Episode 664: Oxford, Another University
August 29th, 2025 | Robin
In the Gaming Hut we look at how the unsatisfying nature of real life persuasion leads to player dissatisfaction with social combat systems.
In Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else, Ken sits down the Pat Mooney of Flagbearer Games.
The Cinema Hut Fantasy Essentials Series reaches the heartbreaker era of the mid 80s.
Finally the Eliptony Hut gazes at incoming celestial object 3I/Atlas, which to the eyes of one maverick astronomer looks like maybe an alien technology.
Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!
Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.
Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.
Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.
The official CatStronauts board game features cooperative play that’s only 30-45 minutes long, for 1-4 players ages 10+. Designed and illustrated by CatStronauts comic book creator Drew Brockington and available now from Atlas Games!
A global mythos conspiracy ensnares the player characters in The Borellus Connection, Pelgrane Press’ new Fall of DELTA Green mega-campaign by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and Kenneth Hite. Journey in the guise of federal narcotics agents to Saigon, Beirut, Prague and Bozukepe. Buy it for your GM and demand that she run it today!
Get caught in the spiral with God’s Teeth, a new set of pulse-pounding Delta Green scenarios dripping with the once and future corruption of a nation swirling into cruelty and spite. From a government panopticon to alien worms to an app-driven mass shooter, your agents have nothing to fear but every screaming headline.
Play spies, skirmishers, and saboteurs in the battle for the future of the Thirteen Colonies in Flagbearer Games’ thoroughly researched and beautifully illustrated 5E compatible roleplaying game Nations and Cannons. Jump into the early actions of the war with the new campaign guide The American Crisis, available as a PDF or for print pre-order.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Weapons, Venus, and Vegan Body Horror from a Nobel Prize Winner
August 26th, 2025 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
The Case of the Seven of Calvary (Fiction, Anthony Boucher, 1937) A Swiss peace ambassador stabbed on a Berkeley street, the enigmatic “Seven of Calvary” symbol on the body, surely this is a case only a Professor of Sanskrit can solve! Come for the interlocking and overlapping murders, but stay for the glimmering conjuration of the prewar University scene. Boucher’s first novel isn’t his best mystery, but it’s well worth reading.—KH
Green Fish (Film, South Korea, Lee Chang-dong, 1997) Ex-serviceman from a shattered family (Han Suk-kyu) drifts into the orbit of an insecure mobster (Moon Sung-keun) and his trapped girlfriend (Shim Hye-jin.) Refreshes an archetypal gangster plotline by sympathetically zeroing in on the characters’ inescapable brokenness.—RDL
July Rhapsody (Film, HK, Ann Hui, 2002) As tensions rise with his wife (Anita Mui), a stagnating high school teacher (Jacky Cheung) passively allows a self-possessed student (Karena Lam) to throw herself at him. Finely observed naturalistic drama gives two HK megastars a rare chance to turn in restrained performances.—RDL
Remember My Name (Film, US, Alan Rudolph, 1978) Impulsive, vengeful ex-con (Geraldine Chaplin) stalks a self-centered construction worker (Anthony Perkins) who has concealed details of his past from his concerned wife (Berry Berenson.) Treats subject matter foundational to the later erotic thriller cycle as the basis for an offbeat dysfunctional character study with a distanced west coast vibe.—RDL
The Vegetarian (Fiction, Han Kang, 2007) To the embarrassment of her proudly mediocre husband and angry shock of her family, a woman attempts to stave off her brutal nightmares by going vegan. Literary body horror in which the gulf between external expectation and concealed selfhood devours the characters from the inside out.—RDL
