Podcasts in Review

January 4, 2018 at 12:01 am | Posted in Podcasts, Podcasts in Review, Regular Feature, Reviews, Star Wars | 1 Comment

Here is this week’s Podcasts in Review. Keep in mind that at this point there may be some mild spoilers for The Last Jedi in the episode descriptions.

BlastCast: Rapid Fire Fandom Fridays Vol. 8 switches things up as Sophie and Phil from Bright Tree Radio take over to host the episode and put Bryan and Shelby in the question seat. Bryan discusses his fandom of The Dark Tower book series, and Sophie talks about her Adventure Time fandom. As usual, they compare those subjects with Star Wars which makes for an interesting discussion.

Podcast Network: Hyperspace PodBlast, Runtime: 20 minutes, Audio Quality: Great, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Bryan and Shelby, Rating: Fun

Brews and Blasters: Episode 149 starts with some discussion of the holidays, going to see The Last Jedi again, taking others and their reactions. They discuss some of the negative fan reactions, they go over listener emails, and talk favorite ships, Luke flirting with Chewie, the use of the Force in A New Hope, difference between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, Canto Bight and lots of other stuff. Fun episode as always.

Podcast Network: Retrozap, Runtime: 1 hour 13 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Joe, and Chris, Rating: Fun

Force Material: Episode XIV is a fun discussion of The Last Jedi as they bounce around a lot and cover lots of various topics after having seen the movie. Very positive discussion.

Podcast Network: N/A, Runtime: 1 hour 18 minutes, Audio Quality: Great, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Rohan, and Baz, Rating: Fun

ForceCenter: Episode 94 starts with their initial thoughts on The Last Jedi. Lots of positivity in this episode as they jump around and highlight various moments and characters they liked. They also touch on what they would have liked to have seen more of, what didn’t work for them, their thoughts on Canto Bight, Rey’s parents reveal, Yoda, and the powerful themes. Great episode.

Podcast Network: ForceCenter, Runtime: 1 hour 57 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Ken, Joseph, and Jennifer, Rating: Great

ForceCenter: Episode 97 starts with their holidays, gifts, then they discuss the First Order, putting together all of the pieces for a nice look at what we know so far, and what we still need answers for. Plus there’s listener questions.

Podcast Network: ForceCenter, Runtime: 1 hour 8 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Ken, and Joseph, Rating: Great

Full of Sith: Episode CCXLVIII addresses user reviews and people not liking The Last Jedi. They attempt to make counter arguments for the major complaints, like the Holdo maneuver, the Canto Bight side trip, and Luke’s portrayal, but I don’t think they were all that persuasive. While I personally loved the film, I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts and I’ve heard some complaints on the very topics they tried to dismiss. I don’t think any of those detractors would be persuaded differently by this episode. It was a good idea, though.

Podcast Network: Full of Sith, Runtime: 1 hour 25 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Good, Host: Mike, Holly, and Bryan, Rating: Okay

Full of Sith: Episode CCXLIX dives back into The Last Jedi but this time exploring some of the smaller, but no less interesting, details of the movie. They talk about the red plum bloom, Luke’s yelling for Rey, getting rid of the lightsaber and a new Vader, dealing with failure and mirrors to Empire Strikes Back, the destruction of Kylo’s mask, and some of the content in the resource books, as well as Cobalt Squadron. Excellent deep dive discussion.

Podcast Network: Full of Sith, Runtime: 1 hour 5 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Host: Mike, Holly, and Bryan, Rating: Excellent

Galactic Fashion: Episode 31 covers new fashion items, Star Wars shoes, clothing, Tee Turtle, Black Milk, Her Universe now on ShopDisney.com, Our Universe on Box Lunch, and then they talk about the outfits in The Last Jedi which is a pretty cool discussion. They talk about Holdo, Rose, Leia, Poe, Luke, and Canto Bight. They also go over the history of the high heel.

