Try It, You'll Like it

On the theme of "unusual pets," we read Y: THE LAST MAN: UNMANNED by Brian K. Vaughan and watched 2014's PADDINGTON.

We love secrets. So we read a book full of them: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. And we watched a movie with ONE BIG ONE - A History of Violence.

We discuss THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN by Paula Hawkins, DISPLACEMENT: A TRAVELOGUE by Lucy Knisley, and THE ROYAL WE by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan.

Randy came up with a devilish quiz for reviewing the best of 2015 for us! Wrack your brains on who won sportsball championships, how many Emmys Modern Family won and what the hell was nominated for Best Picture.

Some, we thought, underrated films from 2015: THE LAST FIVE YEARS, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., and SHAUN THE SHEEP.

A movies quiz, about movies released on Christmas Day, 2000-2014.

On the theme of "snow" - Randy selected Peter Hoeg's SMILLA'S SENSE OF SNOW and Joe chose THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT.

Under discussion: Alex Garland's THE BEACH and the film THE WINGS OF THE DOVE starring Helena Bonham Carter.

Regular co-host Randy is back and there is much rejoicing.

We discussed BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK by Ben Fountain and HOPE FLOATS starring Sandra Bullock.

We also had time to cover JESSICA JONES, MASTER OF NONE, SPY, MOM, and YOU'RE THE WORST.

And right out of the gate, Randy has a correction: There was a disconnect between my brain and my mouth, which I blame on the cold medicine I was taking. I DO know the differences between "single-cam" and "multi-cam". YOU'RE THE WORST is obviously a single-cam sitcom, not a multi-cam sitcom. And when I say "I'm kind of over multi-cam sitcoms", I should have said "I'm kind of over single-cam sitcoms."

For the theme "Better Than I Thought It Would Be" Joe selected the film ZATHURA and guest host Michael Guarnieri chose Michael Crichton's EATERS OF THE DEAD.