Hate Expectations

Lizzy invokes one of her birthday wishes this year to whisk the Hate Expectations team off to a hidden corner of the south pacific, where a magical island of humans and dinosaurs live and work together in near perfect harmony. Yes, we dust off James Gurney's coffee table classic, Dinotopia (1992), and then unearth a dvd copy of the Hallmark mini-series from a decade later. Despite the book containing only the barest bones of a story, the HE team finds plenty in it to examine. Then things really get dirty as they dig deep into the adaptation, a relic from the Crapassic era of cgi. Ping pong, Talking Heads, and a blooper reel; this episode has it all!

Representing a slight departure from reality, this episode of Hate Expectations finds Nate and Lizzy taking a long hard listen to The Who's rock opera, Tommy, looking deeply into the Ken Russell movie of the same name (1975), and speaking freely about the sensations it inspires in them. They are joined by their friend, Matt Anderson, on a quest to divine meaning where there is mostly only a series of loosely connected themes about a deaf, dumb, and blind pinball wizard.

Lizzy wants to amend the record and point out that the Tommy dvd came out in 2004, not the much too early 1994 she said. Nate wants to append the record to point out that the "and leap up on the rostrum" line from Sally Simpson is one of the most clumsy lyrics ever sung, only made worse by the rough attempted rhyme with "and Tommy gave a lesson".

It's Christmas time in the City of Angeles. And while decent listeners sleep the sleep of the righteous, the Hate Expectations crew prowls for merry noir, not knowing that James Ellroy's L.A. Confidential is coming to punch them in the gut.

Another Christmas episode*. Another not-overly sentimental property to discuss. Ellroy called his novel (1990) a book "for the whole family, if the name of your family is The Manson Family"**. The movie adaptation (1997, dir. Curtis Hanson) is friendlier, but still quite dark and labyrinthine, as Hollywood movies go.

Listen in as we talk about the big man in charge (of Los Angeles) and his scheme to spread his white powder and run a ring of ho-ho-hoes. Racism, murder, corruption, cover-ups: it's exactly the kind of treat the Lizzy, Nate, and their friend and guest host, Siobhan, love to sink their teeth into, even if only to rip it to bits. You heard it here first -- off the record, on the QT, and very hush hush.

*The episode may contain trace elements of nuts. It is most definitely chock full o' SPOILERS.

**Seems he said this same quote about a lot of his works, but it's still accurate.

Let's just say this up front -- the book, The Warriors (1965) by Sol Yurick, is a realistic take on New York city gangs and their activities. Consequently, in our discussion of it and the 1979 movie of the same name directed by Walter Hill, we cover a lot of potential trigger warnings, use a lot of adult language, and touch on some less than pleasant topics. However, we still manage to have a bit of fun. And by the time we get to the movie portion of the show the mood lightens considerably. Through it all we continue our trend of butchering pronunciations; in this case the culprits are a couple of words that proved to be Greek to us. We also find a few ways to bind The Lord of the Rings to The Warriors. There's also more eyebrow talk, to the surprise of no regular listeners. And throughout, a lot of interesting tidbits culled from our tens of minutes of research. Come out and play (the episode)!

*Special thank you to youtuber Amazinge12345 for having the answer to the much debated question of what happened to Cleon's character in the movie.

In a very special episode of Hate Expectations, we reveal that one one of the two of us is actually an android. However, technology has come so far since the time of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968, Philip K. Dick) that it's impossible to distinguish us from real humans now. The only consequence for the show is that we can finally reveal the answer to the titular question. (Yes they do, but they don't remember it the next morning.) Neither our robot insight, our viewing of the movie (1982, dir. Ridley Scott), nor the vast expertise of our guest host, Jane Hutchins, helps us to settle the more perplexing question, "What the hell is a Blade Runner, anyway?" Set your mood organs to 042 (a strong desire to listen to a fun podcast) and join us as we explore this depressing dystopia.

