An XL Episode From Rewatches to 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' to 'How to Get to Heaven from Belfast'!

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We're back this week after being away entirely too long.

Life happened and it did it every time we record that's the way life is.

But this week we hope it's the return of our regularly scheduled Tuesday broadcast.

This week we're talking about faithful shows we tend to re watch and why as well as the MCU and Disney plus show Wonder Man.

Those will only be in the non spoiler section in both non spoilers to begin and spoilers after the break.

We have three shows in this order.

HBO's hit A Night of the Seven Kingdoms, Apple TV's returning series shrinking, which stars Harrison Ford, Jason Siegel and Jessica Williams.

And finally, we're going to talk about the new Netflix show How to get to Heaven from Belfast.

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Enjoy the show.

Let me get in Donovan and Adam here and we'll begin Alabama take projection.

First of all, forgive me for grabbing the mic from all of you, but I I can't get any further this week without a big virtual hug and a thank you to these folks.

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gonna be peppering in a lot of bill fest slang.

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Special shout out to Bo Hicks as not only did he give a donation, but he gave us a recommendation of a show we're going to cover this week in the last slot it's Netflix's how to get to Heaven from Belfast.

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Now for a segment this week it's original to this week may only do it this week.

It's where dumb guys watch things they've seen a dozen times.

Our segment dumb guys watch things they've watched dozens of times.

Adam, you said you took a slow waltz through the acclaimed HBO miniseries Band of Brothers.

Again, I feel like this was this segment is specifically aimed at me and my watching habits.

I mean we could do it every week but no, it's not.

You said it was kind of a slow walk.

Why is that?

You were just.

Why was it slow?

Yeah.

You didn't watch an episode of Night or something?

I don't know how long it took me, but I watch it sequentially.

Probably like one a night.

Probably like once a year.

Once every couple years.

It's so good.

And any.

Anytime that it's on tv, I may get the itch and then start again and I. I feel like I just needed to kill an hour and pulled up the first one and you can't stop there.

You're off to the races.

I'll be honest though, what took me probably one or every two or three days and then I hit the ninth episode, which is the exceptional but very devastating.

They find the concentration camp, the work camp episode.

And I. I let that one sit for some time before I pressed on because.

Not that any of them are particularly light, but.

Yeah, if you've never heard, if you're a fan.

I feel like anybody who likes TV loves this show.

Right?

Blaine doesn't like it.

I did not say that.

Blaine.

I just didn't finish it.

You didn't finish it?

I didn't finish it, but.

Well, no, tell us.

This isn't the Pacific, Blaine.

Which I tried to watch too.

Why should people watch this 25 year old series if they haven't bothered yet?

If they have heard of it, if they know of it, they've got hbo.

Max.

What's.

What's going to help them out here?

I want Donovan to back me up some on this because I think there's a lot of ways to answer.

You can answer as you know, a TV watcher or fan of learning more.

I know Donovan reads a lot about the history of war and conflict and all these things.

You can watch from that angle.

I think just as pure storytelling, it may be HBO's best show.

I know that that's controversial to.

To put it above the Wire and Sopranos and the first season of True Detective, all that.

I don't know that they have ever accomplished anything quite like that.

I don't know that TV in general has.

I was kind of joking about the Pacific, but I never finished the Pacific and I think the Pacific tried to do this and failed.

Where Band of Brothers was it.

It just did such an excellent job.

Just like Ordinary Folks, extraordinary situation and what that is like every step of the way.

And I don't know, it's like almost transporting.

It helps that this, the real life story had a very definite beginning, middle and end.

Now the.

The counter to this is like, yeah, America is pretty proud of ourselves in this series.

And I know the joke in Europe is that we showed up for the parade still.

I don't know.

I think too when it was created and if you're a fan of the show and you've never listened to this podcast that came out a few years ago that the guy from Men in Blazers did with.

He actually interviewed Tom Hanks for part of it and he got all of the actors who were on it to come on which was.

It was just fascinating to hear them tell their stories 20 years later.

I guess it was about actually meeting the veterans, a lot of them that they portrayed.

And so this very narrow moment in time where those guys were still with us, a lot of them and able to tell their stories, actually go to set and see what was going on.

And then now we've had all this time to reflect back on this very, you know, made in the late 90s show.

This is what America thinks of its 20th century.

And for 911 to happen the like two days after the first episode.

Isn't that right, Donovan?

It was.

I don't know about that, but it

was a 25 year old series.

I think it was.

If it wasn't the first episode, it was right around.

I think it was episode one aired on Sunday and then Tuesday 911 happens.

But regardless, it's like how her layers of the American cake are we seeing in this one show now like with.

They're talking about the greatest generation.

We're viewing it as like this is a piece of media made during a certain time and now it's.

It's a strange time to be an American.

So it's kind of nice to.

To watch.

I did try to watch.

I think I got about four episode three episodes in and I got a little lost in who was whom because it switches out a lot of white males a lot.

They're all soldiers.

Blaine.

Yeah.

And I was thinking, well, who's this guy?

Yeah, he would.

It lost me.

I think it does take a few viewings to when you re watch then to like see and track somebody for the whole thing versus kind of it just happening.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

You're like, oh, I know where this guy ends up.

So.

Oh, you kind of see what he's doing in each scene.

And the casting was brilliant.

I think Damian Lewis is incredible as Winters.

He's great.

Everybody.

Everybody's great.

I'll admit to a little face blindness as well.

When everyone's dirty and in a uniform.

But I think that it's worth sticking with.

Even if.

And sometimes you know what it's like if you don't have a hundred percent what's going on.

Like what's happening right at that second on the screen is still interesting and compelling.

Yeah, we've got the Internet, look up who it is.

I'm interested too in like how the variety of people who love this show, like you would expect me and Donovan to be into it, I think.

Yeah, well, there's dads, of course, dads.

Legions of dads who get sucked in every time it's on tv.

Tony Soprano just had a lot of people say, like, oh, I watched that once a year, that I would not expect such folks.

Like a friend's wife.

It came up and she was like, oh, I do an annual re watch of this and I don't know any other.

She's not like a war movie person or anything.

It's just, I think that speaks to how human the story is.

I need to give it another shot and I may well plan it.

I may well map that out.

I've done a similar approach with another highly acclaimed miniseries, this one from 1989 with the death of Robert Duvall.

Last week I caught myself watching Lonesome dove for about 20 or 25 minute chunks before bed.

And I just loves the word.

I love Duvall's performance in it.

It's enviable how much fun he looks to be having and how much fun the character is supposed to display about.

It's all okay, man.

In this world of deaths around every corner.

I even let my daughter watch the first 10 minutes or so.

The first episode.

It's not quite a children's show, but she got a chuckle out of Duvall's character, Gus, saying, well, at least I ain't afraid to be lazy.

Which is as much his delivery as it is the script.

Of course, the novels from Larry McMurtry is brilliant as well.

It actually started as a movie script for John Wayne as Woodrow, if you know the show.

Jimmy Stewart as Gus, the Robert Duvall and Henry Fonda as Jake Spoon, which is pretty much the third lead.

Now that would have been good, but I'm glad he fleshed it into a full novel.

And then this miniseries, which he also worked on.

Are you.

Have you read the book by chance or seen any of the miniseries?

Past couple years, multiple people have been like, lonesome Dove, it's as good as they say it is.

It is.

I gotta read it, I guess because like multiple people have been like, no, it's actually really.

And so is the miniseries, by the way.

It is.

It is that good.

Yeah.

I haven't seen the mini.

You would think CBS miniseries in 1989.

Well, it's not.

No, it's great.

There's Danny Glover, there's Robert Urich, who was pretty decent at the time, and Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones.

I could keep going.

Anjelica Houston.

And it's so touching.

It's massively touching.

In 1989.

I didn't watch it initially, but I had a cousin who kept quoting it at Saturday family gatherings.

And I was like, what are you talking about?

And he told me some of it.

I said, okay, I'll watch it next time, because he was saying a lot of cuss words.

And I was like, there's no way that's on cbs.

That's not on cbs.

They're not saying that.

When it comes to watching things a lot, though, I do find myself watching Comedy Performance as many nights as I in my day last 10, 20 minutes before bed.

