Thursday Murder Club, Upload, Superman & Alien: Earth – Geektown Radio Episode 471

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We’re back with another episode of the Geektown Radio podcast! This week, I’m joined once again by Darryl as we dive into what we’ve been watching, from Netflix’s pensioner detectives and Prime Video’s digital afterlives, to James Gunn’s big-screen reboot of the Man of Steel and FX’s ambitious new Alien series. Alongside all that, we tackle the latest TV news, cancellations, renewals, and UK premiere dates.

What We’ve Been Watching

Darryl has been keeping up with Prime Video’s new thriller ‘Countdown’, the Jensen Ackles–fronted show that mixes procedural energy with long-form storytelling. As he explains, “It’s almost come across as a procedural, because procedural is obviously weekly, but this is an ongoing story. So it sucks you in that way.” He also checked out Prime’s slasher-comedy F Marry Kill starring Lucy Hale, which he found “pretty funny… but I happened to figure out who did it a little bit too early for my liking.”

But the big four this week are…

The Thursday Murder Club

Netflix’s long-awaited adaptation of Richard Osman’s bestseller finally lands, directed by Chris Columbus and boasting an outrageous cast. Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie lead a group of retirees who spend their downtime solving cold cases, until a very real murder drops into their laps. Dave summed it up nicely: “Tonally like the type of thing you’d see at 8pm on the BBC… very British, something like Death in Paradise.” With cameos from David Tennant, Richard E. Grant, and Tom Ellis, this could be Netflix’s next cosy-crime franchise.

Upload (Final Season)

Greg Daniels’ comedy sci-fi ‘Upload’ returns for its fourth and final season. It may only be four episodes, but Dave insists “it doesn’t feel like it’s a compressed season, it feels like it was a planned four episodes.” The show wraps up the story of Robbie Amell’s Nathan and his digital afterlife in a bittersweet but satisfying way. As Dave put it: “If you’ve not started watching it yet, it is worth picking this show up. Certainly, if you like things like The Good Place, it’s got a very similar vibe to it and it wraps beautifully and really nicely.”

Superman

James Gunn’s DCU officially takes off with ‘Superman’, starring David Corenswet as the Man of Steel and Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane. Dave finally caught it on home release and was delighted: “I think as a launch movie for the DCU, it just hits it out the park. It does such a brilliant job.” He praised Corenswet for nailing both Clark and Superman, and loved Nicholas Hoult’s gleefully evil Lex Luthor: “He’s nasty, he is evil… and his basic motivation is, I hate Superman, and I rather love that.” With appearances from Hawk Girl, Guy Gardner, Metamorpho, and even a Supergirl tease, the DCU’s new era is off to a flying start.

Alien: Earth

FX’s ‘Alien: Earth’ has Darryl hooked. He was hyped from the trailer, saying, “As that Gordon Ramsay meme goes, finally, some[thing you can] get your teeth into.” Set a year before Ridley Scott’s original film, the series mixes corporate experiments, consciousness transfers, and Peter Pan–style Lost Boys themes. Timothy Olyphant plays a creepily ambiguous android, while Sydney Chandler and Babou Ceesay lead the human cast. Dave admitted he found the pilot a bit of a mess, but Darryl countered that “the rest of the episodes are much less messy… once you get to the second episode, you’d be like, okay, there’s something going on here.”

TV News

In the news section, we cover:

• Prime Video cancelling YA drama Motorheads after just one season.
• Netflix axing ‘The Waterfront’, despite good buzz.
• BBC comedy-drama ‘Death Valley’ renewed for Season 2.
• ITVX dropping all three seasons of martial arts epic ‘Into the Badlands’ as a box set.
• Disney+’s hit ‘High Potential’ returning this September.
• A pile of Disney D23 announcements including Toy Story 5, Pixar’s Hoppers, Zootopia 2, and the next Star Wars film.

And the Hogwarts Express keeps rolling, with the news that Warwick Davis will reprise Professor Flitwick in HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter TV series. As Dave put it: “We know Warwick… there is no way he is gonna let go of that role. If they offer it to him, he’s gonna take it. Of course he is.”

Highlights This Week

Looking ahead, we preview what’s hitting UK TV in the coming week, including:

• Grand Designs Season 24 on Channel 4.
• Animated comedy Universal Basic Guys on ITVX.
• NCIS: Tony & Ziva on Paramount+.
• Mitchell & Webb Are Not Helping, their new sketch show on Channel 4.
• Comedy The Paper from the Office US team on Sky Max.
• And the eagerly awaited return of ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 5 on Disney+.

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That’s everything for Episode 471! Want to hear all our thoughts? You can listen to the full episode of Geektown Radio Episode 471 below, or on your favourite podcast app.

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