Tag: Zombies

Episode 145: The Last of Us: One and Done/Fun

Andi and Lise jumped into the current zeitgeist and watched the first episode of the first season of The Last of Us on HBO Max, the TV series adapted from the video game of the same name (by Naughty Dog and Sony Interactive Entertainment, released in 2013). The storyline involves a post-apocalyptic U.S. in which survivors live in totalitarian walled cities while a fungus-ravaged world (Cordyceps, in case you wondered which fungus) outside the walls infects humans, who prey on the non-infected. Joel (Pedro Pascal), a survivor who engages in black market smuggling in Boston, is tasked with taking teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across the U.S. Gripping, intense, brutal. But the story-telling is amazing. So…one and done? One and fun? Or One and One More? Find out! 

The Last of Us trailer HERE. 

Find it on HBO Max. Official website HERE. 

Shout-outs: Lise is trying to avoid Twitter, which is an even worse hellscape now, so she put an app to play Sudoku on her phone, which provides a nice respite during the day and doesn’t generate anxiety. Andi is finding fluffy niceness in the cozy mystery series on BritBox, Shakespeare and Hathaway, which follows a couple of mis-matched private investigators in Stratford-upon-Avon. More info HERE; watch on Acorn (DVD), BritBox, and Amazon Prime (S1). 

Even on the Twitter hellscape, find us @LGOpodcast, @andimarquette, and @LiseMactague. Also find Andi and Lise on Instagram and Facebook, same handles. 

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Episode 106: Viva Las Vegas! Army of the Dead!

Andi and Lise chat about the movie Army of the Dead (2020), a zombie heist gore-fest directed by Zach Snyder (Dawn of the Dead, 2004). That’s right, heist. A zombie outbreak has occurred in Las Vegas after a military convoy crashes and patient zero escapes into the city and the government has to build a wall all around it. A rich casino owner wants a team to sneak into the city to crack a vault in his casino and snag two hundred million dollars. However, all may not be as it seems, either with the casino owner, the heist plan, and the zombies themselves. Andi and Lise highly recommend that you not dig too deep into this; you’ll only end up asking WTF more than once. Take it as pure adrenaline-fueled entertainment and don’t scratch the surface. Also, this movie probably isn’t appropriate for young folx (kids, ’tweens, some teens) because it is, as mentioned, a gore-fest. 

More info and trailer can be found at IMDb; stream it on Netflix. 

Shout-outs: Lise highly recommends the series “The Great Pottery Throw Down,” available on HBO Max. It’s a British reality show along the lines of the “Great British Bake-off” in which the competition is to decide Britain’s best home potter. Four seasons now streaming. Andi raves about the graphic novel Snapdragon (2020) by Kat Leyh, about a girl who doesn’t fit in and ends up befriending the town “witch” and in doing so, finds out more about her own capabilities. Queer rep, amazing art, great story, wonderful characters. 

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Episode 93: Anna and the Apocalypse

Zombie apocalypse Christmas high school musical! 

No, really! Andi and Lise discuss (and rave about) the 2017 Scottish film Anna and the Apocalypse, in which Anna and a few friends have to fend for themselves in a zombie pandemic at Christmas time, save who they can, and try to rescue parents from the high school. It’s campy, fun, angsty, sad, but always heartfelt. Excellent musical numbers, great songs, and great soundtrack overall. 

Movie info 

Trailer 

Soundtrack on Spotify 

Streaming on various platforms, including: Amazon Prime, Fandango,  Hulu, iTunes, PlayStation, Xbox, and Vudu. 

Shout-outs: Lise just finished spec fic author Rebecca Roanhorse’s latest, Black Sun (2020), an “epic fantasy set in a world inspired by pre-Columbian Indigenous cultures” (SyFy Wire). Also – queer rep! Andi just watched the gay (M/M) 2020 Christmas movie, Dashing in December, which is basically a cute, sweet Hallmark trope made cute and sweet and gay. Fluff, angst, and Andie McDowell!

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Episode 92: Dystopias, Utopias and Post-Apocalytpic Sh*t, Part 2

Andi and Lise just can’t get enough of this theme, and they had another discussion about how these themes play out in various elements of popular culture, how the visual elements produce certain feelings, and the role of the environment and corporations run amuck. Some of the movies and TV shows that came up were Anna and the Apocalypse, Bladerunner 1982 and 2049, Shaun of the Dead, Firefly, Star Wars series, Terminator, Divergent, Hunger Games, Demolition Man, Zombieland one and two, Fury Road, The Stand (1994 and forthcoming updater), and Resident Evil. 

Shout-outs! 

Lise has been playing Civilization 6 on the Xbox, and she’s finding it kind of relaxing in these times while Andi finally began watching teen noir series Veronica Mars (who’s a high school detective!) and she’s already binged two seasons. 

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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. 

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Episode 36: Dread Nation

Andi and Lise RAVE about the book Dread Nation by author Justina Ireland, which is billed as YA but really, EVERYBODY should read it. It’s an amazingly evocative tale of American race relations set against the backdrop of the Civil War but with a twist—zombies. Or, in the parlance of the times, “shamblers.”

From the book description:

Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.

The book deals with race, racial hierarchies as defined by skin color, and how a zombie apocalypse didn’t re-align race relations, but rather simply grafted them onto a new backdrop. The protagonist (Jane) is amazing and the story is well-crafted and you’re swept up in it immediately. READ THIS BOOK.

Justina Ireland’s website

Dread Nation is published by Balzar + Bray (imprint of HarperCollins)

Here’s the Amazon link

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