The audio version of this episode was posted on January 14, 2021. (Original post and audio is in the link.)
Kathryn
Hi, everyone, this is Kathryn Adams.
Elizabeth
And Elizabeth Wallace, and you’re listening to Binary System Podcast
Both
number 250. Wooo!
Kathryn
You may not be able to hear it, but there’s ice clinking in my glass.
Elizabeth
Very nice. Cheers.
Kathryn
Cheers! Wow, wouldn’t have thought it.
Elizabeth
Yeah, it’s true. When we started this, it was just, I don’t know, because we wanted to talk about Welcome to Night Vale, we didn’t really think 250 episodes later, we were still gonna be here.
Kathryn
I know. Oh, my goodness. Well, this has been an extremely eventful 250 episodes. It’s also been an extremely eventful week. But we decided we would probably talk about that later.
Elizabeth
Yeah, we’re going to discuss the events that happened ON OUR BIRTHDAY. That deserves I mean, we don’t want to get into a SitRep right now and bring down the tone. Cause it’s all kind of scary. We really wanted to celebrate 250 episodes, and how are we going to do that? We are gonna to talk about a random collection of our favorite things.
Kathryn
We wanted to do recommendations for people. But once you start listing the stuff that we liked, you just can’t stop. So this is… we’re gonna miss stuff. Because this is everything that is occurred to me to write down in five separate categories over the last two weeks. And I will probably wake up at three in the morning going, “No, I forgot to mention this!”
Elizabeth
Maaaan. So we’re going to set a timer just to make sure we don’t go on too long. But I mean, there’s no rhyme or reason to any of the things that we’ve listed in any of these categories.
Kathryn
Just that they’re going to be by category. And that’s pretty much it.
Elizabeth
Yeah, pretty much. We’ve got books, TV, movies, comic books, and podcasts. And we’re just going to try and list and maybe talk about as many as we can in each one. This is just stuff that’s occurred to us over the past couple weeks. It’s kind of a… it’s kind of a what’s keeping us sane during the pandemic, but it’s not, also, because some of these things I haven’t read for a while, but I totally recommend them.
Kathryn
Yeah, I think a lot of these would fall into the category of if I was trapped on a desert island, and I had access to all of these things, I would forget that I was trapped on a desert island.
Elizabeth
Yeah, that’s fair. So what category do we start with?
Kathryn
Well, I guess since we originally started this podcast as a fan podcast for Welcome to Night Vale, we should start with podcasts app.
Elizabeth
Good plan works for me. All right, let me make sure I’ve got my list called up here. Have you got the timer eady?
Kathryn
I have got the timer ready.
Elizabeth
Okay, so this is the category of podcasts, the things that we recommend, I don’t know, just off the top of our head, aaaand start the timer
Kathryn
Starting.
Elizabeth
I have got to lead off with My Dad Wrote a Porno because I have had
Kathryn
laughs
Elizabeth
I have that stuff on repeat for WEEKS now.
Kathryn
I… I have so many podcasts that I love, but for having a podcast where you will literally be crying laughing, that is definitely up there.
Elizabeth
Oh, it is so, and it’s so weird. And I guess it might not be for everybody because it does get really like into some really technically sexy, detailed stuff. And it’s awful. I mean, it just cringeworthy bad, which is listening to them lose their minds about it makes me so happy.
Kathryn
Just, it’s just hysterical.
Elizabeth
And I love the fact that Okay, so it’s… Jamie’s dad wrote this porno, several books now. And he’s reading aloud to his friends. The thing that’s so fun, though, is as much as they’re tearing it apart. His dad is aware that they’re doing this podcast and apparently loves it. So you don’t even have to feel bad that they’re making fun of the dad. The dad thinks it’s great. He told his sister one point that “they’ve just made it magnificent.”
Kathryn
Well, I was a little worried when I found out that he was writing more books after the My Dad Wrote A Porno Podcast made it so successful. And I thought, Oh, well now he’s just going to be pandering. Nope, it’s exactly as bad as it was when it started. It may even be worse it is and it is still beautifully bad.
Elizabeth
Terrible. Highly recommend that one. Okay, what’s your second?
Kathryn
Well, we should probably include Welcome to Night Vale, which if you haven’t ever listened to that I’m not exactly sure why you’re listening to this podcast, but
Elizabeth
laughs it’s true.
Kathryn
I love the description someone had from ages ago. It’s like if Neil Gaiman and Stephen King started a game of the Sims and just let it run forever.
Elizabeth
Yep, that’s exactly. I think it’s fun because the very first few episodes, they’re just weird for the sake of weird. They don’t really have a rhyme or reason. They’re just bizarre. As the show’s gone on, it does have like an internal storyline, but they’ll still go back to the episodes that are just weird for the sake of being weird.
Kathryn
And I will always love this for the fact that I thought for sure that the Carlos and Cecil pairing was not going to be canon, that it was all going to be Carlos the scientist absolutely weirded out by Cecil obviously falling head over heels for him right from the start. And then in that episode, when Carlos said, “I just wanted to see you” I mean, I literally said “awww” out loud and that just won me over. If I wasn’t already in love with the podcast before, that did it.
Elizabeth
One of the..the very first episode when you first hear Cecil, say “And now the weather” and we get a song, which just throws you for a loop, you’re like, well, this isn’t the weather. This is a song. That is probably my favorite thing about the show. We have gotten so many cool songs given to us for the weather, artists that I would have never heard of before. I don’t like all of them. But I love so many of them.
Kathryn
Man Shearwater has got to be my favorite. And I think they’re working on a new album right now. So so looking forward to that.
Elizabeth
Yes eeeee!
Kathryn
laughs
Elizabeth
Okay, so I’m gonna have to throw in there Wooden Overcoats. If you haven’t heard that one, It is just goofy fun, about two funeral homes on a small island in competition with each other. And that, just go into it with that. And it’s very British and really, really fun.
Kathryn
And it’s Felix Trench, who we have been doing the weekly pub quiz all through like, for months now. We’ve been doing that pub quiz that he runs. It’s great. And he’s just such a delight. And I will I will go back and listen to the first episodes all over again. Because Felix as the really, really irritated funeral home director, “We get the body in the coffin in the ground on time.” That’s wonderful.
Elizabeth
It’s like, all the characters are wonderful. The writing’s great, a lot of the stories are just wonderful. They’re funny, but sometimes they’re really kind of heartfelt, as well, surprisingly, they’ll get serious every once in a while. Yeah, that’s a really good one.
Kathryn
And it’s the first podcast I think that inspired me to do fan art.
Elizabeth
No, I believe it. I love that piece too. They’re all stuck in a boat together. Very, very cute.
Kathryn
laughs We have to mention No Such Thing As a Fish.
Elizabeth
We do.
Kathryn
I mean, I always go back and forth about which is my favorite podcast, I will always have time for No Such Thing As A Fish. It is four British people just reeling off facts for an entire episode once a week. And man they’re consistent. They do it every single week for years, and is always so much fun and love it love it. Love it.
Elizabeth
So on a… I don’t always listen to a lot of, like, True Crime ones. But recently, we got to listen to one called Heaven’s Gate, which is all the story about the people who are in the Heaven’s Gate cult. But it’s respectful in the fact that it’s, I don’t know, it’s recognizing that the people who were in it, were all flawed individuals, but they were still human beings, highly recommend that one. I do also like the Dream Podcast, not everybody likes that one. But it’s talking about, Oh, God, multi level marketing. And then the next season is talking about like the wellness industry. Both of those have been so fascinating. You just forget you’re listening to them.
