Not Just Books: December 2023

While we do love us some books, believe it not, we do have a life outside of reading. So to highlight our other pop culture interests, on the last Monday of each month, we each will highlight three other “happenings” from the last month. Big events on favorite TV shows, new movies we’ve watched, old movies we’ve “discovered,” etc. Pretty much whatever we found of particular interest outside of the book world during the last month. Share your own favorite things in the comments!

Serena’s Picks

TV Show: “Fringe”

My mom and sister were visiting over Thanksgiving and the week following, and, of course, we decided that that was a prime time to start an entire new TV series! Just watch a movie? No, we needed something that was seasons long! My sister had already watched it, but somehow my mom and I had never seen it. Kind of surprising given how we all loved “X-Files” and “Supernatural.” So, of course, it was no surprise that we both really enjoyed it! I haven’t finished the entire thing, but I’m into season 3 and things are so crazy and great! Hard to imagine how everything will get wrapped up, but I guess we have a few more seasons to unravel mysteries of the world…worlds…whatever.

Board Game: “Hogwarts Battle”

I love complicated board games, and luckily for me, the rest of my family agrees! Something that I think my sister took into consideration when she got me this game as an early Christmas present. So, when we weren’t watching “Fringe,” we were all playing this co-op deck-building game. And it was a blast! I loved all of the attention to detail with the character cards, villains, and various spells and artifacts that you can collect as you build up your deck. And it becomes quite complicated fairly quickly, to the point where it takes sometimes upwards of two hours to complete one of the seven levels (the early ones go more quickly). It can be played with two people, but I think it improves when you have the upwards limit of four. So I’m pretty sure this will be a staple for future family visits as well.

Kate’s Picks

TV Show: “Dark Side of the Ring”

My husband is the one who introduced me to the over the top dramatics of pro wrestling, as he used to love the sport (perhaps ‘performance art’ is a better phrase) and still has a nostalgic enjoyment of it. I enjoy it too, but also find a lot of the aspects about it tragic. So I really fixated on “Dark Side of the Ring”, a documentary series about the various tragedies and scandals that have plagued the wrestling industry and community over the years. Told with interviews from people who were there as well as news and wrestling clips from the time of each story, we get a deep dive into some pretty dark stuff, as well as a dissection of how the wrestling culture could have contributed. Some stories I was familiar with (Owen Hart’s tragic death due to a stunt gone wrong, the horrific story of Chris Benoit murdering his wife Nancy and son Daniel), but there were others that I had never heard of, and really affected me (such as that of Luna Vachon, a very talented woman wrestler who was plagued by mental illness and the horrible misogyny towards women wrestlers during her heyday). It’s a well done and very sad series, and just solidifies my opinion that Vince McMahon is a monster.

Film: “Insidious: The Red Door”

When I realized that “Insidious” came out thirteen years ago, I first had to reflect on the fact that it has, in fact, been that long. I came to this realization when I saw trailers for “Insidious: The Red Door”, which picks up ten years after the events of the first two films. Terror Tuesday finally sat down to watch it, and while I was apprehensive revisiting the story after it had been so long since this particular storyline, I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it! After nearly becoming victims to a demonic entity after they dabbled in astral projection abilities, father and son Josh and Dalton had their memories suppressed for their own safety. But now ten years later, Josh and Dalton have a strained relationship as Dalton heads off to college. While at school Dalton has his subconscious unlocked, and starts to have scattered memories and visions of his astral projecting abilities, and father and son will have to team up one more time to put the demons away once and for all. This movie is not only filled with really scary moments, it also is a really bittersweet examination of father/son relationships and generational trauma.

Joint Pick

Netflix Series: “Escaping Twin Flames”

We have this fun ongoing hangout session where we get together and watch cult documentaries over wine and snacks, undoubtedly being horrified as well as enthralled by the stories of high control groups, the people who leave, and the damage that is done. Our newest watch was “Escaping Twin Flames”, a docuseries about a social media based cult that is built upon the promise of matchmaking and leading its members to their true love, or ‘Twin Flame’ as they call it, while also teaching them self improvement courses and strategies. As you can probably imagine, it is not only a big multi-level marketing scam, it is also INCREDIBLY abusive, coercing members into obedience and control in absolutely mind boggling ways. We both sat their watching this series with our jaws on the floor, yelling “OH MY GOD” over and over again. Which is how you know it’s a good cult documentary. When we thought it couldn’t get any worse, it got worse. Super disturbing, but also super interesting to the two of us!