Venus (Film, Spain, Jaume Balagueró, 2022) Club dancer Lucia (Ester Expósito) steals a big drug stash and hides out with her sister (Ángela Cremonte) in a cursed apartment building. Allegedly a “dirty, modern” adaptation of “Dreams in the Witch House,” it’s actually a superbly paced genre-switcher that puts modern crime beats behind a horror melody to great effect. Expósito carries the film with her acting, switching between suspicion, kindness, and desperation as the film does likewise.—KH
Weapons (Film, US, Zach Cregger, 2025) The simultaneous, overnight disappearance of 17 third-graders from a class of 18 sets a number of characters in motion, among them their teacher (Julia Garner) and one kid’s father (Josh Brolin). Over and above Cregger’s assured overlapping-narrative script, his collaboration with cinematographer Larkin Seiple and editor Joe Murphy provide a consummately creepy feel even in seemingly normal moments. Finally, a huge relief to see a horror film that would rather be scary than write an op-ed about trauma.—KH
Good
Legend (Director’s Cut) (Film, US, Ridley Scott, 1985) When his love the Princess Lili (Mia Sara) accidentally lets goblins kill a unicorn, forest boy Jack (Tom Cruise) must rescue her and the land from the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry). Adding 25 minutes to the theatrical release, this version sadly doesn’t do much more than extend and deepen a film that doesn’t really ever decide what it wants to do. (It does restore Jerry Goldsmith’s original score, though.) Classic fairy tale, pastoral fantasy, and music video aesthetics likewise tussle for dominance although Scott makes them all look great.—KH
Okay
The Singing Thief (Film, HK, Chang Cheh, 1969) When a mysterious foe starts copying his old M.O., a Raffles-style romantic jewel purloiner turned nightclub singer (Jimmy Lin Chong) matches wits with a wealthy diamond owner (Lily Ho) deputized to bring him in. Swingin’ 60s musical comedy action thriller throbs with omnidirectional bisexual lust. Also, brutal, well-staged martial fight sequences that feel like they belong in a different movie.—RDL
Incomplete
Kingdom III: The Flame of Destiny (Film, Japan, ) When the Zhao army attacks Qin, ambitious warrior Shin accepts General Ohki’s commission to lead a 100-man strike force. Forty minutes of story, and an hour twenty of exposition lead to a non-ending.—RDL
Episode 663: I Know This Isn’t in the Brochure
August 22nd, 2025 | Robin
Beloved Patreon backer Sikander orders and/or bribes the Gaming Hut into a discussion of game mechanics that require players to take in-genre actions versus those that offer rewards for doing so.
At the behest of estimable backer David Sowa, the Tradecraft Hut peers into the world of private espionage organizations.
Wielding Excaliburs both silly and serious, the Cinema Hut forges on with its Fantasy Essentials series from the 70s into the 80s.
Finally Conspiracy Corner examines Mozart murder theories.
Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!
Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.
Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.
Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.
The official CatStronauts board game features cooperative play that’s only 30-45 minutes long, for 1-4 players ages 10+. Designed and illustrated by CatStronauts comic book creator Drew Brockington and available now from Atlas Games!
A global mythos conspiracy ensnares the player characters in The Borellus Connection, Pelgrane Press’ new Fall of DELTA Green mega-campaign by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and Kenneth Hite. Journey in the guise of federal narcotics agents to Saigon, Beirut, Prague and Bozukepe. Buy it for your GM and demand that she run it today!
Get caught in the spiral with God’s Teeth, a new set of pulse-pounding Delta Green scenarios dripping with the once and future corruption of a nation swirling into cruelty and spite. From a government panopticon to alien worms to an app-driven mass shooter, your agents have nothing to fear but every screaming headline.