Kathryn
Yeah, I have. That’s one of the ones that I had on my list there. And it’s one of those things that if you ever thought that multilevel marketing or this like, herbal remedies and woowoo treatments for wellness, that sort of thing, if you were ever uncomfortable about those things, but didn’t really know why, this podcast explains why
Elizabeth
Yeah, it absolutely does. I mean, like Heaven’s Gate, it’s not exactly a happy story. So I hesitate sometimes to recommend stuff like this, because I like to recommend stuff that’s light and fluffy and happy. But the Heaven’s Gate one was so well done. So well recorded, was pretty fascinating.
Kathryn
Yeah, it really was. Also not light and fluffy is the Swindled podcast, which is about Blue Collar Crime and corporate crime and just basically people in authority at higher levels of society behaving really badly. Oh, that’s fascinating. I mean, some people won’t get into it, because the podcaster is A Concerned Citizen. That is what he goes by, you don’t know his name. He keeps his identity secret. He does all the research himself. He talks in a very monotone voice that you would think would be irritating, but it just kind of lulls you because he’s not, he’s not dramatizing any of this stuff or doing a whole “dun dun dun” kind of thing. He’s just giving you the facts. And it’s always fascinating. I mean, he’s done about four seasons of it. I’m a Patreon at this point, because I wanted to get the extra bonus content that you can only get if you sign up for his Patreon. So yeah, highly recommend that one.
Elizabeth
So you said it was blue collar crime, what’s the difference between blue collar and white collar? It’s white collar isn’t it?
Kathryn
YEAH, it’s white collar crime. There have been some instances of blue collar crime, I guess it may be to differentiate this kind of true crime podcast from others. It’s not specifically about murders and serial killers, and it is a lot of corporate malfeasance. But then you also have Oh, God, that guy that was running an illegal body Chop Shop out of a funeral home,
Elizabeth
Wow…
Kathryn
Man, so fascinating.
Elizabeth
Yeah, see, I found that one before I ever saw the Fyre Festival documentaries. I actually found his episode on there. It was the first thing that I ever listened to that really went into it. And it came out long before those two movies. And I think He did a great job. And he’s also just so wryly funny about it.
Kathryn
laughs
Elizabeth
Somebody had suggested maybe we should not do this festival and someone said, “Well, what if we do and we all become legends,” “and then they all high fived. Probably.” I love, it’s great. And then that was my, was my doorway into his podcast. He’s really very, very good.
Kathryn
Worst Foot Forward, which we are also technically patrons for, because our little sister Hannah recommended that for us. And that was her birthday present, this last year, was a $5 membership, so she could pick a topic, and what was the topic that she picked for that?
Elizabeth
Oh, God, was it world’s worst sports movie?
Kathryn
World’s worst sports movie, yes. Every week, they do another episode about the world’s worst something, I think last week’s episode was world’s worst tree. And you see these things and go, how could you come up with enough information? Well, they really can.
Elizabeth
Yep, no, they’re very, very good at that. I also had on there…and I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, if you’ve never checked out the Flixwatcher podcast, they’re only reviewing movies that are available on Netflix. But they go into everything. And it’s fascinating for the fact that they did the Princess Bride at one point, that there are people who’ve never seen that movie, because they’re technically a little too young it? And listening to people who have watched this stuff for the very first time. But I mean, they did Princess Bride they’ve done Se7en, they’ve done How to Train Your Dragon. I mean, everything that you can think of as long as it’s, you know, Netflix UK, but as long as it was available on Netflix, that’s what they’re actually listening to. And I, you can never predict what they’re going to like, no idea, but it’s all organized by movie. So you can just scroll through and be like, Oh, I want to hear I’m talking about this movie or this one. Fascinating stuff.
Kathryn
And that’s the one where one of their criteria is its rewatch ability.
Elizabeth
Yep.
Kathryn
Which is really a good idea. Because there are movies that you have to see at least once because they’re a classic. Maybe it’s not something that you want to sit down and watch once you actually know how it all turned out. But they will score movies based on that. And it’s a good segue because my, the last one that I had listed was the Best Pick Podcast, which, tons of these are Hannah recommendations. So yeah, Hannah can set you up with some good podcasts. But this is a trio of British people who have decided to go through every single Best Picture Oscar winner in no particular order. And they go into the background of how it was made, what exactly was going on in the year that the movie came out, and then they watch the movie.
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Elizabeth
Stop, stop, stop. laughs great timing.
Kathryn
laughs Yeah, that was my last one. So, Best Pick Podcast. You gotta check that one out.
Elizabeth
Excellent. Okay, so I’m just gonna go ahead and say that the next thing we should do is comic books and graphic novels, because that’s very near and dear to our hearts. So once again, these are highly recommended by us, but not in any particular order. Some things I’ve been reading recently, and some things are just classics, in my mind, I just, I started just grabbing things randomly and tossing them in there. So. Alright, you ready?
Kathryn
Yeah, I’m ready!
Elizabeth
And start the timer.
Kathryn
Starting. Alright, my first one that came up on the list is Stjepan Šejić, Sunstone, which you can read online. I think you can read all of it still on Deviant Art. But he’s also started putting a bunch of his stuff up on Twitter, because apparently Deviant Art has started censoring some of his stuff. And Sunstone is… it starts out as two women who have started a Dom sub relationship, and then it progresses to love. It is a fantastic story. I love the characters. It’s beautifully drawn. And it’s gorgeous. And it’s all stuff on Stjepan Šejić’s work. I mean, he.. I don’t know where he finds the time because I think he’s probably got about five different series going on, that he’s working on. And it’s all stuff that he has decided “this sounds interesting. I’m gonna pursue this,” which must be nice. But he is he’s just a fantastic artists.
Elizabeth
Yeah. And it’s not like this is the only thing he’s doing. I mean, he did the whole Harleen series for DC. He’s done a ton of DC covers. He did Aquaman for a while. I mean, he’s working in the BIG comic book industry. And he’s still working on like four or five books of his own. It’s crazy. So I’m going to toss in there, the Wicked and the Divine. And I’ve been rereading that one recently. Wow. I think, I would love to recapture the feeling I had of reading it for the very first time because it just knocked my socks off. But I have to say reading it the second time, I understand what’s going on. If you’re worried if you’re reading it the first time you’re like, “I have no idea what’s happening,” you’re not supposed to know what’s happening because it’s just…they’re doling stuff out little bit by little bit and some of it is never going to make sense until you get to the end. And then you have to do a reread, so you can see with new eyes, you’re like, Oh my God, that’s what was happening! Don’t worry. If they do something and you’re like, “I don’t I don’t know. Where are we? Why did we jump around?” They’ll get around to it. They’ll explain it, but it’s also beautiful.
Kathryn
Well, I have three in a row that I need to list because these were all, this is the trifecta of stuff that Nathan loaned to me when we first started dating. So there is Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. Yes. You need to read this, I don’t know if the recent stuff that they’ve been doing, all this expanded Sandman universe is all that great…
Elizabeth
Nah, I don’t recommend it.
Kathryn
…the original series. Wow. It is. It’s indescribably good. It is amazing. Anything Neil Gaiman does, actually, is pretty fantastic. And that’s, that’s going to be something with a lot of the books and things that I recommend. I’m going to recommend one thing, but it’s usually the thing that got me into their work, so that I knew I would enjoy pretty much anything else they did. And that’s the case for Sandman. Next up is Watchmen by Alan Moore. Now you thought it was a little overhyped. That book just knocked my socks off, I mean things, and, still finding out things years and years later that Alan Moore did, like making, I don’t know, making pages echo each other from one page to the next. And that simplified format that somehow does so much. And this mind bending story and how everything comes together towards the end. Oh, it’s fantastic. I still have not seen the movie, mostly because I know it won’t live up to the book.