And it lately it's been Dusty Sleigh's Wet Heat, if you're familiar with him.

No, his routine is great, but his casual delivery and repeated phrase of we're having a good time.

It's like whenever there's a moment of silence, he just waves at the crowd and says, we're having a good time.

And it's so random and displaced that I love it.

And he's, he's positive guy.

He's blue collar, he's working class, born and raised in a trailer park in Opelika, Alabama.

And he carries that with him, but at the same time in a positive manner.

I just love it all.

It's a nice package, so I do recommend it.

It's the most recent comedy special I've watched over and over, by the way, if you're, if you want to watch Lonesome Dove, it's.

It's actually on Peacock, which is really odd because I remember it being on CBS years.

It is strange.

But anyway, there you go.

Band of Brothers on hbo.

Max Dusty Slays Wet Heat on Netflix.

If those interest you.

Only one of us that's going to be me.

Happen to catch all of the episodes of the new Disney plus show Wonder man, starring Ben Kingsley as this strange actor Trevor and Yaya Abdul Mateen II as a pretty desperate actor who's named Simon, who would love nothing more than a shot to play Wonder man, which is currently being cast in the series.

After watching all the episodes, it's truly one of the better Marvel creations and easily the best thing they've done for tv.

It's the.

The entertainment is that good.

You know the Trevor character from Iron Man 3 and I think he appeared in the.

The Samu Lou project.

Shang Chi.

Shang Chi.

Legend of the Three Rings.

Right.

I forgot that was.

Had been made.

It happened and it was much better than I thought it was.

I had.

I hadn't seen that one.

But he briefly appears in it as Trevor, this weird actor person who played a terrorist and then got arrested and then now he's out.

It's good stuff.

Abdul Martin II brings this actor down and out, but possibly overdoing some of his acting issues which keeps him from getting roles.

He's eager got some issues.

He wants a chance.

Episodes 30 minutes each.

Roundabout good Marvel show.

I can't believe they.

They did it and did it with such originality.

They went in the direction of originality rather the template.

Well, that's been the kind of their issue.

Right.

Every time they have a good premise it feels like they've done template over originality.

So that's a.

That's a welcome change.

There is no MCU to it until maybe the last 20 minutes of the last episode.

And.

And it's.

It's earned by that point.

Do you think Ben Kingsley just sits in the green room and he's like I played Gandhi once.

I know, like.

And then he reads the script a little more.

Well, he's having fun here.

I was once Gandhi.

Yeah, he.

He's looks like he's enjoying himself.

Well, he's a good actor.

Yeah, he is.

Now we'll get into all of the series and shows.

We'll also bring up in some in the same order after the break when we open the floor to specifics and spoilers.

Certainly seems the HBO Sunday series A Night of the Seven Kingdoms set in the Game of Thrones world is beloved by.

Sounds like everyone.

From my knowledge, it's a story most about one night said almost 90 years before the events of Game of thrones at around 70, 75, 80 after House of the Dragon.

That's.

I think that may be up for debate.

We have not watched the finale though we've watched every episode up to it.

So I bet most of our audience by now it being Tuesday and all have watched the finale.

My question, does it satiate your enjoyment for the other two shows not being.

Not airing?

Of course one is finished but.

Or do you think it's even better than that?

It goes beyond.

It goes beyond to me.

Yeah.

In what way?

Were first talking about this show that this is.

And I know it's.

They're going off of a text, but it's a really smart way to go back into a very sprawling universe where you have a lot of investment in a lot of different characters.

Scale that stuff back, you know what I mean?

Tell a small story that has far reaching consequences.

Obviously Blaine, I think it was you that said I hope they don't stay at the tournament this whole season.

And I disagreed thinking like, let's just keep it narrow, keep the focus really tight.

Don't zoom all around this world.

Just let us get to know some characters and kind of enjoy flu.

This is like flyover country, right?

In Game of Thrones in a way.

Yes, it is.

Tell me that story.

You get the sense that this is taking place at a tournament, but it's a tournament that is like it doesn't matter too much.

They care enough to show up, but like not a lot.

Yeah, it's not the main thing.

Yeah.

This isn't King's Landing.

I kept thinking about like what I was going to say about it and I think that like basically I'll kind of like build on what Adam said where it's like it's just hit nailing the fundamentals.

Oh.

Like these bits that make for an effective story, an effective and engaging story.

These things that make you want to go, oh, I'd like to see what happens in the next episode.

They're doing that and I think like it's kind of apples and oranges with something like House of the Dragon.

But I like there's almost not a comparison.

But I think that they're much more sure footed, at least in Knight of the Seven Kingdoms so far than they were absolutely in the first season of House of the Dragon.

And I think Adam has very correctly identified a lot of the reasons, a lot of the reasons for that.

Thank you.

They nailed casting with Dunk.

He wasn't a former rug rugby player, not even an actor.

Yeah, yeah, I nailed it though.

I, I would watch him in many series or more seasons of this.

I'm always impressed with them, especially for kind of like a central pairing like this.

Like good child casting.

Because hard to be.

It's hard enough to be a kid without having to act.

And the, with the, the, the, the fella whose multi part name has escaped my head.

Who is our, our, our friend the little fella egg.

He's pretty good too.

You know, they have a good buddy comedy dynamic there.

I do wonder if anyone who hasn't seen any of the other shows would find this appealing?

I think so.

I think that you don't have to know the lore to understand the stakes because I think that the stakes are really pretty basic, you know, like I'm, I don't think this is spoiler territory.

Like I've got to win big because I have no, I have no money, you know, like I have nothing else.

I have no money and no prospects.

So this is the only thing.

I mean, you don't need to know who with the history of the Baratheons or something to understand what's going on there, you know, and it's like, I mean, it sets it up really in like a have versus have not story in a lot of ways too.

Right?

Like you know what's going on there.

You can figure that out.

Also to come in non spoilers here and spoilers later.

Shrinking began its third season again on Apple TV a few weeks ago and it aired its fourth episode of that third season this past week.

I had so much fun the last time I haven't watched it, but the last time we covered it.

Can I say it, Blaine?

I'll give you the one shrinkage.

Adam, what's your general feel?

Or the third season's return?

This style of humor can wear out its welcome sometimes, but they are doing enough story development, I think, to make up for it.

I'm going to explain a lot more in spoilers using the first episode mostly, but I'm of the hot, maybe unpopular opinion that this show sucks a little.

I'm not going to argue with you.

Okay.

Interesting.

Okay, well, one reason perhaps is that it, it works so much better as a drama that's sort of funny than a comedy that adds sprinkles of drama.

Yeah, which I'll agree with that.

I'll explain that in spoilers.

Our last ticket item for non spoilers now spoilers later is the new Netflix series How to get to Heaven from Belfast.

I'd heard about this one, but what brought me to watch it was the recommendation from previously mentioned bar proprietor and general roustabout Bo Hicks.

He said it's as good as he's seen lately.

This is from the creator of dairy girls, Lisa McGee.

Also an Irish set show, Northern Ireland set show on Netflix.

But this one's about three close 38 year old friends who've had an old high school pal, an old mate named Greta, die unexpectedly.

So they go into Ireland from Northern Ireland.

So there are eight episodes.

I've seen three.

Adam's seen four, maybe five.

Five.

Yeah.

Yeah, I've seen two.

Donovan.

I've seen two.

I wanted to get to three, but I made it to two, so we're

only going to cover three.

There's a good chance we'll probably discuss these first three this week, which is.

It's almost the halfway point of eight episodes.

And then we'll finalize our thoughts maybe next week on the entirety of it.

I'll start with.

Well, me.

Whoever wants to answer first.

What's this show saying to you?

I feel like, Donovan, this is the perfect line for your time.

For your line.

Well, this.

This is a show that dares to ask.

Yes.

Do you like the Irish?

Yeah.

That's funny you say that.

A slight change on what I expected, but yeah.

What did you expect?

Also, do you like to laugh?

There we go.

His catchphrase.

It took me an episode to get into it, just to get the rhythms.

By the end of the second episode, I was like, yeah, we're here.

This.

This show is a ride.

Yeah.

