Fantasy+Girls Podcast

Not Your Scream Queen

Episode 2: HE LOVES ME HE LOVES ME NOT

• We are back with our mini series featuring women in horror aptly titled NOT YOUR SCREAM QUEEN..
• Your two ADHD diagnosed hosts agree that this is the most focused mini-series they’ve accomplished yet, and they are feeling pretty proud of it. Of course that might be because the “work” involved has been a delight! 
• Em has loved the research for this series. Watching horror movies? Who wouldn’t love it?
• Em doesn’t typically take a deep dive into horror—she takes them at face value. This exercise has made her think about them a little differently.
• In college, EJ took a class where she’d actually have a “lab” that was watching a film, and then the class would be dissecting and discussing the movie. Pretty awesome.
• The women discuss how there is a literary equivalent in some films and EJ suggest (rightfully) that we have reached a point as a society where we should discuss films and their artistic merit the same way we discuss novels.
• Em admits her absolute love of movies. All movies. Artistic and terrible—her early video store days left a huge impression on her. 
• They jump right into today’s episode: He Loves Me He Loves Me Not.
• EJ first watched HE LOVES ME HE LOVES ME NOT during her college days, around the early 2000s.
• EJ was wandering the aisles of Block Buster with college friends. They were looking for something to new to watch and had liked Amalie. The friend group recognized the leading actress from Amalie and decided to give this one a shot…they had no idea what they were getting in to.
• The geeks give a run-down of the plot of He Loves Me He Loves Me Not.
• The movie is split in two parts: HER point of view and HIS point of view. EJ and Em dissect how this works in the film.
• Emily is so enthusiastic that she basically interrupts EJ every five minutes (lol). She has no regrets. :P 
• They discuss Erotomania—a real diagnosable mental illness that inspired this movie. It is a rare diagnosis.
• EJ discusses problematic tropes that this movie brings to mind. 
• EJ compares the film to the show Crazy Ex Girlfriend and how it calls out common, problematic tropes.
• The medical student that is in love with Angelique during the entire movie has his own problems. EJ and Em chat about how he thought it was fully okay to steal a human heart for Angelique. What?!?
• They discuss why the mental illness aspect of the movie didn’t feel wrong.
• What would happen if the movie was gender flipped? 
• Is this movie a horror flick or a Psychological Thriller? EJ thinks that it is nudged into the horror category because of the human heart and the creepy murals. They agree that the movie definitely walks the line between the two.
• The consensus is that you could be COMPLETELY fooled into thinking this is a rom com from the opening scene.
• The movie is not without its problems—it is twenty years old—but EJ and Em agree that it is entertaining and they’d suggest to friends. 
• EJ finished Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng and enjoyed it, and is now beginning the Hulu show. She thinks it is a pretty solid read and show adaptation (so far).
• Gareth Frank (a DC author) is in a writing group with EJ, and his book THE MOMENT BETWEEN—a psychological and metaphysical thriller recently released. EJ was an early beta for a draft and enjoys having the finished product in her hands.
• The pressure of the Libby list is REAL—EJ warned Em—but she didn’t realize. Now, Em is reading against the clock. 
• Em is reading a book called CONURE WOMEN by Afia Atakora. Em fell in love with the beautiful cover and chose it to read without even reading the back blurb. The book is very literary and takes place in the years before and after slavery. Em is very much digging the writing style, as well as the story of intelligent women and their story of survival.
• Next up on Em’s list is THE YEAR OF THE WITCHING by Alexis Henderson. She’s excited about it. Who doesn’t love a good witch story? 
• Don’t forget about our bookshop on bookshop.org. 
• Link to the Fantasy + Girl Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/SFFGirlPodcast
• Stay tuned for the next episode where the girls chat about the movie MA.

