Kris 0:19
Hello everyone and welcome to Queerly Recommended the podcast where we recommend queer books, TV shows, movies and more. I’m Kris Bryant, a contemporary romance writer with almost 20 books about women loving women, and I’m expanding that later this spring with my next book.
Tara 0:33
I love how you’re just teasing them. What are you expanding? Are you writing beyond romance? Are you writing other types of characters? No one knows.
Kris 0:42
No one knows. They’ll find out in May.
Tara 0:44
And I am Tara, I review queer women’s fiction at The Lesbian Review, Lambda Literary and Smart Bitches Trashy Books. If you would like to support our show, we have a kofi link in the show notes. It’s a site where people can support their favorite content creators, like us. If you’d love to, that would be amazing. If not, that’s totally cool too. You can also just, you know, tell your friends. If you have a friend who’s looking for more queer media in their life. Just let them know about the show because that is also an amazing way to support us.
Kris 1:13
We want to give quick thanks to some folks who recently supported us. Nancy Kade supported us with the note: keep it up ladies.
Tara 1:20
Thank you. And Nancy Jean – we had two Nancy’s this time – Nancy Jean shared: for lovers of ice creams, cats and angst bombs. So I’m going to guess that she is a fan of The Headmistress by Milena Mckay just like I am. And like we mentioned in our last full episode, The Lesbian Review is hosting its Sexy Reads event from February 18 to 20th. It’s an entirely virtual event. And Kris and I are participating in some panels, and we’re actually going to be recording live a bonus episode of Queerly Recommended as part of the event. I’m pretty excited.
Kris 1:57
Here’s something I’ve noticed. We’re doing a lot of bonus episodes this year so far.
Tara 2:01
Uh huh. It’s true.
Kris 2:03
Get ready people. Get ready.
Tara 2:05
I think- well, I hope you all loved the last one because it was so fun to record. But I think you’re all gonna super love the next one.
Kris 2:16
I love them all.
Tara 2:18
Well, that’s true. But I mean, it is being released in February. There might be a bit of a theme.
Kris 2:25
Maybe.
Tara 2:25
We’re into teasing this episode apparently.
Kris 2:27
We are. This is the teasing ep for sure.
Tara 2:31
So if you want to be a part of just watching us- not ‘just watching’, but like if you want to be a part of a bonus episode being recorded, please make sure you sign up for that event, because you’ll also be able to ask us some questions live while we record it. So we will include the link in the show notes where you can learn more, there will be other panel topics exploring things like: How realistic should erotic fiction be? How’re authors doing their research? You know, representing unusual characters in erotic work. So yeah, go sign up for that. It’s going to be well worth your time.
The other thing I wanted to let folks know about, I was recently on The Lez Geek Outcast, which is the geekly bi-weekly podcast brought to you by lesfic authors Andy Marquette and Lise McTighe. We were talking about the media that we’re all looking forward to this year. It was a good time. Every so often, I join them on their show. It’s always fun. Yeah, it’s always super fun. I mean, Lise was one of the reviewers at The Lesbian Review fairly early on, like kind of when I started and so we go way back. And Andy, you know, she even came to my house one time. We recorded an episode of my old podcast, Les Do Books, in my kitchen.
Kris 3:47
I feel a little left out.
Tara 3:51
Come to Calgary and you too can record a podcast episode in my kitchen. So yeah, it was great catching up with them. And we’ll put the link in the show notes for that for anyone who wants to get some geeky media things to look forward to in 2022. That will hopefully- the year that will hopefully stop being a hellscape soon.
Kris 4:12
Oh I know. I have such hope for this year. I hope.
Tara 4:15
Listen, you’re- Yeah, you are the person- Your capacity for hope I think is higher than most. I just think about you watching The Handmaid’s Tale because of hope. Every week you’re like, “I feel like I got stabbed in the stomach. But I have hope”.
Kris 4:32
I do have hope. Most people don’t think that about me that I’m not very, that I’m not a hopeful person, but I really am. I believe in the good. I believe that eventually good will overtake evil. And that good things will happen again. I just have hope. I have to have hope. I mean, if you don’t have hope. What do you have?
Tara 4:49
A lot of crankiness.
Kris 4:51
Right, and I can only handle crankiness for so long. Like I can be cranky for a while.
Tara 4:56
Yeah.
Kris 4:56
But then I just hate myself.
Tara 4:58
Yeah.
Kris 4:58
It’s like that’s not- It’s not normal for me to be cranky.
Tara 5:01
Yeah, yeah, no. That’s why we’re friends.
Kris 5:04
That’s right. We bounce off really well.
Tara 5:07
Yeah.
Kris 5:08
So guess what?
Tara 5:10
What?
Kris 5:11
My favorites “holiday’s” coming up.
Tara 5:16
Your very favorite. Wait-
Kris 5:17
It really is. It’s my very favorite.
Tara 5:20
Even more than Christmas?
Kris 5:21
Even more than Christmas.
Tara 5:22
And more than Halloween?