Elizabeth
It doesn’t. I’ve seen it. And I haven’t seen the TV show yet, which I hear is pretty good.
Kathryn
Oh, okay. But the final thing that Nathan recommended is Grendel by Matt Wagner.
Elizabeth
Yes.
Kathryn
And that is…whoooo, God, and so many iterations. He just takes the whole thing through time. And it’s always fascinating. But Grendel, I think it was Devil By the Deed. It was the opening one that tells the origin story. I will sit down and reread that at any time. It is just that good.
Elizabeth
Nice. Yeah, just before I forget, Alan Moore’s Watchmen, that was one when I first read it, I read it in college. And yeah, I didn’t get it. I read it all the way through. And I thought, alright, that was a thing. It is true, every time I sit down and reread it I get more out of it, it is one of those books that you do…and I don’t know if it’s because I’m older and read more things since then. Or really, you just absorb it as you go. But yeah, highly recommend that one too. I’m gonna have to put down there, the original four graphic novels of ElfQuest. I don’t like any of the recent stuff. I am not alone in there. I hear some of the rabid ElfQuest fans have actually driven people off the Facebook page because they won’t allow any type of comments about how the quality is maybe not as good as it used to be. But the four original graphic novels are just beautiful. And just, I mean, I think they’re just world changing. For me.
Kathryn
They were, I mean I read those at like 12 years old. And, you can go back and look at those early artwork and some of it is a little bit amateurish, but it’s still amazing. And it only got better. And even after the first four graphic novels. The two graphic novels after that are still solid work. And there was a bunch of the stuff that she did.. on like little one shot stories where she did them in full color, and it was all painted, and mind bendingly good. It kind of started sliding downhill after that, because I think the opening stories were stuff that she had a passion about, and it was a story she wanted to tell. But then she like, came up with a theme that she wanted to illustrate and wrote a story around that, and then maybe she had a motto that she wanted to illustrate, and no, it kind of, it was kind of disappointing, and that movie never came out.
Elizabeth
No!
Kathryn
And we have been waiting for that movie since the 90s when they said that they had sold the rights. Now I understand why they didn’t go through with it. But still.
Elizabeth
Yeah.
Kathryn
It’s..yeah. The first ones.. I… you.. it’s hard to find anything better than those first stories.
Elizabeth
It really is. I do stress that I have read some of the recent stuff and I do not recommend it so don’t… don’t judge the original books by what’s coming out now, the original books are very solid. I really like those.
Kathryn
We’ve got to mention Serenity Eose as a good comic book.
Elizabeth
Yes!
Kathryn
Oh, when I first saw that, it was online, and I read the first issue. Now his style changed a lot. But it’s an example of an artist who changed his style and yet I continued to love everything that he was doing.
Elizabeth
Agreed.
Kathryn
But those original ones are so Goth cute, and it’s.. it’s addictive. It is so addictive. Just sit there and page through it and see.. just, I guess it was a lot of heart coming through in those first ones, and just so meticulously drawn where he got a lot more expressive as the story sort of evolved but, I love that.. you got me the collected Serenity Rose for a birthday president one year, no sorry Christmas present. We don’t give each other birthday presents because we don’t like shopping on our birthday. But yeah, I love that collected issue. So if you guys get a chance to pick that one up, that is, I definitely recommend that.
Elizabeth
If you want like a quick introduction to it, he’s got a standalone story that was, like, a Halloween story?
Kathryn
Ah yes! laughs
Elizabeth
That may have been the first thing that I ever read and I just loved it. It is hilarious. It is so fun. I didn’t even know the characters at the time and I still adored it. It was great. I’m gonna throw in there the Transformers More Than Meets The Eye from IDW. I think if you start with the Death of Optimus Prime, and just jump in from there, I mean, it’s post war Cybertron, the war is over. And then More Than Meets The Eye just goes out from there. The art is beautiful. The story is amazing. This is James Roberts, when he talks about “drip feed history” into the Transformers. He’s always mentioning something. And he doesn’t always explain it, but it’s just like little pieces of history or little things about their lives or what it’s like to live as a living robot. But he doesn’t throw all this information, just gives you little pieces every once in a while. And he’s also hilarious.
Kathryn
Yes. Oh, and Alex Milne. I mean, they’ve gotten other artists who are fantastic. But I will always love the combination of James Roberts and Alex Milne, and it was something we were talking about a little while ago. That, because this is after the end of the war. It is no longer the Decepticons versus the Autobots fighting for control of Cybertron and to protect Earth. Okay, they’ve moved past that. And now you get to explore what it is that is so unique about robotic characters that can live for millions of years and have relationships that lasts that long and just, irresistible. So read that. James Robertson, Alex Milne, they actually collaborated on a couple of early stories in the Transformers run that went into the backstory of Optimus and Megatron, back when Megatron was a miner from Tarn and Optimus was a police officer. Oh, that’s great. Love both of those.
Elizabeth
Wonderful, yeah. And Lost Light was also extremely good. Till All Are One was great. All that stuff was wonderful. But yeah, if I’m going to recommend one series is going to be More Than Meets The Eye. Just fantastic.
Kathryn
Two online series you need to check out: Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Foglio….
Elizabeth
Yep, I have that on my list!
Kathryn
Definitely got to include that one. It’s online. It’s also in the collected issues. So you can read it either way. Gah, it just… they eventually took their name out of the running for best graphic novel for the Hugo Awards, because they wanted other artists to have a try, which sounds really uppity, but it’s TRUE. They kept winning.
Elizabeth
It’s totally true.
Kathryn
Oh, and it’s just I mean, the artwork and the story, it just keeps getting better. Lackadaisy Cats, that is mostly online, I have at least one collection of those. It’s just set in Prohibition era, about a speakeasy, trying to find booze, and trying to keep their business afloat. But it’s all cats. And it’s Tracy Butler, I think is the artist…
Elizabeth
I think that’s her name.
Kathryn
Oh, wow. She just, I mean with the sepia tones and the, all the extra little details and how beautiful and expressive all their faces are, just wonderful.
Elizabeth
Wonderful, wonderful. And of course, if we’re going to be listing web series, we have to put Lore Olympus in there.
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Elizabeth
I got it in in time!
Kathryn
Yay! Oh, yeah, I did have Lore Olympus. We also have to list a bunch of other things really, really fast. So rapid fire without a lot of explanation. Kabuki Circle of Blood by David Mack, you have to watch, you have to read that one.
Elizabeth
Oh, Adam Warren: Scissors, Paper Stone. Love that one.
Kathryn
Adam Warren: Empowered!
Elizabeth
Aaah! Yes, obviously. Yes.
Kathryn
Saga by Brian K. Vaughan, which I wonder when they’re going to come out of hiatus at some point.
Elizabeth
Ahh, no idea. And the only other two that I had were, obviously, more Adam Warren. I’ve got Fatal But Not Serious, and Bubblegum Crisis. And it doesn’t matter if you’re familiar with the properties that those come from. They’re really good standalone books.
Kathryn
The Complete Concrete by Paul Chadwick.
Elizabeth
Boy, it’s been a while on that one. I haven’t read that one in ages.
Kathryn
There are a ton of collections but that, the complete one is the one that I read first, and I love it. I love every bit of it. And then Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore, now, he cannot tell a coherent story worth beans, but every individual issue of Strangers in Paradise is a jewel.
Elizabeth
Very awesome.
Kathryn
And last one, if you can ever track down a copy of it, Xanadu by Vicki Wyman. Now she didn’t…she never went back to that after…was it across golden seas or something like that?
Elizabeth
Across Diamond Seas.
Kathryn
Yeah. And she has since passed away, which is really a shame. But it just, two graphic novels worth of stuff for Xanadu was amazing. It’s all anthropomorphic, but it’s all magical creatures anthropomorphic, so very fun.
