10 Weeks of Spooktober: Ready or Not (Week 1 of 10)

August 31, 2019 Emily

Welcome to Week 1 of 10 Weeks of Spooktober!

Hello, Emily here. I’m reintroducing myself to you because this 10 Weeks of Spooktober blog series is a personal project of mine, as we enter into my favorite time of the year, pre-Halloween. College football starts today (Go Dawgs), NFL football starts next week (Geaux Saints), the weather (eventually) promises to get cooler, Starbucks and their competitors have started rolling out their pumpkin spice offerings, and MOST IMPORTANTLY… it’s scary movie season.

So this year, to count my way through pre-Halloween season and make the most out of this, the best time of the year, I am offering up 10 Weeks of Spooktober. In this blog series, I will watch and review one new (to me) horror movie each week. And we’re starting it all off with a movie now in theaters: Ready or Not.

5 Things to Do at the End of Summer

August 30, 2019 Mary

The summer is almost over and with it, the free time that many of us enjoy in the hottest months of the year. Fall feels more productive, more busy. I’m savoring those last few moments of summer as I begin teaching and wrapping up all my summer projects.

That being said, there’s a lot of great media floating around at the end of summer, so here are five things you could be doing as summer wraps up:

Othersode #31: Laurence Fishburne is an E-mail / Where'd You Go Bernadette & Interview w/Kate Davies

August 26, 2019 The Squad

whered you go.jpg — Othersode #31: Laurence Fishburne is an E-mail / *Where'd You Go Bernadette* & Interview w/Kate Davies

Go missing with the #BookSquad as we discuss the new movie Where’d You Go Bernadette?, based on the novel by Maria Semple. We talk about how the epistolary form translates on screen, the depiction of a few female characters, and the thing everyone is wondering: What is Bernadette’s deal anyway? In the second half of this #othersode, Emily interviews Kate Davies, author of the new novel In at the Deep End, which has been described as a “lesbian Bridget Jones.” Then we get into listener feedback on The Lion King (including the politics of asking for refunds at movies) and what’s on the #BookSquadBlog! Read along with us for our next #bookpisode on The Memory Policy by Yoko Ogawa (September 9) and for our next #othersode on We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, featuring special guests Lisa Kroger and Melanie Anderson (authors of Monster, She Wrote and co-hosts of podcast Know Fear) on September 23.

Click through for summary, table of contents, and show notes!

Superstore, Immigration, and Finding Heart in Adversity

August 25, 2019 Mary

On its face, Superstore is a show about the rights of retail workers, laborers people sometimes overlook or abuse. A disgruntled cast of employees struggle with daily events in a Walmart-style box store named Cloud9, with plenty of interstitial weird scenes from customers (think, a melting carton of ice cream in an aisle of kitchen appliances, which the show revisits throughout the episode as it slowly melts).

Created by Justin Spitzer, whose pedigree includes Scrubs and The Office, Superstore has a comedy pedigree to be proud of. The writing walks a line between heartfelt and funny, mean and realistic. The cast is stacked, with America Ferrera both starring and producing, and Ben Feldman (who you might remember as the guy who cut his nipple off on Mad Men) acting alongside her as co-star. Other notable cast members are Lauren Ash (playing the weird, gruff Dina), Colton Dunn (Garret), Nico Santos (Mateo), Nicole Bloom (Cheyenne), and Mark Mckinney (as the overtly religious Glenn). Mark Mckinney, a true comedy treasure, is a particular gem among the cast, as he balances the role of store-father and boss well. With this ensemble, the show is bound to be funny, but it’s also full of such heart that it deserves a more critical eye.

(Spoilers for seasons 1-4 of Superstore to follow)

Bachelor in Paradise S6 Week 3: It's Not My Fault You Take 12 Naps A day

August 22, 2019 Susan & Emily

Lots to cover on this week of Bachelor in Paradise, so let’s hop right to it.

Susan: Leave it BiP to bring us back right in the middle of a fight we all forgot was happening. It’s Jordan vs. Christian and his piñata, and it’s not going well.

Emily: It’s clear Jordan’s feeling a little “YOLO” as he doesn’t have any romantic attachments at this point, and Jordan is trying to recreate the iconic throwing the stuffed animal into the ocean moment from last year. But shit gets real real fast, and Jordan body slams Christian off of a platform and into the sand? Yikes.

