Geektown Radio - TV News, Interviews & UK TV Premiere Dates

Streaming was supposed to free television.No schedules. No missed episodes. No VHS tapes with the ending accidentally recorded over by Coronation Street. Just an endless library of stories waiting whenever you wanted them.For a while, it felt like liberation.But once television became something delivered through a pipe, the pipe became more valuable than the programmes moving through it. Netflix went from DVD-by-mail upstart to data-driven studio. Disney built its own digital fortress. Every media company wanted its own kingdom. And somewhere along the way, abundance became fragmentation, discovery became algorithmic fog, and shows could vanish from platforms that once promised permanence.In this episode of Geekstorians, Dave traces the rise of streaming from the red envelopes of early Netflix to the platform wars, Quibi’s spectacular faceplant, the cancellation machine, the return of advertising, password crackdowns, and the strange new bargain between viewers and the companies competing for their attention.Because more than you could ever watch is not the same thing as abundance.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Dave chats with author David Crichton about his new novel, ‘The Avengers: Death in Downing Street’, which returns John Steed and Emma Peel to the wonderfully stylish and eccentric world of the classic 1960s television series.And, just to avoid any confusion following the latest ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ trailer, we are talking bowler hats and leather catsuits here, not Marvel superheroes.David and Dave also have a little history together, having worked at the same design agency in a previous life. They discuss David’s journey from account handler to published author, and how a lockdown writing project eventually became the first completely original Steed and Peel adventure in decades.The conversation explores the surprisingly complicated road to getting a new ‘Avengers’ story approved, the challenge of capturing the unmistakable voices and chemistry of Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, and translating such a visually distinctive television series onto the page.They also chat about weaving real history into the wonderfully peculiar world of ‘The Avengers’, whether the series could ever be successfully revived for television, and what David would like to do next.Plus, there are detours into ‘Doctor Who’, Korean television, ‘Reacher’, tie-in novels and the full-size Dalek occupying David’s office.‘The Avengers: Death in Downing Street’ is available now in paperback and ebook, published by Titan Books.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cosplay began as something gloriously handmade: fans turning up in costumes because they loved a story enough to carry it into the room.But somewhere between the early science fiction masquerades, Star Wars armour builds, convention photo galleries, viral cosplay, professional creators and the rise of organisations like the 501st Legion, something shifted.The costume was no longer just a costume.It became proof that a franchise mattered.In this episode of Geekstorians, Dave looks at how cosplay grew from fan-made performance into one of the most visible forms of franchise culture, and how the work fans do for love became increasingly useful to the companies standing nearby.Not because anyone sent a memo.Because fandom built something too powerful to ignore.For more geeky news, reviews, interviews, and air dates, head to Geektown.co.uk. You can also listen to Geektown Radio, our weekly podcast covering the latest in TV, film, and gaming.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Geektown Talks To, Dave chats with cinematographer, director and filmmaker Boris Mojsovski, whose work includes Netflix’s Harlan Coben thriller ‘I Will Find You’, along with ‘Rabbit Hole’, ‘12 Monkeys’, ‘Titans’, ‘The Lost Symbol’, ‘The Madness’ and more.Boris talks about growing up around film sets, initially trying not to follow the family path into filmmaking, and how photography, writing and directing eventually pulled him back behind the camera. He also discusses the unusual position of being both a cinematographer and director on long-form television, and how that helps shape the visual identity of a series.We then dive into ‘I Will Find You’, exploring how Boris and the creative team built the show’s tense, grounded visual language, from its prison-set opening to the wider mystery that follows. He talks about creating a “visual manifesto” for the series, the challenge of making something feel real while still delivering thriller-level drama, and why the “geography of a face” can be one of the most powerful tools in visual storytelling.The conversation also moves into some of Boris’s other genre work, including the paranoia of ‘Rabbit Hole’, the time-travel complexity of ‘12 Monkeys’, and the superhero world of DC’s ‘Titans’. Plus, Boris teases his own upcoming film ‘Foreign Tongue’, talks about recent projects including ‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ and ‘Into the Deep Blue’, and reveals the classic films he wishes he could have made himself.