Lower Decks S05 has three episodes tied for worst What do an overbearing aunt, a rogue nanite swarm and a rebel coming of age have in common? For one, they're in the most formulaic episodes of the season! At least there will always be the promise that the a and b plots will collide in the denuement and neutralize each other.

📣 New Podcast! "Lower Decks S05 has three episodes tied for worst" on @Spreaker #analysis #rewatch #startrek #startreklowerdecks

The Lower Decks Finale feels like fanfic I propose the following program: Lift all intellectual property law, with the exception of the right to make literal copies of a work. If you want to release a sixth game of thrones book, you can, you just can't impersonate george martin. You can make another batman film, but you can't just sell copies of existing ones out the back of your van. Stories have always been communal, often retold and revised. Our cultural stagnation is self-imposed for the benefit who don't even know half the stories they supposedly "own".

📣 New Podcast! "The Lower Decks Finale feels like fanfic" on @Spreaker #analysis #dewatch #lowerdecks #rewatch #startrek #startreklowerdecks

Literature Season's got us going existential Our intrepid podcasters return - can they tie together our haphazard collection of scifi-ish works? Honestly I think it came out pretty good?

📣 New Podcast! "Literature Season's got us going existential" on @Spreaker #analysis #blindsight #burningchrome #literature #theoneswhowalkawayfromomelas

Burning Chrome didn't fix your alienation in which we struggle with the age old question: Is this cool on purpose?

📣 New Podcast! "Burning Chrome didn't fix your alienation" on @Spreaker #analysis #burningchrome

Blindsight is when you're in touch with your feelings Imagine you are the Dewatch Podcast: You wake up after an extensive christmas break, gasping for meaning from a story pulsating with it. You can feel the air, dry in the winter months, focing its way through your vocal chords, speaking ideas after months of emptiness. The episode length inflates in pieced-together increments, as one sentence is chained to the next, caffeine stirs groggy neurons. Your bits have seized up through disuse. You're a small thing, interpreting a large thing in medias res.

📣 New Podcast! "Blindsight is when you're in touch with your feelings" on @Spreaker #analysis #blindsight #literature

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas refuse to keep debating the story Welcome one, welcome all, to literature season! We're taking on an easy one to start with, and I think we really nailed what Ursula K Le Guin meant with this one.

📣 New Podcast! "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas refuse to keep debating the story" on @Spreaker #analysis #literature

Strange New Worlds is doing its best Is watching all outliers a good way to get a sense of the show? Maybe, maybe not. Is it fun to podcast about? Absolutely (apart from that one).

📣 New Podcast! "Strange New Worlds is doing its best" on @Spreaker #analysis #rewatch #startrek #startrekstrangenewworlds

The Elysian Kingdom flinches at uncertainty On the one hand, a more ambiguous ending would have been interesting, on the other hand, it would have been a pretty wild thing to spring on parents watching...

📣 New Podcast! "The Elysian Kingdom flinches at uncertainty" on @Spreaker #analysis #rewatch #startrek #startrekstrangenewworlds

A Quality of Mercy will get you timecopped The hunt for red romulan maybe? Theres something here....

📣 New Podcast! "A Quality of Mercy will get you timecopped" on @Spreaker #analysis #rewatch #startrek

Subspace Rhapsody is all dumped no brakes On the one hand, if I'd ever gotten dumped this hard, I would have changed my name and moved to a different city. On the other hand, if I ever dated anyone hot enough to be cast for this show, it might derange me enough to shrug it off with a balad, so who's to say.

📣 New Podcast! "Subspace Rhapsody is all dumped no brakes" on @Spreaker

Those Old Scientists saw the future and it was bumbling idiots (good) Slapstick timetravellers? What could go wrong!

📣 New Podcast! "Those Old Scientists saw the future and it was bumbling idiots (good)" on @Spreaker #analysis #rewatch #startrek #startrekstrangenewworlds

Four-and-a-Half Vulcans is a Patton Oswald too many This is the only season where the goofy episode wasn't the lowest rated one, and I wildcarded  it in anyway. I can't say I regret it? I switched this week and last to distance the massive downer from the holidays. I hope you have a lovely time!

📣 New Podcast! "Four-and-a-Half Vulcans is a Patton Oswald too many" on @Spreaker #analysis #rewatch #startrek #startrekstrangenewworlds

What is Starfleet? A miserable pile of secrets! In which Star Trek provocatively asks: Wouldn't it be nice if a military hegemon were the good guys, not because of anything they did to be structurally transparent or accountable, but because the troops on the front line just did their darn best to do the right thing (not intervene in an extremely uneven conflict)? I switched this one ahead to spare you from being hit with it right before the holidays. I'm sorry it's such a downer, but not as sorry as I hope whoever wrote this is for their entire worldview.

📣 New Podcast! "What is Starfleet? A miserable pile of secrets!" on @Spreaker #analysis #rewatch #startrek #startrekstrangenewworlds

The Selat Who Ate Its Tail taught us empathy can be weaponized I enjoyed introducing Gim to star trek this season, but this episode did begin a long streak of gim not hearing the regular intro a single time in season 3.

