a 2012 American animated series that is a direct sequel to the series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The Legend of Korra is set 70 years after the last series and the world is very different. Medevil technology has been replaced by an industrial revolution filled with cars, streetlamps and even mass media. The world even has a new avatar: Korra, a young woman from the water bending tribe.
In this episode we dicuss the first 13 episodes of Legend of Korra which constitutes the shows first season. It felt like it was the show’s entire run, but it has since been confirmed that it will have another season.
You get the most out of this show if you’ve seen Avatar: The Last Airbender but it’s not required. The show can definitly stand on its own merits. Korra, the show’s protagonist, is an awesome female character. Heck, even her character design is awesome. How often do you get a female character with drawn arm muscles without them being some kind of parody? Korra looks like someone who has been trained since she was small to fight. Her personality is great and a fun contrast to Aang’s passifism.
The creators excelled at world building in the last series and they reach new heights in this one. This is a world that is so well realized it feels like it would really work. The effects of the industrial revolution are well integrated within the existing world. For instance, the world now has electricity, but their power stations are fend with lightning bending. Amusingly, lightning bending is not the stuff of legends it was in the previous series. They must now teach it in schools. Similiarly, Toph has went forth and taught the secret of metal bending which is now used by the police.
Some of the side characters characterization suffers from the low episode count of the first season. Mako and Bolen, Korra’s best friends, rely a bit too much on a few key personality quirks. Furthermore, the last two episodes of the series feel REALLY rushed. But overall, the series was fantastic and everyone should try it out especially fans of the previous series.
Snow White and the Huntsman is a 2012 fantasy film directed by newcomer Rupert Sanders. The film stars Kristen Stewart, Cherlize Theron, and Chris Hemsworth. There is defintily more style to the film then substance. However, the film isn’t as shallow as it would first appear. It does some very interesting things with the evil queen’s back story. Charlize Theron steals every scene she is in. Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth do the best with what they’re given, but they’re largely archetypal compared to Kristen’s Stewart’s fascinatingly broken queen.
The film is worth watching alone for its imaginative portrayal of magic. There’s a scene for instance, where the evil queen slowly drags herself from a pile of raven ichor until she slowly solidifies into a woman once again. She doesn’t rise magically or form from a mist… She has to painfully drag her broken body from a pile of corpses. Her magic is dirty, bloody, primal and comes at a drastic cost.
Overall, the film isn’t a study on the human condition, but it isn’t a shallow special effects fest either. Want to hear more? Listen to the podcast below!
Merlin, aka. The Adventures of Merlin, is a British television show that started in 2008. It stars Colin Morgan as a young Merlin who must hide his magical powers because Camelot has outlawed all magic on threat of death. He spends his time secretly protecting Arthur and Camelot in hopes that Arthur will someday grow into a great King.
This review is for season (or series) 3 and 4 of Merlin. If you have not seen season 1 and 2 I encouraged you to check out our season 1-2 review or simply go watch the show. This episode does not even attempt to describe the premise of Merlin and completely spoils all of season three and four. So beware! This is no holds barred magical Arthurian spoiler time!
This television series just keeps getting better! The show makes a steady incline in quality throughout season three until its a really great show in season four. Does that make up for some of the lack luster episodes in season one? Yes, actually. I think it does. Many aspects of Arthur’s character development are finally barring fruit in season four that had seeds planted way back in season one. Merlin himself still has lots of room to grow, but he’s shown some welcome steps into becoming more pro-active instead of reactive (and ignoring Gaius’s terrible advice). Hopefully, in season five we’ll finally see him become the warlock of legend.
The series does have some problems, mostly involving Morganna’s strange character development. In season three, they take some dramatic shortcuts in her development. While its certainly plausible, the show doesn’t bother explaining or even showing the path it took her to reach her new persona. Furthermore, she doesn’t appear to have any remnants of her old persona at all. There’s some weird slippery slope fallacies going on there and odd inconsistencies. I wonder if this was because the writers were so determined to follow the path of the actual Arthurian legends? Who knows, but she’s definitely the weakest link in season three and four.
We highly recommend you check out this series. Make sure to start from the beginning though! If you watched season one and two and are on the fence about watching more, we think you should reconsider. The series gets continually better and really rewards long time listeners.
