shriekcast

Hurtwood Common Room: Remus Bupin

It's time for episode 2 of our bonus chat show! This time we dig into some Shrieking Shack deep lore: the many weird and wonderful YA authors we follow in the wake of Harry Potter and Twilight. We also detour into Harry Potter youtuber culture, and plan our own eventual attempt at an official Warner Bros. invitation to some weird event.

(Side note: I'm sure I don't have to say this, but since we...

Episode 30: Frank Chapter

Goblet of Fire chapters 1-2. Season 4 is here! The dreaded Frank Chapter looms, but before we get there we have to deal with Pottermore and a mischievous fellow named Robert Galbraith.

Bonus Chat Show 1: Ding!

It's the inaugural episode of... something! We haven't thought of a title for this feature yet, but we're experimenting with releasing some slightly more regular bonus episodes featuring chats about whatever we fancy that don't quite fit into the typical show format. This time that means, well, uh... CinemaSins, AMVs, the Dragon Age Origins marketing campaign and how it relates to internet culture...

Episode 29: Like Trying to Catch Smoke

Prisoner of Azkaban movie. We did it! Our final Prisoner of Azkaban episode is here. We watched the movie and spoiler alert: we kinda love it? We discuss the ins and outs of the film, the perils of adaptation, fandom reactions, and much much more. 

Bonus episodes incoming!

Just to let folks know, our next bonus episode will be coming soon! It'll be a more casual one similar to the Fantastic Beasts predicitons episode, but after this one we also have the next big research intensive one focusing on a section of the fandom's strange relationship with the concept of death of the author. Hope you're looking forward to 'em!

Episode 28: Dog Brain

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 19-22. Our third reading adventure is over. After fifty Quidditch games and ten chapters of faffing around in the titular Shrieking Shack, we discuss the end of Prisoner of Azkaban in fine detail: including dog brains, House Elf Dementors, the ethics of taking a life, and fate vs. free will. That sounds like a joke, but it's not! Listen now and find out if the third Ha...

Episode 27: Shipping Theseus

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 17-18. We uncover Pottermore's "revelations" about Fantastic Beasts. Then we get into the very exciting scenes that take place in the Shrieking Shack itself, which is way more farcical than we were expecting. To commemorate this occasion, Liz's fanfiction chops are put to the test with the ultimate Marauder fic quiz.

Episode 26: Early Edition

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 15-16. Liz conjures up the dark spirit of an ancient basic cable TV drama before we discuss Prisoner of Azkaban's tenth Quidditch match. Just like Harry, this book's specialty seems to be dives--does the rest of this reading pull up in time, or are we headed towards a crash of Norbert Chapter proportions?

Episode 25: Lee Harvey Grindelwald

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 13-14. Knives out!! We've been enjoying this book so much we hadn't quite realized how hungry we were, and this chapter about how cool the Firebolt is just dumped a ton of blood into the water. We discuss the Firebolt's superb handling, pinpoint precision, and whatever the hell else it has along with Leakycon updates and our own American broom marketing plans!

Episode 24: Shriekcast Walk Up to Dragon

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 11-12. We hit up Bustle for some headlines  and Pottermore for some marketing material before discussing the most  drama-filled chapters of this book yet. Hermione took away Harry's Xbox!  The flobberworms are dead! Crookshanks is scheming! We cover all this  and more before taking a trip overseas to learn all about Chinese Harry  Potter fan fi...

Sorcerer's Stone (PS1) Ep 12: American Sniper

NOTE: There were some audio issues! The next few eps will be lacking game sound, but don't worry, there's plenty for us to talk about (and you were probably sick of hearing "flipendo" anyway)

Episode 23: Hit Wizards

 Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 9-10. Happy birthday, Harry Potter! And a  happy birthday to you too, JK Rowling--we hope you got a third treehouse  or whatever. After we finish wishing our heroes a happy birthday, we  travel to a very rainy Hogwarts to discuss the Marauder's Map, pub  waitresses, reddit, and who would win in a fight between Sirius Black  and John Wick....

Episode 22: The Wad Goes Ahead

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 7-8. Comic-con happened, so naturally we have to pick over the remains of WB's nightmarish press conference (and the Fantastic Beasts trailer). Xeecee did a little bit of field reporting at a Target "event" and has the misspelled Hogwarts acceptance letter to prove it. Then, our reading for the week is a roller coaster of melodrama, Quidditch rules, and wad-blowing!

