Welcome back to a brand new episode of The Flickcast. Episode 423: Here Comes the Juice!

This week Chris and Joe dive right back into it. First up is WandaVision where they provide insight and analysis of episode 5 of the Marvel/Disney+, where the show might go from here and that very interesting character who popped in at the end. They’ve got some pretty wild theories, but they just might turn out the be correct. We’ll know soon enough.

Then, the boys shift gears to talk about the last two episodes of Amazon Prime’s amazing series The Expanse. Some of the discussion focuses on the penultimate episode of the season with the rest all about the season finale. They also talk about the direction, writing, cinematography and effects of the show, some of the standout acting performances during the season as well as the departure of a series regular and the death of a major character in the season finale (Spoilers).

And yeah, with the actor leaving The Expanse, Chris and Joe do get into some of the reasons why he might have been let go, other examples around the industry and, yes, a bit about “cancel culture.” Sorry, it had to be done.

It’s another big show. Probably the longest episode ever, but it’s chock full of goodness so give it a try. Thanks for listening!

WARNING: This episode contains discussions about COVID-19, mental health, self care, quarantine and trauma. We understand not everyone is in a place to talk about or hear discussions surrounding these issues. Please do what’s best for you. Stay safe everyone. If you need help, please reach out. Here’s some places to call.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

SAMHSA Treatment Referral Helpline: 1-877-SAMHSA7 (1-877-726-4727)

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, Instagram or, yes, even Facebook. Or shoot us an email. We don’t mind.

Artwork: Jakub Masłowski  – Characters: Disney/Marvel

Opening and end music by Kevin MacLeod under Creative Commons License

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As we told you before, Amazon has come out with its own version of the Apple TV or Roku. It’s called the Fire TV and it’s an Android-powered black box that allows you to stream content from various sources including Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus and Netflix.

But is it any good? Well, our own Chris Ullrich decided to take it for a spin and made his initial report over at his personal site. As with other times he’s done this in the past, we’re still not sure why he doesn’t just write his review, or whatever, here.

Whatever, he’s the boss. Anyway, check out his thoughts and if you end up getting a Fire TV for yourself, let us know what you think of it in the comments.

In a bid to compete with devices like the Google Chromecast, Roku and mainly the Apple TV, Amazon today announced the Amazon Fire TV. According to chairman Jeff Bezos, the Fire TV “is a tiny box that plugs into your HDTV. It’s the easiest way to enjoy Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, low-cost video rentals, and more. With instant access to over 200,000 TV episodes and movies, plus all your favorite subscriptions and streaming services, you can watch what you want, when you want.”

In addition, if you’re a Prime member “you get unlimited access to thousands of popular movies and TV shows, including exclusives like Downton Abbey, The Americans, Alpha House, and Under the Dome.” All in 1080p, of course.

Bu wait, there’s even more. “Fire TV has voice search that actually works. The old way of searching with a TV remote—scrolling and clicking one letter at a time on an alphabet grid—is painful. With Fire TV you simply speak the title, actor, or genre into the remote and you’re done.”

The internal specs of the Fire TV are impressive as well. The device features a quad-core processor, dedicated GPU, 2 GB of memory, and dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi. It also features a new buffering system which will supposedly help eliminate any streaming lag. Of course, your mileage may vary.

The device also plays games. Titles at launch include Minecraft, The Walking Dead, Monsters University, the Amazon exclusive Sev Zero, and many other free games available to Prime Members.

The Amazon Fire TV is $99.00 and ships today. The optional game controller will set you back another $39.99.

Seasons Greetings! This week’s Christmas pick is the 1990 action sci-fi classic I Come in Peace (a.k.a. Dark Angel). International action star and He-Man type (no pun intended) Dolph Lundgren stars as a Houston, Texas cop who tracks down an alien who is killing people in order to harvest the universe’s most powerful narcotic. You may be saying to yourself “That’s really the plot?” and yes, it is. The film also stars Brian Benben (from the HBO classic comedy series Dream On), Betsy Brantley, Matthias Hues, and Jay Bilas.

Jack Caine (Lundgren) is a cop who disregards proper procedure in order to get the job done. While on a routine drug bust to catch a syndicate of yuppie criminals known as the White Boys, Caine’s partner is killed when he is discovered as a cop while trying to entrap them.

Netflix has had a rather rough year, and today’s news only adds a bit more salt into some open wounds. Just days after their exclusivity deal with up and coming premium movie channel Epix expires, one of their biggest competitors has signed on, greatly enhancing their instant library.

Deadline reports that Epix has just reached a deal with Amazon to provide their content through their Prime Instant Video service:

The arrangement more than doubles Amazon Prime Instant Video’s offerings, and knocks some of the wind out of its chief competitor: Netflix. The streaming video company’s shares were down about 10% shortly after the market opened this morning… “We think customers will really enjoy watching new titles like The Avengers, Iron Man 2 and The Hunger Games on their Kindle Fire, PlayStation 3, Xbox, iPad or any of the other of the Amazon Instant Video compatible devices,” says Amazon VP Bill Carr.

