Episode 91: Dystopias, Utopias, and Post-Apocalyptic Sh*t

This week, Andi and Lise talk about various media they’ve consumed with dystopic, utopic, and post-apocalyptic themes that have stuck with them. They explore the weird links between dystopia and utopia and how an apocalypse can underlie those, and how characterization and relationships play out in these kinds of scenarios. Points of discussion include the games Bioshock, Fallout, and The Last of Us; the movie Logan’s Run and A Clockwork Orange, The Island; brief mentions of The Matrix, Star Trek, The Handmaid’s Tale, Hunger Games, Bladerunner; and Jean Stewart’s Isis book series. Plus other rando things that struck them as they unpack some of this. 

Shout-outs! 

Lise highly recommends the book The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson, which is a novel dealing with travel between worlds that reveals a secret that threatens the entire existence of the multiverse. 

Andi is watching, on Apple TV, Visible: Out on Television, a docuseries that explores the visibility of LGBTQ people on television since the 50s and 60s. 

0

Episode 90: Aliens

Andi and Lise talk about the 1986 movie Aliens, starring Sigourney Weaver. It’s still one of their faves and holds up really well. Probably why it won a bunch of awards for special effects (including an Oscar). Here, Ripley (Weaver) is back on Earth after 57 years in cryo-stasis (following the end of the 1979 Alien) but agrees to go back to the moon where she initially encountered the xenomorphs when a terra-forming colony’s comms stop. She accompanies a band of Marines and a corporate shill thinking they’re going to destroy the xenomorphs but one of the themes this movie explores is enemies external and internal. Also includes major women’s and girls’ badassery, and for that time, that was rare. 

More on Aliens 

Original trailer 

IMDB cast listing 

Shout-outs! 

Lise would like to shout-out  the new series Truth Seekers, with awesome British comedy duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz, which Andi and Lise talked about HERE and Shaun of the Dead). Here, Frost is a paranormal investigator whose team goes ghost-hunting but may have stumbled onto something bigger (available on Amazon Prime). Andi shouts out season 2 of The Mandalorian, but is bummed that one of the actors in it whose career she’s enjoyed over the years turns out to be problematic (Andi and Lise discussed problematic faves HERE). Find The Mandalorian on Disney Plus. 

0

Episode 89: Sh*t That Freaks Us Out

In honor of spooooky Halloween Andi and Lise talk about things that freak us out, including some urban legends, folklore, and other creepy things: mirrors and the Bloody Mary legend; La Llorona (the weeping woman); Delphine LaLaurie Mansion; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow/Headless Horseman; when something you think is normal isn’t; skinwalkers. 

Shout-outs! Andi is seriously obsessed with “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving (find it at Project Gutenburg). And check out the 1998 movie Sleepy Hollow with Johnny Depp for an interesting forensic-ish take. And if you want, Andi’s take on Sleepy Hollow is The Secret of Sleepy Hollow, available at Ylva (and all the places!). 

Lise is finishing up The Good Place on the teevee; fun, insightful, brilliant. And she’s coping with the cray by watching episodes of My Little Pony while Andi is finding inspiration from historical accounts of women who were leaders in the French Resistance during the WWII Nazi occupation.  Sonia Purnell’s 2019 release A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II is amazing. And check out Lynne Olson’s Madame Fourcade’s Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France’s Largest Spy Network Against Hitler (2019). 

0

Episode 88: The Night of the Living Dead

Andi and Lise decided to do a couple of spoooooky Halloween shows, and this is the first. Here, they dig into the classic 1968 zombie apocalypse film Night of the Living Dead, co-written by George Romero, who also produced and directed it. This is the origin of our pop culture understanding of zombies, but there are some other currents at play here, and Lise and Andi will chat about those, too. 

More info about Night of the Living Dead: 

Trailer 

A few things you might not have known about the movie 
Some behind the scenes info 

Shout-out: Lise shouted out the pulse-pounding, tense movie Pitch Black (2000), a horror/space movie with Vin Diesel. He and others end up on a planet on which monsters come out at night, but what happens when that night is a month long? Andi piled on to Lise’s shout-out about this movie; she loves it. 

0

Episode 87: What Do You Do When Your Faves Let You Down?

Warning: this week’s discussion will include the subjects of transphobia, racism, anti-Semitism, anti-LGBTQ sentiment, and sexual assault. 

This week, Andi and Lise were joined by Tara Scott, book reviewer extraordinaire (Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and The Lesbian Review), to discuss writers whose work they may still admire but who they have stopped supporting because of said writers’ personal views made public and/or actions. There are no easy answers, and everyone who consumes content should make their own decisions on whether to support that content or not. Here, the LGO crew grapple with what that means in their own consumption habits, and grapple, too, with what it means to find out one of your faves has said or done something that goes against their own personal views and/or that has potentially harmed others. 

Find Tara at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books and The Lesbian Review.

