The Gin & Topics Podcast

Pen & Eloise... I mean, Jen & Kristin are BACK after a long hiatus with Gin & Topics Podcast's 25th episode to dish about the confectionary delights of Netflix's "Bridgerton"! Our conversation discusses just how many fanfic tropes show producer Shonda Rhimes tries to squeeze into this Regency AU, exactly how screen-meltingly hot lead Simon (Rege-Jean Page) is, and whether that much on-screen sex is really as sexy as it wants us to think it is. "Bridgerton" is a sticky toffee of a Christmas pudding and we enjoyed it immensely, guilt-free. We hope you'll join us as we delight in everything from the race-challenging casting to the exquisite costuming.

Who knew a half hour BBC dramedy would have us gushing about God, love and transcendence? Fleabag. Just watch it and come gush with us.

Is being unlaced from a corset the sexiest of all possible worlds? In this wide-ranging Poldark season 1 review, we conclude, absolutely. Given the plot-heavy nature of this show, we do not undertake an exhaustive summary, but rather, focus on our favorite scenes, characters, subplots and dresses. Stick around for our discussion of why consent is so sexy, how shocking some of the season 1 character deaths were, and why we think Demelza's story is more than a simple retelling of the Pygmalian trope.

Gin & Topics is back! Listeners to this show will know we're big fans of the period drama, and our most formative OTPs (Anne & Gilbert, Mulder & Scully) are spirited redheaded heroines and their impulsive, ruggedly handsome partners. Which begs the question, HOW HAVE WE NEVER WATCHED POLDARK till now? We remedy this oversight by jumping into a new obsession and discuss episode 1 of Poldark season 1 in our Poldark primer. We hope you'll listen in. If you're fans of love triangles, the British class system, sweeping rural panoramas, men riding horses along windswept bluffs, strong women, and gallant young men, this is this show for you. Catch episodes (in the US) on Amazon Prime or direct from PBS Masterpiece Classics.

How is the X Files "Pilot" a microcosm of all the show will become? Just how many classic tropes are introduced in 43 minutes? Is it too late to come to the conclusion that this is actually a terrible show? Why are will still watching and talking about it 25 years later? (*cough David & Gillian cough*) And, how does the X Files series finale impact our viewing of the Pilot now? Join us for the 25th Anniversary of The X Files podcast delving into the joys of this quirky little alien show that premiered on Sept. 10th, 1993. Also, as promised, a link to fan vid "The Scientist," tracing Mulder & Scully's relationship backwards from I Want to Believe to their meeting in the Pilot. Bring your tissues. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZGnUg2fNhY&list=RDwZGnUg2fNhY&index=1

As a fandom with a twenty-five year history, The X Files grew up alongside (and some would say, helped foster) the modern fan fiction phenomenon. In this episode, we give our suggestions for some fics we think should constitute a literary canon for the well-read Phile. Not only that, we do our best to defend the reading and writing of fan fiction from its cultured despisers! If you're new to fan fiction reading, we hope our suggestions give you a place to start, and if you're a longtime fic reader or writer, we hope our discussion gives you some positive ways to talk about your scribbling hobby! Show Notes: Agents, Aliens and Angels: Salvation in the X Files: Jen's article on TXF for Christ and Pop Culture: https://christandpopculture.com/agents-aliens-and-angels-salvation-in-the-x-files/ For a fantastic scholarly talk on the subject of fan fiction and fan culture, we highly recommend checking out 1A's program "Fans and Fan Fiction," which aired in March 2018. Catch it here: https://the1a.org/shows/2017-04-05/fans-and-fiction Links to our fan fiction Favorites Mentioned in this Episode (Reader Discretion Advised): Blinded by White Light: http://txf-fic-chicks.tumblr.com/post/166371610358/favorites-friday Homicidal Tendencies: http://txf-fic-chicks.tumblr.com/post/167107686873/friday-faves Universal Invariants: http://txf-fic-chicks.tumblr.com/post/142848594278/novel-length-friday Visitor: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4519953/chapters/10281942 Resident: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5301983/chapters/12240335 Dr. Scully's School for Exceptional Boys: http://txf-fic-chicks.tumblr.com/search/exceptional Volition Unbound: http://whispersofx.net/whispersofx/stories/violation.txt Paracelsus: http://fluky.gossamer.org/display.php?Paracelsus1.Love Parabiosis Part 1: http://fluky.gossamer.org/display.php?Parabiosis1.Penumbra Parabiosis Part 2: http://fluky.gossamer.org/display.php?Parabiosis2.Penumbra

In our final episode of our Jane Austen quartet, we discuss a couple Austen B-sides, "Lady Susan," -- in its 2016 film adaptation "Love & Friendship,"-- and the 1999 film, "Mansfield Park." These two give us another view of Austen's talents as a stone-cold satirist, especially given all the romantic swooning we've done over her stories the past few episodes. We do take the time to give some plot details of these since they're less well-known, so we hope you'll join us. ALSO, looking ahead to our next episode, we would love to hear from our X Files fans about your memories and experiences of the 1998 film, "Fight the Future." Our next podcast will celebrate the 20th anniversary of that film's release, so email us (ginandtopicspodcast@gmail.com) or tweet us (@gin_and_topics) with your memories and we'll enter you for a cool X Files-related prize! Listen for details.