Kris 5:24
Ah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So it goes, here we go. My number one favorite quote unquote holiday is Valentine’s Day.
Tara 5:34
I don’t think I knew this about you.
Kris 5:37
It’s love. I’m a romance writer. I love love. I love everything about love. And I know people out there squawking like, “Oh, it’s just a commercialized way for blah, blah, big business to get more of your money Hallmark.”
Tara 5:51
Like Christmas isn’t?
Kris 5:53
Right? So, the thing I love about Valentine’s Day is it’s specific to love. I mean, Christmas is everything. Christmas is like, huge. It’s giving, it’s sharing. It’s caring. It’s all that-
Tara 6:06
It’s family.
Kris 6:07
Yes. And Valentine’s Day is love. So it is coming up. And we’re thinking about doing something a little special on the show. Do you remember when we were kids? And in elementary school, we spent, like our art class for the week, we had to make a Valentine’s Day box, like a shoe box. And you’d cover it with construction paper.
Tara 6:31
Oh, yeah.
Kris 6:32
And you would design it. And it would be really cool. Because you were going to exchange Valentine’s with your class. And it was so excited to go home and read all the Valentine’s from your friends at school. And it was just such a great feeling. It was like the best feeling because you- everybody got about a Valentine’s. And even the people who you know, were shy, or just didn’t, you know, they’re just wallflowers, you know, they got the same amount as the people who were you know, super popular and huge. And it was just a good feeling. And so I want to bring that back. I want to bring Valentine’s back to our adult life.
Tara 7:12
Well, how do we do it, Kris?
Kris 7:13
Well, here’s what I’m thinking. I think that we, that you should send us a voice note. You can send it, you can either you can actually send a text note or a voice notes- Fuck!` You can send it as a text note by email. There’s something.
Tara 7:31
Yes.
Kris 7:32
Where it’s an actual message that we can broadcast. Or you can send us a text message or just an email, and we’ll read it out loud. Send it to any of your socials, yeah.
Tara 7:43
Yeah, send it to our DMs, you can email podcast@queerlyrecommended.com with either a recording of your Valentine to a friend, a loved one-
Kris 7:54
Or it could be a secret admirer!
Tara 7:56
Yes, you can absolutely be a secret admirer. Let us know what you want. If it’s a text one, let us know what you want us to read out loud, including your name. Because if you want to be anonymous, we need to know. And if you send us a voice note, we will include that in our super special secrets Valentines something that we’re not going to tell you what it’s gonna be just yet.
Kris 8:22
Yeah, I’m so excited about it. A lot of good things happening on that one. But that’s kind of cool. I think like bringing that feeling back as an adult is nice. Because even as an adult, like, maybe your partner, your significant other, maybe they get you flowers, maybe they get you a Valentine’s Day card. But- or maybe they do something like this and you’re not expecting it. And they know you listen to the show, because they listen to the show too. And all of a sudden Tara’s reading something to Mackenzie that says, “Hey, I love you. I’m sitting right next to you, and I love you”.
Tara 8:59
Or this is like, “Hey, your smile might be a little goofy, but I like it a lot”.
Kris 9:03
Right? Yeah. So I think that’d be kind of fun. I mean, I hope that there’s interest there. And I hope y’all reach out. I think- I know I would smile if I got a Valentine’s Day shout out.
Tara 9:16
You will. I love it. So Kris, what have you been reading or watching lately?
Kris 9:23
So this episode is strictly television watching. I didn’t really get into reading a lot because deadlines. So I actually started watching Survivor Australia, which is not, like I know that American Survivor has actually had a whole season in Australia, but this is actually the Australian version of Survivor. And it’s it’s- how do I want to say it? It’s different. I mean, these people are fit and there’s like they’re- it’s a very physical game. And it’s just it’s not like-
Tara 9:58
Is it in Australia too?
Kris 9:59
Well, it takes place in Fiji. At least, the two seasons I’ve watched have taken place in Fiji. They’re given like, your carbs, they give you rice and beans. You don’t have to like starve yourself. It’s one of those. I mean, you can’t like overeat, but you at least don’t have to fight for food. You know, food is like truly a reward. And so, but it is a very physical game. And they’re actually nice to each other.
Tara 10:24
Wait, what?
Kris 10:25
I know.
Tara 10:27
Is this like, how is it like how Simon Cowell is like such a dickhead on American Idol. But then when you see him on, like X Factor in the UK, he’s actually like, yeah, occasionally his feedback is kind of harsh, but like, he actually seems like a pretty decent guy?
Kris 10:41
Right? Exactly that. And it’s like- if they see somebody picking on somebody, they’ll be like, “Hey, you can’t talk to her like that”. Yeah.
Tara 10:50
What?
Kris 10:51
Yes, it’s like, it just reminds me just how mean Americans can be.
Tara 10:56
Yeah, it’s there is something about- I mean, most of the media that I watch is American. And I think that’s pretty typical for Canadians. Although, you know, I do occasionally watch Canadian shows like The Great Canadian Baking Show, or Schitt’s Creek or whatever. But like, there seems to be something about like, you have to manufacture meanness for ratings.
