Episoder
-
Following the cancellation of ‘The Acolyte’, many fans are taking a step back and asking questions about the state of the franchise. And rightly so, considering the confused state that many have been left in. Especially considering that Lucasfilm continues to leave us in the dark, with no official word following the recent cancellation. They've also done very little to inspire trust in their current creative process given the number of high profile project announcements that have never come to fruition. Meanwhile, the fandom is imploding on itself. Creators and influencers in the community are pitted against each other, seemingly in a fight for influence over control of the narrative surrounding each new project. Debates over what is or isn’t "Star Wars" wage on the internet as fans dodge bad-faith landmines across their social feeds. Julian and Rachel look at where things stand with Star Wars today, how we got here, and what the future might hold.
-
Julian is joined by Matt Tworek to review 'Alien: Romulus', the latest installment in the long running space-horror franchise. A film that returns to the roots of the franchise, with a much stronger focus on the suspense and atmospheric horror of the 1979 original. But any good Alien movie today isn't complete without at least a little bit of action, ala 'Aliens' and this movie doesn't disappoint in that regard either. All-in-all this is a strong outing in a franchise that has seen a lot of ups and downs over the years. And yes, realizing that this all comes a bit late considering the movie released last month, to make up for the missed time, the guys have also brought a list of their favourite movies featuring aliens (any alien will do, we aren't picky here).
-
Manglende episoder?
-
With the news of 'The Acolyte' and it's cancellation sending ripples
through the media world, it was only natural that there might be some
reflection on the larger state of the television landscape. Julian and
Jeremy pier out into a dark and dreary graveyard of cancelled shows and
failed streaming services to take stock of the current situation. The
assessment? The "Golden Age of TV" is over. What comes next is still to be
determined. Plus, a grab-bag of news stories from around Hollywood to help
lighten the mood. -
'Deadpool & Wolverine' is quickly rising through the box office charts and is on pace to set some records. It may even finish the summer as the highest grossing movie and that would certainly be an accomplishment. Particularly for an R rated film. That being said, that's not the reason Julian and Jeremy decided to continue their conversation on the movie following the review earlier this week. No, the reason is that the movie is so dense, so unique in it's approach, that it took a few more days to process what exactly it even is. Hopefully this follow up conversation puts things to bed for good this time. But the Marvel mayhem does not end there. No sir, the guys then turn to San Diego Comicon to discuss the massive announcements out of Marvel's Hall H panel. Surprisingly, Harrison Ford pretending to be the Hulk on stage wasn't the biggest news, he was upstaged by RDJ himself as we learn that he's returning to the MCU as Dr. Doom, and bringing back the Russo brothers to direct (don't worry they only cost like $180 million between them). Is this good news, bad news, or something in between?
-
There haven't been many Marvel movies of late that have had the level of anticipation of 'Deadpool & Wolverine'. Not only is it capping of a Deadpool trilogy, it is introducing Deadpool to the MCU, AND it it's bringing back who else but Hugh Jackman as Wolverine for the cherry on top. Plus, with the less than ideal reception to the direction the MCU has taken of late, the expectations were very high for this movie, to say the least. And though we typically preach keeping expectations in check when going into a movie like this, even we had a hard time containing it. Julian and Jeremy unpack every spoilery detail in an in-depth review that covers everything from THAT cameo (you know which one), to whether the movie "saved the MCU", and everything in between.
-
With the decision to go with another flashback episode last week, ‘The Acolyte’ season finale had a lot of work to do to wrap up all the loose threads left dangling. Unfortunately, the series largely didn’t leave itself enough time to conclude those plotlines in a satisfying way. Yes, the lightsaber combat continues to be amazing, and despite some very good character work in episode 6, the series continues to lack the patience (and runtime) to give the major emotional beats time to breath. The finale was no better, as it blew through some pretty big character moments, especially for Osha, without take a moment to really let them sink in. Despite that, there are still some standout moments here and some intriguing breadcrumbs to follow into a possible season 2 (which has not yet been confirmed). Julian and Rachel unpack every revelation, head-scratcher, and character cameo as they break it all down scene-by-scene.
-
Unfortunately, the flashback format worked against this episode from the start. Not enough interesting new information was revealed to justify breaking the momentum the show had leading into this week. After an incredible action episode, 'The Acolyte' followed that up with a great character episode that teased a fascinating finish, despite there still being many threads left dangling. Due to the decision to place this second flashback episode, this time from the Jedi's perspective, in this penultimate slot in the season, we're now left with only one episode left to wrap everything up. The episode itself does feature some beautiful shots and some intriguing ideas, but it's a little too shaggy, given how much weight was put into these reveals earlier in this season, to ultimately feel satisfying. With a steep hill yet to climb, plot-wise, it'll be interesting to see if the show can stick the landing.