Red Sonja is an eighties fantasy movie about a red haired chick killing evil people with swords while getting hit on by the govenator. Pretty sweet right? In all honesty, this movie is terrible. The dialogue is stilted, the acting is amateurish, and the special effects weren’t that impressive in 1985. But for some reason, I love this cheesy movie to bits. It’s got a lot of heart, and despite its many flaws its a fun ride.
Just a quick warning: If you’re planning on watching this movie with kids around, there is a random female topless scene. It’s weirdly random even for a topless scene. However, the edited for TV version is just fine for kids to watch. I watched it all the time as a kid and I am mostly a non warped human being.
Slayers Next is the second season of Slayers, and by far the best. The series improves greatly from Slayers. The animation quality increases, the humor hits home more often, and the plot can be quite powerful at times.
In this episode, we get into the nitty gritty of the plot of Slayers Next and also some of Slayers Try. As of this recording, however, we had not yet watched Slayers Revolution and Slayers Evolution-R so you don’t have to worry about being spoiled on those.
If you haven’t seen the show and are interested, the series is really easy to obtain. Deep Discount has the first three series (Slayers, Slayers Next, and Slayers Try) for less than $50 dollars. You can also watch all three seasons of Slayers legally for free on Funimation’s official website and on some of the episodes are also up on Funimation’s youtube page.
In this episode, we finally review Slayers! This nineties fantasy anime series is near and dear to me and Melanie’s hearts. It was the anime series that made me an anime nerd and holds up quite well to this day. It’s still my favorite anime series.
Slayers is the humorous fantasy tale of Lina Inverse badass sorceress supreme who steals from bandits and gives to herself. Her love of money is only equal to her love of food. Steal Lina Inverse’s ham sandwich and you’ll quickly wish you were never born. Also, don’t mention she’s short, flat-chested, and has a bad temper; really it’d would be best to avoid her at all costs. Maybe take a vacation to another city if she’s headed your way?
Lina is joined by a crew of quirky sidekicks all of which are pretty darn interesting in of themselves. Through various circumstances the Slayers often have to save the world from total annihilation (mostly because they’d be on the world when the annihilation would happen).
Slayers is the first season of this totally awesome anime series which is followed by Slayers Next, Slayers Try, Slayers Revolution, and Slayers Evolution-R. There are also some O.V.A.s where Lina runs around with different characters from the series, but I don’t recommend them.
Definitely check this series out if you haven’t seen it already! The first three seasons are dirt cheap on Deep Discount. Look forward to our reviews of the rest of the Slayers seasons on later podcasts!
In this installment, we attempt to analyze and review the 2009 anime series Soul Eater. Soul Eater is a shonen series about a group of teens who fight evil witches and demons and then consume their souls to become stronger.
No wait! Come back! The series is good I swear!
While the series does have many common shonen tropes, it executes them in style. The art looks as if Tim Burton and Tite Kubo of Bleach fame had a baby and that baby could draw gooooood. The animation by Bones studio is top notch and very fluid in fight scenes. It also has a wonderfully atypical heroine in Maka. How often are twelve year old girls allowed to be main characters in shonen fighting series? And said twelve year old girl isn’t used for fan service (in the anime at least)? How often do they have a twelve year old girl who is allowed to fight and win against opponents of both genders, and is even allowed to look totally unattractive when she’s being a scary badass? It amazes me that more people don’t realize how miraculously rare that is.
The series has been licensed for distribution in the U.S by Funimation and will be available as of 2010. The manga has been licensed by Yen Press and began coming out in October 2009. If you’re interested in continuing the story of Soul Eater through the manga, the anime branches off from the manga at chapter 37.
Warning: We analyze the show as a whole. If you have not seen all 51 episodes, this installment will completely spoil the ending for you. Please, if you haven’t seen all of the series, keep this episode in reserve until you do. Soul Eater is good enough that you’re really doing yourself an injustice if you spoil the show for yourself.
I’d love to hear your opinions on Soul Eater or our podcast in general. Its nice to know we’re not just speaking into a void, ya know? Please leave a Comment!
