Slate's Spoiler Specials

On the Spoiler Special podcast, Slate critics discuss movies, the occasional TV show, and, once in a blue moon, another podcast, in full spoiler-filled detail. This week, Slate’s Sam Adams is joined by Slate’s new staff writer Karen Han to spoil Freaky, the new body-switching slasher film. Think Friday the 13th meets Freaky Friday. Will high school outcast, Millie (played by Kathryn Newton), find her way back into her own body? Or will she be stuck in the body of a 6’5 serial killer (played by Vince Vaughn) forever? 

You can read Karen Han’s review here.

Note: As the title indicates, this podcast contains spoilers galore.

Email us at [email protected].

Podcast production by Morgan Flannery. 

Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and access to exclusive shows like Dana Stevens’ classic movies podcast Flashback. Sign up now to listen and support our work.

Hosts

Sam Adams is an editor for Slate’s culture blog Brow Beat.

Karen Han is a Slate staff writer.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the Spoiler Special podcast, Slate critics discuss movies, the occasional TV show, and, once in a blue moon, another podcast, in full spoiler-filled detail. This week, Slate’s Dana Stevens is joined by Slate’s Sam Adams to spoil Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Sacha Baron Cohen’s long awaited sequel to Borat. Can Borat find his way through America to deliver a very special gift to Vice President Mike Pence? How will Borat navigate COVID 19 in a foreign country? Is Borat still funny when nothing shocks us anymore in the year 2020? 

You can hear Dana’s review on Culture Gabfest here.

You can read Sam Adam’s review here.

Note: As the title indicates, this podcast contains spoilers galore.

Email us at [email protected].

Podcast production by Morgan Flannery. 

Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and access to exclusive shows like Dana Stevens’ classic movies podcast Flashback. Sign up now to listen and support our work.

Hosts

Dana Stevens is a Slate movie critic.

Sam Adams is an editor for Slate’s culture blog Brow Beat.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Slate staffers Sam Adams and Laura Miller spoil The Haunting of Bly Manor. 

An American governess (Victoria Pedretti) signs on two care for two orphaned children in a remote English mansion. But she finds the house is haunted by a malevolent presence, and the children may be as well. Sam Adams and Laura Miller break down Netflix’s followup to The Haunting of Hill House, which takes its inspiration from Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw and his other classic ghost stories.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the Spoiler Special podcast, Slate critics discuss movies, the occasional TV show, and, once in a blue moon, another podcast, in full spoiler-filled detail. This week, Slate’s Marissa Martinelli and Laura Miller spoil Enola Holmes. 

Enola, who likes to remind people that her name spelled backwards is ‘alone,’ wakes up to find her mother missing. While Enola is determined to investigate her mother’s disappearance, it’s up to Mycroft and Sherlock to figure out what to do with their little sister. Can Enola outwit her intelligent brothers and break free from the stuffy, proper future Mycroft sets out for her? 

Plus, Marissa and Laura delve into other, more transgressive, Holmes stories with female protagonists. 

You can read Laura Miller’s review here.

Note: As the title indicates, this podcast contains spoilers galore.

Email us at [email protected].

Podcast production by Rosemary Belson. 

Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and access to exclusive shows like Dana Stevens’ classic movies podcast Flashback. Sign up now to listen and support our work.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the Spoiler Special podcast, Slate critics discuss movies, the occasional TV show, and, once in a blue moon, another podcast, in full spoiler-filled detail. 

This week, Slate’s Sam Adams and Vox’s Film Critic Alissa Wilkinson spoil Tenet. Christopher Nolan’s time-bending thriller is visually spectacular yet incredibly confusing. 

The main character, played by John David Washington, simply referred to as the Protagonist is a CIA operative who becomes entangled with Tenet, a secret organization that’s fighting a future that’s actively attempting to destroy the world. The Protagonist suddenly finds himself in a world where things, and even people, can be inverted to travel backwards through time. Can the Protagonist save the world before it’s too late? How does Nolan incorporate palindromes within the movie’s structure? And what parallels can be drawn to Bill & Ted? 

Note: As the title indicates, this podcast contains spoilers galore.

Read Sam Adams’ review here. 

Read Alissa Wilkinson’s review here. 

Need more explanation? Check out Sam’s explainer here. 

Check out Alissa’s fascinating palindrome piece here. 

Email us at [email protected].

Podcast production by Rosemary Belson. 

Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and access to exclusive shows like Dana Stevens’ classic movies podcast Flashback. Sign up now to listen and support our work.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the Spoiler Special podcast, Slate critics discuss movies, the occasional TV show, and, once in a blue moon, another podcast, in full spoiler-filled detail. This week, Slate’s Dana Stevens and Matthew Dessem spoil I’m Thinking of Ending Things. Charlie Kaufman starts the film following a young couple, Lucy (Jessie Buckley) and Jake (Jesse Plemons) driving on a snowy evening to meet and have dinner with Jake’s parents. Lucy is already second guessing the trip since she doesn’t know if she wants to stay with Jake, who oddly seems to physically react when she thinks about breaking things off with him. Kaufman intersects their journey with the experiences of a janitor at a high school. Things start to get weird when the couple arrives at Jake’s childhood home. As the movie progresses, the characters become untethered from time and the film calls into question if Lucy and Jake even exist. And what does the janitor have to do with anything?

