And Almost Starring
Alien
From a faux French pronunciation of “alien” to cheerful banter between husband-and-wife hosting duo Jeff Ronan and Amy Jo Jackson, And Almost Starring is a charming listen. Rounding out their month of creepy movies, Ronan and Jackson discuss the Alien franchise and their initial impressions of the now-iconic first installment in the series. The premise of the podcast is simple and compelling: Which notable actors nearly landed the roles in some of your favorite movies, and how would the movie be different if they had been cast? There are a few impressive folks who were up for some key roles in Alien, even behind the camera. Robert Altman, for instance, was almost the director instead of Ridley Scott. The hosts (who are actors themselves) punctuate each episode with bits, character voices, and commentary; Jackson is hearing Alien’s alternate casting choices for the first time, trying to guess who might have been in consideration; as an added bonus, Ronan goes through the list in the order in which the characters are killed on screen. [Jose Nateras]
Black Men Can’t Jump In Hollywood
Eve’s Bayou
Eve’s Bayou has to be one of the shiniest hidden gems from the ’90s. A spooky, voodoo-themed narrative that focuses on a Black family in New Orleans, the movie is a great fit for Black Men Can’t Jump In Hollywood, a series that analyzes films “in the context of race and Hollywood’s diversity issues.” Hosts Jonathan Braylock, James III, and Jerah Milligan agree that it’s not necessarily a scary movie, but there’s still a lot to talk about. Offering personal insight on voodoo and the bastardized cultural understanding of a belief system that still exists in the modern era, the hosts unpack Eve’s Bayou, 23 years after it was released, complete with content warnings about some sensitive topics from the movie’s plot. The movie, written and directed by Kasi Lemmons, stars Jurnee Smollett as a child, a fun detail considering Smollett is now one of the stars of HBO’s Lovecraft Country, which shares a lot thematically with Eve’s Bayou. The hosts note and appreciate the fact that the National Film Registry recognizes a movie that addresses the Black experience beyond a stereotypical presentation of oppression. [Jose Nateras]
Maintenance Phase
Fen Phen & Redux
On the heels of top-line debunking podcast You’re Wrong About comes another series in that researched vein: Maintenance Phase, co-hosted by YWA’s Michael Hobbes and Aubrey Gordon of Your Fat Friend. The new show aims to dismantle the “junk science behind health fads, wellness scams and nonsensical nutrition advice.” In other words, it’s taking a skeptical view of wellness culture where the vast majority of podcasts take it at face value. So far, we’ve been served an episode about the inherent flaws of the President’s Physical Fitness Test (remember that schoolyard indignity?) and one about the dangers of Fen Phen and Redux, two so-called miracle drugs that made users lose weight simply by bringing them to the brink of cardiac arrest (a fair tradeoff, certainly!). Gordon and Hobbes approach the topic of fatness from several perspectives, deftly zooming in and out on the individual experiences of fat people, society’s knee-jerk response to obesity, and modern civilization’s stubborn refusal to surrender its fear of fatness. As they point out, the myth of the “maintenance phase” is that anything achieved by extreme dieting is good for you, or that any of the results can possibly last. [Marnie Shure]
Unseen
Never-Ending Circles
The team behind audio dramas Wolf 359, Time:Bombs, and Zero Hours has returned with a new, strange fiction venture: Unseen, an urban fantasy about the unseen world of magic that lies in our own reality. The show’s debut follows a wildly successful crowdfunding campaign: over $40,000 was pledged by over 1,000 backers for an initial goal of just $10,000 for the show’s first season. This first episode, featuring Dottie James as Harry Winter, starts off Unseen by laying down the ground rules of the world: Magic is real, and it’s here, and it’s accessible by those who simply look. Taking cues from musical, cinematic fiction podcasts like Night Vale Presents’ Dreamboy, Unseen is scored by Alan Rodi, a constant musical touch of tenderness adding warmth and sincerity to the narration. Likewise, Zach Valenti’s sound design is expressive and lush, almost feeling at times like a second narrator. The episode backs off for a few breaths to rein in the earnest whimsy, but otherwise truly revels in the sense of magic the script aims to evoke. [Wil Williams]
18 Comments
My personal favorite: Billy Idol was going to be the T-1000 until he was hospitalized in a motorcycle accident.
Aww, they could have made Terminator 2 jokes on Buffy, given how Spike’s whole look was stolen from Idol.
It’s okay, since Billy Idol already saved us once from a zombie plague using the power of his music, so it would be impolite to ask him to do it again except this time to rid the world of Terminators.
I knew Idol was supposed to have a much larger role in The Doors before that accident, but never knew about the T-1000 thing.
So we could have had O.J. Simpson fighting Billy Idol. I feel slightly robbed . . .
