Marvelous! Or, the Death of Cinema

A critical and comedic look at the bleak landscape of the modern IP-driven Hollywood franchise blockbuster. Hosted by Tyrell "Discourse Stu" James, Nicole Veneto, and Cole Netscape. Audio production by Miguel Tahni. Art by Kly, Zoey Woolley and Johanna Hermeer.
Join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/7vRmbRJDgs
Support us on Patreon for biweekly bonus episodes and more: https://www.patreon.com/marvelousdeath
A critical and comedic look at the bleak landscape of the modern IP-driven Hollywood franchise blockbuster. Hosted by Tyrell "Discourse Stu" James, Nicole Veneto, and Cole Netscape. Audio production by Miguel Tahni. Art by Kly, Zoey Woolley and Johanna Hermeer.
Join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/7vRmbRJDgs
Support us on Patreon for biweekly bonus episodes and more: https://www.patreon.com/marvelousdeath
Episodes
Episodes
Aug 7, 2025
RRR, or The British Really Were That Evil
Aug 7, 2025
Aug 7, 2025
2hr 14 min
We return to our 'International Blockbusters' series with a conversation about S.S. Rajamouli's breakout Telugu-language historical action romance. As complete outsiders to the world's largest and most diverse film culture, we try our level best to situate the film in a historical and cultural context, interpret it's nationalist politics, and discuss what makes India's maximalist 'Masala' blended-genre blockbusters both similiar and different from their Hollywood counterparts, and get into what makes this film so lively and engaging. Whatever we might get right or wrong, we can come away with one understanding that might unify all the world's cultures and creeds: Love for a well staged action set piece, and hatred for the British ruling class.
A special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.
If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:
Gaza Funds
PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)
MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)
National Networks of Abortion Funds
Urgent Aid for LA Families of 14 Detained by ICE
If you enjoy the show please consider:
Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive subscriber only episodes.
Joining our Discord.
Checking out our Credits page where you can view a complete list of Patrons.
Leaving a review on your podcast provider of choice.
Production by Miguel Tahni. Cover Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.
Jul 31, 2025
[TEASER] Patron Raffle #12: Ang Lee's Hulk
Jul 31, 2025
Jul 31, 2025
6 min
Is it Ang Lee's Hulk as bad as everyone says, or a forgotten gem? In a rare confluence of reality and trite aphorism, the truth may be somewhere in the middle.
Every three months or so we host a raffle in which all active patrons are automatically entered. The winner is then allowed to select the topic for an episode. If you want to hear the full episode, or win the chance to select a future episode, or just like what we do, please subscribe to our Patreon!
Jul 24, 2025
Thor: Love and Thunder, or Terminal Kiwi
Jul 24, 2025
Jul 24, 2025
2hr 18 min
Oh my god shut the fuck up!!!!!! I'm going to turn these goddamn screaming meme goats into curry I swear to god.
It's another demoralizing Marvel movie. You guys like these episodes huh? You like listening to us inflict great pain on ourselves? Well this one's a two hour Old Spice commercial that inexplicably costs $200 million and pisses away whatever good will Taika Waititi ever had. Wherein one of us takes very personal issue with bringing Natalie Portman back just to give her the cancer that makes you reconnect with your ex and Stu offers an armchair analysis of Mr. Waititi to explain why his movies are Like That.
A special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.
If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:
Gaza Funds
PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)
MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)
National Networks of Abortion Funds
Urgent Aid for LA Families of 14 Detained by ICE
If you enjoy the show please consider:
Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive subscriber only episodes.
Joining our Discord.
Checking out our Credits page where you can view a complete list of Patrons.
Leaving a review on your podcast provider of choice.
Production by Miguel Tahni. Main Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.
