Hooked: A Pop Culture Podcast with Mary Carver

Latest Episodes:

#41 - Weird & Wonderful Holiday Specials with James Walters Nov 12, 2019

Show notes

Happy holidays! What…too soon? I know, I know, this is the debate of the year. When should we start with all the holiday celebrating. Obviously, as one who won't shut up about being hooked on holiday movies, I fall into the camp of earlier. But even if you're not, I hate to break it to you…it's already the middle of November, and Thanksgiving is right around the corner. So, today my brother James and I are talking holiday specials. NOT holiday movies, but the animated specials, the parades, the concerts, the light contests and gift wrapping contests and, let's have a moment of silence for the days of the a capella singing contests. We reminisce about our family's weird holiday traditions and then pick our top 3 holiday specials. And I'm going to tell you right now that we probably left out your favorites. So find me on Instagram or email me at mailthecouchpodcast@gmail.com to let me know what I forgot. Listen to the show and just see if, by the end, your heart doesn't grow three sizes. Don't forget: Click here to download your FREE Hooked on Holiday Movies bundle!

MENTIONED IN THE SHOW:

NOT-SO-GUILTY PLEASURES:

Shine On with Reese Witherspoon on Netflix
The Highwomen (group and album)

ALSO MENTIONED:

DON'T FORGET:

Join The Couch on Facebook!
Find Mary on Instagram at @marycarver or @hooked.on.hallmark.

BONUS EPISODE: The Christmas Couch, episode 2 Nov 07, 2019

Show notes

We are back after a full weekend of holiday movies, and we have lots of opinions to share! Remember, THE CHRISTMAS COUCH will be a series of special episodes of The Couch Podcast devoted to holiday movies. My friend Anna and I are hooked on holidays and honored to be your guides through this holiday movie season.

After all, when the powers that be are hitting us with nearly 100 brand-new movies, you need help choosing which ones to watch!

And that's where Anna and I come in. Each week during the holiday season, we're going to pick our favorite new movies from the weekend before and then make sure you know when they're playing again in case they aren't all saved on your DVR. (And some weeks, LIKE THIS ONE, we'll tell you which movie should be avoided at all costs.)

We're here to guide you through this holiday movie season, one gingerbread house and Christmas pageant at a time. Grab your hot cider and let's get started!

MENTIONED IN THE SHOW:

LAST WEEKEND'S MOVIES TO CHOOSE FROM:

Nostalgic Christmas (Hallmark Mysteries & Movies)
Merry & Bright (Hallmark Channel)
Two Turtle Doves (Hallmark Mysteries & Movies)
Christmas Scavenger Hunt (Hallmark Channel)
Christmas Reservations (Lifetime)
Always & Forever Christmas (Lifetime)
Christmas with a Prince: Becoming Royal (UPtv)
Holiday in the Wild (Netflix)

DON'T FORGET:

Find Anna at her website or at @annaerendell on Instagram.
Find Mary at her website or at @marycarver on Instagram.
Download your FREE Hooked on Holiday Movies bundle here, including 10-day devotional inspired by holiday movies, printable premiere schedule of all 90 new holiday movies, two holiday movie BINGO cards, and more!

SPONSORED BY: A Moment of Christmas: 25 December Devotions for Moms by Anna Rendell (Use the code COUCH for 10% off the digital version!)

#40 - Looking Back at 1994 in Pop Culture with Jenny Rapson Nov 05, 2019

Show notes

How old AM I? This is a question I find myself asking on the regular these days. With all the anniversaries and remakes and remember-when lists on Buzzfeed, I cannot seem to escape the passage of time. I mean, none of us can escape the passage of time, but it feels like I can't get away from acknowledging it these days! And so, I'm just leaning into it.

Not only is 2019 the 25th anniversary of Friends, our loss of Kurt Cobain, and the original (and only good) Lion King, but it's also the 25th anniversary of my first date with my husband. So 1994 is deeply embedded in my heart and my memory, including all the pop culture that came with it. Luckily, my friend Jenny was also a hormonal, impressionable, and likely melodramatic teen in 94, and she agreed to sit down with me and reminisce. You might not be the same age as us, but no matter how old you were in 1994, I think you'll enjoy taking a look back with us. And, please, let us know what YOU remember about 1994 – where you were then, what you loved then, what you still love now. We want to know! Find us on Instagram or email us at mailthecouchpodcast@gmail.com.

As promised, I made a 1994 Spotify playlist for you. (I actually promised two, but it's been brought to my attention that perhaps there's not much demand for a separate country music throwback playlist. So, one [combined] list it is!)

Click here for the playlist.

