My Favorite Podcasts Right Now

This week I'm going to take a little break from my normal discussions of tv and movies, and instead talk about a fairly new form of media: podcasts.  Podcasts are audio shows that can be downloaded from a variety of sites and apps, for me iTunes.  I began listening a few years ago to pass the time at work: mostly true-crime stories, but also everything from fictional dramas to tv/movie reviews to light talk shows.  Below are some of my favorite podcasts that I'm listening to right now or have listened to recently

1.  Sandra: I normally don't go for podcast dramas, but this one was incredibly unique and entertaining.  Voiced by a variety of celebrities such as Alia Shawkat, Ethan Hawke, and Kristen Wiig, Sandra follows the story of Helen, a young woman who takes a mysterious job at a tech company.  As it turns out, she is one of thousands of people answering questions posed by customers of Sandra, a device similar to the Amazon Echo (or Siri) that answers all kinds of questions posed by its customers.  The show imagines that there is a real person behind that robotic computer voice that has become so familiar in the modern world.  Helen works in the "bird division", answering random questions about pigeons and parakeets and chickens, which is funny just by itself, but then she begins going off-script and starts to build a connection with a customer.  It's a fairly short 7 episodes, but it provides some rather interesting commentary on how technology has now entered every aspect of our lives.

2.  Presidential and Slow Burn: I've always been extremely interested in the American presidency.  I can name all of the presidents and recite their years in office (true story!).  One podcast from several years ago produced by the Washington Post, Presidential, spent 30-60 minutes going through the lives and careers of all 45 presidents.  I'm sure this sounds incredibly boring to most of you, but I listened intently during every episode, even for the lesser-known presidents like Millard Fillmore and Chester Arthur.  More recently, I've been loving Slow Burn, an in-depth investigation into the scandals of presidents.  Season 1 featured an analysis of Nixon's Watergate scandal and included audio recordings from that tumultuous time, as well as interviews with some of the major players.  Season 2 follows the more recent Clinton scandals, in particular his impeachment.  The series is incredibly fascinating and provides new details about both scandals that I never knew before.

3.  Pop Culture Happy Hour: Produced by NPR, PCHH (as the cool kids call it) is a discussion of pop culture with an intellectual bent.  Regular hosts Linda Holmes, Steven Thompson, and Glen Weldon, along with a variety of rotating guest hosts, do a deep dive of new tv shows, movies, books, music, and even video games in just 20-30 minute episodes twice a week.  The hosts are all warm and have a nice repoir, and although sometimes the discussions can be a little too highbrow for my taste, they also acknowledge the merits of "lesser" forms of media like reality tv.  In the final segment of each Friday episode, the panel goes around and discusses "what's making us happy this week."  This could be anything from a new tv show to a Twitter thread to an old video game that they just discovered.  The hosts express such joy in this segment, reminding listeners that pop culture really does have the ability to change your mood and change your thinking.

4.  Sword and Scale and Sword and Scale Plus: Okay, I've saved the best for last.  One of the first podcasts I discovered was this absolute gem of a show, that is if you love true crime like me.  With new episodes every other week, host Mike Boudet takes listeners through a horrifying array of true crime stories, enhancing them with narration and real recordings from 911 calls, trials, and interrogations.  The older episodes are generally much better than the more recent ones, but still this podcast is must-listen.  Some of the best episodes are #20 (a creepy computer voice reads transcripts of pedophiles describing how they plan to kill and eat children), #44 (a 911 call recording recounts the stabbing of a pregnant woman when she responds to a Craigslist ad for baby clothes), and #50 (recording of the Jim Jones cult just before the suicide by poison of most of its members).  I even signed up for Sword and Scale Plus for $5/month, which drops bonus episodes on the weeks off from the original show.  I am a very cheap person, but for me this was a steal.

My Week at the Movies: The Meg, Crazy Rich Asians, and Eighth Grade

In the past week I've seen 3 movies in theaters (yay $5 Tuesdays at AMC!): the summer shark attack movie The Meg, the romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians, and the critical darling about preteen malaise Eighth Grade.  You may be surprised about which one I loved, which one I liked, and which one I merely found tolerable.  Below are my (fairly) quick thoughts on each.  Keep in mind that my reviews may contain some spoilers, so read on at your own risk.

1.  The Meg: I went into this movie not expecting much in terms of plot or acting, and as expected I didn't get much of either.  But this didn't matter one bit, because The Meg is well aware that it isn't going to win any Oscars anytime soon, and it cleverly pokes fun at itself by giving viewers the standard shark attack movie tropes with an added dose of comedy.  The reasons that 2 giant megaladons make their way to the surface and begin attacking everything in sight aren't the least bit important.  What is important is that the shark attack scenes are wildly entertaining and refreshingly unique.  That woman is sure to be safe in the underwater cage, right?  Well, only until the meg starts to swallow the entire cage whole with her inside.  Let's take a picture with the meg that we just killed, oh wait there's another even bigger meg that's eating the corpse of the first meg.  So ridiculous, yet totally edge-of-your-seat entertaining and fun.  The one-liners from certain characters, particularly Rainn Wilson as the billionaire owner of the research boat and Paige Kennedy as the wise-cracking black guy who can't swim (a tad bit stereotypical, I know) only add to the fun that you will almost certainly have watching this movie.  In particular, your mouth will be completely agape (joyfully agape, if you love shark movies like me) while watching the meg (the 2nd meg, that is) attack a crowded beach, including a wedding party, an unfazed little boy, and a dog.