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Geekstorians, we travel to Middle-earth, not as tourists, but as slightly suspicious historians with a map, a torch, and some concerns about licensing agreements.In 1998, Peter Jackson walked into New Line Cinema with a fantasy epic most of Hollywood considered impossible. What followed became one of cinema’s great gambles: three films, shot back-to-back, built in New Zealand by artists, craftspeople, performers, technicians, and people who apparently did not believe sleep was legally required.But this episode is not just about how The Lord of the Rings became a miracle.It’s about what happened after the miracle.Because once Middle-earth proved it could be enormous, prestigious, beloved, and wildly profitable, it stopped being only a story. It became territory. A machine. A place where skipped chapters, side roads, appendices, rights deals, and strange little corners of Tolkien’s world could all become valuable.From Jackson’s impossible pitch, to Weta’s handmade craft, to Oscar glory, to The Hobbit, The Rings of Power, and the modern hunt for whatever Middle-earth still has left to give, this is the story of what happens when a beloved world becomes too successful to leave alone.This is Middle-Earth, Inc.For more geeky news, reviews, interviews, and air dates, head to Geektown.co.uk. You can also listen to Geektown Radio, our weekly podcast covering the latest in TV, film, and gaming.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anime did not cross into Western culture in one clean movement. It arrived in fragments, through edited TV dubs, bootleg tapes, playground obsessions, fansubs, late-night downloads, and eventually legal streaming platforms.In this episode of Geekstorians, Dave picks up where Season One’s ‘The Anime Underground’ left off, following anime’s journey from cult import to global mainstream force.We begin at the 2003 Academy Awards, where Spirited Away won Best Animated Feature without sanding itself down for Hollywood. From there, we rewind to the late 90s, when Dragon Ball Z exploded on Toonami and taught a generation of viewers to expect serialised storytelling, consequences, cliffhangers, and men screaming in fields until the landscape reconsidered its options.Then came Pokémon, a franchise that became so massive, so quickly, that many Western children did not even think of it as anime. It was just Saturday morning television, playground trading, Game Boy link cables, and the dangerous social power of a shiny Charizard.The episode also looks at Studio Ghibli’s very different crossing: a studio that refused to compromise, resisted Western editing, and eventually saw Spirited Away become the first Japanese film to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.Finally, we move into the digital era, where fansubs, piracy, simulcasts, and Crunchyroll transformed anime distribution. What began as a fan-built workaround became part of the legal streaming infrastructure. The underground became the industry.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Video games didn’t just become bigger than film, music and TV. They became places people went, watched, gathered, spent money, and built memories inside.In this episode of Geekstorians, Dave from Geektown looks at how gaming quietly became the largest entertainment industry on Earth, and why nobody really announced it.The story begins in April 2020, when millions of people attended Travis Scott’s Astronomical concert inside Fortnite. To some, it looked like a clever pandemic workaround. But for players, this was not a sudden novelty. Fortnite had already become a venue, a stage, a social space, and a place where culture could happen.From there, we trace the rise of the pixel economy: the fragmented numbers that made gaming’s scale strangely hard to see, the smartphone turning play into an everyday habit, the rise of streaming and esports, and the transformation of games from products into persistent worlds.Because somewhere along the way, games stopped being things you played and became places you went.This week’s episode explores how gaming became bigger than film, music and television without a single cultural handover moment, why mobile gaming changed everything, how streaming turned games into something people watched as well as played, why esports made gaming visible at arena scale, and how Minecraft, Fortnite and Roblox changed the idea of what a game could be.For more from Geektown, including TV, film and gaming news, reviews, interviews, and Geektown Radio, head to Geektown.co.uk.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Geekstorians, Dave looks at the strange five-year window when geek culture stopped being something fans used to find each other, and became something companies used to find them.Beginning in 2007, the episode follows the moment geek identity moved from comic shops, conventions, video rental shelves and school computer labs into the mainstream marketplace. The iPhone made technology aspirational. Comic-Con became an industry stage. Iron Man and The Dark Knight helped turn superheroes into serious blockbuster business. The Big Bang Theory brought geek references into prime-time sitcom culture. And by 2012, “geek chic” had reached the high street, where thick-framed glasses, superhero bags, science jokes and slogan T-shirts were being sold back to the people who had once used those signals to recognise each other.But visibility is not the same as understanding.The Geek Shall Inherit is about what happens when a subculture wins the room, and then discovers the room has buyers, brand managers, market research, and a rack of novelty T-shirts near the tills.For more on this and plenty of other geeky things, head to Geektown.co.uk. And if you haven’t already, check out Geektown Radio, our weekly podcast covering the latest in TV, film, and gaming news.