American Culture of 'It's Always Sunny...'; 'Blue Lights' Massive Threads

Hey, everyone.

Welcome to Taking it Down.

We're the streaming and TV podcast for the Alabama Take website.

We're here to dissect TV for you, but before we do that, we offer up our ideas on if you may like it or not.

We'll do that without spoiling anything.

In the first 10 to 15 to 20 minutes of the episode, use your time stamps to follow along there.

By the end of the episode, you'll know if this season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was for you or if the entire show is for you or not, if you've never started it, as well as Blue Lights, which is streaming on hbo.

Max, we have finished the first season of it.

We're talking about the second season a little bit in spoilers.

But before we do that, we will let you know what we think you might take away from it.

Joining me today, as always, it's Adam.

It's Donovan.

Let's invite them in.

Alabama take projection.

Here they are, as promised.

Hey, it's Adam.

Adam's back.

Adam's back from his Tuscaloosa show date.

And Donovan's here.

Per usual, Adam played Druid City Brewery, whom we are not sponsored by.

That's true.

There's no lies.

I love that.

It's been, like, over a week since I played there, and you're like, he's back.

As if, like, there's an Oregon trail between me and Tuscaloosa that I had to navigate.

You weren't on last week's.

I know last week's podcast, so, yeah, there you go.

I don't walk home, though.

I am.

Ride your horse home.

Yeah.

But let's dive into it.

I have been trying to get a couple of friends to begin watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

I can think of two off the top of my head.

There might be a third friend.

And this season, which just ended, is another example why we're in non spoilers.

Adam's not caught up on it, but that's okay because we're in non spoilers.

Donovan, what would sell people?

Like, you know, we've kind of gone around and around on this, and I do think for the hesitant.

One thing I do think this is true is that you would be surprised at the cross section of people who like this show.

Folks that you would think would usually see something like this and be like, this is not for me.

This is not my kind of humor.

Who are.

Love it.

Like, who would look at this and go, oh, no.

Well, I think the title turns some people off.

Yeah, like, My wife doesn't necessarily, like, love very, like, kind of brash, crass humor, but she loves Sunny.

Like, there's episodes we'll watch and we'll just be dying at the antics of the characters.

I do think get over the title.

They came it up.

They clearly came up with it while they were high.

Sometime in 2005.

Yeah, pass.

Let that pass by.

I mean, Adam's a fan.

He just.

Oh, I'm a huge fan.

Yeah.

I thought you were gonna say your wife was.

Was not into it because she is a female who went to college between the years of 2007.

Yeah.

2011, 12.

Well.

And we were, you know, fairly insufferable.

It's.

It's so funny, though.

Donovan, I think I've said this on the show before, was one of the very, very early adapters to this program.

He was.

He watched season one and then was there the day that season two came out.

He had, like, announced to the the apartment, like, hey, I'm watching this tonight.

Yes.

I remember Steve Kowalski in Egan's Barkeep and Doorman and Egan's telling me that was a good show.

And this would have been 05 06.

I can't believe that it's had the longevity that it's had.

17 years.

It's the longest scripted non animated television show.

And to that point, too, I think if reluctant watchers, you know, the whole thing's pretty good.

But if you dive in in the later half, they are really comfortable with each other.

They really, really know their beats.

Yeah.

Like, sometimes it's just.

It's just like a comedy machine being set into action.

I sell people by saying, it is the only show I know of that I watch and has always made me laugh out loud.

Like, not just chuckle, not just smile.

But I literally.

There's always a moment or two or three where I just bust out laughing.

There are moments that if I start thinking of them, I'll.

I am, like, laughing right now, kind of playing, like, the greatest hits.

Yeah.

In my head.

Yeah, same.

Like, there's a bit in one of the episodes where, like, Frank keeps flushing his clothes down the toilet and Charlie's trying to keep everything together, and he's walking by and Frank's got a roller of black paint, and Charlie's like, what are you doing?

He's like, I'm painting a shirt.

Reluctant listeners, if that doesn't convince you.

It'S kind of the Waffle House of shows.

You love it late at night, maybe after some drinks or just some drugs or something.

Or maybe just, you know, it's late at night and your cares are done.

It's so good at that 9 o' clock moment.

And I've got 25 minutes to kill and I'm going to watch it.

Always sunny.

It really hits the spot.

Absolutely.

Wash the world away.

They are often dealing satirically with the world, but.

But it's always such a funny way of doing it.

They're so self.

So unselfaware.

They're not self aware.

Maybe a little.

They get a little more self aware each season, but it's.

It doesn't change their behavior.

No.

The preening narcissism never leaves.

And I.

It's not the same kind of show as Arrested Development, but I do think that it has that element of characters like.

Like Job or.

That are just black holes of narcissism, and it's just hilarious to watch them.

This.

This show may be a whole show of Jobs.

That's not entirely true, but that's the thing that you.

I think there's some crossover to that kind of.