Play spies, skirmishers, and saboteurs in the battle for the future of the Thirteen Colonies in Flagbearer Games’ thoroughly researched and beautifully illustrated 5E compatible roleplaying game Nations and Cannons. Jump into the early actions of the war with the new campaign guide The American Crisis, available as a PDF or for print pre-order.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Ken and Robin Consume Media: Fantastic Four, Weapons, Nobody 2
August 19th, 2025 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
The Case of the Crumpled Knave (Fiction, Anthony Boucher, 1939) Card-collecting chemist Humphrey Garnett is found dead by cyanide with a crumpled jack of diamonds in his hand. Surely rookie private eye Fergus O’Breen can solve the case! Boucher, a long-time critic of the mystery novel, turns his hand to an “Ellery Queen” style murder with great felicity and ingenuity, although O’Breen belongs to a more flamboyant detective tradition than modern readers (or Ellery Queen) prefer.—KH
The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Film, US, Matt Shakman, 2025) Global heroes the Fantastic Four (Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Eben Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn) face the destruction of their mid-60s Earth by Galactus (Ralph Ineson). Although suffering from a dearth of superheroics during the long, pipe-laying first act, the movie comes alive once the threat of Galactus appears. A super-fight set in daylight featuring live action and models instead of entirely empty CGI murk, character development, and humor that (mostly) comes from the circumstances instead of the script make this a surprising Good Marvel movie; the zippy Michael Giacchino score and loving retro production design by Kasra Farahani elevate it to Recommended.—KH
The Harder I Fight the More I Love You (Nonfiction, Neko Case, 2025) Singer-songwriter Case recounts her process of self-assembly, necessitated by a childhood of abject neglect that includes at least one plot twist straight out of a film noir. Acutely written rock autobiography serves up another reminder that many of the arts figures we admire have spent much of their lives hanging on by their teeth and fingernails.—RDL
Nine Times Nine (Fiction, Anthony Boucher, 1940) Writer Matt Duncan has just landed the job of assistant to anti-fraud crusader Wolfe Harrigan when Harrigan is shot in a locked room by a man in the yellow robe of LA cult leader Ahasver—who admits that his astral double committed the murder. Boucher tries to out-impossible John Dickson Carr, including a bravura sequence in which LAPD detective Terence Marshall goes through Carr’s classic “Locked Room Lecture” to try and solve the case; the actual solution falls to Sister Ursula, a nun friend of the Harrigan family. The LA occult scene also gets a lively portrait in this terrific mystery.—KH
Nobody 2 (Film, US, Timo Tjahjanto, 2025) Formerly retired hitman Hutch Mansell’s (Bob Odenkirk) waterpark vacation with his wife (Connie Nielsen) and family hits a snag when fate once again confronts him with goons who don’t know not to mess with him. A sequel script that knows how much and how little to extend the original lends action maestro Tjahjanto a solid launchpad for his Hollywood debut.—RDL
Sadie Thompson (Film, US, Raoul Walsh, 1928) Stuck on a South Seas island, a woman with a past (Gloria Swanson) romances a handsome sergeant (Walsh) but finds herself in the sights of a hypocritically pious reformer (Lionel Barrymore.) The broad strokes of the silent era fuel Walsh’s fire as he expresses his sympathy for the underdog and hatred of petty tyrants. First of several adaptations of Somerset Maugham’s story “Rain.”.—RDL
Weapons (Film, US, Zach Cregger, 2025) A spiraling teacher (Julia Garner) and rage-driven parent (Josh Brolin) separately seek 17 primary school kids who simultaneously ran from their homes in the middle of the night. A perspective-hopping, fragmented structure keeps the audience off-balance and primed for creepy scares.—RDL
Good
Timestalker (Film, UK, Alice Lowe, 2024) Life gets no easier across successive reincarnations for a self-absorbed woman (Lowe) fatally attracted to a handsome but gorm-deficient man (Jacob Anderson) and entangled with an abusive partner (Nick Frost.) Barbed era-spanning comedy of obsessive, unrewarding love.—RDL
Ire-Inspiring
The Last Showgirl (Film, US, Gia Coppola, 2024) When the long-running Vegas show she dances in announces its imminent cancellation, a veteran showgirl (Pamela Anderson) heads for a crack-up, exacerbated by her disapproving daughter (Billie Lourd) and mournful ex-flame (Dave Bautista.) Poignant performances from Anderson and Bautista, and Coppola’s grasp of mood make the script’s unremitting cruelty toward its characters all the more gear-grinding.—RDL
Episode 662: Scuttlebutt City
August 15th, 2025 | Robin
Ken is back from Gen Con to share his main takeaways from the 2025 show in OUR latest Travel Advisory.
