You're no fun anymore

YNFA is kicking off a month of our favorite pop culture vampires! We’re down a few podcast hosts for this one, but up a lot of fan-girling with a very special episode about the GOAT of vampire television show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Randall, Bryce and Dayna take a long trip down the hellmouth to revisit some of their favorite episodes from both the WB and CW years, and ask some important questions along the way. Is the Xander factor just too much for a show to overcome in 2022? Why was Alyson Hannigan so good at crying? Why is it always up to the teenage girl to help old British dudes save the world? And to quote Sarah Michelle Gellar: Is it okay to love Buffy even if we no longer love the man who created her? Put on your best leather duster, throw some stakes in your pocket and pull out your best Buffy-speak for this one.

There are no cats in America! Except for like a dozen who can be easily pushed off a pier. But there are definitely no dogs! At least that’s what we know from Don Bluth’s An American Tail. Is this the biggest bummer of a kids’ movie ever made? Does anyone remember any details about it beyond crying over Somewhere Out There? How in the world does Fievel survive so many near-death experiences? And can you freaking believe they got Christopher Plummer to play a French pigeon?? One thing we do know is that learned a lot of actual historical facts about 19th-century New York during this viewing. 

Happy Birthday to us! To celebrate, get strapped and iamb your pentameter as we revel in Baz Luhrmann’s deliciously over-the-top Romeo + Juliet (1996), one of the first episodes we ever recorded—and producer Randall’s personal white whale. Did this soundtrack ever leave your Discman? Are we the biggest Shakespeare dorks who ever lived? Is Harold Perrineau’s Mercutio pure sex in platform heels? (No question he carries this film.) Or is John Leguizamo’s Tybalt the true snack? Don’t get us wrong, Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes are adorable portraying young love, but we could do with less screaming. Now please excuse us as we listen to The Cardigans on loop. 

Grunge up your unwashed hair and please put out that endless chain of cigarettes as we succumb to the 90s slacker vortex that is Reality Bites. Do Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke’s characters actually deserve each other because they both suck so much? And should we feel bad for Ben Stiller or relieved that he totally dodged a bullet there? Could we just watch Steve Zahn be adorable and Janeane Garofalo in her perfect vintage outfits instead? And can we directly blame all the shitty behavior and toxic relationships during our 20s on this movie? We’ll let you know as soon as we stop listening to Lisa Loeb on loop.