• Right from the get-go, Em and EJ agree there’s an important topic that, coming out of the My Favorite Apocalypse series, we have not touched on enough: Cannibalism. It only comes up a few times every episode, we promise to do better. 
• Which brings us to JENNIFER’S BODY, our first pick for the miniseries.
• But put a pin in that, Em has some ideas: Since we’ve decided to focus this new miniseries on women of horror--writers, directors, actors, and more--she suggests calling it Not Your Scream Queen. That or Spooky Girls. 
• EJ is ready to roll but has no clue what movies these are--because they’re not. They’re title ideas for the series. Hello. 
• Not Your Scream Queen hits instant icon status.
• The full series will feature a close-up assessment of five different horror films. They don’t necessarily have feminist themes, but they’re all told by women to varying degrees. Which is perhaps somewhat feminist in itself? 
• Horror tropes have become so misogynistic within pop culture (not by genre!) that anything that deviates from that misogyny feels like it is inherently making a statement. 
• Em notes that growing up, if there was a girl in a horror film, by the end she was sure to be covered in blood and half naked. And those films aren’t always trash, but when that’s all that ever happens, come on. 
• EJ adds that if you’re not even playing with your tropes, and merely rehashing, where’s even the fun in that?
• In this series, Em and EJ are here to examine this issue and have some good spooky fun. 
• The films chosen for this series are female-written, directed, led, produced, or touch on “female” themes (or at least themes broadly considered female). We aimed for two of three of these for all films included.  
• And, most of them, we’re going in blind--including our first pick for today’s episode, Jennifer’s Body, starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried. 
• Em remembers in the early 2000s when Megan Fox spoke out about her mistreatment during filming and auditioning for TRANSFORMERS by Michael Bay, and how she got blown off for it. She had to wash his car in a bikini for the audition. So cringey. 
• Now with #MeToo and the evolution of the conversation of women’s equal treatment, this would never be acceptable, but then, no one wanted to hear it. 
• We all owe Megan Fox an apology. 
• And, we like to believe, we’ve come a long way since this film released in 2007--not so very long ago!
• So let’s start with a synopsis: we snagged ours from Wikipedia.
• First of all, this film had an incredible cast! Not just Fox and Seyfried, but also with appearances from a pre-fame Chris Pratt,  JK Simmons (and out of typecasting to boot), Amy Sedaris, everywhere you turn there was a big name. Even most of the guys who play Jennifer’s victims were very familiar looking. 
• Not to mention, writers and director Diablo Cody--indie queen of JUNO, YOUNG ADULT, TULLY … a brilliant lady. 
• And of course, the film has earned a cult following since its original flop release. 
• For Em, there were a few reactions, and one was a hard cringe at the accuracy of this film’s reflection of being a teen in the 2000s -- the hair, the styles, the slang…. save us from our former selves.  
• The other big takeaway: In what universe is Amanda Seyfriend the “plain” best friend? 
• They at least tried with the classic 90s trick of giving the gorgeous actor glasses to make them a nerd. 
• Em observes the film starts with Seyfriend’s character, Needy, in jail after the events of the movie--she’s a kicker. Okay. But that line never circled back to any bigger meaning. 
• Was it because she’d always been the sidekick? She offed the person she was sidekick too?
• And let’s not forget The Kiss. A kiss between Jennifer and Needy was prominently featured in the film’s trailers, and it was a clear effort to pander to the teen guy horror cliche crowd. 
• But in the context of the film, and per Cody’s commentary, Needy was written to be a little in love with Jennifer from the start. Maybe romantically, but also could be taken to be that complicated way teen girls relate to each other--there’s always that one girl everyone seems to adore, or perhaps want to trade places with.  
• There was an obsession between Needy and Jennifer, and a codependency that was very complicated and twisted. 
• It says a lot about female friendship, about high school dynamics, about developing our own identities.
• Em suggests the film is a portrait of a toxic friendship. 
• Even though Needy was second fiddle, but still Jennifer won’t do anything without Needy. There clear rules to their dynamic, including what to wear and how to look, to ensure those dynamics stay in place. 
• EJ calls out that we’ve all been there. We’ve all internalized these kinds of unspoken rules to social dynamics, especially in high school. 
• The film is set in the small town Devil’s Kettle, where there is a waterfall with a whirlpool that sucks things in, and no one knows where the things that fall into it end up. 
• At the start of the film, Jennifer drags Needy along to a bar to see a band playing there. Early 2000s setting, so it’s emo rock, naturally. 
• Jennifer’s flirting with the band, and Needy hears the band talking about Jennifer while she’s getting a drink, calling her a virgin tease who won’t put out. Needy tries to defend her friend by telling them she is a virgin and you should be ashamed of yourselves. 
• EJ says as soon as the band leader opened his mouth, all she could hear was “Rape, rape, rape,” from his first words. 
• There’s a fire in the bar, and in the chaos after, Jennifer gets in the band’s van with them and drives away, despite Needy’s warnings and begging. 
• And for most of the movie, viewers don’t know what happened to Jennifer that night. But she returns as essentially a succubus, possessed by a demon. 
• Spoiler alert: The band tries to sacrifice a virgin to satan because that’s the only way to get ahead in the music business. And Jennifer was not, in fact, a virgin, so everything went awry. Apparently in which case, you are embodied by a demon. 
• Em really wishes the film had gone a different way. Really, a demon? Versus being killed? If she had then turned that demonic force against the band itself in a true revenge, Em would have been all about it. But instead, she ends up preying on relatively innocent teen boys who had nothing to do with it through the rest of the film. 
• EJ wrestled with it too, but landed on the idea that trauma passes forward. The film goes out of its way to make it clear the guys Jennifer murders in her warpath are not, themselves, evil, as the band members were.  
• If you looked at the story without the horror elements, it boils down to a woman who suffers a major trauma, and then takes it out on all men, and her friend’s efforts to stop it, tears them apart. 
• It’s notable that despite everything that happens over the film, Needy is still driven to vindicate her friend in the end, and finally turns the revenge on the band in the end. 
• But let’s talk about Jennifer as a character. 
• EJ loves a character who sucks as a human, so she was here for Jennifer and her shitty ways. And she likes that both the hero (Needy) and the villain, or at least the literal monster of the horror arc (Jennifer) were both women -- rare for a horror film!
• She also appreciated that Jennifer and her return by demon possession upended the trope ...

• FANTASY+GIRLS
  
  My Favorite Apocalypse Ep 4: The Apocalypse Goes Goth
  
  
  • EJ and Em have been gone…for a while. It is now July—months away from when they began the series in April
  • EJ and Em talk about how things have changed since the miniseries began. 
  • EJ and Em discuss the Black Lives Matter movement, how it is necessary, and how it is changing publishing. The hosts discuss easy ways that you can support Black authors and creators.
  • Em and EJ discuss the twitter hashtag #publishingpaidme on twitter and how it revealed the pay gap between white authors and everyone else, especially Black authors in the same genres. 
  • Em says it is imperative that the SFF genre embrace diversity so that we can experience weird and wonderful stories. EJ explains how this benefits readers and consumers—how everyone benefits when there are more seats at the table filled by diverse authors.
  • Em gives credit to the creator of the #publishingpaidme twitter hashtag, author L.L. McKinney. EJ loves all things Alice in Wonderland, and the hosts chat about how good L.L. McKinney’s a new series based on the classic novel, A BLADE SO BLACK, looks. 
  • EJ asks readers to check out #OwnVoices books and explains exactly what that means and why that is important.
  • EJ suggests listeners check out BlackAndBookish.com
  • EJ suggests DREAD NATION by author Justina Ireland. The historical fantasy/horror is a fresh take on zombies/zombie hunters. The book manages to be a zombie book that also examines the historic time period and slavery, but is also accessible and modern.
  • EJ’s second books suggestion is THE POPPY WAR. The hosts take a tangent down Libby lane. They adore Libby—who wouldn’t? It’s amazing. The Libby app will cause you to read faster because it is a race to read the book before the library takes the book back off of your device. EJ has checked out the POPPY WAR three times because Libby keeps taking it.
  • Em says she has been making a cognizant decision to read even more diversely. She is about to give her book picks, but takes a very on-brand detour to say she has been working on a darker work of fiction herself, as well as watching darker shows and even reading darker fiction. EJ jumps on board and says her current show is HANNIBAL.. 
  • Em says that since she has been writing such a dark book, she has been trying to read some fluffy, fun reads to keep her mind right. Em explains she is also currently reading five books at one time (ADHD has perks). Her current read is I WANNA BE WHERE YOU ARE by Kristina Forest. 
  • EJ just finished THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE. Em suggests taking a Shirley Jackson deep dive.
  • Em explains that she knows she is supposed to be talking about the apocalypse, but her current reads have been all over the place. Recently, she has finished CIRCE by Madeline Miller (which is Em’s favorite book of the year so far). Then she read a vampire book. Then a DEXTER book.  Then a horror book titled, THE RETURN by Rachel Harrison. Em read MY LOVELY WIFE. 
  • EJ asks Em if she has heard the buzz about MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. EJ has FOMO. She wants to read it so bad. Em wants all the gothic stories forever and ever.
  • Em has a MEXICAN GOTHIC story. Em has been anticipated this book for months and months. She is about to start the audiobook.
  • EJ is super excited about the book CATHERINE HOUSE by Elisabeth Thomas.
  • Em loves the comps—NEVER LET ME GO is amazing.
  • Em is ready to dig into MEM by Bethany C. Morrow.
  • WESTWORLD SPOILERS AROUND THE 25 MINUTE MARK.
  • Em confesses that she thought she would thrive in the current environment, but now knows she would actually die pretty quickly in a real apocalypse.
  • Em’s next book recommendation is FRANKENSTEIN IN BAGHDAD by Ahmed Saadawi. 
  • EJ says how many people have retreated from the current world into romance novels, however she has fallen into dark, thriller, horror genre novels/shows.
  • Em commiserates that she often falls down the dark-fic rabbit hole. Sometimes after a binge, she thinks you need to almost read or watch something light to shake off the morbidity of darker books.
  • Full circle to Hannibal. EJ loves it—though it is admittedly gruesome.
  • HANNIBAL SPOILERS AROUND THE 28:20 MARK.
  • EJ tells a gruesome Hannibal plot point that has Em unable to cope.
  • The take another (on-brand) detour to Hannibal.
  • Why are our hosts still talking about cannibalism? Who knows? 
  • Em has watched every WUTHERING HEIGHTS adaptation available to stream. She knows she shouldn’t, but there is something about the toxic/terrible relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine.
  • EJ points out that JANE EYRE is in many ways the opposite of Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights is no restraint or boundaries—basically two codependent people being terrible to each other, while Jane Eyre is all restraint (but still a terrible relationship—if you can even use the term relationship).
  • Em says they got a message on Facebook asking for an episode on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and CONTINUUM. 
  • EJ burst Em’s bubble about how we are two seconds from not having new television. 
  • The hosts take a quick detour to discuss all of the television shows they have watched, want to watch, and must watch.
  • The show ends abruptly—but it was a lot of fun! 
  • Goodbye and KEEP YOUR ZOMBIES. 

Shop the list of recommendations from this miniseries at BookShop.org

FANTASY+GIRLS
My Favorite Apocalypse Ep. 3: And We’re All Out of Bubble Gum

Note: This episode was recorded in April, before the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police, and the subsequent protests. When Em and EJ talk about the current state of the world, they are referring to the very beginning of quarantine. FANTASY+GIRL Podcast stands behind Black Lives Matter. For our full Black Lives Matter statement, commentary on its impact on publishing, and how to support black authors, see the opening of episode 4 in this miniseries.

It is about to get really wacky on here! 

• Picture this: it’s the ’80s. Perms. Bleached mullets. Bruce Willis still had hair and your favorite hosts were only babies! There’s all kinds of movie goodness that came out during this time. But what she chose is C movie deliciousness that has somehow achieved cult status online. Em discovered this movie during a Halloween parade and has wanted to watch it ever since and she finally had an excuse (as if she needed one!).
• Em sets the scene: Imagine your mullet is blowing in the wind. You mosey into town in your acid washed jeans…also you’re a dude. You roll up to a homeless camp that somehow has an outdoor television with cable. But every so often there is static as something breaks illegally into the signal to proclaim, “They are among us and we are only safe because we don’t know about them! Wake up! They live!”
• Em is talking about the cult classic THEY LIVE! 
• The main character of the movie refuses to believe in the scrambled random cable messages until one day when he picks up a random pair of sunglasses and suddenly he can see the truth! They live among us! Aliens disguised as humans! Ah!
• With these random tech sunglasses you can read all of the subliminal messages that surround you in daily advertising. 
• This is the movie that gave us the one liners “You look like last week’s cheese dip!” and “I came here to kick ass and chew bubble gum…and I’m all out of bubble gum!” and “Mama don’t like no tattle tales!” and “Life’s a bitch and she’s in heat.” 
• There’s no explanation of why the aliens are here, or why we care the aliens are here. The movie definitely isn’t plot heavy and if you love plot holes and senseless action scenes and a definite ’80s aesthetic, this might be for you! Just…don’t overthink it. It’s pretty terrible in a drinking game kind of way.
• Em admits that it is more pre-apocalypse than true apocalypse. And it definitely isn’t post-apocalypse.
• Em says the movie has quite the online following once she began digging into it.
• EJ’s pick is also pre-apocalypse. She asks Em if she is familiar with INVADER ZIM.
• EJ was obsessed with Invader Zim in college. It was her first binge watch—before binge watching was a thing. EJ lets Em know she can still find Invader Zim online on youtube.
• EJ gives us the premise: there are aliens who are planning to execute Operation Impending Doom 2 (bc Operation Impending Doom 1 failed). 
• Their entire hierarchy of alien power is based on height. We meet our invader, Zim, who is the reason the first Operation Impending Doom failed.
• Invader Zim gets sent to Earth (just so his leaders can get rid of him…although he thinks he is on an important mission.) Every episode is about taking over the world. EJ proclaims that it has one of the best soundtracks of any animated show.
• EJ says the show has a very PINKY AND THE BRAIN feel. Em is here for it—she loves Pinky and the Brain.
• Em asks EJ if she saw the animated movie Home because the people who wrote it must have been fans of Invader Zim. 
• Em asks how could they forget HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams? EJ says it’s one of the few stories that begins with a true apocalypse—the destruction of the Earth. If Em remembers correctly, the world was destroyed to make room for an interstellar highway and Earth forgot to file paperwork to avoid being destroyed. However, the dolphins knew what was up! 
• Em talks about how people are still super fans of this series and you can still spot stickers on people’s cars that say, “So long and thanks for all the fish,” and, “Don’t panic!” It makes Em super happy and EJ interjects that it’s always relevant.
• Em admits that all of the episodes are running together and she wonders if they were supposed to research sweet apocoli. Who knows?
• Em brings up for LOOKING FOR A FRIEND AT THE END OF THE WORLD with Steve Carrell and Kiera Knightly. 
• EJ brings up the heaviest, artsy, moodiest apocalypse movie: MELANCHOLIA. Melancholia is dark the entire time, however it was visually beautiful.
• EJ says that the movie was more about beautiful scenes than plot. 
• Em still struggles saying Apocalyptic. Can she even talk? Quarantine brain!
• Omaha comes up again! This time because of their amazing nonprofit movie theatre. The movie theatre focuses on film education and offers talks with directors and info sheets. This theatre meant a lot to EJ (as does Omaha in general).
• Em takes a trip down memory lane to the early 2000s and the awesome cartoons that debuted. Her favorite was THE GRIMM ADVENTURES OF BILLY AND MANDY, about a goofy sibling duo where the sister, Mandy, is best friends with the Grimm Reaper. It was amazing.
• EJ asks Em if she remembers HOMESTAR RUNNER and Em decides that EJ and her little sister are basically the same person.
• The hosts talk about their real-life apocalypse. Em mentions that her kids are on spring break but that means absolutely nothing during quarantine. EJ talks about how she and her hubs structured their entire lives about living outside of their studio apartment, so learning to exist inside the space 24/7 has been interesting (but also good).
• Quarantine has definitely shifted how people view their lives.
• Em tells a funny story that is probably TMI about her husband and a video conference. It could have ended badly…thank goodness for good luck!
• Things take a serious turn. EJ mentions knowing people who have been very negatively impacted by COVID. Em says that they are joking around to help others relax and smile, but the show is in no way making light of the actual situation—they’d never discount the trauma some people are facing.
• EJ is happily surprised at how creators are getting creative to help entertain people and lift spirits (specifically online sing-alongs and the Disney sing-along on television). 
• The girls talk about finding the balance of staying positive and protecting your mental health, but also not living in bubble of denial. 
• EJ mentions BookShop.Org. 
• BookShop is a sort of non-profit where you can buy books and designate a bookshop in your community to receive the funds from your purchase. The shopping experience is amazing—so much better than Amazon. 
• EJ vetted BookShop.org for an article and it is legit. There are amazing curated lists of books based on many different things. The mood is very similar to walking into a real bookshop. It wasn’t created specifically for quarantine—but came out just in time.
• Em cannot wait until she can go and eat some Indian food and walk around a bookstore. She misses normalcy.
• EJ suggests curating lists for the podcast for Bookshop.org. It is a great idea and will happen! 
• Hit us up with your favorite apocalypse! Leave us a review! Until next time! 

