Cover to Credits

This episode we try to unravel the suburban thriller The Girl on the Train, written by Paula Hawkins with the adaptation directed by Tate Taylor. We go over the most important details of this mystery story, like Rachel's saint of a roommate, the ineptitude of the protagonist, and appropriate therapist patient relationships.

This episode we conclude the rom-com trilogy that we never knew we needed with To All the Boys: Always and Forever, directed by Michael Fimognari and adapted from the book by Jenny Han. In this final installment we discuss the many details of wedding planning, college parties, and all the boys that have been left in the dust! 

This episode we witness the birth of the iconic 007 franchise with Dr. No, written by Ian Fleming and adapted by Terence Young in 1962. We analyze vague rocket plots, discuss the first women of the Bond series, and question whether Bond is actually good in bed.

Everyone put your masks on because we're traveling to a dystopian future full of danger with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, originally written and published by Hayao Miyazaki as a multi-part manga series and then adapted to film by Miyazaki in 1984. We talk environmentalism, war, and the film's first introduction to America as the disastrous Warriors of the Wind!

This episode Ian finally gets to talk about chess with The Queen's Gambit, the hit Netflix show directed by Scott Frank and based on the novel by Walter Tevis. We look at this story's intersection of sex and chess, the Russian villain trope, and smothered males(?)

We return to Hogwarts this episode with a quick detour into bureaucracy and governmental incompetence! This fifth installment in the series, written by J.K. Rowling and adapted in 2007 by David Yates, explores themes of civil disobedience, trauma, and snogging!

We get together and have a few laughs this episode with Die Hard, the 1988 film by John McTiernan, based on the novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp. We discuss action film tropes, random grandchildren in the novel, and of course we ask the age-old question: Is this a Christmas movie?

This episode, books come to life (and we're not just talking about the film adaptation) with Inkheart, written by Cornelia Funke and adapted in 2008 by Iain Softley. Tune in for kidnapping advice, discussions on the magic of books, and our attempt to determine if Meggie is a god by the end of the film.

Is it a ghost, or is it the patriarchy? This episode we dream of returning to Manderley in the novel Rebecca, written by Daphne Du Maurier and adapted in 1940 by Alfred Hitchcock. We talk unnamed narrators, unnerving housekeepers, and why you should never surprise anyone ever.

Earth may be a disaster right now, but Mars doesn't seem much better. Join us as we discuss The Martian, a survival tale like no other, written by Andy Weird and adapted by Ridley Scott in 2015. This episode we get into potatoes, science, Childish Gambino, online publishing, and most importantly, potatoes.