The Shrieking Shack

We took a break from our main reading episode for the holiday this week, but there was just enough time after recording a bonus episode to cut together our first clip show. Hear us progress from awkward podcast newbies to seasoned Potter critics! Marvel at the gradual increase in sound quality! Share these bits with your friends and spread the word about Hurtwood House and baby Dobby. I also want...

Goblet of Fire chapter 18. Content warning for transphobia discussion, because this chapter has a part that sucks big time!! The Crimes of Grindelwald (listen to the episode!) looms over us, but we still dutifully discuss our reading for the week. There's some... good? Character stuff? Sort of? And a lot of bad stuff too. Harry Potter is truly a land of contrasts.

Well, we saw it. We did our waiting and saw the damn movie on opening night, and it sure was an experience. How many beasts were there, and just how fantastic were they? What were Grindelwald's crimes? Why couldn't this movie just be two hours of Newt hanging out with that adorable Zuwou? HEADS UP: throwing a content warning here for some fairly heavy discussions of sexual violence, including in r...

We watched the first Fantastic Beasts film (and read the original book) in preparation for the Crimes of Grindlewald nightmare coming down the pipe.

We go beyond trailer reactions to predict specific details from the Fantastic Beasts sequel--and the rest of the series. Is Dumbledore gay? Just how bad is Grindelwald? What the hell will Queenie do? Why are they making these movies? Why?

Goblet of Fire chapters 16-17. We recount the tale of a folk hero who bilked JK Rowling out of Starbucks money before digging into our chapters. There's a surprising amount of harpy discourse, a little dash of slavery apologia from Hagrid, and some genuinely good character drama mixed in as well. (thank god) Then we answer reddit's burning questions, and take a peek at some of the Crimes of Grinde...

Goblet of Fire chapters 14-15. This episode has it all: box office predictions! Williams-Sonoma catalogs! Ruminations on the politics of violence in fiction! Funny voices! Theories about cut characters! Serious discussions about the morality of the series' portrayal of slavery! More funny voices! Also BDSM? Yes, it's kind of a ride this week, but Goblet of Fire is a lot.

Goblet of Fire chapters 12-13. The last episode of Dark Arts Month 2018 is here, and we have Halloween costumes to discuss! But before that we have the news (cursed) and our reading (surprisingly, much less cursed? Mostly?) to attend to. We have a Triwizard Tournament to introduce, a slavery subplot to tug our collars over, and French accents to botch! Like the show? You can support us on Patreon...

Goblet of Fire chapters 9-11. We've got news! We discuss the frankly bonkers Johnny Depp interview from last week's EW and talk about snake percentages. After that, we discuss politics and worldbuilding and Ministry-appointed wank sessions before delving into the real Halloween business: Harry Potter Wattpad stories. Like the show? You can support us on Patreon for bonus content and early episodes...

Goblet of Fire chapters 7-8. Halloween is here! JK has been on one again, so we catch up with her Twitter antics. We also check in with Hogwarts Logic(s), Professor Snape_, and the rest of the Harry Potter Content rogue's gallery. After we check out some truly cursed Etsy glassware, we finally move on to our reading, which is... hmm. Hmm! There's some stuff this week. We defend the honor of harpie...

Goblet of Fire chapters 5-6. For the second week in a row, we're here to pick up a Pulitzer for our investigative reporting! This time it's for our role in predicting and uncovering (well, mostly just watching) the leak of a new Harry Potter video game. We have LOTS to discuss about our hopes (and fears) about the game, but first we have reading to attend to. Good news: this week's chapters are mu...

Goblet of Fire chapters 3-5. Well, here we are. We tackle the Nagini news head on in our third segment, but before that we have general Fantastic Beasts trailer impressions and three chapters to discuss. Join us and learn all about wizard well drinks, sauce wands, and xeecee's geography skills! Like the show? You can support us on Patreon for bonus content and early episodes! www.patreon.com/shrie...

