I am no stranger to writing about musicals on this blog, but today I am bringing something a little bit different. Last school year, one of my students mentioned this musical based on The Odyssey. After listening to it, I became hooked, much to Mary’s dismay. As I have continued to listen to the musical and really think about it, I realized that there was a disconnect for me between how much of the fandom perceives the musical and what its creator intended. So please join me as I put on my PhD in English (with an emphasis in Creative Writing - Poetry) hat and discuss EPIC: The Musical!

Welcome, creepy babies, to the Book Squad Blog, which is totally a thing now and we’re all writing and being really productive! 

Weapons is the latest movie from Zach Cregger, who also directed Barbarian (2022) and was a founding member of The Whitest Kids U’Know. The movie follows the events surrounding the disappearance of a 3rd grade class. All of the students Naruto-ran into the night at 2:17 AM, except for one boy, Alex, who knows nothing about the events. This movie is horror, but like Barbarian, it’s not traditionally categorized into a neat box. Let’s talk about it! 

Apparently, we just love horror over here at the BSG Blog! Here’s a non-comprehensive list of some YA Horror novels to get you in the mood this creepy season.

Friends, Spooktober is a lifestyle, and, as we’ve mentioned on the podcast many times, we are busy people. But as the weather begins to cool (for some people), the leaves begin to change, and the pumpkin-flavored treats begin to appear on store shelves, it’s time for Emily, Mary, and Kelli to see some horror movies. Here’s our conversation about Together, directed by Michael Shanks.

Surprise! After a four-year hiatus, we're back with 10 W33ks of Spooktober. Get it. The Es are 3s because this is the third time we've done this series. This time, we're starting with I Saw the TV Glow, and Kelli is joining us to chat about this movie. So bathe yourself in the pink opaque, and let's get ready for another season of scary movies.

If you’ve ever listened to the podcast, you know me, but you may or may not know that I have a PhD in English with an emphasis on disability studies and children's literature. That all means that I spent a lot of time thinking about how fat bodies are represented in literature for young people, which led me to so many great resources!

Kelli: Hello, and welcome back to another week of The Bachelor, sponsored by The Golden Bachelor. This week, Mary joins me again to give points to Emily’s team, because my team is dead. Take it away, Mary.

Mary: Here we are in Tulum, the most romantic place. Well, not too romantic for Joey at the beginning of the episode. Instead, he’s feeling weepy about his experience on The Bachelorette with Charity. It was hard for him to feel so connected to Charity, then heartbroken to be sent home. I mean, I get it, it would be hard, but also… should you put all your eggs in the Bach basket? They know each other for like, two weeks, right? I don’t know I’d bet my life on that. 

Kelli: Hello and welcome to another late recap of Joey’s season of The Bachelor! We’ve reached HOMETOWNS, which is famously the most boring episode of every season. Today, in Emily’s stead, I am joined by Mary. Mary, how has this season been treating you? Who’s your pick for the win?

Mary: You know, I didn’t expect to like Joey as much as I do. He didn’t really leave an impression on me in Charity’s season, but now he’s a bit more charming. That said, there’s something off-putting to me about his Extreme Direct Eye Contact. And how he says “thank you for sharing” to everything anyone says.

I’ve been enjoying the season so far, but I’ve been a little irked at all the Maria drama. It’s really not that serious! My pick to win is probably Daisy, but Kelsey has made some strides recently too.

Emily: Welcome back, Bachelor fans. The week before hometowns always creeps up on us. One minute we have a bajillion prospective fiancées, and then suddenly we’re down to four. But to get there, first we have to journey to the beautiful Jasper, Canada, and by all appearances, this seems like the kind of place where you might actually get to ride a moose. Too bad Lea has to miss it.

Kelli: RIP.

Emily: I have to say for once, the tourism propaganda is really working on me. I had no idea where Jasper, Canada was before this, but now I suddenly have to go. I mean! The mountains! The trees! The rainbows!

Kelli: Hello and welcome to another recap of The Bachelor. This week our goal is to get back on track after ABC threw us off with a random two night event last week. I still haven’t forgiven them.

Emily: We’re slowly inching our way towards posting on-time recaps. But you know, better late than never, friends. Better late than never.

Emily: Yes, we’re back, everyone, with another (belated) Bachelor recap, but the important part is we’re here, and we’re getting it done. And we have two episodes to get through this week. Eek! So let’s just dive in because there’s a lot of drama to break down from last week’s episodes.

Mary: Well, here we are with another Wheel of Time update. It feels like we haven’t made one in forever (okay, since August 2023), but a lot has changed in terms of where we are in the series. Do you want to explain where we are now, Todd?

Hello and welcome to our third recap of The Bachelor Season 28, AKA the one where Kelli recaps on her own because Emily is in Nashville for work and Kelli couldn’t find a replacement because she started too late and everyone was watching the super bowl! Will Kelli cheat and reward her team more points this week in a desperate attempt to catch up with Team Daisy is My Yoshi? More importantly, will she stop referring to herself in the third person? Read on to find out. 