MENTIONED IN THE SHOW:

NOT-SO-GUILTY PLEASURES:

The Crown, seasons 1 and 2
Hallmark Movies & Mysteries mystery movie series

ALSO MENTIONED:

Nancy Kerrigan & Tonya Harding
OJ Simpson
Kurt Cobain
Nelson Mandela
Beanie Babies
Wonderbra
Best-selling authors Danielle Steele, John Grisham, Michael Crichton, Mary Higgins Clark, Robert James Waller
Bridges of Madison County
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

DON'T FORGET:

Join The Couch on Facebook!
Find Jenny on Instagram at @jennyitup, and find Mary there at @marycarver.

BONUS EPISODE: The Christmas Couch, episode 1 Oct 31, 2019

Show notes

As you might have guessed, THE CHRISTMAS COUCH will be a series of special episodes of The Couch Podcast devoted to holiday movies. My friend Anna and I believe there's nothing better than snuggling on the couch with a comfy blanket and hot beverage of choice and watching a cozy Christmas movie on one of the many channels cranking them out every year. But how to choose which ones to watch? There are so many!

That's where Anna and I come in. Each week during the holiday season, we're going to pick our favorite new movies from the weekend before and then make sure you know when they're playing again in case they aren't all saved on your DVR. (And some weeks, LIKE THIS ONE, we'll tell you which movie should be avoided at all costs.)

We're here to guide you through this holiday movie season, one snowball fight and tree lighting at a time. Grab your hot cocoa and let's get started!

MENTIONED IN THE SHOW:

The Couch Podcast, S1E10 - Holiday Movie March Madness
The Couch Podcast, S1E11 - Who's Your Favorite Hallmark Actor?
A Merry Christmas Match (Hallmark Movies & Mysteries)
Sweet Mountain Christmas (Lifetime)
Christmas Wishes & Mistletoe Kisses (Hallmark)
The Road Home for Christmas (Lifetime)
No Time Like Christmas (Lifetime)
A Christmas Movie Christmas (UPtv)

DON'T FORGET:

Find Anna at her website or at @annaerendell on Instagram.
Find Mary at her website or at @marycarver on Instagram.
Download your FREE Hooked on Holiday Movies bundle here, including 10-day devotional inspired by holiday movies, printable premiere schedule of all 90 new holiday movies, two holiday movie BINGO cards, and more!

#39 - Halloween in Pop Culture with Amy Clark Oct 29, 2019

Show notes

Grab your candy corn and get comfy, friends. In this episode my friend Amy and I are talking Halloween in pop culture, starting with our favorite costumes and ending with the scary movies Amy thinks I might be able to handle (despite my tendency to be a great big scaredy cat baby). I have little kids and a low tolerance for spookiness, while she has older kids and loves to be scared. So we have a great mix of Halloween fun in books, movies, and TV shows for you. And if you notice that we didn't mention Thriller in this list, well, just forgive us. I do have some fun facts about candy corn, though, so there's that. Bonus! For 8 TV series with hilarious Halloween episodes, check out this post on Amy's site.

MENTIONED IN THE SHOW:

Brooklyn Nine-Nine
How I Met Your Mother
Parks and Recreation
Sabrina the Teenaged Witch (the old one)
Freaks & Geeks
Bob's Burgers (I really am now watching this when I'm on the treadmill!)
Happy Death Day
Sabrina
Get Out
Birdbox by Josh Malerman (free on Kindle Unlimited, FYI)

NOT-SO-GUILTY PLEASURES:

ALSO MENTIONED:

DON'T FORGET:

Join The Couch on Facebook!
Find Amy on her website or join her Facebook book club, and find Mary at her website or on Instagram.

#38 - 2019 Hallmark Christmas Movie Preview with Anna Rendell Oct 22, 2019

Show notes

It's that time of year! We are fully into fall now, friends, so it must be time to talk about holiday movies, right?! I know, I know, Christmas is so many weeks away. But take it up with Hallmark! Because the onslaught of holiday movies coming your way starts in just a few days.

Once again, Anna Rendell and I are honored to be your guides through this holiday movie season, and we help you get started in this episode by picking 10 new Hallmark movies we think you might want to watch this year. Or, at least the 10 movies we are going to watch. And by 10, I mean almost double that because we each came with 10 movies but then some overlapped. It's a lot, guys, but it's super fun. Enjoy!

MENTIONED IN THE SHOW:

NOT-SO-GUILTY PLEASURES:

The Great British Baking Show (new episodes weekly)
Grey's Anatomy
NCIS

ALSO MENTIONED:

DON'T FORGET:

Join The Couch on Facebook!
Find Anna on Instagram or her website, and find Mary at her website or on Instagram.

