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The Best Episodes of It's Lit! Season 1

Every episode of It's Lit! Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of It's Lit! Season 1!

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

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    It's Lit! Season 1 Episode 1 - When the Book is Better than the Movie
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #1 - When the Book is Better than the Movie

    S1:E1

    Which is better, the book or the movie? Explore the question with host Lindsay Ellis.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. It's Lit! Season 1 Episode 2 - The Evolution of YA
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    #2 - The Evolution of YA

    S1:E2

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. It's Lit! Season 1 Episode 3 - Why Sci Fi is a Mirror on Society
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #3 - Why Sci Fi is a Mirror on Society

    S1:E3

    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!

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. It's Lit! Season 1 Episode 4 - An Ode to the Romance Novel
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    #4 - An Ode to the Romance Novel

    S1:E4

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. It's Lit! Season 1 Episode 5 - How Fantasy Reflects Our World
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    #5 - How Fantasy Reflects Our World

    S1:E5

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. It's Lit! Season 1 Episode 6 - Why did they make me read this in High School?
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #6 - Why did they make me read this in High School?

    S1:E6

    What makes a book important? Why are some books required reading in high school, while others are lost to history?

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 BEST Episodes of It's Lit!

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  7. It's Lit! Season 1 Episode 7 - Can You Judge a Book by Its Cover?
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    #7 - Can You Judge a Book by Its Cover?

    S1:E7

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. It's Lit! Season 1 Episode 8 - Fear of Ghost...Writing!
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #8 - Fear of Ghost...Writing!

    S1:E8

    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!

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. It's Lit! Season 1 Episode 9 - Unreliable Narrators
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #9 - Unreliable Narrators

    S1:E9

    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?

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. It's Lit! Season 1 Episode 10 - Food & Fiction: Memorable Meals in Literature
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #10 - Food & Fiction: Memorable Meals in Literature

    S1:E10

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. It's Lit! Season 1 Episode 11 - Death, Personified
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #11 - Death, Personified

    S1:E11

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. It's Lit! Season 1 Episode 12 - How Greek Mythology Inspires Us
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #12 - How Greek Mythology Inspires Us

    S1:E12

    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!

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. It's Lit! Season 1 Episode 13 - The Beauty and Anguish of Les Misérables!
    0.0/10(0 votes)

    #13 - The Beauty and Anguish of Les Misérables!

    S1:E13

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Season 1 Ratings Summary

"When the Book is Better than the Movie" is the best rated episode of "It's Lit!" season 1. It scored /10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 6/4/2018. This episode is rated 0.0 points higher than the second-best, "The Evolution of YA".