Grimoire
Cthulhu
Dracula
Abraham Lincoln
Ken
Grimoire

Episode 635: His Cousin Latte Dick

February 7th, 2025 | Robin

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Tom Abella seeks tips on compiling historical reading lists to players.

We don elaborate ruffs in the Tradecraft Hut to profile Jacobean spymaster Robert Cecil.

Today we look at them as soulful giants of the sea, but to the medieval mind whales were terrifying, diabolical beasts worthy of treatment in the Monster Hut.

Finally the Consulting Occultist looks at collector and art historian Aby Warburg.

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.


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 sorrowful solo gamebook Unhappy Birthday at Castle Slogar now dolefully awaits you from the frightening folks of Atlas Games. Packed with maps, riddles and dire dilemmas, it is sure to lure you to a delightfully solitary spiral of gloom!

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!

Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.

Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.

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!

Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.

Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.

divider

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Nosferatu, Presence, MadS, Land of Bad

February 4th, 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

Dahomey (Film, France, Mati Dion, 2024) Documentary follows the repatriation of 26 key royal court artifacts captured during the conquest of Dahomey to what is now Benin. With the notable exception of searching narration in the booming supernatural voice of a kingly statue, takes a distanced, observational stance, relying on a student symposium to articulate the layers of ambivalence surrounding the items’ return.—RDL

Land of Bad (Film, US, William Eubank, 2024) When an anti-terrorist extraction mission in the Philippines goes south, an inexperienced signal operator (Liam Hemsworth) must fend for himself, with only the far-off voice of a maverick drone pilot (Russell Crowe) to guide him. Cleverly weaves contemporary drone warfare into the charging beats of a military action thriller, with affectionate characterizations that sharpen the stakes.—RDL

MadS (Film, France, David Moreau, 2024) Party boy Romain (Milton Riche) scores some indeterminate drugs and almost immediately enters an increasingly nightmarish horror that I shall forbear from describing further. So much of the delight and frisson of this film comes from discovering things partway through that I can only gesture at Moreau’s bravura direction, the startling camera work by Philip Lozano, and the riveting performance by Lucille Guillaume as Romain’s hard-done-by girlfriend Julie.—KH

The Man I Love (Film, US, Raoul Walsh, 1946) Live-for-the-moment singer (Ida Lupino) fends off the advances of a slick club owner (Robert Alda) to pursue a tormented ex-pianist (Bruce Bartlett.) Walsh, not a name one associates with the woman’s picture, adds noirish atmosphere and an empathy for the lead characters’ self-imposed outsiderness.—RDL

Nosferatu (Film, US, Robert Eggers, 2024) Intent on possessing his cosmically fated love (Lily-Rose Depp) the vampire Orlock (Bill Sarsgaard) lures her advancement-minded husband (Nicholas Hoult) to Romania to assist his relocation to their German home city. Lushly horrifying upsizing of the 1923 Murnau version is extremely faithful to its structure and motifs while also fixing its few key flaws.—RDL

Presence (Film, US, Stephen Soderbergh, 2024) Grieving teen (Callina Liang) at odds with her singleminded mom (Lucy Liu) and insensitive brother (Eddie Maday) heightens tensions when she describes eerie encounters in their new home. Naturalistic weird thriller observes family drama from the ghost’s POV.—RDL

Signs Preceding the End of the World (Fiction, Yuri Herrera, 2009) Self-possessed telephone operator travels from her remote Mexican village to the US in search of her brother. Spare, evocative portrayal of the migrant experience as mythic death and rebirth.—RDL

Good

Mr. Right (Film, US, Paco Cabezas, 2015) Intense but charming woman (Anna Kendrick) forms a rebound attachment to a quirky stranger (Sam Rockwell), incorrectly assuming that he’s doing a bit when he describes his activities as a rogue assassin. The leads’ action rom com star chemistry compensates for a choppy first act bearing the marks of editing demands from a panicked back office.—RDL