Goblet of Fire chapters 1-2. Season 4 is here! The dreaded Frank Chapter looms, but before we get there we have to deal with Pottermore and a mischievous fellow named Robert Galbraith. Like the show? You can support us on Patreon for bonus content and early episodes! www.patreon.com/shriekcast/ Follow us on Twitter @shriekcast Send your questions to shriekcast@gmail.com

Prisoner of Azkaban movie. We did it! Our final Prisoner of Azkaban episode is here. We watched the movie and spoiler alert: we kinda love it? We discuss the ins and outs of the film, the perils of adaptation, fandom reactions, and much much more. Like the show? You can support us on Patreon for bonus content and early episodes! https://www.patreon.com/shriekcast/ Follow us on Twitter @shriekcast...

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 19-22. Our third reading adventure is over. After fifty Quidditch games and ten chapters of faffing around in the titular Shrieking Shack, we discuss the end of Prisoner of Azkaban in fine detail: including dog brains, House Elf Dementors, the ethics of taking a life, and fate vs. free will. That sounds like a joke, but it's not! Listen now and find out if the third Ha...

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 17-18. We uncover Pottermore's "revelations" about Fantastic Beasts. Then we get into the very exciting scenes that take place in the Shrieking Shack itself, which are way more farcical than we were expecting. To commemorate this occasion, Liz's fanfiction chops are put to the test with the ultimate Marauder fic quiz.

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 15-16. Liz conjures up the dark spirit of an ancient basic cable TV drama before we discuss Prisoner of Azkaban's tenth Quidditch match. Just like Harry, this book's specialty seems to be dives--does the rest of this reading pull up in time, or are we headed towards a crash of Norbert Chapter proportions?

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 13-14. Knives out!! We've been enjoying this book so much we hadn't quite realized how hungry we were, and this chapter about how cool the Firebolt is just dumped a ton of blood into the water. We discuss the Firebolt's superb handling, pinpoint precision, and whatever the hell else it has along with Leakycon updates and our own American broom marketing plans!

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 11-12. We hit up Bustle for some headlines and Pottermore for some marketing material before discussing the most drama-filled chapters of this book yet. Hermione took away Harry's Xbox! The flobberworms are dead! Crookshanks is scheming! We cover all this and more before taking a trip overseas to learn all about Chinese Harry Potter fan fiction and bootlegs.

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 9-10. Happy birthday, Harry Potter! And a happy birthday to you too, JK Rowling--we hope you got a third treehouse or whatever. After we finish wishing our heroes a happy birthday, we travel to a very rainy Hogwarts to discuss the Marauder's Map, pub waitresses, reddit, and who would win in a fight between Sirius Black and John Wick.

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 7-8. Comic-con happened, so naturally we have to pick over the remains of WB's nightmarish press conference (and the Fantastic Beasts trailer). Xeecee did a little bit of field reporting at a Target "event" and has the misspelled Hogwarts acceptance letter to prove it. Then, our reading for the week is a roller coaster of melodrama, Quidditch rules, and wad-blowing!

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 5-6. We investigate the "new" JK Rowling interview content "discovered" this week before getting into our reading--which we really liked! Still, there's plenty to go over in detail, from train stoppages to knight paintings to JK's strangely cruel supplemental writing about her own characters. Finally, we top it all off with some of your confessions!

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 3-4. The guy whose name rhymes with Bhonny Bepp is back in the news and WB has a movie to promote, so you know what that means: it's time for us to predict what brand of non-reaction the Harry Potter brand will have. Then we're off to the Knight Bus, where things are considerably better! We loved our reading so much this week, Liz had to come up with an extra cursed fi...

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 1-2. It's season 3! And what better way to start a new book than going through a new Rowling tweetstorm. We're both excited and cautious about starting a new book - will Harry have a character this time? Will Dumbledore tell him any more bird facts? Only time will tell, but for now we'll make do with bonkers articles about Harry Potter from 1999.

Chamber of Secrets film & video games. We watched all three hours of the movie to let you know: Lockhart is still the best thing in this story! We discuss Hagrid's pickup scenes, 2002's CGI creature rankings, tiny swords, and way too many peas.