Hate Expectations

For just the second time in history the Hate Expectations team has raced into their local theater to take on a subject that is still new enough to make waves: director George Clooney's The Boys in the Boat (2023), based on the 2013 novel by Daniel James Brown. Nothing gets their hearts pumping and their breath ragged like even a light amount of exercise, except maybe a well written adventure. The story of the 1936 University of Washington crew team swatting away Nazis and the depression with both fists surely is that: the stuff of legends. But does the movie keep pace? Will Lizzy and Nate be swept away all over again? And how does one pronounce Poughkeepsie, anyway? You'll have to listen to this episode to know what's going on inside their skulls. Now, can you give them ten big ones?

There's a fin in the water and fun in the air! From Jaws, Peter Benchley's incredibly popular 1974 novel, to Jaws, Steven Spielberg's even more popular 1975 film, Lizzy and Nate sink their teeth into the adaptation, rip into the differences, and digest the repercussions of both on the future of cinema and entertainment. Armed with the fleshed out story in the book, their discussion undulates between Ellen's pearl necklace to screenwriter Carl Gottlieb's tell-all book to Mayor Vaughn's re-election and appearance as mayor in Jaws 2. Actually, strike that last point--even the fearsome Hate Expectations crew can't figure that one out.

You know, they say books are the reason we have such beautiful movies. They also say that adaptation are the reason we have such beautiful episodes of Hate Expectations. Listen to this episode to at least find out if Lizzy and Nate agree with that first truism, at least with regard to Get Shorty, the 1990 Elmore Leonard novel and the 1995 film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. The latter "fact" is one you'll have to judge for yourself. We promise most of the commas are in the right spots, at least. Listen to us. Listen to us.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! We're a little late getting this episode on the movie A Christmas Story (1983, d. Bob Clark) out to you. That's perfect in keeping with the source material, however, since the book it was based on, In God We Trust...All Others Pay Cash (1966, w. Jean Shepherd), places most of its stories throughout the year. Protagonist Ralphie's encounter with bully Grover Dill took place on "on a hot, shimmering day", for instance. Shepherd would forgive us for being a few weeks late. Being a radio man, on the other hand, he might not forgive us for the sound quality, which is an eternal struggle. Someday that will all come together. Please note, we tried to keep this a family friendly episode, which just means beeping out Lizzy every time she swears. We feel absolutely certain that The Old Man would understand her inability to hold back.

The golden orb has streaked its path across the sky many times since Hate Expectations last palavered on a digital recording medium. We've been most delinquent in getting our house in order. In Lizzy and Nate's case that means finally recording and releasing the long delayed episode on Stella Gibbons' classic novel, Cold Comfort Farm (1932), and the several adaptations of it. Happily, we were aided and abetted in this by Melissa Tyler, our hilarious friend who first introduced us to this world of higher common sense and dairy free afterlives. We're not sure Robert Poste's child would approve of our untidy approach to analysis--you'll find there's something nasty in our method. But she would likely be overjoyed at the extra grueling month of post production that went into fixing the audio levels. (Sidenote: our audio engineer was last seen face down in the furrows in Nettleflitch Field, weeping into the sukebind.) We hope you enjoy the effort, as we mun entertain.

It's that special time of year again -- spring! We at Hate Expectations like to to put out an episode like this in early April to celebrate the joys of the season. This time we take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes, along with some of the myriad adaptations the literary giant appears in. But how to make sense of it all? For a case this large and confusing we felt like we needed a little help. So we called on our friends Humphrey and Bogart for assistance. Much as we all tried to us sift through the evidence and piece together a cohesive narrative, it's not clear that, even collectively, we really solved anything. Perhaps the answer we were looking for was more elementary, and what we really needed was the help of you, dear listener. Can you eliminate the impossible to find the truth? *Note: Great Britain is actually about the same size as Idaho, as it turns out. No apologies needed.

We're not high, we promise, though it may sound like it at times in this episode (maybe we should have been). That just the effect of Thomas Pynchon on a person's brain. And while Inherent Vice (2009) is possibly his most accessible novel, with the Paul Thomas Anderson movie (2014) being a streamlined version of that, there's still just a lot to absorb in both. A lot of, you know, stuff. Where was I? Anyway, a listener might best be advised to treat this episode like one of his novels and just go along for the ride. Who knows, man? Maybe you'll get a contact high just hearing about it.

At long last, we are delivering on our promise to rip into Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) and the two film adaptations molded by it (1971, dir Mel Stuart & 2005, dir Tim Burton). But there's just too much confectionary conversation not to share it with friends, so we invited Megan Steen and returning guest Dug Steen* to join us! This episode represents our first repeated author, as well as our first two time Snuffy Walden winner! Listen in as we confer about cgi chocolate, weigh in on Wonka wackiness, and parley about which parts would be present in the perfect motion picture version. *Dug didn't realize he was invited and didn't read the book. Thankfully, he was a good sport and joined us anyway.

Sweet swimmin' unicorns, what did Lizzy do? It was her birthday a few months ago, and for it she selected Elizabeth Goudge's book, The Little White Horse, for us to cover. Seemed like a good idea, doing a cute story of a plucky little girl who discovers she's a moon princess in the valley of her OH MY GOD! What is wrong with the movie?! Where is the eyebleach! Ahh! Ahhh! Ahhhhhhhhh...

It's April as I type this (rabbit, rabbit), and that can mean only one thing -- it's time for our Easter episode of Hate Expectations! Now we know there have been a few adaptations of the Bible over the years, so we had a lot of options. For this special episode we decided to concentrate on the stellar 1999 direct-to-video filmed staging of Andrew Lloyd Weber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I assume we go into great depths about our feelings for both the book and the movie/musical, so I'll let it stand it without any further commentary. Enjoy!

