Must Be Tuesday: Veronica Mars Reviews

Alli and Mary reach the end of the prequel trilogy this week with Revenge of the Sith. After two movies of wobbling and somewhat unclear character development for Anakin, Sith is forced to do the heavy lifting of getting him all the way to Darth Vader. Unfortunately, in doing so, we jettison all development for Padme and make the Jedi look like oblivious, heartless tools. But perhaps that's the point, after all? Sorry baby Yoda, you grow into a bit of a dick.  And hey, it's season 6, ep 6! How appropriate. 

The toughest part watching of Attack of the Clones, and subsequently spending an hour talking about it, is all of the unrealized potential. The concepts, the story, the ideas are solid and intriguing. We could spend literally hours talking about minor (and major) tweaks would vastly improve the whole endeavor. Alli repurposes an old Red Letter Media concept as her biggest beef, while Mary laments the Padme/Anakin romance. On the plus side, we get some fun Obi-Wan and some real characters and plot to work with this round. Cheers!

In what is sure to prove MBT's biggest Star Wars positivity challenge, this week's podcast talks 1999's The Phantom Menace. We won't lie to you: we don't have the child-nostalgia for this film that some do, and without that, the movie is dull. We discuss what we think could be changed for improvement, but also where we think there are some story and character diamonds in the rough. Plus: Duel of the Fates! Cheers to that.  

We're continuing our Star Wars chat with the original controversial Star Wars film: Return of the Jedi. We talk the implications of slave Leia, the dope Jabba's palace sequence and dig deep into the implications of the Emporer/Vader/Luke scene when combined with prequel knowledge. We have special guest Alex on this week, helping us round out our OT gushing. Cheers!

This week we return to a galaxy far, far away to discuss the relative benefits of Tauntaun warmth vs. a good naked snuggle, Han's desperation to be loved, watching Star Wars in an opinion vacuum, and Yoda: Master Troll. We're having a great time attempting to link the the stories with the prequels and sequels, and going over how age and perspective can shift your opinion of each movie. Guys, we're still not over how fun it is to talk Star Wars. Cheers!

Alli and Mary are taking a brief break from the medium of television to dive into the oft-discussed, completely beloved and never beaten realm of STAR WARS. We're going original release order, starting with sass-master Leia, reluctant-hero Han and innocently hopeful Luke in A New Hope. Ever had a favorite pair of pajamas you curl up in on a rainy day? Yeah, this is the movie equivalent. Tip a little booze in your blue milk and join us. Cheers!

We've reached the end of iZombie, a show that had the potential to be some fun escapist fantasy and never really hit the mark. After seasons of impressive finales, the final season's feels like a true limp to the finish. We gets some spy drama, some death drama, some kill drama. In the end, Blaine gets pushed down a well and left to his fate, Ravi is finally the most famous cure boy, Peyton and Clive have professional success, and Liv and Major stay in a weird non-aging zombie parenthood. Stay tuned for Star Wars coming up next! Cheers to that.

Trigger Warning: There's discussion of rape as a plot device throughout this episode. As suddenly and pointlessly as Liv's dad enters her life and the storyline, he leaves. Thought you were going to get some interesting emotional drama with Liv? Nope, not on this show! The rest of Liv's family skedaddles too. Blaine is still around, not being a strong antagonist and not being much of anything else, either. Our girl Peyton is out here living her best life, and that's the best thing we can really say about these episodes. Grab a drink and join our bitching! Cheers.

Remember in the early season of iZombie, when we'd ask a question or nitpick something and then the show would answer a few eps later? And we gave them so many snaps for that? Well, the show does it again here, but inverted to be cringe-y and terrible. Hey, did you know Liv's family is still around? Also, she has a dad? And he's both Beanpole Bob AND the Big Bad Zombie Metal Head? Well, anyway, that's going on. Blaine almost gets his comeuppance, but the show chickens the eff out and nothing really changes. Sigh. Drink. 

This week Alli and Mary discuss the beginning of the final season of iZombie. Unfortunately, the first four episodes underwhelm. The season is messy, getting a bit too big for it's britches with social messaging, committing to exactly nothing while comparing itself to everything. Tonally, we're dealing with a sobbing Major juxtaposed with a dance competition juxtaposed with a who's the daddy pregnancy soap opera. This show can be better, so why isn't it? Grab a drink, you'll need it. 

