Monkey Off My Backlog

Are you ready for this? I'm not sure we were! Sam, Tessa, and Jarret talk about the Icelandic treasure that is Björk. We talked about several of her albums: Debut, . All is full of love! 16:00 - Debut 25:08 - Homogenic 47:30 - Vespertine 1:11:14 - Biophilia 1:29:00 - Utopia Jarret's YouTube Björk Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6O8R1id6scdxHLL8sC8meHCikCZKoSfe Join our discord community here: https://t.co/VXKe87hY6g

Elyse joins us to discuss what they read for the April book club prompt. 00:00 - Book challenge updates from MoMBl regulars and listeners The April Prompt: Read a book written by a comedian, fiction or non-fiction. 00:05:27 - Elyse talks about Just One More Thing: Stories from My Life 00:19:52 - Sam talks about Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation 00:40:47 - Tessa talks about Please Don't Sit On My Bed in Your Outside Clothes 00:58:20 - The Romance Reading Sub-Challenge: Mistakes Were Made and Immortality Homework for the Bjork episode, courtesy of Jarret: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6O8R1id6scdxHLL8sC8meHCikCZKoSfe Join our discord community here: https://t.co/VXKe87hY6g

We finally did it...we made an entire episode about four of Paul Verhoeven's films. Matt joins us as we talk through Robocop, 'Showgirls, Starship Troopers, and Elle. 08:40 - Robocop 38:00 - Showgirls 1:07:03 - Starship Troopers 1:32:00 - Elle

In episode 25 of Sam Watches Star Trek, Sam and Tessa discuss the TNG season 2 premiere "The Child" and "Where Silence Has Lease."

Emily from TVJawn joins us to talk about the first two seasons of the science fiction series, The Expanse. 00:00:41 - What was our previous history/knowledge with The Expanse? 00:12:20 - Character run-down 00:48:13 - Major themes 01:10:49 - The state of TV production today Join our discord community here: https://t.co/VXKe87hY6g

In our final Retro MoMBl episode, we revisit the end of the 13 Days of X-Men with 'The New Mutants,' featuring the always delightful Melissa.

Sam and Tessa are off again this week, so here's another retro MoMBl. This week, we're getting hyped for 'Fast X' by revisiting our episode on 'Fast Five,' which is the first to feature superfan Megan. 02:23 - Holiday Cheer! 12:53 - Tessa, Sam, and Megan talk about the film. 45:08 - Fast Facts and Furious Stats

Sam and Tessa are off the next three weeks, so they decided to bring you three of their favorite retro episodes. To get you hyped for our upcoming Verhoeven episode with Matt, here is our Camp episode from last year for a refresher course on the camp aesthetic. 3:18 - What is camp? 14:42 - Barbarella 36:50 - Camp icons 42:43 - The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert 01:00:00 - Is camp over? 1:07:11 - Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again:

In the second part of our conversation about the 2023 Academy Awards, our producer Ryan joins us to talk about three films that were snubbed: Decision to Leave, Nope, and The Woman King. 00:00 - What is a snub? The Academy Awards and snubs 11:09 - The rules for nominating the Best International Feature Film catagory 19:14 - Decision to Leave 40:22 - Nope 1:24:11 - The Woman King Join our discord community here: https://t.co/VXKe87hY6g

This week, we wrap up season 5 with the two part finale "The Incident."

MoMBl goes back to Oscars! Our Academy Award correspondents, Jack and Megan, are back with us to talk about the nominees for the 2023 edition of the Academy Awards. 02:30: Initial thoughts about the nominee field this year 09:09: Triangle of Sadness and Avatar 20:54: Best Animated Feature 27:40: All Quiet on the Western Front and The Banshees of Inisherin 41:00: Best International Feature 48:43: Elvis and Everything Everywhere All at Once 1:06:30: Best Acting - Men 1:18:14: The Fabelmans and Tar 1:32:50: Best Acting - Women 1:42:57: Top Gun and Women Talking 1:57:08: Best Documentary 2:06:11: Final Thoughts Join our discord community here: https://t.co/VXKe87hY6g

This week, we're talking about season 5 episodes "The Variable" and "Follow the Leader."