You know, I'm always interested in things that, like, kind of seem stereotypical or blase now, but at the time were kind of shocking.

Like, this show, when it first came out was the big selling point was like, oh, it's Seinfeld.

But if they all let their inhibitions down and became like even worse versions.

Of themselves, it sounds a little bit shocking.

Yeah.

Like, it was.

It was pretty out there in its context.

There's an element of both of these where they're just kind of undercutting capital M myths that we tell about ourselves.

Oh, that's good.

I don't think I could tell you more than that because that sentence just popped into my brain and I said it, but I do, you know, Arrested Development very, very obviously.

Right.

What's it dealing with?

It's a satire on the Bush family.

It's about the Iraq war.

I mean, at the time that they did these episodes, you know, people were getting killed in Iraq.

I mean, they still are in some places, but you know what I mean?

And then with that, I don't care.

About their killing in Iraq.

I will say that there was like, you know, I was talking about the UN Self awareness.

There was a moment in the penultimate episode of this season where a character is speaking with a black accent and he's not black.

And then the other characters look at each other and think, we're not supposed to do that, are we?

And they're.

They're saying, no, I only did it because he did it.

I'm only mimicking him.

It's just dumb.

It's so good.

Dumb.

People acting dumb can be very rejuvenating.

It's so great.

Like there's something about like the almost awareness of that they have of the way that we as human beings should live our lives.

And sometimes that should is a real should and sometimes that should is a end quote should.

Like they got the idea, you know, like in the first episode of this season.

This is a tiny spoiler but I think it's a good example.

Charlie's like, oh well, white people aren't supposed to save people anymore.

That's a white savior.

And like so they kind of like they just get it filtered through this prism where you can kind of kind of laugh and think about like what.

What are we actually mean?

What do we tell ourselves?

Max use of the word woke for years has, has has presaged the.

The fact that this week people were like minimalist font is woke.

And we're going to.

And we're going to take you down.

200 million at the stock market.

Cracker barrel.

It's.

That's it though.

I think you've nailed it.

It's really dumb.

People who only have like the sliver of knowledge that most people have and you see these people in day to day life.

God for you know, you really do.

Where they have.

They know something about the word woke or.

Or they know something about the word white savior and that's it.

Exactly.

It's so good.

Just because like again like they have this sort of idea that there's a standard to human beings as human beings they should live up to but not a one of them.

Although, although Charlie, Charlie's probably I think the best of them.

That's my assessment.

Charlie's almost got a sweetheart.

No, he's the wild card.

He's the wild card.

Another classic so good.

None of their knowledge or self awareness, if they have any, is going to interfere with their selfishness and getting what they want.

Absolutely.

And I think that's another area where it is sort of a prism of a consumerist, individualist society.

Everything is going to ultimately bend right back on them.

They can justify anything, they can do anything.

They will never learn.

It also does a thing to explore that idea where and I haven't seen the most recent season, I just love that this is always a joke that they will pair up differently or group themselves to accomplish.

So they're not loyal to anyone.

It's just understood that they're always competing with one Another on some level and doing whatever it takes to accomplish this dumb goal.

Yeah.

They'll step on each other if that's what it takes.

Yeah.

There is no honor among thieves.

That's so true.

We're going to shift eventually into a show in Northern Ireland.

And if someone from Northern Ireland were to come to me and they haven't watched any American television and they knew very little about the United States, and they said, what show kind of preps me for how Americans act?

I'm not so sure I wouldn't show them.

It's always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Yeah.

It's like having the national ID on display.

And I think we've seen.

I think we've seen in the newspaper the national ID on display, and it's not far from what is being filmed.

Yeah.

This person asking the hypothetical would have to also not pay attention to the news.

Yes.

It's like the real show you want to watch to discover what America is like.

Is any CNN broadcast.

This most recent season is their 17th.

It's the the longest running scripted television show.

I bring this up once more because it was one of the better ones in the last five or six seasons.

I'd agree with that.

I had some.

There were.

So Blaine, we talked about them a little bit, but some of the episodes this year, I. I genuinely loved.

Like, I liked all of them.

They all made me laugh.

But there was some that I truly loved.

Same.

Yeah.

You know, I say that to audience listeners, but I'm also talking to Adam here.

I'm telling him, I know you're a busy guy, but if you do catch up, let us know because there's some episodes that I want to talk about with you, and I know you'll love and just laugh about.

And I don't mind re remembering via your watching the show, the stockpile of.

Sunny episodes I have that I've never seen is really incredible.

Did you not watch 16?

No, I haven't watched it in years.

16 was okay.

But 17 kills.

Might have to revisit it.

Yeah, 17.

It works so well as a.

In the same way that your Waffle House analogy, you don't start with a list of places and end up at Waffle House.

You were in a stream of life that takes you to the Waffle House, right?

Yes.

And like, when Always Sunny is on what would have been Cable now is YouTube TV.

