Parenting Roundabout

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Now displaying: Search Results for "round 2:"

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Join parenting and education writers Terri Mauro, Catherine Holecko, Amanda Morin, and 
Nicole Eredics for a weekly look at the things parents are talking about, 
complaining about, and obsessing about right now.

Find us on iTunes | Soundcloud | Stitcher | Player FM | TuneIn

Jun 16, 2015

Spoiler AlertSpoilers have become a big point of Internet etiquette, but is it fair to expect everyone to wait to talk about entertainment they've enjoyed untll you've had a chance to catch up? After a chat about the latest episode of So You Think You Can Dance, which at this point in the audition process isn't particularly spoiler-sensitive, we shared our thoughts on the notion that imparting information on a piece of entertainment to someone who has not yet consumed it is inherently awful and cruel. We discussed the old days when TV Guide was in the spoiler business, the value of stories you already know the ending to (spoiler! things do not work out well for Romeo and Juliet), the buzz-dampening effect of dumping show episodes nobody can talk about yet, and the benefit of knowing you can always look up what happened on a show so you can safely watch while multitasking. Are you a spoiler-phobe or a spoiler welcomer? Share in the comments or look us up on Facebook or Twitter.

Jun 9, 2015

After live-tweeting the Tony Awards telecast Sunday night, Terri and Catherine got together for a Round 2 review, with discussion of co-hosts Kristin Chenoweth and Alan Cumming (and the impossibility of topping NPH's opening number from a few years ago), the general dissing of plays, the "awesome" online red carpet, the relegation of too many awards to commercial-break time (including a lifetime achievement for Tommy Tune, who you really want to put in front of a mic on your broadcast, CBS, c'mon), and the need to maybe move the ceremony to a cable channel where it could be less devoted to putting people you recognize from TV and movies on your screen. From there, we tap-danced over to Fox's So You Think You Can Dance for a chat about the surprising lucidity of Paula Abdul, the reason girls are dancing in their underwear, the winnowing that must get done between the line and the stage, what Jason Derulo brings to the table, and when we can be through with all this auditioning already. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

Jun 2, 2015

The sparkly baton of talking about dance shows is passed from Terri to Catherine, who is planning to follow the new season of Fox's So You Think You Can Dance. The idea of DVRing that show and finding a time for your whole family to watch led into a chat on why there is still a half-season of Fringe on Terri's DVR, why she'll probably catch up on those 13 episodes of NCIS:LA first, and how whole-house DVRs force you to notice what your child is watching (and maybe even watch American Ninja Warrior now and then). Terri also mentioned an appearance by Haley Joel Osment on Marc Maron's podcast that will give you faith in the possibility that child actors can turn out OK. If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience, and visit us on Facebook and Twitter too.

May 26, 2015

For their weekly entertainment chat, Catherine talks about her latest book-club selection, Me Before You by Jojo Moyes; Terri talks about David Letterman's last late-night episode; and they both talk about the phenomenon of following the end of a series like Mad Men solely through the tidal wave of tweets from critics and TV writers we like. To check out some of the links we talked about:
+ You can view That Amazing Letterman Montage in the video at left, find out more about each tiny clip in the fantastic Facebook round-up by Adam Nedeff, and view the whole episode on CBS.com for as long as it's there (and if it disappears, Gothamist has a live-blog with clips). 
+ Wondering what the dispute was about Million Dollar Baby and disability rights? Terri has a round-up of opinions.
+ The Mad Men scene with Stan and Peggy is available on YouTube, but beware: if you were of a certain age in the '70s, Stan's outfit may give you upsetting flashbacks.
Reading this somewhere without hyperlinks? Come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

May 19, 2015

Catherine has two movies to talk about -- three if you count her homework for seeing Pitch Perfect 2 of watching Pitch Perfect. In addition to catching the new a capella comedy with a gaggle of 13-year-olds, she caught up with the much smaller but still entertaining Chef thanks to Netflix, and came away most impressed by its youngest star. Meanwhile, Terri spent the week watching very very short movies: the trailers created by networks to sell their new series. She gives thumbs up to this trailer for Supergirl (find the Glen Weldon post defending the show's rom-com-iness here), thumbs sideways to the one for Code Black, and thumbs down to Quanticoand in general figures that six or seven minutes is too long of a trailer for a sitcom and may be enough to un-sell her on a drama as well. What's looking good to you in the upcoming season? Give the comments here a try, or talk back on our Facebook page or @RoundAboutChat on Twitter. And if you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