The Saint in London (Film, US/UK, John Paddy Carstairs, 1939) Visiting London, adventurer Simon Templar (George Sanders) meets plucky socialite Penny Parker (Sally Gray) and takes on criminal mastermind Bruno Lang (Henry Oscar). Although the script doesn’t really play up the Saint’s unique set of skills, Sanders lounges delightfully through the part and Gray and Oscar play well off him. Filmed in London, but indistinguishable from the RKO backlot. If you enjoy slightly lazy “thrillers” of the era, you’ll enjoy this one.—KH

Okay

Angel With the Iron Fists (Film, Hong Kong, Lo Wei, 1967) Agent 009 (Lily Ho) cozies up to criminal jeweler Tieh Hu (Ching Tang) to uncover and infiltrate the Dark Angels, a kind of Temu SPECTRE led by a mysterious Chief (Tina Chin-Fei). A Shaw Brothers post-Bond outing that launched a franchise despite a lackadaisical story randomly punctuated by fights, but I said Shaw Brothers already. Slow but fun if you’re in the mood for it, with one or two gonzo moments in its over two-hour runtime.—KH

divider

Episode 634: Jurisdiction Over Pretend Securities

January 31st, 2025 | Robin

In the Gaming Hut beloved Patreon backer Joshua Randall seeks tips on setting up a new campaign for success.

Our latest Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else segment features Ken’s chat with Daniel Harms, author of The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana  and editor of the definitive edition of the 19th century American grimoire The Long-Lost Friend.

Robin provides a guide to the variable realm of Internet Movie Database ratings in the Cinema Hut.

Finally the Conspiracy Corner shines a light on the Prime Bank Securities con, a fraud with a conspiratorial worldview that ensnares its practitioners.

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.


 Gaming Hut

2nd segment

3rd segment

4th segment

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 sorrowful solo gamebook Unhappy Birthday at Castle Slogar now dolefully awaits you from the frightening folks of Atlas Games. Packed with maps, riddles and dire dilemmas, it is sure to lure you to a delightfully solitary spiral of gloom!

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!

Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.

Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.

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!

Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.

Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.

divider

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Star Trek Section 31, A Complete Unknown, and Shaw Brothers Bondmania

January 28th, 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.

The Pinnacle

Paris Frills (Film, France, Jacques Becker, 1945) Womanizing couturier (Raymond Rouleau) pursues the young fiancee (Micheline Presle) of his friend and supplier (Jean Chevrier.) Melodrama brilliantly portrays a bygone fashion world on its way into noir territory, with a layer of piquant irony supplied by its unstated context as a film produced during the Nazi occupation. Aka Falbalas.—RDL

Recommended

The Beatle Bandit (Nonfiction, Nate Hendley, 2021) Peaceful Canada recoils in shock when a young bank armed robber’s 1964 raid on a neighborhood bank branch leads to a shootout on a quiet suburban Toronto street that leaves a hotheaded intervening civilian dead. Laudably restrained just-the-facts recounting of the crimes and punishment of Matthew Kerry Smith, a misfit with some sort of borderline mental illness whose nickname derived from the Beatle wig he wore to his most notorious holdup.—RDL

Destiny’s Son (Kiru) (Film, Japan, Kenji Misumi, 1962) Swordsman(Raizô Ichikawa) who has invented a heretical, unbeatable fighting stance is buffeted by the ill fate decreed for him at birth. Philosophical chanbara with an unsettling narrative structure and striking, graphic visual compositions.—RDL

Rivals Season 1 (Television, UK, Disney+, Dominic Treadwell-Collins, 2024) Sexy business machinations ensue when a superstar interviewer (Aidan Turner) ditches the BBC for a regional ITV franchise run by a tyrannical mogul (David Tennant) hoping to humiliate a womanizing, aristocratic cabinet minister (Alex Hassell.) Ensemble comic drama updates the 80s daytime soap to the streaming era with dimensioned characterizations and full-on nudity.—RDL

Good

A Complete Unknown (Film, US, James Mangold, 2024) Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) chafes at the restraints put on his art by avuncular Stalinist folkie Pete Seeger (Edward Norton). Yes it’s a jukebox biopic, with all the leaden notes that entails, but Chalamet manages to convey the joy of being an asshole genius, and Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez displays genuine onscreen chemistry with him, which is two points in its favor. Throw in a lovingly recreated early 60s lower Manhattan and Boyd Holbrook chewing scenery as Johnny Cash and that’s a Good right there even though I probably would have preferred a movie solely about the recording of Highway 61 Revisited.—KH

