Behind the Smile

TV:

I can’t even recall what I may have watched this week that is worth talking about. I am watching American Horror Story: Cult, and it is RIDICULOUS. That is not really a compliment but it’s still got my interest. I recently binged the only season I hadn’t watched (Asylum) and it was great, so if you’re going to watch one of the seasons, watch that one. Normally I get about 4 episodes in and am bored. To date, I have only watched Asylum and Roanoke all the way through. Cult still has my attention but we’ll see.

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PODCASTS

Started listening to a couple new ones recently.

The Babysitter’s Club Club – two male friends humorously discuss the popular 80s tween book series. As an avid BSC fan back in the day, I am thoroughly enjoying this podcast. While it’s generally funny, it’s also not mean and there seems to be actual respect for the source material there. The book series deserves to have fun poked at it, but at the same time, it was a big deal back in the day, so it’s nice to see that reflected here. Anyway, they are chronologically analyzing each book and there are a ton of episodes. I’m still at the very beginning.

My Favorite Murder – these gals are pretty funny. Seems a little rough production in these early episodes and they ramble on a bit much but it’s a fun listen (I mean… not that murder is fun but… if you’re a true crime aficionado you will probably enjoy this podcast). I listened to the first 2 episodes this week.

Criminal: Episode 71 – Here is the episode description: “Amber Dawn was 20 when she moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Enumclaw, Washington. On her very first night, she began to notice strange sounds. And they didn’t stop.” It’s exactly as unnerving as that sounds!

TV:

Now that Game of Thrones is over for possibly two years (NOOOO) I must find something else to watch. Hardly anything new starting this fall interests me so I’ve been looking at Netflix and saw they had the first season of Riverdale. Out of bored curiosity I thought I’d try it out and wound up really enjoying it.

It’s a “dark reimagining” (aren’t they all) of the Archie comics which was actually the reason I first ignored it. I mean, how do you update Betty, Veronica, and Jughead (lol) for a modern audience? Well, they managed it! Also I was kind of sold when Luke Perry showed up as Archie’s dad (that makes me feel old though…)

Anyway, it was totally Twin Peaks meets Dawson’s Creek and if that sounds like your jam, you’ll probably like this show. It’s only 13 eps so not a huge time commitment.

The only other thing I’m excited about for the fall season is the return of The Good Place which is about a group of four recently deceased people learning to navigate the afterlife. After the season finale I was pretty stoked to see what they would do for the second season and the first episode which aired this week did not disappoint!

Also who doesn’t love Ted Danson?? Anyway, this show is smarter than you would think and the writing is very clever. I really enjoy it. You can watch this on Hulu.

MOVIES:

Hidden Figures – loved this movie! Was a moving portrayal of the super smart black women of NASA who helped work to get mankind up into space through math, engineering, and computer programming. All the performances were stellar (hah) and it was *mostly* accurate according to Wikipedia.

La La Land – when this first came out I did NOT understand the love lavished upon this movie. And now having watched it I do NOT understand the love lavished on this movie. It is so, so mediocre and I truly believe that Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling’s singing voices should have been dubbed (I felt this way about Emma Watson’s in Beauty & the Beast, too). Full of Hollywood navel-gazing I’m not super surprised that critics liked it, but it was not worthy of all the attention. That being said, I was charmed by it by the end. So, I didn’t hate it. 😛

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PODCASTS:

Haven’t been listening to too much lately but traffic has been absolutely abysmal in the mornings so I’ve been listening to the Nerdist Podcast which tends to run longer than some of my other choices:

• Episode 888: Damon Lindelof – writer on Lost and the Leftovers. I still hate the ending of Lost with the fiery passion of approximately 10,000 burning suns but he was an engaging guest on the show and it was a good listen.
• Episode 890: James Van Der Beek – what is this my second reference to Dawson’s Creek in this post? Why yes it is. Turns out JVDB is kind of an insightful dude.
• Episode 896: Michael Cudlitz – character actor known for Southland and the Walking Dead (He’s my favorite character actor at the moment – loved his work on Southland and was excited to see him on Walking Dead). This was a fun episode to listen to because he has been in a LOT of shows.
• Episode 899: Dominic Monaghan – everybody’s favorite hobbit
• Episode 901: Tatiana Maslany – star of Orphan Black. She strikes me as a huge dork and that’s a compliment.