Reviews
“How can I push my political beliefs and extreme views on people? I know. I’ll pretend to make a podcast about AICN so people download it. But it will really just be a rant about groups of people I don’t like. Genius!!!”
Ricky R Richard via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 01/28/24
This is such a great idea for a podcast, and the work that the host did to get interviews with former contributors goes a long way to make this podcast worth a listen. However, there is an overt agenda that the host has that, regardless of whether or not a listener agrees, only drags down the...Read full review »
Steveg125 via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 12/14/23
Great podcast. Kept me engaged the entire time. Appreciate the hard work and thought that went into this project. Well done.
Beggar13 via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 06/19/23
There’s an important tale to be told here and the series manages it for the most part but the host sprinkles their biases too unashamedly throughout (the nauseating fellating of the mediocre writer Drew McWeeny, and the weird and unnecessarily hostile and unconnected rants regarding some film...Read full review »
Ultra Anxiety via Apple Podcasts · Great Britain · 03/08/23
When he veers into ridiculously biased and uninformed political bias…
themagyar via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 02/07/23
As someone who frequented AICN (though not as a talkbacker) and even had my work featured on there, I found this an incredibly engaging and insightful retelling of that period of the internet, and the (often terrible) legacy related to it.
Benjumanji-f via Apple Podcasts · Great Britain · 01/07/23
Yes, “white male nerd rage” is a thing and still prevalent on the internet. That is true. Do I think Joe is also a virtue signaler of the worst kind? Also true.
Cmizzad via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 10/29/22
This is a great podcast. Exciting informative and well researched. A great presentation of a fascinating story that most people probably only know a small part of.
gregorybreen via Apple Podcasts · Canada · 09/13/22
The story of Harry Knowles was laid out very interestingly, but the lack of polish in the audio quality made it difficult to listen to fairly often. I know many interviews were probably recorded phone conversations but the vastly different levels of music to sound effects to various speakers had...Read full review »
JQub3d via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 09/05/22
Although it makes a few mistakes, most notoriously by giving Harry Knowles one last platform to spout his narcissistic lies, you won’t find a more comprehensive look at the early years of Internet film criticism and the sharp-elbowed, often abusive culture of toxic masculinity that accompanied...Read full review »
Half Price Horror via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 08/31/22
I was there in the beginning of Ain’t It Cool News. It was one of the first sites I would check on a regular basis. So this podcast grabbed my attention. Then it lost it with the horrible content. The narrator sounds like he’s reading a script from a high school play that should have never been...Read full review »
KFG1966 via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 08/30/22
Would’ve a good show, except it unnecessarily and too frequently dives into displays of wokenes of piety. I stopped at the beginning of the description of 2016 Ghostbusters. That was just not a good movie. I wanted it to be good, I would’ve been overjoyed if it was good, and I like all the...Read full review »
Darth Ugh via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 08/28/22
I’ll give the host credit for interviewing contributors of the site but the podcast is so haphazardly edited and smugly narrated, points of actual interest are mentioned only to be abruptly dropped in favor of the host agenda. Listener beware, a straight forward account of AICN isn’t the main...Read full review »
bms via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 08/27/22
I loved this podcast
parsons210 via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 08/15/22
Narrator and creator can come across as pretentious, snobbish, hypocritical, preachy sensationalist and self congratulatory. The show has an interesting subject but the execution is poorly. Since the main controversy is barely mentioned in one episode and kinda bypass with hearsay as facts it...Read full review »
parker george via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 08/13/22
I used to visit AICN so much in its prime and love the writing and its punk rock scoops. Then things went south. This podcast talks about the rise and fall and pulls in some crucial interviews and finds out what happened. I praise the bravery of the people who came forward to tell their story.
Blast Off 73 via Apple Podcasts · Australia · 08/11/22
This podcast was a fantastic look back at the pop culture juggernauts of Harry Knowles and AICN. Their approach was well-researched and the story was told in a way that explores the events while presenting context from the time the events occurred while mixing in a more modern...Read full review »
Daronlif via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 08/11/22
Sadly the guy who makes this podcast comes off as someone as bad as Harry Knowles (for different reasons). This is the type of guy who wears 6 masks and is first in line for his booster shots. A guy who watches CNN non-stop and thinks he’s actually getting the “news”. All I wanted was to hear a...Read full review »
Heisenberg_ via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 08/09/22
Nice dive into the fall if AICN, but trying to compare what’s going on in todays world with the Talkbackers was a bit of a stretch. The political climate had nothing to do with what Harry Knowles did. He is still unrepentant about anything he did. If he wasn’t guilty, why didn’t he fight tooth...Read full review »
billtalley via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 08/08/22
Like many people in the geek community, Aint It Cool was a daily habit. I would go to the site out of muscle memory, it was that engrained. Anyone even remotely involved in genre entertainment, whether they were cartoonists, filmmakers, content creators or even simply super fans, had some...Read full review »
Claytanick via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 08/07/22
This is a terrific series. Extremely well-researched, with an objective viewpoint and narrative. It’s really told by the people who were ‘on the ground’ at AICN. If you followed the site at all, you’ll love this pod.