Kris 11:21
Yeah, it’s horrible. Like, I hate the whole scope of Survivor. When it came out-
Tara 11:26
I only ever saw the first season.
Kris 11:29
You know, I watched several seasons, and then I got off of it. And then I just watched this last one recently, because like, some people were pushing us to watch it. So I said, “Okay, I’ll watch it”. But yeah, it’s like they’re mean, people are just like backstabbing mean, and they’re rewarded for being mean, and for being backstabbing. And that’s, you know, and so this episode or the season that I’m on now with Survivor Australia is the All Stars. Like I watched the champions versus the contenders. That was the first season I saw, which I think was season four, because it was only available on Paramount Plus.
It’s weird how sometimes when a streaming service takes over, they don’t get it from like the first season so you have to kind of work your way backwards. And anyway. So now I’m on the All Star Season and you know, they are getting a little quote unquote catty now, now they’re starting to get a little devious, but I was really impressed at the very beginning. And then when they get voted off, they like hug everybody. They don’t say like “I’m gunning for you, you’re never gonna get my vote, die!” They don’t do that. It’s more like “Good game. That was a great blindside.” And they hug everybody and they kiss and then they walk off. It’s amazing. So I’m watching that.
And I am also stuck in the middle of the NFL playoffs. By the time this episode airs I’m sure it’ll be Super Bowl time. So hopefully, I will be happy because the Chiefs will be in the Super Bowl. That is where I’m going. That’s where I’m headed. And here’s something I will not take my tree down. My Christmas tree is still up. I will not take it down until either the Chiefs on the Super Bowl or we’re out of the playoffs.
Tara 13:07
Why?
Kris 13:09
I don’t know why. I don’t- it was just one of those where it’s like, meh, I’m just gonna keep it up because I like it. It’s nice. And you know, it’s a nice night light. It’s still pretty. It’s super pretty. I love it.
Tara 13:19
All right.
Kris 13:20
Different. Right. Okay.
Tara 13:22
Yeah. Yeah, well, alright, Chief’s it’s on you. You decide when Kris’s tree comes down. Figure it out.
Kris 13:32
And then the final thing I’ve been watching, Catfish is back. So I’m watching that and now they have a Catfish UK that I haven’t started watching but I will. But let me tell you the story.
Tara 13:45
Okay.
Kris 13:46
So I think it was last week maybe? On Twitter. I put a post about- there were these two pitbulls running around in my neighborhood.
Tara 13:54
Mm hmm.
Kris 13:55
And so one was a big one. Cujo, his name is Cujo.
Tara 13:59
Oh my god.
Kris 13:59
Yeah, literally, I like I went up to this 90 pound Pitbull and I was like, “Hey,” you know, try to get him over to me, because I saw he had a collar. And I saw that there was a number on his collar. So I had to like make friends and try to get them to come over to me. The little Pitbull. She was very nervous to be around me, so I got Cujo over to me first, and then the little one came over. But only Cujo had a number. So I called the number. I called it several times. I texted it, I left, I went back and got that- I just couldn’t leave a little pit bull puppy in the street. I just couldn’t do it, couldn’t do it.
So I scooped them up in the car, put them in my backyard, you know, fed them, gave them water, stuff like that. And I was trying to get ahold of the owner. So long story short, because we all know what happened. But I put in the phone number into Cash App because I learned it off of Catfish.
Tara 14:57
Wait, no, I don’t think everybody necessarily does know what happened.
Kris 15:01
Oh, well, so what happened
Tara 15:03
-people who weren’t following. I’m just saying for people that weren’t following it. How does this resolve? Do these dogs live in your backyard now?
Kris 15:08
Well, I was stressed because it was a Friday afternoon, and we were getting ready to have a major snowstorm and I could not bring two pitbulls in the house with Molly.
Tara 15:17
No, Molly would be a snack.
Kris 15:19
For sure would be a snack. And so I put them in my backyard. And then I went inside and got online to look at the shelter, the pet shelter here, like, “Who do you call if you find dogs?” Yeah, there’s a there’s a busy street, like two blocks over, either two blocks west or two blocks south of me. So I wasn’t- I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let these dogs run loose. Anyway, so I’m in there. I’m inside. I like checked in with work. I’m like, “Hey, I’m a little something right now. I can’t take calls. I’ll let you know when I could do it”. So I’m like still calling this person, I’m sending- I’m taking pictures of the dogs and sending it. I’m like, “Is this your dog? Are these your dogs?” And eventually, I’m making a call to the independent shelters to see you know what my what my course of action is. And I go back out. And the dogs are gone. They’re gone. And I’m like- and my neighbor came out. She’s like – she had her dog out. And she’s like, “Oh, did you get some dogs?” I’m like, she has Jack. I love Jack. He’s like an old old husky dog.
Tara 16:23
Yeah.