May 12, 2015

Before TV networks started showing off their shiny new series to critics and advertisers at the upfronts this week, they cleared the decks of a whole lot of shows you may have hoped wouldn't get canceled. We started our chat with a different sort of canceled -- the kind where you get beheaded, as Anne Boleyn was at the end of this first season of Wolf Hall (500 year old spoiler alert!) -- and then took a brief spin past the Dancing With the Stars semifinals before landing in the TV show graveyard for a look at whether anything we cared about was lost in the carnage. (Wondering if your favorites still have a pulse? Mashable has a list of the dearly departed.) We also tipped a hat to shows that have survived in creative ways, by jumping to other content providers, getting a final year as a victory lap, or getting a gimmick (good luck with that all-live season, Undateable!) Are you mourning the dead, celebrating the living, or looking forward to something new? Share with us on Twitter at @RoundAboutChat, on our Facebook page, or on the comments here if you can get them to work. And if you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

May 5, 2015

Mother's Day is almost here, and so it seemed like a good time to talk about mothers in books, movies, and TV, particularly since Catherine's latest book-club read is Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple. We chatted about that book and two others focusing on mother-daughter relationships, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan and Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry, and then moved on to discuss moms in movies like Freaky Friday, The Parent Trap, and Almost Famous (see video clip for mom Frances McDormand putting the smackdown on rocker Billy Crudup), and TV shows including Mom, Brothers and Sisters, Parenthood, Modern Family, and My So-Called Life. Who are your favorite moms in pop culture? Share in the comments, tweet them to us at @RoundAboutChat, or talk back on our Facebook page. And if you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

Apr 28, 2015

Our current favorite shows and some old favorites coming back from the dead were on our minds for this week's Round 2 chat. Catherine provided an update on Wolf Hall, and we talked about the pop-culture proliferation of the property with a book, a TV show, and a two-part play that got eight Tony nominations shortly before our chat. Terri gave a review of where Dancing With the Stars is at the moment, with a goodbye to young Willow Shields (doing her final age-appropriate dance in the video here) and the continued participation of Noah Galloway (who Terri is rooting for) and Chris Soules (who she is not.)

From there, we took a look at some TV shows from the '80s and '90s that are poised to return to our screens, including former Dancing With the Stars contestant Candace Cameron Bure reprising her role as DJ Tanner in the Full House sequel Fuller House. What does it say about the state of current TV that things like Boy Meets WorldTwin PeaksThe X-Files, and Coach (Coach?!) are getting a second life (Terri mentioned Dan Feinberg's take, which you can read on Hitfix.com)? And what shows should be joining in the revival? We shared our thoughts, now you give us yours in the comments. And if you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

Apr 21, 2015

Are you the kind of person who reads People Magazine to find out what the British royal family is up to? Catherine admits to such an interest, and quickly devoured The Royal We, a new book by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan of the blog Go Fug Yourself, which also has its fair share of royal-watching content, plus recaps of Wolf Hall, which Catherine watches for a look at royal life before there were paparazzi and the worst a royal had to worry about was ... well, losing her head, so maybe things were worse. Since Terri is not a royal-watcher, she had trouble coming up with some royal-themed entertainment to contribute to this week's theme, and made do with the royalty-adjacent 2003 film What a Girl Wants. She spoils the (happy) ending without ever really explaining what the movie's about, but if you're not familiar with it, you can learn everything you need to know from the trailer, including the fact that there is quite a lot of Colin Firth being adorable and/or soulful.

Share your own opinions of royal-related pop culture in the comments. And if you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

Apr 14, 2015

Congratulate Catherine! She finally made it through all seven seasons of 30 Rock—well after those who watched it on a weekly basis when it originally aired, but completely and enjoyably nonetheless. Her out-of-sync consumption of a pop-culture favorite led us into a discussion of other times we were not stepping in formation with our fellow consumers of culture, whether because we were missing something everybody else was raving about (bye, Mad Men!) or loving something that was otherwise apparently universally reviled (Terri is feeling you, Studio 60! ending of Lost! John from Cincinnati!) We talk about the three categories of rejecting mass adoration; roller-coaster shows that are all about the ride, not the ending; and our appreciation of having so many things to choose from that we can pick the quirky things we like.

