Space the Nation

We continue with encore presentations of mothers in space for May. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert use slapstick, sci-fi, and hotdog fingers in this hallucinatory exploration of agency and commitment and the everything bagel. There's IR and a critique of capitalism in this movie.

The minds behind The Expanse are back with a novel about academic infighting and enormous space bugs. Dan identifies with one of the characters! It's a brutal look at how humanity does and doesn't survive contact with utter cruelty. There is lots of IR (and academic intrigue!) in this book.

Mothers: Can't live with them, can't have existed without them. Science fiction is dominated my male voices, some of them have mommy issues. Here are some of our mommy issues. (Octavia Butler, author of one of encores, is the only creator to be exploring the issue from the inside.)First up is Aliens, the ultimate not-without-my-daughter text.

Presenting the Schlock or Awe collection, encore presentations of the best worst movies we've seen. Patrons get episodes ad-free.Fourth wave: Urine for a treat.

We are forced, once again, to ponder the power of charisma in creating the illusion of perfection. Of course things never go wrong for George Clooney. Unless he portraying a small-time legal fixer (see: Michael Clayton), in which case we just know we're watching a fantasy.Steven Soderberg, also at the top of his game, makes this a movie that's about criminal enterprise but goes down like a spa day at a luxury Vegas hotel.There is IR, kinda, in this movie.

Presenting the Schlock or Awe collection, encore presentations of the best worst movies we've seen. Patrons get episodes ad-free.Third in the roster: three shells.

What's the connection between Competence Porn and hotness? Is it a comment on the currency of conventional attractiveness, that we simply perceive the very hot as very competent? In any case, the Goslingness of it all papers over the movie's more casual approach to scientific accuracy. We did not mind.There is some IR in this movie!

Presenting the Schlock or Awe collection, encore presentations of the best worst movies we've seen. Patrons get episodes ad-free.Specimen two: The toasters that defined a generation, in the original Battlestar Galactica.

Presenting the Schlock or Awe collection, encore presentations of the best worst movies we've seen. Patreons get episodes ad-free.First up: 1968's Planet of the Apes. There's a twist!