The Golden Buddha (Film, Hong Kong, Wei Lo, 1966) An unscheduled Bangkok layover and an accidental briefcase switch pits a two-fisted businessman (Paul Chang Chung) against the Skeleton Gang in pursuit of three linked Buddha statuettes. Part of Shaw Brothers’ bid to get in on Bondmania, this endearingly nutty spy romp doesn’t have any actual spies in it but does feature the lowest-stakes archvillain plot ever.—RDL

Mock Up on Mu (Film, US, Craig Baldwin, 2008) From his Mu base on the Moon in 2019, an exiled L. Ron Hubbard (Damon Packard) sends a memory-wiped Marjorie Cameron (Michelle Silva) to Earth to seduce defense contractor Lockheed Martin (Stoney Burke) and flip reclusive scientist Jack Parsons (Kal Spelletich) to his somewhat-incomprehensible plans. This collage film incorporates snippets of industrial film, advertisements, and pirated footage to string together its “Babalon Working sequel” story. The effect is delightfully hallucinatory and off-kilter, and probably Recommended for true fans of the subject matter, but too many bits don’t actually work or pay off for the un-Thelemated cineaste.—KH

Enjoyable Nonsense

Sea Devils (Film, US, Raoul Walsh, 1953) Unaware of her true mission, a wily smuggler (Rock Hudson) sneaks an adventurous woman (Yvonne De Carlo) into Napoleon’s France. Walsh’s rambunctious energy wrassles a visibly collapsing script, half hearty period adventure, half bondage-curious psychosexual portrait of an obsessive relationship, where the female lead advances the plot and her male counterpart obstructs it, into ironic watchability.—RDL

Okay

Laapataa Ladies (Film, India, Kiran Rao, 2023) A crowded train and traditional veils lead to a mix up for a new groom (Sparsh Shrivastav), who takes home someone else’s less than willing bride (Pratibha Ranta) and loses his own (Nitanshi Goel.) Ingratiating comic drama known for snaffling India’s Oscar nomination slot at the expense of the glowingly reviewed All We Imagine as Light.—RDL

A Study in Terror (Film, UK, James Hill, 1965) Sherlock Holmes (John Neville) and Dr. Watson (Donald Houston) investigate the Ripper murders. The first Holmes vs. Ripper film, and intended to be the first of a Holmes series; Neville gives excellent Rathbone-lite, and the script shows genuine attention to the Doyle canon. Robert Morley steals the picture as Mycroft and a young Judi Dench delights as the niece of a moody Whitechapel surgeon. But the story is basically arbitrary when it’s not inert and plodding, adding none of the weird touches later treatments did. Hill’s attempts to make the killings lurid seem both tepid and desperate.—KH

Not Recommended

Star Trek: Section 31 (Television, US, Paramount, 2025) Mirror Universe dictator turned club owner (Michelle Yeoh) gets pulled back into wetwork by a weirdo team of Federation spies seeking a mysterious doomsday weapon. If you’re thinking that Mission Impossible in the Star Trek universe starring Michelle Yeoh is a tough brief to screw up, the way to do it is to whipsaw between grimdark melodrama and stupid Whedonesque hijinks. Though billed as a retooling into a standalone movie, it absolutely remains the pilot to a show that wasn’t picked up.—RDL

divider

Episode 633: Barrel Full of Outlaw

January 24th, 2025 | Robin

In the Gaming Hut, beloved Patreon backer Jörgen Blomberg suggests that there’s something F20 games handle even worse than falling damage—injuries from exposure. We brave the chill with our thoughts on the subject.

Not all western folk heroes became folk heroes. The Crime Blotter looks at the case of robber and ambusher Big Nose George Parrott, who in a gruesome twist of fate became… something else.

Fun with Science plumbs two marine mysteries brought to our attention by estimable backer David Millians: a mysterious deep sea communication and the pallid amphipod known as the sweetheart of darkness.