Thanks to this series of articles, I ended up binge-listening to the You’re Wrong About podcast and it’s been a really weird experience. I’ve learned a lot and the podcast has provided really good cultural context for several events, but at the same time I’m really struggling with Sarah Marshall and especially her episodes. I keep wondering if it just because Mike talks a lot more about the research he is done and refers to it, but it does generally feel like he has done a lot more background research while Sarah seems to have a tendency of really accepting what people write about themselves in their self-biographies. It’s not as simplistic as that, naturally, but there’s been so many instances where she just basically goes this is what it was as this is what they wrote. Although, I have to admit that, as I’m in the middle of the OJ Simpson saga, I do think she’s better there, but even there that tendency pops up. What also contributes to the oddness is that they at the same time they are openly critical of journalists just accepting what people tell them.
Also, and I realize this is closer to personal preference, her tendency of justify people’s behaviour to the degree that bafflingly few are held responsible for their own actions is taken to such extremes at times that I do wonder if it is even helpful at that point. Sorry about the negativity, just trying to figure out how to balance my view of the show in my head as I do still like it, but those flaws feel at times really pronounced once you listen to several episodes. Still have to restate that there are really great contextual episodes such as the ones about gangs and human trafficking.
I started binge-listening recently as well and I suppose I haven’t noticed this in AS pronounced a way as you have, but I did notice in one early episode, there’s a moment where she mentions something she read and Michael asks her if she accepted that kind of uncritically and you can hear the lightbulb going off in her head a little on that one. But I think that role she will occupy in conversations is generally pretty valuable – they play off each other well.
I REALLY enjoyed the Maintenance Phase episode about the Presidential Fitness Test. I knew it was a farce and had to be a failure (and, like so many people, the goddamn test did so much actual damage to me and even to my health for YEARS as I assumed it meant that I was just not fit enough for anything after all) but actually hearing that was so validating. I’m really enthusiastic about this podcast as I’d previously only known Michael Hobbes through his HuffPo writing, and in particular his article about how misunderstood obesity is… so their approach here seems like it will be very much up my alley.
I’ve listened to all the episodes, and get where you’re coming from. Would it help to consider that people who do horrible things, and may be irredeemably horrible, may have ended up that way do to circumstances beyond their individual control? Bad neurology, lousy upbringing, trauma, etc. I think both Hobbes and Marshall strive to get to the humanity of people. It can be too easy for us as a society to fall into “evil” narratives and lose insights revealed from examining how people ended up that way.
Marshall’s work a few years ago about Tonya Harding, for instance, led to a re-examining of our national snobbery and a more sympathetic view of Harding’s life. As someone who lives in Portland, Oregon, the change of how we all laughed at Harding’s trashy orbit in the 1990s to the more measured perspective now has been huge.
I don’t quite understand the point you’re trying to make? I’m not arguing that the circumstances lead people to horrible deeds, my issue was that the level in which they don’t want to hold anyone responsible for anything, unless it’s white collar crime, is to the point where it starts removing that humanity as it implies that individual doesn’t have a choice. It genuinely like excusing everything, which isn’t help by their seeming stance that nobody should go to prison for any physical actions. It’s weird, to be honest.Also the Harding episode was a great example for me about the successes and failing of the series. While it does do something important in bringing the light to the Harding situation and giving Tonya a chance to be seen as something else, it goes so far in to that narrative that I don’t know if Harding didn’t end up being just as simple a figure at the end in another way. And that’s not even starting on that for someone who preaches about presenting everyone as human, Sarah sure doesn’t bother truly discussing who Kerrigan was or avoid taking shots at her as a skater.
Well, the podcast title itself is a marker of someone who better REALLY have their shit together. One needs a ton of heavy lifting to justify pretentiousness like that.
In other words, you’re forgetting Sarah Marshall? (joke would work better if the world hadn’t pretty much forgotten the 2008 Jason Segel/Kristen Bell movie)
I am always happy when Eve’s Bayou gets its due. I was super obsessed with the film as a kid. I liked anything with a southern gothic flair (reading Anne Rice at 9 will do that) and thought Lynn Whitfield was the most beautiful woman ever.
Veronica Cartwright was somewhat embittered that she was originally cast as Ripley before Sigourney Weaver came on board, though I can’t imagine anyone else in either of their roles
John Hurt was cast so late that … well see if you can notice anything unusual about the earliest group cast photos …
Now I want the Robert Altman version of Alien with all the characters talking over each other, having separate conversations as they enter and exit the frame again and again while looking for the alien.
And we’d learn that the Alien itself had a dream (maybe to play at the Grand Ole Opry or to become a fashion designer, and it was only the circumstances of its life that led it to parasitizing space travellers)
“WAIT! WAIT! HOLD ON! WHAT’S YOUR NETFLIX PASSWORD!?”
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