We're back and ready for some more Regency-era Netflix & Frill! This episode, we try to figure out why we don't really like the titular character, "Emma," regardless of what version of her we're given. Not only is there a 1996 Gwenyth Paltrow "Emma" film, there's also the 2009 BBC mini-series and the mid 90s "Clueless" adaptation to throw in the mix. There's lots of talk of bonnets, dresses, age-appropriate actresses, and what it takes to become a real-live published Jane Austen fanfic writer. We hope you'll join Gin & Topics for our wide-ranging "Emma" discussion, and please let us know your thoughts, questions or suggestions at our podcast email: ginandtopicspodcast@gmail.com.

Another week, another couple film versions of a classic Jane Austen novel! What began as a love-fest for Emma Thompson & Ang Lee's 1995 masterpiece "Sense & Sensibility" quickly becomes a discussion of the relative "swoonability" of the various actors in both it and a newly-discovered Andrew Davies-adapted version. There is much, much fawning over Alan Rickman, Dan Stevens, Greg Wise and (a little bit anyway) Hugh Grant in their respective roles. Come for the swooning, but we hope you'll stay for the meatier discussion of Jane Austen's views on marriage, honorable men, and the battle between the head and the heart. Then, if you haven't yet seen it, run over to Hulu and watch the 2008 mini-series version of "Sense and Sensibility" and be charmed all over again.

Now that The X Files has wrapped, Gin & Topics Podcast opens a new chapter in our podcasting adventure with our latest episode, "Dueling Darcys," a look into two versions of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. What could The X Files possibly have in common with Austen? What was it about the late 90s and handsome men in white shirts struggling with desire? And perhaps most importantly, what might Lizzie Bennett's boob size have to do with a person's preferred version of P&P? If you're a Pride and Prejudice fan, we hope you'll enjoy this GenX versus Millenial showdown over whose P&P -- the 1995 A&E miniseries with Jennifer Ehle & Colin Firth, or the 2005 film with Kiera Knightley & Matthew MacFayden -- is the superior version. Knowledge of the plot and its characters is assumed, so, duh, spoilers. We hope you'll join us!

We're glad to be with you, Philes, here at the end of all things! We had a lot of things we wanted to work through in our discussion of The X Files season (series) finale, "My Struggle IV." What do we make of the episode's final word on William's origins? Do we recognize this Mulder and Scully and the place this leaves their quest? What has The X Files even been ABOUT all these years? And what's up with that Latin tagline, "Salvator Mundi"? If you've been listening long, you know that we had very strong reactions to the season opener, "My Struggle III," so for a distillation of our emotions, that may be worth a (rough) relisten. Our conversation this time is more measured, but swearing abounds. But if you need some help working through your own feelings about leaving our beloved characters and our show on a dark pier, shrouded in grief, maybe our discussion can help you work towards some light. Give it a listen.

Hang onto your hats, listeners, this is a long one. But with that spectacularly gory cannibal casefile and a wealth of Mulder/Scully relationship developments, we had to take our time delving into "Nothing Lasts Forever." Join us as we get into some of the finer points of Catholic theology (seriously), miracles, cannibalism, cults, and everlasting life. We also hunt downs some clues to what this episode may mean for Mulder and Scully's future. While we had some quibbles with the strength of the casefile and its unoriginal (illiterate?) perspective on religious practice, there is a lot to love about the Mulder/Scully dialogue and characterization. And lastly, spoiler alert, definitely tune in to find out whether Jen and Kristin have reluctantly decided to go in together on a gift for Scully's baby shower.

Kristin and Jen are back with discussion of "Rm9sbg93zxjz" (ahem, "Followers") and "Familar," X Files episodes 7 & 8! In "Followers," we discuss whether we're teaching our technological children well, and whether or not Kristen Cloke Morgan and Shannon Hamblin's episode might work better as an entry in the Black Mirror series. We also touch on Buffy's silent "Hush" episode, the art of Edward Hooper and Norman Rockwell, and consider how the Pixar movie Wall-E deals with a similar theme of (over)-reliance on technology. "Familar" felt, well, familiar, and gave us occasion to talk about creepfest X Files episodes of days gone by, including "Chimera," "Chinga," "Die Hand De Verlezt," "Szyzgy," and "The Calusari." The themes in Benjamin Van Allen's script -- of modern day witch hunting, police brutality and mass hysteria -- weren't hard to pick up on, but simpler things, like the name of Scully's daughter or the fact that she has actually suggested spontaneous human combustion as a cause of death, were apparently harder to keep straight. We hope you'll join us for our two-for-one discussion of two very solid but inconsistent eps!

We're back from our own little hiatus with thoughts on the Skinner-centric X Files ep, "Kitten!" Is this a mid-season snoozefest or an above-average monster-of-the-week episode? How might the science of dream interpretation shed some light on the meaning behind all these lost teeth? How does the X Files (only) third-ever female director fare handling a traditionally masculine narrative? How great is "One Breath?" Join Jen and Kristin for our "Kitten" discussion, with shoutouts for Haley Joel Osmet and Mitch Pileggi's great performances in this very solid, though maybe somewhat perfunctory, season 11 episode.

What can we say? We loved "Ghouli." An albatross is lifted. Frankenstein meets his makers. Family is reunited. Wong's are righted. Thank you James Wong. So much.