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season Three of Geekstorians begins with the moment geek culture stopped knocking on the door and started owning the building.In this episode, Dave looks at the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from Marvel’s desperate rights situation and the gamble of Iron Man, to Kevin Feige’s phase-planned architecture, the genre trick that kept the films from feeling like a production line, and the extraordinary test of asking audiences to follow a talking raccoon and a sentient tree into space.Then we follow the machine to its greatest achievement: Infinity War and Endgame. Two films that asked audiences to trust more than a decade of storytelling, and somehow delivered an ending that felt earned.But what happens after the perfect ending?This episode also looks at the post-Endgame problem, Disney+, Phase Four, the Kang issue, and Marvel’s attempt to rebuild around Doctor Doom, Robert Downey Jr., the Russo Brothers, the Fantastic Four, and the next great convergence point.Because the MCU’s real superpower was never just spectacle.It was trust.And once you build the house everybody else moves into, the architect has to keep building.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Geekstorians, we bring Season 2 to a close with ‘Nothing Went To Plan’.Across the season, we’ve looked at films that nearly vanished, companies that collapsed under their own weight, shows that survived cancellation, fandoms that refused to let go, and the strange ways failure can become an origin story.In this shorter reflective finale, Dave steps back from the individual stories to ask what they all have in common. Why do so many geek culture landmarks seem to emerge from bad decisions, broken systems, institutional indifference, and accidents that really should have ended everything?From Pixar’s near-catastrophic Toy Story 2 deletion to Atari’s buried cartridges, Doctor Who’s wilderness years, Star Trek’s letter-writing fans, Deadpool’s leaked test footage, Rocky Horror’s midnight screenings, and the virtual chaos of World of Warcraft’s Corrupted Blood incident, this episode connects the dots across the season.Because the thing institutions keep missing is not the product, the franchise, or the IP.It’s the people.Geek culture survives because fans, creators, archivists, technicians, and obsessives keep showing up when the official story says there is nothing left to see. And more often than not, they are right.This is the Season 2 finale.This is ‘Nothing Went To Plan’.For more geek culture, TV, film and gaming coverage, head to Geektown.co.uk, and check out Geektown Radio wherever you get your podcasts.Alternative shorter show notes version:In the Season 2 finale of Geekstorians, Dave steps back from the disasters, collapses, cancellations and near-misses we’ve explored this season to ask what they all have in common.From Toy Story 2’s near-deletion and Atari’s desert landfill to Doctor Who’s wilderness years, Star Trek’s fan campaigns, Deadpool’s leaked test footage, Rocky Horror’s midnight screenings and World of Warcraft’s accidental plague, this reflective coda connects the season’s central thesis:Geek culture does not survive because everything goes smoothly.It survives because people refuse to let it disappear.This is ‘Nothing Went To Plan’.For more geek culture, TV, film and gaming coverage, head to Geektown.co.uk, and check out Geektown Radio wherever you get your podcasts.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It is a very special episode of Geektown Radio this week, as Dave celebrates Episode 500 with regular co-hosts Matt and Gray for The Great Geeky Hall Of Fame Pub Quiz!Geektown Radio officially launched back on Tuesday, 20th January 2015, although Dave had already recorded 32 interview podcasts before the weekly show began. Since then, there have been hundreds of episodes, specials, Geektown Behind The Scenes, Geektown Talks To, the Webby-nominated Geekstorians podcast, lots of convention coverage, countless streaming service rebrands, and more cancellation trauma than is probably healthy.To mark the milestone, Dave puts Matt and Gray through a quiz covering the history of Geektown Radio, geek TV, cancelled-too-soon favourites, streaming chaos, gaming, reality TV, conventions, and shameful predictions from across the entertainment industry. Along the way, they induct various shows, services, phrases and listener favourites into the completely unofficial Geektown Radio Hall Of Fame.This week’s Hall Of Fame inductees include the Geektown Air Dates page, the Arrowverse, Firefly, stupidly renaming streaming services, The Last Of Us, The Traitors, MCM Comic Con London, Netflix cancelling things, and, finally, the listeners.This is also the final Geektown Radio before the show takes its usual short summer break. Geektown.co.uk will continue with the latest UK TV news, UK air dates, renewals and cancellations while the podcast is away, and Geekstorians Season 3 will continue to release during the break.Thank you to everyone who has listened to Geektown Radio over the last 500 episodes!Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Geekstorians, Dave from Geektown looks at three films that did not behave the way Hollywood expected.‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ arrived as a box office failure before midnight audiences turned it into a ritual. ‘Blade Runner’ opened to confusion, studio interference and mixed reactions before becoming one of science fiction’s most debated landmarks. And ‘The Big Lebowski’ drifted into cinemas as a modest Coen Brothers oddity before fans turned The Dude into something far bigger, stranger, and, somehow, semi-spiritual.This is not a story about films that were secretly massive hits all along. It is about what happens when something strange, difficult or badly timed finds the people who need it later. Through late-night screenings, VHS, cable, DVD, festivals, quotes, costumes and arguments that refuse to die, these films became more than movies. They became communities.Season Two of Geekstorians has been about things that did not go to plan. This episode asks what happens when failure is not the end of the story, but the beginning of the cult.Presented by Dave from Geektown.For more on TV, film, gaming and geek culture, head to Geektown.co.uk, and check out Geektown Radio for the latest entertainment news, reviews and UK air dates.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave is joined by Matt for Geektown Radio Episode 499, with this week’s show led by chat about breakout horror film Obsession, the opening episodes of Spider-Noir, Russell T Davies drama Tip Toe, and spy series PONIES.Matt kicks things off with Obsession, which he calls one of the best films of 2026, praising its slow-burn setup, sharp horror concept and one scene that completely floored him. He also dives into Spider-Noir, with Nicolas Cage leading the live-action series, and talks about why the black-and-white presentation feels like the right way to watch it. There is also chat about finishing the 9-1-1 space episodes and a lot of love for Shrinking Season 3, which he reckons just keeps getting better.On Dave’s side, he checks out the new James Bond game 007 First Light, which feels like playing through a Bond movie, and reviews PONIES, the Moscow-set 1970s spy drama starring Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson. He also talks about Tip Toe, Russell T Davies’ new Channel 4 drama led by Alan Cumming and David Morrissey, the For All Mankind finale, and the Jack Ryan movie event on Prime Video.In the news section, they cover endings for Euphoria, Pointless Celebrities, Cold Water, Piglets and Emily in Paris, plus renewals for Daddy Issues, The Weakest Link, Balamory, Saint-Pierre and The Testaments. There is also chat about the Baywatch reboot heading to Sky, X-Men ’97 Season 2 getting a July date, a new Grey’s Anatomy spin-off, The Witcher 3’s surprise third expansion, Doctor Who Christmas special rumours, Hudson & Rex bringing back Charlie Hudson, and David E. Kelley developing Michael Connelly’s Welcome To Catalina for HBO Max.Plus, they round up what is coming to TV next week, including Allegiance Season 2, Clarkson’s Farm Season 5, The Legend of Vox Machina Season 4, Will Trent Season 4, Cape Fear, Mock the Week, Alice and Steve, and Best Medicine.Listen now for horror, superheroes, spy drama, prestige TV, gaming chat and the usual Geektown mix of enthusiasm, side tangents and entertainment news.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Geekstorians, we’re boldly going into one of the strangest survival stories in geek culture: Star Trek, the franchise that has been cancelled, revived, mismanaged, overextended, rebooted, and pushed through nearly every major shift in modern entertainment.Born in 1966, cancelled in 1969, and kept alive by fans who refused to accept that decision, Star Trek became something far bigger than a struggling network sci-fi show. It became a constituency. A culture. A future people wanted to believe in.Dave traces the franchise from NBC’s infamous letter-writing campaign and the death-slot third season, through Lucille Ball’s unexpected role in getting the original series made, the rise of conventions and syndication, the expensive chaos of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and the leaner, sharper rescue mission of The Wrath of Khan.Then it’s into The Next Generation, first-run syndication, Roddenberry’s complicated legacy, the rocky early years, the franchise boom of Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise, the Kelvin timeline films, and the streaming era of Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy and Strange New Worlds.Because Star Trek doesn’t survive because it is well run.It survives because the idea underneath it is too good to kill.Geekstorians is the Webby-nominated documentary-style podcast from Geektown, exploring the strange, messy, brilliant history of geek culture.