2.  Crazy Rich Asians: Let me start off by saying that it's wonderful how this is the first American studio film with an all-Asian and Asian-American cast in many years (although it's sad that it's taken since 1993's The Joy Luck Club).  But this movie wasn't what I was expecting at all.  The previews and buzz around the film made it seem like it would be an outrageous and bawdy comedy.  But this was a typical rom-com, through and through, complete with the best friend and gay guy helping the girl pick out a dress to meet her future in-laws.  I found the central couple Nick and Rachel (Henry Golding and Constance Wu) to be quite boring, and most of their family and friends are beautiful but also bland and forgettable.  The one exception is Awkwafina as Rachel's quirky friend; the movie needed much much more of her.  The main story of Nick's traditional (and rich!) Asian family not accepting the lower-class Rachel is undeniably touching, exploring themes of Asian vs. American culture, but this wasn't enough to keep me checking the time about halfway through the movie.  I will also add, however, that the scenery, wealth, and excess on display in this film was absolutely beautiful to behold.  It made me want to visit Singapore ASAP.

3.  Eighth Grade: I went out of my way to see this movie because it had been widely praised by critics.  Written and directed by former You Tube star Bo Burnham, the film follows the last few weeks of middle school for eighth-grader Kayla (Elsie Fisher).  She's painfully shy and awkward, even though she makes You Tube videos pretending to be the opposite.  The movie follows Kayla through one cringe-inducing encounter after another: a pool party in which she's only in attendance because the popular girl's mother invited her, talking to the boy that she likes at school, who only wants sex, a trip to the mall with her new high school mentor and her friends.  Just when things are looking up for Kayla, she's almost sexually assaulted in a car.  Poor girl!  The film is clever in its use of music (a sexy rock song plays whenever Kayla's crush comes onscreen), and Fisher is a gifted actress who is definitely going places, but the film itself is so depressing that it makes you feel depressed and generally upset about how people treat each other in the real world.  Which is generally not how people want to feel when they go to the movies.  

Big Brother: Trashy Summer Goodness

I've been a fan of Survivor since it first premiered way back in 2000, never missing an episode in all 36 seasons.  I love the drama, the manipulations, and the shock on players' faces when they're completely blindsided by their closest alliance members.  The cinematography and intense challenges aren't bad either.  My former boss told me many times that I'd probably also like Big Brother, another CBS reality show in which contestants are "evicted" from the house that they share rather than "voted off the island".  Not finding much else to watch in the tv doldrums of summer, I finally took the plunge a few years ago and began watching.  Airing 3 times per week from late June until late September, it's a commitment for sure, but it certainly doesn't take much brainpower or concentration to follow.  I liked the show well enough and it filled the reality competition show void in my soul, but I didn't think that it was quite as engrossing as Survivor.  But the current season, now at about its midpoint, changed all of that.

Why do I like this season so much?  Well most importantly, it's not as predictable as the past few seasons, when one or two contestants dominated and I couldn't believe how the other players let them run away with the game.  Although Tyler, the beach bum lifeguard, is undoubtedly controlling most of the other players and is the odds-on favorite to win at this point, that could all change at any moment.  There are 2 distinct alliances on opposite sides of the house, Level 6 (now down to 4) and what was once called Foutte (Five of Us til the End, but now down to 3), that have been rotating power in the game almost week-to-week, and nearly every thrilling "eviction" has come down to only one or two votes. 

There have also been a plentiful number of drama-filled moments so juicy that they couldn't be written.  Life coach Kaitlyn, manipulated by Tyler, flipped on her Foutte alliance and joined Level 6 to vote out the cocky and annoying Swaggy C.  Caught in a love triangle, she was betrayed by Faysal in favor of his new love Haleigh and evicted just a couple weeks later, ruining her chance to return to the game by failing to complete the world's easiest puzzle.  Then last week, using her new power as the "Big Brother Hacker", Haleigh took an anonymous shot at Tyler but then felt guilty when this move got blamed on Bayleigh and caused her ouster from the game.  This all sounds pretty ridiculous, right?  Well yes it absolutely is, but a good reality show is supposed to be entertaining and trashy, and Big Brother checks both of those boxes. 