Elizabeth
With a little bit of sexy good times in there. She does delve into the furry side of anthro stuff.
Kathryn
Yeah. And last one is Lucifer, and it’s the very first one, the one.. that I can’t even think of his name. But yes, the very first Lucifer graphic novel series is fantastic mind blowing.
Elizabeth
Yeah. And I know I’ve forgotten some, I just I, I went through all my graphic novels, but I didn’t open up my comic box. So I’m sure there’s a bunch in there that I’ve forgotten ugh!
Kathryn
laughs
Elizabeth
Okay, so… I don’t know, do you want to do TV, movies, or books?
Kathryn
Let’s do books because it’s gonna take a long time to get through these, so I just want to get these…uh, my brain is on fire at this point.
Kathryn
God yes, I mean, we’re talking about things that we love and we’re keeping it to a time limit, aaa! Okay, so, we’re ready on books.
Kathryn
I’m ready!
Elizabeth
And start the timer.
Kathryn
Starting the timer.
Elizabeth
I’m going for Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone. He has the entire Craft Sequence series, all those books are good, but that first one, Three Parts Dead. It’s the best of the whole lot. Every time a new book comes out. I’m like, Oh, this is amazing. Not quite as good as Three Parts Dead…I don’t know, it’s a world of magic, but also kind of communing with Gods but it’s also kind of like accounting?
Kathryn
laughs Yeah, I’ve enjoyed all of those. And actually, Max Gladstone collaborated with the author, Amal el Motar, I hope I’m pronouncing her name right. With the novella, This Is How You Lose the Time War.
Elizabeth
Yep, I’ve read it too.
Kathryn
Oh, wasn’t it amazing? Love that.
Elizabeth
Just beautiful. And it’s all told by letters back and forth between spies.
Kathryn
Yeah. And there’s…they’re sending their letters in like tea cups that are made to shatter in just the right pattern or the growth of tree rings.
Elizabeth
Yeah, just, you’re talking about like millennia to set up these letters to each other. It’s beautiful.
Kathryn
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, now she recently did…I think it was the Starless See, which was amazing. I love that. But the Night Circus was the first one of her books that I’ve read, first story of anything of hers that I read, and I loved it. I think I’ve re read it like three or four times by now, just so addictive. It’s about two magicians that are competing in the confines of a circus. And each of them are competing to create another tent of the circus using magic. And it’s… just imagine a circus that focuses on every single detail to make sure it’s completely perfect. And it doesn’t have to obey the laws of physics. And it’s a love story.
Elizabeth
Yeah, it’s beautiful. I have a really good memory of sitting on a plane and reading that entire book. You know, I’m going to toss this in here for a classic: the Narnia series is good, and some people don’t like it because it’s an allegory. I think it stands alone without the allegory. I have a lot of great memories of reading those books. I think the Dawn Treader is the best out of the bunch. It’s just an adventure on a ship to strange lands where they meet strange things, and there’s magic and talking animals. And that’s always been my favorite out of the entire series.
Kathryn
Well, I love CS Lewis’s Space Trilogy, because he does world building so well. So with the Dawn Treader, they’re traveling across the sea, from island to island, and every single island is a different world. And he just, he excels at that.
Elizabeth
It’s beautiful.
Kathryn
Catherynne Valente is one of my very favorite authors. The first book of hers that I ever read was the Orphan Tales.
Elizabeth
Yes.
Kathryn
And that’s, that’s a two part book. Wonderful. That is, that is an example of, this is the book that I read that I realized, ah, I will like everything this author writes.
Elizabeth
laughs And I do, everything is great. Some of it is weirder than others. But I like the Orphan Tales. Because it’s a story within a story within a story
Kathryn
Within a story, just like it’s, it’s very much in the vein of Arabian Nights, in that one story will lead to somebody sitting down and saying, Well, let me tell you about what happened here. And you just, you completely lose track of these braided timelines, I would, I would actually love to do a visual representation of the timeline of these books at some point, because you keep jumping back and forward in all these different connections, and it’s just all wonderful.
Elizabeth
I’m gonna go ahead and throw this one out there as well. The entire Crystal Singer trilogy by Anne McCaffrey.
Kathryn
Yes.
Elizabeth
I’m so happy that, you know, she had written the first two books, which were great and that it was years later, the third book comes out and I just recently reread the third book, it holds up, it’s respectful to the original tone. Now she’s, either her or her son wrote some books that kind of like, I know, you’ve got the dragon series and then years later, they wrote another book, and the later books are just terrible. But the Crystal Singer trilogy is solid from beginning to end, and I love all the details.
Kathryn
And I was going to recommend her dragonriders of Pern series, but only up to All the Weyrs of Pern. I think if you stop there, it’s fine because it kind of went downhill after that. But yeah, that was Oh, our English teacher Mrs. Teehan, reading us the first few books of the Dragon Singer, which she didn’t start with Dragon Rider. She started with the the Dragon Singer series. And I think that was at about the point when you make a decision whether you’re going to be a fan of unicorns or dragons at that age, and that was just like, Okay, it’s dragons now.
Elizabeth
Yep. I love that she was one who introduced us to that, but you know, it’s funny somebody actually had the Crystal Singer book in the classroom and I think I borrowed it from somebody. I’m like, Oh, what’s this? And they’re like oh, it’s Crystal Singer, same person who wrote the book about the dragon. I’m gonna like this!
Kathryn
Evolutions Darling by Scott Westerfeld.
Elizabeth
Nice.
Kathryn
And he mostly does young adult fiction. Now, I think he feels that he gets more feedback from younger readers. And I think for some reason, young adult books have a longer shelf life than the, like, grown up books, at least that’s what he said. Evolution’s Darling, oh, it’s got sexy good times. It’s got artificial intelligence, who’s traveling the universe, it’s just got everything. And again, it was an example of reading this book and realizing I will like everything that he writes, which is kind of true. I’ve never quite gotten into his young adult stuff, but wow, so Evolutions Darling. And then the Riven Empire books and then Polymorph and Find Prey and just all of it, love it.
Elizabeth
I’m glad you mentioned Polymorph and Fine Prey. I didn’t put them on my list only because I wasn’t sure if they’re for everybody. But I reread those things all the time. Though, Polymorph really bogs down like halfway through.
Kathryn
Sure does. Yeah. Especially, it started getting a little bit into the intrigue, and I’m like, I want more people transforming into things.
Elizabeth
Yeah, please. Thanks. I’m going to put in Chuck Palahniuk’s Rant. I think he has many good books, many of them are more disturbing than others. But Rant is such a great. I don’t, you don’t even realize that it’s science fiction until partway through, but it is. It’s such a complicated story. It’s told, like from people’s point of view, it’s another, what do they call it, an oral history?
Kathryn
Yeah, something like that.
Elizabeth
People are, you’re hearing from people telling this story as how they knew this kid. And some of its really gross. So that’s kinda disturbing, but I reread that one at least every couple years.
Kathryn
I put down Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk which again, an example of the first book of his that I ever read and realizing Oh, I like this author a lot. So Survivor is great. It’s one of those examples of a book with a lot of minutia, like the whole cleaning, all the, all the stuff that tips he comes up with how to clean things or about artificial flowers, you just, any little fine detail about things he packed into this book. So you just, it flies by, you suddenly realize, Oh, wait a minute, I’ve been reading for an hour.
Elizabeth
Yeah, I… the only reason why I don’t recommend Fight Club is because if you’ve seen the movie, the movie is such a great translation of the book. I feel like you’re good. You know, the movie and the book do have some differences in them. But I always say if you’re going to read Chuck Palaniuk read something that hasn’t been made into a movie already. And so that’s usually why I go for Rant.