Jul 17, 2025
Jul 17, 2025
2hr 19 min
On this jerkin' (FREE BONUS!!!!!) episode of the Girl Mode subseries, Nicole is joined by the iconic multi-hyphenate visionary behind Fucktoys, Annapurna Sriram, to discuss the once maligned and deeply misunderstood Y2K pop satire Josie and the Pussycats, another cult camp classic proudly reclaimed by the girls (and the gays) as the Best Movie Ever. Before Riverdale updated and franchised the Archie Comics for modern audiences, A Very Brady Sequel screenwriters Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan took Dan DeCarlo's groovy girl band and put them at the center of They Live-plot against industry plants and consumer capitalism's mind-controlling powers over the youth of America. Smarter than it has any right to be, so of course critics at the time were ready to dismiss it as trivial teenage girl shit. Opens on an Backstreet Boys parody group singing about anal sex. Let's go back in time and meet Snoopy!
Fucktoys is currently on the festival circuit and will be screening at the following festivals:
“Get Off the Internet” Film Festival, San Francisco, California, July 19
Fantasia Film Festival, Montreal, Canada, July 22
(More festival dates TBA)
A special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.
If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:
Gaza Funds
PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)
MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)
National Networks of Abortion Funds
Urgent Aid for LA Families of 14 Detained by ICE
If you enjoy the show please consider:
Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive subscriber only episodes.
Joining our Discord.
Checking out our Credits page where you can view a complete list of Patrons.
Leaving a review on your podcast provider of choice.
Production by Miguel Tahni. Main Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.
Jul 10, 2025
Nope, or American Spectacle
Jul 10, 2025
Jul 10, 2025
2hr 34 min
We're eating good again on the pod this week with Jordan Peele's spectacular, horrifying, and impeccably made third film, Nope, a modern masterpiece in its own right and (in)arguably one of the best blockbusters of the last twenty years. It's about bad miracles, filmmaking spectacle, the legacy and erasure of the black cowboy, aliens, UFOs, Travis the Chimp, how much Jordan Peele loves anime, and the exploitative relationship between people of color and American entertainment, all of which coalesce beautifully into something that transcends the sum of its parts and influences. Plus, Cole offers an alternative — and really, the definitive — reading on Nope's ending.
(And rest in peace Jim Shooter.)
A special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.
If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:
Gaza Funds
PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)
MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)
National Networks of Abortion Funds
Urgent Aid for LA Families of 14 Detained by ICE
If you enjoy the show please consider:
Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive subscriber only episodes.
Joining our Discord.
Checking out our Credits page where you can view a complete list of Patrons.
Leaving a review on your podcast provider of choice.
Production by Miguel Tahni. Main Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.
Jul 3, 2025
[TEASER] Mamoru Oshii's The Red Spectacles
Jul 3, 2025
Jul 3, 2025
7 min
A sample from our discussion of Mamoru Oshii's (Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor) surreal first live action film, and the first entry in the multimedia alternate-history 'Kerberos' series. If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.
Jun 26, 2025
Jun 26, 2025
2hr 28 min
Finally, some fucking mid.
Even late-period Sam Raimi (more the guy who made Oz the Great and Powerful than Evil Dead or Spider-Man 2) manages to pick the bar up from the depths of hell to make something we can at least trip and stumble on. We literally remember nothing about the first Doctor Strange, so this is a marked improvement even if it's marred by another bad screenplay from one of Dan Harmon's writers. And hey, Elizabeth Olsen is having fun for the first time in five movies? Was this movie worth its $500 million price tag? Probably not. Is it one of the better recent Marvel movies we've had to sit through? Despite everything, yes.
Plus, we derail the episode for a live reaction to Zohran Mamdani winning the NYC democratic mayoral primary.
A special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.
If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:
PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)
MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)
National Networks of Abortion Funds
Urgent Aid for LA Families of 14 Detained by ICE
If you enjoy the show please consider:
Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive subscriber only episodes.
Joining our Discord.
Checking out our Credits page where you can view a complete list of Patrons.
Leaving a review on your podcast provider of choice.
Production by Miguel Tahni. Main Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.
Jun 19, 2025
[TEASER] Raimi's Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2
Jun 19, 2025
Jun 19, 2025
10 min
Not even ten minutes into our Raimi Spider-Man (maybe we'll do the third one eventually I don't know) double feature episode and Cole goes old head about sixties cartoons and an X-Men reference in a Wings song.
If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.









