I don’t know about you but this month my DVR was on overload and my podcast’s are stacking up! Errr, they got in Formation…

Watching

I’ve been watching a lot of TV lately when I haven’t been busy pulling Norm off the couch. My husband and I are LOVING The People v. O.J. Simpson. Sure John Travolta’s makeup is painful to watch as Robert Shapiro and there’s too many Kardashian’s, but besides that it’s fascinating! We’re also really enjoying Billions.

Broad City is back! These girls crack me up – I can’t get enough of them. I also LOVED Leslie Jones “Ideal mate” piece on SNL’s weekend update a couple weeks ago, she makes me laugh. A lot.

This season of New Girl is off to a great start, even without Zooey Deschanel. And I continue to LOVE The Grinder, do yourself a favor and add it to your DVR – you’ll thank me.

The X-Files reboot is finished and I liked it. Didn’t love it, but it was nice to be back in that world for a short amount of time. Obviously the Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster episode was my favorite. Unfortunately these 6 episodes didn’t flow well at all – the first and last episode dealt with alien invasions but the 4 other episodes ignored that piece and just left me confused. But, I still watched them all! And yeah, I’m planning to watch Fuller House. Reboot city folks!

I’m disappointed at how quickly Lip Sync Battle can’t find celebs to battle – this season has quickly gone to C list people, it’s weird.

I can’t wait for March – Daredevil S2 is coming to Netflix next month, AND my favorite show – The Americans is back in a few short weeks!

Listening

Thank you Nerdist for not one but TWO Hostful goodness podcasts this month! I love the interviews, but really love the hosts catching up and being nerds.

I just discovered a great podcast by my friend Mary Lou Kayser – Playing Your Position – if you’re a business owner who needs inspiration this is the podcast for you! And if you like football, you’ll love it even more for the theme!

Channel 33 is still doing great podcasts – The Watch is required listening for me, and Andy Greenwald’s interview with Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer was great!  Bill Simmons podcast where he announced The Ringer  was really well done, I love how honest Bill is on his podcast about starting his next venture.

And of course I continue to enjoy Serial – and especially enjoyed the updates on S1’s case earlier this month.

And I’m listening to a lot of Beyonce and Billy Joel right now because I’m going to their concerts in May!

Reading

Well this is disappointing…my comics have piled up and so have my books. If it wasn’t about pop culture or getting a puppy to stop jumping and biting it didn’t happen.

I did read a great article ABOUT reading more – I just need to set a schedule for 25 minutes a day. I guess I’ll get on that so I have something to talk about here next month! In the mean time – what are you reading?

I hope you’ve had a fun pop culture month – what are you enjoying right now?

The new year means new pop culture. But January usually means a quieter TV schedule to start so time to catch up and binge on pop culture. Here’s what I’ve been up to – make sure to share your latest pop culture obsessions in the comments!

Reading

If you caught my latest newsletter you know that I’ve recently inherited a bazillion comics. I also had a chance to get caught up on comics in the past couple of weeks…

The Walking Dead issue 150 arrived this month and it did NOT disappoint! The TV show this season hasn’t been great, but the comic is MORE than making up for it!

Lazarus – I also finally caught up on this comic and really like where the story is going. It’s such an interesting story and I’m bummed they’re taking a couple of months off before they start the next story arc.

Because I’m an Oregonian I’ve been reading a lot of Les Zaitz’s articles on the Oregon standoff stuff in Malheur National Wildlife Refugee. Obviously this is my favorite piece on the situation.

And this story from Dave Holmes told in Twitter form is so hilarious!

Watching

Making a Murderer – Yes, like the rest of America I spent my holidays watching this incredibly fascinating documentary series on Netflix. I want to say that “I can’t believe this happens in America” but I can. I’ll continue to follow this story for the next few years I’m sure…

Angie Tribeca – the new TBS series with Rashida Jones was marathoned a couple weeks ago so I recorded it. They are so weird and funny and quirky – I laugh way too much at stupid stuff but man it’s a fun show! Bill Murray showed up in an episode that was one of the more entertaining roles I’ve ever seen him in.

I’m happy to have New Girl back this season, and even though the first episode was a little slow that second and third episodes did NOT disappoint. Also my husband informing me that his office has a douchebag jar makes me like his co-workers a LOT more all of a sudden (not that I didn’t already of course…)

Is it okay that I didn’t like the Sherlock Christmas special at all? Maybe if I had more recently watched the previous season I would have liked it more (and remembered what had happened), but it was a lot to remember and it was odd. I wasn’t a fan sadly.

