BSG #35: Franklin Agrees / American Spy

December 2, 2019 The Squad

BSG #34: Franklin Agrees / *American Spy*

Grab your night-vision goggles and discrete compact because it’s time for some espionage! This week, the #BookSquad covers American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson. We talk about the novel’s epistolary form, racism and sexism in America, questions of loyalty, and the romance at the center of the story. Then we get into some listener feedback about Evvie Drake Starts Over, Circe, and the Memory Police. Check out the #BookSquadBlog for television recaps, holiday-themed posts, and Emily’s 12 Days of Christmas Movies series! Join us on 12/16 for our Best of 2019 / Secret Santa #othersode, and read along with us for our next #bookpisode on Nature Poem by Tommy Pico -- available 12/30.
Special Offer for BSG Listeners! Get 20% off the 2020 Refresh Weekly Planner by Workspacery when you enter the code BOOKSQUAD at checkout at www.workspacery.com!

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

12 Days of Christmas Movies, Day 5: Pooka!

December 1, 2019 Emily

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.

Survivor S39: e11 Recap

November 30, 2019 Todd & Mary

Screen Shot 2019-11-29 at 6.45.38 PM.png

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!

12 Days of Christmas Movies, Day 4: Noelle

November 29, 2019 Emily

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.

His Dark Materials S1E4: Who is Lyra Belacqua?

November 28, 2019 Emily

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?

Make-Your-Own Hallmark Christmas Movie!

November 26, 2019 Todd & Mary

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?

The Top 5 Friends Thanksgiving Episodes

November 25, 2019 Susan

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.

12 Days of Christmas Movies, Day 3: Frozen II

November 24, 2019 Emily

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.

Survivor S39: e10 Recap

November 22, 2019 Todd & Mary

Screen Shot 2019-11-22 at 6.12.50 PM.png

Well, here we are, a week out from one of the most controversial episodes in Survivor’s long history, and what can we even say? Last week was rough. Kellee and Jamal were voted out in a special two-hour episode that managed to make basically everyone on the cast look bad, as Kellee continued to express how inappropriate Dan’s behavior was while basically no one else, including production, seemed to care. And now we are left to watch (or not; if you chose to bow out after last week, I would not blame you) and pick up the pieces. Let’s go.

12 Days of Christmas Movies, Day 2: Let It Snow

November 21, 2019 Emily

My professional opinion? Netflix’s teen Christmas movie Let It Snow fails in every Christmas movie category.

Probably. I haven’t broken it down yet, but that’s what this blog post is for. As with our previous 12 Days of Christmas Movies blog post, I will be breaking down this movie’s success as a Christmas movie based on 5 categories: Romance, Morality, Music, Christmas Spirit, and Heart. It’s the five Planeteers of Christmas movies. With their powers combined, they might make a decent Christmas movie. Did it work out here? Nah. Obviously not.

Tags

Archive

Follow us on Instagram!