Speaking of ridiculous, the "punishments" this season have been more goofy and hilarious than ever before.  After becoming the "least trending houseguest" one week (whatever that means), Rachel was forced to endure a large, sweaty man coming into the house and yelling at her (jokingly) for 24 hours straight.  He "criticized" her for everything from her sleeping to her coffee-making ability.  In week 1 sweet country bumpkin Sam was forced to communicate with her fellow contestants as a robot off and on for a full week.  While this was funny, it actually almost made her quit the game because she felt so isolated from everyone else.  Then there was Haleigh having to read Hamlet out loud in a Shakespearian costume, Brett having to take care of his fake "granny" (possibly the same guy that yelled at Rachel) for 24 hours, and Kaycee wearing a peanut costume for a week (for some reason).  It's all so silly, but the show knows that and full-on embraces its kookiness.  

I'm counting on many more fun moments of the show this summer, including the annual visit of Zingbot, the robot that insults the houseguests, and the always crazy and fast-paced Double Eviction night, although Kaitlyn's failure to save herself may have thrown off the numbers and nixed that tradition this summer.  Still, as long as the two alliances remain pretty evenly matched and the evictions keep being tense and unpredictable, then I'll be eagerly planted in front of my tv every Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday night through the rest of the summer,   

Downton Abbey: An Appreciation

Recently I finished a binge of Downton Abbey, the British period drama about the wealthy Crawley family and their servants downstairs in the 1910's and 1920's.  My uncle is a huge fan of the show and has been encouraging me to watch it for years.  I finally took the plunge and couldn't be happier about getting to spend my summer with these characters.  Please don't read any further if you don't want the show spoiled for you, because I will be discussing some key plot points.

The vividness of the characters really stands out to me as one of my favorite parts of the show.  Even though it's set a century ago, the characters feel so real, like they could exist in the world even now.  The large and somewhat rotating cast never feels TOO large; instead it allows for endless opportunities to explore the relationships between them.  And each character has their own strengths and weaknesses, like any real person.  Patriarch Robert is persnickety and often disagreeable, but he dotes on his wife Cora and daughters Mary, Edith, and Sybil.  Speaking of Mary, she's vain, selfish, and manipulative- my least favorite character on the show.  But she isn't completely irredeemable, because she has a close bond with her maid Anna and looks out for her like a real friend (not just an employer) would.  Edith is often weak and a little whiny, constantly clashing with Mary, but she's deeply compassionate and loving to her family, especially her illegitimate daughter Marigold.  Head butler Carson is staunchly conservative, stuck in the old ways of the 1800s, but he cares deeply for the family that he serves and is loyal to a fault.  Under-butler Thomas, one of the most complex characters on the show, schemes and manipulates multiple characters, but this only serves as a distraction to his "never-fully-accepted" identity as a gay man, which must be suppressed in a time that would never allow such a thing.

The sadist and trashy tv-lover in me also loved the multiple shocking deaths throughout the show's run, often envying that of action dramas like 24, as well as many of the other insane plot developments.  You definitely won't get bored watching this fairly fast-paced show.  Sybil's death during childbirth early in season 3 completely took me by surprise, as did the show's decision to keep on her chauffeur-turned husband Tom for the remainder of the series.  The most talked-about death on the show was definitely that of Mary's husband Matthew in a car accident just after the birth of their son, but this didn't have as much of an impact on me because I already knew about it even before I began watching the show.  There was also the death of Matthew's ex-fiancée Lavinia from the Spanish flu and the wartime death of footman William, who married kitchen maid Daisy on his deathbed. 

Speaking of intense plot developments, the most impactful storyline to me was the brutal rape of Anna by the butler of a man visiting the abbey.  For close to an entire season she kept the rape a secret from almost everyone, including her husband Bates, due to the intense shame and fear that she felt.  Actress Joanne Froggatt was brilliant in these scenes, masterfully conveying Anna's unease long after the actual attack.  This plot also led to another engrossing storyline, the mysterious death of Mr. Green, the man who committed the rape.  Such intense plots were tempered by much-lighter and happier storylines, such as footman Mr. Molesley discovering his passion for teaching, Carson learning to appreciate the cooking of his new wife Mrs. Hughes, the Crawley family's head housekeeper, and the family's introduction to new and unfamiliar inventions like the electric hairdryer, electric toaster, and telephone.   

I can't finish this post without discussing the awesome Dowager Countess Violet, played by the wonderful Maggie Smith.  As Robert's aging mother, she easily steals every scene in which she appears.  She's stuck-up and stuck in her old ways, but she also loves her family, even though she's often mad at them for one reason or another.  Her bickering with her cousin Isobel, a much more progressive but lower-class woman, provides some of the best back-and-forth on the such.  A sample exchange:

Isobel: "I take that as a complement".
Violet: "I must've said it wrong".

While I'm sad to have finished all 6 seasons so quickly, I'm happy about the recent announcement of a Downton Abbey movie.  I can't wait to see it with my uncle and spend a little more time with these characters.