Finally Ken’s Time Machine peers into the timeline where a 10 year old Abraham Lincoln succumbed to his injuries after being kicked by a  horse.

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 sorrowful solo gamebook Unhappy Birthday at Castle Slogar now dolefully awaits you from the frightening folks of Atlas Games. Packed with maps, riddles and dire dilemmas, it is sure to lure you to a delightfully solitary spiral of gloom!

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!

Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.

Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.

divider

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Skeleton Crew, A Real Pain, and the Occult World of Song Collection

January 21st, 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.

The Pinnacle

The Hop Pickers (Film, Czechoslovakia, Ladislav Rychman, 1964) As their high school class fulfills its summer duties as harvesters of the titular beer ingredient, a nonconforming intellectual (Vladimír Pucholt) competes with a virile striver (Milos Zavadil) for the attentions of an independent-minded beauty (Ivana Pavlová.) Infectiously charming swingin’ 60s musical comedy with a dissident text and gay subtext celebrates youth rebellion from the other side of the Iron Curtain.—RDL

Recommended

All You Need Is Death (Film, Ireland, Paul Duane, 2023) Two song collectors (Simone Collins and Charlie Maher) track down an ancient Irish song for its alchemical power but unleash a deadly curse. This occult world of folk song collection, with its selfish gurus and dodgy money-men, could fuel a whole Unknown Armies campaign. The great thing about this movie is that, even on its threadbare budget, it lives up to its terrific high concept and manages some genuine shocks along with the creeping horror.—KH

David Lynch: the Art Life (Film, US/Denmark, Rick Barnes, Olivia Neergaard-Holm, Jon Nguyen, 2016) Lynch works on his visual art and narrates the events of his life from boyhood to Eraserhead. Intimate arts documentary shows that his work’s layering of bucolic Americana and bubbling darkness is wholly autobiographical.—RDL

A Real Pain (Film, US, Jesse Eisenberg, 2024) In tribute to their recently deceased Holocaust survivor grandmother, two cousins, one (Eisenberg) uptight and settled, the other (Kieran Culkin ) gregarious but volatile, join a Jewish history tour in Poland. Culkin takes a star turn in a dialogue-driven indie dramedy that astutely refracts its two-hander structure through a chorus/ensemble.—RDL

The Return of Munchausen (Fiction, Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, 1927) Deposited by a mischance in the early 20th century, the famed adventurer and fabulist Baron Hieronymus von Munchausen accepts a lucrative mission from the British Foreign Office to visit the USSR incognito and report back. Only a liar may tell the truth in this absurdist satire of the early Soviet Union, which went unpublished until glasnost.—RDL

Skeleton Crew Season 1 (Television, US, Jon Watts, 2024-2025) Quartet of hoverbike-riding kids on technologically sheltered coin-minting planet discover a buried spaceship, accidentally blasting off into danger, with a scheming pirate (Jude Law) as either their protector or exploiter. Fast-moving, structurally coherent, with new, interesting antagonists, recognizably in the setting but untethered to the Skywalker narrative line, and just plain fun, this show leaps over all the pitfalls of recent Star Wars television.—RDL

Good

The Accountant (Film, US, Gavin O’Connor, 2016) Genius forensic accountant on the autism spectrum (Ben Affleck) unleashes his hidden other side as an ultra-efficient killing machine when his latest client targets him and one of their own employees (Anna Kendrick) for elimination. Entertaining action thriller devotes a surprising amount of B-plot time to its hero’s backstory, as if setting up a series, which it has finally spawned, with a second installment due in 2025.—RDL

A Dorothy L. Sayers Mystery Season 1 (Television, UK, BBC, Michael Chapman, 1987) Adapts three of the four Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries featuring his love light, mystery novelist Harriet Vane, the most successful self-insert in fiction. Harriet Walter is note-perfect as Vane; Edward Petherbridge makes the most of his strong physical resemblance to Wimsey, though he plays Lord Peter less energetically than Ian Carmichael did. The adaptations start very strong (Strong Poison), then good with flashes of greatness (Have His Carcase), but end with an odiously cut and compressed Gaudy Night missing nearly all the Oxford business that elevates the source novel.—KH

