It's the end of Angelus (for now), the end of Buffy's second season and the end of 16 millimeter film stock. Paul Maki joins the fun again as we take a look at the second half of this epic two-parter, Becoming. Giles has been kidnapped, Kendra has been murdered and Willow has resolve face. While Buffy tries to prevent the earth's impending destruction, her friends try to restore Angel's soul. To top it all off, Joyce finally learns of her daughter's secret life as a vampire slayer. All this show needs now is some heartbreaking piano music performed by Sarah McLachlan, and we've got a solid tearjerker on our hands... Oh, wait.

Who needs a hug?

As per usual, remember to listen for the preemptive countdown before beginning the episode on your DVD.

Crystal Smalling returns to the podcast for part one of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's second season finale, Becoming. Angelus wants to destroy the world. Spike just wants to grab Dru and skip town. Meanwhile, Buffy and her friends are trying to study for final exams. Everything comes to a head in this gripping finale that will have lasting effects on the next season and the series as a whole. Remember to listen for the preemptive countdown before starting the episode on your DVD.

Nick Jimenez takes a break from his voice acting gig with Geek By Night, to talk movies and TV with John. Don't forget to check out Nick's show, Geekeasy. You can find it over at www.geekshow.us.

00:05:03 - Nick is digging on this groundbreaking new series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Better late than never.
00:11:44 - John is making his way through season two of Alias, with a few frustrating results. See above.
00:17:39 - John takes a moment to pimp Tim Minear's long-lost series, The Inside. This leads into a discussion of Fox's confusing treatment of Dollhouse.
00:26:01 - Nick brings up how Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is invading mainstream culture.
00:28:20 - Nick updates John on the current episodes of Heroes. The show was dropped a while back, and will now definitely stay dropped, stomped on, stabbed and set on fire.
00:38:00 - The both of them are excited about Star Trek, but weary of hardcore Star Trek fans. This leads to talk of Juno, Twilight and over-hype.
00:46:02 - Diablo Cody is really proud of her Oscar. Others, not so much. Nick and John explore the bile that is internet flaming.
00:54:50 - Will Smith wants a sequel to Hancock. Apparently, so does Nick.
01:05:00 - Nick longs for a serious, hard-edged vampire film. Let The Right One In comes up in the conversation, and the plans for an American remake, naturally.
01:09:56 - It turns out that Disney cartoons are full of all kinds of violent death. Who knew?
01:15:22 - Seth McFarlane is listed in Entertainment Weekly as the smartest man in TV. Eliza Dushku is all kinds of hot. What's the connection? Find out here.
01:22:35 - Nick closes out the show by sharing his thoughts on Mission: Impossible 3 and reminds listeners to visit his podcast, Geekeasy.

The following artists can be heard in this episode:

Jack Black, The Dismasters, The Breeders, Mick Smiley, The Killers, Dreadzone, Tricky, The Crystal Method, BT, And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Nada Surf, The Submarines, Britney Spears, Nine Inch Nails, A Perfect Circle, Oceansize, Weekend Players, Mathew Good Band, Michael Jackson & Will I Am, Presidents Of The United States Of America and Kanye West.

Episode four of Drive, entitled No Turning Back, begins the second half of the six episode run of Tim Minear's fast-paced series. Alex Tully is awarded the Jump Start Challenge, but things turn sour when he's forced to bring the Salazar Brothers in on a bank robbery. Meanwhile, Lee and Susan are eliminated from the race, and Rob must report to the nearest Army base to stand trial for abandoning his duty to his country.

Just as with all my commentaries for Drive, there is no preemptive countdown.

Dark comedies rarely get any darker than Heathers. Veronica Sawyer is fed up with the shallow, popular members of her highschool. With the help of her mysterious new boyfriend, the two of them begin killing their social betters and making it look like suicide. Unfortunately, this trend makes the recently deceased more popular than ever.

Join me as I discuss school violence, teen suicide and the art of black comedy while revisiting this wickedly funny gem from the 80s'. It's so very. Remember to listen for my preemptive countdown before starting your DVD.