Kathryn
Got to put down Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Another book, I read that and thought, I need to find more things by this author.
Elizabeth
laughs And that’s, boy. It’s not a happy book, but all the details are beautiful, just so dark.
Kathryn
When I read that I had never heard the term steampunk. You were the person that had to tell me that you had read an article about that and heard it described as such. It’s not quite accurate. It’s on a different planet with different races, like one of the races are the khepri, which are women with the head of scarab beetles. They don’t have a scarab beetle’s head. They have an entire scarab beetle as their head and they speak in sign language. And that is one of the least weird things about Bas Lag. That’s the world that he writes in, but Perdido Street Station. Oh, that’s…I love that book.
Elizabeth
Yeah, that was my introduction into all of his works, too. I wish…he writes a lot of nonfiction, which I haven’t read, but I wish he would write another book. We haven’t had one in a little while.
Kathryn
It’s been a while!
Elizabeth
I’ve got to put in Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn, that book, when we found it in the 90s…and a lot of people….there was just a conversation about this on Twitter. There was this real dry spell in anything Star Wars for a long time, and then Heir to the Empire comes out and we saw it in a bookstore and we just begged mom to buy it for us. And it felt like another movie, it, the characterizations are so perfect. You really felt like it picks up right after Return of the Jedi.
Kathryn
And you can thank Timothy Zahn for the Grand Admiral Thrawn character because that’s where he first came in. And I hope when he shows up in the Mandalorian, which he’s going to have to, I really hope that they go for a lot of the characterizations that Timothy Zahn did for him, especially the bit about him figuring out how to conquer a race by studying their artwork. I just thought that was such a wonderful little detail.
Elizabeth
Yeah, I haven’t watched much of Star Wars Rebels. So I hope that that character is very close to the way he was in the book and that’s what they’re putting in the Mandalorian.
Kathryn
Really quick, John Varley. I do not like his recent stuff, but the Persistence of Memory is a short story collection that if you like the stories in that book, you will like things like Steel Beach, or Golden Globe or his other short story collections, so you can’t go wrong with those.
Elizabeth
I actually, I have Steel Beach or Golden Globe or Blue Champagne on my list of his books that you really need to read, Blue Champagne is a collection of short stories. Sometimes he’s better with a short story format, can’t really recommend Titan Wizard Demon that much. It’s, I think it’s a little too out there for a lot of people.
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Elizabeth
Okay, real quick, the only other things that I had that I didn’t get a chance to mention, Neil Gaiman’s Fragile Things collection.
Kathryn
I’ve got that one, yay.
Elizabeth
Yep. Yep. And also, David G. Hartwell’s World Treasury of Science Fiction. That’s one of the greatest collections of science fiction stories, my introduction to a lot of those guys. And finally, Stephen King’s Tommyknockers, because it’s a science fiction story.
Kathryn
Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite. I can definitely recommend that one. Adam Troy Castro, he does short stories. And my very favorite story that he did was the Tangled Strings of the Marionettes, which was actually a sequel to the Funeral March of the Marionettes. Those are collected in a short story collection that I think is going for like $100 on Amazon because it’s out of print. So if you ever get a chance to find like a back issue of fantasy sci fi magazine and find those in there, yeah, you need to check those ones out. And pretty much any book that he’s written, like his Andrea Cort stories are fantastic. So you need to check those ones out. I just hope that one day he will finally do War of the Marionettes, which I think is the final in the series of that, and so far, it’s only available in German.
Elizabeth
I want to just mention really fast Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Boys series. I recommend that one as well. But that’s a real recent one. For me. I only started reading them like a couple years ago, but she has a new book coming out in May!
Kathryn
laughs Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth, two books by Tamsyn Muir, I think that’s how you pronounce her name. The third book in the series isn’t coming out until 2022 and I want to know what happened!
Elizabeth
Aaa crap crap crap.
Kathryn
See I’ve got other stuff on my list but I think we need to move on because I could, I could stay on this topic for days and days.
Elizabeth
Oh my God, I could do this forever. Okay, I say we go to TV after this one.
Kathryn
I think that’s a good plan. And I know that I’m not going to have as much as you do. Because I’ve been sitting here trying to think of things and yet I’m just like, it just has to be some random lightning bolt: oh, yeah, I forgot about that one. So yeah, I don’t know why I haven’t been as productive on that as I was on the books list.
Elizabeth
Oh, I could go on about books forever. Okay, so ready?
Kathryn
Ready!
Elizabeth
Start the timer.
Kathryn
Starting.
Elizabeth
I’m gonna put The Good Place in there first.
Kathryn
That was on the top of the list because I am three episodes into the final season.
Elizabeth
Oh, my goodness, he..and that’s a great one especially for the pandemic because it is talking about death and the afterlife and everything. But it’s so good hearted. It’s all about? How can people be human beings? And how can people be better human beings and the mistakes they make, and everybody is hilarious, the writing is wonderful. The acting is brilliant. The effects are really good. I mean, let’s face it, they had some really good effects going on for a TV show.
Kathryn
And I think one thing they keep coming back to is the reason why people figure out how to help someone is realizing how much this person they’re talking to is like them and react to things the exact same way. Which is a great lesson, I think for nowadays because I think we had some more of that.
Elizabeth
Yeah.
Kathryn
The next one I had was The Crown because I just finished watching the most recent series. It’s addictive. I, it’s it’s one of those…one thing I love most about books is when a character says “Well, let me tell you a story of something that happened in my family’s history.” And I’m just like, Ooh, this is like candy. That’s what The Crown feels like, you’re listening…you’re seeing a dramatization of history. So it feels like there’s a bit of a remove, where you get the storytelling element rather than the Ooh panicky, I can’t…I’m worried about how this person’s gonna embarrass themselves now, it’s just very, very intriguing, very addictive.
Elizabeth
I would have definitely recommended that higher except for the most recent season had TOO MUCH PUKING.
Kathryn
laughs
Elizabeth
Oh my frigging god, I was so glad though that they put a warning at the beginning of every episode, because I had the mute button ready. I’m like “son of a frigging arrr.” Why with the PUKING..
Kathryn
I even turned to Nathan and I was like “Elizabeth is not gonna like this season quite so much.”
Elizabeth
Elizabeth really didn’t like that a lot at all. The rest of it’s really, really good and a lot of stuff that I hadn’t even thought to ask about Diana, I didn’t even know anything about her eating disorder. And that’s a very real thing that she talked about in interviews. So be darned. And I’ve been rewatching Dexter.
Kathryn
Okay, now see, I had to stop after his wife got murdered because that made me feel so bad.
Elizabeth
Yeah, that was fourth season, I think. So first season, I already finished with the first season, solid beginning to end, I’m partway through second season. I’m still loving it. I have such fond memories of watching those for the first time, and I’m really enjoying the second time. But I feel like there’s a lot of TV shows where you have to know, Okay, this is how far you watch. And then you stop. Like there’s a point in House MD where you got to stop watching that as well. But before that it’s all great.
Kathryn
Peaky Blinders, which..
Elizabeth
Oh, yep, I have that on my list too, yep!
Kathryn
I would not have thought I would like that, I don’t know why, I guess maybe it’s a part of history that I don’t really know a whole lot about, that kind of, post first world war pre second world war, but in Ireland?
Elizabeth
Uh, no it’s not Ireland is it?
Kathryn
No it’s not in Ireland…it’s in Birmingham.
Elizabeth
Birmingham!
Kathryn
Yeah. But it’s, it’s really compelling. And the fact that the music is anachronistic works very well, which I would not have thought.
Elizabeth
No, the first time I heard that soundtrack, I remember thinking, oh, they’re gonna go with something modern. And then within seconds, you’re like, yes, this works just great.