Kris 16:24
And I’m like, “Keep Jack away. I don’t know who these dogs are. I don’t know anything about them. They’re just running the neighborhood”. She goes, “Yeah, I saw them earlier today out here”. And I’m thinking, “Okay, I’m like, Why didn’t you call or like, try to save them or whatever”. I didn’t say anything. Because that’s not, you know-
Tara 16:38
Yeah.
Kris 16:39
It’s not my place. But anyway. So I say, “Keep jack back, because I don’t know these dogs”. So she put Jack inside. And then when I come out, I have like these biscuits, have this dog biscuits. And I’m like, “Hello, Cujo”.
Tara 16:53
Yeah.
Kris 16:54
“Little puppy!” And I’m like, “Where the fuck did they go?”
Tara 16:56
Yeah.
Kris 16:57
And so I asked,you know, the neighbor was kind of like, “What happened?” I’m like, “I don’t know.” “Did they hop the fence?” “I don’t know”. So I look on my back, I have a camera out in the backyard. And I couldn’t see to the side of one side of the gate where actually I have an actual door, whatever that’s called- I’m at a loss for words today. But anyway, I looked at Ring, and some people came and stopped the car and just went out and got these dogs. So I’m like, “Okay, so it’s the owners, right?”
Tara 17:31
I hope so.
Kris 17:32
Because who else would just come out of the blue like, half an hour later, just you know, drive slowly? But actually, a Jeep drove by slowly and I guess that person called. So then the other- the family came by to pick it up. So six, seven hours later? No, it’s actually eight hours later, I get a text “Who is this?” And I’m thinking, “Well, hopefully that was you that got the dog out of my backyard.
Tara 17:58
Well, yeah.
Kris 17:59
So I ignored it. So I’m like, “Fuck you for not calling me sooner,” or not, you know, if you recognize these dogs wouldn’t you say, “Oh my god.”
Tara 18:07
And to not knock on the door.
Kris 18:08
Right. So I put it on Ring, you know how you have like neighborhood alerts. And so I said, “I have these dogs? Does anyone know them? Blah, blah, blah”. So this is what I learned from Catfish. So I took this person’s number and I plugged it in Cash App.
Tara 18:25
Okay.
Kris 18:26
And I got- they were a hit. Like I was like, “What?” Because Catfish does it all the time. They’ll put it in Google but now they start putting phone numbers in Cash App because almost everybody has a Cash App or Venmo or something like that. And it uses your phone number. So then I found the person’s name and I found their address in the neighborhood.
Tara 18:46
Okay.
Kris 18:47
So I was like, Okay-
Tara 18:49
Did you go fight a neighbour?
Kris 18:50
So I was- so I did. So I got in the car, and I’m driving around and I found the place but I didn’t see the car. I didn’t see the car that drove and picked up the dogs.
Tara 18:58
Yeah.
Kris 18:59
But it ended up being them. You know, the guy had the phone, where I’d sent the pictures to, but then somebody else called me from a different number at the same time that this guy’s texting me. And so I answered the phone, I’m like, “Hello?” And this person says “Why the fuck did you have my dogs in your backyard?”
Tara 19:19
Pardon.
Kris 19:21
Right? Like that. She came at me like that. That is how she came at me.
Tara 19:26
“I don’t know, why the fuck were your dogs running around the neighborhood?”
Kris 19:30
Right? So like I calmed her down. You know immediately I went to like 100. Like, from zero to 100. I literally was horizontal on the couch watching some mindless TV, like literally because I was brain dead by the end of the day.
Tara 19:43
Yeah.
Kris 19:43
And so she came at me and and so I’m like, “We can take this to the police. I mean if this is a concern for you, I have all the text messages. I have all the voicemail messages I’ve left”. I said, “You know I went to your house”. And then she settled down, she goes well “Okay, thank you so much for taking care of the dogs. Cujo has my husband’s number and he just didn’t check his phone.” Who the fuck doesn’t check the phone after eight hours?
So anyway, so she calmed down, apologized. I said, “Well, I have your number now and if I see them again, I’ll be sure to call you”. She’s like, “Well, you know, we have a hole in the fence, we can’t afford it”. And it was just like, and the whole thing was just so unreal. So I said, “Well, if this happens again, I’ll put them in my backyard. And you can come and get them”.
Tara 20:28
Yeah.
Kris 20:29
But it was just unreal. But thank you, Catfish for showing me how to find these people.
Tara 20:33
That’s kind of brilliant.
Kris 20:36
It is. So, oh my goodness enough about this, what about you? So what have you been reading and/or watching?
Tara 20:46
All right, so Drag Race continues. Season 14. I met the other- I met? The episode came out with the second half of the cast. And I gotta say, it wasn’t as exciting as the first half of the cast. There’s one like super strong contender, Angeria Paris VanMicheals. She has like three names, and her name was way too long. It’s too many syllables, but whatever. She’s this like, super, super talented, gorgeous poise, puttogether pageant queen out of Atlanta. And just like yeah, I think she’s gonna be in the top four. But it was just kind of overall like a- after such a strong opener to me.,watching the second episode felt a bit like a wha-wha. Like, okay, there’s, there’s one real cool one. But then they brought them all together and the two queens that were eliminated in the two first episodes, they brought them back.