Roman Special Forces & Special Ops (Nonfiction, Simon Elliott, 2023) After defining his “special forces” terms (elite, selective, special skills and esprit de corps, operate beyond friendly lines, deniable) Elliott runs through a number of candidate forces in the Roman army from late Republic to early Byzantium, concluding that only the exploratores truly fit the bill. More details on their (few) known missions, and less padded history of the Empire and its foes, would have improved the book, but it’s good to see the comprehensive assessment.—KH

divider

Episode 632: An American is Being Wrong

January 17th, 2025 | Robin

At the behest of beloved Patreon backer Charles Picard, the Gaming Hut ponders cultural diaspora in F20 settings.

The Archaeology Hut looks at a recent discovery in Denmark, an Iron Age house built on a foundation of weapons and armor.

Ken and/or Robin Talk to Someone Else features our chat with Nerdburger Games’ Craig Campbell, designer of Capers and Good Strong Hands.

Finally the Eliptony Hut peers at the legendary and murky Rendlesham Forest UFO incident.

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.


Stop gazing lovingly at that seed catalogue and start pre-ordering Vicious Gardens from Atlas Games. This contemporary, distinctive, choice driven card game combines the joy of gardening with the thrill of being a total jerk. Strategically cultivate your garden, harvest plants, and sabotage others in a cut-throat competition.

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!

Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.

Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.

divider

Ken and Robin Consume Media: New Donnie Yen, Black Doves, A Ghost Story for Christmas, and Gender-Flipped Conan in the Bardo Thodol

January 14th, 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

Day of Anger (Film, Italy, Tonino Valerii, 1968) To get out of a town that treats him as a wretched outcast, a young man who has been practicing his fast draw (Giuliano Gemma) seeks apprenticeship under a cynical gunslinger (Lee van Cleef) ruthlessly pursuing an old debt. Offers unusually strong characterization and dialogue for a spaghetti western, a subgenre that typically paints with broader strokes.—RDL

A Ghost Story for Christmas Series 1 (Television, UK, BBC, Lawrence Gordon Clark, 1971-1978) Shot on film, not videotape, these horror shorts share a rich, haunted look and (with the exception of the final film, made without Clark’s involvement) feel. Of the eight shorts, five are solidly Recommended: the first four M.R. James adaptations and “The Signalman” (based on the Dickens story). “The Ash Tree” lets its timeslip get away from it, although the spider-things are truly horrendous; “Stigma” is a one-note folk horror shaggy dog, and “The Ice House” (the only Okay one in the batch) suffers from truly bizarre line readings and a distinct lack of ghost. —KH

She is Conann (Film, France, Bertrand Mandico, 2023) Guided by a dog-headed psychopomp (Elina Löwensohn), the legendary avatar of slaughter Conann the Barbarian (Françoise Brion) goes on an afterlife recapitulation of her past personae: traumatized teen (Claire Duburcq), implacable warrior (Christa Théret), 80s Bronx scenester (Sandra Parfait), near-future dictator (Agata Buzek) and death-seeking decadent (Nathalie Richard.) Surreal bardo thodol odyssey invokes the spirits of Méliès and Greenaway as it queers the tropes and characters of Robert E. Howard.—RDL

The Score (Fiction, Richard Stark, 1964) Master thief Parker overlooks initial objections to run an operation to knock off an entire North Dakota mining town. An original heist premise provides the foundation for an extra existential installment of the hardboiled realist crime series.—RDL

The Stool Pigeon (Film, Hong Kong, Dante Lam, 2010) Guilt-ridden cop (Nick Cheung) presses an ex-con street racer (Nicolas Tse) to join and inform on a ruthless robbery crew. Bathed in the last vestiges of Hong Kong neon, this crime drama brings hard action and harder fatalistic melodrama.—RDL

The Prosecutor (Film, China/HK, Donnie Yen, 2024) Veteran cop turned rookie prosecutor (Donnie Yen) detects a wider conspiracy in the case of a poor young man charged with receiving a package of cocaine. Martial arts meets aggressively sincere courtroom drama in a star vehicle that begins to question whether anyone, including Donnie Yen, should be making Donnie Yen still get kicked around like this.—RDL