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Geektown Radio heads to MCM Comic Con London for a special episode recorded around one of the UK’s biggest pop culture events, which took over ExCeL London for a packed weekend of TV, film, games, anime, comics, cosplay, panels and general geeky mayhem.Dave went down to the convention for the weekend, although sadly Darryl had to drop out after being struck down ill, leaving Dave to tackle the heat, the crowds, the press room, and as many panels as one person could physically manage!In the episode, Dave chats about the MCM experience, including the cosplay, the show floor, the strange relief of stepping into an air-conditioned convention centre during a 32C London weekend, and catching up with some brilliant comic creators. That includes Neil Gibson’s Twisted Comics, who now have a comic book adaptation of Black Mirror’s USS Callister, and Beyond The Bunker Comics, the wonderfully bonkers minds behind Moon and the new The Trap Door comic.The main bulk of the episode features clips and interviews from across the weekend, including Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk, best known together from Firefly, Con Man and The Rookie, as they share some very funny convention stories.We also hear from the Hellaverse panel, hosted by CJ Allen, with Richard Steven Horvitz, Vivian Nixon and Erika Henningsen discussing Helluva Boss, Hazbin Hotel, renewal news, voice recording, and the chaos Brandon Rogers can bring to a session.There are also clips from the Beyond Paradise panel with Kris Marshall, Zahra Ahmadi, Dylan Llewellyn and Felicity Montagu, as they talk about the hit Death In Paradise spin-off.Finally, Dave plays the full press room interview with the cast of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, featuring Dee Bradley Baker, Matt Lanter, James Arnold Taylor, Nika Futterman and Catherine Taber, as they discuss the legacy of the much-loved animated series, their characters, the fans, and the wider Star Wars universe.There will also be video versions of some panels and interviews going up on the Geektown YouTube channel, along with cosplay and event photos on Geektown.co.uk.Listen below, and don’t forget to subscribe to Geektown Radio wherever you get your podcasts.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Geekstorians, we’re looking at the leak that punched a hole through Hollywood’s gates.For years, Fox had Deadpool sitting in development limbo. Ryan Reynolds wanted to make the film properly. Director Tim Miller had test footage. The fans knew exactly what they wanted. The studio, however, remained unconvinced.Then, in July 2014, fifty-two seconds of Deadpool test footage appeared online.It wasn’t a trailer. It wasn’t part of a polished marketing campaign. It wasn’t even supposed to be public. But once the footage hit the internet, the reaction was immediate, loud, and impossible for Fox to ignore.In this episode, Dave traces the long road to Deadpool, from Hollywood’s old gatekeeping model and the internet’s war with studio control, through the disastrous version of Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, to the leaked footage that helped turn an unlikely R-rated superhero comedy into a box-office monster.Along the way, we look at how the success of Deadpool changed the conversation around R-rated comic book films, helped open the door for projects like Logan and Joker, and proved that audiences were no longer just waiting outside the studio gates. Sometimes, they could force the gates open.This is the story of Ryan Reynolds, Tim Miller, Fox, fandom, the internet, and a red-suited menace who refused to stay in development hell.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave is joined by Darryl on this week’s Geektown Radio as they chat through the latest TV, film and gaming news, along with the shows and games they’ve been watching recently.Darryl kicks things off with a look at ‘High Potential’ Season 2, the crime procedural starring Kaitlin Olson, which continues to deliver those fun “clever outsider helps the police” vibes. He also reviews ‘Mistletoe Murders’, the surprisingly intriguing cosy crime series starring Sarah Drew, which is available in the UK on ITVX, along with Jackie Chan action thriller ‘The Shadow’s Edge’, and indie drama ‘The Bearded Girl’.Meanwhile, Dave has been diving into the early access release of ‘Subnautica 2’, which builds on the underwater survival, base-building and monster-dodging brilliance of the original game. He also gives his thoughts on ‘The Punisher: One Last Kill’, the Marvel one-shot style special bringing Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle further into the MCU, and discusses the finale of ‘Outlander’, including its deliberately ambiguous ending. Plus, there’s a look at ‘Good Omens 3’, which wraps up the story of Crowley and Aziraphale in a 90-minute Prime Video finale.In the news section, we cover ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ ending with Season 5 on Netflix, Channel 4 cancelling ‘Pushers’, and a huge batch of BBC comedy renewals including ‘Amandaland’, ‘Black Ops’, ‘Such Brave Girls’, ‘Things You Should Have Done’, ‘Mammoth’ and ‘Two Doors Down’. We also discuss renewals for ‘Prisoner’, ‘Running Point’, ‘My Life with the Walter Boys’, ‘Jury Duty’, ‘Reacher’, ‘Margo’s Got Money Troubles’, and more.There are also air date updates for ‘Ride with Norman Reedus’ on ITVX, ‘Stuart Fails To Save The Universe’ on HBO Max, ‘VisionQuest’ on Disney+, and ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 3 on Prime Video. Plus, Prime Video gives a series order to fantasy adaptation ‘Fourth Wing’, while Peacock begins development on a live-action ‘Fast & Furious’ TV series with Vin Diesel producing.Finally, we run through next week’s TV highlights, including ‘Jack Ryan’, ‘Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed’, ‘SkyMed’, ‘The Boroughs’, ‘PONIES’, ‘Two Weeks in August’, ‘Dear England’, ‘Brokenwood Mysteries’, ‘Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’, ‘Rick and Morty’, and ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’.You can listen to Geektown Radio every week for TV, film and gaming chat, UK air date updates, renewals, cancellations, and all the latest entertainment news from Geektown.co.uk.