Try It, You'll Like It

Randy wanted non-cynical works of art about politics (I know, right?) Joseph picked David McCullough's non-fiction book 1776, about that year in the American Revolution. Amy picked the HBO film All The Way, the LBJ biopic starring Bryan Cranston.

Amy asked for body swap stories and boy did we deliver! Joseph came up with the 1936 H.P. Lovecraft novella Shadow Out Of Time while Randy had us watch the 1984 Steve Martin & Lily Tomlin comedy All Of Me.

Joe was a little sick of dystopian science fiction (and this was even before the last Divergent movie) and asked the crew for optimistic science fiction. Randy choose Star Trek: First Contact for the movie and Amy chose Spider & Jeanne Robinson's Stardance for the novel.

Randy wanted us to talk about art that involves Second Chances, where people get the chance to fix things our screw them up even more. Amy selected the novel Almost Like Being In Love while Joseph picked the movie Fetching Cody.

For the rather broad theme of "Art and/or Artists" Joe selected the 2014 documentary film FINDING VIVIAN MAIER while Randy picked Deborah Davis's 2004 non-fiction work STRAPLESS about the John Singer Sargent's "Portrait of Madame X"

You may be surprised which artists had more than ONE Top 40 hit and you may also be surprised which ones only had two. See how well Randy and Joe do on a quiz about Two Hit Wonders.

You may be surprised which artists had more than ONE Top 40 hit and you may also be surprised which ones only had two. See how well Randy and Joe do on a quiz about Two Hit Wonders.

Joe asked Randy and Amy to pick from the year they each turned 16. So Randy chose THE RUSSIA HOUSE from 1989 and Amy chose DOGFIGHT from 1991.

The theme of "underappreciated" led to discussion of Louisa May Alcott's EIGHT COUSINS and Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood in THE LIFE BEFORE HER EYES. Show notes: http://tryandlikeit.blogspot.com/2016/04/episode-58-louisa-uma-and-evan-rachel.html

To coincide with the release of "Batman v Superman" we discuss three filmed iterations of the alien from Krypton: "Superman II," "Man of Steel," and two episodes of the animated series "The Justice League."

On the theme of "unusual pets," we read Y: THE LAST MAN: UNMANNED by Brian K. Vaughan and watched 2014's PADDINGTON.

We love secrets. So we read a book full of them: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. And we watched a movie with ONE BIG ONE - A History of Violence.

We discuss THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN by Paula Hawkins, DISPLACEMENT: A TRAVELOGUE by Lucy Knisley, and THE ROYAL WE by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan.

Randy came up with a devilish quiz for reviewing the best of 2015 for us! Wrack your brains on who won sportsball championships, how many Emmys Modern Family won and what the hell was nominated for Best Picture.

Some, we thought, underrated films from 2015: THE LAST FIVE YEARS, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., and SHAUN THE SHEEP.

A movies quiz, about movies released on Christmas Day, 2000-2014.

On the theme of "snow" - Randy selected Peter Hoeg's SMILLA'S SENSE OF SNOW and Joe chose THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT.

Under discussion: Alex Garland's THE BEACH and the film THE WINGS OF THE DOVE starring Helena Bonham Carter.

Regular co-host Randy is back and there is much rejoicing. We discussed BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK by Ben Fountain and HOPE FLOATS starring Sandra Bullock. We also had time to cover JESSICA JONES, MASTER OF NONE, SPY, MOM, and YOU'RE THE WORST. And right out of the gate, Randy has a correction: There was a disconnect between my brain and my mouth, which I blame on the cold medicine I was taking. I DO know the differences between "single-cam" and "multi-cam". YOU'RE THE WORST is obviously a single-cam sitcom, not a multi-cam sitcom. And when I say "I'm kind of over multi-cam sitcoms", I should have said "I'm kind of over single-cam sitcoms."

For the theme "Better Than I Thought It Would Be" Joe selected the film ZATHURA and guest host Michael Guarnieri chose Michael Crichton's EATERS OF THE DEAD.