It's like, oh, this is gonna scratch the itch right now.

But I've never gone to a streaming service and been like, time to take down some Sunny.

Really Interesting.

I have.

Because I just know it makes me laugh.

So I want to be in that mood.

I mean, I should.

Exactly.

If I'm just like, I'm in a bad mood or I just want something that's gonna make me cackle, I'll choose a random episode of the ones that you can still see on a streaming service.

Yeah.

Which is almost all of them.

Almost all.

Like, all but one or two.

And I think they're down because.

Yeah, because of.

They pulled them because.

Because of woke.

What episodes have they pulled?

Do you know?

The blackface.

The blackface ones.

The two blackface episodes.

It's really horrible.

But I do think that like, which.

They'Re making fun of blackface.

Right.

Of course.

People doing that.

There's the episode where they're trying to do figure out like what makes a Shakespeare play great.

And they're watching like the Orson Welles Othello and everything of like a Frank's analysis of what makes a great play.

There is.

It's.

It's horrifying, but it's hilarious.

And like, having been at a school like that really makes me like, kills me.

Yeah, it's good stuff.

So, Adam, I highly recommend.

16 is okay, but 17 is amazing.

I. I'd throw that second that I.

Think that I watch It's Always Sunny the way that you guys watch Arrested Development Religion over and over and over.

Yeah, well, I don't watch anything over and over, but if I'm sitting down and I'm like, nothing is coming to mind.

I only watch.

Want to watch a 15 minute clip of something?

I'll pull up a random It's Always Sunny.

Maybe up until about 2013.

I'm pretty encyclopedic on my knowledge of those episodes.

Oh, really?

For the same reason.

Yeah, yeah.

It's just like since Modern Era, if you will, even though that was 12 years ago, I haven't kept up with as much.

I'd say.

I'd say season 17 that just finished fits right in with 2013 era.

Okay.

For sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you, Dom.

And I was.

I was curious if I was out for sure.

And like I'm saying that as someone who.

I did think last season 16 was pretty good.

They had some really solid episodes, but this one really scratched that itch in a lot of ways.

Well, for this week at least, we'll continue Blue Lights from Brit Brock's probably next week, but fear not, it's also streaming on hbo.

Max Catch two seasons of this better than average cop drama.

Better.

Way better than average cop Drama that it's got Northern Ireland aspects of the Wire happening here.

I think that analogy's been made two weeks in a row on our podcast, and it fits perfectly, especially peeking into season two.

It's made by former journalist.

Sound familiar?

You know, the Wire was made by former journalists.

Declan Long is a former journalist, and Adam Peterson with Louise Gallagher.

Those are the creators.

We wrapped the first season pretty much, at least almost.

We're now kind of pointing towards the first episode of the second season in the spoiler section.

Two seasons, six episodes, all on hbo Max.

A third season promise this year, as cliche as it is, you know, you hear books take you somewhere, shows can.

Movies can take you to another place.

This one really does present a lot of life that I recognize through a different lens of another country.

Yeah, I'd agree with that.

In a very engaging way, you know, but also in a way that kind of teaches me, like.

Like, I was just, oh, okay.

So that's what they would do in Northern Ireland in this situation, whereas I kind of know how it would unfold in the United States.

And it's not a lesson.

It's not a.

It's nothing.

That is a moral lesson.

And it's not like, you know, there's no pause there whether.

Where the screen pauses and says, number one, learn this.

Number two, learn this.

It's very engaging.

The whole time, it's funny you said that because I was literally gonna make the joke that it's not boring educational tv.

And.

And.

And the point that you just made, I was kind of bouncing around in my own head where it's not stopping and teaching you a lesson.

But, like, with.

And I think this is any.

Anything that's really good, you're going to learn stuff from.

From watching it and.

And then added layers.

You know, we are not from Northern Ireland.

We're not from the UK So we have that, like, learning what the lives of folks who are in a different culture and situation from ours are and what's familiar and what's strange.

That's right.

A lot of familiarity.

St. Yep.

Adam, what do you like about Blue Lights?

I mean, I think everything that y' all have said, I. I can't think of many cop shows that have scratched the same itch that the Wire did since then.

So it's.

It's doing that, what y' all just said.

I don't.

I don't really have anything to add to that.

We're not cop show guys unless it's kind of the.

The higher level, like the mayor of Easttown or the upcoming HBO Task.

We're not a Law and order.

We're not a 911 type of set of guys who watch that kind of show.

This one, and we said this last week, takes, like, the.

The cop show, the.

The classic 90s ABC cop show, but gives you so much more, and every line is important, and there's no dead air.

There's no wasted space or scene.

I think it also is such a human story, and the storytelling is so good.

I feel like sometimes with cop shows, you might have, like, he's this guy on the beat, but then, like, now here's his family life, and it's different, and can he, like, keep them separate?

But this is so entwined, and y' all are further ahead than I am.

