My Favourite Murder – 12 Days of Podmas

Originally published on Set The Tape

Let’s be honest, we all have an interest in true crime. Whether it’s enjoying episodes of police procedurals, watching documentaries about serial killers, or delving into books on the topic; we all have something of a morbid curiosity when it comes to the darker side of human nature and what drives people to act upon the darkest of all impulses.

Hosted by comedians Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, each episode of My Favourite Murder takes the audience through stories of murder, crime and survivor tales with the aim of educating the audience on the subject. But what sets My Favourite Murder apart from other true crime podcasts is that the hosts aim to try to shine a light on problematic themes that are often a part of true crime reporting, such as how people with mental health conditions are demonised by both the press and police, how crimes against women and minorities are treated as less serious, and how even to this day sex workers are treated as if being murdered is simply a hazard of their job.

The show not only talks about these issues, but it empathises with the people involved. Georgia and Karen feel for the people they talk about and you can tell that they care deeply for the victims. They also draw upon their own life experiences to imagine themselves being in similar scenarios, with both of them talking openly and frankly about their own mental health issues and history of addiction.

My Favourite Murder began as a show with two true crime lovers talking about their secret passion, but has transformed over time to become a passionate and caring community. The listeners have become a part of the show, sending in their own ‘hometown stories’ and coming out en mass to attend live shows. But it’s the times when their hometown stories bring the hosts to tears, or when the subject of a survivor story comes to their show to thank them for telling their story, that makes the podcast so special.

You’ll be drawn into amazing stories, made to laugh out loud, and even moved to tears. True crime can leave you horrified, it can show you the darkest of human nature, but My Favourite Murder will also leave you feeling awed at the strength of humanity, people’s ability to survive against the impossible, and it will let you know that if you ever feel like you’re not normal for being fascinated by the topic you are far, far from being alone.


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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 1×20 – ‘Nothing Personal’ – TV Rewind

Originally published on Set The Tape

Season one of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. continues to move towards its final confrontation between Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) and the villainous John Garrett (Bill Paxton) in ‘Nothing Personal’ as the team discover that one of their own has been a member of Hydra all along and Skye (Chloe Bennett) fights to keep herself alive.

Having seemingly forgotten their previous ‘adventure of the week’ format, this episode continues on from where the last one left off, with Ward (Brett Dalton) believing that he’s tricked Skye into going with him to decrypt the information that Hydra desperately needs. Whilst this in itself would be a good scenario, the fact that Skye knows Ward is a traitor, that he murdered Agent Koenig (Patton Oswalt), and that he could kill her makes these scenes so much better. There’s an underlying sense of dread throughout. You can see that this isn’t Skye being casual, but someone desperately trying to act casual.

These scene are actually some of the best from both actors and takes two of the blandest characters in the series to date and gives them scenes that put them to the test. They’re both putting on acts, both trying to get the upper hand on the other, and both of them know that their futures are riding on the outcome.

It’s not just these two that are given great things to do this episode as, back in the Providence base, Fitz (Ian De Caestecker) finds the message left behind by Skye that Ward is Hydra, and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) discovers Koenig’s body. The reactions from the two of them are bold and two completely different sides of the spectrum. Simmons shuts down, focusing on the autopsy on Koenig and looking at facts rather than getting emotional, whilst Fitz breaks down, unable to accept that someone that he lived and worked alongside, who he thought was a friend, is actually a killer.

De Caestecker is definitely the best actor in the cast and will have some amazing material to work with over the next five seasons, but this is the first time that he really gets something big to work with. He gets to be emotional to the extreme. You completely believe that he’s feeling broken and betrayed, and his desperate cycling through possible reasons why Ward isn’t really evil, including brainwashing, effectively reflect the responses to his Hydra reveal that a lot of viewers had at the time.

