Call For Comments: Quarantine Comfort TV

From Mav: This started out being a different kind of episode. A while back Katya pitched the idea to talk about “Feel Good TV.” She can give more details but the short side of it is that I think she wanted to talk about the kinds of shows you watch to make you feel good…

Call For Comments: Paw Patrol: Copaganda, Cartoons, and You

From Katya: This week on 2020: the world is on fire, the internet is grappling with representations of police in the media. “Good” cops, “bad” cops, and… dog cops. Paw Patrol is children’s television show featuring a group of cartoon dogs in various jobs. There’s a firefighter, a construction worker, and then there’s Chase, a…

e99. Pseudo-Academic Content: Listener Discretion is Advised

We live in a content driven world: Movies, Books, Music, TV, Comics, Video Games, and even Podcasts. “Content is king!” or so they say. But of course, different types of content are appropriate for different audiences. Anyone who has watched a movie in the last several decades knows that they have ratings, that is, a…

e75. Judging a Show by its Pilot?

It’s fall and if you’re a television fan that means you know that we are on the cusp of dozens — or these days maybe even hundreds — of new shows hitting the TV airwaves. And every new TV show starts with a pilot… an episode that introduces you to the show and tries to…

Call for Comments: Can you judge a show by its pilot?

From Mav: Back when the Game of Thrones aired their finale, we devoted an episode to not just talking about that finale, but the idea of finales in general. We talked about what makes a finale succeed or fail and what some of the best examples were. How important (or not important) is it to…

e49. Cinema vs. Streaming

Recently Steven Spielberg allegedly implored the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to make it harder for films distributed primarily through streaming platforms to win Oscars. Or maybe he didn’t. The details are actually kind of fuzzy. But moreover, we’re not sure it really matters whether he did or not. The very idea of…

Call for Comments: Mediated Politicking

From Katya: Sick of hearing about electoral politics? Prepare to hear about it some more! (Hopefully not as bad as that family member that we often encounter over the holidays.) Media has always had a huge role in politics. In the U.S., we have the myth that  JFK won the presidency because TV  (which is…

Call for Comments: Media Reboots, Revivals and Adaptations

From Mav: So we had a topic suggested by a listener, specifically Maximilian, who wrote our theme song (and was on our music of your youth episode). By the way, if it isn’t obvious, you can totally suggest topics for us to use. Anyway, Max requested we do an episode talking about the recent trend…