Low Key

Usually on the "Low Key" podcast, we talk about pop culture moments we think others may have missed, often through a racial lens. This week, we just talk about some projects we're excited about, from "Cannon Busters" to "The Witcher" to "The Irishman" to "The Mandelorian," "Dolemite is My Name" and "Harriet." Of all those films and TV shows, only one -- the Netflix anime series "Cannon Busters," h...

Do you need to know the history of the Manson Family and Sharon Tate to appreciate "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood"? That's one of our first questions in our wrap-up of Quentin Tarantino's latest. Every week on "Low Key" we talk about pop culture moments we think others may have missed. This week: Prior to "Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood," one of your hosts, Tim, knew much too much about the M...

"Game of Thrones" decapitated fairy tale and fantasy tropes by giving us deeply flawed knights, kings and queens. Amazon's new "The Boys" similarly demystifies superheroes, as we discuss on the latest "Low Key" podcast. Every week on "Low Key," Aaron Lanton, Keith Dennie and Tim Molloy look at pop culture subtleties and what they mean. "The Boys," Eric Kripke's adaptation of Gareth Ennis' comic bo...

A dubious news report that a black actress, Lashana Lynch, will play 007 in the next James Bond film got your friendly neighborhood "Low Key" hosts wondering: When do Hollywood's attempts at diversity in casting feel positive, and when do they feel like pandering? And is there such a thing as positive pandering? This week we're joined by special guest host Sarah Lanton as our discussion of the Jam...

For all the nostalgia of "Stranger Things" -- the New Coke, the mall, the music -- the most uncanny memory it conjures is the feeling of first seeing a scary movie you were too young to see. With the very good Season 3 behind us, we still don't have resolution to some of the key mysteries unveiled in Season 1 and Season 2. Is the show doing too much? Or does the continuing mystery add to the feeli...

This week we talk about Netflix's Spike Lee-produced "See You Yesterday," which combines the time-travel goofiness of "Back to the Future" with the social criticism of "Boys N the Hood" (RIP, John Singleton). Does it work? We're a little divided. We appreciate that the protagonist is a young, black and female scientist (Eden-Duncan Smith). We love seeing Marty McFly himself, Michael J. Fox, readin...

This episode, we welcome our first guests: "Black Mirror" executive producers Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones drop in for a (very) quick interview to discuss "Striking Viper," our favorite episode of Season 5. We talk about how "Tekken" used to make Brooker's home sound like an S&M dungeon, men's struggles to express our emotions, and why polar- bear sex doesn't sound so great. We also talk...

The "Game of Thrones" finale left the "Low Key" team divided. House Aaron was disappointed. House Keith found it lackluster. House Tim was satisfied. We get into detail about the reasons why, while pondering several other issues, before getting into the real question: Was Bran the bad guy all along? We also discuss the final Jon-Dany scene, why the main cast members are kinda jerks, and the one th...

If you haven't watched the penultimate episode of "Game of Thrones," you should skip this episode, and also tweet at @timamolloy or @alanton11 for our HBO Go passwords. Because you're going to want to be caught up for the finale this Sunday. On this episode, we gave a dragon-fiery debate whether the show properly set up Daenerys Targaryen's heel turn, examine whether Targaryens have dragon blood,...

"Avengers: Endgame" sets a new standard for franchise films and universe-building. But is that a good thing? On the latest "Low Key," we talk about why the massive success of "Endgame" -- not just in terms of box office, but also in terms of fan service -- is likely to inspire lots of imitators. We talk about what lesson other universes -- "Star Wars" and DC come to mind -- can learn from the MCU....

What happens in "Avengers: Endgame"? We have no idea. But in this episode, we talk about our hopes, predictions and fears for the culmination of the Marvel Cinematic Universe stories we've followed for more than a decade. To be 100 percent clear: We have not, as of this writing, seen "Endgame," or heard any spoilers. We've carefully avoided leaked scenes, and covered our ears whenever friends trie...

Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) lures us to the beautiful, fictional "Guava Island" for his new Amazon film of the same name, and we're delighted to be there. On this week's episode of the Low Key Podcast, we talk about the politics of Guava Island -- the place and the film -- as well as our thoughts about Glover's work overall, especially FX's "Atlanta." We also talk about how we wish Glover...

