Podcast Recommendations 2016

Here are a couple more podcast recommendations I didn't want to put off for too long, as some of these have turned out to be distressingly finite. Television is terribly underrepresented here, as I'm still searching for a replacement for "Firewall & Iceberg" with no success, though I take comfort in reading Alan Sepinwall's recaps regularly. The picks this time include two review podcasts, a retrospective show, and some "Game of Thrones." Enjoy

The Next Picture Show Podcast - I completely missed the Dissolve website's podcast, which I kept putting off until the site was gone and it was too late. Fortunately, several of the site's critics, Keith Phipps, Tasha Robinson, Scott Tobias and Genevieve Koski, launched a new podcast, The Next Picture Show, as a way too keep in touch with a joint project. It's technically a spinoff of the long-running Filmspotting podcast, and uses some similar bits of their format. Next Picture Show, however, has installments that use a two-part structure, pairing a new release with a related classic film. So far, pairings have included discussing "Spotlight" with "All the President's Men," "10 Cloverfield Lane" with "Assault on Precinct 13," and the old "Ghostbusters" with the new "Ghostbusters." The discussions have been great, but the podcast is still going through some growing pains with an irregular schedule and some technical issues. I'm absolutely rooting for its success.

Junkfood Cinema - I really missed C. Robert Cargill after he left Spill.com to go and become a big shot novelist and Hollywood screenwriter. However, he and fellow Spill alumnus Brian Salisbury have since teamed up for the Junkfood Cinema podcast, a tribute to their favorite older genre movies, stars, and filmmakers. On each episode, they just talk about movies, sometimes related to a particular theme, like "Die Hard" knockoffs, or mostly just for their own sake. It's a complete fanboy love fest, intended to bring more attention to older films that have fallen into obscurity. The hosts are very easy to listen to, and I've picked up some good recommendations from them, especially as I've been digging into '80s cinema this year. Junkfood Cinema is hosted by the Filmschoolrejects website.

The Double Toasted Movie Review Extravaganza - While we're on the subject of Spill.com, I want to send some more love to Korey Coleman and Martin Thomas, more Spill refugees who started the Double Toasted website and have been continuing their podcasting in a similar format to what they did on the old site, except without the pseudonyms and cartoon avatars. Yes, now you can watch Korey and friends rant against bad movies in real time and real life. The Movie Review Extravaganza is the site's weekly movie review show, often presented in multiple parts over several days. Several new voices have joined the cast of characters, including a second reviewer named Korey for the movie reviews. One change that I really appreciate is that reviews for individual films are excerpted from the main show, and posted separately a few days later, for the listener's convenience.

Cast of Kings - Finally, this is awfully niche, but I've now been listening to the "Game of Thrones" podcast "Cast of Kings" for four seasons, and it's about time they got a shout-out here. /Film's David Chen and Vanity Fair's Johanna Robinson host an aftershow podcast, discussing each episode the day after it premieres on HBO. Johanna has read the books and Dave hasn't, so we get perspectives from both types of fan. There are a lot of these podcasts out there, but I like "Cast of Kings" for the hosts' rapport, the way they handle talking about fan speculation, marketing, and controversies, and that nobody is scared about voicing unpopular opinions. And with a fanbase as rabid as the one around "Game of Thrones," that's no small accomplishment. I'm hoping that when the podcast inevitably ends in 2018, the hosts will move on to more podcasts in the same vein.

Also, I want to give a quick plug to the /Fimcast podcast, which I previously wrote about in 2011. It has drastically improved since Jeff Cannata became the third host back in 2014. It was perfectly fine before, but Cannata's personality just adds so much that I honestly can't picture the show without him on it anymore.
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