Pop DNA

To wrap up our discussion we brought in the YA experts, Amanda and Claire of Fictional Hangover Podcast, to talk all about the Shadow and Bone book series! We cover the good, the bad, and the ugly, and come to a consensus that Alina definitely should have just joined the Darkling in book one.  We also, as is our tradition, discuss our results of the “Which Character Are You?” quiz, and we rop...

This week we look at the Ravkan religion, or Worship of the Saints, in Shadow and Bone, and how this belief system and Leigh Bardugo’s own Jewish background inform the world of the Grishaverse.  We also draw comparisons from Alina’s relationships with both Mal and the Darkling to similar character pairings in other media works--and Rhonda finally states once and for all where she stands on Re...

What do you call a fantasy country that is inspired by 19th century Russia, but is NOT 19th century Russia? In part 2 of our Shadow and Bone discussion we look at how Leigh Bardugo drew from Russian culture and history to create the world of Ravka, the folklore and fairytales we see woven throughout the Grishaverse, and how these influences helped shape the TV series. We also explore Alina and Mal...

Join us as we enter the Shadow Fold and dive into the Netflix series, and book series it’s based on, Shadow and Bone! Part one of our discussion looks at the world Leigh Bardugo has created with the Grishaverse, from her approach to world building (and how it compares to other fantasy authors’ approaches), to her inspirations, to the fascinating magic system of The Small Science.  Rhonda misq...

We’re wrapping up our Downton Abbey series with a look at how the show has influenced and interacted with other popular media and pop culture! Our discussion meanders around Downton’s contribution to the surge in popularity of historical drama TV shows, to its place in the lexicon of class commentary media such as films like Parasite and Us, to the many references, spoofs, and comedy sketches the...

This week in our Downton Abbey series we are getting on our gender and class soap boxes, so buckle up! We see Mary, Anna, Sybil, Daisy, and the other women of Downton navigating the changing roles of women in English society, but what would these roles have looked like for real women of the time? We also look at one the largest media influences on Downton Abbey--the 1970s ITV series Upstairs, Down...

Downton Abbey takes place in the 1910s and 1920s, a time of great societal and cultural changes that had been in the making for decades.  This week we are having some real fun and talking about the decline of the British Empire! From the Industrial Revolution, to changes in class structure, to political upheaval such as the Irish Independence movement, and eventually the loss of colonial powe...

We’re kicking off Season 4 with a dissection of everyone’s mom’s favorite TV show, and Donna Meagle’s favorite book, Downton Abbey. The series gave us fictionalized accounts of two vastly influential cultural phenomena: the “Bright Young Things” of the 1920s, as embodied by Rose; and the late-19th century “Buccaneers” of the titular Edith Wharton novel, exemplified in Cora.  Our exploration o...

It’s our Summer Theatre Grand Finale, AND the last episode of Season 3! What better way to end it than with the summer theatre favorite, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream? From sources for the play, to its film adaptations and broader influence in media and literature (yes, including Twilight), Midsummer has had a big impact on pop culture. We also discuss our dream cast for a (hypothetical)...

We just got back from Ren Faire and we're ready to talk about our favorite musical based on Arthurian legends! (Well, tied for favorite with Spamalot...) We're talking about Camelot, the Lerner and Loewe 1960 musical, its 1967 film adaptation, and the novel it was adapted from, T. H. White's The Once and Future King.  How did the culture and politics of the 1960s interact with this musical?&n...

Toss a looney to your comedian! It's time for a deep dive into obscure Canadian comedy! It's Erin’s birthday, and we thought what better way to celebrate than a Birthday Bonus Episode about obscure Canadian comedy! From Canadian sketch comedy, to the films of Christopher Guest, to the great Canadian TV comedies Slings & Arrows and Schitt's Creek, plus our favorite actors and comedians who hail...

Why do Hollywood movies love giving female characters makeovers as a substitute for character development? Well, it may just have something to do with Pygmalion... This week for Summer Theatre Program we discuss the George Bernard Shaw play Pygmalion and its musical adaptation, Lerner and Loewe's My Fair Lady, as well as the Greek myth that inspired both. From the story’s deeply misogynistic roots...