Vertical (Fiction, Cody Goodfellow, 2023) Traumatized urban explorer rejoins his former crew under duress for one last exploit: climbing Moscow’s Korova Tower before its opening. Goodfellow’s superb horror reflexes energize this relatively straightforward thriller, wringing real suspense from standard beats of paranoia, disaster, and betrayal.—KH

Good

Black Doves Season 1 (Television, UK, Netflix, Joe Barton, 2024) When Helena’s (Keira Knightley) lover is killed, she risks her position as a spy planted on (and wife of) the UK Defence Minister (Andrew Buchan) to hunt down those responsible. Let us be frank with one another: unless it’s a real dog’s breakfast, “Keira Knightley spy thriller” is going to get at least a Good from me, assuming Keira both smiles and shoots people. Sterner critics might praise Ben Whishaw’s steady performance as her hit-man protector, or enjoy the occasional descent into Ritchified low comedy, but they would probably also point out that none of it is remotely plausible, tactically or even emotionally.—KH

The Entity (Film, US, Sidney J. Furie, 1982) Targeted by a rapist poltergeist, beleaguered single mom (Barbara Hershey) seeks help from an intense doctor (Ron Silver) and then a team of earnest parapsychologists. Adapted from his own novel by Frank de Felitta and blithely misrepresenting a real case, this psychotoxic dose of eliptonic horror gains disorienting power from its mix of disreputable subject matter and mainstream, naturalistic presentation. The premise is the content warning.—RDL

Eye of the Devil (Film, UK, J. Lee Thompson, 1966) When her husband the Marquis de Monfaucon (David Niven) returns suddenly to his ancestral chateau to deal with a drought killing the vineyards, his wife Catherine (Deborah Kerr) follows and discovers strange cult goings-on. Although its momentum suffers from the last-minute reshoots (Kerr replacing an injured Kim Novak; Thompson was the fourth director on the project), the resulting dreamlike imagery and discordance keep things well and truly uncanny. Sharon Tate and David Hemmings as weird witch-twins, meanwhile, strangely imply that modernism is the new paganism.—KH

Shopworn (Film, US, Nick Grinde, 1932) When a charming waitress (Barbara Stanwyck) and an ardent med student (Regis Toomey) inform his wealthy mother (Clara Blandick) of their wish to marry, she goes to deranged lengths to separate them. Romantic melodrama burns with good old fashioned class animosity.—RDL

divider

Episode 631: A Vestigial Nub

January 10th, 2025 | Robin

In the Gaming Hut Robin discusses his recently concluded Golden Age DC superheroes versus the Cthulhu mythos game.

Travel Advisory recalls our visit to the British Museum’s current Silk Roads exhibition.

If we’re thinking about stuff that happened while we were in London, longtime listeners know what that means: Ken’s Bookshelf lovingly lists the purchases our hero made at Treadwell’s and Foyles.

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.


Stop gazing lovingly at that seed catalogue and start pre-ordering Vicious Gardens from Atlas Games. This contemporary, distinctive, choice driven card game combines the joy of gardening with the thrill of being a total jerk. Strategically cultivate your garden, harvest plants, and sabotage others in a cut-throat competition.

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!

Don your pallid mask and get all the Ken, Carcosa, and footnotes you require now that Arc Dream’s The King in Yellow: Annotated Edition is now available in paperback and ebook formats. With stunning art by Samuel Araya, this lavish tome of terror earns a space on any shelf.

Turn your digital dials to Gen Con TV, The Best Four Days in Gaming – All Year Long. Entirely free and streaming your way on Twitch, Gen Con TV offers actual plays, reviews, dramatized gaming shorts, minis painting and its flagship show, Table Talk, beaming to you Fridays at 2 pm with polyhedral news you’re dying to use.

e

divider

Ken and Robin Consume Media: Nosferatu, Wallace & Gromit, and Anglo-Saxon Monsters

January 7th, 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.