Kris 21:49
No. Why?
Tara 21:50
They brought them back and said “We’re giving you another shot!” And introduced a Willy Wonka inspired twist. So that they each had to sign chocolate bar. It was like a RuPaul branded, like a Drag Race branded, chocolate bar. One of the bars has a golden bar. And right, right, so somewhere Willy Wonka’s grandparents are like, “Oh, this is very interesting” in their little bed. But what they’re doing is at the end of every lip sync, because every episode ends with, like, the bottom two have to lip sync and the best one gets to stay. Shantay You Stay. And then the other one has to walk away and leaves the competition. And every so often Ru chooses to save a queen, but the way- one queen will get saved this year. And that is after her lip sync, if she loses the lip sync she will open the chocolate bar to she-
Kris 22:49
She has the golden ticket or not!
Tara 22:51
That’s right, which I think is a really interesting twist.
Kris 22:57
It is.
Tara 22:58
I haven’t seen that before. I mean every so often they do these like ‘game within a game’ or like different kinds of twists they’re doing to try to keep the show fresh and they don’t usually get introduced in the main seasons, they usually get introduced in the All Star seasons, so I kind of like that they’re bringing something fresh and interesting to the main season. I think that’s pretty clever.
There’s another show that I started watching recently and I’ve been told for years that I should watch this. I’ve had a lot of people say “No no. You specifically should watch this.” I’m like, No…. noh”. I don’t know about everyone else but like wave five this year pandemic has felt pretty gross, you know, has felt pretty awful and I thought maybe now is the time for me to finally break the seal on Queer Eye, so yes-
Kris 23:51
Shut up.
Tara 23:52
I know I have never seen any Queer Eye and I’m watching it from the beginning.
Kris 24:00
Wow
Tara 24:00
I just love it so much. And you know what? I am glad that I didn’t watch it until now. Like certain shows have gotten me through certain phases of the pandemic. So, RuPaul’s Drag Race I started watching during like waves one and two. I probably watched it waves one through three cause there’s so many seasons. It took like six months to catch up. And then wave four was when I watched The Good Place, which was perfect because it’s kind of one of those like as I’m incredibly angry at how big this wave is, especially in Alberta where I live, watching a show about like what it means to be a good human was really good and now Queer Eye….
Kris 24:36
Come on. Like they did a whole season in my city.
Tara 24:40
I’m not there yet. I only just started season two. Are you in it? Did they make you over?
Kris 24:48
So they had one-
Tara 24:49
Did you know any of these people?
Kris 24:51
Yes, I did. I’m like “How am I not in this show?” Like I know one of the people, but I didn’t believe it. Is one of those where’s like, “I don’t know”. I mean, how do I want to say this?
Tara 25:05
Did that person’s style truly change as a result of meeting the Fab Five?
Kris 25:10
Okay, so I know somebody who was in the episode. I don’t know an actual person that they change.
Tara 25:15
The hero. Okay.
Kris 25:16
Yes. I don’t know the hero.
Tara 25:18
Okay.
Kris 25:19
So- but it’s super cool to like see my city, my tiny little town on TV.
Tara 25:27
Yeah.
Kris 25:27
You know, cause it’s always New York, Los Angeles, New York. Los Angeles, San Francisco.
Tara 25:34
Yeah.
Kris 25:34
Seattle. It’s like never- nothing ever happens in the Midwest. And so it was kind of fun to see this. And yeah. I’m excited to talk to you when you get to my city. Because then you’ll be like, “Oooh, I should come visit”. And I’m like, “Yes, yes you should.”
Tara 25:49
We need this pandemic to like-
Kris 25:51
be over
Tara 25:51
-calm down before I go to any city? But, yes. Well, maybe we’ll record an episode from your kitchen.
Kris 26:00
Oh, yeah.
Tara 26:02
Although what- I don’t know that people actually realize, we record all of our episodes like, we’re each in our beds. We’re always in bed. So maybe we’ll record Yes, that’ll be the one thing we do in your bed.
Kris 26:15
I love that. We’d have to actually like video it and put it out there.
Tara 26:20
Yeah, right? Just like us in our big old sweatshirts hanging out in your bed recording a podcast.
Kris 26:26
I love it.
Tara 26:28
So yes, I love Queer Eye. If you are one of the six people who hasn’t seen it yet, I used to be one of you and I encourage you to join me. It’s well worth the time. I’m also reading a couple of books. And I’m like very early in both books. So I don’t have a lot of strong impressions yet for either. One is called You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo. It is a space opera. So a sci fi book and it’s described as “Farscape meets the Great British Bake Off” and here’s the thing. I fucking loved Farscape, like I haven’t seen it a long time. I have no idea if it holds up. But like in terms of sci fi shows, that’s always been one of my very favorites. And then I mean, who doesn’t like- how can you not like the Great British Bake Off?
