The Challenge, Part 1

On May 3rd, 2003, Mary-Kate and Ashley released their last direct-to-video film, The Challenge, marking the end of an era. Yes, the sisters would go on to star in New York Minute a year later, but that would get a theatrical release, have much higher stakes, and was generally completely different.

Starting with the release of Billboard Dad in 1998, Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen, with their manager Robert Thorne and their company Dualstar, carved out a niche in low budget direct-to-video films for teen girls, which was then solidified by the massive success of their sophomore dtv film, Passport to Paris. Over the next 5 years, these movies would function as the anchor for their brand, creating a genre of teenage fantasy travel films, and endearing the twins and their style to girls (and some boys!) all around the world. Though the quality and success of these films waned towards the end of their 5 year run, they were still beloved by many and played a pivotal role in making Mary-Kate and Ashley the most powerful young women in Hollywood. And The Challenge, a film about two estranged twin sisters Shane and Lizzie competing on a Survior-esque reality game show in Mexico, was their last one (and they knew it would be).

Months ago, we promised that as soon as the SAG-AFTRA strike was over, we would review this film for the podcast. When we made that promise, we had no idea the strike still had so many months left, and how difficult and painful this year would be. Watching this film now that a tentative deal has been reached was the greatest gift we ever could have been given, and you'll see why.

And in typical Becca & Lani fashion, we had simply too much to talk about, so we had to break this episode up into two parts. So, we present to you the first part of our conversation about Mary-Kate and Ashley's penultimate film. Their final Dualstar direct-to-video feature. Their love letter to us, their fans.

We HIGHLY recommend watching this film before listening to this ep, and if you don't still have the DVD or VHS, you can do so by clicking the link in SimplyOlsen's Instagram bio (which we are forever grateful for).

You can also watch the video version of this ep by subscribing to our Patreon here.

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