So I know that there are things coming up that I am oblivious to.

But, you know, that central question of, like, who chooses to be a cop in this environment remains fascinating to me.

I'm not tired of asking myself that while I watch it.

And I think part of it may be that we have consumed a fair amount of media around this conflict in this country, that maybe going into it, as Americans, we're, especially in the south, not taught a lot about, you know, say nothing.

We really kind of feasted on that one.

For me, the kneecap movie opened up all of these really fascinating.

You know, even something like Derry Girls where you think, well, these are kids who were only slightly older than me who grew up in these.

Even though it is a comedy, there's some moments in that show that really stop you in your tracks.

I think Derry Girls does it very well.

And actually, I keep thinking about Dairy Girls watching this.

It has that kind of like.

It's not the.

Like, hey, learn a lesson.

But.

But it's there, right?

It's there if you want to pick it up.

Oh, there are moments in Derry Girls that will just completely bowl you over.

Absolutely.

It's not a long enough show that it became a cliche, but their party trick is definitely to have, like, this kind of ecstatic teen moment or breakthrough or whatever, but then marry it with something awful that's happened.

But I think they do that because it's like, there's very real small lives happening at the same time as small lives in the grand scheme of things.

But they're very big to the individuals leading them, happening next to Bill Clinton showing up and then the Good Friday Agreement, all this kind of stuff.

Absolutely.

If you're a viewer who is not living it, it's like, oh, this is this is all existing in the same universe, you know, and the reality is it's just a real place with profound problems.

But so I think getting another.

And again, not to say the Wire again, but it's almost like these are all like the way a Wire or Treme tells stories of like this disparate kind of like, you know, you never really see the characters cross paths.

A lot of the time it's almost like we're getting that kind of snapshot through time of this really fascinating place.

Yeah, yeah.

I hate to keep continuing with the Wire, but it fits so well, especially after I look into the second season.

I had that thought too.

Looking into the second season, I will say obviously they're showing a system that is strained.

I'm not sure, maybe in Blue Lights the system is fundamentally broken, but the people upholding the system are not necessarily fundamentally broken.

And I do think that's a big difference between say, them and Jimmy McNulty, for example, who's fundamentally broken as a.

As an agent of the system.

Yes, good point.

And it might have on rose colored glasses as far as the people involved on one side versus the other in Blue Light.

Could be.

Yeah, but you may need that to tell the story.

Yeah, yeah.

Not a criticism for me.

Just as much as I feel that the parallels are apt.

It hasn't hit that point yet for me.

Although there's some systems that are interrogated.

I mean, they have their faults, they have their human faults, but it's not as denigrating as McNulty or take your pick of those.

Yeah, you can.

Almost anyone except Prez, my favorite.

Like, obviously this is a bigger conversation than just these specific shows, but the pendulum swing of almost like an always sunny thing.

We're like, oh, let's take this humor to this extreme outer level and push it as far as we can or something like the Wire or, you know, Breaking Bad is a different kind of antihero.

But like, you know, like, oh, people are so complex when like in the history of humans telling each other's stories.

It's a lot of good guy, bad guy stuff.

Obviously that is a comforting way of telling stories in a way, but it's also like a way of conveying information about who we are and want to be.

It's probably a lot of our good guys aren't good guys now.

Our people in power aren't good guys.

Right.

And we want.

Yeah, you're right about that.

Large changes in the second season.

I think the show got more money.

It.

It looks.

I think it did.

I think it looks bigger.

It looks so good now.

Yeah.

So good.

The story is seems to be equally as good and tight and they're just larger shots.

It's the things that Adam pointed out from the first season that he loved.

Is is done times 10.

And it feels like a novel now in the way.

Again, in the way that the Wire felt like a novel.

I think that it's a.

It's a tighter script and there's more time outside of the squad cars in season two.

Anyway, that's about all I could say.

Without spoiling anything, let's take a break so that on the other side we'll spoil a little of It's Always Sunny the whole season.

And we'll spoil Blue Lights, the first episode of the second season.

At least.

Stick with us though.

If you've seen those things, use the timestamps.

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Adam had to duck out.

He's dealing with some house issues where he's having to set a trap.

A trap Very much like one would see Frank Reynolds get called in.

Where am I going with this?

Well, you've signed up for the Alabama Tank newsletter.

The the newsletter produced by our home site.

But we're here to get into It's Always Sunny from xfx, though it drops at the same time on Hulu now it's the same thing.

Longest running scripted TV show that's not animated finished its 17th season on a high note.

And you agree with me, it was a real high note for the show.

I do.

And not only that, I think not only was it a high note, but it's probably one of the only examples of corporate synergy that's not going to make me ragingly angry.

Because having Frank Reynolds go on the Golden Bachelor was amazing.

That was brilliant.

It was.

It fit his character so well as well, as perfect.

And I just want to give it up here for Jesse Palmer.

How game was he?