Kris 27:12
Oh, I know. That’s, that’s everybody loves it.
Tara 27:16
So yeah, that’s all I’m going to tell you about that book. My impression so far. I’m having a lot of fun. I quite like it. I think people should check it out. And the other one is a new adult romance, so it’s featuring university or college students. It’s called The Map to You by Rachel Stockbridge, it’s a friends to lovers but where- so each of the friends has a gigant- like they’re they they were roommates. So in the in the prologue we see kind of what leads them to becoming roommates and then friends. Like dorm roommates, and then how a friendship grows from that. And then it goes ahead into the the next year where they’re not roommates anymore. They have these like insufferable crushes on each other. Neither of them has the courage to say anything about it. And the road trip has not begun. So I haven’t seen any of that aspect. But there is a road trip. So there’s like forced proximity of these two people with gigantic crushes on each other. So I’m enjoying it. I think it’s gonna be fun. So Kris, what’s your official recommendation this week?
Kris 28:18
Okay, so my official recommendation is Yellowjackets. My recommendations have kind of been all over the place.
Tara 28:25
Oh, really?
Kris 28:27
Yes. So you know, I mean, this is the first time I’m recommending something that is disturbing and creepy, but also intriguing. And I kind of feel like I was pressured into this recommendation. I was kind of teetering- well, so here’s, I know. So you know-
Tara 28:46
Christina Ricci came to your house and said, “Recommended it bitch! Get it done.”
Kris 28:51
Exactly. I was on the line, like, should I recommend this or not. And then like there’s a huge explosive, like, exchange on social media about this. And I’m like, “Okay, I get, I finally get it”. Like, not everybody is like me. Not everybody wants to watch the cutsu, fun, you know, movie with the happy ending, the bubbly people. I get that. So then I thought, “Okay, let’s do something gritty”. And so this is that. This is my suggestion. This is a gritty suggestion. And you know, it’s hard to describe what this is, you know, I, the good news is there’s a second season, they have now- we’re not going to be left hanging, we will now find out.
And at some point during my lifetime, it changed. There used to be television shows, they ran the season, and there was closure at the end of the season. And so the new season started, the next year and it was a fresh season. So I don’t know if that changed during Dallas, with “Who shot JR?” That whole thing. Because that was like a big- people still talk about that.
Tara 29:55
How could you have seen that, you were a baby?
Kris 29:57
I know, I
Tara 29:59
Or not alive?
Kris 30:01
I really didn’t even watch it. It was just I never even saw it. But that was a big thing was like “Who shot JR?”
Tara 30:07
Yeah.
Kris 30:08
And I want to say that hat was like a cliffhanger. That started that.
Tara 30:11
Definitely.
Kris 30:12
And I hate that. I’m not gonna lie. I like closer. Like I watched two seasons of Lost, I said “Fuck it. I’m out.” Because I get crazy.
Tara 30:22
That was a good choice.
Kris 30:23
Yeah, I couldn’t do it. And like it’s the polar bear and the jungles. I’m like, “I’m out. I’m out. I don’t know what’s going on”. So I left.
Tara 30:29
Yeah.
Kris 30:30
Anyway, I digress. So let’s talk about blurb. Here’s the actual blurb.
Tara 30:35
Okay.
Kris 30:36
“Wildly talented high school girl’s soccer players descend into savage clans after their plane crashes in the remote northern wilderness. 25 years later, they discover that what began in the wild is far from over.” So we talked about this last episode, I was starting, you know, I was into it. I wasn’t quite sure. But like, so here’s what happens. The plane crashes and most of the adults die and some kids die. I mean, let’s just- that just happens. Not everybody survived the plane crash. So eventually, like, all the secrets start coming out, like civilization kinda like takes a backseat. And it’s a distant memory. And the kids are there to survive on their own as long as they can. You know, and some of them actually try to go find help. But because bad things happen to them out in the wilderness, they come back. They come back, they had to- it’s like a- somebody has to actually rescue them. Because they can’t rescue themselves. It’s too dangerous.
So the cool thing about this is that there are two timelines going on at the same time. Like half of each episode covers both timelines. So we have when they’re in the wilderness, half the episode is in the wilderness and half is present time. It’s creatively done, but it’s really fun to see it. I mean, it’s real easy when they slip into the past versus the present. Not an issue. It’s really cool the way they do it. So we have four lead actresses, you know, we talked about Christina Ricci, she’s the best, she’s the best worst person on the show. She’s annoying as fuck. And when bad things start to happen, you don’t know if she’s responsible for them or if you want on her side, like she’s completely unhinged, and she doesn’t know it or she doesn’t even care. But there’s somebody we didn’t talk about last time.
Tara 32:29
Okay.
Kris 32:31
Melanie Lynskey.
Tara 32:33
She’s so- she’s a good actor.