-
After last week's action-heavy episode left our jaws on the floor from the sheer spectacle and shocking character deaths, 'The Acolyte' uses this follow-up episode to give us a breather. With the main characters now split between three different plotlines, we spend our time jumping between a series of one-on-one conversations, reminiscent of 'Game of Thrones' when it was at it's best. The most interesting of which is Osha and The Stranger/Qimir, as we see the beginnings of the temptation to the dark side. Never before has the Star Wars leaned into the "from a certain point of view" concept more in live action than in this episode. We finally start exploring that "Sith" perspective that has been teased by the creators. Some may call this "filler", but for our money, this is some of the best Star Wars you can get. Listen as Julian and Rachel unpack every nuanced line of dialogue and character beat in this week's Small Screen Star Wars podcast!
-
Star Wars fans rejoice! ‘The Acolyte’ has delivered some of the best lightsaber action we’ve seen in many years. Unfortunately, the good comes with the bad. At least for the characters on the show. As expected, with The Master/The Stranger fully entering the story, it meant that some Jedi weren’t long for this world. That proved to be true more than I think anyone expected. However, as Jecki herself said only last week, “It’s always an honor to get to witness anything or anyone transform into the Force”. Though I’m not sure she meant so soon. This episode was chock full of brutal and surprising deaths and deep cut lore references, that I’m sure satisfied even the nerdiest of Star Wars fans. And despite a character reveal we all saw coming, many interesting questions remain unanswered as we head into the final three episodes of the season. Julian and Rachel break it all down, and predict what role the Sith have yet to play in this story.
-
After a bit of a detour last week, spending an entire episode in flashback, we return to the main adventure. This week's episode, "Day", is largely a positive step forward for the series, bringing fun (if sparse) lightsaber action, improved character development, and an enhanced sense of place, as they spend less time in cramped sets and more time shooting on location. That all being said, it's the big finish that will leave the biggest impression. Unfortunately, the decision to cut things off right when the action was ramping up felt like a bit of a cheat. With a relatively short run time this week, and a story that really felt like it was hitting it's stride as we got closer to the end of the episode, the choice to not follow through on that momentum with a satisfying finish, instead using a cliffhanger, comes across as a means to brag about an extra episode in the season, as opposed to serving the story in the moment. Oh, there was also some very cool cameos this week. Listen as Julian and Rachel unpack it all!
-
After starting off the series with a series of Jedi murders to set the tone, with episode 3 we flash back 16 years to Osha and Mae's secret origin. Which just happens to feature a coven of witches, Jedi space cops testing Padawans, and large force related questions about the twin's parentage. All under twin moons in eclipse. Though not perfect from an acting and pacing perspective, the intrigue offered by the force related mysticism, and what exactly happened that night that "Mae set a fire", helps keep up the shows momentum. It's hard to predict where we are going next, and that's a refreshing thing when we're talking about a prequel in a galaxy far, far away. Listen as Julian and Rachel unpack it all... after a short negativity cleanse.
-
After a very short hiatus (RIP ‘The Bad Batch’, we already miss thee), Small Screen Star Wars is back to cover the latest Star Wars series on Disney+. After a heavy dose of animation, we return to live action. Our last taste being ‘Ahsoka’ late last year, which was met with mixed reviews. However, that’s about where the similarities with recent live action Star Wars end, as ‘The Acolyte’ takes us to an entirely new era. Back nearly 100 years BBY to the age of the High Republic, where Jedi are a dime a dozen, and the Sith have been presumed extinct for a millennia. This is all framing for a dramatic murder mystery as we’re introduced to a new intrepid bunch of Jedi playing detective as they try to figure out who is training force user assassins in secret. As is tradition it seems, the first two episodes were dropped as part of the premiere and Julian and Rachel are here to break it all down and recap every scene as they look ahead and try to piece together the mystery as it unfolds.
-
It's hard to believe that it's been nearly a decade since we were thrust against the back of our collective theatre seats with the release of 'Mad Max: Fury Road', which is now regarded as one of the greatest action movies ever made. The return to the wasteland brought with it the introduction of a new character to accompany our titular Max, Charlize Theron's Furiosa stole the spotlight and now, 9 years later, has been rewarded with a prequel film that explores the "odyssey" of her life before the events of Fury Road. With such a formidable connection between these two films, it really only makes sense to discuss them as a whole. Julian and Jeremy unpack 'Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga' in context with it's predecessor to look at the whole picture. A series of films so epic is scope and ambition that it is a disservice to not mention them both in the same breath. Note that spoilers for 'Furiosa' are gated at approximately the halfway mark of the episode (Timestamp 00:35:33). Welcome back to the unhinged mind of George Miller. We couldn't wait to talk about this one. Witness Me!