Kathryn
And of course, Cillian Murphy is…he’s one of those people that if you look at him one way, he looks like an alien. And if you look at him another way, he’s really hot.
Elizabeth
Oh god he’s so hot but he’s…they’re so compelling. All the actors do such a great job. I also put in the first few seasons of House MD, like I said, I…that’s become comfort watching for me. I know that not all the episodes are great. I know the treatment of Cuddy was terrible in that series. And it certainly got gimmicky towards the end. But there’s so many good episodes, like episodes that will make me cry. And the writing was great. The acting was perfect. Hugh Laurie is just wonderful. Yeah, the first few seasons of House.
Kathryn
We actually started watching that because Mom and Dad were visiting us years ago, and we had sat and watched several episodes of Black Adder, where Hugh Laurie plays a very idiotic Prince. And then I think Mom and Dad mentioned that Hannah had suggested House MD as being really good. So we turned on, and we looked at it and like, Oh, my God, it’s the Prince. What the hell?
Elizabeth
laughs Totally different characters.
Kathryn
Really, really different character. Breaking Bad?
Elizabeth
Yes!
Kathryn
This is another example of a TV show that I would not have thought that I would like at all. And I was hooked by the end of the first episode.
Elizabeth
Oh, wow. It took me a little longer. I enjoyed it. And then you get to the episode with the fly, which I don’t think is a bad episode. But for some reason, I was like, I’m gonna put this aside for a while and pick it up later. And it’s almost a year later. And then it was…Hannah said that she was going to show it to Mom and Dad and I literally went indrawn hiss of breath I don’t know…Mom and Dad were the ones who told me Oh, you really need to keep watching it. It’s very good.
Kathryn
It’s REALLY really good. Wow, and it stands up there as having the best villain death I have seen ever in movies in books on TV. Oh, yes. When…when Gus Fring stepped out of that room. And we thought that he had survived and I just thought “Oh, I can’t..” and then the camera pans around. I thought, this is brilliant.
Elizabeth
This is…it could not have been any better. And the ending was perfect as well. I just, it’s so important. If you have a long running TV show that reaches out to people, please make sure to just at least have the ending be good.
Kathryn
Yes.
Elizabeth
Do whatever you can. Because Dexter is an example of where they didn’t do that.
Kathryn
Yeah. Oh, boy. They nailed it on Breaking Bad.
Elizabeth
Yeah they did. So I’ve got Doctor Who in there and…which is hilarious because I am so behind on Doctor Who and I really need to get caught up. I love the Ninth Doctor and I always say Never Skip Nine. But I will say that it was David Tennant’s episodes are the best of the whole show. I mean, I don’t think there’s a Doctor who’s more beloved. And I think the writing was so good for so many of his episodes.
Kathryn
And yet my favorite episode is the Doctor’s Wife, which is the 11th Doctor.
Elizabeth
Yeah…well, it was written by Neil Gaiman, so obviously.
Kathryn
Obviously. But, you know…so David Tennant’s run had Blink and Matt Smith’s run had The Doctor’s Wife, both fantastic episodes. But I can’t recommend people start there. Because the reason why they are so good, is because they are really playing off the whole history of the character and having fun with it. And you really need to know, you really need to love the Doctor in order to understand that, but yeah, if you want to start…the Ninth Doctor started kind of goofy with the whole plastic mannequins as the bad guys. But that was really…because Nathan and I have been watching a lot of classic Doctor Who lately and that is really how the show was. I mean, they, they had a lot of really silly looking aliens, but it works so well. And this new series, starting with the Ninth Doctor, really started building on that and now you have this whole mythos with the Doctor that I love and just keeps getting better, but I really need to watch the latest two seasons, cuz I haven’t!
Elizabeth
I know I know. And Captain Jack came back and I still haven’t seen that episode yet, oh my god.
Kathryn
The Mandalorian!
Elizabeth
Yes!
Kathryn
We’ve talked about that enough so we can move right on. I’ll just go ahead and take another one because we’ve talked about that enough. Black Bear: we’ve also talked about that one enough. So I’ll move on with another one. Beastars: I think I’ve talked about that more than enough. I’ve actually watched that through multiple…I even deliberately watched that through one time without the subtitles so I could just watch the animation.
Elizabeth
Oh, brilliant. I put in the original Danger Mouse.
Kathryn
Oh yeah! That’s a good one!
Elizabeth
Yeah, I…every once in a while I’ll pick it up. I’ve watched some of the new ones that came out a few years ago. I…it’s missing something. I think it’s that kind of simplistic cheesy animation. Something about that really rings very true to me. But that show is so funny.
Kathryn
The voice acting was just perfect.
Elizabeth
Spot on.
Kathryn
For ages like, “oh crumbs” that was, you know, that was what you say in the place of damn because it’s funny!
Elizabeth
It is. “Well it’s been awfully nice but I really must be going, godbye for now.”
Kathryn
laugh
Elizabeth
Penfold comments here and there oh my goodness.
Kathryn
It’s a real shame that Stiletto, the crow, had a different voice in the recorded issues, because..but apparently they had the Italian one in the ones that played for American audiences because they thought the Cockney one would..or or what was it?
Elizabeth
I don’t remember, I can’t, there was a reason why somebody thought someone was going to be offended, maybe I don’t know.
Kathryn
But I just I loved the his original voice as it appeared when we were watching it years and years ago. Um…The X Files!
Elizabeth
Yes! Have to put the X-Files in there.
Kathryn
I haven’t watched the most recent series. And I’m kind of glad because apparently they did something that made everybody mad towards the end of it. But..
Elizabeth
I heard that yeah…
Kathryn
But I really, I mean, I have very fond memories of coming home from work in the wintertime when it had already gotten dark. And you know, Nathan was taking a class on something and I would just put in a load of laundry, and make myself some dinner and sit and watch the two repeats of The X Files that they would play every single weekday. That is…and that’s another example of shipping that, I mean, that is, that is a glorious example of shipping, Fox and Scully.
Elizabeth
Perfect. I have the Great British Bake Off.
Kathryn
That’s another one I have too!
Elizabeth
laughs Talk about, comfort watching. I just recently watched all the Christmas episodes, which I had never watched before. And that’s even better. Because it’s a single episode with all the, you know, you’ve got the signature dish and the challenge and then the big thing at the end, whatever. But at the end, one person wins and nobody goes home. So it’s all very sweet and lovely and fun. It’s…it’s something to make you feel good.
Kathryn
Another example of a really good hearted show because everybody, everybody will help each other.
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Elizabeth
The only other thing I had, just did sneak it in there, is Firefly, because how could I not mention Firefly?
Kathryn
Oh, yeah. Why didn’t I mention Firefly?
Elizabeth
Yeah why DIDN’T you mention Firefly? Also if you’ve never watched Dollhouse, I’m just about to the point where I’m going to start rewatching that one again. I watch it every few years. I know there’s problems with it. I know there was studio interference and everything. It’s not a perfect show. I think it’s very…it’s fascinating. It’s fun. And I’ve enjoyed every time I’ve watched it. So what do we got left movies? Is that all we’ve got left?
Kathryn
Yeah, that’s the only one I can’t believe we’ve managed to make it through all this. I thought for sure we’d digress ourselves into a two hour show.
Elizabeth
Ha. That could still happen. You wait. Alright, are you ready?
Kathryn
I’m ready for movies.
Elizabeth
And start the timer.
Kathryn
Starting.
Elizabeth
I’m going to segue into this one: Serenity because I said Firefly.
Kathryn
laughs…and I started with the Firefly series by watching the Serenity movie.
