211 | After Dinner Lounge – Check Your Situation Out

Michael, Rob, and Pax gather again in the lounge to discuss what they've been listening to, thinking about, reading, and watching. And Evan Hanson stops in for a bit!

In this episode, they dig into their favourite video games and Autumn traditions, various podcasts (including the impressive, new Remember That Show?), Jimmy Buffett, the second seasons of Foundation and Good Omens, Justified, X-Men and Star Trek comics, Asteroid City, Werewolves Within, The Menu, 1917, Attack the Block, Twitter vs Bluesky, Early Autumn by Robert B Parker, The Cincinnati Kid, John Hughes movies, and Hardy Boys shorts. 

Download MP3

210 | Fithy Horrors Rerun – Frankenstein

In preparation for an upcoming episode of After Lunch After Midnight in which Michael and Jessica Hickman discuss the first three Universal Frankenstein movies, here's a rerun of a 2019 episode of the Filthy Horrors podcast where they and Darla Ecklund talked about the Mary Shelley novel and several adaptations of it.

Download MP3

209 | TV Villains Sour 16

Following up on Episode 132 from last year when we determined the Ultimate Literary Villain of All Time, Michael and Rob welcome Ben Graham and Paxton Holley to do the same with TV villains. Each panelists nominates four favorite boob tube baddies, then we put them into tournament brackets to discuss and vote. Will you agree with our choices? Did we leave off a favorite of yours? Listen and let us know!

Download MP3

208 | Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)

Michael, Rob, and Pax return to the Planet of the Apes and dig deep into its subterranean (and substandard) sequel. 

Download MP3

207 | Live and Let Die (1973)

Michael, Rob, and Karen discuss Roger Moore's first go as Bond and the mixing of British spy adventure with the blaxploitation and hicksploitation genres. It's a messy film with plenty to talk about in terms of what works and what doesn't.

Download MP3

206 | Fithy Horrors Rerun – Dracula

Inspired by last episode's Dracula discussion, we're rerunning another episode of the old Filthy Horrors podcast. Michael, Jess, and Darla talk about all things Dracula: from the original novel to their favorite movies, comics, games, and more.

Download MP3

205 | Dracula on Film

Michael and guest Becky Tyler take a bat-driven carriage through an overview of Dracula movies from 1922's Nosteratu to this year's The Last Voyage of the Demeter.

Download MP3

204 | After Midnight – The Creature from the Black Lagoon

As mentioned in Episode 199, After Lunch is starting a new series of horror-themed episodes that we're calling "After Midnight". Jessica Hickman joins Michael to kick off with a discussion of Universal's trilogy of Creature from the Black Lagoon films: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Revenge of the Creature (1955), and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956).

Download MP3

203 | After Dinner Lounge – We Could Never See Eye to Eye

Michael, Rob, and Pax wrap up this month's Lounge talking about Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, playlists for running, the Wham! documentary, Barbie, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, video games we've been playing, the Jungle Cruise movie, Justified, Secret Invasion, They Cloned Tyrone, and Classic Doctor Who.

Download MP3

202 | After Dinner Lounge – Filmy Smurf

Michael, Rob, and Pax chat about how reading goals affect reading enjoyment, death and funerals, life as a cartoon animal, Matthew Reilly’s YA book (The Secret Runners of New York), Old Habits (a Die Hard spec script turned novel), Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent, Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse comics, The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz, Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, current Star Trek comics, and Elvis and Ann-Margret movies.

Download MP3

201 | Planet of the Apes (1968)

Michael, Rob, and Pax visit the Planet of the Apes! Kicking off a bunch of discussions about the simian series, we start with a quick conversation about Pierre Boulle's novel before exploring the 1968 movie that started a phenomenon. 

Download MP3

200 | Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger close out the Sean Connery era of the Bond films with Diamonds Are Forever. They talk about the return of Connery, whether it's a worthy follow-up to On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and the wisdom of hiring a jazz musician and Crispin Glover's dad to play assassins. The movie's directed by Goldfinger's Guy Hamilton and also stars Jill St John, Charles Gray, Lana Wood, and Jimmy Dean.

Download MP3

199 | Introducing: After Midnight

We're soon going to start a new horror-focused series of episodes called After Lunch After Midnight featuring Michael and his pal Jessica Hickman. It's sort of a spin-off of another podcast called Filthy Horrors that they did together with their mutual pal Darla Ecklund. So to introduce After Midnight, we thought it might be good to rerun the first episode of Filthy Horrors in which Jess, Darla, and Michael talk about their history with horror, the kinds of horror they like, and lots of examples of favorite horror movies, TV shows, books, and comics.

