Episode 87: Sports Night and Black Lightning

Welcome back! In this episode, we discuss two runners up from episode 81’s What To Watch Next TV Bracket II: Sports Night and Black Lightning. So much Sorkin! So many powers!

Links
Massachusetts Library Association conference sessions
BookExpo (#bookexpo2018)
Episode 81: What To Watch Next TV Bracket II
Episode 85: The Good Place

The New Yorker: The Cult of Sports Night
Mental Floss: 11 Fun Facts About Sports Night
Entertainment Weekly: Sports Night: Looking back at Aaron Sorkin’s gone-too-soon series

Black Lightning
Logan’s dad
Anissa’s hair

Obsessions
Trigon
Ocean’s 8
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang (Wicked Wallflowers podcast episode)

Musical Obsessions
“This is Me” from The Greatest Showman

 

Episode 81: What to Watch Next TV Bracket II and Oscar Thoughts

It’s time for March Madness and time for another What to Watch Next TV Bracket! We’re also going to tell you what we think about top Oscar categories. Vote in the poll at the bottom of this page to tell us what to watch next!

Our first TV bracket was covered Episode 57.

Links
Challonge! (our complete bracket)

BBC Bracket
The Crown
Wallander
Lark Rise to Candleford
The Night Manager
Vera
MI:5
Midsomer Murders
The Doctor Blake Mysteries

Last Tango in Halifax
The Bletchley Circle
Victoria
The Tudors/The White Queen
Scott and Bailey
Luther
The Hour
Alias Grace
Broadchurch

Comedy/Musical Bracket
Master of None
Grown-ish
Happy Endings
Trophy Wife
Galavant
Younger
One Mississippi
Faking It
Parks and Recreation
Catastrophe

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Lady Dynamite
Difficult People
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Jane the Virgin
Sports Night
Cougar Town
Black-ish

Crime
Counterpart
White Collar [The Boys in the Band]
The Fall S2
Mindhunter
Psych
The Killing
Leverage (Episode 21 discussion)

How to Get Away with Murder
Laws and Orders
The Alienist

Drama
Make it or Break It
Royal Pains
The Wire
The Good Place
Nashville
The Bold Type
Dear White People
The L-Word S2-6

GLOW
Homeland
The West Wing
Friday Night Lights
Atlanta
Still Star Crossed
Masters of Sex
Feud
The Americans
Being Mary Jane
ER

Science Fiction and Fantasy
Birds of Prey
She-Ra
The Librarians
American Gods
The Legend of Korra
Battlestar Galactica
Penny Dreadful
Orphan Black
Buffy
Lost Girl
Runaways
Jessica Jones
The Handmaid’s Tale
Twin Peaks
Black Lightning
Luke Cage
Stars Trek
The Dresden Files

Xena: Warrior Princess
Crazyhead
Cloak & Dagger
American Horror Story
Black Mirror
Warehouse 13
Stranger Things
Merlin
The Expanse
Agent Carter

Obsessions:

Anna and Alene: Black Panther
Anna: Phantom of the Opera

Musical Obsessions
Anna: Vibranium (sung to the tune of “Titanium” by David Guetta featuring Sia)
Alene: “Think of Me” from Phantom of the Opera

Episode 50: Comfort with Carolyn

 

We made it to fifty episodes! In this very special post-election installment of Bellwether Friends, we talked to founding Friend Carolyn about comforting pop culture (and food) to consume when we’re trying to recharge our batteries.

Via Two Bossy Dames,  “A post specifically for white women from a white woman”

Code Switch, “A Muslim and a Mexican Walk into a Bar…”

Still Processing, “The Day After”

Music

Bustle, “52 Songs To Cheer You Up Every Time”

“One Way Road” by John Butler Trio
“My IQ” by Ani DiFranco
“Born Free” by MIA
“Sheep” and”Sitting on a Fence” by The Housemartins
Spotify playlists: 80s Ladies for Margaret
Hamilton Mixtape
Inc.com, “Neuroscience Says Listening to This Song Reduces Anxiety by Up to 65 Percent”
“Borderline (An Ode to Self Care)” by Solange
“I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from Mulan

“Stop” by Spice Girls
“Hasa Diga Eebowai” from The Book of Mormon
“Fight Song” by Rachel Platten

Television

30 Rock
The Muppet Show
Law and Order
Gilmore Girls
The West Wing
Sports Night
Quantico
Sleepy Hollow Season One
Arrow
The Shannara Chronicles

The Dresden Files
Person of Interest
The Flash
Dateline

Endeavor
Inspector Morse
Grantchester

Movies

Best in Show
Charade
D.E.B.S.
Fire
Saving Face
Pitch Perfect
Love Actually
Shaun of the Dead
The Sure Thing
Hallmark Channel Christmas Movies
Pretty in Pink
Sisters
Kate McKinnon

Books

Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer by Kelly Jones
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Vorkogisan series by Lois McMaster Bujold
Latin@ Rising: An Anthology of Latin@ Science Fiction and Fantasy
Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova
The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough
The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery
Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
Phryne Fisher mysteries by Kerry Greenwood, read by Stephanie Daniel
#booksfighthate
@diversebooks

Food

27 Uplifting Foods to Get You Through Uncertain Times
Mushroom Marsala Pasta Bake
Dill pickle Halfpops

Other

Coloring
Candletime
Warm Beverages
Crafting

Obsessions

Anna: Lego sets
Alene: Supergirl recaps on Autostraddle

Carolyn: Cider with bourbon

Musical Obsessions

Anna: “They Don’t Know” by Ariana Grande from Trolls
Alene: “Get Back Up Again” by Anna Kendrick from Trolls
Carolyn: “U-Turn” by Tegan and Sara