The Cinema Hut fantasy film essentials series covers the early 1970s.
Speaking of Gen Con, the ENnie Awards just celebrated their 25th anniversary. Organization director Stacy Muth joins Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else for a much-deserved victory lap.
Finally Ken’s Time Machine gives our chrononaut the tricky assignment of adjusting one border change as the WWI allies conference after the war to reshape the map of Europe and beyond.
Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!
Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.
Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.
Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.
The official CatStronauts board game features cooperative play that’s only 30-45 minutes long, for 1-4 players ages 10+. Designed and illustrated by CatStronauts comic book creator Drew Brockington and available now from Atlas Games!
A global mythos conspiracy ensnares the player characters in The Borellus Connection, Pelgrane Press’ new Fall of DELTA Green mega-campaign by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and Kenneth Hite. Journey in the guise of federal narcotics agents to Saigon, Beirut, Prague and Bozukepe. Buy it for your GM and demand that she run it today!
Get caught in the spiral with God’s Teeth, a new set of pulse-pounding Delta Green scenarios dripping with the once and future corruption of a nation swirling into cruelty and spite. From a government panopticon to alien worms to an app-driven mass shooter, your agents have nothing to fear but every screaming headline.
Play spies, skirmishers, and saboteurs in the battle for the future of the Thirteen Colonies in Flagbearer Games’ thoroughly researched and beautifully illustrated 5E compatible roleplaying game Nations and Cannons. Jump into the early actions of the war with the new campaign guide The American Crisis, available as a PDF or for print pre-order.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Ken and Robin Consume Media: KPop Demon Hunters, The Gorge, and Anglo-Saxons vs Vikings
August 12th, 2025 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
The Devil’s Eye (Film, Sweden, Ingmar Bergman, 1960) The devil (Stig Järrel), his eye inflamed by the existence of a young woman (Bibi Andersson) about to marry as a virgin, sends the damned souls of Don Juan (Jarl Kulle) and his servant (Sture Lagerwall) back to Earth to effect the necessary seduction. Chiefly through Kulle’’s silently ravaged affect, Bergman uses the ostensible elements of a comedic fantasy for an exploration of suffering as acute as any in his filmography.—RDL
The Gorge (Film, US, Scott Derrickson, 2025) Traumatized snipers, one west bloc (Miles Teller), the other east bloc (Anya Taylor-Joy) fall in love from opposite sides of the monster-filled secret canyon they’ve been stationed to guard. The stars turn up all the sizzling charisma a technothriller romance creature feature needs, and then some.—RDL
KPop Demon Hunters (Film, US, Maggie Kang & Chris Appelhans, 2025) A demon-fighting superstar trio’s battle against a boy band from the underworld threatens to reveal the lead singer’s dark secret. US-made, Korean-set animated supernatural action musical that folds anime visual tropes into 3D is a kicky triumph of cultural diffusion.—RDL
The Wolf Age: The Vikings, the Anglo-Saxons and the Battle for the North Sea Empire (Nonfiction, Tore Skeie, 2018) Violent 11th century kings Æthelred, Olaf Haraldsson, and Cnut battle for silver and territory in England and Scandinavia. Stirring, uncluttered narrative history depicts medieval warfare as a busIness model.—RDL
Good
Portrait in Black (Film, US, Michael Gordon, 1960) Neglected socialite Sheila (Lana Turner) conspires to murder her cat-loving husband with his doctor (Anthony Quinn) but complications ensue. Undistinguished semi-noir thriller surprises with great San Francisco location shots, and tries to pull off “everyone in the household has a secret” storytelling to mixed effect. The stacked cast also includes Sandra Dee, John Saxon, Richard Basehart, Anna May Wong, and Ray Walston all emoting up a storm.—KH