Podcast Network: Jedi News Network, Runtime: 55 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Teresa, and Christy, Rating: Fun

Home One Hangout: Episode 37 starts with a non-spoiler discussion of the film. They talk about the humor, the Rotten Tomato scores, and they touch on the criticisms. Then they get into their spoiler discussion. They talk about space Leia, Snoke’s early exit–which is why everyone’s Snoke theory sucks, and Yoda. Then they walk through the movie from beginning to end touching on the porgs, Luke, Holo, new Force powers, hyperspace weapons, and Rey’s The Force Awakens‘ vision vs Kylo’s The Last Jedi revelation/lie. Really good discussion.

Podcast Network: N/A, Runtime: 1 hour 27 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Mike, Matt, and Ryan, Rating: Great

How the Force Works: Episode I is a special miniseries hosted by Bobby Roberts as he dives into the music of The Last Jedi. Episode I starts out with seeing Star Wars the first time on VHS, seeing Return of the Jedi in the theater, and hearing the sounds and music of Star Wars. It’s little bit of a walk down memory lane that sets the mood for the series. From there it quickly fast forwards to The Last Jedi, touching on Rian Johnson’s comments on the music. Bobby goes over the opening theme, and starts touching on motifs, themes, familiar music, and comparisons to The Force Awakens.

Podcast Network: Full of Sith, Runtime: 44 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Host: Bobby Roberts, Rating: Pick of the Week

How the Force Works: Episode II dives into the themes and motifs of The Force Awakens, Rogue One, and the transition to The Last Jedi. Bobby touches on Holdo’s theme, the Ahch-to music, Luke’s theme, the Force theme, Rose’s theme, the finales, Leia’s theme, Han and Leia’s theme, Luke and Leia’s theme, Kylo’s descent, Luke’s ascent, and Anakin’s theme.

Podcast Network: Full of Sith, Runtime: 48 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Host: Bobby Roberts, Rating: Pick of the Week

How the Force Works: Episode III wraps up the miniseries as it continues to explore the themes of The Last Jedi. It goes over Poe’s theme, the music of Canto Bight, Yoda’s music, other tracks and cues plus the epilogue. All three episodes provide an excellent exploration of the music. On top of that, Bobby keeps things interesting with some rather eloquent and literate word play as he sets the picture and illuminates the music. The audio quality and the editing is top notch. These three easily win pick of the week. I highly recommend checking them out.

Podcast Network: Full of Sith, Runtime: 46 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Host: Bobby Roberts, Rating: Pick of the Week

Hyperspace PodBlast: Episode 45 features guest Dr. Annalise Ophelian who talks with them about The Last Jedi as they explore the mindsets of the fans, the fan response, fan behavior, expectations, the story group, books and challenges, and more. Very interesting discussion. Definitely worth a listen.

Podcast Network: Hyperspace PodBlast, Runtime: 29 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Bryan and Shelby, Rating: Great

Rebel Force Radio: The Last Jedi Review Show #5 picks up on listener reactions and features guest Paul Bateman who shares his thoughts on movie. Visually, Paul liked it, but he had some serious issues with the way they setup Luke, and some issues withe repeat of Return of the Jedi with the throne room scene. Jimmy also touches on blowing up the Death Star for New Year’s, and they have on guest Jeremy Meadows from Nissan to talk about The Last Jedi red carpet premiere.

Podcast Network: Rebel Force Radio, Runtime: 2 hours 11 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Jason, and Jimmy, Rating: Good

San Diego Sabers Radio Podcast: Episode 51 starts off with Eric, Steve, and Robert in a winery as they talk about what they’re grateful for and some thoughts on The Last Jedi. It’s pretty good audio but there is some faint background noise. From there, they break to the studio to talk with Mike Moriarty from Home One Hangout, and Brandon Boylan from Clashing Sabers. Some interesting observations on The Last Jedi. Then they go back to the winery to wrap up the episode.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth, Runtime: 1 hour 46 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Host: Marc, Rating: Good

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1273 covers Rian Johnson’s road map for Episode IX.

