We are halfway through 2024–or a little more than because we get busy with life–and recording and posting don’t always sync with our producer’s life (it’s Jana, she’s the problem!). Jana and I decided to share some of our favorite Movies and TV Shows of the year. Plus some of our most anticipated ones as well. We are joined by a good friend and fellow geek, Patrick Strange from Nerds Rule the World.
To make it easy we shared our 5 top films and 5 top TV shows that have come out already in 2024. To make it easy, these include streaming, anime, theatrical, etc. The only limit was 5, which was much harder than you think! At least we managed to make our lists without too many issues!
From horror to animation and everything in between, these lists are great if you want something new to watch. What are your favorites so far in 2024? Leave a comment and let us know!
Patrick Strange is a director, actor, critic, and all-around cool guy. You can find his latest at Nerds Rule the World!
Patrick Michael Strange is the Host & Executive Producer of the weekly YouTube pop culture show, The New Release Wednesday Show; produced by his company, Nerds Rule The World (NRW) in conjunction with the society and culture websites, The Nerds of Color and Quirktastic. Patrick is also the founder of the charity cosplay organization, CosLove, which promotes self-expression and creativity as well as support communities via family events and regular visits to schools and hospitals nationwide.
Welcome back Marvel fans! Last week we shared our breakdown and thoughts on episode 3 of What If, and if you thought that one was dark, Episode 4 said hold my TEA. Marvel went there and we discover “What If… Doctor Strange lost his heart instead of his hands?” Apparently, the answer to that is UTTER DEVASTATION.
So this is your spoiler warning if you haven’t seen episode 4 of What If…?
What If Episode 4 Breakdown
Although this week’s episode of What If started off somewhat familiar, things took a turn for the worse pretty quickly. Instead of Strange losing the ability to use his hands in the car accident, Christine dies. This sets him on the path to become a sorcerer. “Dormammu, I’ve come to bargain.” And he wins. Everything is great until it isn’t. Not being able to let go of the past proves to be his and this timeline’s undoing.
Wong warns him not to mess with the fabric of time but Strange doesn’t listen. We get to watch Christine die 7 more times to drive home the point: if you mess with the timeline BAD things happen. The Ancient One appears and attempts to stop Strange but he escapes to the Library of Cagliostro. It’s the same Cagliostro whose book was stolen in Doctor Strange. There were some comic book tie-ins here and The Watcher gets a little closer to the action than he probably should.
Strange on his quest to fix that point in time begins to absorb the energy of SEVERAL mystical beings, including one familiar beast from Episode 1. The others resemble the other Great Old Ones or the baddie from DuckTales, you decide. Strange Supreme must be stopped and can only be stopped by one person. Doctor Strange.
One small lighthearted moment later, Doctor Strange is thrown into a meeting with his crazy other self. The showdown isn’t pretty and does not end well, for anyone. The Watcher even talks to Strange, refusing to intervene despite Strange’s pleads. And then the credits roll on the darkest episode of Marvel’s What If..? yet.
Black Widow is now in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access. It’s been a long wait for not only Black Widow but an MCU film. We had a few things we didn’t love about it but overall it is another solid Marvel film that continues to push forward Phase 4 despite being set in the past.
This is your spoiler warning if you haven’t seen Black Widow.
Despite the one reveal we weren’t totally excited about, Black Widow is the movie fans have been waiting for since Natasha was introduced in Iron Man 2. It is a spy-thriller with plenty of action and that classic Marvel humor. It also featured many callbacks to previous MCU films and Marvel comics. Which obviously made us super happy.
We know you want to know, what didn’t we love? Aren’t you two Marvel fangirls ’til the end of the line? Yes, we are but that doesn’t me we love every choice they made. *cough* Natalie Portman *cough*
Let’s rip the bandaid off. Taskmaster. This version of Taskmaster wasn’t what we were looking for. In fact, she could’ve been left out of the movie and things still would have made sense. However, after reading an interview with the writer for Black Widow, we understand why the choice was made.
Moving fast that, there was plenty to love about the film, especially getting more Natasha. That’s always a win. Black Widow introduces us to her complicated past and family. The bonus of course is Yelena, who will be the new Black Widow going forward in Phase 4. Love her even if she isn’t one for poses.
David Harbour’s Alexei was also a scene-stealer and hopefully will show up in the future. Kevin Feige seems on board to see him return so fingers crossed.
Hey there geeks! We had the opportunity to interview the talented and super fun Julia Jones. If you don’t know, Julia starred as Leah Clearwater in Twilight, Omera in “The Mandalorian”, and most recently as Agent Munoz in Think Like A Dog. You know we could not let the opportunity pass by to geek out about “The Mandalorian” and other nerdy things, because Julia is also a geek.
Exclusive Interview with Julia Jones
Sometimes 15 minutes doesn’t feel like a lot; sometimes it’s enough to enjoy a few good laughs and feel like you’ve chatted with someone and known them for a long time. This was one of those times.
I was a little worried about having to do this interview via phone instead of in person but it was great. Julia was funny, engaging, and it didn’t feel awkward at all!
We started off by asking her about her role as Agent Munoz in Think Like A Dog. Funny moments on set and what it was like filming in New Orleans.
Jones: “I really responded to the script. It’s about a little boy whose science project goes awry and he forms a telepathic connection with his dog, and I had a dog growing up that I was really close to and I think felt in some way that I was connected to her, maybe telepathically, why not? And that was just very sort of sweet and personal to me.”
“I love working with the dogs. For me, there is an element of spontaneity that comes when working with dogs. I feel calm and relaxed working with them, especially big dogs like the Henry dog. These dogs are extremely professional and really well behaved. Everybody just wanted to be around the dogs. I definitely was hanging out with the dogs offset.” (laughs)
I think we all agree we would want to hang out with the dogs!
Jones: “One of the neighbors let us use their house for makeup because the trailers were too far away so we would go and do makeup touch-ups in her house. “Sure, just come on in.”
The people of New Orleans didn’t just offer up their houses for touch-ups, they also came out to watch the filming. Like a Community Theatre production.
Jones: “People would get beach chairs and at 9 am in the morning you would get out of the car to start filming and there would be all these people with their beach chairs and bottles of wine. They set up their chairs and watched us film. It was like a community theatre production.” (Laughs)
Julia is a self-proclaimed nerd. Being a big Book Worm, we asked her about how reading informs her acting choices.
Jones: “I think that reading books impact the way that I see the world to begin with. You try to understand things that you haven’t experienced or you try to understand what it’s like to live in a place that you’ve never been, different things that are going on that are outside of your little world that you inhabit.
Twilight, I definitely read before we filmed…I mean, because you’d pick those books up and you can’t put them down, first of all, but, you also want to be as much on the page of your audience as you can.”
If you started doing puzzles during quarantine you are in good company!
Jones: “Oh my gosh, I’ve been doing puzzles in quarantine. These like 1,000 piece puzzles that I’ve been extremely obsessed with!”
She has been involved in some incredible projects with really large fanbases, like “The Mandalorian,” “ER,” “Westworld,” and The Twilight Saga. We asked her what it was like to be a part of them.
Jones: “You always sort of feel like you have a family when you’re working on a film, but (with those franchises) it’s like you’re joining a family, a huge family. Cause it’s not just about getting together and telling the story that’s very beloved by millions of people. But you’re kind of in it together and you have to navigate the reception of it as well. And it is nice to do that with your colleagues as opposed to just off on your own.”
