Pop DNA

This week we look at how Abbott Elementary reflects popular opinions on the public education system, and how it portrays the experience of teaching as a profession. We also dip into the hot-button issue of charter schools, looking at a more nuanced discussion of this debate than we see presented on the show.

Further Reading:

Social media creators Honest Teacher Vibes, Mrs. Call's Campers, and Teacher Tales of Miss Smith give firsthand accounts of teaching in public schools

Real Seattle area teachers give their thoughts on Abbott Elementary

The New Yorker article on Abbott's charter school storyline

Last Week Tonight episode on charter schools

Documentary The Lottery

Podcast episode by Dr. Nadia Lopez on the charter school debate

Happy Season 6 to Pop DNA! To kick off September we're going back to school to talk about Abbott Elementary!

To set the stage for this four-part series, and the whole podcast for the foreseeable future, we discuss the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, how they affect Abbott Elementary, and why we should all be aware of the issues involved.

We also take a quiz to find out which characters we are, which you can take here, and give a brief preview of the other topics we plan to explore in this series. We'll look at how the show discusses public education from a few different angles, Abbott's origin story and unique success as a network sitcom in a streaming world, and deep dives into our favorite characters and relationships.

Further Reading:

The latest news we have (as of the time of recording) on negotiations for WGA

Vox article breaking down the issues at stake in the strikes

Interview with writer/producer Brittani Nichols

Sheryl Lee Ralph and Lisa Ann Walter striking in Philadelphia

Join us on Instagram for sporadic memes and book and cat content.

To celebrate Erin's (slightly belated) birthday we're deep diving into the most perfect television show ever created that also has a character named Bus Rat.

Questions we discuss:

What does the character of the camera represent within the narrative?

What does the final scene of the series tell us about Fleabag's relationships with her loved ones, herself, and whatever the camera represents?

Why don't any of Fleabag's boyfriends have actual names?

Are we in our Fleabag era?

We also tell you about our favorite things we recently watched, including two screenings of Barbie, and take a quiz to find out which Fleabag characters we are. Take the quiz here.

Further reading:

The Female Gaze in Fleabag

Phoebe Waller-Bridge interview

Fleabag and Insecure video essay

We're taking it easy for August and this will be the only episode we release this month. We'll be back in September to go back to school and discuss Abbott Elementary!

ICYMI, we presented at Virtual JaneCon! Here's the audio from our talk, "Jane Austen: Queen of Comedy."

We dive into Austen's influence in modern TV comedy, from parody and satire on shows like Succession and Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23, to the striking comedic parallels between Sense and Sensibility and Schitt's Creek!

View our slide deck here.

Watch this in video format on our YouTube channel here.

Learn more about Virtual JaneCon here.

Thanks to the organizers of Virtual JaneCon for including us in this year's program!

We're wrapping up our Summer "Camp" series with a loving look at two science fiction/space opera movies that are really historical romances in space!

Topics of discussion include Eddie Redmayne's love of character voices (and also how he auditioned for the role of Kylo Ren!); the fact that Star Wars has always been a little bit stupid, which is part of its charm; and how the lavish costumes in both movies really accentuate the fact that they are both historical romances in space, because if there's one thing about a historical romance, it's gonna have gowns.

Further Reading:

Eddie Redmayne on his weird voice in Jupiter Ascending and his audition for Kylo Ren

Reviews and discussions of Jupiter Ascending from Vogue, RogerEbert.com, and Decider

Reviews and discussions of Attack of the Clones from the LA Times (2002 review), StarWars.com (behind the scenes look at costumes), and Tor.com (discussing the romance)

Follow us on Instagram for more content, including a costume comparison and sci-fi romance book recs!

In this meta horror commentary edition of Summer "Camp" we are talking about The Blackening and The Cabin in the Woods!

Discussion points include how The Cabin in the Woods has aged over the past decade-plus and how we feel about its messaging now, The Blackening's unexpected hopefulness and positioning within both the meta-horror and the Black film spaces, and how both films take a classic, even cliched, horror premise and turn it on its head.

We also talk about this particular type of horror setting and why it's so pervasive in the genre, as well as our favorite types of horror settings.