0

Episode 86: Cosmoknights

Andi and Lise highly recommend Book 1 of the 2019 web comic-turned full-color graphic novel Cosmoknights, by Hannah Templar and had a blast with it. Great story, intriguing world-building, excellent characters, fabulous art, and awesome queer rep that includes WOC (shout-out to the butch lesbian rep!). This tagline from the website will no doubt make you want to check it out: “For this ragtag band of space gays, liberation means beating the patriarchy at its own game.” 

Read the webcomic at the Cosmoknights website. 

And buy the graphic novel at all the places! 

Shout-outs: Lise would like to acknowledge the deliciousness of maple cream cookies at ALDI and Andi points out the simple fluffy joy of 80s movie Adventures in Babysitting and early 90s movie Clueless. 

0

Episode 85: Why We Love Antiheroes

Andi and Lise love antiheroes and all of their messy, complicated humanity. In this episode, they discuss some of their fave antiheroes and the flaws that make them relatable: Malcolm Reynolds (Firefly); Han Solo (Star Wars); Helena (Orphan Black); Parker (Leverage); Handsome Jack (Borderlands) Max and Furiosa (Fury Road); Sarah Connor (Terminator and T2); Andy (The Old Guard); Annalise Keating (How to Get Away with Murder).

Andi and Lise discussed the movie The Old Guard in episode 82; the movie T2 in episode 84; Terminator in episode 73; and Fury Road in episode 50.

Lise’s shout-out: times are tough; but she’s finding some solace in cosplay art and finishing edits on her latest book.

Andi’s shout-out is an in memoriam to stellar actor Chadwick Boseman, who died August 28 at the age of 43 after a 4-year battle with colon cancer. He was amazing and oh, he’s missed. Wakanda Forever.

0

Episode 84: Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Andi and Lise break down the 1991 movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day (directed and co-written by James Cameron), which they both consider is one of the best sequels ever made. Andi and Lise discuss themes, characters, pacing, plot, and nods that T2 includes to its 1984 predecessor, Terminator, and also how watching it now, in this historical context, gives them different perspectives than they had watching it both originally and over the years.

Here, Sarah Connor’s son John (he’s 15 now) is a juvenile delinquent living with foster parents while Sarah is warehoused in a psychiatric institution after she tried to bomb a computer factory (trying to destroy Skynet). But Skynet is at it again and sends a terminator back in time to kill him while the future resistance sends an alternative terminator back to protect him.

T2 Trailer

Shout-outs: Lise has been reading The Murderbot Diaries, a Hugo- and Nebula-winning novella series by Martha Wells, in which a “murderous android discovers itself”—its identity and the author interrogates that nature of consciousness through artificial intelligence (from Amazon description).

Andi does a shout-out to fellow author KD Williamson’s new YouTube channel, in which KD taste tests different hot sauces and shares recipes. She’s also bringing other authors on! Check it out at Grrl on Fire.

1

Episode 83: Ascension by Jacqueline Koyanagi

Andi and Lise greatly admire Jacqueline Koyanagi’s novel Ascension, an excellent space opera with elements of magic and mystic-ness layered in. Great diverse cast of characters; queer WOC main character who also deals with a chronic illness; fabulous world-building. This one stays with you in many different ways.

“Alana Quick is the best damned sky surgeon in Heliodor City, but repairing starship engines barely pays the bills. When the desperate crew of a cargo vessel stops by her shipyard looking for her spiritually-advanced sister Nova, Alana stows away. Maybe her boldness will land her a long-term gig on the crew. But the Tangled Axon proves to be more than star-watching and plasma coils. …” –from Amazon book description

Koyanagi’s website

Lise’s shout-out: super see-krit new project she’s working on but she’s not sharing it yet! Plus, finishing up via Netflix the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Andi’s shout-out: Wynonna Earp Season 4, people! Episode 2, “Friends in Low Places,” has what Andi predicts is a history-making F/F love/sex scene (and no, that’s not a link to the scene LOL).

0

Episode 82: The Old Guard

RUN, don’t walk to Netflix as you’re able and PLEASE watch the movie The Old Guard, starring Charlize Theron as Andromache of Scythia who is still alive.

“Four undying warriors who’ve secretly protected humanity for centuries become targeted for their mysterious powers just as they discover a new immortal.” – from Netflix description, available HERE.

But there’s a catch…

Adapted from Greg Rucka’s comic of the same name, the story is about Andromache’s (“Andy’s”) leadership of this team and their attempts to stay undetected over the centuries, and what it means to be immortal when there are so few people in the world who are. Excellent diverse characters (two of Andy’s team are men who are soulmates who met during the Crusades and the newest immortal is a Black woman), fabulous action scenes, fast pacing, strong writing.

The Old Guard trailer
The Old Guard comic

Lise’s shout-out is for the movie Knives Out, available on Amazon Prime. A clever, engrossing murder mystery in the style of ol’ skool mysteries like Agatha Christie’s.

Andi’s shout-out is for season 2 of The Alienist on TNT, which just started airing. 19th-century New York City crime and crime-solvers. Dark and gripping.

1

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