Here is this week’s Podcasts in Review.
Bombad Radio: Episode 206 covers D23 Expo and all the Star Wars things that were there and the experience in general as Steve was there and he’s one of the special guests for the episode. They also talk about Disney Infinity 3.0, Kingdom of Hearts, Star Wars: Battlefront, Rogue One news, Star Wars Land, the Avatar land stuff, and Toy Story Land. Good episode to round out your D23 dosage.
Coffee With Kenobi: Coffee Chat with Dennis Keithly is an interesting episode as they focus on their earliest memories of Star Wars, seeing the films for the first time, seeing the special editions, and finally the prequels. It’s a pretty intriguing discussion, worth checking out.
Comics With Kenobi: Episode #5 reviews Kanan #5, Star Wars #8, Darth Vader #8, Lando #2 and Lando #3 with lots of interesting viewpoints. If you’re looking for Star Wars comics discussion, these guys have it in bucket fulls. It’s funny though whenever I hear viewpoints that are completely contrary to my own as I have to remind myself that Star Wars fans are a very devise group, and I, by no means, fall into the norm. Lots of in depth discussion but also lots of spoilers, so fair warning.
Fangirl Chat: Inside Out Feels is their episode about the Pixar film Inside Out. For the discussion they’ve got Teresa, Tricia, Sarah and special guest Erich Schoeneweiss. They talk about the movie, their favorite emotions, the connections to mental illness, and more. There are spoilers, so fair warning. Having not seen the movie, I have to admit it was a little hard to follow along, but it’s probably a good episode for those who have seen the movie.
Fictional Frontiers: Episode 328 is a conversation with Anthony Breznican who talks about his novel Brutal Youth which is pretty interesting. He also talks a little about writing about Star Wars for Entertainment Weekly and hosting The Force Awakens panel at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim.
Fly Casual: Episode 53 is their reviews and rumors episode. They review Darth Vader #8, Lando #2 with fun innuendos, and Dark Disciple. Sadly the Dark Disciple review focuses on all the negative aspects of the book and they don’t present much positive. Only two of the hosts read the book and their recap of it was pretty sketchy. There’s also spoilers, so fair warning. Afterwards they tackle the Rogue One rumor of Felicity Jones being Boba Fett’s daughter.
Great Big Beautiful Podcast: Episode 25 focuses on D23 as one of the hosts recounts their convention trip. One thing I liked about this episode was their focus on not rehashing all the big news that happened at D23–since that’s been covered by just about everyone else. Instead, they focus on the experience of what the convention was like, what the lines were like, and little stories like Stan Lee being on stage for a gag that didn’t really work. It’s worth checking out just to get a different view of the expo.
Hyperspace Theories: The Force Awakens SDCC Panel Reaction episode features Tricia, BJ, Kay and guests Sarah and Richard from Skywalking Through Neverland. The cover the panel, the actors and the behind-the-scenes reel. Sarah and Richard don’t get a lot to say, as BJ dominates a lot of the conversation.
Know What I’m Saying: KWIS Out Loud is a long awaited reunion between Steve and Karl as they finally put out another show after a very long break. They talk a lot about comics, especially Batman, but also Superman. They also talk about The Force Awakens and Nickelback. The episode feels very much the same as it did with the hosts not missing a beat.
Rock Out Loud: Happy 40th Born to Run starts with Kristin sharing her Rob Thomas story, then they head into their main topic, Bruce Springsteen’s album Born to Run. As always, these to geek hard on Bruce and his music, but they also threw a curveball at me. I’m not much of a Springsteen fan, so most of the songs they played weren’t really my kind of music. However, there was one song that I liked that I had never heard before. When they played the clip of it, I found myself really getting into the music and thinking “I get it now, now I know why you like Bruce.” But then a funny thing happened. Just as my little fan heart was beginning to beat with Springsteen love, the song clip ended and Steve and Kristin commenced with tearing the song apart and shredding my little heart. Go figure the one song I liked was the one song they didn’t like. Anyways, great episode for Springsteen fans as they show the Boss a lot of love.
Round 3: Episode #80 starts with a bonus question – chicken fingers, chicken strips or chicken nuggets? That’s followed by “would you rather be a citizen of the DC Universe or the Marvel Universe?” A question of Trivial Pursuits, and then various artists soundtracks. However, the highlight might very well be Sheena’s battle with a spider followed by ghost spider voices. As always, Round 3 is a fast, fun podcast with quick, entertaining bursts of discussion.
Skywalking Through Neverland: Episode 89 is the first part of their D23 Expo coverage with lots of audio clips from panels, guests, and they have an interview with Kevin Liell from Norse Legion. Kevin shares some pretty cool backstage stories from D23. After Kevin’s interview, I was completely satisfied with the episode, but it wasn’t over as they still had the Marvel Star Wars segment with Randy Martinez, so the goodness rolled on. Really enjoyed their comments on the fun off moments with the artwork in the comics. Great episode as always. Combine this one with Episode 90 and you’ll get all your D23 coverage.
Skywalking Through Neverland: Episode 90 is part two of their D23 coverage with this half focusing on interviews. They talk with Ashley Eckstein (Her Universe creator and voice of Ahsoka Tano), Kevin Kiner (the composer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels), Randy Thornton (Disney Music Historian) who has some great stories about the old Star Wars read along books, and Joey Caporaso (Disney Imagineer) who talks about Shanghai Disneyland and all the stuff they’re working on there. Superb episode with great interviews from beginning to end.
Star Wars Action News: Episode 457 is their 10th anniversary special from Wizard World Chicago. The episode starts out pretty good with the usual toy report from the con, coverage of The Force Awakens product leaks, and an on the pegs segment. Then Jerry does a SWAN retrospective, Darth Cheddar talks with his kids about Star Wars tabletop games, and there was one or two other people who chimed in with shouts, thanks, etc. But the guy who followed Darth Cheddar was where the episode really fell apart. To be blunt, rather than wishing a happy 10th anniversary to SWAN, he used the soundbyte to tell his Star Wars story. It was…odd. If you’re tuning in for the toy news, you can tune out when Jerry kicks in. You might want to stay in for Darth Cheddar’s segment as that was interesting, but everything after that isn’t worth hanging in for.
Tales From the Longbox: Episode 205 features an interview with comic writer John Ostrander and comic artist Tom Mandrake. John talks about how he went from going to school to be a priest, to theater, and then to comics. He and Tom talk about working together, doing Grimjack, and about their new project Kross which is about vampires at the battle of Gettysburg. While John and Tom are great guests, there are some issues with the podcast. First off, the main host’s audio level is very loud, so it’s hard to find a happy volume level where you can hear the guests without being blasted by the one host. There was also some mic noise from the same host throughout the episode, and at one point they lose the other host and suffer through a long period of nothingness as they try to get that host back on the line. I get that some people don’t like to edit their episodes, but that was something that should have been cut. It would have made the episode much more professional and enjoyable. Instead, they left it in. I hesitate to recommend this one to anyone except diehard Ostrander/Mandrake fans.
Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.