#37 - Treat Yourself with Amber Salhus Oct 15, 2019

Show notes

Today's episode is all about treating yourself. Or, as Donna and Tom say on Parks and Rec, TREAT YO SELF! But we're not just talking mimosas or fine leather goods. Nope.

My friend Amber and I are talking about the whole gamut of self-care, from good health practices to genuine indulgence. I mean. Within parameters. Nobody here has a money tree or days on end to spare. So each one of us shares ideas for treating yourself with care, from the small things to the really crucial. Also, zebras might be involved. Sound good to you? Well, let's get started!

MENTIONED IN THE SHOW:

Parks and Recreation
The Mom Wants More podcast
Date Night movie
Fleabag (rated TV-MA)
This Will Only Hurt a Little by Busy Philipps

ALSO MENTIONED:

Our friend Melissa Blair
Our friend Maeve Gerboth
Retta is a little tired of "treat yo self"!

DON'T FORGET:

Join The Couch on Facebook!
Find Amber on Instagram or her podcast, and find Mary at her website or on Instagram.

#36 - Babies & Births in Pop Culture with Alana Dawson Oct 08, 2019

Show notes

This week, I had the best time talking with my friend Alana about babies and births in pop culture. Today is my oldest daughter's birthday, and since her birth was a bit, shall we say, dramatic, I thought it would be appropriate to mark this occasion with a look at the even more dramatic births in TV shows and movies. Alana and I attempted to give the babies and the births a thumbs up or thumbs down, but mostly we just talk about which ones are realistic, which ones made us cry, and whether or not a baby or birth can flat-out ruin a good show.

Side note: We did stick to human births, so if you were hoping to hear about aliens or dragons or evil spirits, well, that is another show altogether. For now, for us, we're talking human babies and all the ways they're portrayed in pop culture. Enjoy!

MENTIONED IN THE SHOW:

NOT-SO-GUILTY PLEASURES:

Alana just introduced her daughters to Chuck, and of course they loved it.
I suggested Psych would be another show they might like.
I'm not watching everything in this new TV season, possibly quitting A Million Little Things and God Friended Me (even though I liked their first seasons a lot!).
And while I loved the pilot of Stumptown, I am not feeling it with The Unicorn.

DON'T FORGET:

Join The Couch on Facebook!
Find Alana on Instagram or on her podcasts (The Mom Wants More and The Podcasting Party), find Mary at her website or on Instagram.

#35 - Ask the Couch, vol. 1 Sep 26, 2019

Show notes

This week's episode is something totally different. If you've ever thought to yourself (and who hasn't, haha!), "I could listen to Mary talk all day long," or if (more likely) you've ever wanted to ask me a pop culture question and then hear the answer in the podcast, this is the episode for you!

I had a little scheduling mix-up this week, so I didn't have a guest for this episode. Instead, I went solo and answered your burning pop culture questions. As it turns out, surprising to no one, I have both opinions and answers to share. I also have, surprising to me, the bad habit of overusing the word, "whatever." So listen for that and enjoy!

MENTIONED IN THE SHOW:

ALSO MENTIONED:

DON'T FORGET:

Join The Couch on Facebook!
Download this FREE guide I made for you: Short-Lived Shows for Every Season

#34 - 2019 Fall Movie Preview with Dawn Camp Sep 24, 2019

Show notes

Somehow it is already fall, even though it's still a thousand degrees at a lot of places. So my friend Dawn Camp, who is the biggest movie-goer I know, and I sat down and talked through all the movies coming out this fall.

Just for you, we watched every single trailer we could find and then picked the movies we think we'll go see and the movies you might like, too. We also take a quick look back at our summer movie picks to see what we got right and what we did not. What movies are you looking forward to seeing between now and Christmas? Did we pick the same ones? We'll find out!

(And FYI, the links below go to trailers for each movie. And just because we mentioned a movie does not mean we gave it a thumbs up. Listen to hear our picks!)

MENTIONED IN THE SHOW:

Summer Movie Preview episode (Season 1, Episode 17)
The Peanut Butter Falcon
Downton Abbey
21 Bridges
Abominable
Ad Astra
Judy
The Current War
Zombieland: Double Tap
Joker
Gemini Man
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
Charlie's Angels
Terminator: Dark Fate
Ford v. Ferrari
Last Christmas
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Frozen II
Knives Out
Jumanji: The Next Level
1917
Just Mercy
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Cats
Little Women
Spies in Disguise

NOT-SO-GUILTY PLEASURES:

Listening to the Beatles on repeat
Going to the movies alone

DON'T FORGET:

Join The Couch on Facebook!
Find Dawn at her website or on Instagram, and find Mary at her website or on Instagram.

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