The Reluctant Adventures of Martin Jerrold Trilogy (Fiction, Edwin Thomas, 2004-2006) Barely competent poltroon Jerrold (a Royal Navy lieutenant) gets thrust into Napoleonic adventures—clearing his name in a smuggler murder in Dover, hunting an escaped French prisoner, and stopping the Aaron Burr conspiracy—against his will, and resolving them likewise. Sub-Flashman novels begin readable and slowly come into their own with the third book, but that’s all there was.—KH
Summer of 69 (Film, US, Jillian Bell, 2025) When the guy of her dreams becomes available, an adorably nerdy high school senior (Sam Morelos) hires a brusque but kindly stripper (Chloe Fineman) to teach her his reputedly favorite sex move. Female buddy comedy puts a sweetly affirming spin on a raunchy premise.—RDL
Okay
Aenigma (Film, Italy/Yugoslavia, Lucio Fulci, 1987) Comatose victim of a cruel prank (Milijana Zirojevic) possesses an incoming college student (Lara Lamberti) to act as a vector for lethal, hallucinatory psychic attacks on her tormentors. Fulci’s surreal disregard for mimetic realism provides some interest within a repetitive structure.—RDL
Episode 661: Dismiss All the Butlers
August 8th, 2025 | Robin
In the Gaming Hut we look at ways to run prelude scenes in scenarios, set before its main objective becomes apparent.
The Word Hut gets judgmental as we look at archaic, obscure and rarely used words and decide which of them deserves to enter the general lexicon.
Our Cinema Hut Fantasy Film Essentials Series covers all of the 1960s in one bold segment.
Finally the Consulting Occultist fulfills beloved Patreon backer Christopher Hatty’s request for a profile of Theosophist turned Buddhist, opera singer turned suspected anarchist spy, Alexandra David-Néel.
Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!
Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.
Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.
Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.
The official CatStronauts board game features cooperative play that’s only 30-45 minutes long, for 1-4 players ages 10+. Designed and illustrated by CatStronauts comic book creator Drew Brockington and available now from Atlas Games!
A global mythos conspiracy ensnares the player characters in The Borellus Connection, Pelgrane Press’ new Fall of DELTA Green mega-campaign by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and Kenneth Hite. Journey in the guise of federal narcotics agents to Saigon, Beirut, Prague and Bozukepe. Buy it for your GM and demand that she run it today!
Get caught in the spiral with God’s Teeth, a new set of pulse-pounding Delta Green scenarios dripping with the once and future corruption of a nation swirling into cruelty and spite. From a government panopticon to alien worms to an app-driven mass shooter, your agents have nothing to fear but every screaming headline.
Play spies, skirmishers, and saboteurs in the battle for the future of the Thirteen Colonies in Flagbearer Games’ thoroughly researched and beautifully illustrated 5E compatible roleplaying game Nations and Cannons. Jump into the early actions of the war with the new campaign guide The American Crisis, available as a PDF or for print pre-order.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Ken and Robin Consume Media: The Naked Gun, Murderbot, Dead Talents Society, Riddle of Fire
August 5th, 2025 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
Dead Talents Society (Film, Taiwan, John Hsu, 2024) Self-effacing ghost (Gingle Wang) joins the entourage of a fading urban legend (Sandrine Pinna) in hopes of earning the haunting license she needs to continue her spectral existence. Supernatural found family comedy spoofs reality TV and the attention economy.—RDL