Download MP3

198 | Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One (2023)

Michael and Rob wrap their Mission: Impossible movies watch-through (for now) with the new entry in the series: Dead Reckoning, Part One. They talk about all the spoilers and whether second viewings changed their perspective on anything. Well, one thing in particular, but sure, everything else, too.

Download MP3

197 | After Dinner Lounge – A Mission: Impossible Level Puzzle

Michael, Rob, and Pax finish this months Lounge with discussion about their personal movie rating systems, Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series, Daniel Pemberton movie scores, The Haunting of Bly Manor, the second season of Schmigadoon!, more about Ted Lasso, Kate Beckinsale in Love & Friendship, Nimona, modern Luddites, The Flash, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Alamo Drafthouse, their top three favorite comic book artists, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, maybe a little bit about the new Mission: Impossible movie, and much much more.

Download MP3

196 | After Dinner Lounge – Sniff This Microphone

Michael, Rob, and Pax chat about farting soulmates, '90s revamped superheroes, Pax’s idea for a Batman ‘66 Season 4 crossover, Philip Marlowe in The Little Sister, Hammer Frankenstein and the Hammer House of Podcast, Men both Gray and Thin, weekly comics reading, crappy Spider-Man novels, the darkening of the Harry Potter books, and lots of other things.

Download MP3

195 | Star Trek: Discovery, Season 4

Michael, Rob, and Delaney Graham continue their Star Trek Trek with season 4 of Discovery. Find out what we thought of the butterfly people, the new Federation President, all that jargon (The DMA! Species 10-C! The Orb! The Hyperfield!), and the most contentious element of the season: Zora. 

Download MP3

194 | The Hasbro Cinematic Universe

As Hasbro begins building its cinematic universe in real life, Michael and Rob welcome Jeeg and David May to talk about how they would do it. Following the MCU model, each person has picked a Hasbro game or toy to adapt into a movie that then connects somehow into the other movies, all leading to an Avengers-style crossover blockbuster. Madness or genius? You decide!

Download MP3

193 | The Man from UNCLE (2015)

While Michael and Rob wait for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One to come out, they follow up Henry Cavill's performance in Fallout with another Cavill spy movie, Guy Ritchie's The Man from UNCLE.

Download MP3

192 | On Her Majesty's Secret Christmas

Since we just talked about On Her Majesty's Secret Service last episode, now seems like a good time to revisit this conversation from Michael's old Sleigh Bell Cinema podcast in which he talks with Carlin Trammel about the movie and how (or if) it functions as a Christmas movie.

Download MP3

191 | On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

After some Goldfinger and Thunderball trivia that you can play along with, Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger talk about George Lazenby's grounded and human James Bond, Diana Riggs' lovely and kickass Tracy di Vicenzo, and Telly Savalas' tough and brutish Ernst Stavro Blofeld. It's an unusual entry in the series, but is it also good? Once they settle that, the panel wraps with some On Her Majesty's Secret Service trivia, too.

Download MP3

190 | After Dinner Lounge – This Changes a Man

Michael, Rob, and Michael DiGiovanni talk about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Star Wars Visions Season 2, Ted Lasso Season 3, Unicorn: Warriors Eternal, the Our Man Flint movies, Hammer's Frankenstein movies, Peter Pan and Wendy (2023), streaming service avatars, Fast X, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Silo, Disney’s Stan Lee documentary, how our buying and reading of comics has changed, aging and wisdom, budgeting entertainment time, and other things they've been watching and thinking about.

Download MP3

189 | After Dinner Lounge – Flintstones Calisthenics

As Pax recovers from vacation, Evan returns to the Lounge for a bit with Michael, Rob, and guest-lounger Michael DiGiovanni. In this first half of the discussion, the conversation includes butt tattoos, underwear preferences, Joe Hill, nepotism, how horror works in books vs film, jazz trombone, William T Riker, Fourth Chair Carryover Questions, the difference between the book and movie versions of Prisoner of Azkaban, The New Classic Film Jerks, the Off Panel comic book interview podcast, the Purple Stuff podcast, letting your kids introduce you to new music, celebrity podcasts, Action Comics, Dawn of DC, Star Trek: Double Double by Michael Jan Friedman, Cassandra Cain as Batgirl, and X-Men comics.

