PopaHALLics #105 "Popagumbo"

PopaHALLics #105 "Popagumbo"
Dad and daughter record in the same room for a change—but they're still all over the pop landscape. Dolls that kill! Dealing-with-grief memoir! Dirty deeds in LA! Dungeons & Dragons! And yet we still find time to be mean to one of the Hemsworth brothers.

Streaming:

• "M3GAN," Prime and rental. In this hit horror comedy, a high-tech toy designer (Allison Williams) invents the perfect robot companion for her niece. What could possibly go wrong?
• "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves," Prime, Paramount +, and rental. This fun action-packed heist comedy just happens to be set in a fantasy world. Chris Pine, Hugh Grant, and Michelle Rodriguez are among the stars.
• "65," Netflix.  Pilot Adam Driver crash-lands his spaceship on a strange world—Earth 65 million years ago. Can he get off the planet before dinosaurs eat him or a giant asteroid hits?
• "The Witcher," Netflix. Season 3 is your last chance to see Henry Cavill as mutated monster hunter Geralt, before Liam Hemsworth (younger brother of Chris and Luke) becomes the star of this fantasy adventure.

Books:

• "What Looks Bravery: An Epic Journey from Loss to Love," by Laurel Braitman. In this memoir, Braitman explores how losing her father at an early age helped  transform her into the person she wanted to become.
• "Everybody Knows: A Novel of Suspense," by Jordan Harper. In this acclaimed modern noir thriller set in LA, a fixer must discover why her boss was murdered before the dark side of the entertainment industry destroys her.
• "Shrines of Gaiety," by Kate Atkinson.  A queen of the underworld in glittering Jazz Age London faces threats from enemies—and her own family.
• "The Woman in the Library," by Sulari Gentill. In this mystery-within-a-mystery, four strangers in the reading room of the Boston Public Library become friends. But one of them is a murderer ... 

Click through the links above to watch and read about what we're discussing.

Chapters

• 0:30 Kate Saw Beyonce!
• 2:36 "Love on Top" Moment
• 3:33 Steve's Take on "The English"
• 4:14 Like John Ford's Vision of West
• 4:54 When Painters Went West
• 5:00 Western Art at Eiteljorg
• 5:12 "What Looks Like Bravery"
• 7:46 "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves"
• 10:37 Kate Plays D&D!
• 12:13 Can't Remember Her Powers
• 12:32 "Shrines of Gaiety"
• 14:05 "Like Peaky Blinders, If Polly Ran It"
• 14:44 "M3GAN"
• 16:29 "Intentionally Silly"
• 17:02 M3GAN Tik Tok Dance
• 17:45 "Be Nice to Your Robots"
• 18:01 "The Woman in the Library"
• 18:52 Mystery Within Mystery
• 19:17 Mozart Joke
• 19:34 "Everybody Knows: A Novel of Suspense"
• 21:15 Reminiscent of "Chinatown"
• 21:27 "Lines Sing"
• 22:14 "The Witcher," Season 3
• 23:35 Casting Change
• 24:35 "Not Even the Best Hemsworth"
• 25:26 The Siri Joke
• 26:21 "65"
• 28:38 Hollywood Writers Strike