PopaHALLics #128 "Four on the Floor"
Our podcast is four years old! We celebrate with a funny, more-or-less-true movie about profanity-laced letters, an animated noir Batman, an Alice Hoffman novel about the power of reading, and an influential "sensation" novel first published in 1859-60. Once again, we're on the cutting edge! [Joke.]

Streaming:

• "Wicked Little Letters," streaming services and rental. When residents of a small seaside town begin receiving profanity-laced letters in this black comedy mystery, suspicion falls on a foul-mouthed Irishwoman (Jessie Buckley). But did she do it? Also starring Olivia Coleman and Ajana Vasan.
• "Shardlake," Hulu. In this 4-part series based on C.J. Sansom's novels, a lawyer and his sidekick (Arthur Hughes and Anthony Boyle) investigate, on the orders of Thomas Cromwell (Sean Bean), a horrific murder at a monastery.
• "Batman: Caped Crusader," Prime. In this animated throwback noir series, Batman (voiced by Hamish Linklater) is a true detective using low-key methods and his fists to fight crime in Gotham City. More diversity and some interesting spins on Batman's longtime villains.
• "My Spy," Prime. A hardened CIA agent (Dave Bautista) meets his most challenging adversary yet, a 9-year-old girl (Chloe Coleman), whom he's supposed to be discreetly surveilling. She has other ideas in this cute 2020 action comedy also starring Kristen Schaal and Daniel Kim.
• "Leave No Trace," Disney+ and rental. In this slow-moving but involving drama from the Oscar-nominated writer and director of "Winter's Bone," a dad (Ben Foster) and his daughter (Thomasin McKenzie) live off the grid in Oregon until one small mistake tips them off to the authorities.

Books:

• "The Invisible Hour," by Alice Hoffman. This novel from the "queen of magical realism" celebrates the power of reading. A copy of "The Scarlet Letter" causes a young girl to question she and her mother's involvement in an oppressive cult.
• "The Woman in White," by Wilkie Collins. This story originally published in installments in 1859-1860 is often cited in 100-best-novels-of-all-time lists and was one of the first to use multiple narrators to advance the plot. Vivid characters, a mysterious woman in white, true love, scheming upper-crust types, involuntary confinement in an insane asylum—it's all here!