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Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon<\/a>. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we\u2019ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.<\/i><\/p>\n Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe: An Investigation<\/a> (Nonfiction, Ronald Hutton, 2022) Hutton applies his forensic scholarship to the genesis and spread of mythology concerning Mother Nature, the Fairy Queen, the Lady of the Night and the Cailleach, with an expose of the Green Man as a 20th century invention for dessert. Through these examples, and thorough kickings to the ideas of surviving paganism and the Frazerian monomyth, Hutton provides a compact, indispensable guide to the relative newness of supposedly ancient traditions, the surprising migratory paths of folkloric concepts, and the rapidity of their adoption, expiration, and revival.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n A Bloodthirsty Killer<\/a> (Film, South Korea, Yong-min Lee, 1965) The undead revenant of a mining magnate\u2019s first wife wages a campaign of murder and mayhem against his family. A constant stream of supernatural bedlam hurtles from the screen in this wild, dreamlike serving of early K-horror.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n Bullet Train Explosion (Film, Japan, Shinji Higuchi, 2025) Intrepid crew members and station managers of the Kyoto to Tokyo bullet train discover that, copycatting a 1975 incident, someone has planted a bomb that will explode if it decelerates to 100 km\/hr. The director of Shin Godzilla reverses its institutional nihilism with a celebration of can-do on-the ground management in a rail travel thriller that keeps the obstacles coming.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n Cartouche <\/a>(Film, France, Philippe de Broca, 1962) Puissant 18th century street thief (Jean-Paul Belmondo) becomes head of a brazen gang of Parisian bandits and wins the heart of a loyal counterpart (Claudia Cardinale) but can\u2019t shake his yearning for the security minister\u2019s wife (Odile Versois.) Glamorous satirical swashbuckler shifts into a study of existential compulsion.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n The Hub: Dangerous Territory<\/a> (Fiction, James H. Schmitz, 2001) These ten stories, written between 1955 and 1969, range from the amiable what-was-it \u201cA Nice Day For Screaming,\u201d through the brilliant heist-plus-alien-monster mashup \u201cThe Searcher,\u201d to the absolute Pinnacle novel The Demon Breed, which pits one of Schmitz\u2019 trademark capable heroines against an invasion force of water-worlders. Ecology, bluffing, and mutant otters: this novel has everything.\u2014KH<\/p>\n I Called Him Morgan<\/a> (Film, US, Kasper Collin, 2016) Documentary recounts the heartbreaking story of jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan and his wife Helen, who rescued him from the dregs of heroin addiction but wound up fatally shooting him.\u2014RDL<\/p>\n Telzey Amberdon<\/a> (Fiction, James H. Schmitz, 2000) In six pieces written between 1961 and 1971, Schmitz introduces us to his psionic super-heroine Telzey at the beginning of her adventures. The long novelette \u201cThe Lion Game\u201d is an outstanding re-skin of \u201cRed Nails\u201d to psionic SF adventure; its (non-Telzey) prequel \u201cThe Vampirate\u201d (1953) appears here under a differently bad title. Schmitz\u2019 sense of scope, comfort with his future, story geometry, and believable heroines manifest throughout to good effect.\u2014KH<\/p>\nThe Pinnacle<\/h2>\n
Recommended<\/h2>\n
Good<\/h2>\n