We Don't Know Where We Are

This week, we take the Oscar-nominated film "Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri" as a starting point for a discussion about a new sense of placelessness in film and TV. Over the last year, we've been seeing stories set in ambiguous spaces--the limbo between heaven and hell, distorted models of our world, towns that look like no place we recognize as American. We talk about "The Good Place," "Westworld," "Downsizing," and the Sunken Place from "Get Out" to try and figure out how we lost a sense of where we are. Then we look to shows like "Atlanta" and "The Chi" to think about how we might find our way back.


Discussed This Week:
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
“Grownish” (Freeform)
“Riverdale” (The CW)
Hot Topic "Riverdale" Merchandise
“Dennis Edwards, Former Temptations Lead Singer, Dies at 74” (Daniel E. Slotnik, The New York Times)
"Don’t Look Any Further" (Dennis Edwards)
"'Three Billboards’ Production Designer Inbal Weinberg on Martin McDonagh’s Unique Approach To Screen Language" (Matt Grobar, Deadline)
“The Good Place” (NBC)
“Stranger Things” (Netflix)
“Coco” (Pixar)
“Black Mirror” (Netflix)
“Get Out” (Universal Pictures)
“Dunkirk” (Warner Bros.)
“Downsizing” (Paramount Pictures)
“Westworld” (HBO)
"Instravel - A Photogenic Mass Tourism Experience" (Oliver KMIA, Vimeo)
“Singin’ in the Rain” (MGM)
“Queen Sugar” (OWN)
“Atlanta” (FX Networks)
“Insecure” (HBO)
“Black-ish” (ABC)
“The Chi” (Showtime)
“Moonlight” (A24)
“Black Panther” (Marvel Studios)
"Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience" (Yi-Fu Tuan, 1977)
"Place and Placelessness" (Edward Relph, 1976)
Super Bowl LII Commercials
“Ram Trucks Commercial with Martin Luther King Jr. Sermon is Criticized” (Sapna Maheshwari, The New York Times)
2018 Kia Stinger - Steven Tyler Big Game Ad - Feel Something Again
Blacture Super Bowl Ad
Amazon Alexa Loses Her Voice - Super Bowl LII Commercial