Author / Nerdy Spice

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Posts by Nerdy Spice

http://advers.io Formerly "kht" I grew up playing Disney-movie-based games with my baby sister. I majored in English in college, got a graduate degree in creative writing, and then found myself earning a living as a software engineer. I'm working on my second novel and querying agents for my first. I eats home-cooked meals only when my husband Keets makes them for me, and he is still trying to teach me how to turn on the oven. Interests: Victorian novels, modern MFA novels and I'm not ashamed of it, super-long novels that aren’t by David Foster Wallace, Michael Chabon, Claire Messud, Henry James, feminism, movies with Robert Downey Jr. in them, TV shows with Connie Britton in them, Pacey Witter, 90s teenybopper movies with training montages, The Good Wife, Homeland, Tina Fey’s entire oeuvre, Mindy Kaling’s entire oeuvre, shows from the WB/CW circa 2004, and JJ Abrams.
by Nerdy Spice

Links We Loved This Week — 3/3/17

First, a PSA: We have a Facebook page, go on over there and hit like if you want to get updates from us!

OK, now get ready to die of cuteness… Vulture has a detailed history of the best friendship of Busy Phillips and Michelle Williams, formerly of Dawson’s, who also went to the Oscars together last week and HELD HANDS (picture via Yahoo):

michellebusy

The Millions has a fun list of genre fiction to check out if you have enjoyed literary/genre crossovers like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell or Never Let Me Go. A lot of the suggestions sound great!

We are so psyched for the Beauty and the Beast movie. Disney has promised an “exclusively gay moment,” and a writer from Vulture dove in and analyzed how exclusively gay this moment actually is (answer: not very. I know I’m shocked). Worth reading just for the hilariously inappropriate closing line.

Feel like reading a little light Foucauldian analysis of Lena Dunham’s thighs? Come on, I know you do. Head to the LA Review of Books.

 

by Nerdy Spice

Nashville Recap: 5×04 “Leap of Faith”  

 

Previously on Nashville: Rayna’s dorky social media manager stole her jewelry box, a Zuckerberg type named Zach Welles wanted to be Best Friends with Rayna; Will asked Kevin to move in with him; Juliette felt Cadence pee on her leg, which, supposedly, was a good thing.

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by Nerdy Spice

Homeland Recap: 6×05 “Casus Belli”

Previously on Homeland: Dar found Carrie at Franny’s playground to warn her that Keane didn’t realize the level of the threat America is facing; Saul accused Farhad Nefisi of breaking the nuclear deal, then met with an Iranian politician to find out if it was true; Quinn saw someone watching Carrie from across the way, and followed him to a parking lot filled with Medina vans; Carrie asked an old friend for a recording of Saad talking to Agent Conlin, and used the recording to get Sekou out of prison; Sekou went to his work driving a Medina van, and it blew up.

So, I’ve been complaining that Homeland wasn’t super exciting this season. Complaint withdrawn! This episode really got the ball rolling. FINALLY.

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by Nerdy Spice

Links We Loved This Week — 2/24/17

This week seems to be the week that male pop culture figures do surprising things.

  • Tom Hanks is publishing a book of short stories … about typewriters (via AV Club). Which kind of makes me think he played the wrong part in You’ve Got Mail.
  • Chuck Palahniuk has published a coloring book (via Paste). This interview also reveals another famous-man-doing-surprising-things factoid: Stephen King privately distributes a small novel as a Christmas gift each year.

Critics are really liking The Good Fight–possibly more than we did. Rotten Tomatoes has it at 100% so far!