What do you love that everyone hates and hate that everyone loves? Share in the comments, and if you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience. (And if you're now wanting to watch that John from Cincinnati motel speech Terri mentioned, you can watch it here on YouTube. And the scene with Cissy and the pistol. And the opening credits, the one part of the show that everybody seems to dig.)

Apr 7, 2015

Television giveth, and television taketh away. On this week's Round 2, Catherine talked about a new show she's trying out — Wolf Hall on PBS — and Terri talked about an old show she's saying goodbye to — Cougar Town on TBS — and we met in the middle for a discussion of how we decide to stick with a new show that maybe doesn't immediately suck us in. With Wolf Hall, there's a concern that there might be a little more work and homework involved in this story of Henry VIII than we're really looking for in this always-something-new-on-the-next-channel age. With Cougar Town, it was a case of so many people being turned off by the title and the quickly ditched premise of Courteney Cox dating young dudes that they never gave it a second or even a first chance, and never found out what a warm, goofy, endearing, and comfortable weekly visit with pals it turned out to be. 

What new TV are you tuning in to? Share in the comments, and if you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

Mar 31, 2015

Catherine and Terri overcame killer deadlines and risky audio problems (which drove Terri away from her microphone and onto the phone) to bring you our weekly entertainment-themed mini-podcast. We started with Catherine’s violent book-group pick, Karin Slaughter’s Criminal, which she wouldn’t have traumatized herself with if she’d had a choice but was interested to discuss with other readers. She mentions another group pick, The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade, and the value of talking about books with other people with other life experiences, even if they do occasionally peer-pressure you into something icky. If there's not a book group available to you but you like the idea, Terri again recommends the book-and-a-movie discussion podcast Try It, You’ll Like it. (The latest episode is on the Jhumpa Lahiri novel The Namesake and Amanda's favorite '80s movieSixteen Candles.)

On the TV side, Terri chats about last night’s elimination on Dancing With the Stars, and the fact that it’s not just kids in the schoolyard and trolls online that bully; reality shows and institutions can bully quite well through misrepresentation and selective editing and outright mean talk and even just putting someone in a position to fail without appropriate support. Terri also checked in on the newest late-night host, James Corden of CBS’s Late Late Show, and had a favorable first impression, though she’ll likely be sleeping through it from now on. (You can watch the Tom Hanks clip Catherine mentioned on YouTube.)

Tell us about the pop culture you've been taking in this week in the comments, and if you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

Mar 24, 2015

Catherine caught up with the new version of Cinderella directed by Kenneth Branagh (see trailer at left), and we started the conversation with a tip of the hat to NPR's Linda Holmes for the exhaustively researched Cinderella treatise on her blog Monkey See, which will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about this storied lass and a few things you didn't. Catherine found the latest incarnation to be entertaining but not as appropriate for the preschool set as you might expect from the subject matter and the Frozen short preceding it (maybe the director and Downton Abbey cast members are a hint that this is Cinderella for moms). She also has an early opinion on Netflix's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, though she didn't binge-watch it like all the cool kids are doing.

Terri is still in mourning for Parks and Recreation and hasn't moved on to finding a new show to love. With Cougar Town's departure next week, Mom will be her last watch-every-week comedy standing, and although she'd like to add The Odd Couple to that list, it's not quite there yet. This week she's mostly ticked at ABC's Secret and Lies, a show she doesn't watch and is glad of it after hearing of a lie it told about hemophilia — because hey, when you're looking to make a cheap shot on your unpleasant TV show, why not make life a little more difficult for people with a serious medical condition? You can read why folks are protesting and how you can join them on the blog Comfort in the Midst of Chaos.

