Hazel & Katniss & Harry & Starr

Our second week of mailbag brings us questions about Own Voices from listener Tea, Books and Chocolate Wanna connect with the show? Follow us on Twitter @HKHSPod or use the hashtag #HKHSPod: > Brenna: @brennacgray > Joe: @bstolemyremote Have something longer to say or a comment about banned book club? Email us at hkhspod@gmail.com or tweet us your responses before the following deadlines: &g...

Thanks to a suggestion from listener Toni, Brenna and Joe check out Craig Silvey's celebrated 2009 book Jasper Jones , as well as Indigenous filmmaker Rachel Perkins's 2017 adaptation. We both really like the book, which is long and takes awhile to get into, but offers a complicated analysis of racism and class in a small Australian town. The film is still good, but too much has been cut out to do...

On the inaugural edition of the HKHS mailbag, we discuss a few titles for future coverage courtesy of listener Miriam. Wanna connect with the show? Follow us on Twitter @HKHSPod or use the hashtag #HKHSPod: > Brenna: @brennacgray > Joe: @bstolemyremote Have something longer to say or a comment about Own Voices book club? Email us at hkhspod@gmail.com or tweet us your responses before the fol...

Brenna and Joe *finally* check out S02 of Sterlin Harjo's Reservation Dogs and we're still head over heels for this series. We're not in sync, though: Joe wants the focus to stay on the central four, while Brenna has no problem on the expanded focus. Plus: overwhelming guest spots, why Cheese and Willie Jack are the best, and the pressure put on the show by the continued lack of other Indigenous T...

It's the end of the road for HBO Max's Gossip Girl revamp, so expect plenty of sighs and complaints as Jenny, Ari and Joe say goodbye. First we tackle the satisfying lock-up of Kate and the nonsensical Met Gala plot before moving onto the Gossip Girl-free Roman vacation. Joe likes this version of the show, while Ari and Jenny are tempted by the Roger Menzies/app tease and the mysterious stranger t...

Listener Max is taking Brenna far outside of her comfort zone as we discuss Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2016) by James Tynion IV and Freddie Williams II, as well the 2019 animated film Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Jake Castorena. We're talking properties with plenty of lore, different art styles and mostly similar plots, but the comic feels stuffed and overly a...

Jenny, Ari and Joe are back to unpack the penultimate episode of HBO Max's Gossip Girl and even though we know the show has been cancelled, we're still worried about the throuple! Plus: surprises aplenty at an event we don't fully understand, a pair of strategically framed sequences and we're suddenly interested in the Obie storyline?! Wanna connect with the show? Follow us on Twitter @HKHSPod or...

Banned Book Club comes to an end with Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely's All American Boys (2015), a book about racialized police violence from two different perspectives and featuring contributions from listeners Victoria, Miriam and Tea, Books and Chocolate. This (maybe Middle Grade?) book is one of the most challenged books in America, and still feels too timely and relevant. Brenna and Jo...

Jenny, Ari and Joe are delighted that Gossip Girl FINALLY gives Luna her own episode (and shitty parent, natch). It's time for the Tribeca Film Festival and Audrey, Max and Julien are making big moves, but it's Aki and Julien who are paying the price. Plus: more shitty parents, Jenny's cruel streak, Andrew's appreciation that Julien isn't off the hook, and predictions of a European vacation. Wanna...

Grab your Playboy because Brenna and Joe are headed into the big scary city with Chris Columbus' 1987 feature directorial debut, Adventures in Babysitting . Brenna calls this a romp and it's true: the children-in-peril comedy starring Elizabeth Shue and an annoying Anthony Rapp is delightful, though we still have plenty to contextualize in its suburban fears, its racialized fears and why doesn't D...

Welcome back listeners. This week Jenny, Joe and Ari are divided as Georgina Sparks' two episode run comes to an end, Kate executes an odd plan and the De Haans are back to their dastardly plans. Plus: More Wendy! Audrey vs Julien! And are we setting up Obie's storyline as the end of season arc? Wanna connect with the show? Follow us on Twitter @HKHSPod or use the hashtag #HKHSPod: > Ari: @TheA...

We're celebrating the late great Indigenous filmmaker Jeff Barnaby with a look at 2013's Rhymes for Young Ghouls . C/W: infanticide, suicide, drug abuse, threat of sexual assault, residential schools (basically everything). This is a rough text, but Barnaby's tale of Indigenous vengeance against colonial oppressors is also extremely cathartic. Plus: The Aila Test, a brief history of residential sc...

Georgina Sparks is back, and Ari, Jenny and Joe couldn't be more excited! This wild energy is exactly what Gossip Girl needs, particularly when we're still juggling snoozy storylines like Julien sleeping with a maybe married man (eyeroll), Zoya's sex tape blackmail and Obie's...who could care? Thankfully we're seeing glimmers of hope (a Zoya/Monet team up?). Plus there's clearly more Georgina to c...

