Gobbledygeek

Slip on your shiniest boots of leather and grab those whips, it's Four-Color Flashback time! Professional Grendel podcaster Chance Mazzia joins Paul and Arlo for their year-long exploration of Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra's Y: The Last Man for Vol. 4: Safeword, wherein things get a little kinky. When the gang stops at a remote cabin in the woods (never a good sign), Yorick is in for a femdom fiesta complete with chains, ropes, and soul-searching. The boys discuss how the series subverts conventional ideas of masculinity; what Yorick's sexual history tells us about him; and how the story functions in a post-9/11, circa Trump world. Plus, Chance wants you to know The Name of the Wind, and Arlo furthers the kink with Park Chan-Wook's The Handmaiden.

Next: it's been more than a decade since Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men hit theaters. Paul and Arlo examine how the film's dark and despairing future reflects our dark and despairing present.

This week, a podcast about a podcast. Of course, S-Town is no ordinary podcast; from the producers of This American Life and Serial, it's a coherent piece of documentary art unto itself. Reporter Brian Reed had little idea what he was getting himself into when John B. McLemore of Shittown (née Woodstock), Alabama, emailed him about a possible murder cover-up. Likewise, the listener who presses play on the first episode of S-Town has no idea of the journey they're about to take, one that is about time, empathy, compassion. Joining Paul and Arlo to suss out some of this journey's meaning is Paul's better half, Pam Smith, herself a lifelong Alabamian. The gang discusses how S-Town resonates with them, whether or not it's too invasive, why it should be mandatory listening, and Paul and Pam's trip to Woodstock. Plus, Pam plays some calming video games (Abzu, Flow, Journey, and Flower), while Arlo's other half finally gets him to play The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time; and we have movie sign as Paul heckles Netflix's Mystery Science Theater 3000 revival.

Next: Gobbledypal Chance Mazzia stops by for more Four-Color Flashback fun. This time, he's here for Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra's Y: The Last Man. He'll help Paul and Arlo tackle Vol. 4: Safeword.

Aliens dripping their acidic psychosexual horrors all over you. Artificial intelligence becoming real, seeing and hearing and controlling all you do. Your friends' flesh peeling back to reveal their true inhuman visage. These are the nightmares conjured by such sci-fi horror classics as Alien, The Terminator, and The Thing, but you may not have seen their likes in recent years. Blumhouse and Birth. Movies. Death. writer Jess Hicks joins Paul and Arlo to ask, “Where have all the good sci-fi horror movies gone?” The gang discusses why the genre reached its apex in the '80s; why it's so much more difficult to produce (or even conceptualize of) good sci-fi horror these days; and how TV may be picking up the slack. In the middle of all this, technology literally revolts against our hosts. Plus, Paul and Arlo come from the land of the ice and snow to geek out over the giddy Thor: Ragnarok teaser.

Next: a podcast about a podcast. Paul's better half, Pam Smith, joins the boys to discuss the beautiful, stunning S-Town.

This week, Paul and Arlo turn on and tune into the wonders and terrors of the superhuman mind by taking a gander at the first season of Legion. The FX series, developed by Fargo's Noah Hawley and theoretically set in the X-Men universe, is unlike most other superheroic media. David Haller is either schizophrenic, an extremely powerful telepathic/telekinetic mutant, or both. Witnessed through his eyes, the world is fractured, bizarre, disturbing, and a tad surreal. As such, the typical X-Men plot--David is rescued from a mutant-hunting government organization known as D3 by a group of rebels with a Magneto-esque leader--is given a swift kick in the pants. The boys discuss this inventive telling of a simple story, the show's many visual flourishes, why it's a powerful exploration of mental health, and Aubrey Plaza's revelatory turn as a 50-year-old man. Plus, a surprise Rick and Morty pre-empts Samurai Jack, overjoying one of our hosts and causing considerable frustration in the other; and the boys rave about the fifth season of another brilliant FX drama, The Americans.

Next: film critic and horror expert Jess Byard joins Paul and Arlo to ask, “Where has all the good sci-fi horror gone?”