2 Cents Critic

Tune in as Jessica and Saunya (Opinionated Lushes) return to the show for a breakdown of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, the 2019 YA mystery thriller novel by debut author Holly Jackson. The hosts do plenty on this episode, where they theorize that Pip is neurodivergent, express their varying tolerances for heavy and disturbing content in thriller and horror media, vent their ACAB attitudes, and wo...

Tune in as Arthur’s buddy Anna hops into the guest chair for a review and recap of Beach Read, the 2020 rivals-to-lovers and grumpy/sunshine contemporary romance novel by Emily Henry. There’s tons for the hosts to chat about on this episode of 2CC, including speculation over whether or not the Netflix Christmas rom-com Love Hard stole its premise from real life, the gender stereotyping that‘s bake...

Tune in as Trace Thurman (Horror Queers) stops by the show to discuss The Mitchells vs. the Machines, the 2021 Netflix animated road trip movie that, if we’re being honest here, should have won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature over Encanto. The topics that are getting coverage on this episode include the subversively written nuances of the Mitchell family dynamic, how this movie handles its cas...

Tune in as pod friend Guy Bradford comes back to the show for a review and recap of Secret Invasion, the first Disney+ MCU series of 2023. The show’s horrible and lifeless AI-created opening credits, MCU fatigue, Guy mixing up Nic Cage and Nick Fury’s names numerous times, and the apparently gut-wrenching film that is Requiem for a Dream (which remains on Arthur’s watchlist) comprise just a few of...

Tune in as the program returns from its two-week hiatus to invite back previous guests Clayton Jones II and Shawn Murphy (Men Who Like Men Who Like Movies Podcast) for a breakdown of Death Note, one of Arthur’s all-time favorite anime series. Complex moral and philosophical questions, the show’s Quentin Tarantino-level obsession with feet, the smoldering love that clearly burns between Light and L...

Tune in as Torry (Ready to Be Petty) rejoins Arthur for a review and recap of The Bromance Book Club, the 2019 second chance romance novel by Lyssa Kay Adams that explores what happens when a guy embarks on a plan to save his collapsing marriage by joining a club full of men who read romance books to educate themselves on love, women, and healthy masculinity. All the sexism that our society has ai...

Tune in as the program wraps up Pride Month by dropping its final queer media-focused episode of June! Arthur’s friends Jared and Misty Rose return to 2CC to break down Love, Simon, the 2018 film adaptation of the 2015 queer YA book Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. A few of the topics they discuss include guesstimating the queer youth population of Atlanta, sneaking onto the...

Tune in as the show continues to celebrate Pride Month and cover queer media on this third episode of June! Ryan Kinney (Brother Ghoulish’s Tomb) hops into the guest seat for a review and recap of the 1994 queer road trip comedy The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Talking points for this episode include what a theoretical series reboot of Priscilla could accomplish, wrestling with th...

Tune in as the show continues to celebrate Pride Month and cover queer media on this second episode of June! Arthur’s buddy Logan returns for their third guest spot to discuss Something to Talk About, the 2020 sapphic contemporary romance novel by Meryl Wilsner. Talking points include just how vehemently slow-burn this gets, the book’s nimble handling of risky tropes like employee-boss relationshi...

Tune in as the show kicks off Pride Month by covering queer content for the next four episodes of June! On this first week, Meggie Gates, a returning guest who cohosts the book podcast YA, We Read It! with Laura Petro, hops back onto 2CC for a discussion on Anything’s Possible, the queer coming-of-age rom-com that dropped on Prime Video back in 2022. Talking points for this episode include questio...

Tune in as Arthur’s filmmaker friend Connor Kujawinski returns to the program for a breakdown of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the 32nd movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the long-awaited finale to the GOTG saga. Talking points for this particularly lengthy episode include the subtle character arcs, comparing a confusing moment from the movie to Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the one-ta...

Tune in as Mel B. and Jackie D. (Read, Watch, or DNF, DNF Happy Hour) join Arthur to discuss Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, the 2001 fantasy middle-grade novel that weaves in some sci-fi and asks the question, “What if Die Hard, but with fairies?” A quick digression into To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, nefarious antiheroes, speculating as to why Judi Dench agreed to be in the horrendous Artemis F...

Tune in as Adam Avitable (Dating Kinda Sucks, The Angel at the Starlite Motel) hangs out on the program for a discussion on The Proposal, the 2009 engagement-of-convenience, enemies-to-lovers, boss-employee rom-com starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. Talking points for the episode include the numerous parallels this shares with While You Were Sleeping, Adam’s Rosario Dawson story, whether o...