-
Last year on Star Wars Day (May the 4th), Lucasfilm Animation surprised us with 'Tales of the Jedi' a mini-series of shorts dedicated to showing some untold stories from before the fall of the Jedi. This seems to have become somewhat of a tradition, as this year, on the same day, we got 'Tales of the Empire'. A darker twist on the same concept. This time though, it was bit more focused. Two stories, told in three parts each, for a total of six shorts. The first story follows Morgan Elsbeth and her journey of revenge, which begins with her as a young girl on Dathomir to where we fist met her in 'The Mandalorian' season three. Unfortunately, despite another noticeable step forward in animation quality throughout, this first story-arch leaves a lot to be desired. While 'Tales of the Jedi' revealed secrets of Jedi's pasts, Morgan's doesn't really provide the audience with any new information. Instead, just expanding on a lot of which we already knew or could have inferred. The second half of 'Tales of the Empire' however does pack more of a punch. We follow Barriss Offee, a young Jedi Padawan we had not seen since she framed Ahsoka for the Temple bombing in 'The Clone Wars', as she's recruited to become an Imperial Inquisitor. These final three episodes are filled with fascinating glimpses into the Inquisitorius Program, insightful dialogue into the psyche of the fallen Jedi that make up their order, and some genuine twists that keep you guessing throughout. Listen as Julian and Rachel unpack each mini-episode, and discuss the package as a whole.
-
Surprise! The ToB Podcast is back from a Star Wars caused hiatus, and just in time to cover one of the biggest nerd culture phenomena so far in 2024. We're talking of course about the revival of one of the greatest animated shows of all time with 'X-Men '97'. With only one episode remaining until the grand finale of season 1, Julian and Jeremy discuss how impressive it is that despite the lofty expectations fans had for this show, it managed it exceed them by nearly every measure. A rare treat. The guys discuss some of the biggest moments from the show as well as the creative work behind it that makes it tick. Afterwards, things shift somewhat as the discussion turns to the first reveal of David Corenswet's Superman, which was met with middling responses. All that and so much more on this week's Tower of Babble Podcast! Plus, stay tuned after the end the show for some bonus content.
-
Congrats to Ray Mills for some great selections on our Death Pool. Thank you to everyone who participated. Good riddance Hemlock, Scorch, Rampart, and many other terrible Imperials.
-
REMINDER: Don’t forget to participate in our Bad Batch Death Pool! With no characters biting the dust in this week’s episode, there’s still time to place your predictions for who comes out of the series still breathing. It’s easy, just follow this link and place your picks: https://forms.gle/vcBCTsH2eeHykYE87
-
Death Pool: You think you know who will live or die in the final two episodes of the series? Prove it! Follow THIS LINK (https://forms.gle/vcBCTsH2eeHykYE87) to participate in the death pool and be part of the show! You can also find an imbedded version of the submission form below on the podcast episode web page.
-
After this week, 'The Bad Batch' is only left with three more episodes before the series wraps up entirely. Last week's two-parter set the stage for a clear endgame - The Batch need to find Tantiss Base and rescue Omega. With that in mind, this week sets up an intriguing idea off the jump - perhaps the former Admiral, now prisoner, Rampart, knows the location. Unfortunately, the episode spins it's wheels with a "mission of the week" format without really moving the plot along in any significant way, and uses information the audience already knows as if it's a big reveal. This would have been a great episode in the middle of the season, but not for the fourth from last episode. The action and visual fidelity were top notch as always, but at this point in the series that's not enough to carry the story at this critical stage.
-
This final season of 'The Bad Batch' is coming at us fast. It was less than a month ago that we were treated to a dramatic two-part episode that left the team reeling, and now again this week another two-part episode drops, and it's another doozy. First, with "Identity Crises" we spend time back on Tantiss with Doctor Emerie Karr as she takes over for Nala Se on Project Necromancer. It's the first time a current or former member of The Batch doesn't appear on screen, as we instead spend the entire episode on Tantiss learning more about the insidious work being done there. It's gripping dramatic television. Next, with "Point of No Return", the stakes ramp up to 1000 as the Empire strikes out against Pabu in an attempt to recapture Omega. The action here is stunning and where the episode leaves off sets up a thrilling final few episodes as we lead into the series finale.
- Vis mere
