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 43: Emoji, Gencon, Deathspank, Darkmatter.

Episode 43: WI: Emoji, Gencon, Deathspank, Darkmatter
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


Fun conversation this past week:

First up, Drive-Ins, I'm not a huge fan of drive-ins, but a lot of people like them in the US. They are a slowly dying tradition, for good or bad. There are only 338 drive-ins left in the US. If you want to give one a try and perhaps experience a movie the way your parents or grandparents may have during the summer, just follow this link for a list, or this one for a map.  If you do decide to go, make sure you pack some snacks (though there will be some available at the drive in, be prepared to start your car once or twice and let it idle to prevent the battery from dying (most use short wave radio station to transmit the audio) and don't turn your lights on during the movie, it's rude and inconsiderate. 

As for the Emoji movie: Rotten Tomatoes and Meta-Critic have everything you'll want to hear about it, in addition to this episode of the podcast of course.

Now for the boardgames and Starfinder from Gencon 2017: Here's an Ars Technica article detailing the games mentioned. There's not a lot of reviews yet, but here are a few. 
Here's the Dice Tower Review for Ex-Libris. Here's The GameBoyGeek's review on Ex-Libris. 
Here's the Dice Tower Review for Rising Sun.
And here's the link to the Starfinder main page and the Online Rules Document. Both John and I are excited for this, though finding time to read it, let alone play it, will be challenging, but if you like table-top RPG's, crazy Sword and Spaceships stories, then Starfinder may be right up your alley.

The Deathspank trilogy is one that slipped by me. Having John talk about them during this episode has piqued my interest though. Here's a link to it on Steam, at least the first game.

Finally Darkmatter. I haven't hopped on the Darkmatter Train yet, but it's been cancelled. There is a campaign to get it picked up by another network here. But regardless check it out on Netflix.

Finally if you'd like to submit a question for John's Bad Advice do so at relevant2rinterests@gmail.com or on our facebook page www.facebook.com/relevant2rinterest or on twitter @r2interests

Episode 42: Frank Loves What You Hate: Valerian

Episode 42: Frank Loves What You Hate: Valerian
Hosts: Frank Shaw and John Belliston
Produced by Relevant to Our Interests
Scripting by Frank Shaw
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

Not a lot of notes with this one. There is this article out in Variety today detailing how Edouard de Vesinne, who the deputy CEO of EuropaCorp was removed from that position due to the failure of the film. That's honestly a bit disappointing to me, but it's not particularly surprising given the performance of the film. It is doing ok in China, but that's not likely going to save it as a franchise at this point. 
Hopefully we'll continue to see the collected works be published despite the films performance. 

Episode 41: WI: Disney, Netflix and Cannibals OH MY!

Episode 41: WI: Disney, Netflix and Cannibals OH MY
Hosts: Frank Shaw
Produced by Relevant to Our Interests
Scripting by Frank Shaw
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

Disny and Netflix are parting ways!

Xhamster offers to buy the rights to Sense8

Brittish Cannibals! 
[Here is the actual paper on this. If you speak "SCIENCE" or more specifically "ANTHROPOLOGY!" it may prove to be a fascinating read. Otherwise follow these other links for a more layman explanation.]

For those interested in FFXI: GO HERE!
[This is a fun game, but I'm undecided whether to continue playing. If it wasn't still subscription based it would be a no brainer, but with Path of Exile now available on Xbox One, as well as a large group of RPG's still on my back list it's a tough sale. It's currently on sale (till August 31st) and comes with a month free, so I still might dive into it, but then again....]

Frank's Rant on Iron Fist

We meant to post this with the notes, but here it is by itself instead. Frank has some pretty strong feelings about Iron Fist, but despite that he's still hopeful about Defenders.


This is supposed to be about a dude with magical fists of iron and we hardly get any of that. Daredevil is getting his ass kicked like every episode. Jessica Jones isn’t throwing cars around constantly, but at least when it isn’t showing her fighting or her powers her character and side characters were interesting and her series gave us plenty of time with the villain. Even Luke Cage has some brilliant moments early on showcasing bullets bouncing off of him. What the hell Marvel?

Madam Gao is one of the coolest villains in Daredevil season one and in this series, where she's a natural fit they barely spent any time with her. Upping the stakes in the series doesn’t mean adding more bad guys half way through: DD season 2 did it, Luke Cage did it, and now Iron Fist and it did it so poorly! You’ve already got two potentially fascinating villains in Gao and Harold, why the hell throw Bakuto in there? If it was for the twist, that’s fucking lame because it was goddamned obvious it was going to happen. You have all this potential and you fucking wasted it because for whatever reason the show runners thought it would be more entertaining to focus on running a business/hostile takeovers/ and corporate moralizing than the potentially kick ass characters and their depth.

The first three or four episodes should have been one. Bakuto should have been introduced sooner (or better left out completely). Madam Gao and her network should have had way more screen time than they did. There’s some good here. The series picks up decently by episodes 6/7, but fuck me running! That’s half way through the series! If your series isn't interesting to watch until halfway through, then maybe you should have started the plot and development closer to that point.

This is depressing. There was so much potential here, but there are many problems: too few fight scenes, uninteresting dialogue, characters whose arcs are barely speed bumps, and not enough focus on the truly interesting characters or worse yet waffling with them and then trying to do all the interesting shit with their characters right at the end. I hope this get’s one more season, not because it was good (it’s tolerable, I will probably watch it again before the Defenders) but because I want to give the creators one more chance to repent for what they gave us with this.

Episode 35: Iron Fist ("Hi Ron Fist!")

Episode 35: Iron Fist
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

Forever behind, and never a head. Here are the show notes for Episode 35: Iron Fist, only several months after the fact.

First up! I [Frank] talks about Nintendo, at the time of the episode the Switch had only been out for a couple months, but was (and still is) selling quite well. However Nintendo has discontinued the NES Classic. There was speculation at the time about some of the reasons why they might be discontinuing the device, it's now been revealed that one of the primary reasons is the SNES classic coming out in September. Now the price of the NES classic is so much that it's cheaper to buy the games off the secondary market (especially if you currently own an original NES). I'm still baffled as to the business decision about this, even with the SNES classic coming out. I hope to get one, but we'll see.

John discuss an awesome web comic: Six Billion Demons. Read it. It's incredible and definitely worth a look.

John also talks about the "The Pure Paladins of Palavan" his favorite strike team for Mass Effect: Andromeda.

For the main episode we talk about Iron Fist... Yeah. Despite all the issues, and there were a lot of issues, but I'm [Frank] still hopeful for the Defenders and another season of Iron Fist. I guess they can't all be home runs.

John also gives out bad advice and it's darkly hilarious.

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!