The Pinnacle

Nosferatu (Film, US, Robert Eggers, 2024) Obsessed with fey dreamer Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) lures her husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) to Transylvania to convey him to her home of Wisborg. Remake of Murnau’s 1922 Pinnacle enriches it with reference to Stoker’s novel, Browning’s film, and The Exorcist among other influences, while presenting the Gothic world on its own terms as only Eggers can. Robin Carolan’s unnerving score, Jarin Blaschke’s perfectly lit darkness, and the actors’ total commitment are only the high points of the best Nosferatu in a century.—KH

Recommended

Basilisks and Beowulf: Monsters in the Anglo-Saxon World (Nonfiction, Tim Flight, 2021) Literary analysis of Old English texts illuminates role monsters such as dragons, demons, wolves, Grendel, and whales played in the Anglo-Saxon mind as diabolical boundary guardians.—RDL

History of the Occult (Film, Argentina/Mexico, Christian Ponce, 2020) As a canceled investigative news program ticks down its last broadcast in 1987, its producers (Nadia Lozano, Augustín Recondo, Ivan Ezquerré) desperately try to uncover the piece of evidence that will unlock a black-magic conspiracy at the heart of the Argentine establishment. Superb reality horror justifies the formal experimentation, which veers from retro noir to discontinuous narrative to … —KH

Uprising (Film, South Korea, Kim Sang-man, 2024) The bond between a defiant slave who learns fighting moves with eidetic memory (Gang Dong-wan) and the feckless young noble he trains (Park Jeong-Min) turns to deadly enmity against the backdrop of the 16th century Japanese invasion of Korea. Violent period action epic pulls off all the turns of its complicated, story-packed narrative structure. Old Boy’s Park Chan-wook produced and contributed to the screenplay.—RDL

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Film, UK, Nick Park & Merlin Crossingham, 2025) Inveterate inventor Wallace (Ben Whitehead) neglects the misgivings of loyal pooch Gromit to create an overeager robot garden gnome (Reese Shearsmith), creating an opportunity for imprisoned nemesis Feathers McGraw. Brilliantly and lovingly sustains the energy of the original “Wrong Trousers” short, with an all-time great animation performance of cinema’s foremost deadpan penguin arch-villain. Whitehead’s recreates the late Peter Sallis’ vocal role as Wallace with astonishing fidelity.—RDL

Good

Drive-Away Dolls (Film, US, Ethan Coen, 2024) Hyper-verbal Jamie (Margaret Qualley) invites herself on her uptight friend Marian’s (Geraldine Viswanathan) road trip to Tallahassee, which unfortunately involves a car sought by a criminal Chief (Colman Domingo). Fun and funny lesbian hangout movie lacks Joel Coen’s mordancy and touch of horror, which doesn’t make it bad, but does make it kind of interchangeable (Qualley’s delightful performance notwithstanding) with every good 90s road trip sex-comedy movie.—KH

Room 999 (Film, France, Lubna Playoust, 2023) In a followup to a film with the same format made by Wim Wenders in 1988, directors attending Cannes, including Wenders, Cronenberg, Denis and Luhrmann, tell a camera in a hotel room whether they think the language of cinema is dying. The question of this thought-provoking snack for deep-dive auteur cinema fans mostly acts as a synecdoche for “are you an optimist or a pessimist?”—RDL

Safe Conduct (Film, France, Bertrand Tavernier, 2002) In occupied Paris, womanizing screenwriter Jean Aurenche (Denis Podalydès) resists recruitment efforts by a German-run studio; meanwhile, intense assistant director Jean Devaivre (Jacques Gamblin) works for them while committing acts of sabotage for the Resistance. The wartime setting of this indulgently paced intimate epic intensifies the stakes of Tavernier’s  core concern, how one lives life with dignity in difficult circumstances.—RDL

Okay

My Old Ass (Film, Canada, Megan Park, 2024) To mark her last summer on the family cranberry farm, a college-bound queer teen (Maisy Stella) meets, via mushroom trip, her older self (Aubrey Plaza), who warns her to steer clear of charming doofus Chad (Percy Hynes White.) Bolts magic realism and Aubrey Plaza onto an eager-to-please coming of age yarn.—RDL

divider
Film Cannister
Cartoon Rocket
d8
Flying Clock
Robin
Film Cannister