2 Cents Critic

Tune in as Brandi and Mindy (Drunk Bitches Be Like) hang out on 2CC for a deep dive into Netflix’s Do Revenge, the 2022 modernized twist on Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train. This incredibly campy throwback to 90s and 2000s teen cinema provides a foundation for the three hosts to chat about plenty of topics: the school life, the cheating capabilities of WhatsApp and Snapchat, the countless f...

Tune in as Jessica and Saunya (Opinionated Lushes) collaborate with Arthur for a deep dive into Free Guy, the 2021 action-adventure comedy that follows the happy-go-lucky bank teller Guy as he realizes he’s an NPC (non-player character) inside a MMOG (massively multiplayer online game) called Free City. Are we being oversaturated with Ryan Reynolds’s presence? How big of a role does the Manic Pixi...

Tune in as BookTokker and Bookstagrammer Sarah Thompson joins in to shower praise on Take a Hint, Dani Brown, the fake-dating contemporary romance novel by Talia Hibbert. This is also the second standalone novel in her Brown Sisters trilogy, with its first book, Get a Life, Chloe Brown, having been the focus of a recent episode. Spunky grandma appreciation, support for emotionally self-a...

Tune in as past guest Torry (Ready to Be Petty) returns for a thorough breakdown of Everything Everywhere All At Once, the multiversal film that’s been sweeping up all the love and fame. The many overwhelming emotions swirling through this multilayered narrative, figuring out what footage to leave on the cutting room floor, Letterboxd Easter eggs, and Netflix’s First Kill are just a few of the sub...

Tune in as Karyn Cooper (Chick-Lit) hops in to break down the 2021 film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 space opera novel Dune—or at least the first half of the epic book, a crucial detail that Warner Bros. failed to clarify in the film’s marketing campaign. This is one of the many subjects that Arthur and Karyn cover alongside their desire to see Zendaya star in a rom-com, the fact that O...

Tune in as Matthew (That’s SO Matthew) hangs out on 2CC to talk about Pixar’s The Incredibles, the 2004 animated superhero movie that gives you all the alarm-button red super-suits, golden jazz, and Fantastic Four energy you could ever want. The viral TikTok fame of Michael Giacchino’s splendid score, the concept of the mundane versus the fantastic, and the casting process for animated movies...

Tune in as Kait and Renata (Worst Bestsellers) collaborate with 2CC for a discussion on Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert (Take a Hint, Dani Brown; Act Your Age, Eve Brown). The 2019 contemporary romance novel, which is the first standalone entry in the Brown Sisters series, revolves around Chloe Brown, a sharp-mouthed web designer who has fibromyalgia, and Redford “Red” Morgan, her tattooe...

Tune in as Anya and Isabel (Book Expectations) hang out with Arthur for a deep dive into Daisy Jones & the Six, the 2019 historical fiction novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Carrie Soto Is Back) about a ‘70s rock band that gives off Fleetwood Mac vibes. This makes sense, considering they had been a major inspiration for TJR during the writing of this book. The hosts’...

Tune in as previous 2CC guest Guy Bradford comes back around for a breakdown of the newest Disney+ Marvel Cinematic Universe series Ms. Marvel. It follows Kamala Khan, a 16-year-old Pakistani-American who lives in Jersey City, prides herself on her Captain Marvel geekery, and ends up getting thrown into a journey of self-discovery involving her newfound superpowers and her mysterious family h...

Tune in as gamer Brojem hops onto 2CC for a breakdown of the Disney+ Star Wars series Obi-Wan Kenobi, which follows the eponymous Jedi ten years after the events of Revenge of the Sith. While covering this expansion of the Star Wars universe, Arthur and Brojem chat about topics like the dangers of recklessly flashing your lightsaber, the desire to steer clear of droid slavery, how apparently easy...

Tune in as Gabi and Margot (Oceans Apart) join Arthur for a deep dive into Netflix’s The Power of the Dog. Adapted from Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel of the same name, the much-lauded 2021 Western (or anti-Western, which is debated on the podcast) psychological drama provides plenty of meaty material for the hosts to analyze with its Montana-set exploration of toxic masculinity, queerness, and emotio...

Tune in as Arthur invites Franklin Cota (Teen Girl Talk) onto the program for a deep dive into the 28th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. There’s been plenty to look forward to in this movie, especially since it marks Sam Raimi’s return to the director’s chair since the 2013 James Franco-led megaflop Oz the Great and Powerful. Aside from discussing...