I think it was the end of the first episode where I thought, okay, I understand the pacing now.

It's crack, Blaine.

It's class.

Yeah, it is.

I'm a big fan of anyone in.

In Ireland who puts.

They say ol, but it's like a U L. So they've got like, the priest in one bit.

He's like, well, Rome wants to work.

Let us work on the ol work life.

Bal.

You're like, you're not getting that anywhere else.

This.

I was cracking up.

Yeah.

Once I hit its rhythms, which I think happened to me for Dairy Girls, too.

Like, I needed about an episode.

Yes.

And if you've seen Dairy Girls, it does very much, I think, the product of the same person.

So if you have gotten her sense of humor and writing style and characterization from that, it will.

It will be very familiar.

Anyway, great, great recommendation.

Yeah.

I should preface my thoughts.

I thought Derry Girls is, like, one of the funniest things that I've seen in the recent memory.

Oh, yeah.

It's up there with, like, Arrested Development for you.

I don't know about that, but that was 23 years ago arrested Development came out.

You're just talking about LOL moments.

Like, I am, like, actually, like.

Like a hearty lol.

Yeah.

And like.

Like tears in my eyes, laughing at some of the stuff that happened.

And the flip side of that Derry Girl succeeded in two lanes, making me do that and then all of a sudden making you, like, want to tear up over something this.

And Donovan, I just have to say, you recognize the beats of her as a.

As a show creator and writer when, like, she does get to the priest or to the nuns or whatever and like, the comedy just starts, like, fast and thick.

You're like, oh, yeah, she's back in the strike zone here.

Fast.

It probably could use a rewatch this show.

I expected those two lanes to be covered.

The comedy and then the sudden gut punch switch up.

But it's doing some other stuff that I. I didn't know anything about it going on.

Mystery.

It is a very interesting mystery.

Mystery.

A little spooky, little bit of creepiness.

It's sort of.

I think we get like a tip of the hat to what kind of mystery it wants to.

To be with its intro, you know, where we've got some throwbacks to.

It almost looked like you could almost say this was like a 70s paperback cover.

Oh, yeah.

From what I've seen, they're nailing that part of, like, the mystery, like, crime part of it.

They're actually nailing it.

Here's what they're doing with it.

They're giving you plenty in each episode to the point where you're not thinking, well, what's the fucking mystery?

No, you get your.

You get your big chunk.

And episode two, you get another big chunk, Episode three, and you're like, yeah, that's kind of what I thought.

Okay, well, let's keep going.

And that wonderful play on assumptions for comedy is something I have always loved.

Of course, this is just classic comedy rule.

The things you.

You've said are not about what everyone thinks you're talking about.

They do that so well.

The writing does it so well.

There's a moment where a mom is talking and you think it's.

She's talking about her husband and she's not.

For anyone hesitant, I would add that there is.

This is what I'm talking.

What I was talking about with Donovan earlier.

While I was surprised, for anyone hesitant, I would add, there's nothing too particular to know or understand about Ireland and the Irish culture.

Or North Northern Ireland.

Ireland.

I honestly think that this is a series that could play well many different locales and cultures.

And I would like to see what it did in that way.

It's not quite like Blue Lights or Derry Girls in that manner.

The only thing would be maybe an understanding of the nuance about how the Irish consider people from Belfast or Northern Ireland.

But they make that fairly apparent, I think.

Yeah.

My pushback on that would be that you could plug in any regionalisms.

Yes.

And would work kind of strong.

But I'm not sure that any country, pound for pound, has funnier regionalisms than the Irish.

I was thinking that there is a sort of particularity to being Ireland that makes it so funny.

It's almost like.

And I think we saw him do it, but like, my.

The analog that pops into my head is like, Martin McDonough, where, like, there's stuff where, like, he's good in his movies.

It's like, it wouldn't work if it wasn't Irish.

And we've actually seen him do movies where it's not Irish.

That's true.

And I think, like, there's a particularity to the country, the culture.

Donovan, this would be a really good one for you because you live in Connecticut now.

You were born and raised mostly in Alabama.

Would this not be a riot if three Southern ladies had to go visit a friend in Connecticut who had died?

I mean, I'd watch it.

It would be different.

It would be a different show.

It might be.

It really would be.

The.

The.

The Southern ladies might be too annoying.

Maybe you should flip it.

It should be Connecticut ladies coming to Alabama.

Like, if there was someone from New Jersey, oh, and he went down to maybe Georgia, he got a little bit of legal trouble.

Springsteen.

Yeah.

So he calls up his cousin Vinnie and he's like, hey, Vinnie, you gotta come down to Georgia.

He's like, my cousin Vinnie.

I see.

That could be.

I thought you were talking Springsteen.

We are finished with our non spoiler section.

Let's take a little break and I'll remind you of some things that we could use your help with.

And then on the other side, spoiler section.

Use those timestamps.

Go to the one you've watched.

We won't spoil anything that way for you.

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Okay, we're done with our short break and we're in spoilers.

Be careful.

Anything goes here, gentlemen.

So let's discuss a knight of the seven Kingdom right up to the finale.

We're not going to waste time either.

That hedge knight had a penis that puts dirt in Boogie Nights to Red Face Shame.

While I would say that overall its humor is not too juvenile.

There have been some juvenile moments that I think it perfectly nailed.

And that was one of the pooping

behind the tree I didn't think was very funny.

You would cut the.

Disagree.

You disagree when they cut the.

They're doing the classic move music and then they cut Tim, just.

See, I didn't think that was that funny, but I now the hedge knot.

Y' all will have to remind me of his name.

Sir Arlen.

Sir Arlen of Penny Tree.

Yeah.

He comes out of a very rustic, small, even, dare I say, old timey, Irish looking cabin woman.

Inside he naked and Lord have mercy, was Sir Duncan not going to mention this.

I feel like it's the opening line to all of his discussions about the old man.

You know, like Sir Arlan, you remember

him, you know, the hedge knight with the large unit, you, Grace.

Why did that knight ever wear pants

with that thing?

He didn't need his lance.

It probably had to wear pants so as not to scare everyone.

I think you just let that happen.

Seven Kingdoms is a rough place.

Fear has some, some, you know, capital there.

But can you imagine the pelvic damage he lived with?

And also you think that probably, probably that poor woman in the hut.

Well, that's who I care for.

She is.

She.

She may have liked it.

I don't know.

She earned her money is what I'm thinking.

Yeah, you're right.

There have been a couple of juvenile moments, but.

And I don't even know if that would count as juvenile, but it was just.

It shocked me.

It just like a kind of like, like the edge of scatological, like body humor type way where it's just like in the same sense that like, yes, butts are funny.

You know, like, I laughed out loud.

I did too.

I think I might have been like.

I think I might have rewounded.

And like what?

It's so absurd and it just comes out of nowhere.

I mean, it's right back to the, the Parks and Rec thing where he's like, I have no idea if that man's ill or not.

He has the largest penis I've ever seen.

I basically.

I don't remember anything else that happened that episode.

Maybe it'll change.

But the thing that's been funniest to me so far about it is that it has exactly zero relation to anything else that has happened in the.

In the show.

Like.

Oh, right, right, right.

Like I said, it should be the first thing he says to people.

There's no.

There's no reason for it to be in there.

Which made it that much funnier to me.

Like, it's not those viewers who don't look up too much.

It is a prosthetic.

Everybody looked that up.

Come on.

If you saw that.

I didn't.

You told me I looked up.

If I had a dog question, if

you hadn't told me, would I have looked it up?

I would have just assumed, I think, that it was.

Yeah, Yeah.

A prosthetic or real prosthetic?

It's so big.

I think just.

Yeah.

Most of the time, if you.

If you're getting full male frontal, you usually get the prosthetic.

Unless it's a little guy, but he's just got a little one.

And they want to make that purpose.

Flip.

Purposeful.

Here's another.

Just a little personal humor.

Since it airs on Sunday, around the time I tend to wind down, I don't usually watch it on Sunday evening.

What I will do, we'll download it on my iPad and watch it in the waiting area of my daughter's dance class.

I knew where this was going.

Yes.

I have my headphones on.

I have no idea who's looking at me because the headphones are soundproof.

