The Midnight Myth Podcast

CW: Language, Sexual assault. As we wait with bated breath for the final season(s?) of HBO’s Game of Thrones—another delay, ugh—the Midnight Myth is here to quench your thirst with another deep dive GoT character study. This week, we’re exploring one of the series’ most charismatic and manipulative monsters, Cersei Lannister. We’ll compare the ruthless queen of the seven kingdoms to the philosophy laid out by medieval author Niccolo Machiavelli, and introduce modern psychology’s dark triad. We’ll dig into feminist studies and examine how Cersei intersects with the monstrous feminine, and the long line of literary ladies who came before her, with ambition as her tragic flaw.

Some artists leave their mark on everything they make. This week on the Midnight Myth Podcast, we’re surveying the work of Christopher Nolan, with a particular focus on four of his most popular and important films: his Hollywood breakout Memento, the second installment of his Batman trilogy The Dark Knight, the mind-bending Inception, and his sci-fi epic Interstellar. As one of the few contemporary directors to garner both critical acclaim and box office mega-success, Nolan appears to have captured something universal in the way he tells stories. With a close look at these films and the global context surrounding them, Derek & Laurel unpack the themes Nolan tends to revisit, the choices of his contemporaries in post-War on Terror Hollywood, and the cinematic and historical influences on his filmmaking. As an overview of Nolan’s body of work relatively early in his career, we hope this episode will open the door for even deeper dives into his art to come.

Hot on the heels of the Boy Who Lived’s birthday, Derek & Laurel are revisiting the Harry Potter series for a discussion of the mentor role in storytelling. The Obi-Wan’s, Gandalfs, and Mr. Miyagi’s of the world inspire our heroes, give them strength, and hold them to a standard of morality and courage. To unpack Harry’s many mentor relationships, we’ll focus in particular on the one that develops between Harry and Defense Against the Dark Arts professor Remus Lupin in the third installment of the franchise, Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban. What makes Remus a great mentor? To answer this question, we’ll consult Thomas Aquinas, Thomas Jefferson, and more.

Derek and Laurel are back at competitive story-themed debates in a very special Boomerangerang— as they engage in all things Buffy. Your hosts pit Sunnydale High's superhero, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and her Scooby gang and monsters from the Hellmouth in odd and unexpected scenarios, and they’ll try to figure out which character would fare better. This no-holds-barred debate has something for every Buffy fan as we try to work out our feelings about the upcoming REBOOT. Keep an eye on our Twitter this week to share your thoughts on who will win!

Season two of the Handmaids Tale concluded last week with an epic finale that saw our heroine, June, make a controversial decision. Expanding on the first-person limited world of Margaret Atwood’s novel, the Hulu series, and this season in particular, brought us into the minds and hearts of characters in every strata of Gileadian society. In this podcast, Derek and Laurel examine the effect that has on us as viewers, and how the vastness of the Handmaid’s Tale works to break down the boundaries imposed on women, and everyone in a fascist regime. Why does June make the choice she makes? We’ll answer that question and more as we seek to understand how a character—or a society—can change.

The Pixar train continues to roll here at the Midnight Myth, where this week, we’re picking apart the science and magic of Inside Out. Watching the coming-of-age of a young girl through the eyes and oculus of her tiny, anthropomorphized neurotransmitters, we’re got pressing questions about what the movie says about us, our emotions, and our role in the universe. We’ll compare Inside Out to classic forms and conventions of storytelling while diving into the complex and fascinating world of emotional theory.

There is a power in all of us, waiting to be tapped into, and it is unlocked through the magic of human emotion. This week’s episode is dedicated to celebrating one of the Hollywood’s greatest studios: Pixar. In a part game, part analysis, and part fresh take into The Incredibles 2, Derek and Laurel cherish and toast the animation studio which brings man, woman, and child together for a nice song and good cry.

The arrival of Pixar’s long-awaited sequel to ‘The Incredibles’ has us itching to revisit the beloved family of superheroes. Turning a critical eye to the story of the Parr family and their secret identities, we’ll explore each character’s journey toward becoming fully actualized beings—with or without superpowers. For a kids’ movie, ‘The Incredibles’ digs into surprisingly mature subject matter, like suburban dissatisfaction, political ideologies, and gender roles. We’ll do our best to leave no stone unturned in this analysis. No capes!

Yes, the world may actually be going straight to hell. But what can we learn from the onslaught of inhuman behavior to the weakest of us happening at the American-Mexican border? To understand what makes immigrants enemies and how to combat the dehumanization of refugees, Derek and Laurel turn to the 2006 masterpiece of film, Children of Men directed by Alfonso Cuarón. While the movie may have had lackluster box-office sales, the artistic impact of a filmic world bent on militarizing its borders while on the brink of the apocalypse can tell us much about our own dilemmas. Content warning: this episode gets heavy—we discuss the realities and atrocities taking place at the border. Join us for a no-holds-barred discussion about real life imitating art, and the cost of giving up one’s humanity to save it.