Bachelor in Paradise S6 Week 7: Act Civilized! This is a TV Show!

September 24, 2019 Susan & Emily

Susan: It’s finally over, y’all. But it did take three hours to wrap it up because this is #BachelorNation’s world and we’re all just living in it.

Emily: I hate everything. Why are we here? Why are we doing this? FML.

Susan: Time for fantasy suites! There are four couples remaining: Dylan and Hannah, Demi and Kristian, Chris and Katie, and Clay and Nicole.

Emily: I really wish they had just found a way to wrap this up last week so that we could just have the reunion special this week. All of this just seems overwrought and overly dramatic for no good reason. I’m unsure of why the pressure to get engaged to someone you’ve known for only three weeks seems so real to these people. All I can think is that their producers must be really good at their jobs, and that the BiP bubble is a very real thing that they’re all experiencing.

Where "The Goldfinch" Went Wrong

September 22, 2019 Kelli

When the negative reviews started rolling in for The Goldfinch a few weeks ago, I was pretty bummed. You’re telling me I read an 800 page long book for this shit?

Just kidding, I obviously read the book for the sake of reading something by Donna Tartt, an author I’ve admired since The Secret History! Still, I did wait until a few months before the film’s release to finally cross the 2013 novel off of my TBR list. If there’s anything good to come out of this movie’s existence, its that it gave me — and a lot of other people, I’m sure — an excuse to read a novel which, despite its page count and intimidating Pulitzer prize-winning status, is an utterly absorbing read. So, yeah, I went into the theater having adored the book, which already put the movie at a disadvantage. However, I am by no means a stickler when it comes to adaptations. Honestly, I’d rather a film cut more from the plot if it’ll make the story work better on screen. Faithfulness to source material and quality of an adaptation are not mutually exclusive.

In director John Crowley’s The Goldfinch, most of the elements of novel actually do remain intact, if condensed for the sake of time. But the film falls short over and over again in a way that’s hard to define, except to say what many reviews already have: it feels flat. For me, the reason comes down to one important misstep, and that’s the way this film handles the relationship between Theo and his mother.

(Minor spoilers for the book & film ahead.)

10 Weeks of Spooktober: The Haunting of Sharon Tate (Week 4 of 10)

September 20, 2019 Emily

Apparently all the cool kids are making exploitative movies about Sharon Tate’s murder. The one starring Hilary Duff is just the worst one.

To be fair, I’ve only seen two of the three recent Sharon Tate films. I was not a fan of Once Upon A Time in Hollywood either, but I promise you, there is no way Tate could be as bad as The Haunting of Sharon Tate, starring Hilary Duff and written and directed by Daniel Farrands (The Amityville Murders and The Haunting in Connecticut).

I mean. Yikes.

We're Gonna Sing It Again: Thoughts on Hadestown

September 18, 2019 Todd Osborne

In the first song of Anais Mitchell’s song cycle-turned-musical Hadestown, Hermes tells the audience everything they need to know: “It’s an old song,” he sings. “It’s a tragedy...but we’re gonna sing it again.” The main (and side, such as exist in this mostly five-person musical) characters are introduced: Persephone, Hades, Hermes himself, Orpheus, and Eurydice. The audience, he assumes, already knows how this will all end. Boy meets girl; girl dies; boy tries to save girl; boy fails. But maybe, Hermes says, it will turn out different this time. So, we’re gonna sing it again.

Sister Hilde for the Win

September 17, 2019 Janet Dale

*Scivias*-Codex Plate One

Hildegard receiving a vision and dictating it BECAUSE women be multi-tasking.

Here’s a strange question: do you have a favorite nun?

I think Maria von Trapp, played by Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music is a good answer, even though she gave up the sisterhood in order to marry Baron von Trapp (and take care of all those children).

And, yes, I adore Sister Helen Prejean, too. She is one of (if not the) leading advocate for abolishing the death penalty and has written two passionate books on the subject: Dead Man Walking (1993) and The Death of Innocents (2006).

