School of Movies

Casino Royale

[School of Movies 2021]

To coincide with the long-awaited release of No Time to Die we decided to go back to the beginning of Daniel Craig's career as 007. A decade ago I covered the first 22 Bond movies with James Batchelor and Gary Blower, over three mammoth episodes, covering each era. That took us all the way up to Quantum of Solace. 

But Sharon wasn't on those, episodes and we only had so much time to cover each movie. Plus I'd like to think we've gotten better over the years. So this one is all about the 2006 debut movie, which remains our favourite of the series for reasons we will definitely be elaborating upon. Next week, since we've already covered Skyfall and Spectre together, back in 2015 we will be talking about the much-maligned sequel, Quantum of Solace.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

[School of Movies 2021]

One of the first huge blockbuster movies made by a western studio with a largely eastern cast, this one really underlines my abiding contention that "Superhero" is not a genre, and neither, as it turns out is "Martial Arts". Would we say Boogie Nights was a "Sex Movie?". Genre is an increasingly blurry construct to help marketers and those who want to know what to watch. 

Luckily for us all though this particular Martial Arts Superhero movie is fantastic. Once again, we urge everyone to be as safe as possible and not take risks. But even if you aren't able to see this in the cinema, you have something special to look forward to on your TV screen in the near future, and while we discuss what happens we can't really spoil the movie for you. It's too rich and nourishing for that. 

Guests:

Brenden Agnew @BLCAgnew of Cinapse

Jesse Ferguson @TheDapperDM

from the Recorded Tomorrow Podcast

Castlevania (The Video Games)

[School of Everything Else 2021]

An iconic series of games that has run since 1986 but never really resonated with mass audiences the way that Mario and Sonic did. These are the tales of vampire hunters and the creatures of the night that stand between them and (usually) Dracula. 

They have gone through many phases, and we cover each of them here in this mammoth, epic and thoroughly comprehensive show. First there are the side-scrolling whip-and-jump titles from the NES onwards through the SNES and Mega Drive, followed by their reinvention as both 3D action games, and (more significantly for video gaming history) as metroidvanias (a term that had to be invented to best describe them).

We take you through the rocky territory of Lords of Shadow and the triumphant return as "Bloodstained" as publisher Konami ran the official license into the ground with pachinko machines. We even touch on the strange and elusive mobile games. 

This show will tell you which of the 30+ titles are really worth sinking time into and why. And the whole thing is soaked in atmosphere and a dark, Gothic smorgasbord of classic music. 

Guests:

Jason "Chewie" Slate @TheManaPool

Alexa Vargas @Plutoburns whose YouTube channel is here

Batman: The Animated Series

[School of Everything Else 2021]

One of the greatest, most influential TV shows of all time. We watched the whole thing on blu ray, and not only does it hold up, it still surpasses most Batman media. Oftentimes lynchpins like this are hyped and oversaturated to the point where they can hardly live up to the cultural expectations, but this one really does.

The first season was a HUGE run of 65 episodes which spanned a year from September '92 to '93. The second season was a more conservative 20, which went from May '94 to September '95. By this point it was time for Superman to get his own show (encapsulating the classic character rather than subverting him) which we will hopefully be covering soon. 

There were a series of movies released on TV and VHS (as well as a brief, invisible theatrical release for Mask of the Phantasm, which we covered all the way back in 2012. And then 24 episodes of The New Batman Adventures switched up the art style and went from September '97 to January '99. It's the finer points and highlights of these three seasons that we focus on in this mammoth show. 

Guests:

Toby Jungius @TJungius of Through the Wind Door

Kevin Veighey @GoldenTalesGeek whose Let's Plays on YouTube can be found here