It's Lit!
A series of smart, funny video essays from PBS Digital Studios about their favorite books and why they love to read. Host Lindsay Ellis delves into topics like the evolution of YA, how science fiction mirrors our own anxieties, and why the book is sometimes just a _bit_ better than the movie.
Seasons
1. When the Book is Better than the Movie
Which is better, the book or the movie? Explore the question with host Lindsay Ellis.
2. The Evolution of YA
Young Adult Fiction (YA) is dominating literature, and more young people are reading now than ever before. Lindsay Ellis explores how YA carved a place in publishing.
3. Why Sci Fi is a Mirror on Society
While science fiction is associated with Mars, robots, and cyberpunk, its origin story is shaped throughout several centuries. Check out the origin of science fiction with Lindsay Ellis!
4. An Ode to the Romance Novel
Love it or hate it, the romance novel is the highest grossing literary genre. Its history is long and winding (like your favorite romance novel), and romance novels are full of tropes reflected upon its history. It has been the subject of intrigue, derision, and shame in literary discourse long before the modern genre as we know it existed.
5. How Fantasy Reflects Our World
Fantasy novels are more than just hundreds of pages worth of swords and magic! Okay, there's some of that. But it's also a lens to what our society finds important to our pasts, our presents, and future.
6. Why did they make me read this in High School?
What makes a book important? Why are some books required reading in high school, while others are lost to history?
7. Can You Judge a Book by Its Cover?
Despite the adage of not judging a book by its cover, there’s a lot of time, intent, and money spent creating memorable book covers. Get to know the story behind some of literature’s most iconic book covers.
8. Fear of Ghost...Writing!
You might being asking yourself-- Why do ghostwriters even exist? Isn’t that cheating? Isn’t literature supposed to be the result of one person’s agonizing need to create? Aren’t books supposed to be the blood, sweat, and tears of the tortured auteur? Well, the answer is more complicated than you think!
9. Unreliable Narrators
Who is the most powerful character in fiction? Villains may doom the world, heroes may save it, but no one has more control over the plot than the narrator - expositing the who, what, where, when and how directly into the reader’s mind. But how can you tell that the person telling you the story is telling you the whole story?
10. Food & Fiction: Memorable Meals in Literature
Food varies wildly from place to place and from culture to culture; since humans are such sensory creatures, using words to evoke the experience of eating is an excellent way to bring a text to life.
11. Death, Personified
Death as a character reveals how we process one of life’s greatest mysteries, and there’s a lot more breadth to how the grim reaper is depicted than you might think.
12. How Greek Mythology Inspires Us
Ancient Greek Mythology has worked its way into modern pop culture so deeply that it would be an almost Sisyphean task to compile every way it’s manifested!
13. The Beauty and Anguish of Les Misérables!
Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables is one of history’s most famous novels and one of the longest-running musicals in Broadway history. On this special episode of It’s Lit! we explore how Les Miserable became both a national and revolutionary anthem, and so publicly adored that all 1,900 pages never went out of print.
Cast
Lindsay Ellis
Self - Host
More Like This
Somewhere Somehow
Kee, a cool tsundere, and Peem, a mischievous rich girl, become inseparable friends. No one knows the truth, though, that really, they've been secretly in love with one another since high school. From handmade pork floss, a gear necklace as a token of love, to an accidental first kiss, hearts will be racing. But love is never so easy, and fate plays its tricks. The two are separated and it will be seven years before they meet again... as boss and employee.
LOL: Last One Laughing Thailand
Oat Pramote and C Siwat host 10 of the biggest Thai comedians in a community mall for 6 hours. To eliminate their fellow comedians, they can do anything to make each other laugh, except laugh themselves. With 1 million baht on the line for a charity of their choice, who will be the Last One Laughing?
Degrassi High
Degrassi High is the third television show in the Degrassi series of teen dramas about the lives of a group of teenagers living on or near De Grassi Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It first aired from 1989 to 1991 and followed the young people from The Kids of Degrassi Street and Degrassi Junior High through high school. The show was filmed in downtown Toronto and at Centennial College. Much like its predecessor, Degrassi High dealt with controversial issues ranging from AIDS, abortion, abuse, alcoholism, cheating, sex, death and suicide, dating, depression, bullying, gay rights, homophobia, racism, the environment, drugs, and eating disorders. The show's impact on Canadian identity is discussed in the September 2007 issue of u're Magazine.