Couch Surfing Episode 13 - We Ain't Been Shaved

Gibson and Elliot record a podcast! Well, sort of. Episode thirteen of Couch Surfing supplies John with Chris O'Connor from Geek By Night, filling in as Scott's replacement. Thanks to John and YouTube, Chris discovers the modern vampire cult classic, Near Dark. Civil rights advocate and NRA spokesman, Charlton Heston has unfortunately passed away, but at least the world still has epic favorites like Ben-Hur and Planet Of The Apes to remember him by. Remakes of both Dune and Short Circuit are currently in the works, which leads to a discussion about how robots will eventually rise to power and crush us all. Lionsgate may soon give The Monster Squad the High Definition treatment, even though John is still hopeful for Night Of The Creeps to be released on DVD soon. Chris has a substantial theory concerning Versus Movies, but is distracted when he learns of Armageddon in The Criterion Collection. The episode concludes with a possible correlation between African-American Presidents and movies about world destruction. Keep those co-host requests coming, folks. The following artists can be heard in this episode:

Don Felder, Bear McCreary, Tangerine Dream, Joe Kraemer, Brian Tyler, Brian Eno, Styx, MC Lars Horris, The Platters, The Diamonds, The Perishers, Blondie, The Martinis, Heavens, Sum 41, Slowdive and Kaiser Chiefs.

Episode twelve of Couch Surfing brings you mostly bad news, unfortunately. First off, John and Scott are without new iTunes reviews or e-mail. Secondly, they both lost two and a half hours of their lives, thanks to Richard Kelly's Southland Tales. If that's not enough, the dreaded Knight Rider revamp has been picked up for a series. In lighter news, Scott finds Horton Hears A Who to be quite endearing, and he's oddly excited about the new X-Files movie. John rediscovers the rewarding value of patience after watching Wristcutters: A Love Story, but warns listeners to proceed with caution when considering the very well made, but dark and disturbing Gregg Araki film, Mysterious Skin (Correction: The book that inspired the movie was written by Scott Heim). Finally, the guys contemplate a world without Superman. Scott decides to take an indefinite break from Couch Surfing, to focus on his many other projects. This leaves John without a co-host. If anyone wishes to fill in as a temporary replacement, please send an e-mail.

The following artists can be heard in this episode:

Relient K, HIM, Bloodhound Gang, The Beatles, Spoon, Mark Snow, The Church, Moby Michael Andrews, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Leftfield, The Killers, Dollshead, Blur, I Monster, Sigur Ros, John Ottman, Red House Painters and ELO.

Eric Diaz, from the video podcast Geekscape brings a unique perspective to the show this week. Lots of frank, dividing subject matter gets covered here in this overstuffed episode, so proceed with caution. Not suitable for children, unless you're really open and casual with your kids. Like, seriously.

00:02:46 - Eric is singing the praises of Mad Men. It won some important Emmy awards, so that's gotta count for something, right?
00:09:12 - John desperately wants to check out the special features on the Spaced DVDs, even though he's already seen and enjoyed the show.
00:11:48 - John is experiencing a love/hate relationship with season one of Eli Stone. The conversation turns into talk of the Green Lantern movie.
00:18:47 - Breaking news, Tim Burton was a hired gun on his remake of Planet Of The Apes, which ruined the movie.
00:20:28 - John and Eric discuss fan boy-submitted, great movies lists. Popularity goes head to head with actual quality.
00:26:00 - Back to Eli Stone. Season two will be arriving soon, but John is almost certain the show had been canceled. Confusion ensues.
00:29:55 - John brings up Fringe. It's entertaining, but the problems are still there. This leads into some Joshua Jackson love.
00:42:36 - If a show taps an idea really well, should no one else be allowed to expand on it? This leads to talk about Bones. The show has jumped the shark, so John has dropped it. Again.
00:46:27 - There's talk of the season three premiere of Heroes. It's not pretty. Thankfully, Hiro manages to escape more or less unscathed.
00:56:36 - John gives his play by play on Heroes through his Twitter posts.
01:06:24 - John continues his thoughts on season one of Six Feet Under.
01:13:45 - Eric explains the difference between sexual behavior and sexual orientation, using the new Buffy comics and the television series as reference material.
01:24:48 - Chasing Amy comes up in a discussion of the validity bisexuality.
01:34:27 - Buffy gets blamed for the decrease in female membership in the Church Of England. We roll our eyes and scoff.
01:45:41 - Eric makes a bold prediction about the Buffy comics. John gasps, but considers it.
01:54:02 - Eric praises the writing on the Angel comics, but the art makes him cry.
02:01:30 - John closes out the show by lamenting how expensive weekly comics are.