We're watching the detectives. Technically, we were reading Erich Kästner's Emil and the Detectives (Emil und die Detektive, 1929) and watching some of the five films they shot based on the extremely popular German book. Despite being on the case on and off for months, we at Hate Expectations somehow let a few facts slip past our absurdly large magnifying glasses, which may have caused a bit of confusion during the recording of this episode. Here are a few clues that may help you eager gumshoes set the record straight:

• Erich Kästner never married, but he did have a son with his partner Luiselotte Enderle: Thomas Kästner.
• The Berlin Wall was erected in 1961, before the 1964 adaptation.
• The first talkie, The Jazz Singer, was released in 1927.
• Broadway Melody was the first talkie to win best picture (outstanding picture) at the Academy Awards in 1930, one year after Wings was the first movie to win the award at all.
• Lottie and Lisa (Das Doppelte Lottchen) by Erich Kästner was the basis for the Disney movie, The Parent Trap (1961).
• The U-bahn station featured in the 1964 film is the Görlitzer Bahnhof.
• Rolf Wenkhaus, the actor who played Emil in the 1931 film, died when his plane was shot down off the coast of Ireland in 1942.
• The 1935 adaptation used the same script and shot list as the 1931 version.
• Grundeis was also known as Müller and Kiessling in the book.
• The man reading the newspaper on the streetcar/the reporter in the book is named Herr Kästner.

The "Empire Strikes Back" of Hate Expectations's Ready Player One episodes, this half contains ever more of cultural reference popouts and just as many SPOILERS, as well as the truly outrageous Snuffy Walden awards. Join our heroes as they continue their bogus journey through Ernest Cline's novel and Steven Spielberg's movie, navigating the mazes and monsters contained in the OASIS. Enjoy the show, and remember not to get us wet or feed us after midnight. We already avoid direct sunlight on our own.

You want pop culture references? We've got all the references you can handle right here, in this potentially timely episode of Hate Expectations. Nate, Lizzy, and special guest Chris Lemon immerse themselves in the world of Ready Player One. The 2011 novel, by Ernest Cline, was adapted for 2018's cinema by former Wunderkind Steven Spielberg, and we're here to report back from front of the theater. But hey, enough of my yakkin'. You've got two episodes full of auditory Easter egg-y goodness to listen to. Plunk in your quarter and hit the start button.

Warning: this episode is full of SPOILERS, as you might imagine. It's all got a fair bit of swearing, as you also might imagine, if you've ever heard any of us speak before.

In an earlier episode (HE006), Hate Expectations discovered that time is an illusion, and lunchtime doubly so. That concept is taken to the outer limits in Ted Chiang's award winning sci-fi novella, The Story of Your Life (1998). Listen in to this recording of Lizzy and Nate as they get down verbally with their friend and returning guest host, Siobhan Beeman. The three intrepid explorers try to dissect the pretzel logic* of the alien contact story, and the popular 2016 movie adapted from it: Arrival (dir. Denis Villeneuve). It's important to note that while you likely already know the story and how it turns out, this playful episode is chock full of spoilers. You've been given the gift of a warning. Use it wisely.

*A special thanks to our friends Jay, Sue, and Julia**, who gave Nate the book for Christmas, prompting this episode. He loved it as much as you thought he would.

** We are sorry to lump you in with them on the Steely Dan reference, Sue. You did nothing to deserve that.

Did you know that action classic Die Hard (1988, dir. John McTiernan) was based on a novel? We at Hate Expectations were overjoyed when we first learned about Nothing Lasts Forever (1979, Roderick Thorp), because it meant that we could cover the adaptation for our first Christmas episode. And that's exactly what we've done! We even ganged up with our friend and previous guest host, Rich Johnson, to come to the podcast and have a few laughs. Listen along as we discuss everything you always wanted to know about John McClain and his adventures in Nakatomi Plaza. As usual, there be spoilers. And swearing. That's pretty much our plan, and we do not alter the plan. Yipee-kai-yay, Merry Christmas!

In honor of this most wonderful time of the year (it's still Halloween somewhere, right?), the Hate Expectations team sinks its teeth into the anime classic, Vampire Hunter D. We drank in the English translation (2005) of the Hideyuki Kikuchi novel (1983), were hypnotized into a restless trance by the animated movie adaptation (dir. Toyoo Ashida, 1985), and finally fought through the whole rambling mess to hunt for a living pulse somewhere in it. We weren't entirely successful. It turns out that vampires aren't the only thing that suck with this title. Certainly, it's not all noxious fumes and ghastly ichor (spoiler: Lizzy liked the book). And even where it is, we do our best to make sense of it. Garlic lemonade, anyone?

Alan Turing is one of the principle reasons you're able to read this sentence on a computer right now. He is also a major reason the sentence is in English instead of German or Japanese. He's a fascinating character with an fascinating life cut way too short. So when our friend and guest host, Siobhan Beeman, suggested we hash out the Turing biography (Alan Turing: The Enigma, Andrew Hodges, 1983) and its filmed adaptation (The Imitation Game, dir. Morten Tyldum, 2014), we agreed to the idea eagerly. Four months and seven hundred dense pages later, a bit of that eagerness faded. In the end, that small amount of grind was ultimately the key to a surprisingly salty and laughter filled episode that we're quite proud of.