Tell us about the pop culture you've been taking in this week in the comments, and if you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

Mar 17, 2015

What kind of entertainment do you enjoy with your kids? For Catherine, it's audiobooks, chosen to fill long car trips with something more appropriate and adult-friendly than Top 40 radio. Among those she and her kids have listened to and enjoyed are the Harry Potter series; the Origami Yoda series and Fake Mustache by Tom Angleberger; the Charlie Bone series by Jenny Nimmo; The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd (kind of a Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for younger readers); and Every Day by David Levithan.

Terri wishes she had something similarly noble and educational to talk about, but getting kids to read or even listen to books has always been more struggle than sharing in her house. The entertainment she and her daughter have been enjoying together is Dancing With the Stars, ABC's sparkly and silly "dance competition" featuring "celebrities" and a vast array of sequins and tiny outfits. She gives her thoughts on the current lineup of alleged stars, names her early favorites, commisserates with good dad Bruce Willis, considers Julianne's violation of the 10-Point Comfort Scale, and gives everybody a good excuse for watching: It's really about inclusion, y'all!

Share your favorite audiobooks, DWTS contestants, or other kid-parent entertainment choices in the comments. And if you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

Mar 10, 2015

Serial seems to have made podcasts popular in a whole new way, but some of us have been listening to them all along. Catherine and Terri discuss their favorites, particulary Pop Culture Happy Hour, which is the model for our Parenting Roundabout group chats and the mutually loved podcast that got Catherine and Terri talking about pop culture for these Round 2 eps in the first place. They chatted about their PCHH fandom; Catherine talked about the aforementioned Serial (as well as the SNL spoof of it embedded at left and an article about celebrities sharing their theories); and Terri went on a bit about the many podcasts she listens to and enjoys, even if she never actually gets a chance to take in all the pop culture they're talking about, including Firewall and Iceberg, Extra Hot Great, the Nerdist Writer's Panel, WTF with Marc Maron, By the Way with Jeff Garlin, Kevin Pollak's Chat Show, Ask Me Another, and Try It, You'll Like It. What podcasts are you loving these days? Share in the comments, and be sure that you've subscribed to ours so that you'll get all of our group chats and additional mini-podcasts.

(If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

Mar 3, 2015

Parting from your TV friends at the end of a season is never easy, but when you'll have to wait a long year to see them again, as with Catherine's favorite Downton Abbey, or there'll never be another new episode, as with Terri's favorite Parks and Recreation, it's especially hard to say goodbye. For this week's Round 2, we chatted about those season and series endings. Catherine celebrated some plot developments in this Downton season while wondering why others are still, still, still going on, and looked forward to following promising developments waaaay down the road in January. Terri bravely held back tears while talking about the super-sweet, upbeat, hopeful, and time-hopping Parks final episode and season, and the value of finding your team of pop-culture soulmates with whom you can celebrate shows that the wider world ignores.

If you just can't get enough of these series, Catherine recommends the recaps of Downton Abbey at Go Fug Yourself, and Terri recommends HitFix's huge batch of articles to see off Parks and Rec, as well as the epic YouTube/Twitter battle between Linda Holmes (@nprmonkeysee) and Alan Sepinwall (@sepinwall), with the great Rob Lowe line from "Flu Season" as the equivalent of crying uncle.

(If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

Feb 24, 2015

The video at left is not Neil Patrick Harris's opening number from the 2015 Oscars. It is his opening number from the 2013 Tonys, a spectacle so glorious that for Terri's money, it gives him a "Get Out of Jail Free" card in perpetuity for any hosting gig that is less than stellar. After live-tweeting the 2015 Oscars, Catherine and Terri got together to chat about whether this behemoth benefits from having a host at all, whether we really want to hear winners talk and talk, how cool the graphics were, how frustrating the parenthesis situation is in Birdman's subtitle, whether we really needed Lady Gaga and The Sound of Music so far along in an endless show, why John Travolta should really probably just stay home, and of course, the dresses in all their cleavage-baring, peek-a-booing, impossible-to-sit-in glory. You can read our live-tweet in the post right below this on the Parenting Roundabout blog, and Catherine also recommends this Birdman parody from the Independent Spirit Awards, although the showing of the Oscar winner she describes in the podcast sounds pretty fun too.