He just had to be like the straight man in every situation.

And he was.

He was good.

I know he was only doing what he was doing.

Told to do same thing on the Bachelor and the Golden Bachelor.

But how he did it without breaking that Persona of his, I don't know.

I guess you could call it a parody, but it feels like a real episode in many ways.

It's just that Frank Reynolds is darkening their door.

Yes.

And then to turn around and see Jesse called the Alabama game, you know.

Yeah, that was sad too.

That was that too.

But I kept wondering, are they gonna hit that balance of making this seem like something that might appear on The Golden Bachelor vs It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia?

I think it was a good balance and honestly, actually kind of instructive to compare it to the first episode of the season there, the Abbott elementary or the complimentary episode to Abbott elementary, which I really, really follows.

Kind of the thing of Abbott Elementary.

But now I'm not a huge watcher, so I might be basing this on too little information.

Doesn't really feel like an episode of Abbott elementary as much as it does an odd fusion of the two shows.

Whereas this really feeling like a top notch, like, man, you could almost see this being true.

Like, you could almost see this happening if they let.

I mean, some.

Sometimes they do let these guests on the Bachelor get a little iffy.

It's just mesmerizing, though, to see Frank as the Golden Bachelor and then hilarious to when the ladies start coming out of the car.

You knew as soon as the ladies his age stepped out of the car, he was going to start dismissing them.

And that's exactly.

That was possibly my favorite part in a really solid episode.

But that, that was probably my favorite part just because, like, Danny DeVito is so funny.

It's like, out of here.

Nope, Her.

I want her.

The 20 year old her.

And Jesse Palmer is where he.

This is where he had to be the most game, where he had to be so exasperated and say, this is not part of the show.

You know, you have to.

We don't dismiss them yet.

Yes.

What are you doing?

Usually this kind of like, okay, we get it.

Disney, you own abc, you own fx, whatever.

Usually this makes me mad.

Yeah, this was perfect.

And I love it when the show is able to satirize directly something that's going on in culture or has gone on in our culture.

Of course.

Here's the hug to a girl they have their version.

She really got so close to that border of annoying versus hilarious.

But she was right there.

She was right there.

Yeah, I did like the.

Yeah, like, with her.

I know it's a one note joke, but her only being able to say in like an increasingly ridiculous Nashville accent, chew on that thing.

That was the point that was killing me.

It was exactly it.

And then Dee tries it because she realized, oh, fame is in whatever D sees as fame is what she'll put on that.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

It was a good episode.

And, you know, it's just like it's always sunny to end on a hint of actual emotion.

Carol Kane, really, I guess you'd say get, like, guest star for this role, right?

Like, she's hilarious.

She.

I just thought, really running into everything.

Running into Frank going on the Golden Bachelor has been funny from them investigating where Frank has gone.

And then my favorite episode of the season was the one where they think they're going to have to be on an episode of the Golden Bachelor.

So they get a focus group to review them at dinner.

And it's just like, it was so good.

They'd managed to generate not just one good episode, but, like, how would these profoundly broken, narcissistic people deal with the idea that somebody they know is on TV?

Carol Kane and Danny DeVito is a taxi callback.

Yes.

By the way.

Yeah.

Yes.

Which I didn't even realize until the show had ended.

And I thought about it some.

The only thing that didn't work for me in this episode was the other four members of the gang trying to implement some sort of foam bomb.

They show up to the recording with the foam all over them and hair gone and all this.

That just didn't work for me as much as the rest of the episode.

It was okay.

It was very much a B plot because the A plot here is Frank.

I mean, it even felt like a C or D plot because giving them something to do in the audience with them with their normal selves and normal attire would.

Would kill just being stupid there in the audience for ABC recording.

I mean, that's your.

That's your funny.

I wonder if they felt like they had almost done a version of that with the dinner.

The Dinner Party episode and maybe where it's just that, you know, there were selves exposed to an audience.

Do you want to talk about Dennis's monologue at the dinner bottle?

I laughed so hard.

I knew you would love that.

As he's, like getting up in the camera and he's like, I. I need this I need this.

And then the fact that they set it up so perfectly for the, like, the feedback to be like, yeah, the gay vampire guy scared us.

But you can see yourself.

And sometimes in some of these folks, like Dennis's need for control, I can see that in myself.

I can be like, oh, I've been in situations where I want so and so just to shut up so we can look good here.

And then all of the other ones.

Right.

Because it's like the second they get.

And this I actually thought was almost.

I mean, it's not quite there, but it does feel like almost a great commentary on present day and age where anyone can have an audience.

And we know from, you know, experience, but also from communications research, having an audience playing to an audience, that can change you.

And I thought that they actually did this really, you know, with these desperate, oh, she's gonna be a clean comic now.

She's got the ribbon, you know, and.

Her idea of a clean comic was not the Nate Bargazi.

It was children's comic.

It was like Borscht Belt stuff.

Yeah, borscht belt.