Kris 32:36
So she’s in it. And like in present day, she’s like a, she’s a stay at home mom, she’s married to a furniture salesman, she has a daughter who just absolutely awful to her. And she comes across as weak. And she’s just kind of puttering along through life. And she’s so matter of fact, when bad things happen, you know, because I think it all stems back from either she believes that she’s just on this course of bad things happening in her life, and she’s accepting of them. And so rather than, like, fall apart, she’s just like, “Okay, how we’re gonna handle this?”
Tara 33:10
Oh, no.
Kris 33:11
But now, queer lead. Ha-ha! So, Tawny Cypress, she is a queer politician running for mayor. And she was a strong leader back when the plane crashed, you know, and the good news is she was queer during that time, she had a girlfriend, and nobody, like, it was not negative at all. Nobody’s like, “Oh, queers!” There’s nothing like that. Because they’re all kids. And so it’s very accepting. And you know, 25 years later, she’s married, she has a kid. And she seems like she’s put together but she has so many demons from this plane crash. And what happens that it scares the shit out of her wife and son. And so they kind of take a different path. And there’s also another queer person and the TV show, there’s another queer person, but you don’t really know about that till later. So there is queer rap and it’s pretty strong.
So here’s the thing, here’s why I think people will like it. Because a lot of people like cliffhangers. I’m not fond of them. But a lot of people love it. And they love the angst. And so whatever happened was so big- because you get like little tidbits of like, what happened while they were away from civilization for 18, 19 months? And something massive happens, because all four women have like, people are throwing millions of dollars ask them to tell their story. And nobody’s, everybody’s like clammed up. Nobody’s talking. Like, nobody’s talking about the story. It’s that bad.
Tara 34:38
Yeah.
Kris 34:38
So it’s interesting to see like where this is going to go. And so yeah, I recommend it if you like the angsty, what’s gonna happen next and you have frickin eight months to kill till the next season then watch this.
Tara 34:54
Or wait seven months?
Kris 34:56
Right and and binge the shit out of it. Yeah.
Tara 34:59
Yes.
Kris 35:00
So and what’s really creepy is I’ve noticed that a lot of opening credits are really creepy now. I probably say in the last 10 years they’ve gotten creepy. Do you remember True Blood? Did you ever watch True Blood?
Tara 35:11
No. No. I don’t watch creepy things.
Kris 35:17
So True Blood was creepy, like they have this- the intro had like I think it was a fox and it was a dead fox in the wilderness just dying, you know dead.
Tara 35:27
No.
Kris 35:27
And so it just fast forwarded through a decomposing. You know, they like-
Tara 35:33
No.
Kris 35:33
Yeah, so it’s creepy. And the Walking Dead’s kind of creepy. But this Yellowjackets, I literally fast forward through the opening credits because the music is creepy. And also with-
Tara 35:45
Yeah, no.
Kris 35:45
So if you like creepy stuff this is for you. And angsty and- but a lot of people love it. I mean, so I say yeah. If you didn’t know that there was queer representation, there is, it’s a big part. I recommend it for that. And if you like scary, creepy, weird things you’ll like this.
Tara 36:06
I’m really happy for you that you found a show that you enjoy.
Kris 36:10
I mean, like I said, I do so much fluffy stuff all the time. I thought this time I’m gonna do- I’m gonna go outside my comfort zone. And here’s the deal. Truthfully, I did want to know what happened. Like I was so invested by that point. I’m like, “Okay, I’m just gonna finish it out”. And it turned out to be okay. All right, I can get behind this.
Tara 36:27
Huh.
Kris 36:28
Yeah
Tara 36:29
Well that’s good.
Kris 36:30
So, anyway, what about you, Tara? What is your recommendation this week?
Tara 36:34
All right. My recommendation is a book that I finished reading last night and it has just recently- well it is releasing Tuesday for you and I, which really means a week ago for everybody who’s listening. It is brand newly out it is called D’Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding by Chencia C. Higgins, and this is a reality show romance.
Kris 37:02
Ah.
Tara 37:03
But it’s like a different kind of reality show than I think I’ve seen in a romance because all the reality show romances that I’ve seen have either been cooking shows, or they’ve been related like cooking or baking shows, or they’ve been like the bachelor bachelorette style shows, right?
Kris 37:22
Right.
Tara 37:22
This is a fake relationship, kind of a scenario. So the idea is that, so it’s called, it’s a show called Instant I do and so it’s two contestants on this show. They are paired up together, they have to convince their friends and family that they’re getting married in six weeks. And they have to go through the whole process of in six weeks from like, “Hey, family and friends. Look at this person you’ve never met before that I’m marrying: to like, on week six, it is the wedding. So they will have gone through the whole wedding planning process. So they have to sell it as this like whirlwind romance with somebody they’ve only just met. And here’s the thing, if anyone guesses that it’s not real, they get kicked out of the show. And there’s $100,000 for each of them on the line if they win.
Kris 38:15
Wow.
