Hate Expectations

Two movie lovers discuss interesting films and the books they were adapted from. Or maybe they talk about great books and the movies that they spawned. Who can say? They're just that wacky.

HE047 The Martian 04/02/2025

HE047 The Martian 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 to dig. Even still, when we do run into the occasional speed bump you can be certain we'll talk our way through whatever it is. We're here for the vibes. Ayyy! Erratum: as far can be determined, Andy Weir does nor or has not lived in the PNW. We'll not hold it against him. Several good people don't. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/35970635

HE046 The Lathe of Heaven 07/19/2024

HE046 The Lathe of Heaven 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. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/32209642

HE045 The Boys in the Boat 01/29/2024

HE045 The Boys in the Boat 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? /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/29687478

HE044 Jaws 07/30/2023

HE044 Jaws 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. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/27605574

HE043 Get Shorty 04/18/2023

HE043 Get Shorty 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. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/26577321

HE042 A Christmas Story 01/07/2023

HE042 A Christmas Story 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. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/25532451

HE041 Cold Comfort Farm 11/21/2022

HE041 Cold Comfort Farm 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. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/25080357

HE040 Sherlock Holmes 04/01/2022

HE040 Sherlock Holmes 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. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/22524608

HE039 Inherent Vice 03/01/2022

HE039 Inherent Vice 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. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/22272857

HE038 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 09/17/2021

HE038 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 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. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/20464022

HE037 The Little White Horse / The Secret of Moonacre 07/08/2021

HE037 The Little White Horse / The Secret of Moonacre 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... /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/19741748

HE036 Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat 04/01/2021

HE036 Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat It's April 1st now (rabbit rabbit) and that can mean only one thing -- it's time for our Easter episode! There have been many adaptations of the Bible over the years, so we had a lot of options. For this special episode we decided to go with the 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! /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/18563048

HE025 Slaughterhouse-Five 03/07/2021

HE025 Slaughterhouse-Five 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 (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. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/18221507

HE034 Fantastic Voyage 11/23/2020

HE034 Fantastic Voyage 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! /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/16909115

HE033 Rosemary's Baby 10/17/2020

HE033 Rosemary's Baby 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 up 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. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/16439804

HE032 The Hunter / Point Blank / Payback 09/17/2020

HE032 The Hunter / Point Blank / Payback 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. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/16044920

HE031 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 04/01/2020

HE031 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring From the time we put out The Princess Bride until today (11/19/19 to 04/01/20) we mostly enjoyed taking time off. Now that home isolating is a reality we've had time to re-read J.R.R. Tolkien's epic book, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the RIngs (1954). We also watched the seminal film adaptation (dir. Ralph Bakshi, 1978) and other conversions. No special guests this time, mostly because this episode wasn't planned. Like Gandalf the Grey, sometimes a podcast arrives precisely when it means to. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/13791653

HE030 The Princess Bride 11/19/2019

HE030 The Princess Bride 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. Come, and love it as we have loved it. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/12089540

HE029 The Orchid Thief / Adaptation. 09/22/2019

HE029 The Orchid Thief / Adaptation. 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). /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/11345795

HE028 The Odyssey / O Brother, Where Art Thou 07/31/2019

HE028 The Odyssey / O Brother, Where Art Thou 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) gives a "based on" credit to The Odyssey which qualifies it for discussion. 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? /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/10719554

HE027 Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH 06/27/2019

HE027 Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH 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). 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. And stare deeply into it, we did. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/10310273

HE026 The Shining 05/23/2019

HE026 The Shining Three people, intentionally sequestered in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. Lizzy, Nate, and special returning guest Jane Hutchins, gave in to a driving compulsion to come together to hammer out the differences between Stephen King's novel, The Shining, and the Stanley Kubrick movie of the same name. Luckily, their discussion was captured by sensitive audio detection equipment. We can now present the entire session here for your morbid delight. With that...heeeeeere's Hate Expectations! /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/9896099

HE025 Dinotopia 04/18/2019

HE025 Dinotopia 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. Ping pong, Talking Heads, and a blooper reel; this episode has it all. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/9445250

HE024 Tommy 03/10/2019

HE024 Tommy 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. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/8950154

HE023 L.A. Confidential 12/24/2018

HE023 L.A. Confidential 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. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/8021297

HE022 The Warriors 10/05/2018

HE022 The Warriors 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. Come out and play (the episode)! /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/7131662

HE021 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? / Blade Runner 09/03/2018

HE021 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? / Blade Runner In a 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? that it's impossible to distinguish us from real humans now. The only consequence is that we can finally reveal the answer to the titular question. Neither our robot insight nor the vast expertise of our guest host, Jane Hutchins, helps us to settle the more perplexing question, "What is a Blade Runner?" /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/6996525

HE020 Emil und die Detektive 06/20/2018

HE020 Emil und die Detektive 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. Go to hateexpectations.com for a few fact that may help you eager gumshoes set the record straight about some of the issues we were unsure of during the recording. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/6724269

HE019 Ready Player One - Part 2 04/06/2018

HE019 Ready Player One - Part 2 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. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/6451108

HE018 Ready Player One - Part 1 04/06/2018

HE018 Ready Player One - Part 1 You want pop culture references? We've got all the pop culture references you can handle right here. 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. /episode/index/show/hateexpectations/id/6451009

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