HE047 The Martian
Hate Expectations
Yeah, yeah. It's April Fool's Day today...technically. And yes, we've pulled our japes in the past. You're right to be on your guard. But we promise, this is just a normal episode. Ok, maybe not normal normal. It's a pretty great episode, actually! Joining Lizzy and Nate in Spielenwald's basement studio are frequent guests, Z and Rich Johnson. They've come to talk about, spoil, examine, dissect, illuminate, and swear copiously about The Martian, Andy Weir's 2011 novel and Ridley Scott's 2015 adaptation of the same name. Both versions are pretty well out of sight, and there's a lot about both...
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HE046 The Lathe of Heaven
Hate Expectations
For such a slender volume, Ursula K. Le Guin's world changing novel, The Lathe of Heaven (1971), had enough going on to splinter off two different adaptations over time. Nate and Lizzy are joined by return guest Jonathan Franklin, and the trio chisels away at the layers of the book and the TV movies from 1980 (dir. David Loxton and Fred Barzyk) and 2002 (dir. Philip Haas). Join them as they spin out theories on dreams, taoism, art, and the illusion of control.
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HE045 The Boys in the Boat
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...
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HE044 Jaws
Hate Expectations
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...
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HE043 Get Shorty
Hate Expectations
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.
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HE042 A Christmas Story
Hate Expectations
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,...
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HE041 Cold Comfort Farm
Hate Expectations
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...
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HE040 Sherlock Holmes
Hate Expectations
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...
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HE039 Inherent Vice
Hate Expectations
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.
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HE038 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Hate Expectations
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 and Dug Steen to join us! 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.
info_outlineFinally! 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!