We made a deal with a devil this week to talk about Christopher Marlowe's 1592 play The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. The core premise of this play is so pervasive in current media and storytelling that there's even a name for it: a "Faustian Bargain." Our discussion touches on the life of Marlowe himself and early theater productions of the play, its source material in Goethe and others' Fa...

Next up for Summer Theatre Program is Oscar Wilde's comedy of manners The Importance of Being Earnest! We discuss the few productions of the play we've seen, and also why we think there aren't very many adaptations and retellings of this particular play, despite its relative popularity.  Recent years have seen new interpretations of the play through the lenses of race, sexuality, and class, a...

Good Morrow and welcome to the Summer Theatre Program! We’re coming in hot with a discussion of the world’s favorite romantic tragedy, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. We break down some popular adaptations and retellings of the play, from the modern take with Leo and Claire Danes, to West Side Story, to Gnomeo and Juliet, to the YA fantasy novel These Violent Delights.  Then we look a...

Once again we are sad to say goodbye to a discussion topic, and this time it feels especially poignant. This week we look at how The Good Place explores our final state of existence in the context of religious, especially Catholic and Protestant Christian, ideas of the After Life. We also talk about one of our favorite books, A Wrinkle in Time, and the parallels we see between the book and the fan...

Why are AI assistants like Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Janet ("Not a girl, not a robot") from The Good Place, almost always coded as female? And what affect does this have on real gender biases?  How does The Good Place further explore and comment on the toxic aspects of American society and culture?  We attempt to answer these questions and more in part 3 of our discussion of The Good Pla...

The Good Place was incredibly deft at taking complex ethical and philosophical questions and making them accessible for a general audience, and it often did this through evoking that tried-and-true TV metaphor for when the characters are learning a life lesson: the college campus. This week we look at several other TV shows that used the college 101 course trope to explore deeper questions, like C...

We love Schur shows here at Pop DNA, and The Good Place is possibly the Schur-iest of all.  For part 1 of this discussion, we look at how The Good Place fits in with Michael Schur's other work, namely The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Brooklyn 99, focusing on how these shows explore the elements of found family, learning to care (or caring too much), and unique character dynamics.  W...

It's Rhonda's Birthday Bonus so we're talking about one of her favorite media franchises, the BMCU! In the British Monarchy Cinematic Universe Tony Blair looks exactly like Michael Sheen. We're geeking out over movies and TV shows about British royals, from The Favourite, to The Crown, to the Lifetime original Harry and Meghan: A Royal Romance. We also discuss the current state of the British Mona...

We're wrapping up this topic and a little sad about it! This week we take a look at three different lenses through which we can view the story, characters, and messages in WandaVision: the unreliable narrator; the psychology of grief; and the Male vs. Female Gazes Join us next week for Rhonda's Birthday Bonus! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram and visit ThePopDNA.blog for links to everything we d...

Check out this trailer to hear what we're all about!

We wanted to really dive in to two of our favorite characters in WandaVision, Monica and Agatha, so here is our down-the-rabbit-hole discussion! From Monica's origins as a bearer of the Captain Marvel moniker, to Agatha's history with the Salem Witch Trials, we looked into how these two characters' comics stories tie in to their arcs in the WandaVIsion series.  We also discussed how we still...

This week we're taking a deep dive into WandaVision 's relationship with television of the past and present.  From references to classic sitcoms of the '50s and '60s, to newer favorites like Malcolm in the Middle and Modern Family , to the DNA it shares with The Twilight Zone , WandaVision is the very model of a TV fan's TV show. We also look at how the homages, references, and tropes used go...

Here is the recording of our March 20 livestream chat with our friends Emrys and Luthien of Girls With Sabers!  We took a deep dive into the Heroine's Journey as we see it expressed in WandaVision, as well as how mythos and psychology intertwine throughout Wanda's story. We also looked at connections to other heroines in literature, myth, and pop culture, and discussed what might be in store...