While it doesn’t appear that Netflix will be losing any of this content, it is certainly a blow to see Amazon now offer more and more first run, popular content on their streaming service. It is also said that now that Epix is free from the exclusivity contracts it had with Netflix it is looking at other services to partner with as well. A move that is a boon to the public, but just another body blow to the company that changed how we digest film.

Hot on the virtual heels of Hulu Plus arriving for users of the Apple TV, Amazon today released an app for the iPad which allows users to stream content from its library of movie and TV titles. Curious timing, eh?

The new app is capable of streaming Amazon Prime content for free (with a $79 a year Amazon Prime membership of course) as well as allowing users to download content for later offline viewing. Season Pass is also available for TV programs with episodes available the morning after the show airs on TV.

Here’s a full list of features:

• Stream thousands of titles available from Prime Instant Video at no additional cost with a Prime membership, or watch over 120,000 videos available from the Amazon Instant Video store
• Download purchased and rented videos from Your Video Library
• Shop over 120,000 videos available from the Amazon Instant Video store by visiting Amazon
• Add videos to your Watchlist from a PC, Mac, or Kindle Fire for later viewing on your iPad
• Subscribe to a TV Season Pass by visiting Amazon and episodes will automatically be available on your iPad the day after they air
• Start watching on your iPad, and resume watching right where you left off on a Kindle Fire, PS3, PC, Mac, or hundreds of models of connected TVs and Blu-ray players with Amazon Whispersync.

The new app is available for the iPad over at the iTunes App Store.

Two of my favorite sub-genres are Gladiator and Zombie movies. So, imagine my excitement when hearing the news that horror master Clive Barker, of Hellraiser fame, has been tapped to write a new film for Amazon Studios called, appropriately enough, Gladiators vs. Zombies.

That’s right horror fans, the Barkmeister himself is set to rewrite and direct the film which will center on a shaman who’s about to die. Before he’s killed he lets loose the first plague of zombies against Rome and it’s up to a group of gladiators to stop the hungry zombie hordes.

Sounds like a winner to me. Zombies are really popular these days, even showing up in the (spoilers) recent season finale of Game of Thrones. Plus, The Walking Dead is going as strong as ever so the zombie craze seems to have no end in sight.

Still, any movie is a risk and this could also end up being a huge disappointment. Anyone remember Cowboys vs. Aliens? Yeah.

If you’ve wondered why eBook prices always seemed so high even though you were just buying a digital copy of a book, now we might have at least part of the answer. In a move that surprised almost nobody who follows this kind of thing, the U.S. Justice Department has today filed an antitrust lawsuit against publishers including Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Apple alleging the companies conspired to fix electronic book prices.

According to the suit, the government wants publishers to let Amazon and other retailers decide what to charge customers, based on the wholesale price of the product. At the moment, publishers decide what price eBooks will be sold for.

This would, in theory, allow for more competition and see better pricing for consumers. Something, if true, most consumers would probably agree is a great idea.

What it will really mean is anyone’s guess at this point. You can bet Apple and other publishers will defend this suit with everything they have so don’t expect this to be resolved anytime soon.

One thing we’ve always supported is independent production of film, tv, comics and games. As an independently operated news site, we understand how hard it is to break through to that next level. It is also great to hear when one of The Flickcast’s supporters gets an opportunity to bring one of their artistic visions to life.

Alex Greenfield is one of those supporters. Alex is best known for being the former lead writer on WWE’s SmackDown brand as well as two TV movies, Street Warrior and Jack’s Family Adventure. Last week, Alex and his writing partner Michael K Eitelman released The Temple through Amazon Studios.

We got the chance to talk briefly with Alex and he told us about both his inspiration behind The Temple as well as a little bit of the creative process.

My dad read me “The Rats in the Walls” when I was like five, literally sitting around a campfire. Let’s agree to ignore the parenting questions that anecdote raises and skip right to the fact that I became a Lovecraft addict before I could read. It was only a matter of time before I would dip my pen in the Mythos well.

If you’ve ver purchased anything from online retailer Zappos, it’s probably time to change your password. Why? Well, on Sunday the company confirmed that someone (or someones) breached the company’s servers and accessed personal data belonging to about 24 Million of its customers.

The company, which is owned by Amazon and mostly known for shoes, confirmed that intruders were able to gain access to sensitive data including user names, encrypted passwords, customer names, email addresses, phone numbers and the last four digits of credit card numbers.

The company insisted that full credit card numbers were not compromised, but it’s probably not a bad idea to keep an eye on your next couple statements just to be on the safe side. that way, if you see something weird, you can report it and take care of the situation quickly.

The company also said in an email to customers that it had reset the passwords of all compromised accounts. The full text of the email can be read after the jump.