Download MP3

188 | Batman (1966), Season 4

Michael and Rob welcome Erik Johnson and Noel Thingvall to create a fourth season of the Adam West Batman series by crossing it over with other late-'60s TV shows. In addition to the new guest-characters, some of the stories also include new villains pulled from comics of the day and played by popular actors of the period. 

Download MP3

187 | Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)

Michael and Rob finish their Mission: Impossible movies catch-up with a discussion of Fallout. Henry Cavill, Vanessa Kirby, and Angela Bassett join the series while other favorites return. But is that, plus emotional closure and fantastic stunts, enough to make this one of our favorite in the series?

Download MP3

186 | You Only Live Twice (1967)

This extra-sized episode opens with Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger answering trivia questions about Dr No and From Russia With Love. The questions are multiple choice, so play along as you listen. 

After that, the panel returns to the official Bond film series with Sean Connery's first last appearance in the role. And they are not in agreement about the quality of this film. They'll talk about why before wrapping up with more trivia, this time about You Only Live Twice.

Download MP3

185 | After Dinner Lounge – Technical Difficulties

Michael, Rob, and Pax experienced some technical difficulties in the lounge before they got around to thinking about anything this month. But they did get to talk about what they've been watching, including Perry Mason, Season 2, John Wick, Chapter 4, The Super Mario Bros Movie, Renfield, Sisu, Strange New Worlds, Air, Fast X, Bruce Lee, Philip Marlowe, The Black Phone, and Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Download MP3

184 | After Dinner Lounge – Conquering Heroes to the Mall

Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about what they've been listening to and reading, including their favorite podcasts and comics, but also Harry Potter audiobooks, Cameron Crowe's novel Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story, Circe by Madeline Miller, Raymond Chandler's The High Window, and additional thoughts on Rogue Nation and Picard, Season 3.

All of this, plus a new Ask Us Anything segment thanks to listener voicemail from our pal Jody Collins.

Download MP3

183 | Dungeons & Dragons, Session Zero - "You Here to Kill Gerald?"

After Michael, Rob, Jeff Somogyi, and Ben Graham talk briefly about their various experiences playing Dungeons & Dragons and their expectations for the game, Ben leads the rest of the party into a quick encounter with a sheep-stealing griffin. Assuming the group survives, this is the first of a series of adventures that will also see William Bruce West joining the fun in future episodes. Roll a d20 and make a Fun Check.

Download MP3

182 | License to MCU

Michael and Rob are joined by Michael DiGiovanni and William Bruce West to imagine a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie that includes characters from the wide array of toys, movies, and TV series that Marvel Comics has licensed over the years.

Download MP3

181 | Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

Michael and Rob continue watching their way through the Mission: Impossible movies with Christopher McQuarrie's debut in the series, Rogue Nation. Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Jeremy Renner are back, but how does Sean Harris measure up as the villain? And then there's Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust. Is this the entry that will supplant Mission: Impossible III as our favorite? Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to tune in and find out.

Download MP3

180 | Jason Copland's Full Tilt

Michael and Rob welcome Michael's friend and Kill All Monsters partner Jason Copland to talk about Jason's new graphic novel, Full Tilt. Successfully funded on Zoop in an hour, the book is a non-stop scifi noir action thriller. Jason talks about its inception and the creation process, but there's also some Kill All Monsters talk and we wrap up with a discussion of some of our favorite other "full tilt" stories in various media. 

Full Tilt promises to be a unique story in a beautiful package and there are currently no plans to publish it traditionally, so please be nice to yourself and order your copy on Zoop right away.

Download MP3

179 | Casino Royale (1967)

Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger wrap up their digression into 1967 unofficial Bond movies with a look at Charles K Feldman's spoof, Casino Royale, starring David Niven, Ursula Andress, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, and Orson Welles. It's a classic train wreck of a movie, but does that mean that it's no good? We talk about what happened behind the scenes during production, critique the jokes, and try to make sense of the plot.

178 | Picard, Season 3 (Initial Reactions)

Michael and Rob reunite with their old friend Carlin Trammel to talk in a very spoilery way about the recent, third season of Star Trek: Picard. This isn't part of After Lunch's official Star Trek Trek discussions, because those won't get to Picard for a long time. We just couldn't wait that long to talk about the season. 

And again, lots of spoilers in this episode.

177 | After Dinner Lounge – $#!t, Did You Do the Tooth Fairy?

Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about what they've been watching and thinking, leading to conversations about New Girl, Shrinking, Star Trek: Picard, Shazam: Fury of the Gods, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, John Wick, Chapter 4, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Ted Lasso, The Mandalorian, Murder, My Sweet, Nope, The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek, former fandoms we used to enjoy, Easter traditions, and dream RPG settings.

176 | After Dinner Lounge – And... We're Dead

Michael, Rob, and Pax talk about what they've been listening to and reading lately, leading to topics like the intersection of faith and feminism, different approaches to film podcasting, the novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Bono's memoir Surrender, Pax's reaction to Michael and Rob's Ghost Protocol episode, Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely, ‘90s Batman comics, and Batmobiles in general.

Some of the Batmobiles that come up are Norm Breyfogle's sports car, the '70s Super Friends classic, and the happy batface from Batman: Prodigal.

175 | Evan's Marvel Comics Reboot

Evan wasn't able to join us last episode when Michael, Rob, and Jody Collins rebooted Marvel Comics, so in this episode, he shares his ideas for all-new versions of Thor, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Hulk, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men.

174 | Marvel Comics Reboot

Back in Episode 165, we speculated what Marvel Comics might be like if they took a year off from publishing superhero comics and focused on other genres instead. In this sequel episode, Michael, Rob, and Jody Collins return to imagine how Marvel might reboot their most classic superhero series with brand new, completely different concepts and characters. Evan wasn't able to join us for this one, but stay tuned for an upcoming episode in which he reveals his own ideas for reboots of all eight series.

And stay tuned at the end of this episode for important information about the After Lunch dress code.

173 | Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

Michael and Rob continue their journey through the Mission: Impossible films with the fourth in the series, Brad Bird's Ghost Protocol

172 | OK Connery (1967)

Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger take a detour from the main James Bond series to watch Italy's OK Connery (aka Operation: Kid Brother) starring Sean Connery's younger brother as a famous secret agent's younger brother who's pulled into a spy caper. Thanks to the super popularity of Goldfinger and Thunderball, lots of Bond spoofs and rip-offs came out around this time, but OK Connery is unique for including iconic actors from the actual Bond movies, including Lois Maxwell, Bernard Lee, Daniela Bianchi, Adolfo Celi, and Anthony Dawson. But is it any good? Our panel may not all agree.

171 | After Dinner Lounge – The Elgin Marbles

Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax talk about what they've been watching and thinking about. Topics include The Last of Us, Quantumania, Marlowe, Adam Driver vs dinosaurs, Bono and the Edge talking to Dave Letterman, Pumping Iron, Party Down, Creed 3, behind the scenes making a major Disney animated movie, villains as main characters, buying cars, engaging with ridiculous ideas, and the difference between openness and vulnerability.

170 | Lost (with Annaliese and Carlin Trammel)

A couple of episodes ago, Michael and Rob talked about JJ Abrams' Mission Impossible III and the TV show Lost came up. Michael mentioned an episode of the old Dragonfly Ripple podcast where Annaliese Trammel shared her thoughts on the first two seasons with her dad, Carlin. It was a wonderful bit of podcast history, but it's not easily available anymore, so we're rerunning it. Please enjoy.

169 | After Dinner Lounge – Do My Doodie

Michael, Rob, Evan, and Pax talk about what they've been listening to and reading. Topics include teenage stupidity, pocket symphonies, which Enterprise we'd want to serve on, De La Soul and music licensing, annotated books, Barry Allen goes to Marvel, Batman: White Knight, The Big Sleep, and Nothing.

168 | Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Michael and Rob talk about JJ Abrams' contribution to the Mission: Impossible series, starring Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Monaghan, Billy Crudup, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Maggie Q, Simon Pegg, Laurence Fishburne, and Keri Russell.

167 | Thunderball (1965)

Michael, Rob, and Karen Flieger talk about Sean Connery's fourth adventure as James Bond in Thunderball. Lots of music discussion in this one, praise for Paula Caplan and Fiona Volpe, and awe at Largo's impressive sense of fashion.

166 | Top 10 Years Later (2013)

Michael, Pax, and guest Noel Thingvall (with input from Evan as well) recall their favorite films of 2013 and how they feel about them now. And they might get into some of the big stinkers of 2013 as well.

165 | Marvel's Year Without Superheroes

Michael, Rob, Evan, and guest Jody Collins imagine a reality in which Marvel Comics takes a year off from publishing superhero comics to focus on other genres. What genres should they pick? What stories should they tell? And what creators should write and draw them?