Many thanks for that gift.

And I'm not so sure I didn't watch that in front of way too many dance moms sitting around.

So I'm probably talked about amongst the community.

So far, though, the show.

We'll get in the show.

Okay.

It's so excellently done.

And one thing it does, I think it makes you want nothing more than to have Duncan punch some of these bastards in the face.

And I'm talking early in the season, a hateful girl calls him big and stupid and threatens to slap him.

And you're like, he's big, Young lady, I would watch your mouth.

This is not an era where you could probably get away with that, but I think she was a royal.

She's.

She's definitely got a little class on him.

She's a Targaryen.

I do believe Dunk knows his place.

Poor fella.

He's.

He's a.

He's a gentle giant.

For fun purposes.

Not for necessary purposes.

A lot of the Night of the Seven Kingdoms counts on viewers knowing names and houses associated with them.

There's no.

There's not a lot of hand holding And I don't know that there ever really was in the show previous shows in this universe.

I did find it hard, albeit fun to try and look up.

Okay, what house is this that has this emblem?

Who is it that's here with Sir Dunk?

And it does get you to that point.

We said non spoilers.

This tournament is not the Olympics.

It is not the NBA Finals.

This tournament is the nit.

Yeah.

Maybe like a midseason tournament weeknight somewhere.

You know, it kind of is.

And it makes you.

It puts in perspective that how pitiful Dunk probably is in this scene.

And also it kind of tells you the Targaryens are.

Are losing some.

What would we say here?

Some.

Well, they self describe at that as that, you know, you're talking about how much do you have to know about the show.

And the only thing that I think you couldn't infer they kind of give the backstory on the Targaryens, right.

One of the sons says we rode over here on these dragons and now they're.

They're gone.

What's.

What's really the difference in us and everybody else?

We just have the story.

Exactly.

You know, that was actually my point of agreement to Adam.

That's the only thing that the show has to explain other than.

Than just if you generally have this sort of Western idea of the Middle ages and chivalry, etc.

In your head, you're good.

It doesn't drive at home.

It doesn't beat you over the head that the Targaryens are but kind of losing steam.

Things are not what they once were.

And there is the early rumblings of what I assume culminates years later in Robert's Rebellion of like where we are.

The, the original people to the Seven Kingdoms will be here after they're gone.

Yeah, we hear some seditious talk, right.

You have to be a careful watcher and you'll notice that.

But it, I don't think it'll hinder anyone who.

But I. I think that putting and I can't remember his first name.

Our Oscar Isaac looked like Lord Baratheon.

He is such an Oscar Isaac look

alike having him in there perfectly.

Like it's an excuse to drink and party.

It's great.

And like, you know, like that's why everyone's here.

You know, you get where Robert gets it.

Although I wasn't necessarily, you know, I didn't love Robert as a character.

This Lionel Baratheon is Lionel.

He's cool man.

He's kind of chill.

He's A little devil may care for sure.

But, you know, he's the kind of guy, it seems you like you'd want him in your corner.

He's here for a good time, not a long time.

That's the fun of it, is seeing the stakes lowered a little bit.

Okay.

You know, you asked what does the show do that the other ones don't?

Not a big one Comedy.

Not a big war going on.

So why would they not all go get drunk in this field?

Sure.

And again, talking about perspective, that makes it curious that it became quote, unquote, legend.

You know what I mean?

Amongst the people in Game of Thrones.

Like, why is it such a legendary story?

It was in a backwoods tournament that probably took place once a month in many backwoods.

Well, we're seeing that now, right?

Yeah, we are.

I do think I agree with the stakes thing too, where it's like, it's.

It's lower.

Also jumping off of what Adam said in non spoilers.

Like, it kind of lowers the stakes for the kingdom, but by focusing on the stakes for Dunk, like, it's very real.

Yeah.

And you know, this is all.

Or not.

So, you know, there is.

It's a great element of Lionel's here to party, but I have nothing else.

You know, like, this is.

This is.

This is it for me.

This is my last chance.

It's the haves and haves dons.

I think you said that earlier.

And building a show and trying to write an arc to that's a lot easier to do than what they were trying to accomplish.

The plane that they were trying to land with Game of Thrones and that they've now built with House of Dragons is such a. Forgive the easy pun here, but it's a.

It's a real house of cards.

Yeah.

Like, there's so many pieces that if they don't all fit just right, you don't buy the ending.

Whereas, like, with this, it's just like we're rooting for Dunk.

He doesn't have and have knots thing.

He's a bit of a.

An innocent.

You know, in a way.

Like, it's.

It's so easy.

There is no.

He is.

It's a white hat, black hat thing.

Like, he is a good guy.

I do think that there is a persistent question still hanging over proceedings.

Is Dunk any good or was he just strong and lucky that day?

You know, this is.

I thought this was probably going to come up and I wanted to say it in.

In spoilers.

No.

That you expect the whole Time.

Like, we've watched this whole season.

He's ready to put everything on the line.

Yeah.

And he's so big that.

Yeah.

Why wouldn't he be able to outclass everybody?

But then he just kind of turns into a pincushion once things really start.

He gets hit right away, repeatedly.

Yeah.

See, I actually like that, though, because it's like I don't care if he's good.

I care that he's brave, you know, tough.

That he's not gonna just lie there.

Yeah.

Also, I.

Is Dunk really a knight?

No.

I didn't think so.

No.

Because we never see it.

I was gonna get to that, too.

He's gonna get executed.

I mean, if this gets found out.

Right.

Because anyone will ever know.

Well, you know, he says the only witness was the robin that watched him in the beginning of the.

All of it does add up to a nice thematic thing that I suppose we have with Game of Thrones and I suppose we have with House of the Dragon.

You know, they have their themes, but this one is really focused on self doubt and imposter syndrome.

Do I have what it takes?

I've got to, or else I'm going to die.

But am I the real thing?

And I mean, you just brought it up.

He's probably not a knight.

I don't think he's a knight, which is, you know, that actually kind of gets me.

Like, he's.

He's like, in a kid.

In a sense, we.

We understand that.

Like he's a kid running a grift, you know, like he's just doing it to survive.

He doesn't have.

He's not trying to become king.

He's just like, what else am I gonna do?

I don't think the flashback scene of the penultimate episode was there to confirm that, but his flashback scene really made it feel like he may have just followed that hedge.

Not around most of the time anyway.

Now, he does serve him in battles, obviously, or else he.

He couldn't mention that in front of Lord Balor or any of the.

Of the other important people.

I don't know how official it was, but he definitely was like the dog that didn't go away.

At some.

At some point, Robin let him ride on his horse instead of just walking.

Not Robin, sorry.

Sir Arlen let him ride on his horse instead of just walking the whole way on a leg wood, which I was impressed by.

There's.

There's great acting, there's a great relationship building.

It's paced writing that can be a little dilatory.

Yet it never steps over that line of being annoying with its slower pace.

The sets are so amazing.

I feel like I'm gonna have to go and look at this original story too, because I do think that it.

You can see Martin's hand in it, and I think it does something almost better than Game of Thrones.

Kind of got away from where Martin in the books really had, like, a huge part of.

It was like, what's happening to the common people while this war is being fought?

Like, the crops are.

Like the crops are ruined.

Everyone's, you know, like, winter is coming.

And I think, like, the show kind of got away from, like, the kingdom is being wrecked in a way.

And like, this refocus is kind of on.

Like, what's it like to be, like, a dude in this world, which we

see in the flashback.

The flashback is not of Martin's hand, by the way.

And it does feel like a little.

It does feel a little inserted.

Luckily, they made sure not to make it the whole episode, which has become a thing in the last 15, 20 years of television.

I was worried about that.

Really worried.

Yeah, I thought it was the.

It actually ended up being perfect.

Yeah.

Yeah, it kind of worked.

It was really nicely paced, and it wouldn't have worked if it was the whole episode.

I don't know that we needed it, but I think that it mostly worked.

I don't know that we learned anything more about Dunk except a couple of specifics.

You know, he was in Flea Bottom all of his childhood.

He saw his best friend, Slash, almost girlfriend get killed brutally.

Other than those specifics, nothing was truly learned that you didn't already know or could have guessed.