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Season 2 Episode 6 of Geekstorians, Dave digs into one of the strangest turnarounds in blockbuster history.After Tim Burton redefined Batman for the big screen, Warner Bros. slowly pushed the franchise away from gothic weirdness and towards something brighter, louder, more commercial, and far more toy-friendly. The result was 1997’s Batman & Robin — a film so spectacularly misjudged it didn’t just flop, it effectively shut Batman down for years.But that failure turned out to be the point.This episode explores how the collapse of Batman & Robin gave Warner Bros. the one thing it didn’t realise it needed: a blank canvas. With the franchise too damaged to continue as it was, the studio eventually handed Batman to Christopher Nolan, first with Batman Begins, then with The Dark Knight — a film that didn’t just restore the character, but changed how Hollywood looked at superhero cinema.It’s a story about studio panic, merchandising logic, franchise collapse, and the uncomfortable truth that sometimes the best version of something only exists because the previous version failed hard enough to clear the ground.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave is joined by Matt for Geektown Radio Episode 497, and this week’s show is led by chat about Sky thriller Prisoner, the return of Citadel for Season 2, Marvel’s Daredevil: Born Again, and the annual US network bloodbath as renewals and cancellations roll in.Matt kicks things off with social media reviews for Wonder Man Season 1 and Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, with the latter earning huge praise for its big swings, compelling storylines and excellent payoff. He also wraps up Invincible Season 4, which continues to deliver brutal action, strong character work and plenty of Viltrumite chaos.On Dave’s side, he reviews Prisoner, the twisty Sky thriller starring Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle, and starts Citadel Season 2, with Richard Madden, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Stanley Tucci back for more stylish spy nonsense. There is also a quick plug for the latest Geektown Talks To interview with Daredevil: Born Again cinematographer Hillary Fyfe Spera, plus this week’s Geekstorians episode on how Batman & Robin accidentally saved Batman.In the news section, they break down Bloodbath Week across the US networks, covering the latest renewals, cancellations and pilot pickups from CBS, FOX, NBC and ABC, including everything from Watson and The Great North ending, to 9-1-1, Grey’s Anatomy, Elsbeth, Tracker and Law & Order all surviving another year.They also chat about UK cancellations including Juice, Film Club and Prey vs Predator: The Hunt, along with renewals for Secret Genius with Alan Carr, Pete Wicks: For Dogs’ Sake, The 1% Club, Saturday Night Live UK and more.Plus, they run through new series pickups like Line of Fire, The Rockford Files, Sunset P.I., NCIS: New York, The Rookie: North and Baywatch, before rounding up what is coming to screens next week, including Good Omens, The Punisher: One Last Kill, From Season 4, Rivals Season 2 and Welcome to Wrexham Season 5.Listen now for superhero TV, spy thrillers, network chaos and the usual Geektown mix of enthusiasm, side tangents and entertainment news.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this Geektown Talks To interview, Dave chats with cinematographer Hillary Fyfe Spera, the lead cinematographer behind both seasons one and two of Marvel’s ‘Daredevil: Born Again’.Hillary was there from the very beginning of the Disney+ series, shooting the pilot, finale, and seven of the nine episodes in season one, helping to establish the grounded, cinematic look of Matt Murdock’s return to Hell’s Kitchen. She also returned for season two, shooting half of the episodes, including the opening two, as the story pushed further into the conflict between Daredevil, Wilson Fisk, and a city under increasing pressure.During the interview, Hillary discusses how she first came to cinematography through still photography, and how her love of collaboration led her into film and television. She also talks about how ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ came to her, and how classic 1970s New York films such as ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘The French Connection’ helped inform the visual direction of the series.We also dig into the visual contrast between Matt Murdock’s world and Fisk’s world, with Daredevil and the vigilantes shot in a more handheld, human, street-level style, while Fisk’s side of the story becomes more controlled, symmetrical and oppressive. Hillary explains how those visual rules evolved across the two seasons, and how they could shift as