Elizabeth
I know a lot of people who did the same thing, I had never seen the show, I had no interest in seeing it because I felt like that’s what took Joss Whedon away from Buffy. And then Buffy sucked. But then you saw Serenity and said Oh, it’s great. I said I’ve never seen the TV show and you said you don’t have to just watch the movie. And I did and it was so good.
Kathryn
It’s just, I mean, of course that did introduce us to the concept of Joss Whedon killing your favorite character. But you know, I guess I can kind of forgive them for that because somebody had to die in order to make the stakes feel real.
Elizabeth
Yeah, it’s also one of the first examples of seeing a movie and literally the next day going out and buying the soundtrack. The TV show, I actually think the music is fine in the TV show. But the music in the movie is so good.
Kathryn
Now I…it would probably be a little overkill to recommend all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. So I’ll just stick with two of them the first Iron Man..
Elizabeth
Yes.
Kathryn
And the first Avengers..
Elizabeth
Yes!
Kathryn
Which are hands down my favorite in the series, Iron Man I think as an example and…Okay, this is probably a little bit of hyperbole here. It feels like a perfect film. It feels like it does everything that it sets out to do and it doesn’t ever miss a beat, it just, and Robert Downey Jr. I mean, it’s amazing to see like, like someone doing the cardiac paddles that’s kind of what this movie did to Robert Downey Jr.’s career
Kathryn
Boy howdy .Yeah, and I have a real …my memory of that is dragging my friends Darcy Leah to see it and Leah was in but Darcy was not really a comic book person, then we get to the end of that movie and she said oh my god Elizabeth, I’m so glad you dragged me to see this, I liked it so much, and I’m like yaaaaaaay!
Kathryn
And I I love Avengers Assemble, and it stands out as…I can pinpoint the moment when I became dazzled by Tom Hiddleston.
Elizabeth
Oh yeah.
Kathryn
Because I had already seen Thor and I was impressed with the fact that, with the way the writer and the director and Tom Hiddleston put together the Loki character, because let’s face it, whether you’re talking about the comic book or the original myth, it wouldn’t be out of character to play him as Ming the Merciless, like really chewing the scenery. So they gave him, you know, some actual depth. And then you watch the movie, The Avengers Assemble, and he’s really cool. And he clubs a security guard in the face with his cane and like loving every moment of that. And then he’s in that glassed-in cage. And he says something like “a warm light for all the world to share.” But right before that, he stops and he smiled. And I remember actually thinking, whoa,
Elizabeth
“Oh wow, who’s THAT?”
Kathryn
That was a dazzling smile. So yeah, I’ll have a soft spot in my heart for that one for ever.
Elizabeth
I always think it’s hilarious how you got out of that movie with this love for Tom Hiddleston. And I was just like, Clintasha Clintasha! You’re getting a TV show, and my ship got some…worse than the Titanic.
Kathryn
laughs
Elizabeth
Still mad at Joss Whedon about that, “They’re just friends!” Arrg, f*ck you, aaaaa! I didn’t care anything about Hawkeye or Black Widow before Avengers. And after that, it was like “I wanted to be together forever.” And they weren’t, arrgh! Anyway, Men in Black gotta put Men in Black in there.
Kathryn
Oh, yes. Men in Black. Wow. That’s another example of a perfect movie, I think.
Elizabeth
It is. Yeah, we just recently re watched it for our watch party with the whole family. It holds up so well. It’s so good from beginning to end, all of it. I even think like the…this movie came out a while ago, I still think the effects are really really good.
Kathryn
Yeah, they are. A lot of times the CGI doesn’t hold up. But I don’t see a whole lot of that weird kind of wobble that you get in old CGI when it feels like it’s not blending into the background. They really nailed it on that, they knew just how much of it to use without going overboard, I think.
Elizabeth
And plus, Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith are so good together.
Kathryn
So funny.
Elizabeth
They are really, really funny.
Kathryn
Alright, How To Train Your Dragon, boom.
Elizabeth
Yes! I had that one on there, too. All of them are good. But the first one has such a special place in my heart cuz I just, I didn’t know it was going to be that good.
Kathryn
And that scene where they’re flying together for the first time and they, like, he has to grab his cheat sheet and he doesn’t have time. So he just chucks the cheat sheet away and they fly through all of those stone pillars. I get…I get a lump in my throat every time I see that because it’s just so beautiful.
Elizabeth
It’s so good. The music is so perfect there. It’s really, and then, you know, he helped him with his you know, he was missing that…that fin and that’s why he couldn’t fly. And then in the end when he loses a foot and everything and I’m just in my mind, I’m like, this is so perfect. I heard that they almost didn’t do that. Because they were afraid that audiences wouldn’t like that, that he had lost a foot. And they, they tested it with some people. And people were just like, no, it’s so much better that way.
Kathryn
Yeah, it’s really solid. The whole trilogy is wonderful.
Elizabeth
Yeah it is. Fight Club!
Kathryn
Fight Club!
Elizabeth
That’s one where I hadn’t seen any of the trailers, or any of the commercials beforehand. The guy that I was dating at the time wanted to see it. And I’m absolutely thinking it’s gonna be a bunch of guys are technically past their prime, but they all get together and they train and they go to the Big State Conference and they manage to win! I thought that’s what it was gonna be about. I was so happy to be wrong.
Kathryn
And it stands out as a movie that is misinterpreted all the time. Because a lot of people seem to think that it’s going gung ho rah rah men power. No, it’s telling you just how toxic that shit is through the whole thing.
Elizabeth
Yeah, it’s…rewatching it with the watch party the other day, I was so happy because I hadn’t watched in a while. And sometimes you worry Oh, is it going to be as good as the last time I saw it? It’s better.
Kathryn
laughs Here’s an older one. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the Jim Carrey movie, and you think it might be like a…like a romantic comedy or it’s gonna be a screwball comedy with Jim Carrey. It is so weird, and it is our beautifully done. And it is all about somebody whose girlfriend wiped her memory of his existence after breaking up with him. So he decides he’s going to do the same thing. And you were seeing inside his mind as he’s suddenly realizing this was a mistake. I don’t want to lose all these memories of her and basically him and his memory of her having to make a run for it inside his mind. It is just, oh, wonderful, yes.
Elizabeth
Yeah. I don’t like a lot of Jim Carrey stuff, but I sure like that one.
Kathryn
Yeah, that was…that was one where I realized that he had a lot more depth than I thought he did, because I always…I always associated him with Dumb and Dumber, but then you had that.
Elizabeth
Yeah. I haven’t watched this one in years and I need to rewatch it. I have Big Fish on my list.
Kathryn
Oh, okay. I didn’t put that one down there.
Elizabeth
Yeah, that’s another one where I had not seen anything about this movie. And I just had friends who wanted to go see it and I went with them. So I went in completely cold and it’s beautiful. It’s just such a fairy tale, but it’s, it’s real as well. It’s really a lovely…I use that word too often, but man, that’s a lovely one. And I do need to watch that again soon.
Kathryn
Rogue One.
Elizabeth
Yes. Except for the very last scene really kind of sucked a lot of the joy out of that one. But the rest of the movie is awfully good.
Kathryn
Yeah, it is, it stands out is probably one of the best Star Wars movies they’ve done in a while. I really put that one up there. And oh, that hallway scene with Darth Vader just going through rebel forces.
Elizabeth
Oh, so good. Yeah, I don’t have any of the other Star Wars movies on the list. Certainly not the prequels. But I mean, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, and whatever the final one was, what was the final one?
Kathryn
Rise of Skywalker.
Elizabeth
Rise of Skywalker. Thank you. I enjoyed them. I had a fun time seeing those, but I wouldn’t put them in any of my top lists.