Children's.

1950S.

Like.

Like Mac, like, seeing he's going to go back into the closet because it tests better with middle America.

He's doing backflips that he can't pull off because of the woke Charlie.

He just doesn't feel comfortable being himself.

So he's got a weird accent.

It's.

It was.

I just thought from.

From beginning to end it was very funny and.

And having the ridiculous conceit.

But you also have, like, somewhat normal people in the room with them.

Yeah.

Watching them, who cannot figure out what they are doing or what they are about.

And that was really funny to.

To.

To me.

I also.

I think most of the episodes this season tried to put on another genre of show, at least a little bit.

And here, of course, it was the Golden Bachelor.

And.

Wow, did it work?

Of course.

We've talked about that.

I will say that I felt genuine sadness for Lynne Marie Stewart, who plays Charlie's mom.

That was really sweet.

I knew it was coming and that they talked a little bit about it, but that was really sweet.

So in real life, she's passed, and it was a really loving tribute to her at the end after her final appearance in this episode.

She was always so game to do whatever.

And she's an actress who's been around on small things.

A lot of appearances.

In Peewee's Playhouse, for example, she was on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Tons and tons of time.

So she always just came to do the silly stuff and.

And play it really well.

You know, she played Charlie's mom, who was my noted libertine, so to speak.

Yes, that's a good way of putting it.

And another thing is.

Was super captivating to see the cast in those old clips when it wasn't even in hd.

Yeah.

To see Charlie and.

And Rob and Glenn Howerton, all of them so young.

It's funny that we've kind of grown up with them.

Yeah.

In a lot of ways.

Say, I'd read a little bit about this, and it's kind of a good reminder.

One of the things I do.

This is sort of a meta thing.

It's not in the show itself, but one of the things that I like about the show is if it's.

Is that it's laughing at and mocking, it's not informed by a profoundly toxic view of human behavior and human relation with each other.

Because actually, behind the scenes, it's a group of people who like working with each other so much, they've done it for, you know, as long as they have.

Yeah.

Two of them were married.

Yep.

It's a great season.

I did not think we'd talk about it again until that episode.

The last two or three, really.

They were.

They were on it.

They were on a real run.

And the other ones are good, too, but, like, it just.

They just.

It was a slam dunk.

Bringing it home.

We never talked about the Dog Track episode.

Is there anything you want to say about it?

Oh, God, that one.

That one was a little out there.

That was a little out there.

It was kind of funny, though.

Yeah.

Just again, like, all of the, you know, another episode that's able to exploit Dee and Dennis's, you know, narcissism, you.

Know, to the point of lack of humanity.

Yes.

And need.

Need to be in control and need to win.

Well, we are continuing our talk on Blue Lights.

We'll talk about the ending of the first season and the beginning of the second, which is quite a dichotomy to me.

Since it's time to get the specifics of both of those.

Make note that we're going to be spoiling anything from season one and the first episode of season two.

What did you take away from the first season as a whole when you ended it and you saw its resolution?

What'd you think?

My big takeaway, I think after having seen all those episodes, is that Jerry's ass is dead.

No, I'm kidding.

It's a good question.

No, but now we can talk about it.

I was sitting on that last week.

I thought that was kind of smart, kind of upper level television where you don't know if he's dead and you don't reveal it.

First scene of the next episode, you wait, you let just a little bit more character information continue and then you know, 75% of the way of the episode, you find out, okay, no, he really died.

And it's driving the action of the episode.

It drives the action and it does happens off screen.

It's not like a huge melodrama.

Melodramatic moment.

Yeah.

The show as a whole.

I think I would hold up everything that we've said about it.

You know, stuff that.

Or.

Sorry.

The first season as a whole, not the show as a whole.

Especially some really.

I think Adam really had a good.

When he.

When he said it's interesting, like who.

Who would do this job?

I think that really gets to the crux of it.

One of the things I actually found myself really liking in season one and seems to be rolling over into season two is the hopefulness of doing a good turn.

You know, like just like the ability.

Like one of the reasons you like Jerry so much.

Right.

Is like, he does help Happy.

He does make Tommy better.

Like he even makes the worst character on the show a little bit better and free her to make an even more correct decision and step away.

And I thought that was really, you know, the Wire has a really bleak view of human nature.

And I think.

I think it's definitely a no good deed goes unpunished show.

Right here we got a little bit.

It's a little different here.

You.

The butterfly effect applies to good things.

Yeah.

As well as bad.

Yeah, I agree.

Moving into season two, were you struck at the shift of direction and production?

Yeah.

It's funny that we had already brought up the Wire because for the first episode I just thought that like, just from even like the filming, it felt more sprawling, if that makes sense.

Yeah, yeah.

A hint more of cinematic if you.

Yeah, if I should use that.

You know, I'd seen season one, so I'm like, okay, they're in the.

Their armored vehicle.

They're not really being attacked.