From Paradise Lost to The Powerpuff Girls to The Binding of Isaac to Cuphead, the devil has always been one of the most interesting characters in media. Every grad student has a lightbulb moment when they realize Satan is the best part of Milton, and from there on, he just keeps popping up to make stories more interesting. And if Lucifer is so interesting, what’s the rest of Hell like?

Kelli: Hello everyone, and welcome to our first official week of competition: it’s Team Daisy is My Yoshi vs. Team Throw it in the Fire! I’m just going to go ahead and spoil it for you now: things do not go well for me this week. 

Emily: Well, as they say on Love Island, it’s still early days. 

Well, Bachelor Nation, Book Squad Goals is finally recapping a season of The Bachelor again, after taking a hiatus at the end of Matt James’ season. And this time, Emily has convinced Kelli to come along on this ride with her. Will Kelli and Emily regret this by the end of everything? Probably. But will we have fun along the way? Maybe.

But you’d better believe we’re not here to make friends. This is a competition for the ladies, but it’s also a competition for Kelli and Emily. Following this first episode, Kelli and Emily will draft their Bachelor teams and as the recaps continue throughout the season, they’ll continue to get points. The prize for winning? Bragging rights. And the journey we had along the way.

Come along with us as we draft or teams and reflect on episode 1 of Joey’s season.

Folks, Christmas was exactly one month ago, so what a perfect time to wrap up our 12 Days of Christmas movies series! For our final Christmas movie of the season, we’re talking about Silent Night. This is an action movie directed by John Woo and starring Joel Kinnaman as Brian Godlock. One Christmas, Brian is playing with his son in his front yard when a couple of speeding cars drive by and his son gets caught in the crossfire and is shot and killed. Now, one Christmas later, Brian is out for revenge.

This movie marks John Woo’s return to American film for the first time since 2003’s Paycheck, but to me, the director really peaked with the 1997 classic film Face/Off. There’s also a 2021 Christmas film called Silent Night that I really enjoyed. So how will Silent Night live up to these other movies? Well…

I’m a huge fan of trashy reality TV. Whether it’s The Bachelor or 90 Day Fiance, I just love seeing people portray what they claim to be their normal lives. Can anyone captured on film 24/7 be completely authentic? Reality television has storylines. It has characters – a villain, a hero, a goofball – and it’s naive to think that producers and editors don’t put a lot of time into determining who will play what role each season. That said, some shows pique my interest more than others.

Christmas may be in our rearview mirror, but we’ve still got Christmas movies to talk about, friends. And I don’t think we can reflect on the 2023 Christmas season without discussing The Holdovers, one of the bigger Christmas movies to come out this winter. And it’s also getting a lot of awards season buzz. But is it so good that it deserves to become a part of the Christmas canon? Let’s run it through the patented Christmas Movie Scale to find out!

In 2020, I preordered Caroline Calloway’s debut book, Scammer.

For anyone familiar with Calloway’s tendency to shirk responsibility for her blunders (in a cute, whimsical way, of course), the fact that I actually received Scammer in 2023 after months of messaging the author online should come as no surprise.

We’re almost halfway through January, but there are still more Christmas movies to watch! Lesbian Christmas movies, at that. And no, not that lesbian Christmas movie. There are other ones, you know. Ones that aren’t mean to Kristen Stewart. For instance, Looking for Her.

Taylor (Olivia Buckle) hasn’t been home for Christmas in years. Not since she came out to her parents and they didn’t take it very well. But now her parents want to make amends, and they invite her home for the holidays. And just to show how much they want to welcome Taylor back into their lives, they invite her to bring her girlfriend as well. There’s only one problem. Taylor and her girlfriend aren’t together anymore. Rather than admit it didn’t work out, Taylor finds the perfect solution: she puts out an ad for an actor to play her girlfriend over the holidays. Turns out this is the perfect gig for struggling actor Olive (Alexandra Swarens). But what happens when fake dating turns into… not so fake dating?

Let’s put this one through the Christmas movie rating scale and see how it does.

Did you feel like we needed another retelling of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol? Well, I guess somebody did, because here we are. Spirited is a new take on A Christmas Carol with quite a few twists. First of all, it’s a musical. Second, it reimagines the whole ghost of Christmas future/past/present thing as a whole afterlife business. It kinda has a The Good Place vibe about it. These ghosts are tasked with finding one lost soul and making them “good” over the course of one Christmas Eve, just like they did with Ebenezer Scrooge. So, really, it’s less of a retelling and more of a reimagining/sequel. You get it? Good.

Picture this: you’re on a train just trying to commute to work and maybe enjoy a lil podcast and/or crossword puzzle along the way. You’re minding your own business. Then, out of nowhere, some dude you see every day on the train invites you to help you plan a big Christmas party for everyone on the train. What do you do?

