Read it and Weep

Read it and Weep is a good podcast about books, movies, and TV hosted by Alex Falcone. Each week, we discuss something from pop culture with an emphasis on blockbusters, failures, and nostalgia.

Sesame Street is an incredible franchise. It's taught kids and amused parents for decades. But the most recent ones have a slightly different feel from the ones we knew as kids, and it's just a tiny bit less delightful.In this special Father's Day episode, Ezra introduced us to his son's favorite show, modern Sesame Street. It's got some really crappy animation, some drugged out segments, and is overlong, though for a sleep-deprived parent, all of those may be benefits.Overall it's a fun romp, especially the trip down Memory Lane, a cross street of Sesame. What's your favorite memory of Sesame Street? Let us know in the comments!

Read it and Weep is a good podcast about books, movies, and TV hosted by Alex Falcone. Each week, we discuss something from pop culture with an emphasis on blockbusters, failures, and nostalgia.

Everything that was good when you were a child has since been ruined. The most recent franchise to be super crappiffied is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which Michael Bay has turned into Green Transformers.Instead of the rascals from when we were young, the turtles are now grossly muscled broy dickheads. And the plot is a mess. And the dialogue doesn't make sense. And the voice work is phoned in. And... and... and. Basically everything that could be bad in a movie is really bad here.

Read it and Weep is a good podcast about books, movies, and TV hosted by Alex Falcone. Each week, we discuss something from pop culture with an emphasis on blockbusters, failures, and nostalgia.

In case you let your subscription to Student and Schoolmate expire, you may not be familiar with the serialized tales of a homeless orphan boy living on the streets of New York shining shoes to buy food. But through the power of being white, attractive, charming, witty, and a strong swimmer, he's able to overcome and become a middle class Unitarian.Many people reference a "Horatio Alger" story, but few actually read his works. And perhaps for good reason. They're dated and a bit dull, though not completely without charm. In fact, they've got lots of charm if you just don't dig too deep.Our dive into Dick was suggested by our first-time guest Jane Espenson, who's written for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica, and much more.

One lucky contestant on The Bachelor gets the runner up prize of starring on the Bachelorette. And then the other way. Like a snake eating its own tail, this franchise continues on forever.Alex limps through as the rest of the crew celebrates their feelings of love/sadness towards Jojo as she chooses between 30ish vapid Gaston's and one villain (Chad!).Will she find true love / permanent reality show fame? Or will she just get drunk and eat lunch meat? We won't know since we only watched two episodes, but I guess will find out when it's time for Bachelor in Paradise.

Read it and Weep is a good podcast about books, movies, and TV hosted by Alex Falcone. Each week, we discuss something from pop culture with an emphasis on blockbusters, failures, and nostalgia.

Star Wars was too good of a story to be constrained to just a few movies. No, the kids of the late 80s/early 90s craved more of all of it. That's where the Expanded Universe Legends novels came in: filling children's heads with name-droppy corny Star Wars stories.Heir to the Empire is one of the most well-regarded of these novels and we regard it, um, well enough. It could be a lot worse. But it could also be good, which it really isn't. But they nerfed the Force so that's fun.Famous internet troll Curtis Cook joined us to disrepect the Star Wars world, having seen only (get this) A New Hope, Phantom Menace, and the Christmas special. What a weird world.

Read it and Weep is a good podcast about books, movies, and TV hosted by Alex Falcone. Each week, we discuss something from pop culture with an emphasis on blockbusters, failures, and nostalgia.

In our second straight week of 80s musical remembrances, we watched Prince's Purple Rain. Besides Tanya, we didn't have a ton of experience with Prince but we were pretty convinced by his outfits, dancing, guitar playing, and practical joking.The movie itself is basically a glorified Battle of the Bands with some amazing Prince concert footage that's worth the price of the awkward, incoherent other scenes.Plus! Check out the debut of Tanya's mini podcast The Culture Call where she explains pop culture to you.

Read it and Weep is a good podcast about books, movies, and TV hosted by Alex Falcone. Each week, we discuss something from pop culture with an emphasis on blockbusters, failures, and nostalgia.

Chris and Alex have a lot of common, and one of those things is a love of time travel. So they started a mini podcast about it!This week they discuss time travel in the news:The new NBC drama Timeless, coming this fall.The new Fox comedy Making History, also coming this fall.Did a time traveler film a Mike Tyson fight on his phone?Next they take a deeper dive into the Hulu drama 11.22.63 and the 2014 film Predestination (including major spoilers).Plus they recommend a few good time travel sketches including "Time Machine" by the Upright Citizens Brigade, "Phone Call to the 14th Century" by Kasper Hauser, and the short film "One-Minute Time Machine."

Read it and Weep is a good podcast about books, movies, and TV hosted by Alex Falcone. Each week, we discuss something from pop culture with an emphasis on blockbusters, failures, and nostalgia.

We didn't deserve David Bowie. He was too grand for this earth. In fact, it's almost like he fell from space and started drinking gin and inventing cameras.That's the premise of The Man Who Fell To Earth, the 1976 cult science fiction film starring the delightfully haired singer. It's weird, a little slow, and has a scene where people have sex using a gun as a prop. We had a split decision about whether or not it's good.Thanks to Kelly for sponsoring this episode!