Andi and Lise talk about Season 1 of the Hulu series Only Murders in the Building, about three different people living in one Manhattan apartment building who get drawn together as a result of a murder in the building. The three begin looking into the murder and launch a podcast. OMITB is a comedy-drama that pokes fun at true crime podcasts and podcasters, but also explores human connection. Lise and Andi HIGHLY recommend!
Shout-outs: Lise’s birthday is coming up and she’s preparing for that! Andi is watching The Book of Boba Fett on Disney Plus, part of the Star Wars ’verse, and is having a good time with it.
Andi and Lise were joined by book reviewer and fellow podcaster Tara Scott (she/they) to chat about things they’re all looking forward to in 2022 despite the continuing pooshow that is the world.
Lise: animated series Legend of Vox Machina, Amazon Prime, based on “Critical Role,” a group of voice actors who have been playing D&D together for years.
Lise: Rebecca Roanhorse, Fevered Sun (Book 2 in the Between Earth and Sky series); Naomi Novik’s third in the Scholomance series, The Golden Enclaves
Andi: John Scalzi, Kaiju Preservation Society and Tochi Onyebuchi, Goliath; also Janelle Monáe’s The Memory Librarian, short speculative fiction featuring Black women writers and Black nonbinary writers and creators
Andi: still learning Switch, plays puzzle/mystery games but looking for a FPS for noobs on the Switch
Movies/TV:
Tara: not feeling movies, but recommends Mythic Quest on AppleTV, a comedy show about a fictional video game studio working on the fictional game Mythic Quest
Andi:Everything Everywhere All at Once, starring Michelle Yeoh as a woman who just wants to get her taxes paid but keeps getting sucked into the multiverse to save it.
Andi and Lise enthusiastically re-watched the sci fi dystopic action movie The Matrix (1999) to determine how well it holds up 21 years after its release. The movie became a sensation (still is) and they’ll tell you why it still holds up in most ways and things they noticed with their 2022 perceptions (as opposed to their 1999 perceptions) that they thought were problematic.
Shout-outs: Lise got a Nintendo Switch for Christmas and has been enjoying it immensely. Andi has been getting back into DIY stuff and discovered HGTV’s Home Town, where there’s a lot of community revitalization and restoration of historic homes going on in Laurel, Mississippi.
Andi and Lise rave about this tale of paranormal urban legend with backstory and personality, in which author Seanan McGuire world-builds a context for the folklore around the hitch-hiking prom ghost/girl in the diner ghost. Here, the ghost tells her own story in a non-linear narrative: how she died, the type of ghost she is, and “living” on the ghost roads, the world of the dead, haunted by a variety of spirits. One of which is the man who killed her. Tapping into the myth and legend of U.S. road culture, McGuire provides a beautifully written gripping story about Rose Marshall, the subject of urban and road paranormal legend. Even the dead have things to fear.
Shout-outs: Lise really enjoyed the first season of Only Murders in the Building, available on Hulu. Here, New York Upper West Side neighbors bond over a shared love of true crime, and set out to solve the mystery of a resident’s death in the same building. Andi watched the Lifetime premiere of the F/F holiday film Under the Christmas Tree, and really enjoyed its fluffy goodness (a queer holiday film where there’s no angst over being queer!).
Andi and Lise revisit the 1987 cult classic The Princess Bride, a comedy/romance/ fantasy/adventure that incorporates the story-within-a-story narrative style, in which a contemporary boy (meaning 1987) is sick at home and his grandfather stops by to read him a story, which is a fairy tale that incorporates classic quest elements. Clever story, great characters, funny, and the shifting from the contemporary scene to the movie and back in parts of the film lend this film a lot of its appeal. However, there are some things that definitely don’t hold up, and that’s part of the discussion.
Shout-outs: Lise highly recommends the animated series Arcaneon Netflix, based on the game League of Legends. Discord between cities Piltover and Zaun and two sisters fight on rival sides of a war. Andi is finally reading Seanan McGuire’s Ghost Road series, starting with Sparrow Hill Road, the first book in it. The main character is based on the urban legends surrounding the ghostly prom date on the side of the road; the woman in the diner; the hitchhiker. Absolutely incredible world-building.
This week Andi and Lise discuss the old writing adage of “writing what you know” and how that is or is not problematic. They delve into “writing outside your lane” and writing characters who aren’t like you, and being responsible about doing that and why it’s important, and why you need to think about the lens through which you view the larger society. There are no easy answers, but the conversations are important.
Shout-outs: Lise shouted out horror novel The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher in which a woman, freshly divorced ends up living in her uncle’s house and discovers a portal to other worlds haunted by scary things. Andi is shouting out working on getting her stress levels under control and also, she would like to shout-out Lise for doing the editing on the audiofiles! GO, Lise!!!!!
Andi and Lise agree that this graphic novel will make your heart fill with love and warm fuzzy-ness. Check, Please! is book 1 in Ngozi Ukazu’s absolutely fabulous comic about a young southern gay man who is a figure skater who goes to college on a hockey scholarship in the Northeast. Book 1 covers his freshman and sophomore years. We absolutely LOVE this graphic novel (like gajillions of other people do) and we love all the warm fuzzies it gave us. This is how we wish the world could be.
Shout-outs: Lise watched the movie Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, which is about two Icelandic musicians who are best friends who call their band Fire Saga. Their dream is to be in the Eurovision competition. Stars Will Ferrell and Rachel MacAdams. Andi points out the grim Reddit forum HermanCainAward, but notes that the forum is trying to get people to vaccinate against COVID and also does good works, like raising a bunch of money for vaccines. And that’s really what vaxxing is trying to do—keep you safe so you’ll be around a while for your friends and family.
No new episode this time, as Lise is heading to the (hopefully not yet) frozen north for some long overdue face time with her family. Enjoy this offering of Andi and Lise’s favorite Halloween movies to tide you over to the next episode!
Andi and Lise discuss the 1988 Tim Burton film Beetlejuice, which has become somewhat of a cult [Halloween-ish] classic. They both agree that watching it again in current contexts made them re-think a few things and appreciate a few others, and both think this could be a candidate for a re-boot – as long as Tim Burton does it.
Shout-outs: Andi shouts out Lise for getting her writing projects done! YAY!
Happy early Halloween, all – Lise and Andi will not be live for the next show, but we’ll load up a Halloween show from the vault and be back in November with more happy fun times!
Andi and Lise discuss the 2021 Netflix movie Gunpowder Milkshake, a “neon noir” and cinematographically gorgeous stylized film with a great kickass female cast (including Karen Gilland, Lena Headey, Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh, Carla Gugino) in a female assassin plotline. However, it’s not without a few glitches and they’ll talk about those. Regardless, entertaining! Also, lots of stylized violence; we don’t recommend it for kids.
Shout-outs: Lise has been playing The Outer Worlds by Obsidian Games, a first-person shooter in which a colonist ship is lost in transit and then when it comes out of transit years later, facing a conspiracy that threatens to destroy the colony. Corporate apocalypse themes! Andi started reading the Lady Sherlock series, set in Victorian London and written by Sherry Thomas. In this incarnation of Holmes, Charlotte Holmes takes on the pseudonym Sherlock Holmes while navigating the social hang-ups of the Victorian classes.
Lez Geek Out!cast 