His Dark Materials S1E2: I Don't Think I Understand Any Grown Ups At All

November 13, 2019 Emily

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We’re two episodes in, and the adventure is starting to kick off. But first, to London!

Lyra’s is introduced to Mrs. Coulter’s world in London: her fabulous and very comfy-looking apartment, her wealthy and important friends, her fancy clothes. And almost immediately, Lyra is forced to choose between being true to herself or putting up with abusive behavior in exchange for indulging in all the things Coulter’s London has to offer. I will say Mrs. Coulter’s apartment is very Blair Waldorf’s apartment in Gossip Girl. Maybe that’s just me.

YA Book Club: Wilder Girls by Rory Power

November 12, 2019 Mary & Emily

In this installment of YA Book Club, Mary and Emily discuss a book they chose because of its pretty cover. And it all worked out fine.

WARNING: SPOILERS TO FOLLOW

Mary: Today we’re discussing Wilder Girls, Rory Power’s debut novel. The novel takes place at the Raxter School for Girls, an isolated boarding school. What was once an idyllic island paradise has turned into a dangerous, overgrown mess ever since the Tox hit the school and began transforming both the environment and the girls themselves. With most of the teachers dead, and most of the girls in various stages of illness, protagonist Hetty isn’t sure if a cure is coming or not. She does the best she can, hanging out with her best friends Byatt and Reese and scrounging as much food from the sporadic government shipments as she can. But when Byatt goes missing, and Hetty becomes part of the infamous Boat Crew, everything changes. Mysteries begin to unravel and the island’s hierarchy crashes around the girls. Can they survive?

Notably (for me!), this book has been compared a lot to Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation, which I might have mentioned once or twice on the podcast and blog. I think it gets that comparison (even from Vandermeer himself!) because Wilder Girls focuses a lot on nature and what happens when man’s relationship with nature begins to deteriorate. What did you think of the nature themes in the book?

My Father's Continued Battle with the Green Hearse: SIX FEET UNDER Season 1 Part 2

November 11, 2019 Emily

In case you missed our recap of the first half of Season 1 of my favorite show of all time, let me fill you in on what we’re doing here. This is a special rewatch for me of the best show ever made. For my dad, it’s his first time watching it. In this installment, we will cover the second half of season 1. I hope you’ll watch along with us, and feel free to leave comments letting me know why this show is special to you. I love to hear that.

Spoilers for the second half of season 1 to follow, but nothing will be spoiled beyond what we’re covering in this post. Because, of course, my dad hasn’t seen it yet.

Survivor S39: e7 Recap

November 9, 2019 Todd & Mary

Last week, Vokai went to tribal council for the 2nd time and, thanks to some smart and quick thinking by Elaine, the old Lairo 4 were able to block Jason’s vote and send him packing, leaving them with an upper hand in the tribe. What will happen this week? I know as much as you! Let’s get to the re-cap already!

Run Away With Us: The Official BSG Carly Rae Jepsen Starter Pack

November 8, 2019 Susan & Kelli

Unless you were living under a rock any time between 2012 and present day, you know at least one Carly Rae Jepsen song, and that song is “Call Me Maybe.” If your Carly Rae knowledge stops there, we’re here to correct that for you, because you haven’t even scratched the surface of the pop perfection that is our Canadian Queen, CRJ.

His Dark Materials S1E1: Everyone's Special

November 6, 2019 Emily

I might be biased, but the ‘90s were a killer time for Children’s Literature.

The first Harry Potter book was released in 1997, and just a couple of years before that, in 1995, Philip Pullman gave us the first installment of the His Dark Materials trilogy: The Golden Compass. I devoured both of these series with great enthusiasm, and they obviously both still hold a sacred place in my heart. My Harry Potter fanaticism was bolstered by the movies, which are by no means perfect but are still fun to watch.

The film adaptation of The Golden Compass? Not so much. The movie was pretty boring and devoid of the spirit of its source material, and unsurprisingly, the next two books were never made into films after the first one bombed. I soon gave up hope that there would ever be an adaptation of His Dark Materials that would be anywhere close to worthwhile.

And then… November 2019 came around and brought us the promise of a gorgeous and thoughtful HBO series starring James McAvoy, Dafne Keen, Ruth Wilson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Andrew Scott, and like, a ton of other cool people? I knew what I had to do. I had to recap it.

Wheel of Time Update

November 5, 2019 Mary

It’s been a while since I’ve checked in on my progress in reading the Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan. I started reading the series over a year ago—I admit for entirely sentimental reasons. I’ve never been a huge fan of swords and sorcery high fantasy—Lord of the Rings is one of my most hated books and movies—but Todd read The Wheel of Time when he was a kid and loved it. When he reread it in college to prepare for the end of the series, he still loved it. Sometimes, when you love someone, you want to know what made them the person you love today. I needed to know what young Todd was reading all the way back when.

Survivor S39: e6 Recap

November 2, 2019 Todd & Mary

Last week on Survivor: Island of the Idols, the tribes swapped up, leaving the new Vokai divided evenly 4-4, and the new Lairo divided 5-3 in favor of Vokai. Seemingly, this switch offered Lairo a chance to get out of their losing streak, but they were not able to capitalize, and ultimately Tom was sent packing. Will Lairo lose again? Or will Vokai be forced to draw rocks? You can only know if you read the rest of this recap, coming up now!

10 Weeks of Spooktober: Countdown: The Final Spook

October 31, 2019 Emily

Well, this has been really fun, guys. Over the past 10 weeks, you and I have truly gone on a journey together.

We’ve covered 10 scary movies. We’ve attended a wedding gone terribly wrong. We’ve ghost hunted. We’ve hunted a killer clown. We were trapped in a Sharon Tate nightmare. We ventured into a sinkhole somewhere in Ireland. We got to hear some really excellent cello performances. We got to see Sally Draper get possessed by a demon. We swam with killer gators. We partied with zombies. And finally, we’re finding out the exact time of our deaths.

It has all led up to this moment: Countdown. A great title for the final movie in our 10 week countdown to Halloween. We’ve made it.

But was this a good movie?

Riverdale Season 4 First Impressions

October 30, 2019 Kelli & Mary

Here at BSG headquarters, we have decided to engage in an act of communal self care and NOT recap the fourth season of Riverdale. We know that this is a huge disappointment to all five of the people who actually watch the show in real time and not when the entire season drops on Netflix over the summer, and we’re sorry. Of course, you know we can’t quit cold turkey, so here’s the plan: we will do three blog posts for Riverdale’s fourth season. This, the first, is our “season preview,” if you will. We’ve watched the first three episodes and have recorded our thoughts and predictions based on what’s gone down so far. We’ll check in again during the mid-season hiatus, and then we’ll post after the finale to see how everything stacks up and how truly unpredictable this show is.

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