Call for Comments: Of Castles and Queens

From Hannah: A few weeks ago on our “cheesy” Christmas movie episode, we briefly discussed the subsection of the Lifetime/Hallmark/Netflix rom-com that is focused around royalty. I asked what is it about these types of films that attract audiences — particularly American audiences — and my sister Mary pointed out that these films capture a…

e38. 2019 Box Office Draft

Do you think we can review every movie coming out next year… before we’ve seen any of them… with no real knowledge…. in one hour? Well, just you wait! Welcome to the 2019 Box Office Draft Special! Back before we started this show, Mav decided that no matter what he wanted to steal the yearly…

Call For Comments: Inertia and Media Addiction

From Mav: There’s something I’ve noticed about fans of the TV show The Walking Dead. They hate it. Seriously… most people I know who watch the show pretty much acknowledge that they’re not really enjoying it anymore, they’re just watching it because… they do. They have been watching it and they continue to. I’m not a fan…

e36. Cheesey Christmas Movies

If you’re Hannah, Christmas means one thing… watching cheesy Christmas romantic movies. She’s not alone. Hallmark Channel, Lifetime, and now Netflix have carved out a niche for themselves producing dozens of new low budget Christmas movies every year. They’ve become insanely popular. But why? Mav and Hannah are joined by Hannah’s sister Mary and Mav’s…

Call For Comments: The 2019 Fantasy Box Office Game

From Mav: There are many reasons I wanted to start this podcast. Obviously I like talking about the topics that we cover here a lot… sure. And honestly, a lot of what we do on the show is me working out concepts that I am addressing in my own work (or one of the other…

e35. SPOILERS! (and Mystery Boxes)

Ever since the rise of the Internet we have all lived in constant fear of all of our favorite movies, books, TV shows and every other media being spoiled by some jerk who just wants to be the first to ruin everything for everyone else… or maybe he’s just an idiot. It doesn’t matter… once…

Call for Comments: Watching/Streaming Cheesey Christmas Movies

From Hannah: Over the past few years Christmas has somehow become synonymous with cheesy Christmas movies from channels like Hallmark, Lifetime, and ABC Family (before it became Freeform). I’m not imagining things — Hallmark, for example, has increased its production of holiday movies to 37 and will add Hanukkah movies to its schedule next year.…

e32. Reboots, Remakes, Revivals

Albert Einstein once said, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Well, honestly he probably never said that… or at least didn’t say it first, but the internet says over and over that he said it, so it must be true. Anyway, if this is something…

Call for Comments: Mystery Boxes, Spoilers, and Fandoms

From Hannah: Before I was on the show, we received a suggestion for a show topic on how popular culture fandoms react to spoilers from listener Jessi Bencloski. Spoilers are tricky, especially in big fandoms such as Harry Potter, Lost, Star Wars, and Game of Thrones. Part of what drives (or drove) those fandoms, especially once fan communities emerged online,…

e31. Heroes, Villains & Antiheroes

The antihero… just like the hero… except he can kill. Wait… heroes kill too now. In fact they always have. Well maybe it’s that the antihero swears… Actually, heroes swear now too. Is it that the antihero operates outside of the law? Nope, that’s true of heroes too. Well what is it then, and why…