He.

He wasn't some asshole and then became an honorable soul because of Big Penis Night.

In fact.

In fact, there's a chance he may have not known the guy very well at all up until his last years.

It did a good job of, like, just kind of confirming how Dunk sees Sir Arlen.

You know, the kind of almost.

I wouldn't say rose colored glasses, but, like, why he keeps saying to everyone he was a great knight, you know, and we.

Because we've only kind of seen, like, the comical stuff.

And we do see comical stuff here, too.

Now.

That's a horrible existence to have to eke out there.

We actually, you know, we see it and it's sort of funny too, but we do see Sir Arlen, like, what none of these other knights have done.

Stand up for the weaker person.

Yeah, good point.

And that's.

I mean, that's One of the themes, right, like, the knight is supposed to stand up for the.

For the weaker.

In the name of the Father, I tell you to be just.

Or something is like, how the.

The knighting begins.

And Adam, aren't they at times catching rats to sell, to cook for?

And it's just like, that much of a horrible life.

And.

And then we have that sad moment where Dunk says, what if this is all there is for us?

I thought that was a great kind of what Donovan said about, like, what.

What's happening to the common person during all of this.

Like, love it.

We only see people who have the means for mobility and change in their life and all of these things.

Even there's always the gilded cage thing with everybody in all of these shows, you know, like, how far can you actually outrun?

Probably a violent end, or at least, like, you know, life is never truly easy.

When he asked, like, what if we go there and it's not any better?

I know.

You know, like, the inability to imagine anything beyond what's right in front of you.

That's.

I don't know.

That's a great human, even if you're not eating rats or whatever.

You know, they were taken also, like, anything of value off dead soldiers.

Yeah.

From the battle.

Yeah, they were.

They were collecting iron and things like that.

Yeah.

I did think it was.

You know, you're talking about how there was no change in Dunk.

He wasn't like a bad guy who became this gentle giant.

He was a.

He was a sweet soul from day one, looks like.

But the fact that he never toughened up.

I mean, obviously he's tough.

We saw that he's physically tough, but still is kind of aw, shucks after, you know, even.

Even realizing when early on when he's at the battlefield, like, I have to kill this guy as an act of mercy.

You know what I mean?

He understands the brutality of existence and then sees her killed and reacts violently, finally, to that.

You're thinking the whole time, like, yeah, you're a big lad.

Get in there.

Come on.

Defend yourself.

But he's been told all his life he's no one.

You're.

Yeah, you're.

Don't you dare stand up to a knight.

And I think those guys were nodded just.

It just is another glimpse of how far the target.

Were they guardsmen?

I think they were like the city guard or something.

Yeah, they were like the city guard,

and one was missing a hand.

It's just like the Targaryen regime is.

Is kind of at this point, love the bait and switch, as we mentioned, as most riders of us of our era will use the flashback as a whole episode.

Yet this was only a. I guess it lasted about one third of the episode.

And the rest was, hey, we got the battle.

The directing of the battle, that was, I thought, well done.

Had me on the edge of my seat.

A really good set piece.

Yeah, this whole show has done a good job, I think, of being like, back to the fundamentals.

Like, show me something exciting and then go, what's gonna happen to that guy next?

You know, Also, I like the bald boy.

Yeah, I kind of do, too.

He's.

He's quirky.

He's a good kid.

When he was training the horse, I thought that was kind of funny.

That made me laugh, especially because it is.

I think kids are hard to write for sometimes.

I think they've done a good job with this kid because it feel.

He feels, like, not annoying, but, like, that was, like, a little kid thing to do.

I'm curious if the point of Dunk's legacy is that he didn't have to do any of this.

He wouldn't have had any notable parts about his life whatsoever if he had never defended a girl he was kind of crushing on because it's the right thing to do.

And as we now know, she looked shockingly like his first crush.

I mean, is the one who's not even knighted perhaps the true knight?

Mr. Donaghy.

That's what we're saying.

Is that what you take away, that one good deed always gets punished to near death?

Oh, yeah.

I mean, no good deed goes unpunished.

Yeah.

That's not the show.

That's universal.

Well, Martin loves the universal idea of that.

In fact, it's a wonder Dunk even survived.

But he loves to know what your expectations are and really twist a knife into them.

I do feel like George has some fondness for Dunk, so maybe things will work out better for him than for some other folks.

You know, I thought that very rarely in the Game of Thrones universe do you think maybe the point is, like, there's a certain element of destiny.

I think we're.

The whole show is about.

At least the first Game of Thrones run is like, undoing all of these silly prophecies that the nobility have convinced themselves make them important.

You know, like, here's a guy who subjects himself to, you know, when they say trial by combat and especially this particularly brutal version, it's like, but he's right.

If he gets killed, the system means nothing.

You know, what I mean, like, that your dying thought is like, yeah, I'm proven wrong.

Air quotes.

Yeah.

Because of something fairly arbitrary like, you know, I just caught something in the back of the head or whatever.

If they really believe that the gods have a hand in all of this, then here's a guy whose whole path has just been.

I mean, he's been climbing the ladder since he got to the tournament.

The only way Martin fucks with our expectations is that Lord Baelor probably dies in, in the few seconds quite after the.

The battle, after removing his helmet and seeing his smashed head.

That was great.

That's just another.

Yeah, like, you know, you just, just fundamentals of like, you think it's all set.

Pull the rug out.

What's gonna happen to this guy next?

You know, it's the, it's also.

He was the only decent Targaryen around.

Yeah, probably.

What's wrong with egg?

Well, you know,

what do you have against egg Dunk?

I love it.

I think he's great.

When he started saying what he was saying about, you know, my head hurts and like, it's gonna.

Yeah, I thought, has he actually been.

Is his head about to fall off somehow?

Is this about to be like.

But it was pretty good as, as it was.

It was pretty good.

Yeah.

I'm looking forward to the finale.

I thought it's been a really great ride and I wish there was a little more.

Gotta be honest.

Meet me too.

I hope they do a second season, but then again, I think they get away from the text and we don't know how that would go.

It's been a really good, like January, February show where it's like, not a lot is going on.

Sure.

Just wish it didn't come on at 9 Central.

I could watch it.

Imagine Living Donovan, 10 Eastern for me, I would say I, I.

This is a Monday night watch for me.

Exactly.

All right.

I want to talk about Apple TV shrinking.

And though I'll only.

Well, not only.

I'll mainly use the first episode of the third season for my examples of what I asserted earlier.

I may briefly mention the third and fourth episodes from last week at the tail end, if you haven't gotten that far.

All that to say for listeners who may have only seen the first episode or two of this current season.

You're going to be okay for the most part until the end, where you may have to skip a little.

Here's my assertion.

This show's not very good, or in the best case scenario, it's not made for me.

And a lot of our listeners Maybe.

I can't disagree with that.

I wonder if we're not in kind of Ted Lasso territory here, which I

loved all the way through, but.

But go on.

Well, I felt like it worked really well in season one and then perfectly is what you would say.

Yeah.

And then kind of a fall off after that.

Still good, but okay.

You kind of just have to be happy to exist in its world more than like.

Like the first season is like this is kind of for everybody.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Heartwarming.

Shrinking now, but no, I'm talking about Ted Lasso.

But then to then pivot to shrinking.

I'm kind of wondering if we have a similar arc with more of a fall off.

And for those wondering, it's the same creator.

Right?

Right.

There's the common thread there that the.

To me, the humor gets a little tiresome.

I think you said it well when you said if it's a drama with some comedy, it's working.

But if it's a comedy that has a little bit of drama, not so much.

Not so much.

They're like little cutesy friend group thing.

Just.

It gets old.

And I'll get into even more examples of that.

I will give it credit where credit's due.

How wise to bring in Michael J.

Fox in the first episode as a cameo.

He is still so great.

And this show could be one that does a lot for awareness of Parkinson's.

Something I don't know a lot about other than basically Michael J.

Fox has it.

That's really a.

You know, I know a few of the things it does.

So, you know, that's a nice thing.

But now that I've got that positive out of the way, which I'll return to a few more positives.

But this did.

This opening episode did not need to be as long as it was for an opening episode.