If you say you’d plan a new route to work from then on, you’re my people. But that’s not what happens in the very British Christmas film This is Christmas. After seeing his fellow commuters stick up for a guy on the train who lost his ticket, Adam (Alfred Enoch) gets a brilliant (?) idea. Clearly all of these people on the train are human beings with feelings. And human beings love to party! So why not have a big Christmas party for everyone on the train. He will not be providing the venue or the food or the spirits, but he is providing general good vibes. WHO IS IN?

Not me. Not at all. But let’s run this guy through the Christmas scale and see what happens.

On Christmas day, I felt the need to watch the most conventional, Hallmark-style Christmas movie I could possibly find. And that’s why I turned on Reporting for Christmas, a film as uninventive as its title. Mary Romero is a serious, big city gal/hardworking reporter. So when she’s assigned a “puff piece,” looking at the history of a Christmas toy manufacturer in a small town, she’s less than thrilled.

Silver fox toymaker Blake Johnson is equally unexcited about the prospect of featuring his toys on the news. After all, the big evil news company is likely to spin the story in a way that exploits their small town and the very serious toy making business they have going. But what happens when they meet and… fall in love (I guess)? Will Christmas sparks fly or will this movie continue to be boring AF?

Let’s score this bad boy and find out.

I’ve spent many a Christmas in Atlanta, and while I’m not there in person this year, I am there in spirit, in a way. Especially because I got to watch this new Christmas movie, Dashing Through the Snow, which is set in Atlanta and stars Atlanta icon Ludacris. Your hero and mine.

All of this is to say I was predisposed to liking this movie because Ludacris. But what is this movie about? Eddie Garrick (Ludacris) is a social worker who lives in Atlanta and hates Christmas. This Christmas, however, he’s spending the holiday with his nine-year-old daughter Charlotte (Madison Skye Validum, who you might remember from Best. Christmas. Ever!). Charlote loooooves Christmas. But Eddie would rather work through the holiday. Then they meet a strange man named Nick (Lil Rel Howery). You probably see where this is going.

But how does this rank on the Christmas scale?

Merry Christmas, Book Squad Family! We’re on to our 5th day of Christmas movies. Yes, I know that everyone’s favorite DC comic book hero already had a Christmas movie with Batman Returns. But we’re heading back to the Christmas well with Batman in this new animated feature film, Merry Little Batman. In this movie, Bruce Wayne has a kid! Little Damian Wayne may be young, but he’s ready to be a superhero in his own right. And when Batman has to leave home to help the Justice League on Christmas Eve, Damian sees his chance!

But how will it work out for Damian and Bruce (and their cat Selina)? And does this movie pass the Christmas test? Let’s find out!

Christmas is only a few days away, and we’re starting to ramp up! Thankfully, the 12 days of Christmas actually ends on January 5, so we still have plenty of time to get through these movies together. Next up? A horror movie! You know I love a good Christmas horror movie. Pooka! was a hit. I loved Black Christmas. You get the idea. Plus, Joel McHale is in this movie, and the title has a fun pun in it, so what could possibly go wrong? Let’s run it through the ‘ole Christmas scale and see.

Christmas is fast approaching, so it’s time to ramp up the 12 days of Christmas movies, friends. And what better what to do that than with the BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER!? And really, what is a Christmas movie without a handful of standout celebs from the 90s and 2000s: Brandy (no last name necessary), Heather Graham, and Jason Biggs.

Yes, this movie was built for aging millennials like yours truly. But is it any good? And most importantly, does it pass the Christmas vibe check? There’s only one way to know for sure. Let’s run it through the Patented Christmas Movie Rating Scale.

“This is a completely unique and original situation that’s never happened before!”

Or so says CC, when she wakes up one morning to find that she’s swapped bodies with her mom Jess (played by Jennifer Garner). I wanted to highlight this line because it was the funniest part of Netflix’s Christmas movie Family Swap. And yeah, this movie did have its share of funny moments. And if you don’t understand why this line is funny, then I guess you never saw Freaky Friday or Freaky Friday or Freaky (which is just Freaky Friday, but make it a slasher movie). The point is, yes, we have seen this idea before.

But here’s the twist. This time, as the title suggests, the whole family’s getting swapped. Daughter CC (played by Wednesday’s Emma Myers) swaps with mom Jess. Son Wyatt (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle’s Brady Noon) swaps with Dad Bill (Ed Helms). And (HORRIFYINGLY) the baby Miles swaps with the dog Pickles. Oh, also. It’s Christmas. But just how Christmas is it? Let’s run this bad boy through the Patented Christmas Movie Rating Scale and find out!

You know what we need for the last month of 2023? 12 days of Christmas movies. Or should I say… EXmas movies? Because we’re starting off this year’s series with a new one starring Blair Waldorf Leighton Meester. It’s cute. It’s got family. It’s a rom-com. But does it pass the Christmas movie vibe check? You know what we gotta do. We gotta run it through the Patented Christmas Movie Rating Scale to see! Strap in. We’re only on day 1, friends.