CW: This episode contains discussion about PTSD, alcohol abuse and traumatic domestic situations.

Good ol' Uncle TV gathers the Spectacles crew together for a much needed introspective journey and therapy session. Listen to our heroes grapple with their sexuality, their trauma and their understanding of celebrity and anthropomorphism all with the help of Netflix Original Series Bojack Horseman.

If our descriptions of our lived experiences have sparked some familiarity in your own then you might find the following links useful.

For further reading about Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Out of the Storm

https://www.outofthestorm.website/

Mind.org.uk Definitions of Types of Mental Health Disorders

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/complex-ptsd/

For further reading about Asexuality

The Asexuality Visibility and Education Center

https://www.asexuality.org/

Asexuality Archive

https://www.asexualityarchive.com/

Asexuality: A Brief Introduction - Free Book

http://www.asexualityarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/AsexualityABriefIntroduction.pdf

Discussion of Trauma in World Leaders

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQwP0XRBjq4

In this special Spectacles sponsered (but not really) by the Greggs vegan sausage roll, we take a look at the media forming our opinios about diet. Specifically the vegan diet and why popular beliefs and attitudes are changing towards it. Join us in a journey through questionable advertising, heartfelt eco-documentaries and plotlines in popular entertainment. This is the episode where Eva gains the inspiration for her BAFTA award winning short film, Stephen remembers the time he watched South Park and we get some helpful feedback from Chadley Bradson.

We are awash with remakes of childhood favourites, many of which are coming out more than two decades after the original. Who is this for? Adults who grew up with the franchise and enjoy the predictability? Children who watched the original two days ago and fancy seeing it again?

Touching on trends within Disney itself and wider Hollywood, the Spectacles team take a wide look at our relationship with nostalgia and with our childhoods. Are we infantilising ourselves? Are we collectively regressing in a time of crisis? Who could blame us... Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

(Listeners should note that this episode was recorded shortly after the 2019 UK General Election...)

Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Hulu, however you consume your copious amounts of audio-visual entertainment we've got your individual needs catered to in this episode of Spectacles: A Pop Culture Podcast.

We discuss the origins of contemporary and upcoming streaming services, exploring their business models, presentations to customers and most importantly the effects they're having on the entertainment industry.

I don't know with what weapons World War Three will be fought... but I know that come World War Four we'll all be conscripted into one of ten global tech, entertainment and communications conglomerates to battle it out with a series of passive aggressive hash-tagged internet posts.

Then we'll just merge into Disney anyway. Who'll have been bought out by Compuserve.

Copyright free music "Better Days" available on bensound.com.

Todd Phillips' magnum opus 'Joker' has gotten the Spectacles crew talking. So much so that they took what was supposed to be a review 'minisode' called Monocle and instead released it as the usual feature-length audio essay that fans have come to expect. With everyone's favourite hack-journalist Alan Arndale mediating the conversation, they dissect the film as a political text in terms of contemporary masculinity, economic oppression and health inequality. They also provide their general thoughts on the "arthouse" film's narrative and structural flaws as well as its place in the superhero-saturated film scene.

Has the maker of 'Zach Galifianakis and Robert Downey Jr go on a road trip with a masturbating dog' truly made this century's seminal text?

Two years after Hollywood ousted the evil toad king Harvey Weinstein and we all learned that non-consensual bedroom mischief is bad, we live in a world without problems, everyone is treated equally and being a woman is basically the same as being a man. Except BETTER!

Our white knights Meryl Streep, James Franco and Oprah Winfrey have saved us from the pernicious tentacles of gender inequality and we can now enjoy our films guilt free! Actresses have worn black, actors have worn badges and women are even allowed to bust ghosts and plot heists now! We are all happy.

Or are we? In this episode of Spectacles we discuss the #MeToo movement and its fallout, reflecting on properties which have responded to the media storm and speculate about a potential impending backlash.

Featuring special guest star Quentin Tarantino.

CW: We discuss real life examples of sexual harassment and assault in a certain level of detail in this episode so if that's going to be difficult you might want to sit this one out.

It goes without saying that school is a critical time for teenagers. We remember the teachers who helped us discover what we enjoyed... and the ones who did the opposite. We remember the bizarre rituals of the institution... and how they made us feel. We remember puberty... and the ensuing confusion over sexuality and our sense of self.

But how do the movies remember school? What can they tell us about popular perceptions of this time in our lives? How do we WISH our teachers were? Is it attainable? What damage can the school institution potentially do to us? How well-represented are the struggles over sexuality we experience at school, on-screen?

By the end of today's podcast, you should be able to answer all of these questions. Quiz at the end.

Take a break from fighting with your family this holiday period, because in this episode, we are talking about what makes family entertainment great (or diabolical) and the versatility of the genre. How do the dynamics within a family film change in a Christmas film? What elements of the 'genre' can be considered problematic? What exactly IS a family film anyway? What is a family? What is film? What is life? Help us, Tim Allen!

Are you a leftie who suffers from liberal guilt? Do you ever feel like corporations are manipulating your insecurities this way? Do you assuage this by sipping from a rainbow Costa Cup or eating from chains that claim to be 'organic' or 'ethical'? Do you kind of know that corporations are manipulating your insecurities but don't know what to do? Well, you could start by listening to 'The Commodification of Love' - the FINALE of Spectacles series 1. We've decided to go out with a bang and in this episode will be discussing how corporations have hindered and come close to ruining the social justice movement by appropriating it for the sake of advertising. But this episode is more than a f**k you to certain corporate oligarchs; it's a lamentation of how 'the left' has been manipulated into turning against its own people by inadvertently letting these businesses and subsequently the crowing factions of the right control the narrative of social justice. This is our most important episode yet (says Eva at least and she's the best host). DON'T MISS IT.

Britain has a complicated relationship with food. Just look at our simultaneous obsessions with multiculturalism in food, national pride/identity in food, and our obsession with ultra-processed supermarket snackables. Nowhere is this bastardisation (or glorification, depending on how you look at it) of 'British cuisine' better exemplified than in the wide variety of popular cookery shows aired on the BBC, such as The Great British Bake Off, The Great British Menu, The Great British Masterchef, The Great British Hairy Bikers do Great Britain, etc.

Examined with reference to Britain's historical, imperial and post-imperial relationship with food, the Spectacles team cook up some juicy analysis for all to taste. Podcasting DAZN'T GIT TUFFER THAN THIZS.