Susan: Jordan saunters off after, and it takes like six security people to restrain Christian who has actual murder in his eyes. Nicole says this is the last thing she wanted to happen, but like five minutes ago she was talking about how she wants someone to be aggressive. Aggression is less cool in practice, and I think she sees that now.

Emily: Wills, the voice of reason on this show, is like, “Jordan, you’re an idiot bro.” Mike says, “If someone does that, you just need to be G about it.” Jordan is not at all a G. Meanwhile this piñata is just sitting on the ground NOT busted up and I’m like okay but what is in this piñata, my dudes? The world may never know.

Are You The One? Season 8|E10: Miss Jello and Miss Hello

August 21, 2019 Emily

Episode 10. We return to our friends in Are You the One? land once again in the aftermath of another disappointing Match Up Ceremony.

Kylie says it sucks to see three beams in Week 7, especially since one of those beams is already a confirmed match. So really, they only got two new beams.

After Kai drunkenly told Jenna he’s still in love with her, Jasmine has decided she’s over Kai. Sorry if that was a lot of confusing pronouns. Basically, Jasmine doesn’t want to be second for anyone, so she’s seeing herself out of this toxic Kai situation.

Nour also seems to be ready to put aside the Kai drama. She asks Jasmine if they should talk about the fight they had at the Under the Sea Party. Jasmine’s like, nah girl. She doesn’t feel like there’s a need to talk through it, because she plans on just getting over it. They toast to their newfound friendship? “Cheers to going on our rollercoaster ride!”

ANTM is Due for an All-Star Cycle and I'm the Fake Casting Director

August 20, 2019 Susan

Allegedly, ANTM will have a Cycle 25 and it will air “sometime in 2019.” Well, Tyra, I’m all out of patience, and I’m here to get the smize ball rolling for you. It’s time to give the people what they want: another All-Star Cycle. So tooch your booties and dust off your signature walk because I’m giving you the All-Star cast we all deserve.

Wheel of Time Casting News and Reactions

August 19, 2019 Todd & Mary

Mary here, your resident Wheel of Time nerd. Last time I checked in with the blog about the Wheel of Time, I shared my dream cast for Amazon’s new series, and before that I talked about how I was enjoying the series, which I’m reading for the first time. Currently, I’m on the fourth book, The Shadow Rising, and still slowly making my way through the series. There are only 14 books, so I’m sure I’ll finish. One day.

To discuss the new casting news, I’ve called in resident Wheel of Time expert, Todd, to help me wade through all this excitement.

The Complexity of Teenage Girlhood in Euphoria

August 18, 2019 Kelli McAdams

Euphoria is a show about a lot of things. Too many things, probably. In its first season, a mere 8 episodes, its themes run the gamut of the human experience: sexuality, addiction, gender identity, class, mental illness, domestic abuse, trauma, grief, shame, and more. A lot of the time, when a show tries to cover this much ground, it ends up seeming heavy-handed and inauthentic. Though I might not exactly describe Euphoria as “authentic” (at least not to my teenage experience, which mostly consisted of hanging out at strip mall movie theaters or reading manga at the Starbucks inside Barnes & Noble), I was surprised by how well this show actually works. What elevates Euphoria beyond your typical melodrama is the kaleidoscopic lens through which it views all of these issues: teenage girlhood.

What do you think of when you think of a teenage girl? Do you think of some abstract notion of what a ‘teenager’ is now that you aren’t one anymore — some terrifying, iPhone-wielding monster who can look you, a grown-ass adult, in the eyeball and make you feel like you’re about two inches tall? Do you think of the girls you knew in high school, the ones you loved, the ones who were mean to you, the ones you were mean to? Or do you think of your own teenage self? Well, whatever you think of, you’re right, and you’re also wrong. Euphoria challenges the idea that a “teenage girl” is a definable quantity.

Mild spoilers for season one ahead.

Los Espookys and the Need for International Comedy

August 16, 2019 Mary

Los Espookys follows a group of three friends, Renaldo (Bernardo Velasco), Andrés (Julio Torres), and Úrsula (Cassandra Ciangherhotti)--and Úrsula’s sister Tati (Ana Fabrega)--as they begin to work as Los Espookys, horror enthusiasts who give horror to “those who need it” (as Renaldo says late in the series). The group stages elaborate horror scenarios--like an exorcism meant to make an aging priest more popular--for money, but their true joy is concocting the elaborate practical effects and make up that power their gigs.

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