The odds are in our favor this week as Reel Lit enters the arena with Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games (2008) and its 2012 film adaptation. Stephen and McKenzie welcome very special guest Dr. Sidney Blaylock (UNA Department of English) for a conversation about tributes, the Reaping, and the blurred line between performance and survival.

We cover it all: Katniss’s missing inner monologue, Jennifer Lawrence’s remarkable facial acting, Effie Trinket’s bonkers Capitol energy, Wes Bentley’s villainous beard, and why the Cornucopia opening sequence still shocks. From panopticons to nightlock berries, spectacle to surveillance, this film is, as Stephen puts it, “scholar catnip, Katniss.”

May the odds be ever in your favor, and Panopticon (just in case).