Tara 38:16
Right. And so the two characters are so as Kris Zavala, who is an influencer, you know, has 250,000 followers on Instagram, kind of on the cusp of- so like she’s an influencer, but not like a really big influencer yet. So like not really making the big money that can come out of that yet. The blurb points that out and says that a stint on reality TV is the perfect chance to elevate her brand. But here’s the thing, that part of the blurb is a bit of a lie because it becomes clear pretty early on Kris actually wants to find love. She thinks that maybe if she gets paired with the right person, she can actually fall in love with them because she’s having a hard time finding love in real life. And she wants to settle down and you know, she’s super, super sweet. She’s this like, lovely, hunky soft butch, Afro-Latina woman and yeah, I just I kind of love her. I have a soft spot for like hunky butch leads.
And D’Vaughn is not out to her family yet. Well her siblings know, her mom doesn’t know. She’s never come out to her mom. And she feels like coming on this show is kind of the perfect way to like – sure she could maybe win $100,000 – but it will also force the issue, so that she has to tell her mom that she’s a lesbian. So it’s you know, they think it’s just going to be- and especially D’Vaughn, she just thinks it’s going to be fake. Kris kind of hopes that perhaps something real what might come out of it, but she knows that she’s on a reality show. The producers are throwing stupid challenges in their way. Because I mean, planning a wedding in six weeks is hard at the best of times. But you know, when it’s week three, and they’re saying, “All right, now you have to figure out how to get a custom wedding dress made.” Which, like, a custom wedding dress in three weeks….
Kris 40:25
I’m assuming that’s super hard.
Tara 40:27
I also assume that that’s near impossible, unless you have an insane amount of money. I did not get a custom, but let’s just say it took more than three weeks for the alterations on my off-the-rack dress 13 years ago. So I quite liked it. It’s a pretty low level of angst. In this one, there’s not- I know a lot of romance readers have come to really hate break, you know, the breakup, just so that they can make up later on. This is not one of those types of books, like there is some angst there. But it’s more around the like, “Okay, can this actually be real? We’re in an entirely manufactured situation”. But it works. It works and the thing that so some of the things I like about it is, I mean, first of all the representation. The author is a black woman, she’s writing about black women, D’Vaughn is fat, which again, I love, love, love, we got a fat femme in this story. I love their families. Oh, their families are so great. Kris’s family is just 100% behind her the whole time for everything she does. D’Vaughn’s mom, like, she ends up coming out to her at a church, like at her church. And you know, it really goes okay. It’s like, it’s really lovely that-
Well and again, going back to Queer Eye, like perfect timing. I just watched the first episode of the second season with, you know, Miss Tammy and her makeover, which is a lot about- which is a lot about like the church and homophobia. And so you know, Tammy has a gay son. And she-` so she doesn’t want her house redone. She wants the community center for her church to be finished because they got it as far as like the mudding and taping stage, but they couldn’t afford to do the rest. And you know, Bobby talks a lot about his pain in what happened when he came out and having to leave the church and all that. And so I think it was really lovely to see in this book that it’s like, yeah, you absolutely can have a religious parent who can still love you. So I don’t know like all around like, it’s fun. The reality show thing worked for me. I also love that some of the like, kind of in between chapters, they’ll do transcripts of what’s called the jitter cam, which is kind of you know, how in reality shows they’ll do like the individual interviews with people?
Kris 43:02
Mmmmhmm.
Tara 43:02
Yeah, so it’s those and so you see, like, what Kris is saying through hers, or what D’Vaughn is saying through hers, and you don’t get to see the questions that are being asked, but like you can kind of understand through context. And it just, I think this is- I really enjoy reality show romances and I think this is like top notch, one of the best ones. So yeah, I definitely recommend this one, especially if you want. Like do you want to read a book by a black author? Pick it up right away. Do you want to read fat rep? Pick this up. If you want a good reality show- and also again, like reality fake wedding show. Fantastic. Fantastic. I recommend it.
Kris 43:49
Nice.
Tara 43:50
That is all for this episode. Thank you so much for joining us. If you’ve enjoyed the show, please make sure that you subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts that you’ll get notified when we release a new episode. And again, like I said earlier, if you have a friend who would like the show please tell them about it. And if you would like to support the show with a little bit of money we do have that link to Kofi in the show notes. Not necessary but definitely appreciated.
Kris 44:14
Right and if you want to connect with us on your favorite social media sites, just search for @queerlyrecommended on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook or you can email us at podcast@queerlyrecommended.com And don’t forget to send your Valentines by text or voice to podcast@queerlyrecommended.com And you can also find me and Tara separately on all social media platforms. Bye everybody.
Bye everyone.
I think that we- that you should send us a voice note. You can send it you can either you can actually send a text note or a voice voice note- fuck.
Tara 45:29
Let’s try that again. We’re off to a real great start. All right.
Kris 45:34
Can I read Nancy Cade and you read?
Tara 45:36
Yes. Yes. Do you do you want to say that you want to give some things recently supported us and then-
Kris 45:46
Yes, I’ll do that. I’ll do that.
Tara 45:47
Okay.
Kris 45:48
We want to give quick thinks… we want to… stop. Poor Neil, this’ll be like eight hours log