No one needs a full hour of Jason Siegel, plus a prolonged episode about whether Paul should marry Dr. Julie in one way or another is stretched very thin.

Cracker thin here.

Not a cracker episode.

It was all telegraphed with just a few jokes crammed in.

Now here's the deal.

The characters, they have real genuine problems.

Parkinson's is an incredibly big problem.

A deceased wife from a drunk driving accident that led to drug abuse.

Huge problem.

Raising a daughter alone.

Pitiful.

Making amends given from the man who killed your wife in the drunk driving of accident.

PSD from war, PTSD from war.

Excuse me.

All of that.

Yet I have almost no emp empathy for almost all of them.

I think I Had something Adam touched on last season.

He brought this up about this time last year.

It's their class.

None of these people are living paycheck to paycheck.

None of these people are the proletariat.

I understand your problems are very, very big, but I also understand you live very, very comfortably.

Yeah, they are doing things that are, you know, outside of thinking about death, which is kind of the big thing.

That's the big one.

And they're doing that pretty well this season.

They are.

That everything is relational, which is in a lot of ways transcends class, you know, but.

Okay, I.

It still does.

You do have to think like, well, there's.

They're experiencing less stressors than someone a few tax brackets down might, which adjusts maybe how you view it.

And the problems just kind of seem to go away.

But then there's still like, you know, I think of the last episode, everything from, you know, Gabby still being mad at him over how he treated the death of his wife and her best friend.

I mean, that was.

But yeah, she's also slept with him.

It was complicated, but the complicated.

Come on.

That.

Those conversations, it came from nowhere, in my opinion.

She's been brewing or stewing on that for saying they.

They've established that as a.

An ongoing concern of hers.

I thought that was fair for her character, but maybe not as much for the show itself, if that makes sense.

Got it.

It was earned by the character, but not by the show.

I'm not interested in it going back in that direction.

I mean, I kind of like that she has been allowed to still be angry about it this far on.

And it shows the different stages of grief that people are working through and that even somebody who works as a professional in this might be hanging on to resentments for.

For years on end.

It just doesn't really feel like the show itself has earned that.

Does that make sense?

Yes, it does.

The way that they just kind of drop that in is like, oh, yeah, we do this.

Yeah.

The gear shift was just too abrupt.

It was abrupt.

Unless It's Harrison Ford's Dr. Paul or Luke Tenney's character, Sean, it's hard for me to care.

But I thought about that first season of Big Little Lies where it kind of boiled down to Shailene Woodley's much lower class singer single mother figuring out that her rapist is one of the rich characters.

And, you know, of course she ends up killing him.

I know shrinking is not that type of show, but.

And I'm unfairly comparing it, probably, but the two are, or could deal with the largess in the world of money and versus a person in that situation who didn't have it, which is.

I'm talking about Sean here.

I know a lot of those writers from Shrinking listen to this podcast.

So I have a suggestion.

Kill off Liz.

Brilliant, brave move.

While you're at it, do that with Alice's friend Summer.

Kill them off.

Two most unlockable characters on tv when they are on screen, I do not give a about anything they say.

Is it because they're women, Blaine?

Oh, no.

I've got more thoughts on some of the guys here.

Not a Liz guy, huh?

In fact, let me just go to the next guy.

Who thought that having Derek and Liz's son Matthew coming back to the show was a funny plot move, A recycled funny plot.

Who thought that's a good idea.

You didn't like the him accidentally catching the end of that conversation in the last episode?

Well, I'm kind of sticking to episode one.

Okay.

And I'm about to bring.

Bring in episode three and four on.

There are some things I'm okay with and all with episode one.

Paul's hallucination at the end with Michael J.

Fox's cameo, again, that had some resonance.

It was kind of comedic, but it was very dramatic.

Jimmy's possibility of missing Alice if she goes to college almost works, but we've seen him go through these stages.

I know it's human, but give me something new.

I'm gonna say some spoilers here for probably 2 through 4.

If someone hasn't gotten that far.

Brett Goldstein as Lewis was so underused and now he's gone to film Ted Lassos next season.

That's probably for the best for him because they weren't using him anyway.

If Jeff Daniels becomes a regular and not someone like they did with Goldstein's Lewis, that could improve things.

Yeah, Jimmy's dad.

Yeah, I thought that was that.

That fleshed out his character in a.

In a way that we haven't seen.

In a way I didn't necessarily want or care too much, but.

But since it was Jeff Daniels, I did.

Yeah.

Yeah, totally.

I do think the Losing Lewis is a good move, both in universe and obviously he's career wise going back to.

So is that.

Was that the reason he had to go back to the Ted Lasso world?

Pretty certain.

That's my guess.

But yeah, you know, he served his purpose and I.

If anything, it showed a flexibility instead of just folding him into this friend group.

That doesn't always make sense.

Yeah.

To.

To show the tension there.

Maybe I'm just an old fashioned TV watcher and wanted that to happen in a way because I like him as an actor.

I. I just wanted him more on screen.

Paul's bench moment with Alice and Gabby in episode three where he says, you know, let Gabby be your therapist.

And he walks away.

And him holding the baby at the very end with the quote, enjoy the ride kid, are the reasons I'm still watching that.

Enjoy the ride, kid.

That was.

It's tearjerker.

That was great.

That was excellent.

In an episode of him learning to.

To let go.

Maybe with the fourth episode.

This really is.

Isn't a spoiler either.

I've concluded there are four types of characters on shrinking.

Characters who are excellent.

They make improvements in every scene they're in.

They develop, they're interesting.

So that's Paul, Derek, the husband and now.

And Shawn.

I think he's moved into that category recently.

Really?

Characters who, who, who have their moments.

That's Jimmy and Gabby.

I, I don't know about Sean.

You don't think so?

I think that they don't totally know what to do with him anymore.

They don't.

He needs to move out of that pool house.

You're right about it.

But I do think that if they could just tap into.

He's not of this class yet.

He gets to hang out and say, you know, just be best buddies with him.

That's something I gotta.

I got a little spoiler for you.

Yeah, it's never gonna be a show about glass.

I don't think it is either.

So there's two character.

The second was characters who have their moments.

That's Jimmy and Gabby.

Sometimes I like, you know, Jimmy and Jason Segel's performance.

And sometimes I'm like, get.

Get the broom out and sweep them off my screen.

Third characters who.

Whose stories or personalities I cannot be the only one sick of.

And that's Liz, her son Matthew.

In fact, all of her kids, Alice, Summer and Brian.

Do not care.

Don't care.

Their problems are so insignificant.

And lastly, there are the underused characters.

That's number four.

The Longone Lewis.

Totally underused.

Jimmy's dad for now.

And then the other Derek.

I want to know more about him.

He's funny and likable.

You know, does.

Does Gabby not see him with regularity?

Throw something more into the mix besides, oh, Jimmy's distraught because daughter's moving into next stage of life.

Okay, that's human.

That's real.

But we've seen it go on.

I think, I think Alice is an okay character.

I think she.

She deserves a bump up from where you put her.

You would bumper.

You'd bumper to number two.

Yeah, it's pretty good.

I think so.

A little spoiler here for episode four and then I'm done for shrinking.

What does it say about this show that its greatest moments thus far in three whole seasons involve 83 year old Harrison Ford addressing a baby?

We mentioned that Ford's character Dr. Paul returning to work.

Shout.

Humming the theme to Raiders of the

Lost Ark makes me ask a lot of questions.

Possibly the most important point we're going to go over today about the show.

Like that movie exists in this world.

Does it exist?

And he's not Harrison ford.

Nope.

He's Dr. Paul.

But Harrison Ford exists in this universe.

Maybe.

These questions.

I always never think about them.

I just laugh when people ask.

It's made me itchy ever since it happened.

I loved it.

And of course.

And the last one I'll mention, Michael J.

Fox is Jerry.

He returns to sit on the couch with Dr. Paul as a patient and having a conversation about pints of Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

Man, that.

That was real.

I'm not.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out that's maybe something that really happened with Michael J.

Fox and his daughter and wife.

Yeah.

The not breathing exercise.

But close your eyes and envision these things that happens after that with.

I like that.

That was great.