Tune in as Chelsee and Christina (The Bi Pod) collaborate with Arthur for Pride Month 2022, during which queer content will be featured throughout June. For the fourth and final episode of the month, the focus is on the The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, the 2014 space opera debut novel by Becky Chambers. As the first entry in her Wayfarers series, it boasts quite a few merits, inclu...

Tune in as Dr. Terry Dornak (Hello Wonderful Podcast) stops by the show to chat with Arthur about Netflix’s The Half of it, the 2020 coming-of-age movie that follows introverted teenager Ellie Chu as she pens love letters on behalf of inarticulate jock Paul Munsky and sends them off to his crush Aster Flores. The catch: Ellie herself has caught feelings for Aster as well. On top of breaking down t...

Tune in as Ria and Valli (Queerily Ever After) hop onto 2CC for Pride Month 2022, during which queer content will be featured throughout the month of June. For the second episode, the spotlight is on Cemetery Boys, the 2020 YA contemporary paranormal novel by Aiden Thomas (Lost in the Never Woods, The Sunbearer Trials). The journey of self-acceptance that Yadriel, a 16-year-old trans Latinx boy wh...

Tune in as Bruce and Renee (The Novel Queers) join 2CC for Pride Month 2022, during which queer content will be featured throughout the June. For the first episode, the hosts kick things off by breaking down Love & Other Disasters by Anita Kelly. Having been published just back in January, this contemporary romance revolves around a cooking competition on reality TV, where sparks fly between L...

Finally, 2CC is back from its unplanned hiatus! The situation looked rocky for a while, what with the dead computer and the initially malfunctioning replacement computer (I blame the Mercury Retrograde), but everything is in working order now. Here’s a new episode in the bonus 2CC series Off the Cuff, which Arthur recorded two weeks ago with his Discord book-club mate Saba. The two of them discuss...

Joining the show on this fine day is Kristen O’Neal, author of the contemporary YA werewolf novel Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses, which just had its paperback release on May 10th. Tune in to hear her and Arthur discuss a multitude of subjects, including their shared love for Jurassic Park, their equally shared displeasure for Jurassic World, chronic illness representation, the role that D...

Tune in as comedian Guy Bradford returns to the show for a conversation about Moon Knight, the six-episode Marvel Cinematic Universe series that ran on Disney+ from March 30th to May 4th. As part of Phase 4 of the MCU, it adopts quite the dark, almost psychological thriller-esque mood in comparison to the rest of the franchise. Considering its mild-mannered museum gift shop employee lead Steven Gr...

Tune in as Laura Petro and Meggie Gates (YA, We Read It!) hang out with Arthur for a recap of The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. This 2020 magical-realism take on the now-beloved Multiverse subgenre of speculative fiction follows 35-year-old Nora Seed as she ODs to escape her depressing life, which sends her off on a journey to navigate the countless versions of her life that have branched through...

Tune in as Jodie and Laura (The Island Library Podcast) collaborate with Arthur for a recap of Gallant, the 2022 supernatural fantasy YA novel by V.E. Schwab (the Shades of Magic series, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue). Coldhearted orphanages, the moment when you realize books that you thought were YA have actually been targeted at general audiences the whole time, Arthur mistakenly referring t...

Joining the show for today is Eric Berlin, who wrote The Puzzling World of Winston Breen and its two sequels, all of which belong to the small group of puzzle-themed middle-grade books that Arthur had devoured as a child. On top of that, Eric creates puzzles for a living, having whipped up crosswords and variety puzzles for the New York Times, concocted entire puzzle hunts, and launched the puzzle...

Tune in as Matt Cole (Debate This!, Avenge This!) takes a seat at the table to chat about Marvel’s Runaways, the MCU-adjacent three-season TV show that follows a group of six high schoolers as they learn about a murderous scheme that their seemingly upstanding parents have been committing together for years and proceed to do all they can to thwart it. Having premiered in 2017 on Hulu before ending...

Tune in as Arthur celebrates the 1st podiversary of 2 Cents Critic. Yep, it’s one year old! Over this period, many lessons were learned, varied content was consumed, and discussions and banter were shared with guests. All of this amounted to the total of fifty-seven episodes that have been uploaded to the podsphere. Thank you to all the listeners who discovered this show. Thank you to all the list...

Tune in as Jackson Leight (creator of the satirical RWBY news website  https://bumbleby.com ) teams up with Arthur to dissect Volume 1 of RWBY, the American anime web series that online entertainment company Rooster Teeth premiered in 2013. RWBY has been lasting for eight seasons so far, and now 2CC (which already dropped a brief episode on Volume 8 back during the podcast’s text-to-voice day...