  • Pop Matters writes, “The Good Fight is great. It’s not good, friends. It’s great.” This one’s really interesting because it sees the whole “you can only get it if you pay CBS $6 a month for their shitty streaming service” not as a perverse form of self-sabotage on the part of the network (which is how I saw it) but as a signal of glass-ceiling breaking: a female-led, racially diverse drama being used as the draw for a premium service. A really good point!
  • The Hollywood Reporter writes that the show has “above-average brains, structure and humor, the kind of strong mainstream network drama that’s always welcome, only with cursing.” Ahh, the cursing!
  • Michael Ausiello gives it only a B+ but writes, “Baranski makes a helluva leading lady.”
by Nerdy Spice

The Good Fight Review: 1×01 “Inauguration” and 1×02 “First Week”

 The Good Fight, Robert and Michelle King’s spinoff of The Good Wife, stars Christine Baranski, Rose Leslie, and Cush Jumbo as three women working at a Chicago law firm. The show’s predecessor was a critically acclaimed drama with a similar setting. Can the spinoff live up to its example (and draw enough of an audience to persuade people to sign up for CBS: All Access)?

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by Nerdy Spice

Homeland Recap: 6×04 “A Flash of Light”

Previously on Homeland: Quinn seems to have thought Carrie had an intruder; Carrie harassed an informant and got Sekou’s plea bargain yanked; she got transcripts of the informant’s calls with the FBI proving that Sekou didn’t want to meet with a terrorist; Saul questioned Iranian Farhad Nefisi about possibly breaking the nuclear arms deal and then visited his sister in a West Bank settlement; the President-Elect consulted with Carrie about what Dar (falsely) said Saul said was “conclusive” evidence that Iranians were breaking the deal; and Saul got into a car outside of the settlement.

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by Nerdy Spice

Nashville Recap: 5×03 “Let’s Put It Back Together Again”

Previously on Nashville: Rayna used her sheer stubbornness to pressure Deacon into writing a concept album with her; Avery was taking care of Juliette after her plane crash, and Juliette was trying to get in touch with her savior; Will suggested to Kevin that they look for a place together; Rayna got a dweeby social media assistant named Randall; and Maddie told the court that she feared for her safety around Deacon.

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by Nerdy Spice

Links We Loved This Week — 2/17/17

NYMag published what I can only call a surrealist work of art: Night-Time Voicemails From The White House.

The Good Fight is on its way! There is a generally positive review in the New York Times. We will be watching and covering it here! To answer the inevitable questions: yes, you do have to have CBS: All Access to watch it, and yes, we have it, and yes, that’s ENTIRELY because we forgot to cancel it after The Good Wife ended. Don’t judge.

Dude who directed The Arrival (which some of us may have hated) is now announced to be directing Dune (via bleedingcool.com).

We’ve been writing a little bit about a new anti-Islamophobia attitude on Homeland‘s latest season. The intrepid Bitch Magazine has a piece where they conclude that progress may not be permanent–but that they remain hopeful. Read it here.

by Nerdy Spice

Homeland Recap: 6×03 “The Covenant”

Previously on Homeland: Quinn told Carrie he wasn’t getting any better; Sekou was offered a plea bargain for material support of terrorism, but Carrie thought he was just an angry kid; Quinn moved into Carrie’s basement; Sekou’s friend Saad turned out to be working for Agent Conlin to get evidence against Sekou; a prostitute Quinn was seeing staged a robbery to get his VA money; Saul thought Carrie was advising President-Elect Keane; Dar Adal told Keane’s advisor Rob that he thought Iran had a parallel nuclear program with North Korea; Carrie suggested Saul go on the operation; and Quinn asked Carrie to show him the video of his gassing.

Whew. That’s a lot of previouslies, for a season with—so far—no kidnappings, car chases, or explosions. Not that I’m complaining. OK, I’m complaining a little.

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by Nerdy Spice

Homeland Recap: 6×02 “The Man in the Basement”

Previously on Homeland: Carrie and a recovering Quinn fought; Quinn got high with a hooker who then robbed him; Carrie took him back to the VA; Madam President-Elect, Keane, questioned Dar and Saul about their practices, and Dar thought that she blamed them for her son’s death; young Muslim Sekou was arrested after being openly supportive of America’s enemies online; Carrie took Quinn home with her to save him from being put in a locked ward on the VA.

The new credits start with the end of the Star-Spangled Banner and include a few Gil Scott-Heron quotes, and a quote from Keane saying “We need a new strategy.” Very different.

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