Along with John and Magnus, come and Lay All Your Love on this classic and fun jukebox musical. From 1974 when the band ABBA entered our hearts via the Eurovision song contest to a film musical that invited you to envision yourself drinking and loving on the beaches of a private Grecian island - Mamma Mia is all you want and more.

It's not even just about the story, it's about the culture and the time period and an unexpected celebration of joy and caring. It's a musical that knows exactly what it is and even its missteps aren't large enough to tank it's beautifully femme dream of free love, dancing, and Meryl Streep in thigh high platform boots performing as Donna and the Dynamos.

If you're looking to talk about another summer film where the cast and crew had a good time but still leave a heartfelt message and even leave a safer masculinity than before when done - Mamma Mia is gonna be your next beach hit. Especially if you like turquoise and white.

If you thought John and Magnus were done with Fran Drescher after a Summer Short about The Nanny, you were sorely mistaken. The Queen of Flushing and of self actualized but still incredibly femme queens everywhere also had a rom com film work called Beautician and the Beast. And though it sounds like Beauty and the Beast, its more a fun homage to moonlighting type romances ala The King and I.

Tune in as John and Magnus discuss why self actualized women make movie reviewers uncomfortable, how being true to yourself can inspire those around you, and why just because a film is a cotton candy genre piece - it can still be meaningful and have an audience that loves it dearly.

Also, Joy Miller is just a fun name to say with an Eastern European accent.

While you're on vacation (at least in your mind) and looking for some lighter summer fare - consider this new entry from John and Magnus. Shorter episodes for summer to be shared about the beautiful and often lighter side of pop culture.

They begin with an episode about love and growth and family. From 1993, the Nanny brought Fran Drescher into our homes and made everything just "Fine". From the theme song to the grand staircase to a show about love and family and everything inbetween with great callbacks to sitcoms of years gone by - it's no wonder that not only can you still find The Nanny in syndication and streaming but quite a few countries became inspired and made a The Nanny to call their own.

Truly, to go from a bridal shop to Broadway isn't just a thing to celebrate but it's a great way to bring hope and joy to the world. Go ahead and sing the theme song as you open the episode. We know you want to.

It is fitting that it takes a trilogy to talk about all the men of Marvel, both the villain and the hero. Leaving off on the rise of Holland Spiderman, there's tons more for Magnus and John to explore.

Ideas such as why Ragnarok succeeded and how bringing Loki back into the MCU fold was a win (but also a distraction), how the queerbaiting hit its highest arc in arguably the worst MCU films (both of the Avengers war movies), and how -when Marvel wants to-

They produce art like Black Panther and Venom and what both those properties mean individually for the MCU franchise. Not to mention the wasted potential of diverse and very X-men like New Mutants (which John is imploring you to see).

For all of it's good and bad, there's no way to argue that Marvel and its beefcakes haven't left an impression on us all. And where it goes from here? Well, more streaming than big budget movies it seems but those are still around for those who love such things.

John and Magnus hope you loved this trilogy and everything discussed therein because it was a lot of fun for them!

When people think of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they often think of Phase One and beyond. And now with Tobey!Spiderman, the origin of Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark, a successful Fantastic Four film, and several other indie hits in the past - Magnus and John discuss the leading men of the Marvel Movies Studio Golden Era, as the movies came fast and the phases weren't quite yet blink and you'll miss it.

Such like the way MGM in the 1940s produced their stars, John and Magnus discuss things like - missed opportunities with Garfield's Amazing Spiderman, Steve and Bucky, the continued descent into realism that handicaps what a superhero movie has the potential to be and move swiftly into the introduction of the heir to the new Marvel throne with Tom Holland.

There's also a bit of a Pratt diatribe that John has kept bottled up but that's taken care of relatively succinctly. The only thing that keeps this episode from being three hours long is the mutual agreement that the young X-men series and Deadpool will be talked about elsewhere. Because there's just too much content to get through it all otherwise.

And anyways, why talk about the hunks of the Marvel movies universe and not make it a trilogy? More on Holland!Spiderman, the leading hunk of Venom, and the introduction of some much needed diversity into the Marvel leading men universe as the trilogy comes to its probably none too startling conclusion.

We're wishing Magnus the happiest of birthday months in a way only we here at Everything is Gay (Even the Straight Stuff) can. With a quickfire retrospective of the hunks of the MCU (in at least two parts, we found out while recording episode 1).

In this episode, we start in 1986 with the first official MCU movie (Howard the Duck) and quickly discover the first hunk is Stephen Dorrf's Deacon Frost in Blade (at least by John's account - and maybe Randy Meeks' artwork). Magnus and John spend time reminiscing about Fantastic Four's Johnny Storm, that scene in X-2 with the beer bottle (though John always thinks that particular Bobby/Logan scene is in the first Xmen film) with the beer bottle and move through several films right up into Iron Man and Captain America: The First Avenger.