Whilst there’s a lot of character development and heavy emotional scenes, there are also some good action sequences in this episode too. We get to see the return of Hulk antagonist Colonel Talbot (Adrian Pasdar) as his team storm the Providence base with the assistance of Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), which leads to Coulson and his team having to fight their way out in order to track down Ward.

The best sequence in the episode though – and perhaps one of the most fun in the show – is when Coulson has to rescue Skye from the Bus, resulting in the two of them escaping the plane mid-flight in Lola, Coulson’s flying car. Whilst the effects aren’t the best, the visuals of the two of them falling through the air as the car fights to stay aloft is a great deal of fun. It would have been easy for the show to simply have them eject out of the plane in Lola and then cut to the next scene with a ‘well that was a close getaway’ kind of comment, but it has the balls to be ridiculous and amazing and really push what they could get away with.

‘Nothing Personal’ continues the trend of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. improving in quality and excitement. It’s got some of the best character moments in the series to date, it moves the story on at a great pace, plus thanks to a tiny namedrop at the start of the episode, it makes Man-Thing a canon part of the MCU. All in all, a pretty damn great episode.


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Captain Marvel – 2019 Preview

Originally published on Set The Tape

It’s hard to believe that Iron Man, the first of the Marvel Studios films, was a complete gamble when it was first released over a decade ago. With the Marvel films now one of the biggest and most successful franchises of all time, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything left for the studio to do that would be a risk for them. Hell, they’ve made films about space raccoons and talking trees that were massive successes.

However, directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s sci-fi adventure Captain Marvel represents the last real frontier for the series and it is one that is seen as something of a risk: It is their first female-led movie. There have been strong female presences in the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but this will be the first time that a woman has taken the lead outside of the TV shows Agent Carter and Jessica Jones.

Set to tie heavily into the events of Avengers: Infinity War and the upcoming finale in the current storyline, Avengers Endgame, the film takes a bold step by going backwards in time to the 1990s to tell the story of Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), an ex-U.S. Air Force pilot and member of the Kree special military unit Starforce.

Little is known about the plot at this point, but thanks to the two trailers that have been released audiences have been able to put together than Carol was once an Air Force pilot before being granted amazing powers by the Kree, though it appears to have affected her memory too. Despite this, Carol returns to Earth in order to stop an invasion from the shape shifting Skrulls, a mission that sees her teaming up with the young S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson).

The 90s setting allows the filmmakers to explore the origins of established characters such as Fury and Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) as S.H.I.E.L.D. learn about alien life, Ronan (Lee Pace) and Korath (Djimon Hounsou) turning towards a path of evil that will lead to their Guardians of the Galaxy fate, and possibly throw in some cheeky nods to new characters that will appear later in the timeline such as Minn-Erva (Gemma Chan) and of course Mar-Vell (Jude Law).

What we know for certain – and something that has Marvel fans very excited – is that this will introduce the Skrulls to the MCU. The rights to the Skrulls have previously been tied to the Fantastic Four, which has now returned to Marvel, so this could be the first stages to the return of ‘Marvel’s First Family’.

With connections to the next Avengers film, the return of fan favourite characters and a whole new mythology to explore, Captain Marvel has much more going for it than just being Marvel’s first female led movie.


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Death of the Planet of the Apes – Book Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

If someone mentioned Planet of the Apes to you there’s a chance that you’d end up thinking about the new Andy Serkis-starring films, in large part to how popular the new trilogy of films have been, particularly with their spectacular visual effects bringing the apes to life. But what most people will think of is the iconic image of Charlton Heston on his knees before the remains of the Statue of Liberty.

The original Planet of the Apes films are icons of cinema, with the time-displaced astronaut fighting for his life in a world ruled by humanoid apes creating some incredibly striking visuals. Despite the popularity of these films it’s hard to believe that only two of the original five films were set in the strange future world, with the planet being completely destroyed in the second film.

What Death of The Planet of the Apes does is spend time during these first two films expanding not only on the story of George Taylor, but also delves into the history and structure of of the ape society in a way that the films were unable to do as it tracks the final days of the strange future world.