Kathryn
I wonder if the younger generation is going to like it better. Because of course, we all saw the original Star Wars when we were very young, and it kind of imprinted on our brains after that. And I get the idea that someone who is not judging these movies on the entire history based on when they saw the other ones as a child might be viewing them in a completely different light.
Elizabeth
It’s possible. I have Cabin in the Woods.
Kathryn
Yep, I do too!
Elizabeth
We’ve talked before about how we’re afraid we’re overhyping, this movie. And anybody who’s heard us going on about it…I don’t want to ruin somebody’s experience. But if you know anything about horror movies, it’s a horror movie in its own right. But it’s also talking about the tropes of horror movies. And I think it’s..it’s fun on so many levels.
Kathryn
Yeah. And I have an entire list of horror movies I actually like and I guess I probably don’t need to go into detail because….check out some of our other episodes about horror movies, because there’s something about a good horror movie or even, like, in the Mouth of Madness, which in many ways is not a perfect movie, but it just works on such an…it’s just…arrgh, it’s surreal and creepy and odd and screwball in a way and yet overwhelmingly doom and gloom. Yeah, I just…a good horror movie really…I’ve been trying to watch so many horror movies lately, to try to find something that will reach me at the same level as Cabin in the Woods. haven’t found it yet.
Elizabeth
Nothing close, honestly.
Kathryn
Oh, Silence of the Lambs. We have to make sure we include that one.
Elizabeth
Yes, that has to get in there. And that’s another one we rewatched recently. And it holds up. I mean, I think it’s, what is it? 1991? That movie is? It’s so good. It’s really good. And you actually ended up watching the, what is it? The Red Dragon? Did you watch that one?
Kathryn
Yeah.
Elizabeth
Yeah, it’s, I mean, it’s at least respectful I think. It’s not great but it doesn’t make you cringe when you watch it.
Alarm
BEEP BEEP BEEP
Both
AAAAA
Elizabeth
Real fast just to get the ones that I hadn’t listed yet: Arrival. O, Brother, Where Art Thou? Inception, and the 1986 Transformers movie?
Kathryn
I had the 1986 Transformers movie too! That’s a hard one to recommend because I think if you didn’t grow up with the Transformers, I don’t know how much you would like it, but wow, compared to a lot of the animated movies that were coming out around that time. It’s really good. I mean…
Elizabeth
With an amazing soundtrack.
Kathryn
Yeah, and the wonderful work they did with shadows and light and things and the fact that all the characters looked right!
Elizabeth
Yeah. And it is funny though, when you start noticing when you have the A team doing the animation and then you get the C team in other places. I’m like guys, what are you doing, oh my god. There are some really crappy scenes in that movie, but I love it so much.
Kathryn
Um, okay, so Pixar movies. I don’t know too many that I can’t recommend but the first one that popped to mind was Wall-E and I think, I love the interplay between Wall-E and Eve. I thought. just so gorgeous there. Knives Out, we have talked about this before
Elizabeth
Absolutely.
Kathryn
I went into that knowing absolutely nothing and I am so glad because I didn’t know what to expect from that. Wow. It was just funny in ways that I was not expecting at all. I mean, good grief the main character with his Kentucky Fried Chicken accent starts talking like, wait a minute when did James Bond start talking in a southern accent? This is glorious.
Elizabeth
So odd. So weird.
Kathryn
Oh, and only other ones. Let’s see, Trainspotting.
Elizabeth
Oh, wow. I haven’t watched that one in years.
Kathryn
Yeah, that one, it stands out because it’s all about drug users. And yet for some reason it’s… I just have to rewatch it every few years but man, Ewan McGregor this…it pretty much made his career so we can be thankful to that. But his rant about it’s shite being Scottish is, I mean, pull that up on YouTube, if you haven’t ever before. It’s glorious.
Elizabeth
laughs
Kathryn
And pretty much anything by Miyazaki.
Elizabeth
Yes, yes very true. I…Nathan just asked me the other day he’s…I think he was trying to see if…what he could get me as a birthday present. He’s like, do you have a copy of Spirited Away? I’m like, Yes, I do. I’m pretty sure it was given to me by you. And he’s like oh, probably. Oh, I guess that’s it. Wow, that’s….it’s nice to just be able to just friggin geek out…with everything going on in the world right now. It’s nice to just be like here is a…almost an hour of everything that we love.
Kathryn
Everything that we have just been sort of storing way in our hearts. Is that too cheesy? That’s probably a bit too cheesy.
Elizabeth
Eh it’s fine! And hilarious, how many things are we going to come up with over the next few days that we’re gonna be like “I can’t believe I didn’t mention this, I can’t believe I didn’t mention this!”
Kathryn
I will be keeping my little notepad handy here so I can start adding little things so we can bring them up later because I feel like I’m…I’m insulting a movie or a book or a comic book that I love by not mentioning it here but you know if we got started we’d be going on for days.
Elizabeth
Yeah, we really would. And this is nice because…I hope that anybody listening to this, this is maybe like a little watchlist or read list for you but it sure is a watch list and a read list for me, I’m sitting here going ooh, I haven’t watched that in a while and l haven’t read that in a while. So that’ll be something to get us through this pandemic.
Kathryn
Yeah. Speaking of the pandemic, we will be recording another episode later on talking about the pandemic and everything that went on this week. So you can look out for that one.
Elizabeth
Yes. Yeah. Didn’t want to bog down the 250th episode with all THAT going on.
Kathryn
On our birthday on our freaking birthday. [Jan 6 2021]
Elizabeth
Arrgh. Anyway, yeah. Thank you to anybody listening to this episode, whether you’ve been here since episode whatever before we even started calling it Binary System. Five YEARS ago?
Kathryn
laughs
Elizabeth
Oh my God. Or whether you’re just jumping in now. this is pretty good episode to jump in on you know, here’s a bunch of stuff we love.
Kathryn
It surely will give you an example of what to expect in the other episodes.
Elizabeth
God yeah. Like “what are they just gonna ramble on from one thing to the next?” Yes, we are. That’s what we do.
Kathryn
Yeah, exactly. Going on a tangent is kind of our mission statement at this point. T
Elizabeth
Yeah, pretty much. And we have a plan, which is basically no plan at all. So..
Kathryn
Not a plan.
Elizabeth
So I guess yeah, we’re gonna do our little bonus episode at some point about the events of the last week. We hope that everybody out there is staying safe and healthy. And, you know, join us for Episode 251, and there on in, who knows, you know, this is…doesn’t look like there’s any end in sight for this podcast, knock wood.
Kathryn
And we now have to go and read Lore Olympus which somebody forgot to read this week.
Elizabeth
Forgot to read it this week. I’ve had other things on my mind.
Kathryn
laughs
Elizabeth
Anyway, one way or the other, we will talk to everybody in one week.
Kathryn
Talk to y’all later. cheerful instrumental music plays
Elizabeth
[OUTTAKES] What should we start with? Which category should we lead off with?
Kathryn
…God, that’s a good question. Um…
Elizabeth
laughs
Kathryn
Geez. Should we start with just comics, since this is technically a comic.. .
Elizabeth
Yeah, yeah, let’s do that.
Kathryn
I think we should-
Elizabeth
I’ll ask again.
Kathryn
Okay, yeah, ask again.
Elizabeth
So what category should we start with?
Kathryn
I guess we should probably start hang on you know what it should be podcast because this started out as a Night Vale podcast.
Elizabeth
That’s a good, yeah okay that’s fine.
Kathryn
Let’s try that one more time
Elizabeth
One more time.
Elizabeth
I don’t usually listen to a lot of nonfiction stuff, My Dad Wrote a Porno is one, Flickswatcher is a great…. My Dad Wrote a Porno, sorry, let me try that again.
Kathryn
laughs
Transcribed by https://otter.ai