Hero (Film, China, Shaohong Li, Joan Chen, Sylvia Chang, 2022) During the terrifying early weeks of COVID, a Wuhan nurse (Xun Zhou) butts heads with her oppressively self-sacrificing mother-in-law (Xu Di), a student visiting her Beijing family (Miyi Huang) worries about her infected fiancé, and a Hong Kong photojournalist (Sammi Cheng) confronts her estranged husband. With greater unity of tone and theme than the typical anthology film, this trio of female-centred domestic dramas builds a time capsule for a period the world is hellbent on forgetting.—RDL
Murderbot Season 1 (Television, US, Apple+, Paul Weitz & Chris Weitz, 2025) A security robot who has secretly deactivated his anti-autonomy features in order to watch his favorite streaming television (Alexander Skarsgard) grudgingly assists a party of naive scientists (, David Dastmalchian, et al) surveying an unexpectedly dangerous planet. Self-aware, satirical SF envisions an enshittified future while also working as a successful version of the kind of show it’s poking fun at. Based on the first of a book series by Martha Wells.—RDL
Riddle of Fire (Film, US, Weston Razooli, 2023) Equipped with dirt bikes and paintball guns, a trio of preteen hellions quest for a speckled egg needed for a blueberry pie recipe, battling a poacher gang led by a witch (Lio Tipton.) Blissfully kooky contemporary fantasy comedy wrings laughs from its young protagonists’ singleminded delinquency.—RDL
World’s End (Fiction, Upton Sinclair, 1940) Ingratiating, art-loving teen from a family of munitions manufacturers becomes a witness to history and the bafflement’s of love as WWI sweeps across Europe. Witty, epically observant and influential in its nesting of recent public figures in a fictional narrative.—RDL
Good
The Naked Gun (Film, US, Akiva Schaffer, 2025) Taken off the case but still drawn into it, violent knucklehead cop (Liam Neeson) romances a murdered coder’s sister (Pamela Anderson) and matches half-wits with a sinister tech mogul (Danny Huston.) Spends more time than it needs to on the mechanics of its spoof technothriiler plot, but Neeson makes sense as a successor to Leslie Nielsen, and it’s refreshing to see a jokes-first comedy these days.—RDL
Sadko (Film, USSR, Aleksandr Ptushko, 1956) Lantern-jawed bard confounds the merchants of Novgorod by recruiting a doughty crew to sail to parts unknown questing for the bird of happiness. Impressive, chaotic set pieces and the coolest, creepiest phoenix committed to celluloid stand out in a fitfully paced fantasy adventure.—RDL
Ken was at Gen Con this week.
Episode 660: That’s North Brownland Energy
August 1st, 2025 | Robin
The episode starts with a retreat to the Gaming Hut as we talk about the importance of a safe headquarters for player characters.
The Command Hut looks at Aggressor, Krasnovia, and other fictional geopolitical adversaries used as targets in US military training maneuvers.
The Cinema Hut’s Fantasy Film Essentials Series makes its way through the rest of the 1950s.
Finally the Eliptony Hut recalls the Hammersmith ghost murder case.
Want to pose a question to the show? Get your priority question asking access with your support for the KARTAS Patreon!
Our Patreon-backed Letterboxd list of all films mentioned on the show is now up and running.
Also check out the Goodreads list of books mentioned on the show.
Snag Ken and Robin merchandise at TeePublic.
The official CatStronauts board game features cooperative play that’s only 30-45 minutes long, for 1-4 players ages 10+. Designed and illustrated by CatStronauts comic book creator Drew Brockington and available now from Atlas Games!
A global mythos conspiracy ensnares the player characters in The Borellus Connection, Pelgrane Press’ new Fall of DELTA Green mega-campaign by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and Kenneth Hite. Journey in the guise of federal narcotics agents to Saigon, Beirut, Prague and Bozukepe. Buy it for your GM and demand that she run it today!
Get caught in the spiral with God’s Teeth, a new set of pulse-pounding Delta Green scenarios dripping with the once and future corruption of a nation swirling into cruelty and spite. From a government panopticon to alien worms to an app-driven mass shooter, your agents have nothing to fear but every screaming headline.
