The Weekly Stuff #497 - Doctor Who Season Premiere & Xbox Studio Closures
Explicit content warning
05/14/24 • 157 min
Doctor Who returned this week for its new season (Series 14, Season 1, or Season 40, depending on who you ask), the first full run starring Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th Doctor and Millie Gibson as companion Ruby Sunday. And the first two episodes were a ton of fun, particularly the formally off-the-wall “The Devil’s Chord,” which proves returning showrunner Russell T Davies is taking the show in a very different direction than anything we’ve seen before! But before that, we have to talk about the awful news from Xbox, where we learned Microsoft’s game division is closing two beloved studios: Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin. It continues a terrible trend from Xbox that keeps pushing the console maker in worse and worse directions, the culmination of a long series of frustrations we’ve been tracing for most of the lifespan of this podcast.
Enjoy!
Time Chart:
Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:06:58
Stuff: 0:06:58 – 0:24:18
Xbox News: 0:24:18 – 1:06:27
Doctor Who Reviews: 1:06:27 – 2:37:19
Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff
Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK
Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our sister series about the wide, wacky world of anime: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation
Explore our archives and subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcasting platforms:
https://weeklystuffpodcast.com
Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content!
https://weeklystuff.substack.com
Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com
Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com
Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK
Subscribe to our YouTube channels!
Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation
Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast
Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff
Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/
©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman
Doctor Who returned this week for its new season (Series 14, Season 1, or Season 40, depending on who you ask), the first full run starring Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th Doctor and Millie Gibson as companion Ruby Sunday. And the first two episodes were a ton of fun, particularly the formally off-the-wall “The Devil’s Chord,” which proves returning showrunner Russell T Davies is taking the show in a very different direction than anything we’ve seen before! But before that, we have to talk about the awful news from Xbox, where we learned Microsoft’s game division is closing two beloved studios: Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin. It continues a terrible trend from Xbox that keeps pushing the console maker in worse and worse directions, the culmination of a long series of frustrations we’ve been tracing for most of the lifespan of this podcast.
Enjoy!
Time Chart:
Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:06:58
Stuff: 0:06:58 – 0:24:18
Xbox News: 0:24:18 – 1:06:27
Doctor Who Reviews: 1:06:27 – 2:37:19
Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff
Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK
Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our sister series about the wide, wacky world of anime: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation
Explore our archives and subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcasting platforms:
https://weeklystuffpodcast.com
Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content!
https://weeklystuff.substack.com
Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com
Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com
Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK
Subscribe to our YouTube channels!
Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation
Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast
Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff
Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/
©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman
Previous Episode
The Weekly Stuff #496 - Jonathan’s Criterion Essay, Berserk, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth & More
Jonathan had a very exciting week as The Criterion Collection published an essay he wrote on Makoto Shinkai, thus checking off a major bucket list item, while Sean had an extremely boring week administering standardized tests to high schoolers and showing them the 2011 animated not-a-classic, Gnomeo & Juliet. We talk about both of those experiences, share some more thoughts on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and finally hear Jonathan gush about the 1997 Berserk anime, now on Blu-ray from Discotek, which we will definitely have to do an episode on in the future.
Enjoy!
Read Jonathan’s Criterion essay here - https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8453-thoughts-transcending-time-and-distance-makoto-shinkai-s-voices-of-a-distant-star
Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff
Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK
Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our sister series about the wide, wacky world of anime: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation
Explore our archives and subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcasting platforms:
https://weeklystuffpodcast.com
Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content!
https://weeklystuff.substack.com
Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com
Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com
Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK
Subscribe to our YouTube channels!
Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation
Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast
Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff
Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/
©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman
Next Episode
The Weekly Stuff #498 - The Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Episode (& Doctor Who S14E3-4)
After many months and hundreds of hours of play, Sean and Jonathan have finally both finished Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the second installment in Square Enix’s remake trilogy, and ... we didn’t really like it. So today, we’re going to tell you why, diving into a game that starts out promising but turns out to be a very flat, frequently frustrating, extraordinarily long experience that ends with an unbelievably frustrating series of narrative decisions. We also review the latest episodes of Doctor Who – “Boom” and “73 Yards” – and talk a little bit about Furiosa and some recent books we’ve been reading.
Enjoy, and be sure to listen to the end to hear all about our big plans for the very special episodes 499 and 500!
Time Chart:
Intro: 0:00:00 – 0:05:26
Stuff: 0:05:26 – 0:34:52
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth: 0:34:52 – 2:43:04
Doctor Who: 2:43:04 – 3:23:07
Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff
Read the book 200 Reviews by Jonathan R. Lack in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK
Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our sister series about the wide, wacky world of anime: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation
Explore our archives and subscribe to The Weekly Stuff Podcast on all podcasting platforms:
https://weeklystuffpodcast.com
Follow The Weekly Stuff Wordcast newsletter for regular updates and extra content!
https://weeklystuff.substack.com
Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/
Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com
Subscribe to JAPANIMATION STATION, our podcast about the wide and wonderful world of anime: https://japanimationstation.com
Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK
Subscribe to our YouTube channels!
Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation
Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast
Support the show at Ko-fi ☕️ https://ko-fi.com/weeklystuff
Original Music by Thomas Lack https://www.thomaslack.com/
©2012 - Present Jonathan R. Lack & Sean Chapman
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