The player characters at Hate Expectations both lesbian the movie Scott Pilgrim vs the World. So it was an easy choice to make the book/movie combo the next one up in their podcast. Game as Lizzy and Nate were to take on the boss challenge this presented, they must now console themselves with putting a few bits they missed during recording on this platform: Scott Pilgrim was inspired by the song of the same name by the band Plumtree; nearly all the band names mentioned in the series are classic video game titles; Neil Young is not only Canadian, but he's from Toronto; uh, that's it. Enjoy, or else! 

Team Hate Expectations lives up to their name again, as Lizzy, Nate, and special guest, Jeff Emery, weigh in on Vision Quest, the Terry Davis novel (1979) and the Harold Becker film (1985) adapted from it. In this episode our lunatic crew chases the story all over the mat, trying to grapple with a book that eschews conflict for verisimilitude, and with a movie that scores no points in reversing that completely. Listen to this podcast to find out why Lizzy apologizes to the entire city of Spokane, why Jeff tries to corrupt his young son, and why Nate talks way too much. Actually, you may never pin down the last answer. We just hope his rambling doesn't give you cauliflower ears.

The Hate Expectations regulars, Lizzy and Nate, along with out-of-this-world special guest Jonathan Franklin, dig into America's past's potential future by watching and reading The Man Who Fell to Earth, the Walter Tevis sci-fi novel (1963), and the Nicolas Roeg directed David Bowie vehicle (1976). Much is made of how the filmmakers attempt something strange and curious, but ultimately alienate the delicate and sensitive source material. Creepy sex scenes are glossed over, the Watergate scandal is reinvestigated, and the trio tries desperately to inject logic where none likely exists. In the end, all the group can really take away from the experience is that when you get high you must inevitably come crashing back down. Well, that and cocaine is a hell of a thing.

Come to Oceania, where palm trees sway in the tropical breeze and the sun gently carresses the sea. Our hero, a young British colonial officer, takes his new wife to the farflung post of the Gilbert and Ellice islands, where he documents the culture clash with both the native islanders and the more experienced British officers. His memoir, A Pattern of Islands (1952), is a loving tribute to the people and the islands where he spent decades of his life, going from cadet to commisioner. So beloved and popular was the book in his native England that they made a quickie movie version of it called Pacific Destiny (1956) only a few years later. What could go wrong with that? Join Lizzy and Nate as they discuss in great detail exactly what could and does go wrong.

Your humble narrators, Lizzy and Nate, are back with another Love Bite mini-sode. Well, honestly, it's more of a macro-mini in this case. (There's a lot to get through, folks!) Listen in as we pontificate on a couple of subjects that really toyed with our imaginations and frankly just spoke to us. Join us, won't you?

I looked under chairs
I looked under tables
I'm tryin to find the key
To fifty million fables
They call me the seeker
I been searchin low and high

-- The Seeker, Pete Townshend

Back to young adult lit we go, to 1973's The Dark is Rising, book two of the Susan Cooper series of the same name. As both our birthrights and contractual obligations mandate, we also cover the 2007 David L. Cunningham film based on that book, curiously retitled The Seeker. In this episode, follow us as we fumble around in the dark looking for a cohesive plot, motivated actions, or a rationale for the changes made during the adaptation process. Most of our time is spent like a man pulling a giant ace hair pick through the desert: with limited success. Still, we hope our exploration of the material is at least as informative and entertaining as always (because we like to keep the bar low).

Fulfilling our moral obligation as podcasters, Hate Expectations have finally entered the mini-episode game with a series we call Love Bites. In all such episodes we will discuss (hopefully) delightful little facts we have researched on the subject of...well, whatever particularly interests us. We hope it interests you, too!

Betty MacDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o. And on this farm she had some laughs, e-i-e-i-o. With a ha-ha here and a...well, you get the idea. Join Nate and Lizzy as they crack into the deliciously funny novel, The Egg and I (1945), and brood about the film adaptation (1947) made from it. In this episode there is yet another catty discussion about actress eyebrows, a special return appearance of the Correcto-matic 3000 machine, and nearly an hour of excessive nudity*. Hold on to your hats, it's time for some hillbilly hilarity!

*As far as anyone can tell, anyway. It IS an audio podcast.