Play spies, skirmishers, and saboteurs in the battle for the future of the Thirteen Colonies in Flagbearer Games’ thoroughly researched and beautifully illustrated 5E compatible roleplaying game Nations and Cannons. Jump into the early actions of the war with the new campaign guide The American Crisis, available as a PDF or for print pre-order.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Ken and Robin Consume Media: I Know What You Did Last Summer, My Mom Jayne, and the Best Killer Dog Movie to Watch on an Airplane
July 29th, 2025 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
7 Faces of Dr. Lao (Film, US, George Pal, 1964) Greedy land speculator Stark (Arthur O’Connell) holds the town of Abalone, Arizona in a death grip until the mysterious Dr. Lao (Tony Randall) arrives with his Circus of wonders and oddities (all also Tony Randall). The great Charles Beaumont manages to adapt the barely-plotted (but highly Recommended) Charles Finney novel by adding the stock Western plot and a love story featuring Barbara Eden. William Tuttle’s makeup effects are stunningly good for the period, and (along with excellent performances by Randall and Eden) allow the strangely whimsical nature of this Taoist circus fable to come through. [CW: Yes Tony Randall is in yellowface, and yes it’s pretty jarring. Does it make it better that his Dr. Lao actually speaks perfect English, but uses stereotypical “coolie speak” to let fools fool themselves more thoroughly?]—KH
By a Man’s Face Shall You Know Him (Film, Japan, Tai Katō, 1966) The surprise identity of an accident victim prompts a disillusioned doctor to recall his reluctant role in defending a ramshackle market from Korean gangsters during the violent postwar years. Blood soaked melodrama envisions gang warfare as a continuation of WWII.—RDL
Love Lies (Film, HK, Miu-Kei Ho, 2024) Police interviews with a widowed obstetrician (Sandra Ng) and a smooth-talking young man (Michael Tin Fu Cheung) suspected of ensnaring her in a dating app fraud scheme reveal an unexpected relationship. Romantic drama with a side dish of crime procedural provides a charming star vehicle for Ng.—RDL
Madame de Sevigne (Film, France, Isabelle Brocard, 2024) After rescuing her from scandal by marrying her off to a cash-strapped noble, a 17th century countess (Karin Viard) obsessed with her daughter (Ana Girardot) expects her to abandon her husband and return to life with her. Miniature-scaled literary biopic paints a portrait of incorrigible fixation.—RDL
My Mom, Jayne (Film, US, Mariska Hargitay, 2025) Actor Hargitay interviews family members in her attempt to understand her mother Jayne Mansfield, who died before her memories begin and whose exaggerated sex bomb persona has always troubled her. Affecting and illuminating autobiographical documentary weighs the price of family secrets and compromises made in pursuit of fame.—RDL
Good
I Know What You Did Last Summer (Film, US, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, 2025) Five former high-school besties (Chase Sui Wonders, Madelyn Cline, et al.) negligently cause a fatal car crash and cover it up, but a year later find themselves stalked by a slicker-wearing killer. I remember the 1997 version being somewhat snappier and sharper, but Cline (and returning final girl Jennifer Love Hewitt) provide more depth to their characters than the previous bunch. A soft reboot that doesn’t offer any real surprises, though it annoyingly head-fakes and then soft-pedals the economic stratification that has hit even fictional towns over the last 30 years.—KH
Messiah of Evil (Film, US, Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, 1974) Drawn to the beachside town of Point Dune by her father’s strange behavior, Arletty (Marianna Hill) falls in with occultist-playboy Thom (Michael Greer) and gets menaced by a cult of undead or something. How much of the incoherent, slow-moving action is down to missing scenes and low budgets, and how much is intentionally dream-like atmosphere is probably unknowable. The eerie happenings gain power and authenticity by their very inexplicability and incompleteness, and the movie theater scene is one of the best horror scenes ever filmed, so there you go.—KH
Project Silence (Film, South Korea, Kim Tae-gon, 2023) Unscrupulous aide to the security minister (Lee Sun-kyun) attempts to take charge when he, his daughter, and other survivors of a vehicle pile-up on a foggy bridge are attacked by escaped bioengineered attack dogs created by the military. Creature feature built on a disaster movie framework with a layer of distinctively Korean political cynicism loses tension due to inadequate animation of its killer canines. However if you see it offered on a seatback entertainment system, it does hit that sweet spot between watchability and too good to watch on a plane.—RDL
