Hello! We’re back for the 2nd to last episode of this season. What will happen now that the “white whale” Karishma has been voted out? Will Hurricane Noura strike back at her old allies? Or will someone else we like be voted out in favor of people we don’t like? Only one way to find out! On to the re-cap!
Read more12 Days of Christmas Movies, Day 8: Mistletoe & Menorahs
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tsivanu l’hadlik ner shel Hanukkah, y’all.
I have been promising to cover a Hanukkah movie in this 12 Days of Christmas Movies series, and sadly, Hallmark’s new movie Mistletoe & Menorahs is the best I could do. This is the tale of a boring white woman who needs to learn more about Hanukkah to impress a Jewish guy so she can land a big account for the toy company she works for. Fortunately, she finds the only Jewish person in America who knows nothing about Christmas, and so they teach each other all about the traditions of their respective faiths. In the process, they realize that both holidays have more in common than they originally thought. And no, it’s not latkes. It’s love. Aw.
Read moreHis Dark Materials S1E6: You're After Dust
Remember last week when I said each episode of His Dark Materials is its own genre? Yeah, this is the prison escape movie episode.
Unlike previous episodes where we jump around to check in on multiple storylines, the majority of this episode goes down in Bolvangar, the far north research facility where the Magisterium experiments on children. Yes, it’s as terrible as it sounds, and it’s a place that has been teased the entire season. So it makes sense that we’re stuck here for an episode. Like Lyra, we’re trapped in this place and are forced to reckon with exactly how awful it is. I’m just going to come out and say it. This was a really good episode. I got emotional. So let’s just get to it.
Read more12 Days of Christmas Movies, Day 7: Klaus
We’re entering the second half of 12 Days of Christmas Movies with a cute little Netflix movie called Klaus.
This is a Santa Claus origin film. It’s not the first Santa Claus origin film ever, but it’s definitely a new take on what I am dubbing the Santa Claus Origin Film Genre (TM). So how does this story of a postman who inadvertently invents the Santa Claus tradition fare in comparison to other takes on the Santa Claus origin film genre? We’ll have to run it through my patented (not really) Christmas movie rating system to find out.
Read moreTrue Life: I Puke When I'm Nervous and Knives Out Made Me Feel Seen
When I was in high school and spending way too much time at my local Barnes and Noble, one of the most memorable books I picked up to read was It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini. What makes it stand out in my mind is not necessarily the writing style or the plot or even the characters, but the fact that it was the first time I’d ever encountered a description of something that up until that point, I was almost certain I was alone in experiencing: chronic anxiety-induced vomiting.
Apparently, we’ve come a long way since 2006. Several of this year’s biggest films feature main characters suffering from this same affliction, including Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers, Elizabeth Banks’ Charlie’s Angels reboot, and Rian Johnson’s spectacular whodunnit, Knives Out. In particular, Knives Out takes the concept and poses a hypothetical I’ve never even considered: what if my unfortunate physiological response to anxiety was actually useful?
(CW: anxiety, depression, puke.)
Read moreSurvivor S39: e12 Recap
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 moreBSG #35: Franklin Agrees / American Spy
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!
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.
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