It's a training exercise.

I can figure that out.

But it looks good.

Right.

And then they get thrown into it for a second.

It had me.

The opening scene of the second season does at least let.

Even if you figure it out, you know, stakes are raised.

Shit's crucial.

Even if it is training.

This is higher danger training than we saw with just Tommy trying To be a better shooter.

Yes.

The writing's still tied.

I think it still has the same grain of specifics where you have to pay attention to every line and beat.

But we're off the farm more.

The kids aren't necessarily kids anymore, too, which I think contributes to that.

And by the kids, I mean the younger officers.

You know, they've got Annie and Tommy together without an older officer.

You know, Jen's somewhere else completely.

She's a lawyer working a law firm, I suppose, is what Northern Ireland has.

Yeah, I think law firm.

That's what it is.

They call lawyers solicitors or, thank you, barristers.

There you go.

Also, once against the superior writing that lays out multiple threads.

And you damn well better pay attention in a good way.

You know, you.

You want your TV show to be like this.

You don't want to be where, oh, that was just a throwaway.

What was that?

Yeah, all of these are going to connect in a web fashion.

Blaine, you were so right.

Because they did such a good job of taking what could just seem like, wow, that's a bunch of coincidences and.

And kind of pulling back and being like, no, these things are connected.

Right.

Like, drugs are coming into the city, so the guy the sold the veteran overdoses and dies.

The guy that his friend, you know, knows, the guys that are bringing drugs, like, these things are all connected in a way that doesn't feel coincidental so much as like you're pulling at one thing and it makes everything else start.

Start wiggling.

Yeah.

Which is a life type of thing.

And I bet that Declan Lone got that from his journalism when he followed a thread.

I've heard that journalism find it hard to know when to end the research, when the End the story.

When's the last.

What's the last paragraph going to be?

Because you want to continue the pulling at the thread.

This goes all the way to, you know, another completely different story that's connected.

Exactly.

And I'll say, too.

But a character who's a veteran who owns a bar.

I'm very curious that it's called the Loyal Publisher and it has the Union Jack and it's got orange all over it.

I feel like we're seeing a person with a political affiliation that we haven't seen yet in this show.

Let's get into that.

One thing of note for viewer stateside is that there's a shift, too, that this season's going to have a lot more to do with the east side of Belfast, which is a lot more loyalists to England live.

If I'M not mistaken.

It's not blatantly stated, but there's big, big hints like the Loyalist pub and the Union Jack there on the wall.

In fact, a. I did a double take because I kept.

I, I was in, you know, quote unquote, in their bar with them because.

I watched it be that way.

And I, I thought, wait, what?

Why do they have the Union Jack up there?

This is.

I thought these were a lot of old IRA guys.

And then I, I thought, oh, Loyalist pub.

Oh, there are actually people who were okay with England having control.

Yeah.

A lot of the spotlight gets turned on the ira, but, you know, part of the Good Friday Accords that stopped the fighting.

It was all the paramilitaries.

You know, it wasn't just the IRA out there.

There were folks on both sides of this conflict taking, you know, stands for whatever they thought was right or best.

I'm really interested, and we'll see if they do anything with it.

But introducing this, and I wonder, like, is anyone get, like, this guy used to be a soldier.

He's had a friend who's died who was a soldier.

Does anyone care or does only part of the city care?

Are they, you know, are they traitors because they were in the British Army?

Are they.

Are they heroes because they were in the British Army?

It seems like he lives in a complex place.

Well, you talk about, is anyone going to care and how's it going to play out?

Well, it's already starting to in the first episode because it's boiling down to a rivalry that's a hole left by McIntyre and his son exiting the end of season one.

And that rivalry is Dixon.

And I'm getting a sense that he was an IRA sort of fella versus Hamill, who's a loyalist to England.

And I guess I just have a hard time.

You've had to walk me through this before.

I have a hard time thinking, why would you want another country coming in to rule?

Who would be the Loyalist?

I don't like a lot.

I have a hard time figuring out that people like that exist.

A lot of those folks.

And this is an oversimplification, and I'll say to anyone listening that I don't know all the ins and outs of it.

Just.

Just kind of, you know, England has been colonizing Ireland for a very long time.

That's right.

And so a lot of these, and this is a huge oversimplification, but a lot of these are Protestant, not Catholic.

They don't have, you know, so much so that, you know, the dominance Was the Protestants over the Catholics.

And they're not thinking of themselves as Irish in the same way that someone who say wants a unified country is They're.

They're Protestants, they're Loyalists.

The Orange, I think, if I remember correctly, like that goes back to King William of Orange, of William and Mary, who was King William of Orange.

He was a Protestant after the.

Or as part of the periods of the English Civil War wars.

Right.

You have.

The Irish had.

Had kind of supported and.

And King Charles was trying to get some help from them.

So you have Cromwell coming over destroying things and people are coming and, and, and settling and becoming.

