This week the nerds take on the topic of monsters! What makes a monster, anyway? They break down the various categories and discuss their favorites, ranging from classic monster movie monsters, alien monsters, fantasy monsters, furry monsters, and others. Other topics include early McDonaldland commercials, the Island of Dr. Moreau, Salyut-7, monster cereals, laugh tracks, The Good Place, The Goldbergs, and Andy’s wall of video screens.
This week the nerds take on the topic of time, and stories about characters who can stop time, slow time down, or, of course, travel through time. Specific subjects include Doctor Who, Hiro from Heroes, the Flash, Quicksilver from the X-men, Voyagers, the First Men in the Moon, Manifest, Seven Days, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Man in the High Castle, Fringe, Sliders, and others. At the end they lower the spoiler curtain to discuss the most recent episodes of The Good Place and Manifest.
SPOILER WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS
This week the nerds take on the topic of pizza. They have much to say on the subject. It starts with the debate about pineapple on a pizza, they discuss other toppings (and the endless negotiations a group must go through to ordering one), and how some toppings are more “pick-off-able” than others. Then they move on to their childhood favorite pizzas, their go-to choices for ordering a pizza now, garlic, types of bacon, pizzas of different cities, different ways of cooking pizza, how they each cook a pizza at home, and their favorite national pizza chain. Then they move onto popular media depictions of pizza, the adult adventures of pizza delivery guys, all the references to pizza that Andy has included in his games, and the joy of calzones. Finally moving on from pizza, Andy gives his impressions of the first 10 episodes of Babylon 5, which he’s has finally started watching after all these years. Lastly, after lowering the spoiler curtain, they discuss the first episodes of The Good Place and Manifest.
SPOILER WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS
This week the nerds spend a lot of time talking about sequels, reboots, and continuing adventures. Keith talks about Oceans 8, which leads to a big discussion about Deux ex machine, crabgrass, red herrings, Chehov’s gun, Hitchcock’s bomb, plot twists, and subverting viewer expectations. Moving on to game design, they discuss how newer versions of rules for games are more like updated versions of software than sequels, and the challenge of adding new features while also wanting to simplify and optimize game mechanics. Regarding media, Andy talks a little about the first episode of Manifest, then they bring down the spoiler curtain to discuss the final season of The Americans at length.
SPOILER WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS
This week the nerds follow up on last week’s discussion of robots with a lengthy discussion about Dragons. Why do they sleep on hordes of gold, anyway? Why are some really smart, and others unable to even speak? And why isn’t there a dragon in Fairy Tale Fluxx? Moving on from dragons, Keith talks about taxes and Action Pups! and Andy talks about getting a root canal. Then Andy explains his plan to get rid of his van and go buy a used truck instead. They talk a little about upcoming media, then Andy talks about the concept album by Jonathan Coulton called Solid State.