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New Podcast! The X-Cast – Fight the Future Minute #86 (“Well-Manicured Sacrifice”)

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Darren

So The X-Cast reached the end of the show’s fifth season, and approached The X-Files: Fight the Future. This naturally meant it was time for another breathtakingly ambitious project, so the podcast is going literally minute-by-minute through the first X-Files feature film. I’m joining the wonderful Kurt North for two brief stretches featuring the Well-Manicured Man.

And so my time on the Fight the Future minute comes to an end. It has been a pleasure. I like to think that Kurt and I go out like the Well-Manicured Man himself, in a blaze of glory. We discuss everything from the Well-Manicured Man’s flare for the theatrical, to his somewhat unnecessary killing spree, to how exactly we imagine the local papers are going to cover the weird murder-suicide-in-an-alley sequence. It’s fun, it’s playful, it’s a recording I really enjoyed – and which I hope you enjoy as well.

You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: fight the future, kurt north, podcast, the well-manicured man, the x-cast, the x-files, the x-files: fight the future | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Fight the Future Minute #85 (“Well-Manicured Murder”)

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Darren

And so my time on the Fight the Future minute nears an end. However, there’s still one minute left. So this provides a nice opportunity to talk about the weirdness of the Well-Manicured Man’s plan during this exposition-driven sequence that apparently includes crossing “double murder-suicide” off his bucket list. We also discuss the narrative conventions that require a propulsive conspiracy thriller like Fight the Future to generate completely absurd tension and suspense in place where it really has no reason to exist.

You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: explosion, fight the future, kurt north, podcast, production value, the x-cast, the x-files, well-manicured man | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Fight the Future Minute #82 (“Well-Manicured Truth I”)

Posted on July 23, 2020 by Darren

Who doesn’t like exposition? Especially when it’s delivered by a veteran British character actor trying to cram as much as physically possible into the space between two set pieces? We’re in an incredibly dense stretch of Fight the Future in which the film tries to offer a cliffnotes of the show’s mythology for the blockbuster audiences watching in cinemas. The result isn’t always elegant, but it’s surprisingly effective.

You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: fight the future, John Neville, podcast, the x-files, well-manicured man | 1 Comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Fight the Future Minute #81 (“Well-Manicured Car”)

Posted on July 21, 2020 by Darren

The second stretch kicks off here, with a minute that is largely about building atmosphere and tension. It kicks off the second of the film’s extended sequences focusing on the Well-Manicured Man, but we have a little room here to talk about the actual film-making of Fight the Future, the small differences that distinguish the summer blockbuster from the weekly production of The X-Files as a television show – particularly the little flourishes of Rob Bowman’s direction that take advantage of longer production time and a higher fidelity format.

You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

Filed under: The X-Files | Tagged: fight the future, film, kurt north, podcast, the x-cast, the x-files, well-manicured man | 1 Comment »

190. 12 Angry Men (#5)

Posted on July 11, 2020 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Donald Clarke and John Maguire, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.

This time, Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men.

In New York, in the height of summer, twelve jurors assemble for what should be a simple open and shut case. Most of the jury assumes that they’ll be done within the hour. However, against all of that evidence and in spite of all of that expectation, one member of the group isn’t entirely convinced that the accused is guilty.

At time of recording, it was ranked 5th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: 12 angry men, america, courts, donald clarke, fantasy, henry fonda, john maguire, justice, Movie, podcast, Sidney Lumet, The 250 | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! Galactic Yo-yo – Peter Davison’s “Doctor Who”

Posted on July 7, 2020 by Darren

I was very thrilled to be invited to guest on the Galactic Yo-yo podcast by the wonderful Molly Marsh, to discuss Doctor Who.

We’d talked a little bit about Doctor Who before the podcast, and I’d wanted to talk a little bit about classic Doctor Who, because I don’t always get a chance to delve into the classic series. Plus, with the recent blu ray collections, I’d been watching a bit of it. More than that, I’d been delving back into Peter Davison’s almost-three-seasons in the role and was quite impressed with the way in which the Fifth Doctor often seemed to be a protagonist trying desperately to stay on top of a show that was falling to pieces around him. So we talked a great deal about Peter Davison.