That was really, really good.

It was good.

And it made me think.

If you can make me think about my life and apply something good or thoughtful to it, you've done something.

And it's so amazing that they can do that.

How much of that is Harrison Ford?

How much of that is the story?

They do that and then they're.

So there's just chunks where I could.

Could very well fast forward through and I may.

I don't know that I might not start doing that.

I think something we have to expect from a Bill Lawrence show.

Yeah.

You're more familiar with him than I.

I mean I think there.

There's some very.

We've talked about maybe the heavy hitter episodes of Scrubs that I think if you.

When I think about them, I think about specific plot lines in them.

But if you go back and watch them, there's a B story going on always.

That's kind of just like how was this?

Sharing the same 23 minutes with this other thing that absolutely crushed me.

I think he's a clever writer about heavy things.

I was not surprised at all at his fastball of Harrison Ford holding the.

The newborn or having the moment of realization as he closed his eyes in the most recent episode.

I mean, what better metaphor of life and death than that?

It was great.

Wow.

Did you like Derek consuming all of the edibles?

I was excited when I found out that he did consume all the edible marijuana gummies.

I got really excited because I was like, this.

This could be comedic.

I just don't think they used it well.

It could have been funny.

It was pretty good.

He's good.

Yeah, but it was kind of funny when he told the mannequin that they've taken your dick.

Or just the theme of everyone's phone is ringing as they zoom around the characters.

He's just calling everybody.

That was pretty good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you have to.

Yes, yes.

That was fun.

I said I was done, but are you not just sick of Liz?

Like, please make this woman stop controlling everything and trying to control everything.

Her shtick is pretty old.

It is so old.

You know, like, they're, like, taking the.

The polished rock and, like, it's like, I don't care at all.

Yeah, but that's the best thing she's done all season.

That's her character in most shows.

Yeah.

I mean, she was kind of.

I mean, she was in Scrubs, so.

Oh, very cold and cruel and blah, blah, blah.

Here.

She's just insufferable.

She and Summer, it's like, please stop showing them.

Okay, let's get into our last bit of spoiler territory.

How to get to heaven from Belfast.

What a great name.

From.

So we're moving from what I consider something called stale to what I think is pretty good eating.

Spoiler time.

Episode one, the Wake up.

Maybe one of the first times I've said on this show that the actors actually look a little older than 38, a little older than the roles they're playing.

Can I.

Is this a good time to say that I felt attacked by the actors.

Go on.

Ages in this one.

The Realist.

How old you are?

I'm 36 here in a couple months.

Okay, so I'll round myself up there.

Now you're 37.

Because I think your birthday's in April.

Well, I'm 35 now.

I'm saying soon to be.

Yeah, yeah, sorry.

The establishment of, you know, their youth being 2003 is like a central year.

I was like, no, no, no, no.

This is not how TV works.

These people were, you know, early 90s at the latest.

This has nothing to do with me.

I love the.

You know, the youth are wearing A lot of what they call it, Y2K inspired stuff.

Early 90s, whatever.

That's.

It's come back around.

I love the Internet.

Meme of my culture is not your costume.

Yeah, yeah.

Obviously it's earned here, but.

But, hey, the ladies, they look a proper 38, which is to say three women who've lived a normal working existence, had kids, raised families, done hard, hard work, and maybe had some tough moments.

You just don't see that a lot.

Usually.

They're so glamorous and made up.

You usually think you are way too old to play this role.

My first takeaway from this opening episode was wonderful balance of creepiness and jokes.

And my second takeaway is it had a lot of great motifs.

I thought, we're already talking about aging, youth changing and change.

How much are you changing?

Generations, symbols.

I thought it was good.

I, I, it took me a minute for the pacing.

It took me.

Donovan talked about the second episode is where he found its pace.

And I think it was the tail end of episode one where I was like, okay, I've got the pace down now because it is fast and furious.

Once it clicked, it really clicked for me.

Not that, like, the first episode is bad.

That was just my experience.

It's actually very good episode.

It's not bad, but it made me question, why did Bo think this was one of the greatest things ever?

And why has Adam already watched five of these?

But then the second episode, I'm like,

oh, I think it took me a bit.

You know, I said in the intro that she, as a writer and show creator, does the belly laugh level comedy and heartfelt stuff super well.

And so I expected that, but it's just, it's doing all these other things.

And I, I thought, I knew the premise was three friends reunite you at first, you kind of.

It takes a second maybe to calibrate to the fact that they never really separated.

You know, that even searches in London.

But is she really.

They kind of mock her about that.

But I thought, well, there, this is like Dark Comedy 101, right?

Like, these three, they're gonna do something irreverent when they go to their long lost friends wake.

You know, that's the setup here.

And it's.

It's very Irish.

And, boy, that gets.

That gets circumvented pretty damn quick.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that's the calibration that I needed was like, oh, this is gonna be a whole different show than I anticipated.

Like, it's, it's gonna have a lot of mystery elements.

Yeah.

I didn't know that at all.

Oh, really?

Okay.

Yeah, I don't think I did either.

Honestly, by the.

By the end, I think by the time they hit the quote, unquote wake.

Mm.

Kicking into episode two, it was like.

Okay.

Like, I don't Exactly.

I don't see what you're doing, but I.

Because it's twisty, but, like, I don't see what you're doing.

Like, I see what you're doing.

This is good.

I was shocked.

That was a house.

It looked like a mausoleum.

Oh, where they go to visit Ireland.

Yeah.

And I was like, wait, this is a house?

I thought it was a morgue or.

Well, they take the body home.

Yeah.

I thought it was a morgue or a funeral home sort of place.

You know how Southern I am.

You go to the funeral home?

Yeah.

A lot of, you know, our first episode gives us plenty of questions to keep you coming back.

Why is Greta's family acting this way?

Do they know Greta's still alive?

Has she somehow brought her friends here, you know, with that email, to seek revenge for things that happened with House Burning?

We know all this is tied together, and it pays off, isn't it?

It's kind of a show that pats you on the back for thinking, for, you know, realizing, yeah, this is all tied together.

You got that part right.

Let's move on.

Yeah.

I mean, it does a lot of that.

I do have.

Maybe my only problem with the show is the way that it doles out information as a mystery.

There's no.

I mean, there is forced perspective because they're showing us what they want us to see.

But we are learning a lot from different characters.

Like, we know small puzzle pieces from everyone, but we're not sticking with one character's point of view to be surprised along with them.

Does that make sense?

Mm, yes.

Like, we're getting things that, say, only the inspector husband, Greta's husband, would see, and then you're only getting things that Saoirse would see.

And it's like, where.

I mean, Donovan, you.

You're a genre guy at times.

Does this not kind of break convention, maybe, with how information should be doled out?

I'm not a super big, like, mystery genre person, so I think, like, you're.

And everyone does it differently.

Like, I think you're right in the sense that, like, some mysteries are very much like, you know, what, you know, Watson knows, for example, versus this, where it's like, yeah, you're putting.

You, the viewer, putting things together because, like, there's no way that Saoirse can know what the, you know, like what the husband has done.

But you, the viewer, know who looks shockingly like Rob?

Mel.

Yes, he does.

I thought it was him for a split second.

Maybe my problem is in the way that the flashbacks are working.

Uhhuh.

You know, that they are hinting at them, but not obviously.

I love the show.

We've watched five episodes in three days or whatever.

But I just, I think that is an interesting.

And I don't know that it matters because as you keep going like a good mystery, like a good, you know, I keep saying spooky, creepy show, whatever.

All of these loose ends start taking shape and pulling tighter and you realize, oh, this has all been a thing, a shape, a form all along.

It's just an interesting way to dull that information out, I guess.

The editing is so fast, which might be a mirror of how extreme this information is to these ladies.

Of course, it's also really useful for humor to land.

I thought the most interesting moment in the first episode was the slow motion dancing, which morphed into each of the three ladies looking back at their younger selves.

This is the strength of Derry Girls.

To me, it's that other lane of like.

Yeah.

That's such a gut punch.

Oh, yeah.

Who hasn't done that where you're like.

Or maybe not people do, but I do.

I think, what would my younger self think about this?

Or I've come to that moment in my life.

