This 2017 Netflix television show is a critically acclaimed fictional depiction of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling that were popular in the 1980s. We discuss how the show's creators handle representation of stereotypes while also criticizing the worst of America's fears.
Additional resources:
This 2014 collection of short horror stories shows a prolific author experimenting with different tropes and genres to find wonder in making sense of the world. We discuss Jones’s unique writing process to understand the importance he gives horror.
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
This 1985 fantasy film is remembered fondly by our generation, but may not hold up under re-examination. We look at the studio process it was made under, while thinking about how it tries to subvert our expectations of fairy tales.
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
This 1998 horror manga depicts a Japanese town that plunges into chaos in the face of the symbolic spiral. We look at how Ito conceived Uzumaki, while struggling with big philosophical ideas like nihilism, rationalism and routine, meticulous dread in the face of our cosmic insignificance.
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
This 2018 spy thriller is praised for its humor and subversion by critics and audiences alike. We discuss how it represents female and queer identities without pinning down either as templates or tropes.
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
This repost of our two Nick Cave episodes is a mess of grief, awe, love, and aspiration.
Part 1: Nick Cave's Lament
In anticipation of the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album “Skeleton Tree” and its accompanying documentary “One More Time With Feeling,” we discuss the tragedy of losing a child and its effect on art, performance and persona.
Part 2: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Skeleton Tree
By becoming a more vulnerable frontman, Nick Cave has transformed after a major tragedy. To understand this better, we cover his latest album Skeleton Tree, the companion film One More Time With Feeling and the Bad Seeds' latest North American tour.
Additional Resources:
THIS IS A REPOST OF A 2016 EPISODE.
In an unusually giddy, slaphappy episode, Charlie & Christian try to understand how Game of Thrones' sixth season was made. When does an adaptation stop being an adaptation? What happens when it passes -- and surpasses -- its source material?
Additional Resources:
Thank you to our Co-Producer patron Chris Marlton for selecting this week's topic!
This 1997 Australian alternative rock record was a massive success in its home country, but is something we (the hosts) were totally unfamiliar with. We look at how music subjectively builds identity for some "young people" to understand why Unit is so important to adults looking back on their outsider adolescence.
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
This 2015 Vertigo comic by Tom King and Mitch Gerads sets a murder mystery in the Iraq War in 2004. We discuss how the creators strived for accuracy and reverence with this complex story while struggling with our own distaste for violence, glorification, and authority.
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
Thank you to our Co-producer patron Kevin Wetter for selecting this week's topic!
This 2003 superhero film adaption went through ten screenwriters during its production and suffered poor critical reception. We look back before the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we now know it and ask why the formula of Greek tragedy mixed with Cold War paranoia failed to work.
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
This HBO series remake about artificial intelligence, violence and consciousness was made with expert care by everyone involved in its production. But we ask, why then wasn't its depiction of its big themes ultimately satisfying?
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
This 1996 novel is infamous for its length and complex narrative structure, while being critically lauded for its themes and style. We discuss how Wallace approached the project, while grappling with revelations about how he treated women both on-and-off the page.
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
Thank you to our Co-Producer patron Miriam Meaney for selecting this week's topic!
This 2016 film by Nicolas Winding Refn is about beauty, jealousy and the entertainment industry. We look at Refn's thematic intentions and the myriad of arguments about his "misogyny" or "feminism," to try to understand how the glamour industry portrays women.
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
This 2007 manga serial by Inio Asano seems like a simple story about a middle-school boy growing up in Japan. But we find that using symbolic simplicity together with the detailed, weird world of adults, Asano has been described as the voice of his generation.
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
This 1992 album is celebrated as one of the best of the era but we look at the dysfunctional, toxic relationships between the five band members, and we find that the pressures of the music business, touring, and getting older, led to internal conflicts that made it harder for Faith No More to just be a group of goofy weirdos.
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
This 1967 British TV show is revered as a cult classic that was radical and countercultural, while symbolizing philosophical arguments about individualism vs. collectivism. We take a deeper look at star Patrick McGoohan and the commercial interests behind the show to ask if it's ultimately more conservative than pop culture likes to remember.
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
This 1979 collection of essays attempts to reveal the 1960s and California as stories without narratives. We discuss how Didion's work was branded because of her gender, class, and lack of politics, despite her insistence that writing was only an attempt to make sense out of chaos.
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
This 2015 Indian romantic comedy uses a meta-narrative to deconstruct expectations about identity and everyday life. We question the assumptions writer/director Imtiaz Ali makes about gender roles, while wondering how much the real infidelity between the lead actors complicated the film's big theme.
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
This 2012 experimental noise record was heralded as an important moment in musical evolution. We look at how the band approaches their process while unpacking their relationship with major label Epic Records. And we ask, how do noise, magick, and defecation contribute to the future of music?
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
This HBO television show about a standup comedian going through divorce attempts to tackle three big themes: sex, religion and the importance of comedy. We look into Pete Holmes and Judd Apatow's motivations behind-the-scenes, while also asking, "What is its point of view beyond self absorption?"
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
This 1957 Japanese samurai film is a postwar adaptation of Shakespeare's MacBeth, but we learned that it's also tapping into historical theatrical techniques and criticisms of nationalistic self-destruction. We turn to other writers and scholars for help unpacking these symbols we don't know much about, while learning just how universal this critically acclaimed movie actually is.
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
This 2006 comic by Brian K. Vaughn and Niko Henrichon is about lions escaping the Baghdad Zoo during the Iraq War. We look at how the creators approached this subject matter, why it's been challenged in libraries and how it represents people in the Middle East.
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources:
This 1977 record seems to mythologize a certain version of New York, so we look at how it was made to get to the core beneath its poetry, guitar solos and critical success.
Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:
Additional Resources: