It's My Screen Time Too

Wicked made a splash this Thanksgiving season, but is it a good movie to see with kids? We weigh in on all the high points of Wicked discourse: whether Ariana Grande will ever step out of her Glinda performance; whether this movie is too long for a Part I; and whether singing in the movie theater is ever okay. But most importantly, we discuss how we approached seeing Wicked as parents.

Things we mentioned in this episode:

Is Ariana Grande Going to Be Stuck Like This Forever? by Fran Hoepfner in Vulture 

Wicked made us think of these movies and shows for grown ups:

• Gone Girl
• Swing Kids
• Amelie

We cast our gritty reboot with these actors:

• Amy Schumer as Glinda
• Leslie Jones as Elpheba
• John Cho as the Wizard
• Fred Armisen as Nessa Rose

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We used to fret over our kids’ time spent in front of a screen. Now they’re a little bit older, and we get to worry over their time spent in front of multiple screens. We had so much fun discussing an article from Wired about second screening, third screening, and even fourth screening. Are we, as grown ups, surrounding ourselves with more than one screen at a time? How do we feel about our kids doing the same?

This week’s Screen Time in the News article is “Forget Screen Time. We Need to Talk About Screen Real Estate” by Angela Watercutter in Wired. 

Here’s the cord hider we talked about in this episode. Listeners, have you used something like this? 

What our kids are watching or what we’re watching with them:

• Nailed It
• Beyblade X
• Nugget is Dead

What we’re watching during grown-up screen time:

• Slow Horses
• Drops of God

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We welcome the holiday season with a review of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. This small story makes for a big contrast with the bright, toy-filled Christmas stories we’ve gotten used to of late, and we discuss what resonated with us and what they should have done differently to bring this tale from our childhoods to life.

Previous episodes we mention:

• Wild Robot 
• Klaus 
• Let’s Go Luna 

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever made us think of these movies and shows for grown ups:

• Synecdoche, New York
• GCB

We cast our gritty reboot with these actors:

• Jenny Lewis as Imogene
• The guys from Atlanta as the Herdman brothers
• Judy Greer and Nat Faxon as Mom and Dad

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Our Screen Time in the News article this week broke the news that Netflix is axing almost all of its interactive content, so we spend some time pondering why the technology never took off the way we thought it might. Deborah wonders whether it can be compared to an ill-advised Cheerios flavor, and Katie uses the phrase “petit filet ice cream” for the first time in her life. We catch up on what we’re watching with our kids and what we’re watching during our kid-free screen time and discuss where the New York Times daily games fall when it comes to screen time limits.

Netflix is removing nearly all of its interactive titles by Jay Peters in The Verge

Previous Episodes We Mention:

• Lyla in the Loop
• Buddy Thunderstruck
• Stretch Armstrong

What our kids are watching or what we’re watching with them:

• Curses!
• Big
• Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage

What we’re watching during grown-up screen time:

• The Diplomat
• Ghosts
• Football
• Matlock

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Find out whether this tearjerker has enough substance for grown-ups and enough laughs for kids in our review of The Wild Robot.

Previous episodes we mention:

• Kung Fu Panda 4 
• Wish 
• Despicable Me 4 

Article in The Cut by Kathryn Jezer-Morton titled “Who is all that obsessively detailed college-dorm decorating really for?” 

The Wild Robot made us think of these movies and shows for grown ups:

• The Last of Us
• Castaway
• Saint Vincent
• First Wives Club

We cast our gritty reboot with these actors:

• Sad Ben Affleck
• Lena Headey

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We discuss the lawsuit against TikTok and the internal documents exposed by Kentucky Public Radio about the video platform’s addictiveness to vulnerable teens. 

Previous Episodes We Mention:

• Curses! 

What our kids are watching or what we’re watching with them:

• Georgie and Mandie’s first marriage
• Wild Robot
• Curses!
• Camp Cretaceous

What we’re watching during grown-up screen time:

• Only Murders in the Building
• Slow Horses
• Agatha All Along

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Can Apple TV+ break this year’s curse on fresh Halloween content for families? Listen to our review of Curses! to find out.