They're already shown to be trauma bonded in a way.

Right.

Like that whatever has happened.

Yeah.

Was a very.

Not only did it bond them together, but it's like a line in the sand of like lost innocence and all this stuff.

And they're.

They're thinking back, all have the same tattoo because of it.

Right.

And that, that dancing scene is like that person is so long gone, you know?

Yeah.

But they still dance like them, which is great.

I love that.

So with the second episode, we'll move into it.

It was called the Secret.

I thought massive improvement.

Really, really good.

Getting a lot more.

Getting the established things you have to do out of the way.

But yeah, the Secret had my favorite joke so far where.

Yeah.

I'm wondering if you can guess this church runs home in the middle of the BAFTAs because she's like, wants to solve more.

They want to know.

She wants to know what's been going on.

And she goes to her parents house.

Great together.

The possibility of looking through some old journals and things.

And not only do her folks not realize what editing Is.

But her dad asked, you're not on that cocaine stuff, are you, Hershey?

They're all on that cocaine stuff now.

I.

That was a belly laugh for me.

Everything with that where she's like, we turned your room into a gym.

It's like you have a camera angle.

Even was just wonderful because it had them both turned from rocking chairs to look at the camera.

And you felt as though, wow, these are parents looking and asking dumb questions like they sometimes do.

Loved it.

It also was such a good like, yes, she is the very successful 38 year old.

I think we'd also be remiss to not take into account that this is a woman, a very successful woman on the heels of dairy girls writing a show about a woman who has a very successful TV show who doesn't find herself that impressive.

That seems pertinent.

Yeah.

And is even doubtful about how important what she does is.

You know, generally unimpressed and just does not like kind of has her shit together but in a lot of ways has some arrested development going on.

If you are going to fault the show, there's a few things.

Probably it's got a Netflix thumbprint of a particular necessity to watch all the episodes within a few days in order to both make sense of it all but also keep track of.

And then the opening episode labels the characters.

You know, it's like don't forget who this is.

Little hand holding.

You know, I'd read recently that Ted Santos of Netflix or his underlings would tell showrunners people are watching this while they're playing on their phone.

Make it obvious.

Yeah.

And I just hate that reminds can't

be originating in Netflix because they do make it with that.

And I don't think you could play on your phone and follow this.

I don't think so either.

Which because I. I agree that I

hate that other than the this is Greta, this is Shirshi.

This is it was produced by Hat Trick Productions, which is a British company.

I don't know if it would have been in mind for Netflix how that works.

But are they bought it?

Yeah.

Hard to say.

They buy a lot of Internet things.

The other thing I think you could fault it fault it for is like you talking about Adam.

Some of the mystery is more bait and switch rather than a reveal.

The creepy teenager was actually a professional journalist.

That.

That feels a little Gotcha.

I. I tricked you a little.

The rest though feels like a very good mystery.

And there is just something about Shirshi doing a fictional show called Murder Case while she's trying to solve a real murder or what she thinks is a real murder.

I think there is an investigation of like what fiction means both in terms of like I am a writer making this TV show based on not only real life, but then the second layer of that is like what.

What myths about ourselves are foundational that when investigated don't have any truth to them.

You know, like your memory is obviously faulty and your point of view is

completely different from someone else's.

Right.

When you look back and you say, well this is.

This was hugely important to who I am, but it was like filtered through a 15 year old's point of view.

Like how, how much validity is really there.

You know, these things that we carry with us.

I do think that the.

Maybe it's some of the flashback talk for me.

Maybe because I'm five episodes in, I'll try not to spoil anything.

But as.

As more and more information is revealed, maybe some of these things resolve.

Dara bumping into her ex in such a sad way, I thought was a nice little reminder that is a theme of this series is the past always comes back to haunt you.

But it also helps you see that Dara is someone who needs worrying about since the death of who they thought was the kid.

Lots and lots of elements happening here and if they can sync them up, much less connect them, I would be really impressed.

Sometimes maybe they're just in there to be quirky, to be kind of interesting or different Liam's connection, if any to this.

Or perhaps he's just a helper of the.

The ladies to maybe get to the bottom.

The hateful waitress, she's great Parton who.

Who by the way famously duetted with Kenny Rogers on Diamonds in the Stream.

I haven't figured it out yet, but I feel like what y' all were talking about with like art and.

And image is also being played with.

Even in that case where it's like the.

Like you're in Ireland but like you're.

They're doing have like a country western night to celebrate.

Like the Kenny Rogers impersonator.

Like we're singing Johnny Cash, Hank Williams.

There's stuff going on there I guess is what I mean is very smart.

You're exactly smarter than me.

I think that's right.

Sure.

She's character and career as a crime showrunner is the biggest clue.

I think that there's.

There's a connection between fiction and reality.

Episode three, which is about as far as we've.

Most of us have gotten.

You know, the opening does tell us pretty Much what we thought, pretty much what we imagined.

Creepy Jimmy hurting Greta.

She stabbed him.

Assume she killed him like the three other girls did.

Set the decrepit old house a flame.

Cabin a flame.

It rained, so they had to bury the body.

All that you.

You had kind of worked out.

And it says, yeah, you were right.

Nice pace of letting you in on what's happening over the course of eight episodes.

Do you think that Lisa McGee, this is the writer and creator.

Do you think she's making a statement about Northern Ireland and Ireland?

Because the ladies are in Ireland in a small town that's pretty close to Northern Ireland.

And a lot of people have this reaction to them about being from Belfast.

I think there's some different reactions, but a lot of that is also like bigger city, going to country area.

Right.

More than like.

Like a north south thing.

Yeah.

You know, someone from New York visits Alabama.

Right.

This is not in the third episode.

But I did think like a good joke playing with that was when they're in the police station and they're like they thought you like you were running there like terrorists.

Exactly.

And she's like, oh, because we're from Belfast, because you ran in there with masks on.

Yeah, yeah.

A good use for joke.

I didn't know if it was.

Especially if Adam had any thoughts on it because he's seen ahead if there were there was a connection or a statement being made between the two.

The backdrop of, you know, genuinely like an investigative journalist working in Ireland has the potential to talk to some very frightening.

Don't they kind of use that at some point to establish his bona fides.

Like, oh, he really did interview these paramilitary folks and blah, blah, blah.

The exact words, paramilitary.

I think as the web becomes more complex, you definitely have to ask like what does it intersect with?

And we already have a character like bouncing back and forth to London and you know, there's a lot of.

She lives in London.

Yeah, there's.

There's a grand scope, I guess or a greater scope coming.

Having seen Derry Girls, it would shock me if this was not someone.

But I feel like with Dairy Girls she did such a good job of being like.

Even though.

Yes.

It's like this extraordinary thing and it's the thing that we can make capital C comments on.

It's also like life and here.

And it wasn't heavy handed in the same way, I'm guessing.

I would hope, you know, if there's something it's woven into the background of.

Here's the particularity of being in this time in this place.

Well, then she even ask of Liam, like, how old are you?

What do you know about.

Yeah, yeah, he's 20.

Yeah, he's 26.

Right.

She could be his mother.

He's a young.

She's only 12 years older.

Oh, you've done the math.

It's good stuff.

I'm enjoying.

It's interesting, the mystery.

I'm.

I'm glad.

It's like a.

There's a lot of bait and switch.

There's just one moment, I think.

But I'm glad it's a mystery that.

That isn't to.

We're gonna dig this mystery so deep, there's no way you can tell.

It's more of a. Yeah, you guessed right.

Let's move the plot forward.

I appreciate that very much.

There is mystery, but there's also, like, the investigation of their own memory.

Oh, I was about to say that,

like, how reliable a narrator is should always be in question.

Yeah.

I hope they continue the thematic.

The huge theme that I'm taking away from it about aging and looking back on who you were at 18 versus who you are almost 40.

That's huge.

And it plays a role here.

You're exactly right in that way.

That's all I've got.

It's good stuff, but.

Yeah, appreciate it, guys.

We've reached the conclusion of our podcast episode, and for Adam and Donovan, I'm Blaine, and we hope you find yourself a nice hedge night like Sir Donk did with a big penis.

Take care, everyone.

See you next time.