Podcast Network: N/A, Runtime: 10 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Host: Allen, Rating: Good

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1274 covers 7 storylines from The Force Awakens that were rendered moot by The Last Jedi.

Podcast Network: N/A, Runtime: 14 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Host: Allen, Rating: Good

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1275 is a memoriam episode for all the Star Wars actors, voice actors and crew members who passed in 2017.

Podcast Network: N/A, Runtime: 12 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Host: Allen, Rating: Good

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1276 is a review of all the Star Wars stuff that came out in 2017. Allen highlights movies, television, books and games.

Podcast Network: N/A, Runtime: 16 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Host: Allen, Rating: Good

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1277 looks ahead at what’s to come in 2018 in regards of Star Wars movies. Allen talks about Solo, leaked imagery, and the rumors of the Obi-Wan movies and whether that could still happen.

Podcast Network: N/A, Runtime: 12 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Host: Allen, Rating: Good

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1278 looks ahead at what’s to come in 2018 in regards to television. Allen talks about Star Wars Rebels, Forces of Destiny and the possibility of a new animated show.

Podcast Network: N/A, Runtime: 13 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Host: Allen, Rating: Good

Star Wars 7×7: Episode 1279 looks ahead at what’s to come in 2018 in regards to books.

Podcast Network: N/A, Runtime: 10 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Host: Allen, Rating: Good

Star Wars Bookworms: Episode 84 covers The Last Jedi. They share their thoughts, Teresa talks about being at the world premier, they talk about the variety of opinions, and Aaron talks about his disappoint with the direction they took Luke. They cover various highlights from the movie and they talk Finn and Rose, Rey and Poe, Phasma, and Snoke. Good mix of positive and critical discussion.

Podcast Network: 2nd Airborne Division, Runtime: 1 hour 23 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Teresa, and Aaron, Rating: Good

Talk Star Wars Daily: Episode 12.28.17 covers the passing of Dr. Evazan, countdown to upcoming films, update on box office numbers, Solo news coming in Empire magazine, and possible details on Solo trailer.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth, Runtime: 28 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Host: Marc, Rating: Good

Talk Star Wars Daily: Episode 12.29.17 starts with a new show idea with Rob Cast, a roundtable retrospective show for each of the Star Wars movies.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth, Runtime: 26 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Marc, and Rob, Rating: Good

Talk Star Wars Daily: Episode 1.2.18 has an update on box office numbers, news of John Williams involvement with Solo, Black Series release info, Rian Johnson trilogy production info, and new Ron Howard Solo tweet.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth, Runtime: 23 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Host: Marc, Rating: Good

Talk Star Wars Daily: Episode 1.3.18 covers box office numbers for The Last Jedi, reviews, news, IMAX posters, Forces of Destiny, spoon details on the map to the last Jedi temple, and Forbes article on Episode IX.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth, Runtime: 31 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Host: Marc, Rating: Good

TechnoRetro Dads: The Fulcrum of Past and Future starts with Shaz talking about his auto accident, they talk about the gifts they got, there’s jokes, some cereal discussion, other stuff, voicemails, and then they talk about the movies of 2018.

Podcast Network: Retrozap, Runtime: 1 hour 18 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Shazbazzar, and JediShua, Rating: Fun

The 602 Club: Episode 162 discusses The Last Jedi, however, there’s a lot of negativity/criticism in this discussion. They talk about the disconnect between the sequel trilogy and the rest of the saga, the reliance on ancillary materials for the rest of the story, complaints about how non-threatening the First Order is thanks to The Last Jedi, how The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi aren’t cohesive, lack of info on Snoke, not knowing why Kylo turned to the dark side, getting hung up on Luke’s moment of wanting to kill Ben, the Jedi needing to end because Luke failed, not liking Yoda, Phasma, the chase, no love for the music, and no praise for the new ships. Bruce offers a descent amount of praise here and there which kept me from just turning the episode off, and even Matt had some good things to say, however John was consistently negative about everything for the entire three hour episode. If you didn’t like The Last Jedi or had some serious issues with the movie, you’ll probably like this episode. If you liked The Last Jedi, stay away from this one as it’s not an enjoyable experience.

