#17: Highlands and Night Vales

This week, we discuss historical TV sensation Outlander, otherworldly podcast Welcome to Night Vale and Chris Kraus’ epistolary novel I Love Dick.

The Links

On Outlander

The trailer for the first series.

This is a good piece about masculinity and sexuality in Outlander.

On Welcome to Night Vale

More details about the podcast and how to get episodes can be found here.

You can find the Limetown podcast Caroline mentioned here.

Here are some examples of Night Vale fan art (see more on our tumblr).

On I Love Dick

Leslie Jamison in the New Yorker on the novel and the way it expresses female consciousness.

Haley Mlotek tries to articulate why we love Chris Kraus.

Sheila Heti interviews Chris Kraus.

Next week:

Anna is watching the 2005 film TransAmerica.

Your questions:

We loved reading out your emails this week. If you have thoughts you want to share on anything we've discussed, or questions you want to ask us, please email us on srslypod[at]gmail.com, or @ us on Twitter @srslypod, or get in touch via tumblr here. We also have Facebook now.

Music

The music featured this week, in order of appearance, is:

The Skye Boat Song (Outlander theme)

You Dont Know - Mount Moon

Our theme music is “Guatemala - Panama March” (by Heftone Banjo Orchestra), licensed under Creative Commons. 

See you next week!

#10: Catch Me If You Can

We talk genre-twisting action movie American Ultra, new Channel 4 series Hunted and BBC Radio 4 sitcom Cabin Pressure. Also: what TV shows you should watch if you're ill, sequels vs "original" screenplays and how good would we be at being on the run?

The Links

On American Ultra

Ryan Gilbey for the NS on the appeal of American Ultra:

The idea that there are buried and unknowable parts of ourselves that can be triggered at will is an attractive one that has its roots in psychoanalytic theory. It means that no matter how mundane our lives, how dismal or underdeveloped our personalities, there is another us lurking within. A spectacular us.

Mark Kermode's review of the film.

A summary of Max Landis’s tweets about the box office potential of “original” cinema.

On Channel 4’s Hunted

The trailer:

This reviewer found it "enlightening and scary". This one didn't.

If you're considering going on the run from the surveillance state yourself, here are two handy guides.

On Cabin Pressure

Listen to clips from the show on YouTube.

Caroline's article about radio comedy, which includes an interview with Cabin Pressure writer John Finnermore.

Find “the fandot” on tumblr.

For next week:

Caroline is watching The Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus. A preview:

Your questions:

If you have thoughts you want to share on anything we've discussed, or questions you want to ask us, please email us on srslypod[at]gmail.com, or @ us on Twitter @srslypod, or get in touch via tumblr here.

Our theme music is “Guatemala - Panama March” (by Heftone Banjo Orchestra), licensed under Creative Commons.

#9: Falling Girls

The Links

On Katy by Jacqueline Wilson

Here’s an article by Jacqueline Wilson introducing her adaptation of Susan Coolidge's original novel.

A video of her talking about it.

And here’s a lovely review of it by a child.

On Boy Meets Girl

Watch the first episode of Boy Meets Girl on iPlayer.

Read this interview with the star, Rebecca Root.

Here's some background on the show and how it came to be.

On The Falling

Mark Kermode has written a very perceptive review of the film.

A long piece by director Carol Morley on her fascination with the mass hysteria phenomenon.

Here she is listing the films that inspired The Falling.

For next week:

Anna is listening to Cabin Pressure. A preview:

Your questions:

If you have thoughts you want to share on anything we've discussed, or questions you want to ask us, please email us on srslypod[at]gmail.com, or @ us on Twitter @srslypod, or get in touch via tumblr here.

Our theme music is “Guatemala - Panama March” (by Heftone Banjo Orchestra), licensed under Creative Commons.

#7: Paper Boys and Paper Towns

The Links

On One Direction:

One Direction fans are fiercely intelligent. From day one, they engineered the band’s success on their own terms: demonstrating their appetite for the boys’ music on social media sealed the original record deal; calling out the band’s management for tweeting from their accounts forced a closer relationship between the boys as individuals and their fans; downloading specific songs multiple times ensured they would get radio play and a place in the charts. When One Direction unequivocally thank their fans for their success, it goes beyond the usual media-approved cliché, because it is unavoidably, undeniably true. One Direction is a towering monument to the power of teenage girls. It is a phenomenon so much greater than the four or five mediocre men that constitute it."

Anna has written a great piece about the One Direction fandom and her own relationship with it.

You should also check out the 1D starter playlist she made for Caroline a while back, and listen to SRSLY #1, where Caroline listens for the first time.

Samantha Hunt's amazing essay "There Is Only One Direction" for New York Magazine is here.

On Who Killed Elsie Frost?:

You can find all the episodes and more info here.

This Guardian report has some useful background to the case.

On Paper Towns:

Watch the trailer:

Here is John Green's answer on Manic Pixie Dream Girls and his story.

He's also written more on this subject here.

On Broad City:

There are clips and stuff on their YouTube channel.

Our colleague Stephanie Boland has written about why you should be watching Broad City.

Your questions:

If you have thoughts you want to share on anything we've discussed, or questions you want to ask us, please email us on srslypod[at]gmail.com, or @ us on Twitter @srslypod, or get in touch via tumblr here.

Our theme music is “Guatemala - Panama March” (by Heftone Banjo Orchestra), licensed under Creative Commons.

See you next week!