As described in the synopsis, a great deal of the book is dedicated to following Taylor after he disappears in the Forbidden Zone, as was seen briefly in the events of Beneath The Planet of the Apes. Whilst the decision to remove Taylor from the story was made due to production limitations Death of the Planet of the Apes is able to use Taylor as much as it likes. It can follow him through the irradiated wastes of the Forbidden Zone, it can show his amazing discoveries, and it can go back in time and explore his past.

Despite the amazing things discovered within the boundaries of the Forbidden Zone it’s the look backs into Taylor’s past are are the most interesting parts of the book that involve him. We get to see his experiences as a prisoner of war in World War 2, the atrocities that he witnessed and the things that shaped his anti-war personality. These insights make him a deeper character than he ever was in the films, one with depth and layers, a man with flaws and complexities.

The book also spends the time expanding upon ape society, following the political machinations of General Ursus as he attempts to gain the powers that he needs in order to wage a war upon the humans. Andrew Gaska has made the bold decision to show the inner workings of the ape government, to have characters with ambitions and goals that can only be achieved through duplicity and political manoeuvring. Whilst this was the kind of thing that made the Star Wars prequels dull here it adds so much more to the world. The apes are made into more than just caricatures, they have deeper personality, goals and ambitions, they develop plots and schemes.

Death of The Planet of the Apes has so much more to offer its readers than just the mystery of what happened to Taylor, it has political intrigue, robots, ape-human hybrids, giant psychic brains in jars, and even alien spaceships. The book has multiple plots that intertwine and build a bigger whole, one that creates a living breathing world in its final days. Andrew Gaska has taken the world of Planet of the Apes and has made it into something bigger than it was, given it more layers, taken concepts only hinted at before and made them bigger.

Whether or not you’re a fan of the original films the book is sure to draw you into its well crafted and fully realised world.


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The Dollop – 12 Days of Podmas

Originally published on Set The Tape

Podcasts’ can be fun, and they can tackle important issues and be education, but podcasts’ are at their best when they combine the two, and The Dollop is one of the best that does this.

Hosted by American writer and comedian Dave Anthony and his friend, stand up comic Garteh Reynolds, The Dollop takes listeners through the bizarre world of American history.

Whilst this may not immediately sound like an area that lends itself well to being entertaining, with history often making people think of stuff academics and remembering lists of dates, The Dollop brings to light events that you’ve not only never heard of, but you’ll be hard pressed to believe actually happened.

Whether it’s the disaster that was Balloonfest, Tong Wars on American soil, the Hippo Bill that tried to introduce hippos to the US, or the unbelievable life of Donald Trump, this show has a little of everything. It trawls through the forgotten parts of America’s past to bring you the unbelievable.

What makes The Dollop stand out, however, is that whilst Dave has gone and researched these topics Gareth has no idea what it’s going to be each week. He goes in as blind as the audience, with hilarious results. He reacts the way we do, calling out the unbelievable, condemning the awful, and breaking down laughing at the ridiculous. Combined with some great comic timing and improv that sometimes goes to crazy places the show never has a dull moment as the two hosts clearly have a lot of fun with each topic.

With over 5 million downloads a week the show has attracted a huge audience, and as such has a number of live shows mixed into their feed, including trips to Australia, where they will go through some crazy Australian history too.

It might be it’s two comedian hosts, it might be that because America is such a young country it’s really trying hard to make up for a lack of history, but every single episode is a laugh out loud tour through the past. If you love history then the show is ideal for you, and if you don’t you should still give it a go because it will blow your mind and show you that there’s more to learning about history than what you were taught in school.

A warning, however, it might not be the best show to listen to whilst driving, as I once almost had an accident from laughing too hard when The Dollop taught me that Tommy Cooper once almost decapitated Michael Parkinson live on television; so always listen to The Dollop responsibly.


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