September recap

This month I read Nine Perfect Strangers and didn't really like it. I'm not quitting Moriarty yet but it was disappointing (as well as the adaptation, see below). My full review is here. - MG

On September 7th I ran to the bookstore to pick up the new Sally Rooney book Beautiful World, Where Are You. I read it fairly quickly and really enjoyed it. You can see my full review here. - MH

Every morning when I'm getting ready for the day I listen to The Journal, which is a ~15-minute episode daily podcast by the Wall Street Journal covering a major news story. It makes me feel in touch with the world. This month they've been releasing a special series called The Facebook Files which has been so, so good and eye-opening. I hate Facebook and rarely post anything personal on it anyways, but the levels of manipulation found in their internal documents is disgusting. You can listen here, I highly recommend it. - MG

I have spent all of September pounding back Patreon episodes of Red Scare. I normally listen to all their free episodes as they come out, but there were a few pay-walled ones I really wanted to hear (review of Midsommar, interview with Tim Dillon, etc.) Red Scare is hosted by Anna (Moscow-born) and Dasha (Belarus-born) and they used to be considered part of the "dirt-bag left" but are slowly moving away from that. They mostly cover pop culture and other news stories that has Twitter up in arms. Their show is definitely not for everyone, but I love it. Mike White openly acknowledged that the two girls in The White Lotus were loosely based on Anna and Dasha. - MH

I have been in a TV funk and have started and quit a lot of shows this month but I have been binging the last season of Catastrophe on Amazon Prime and it's so, so funny. Rob Delaney plays an American who gets a British woman pregnant and begins his family in the UK. UK humour is obviously superior to North American and both main characters are shining stars. The woman who writes it also plays the lead which is becoming something I really. like. The episodes are only 30 minutes, they're full of laughs, my husband likes it too, and all four seasons are on Amazon Prime. - MG

I have mostly spent September moving through seasons of Line of Duty (as mentioned in last month's recap), but I also started another British show on Netflix called Sex Education. The third season recently came out so I started watching season one and two to catch up. This is a pretty raunchy show, but somehow still feels very wholesome? I LOVE Gillian Anderson and she plays the main character's mother. If you want something light, but still engaging, I'd recommend checking it out! - MH

The only movie I watched this month that I somewhat enjoyed... and I can't believe I'm actually typing this... is the new Mortal Kombat. Scott seemed excited about it and he's rarely excited about anything so I gave it a go and wow, it was quite the action movie. I had no understanding of the concept or premise going into it and am a true test that you can still enjoy it. I had my jaw clenched the entire run time. - MG

Ben and I are gearing up for a ton of scary movies this October and we started a bit early with a binge of all four Scream movies. Wes Craven is such a fun director and I would highly recommend all four movies to anyone who enjoys a good mix of horror and comedy. The opening scene in the original Scream (1996) is TERRIFYING. My personal rankings are as follows: Scream (1996), Scream 4 (2011), Scream 2 (1997), and then Scream 3 (2000). WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE SCARY MOVIE???? - MH