The following artists can be heard in this episode:

C & C Music Factory, Etta James, Johnny Ace, Dan Mudford & Pete Woodhead, George Michael, Ladytron, Beck, Imogen Heap, Thomas Dolby, Moby, Pete Yorn, Crystal Method, Wendy & Lisa, Stars, Iio, Doves, Gym Class Heroes, Thomas Newman, Lamb, Stereophonics, Sarah Mclachlan, DJ Shadow, Massive Attack, Tricky, The Futureheads, Curve, Marvin Gaye, Overseer, Sinead O'Connor, BT, Joshua Radin and Dead Or Alive.

Paul Maki returns for commentary on the twentieth episode from Buffy the Vampire Slayer's second season, "Go Fish". The promising members of Sunnydale High's swim team are shedding their skins, literally! It's up to Buffy and her friends to find the connection between these bizarre deaths and a recent crop of scaly sea creatures roaming the halls. Naturally, it all has something to do with the fall of the Soviet Union.... Naturally.

Please join Paul and I as we talk about Wentworth Miller, David Fury and the subtle message in this episode which warns us, "performance enhancing drugs are bad, m'kay?" Remember to listen for the preemptive countdown before starting the program on your DVD.

The season of Fall is upon us. Lisa Tobias returns again to the show. That can only mean one thing: It's time for the Couch Surfing podcast, baby! It feels good to be back in the swing of things.

00:02:28 - Lisa is enjoying the updated version of 90210. John is indifferent.
00:05:35 - The Fringe pilot caused unintentional laughter from John, but Joshua Jackson is a bad-ass, so he's going to keep watching.
00:15:16 - True Blood was a bit of a letdown for Lisa, but she's still on board. John is reminded of Sundown, starring Bruce Campbell.
00:19:34 - John is finally watching Six Feet Under. So far, he's not impressed, finding much of Alan Ball's work cold and one-note.
00:27:52 - Free DVD rentals from the Library are exposing John to mediocre entertainment such as the Amityville Horror remake and Babel, but he strongly recommends the special edition of David Cronenberg's The Fly.
00:35:55 - Be sure to pick up the long overdue special releases of Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Weird Science this month!
00:38:12 - At the end of this month, keep an eye out for the tenth anniversary release of Can't Hardly Wait. Hopefully, we'll get to see more of Amber Benson in the film!
00:40:05 - While trying to catch up on Bones online, John has to deal with his first ever serious virus on his computer. A system recovery (F10) was performed. Everything is fine, now.
00:42:25 - Due to the computer virus, John had to read stuff (!). When all is said and done, he finishes the novelization of Can't Hardly Wait, but was left kind of bored with the Brian Michael Bendis graphic novel, Powers: Who Killed Retro Girl? (Answer: The Butler did it. Just kidding.)
00:45:36 - John is curious to check out the reboot of Geek By Night, and recommends listeners to do the same. He wonders how much of his input remains in the show, if any.
00:49:38 - A shout out to Geek By Night and Buffy Between The Lines alum, Rachel Ruzzo.
00:55:51 - We get our Neil Patrick Harris fix by watching Harold & Kumar: Escape From Guantanamo Bay.
01:02:11 - John & Lisa are hopeful they can take Tim Minear up on his offer to be on the show soon (call us, Tim! Let's do cyber lunch!).
01:03:04 - The show wraps with Lisa recounting her experience at Dragon Con. NOTE: Sorry we didn't have time to get to listeners' emails. We'll hit it next recording!  

The following artists can be heard in this episode:

Three Dog Night, Weezer, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Eberg, Rolling Stones, Sneaker Pimps, Tom McRae, John McEntire, Massive Internal Complications, Simple Minds, Depeche Mode, Thirteen Senses, Van Halen, Mickey Avalon, Elvis Costello, Badly Drawn Boy and Craig Wedren.