Fun Size Episode 73 – But, She Has a New Hat!

This month, we’re continuing our chat with Kayleigh Casterline, and digging into the intersection of sports, video games and capitalist rent-seeking.

The new wrestling game, AEW: Fight Forever, is claiming that it won’t ask you to buy an entirely new game every year, the way that their rival the WWE does (not to mention the NFL, the NBA or MLB). They say they’re going to sell you a game once, and then update it.

What is the promise of this approach? What are the potential pitfalls? What happens to your video game roster when another wrestler does something unspeakable?

Plus, more media has entered the public domain! And we’re one year out from the most famous rodent of them all joining the army of the publicly-owned!

Fun Size Episode 69 – Two Degrees From Luke Skywalker

This month, we’re back with Sam Mulvey to get nerdier than we have for a while.

Mike takes the rough draft of his new “Bechdel Test”-esque thought experiment about media worldbuilding for a spin and tries to punch holes in it.  Are our large shared universe worlds really as large and expansive as they appear to be, or is that just an illusion to hide something much smaller and more insular?

And in probably more depth and exhaustive detail than necessary, Mike talks about his love and fascination with J.R.R. Tolkien and his Middle-earth legendarium, and Sam gets the opportunity to talk more about Frank Herbert’s Dune than he’s ever done before on the show.

Episode 18.5 – Somebody Destroyed One of Roger Moore’s Horcruxes

Bond moore

In our latest collections of panel outtakes and off-topic discussion, Mike and Casey are joined by Greg Hatcher and Ryan Chaddock for a chat about the Logan’s Run television show and the formulaic nature of 1970s science fiction.

We compare the various Bond actors on their ability to dispense post-murder puns, and the pros and cons of grit versus camp. We try to get to the bottom of why Roger Moore continued to play 007 into his senior years, why bleeding heart liberals like us enjoy violent right-leaning vigilante fiction, and why the hell the spinoff Baywatch Nights even existed.

Episode 16 – Expanded Universes

AdmiralAlienAndCaptainMustache

Read the Bantam Book!

This month, Mike and Casey look at the inevitable result of truly popular culture: that it can and will not be contained by it’s original medium. Star Wars, the Planet of the Apes, and even Murder She Wrote have escaped the confines of film and television to reward their fans with series of books, comics and video games that feed our appetites for more stories in the worlds we love.

We’re joined by veteran panelist Roslyn Townsend and game designer Ryan Chaddock to chat about the concept of the Expanded Universe! We debate canonicity and ask why we just can’t get enough of our favorite media franchises, no matter the format!

Music: 
“Luke and Leia” from the Return of the Jedi  by John Williams

Previously titled: “Ant-Man’s Lawyer”