Note: As the title indicates, this podcast contains spoilers galore.

Email us at [email protected].

Podcast production by Rosemary Belson. 

Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and access to exclusive shows like Dana Stevens’ classic movies podcast Flashback. Sign up now to listen and support our work.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the Spoiler Special podcast, Slate critics discuss movies, the occasional TV show, and, once in a blue moon, another podcast, in full spoiler-filled detail. This week, Slate’s Television Critic Willa Paskin is joined by Vulture Staff Writer Angelica Jade Bastién to spoil I May Destroy You. Michaela Coel is at the heart of this series. Besides writing and producing the show, she directed many episodes and plays the main character, Arabella Essiedu. Coel covers consent, rape, friendship, and empathy, in a complex, yet compelling, way that really humanizes Arabella. 

Arabella is a young writer and influencer working on her second book when her drink was drugged and raped while at a bar in London. The series follows her as she works through the aftermath of her assault. Does Arabella regain her full memories of her sexual assault? Will she be able to finish her book? Will she accept the help from another acquaintance who she believes to have raped her? How does she use fantasy to imagine a better resolution for herself than reality can give her? 

You can read Willa’s review here. 

You can read Angelica’s review here. 

Note: As the title indicates, this podcast contains spoilers galore.

Email us at [email protected].

Podcast production by Rosemary Belson.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the Spoiler Special podcast, Slate critics discuss movies, the occasional TV show, and, once in a blue moon, another podcast, in full spoiler-filled detail. This week, Dana Stevens, Slate’s movie critic, is joined by Isaac Butler, writer, theater director, and co-host of Slate’s podcast Working, to spoil An American Pickle. Seth Rogen stars as Herschel Greenbaum, a man who wakes up after being preserved in pickle brine for a century, and Ben Greenbaum, Herschel’s only living descendant. Can Herschel adapt to the contemporary world? Will Ben and Herschel bond despite generational and value differences? How convincing is Seth Rogen as both of these men?

You can read Marissa Martinelli’s interview with An American Pickle’s prop master here.

You can read Matthew Dessem’s piece on pickle related catastrophes here. 

Note: As the title indicates, this podcast contains spoilers galore.

Email us at [email protected].

Podcast production by Rosemary Belson.

Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and access to exclusive shows like Dana Stevens’ classic movies podcast Flashback. Sign up now to listen and support our work.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the Spoiler Special podcast, Slate critics discuss movies, the occasional TV show, and, once in a blue moon, another podcast, in full spoiler-filled detail. This week, Slate’s movie critic Dana Stevens is joined by Willa Paskin, Slate’s television critic, and Sam Adams, a senior editor at Slate and the editor of Slate’s culture blog, Brow Beat, to spoil Palm Springs. At first, Palm Springs seems like a fun wedding rom-com until Nyles (Andy Samberg) is shot with a bow and arrow while fooling around in the desert with Sarah (Cristin Milioti). Injured, he crawls into a nearby cave and tells Sarah not to follow him. She ignores his warning and is pulled into his infinite time loop. Will she follow Nyles’ lead and make peace with the situation? Why is Nyles being hunted? Why is Sarah so desperate to find a way out? And what is with those dinosaurs? 

You can read Sam’s interview with the theoretical physicist who consulted on the movie here. 

Note: As the title indicates, this podcast contains spoilers galore.

Email us at [email protected].

Podcast production by Rosemary Belson. 

Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and access to exclusive shows like Dana Stevens’ classic movies podcast Flashback. Sign up now to listen and support our work.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the Spoiler Special podcast, Slate critics discuss movies, the occasional TV show, and, once in a blue moon, another podcast, in full spoiler-filled detail. This week, Dana Stevens, Slate’s movie critic, is joined by Sam Adams, a senior editor at Slate and the editor of Slate’s culture blog, Brow Beat, and Tom Scocca, Slate's politics editor. They dive into Jon Stewart’s comedy starring Steve Carell as an out-of-touch political operative who decides that a former marine would make a great Democratic candidate for mayor in Deerlaken, Wisconsin. It creates a proxy battleground in rural Wisconsin as Carell’s Republican counterpart, played by Rose Byrne, ups the ante. Stewart practically perfected political commentary woven with jokes during his time on The Daily Show. But can he harness that same nuance as a director? And how does the movie’s big twist affect Stewart’s message about unchecked money in politics? 

You can read Sam Adams’ review here. 

You can read Tom Scocca’s piece on the twist here.  

Note: As the title indicates, this podcast contains spoilers galore.

Slate Plus members get ad-free podcasts and access to exclusive shows like Dana Stevens’ classic movies podcast Flashback. Sign up now to listen and support our work.

Email us at [email protected].

Podcast production by Rosemary Belson.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.