We've reached the end of season 4 izombie. The penultimate ep is a bunch of treading water where Major and Liv play house and not much else happens. The finale, like every season, jam-packs all the season's action into one episode: Liv is captured, Major/Ravi/Clive/Peyton team up to save her, Blaine and dad have yet another falling out and the zombie church attempts to storm out of Seattle. In other news, we announce our next two projects: Star Wars and Lucifer! Cheers. 

We've reached the portion of the iZombie season cycle with the boring filler. This time, we're dealing with a dying teen girl immune to the zombie virus. In typical Rob Thomas fashion, this character/actor is reused in the new Veronica Mars; she's not super interesting in either. Hey, remember when Liv had a mom and brother? Are they in Seattle? Are they zombies? Hello... is this thing on?

Our iZombie binge continues into the middle of season four. We continue whatevering over some portions of lore and specifics, which allows us to enjoy this season significantly more than the last. Finally, FINALLY Liv has developed a personality and some agency as she takes over as the morally grey Renegade. Major and Chase Graves continue their irrelevant bromance, Ravi and Peyton rekindle their romance, and Blaine and his dad go agree on an arrangement. Clive has some stuff going on, but nobody could care. Cheers!

We're back to iZombie after our brief foray back into Veronica Mars. Alli is starting a brand new style of watching the show: embracing the binge style and whatevering the rest. With that in mind, we enter New Seattle, a zombie haven run by Fillmore Graves. It's a brave new world, where Liv can live and solve crimes openly. Ravi has become a were-zombie, which is a delightful addition. There's some fun lore, and some less-than-fun crime solving and romantic tension. All in all, it certainly can't be worse than last season. Cheers!

The word of the day is: controversy. The Veronica Mars revival ends with a literal bang & our twitter feed has not been the same since. The final 10-15 min of the ep overshadows the rest of what we feel was a solid season & brings up several big questions: what do creators owe to fans? Is this more pronounced in television? How effective are revivals, overall? We spend the first half going over positive impressions of the show & the second half negative. Grab a drink & get into it with us! Cheers.

Veronica Mars is back: back with Logan, back in Neptune, back working with Keith, back putting the sass in sassypants. Alli & Mary are happy to join her in these first revival four episodes: we talk about Veronica's bad behavior, all our new friends & suspects, Dick's inexplicable presence and make some predictions for the end of season four. Some are good, right on the money. Others are... Alli's crackpot theories. But hey, some of you may have wished she was right! Grab a beer and speculate with us. Cheers!

Alli and Mary return to Neptune to discuss a bit of the second book and what we think might happen in the Veronica Mars Revival. Some predictions are more on point than others. To paraphrase Weevil, though, there are some big "I told you so"s a-comin'. Next week we'll be releasing the an ep covering the first four episodes of the season and then the following week will be rounding out through the finale. Grab a drink and join in: Veronica Mars is coming to 2019. Cheers!

Well, season 3 of iZombie was certainly a season of television that happened. Why it happened the way it did remains a bit of a mystery for your intrepid MBT podcaster. Major continues his heroic effort to actually have a character arc, while everyone else languishes in an unchanging haze. Seattle is officially Zombieville, y'all, and that should be way more exciting than it is. We're taking a brief three week iZombie break to get into the new season of Veronica Mars; hopefully to return refreshed. Cheers!

Alright folks, buckle in because this week we're talking FOUR episodes of iZombie. To try to keep the negativity to, well, at least a low burn we've decided to look at larger chunks of the show. This way, we can focus on season and character arcs, such as they are. This week, we discuss primarily how easily the first six to seven episodes could have been culled, how we're happy to have Ravi and Peyton returned as great characters, and Blaine's return to frenemy. Also, welcome back Mr. Boss and Logan from Veronica Mars!

This week on Must Be Tuesday, Alli and Mary discuss a question we have't faced before: what to do when a show drops in quality and you don't know if it will get better. As our listeners have surely noted, we are not loving the direction of iZombie this season: characters are swinging wildly through inconsistent arcs that circle around and lead exactly nowhere. Mysteries of the week aren't improving. The season lacks a cohesive theme. The answer, much like our soon-to-record foray back into Veronica Mars, might be a switch up in style: binging. Grab a beer and gear up, because it's a bitch session.