Things we mentioned in this episode:

Previous episodes we mention:

• We discussed a Good Housekeeping article about the benefits of exposing kids to scary content in our Haunted Mansion episode last year 
• Spooky Buddies 
• Bad Guys Haunted Heist 

Curses made us think of these movies and shows (although whether any of them are really for grown ups is up for debate):

• Indiana Jones
• National Treasure
• Goonies
• Black Widow

We cast our gritty Curses! reboot with:

• John Krasinski or Leonardo DiCaprio as Alex
• Yara Shahidi as Pan
• Zoe Saldana as Sky
• Awkwafina and Charlene Yi as Larry and Stanley

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We discuss The Guardian’s review of Ashley Spencer’s new book Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel’s Tween Empire and lament being too old to experience the channel’s heyday as tweens but too young to witness it with our own kids. 

Things We Mention in this Episode

Previous Episodes We Mention:

• Julie and the Phantoms 

This week’s article: ‘It caught everyone by surprise’: inside the rise and fall of the Disney Channel from September 26, 2024 by Adrian Horton for The Guardian 

Since we’re reading a Guardian article this week, here’s another one from the demise of one of our favorite websites of the early aughts (the one that Deborah used to keep tabs on Zach Efron and Ashley Tisdale), Jezebel: The death of Jezebel is the end of an era of feminism. 

Here are links to the books we talk about wanting to read:

• Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel’s Tween Empire 
• Slimed: An Oral History of Nickelodeon’s Golden Age 
• Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street 
• Jim Henson: The Biography 

What our kids are watching or what we’re watching with them:

• The Warriors on YouTube
• Survivor
• The Lord of the Rings

What we’re watching during grown-up screen time:

• Bad Monkey
• Only Murders in the Building
• Slow Horses
• Monsieur Spade
• Rings of Power

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We celebrate our 200th episode with a look at where the show has been and where it’s headed. We ring in spooky season 2024 with a quick review of the Netflix special The Bad Guys Haunted Heist.

Previous episodes we mention:

• Spooky Buddies 
• Phantom Pups 

Interested in some faves from Halloween past? Check out this rundown. 

The Bad Guys Haunted Heist made us think of these movies and shows for grown ups:

• Good Girls
• Ocean’s Eleven
• Hustle

We cast our gritty The Bad Guys Haunted Heist reboot with:

• Vince Vaughn, Riz Ahmed, Selena Gomez, Natasha Rothwell
• Taylor Kitsch, Richard Madden, Sophie Turner, Gaten Matarazzo

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In our last episode before our fall break, we review Apple TV’s Yo Gabba Gabbaland, a reboot of a 2000s show beloved by hipster parents everywhere. We bemoan being too old to recognize any of the impressive musical guests, and we discuss whether the “variety show” label is a positive or negative for modern preschool programming. We will be back with new episodes in October starting with a celebration of our 200th episode! Until then, find almost 200 archived episodes on our website myscreentimetoo.com.

Previous episodes we mention:

• Muppets Now 
• Ask the Storybots 
• Ms. Rachel’s Songs for Littles 

Welcome to Pooh Corner is the show Katie remembers from her childhood with actors wearing costumes to play Pooh and his friends.

Biz’s Beat of the Day from the original Yo Gabba Gabba 

Yo Gabba Gabbaland made us think of these movies and shows for grown ups:

• Busy This Week on QVC
• Early seasons of Late Night with Conan O’Brien

We cast our gritty Yo Gabba Gabbaland reboot with:

• Broadway superstars Audra McDonald, Jerry Orbach, Alan Cumming, Idina Menzel, and Renee Elise Goldsberry as musical guests
• Jaspar LePak (of P is for Placenta fame) writing songs
• Vince Vaughn as Muno
• Matt Damon as Brobee

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