If you pay attention to the weekly pop-culture media landscape you might be aware that a new Supergirl movie released the weekend before this episode. It performed… somewhat underwhelmingly at the box office. It also had mixed reviews. But is that fair? On this episode Mav, Wayne and Hannah welcome returning guest, comics scholar Anna…
Category: Movies and Film
e426. Narrative & Technology (& Narrative) Syllabus Special
A few weeks ago, Mav was talking with friend of the show Joe Darowski about a new class Joe is teaching at Bringham Young University called “Technology & Narrative”. Joe asked if Mav had any suggestions for the course since it seemed up his alley. Well, as it turns out, Mav regularly teaches a course…
e425. Chrises vs Women Over 60! Media Literacy and Aging in Hollywood
Entertainment Weekly recently published an article by Derek Lawrence that made the somewhat shocking claim that “movies are more likely to star an actor named Chris than women over 60.” Well, that seemed like exactly the kind of thing we should investigate on this shows. So we looked into it a little deeper and. Well,…
e423. Father Knows Less: Unpacking Bad Dad Stereotypes in Film
There’s a movie coming out next weekend starring comedian Nate Bargatze called The Breadwinner. Curiously, even though we were aware of it, not one of the five co-hosts on the show chose it in the box office game. It just didn’t seem interesting. Recently we’ve gotten a chance to see the trailer and just. Well,…
e422. Anatomy of a Heist: More Than Just Stealing
The Heist may be one of the popular pop culture tropes of all time. And yet, we’ve never talked about it before. So you know what that means. It’s time to change that. On this episode, assemble a ragtag group of experts… to pull off one last job… figuring out what makes a heist movie…
e420. 2026 Summer Movie Preview
It’s summer! Ok, maybe it’s not quite summer summer, but it is summer movie season as the U.S box office. There’s a lot of movies coming out this summer, but honestly not that many franchises. So, how do you decide what to see? On this episode, Mav, Hannah, and Maybe are joined by returning guests…
e418. PCA Roundtable: Enjoying the Art of Immoral Artists: An Ethical and Aesthetic Dilemma
It’s that time of year again! If you’re a long time listener to the show then you probably know about PCA already. PCA is acronym for both the Popular Culture Association and their annual convention that in many ways is part of the genesis of the show. Last year all of the cohosts attended, but…
e416. All the Cinderellas: an Exploration of Trope and Transformation
Often when we think about pop culture we think about relatively recent things. But sometimes it’s good to think about the enduring sources. Fairytales have been popular culture for longer than anyone in history knows. So much so that we don’t even know who wrote a lot of them. On today’s episode, Monica, Mav, and…
e415. Beyond the Final Frontier: Star Trek’s Influence on Culture & Fandom
Four hundred and fifteen episodes over eight years and we never talked about Star Trek. How could that possibly be? Well, it can’t be. Of course we’ve talked about Star Trek, but we’ve never devoted a whole episode to it and that seems crazy given that it is one of the most enduring pop culture…