Episode 62: Jessica Jones now on YouTube.

It's Episode 62: Jessica Jones on YouTube! If you haven't listened to it yet, then you totally should! Listen to Frank and John while seeing their magnificent beards.

Episode 62: Jessica Jones Season 2

Episode 62: Jessica Jones Season 2
Produced by Relevant to Our Interests
Hosts: John R. Belliston and Frank Shaw
Scripting by: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Graphic Design by: Nathan Newell and Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw

It's our discussion about Jessica Jones season 2. Overall we liked it. Well, to be fair I really liked it. John had a few issues: namely Jerri Hogarth. Now he does like the character, he just feels like she'd fit in better... someplace else. In another series. He's a lot clearer during the episode, and it's something that we disagree on.

We struggle to find a theme to this season. Season one is concretely about abuse, with Killgrave being the primary villain. This season is about... learning that you can move on. Jessica Jones mother is a force to be reckoned with in the season, and is a bad guy, in the sense that she has a negative impact on Jessica's life, but she's not evil. Nobody is really (except Jerri). Selfish? Sure. Idealistic? Maybe. But evil. Nope. None of the villains are really villains. 

But I think that's going to change next season. I honestly think the central conflicts will come from Jerri, who manipulates Chen and Malcolm against Jessica, and from Trish who is going to come out swinging with her own powers. What will be the reasoning for it be? I have no idea. But I'm excited to watch it. 

Speaking of next season: still no announcement about it from Netflix or ABC Studios. I'm optimistic and hopeful we'll hear something soon. I'm loving what Marvel and Netflix has done so far (with one notable exception) and I can't wait to see more of Miss Jones. There are folks who are as optimistic as I am. 

Throw-back Thursday! Ep. 15 Jessica Jones on Youtube.

It's one of our more serious discussions (we used to have those now and then) on Jessica Jones season 1. We'll be talking about the second season very soon here, but until then, for throwback Thursday here's the new YouTube vid for it, as well as our original notes:

Episode 15: Jessica Jones
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Special guest: Matthew Ivan Bennett
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Scripting by Frank Shaw and John Belliston and Matthew Ivan Bennett
Edited by: Frank Shaw 
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw

John and I are joined by playwright Matthew Ivan Bennett on this episode of the podcast to discuss Jessica Jones: What are our thoughts on the Netflix series? How does it portray female superheros? How well does it portray the survivor of domestic abuse? What are our thoughts about what's to come for Marvel Netflix series? We try to answer all those questions and more in the podcast.

There is one question we discuss above that have better sources than what we three are able to give and that's the matter of the survivor of domestic abuse. To start with here are several links where women give their response to Jessica Jones and how it portrays the victim/survivor role of Jessica in the series.

I have little commentary about the following links because the content is not to be sugarcoated, and nothing I say can do the job of the articles original authors. Each and every one of the following articles is worth a read, especially if you've watched Jessica Jones.

Here is the first link.

Here's the second link.

Here is a link to a Cracked article right in line with the previous two. 

And finally, here's a link with information about being "gas lighted" or psychology abused and manipulated.

None of the above links are particularly light reads. As well they shouldn't be. It's a pretty nasty topic but is something that needs to be addressed, and confronted. As you'll read in the articles, Jessica Jones does a great  job of doing just that.

Episode 44: John Hates What You Love: The Defenders (with a bonus cut track!)

Episode 44: John Hates What You Love: The Defenders
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Produced by Relevant to Our Interests
Scripting by Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Graphic Design by: Nathan Newell
Intro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Morning Activities by F.G. Shaw

John levels some pretty hard criticism towards Netflix/Marvel's The Defenders. There's no links in this weeks show notes, but there is a clarification, or a reiteration if you will: We didn't actually hate The Defenders. I know the title is provocative, and often times John has a genuine dislike for things that fall under this heading, though not always (see our episode on Nightmare Before Christmas). This is one of those instances. We both actually liked the Defenders, but there was a weakness to the series that put into focus all the other problems it had: Iron Fist. 