Down with Love
Xiang Yu Ping, a divorce and inheritance lawyer, is seen by others as cold, selfish, and ruthless. He had taken in his brother's orphans and was in need of a nanny. But after he exhausted his supply of nannies, he still couldn't find one who doesn't fall in love with him or gets scared off by the kids. Fed up, Yu Ping asks his secretary, Yang Duo, to find a nanny that meets his requirements. She recommends her younger sister, Yang Guo, for the job; assuring Yu Ping that her tomboyish sister will not fall in love with him by lying that she does not like men at all.
The Other Side
Nacho Nieto, a journalist specialising in paranormal activity, is at a professional and personal low. After a failed suicide attempt he comes back to life accompanied by the ghost of his mentor, doctor Estrada, iconic communicator of mystery, who died more than 20 years ago.
Kureyon Shin-chan
English language adult parody based on the Japanese series Shinchan (1992). Shin is a 5-year-old boy who is constantly doing and saying inappropriate things, much to the dismay and annoyance of those around him, with hilarious results. Shin along with his family including his little sister Hima and his dog Whitey, as well as his friends from kindergarten, ends up turning everyday situations into funny adventures. This entry is for the Funimation English dub which originally aired on CN's Adult Swim between 2006 and 2011.
You Touched My Heart
Anyamanee is a beautiful girl brought up in a family that only honours men, which makes her proud of what she has cause she got it with so much difficulty. She meets Kueakhun, a man who warms both body and heart and is ready to give a warm light to a woman who is like a diamond in his heart, but love life isn't that easy. When two families' business problems get involved, including the death of Anyamanee's brother, Kueakhun becomes her first suspect because of his past relationship with her sister-in-law, which ended a long time ago has come back again.
Graffiti Wars: Banksy Vs. Robbo
A look at the feud between graffiti artists King Robbo and Banksy.
Youth Over Flowers
Youth Over Flowers is a South Korean travel-reality show which premiered on tvN in 2014.
Upright
When family outcast Lucky Flynn learns that his mother is dying, he decides to drive to the other side of Australia to see her, packing nothing but an upright piano for the journey. But his plans are soon turned upside down when he meets the runaway teenager Meg, who’s dealing with some family demons of her own.
Alaskan Bush People
Deep in the Alaskan wilderness lives a newly discovered family who was born and raised wild. Billy Brown, his wife Ami and their seven grown children – 5 boys and 2 girls – are so far removed from civilization that they often go six to nine months of the year without seeing an outsider. They’ve developed their own accent and dialect, refer to themselves as a "wolf pack," and at night, all nine sleep together in a one-room cabin. Simply put, they are unlike any other family in America. Recently, according to the Browns, the cabin where they lived for years was seized and burned to the ground for being in the wrong location on public land.
The Killer Is Also Romantic
Si Xiaonian, the elegant owner of a garment shop, marries the gentleman Yan Wuming. However, on their wedding day, both mysteriously disappear. It is revealed that each has been hiding a secret identity. As they confront their deep love and the truths they've kept hidden, they become tangled in a complex and emotional struggle.
Life among Mountains and Rivers
Escape the humdrum of the city and experience the picturesque countryside for a romantic getaway. China is home to countless beautiful villages and diverse ethnic cultures which are spread across the east, west, south, north and central regions. In this program, we follow the footsteps of famous TV hosts, stars and cultural scholars as they visit five distinctive villages.
Sconfort Zone
The World Is Yours
An expository travel around planet Earth with the whole family. Travel across exotic locations, while being interesting for children at the same time.
Sirens
Worried about her sister's too-close relationship with her billionaire boss, a scrappy everywoman seeks answers at a lavish seaside estate.
Oh Yeah! Cartoons
Oh Yeah! Cartoons was an American animation showcase that appeared on the Nickelodeon cable channel. Oh Yeah! was an animation project guided by Fred Seibert, former Creative Director of MTV Networks and President of Hanna-Barbera. Produced by Frederator Studios, it ran as part of Nickelodeon's Nicktoons lineup, and in its second season, was hosted by Kenan Thompson of All That and Kenan & Kel fame; Then later by Josh Server, from All That, for its third season. Bill Burnett composed the show's theme music. Oh Yeah! Cartoons was distributed by Nelvana outside of the United States.
Araiya-san! Ore to Aitsu ga Onnayu de!?
Male student Souta Tsukishima begins working at his family's public bathhouse as a back washer. While concealing her true identity, Souta's classmate Aoi Yuzuki visits the bathhouse. A relationship between the two begins to develop when Souta washes Aoi's back.
Fearless: The Inside Story of the AFLW
A world-first look at the AFL Women’s Competition (AFLW) and the powerhouse movement it has become for women in sport. The six-part series spotlights four clubs: Adelaide Crows, Collingwood, GWS GIANTS, and Western Bulldogs.
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