But these musings leave just as many questions as affirmations. Is Marvel being used to build a new MGM style studio system that Thor and Iron Man were the first major inroads of? What harm will backstage beefcakeness like Hugh Jackman went through in the Wolverine movie cause? What would've been different had The Amazing Spiderman not been released in the same year as a big Avengers film? And why do certain male pairings get sexualized and others don't- even with nearly similar content (we're looking at you Tobey!Spiderman and Franco!Goblin). All these and more as the quick run through the Marvel movie verse begins. In honor of Magnus.

Enjoy the beefcake and have a Marvel-ous time. Oh- and don't forget John's episode finale question: Who is your (up to 2012) Marvel hunk of choice?

Nothing really better encapsulates the idea of the horror musical better than Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Starting out as a sensationalist penny dreadful short story for the working class of 19th Century Britain to being the toast of 2023 Broadway, there's been very few years since it's new villainous life as a Sondheim black operetta in 1979 where it wasn't in some stage of being staged somewhere in the world in some capacity.

And it shouldn't work. There's no happy ending. There's no catharsis. It's barely a cautionary tale, more of a fable than anything. It is a world broken and dark and mechanical and unforgiving. Taking place alongside the morbid realities of doomed student uprisings ala Les Mis, it's a show that nobody survives intact. And in fact, the lucky ones really don't survive at all.

From star turns to unknown cameos to actors making their mark, the dark fever dream of Sweeney Todd threatens to make you complicit in the wit and black humor and oppressive revenge seeking that is its hallmark. And you'll love every minute of it. As they say in the stage version (though not the film musical) - Attend the Tale of Sweeney Todd.

2008 was as much a time of upheaval and change as anytime in American history. And usually these times of upheaval and change are accompanied by changes in prevalent art forms. So when Repo! the Genetic Opera followed in the footsteps of Hair (and Tommy) and the Rocky Horror Picture Show, it wasn't a big surprise - though with the creators' intent to not do traditional advertising, its own growth was much slower than perhaps it would've been beyond the traveling road shows.

But Repo! the Genetic Opera is not an opera for just anyone. It's an opera for those who want to see a former Spy Kid playing innocent, naive, but very strong in a babydoll harajuka style. It's for those that yearned to see Giles go dark as Ripper as Anthony Stewart Head turned into a Legal Assassin. And it was for those who love Sarah Brightman and Paul Sorvino and weren't afraid to risk seeing something unusual in order to follow their art.

Repo! the Genetic Opera is about dystopia. It's about the idea that we live on an island atop dead bodies we can't see and though there is death all around us- we want more. We want to Chase the Morning. It's a movie that hit for those in 2008 that were living in a cycle of endless calamity and war (a cycle ongoing) and needed something to turn to that spoke on such a subject in a stylized and somewhat graphic way. And it's a movie that they think about to this day, somewhere in the back of their brains.

Thought it is imperfect, even in its imperfection- there is a vision. And it's easy to see why actors follow the creators of Repo! the Genetic Opera into future works like Devil's Carnival. Because it's distinct, its satisfactory, and it's for sure a ride that you won't take from anyone else. So grab your glass vial and point where you want it to go against your anatomy and spark so you're ready for surgery (surgery).

Why Women Kill was tailor made for the start of the pandemic. A show about sensational idealism focused on sex and murder across three eras of Pasadena with three female leads? What's not to love while stuck in your house with a box of Cheezits? Add in powerhouse acting from Once Upon A Time's Ginnifer Goodwin, Lucy Liu (of Elementary fame since this show premiered on CBS), and Kirby Howell-Baptise fresh off a turn during the final seasons of The Good Place and there was definite magic in the storytelling era.

Even for a fantasy show with salacious bits, it certainly isn't perfect. And even with queer content, Why Women Kill is almost proof that there are certain things that heterosexuality gets away with that queerness still can't in modern pop culture. Ironically, things that it has done before to great and new acclaim.

But for good or for ill, Why Women Kill is a sensational anthology modern masterpiece. Dripping with color, intrigue, and just enough blood to satiate the thirsty, there was very little keeping it from future success. Well. Maybe changing streaming services for season two wasn't the best idea.

Since April is John's birthday month, there was little discussion about the theme for April and more discussion about what would be talked about. And for John, one of the most important and formative movies of the 90s for him was 1998's Pleasantville. From the brain of Gary Ross, Pleasantville was a casting dream with theming both on the surface and deep beneath. It's a narrative about repression and finding yourself. It's a story about rebellion and the teenage years but also a story about the truths (and lies) adults face.

Pleasantville is a story about a black and white world not nearly as black and white as it first appears. And as a feminist piece (or at least a late 90s feminist piece), a sneakily queer ode to self (any movie with a mirror scene it likely qualifies), and a sweet perfectionist blend of 90s pastiche and the absolute obsession with the mythic 1950s Americana 'Norman Rockwell' style life, it's a deeper movie than anyone could ever guess.

And featuring some of the most uplifting yet heartwrenching scenes in maybe any movie anywhere, come with John and Magnus on a tour of Pleasantville old and new in order to celebrate the old and look forward to the new. Of course, nothing is as black and white as it seems but at least there are jars of olives.