This HBO series remake about artificial intelligence, violence and consciousness was made with expert care by everyone involved in its production. But we ask, why then wasn't its depiction of its big themes ultimately satisfying?

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Westworld

Additional Resources:

• Abrams and Nolan Team Up for Westworld HBO Pilot
• The Long, Weird History of the Westworld Franchise
• HBO's Westworld Extras Have to Sign a Consent Form Agreeing to 'Genital-to-Genital Touching'
• Ed Brubaker on Westworld, The Fade Out, and his immersion into Hollywood
• Your Westworld Logistical Questions Answered
• On the Ranch with the Creators of "Westworld"
• How the Creators of Westworld Built a Violent World of Robot Cowboys
• Why the Westworld Costumes Were So Complicated to Create
• The Secrets Behind Westworld's Opening Title Sequence
• Westworld's Showrunner Hint at Season 2, Discuss Show's Video-Game Influences
• Why the Bicameral Mind Theory is Crucial to Unlocking Westworld
• A New Diversity Reviews Site Rates TV Shows and Films By Quality of Representation
• Westworld, Race and The Western
• Racial Stereotyping and Westworld

This 1996 novel is infamous for its length and complex narrative structure, while being critically lauded for its themes and style. We discuss how Wallace approached the project, while grappling with revelations about how he treated women both on-and-off the page.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Infinite Jest

Additional Resources:

• The Afterlife of David Foster Wallace
• Infinite Proofs: The Effects of Mathematics on David Foster Wallace!
• David Foster Wallace at 50: Why he still matters and always will
• MICHAEL PIETSCH: EDITING INFINITE JEST
• A BRIEF (CROWD-SOURCED) INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL PIETSCH
• 'Infinite Jest' celebrates 20th anniversary
• God, Mary Karr and Ronald Reagan: D.T. Max on David Foster Wallace
• Mary Karr Speaks Out About David Foster Wallace Amid Literature's #MeToo Movement
• 10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Infinite Jest
• Why Insufferable People Love Infinite Jest
• Men Recommend David Foster Wallace to Me
• 15 Facts About Infinite Jest
• Reading from the "Blind-spots"
• A Short Meditation on the Whiteness of David Foster Wallace's Writing
• Thinking About David Foster Wallace, Misogyny and Scholarship
• The Magic of Michael Schur's Sitcoms: Why 'The Good Place,' 'Parks and Rec' & More Are So Rewatchable
• An Interview with Michael Schur
• 'Parks and Recreation': 'Infinite Jest' references in 'Partridge'

Thank you to our Co-Producer patron Miriam Meaney for selecting this week's topic!

This 2016 film by Nicolas Winding Refn is about beauty, jealousy and the entertainment industry. We look at Refn's thematic intentions and the myriad of arguments about his "misogyny" or "feminism," to try to understand how the glamour industry portrays women.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Neon Demon

Additional Resources:

• 'Movie blood tastes so good' – on The Neon Demon set with Nicolas Winding Refn
• A HORROR FILM ABOUT BEAUTY: NICOLAS WINDING REFN & ELLE FANNING ON "THE NEON DEMON"
• Nicolas Winding Refn Readies Danish/French Horror Tale
• Nicolas Winding Refn on The Neon Demon's Female-Dominated Cast
• The Neon Demon is the most offensive film of the year - and not because of the necrophilia
• MOVIES'The Neon Demon' Is 'Valley of the Dolls' Meets 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'?!
• Birth. Movies. Interview: Nicolas Winding Refn And Cliff Martinez Talk THE NEON DEMON
• The Neon Demon: a spoiler-filled chat about the year's best or worst movie
• I'M A FEMINIST, AND I LOVED THE NEON DEMON
• The Neon Demon tries to both fetishize and vilify young girls. It fails.

This 2007 manga serial by Inio Asano seems like a simple story about a middle-school boy growing up in Japan. But we find that using symbolic simplicity together with the detailed, weird world of adults, Asano has been described as the voice of his generation.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Goodnight PunPun, Volume 1

Additional Resources:

• INIO ASANO INTERVIEW — "REALITY IS TOUGH, SO READ THIS MANGA ABOUT CUTE GIRLS AND FEEL BETTER"
• The disaffected world of Inio Asano
• GOODNIGHT PUNPUN Is A Horrifying Glance In The Mirror
• Preview: Inio Asano's Goodnight Punpun is an ode to life's awkwardness
• 'GOODNIGHT PUNPUN' IS THE STRANGEST MANGA OF THE YEAR (AND ONE OF THE BEST)
• Saying Goodbye to Childhood in Goodnight Punpun
• Interview: Goodnight Punpun Creator Inio Asano

This 1992 album is celebrated as one of the best of the era but we look at the dysfunctional, toxic relationships between the five band members, and we find that the pressures of the music business, touring, and getting older, led to internal conflicts that made it harder for Faith No More to just be a group of goofy weirdos.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Angel Dust

Additional Resources:

• THE POWER OF NEGATIVE THINKING
• Talking music and zoning with Roddy Bottom of Faith No More
• Faith No More - Making Of Angel Dust (Full)
• Faith No More: 'We've made bad decisions our whole career. That's why the English champion us'
• 26 YEARS AGO: FAITH NO MORE RELEASE 'ANGEL DUST'
• 10 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT FAITH NO MORE'S 'ANGEL DUST'
• HEAVY METAL HOMO

This 1967 British TV show is revered as a cult classic that was radical and countercultural, while symbolizing philosophical arguments about individualism vs. collectivism. We take a deeper look at star Patrick McGoohan and the commercial interests behind the show to ask if it's ultimately more conservative than pop culture likes to remember.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Prisoner

Additional Resources:

• A Spy Trapped in a Nightmare of Psychedelia
• GEORGE MARKSTEIN interviewed by Chris Rodley
• Number Six At 50: The 50th Anniversary Of 'The Prisoner'
• How did The Prisoner ever get made?
• Patrick McGoohan Explains The Meaning Of The Prisoner, A TV Cult Classic
• Alan Moore Remembers Patrick McGoohan's "The Prisoner": Part 1
• What on earth was The Prisoner all about?
• McGuire, J. T. (2014). A Mentor-Protégé Relationship?: Orson Welles, Patrick McGoohan, and The Prisoner Television Series. Quarterly Review of Film & Video, 31(7), 647.
• Hanna, E. (2014). Be Selling You: The Prisoner As Cult and Commodity. Television & New Media, 15(5), 433.
• Woodman BJ. Escaping Genre's Village: Fluidity and Genre Mixing in Television's The Prisoner. Journal of Popular Culture. 2005;38(5):939

This 1979 collection of essays attempts to reveal the 1960s and California as stories without narratives. We discuss how Didion's work was branded because of her gender, class, and lack of politics, despite her insistence that writing was only an attempt to make sense out of chaos.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The White Album

Additional Resources:

• The Top 10 Essays Since 1950
• Joan Didion's Style
• Joan Didion: Staking Out California
• There's a reason Joan Didion's work endures: she changed the way we wrote
• We Tell Ourselves Stories: Didion's "White Album" Takes to the Stage
• From literary heavyweight to lifestyle brand: exploring the cult of Joan Didion
• The White Album, by Joan Didion

This 2015 Indian romantic comedy uses a meta-narrative to deconstruct expectations about identity and everyday life. We question the assumptions writer/director Imtiaz Ali makes about gender roles, while wondering how much the real infidelity between the lead actors complicated the film's big theme.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• Tamasha

Additional Resources:

• 'Tamasha' not autobiographical, says Imtiaz Ali
• Anushka Sharma Rejected 'Tamasha' Because The Role Wasn't 'Meaty' Enough For Her
• 'Tamasha' is about choosing your own story: Imtiaz Ali
• An inspiration, a formula, a discovery— filmmaker Imtiaz Ali breaks down 'love'
• Love aaj kal
• Watch Imtiaz Ali Talk about This Iconic Tamasha Scene Where Deepika Cried for Real
• Ranbir, Deepika break down on sets of 'Tamasha'
• Ranbir, Deepika's Personal History Doesn't Bother Tamasha Director
• Censor Board beeps saali in Imtiaz's film
• 2 years of Tamasha: I meet people who tell me that the film changed their life, says Imtiaz Ali
• Here's why Imtiaz Ali's Tamasha is more than just a movie
• Why Imtiaz Ali Movies Are Beautiful And Most Of All Tamasha
• Tamasha Was Made With a View the Audience is Not Stupid, Says Imtiaz Ali

This 2012 experimental noise record was heralded as an important moment in musical evolution. We look at how the band approaches their process while unpacking their relationship with major label Epic Records. And we ask, how do noise, magick, and defecation contribute to the future of music?

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Money Store

Additional Resources:

• Suspicious Minds - The Resolute Mission Of Death Grips
• Death Grips Implode Punk and Rap Borders on New LP
• Band of the Year: Death Grips
• Death Grips: "There's a lot of recycling and destruction in the making of our music"
• Who Are…Death Grips

This collected comic is about a victim of child abuse, while also serving as an homage to the work of storyteller Beatrix Potter. We discuss Talbot's approach to representing such difficult subject matter, while also crafting a book that was more user friendly to non-comics readers.

Interested in the media we discussed this episode? Please support the show by purchasing it through our affiliate store:

• The Tale of One Bad Rat

Additional Resources:

• The Tale of One Bad Rat homepage
• The Rat's Whiskers
• The Tale of One Bad Rat (Graphic Medicine)
• The Tale of One Bad Rat, or, thoughts on teaching adults to read comics
• Still Relevant Today: The Tale of One Bad Rat
• #metoo stories. Library Journal; 4/1/2018, Vol. 143 Issue 6, p53-53, 1/3p
• Donna R. White (2018) Finding Beatrix Potter: Bryan Talbot's The Tale of One Bad Rat, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2018.1533484