Shop the list of recommendations from this miniseries at BookShop.org

FANTASY+GIRLS
My Favorite Apocalypse Ep. 2: Radioactive Carrots

Note: This episode was recorded in April, before the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police, and the subsequent protests. When Em and EJ talk about the current state of the world, they are referring to the very beginning of quarantine. FANTASY+GIRL Podcast stands behind Black Lives Matter. For our full Black Lives Matter statement, commentary on its impact on publishing, and how to support black authors, see the opening of episode 4 in this miniseries.

What is the plural of apocalypse, anyway?

• Signed and approved—the plural of apocalypse is apocolypti. And can it be bad if there are chicken enchiladas involved? There are still no zombies—which is kind of disappointing but probably a good thing.
• Em chats about the movie version of I AM LEGEND and how fun it was. It was loosely based on the story (novella?) I AM LEGEND by Richard Matheson. Em re-reads it every few years. It was the first book that Em read in the apocalyptic genre that made her go, “huh?”  She talks about the difference between the movie and the book and explains the monsters from the book to EJ and how the title makes so much more sense in the book.
• EJ wonders, as an author, how it would feel if Hollywood takes your story and completely changes it. Em thinks that even though the book was written long ago, that the book and the movie evoke the same feeling. There were a lot of similarities with a majorly different ending. 
• It reminds EJ of the TWILIGHT ZONE episode where the woman is having her face done (episode: EYE OF THE BEHOLDER. Original: 1959. Remake: 2002)…except if they ended the episode before the big twist.
• EJ says it’s like the entire point is gone. 
• Em is a Twilight Zone super fan. EJ, too. The girls geek out about it for a moment and discuss the Twilight Zone episode TO SERVE MAN. EJ watched it in grade school, which led to a Twilight Zone club at school where kids gathered to watch episodes at lunch.
• Em would have killed for geek friends. She tried to explain it to her jock friends, “You don’t understand! They were serving man! It was a cookbook!” only to be looked at as if she were bananas.
• Em circles back to THE SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE bc it reminds her of IT’S A COOKBOOK! 
• EJ points out that maybe Em has a thing for cannibal tales (as a joke!). The girls crack themselves up.
• They begin chatting about THE WALKING DEAD. EJ thinks Em should give it another shot.
• Em loved the zombies but bailed when it got to the season where survivors were trapping and cooking each other. She noped right on out.
• Em tells a story about her dad letting her watch whatever she wanted when her mom was working nights as a nurse. She recalls watching TOTAL RECALL(the original) and her dad pausing it and making her cover her eyes every so often. But she peeked and was mesmerized (scarred?) by the three boobed alien.
• Pros and cons of three boobs? There are many!
• EJ’s take on the apocalypse is RESIDENT EVIL. They have the BEST monsters.
• Resident Evil released in 2002, but seems very 90s. EJ was never a gamer so she wasn’t familiar with the content.
• EJ says it is so campy and over the top, but the monsters are truly terrible. She would never survive in that particular apocalypse. Em says no one would bc the monsters are constantly evolving.
• Em tells the story of watching the last installment at the theatre with her sisters at a midnight showing. They were the only ones in the theatre and were so loud and obnoxious—it was great!
• EJ wants to be Alice. 
• EJ says she could survive the Walking Dead apocalypse. Em says that she thinks that she could—but isn’t sure she would. After a year of zombies, no electricity, no toilets, or antibiotics, she isn’t sure she’d want to keep playing.