And of course, we spend way too long talking about the things we've been watching, but this time we have two weeks to catch you up on!

Further Reading:

Postmodern nihilism in The Cabin in the Woods

Variety interview with DeWayne Perkins

The Blackening review

Horror references in The Cabin in the Woods

Join us for our final Summer "Camp" episode on Jupiter Ascending and Attack of the Clones! Follow us on Instagram if you dare.

CONTENT WARNING: this episode contains discussions, though NOT graphic descriptions, of sexual assault and violence against women, rape and rape culture, trauma, and women’s loss of bodily autonomy as portrayed and commented upon in these films. If these topics will not be a good experience for you to hear about, please take care of yourself and skip this episode. We'll see you next time!

We're calling this the "feminist body horror" edition of Summer "Camp" and looking at two modern classics within this subgenre: 2009's Jennifer's Body and 2007's Teeth. We look at the parallels between these two films, both in their commentary on women's bodily and sexual agency within patriarchal culture in the movies themselves, and in how the films were received and perceived by pop culture audiences. We also looked into the mythos of the "vagina dentata," the archetype explored in Teeth, and into how Jennifer's Body star Megan Fox was treated by the media and culture at large in the years surrounding the release of the film, and we are here to talk all about these topics and more!

Further Reading:

Reassessing Jennifer's Body in the wake of #MeToo (article from 2018)

Video + transcript of the 2019 conversation with Megan Fox and Diablo Cody

Academic article on the cultural context of Teeth (PDF)

Exploring "vagina dentata" mythos around the world

Queer Movie Night podcast episode on Jennifer's Body

The Whorrors podcast episode on Teeth

Follow on Instagram for some occasional supplementary content and memes.

Welcome "camp"ers to Pop DNA Summer "Camp"! To kick off our summer series all about our favorite campy movies, we first give a brief explainer of what we mean by "camp." We quote Susan Sontag and it's very professional. Then we look at two movies that portray creepy sentient dolls that turn murderous, the original 1988 classic Child's Play and the instant classic that sparked a million memes, M3GAN.

Further Reading:

Sontag's original essay "Notes on 'Camp'"

M3GAN director on the comparisons between the two films

Why M3GAN is a queer icon

Discussion of Child's Play in context of 1980s horror films

Follow us on Instagram to find out what our next double feature will be, and join us all June and July for more Summer "Camp"!

Wrapping up our Taylor Swift series, we decided to look at Swift's relationship with her fame and her fandom, and how both fit into the broader context of how we talk about famous women.

From the way our society likes to mock teen girls and young women and the art they like, to the cycles of public opinion we see around female pop singers like Lizzo, Britney Spears, Beyonce, and Swift herself, we've got a lot of internalized misogyny to unpack. We also look into the psychology of parasocial relationships and the Taylor Swift conspiracy theories that fans were right about. And, yes, we do talk about the Matty Healy thing (briefly).

Further Reading:

Stop Indiscriminately Hating Things Teenage Girls Like

Why Are Teen Girls in Crisis? It’s Not Just Social Media

Why do we Hate Women’s Voices and How I Reclaimed Mine

Demographics of Taylor Swift Fandom

Psychology of Parasocial Relationships

The Karma Album Conspiracy Theory

Next week we'll start our summer series, Summer "Camp," with discussions of some of our favorite campy horror films! Follow on Instagram for more.

Did you know that we're kinda theater kids? And also huge literature nerds? And that Taylor Swift is both of those things, too?

This week we look at the theatricality of Swift's tour shows, specifically with the set and costume design of the Eras Tour, and how those elements help tell the story. Then we dive into the literary sensibilities of the albums Folklore and Evermore, viewing these works as collections of short stories about, in Swift's own words, a "mythological American town."

We also acknowledge the deeply upsetting news of Swift's publicized connection with a certain problematic person, leaving space for how we as fans and consumers of her art can feel about that news and the real harm done to specific communities. We will discuss this further next week.

Further Reading:

The article we reference at the top of the show

Architectural Digest breakdown of Eras Tour set design

Swift's interview with Apple Music about writing Folklore

Quote about Swift watching Sense and Sensibility while writing Evermore

Follow along on Instagram as we attempt to stick with a consistent posting schedule.