While the pandemic has left a lot of us feeling a bit unstuck in time, the effects of that don't seem to be as strong for us as they are for Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist of Kurt Vonnegut Jr's novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, Or The Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death (1969). Join us as we meander through our discussion, popping back and forth between the book and the movie adaptation (1972, dir George Roy Hill), relishing in the good moments and pointing out the those that never really came to life. So it goes.

Finally! Hate Expectations, along with multiple time returning guest/friend Jane Hutchins, takes a journey deep into the human mind. Join us as we dig into all the minutiae of the 1966 movie, Fantastic Voyage (dir. Richard Fleischer) and the novelization of it by noted sci-fi author, Isaac Asimov. No plot hole is too large and no performance is too small to escape our microscope. This is an episode that is guaranteed to get under your skin!

Halloween is our favorite time of year, here at Spielenwald, Hate Expectations's headquarters. There's no better time to dim the lights and curl into the fetal position with a scary book or the movie it spawned. In this episode we breathe life into Rosemary's Baby, the 1967 novel by Ira Levin and the 1968 film directed by Roman Polanski. It's a classic, but does it still live up to its reputation? It's atmospheric, but is it horror? Will it scare the bejesus out of you? There's only one good way to find out, and that's to join us...if you dare!

We're back! It's a special birthday / rebirth episode, as Lizzy* and Nate track down Richard Stark's 1962 novel, The Hunter. Join us as we not only beat this crime classic to a pulp, but we talk the two(!) movie adaptations to death: Point Blank (1967, dir John Boorman) and Payback (1999, dir Brian Helgeland). There's a whole lot of seething putrid evil to rip into, but somehow we get beyond just the pandemic to discuss the thrice told tale of a thief, a betrayal, and bloody vengeance. *Lizzy wants to correct the record and say that Keenan is Ed's son, not grandson.

We're back with a special quarantine episode! From the time we published The Princess Bride until today (11/19/19 to 04/01/20 -- over a third of a year!) we at Hate Expecations have had a good long Christmas vacation, planned and delivered the culmination of a four year Leap Day party, read some non-adapted books, and mostly enjoyed taking some time off. However, now that home isolating is a reality, we have had time to re-read something we expect a lot of people are also re-experiencing, the first book of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien's epic trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (1954). We also watched the seminal film adaptation (dir. Ralph Bakshi, 1978) and some other lesser conversions of the work. We don't have any special guests this time, in part because of the quarantine, but mostly because this episode wasn't planned. Like Gandalf the Grey, sometimes a podcast arrives precisely when it means to.

At a break in the Sasquatch board gaming festival, Hate Expectations took advantage of their inconceivable friend, Dug Steen, being in town to record an episode on William Goldman's novel The Princess Bride (1973) and the highly quotable classic movie Rob Reiner made from it (1987). The three grab a vine and dive head first into the beloved story and its familiar characters, breathing new life into it like some inconceivable bellows shoved in its pie-hole. They even discuss Goldman's missing bonus chapter and the inconceivable sequel, Buttercup's Baby. Finally, they do as you didn't know you wished and round out the whole episode with a brand new feature. Come, and love it as we have loved it.

In a very special episode of Hate Expectations, Lizzy learns the hard way that rock music is Satan's gateway to your heart, while Nate find's the school bully's unwanted attention is just a cry for help. No, wait. It isn't that kind of a special episode. It's a birthday episode! We finally get to the mic with our long awaited episode about Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief (1998) and its movie adaptation, the movie Adaptation. (2002, dir Spike Jonze). While the book is a delightful meandering read, the movie is more about the kind of hell that adapting a delightful meandering book for motion pictures can be. Nate then struggled to find a way to end the summary of the podcast about one of his favorite movies. In a self-aware and self-indulgent manner, he finally wrote the sentence "Nate then struggled to find a way to end the summary of the podcast about one of his favorite movies." Then he thought how weird it was to do that.

Rich and Z return to the podcast, bringing a curious Homer pick with them. Joel and Ethan Coen's O Brother, Where Art Thou (2000) technically does give a "based on" credit to the ancient greek poem, The Odyssey, which qualifies it for discussion on the show. Not to spoil the journey, but it turns out you have to squint mighty hard most times to see the connections between the two stories. And squint we do! (Mostly from laughing.) We also discover that reading ancient literature actually is more fun than a burning stick in a Cyclops's eye. Who knew?

As avowed rat lovers, it was inevitable that Lizzy and Nate would eventually discuss the beloved Newbery Medal winner, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (Robert C. O'Brien, 1971), and its Don Bluth animated adaptation, The Secret of NIMH (1982). But in a surprise twist of fate, it turned out that frequent guest host, Siobhan Beeman, was the one to bring this classic out and turn the Hate Expectations eye on it. To keep things lively and difficult to edit, we also had two large and noisesome guest dogs bumping around the set and occasionally growling at passing squirrels. But even they couldn't prevent us from gnawing on every tasty morsel in this legend from our collective childhoods. In fact, the only thing that could put a damper on our enjoyment of the story turned out to be...well, you'll have to listen to find out.  

Three people, intentionally sequestered in the woods of the Pacific Northwest: Lizzy, Nate, and special returning guest Jane Hutchins. At first they thought they were imagining things; haunting visions of insanity, terror, and death. A distant voice sighed out a premonition: "REDRUM". The television flicked to life, showing the huddled trio even more spectral sights and grisly imagery. Except the new images were kind of different from the original ones in their heads. The three gave in to a driving compulsion to come together to hammer out those differences. Luckily, their discussion of Stephen King's novel, The Shining, and the Stanley Kubrick movie of the same name, was captured by sensitive audio vibration detection units. We can now present the entire ghoulish session here for your morbid delight. With that...heeeeeere's Hate Expectations!