characters moved between worlds or began to lose control.Hillary also breaks down the show’s practical approach to Daredevil’s heightened senses, including the in-camera “sensory grande” technique, which uses multiple cameras, lenses, movement and aspect ratio changes to represent something that is not inherently visual.There is also plenty of discussion about the action, including working with the stunt team, keeping fight scenes grounded while still making them cinematic, and why the best sequences need emotional pauses rather than just relentless punching. Hillary talks about the huge East River boat oner in season two, shot at night with drone lighting, choreography and practical location challenges, along with the series’ BB Report segments and how they changed visually as the story developed.Plus, Hillary chats about what she is watching at the moment, her love of ‘The X-Files’, and why her dream future project would be a Western.‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Seasons 1 and 2 are available on Disney+.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season 2 of Geekstorians continues with the moment virtual worlds stopped being just games and started becoming laboratories.In ‘Virtual Worlds, Real Consequences’, Dave looks at three very different digital worlds — World of Warcraft, EVE Online and Second Life — and the very real human behaviour they exposed once thousands of people were let loose inside them.It starts with World of Warcraft’s Corrupted Blood incident, when a raid debuff escaped into the wider game and created a plague across major cities. What looked like a game bug became something stranger: an accidental model of how people behave during an epidemic, later cited in real-world pandemic research.From there, the episode moves into EVE Online, where CCP built a universe with minimal intervention and players responded by creating their own politics, economies, infiltrations, betrayals and wars. This is the world of the Guiding Hand Social Club heist, the Band of Brothers collapse, the Council of Stellar Management, and the Bloodbath of B-R5RB, a battle so vast it was covered like a real military event.Then comes Second Life, the platform that looked, for a while, like the future of the internet. A world built around ownership, virtual land, and real-money exchange, it drew in businesses, media companies and futurists who thought the metaverse had arrived. What followed was less a clean technological revolution than a reminder that the internet always brings people with it, and people tend to arrive carrying chaos.If the earlier episodes in Season 2 were about collapse, bankruptcy and institutional failure, this one is about something more revealing: what happens when designers build systems, step back, and let human beings do the rest.Geekstorians is a documentary-style podcast from Dave Elliott of Geektown, exploring the hidden history of geek culture, fandom, film, television, comics and gaming.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave is joined by Matt for Geektown Radio Episode 496, and this week’s show is led by chat about the Kenyan romcom Boda Love, ambitious sci-fi film Project Hail Mary, the return of Criminal Record for a second season, and Dave getting pulled back into Starfield.Matt kicks things off with Boda Love, a Kenyan romance that follows a British woman travelling to Africa after falling for someone online, only for things to go in a very different direction. He also reviews Project Hail Mary, praising its scale, ambition and sci-fi ideas, while also checking in on the latest season of Euphoria.On Dave’s side, he dives into Criminal Record Season 2 on Apple TV, with Cush Jumbo and Peter Capaldi back for a new case, and talks about returning to Starfield following its major updates and expanding creation content. There is also a quick Geekstorians mention, plus a new Geektown Talks To interview with Joséphine Jobert about Saint-Pierre.In the news section, they cover cancellations for Brilliant Minds, Stumble, Son of a Critch and The Night Agent, plus renewals for Scrubs, Shifting Gears, Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 and Death in Paradise. There is also air date news for Lanterns, Stuart Fails to Save The Universe and Welcome To Wrexham, along with chat about the Celebrity Traitors cast list.They also discuss more casting for ITV moon thriller First Woman, Netflix’s new Harlan Coben adaptation The Woods, and the planned TV adaptation of BAFTA-winning game Atomfall.Plus, they round up what is coming to TV next week, including Amandaland Season 2, Citadel Season 2, Matlock Season 2 Part 2, Legends, M.I.A., Monsieur Spade, Believe Me, Hudson & Rex Season 8 and Devil May Cry Season 2.Listen now for film reviews, TV news, sci-fi chat, gaming updates and the usual Geektown mix of enthusiasm, side tangents and entertainment chaos.