London Spy – luckily BBC America is here to save the winter blues – this new series I heard about from the Channel 33 podcast guys is AWESOME. I watched the pilot and can’t wait for the 2nd episode this week! It’s a great mystery and I have a feeling a lot of good twists and turns are coming.

I have the new season of X-Files on my DVR and I watched the pilot of Colony and really liked it so hoping to get caught up with that shortly! Top Chef is back and I am loving this season in California! It’s always great to see a northwest chef on the show, and there’s some good folks on this season!

Listening

I’ll continue to sing the praises of Bill Simmons Channel 33 podcast – The Watch is a can’t miss podcast for me and Andy Greenwald’s recent interview with Michael Schur (creator of my favorite show – Parks & Rec) was fantastic!

Serial is back! This season is slower than last and I’m really bummed they went to every other week, BUT I understand why – and the story is still nuts. This week’s episode about the woman in Oregon is kind of crazy. I loved it!

My guilty pleasure is Real Housewives in many of their forms, but currently it’s Beverly Hills (FYI – not loving Potomac) – and discovering Bitch Sesh has been a HUGE joy in my podcast listening life. Two comedians and a friend talk about the latest episode of RHOBH. They also buy products created by housewives of all the shows and try them on air. It’s really fantastic. In a super low brow kind of way…

What’s your current pop culture obsession? Anything new and great I should be checking out?

Wow – what a great December for Pop Culture! 2015 has been great as a whole, but December really took it to 11! I hope you were able to get some pop culture activities taken care of this month – here’s a few of my favorites.

Movies

Like everyone else in the world – I saw Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens, 3 times so far (I don’t judge you…). My dad was visiting for the month so we watched episodes I-VI in order over the past month as well. Episodes I & II are terrible movies, but I didn’t remember most of Episode III and it’s actually pretty good! While The Empire Strikes Back has been my favorite, VII was so good it may be my favorite now…

I also had a chance to go see Sisters – with my two favorites, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. It was hilarious and everything I wanted it to be. Go see this movie, it’s a great ab workout.

 TV

There was such great TV this fall and a few things wrapped up worth noting…

The Leftovers – This will go down as one of my favorite TV seasons on record (Justified S2 and Dexter S4 are also on the list). It was fantastic story telling and a crazy story. International Assassin may be a flawless episode of television (to me anyway).

Fargo – Season 2 lived up to it’s name sake and was another amazing season of television. Ed & Peggy Bloomquist were two of the dumbest (but funnest) characters I’ve enjoyed watching in a while. And I will watch whatever else Bokeem Woodbine does. He was incredible. As was Nick Offerman, who I have absolutely watched drink scotch by a fire this holiday season.

Jessica Jones – WOW I loved this! What a great female superhero and story. Sure it would have been tighter with 2 or 3 less episodes, but that was one of the creepier bad guys in a show in some time. I loved almost everything about this show (pro tip: maybe don’t watch this show with your parents, there’s probably more sex than you’d like to watch while they’re on the couch next to you…)

Black Mirror, White Christmas – Oh Jon Hamm how I love you. Black Mirror is a show I discovered a while back on Netflix. It’s 21st century Twlight Zone and it’s amazing if you haven’t watched it. They did a Christmas episode in 2014 and it was finally available on Netflix on Christmas day. It does NOT disappoint, and it stars everyone’s favorite (except for my sister in law I guess…) Jon Hamm! A very creepy story that takes place over the holiday season, I loved it!

Listening

The greatest gift that a podcast lover could get for the holidays was Serial Season 2! I’m loving the season so far, what a great story that we know (Bowe Bergdahl) but really don’t know. I’m ticked we don’t get a new episode the week of New Years and have to wait 2 weeks between episodes, but I know it’ll be worth it.

The Nerdist had a few great interviews lately – Kathleen Kennedy was fantastic to listen to, her history in Hollywood is amazing! Fred Savage was everything I wanted him to be – I love him. Allison Tolman (from S1 of Fargo) was also a blast to listen to! As always I’m hoping for most hostful goodness in 2016 from this podcast…

Andy Greenwald interviewed Damon Lindelof about a bunch of stuff, but mostly LOST and The Leftovers and it was a great interview on a long drive home from the holidays.

Reading

As per the usual I’m reading a lot of year end lists and articles. Since I’ve been watching a lot of TV as well, it’s a bunch of interviews with directors too. But, I had time to read a book!

Undermajordojo Minor – a couple years ago I read The Sisters Brothers by the same author and loved it. It’s a unique writing style which makes it a very quick read. The world of the story is weird and twisted and funny and creepy and I really enjoyed it!

So, what have your pop culture obsessions been in December and over the past year?