Which brings us to this: in order to keep the show at between 40 minutes to an hour long I have to cut conversation out of each episode. Usually it's wild tangents, or interruptions to the recording that can't always be avoided. It's the nature of our podcast and how we currently have the production set up, being so far apart and struggling with separate recordings. Now and then something that isn't integral to the conversation but still adds to it has to be cut. This is one of those instances. About 5 1/2 minutes were cut out of this episode that just rehashed some of our thoughts on Iron Fist. I'm presenting it here for those that are curious. 

Episode 34: Villains

Episode 34: Villains
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Scripting by Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Graphic Design by: Nathan Newell
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw

John and I had meant to do a few more of these lists shows this past year, but sadly that didn't happen. We did manage to do this one in which we wax philosophical on a few of our favorite villains. These are villains that would appear on both of our top 10 lists along with a bonus villain from each of us that doesn't appear on the others list. 

But first:

Divinity Original Sin: This game has consumed many hours of my free time, and will consume many more hours. It's a grind, it can be difficult, but damned if it isn't a satisfying game. If you like old school CRPG's with turned based tactical combat then I recommend you pick this up. 

Valerian Trailer: I'm not going to say much about this other than.... WATCH!



John talks about the book The Worst of Evils: The Fight Against Pain. It's a fascinating look at pain and how it's been viewed and treated through out history. 

He also talks about Deeply Dapper Beard Oil, which is a shop located in Pocatello Idaho and has a wide variety of fun stuff for sale on their site. John is a really big fan of their beard oil, enough to talk about it on the show. They have flasks, soaps, posters and stickers and a variety of other items for sale. 

Villains:
Those we've already discussed:

Mason Savoy: Chew [Episode 5: Chew]
Kilgrave: Jessica Jones [Episode 15: Jessica Jones]
Bill Cipher: Gravity Falls [Episode 32: Gravity Falls]

And two that haven't showed up on the podcast... yet. 
Nox: Wakfu
Scorpio: FarScape

John's bonus villain is Toffee from Star vs. The Forces of Evil

And my villain is Queen Ileosa from Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path

And of course... we had another brilliant edition of John's Bad Advice!

Episode 15: Jessica Jones

Episode 15: Jessica Jones
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Special guest: Matthew Ivan Bennett
Produced by Hobos in the Back Row
Scripting by Frank Shaw and John Belliston and Matthew Ivan Bennett
Edited by: Frank Shaw
Intro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 1 by F.G. Shaw
Outro Music: Piano Sonata mvnt 3 by F.G. Shaw

John and I are joined by playwright Matthew Ivan Bennett on this episode of the podcast to discuss Jessica Jones: What are our thoughts on the Netflix series? How does it portray female superheros? How well does it portray the survivor of domestic abuse? What are our thoughts about what's to come for Marvel Netflix series? We try to answer all those questions and more in the podcast.

There is one question we discuss above that have better sources than what we three are able to give and that's the matter of the survivor of domestic abuse. To start with here are several links where women give their response to Jessica Jones and how it portrays the victim/survivor role of Jessica in the series.

I have little commentary about the following links because the content is not to be sugarcoated, and nothing I say can do the job of the articles original authors. Each and every one of the following articles is worth a read, especially if you've watched Jessica Jones.

Here is the first link.
Here's the second link.
Here is a link to a Cracked article right in line with the previous two.
And finally, here's a link with information about being "gas lighted" or psychology abused and manipulated.

None of the above links are particularly light reads. As well they shouldn't be. It's a pretty nasty topic but is something that needs to be addressed, and confronted. As you'll read Jessica Jones does a good job of doing just that.

In a complete switch, here's a link to detailing about Jessica Jones next season, or lack of one.

I've been searching for the specific article Matt mentions in the podcast from the Overthinking website (a fantastic pop culture/geek oriented blog and podcast network), as soon as I find it I'll be sharing it here.