Anyway, it was a huge honour to be invited to the show, and I hope that you enjoy it and I didn’t embarrass myself. You can subscribe to the show here. You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

Filed under: Podcasts!, Television | Tagged: doctor who, galactic yo-yo, Peter Davison, podcast | Leave a comment »

189. White Heat – w/ The Movie Palace – Independence Day 2020 (#—)

Posted on July 4, 2020 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a fortnightly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released Saturdays at 6pm GMT.

This week, a special crossover episode with The Movie Palace Podcast, a film podcast hosted by Carl Sweeney taking a look at the classics of Hollywood’s golden age. Carl suggested a crossover episode taking a look at the list, and particularly some of the classic movies listed on it.

So this week, Raoul Walsh’s White Heat.

Fleeing the authorities after a train robbery that resulted in two murders, Cody Jarrett latches on to an unconventional scheme to evade detection. Jarrett turns himself into the authorities for a crime he didn’t commit, earning a lesser sentence and putting him in the clear. However, things are changing rapidly for Cody, and the ground is very quickly shrinking out from under him.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Continue reading →

Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: atomic horror, carl sweeney, end of an era, Film noir, gangsters, horror, james cagney, monster movie, podcast, raoul walsh, recording, second world war, the movie palace, warners, white heat | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The Time is Now – Season 2, Episode 23 (“The Time is Now”)

Posted on July 1, 2020 by Darren

And with that, The Time is Now finishes its coverage of the second season of Millennium, and I was flattered to be invited to discuss the second part of the two-part season finale The Time is Now with the fantastic Kurt North.

I’ve talked a great deal before about how the second season of Millennium is one of my favourite seasons of television ever made. And it has been an absolute joy revisiting it for these podcast discussions. It’s been amazing to see that the show still holds up more than twenty years after it was originally produced, and to see how it resonates in entirely new and surprising ways with the world as it exists today. Twenty years later, the second season is still a monumental and underrated piece of television.

It has been a huge honour to talk so much about the season. I think, outside of Kurt, I’ve been the contributor who has appeared most frequently on these episodes. I hope I’ve been able to make a coherent and convincing case for why I think so many of the individual episodes – and indeed the larger season as a whole – are masterpieces of storytelling and among the very best material that Ten Thirteen ever produced. Thanks to Kurt and Tony for having me, and thanks to the listeners for putting up with me.

As ever, you can listen directly to the episode here, subscribe to the podcast here, or click the link below.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Millennium, Podcasts! | Tagged: apocalypse, death, destruction, end of the world, frank black, millennium, podcast, the time is now | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The X-Cast – Fight the Future Minute #54 (“The Syndicate II”)

Posted on June 24, 2020 by Darren

The delineation between my second and third minutes on the project is a bit looser than the clear demarcation between the first and second, in that it is a continuation of the same scene. Still, Kurt and I take a little bit of a closer look at the character of Strughold, the special celebrity guest star “big bad” who is drafted in to provide suitable amounts of menace to Fight the Future and then never appears again – probably because Armin Mueller-Stahl was a bit above the show’s paygrade, even after it moved to Los Angeles.

You can listen to the episode here, or click the link below.

Filed under: Podcasts!, The X-Files | Tagged: armin mueller-stahl, conspiracy, fight the future, kurt north, podcast, the syndicate, the x-files: fight the future | Leave a comment »

New Podcast! The Time is Now – Season 2, Episode 22 (“The Fourth Horseman”)

Posted on June 24, 2020 by Darren

The Time is Now is winding down its coverage of the second season of Millennium, and I was flattered to be invited to discuss the first part of the two-part season finale The Fourth Horseman with the fantastic Kurt North.

I’ve talked a lot about my love of the second season of Millennium, and I’ve argued that the show has one of the finest season (and arguably series) finales in television history. The Fourth Horseman and The Time is Now were episodes that really shattered my expectations of what was possible on network television in the nineties. They are bold, provocative and melancholy episodes of television. They remain one of the most evocative depictions of the end of the world that I have ever encountered in media. So it was a thrill to get to discuss them.

As ever, you can listen directly to the episode here, subscribe to the podcast here, or click the link below.