(If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

Feb 17, 2015

For this week's entertainment-themed Round 2 podcast, Catherine and Terri chatted about the star-studded Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary special that took over NBC this past Sunday night. Though they both missed the red-carpet portion (red-carpet portion? really?), Catherine recorded and watched most of the special, while Terri dipped in and out of it and caught up with online clips. They mentioned some likes and dislikes about the special, reminisced about Saturday Night Live of old, and generally wondered if this is really where anybody would have expected the scruffy disrespectful comedy show that started during Terri's high-school years to end up. (To watch clips that Terri mentioned, you can find Paul Simon in his turkey suit on Vimeo and John Belushi talking about feeding fingertips to the wolverines on Yahoo!)

Speaking of over-hyped self-congratulatory star-studded entertainment, we'll be live-tweeting the Oscars on Sunday, and hope you'll join us. Look for the hashtag #OscarsPRP, and study up on Terri's 10-Point Comfort Scale for Oscar dresses to get in the mood for our red-carpet commentary.

(If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

Feb 11, 2015

For this week's Round 2, Terri and Catherine looked at entertainment related to Valentine's Day, which (warning to the unprepared) is coming up this weekend. Catherine gave a thumbs-up review to The Hundred-Foot Journey, with a couple of romances making it worthy Valentine's viewing. Catherine and Terri both gave a squeamish thumbs-down to the idea of seeing 50 Shades of Grey in a movie theater with people or really anywhere or even the trailers or the book or really, can we just scrub it out of our brains? On a sweeter note, Terri talked about the many adorable romances and friendshps on Parks and Recreation, and shared a list of her favorite love-themed episodes. And for those for whom Valentine's Day is a little melancholy, Terri recommended two gorgeous recordings to wallow in: a mash-up of Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" and "Style" by Louisa Wendorff and Devin Dawson, which started life as a viral video and is now available on iTunes, and the sad ballad "Just Like It Sounds" on Dawson's SoundCloud page. What are you watching, reading, or listening to this Valentine's week? Share in the comments.

(If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

Feb 2, 2015

For this week's Round 2, Catherine and Terri chatted about Super Bowl commercials, including that super-buzz-kill-y Nationwide ad about how while you're watching the game, your kid's probably in the kitchen going through the hazardous chemicals. We talked about how, if you're going to run an ad that will traumatize children, you might want to not put a dog at the start of it; the difficulty of explaining that Fiat ad to kids; the halftime show starring lip-synching sharks; and the fun of watching the ads with Twitter accompaniment (shout-outs to @parksandrecnbc, @TheTonyAwards, and this tweet from Time columnist James Poniewozik). To view the ads we talked about, follow the links below, and then tell us in the comments what you liked and loathed.

Nationwide | Nissan (Cat's in the Cradle) | Fiat | Toyota (Amy Purdy) | Microsoft | McDonald's | GoDaddy | Always | Budweiser | Clash of Clans (Liam Neeson) | Snickers (Brady Bunch) | Jublia (Toenail Fungus) | Cure Auto Insurance | Loctite | Coke

Jan 26, 2015

Cougar TownIn this week's entertainment-themed "Round 2" mini-podcast, Catherine and Terri started out talking about the impending Snowpocalypse aimed at the northeast (and hyperbolic Weather Channel stormcasting in general) and moved on to the Super Bowl and who should be providing halftime-show color commentary; Downton vs. Oscar; Cougar Town's effortless defusing of a potentially show-love-killing issue; a Twitter account that tweeks former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg; and two books that didn't quite work for us: The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls and the audio version of Neil Patrick Harris's Choose Your Own Autobiography. Agree? Disagree? Got some other pop-culture rants or raves to share? Join the conversation in the comments.

(If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

Jan 20, 2015

Terri in her P&R gearTalking about parenting all the time gets a little tiring, you know? For a between-podcast break, Terri and Catherine are bringing you a weekly "Round 2," dedicated to movies, TV, books, and all that entertainment we'd be consuming if we could just stop podcasting and catch up on our work. In this week's mini-podcast, we discussed Oscar nominations (and the total of 1 Best Picture nominee we've seen between us); the January return of Downton Abbey and Parks & Recreation (sniff); the treadmill as a vehicle for guilt-free TV binging; and an unfortunate recent football outcome. Do you share our viewing interests? Got some other pop-culture topics you'd like to discuss? Join us in the comments.

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