Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 252 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner with the audio player below.

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On this week’s episode, the gabbers take a look at Guillermo del Toro’s new science-fiction film Pacific Rim. Is it the rare imaginative blockbuster we've been waiting for, or just more of that same old CGI-doused, cash-cow popcorn filmmaking we can’t avoid? Our critics then discuss Drunk History, a new Comedy Central series with a simple premise: Get funny people debilitatingly inebriated, have them attempt to recall an important episode of American history, and get famous actors to perform a reenactment based on the stumbling narrative. The show was born from a 2007 Funny or Die video series of the same name. Finally, a recent New York Times article by journalist John Tierney argued that nostalgia is good for you. Our critics consider the place of nostalgia in pop psychology, how the term has often been misused and simplified, and their own thoughts on nostalgia.

Here are links to some of the things we discussed this week:

• Director Guillermo del Toro’s film Pan’s Labyrinth.
• The Hellboy films.
• Dana Stevens’ review of Pacific Rim for Slate.
• Special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen.
• Pacific Rim’s underperformance at the box office.
• Steven Spielberg and George Lucas discuss the troubles with the film industry.
• Comedy Central’s Drunk History official site.
• The original Drunk History videos on humor website Funny or Die.
• The episode featuring Don Cheadle as Frederick Douglas.
• Adult Swim on Cartoon Network.
• John Tierney’s New York Times piece on nostalgia.
• Martin Heidegger.

Endorsements:

Dana: The new film Fruitvale Station.

Julia: The 1999 comedy Dick.

Stephen: The Never List, by Koethi Zan.

Koethi: We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson.

Outro: "Don't Look Back" by She & Him.

You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.

This podcast was produced by Dan Pashman. Our intern is Sam McDougle.

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