This is not quite exactly the same thing, but it's almost like the south in a lot of ways, where you have these big house.

These.

These big houses and areas who own people who own areas that are basically sharecroppers.

Right.

So a lot of these.

And that is.

It is way oversimplification to say that like every, you know, Protestant loyalist is.

Is rich or whatever.

But I think it's more in the sense of, like, if we can kind of imagine what we know about our internal divisions as a country.

Both, Both sides in the Civil War felt that they were upholding a logical thread of revolutionary ideal, you know, and amongst any other things.

But, you know, the Confederates really felt that this was their revolution.

And I do think that the inclusion and maintenance of slavery in America makes that sort of a logical conclusion.

And the Northern folks felt that they were extending the republic, you know, and other things, of course, went into it.

But I think that's.

That's, you know, they're.

They're both folks.

They live in the same place.

They.

They want different futures.

That's my dumb overview, or at least as I understand it.

Well, the loyalist pub owner, he certainly isn't rich.

No, he doesn't seem to be.

And maybe I'm simplifying it much further as to say that it could be seen more religiously than nationally.

Well, my understanding is that the religion goes into the ethnic part of it because the Protestants, by and large were the folks who crossed the Iris Sea and they colonized and people were given families were brought over from Scotland and England to settle the land.

Very much in the sense that people came to the United States and displaced Native Americans.

People were.

English lords, were empowered to be rulers.

You know, so even if you weren't necessarily rich.

Right.

Like every single person who came and colonized America was.

Was by no means rich, but they were dispossessing others.

The favoritism for that Religious and ethnic.

That kind of gets codified into unfair treatment.

That's.

That's a big part of it too.

Fascinating.

It would be good to read a history on some of that for me.

Too, because this is gleaned from a bunch of different sources.

Even things like my wife has an English PhD and Edmund Spencer, who wrote the Faerie Queen.

Right.

He was over in Ireland working for the English.

Some people have said that the things that he helped support as an administrator would.

If they didn't have the category then, of course, but it would make him a war criminal today.

I see.

So this has been going on very deeply for a very long time and it's affecting all kinds of threads, especially if you, if you've studied any kind of English literature.

Right.

It's.

It's affecting even things like a famous work like the Fairy Queen or a.

Pub owner in Blue Lights.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Yes.

And the pub owner from Blue Lots is under the thumb of Dixon, probably former IRA type of fella Dixon is.

Has a loose control because there's Hamill, who is a loyalist.

And now that James McIntyre's gone, it's kind of up in the air.

Who.

Who can fill the void.

Although Tina McIntyre is still very much around and telling people what's what.

I was, I was glad to see her.

I don't know why, but when she stepped out, like when you.

They do the.

Like, you're not sure who it is at first and then you see the heel come out.

It's Tina.

Well, she had the.

The best beat last season in season one where the cops ask her.

So someone came by and just shot up your house and she.

She doesn't take the cigarette out of her mouth.

She just says, uh huh.

Yeah.

It's such a.

That was good.

Oh, it was not perfect.

I don't know who decided to do that.

Director, the actress.

Kudos.

I think we get a good lesson here this week.

Texting is weak calling and strong.

That made me laugh.

As much as we hate it poor, it's good that young Tommy has.

Has Annie looking out for him.

We kind of saw that he needs someone after Jerry.

Yeah.

And especially because there's a note of ambiguity in the new inspector who's here.

He seems like he might want to snap up Tommy, who's a sharp.

A sharp kid.

The new investigator was here last season in moments.

But he's also brought in Shane, who's working with Annie.

He's Annie's partner now.

Shane seems good to be.

Too good to be true.

It's, you know, this SUS investigator who really wants to put his two cents on the unit and their directions this season.

You know, he tells them, if you see Dixon or Ham or any of these other people who work alongside them, just stop them immediately.

Shane, you know, almost feels like a mole.

And, yeah, the young guy who's playing Shane is from normal people.

By the way he played the bullying brother.

I don't know if you can remember that far.

Oh, I thought he looked familiar.

I just could not place it.

Yeah, he's another place playing this role very well.

You can see why he would be appealing to have as a partner.

And Annie's interest, you know, she has a twinkle in her eye when she talks to him.

Like, I do think that there's a kind of, like, skill to playing someone, and this is just irrespective of the what's actually happening in the show, a skill to playing someone that, you know that the producers want you to like them, but they their performance, you just.

You kind of can't help but like them.

You know, a good performance is able to kind of put you emotionally in the shoes of who's in the room with those people.

That's right.

And with that, what we'll try to do is come back to Blue Lights as far as we can into season two next week.

And if you'll keep up with us on social media or just the newsletter, we'll try to keep your breast on where we're going with next week.

Besides Blue Lights, usually we tack on one other thing.

So this is the end of our episode for Adam and Donovan.

I'm Blaine, and make sure that you keep your pharmacy doors locked.

Very true.

Thanks, everyone.