I am very happy to be back this week after being gone for two episodes (thank you to Audie Cornish, Gene Demby and Kat Chow for being great while I was gone).

We then turn our attention to Neill Blomkamp's Elysium, a film that all of us found intriguing as an idea, but that none of us found entirely satisfying as a story. We talk about the challenges of combining an income-inequality allegory with a story about a hero in peril, the differences and similarities between this film and Blomkamp's District 9, and whether we could understand where Jodie Foster's accent was about.

After that, we talk about fall television, since I did just finish two weeks hearing all about it. I mention a couple of panels that were great and one or two that weren't so great, and we look forward to a couple of shows you might want to pay attention to.

And as always, we close with what's making us happy this week. Stephen talks about a new song he was very excited to hear, as well as a video that hit close to home. (And by "hit," we mean "hugged.") Trey brought us a video as well, this time from a very fine man with a very dark theory. Glen found a very unexpected piece of sound that brought something to life that he thought he knew very well. And I talk about two different shows that I mainlined during my time in California, both of which have the word "Black" in the title.

Find us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter: me, Stephen, Glen, Trey, producer Lauren Migaki, and our esteemed producer emeritus and music director, Mike Katzif.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.