Hello again! We have returned from Thanksgiving and have put on our Survivor-watching pants. They are like our regular pants, except they are a button-fly. Last we met, Lauren seemed to be running things, but Karishma flipped everything on its head when she played her hidden immunity idol and Elizabeth was sent home. Will Karishma be able to build on her power play and stay in the game? Or will something entirely different happen? There is, as always, only one way to find out! Let’s get into it…
Read more12 Days of Christmas Movies, Day 6: The Knight Before Christmas
According to this Christmas countdown, we’re halfway to Christmas everyone!
Congrats on taking this journey with me and making it this far. Today on 12 Days of Christmas Movies, we return to some comfortable favorites: It’s Netflix. It’s Vanessa Hudgens. It’s a Netflix Vanessa Hudgens Christmas movie. There is time travel. And a knight. Okay, those last two parts are new, but everything else about this movie makes it almost exactly The Princess Switch — well, okay, not EXACTLY, but close enough. You get me.
How did this second go at a Vanessa Hudgens Netflix Christmas movie go? We’ll only be able to tell after running it through our handy dandy Christmas movie rating system.
Read moreHis Dark Materials S1E5: We’re Going to Win This One, Aren’t We?
His Dark Materials is moving so fast that each episode almost seems like a different genre. What genre is this episode? I’ll let you decide at the end.
This episode is also the episode where we start truly delving into book 2 material. Part of me is like, “WHOA SLOW DOWN,” because I really wish this show was going to be three seasons instead of two. But part of me is SO EXCITED because The Subtle Knife is my favorite of the three books. So getting to meet Will Parry and be introduced to that part of the story is super cool, especially because this material has never been adapted for the screen before. But I could have waiting a bit longer for that payoff. I don’t know. I’m so excited I don’t know how to feel.
I’ll try to anyway, I guess.
Read more12 Days of Christmas Movies, Day 5: Pooka!
In an effort to get back into Hulu’s Into the Dark scary movie series, the next movie we’ll be discussing for 12 Days of Christmas Movies is last year’s Pooka!
This film was the third installment of Hulu’s Into the Dark series. The series is a holiday-themed scary movie anthology that covers all the important milestones of the year, Christmas, New Year, Valentine’s Day, the 4th of July… you get the idea. It’s a series I always mean to watch and then shy away from because every “episode” is actually a full on movie. Which… I don’t get this, but for some reason watching a WHOLE MOVIE seems so much more daunting than marathoning an entire television series. Where is the logic?
This particular episode is directed by Nacho Vigalondo, director of other weird movies such as Colossal and Extraterrestrial. The premise of this movie is simple enough, but in keeping with the style of this particular director, it gets weird real quick, so I won’t give away any of the plot details that should remain surprising. Especially since, not gonna lie, there were several points in the movie where I was like, “I’m not sure I get what’s happening.” I think by the end it will all make sense though.
Read moreSurvivor S39: e11 Recap
Last week, both Missy and Aaron were sent home. Who will be sent packing this week? And will it feel as cathartic as last week? Only one way to find out! On to the recap!
Read more12 Days of Christmas Movies, Day 4: Noelle
For our next Christmas movie of the series, we’re heading over to Disney+ land!
Yes, Disney+, home of Baby Yoda and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. But also! Original Christmas content like Noelle, a film directed by Marc Lawrence, starring Anna Kendrick, Shirley MacLaine, Bill Hader, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and Billy Eichner. If not ground-breaking, it at least seems like with this cast, the movie should be a lot of fun, right? Uh… well.
The premise of this movie is pretty simple. Santa is dead, and his son Nick (Hader) will have to pick up the reins (pun intended). The only problem? Nick doesn’t really feel like he has a knack for the whole Santa Claus thing. His sister Noelle (Kendrick), on the other hand, loves Christmas more than anything in this world and is in Nick’s corner trying to encourage him to be the best Santa he can be.
When that fails, she suggests he takes a little vacation so that he can come back and be in the Christmas spirit in time to do his Santa-ly duties. But Nick ends up loving being a yoga instructor in Phoenix, Arizona so much that he wants to stay. Whatever will Noelle do? I feel like you know. But I won’t spoil it for you all the same.
Read moreHis Dark Materials S1E4: Who is Lyra Belacqua?
Ooo boy… it’s panserbjørne time!
But before we get there… I have one quick thing to say. I just read that His Dark Materials is meant to cover the three books of the series in two 8 episode seasons. Say what? I feel… unsure about this decision. Here I was thinking we’d get about one season per book. But no, we’re just going to get this thing done, huh? I guess that explains the pacing (and the additional storylines that take us into book 2 territory) thus far. But still, I was really liking the parts of the story that the television show was adding. Hearing that they are cramming three books into two seasons means less room to do some of that additional world-building.
Oh well. It is what it is. I guess let’s talk about what happened this week. And let’s meet some armored bears, yeah?
Read moreMake-Your-Own Hallmark Christmas Movie!
Maybe your Hallmark movie is about rich people.
Each year, around October or November (or sometimes even July), Hallmark begins its onslaught of made for TV Christmas movies. These films all feature similar plots, similar characters, and similar beautiful romances. The demand for Hallmark Christmas movies has become extreme because of their comforting charm. Their easy to understand plots allow for maximum coziness.
Imagine the scene: it’s a weekend and you’ve just snuggled into your blankets on the couch with a mug of hot cocoa. What to watch? A Hallmark Christmas movie will do just the thing! But there are so many—why not make your own?
Read moreThe Top 5 Friends Thanksgiving Episodes
As a longtime Friends fan, I find the show to be “comfort food.” Appropriately, Friends is known for its Thanksgiving episodes. (See what I did there? I’m already hungry.) Each year – with the exception of Season 2, which barely mentioned Thanksgiving in “The One With the List” – the Thanksgiving episode was a focal point of the season, and later seasons featured some pretty major special guests, including Brad Pitt and Christina Applegate. To get everyone in the grateful spirit, I’m ranking the top five Thanksgiving episodes of Friends.
Read more12 Days of Christmas Movies, Day 3: Frozen II
I know what you’re thinking. Is Disney’s Frozen II a Christmas movie?
Yes and no. Yes, many people considered the first Frozen film a Christmas movie, probably because people who celebrate Christmas have sort of commandeered snow as a Christmas accessory (SEE: basically every Christmas anything). And Frozen is nothing if not a snow movie. There is a bit less snow in this movie, but there is still plenty of snowman. And family. And music. And heart. And all the other Christmas planeteers are present. So let’s just call it a Christmas movie and let me write about it, okay? Okay.
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