On this week’s show, our panel of Dana, Steve, and Sam Adams are on the case. The case: is the movie Sheep Detectives a real movie and is it any good? The answer: it’s a star-studded cozy murder mystery based on a best-selling book about ungulate sleuths… and yeah, it might just be the surprise word-of-mouth delight of the season.

Next, they take up the proverbial conch shell to assess Lord of Flies, the new Netflix limited series adaptation of William Golding’s classic novel from the creator of Adolescence.

Finally, they’re joined by longtime Slate book reviewer Laura Miller who understandably has some thoughts and feelings about the recent piece by New York Times book critic Dwight Garner “Where Have All the Book Reviews Gone?”

In an exclusive bonus episode for Slate Plus subscribers, Laura sticks around to report back from her viewing of the strange mess that is the new Animal Farm adaptation.

Endorsements

Laura: The new book by philosopher and polymath C. Thi Nguyen The Score: How To Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game.

Steve: The music of the Brazilian recording artist Sessa and the chamber music piece Quartet for the End of Time by Olivier Messiaen.

Sam: The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann.

Dana: The audiobook Patrick Stewart Performs the Complete Sonnets of William Shakespeare.

Email us your thoughts at culturefest@slate.com.

Podcast production by Benjamin Frisch. Production assistance by Daniel Hirsch.

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