• Em asks EJ if she ever read LILITH’S BROOD by Octavia Butler. (Possibly disused during the Halloween episode).
• Em hasn’t re-read it probably in ten years, but she can still remember so much of it because it is THAT GOOD.  Mankind has ended, but survivors wake up on a spaceship manned by a nomadic alien race called the Oankali. Em says it is the most bizarre thing she’s ever read but also the most interesting.
• The way the Oankali survive is by inter-breeding with new species. They are peaceful and do not force themselves or take over—but they offer their way as an alternative to Earth’s dying planet. 
• Em says she is making the plot sound campy, but truthfully it is a heartfelt, strange book. It is the kind of book that makes you really want to meet the author because it is so involved that you know the person who came up with the world has a lot of going on with their imagination.
• EJ brings up COWBOYS VS. ALIENS. EJ says it is TOO MUCH but also SO GREAT. Em is always down for a Weird Western.
• The movie is ridiculous and you either lean into the weirdness or you get out.
• Em brings up the campy comedy show, THE LAST MAN ON EARCH. Em binged the entire thing—she says it isn’t the best show ever, but is highly entertaining. The episodes are only about twenty minutes long and they don’t require much thought. They are dumb and the characters are all morally gray, but it works. If you are looking for something to make you laugh, check it out. However, it does end on a cliffhanger. Em says it doesn’t require being very engaged to watch.
• EJ says SANTA CLARITA DIET also ended on a cliffhanger and that she will never get over it.
• Things take a turn as the girls bring up GILLIGAN’S ISLAND. EJ loves Gilligan’s Island. 
• EJ was obsessed with Land of the Lost. Em asks if there was a remake with Will Ferrell in the early 2000s?  EJ has blocked it from her memory.
• EJ’s most vivid memory of LAND OF THE LOST is an episode where the family was being haunted by the spirit of their dead mother. It was strange and possibly scarred EJ (lol). EJ doesn’t do scary.
• BACK TO GILLIGAN’S ISLAND. Your hosts think that HBO should make a Gilligan’s Island remake, but make it gritty. Instead of a movie star—make her a porn star. The Howells would either be Silicon Valley, or disgusting Trump types. Or the complete other direction and have a characters based on Beyoncé and Jay Z. The girls would totally watch it.
• Em wonders why such a random group of characters were all on the same boat? Why would millionaires like the Howells ever pay for a three hour tour on Gilligan’s boat? IT MAKES NO SENSE.
• EJ tells Em not to overthink it but Em insists it’s weird—they had coconut phones but no toilet paper! EJ asks if Em remembers the episode where they ate the radioactive carrots. 
• EJ tells how the Gilligan crew ate radioactive carrots they find on the island for no reason. Em says that maybe their favorite apocalypse is Gilligan’s Island. 
• EJ explains the episode while Em cracks up. 
• Em wonders which apocalypse really would be her favorite—but she has nothing. She has major quarantine brain.
• EJ explains the difference between post-apocalypse and apocalypse. 
• Em brings up GOOD OMENS. 
• EJ says it is the first one they’ve talked about where there is actually the apocalypse.
• Em blanks out bc all she can now think about is David Tenant. (Understandable!)
• EJ mentions how PREACHER begins with an asteroid that is supposed to hit the earth.
• Em says that it has been on her watch-list forever. EJ says she has mixed feelings about the show because the comics are so much better. She says the show explains too much and slows down the plot. The comics are bonkers, ...