e270. Why Do Fans Hate Things They Love?

If you ever talk to a big fan of Star Wars you’ll probably quickly find that they hate just about as much about Star Wars as they love. The same can be said of Star Trek fans, comic fans, Disney fans and frankly pretty much any fandom that you can imagine. As much of fandom…

e264. Do You Remember Nostalgia? Do You Want To?

We’ve talked about nostalgia on the show before. In fact, we did it all the way back on our second ever episode. Remember that? The thing is, when we usually talk about nostalgia, we’re usually talking about media that is aimed at tickling our appreciation for the familiar and giving us more of something we’ve…

e263. We Gotta Talk About MILF Manor! We Just Do…

Every once in a while a TV Show comes along that is just so bizarre that we feel like it deserves a deep dive examination just in and of itself. That was the case with MILF Manor! If you’ve not heard of MILF Manor, it is a reality dating show on TLC, The Learning Channel,…

Call For Comments: So have you seen MILF Manor?

From Mav: Every once in a while the universe just smiles upon me and grants down upon me a gift of content that is just… just for me. Like… regular readers know that unironically like Riverdale, Cop Rock, Manimal, The Circle and Showgirls. So if you know that about me… and you are somehow aware…

e261. PCA2023 After Dark!

After two years being held virtually, and a cancelled conference in 2020, the Popular Culture Association returned to in person conferences for PCA2023. There were some good notes (Mav won a major award for his doctoral dissertation) and some bad notes (Mav ended up catching COVID during the trip) but along the way there was…

Call For Comments: on “Old People Still ƒµ¢&!” movies

From Mav: A few weeks ago, Wayne in passing mentioned the last year’s movie Good Luck to You, Leo Grande — a film starring 63yo Emma Thompson having an affair with a 30yo Daryl McCormack. Among other things, the film is trying to present an image of elder woman who still has sexual needs and…

e252. Velma and Pouring Some Edgy on It!

Everyone is talking about Velma. It’s not exactly clear why. Most people don’t seem to like it that much. But if you don’t pay attention to what anyone is saying, and you just judge sheerly based on attention that they By sheer numbers of think pieces you might think that Velma is the most popular…

e251. Eating the Rich! (on film)

A curious set of movies have been racking up nominations on the film circuit this awards season. Glass Onion, the Menu, and Triangle of Sadness. Each of these films has a peculiar thing in common… they’re basically about eating the rich… ok if not eating them than at least killing rich people… largely just because…

Call For Comments: Pouring some “edgy” on it

From Mav: Last year, we did an episode that I called “pour some gritty on it” which was all about the recent trend of doing gritty reboots of classic media IP. The obvious example there was shows on the CW like Riverdale and Nancy Drew. Shows where the idea is that it takes place in…

e249. The Media Guilt Pile

You know that book everyone tells you is great and you’ve been meaning to read it for literally years and haven’t gotten to it? What about that game that all your friends are playing and you want to as well, but you haven’t had the time to sit down and learn it so it’s just…