📣 New Podcast! "The Selat Who Ate Its Tail taught us empathy can be weaponized" on @Spreaker #analysis #rewatch #startrek

We ranked Black Mirror Episodes by Missed Potential: Part 2 i was genuinely in doubt as to whether we'd need two parts. I'll be over here wearing my dunce hat, it's fine.

📣 New Podcast! "We ranked Black Mirror Episodes by Missed Potential: Part 2" on @Spreaker #analysis #blackmirror #rewatch

We ranked Black Mirror Episodes by Missed Potential: Part 1 JOIN US as we toss episodes with no redeeming qualities into the same bracket as episodes that got there. Yes we are going in the same order we watched in

📣 New Podcast! "We ranked Black Mirror Episodes by Missed Potential: Part 1" on @Spreaker #analysis #blackmirror #rewatch

The Robot****er Season suggests: Don't Finally art asks the hard questions of our time: Is it harder to respect robots, or respect women?

📣 New Podcast! "The Robot****er Season suggests: Don't" on @Spreaker #analysis #rewatch #robotlove

her is a techbro cognitohazard "If anything, there's not enough CO2 in the atmosphere, and that's why I had to make her (2013)." - Spike Jonze, in conversation with Consequentialist Monthly

📣 New Podcast! "her is a techbro cognitohazard" on @Spreaker #analysis #her_2013 #rewatch

Ex Machina's tearing up the ****ing dance floor In the top 2 movies that drove Mark Zuckerberg insane. It is also my duty to inform you that there is a longer version of the dance scene that was cut down here: https://youtu.be/o9A-w11--8o.

📣 New Podcast! "Ex Machina's tearing up the ****ing dance floor" on @Spreaker #analysis #exmachina_2014 #rewatch

listen to this week's episode of our podcast where we begin the robotfucker trilogy and discuss brian merchant's best horror movie of the year, Companion (2025)

Companion was a real departure from our regular fare Upon reflection, maybe the reason we keep calling Harvey Guillén's character Guillermo is because of the massive similarities between his roles

📣 New Podcast! "Companion was a real departure from our regular fare" on @Spreaker #analysis #companion_2025 #rewatch

Black Mirror wants us to think I think that, as societies, we are remarkably good at adjusting to "new normals", but quite bad at reflecting on those changes, especially with so much of media getting swallowed by finance and megacorps. Now, while I would be ever so happy to live in a world where black mirror is the middle of the pack in a rich field of art wrestling with the cavalcading changes happening ever so quickly, it's certainly the most prominent and probably one of the best attempts we have. Thanks for thinking through it with us, folks.

📣 New Podcast! "Black Mirror wants us to think" on @Spreaker #analysis #blackmirror #rewatch

Season 7 is a return to form "I've gotten better at it now, but the transition to a hit and miss format was really hard in the beginning. If you're not careful, you spend so much time making the misses that the hits suffer, too. It's a tricky balancing act for sure." - Charlton "Charlie Brooker" Brooker, appearing on the "Keep 'em wanting more" podcast

📣 New Podcast! "Season 7 is a return to form" on @Spreaker #analysis #blackmirror #dewatch

USS Callister: Into Infinity divided us "Eve Online? No, I can't say I know her." - Charlie Brooker, presumably

📣 New Podcast! "USS Callister: Into Infinity divided us" on @Spreaker #analysis #blackmirror #rewatch

Eulogy is about being the most haunted "Wouldn't it be crazy if the assumption that most defines your life was just like wrong?" - Charlie Brooker, speaking to Anxious Rumination Magazine

📣 New Podcast! "Eulogy is about being the most haunted" on @Spreaker #analysis #blackmirror #rewatch

Plaything is scifi 101 (bad) i'm not saying I would do the human 1.1 update but i would certainly trust the unkempt back alley programmer to do it more than i'd trust microsoft

📣 New Podcast! "Plaything is scifi 101 (bad)" on @Spreaker #analysis #blackmirror #rewatch

Hotel Reverie is visited by the ghost of lesbians past "[...] and in a way, she's all of us: chasing a sexy ghost without ever being quite able to catch up" - Charlie Brooker, interviewed by the Lesbian Review

📣 New Podcast! "Hotel Reverie is visited by the ghost of lesbians past" on @Spreaker #analysis #blackmirror #rewatch

Bête Noire remembers it... differently "But what if Rashomon was... the bad guy?" - Charlie Brooker

📣 New Podcast! "Bête Noire remembers it... differently" on @Spreaker #analysis #blackmirror #rewatch

Common People get the short end i have this pet theory that all advertising is essentially information pollution (they have to say the thing is good so it's always in bad faith) and should be banned, but that the information function of advertisment is needed, but should be replaced by review and product journalism (which should probably be funded by like giving everyone a base budget they can spend on news / reviews)

📣 New Podcast! "Common People get the short end" on @Spreaker #analysis #blackmirror #rewatch

With the end of our black mirror arc coming up, we'd love to hear listener questions or dewatch suggestions at the e-mail address that starts with dewatchpod and ends like any regular gmail address!