Welcome back listeners. We've hit the snoozy halfway point of S02 of HBO Max's revamped Gossip Girl ...but "Games, Trains, and Automobiles" is a bore. From Julien's affair with a clearly married man to Shan's out of character behavior to our fears that the throuple is breaking up, Ari, Jenny and Joe don't find a lot to love in this Spring Break episode. Plus: we don't care that Obie's mom is back,...

Little Brooke isn't quite as boring anymore, is she?! Welcome back listeners. It's Valentine's Days on Gossip Girl and Ari, Jenny and Joe are ready to declare "One Flew Over the Cuck's Nest" the best episode of the series to date. Sure we're not enthused by Shan's betrayal or Julien's potential affair, but between the bottoming stuff in the throuple, Round 2 of Monet vs Camille DeHaan, Max reading...

We're closing out 2022 with one final foray into big budget spectacle with Andrew Adamson's 2005 epic adaptation of C.S. Lewis' 1950 British classic The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe . Up for discussion: the uncomfortable racial aspects of the film, CGI vs practical effects, the wartime elements, religious propaganda, which Pevensie child we identify as, and why it's ok to hate Edmund and Turki...

Welcome back followers. This week on XOXO, Ari, Jenny and Joe are discussing the third episode of the rebooted Gossip Girl's second season "Great Reputations" which takes the action to the Guggenheim, focuses too much on boring Brooke and Obie, and gives Monet another great storyline. Plus: more skin, Joe's continued frustrations with Zoya, and Luna drags Jenny! Wanna connect with the show? Follow...

In honour of the 25th anniversary of Spice World , we're giving you everything...or at least an episode on the iconic UK film! Along for the ride is Bobby Torrez, who - like Brenna - loves this film (Joe, meanwhile, is mostly just overwhelmed). Up for discussion: British humour, cameos and cut scenes, the $25 M budget and whether a film like this could even get made today. Wanna connect with the s...

Welcome back followers. This week on XOXO , Ari, Jenny and Joe are discussing the second episode of the rebooted Gossip Girl 's second season "Guess Who's Coming At Dinner?" which finds our crew attending a series of eventful dinner parties. While we're frustrated with Nick and annoyed at the repetition with Kate and Mike, we're living for the Monet vs Julien cover spread storyline and dying at th...

We're headed to Calgary in the 90s with Canadian lesbian twin sister singing sensations Tegan and Sara, reading their 2019 memoir High School and the 2022 Amazon Freevee adaptation, showrun by Clea DuVall. We're talking raves and acid, multiple perspectives of the same events, the twins' meteoric rise to stardom and the many girls they had crushes on. Plus: the show's challenging short episodes an...

Greetings listeners. School is back in session as HBO Max's Gossip Girl returns for a second year and a new semester. How are Jenny, Ari and Joe feeling about the fresh start? Well, we're big fans of Monet as a multifaceted villain, Luna's glow-up, the status of our fave throuple, and the curious lack of Obie. Plus: thoughts on the Deb ball, the new Russian classics teacher and will Zoya ever beco...

It's an Angie Thomas gush fest as Brenna and Joe cover the author's On The Come Up (2019) and first time feature director Sanaa Lathan's 2022 film adaptation. We are *huge* fans of the book, which is covertly about trauma and features a more challenging teen female protagonist. The film is still enjoyable, but it takes the more commercial approach of focusing on Bri's art/ascent to stardom. Plus:...

Greetings listeners. We know you love us , but do you love Gossip Girl (2021)? That's one question we feel is worth pursuing, so join Joe, as well as Ari Drew and Jenny Nulf, as they provide weekly commentary on the HBO Max remake/revamp/sequel. We're starting with our thoughts on S01, including which characters we find hot, which throuple we're obsessed with, and which characters are boring (hi O...

It's time for our final Banned Book Club of the year and we're going out with a "classic": William Golding's 1954 novel Lord of the Flies and Peter Brook's 1963 adaptation. Thanks to listeners Natalie and Miriam for chiming in! This is Joe's first time reading the book, but it's so familiar because of its pop culture legacy. It's deeply colonial, though Brenna is frustrated by Golding's penchant f...

On its eighth anniversary (and with one year until the prequel film drops), Joe returns to Panem to revisit Mockingjay Part 1 . Along for the ride is Alex Heeney, who guested on our episode on The Hunger Games and has strong opinions about Suzanne Collins' book and Francis Lawrence's film. Please note: we're only discussing Chapters 1-13 for this episode. We're still chatting about love triangles...