Sister Helen is also practical. Back in August, I heard her tell Terry Gross on an episode of NPR’s Fresh Air that one of the reasons she doesn’t wear a traditional nun’s habit (and hasn’t for decades) is because she’s from Louisiana and it’s just too hot. Yes, sister. Yes.

But my favorite nun? Hildegard von Bingen.

And maybe she should be yours, too.

Bachelor in Paradise S6 Week 6: I Learned a Lot, But at What Cost?

September 16, 2019 Susan & Emily

Susan: I, like many Bachelor Nation fans, thought this week’s episodes were the last ones. But in a very dramatic turn, I was wrong. So let’s get into this pentultimate recap so we all go into the finale ready to watch some 24-year-old influencers get engaged to their starter husbands.

Emily: One might argue this was the biggest plot twist of Bachelor in Paradise history. I really thought we were done with this show. And I think a lot of people are feeling this way. It’s September, y’all. The pumpkin spice is a-pumping. BiP fatigue has set in. But Susan and I finish what we started, even at the cost of our sanity. So yes. Let’s go.

10 Weeks Of Spooktober: It Chapter 2 (Week 3 of 10)

September 14, 2019 Kelli & Emily

Emily: Okay, so when I decided I was going to do 10 weeks of Spooktober leading up to Halloween, we knew I had to do It Chapter 2, the most anticipated horror movie of 2019. And we also knew I wasn't going to be able to do a movie this important on my own. And so with that in mind, I have Kelli baby here to help me tackle this monster of a movie. And it is a monster of a movie at nearly three hours long. Just to give you some perspective, the first two horror movies I've done for this series were about an hour and a half, if a little bit shorter. So combine those two movies together and you get this one big giant It Chapter 2 movie.

It does make sense that the film is so long if you look at the source material. Stephen King's It novel is 1,138 pages. But did this movie make the most of its bloated run time? Is this second part of the film, which follows the Losers Club 27 years after the first It Attack, as compelling as the first?

YOU GOTTA READ TO FIND OUT OK. And also, unlike the previous two Spooktober posts, this will have spoilers. So go see the movie. Take a nap. Come back. We'll be here.

YA Book Club: Warcross

September 12, 2019 Mary & Emily

Hello, and welcome to another installment of YA Book club, the place where Emily and Mary talk all things YA! This month, we’re talking about Warcross by Marie Lu. This novel follows Emika Chen, a young woman on the brink of financial disaster, unable to pay her rent and in debt. When Emika hacks into a Warcross tournament, she unintentionally catches the eye of Hideo Tanaka, the founder of the Warcross games and a tech billionaire. As Emika and Hideo grow closer, Emikia is tasked with finding a dangerous hacker who threatens to jeopardize Hideo’s business--and his life. This novel has been compared to Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, but is notably different because it features a female protagonist and a less sweeping (though perhaps more personal and dangerous) plot. Join us, as we discuss Warcross!

Are You The One? Season 8|E12: This Doesn't Look Sanitary At All

September 11, 2019 Emily

I am about to get emotional, because this is the last episode of Season 8 of Are You the One!

So much happened on this, the last episode of the season. Pies were thrown. People got naked. Last minute hook-ups were had. Love was found. BUT DID THEY WIN THE MONEY? Read on to find out. I’m not here to spoil the final episode of this wonderful show without your consent.

Survivor s39: First Impressions

September 10, 2019 Todd & Mary

Hello! We are only a couple weeks away from the premiere of Survivor: Island of the Idols, the 39th season of the powerhouse reality show that has cornered the market on people on an island kicking other people off the island. (Also, if you are hankering for more Survivor content and missed our ode to the Queen of Survivor, then head over and check that out!)

So today, Mary and Todd are bringing you our professional opinions about who will outwit, outlast, and outplay all others when Survivor returns on Wednesday, September 25.

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