Tune in as Kat and Jazz (Girl, That’s Scary) team up with Arthur for a discussion on What Lies Beneath, the 2000 supernatural domestic thriller that gave us Michelle Pfeiffer’s velvety delivery of the iconic “Your Wife” line. Hitchcockian vibes, how spicy Atomic Fireballs truly are, gorgeous cinematography, and just what the hell is going on with the Feurs are some of the topics that the hosts cov...

Tune in as my friend Daxh Alanis hops into the guest seat for a breakdown of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which is not only the 31st movie in the MCU, but is also the movie that’s kicking off Phase 5 of the superhero franchise. The parallels that this flick shares with pop culture media like Star Wars and Rick and Morty, whether the MCU is being written like a TV show, the Jonathan Majors si...

Tune in as return guest and fellow Star Wars nerd Brojem joins Arthur for a review and recap of Disney+’s The Mandalorian, Season 3. The ways in which the hosts like and dislike the evolution of Star Wars, the franchise’s dubious stance on droid slavery (a topic that the hosts had previously covered in last year’s podcast on Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi), a mini-discussion on The Book of Boba Fett, an...

Tune in as Christy (X Knows All) hangs out with Arthur for a breakdown of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award-winning novel by Gabrielle Zevin (The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry) that covers over three decades of a complicated friendship between two ingenious and flawed video game designers. Talking points for the podcast include the messy and endearing nature of the...

Tune in as Honer and Bruce (Drunk With Buds) drop by the program to discuss the Netflix series adaptation of The Sandman, the dark fantasy comic book by Neil Gaiman (Coraline, American Gods, Good Omens, The Graveyard Book). Its existential depth, the scrapped film adaptation that Gaiman himself had sabotaged, and the Audible version of The Sandman make up a few of the talking points on this episod...

Tune in as Ruan Willow (Oh F*ck Yeah with Ruan Willow) drops by for a review and recap of The Roommate, the 2020 contemporary romance novel by debut author Rosie Danan. There’s tons of charm to be found in this forced-proximity rom-com that fights for porn stars and for the right to get some good old pleasure. The book’s unusual method of slow-burn spice, the audiobook experience, how to handle th...

Tune in as numerous past 2CC guests partake in a special trivia event to celebrate the podcast turning two years old. Yes, two! Many thanks to Jessica and Saunya (Opinionated Lushes), Shelby Schwieterman and Sam Frontera (The Rom Complex), Guy Bradford, Misty Rose, and Sam Cabrera-Dixon (Hardcover Hoes) for joining in on the anniversary fun. And of course, more thanks goes out to all the listeners...

Tune in as Marie Nicola (Alt. Pop. Repeat) visits the program for a deep dive into Gravity Falls, the animated Disney series that gave us two seasons full of paranormal mysteries and the adventures that twin siblings Dipper and Mabel Pines embarked on to solve them. Talking points that Arthur and Marie raise include various Gravity Falls fan theories, well-written sibling dynamics, a few vehementl...

Tune in as return guest Misty Rose and newcomer Jared (though he’s been previously present on the program in spirit) hang out with Arthur for a recap of the 2023 Oscars, where the Academy showered down awards love on Everything Everywhere All At Once, people were rushed off the stage and unable to finish their acceptance speeches, and Hugh Grant provided Ashley Graham with a fascinatingly halfhear...

Tune in as Patrick (Vintage Video) hangs out with Arthur for a discussion on Mrs. Doubtfire, the 1993 family comedy (or thriller, depending on how you look at it) starring Robin Williams as a dad who’s going through a divorce and just wants to spend more time with his kids. So what does he do? Why, he disguises himself as an elderly British woman and finagles his way into becoming their nanny. Yep...

Tune in as Arthur teams up with Shawn Murphy and Clayton Jones II (Men Who Like Men Who Like Movies Podcast) for a review and recap of Creep, the 2014 found-footage horror movie that takes cringe comedy to a whole new level. Topics that get coverage here include polite horror, Joe Goldberg hypothetically stashing away a Box of Clayton, the works of David Lynch and Christopher Nolan, and trying to...

Tune in as return guest Jackson Leight (creator of the satirical RWBY news website https://bumbleby.com) dives back into more RWBY content with Arthur. This time, they’re focusing on RWBY: Ice Queendom, the 2022 spinoff series that anime studio Shaft produced for the Rooster Teeth web series RWBY. Primarily set between the events of Volumes 1 and 2, Ice Queendom is, to say the least, an inter...