Total Party Kill 565: Insert Shard Here

“Ted Lasso” is back, and we’re ready for a healthy dose of optimism and hope. Chip, Kathy, and Brian have assembled as the “Crystal Cats” to discuss the new season and what we’re looking forward to. This season opener comes with a few surprises, some familiar faces, and lots of barbecue sauce. I hope you’re as excited as we are. Oklahoma? Chip Sudderth and Brian Warren with Kathy Campbell.

We’re off to outer space this week with the new Supergirl movie. Kara is out on a bender when adventure calls. Krypto, her super-dog, gets poisoned by generic space-baddies and she sets off on a quest to both cure Krypto and her own sense of malaise. Read along to find out what we think of it all. Dan Moren, John Moltz and Guy English.

If you can’t hear part of this episode it’s because that part was in parentheses. Thanks to (Listener) Charlie for sending in this question. John Siracusa and Jason Snell.

Put on your summer best and board a ferry to New England’s hottest tourist destination! It’s time for us to discuss “Widow’s Bay,” a funny horror story about the mayor and other denizens of a cursed island. Of course there’s a creepy clown, and a slasher, and a dark secret that goes back centuries. Of course Stephen Root is wild-eyed! Once you visit Widow’s Bay, you’ll never want to leave… which is good, because you might not be able to. Jason Snell with Annette Wierstra, Tony Sindelar and Monty Ashley.

It’s time for the next spin on the genre wheel, as “Strange New worlds” lurches from horror to comedy. Dave Foley is a weird alien with a weird pleasure planet. There’s a thin strand of plot and a Star Trek take on “The Hangover.” Pike gets a lot of tattoos! There’s Klingon karaoke! Someone’s wearing a Mugato suit! Most importantly, Scotty and Ortegas learn to understand each other and Spock bonds with an imaginary—or is he?—Jim Kirk. Also, prompted by the last two weeks’ genre whipsaw, Scott and Jason have deep thoughts about what we like, why we like it, and how we process stuff that doesn’t fit in our definition of the thing we like. Scott McNulty and Jason Snell.

Texas lightning? You gotta get inside when that happens. Oh, wait, it’s just the nickname of some con artist who claims to be a spy? Magnum wears a tuxedo and plays high-stakes poker? This episode forces Phil to introduce a very popular new segment, “That’s not how it works!” The segment recurs. A lot. Jason Snell, Philip Michaels and David J. Loehr.

Which detective is better, Edgar Allan Poe’s Auguste Dupin or Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes? I mean it’s obviously Holmes but that won’t stop Jacob Haller discussing two genre defining stories, Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) and Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” (1892). John McCoy with Jacob Haller.

In the return of the choose-your-edition edition of Random Pursuit, we bring back the same players with their same chosen editions, but this time we make sure they get more questions from their chosen edition. This is helpful…to some players… Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky with Dan Moren, Jason Snell, Kirsten Goruk, Monty Ashley and Shelly Brisbin.

In this episode, a nice ghost helps out, we learn the origin of the shard, and the party sleeps with the dead. Tony Sindelar with Annette Wierstra, Chip Sudderth, James Thomson, Kathy Campbell and Monty Ashley.

This week Dan is on assignment and John and Guy are left to fend for themselves. We’re back covering My Adventures with Superman and, hoo boy, does the Man of Steel get his metal tested in this set of episodes. After that we do a little Superhero Sweep and call it a day after not being able to remember anyone’s name. Dan Moren, John Moltz and Guy English.