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Geektown Talks To is back, and in this episode, Dave sits down with actress Joséphine Jobert to discuss her new crime drama ‘Saint-Pierre’, which recently launched in the UK on U&Alibi.UK viewers will know Joséphine from ‘Death in Paradise’, but in ‘Saint-Pierre’ she takes on a very different kind of island detective role as Deputy Chief Geneviève “Arch” Archambault. Set on the French territory of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, just off the coast of Newfoundland, the series follows Arch as she is partnered with Donny “Fitz” Fitzpatrick, played by Allan Hawco, after Fitz is sent to the island following trouble back home.In the interview, Joséphine talks about why she was initially unsure about doing another police drama after ‘Death in Paradise’, what changed her mind when she read the script, and how Arch became a character who meant far more to her than she expected.She also discusses filming on Saint-Pierre itself, swapping Guadeloupe sunshine for much colder North Atlantic weather, the chemistry between Arch and Fitz, and what it is like working opposite Allan Hawco, who is not only her co-star, but also co-creator and executive producer of the show.Plus, Dave and Joséphine chat about the show’s success in Canada, the brutal Season 1 cliffhanger, the possibility of more ‘Saint-Pierre’, her upcoming projects, reality TV guilty pleasures, and why she would love to step into the world of Marvel.‘Saint-Pierre’ Season 1 is airing now on U&Alibi in the UK.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season 2 of Geekstorians continues with the corporate disaster that accidentally redrew modern pop culture.In ‘The Fire Sale Blueprint’, Dave looks at how Marvel’s bankruptcy in the 1990s led to one of the strangest and most important chain reactions in film history. As the company collapsed under debt, many of its biggest characters were licensed or sold off in deals that looked sensible at the time and faintly insane in hindsight.Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four and others ended up in other studios’ hands. What Marvel was left with looked, at the time, like the second-string cupboard. Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Panther, The Avengers. Characters with history, but not the kind of obvious Hollywood heat attached to Spider-Man or the X-Men.That bad hand turned out to be the hand that changed everything.This episode follows the path from Ronald Perelman’s debt-loaded takeover of Marvel, through the bankruptcy fight involving Carl Icahn, Isaac Perlmutter and Avi Arad, to the strange reality in which the company’s most famous heroes became someone else’s blockbuster and the leftovers became the foundation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.It is also the story of how Blade, X-Men and Spider-Man proved the value of Marvel characters on screen, while Kevin Feige, Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr. helped turn the characters nobody wanted into the centre of the biggest shared universe in film history.If the earlier episodes in Season 2 were about collapse and survival, this one is about something slightly stranger: how a financial disaster became a design document.Geekstorians is a documentary-style podcast from Dave Elliott of Geektown, exploring the hidden history of geek culture, fandom, film, television, comics and gaming.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave is joined by Domingos for Geektown Radio Episode 495, and this week’s show is led by chat about Michael, the Canadian crime drama Saint Pierre, Apple TV alt-history spin-off Star City, and the return of A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder.Domingos kicks things off with Michael, the new biopic charting the early life and rise of Michael Jackson, with Jaafar Jackson playing his famous uncle. He also revisits Netflix’s brilliant sports documentary The Last Dance, which charts Michael Jordan and the final run of the Chicago Bulls dynasty, and digs into A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder, the BBC and Netflix YA mystery starring Emma Myers, with Season 2 arriving next month.There is also some spoiler-free discussion around Spider-Noir, with Domingos sharing what he can about Nicolas Cage’s stylish new take on the Spider-Man character and the show’s unusual black-and-white or colour viewing options.On Dave’s side, he dives into Saint Pierre, the Canadian police procedural led by Allan Hawco and Joséphine Jobert, and checks out Star City, the new For All Mankind spin-off which retells the early space race from the Soviet perspective. There is also a quick Geekstorians plug, with this week’s episode looking at Marvel’s bankruptcy and how it helped pave the way for the MCU.In the news section, they cover cancellations for Gen V and Football Focus, renewals for Hazbin Hotel and Grace, and a stack of air date updates including Matlock Season 2 Part 2, Citadel Season 2, Hudson & Rex Season 8, House of the Dragon Season 3, Silo Season 3, Heartstopper Forever and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 4.They also chat about Ryan Phillippe joining 9-1-1: Nashville, ITV’s new lunar thriller First Woman starring Andrea Riseborough and Ashley Walters, Prime Video’s Embassy with Anna Kendrick, Sam Heughan and J.K. Simmons, and Netflix kicking off production on Scooby-Doo: Origins.Plus, they round up what is coming to TV next week, including This Is Not a Murder Mystery, Widow’s Bay, Man on Fire, Prisoner, St. Denis Medical and Fallen.Listen now for film chat, TV reviews, alt-history sci-fi, murder mysteries and the usual Geektown mix of enthusiasm, side tangents and entertainment news.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/geektown. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.