This episode of "Low Key" is about the dark side of comedy. We all know laughter eases pain, but we don't talk so much about the acute pain of failing to make people laugh. The first episode of Jordan Peele's revived "The Twilight Zone," starring Kumail Nanjiani as a standup comic who will do anything to succeed, perfectly captures the agony of speaking into a mic to a crowd of people who refuse t...

"Get Out" was a horror classic, so Jordan Peele's "Us," his follow-up, had big, scary shoes to fill. In the latest "Low Key" podcast, we talk about whether the latest addition to the Peeleverse lives up to our very high expectations. "Us" is a movie made for people who fixate on small details, like why Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong'o) is offbeat when she snaps her fingers, and why her son Jason's...

Efforts by a few fragile fanboys to sabotage "Captain Marvel" completely failed -- but they did succeed in sparking a few fights that aren't worth having.  Before "Captain Marvel" even opened, trolls targeted it on Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb and YouTube, spurring all three to  make changes designed to screen out attacks from people who hadn't actually seen the film. "Captain Marvel" beat the...

Had a rough week? The cheerfully silly, R-rated weirdness of "Doom Patrol" might be just what you need. The DC Universe show is a little bit "X-Men," a little bit 1950s monster movie, and a lot of lesson-free fun. "Doom Patrol" follows Brendan Fraser as a lumbering robot man named, uh, "Robot Man," who joins a grimly goofy team of super zeroes who live together in Doom Manor under the guardia...

Stephen Soderbergh's "High Flying Bird" imagines black pro athletes bypassing mostly white team owners to finally reap the profits of their own athleticism. Is it just a dream, or could Colin Kaepernick's fight with the NFL be the start of something like the nascent revolt in the film? The film imagines what would happen if the mostly black athletes in the NBA discovered a way to profit from their...

Liam Neeson admits that for a time, he walked the streets looking for an excuse to kill a random black man because of his anger over a friend's rape. On this episode, we talk about the deep history of insidious and deadly lies that fed his mindset, and what we can all learn from his admission. We go from Neeson to Trayvon Martin to Jussie Smollet to why growing up on an island that's 96 percent wh...

We love "Black Panther," but we're kind of stunned it has an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. We want to believe Ryan Coogler's film was nominated just by being great, but as Keith puts it: "Don't give us handouts, Oscars." Are Oscar voters making up for past snubs of superhero films, like "Dark Knight"? Or past snubs of African-American films? Could it be that Oscar voters simply love "Black Pa...

Barry Jenkins' "If Beale Street Could Talk," based on the book by James Baldwin, uses an almost deliriously beautiful love story to show how the criminal justice system unjustly targets black men. This week, Aaron Lanton and Keith Dennie talk about how much the film hit home (and not just because they both grew up in Memphis, the home of Beale Street.) One scene in particular -- when our hero, Fon...

Was "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" more like a fun "Goosebumps" book? Or a way for a massive corporation to gain insights into your private viewing habits? This episode, we wonder if "Bandersnatch" will open the door to a future in which entertainment companies will be able to tell not just whether we prefer Frosties or Sugar Puffs, but also our attention spans and tolerance for violence. Just imagi...

"Into the Spider-Verse" is a masterpiece, but it's especially special for black and Latino audiences who've been underrepresented in super hero movies. This episode, we talk about why certain lines and moments in the film may resonate more with Spider-fans of color. As Ava DuVernay tweeted over the weekend, "You’re the best of us, Miles. You’re on your way. Just keep going.” If you like us, throw...

The critically acclaimed Netflix hit "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" has been a hit in more ways than one - the streaming giant recently settled in a lawsuit brought by the The Satanic Temple for $150 million for an alleged depiction of the Baphomet statue. We were shocked that the lawsuit held so much merit which caused us to think about the use of Satanic imagery allusions in other American...

We were pretty skeptical of DC's "Titans" at first. That promo where Robin says "f--- Batman" didn't exactly win us over. But now that the show is live on DCUniverse.com, we think it's actually worth watching, even for a few bucks a month. "Titans" had a lot to overcome in our minds: a lot of superhero shows feel cheap, and we're kind of tired of the de facto gritty feel of so many comic book proj...

This week on "Low Key," Aaron, Keith and Tim discuss "The Conners," the Roseanne-free version of "Roseanne." We talk about how bad Roseanne Barr's "Planet of the Apes" tweet was and whether it should have gotten her kicked off her show. And how realistically "The Conners" handle problems like the opioid crisis. And who is the better "The Conners" character: DJ, or the couch. Also: Why there can ne...