Bonus: Crimes of Grindelwald Predictions

We go beyond trailer reactions to predict specific details from the Fantastic Beasts sequel--and the rest of the series. Is Dumbledore gay? Just how bad is Grindelwald? What the hell will Queenie do? Why are they making these movies? Why?

Episode 21: Zippo Tricks

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 5-6*. We investigate the "new" JK Rowling interview content "discovered" this week before getting into our reading--which we really liked! Still, there's plenty to go over in detail, from train stoppages to knight paintings to JK's strangely cruel supplemental writing about her own characters. Finally, we top it all off with some of your confessions!

*This...

Episode 20: CGI Colin Farrell

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 3-4. The guy whose name rhymes with Bhonny Bepp is back in the news and WB has a movie to promote, so you know what  that means: it's time for us to predict what brand of non-reaction the  Harry Potter brand will have. Then we're off to the Knight Bus, where  things are considerably better! We loved our reading so much this week, Liz had to come up with ...

Sorcerer's Stone (PS1) Ep 10: Getting the Knut Pt. 2

We get our knut and visit Ollivander to put our wand near his peacock. If you think I'm reaching for these innuendos, just watch!

Sorcerer's Stone (PS1) Ep 10: Getting the Knut

 We have a lot of time to fill while playing the awful Gringotts minigame, and make as many knut jokes as we can to fill time. 

Episode 19: Mister Morte

Prisoner of Azkaban chapters 1-2. It's season 3! And what better way to  start a new book than going through a new Rowling tweetstorm. We're both  excited and cautious about starting a new book - will Harry have a  character this time? Will Dumbledore tell him any more bird facts? Only  time will tell, but for now we'll make do with bonkers articles about  Harry Potter fro...

Bonus Episode 2: Hewwo Mistew Scamandew

Just in time to compare it to Chamber of Secrets and its muddled sociopolitical metaphors! We watched the first Fantastic Beasts film (and read the original book) in preparation for the Crimes of Grindlewald nightmare coming down the pipe. 

Episode 18: Too Many Peas

Chamber of Secrets film & video games. We watched all three hours of  the movie to let you know: Lockhart is still the best thing in this  story! We discuss Hagrid's pickup scenes, 2002's CGI creature rankings,  tiny swords, and way too many peas. 

Episode 17: You Solved It!

Chamber of Secrets chapters 17-18. We've done it! Our second book comes to a close, but we have lots to discuss, including: anagrams, phoenixes, and Harry's continued cluelessness until the bitter end. After our own plot discussion, we visit Pottermore's officially selected Book Club questions in an attempt to figure out what the hell is in the water there.

Sorcerer's Stone (PS1) Ep 9: The Screaming Helps

 We take a very long walk to the bathroom and Harry is killed by a toilet. 

Sorcerer's Stone (PS1) Ep 8: The Great Peeves Race

We race against Peeves to unlock a stealth mission, which... sure is a reward...

Bonus episode updates!

Hey all! Just checking in with an update about upcoming bonus episodes. We sat through Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them this week, and we'll be discussing that in an episode coming very soon--including our predictions for all the crap we're sure is gonna happen in the sequel. Weirdly, this movie's incredibly bad oppression metaphor is a great companion to Chamber of Secrets, so it fits in q...

Sorcerer's Stone (PS1) Ep 7: The Forgivable Curses

We solve a darksided mystery in the Hogwarts basement.

Episode 16: The Ballad of Horatio Hurtwood

Chamber of Secrets chapters 15-16. It's nearly over, but our suffering isn't quite through yet. Harry meets a giant spider in a pointless chapter and then "solves" the mystery that Hermione worked so hard to investigate, and Ginny walked in on Percy cranking it or something. It's all a mess, but fear not: the Shrieking Shack is here to fix Hogwarts by designing an all-new house to replace Slytheri...

Sorcerer's Stone (PS1) Ep 6: Gamer Cred

Liz's gamer credentials are put to the test in this thrilling episode.

Episode 15: Shack! The Musical

Chamber of Secrets chapters 13-14. It's been a slow news week for Potter, so what better time to belt out some show tunes? We explore the wide and extremely cursed world of Harry Potter song parodies, talk about the cultural significance of This Is War, and explore songfics, which are like fanfics but perhaps even more potent. Then some crap happened in the actual book I guess. 

Sorcerer's Stone (PS1) Episode 5

We're on a quest for the Sloth Brain!