Matt joins us to discuss what he read for the February book club prompt. 00:00 - Book challenge updates from MoMBl regulars and listeners The February Prompt: Read a book about filmmaking of film history. 00: 9:56 - Matt talks about Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. 00:45: 18 - Sam talks about Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War. 01:03:30 - Tessa talks about Hollywood Harmony: Musical Wonder and the Sound of Cinema. The March Prompt: Read a book that takes place over the course of fifty or more years. 01:13:35 - The Romance Reading Sub-Challenge: The Bodyguard by Katherine Center, Souless by Gail Carriger, and The Lotus Palace by Jeannie Lin. Elyse's link for all the films mentioned in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: https://letterboxd.com/chicken__tendi/list/easy-riders-raging-bulls-filmography-1967/ Join our discord community here: https://t.co/VXKe87hY6g

This week, we're talking about season 5 episodes "Dead Is Dead" and "Some Like It Hoth."

Tessa and Sam are here to talk about the nominees (and winners) for the 2023 Grammy Awards. We listened to a lot of music this week, and Jarret, Ryan, and Melissa all popped in to help us out. 00:52 - Do the Grammys matter? Was Beyoncé robbed? 11:10 - ABBA, Adele, and Best New Artist 30:52 - Best Rock Categories 48:33 - Bad Bunny, Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige 56:24 - Best Pop Categories 1:02:15 - Coldplay, Doja Cat, DJ Khaled 1:07:07 - Best Alternative Categories 1:13:37 - Steve Lacy, Lizzo, Bonnie Raitt 1:20:22 - Best R&B and Country Categories 1:33:19 - Taylor Swift and Harry Styles https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/grammys-2023/pl.u-38oWj1gsBj6ex https://sdz.sh/jm8u5A/spotify

Ryan joins us again to talk about the one of the all-time great directors: Spike Lee. We discuss three of his early films: Do the Right Thing, Crooklyn, and Clockers. 00:00:00 - Spike Lee and our history with his films 00:17:19 - Do the Right Thing 00:53:50 - Unofficial Delroy Lindo appreciation segment 00:59:56 - Crooklyn 01:33:21 - Clockers Join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/BHkfcnNUwV.

Colby returns to talk with us about The Last of Us--the video game and the HBO adaptation starring Pedro Pascal! 01:06 - Catching up with Colby 07:37 - What kinds of video games we like to play 16:38 - Video game difficulty and gameplay styles 27:40 - The Last of Us (the game, but also the show, but also the zombie horror/survival genre and other things) 54:30 - The Last of Us (the show, but also the game, but also the zombie horror/survival genre and other things) No spoilers in the episode for anything beyond what happens in the game or show beyond Episode 2 of the adaptation. cw: police violence Also, we were struck by a case of the dreaded audio issues this week.

01:10 - Why a book challenge? 06:30 - Things we've learned during the first month of the challenge The January Prompt: Read a book you've been meaning to read for a long time. 10:30 - January picks from Melissa (Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer), Elyse (Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn), Jack (Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon), and Lozy (Raw Spirit by Iain Banks). 17:38 - Ryan talks about The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell 34:15 - Tessa talks about The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende 55:01 - Sam talks about Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover (as well as Heir to the Empire and the Star Wars Essential Legends Collection The February Prompt: Read a book about filmmaking of film history. 1:15:33 - The Romance Reading Sub-Challenge: Before I Let Go by Kennedy Ryan, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, A Duke, The Lady, and the Baby by Vanessa Riley Authentic Books: https://www.authenticbooks.com/ Join our discord community here: https://t.co/VXKe87hY6g

If you wanna be our lover...then you gotta get with our friends. Lozy joins Tessa and Sam to talk '90s British girl groups as well as to dissect the stigma of "manufactured" pop. 00:02:19 - Our history with '90s British girl groups 00:06:47 - What are the characteristics of a '90s British girl group? 00:14:10 - Why do ppl look down on manufactured groups/bands? 00:24:44 - More on the characteristics of a 90s British girl group 00:39:40 - Spice Girls 01:02:36 - All Saints 01:17:29 - Sugababes 01:27:37 - Other notable British girl groups of the '90s. Apple Music '90s British Girl Group playlist: https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/britpop/pl.u-11zB96Bh1BW5r You Tube '90s British Girl Group playlist: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN4_pato6BwmDlNDOGHYy7h59yOTeZqtz&feature=share Join our discord community here: https://t.co/VXKe87hY6g

To continue our mob duology, Elyse joins Sam and Tessa to talk about the HBO drama The Sopranos. Also, we test our new explicit content rating. 00:00 - Previous history with The Sopranos 19:51 - Premise and themes 59:25 - Characters 01:42:29 - Is Tony Soprano a bad person? 01:47:07 - Final thoughts Join our discord community here: https://t.co/VXKe87hY6g