Shifty Rich via Apple Podcasts · Canada · 08/07/22
I followed AICN since year one. It was my go-to movie site besides corona productions. Harry SEEMED like a breath of fresh air. A film lover vs critics with an axe to grind like Siskel and Ebert. I was inspired from AICN to broaden my cinematic palette. That is, until the preponderance of...Read full review »
scottinwa via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 08/07/22
As a retrospective of the rise and fall of AICN, there is a lot of good info here that I never knew, and the creator does a nice job of laying out the narrative. The problem is that his own obvious bias seeps in to such a degree that the podcast is relegated to a takedown hit piece in the mind of...Read full review »
Alocksley via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 08/01/22
First few episodes are pretty interesting but then the whole thing descends into a lazy rant. Don’t waste your time.
Howard Vegas via Apple Podcasts · Great Britain · 07/17/22
This podcast is a great telling of the legendary rise and fall of AICN as well as its link to the toxic male egos that still persist. Fascinating and compelling .
see spot via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 07/17/22
I’m so sorry you chose to candy coat political dogma inside the Trojan horse of a good podcast idea. Love the legwork running down so many good sources but it seems like you couldn’t break your programming.
dmk313 via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 07/14/22
I was a big follower of AiCN back in my collage days. Overall, I really like the series. The last few episodes were a bit overloaded with the narrator’s political analogies that didn’t need to be brought up to make a bullet point about Harry. I found the voice actors great and really thought they...Read full review »
Suicidefoxx via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 07/13/22
An in-depth analysts of a topic most people would consider frivolous, but early ‘00s internet culture had a bigger impact on todays world than most people realize. It’s a shame the host ruins it by frequently making derogatory generalizations about white people. When he lumps together an entire...Read full review »
That Media Prof via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 07/12/22
How can you do a podcast about AICN and only talk about the infamous Kickstarter scandal for a minute? If you’re going to tell the AICN story, then tell the whole story. If you leave out major events, it’s incomplete. Then, when critiqued on Twitter about the omission in a civil way, the baby...Read full review »
jcl5150 via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 07/02/22
The podcast has 30 minutes of good material, but you have to listen to someone ramble for an hour and a half. Would be better if it was published in 30 minute chunks because each episode is overstuffed and disjointed.
Engine 51 Forever via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 06/15/22
Host Joe Scott has more than done his hard work reporting this podcast. He scored some great interviews and he weaves a mostly coherent narrative that is very listenable. From the Q&A episodes he also seems very self-effacing yet charming, and to have a true love for movies and interest in...Read full review »
AnthonyLDC via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 06/07/22
I was obsessed with AICN in its heyday. I was so stoked when I found this pod. The drag is that the last episode actually discussing AICN was back in March. Three episodes of “bonus” material. Solid podcast, just plan on waiting between episodes.
Enoch Powell via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 05/10/22
I love hearing about the history of internet culture and what reviews have become because of it. However, I wish the host would keep his politics and personal movie takes out of it. He’s not the story.
MajorUndeclared via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 05/01/22
Not actually good, I would say it is great. But episode one refers to the Lord Of The Rings movie being helmed by the “then-unknown Peter Jackson”. Yeahhhhhh, tell that to horror fans who had already been celebrating his work for over a decade. AICN may have helped get the trilogy made, but not...Read full review »
tylerandjack via Apple Podcasts · Great Britain · 04/21/22
Mind-blowing oral history of the Ain't it Cool & other early Internet sites and how they gained influence & also carried out favoritism & misogyny (sp?). Harry Knowles appearing on the Roger Ebert and the Bill Maher shows. How prezos at nerd film festivals helped bring buzz to the...Read full review »
Doug OL via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 03/07/22
Started strong but this host is really stilted in his narration. The tiresome, reactionary white male bashing is rote and adds nothing of any substance to this story.
Kubrickfan51 via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 03/03/22
First podcast and first review for me! This brings me back to the 90s and early 00s!
CLCmdsyndicate via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 02/22/22
I enjoyed the first two episodea, but then it turned into the usual white male are to blame for everything wrong in the world. Harry turned out to be a nightmare of a person, but to sling out the white male junk because of his actions is pointless. Otherwise up to that point it was a solid...Read full review »
DG012345 via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 02/17/22
Really loving this podcast - super interesting- but please don’t play loud music over someone while they are talking - it makes it really hard to parse out what someone is saying…
Christopher Merritt via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 02/12/22
I started following AICN in the late 90s and it was easily my most-visited site for close to a decade. Harry was always an interesting character — we appreciated the platform he created, but nobody liked or respected him. We all knew he was a sellout and barely literate, but nobody knew what a...Read full review »
Baccisaurus via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 02/07/22
Wow
Somebody finally made a podcast about a bunch of fat sweaty creeps from Austin who put spider man toys up their butt and harass women all day long. If you care about the history of Ain’t it cool you should listen to this podcast. Actually you should check yourself into a mental institution if you...Read full review »
juan in a trillion via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 02/05/22
Joe’s voice is soothing and this story is something I’ve never heard about before. Well researched storytelling without being too niche for someone who isn’t familiar with all the media he is referencing. Can’t wait to see where this goes!
vellanig via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 01/17/22
Really excited to hear more
stevenabird via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 01/14/22
Joe is an avid researcher and an insightful observer of all things pop culture.
jamesbhodge via Apple Podcasts · United States of America · 10/18/21
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