Podcast Network: Trek.fm, Runtime: 2 hours 58 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Matthew, Bruce, and John, Rating: Not Good

The Deucecast Movie Show: Episode 309 covers their top five movies that were bad that they watched in 2017. Movies include The Room, Criminal, Hands of Stone, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Same Kind of Different As Me, Sausage Party, Mega Force, Justice League, Max Payne, Check Point, Cell, In Secret and more. Each of them pick five so it’s a good way to find out what movies not to watch.

Podcast Network: Retrozap, Runtime: 42 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Dave, Mikey, and Dr. Earl, Rating: Good

The Deucecast Movie Show: Episode 310 features guest Jennifer Kaufman as they do a sweet sixteen contest for Julia Roberts movies. They pick her sixteen “best” roles and pit them against each other until there is only one left standing as the best role of them all. Matches include Erin Brockovich vs Runaway Bride, Stepmom vs August: Osage County, Notting Hill vs Hook, Steel Magnolias vs Closer, Something To Talk About vs Ocean’s Eleven, Charlie Wilson’s War vs The Pelican Brief, Conspiracy Theory vs Pretty Woman, and My Best Friend’s Wedding vs Charlotte’s Web.

Podcast Network: Retrozap, Runtime: 1 hour 4 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Dave, Mikey, and Dr. Earl, Rating: Good

The ForceCast: The Last Jedi Review Part 1 features Ryan, Daniel and guests Lindsay and Jon Hopkins as they share their thoughts on the movie and talk a little bit about the world premiere. They dive into some good details providing a nice look at the themes and hidden meanings. Plus they have listener voicemails with even more feedback, good and bad, on The Last Jedi.

Podcast Network: Forcecast.Net, Runtime: 2 hours 11 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Good, Hosts: Ryan, and Daniel, Rating: Good

The Imperial Senate Podcast: The Last Jedi Review starts with their general thoughts on the movie. They touch on various topics like Kylo and possibility for redemption, space Leia, Rey’s rejection pushing Kylo further into dark side, shipping, favorite scenes, the negative reviews and comments, and some Solo talk. A few audio issues here and there, and fair warning, there’s some F-bombs, but otherwise a good discussion.

Podcast Network: Not Saf For Work, Runtime: 1 hour 50 minutes, Audio Quality: Good, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Charlie, Kristen, and Nicky, Rating: Good

The Sandcrawler: Episode 42 they talk about the holidays, they go through their favorite 3-3/4″ 2017 figures, and other favorite figures, collectibles and books of 2017. They have a good point – where is the 6″ Black Series Zeb, Chopper and Ezra? We really do need those. Afterwards they talk more about The Last Jedi, reactions to it, and they provide some great ideas for TLJ figures and playsets.

Podcast Network: Retrozap, Runtime: 1 hour 53 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Dan, and Mac, Rating: Great

The TSW Kessel Run: Episode 12.30.17 is a special return of the TSW Kessel Run as Marc shares his thoughts on Rey’s cave vision from The Last Jedi. The audio is a bit rough with a lot of background noise, but it is an interesting dissection of the scene from the film.

Podcast Network: Star Wars Commonwealth, Runtime: 19 minutes, Audio Quality: Rough, Editing: N/A, Host: Marc, Rating: Not Too Bad

Wookiee Radio: Episode 48 starts with a discussion of their Star Wars Christmas goodies, they play some Star Wars family feud, then they address some of the gripes against The Last Jedi. They talk Yoda, some nit picky issues with the movie, Snoke speculation, 501st tangent, they cover the best of 2017 article on StarWars.com, they speculate some on Star Wars Rebels, cover Galaxy’s Edge news, and more.

Podcast Network: We Be Geeks Network, Runtime: 1 hour 16 minutes, Audio Quality: Excellent, Editing: Excellent, Hosts: Ken, Derrick, and Mike, Rating: Great

Reviewed By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.