Bono's 'Songs of Surrender' Presents Humanity and How Bad Is FX's 'Adults'?

[00:00:00] Welcome to Taking It Down. It's the TV Podcast brought to you by the website thealabamatake.com. What we do is we approach TV often from a southern point of view with some intelligence and thought despite what culture may have led you to believe about the south. We do it all with respect for the working folks who don't get represented on most podcasts.

[00:00:23] For more, of course, visit thealabamatake.com. On our episode this week, we're discussing very briefly the new Apple TV Plus series, Stick, which stars Owen Wilson. And we'll get a little bit more in depth with the FX television show Adults.

[00:00:40] And finally, we'll wrap with the Apple TV Plus presentation of Bono's document, Stories of Surrender, which might surprise you on If It's For You. I'm Blaine and Adam and Donovan are going to join me.

[00:00:55] And here they are, Adam and Donovan and me. I'm still here. Stick is a new Apple TV Plus comedy. And I did watch that pilot episode. Did you? I did. We talked about it on air a few weeks ago. We debated it. Yeah. Yeah. And then I started seeing commercials for it. Yeah. And I told Natalie, I was like, this show has the possibility to suck me in. It does.

[00:01:24] It's got Owen Wilson as a golf pro who has seen his better days. It's getting a lot of comparison to Ted Lasso, but the immediate feeling I had with it in its opening five minutes was another Apple series, Bad Monkey. You put certain phrases in the mouths of Vince Vaughn and in this case, Owen Wilson, and you're just going to have some fun.

[00:01:47] This show relies heavily on tropes everyone has seen in at least the pilot episode that I watched. If they steer out of them or make them less of a focus or if Owen Wilson just continues to be hilarious, it'll be a decent piece of TV. It'll be a lot of fun. This is prime June summer television. It is. I would assume. Like kind of funny, not too heavy.

[00:02:17] Those opening 10 minutes or so are very funny. I'll give it a spin. Yeah. It's like when we started watching Loki and it's like, gosh darn it, you just put Owen Wilson in front of a camera. You just kind of want to hang out with him for a little bit. Yeah. And he's so much better in this. He gets so much more. Gets more to do. Yeah. It is funny how different humans, you see this in the arts, you see it in sports too, where like they appear in the gravity changes. Mm-hmm.

[00:02:46] You know, like when Owen Wilson shows up amongst a very talented cast on Loki, you're like, all right, this dude's a little different. Yeah. To me when I was watching it. For the better. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know that it's worth it, I think. And I'll make a segue here. It's also going to be reliant on a young guy as a co-star. There's no other way to put it. He's not annoying. But he is supposed to be playing annoying. Mm.

[00:03:15] What an odd problem to have. No, no, no. It's not a problem at all. It's, he's annoying to everyone else on camera, but he's not annoying to you, the viewer. Gotcha. I thought you were saying he wasn't selling that he's annoying in the show. His co-stars are playing well off of him and they display the annoyance. That takes me to adults on FX. It's most recent comedy, a series about a group of 20, mid-20 year old friends who all

[00:03:44] live together in the home of wherever these parents are of one of the group in Queens, New York. Now, we don't discuss spoilers this early, but this is for you, dear listener out there. I would say go ahead and stick around for the spoilers for adults in the next segment because this may be FX worst series since one of those damn seasons of American Horror Story. Wow.

[00:04:12] And hearing the specifics may save you some precious time. I did not find this show worth the effort it took to make it. This is, I didn't watch it. I ran into a subscription problem with my Hulu. This is such low-hanging fruit to watch something mildly passable, like a coming-of-age story, you know? Like, it doesn't really have to be that great to still be, to not end up angry that you spent your half hour watching it.

[00:04:41] There's no coming-of-age here. Donovan, come on. Not yet. Not in the first episode. It looks like a fun show. I mean, it's filmed in large portions in New York. I always appreciate the effort it takes to do such things. When I was watching it, like, I had, like, this guilty feeling in the back of my mind, like, maybe I'm not being fair to it. I kept thinking that, too. Not that I'm that old, but, like, it's about people a little younger than me. Maybe I'm just not being fair to it.

[00:05:09] But boy, oh boy, when I got to the end of the first episode, I was like, I should probably watch another one just to have enough to talk about. But God, I don't want to. No, those first two episodes I watched for today's discussion. I watched one, and I was out. I don't blame you. Am I out of touch? No. It's the children. Exactly. That's what you wonder. Yeah. I'm afraid that that's what's happening.

[00:05:38] Is it getting... I can ask safe questions here, I think, in the spoiler-free section, not having seen it. Is it getting decent reviews? Not really. Not really. I ask because girls immediately generated a mountain of think pieces about, you know, what they were saying about coming of age and their generation, blah, blah, blah. And I... Blaine, were you annoyed by girls? Because me and Donovan are the age of the girls in question. I think I was preemptively annoyed by girls, so I never watched it. Ah.

[00:06:09] It feels... This is going to sound mean, but girls, I think, knew what it was doing. This has an element of, like, it also knows what it's doing, but it really feels very kind of artificial and self-conscious. And there's not anything to write a think piece about. Okay. At least not from what I saw. There's just... I mean, it's fine. Some people... There's probably some laughs in there. Yeah. I didn't find them, but... For someone. For someone.

[00:06:44] Abrams, you might enjoy this. No. Is that a fair comparison? It's a weirdo, but I've been... Three episodes in a row. JJ, he's just catching strays this time. He didn't do anything. He had no hand in this. JJ, if you're still listening, Donovan is a perfectly pleasant human. I know. He's supposed to be a nice guy. I gotta lay off of him. Well, another topic this week is the music document on Apple TV+, Bono, the Songs of Surrender. No, it's not these.

[00:07:13] It's just Songs of Surrender, which is on Apple TV+, as I mentioned, directed by Andrew Dominick, who directed one of my favorite Brad Pitt movies, Killing Them Softly in 2012. No shit, because Brad Pitt was a producer, so I guess that's how he... I just saw it as I was going at Brad Pitt, and I'm like, oh, I wonder what the connection is there. So there you go. I really like that movie. That's a pretty good one. But Songs of Surrender is on Apple.

[00:07:36] It's less a concert show, but also not quite a companion piece to Bono's memoir from last year or two years ago? Two years ago, I believe. All right. It's somewhere in the middle of those two things. I doubt anyone who isn't a U2 fan is going to stumble upon this while looking up Ted Lasso, but should they? I think Apple gave it a pretty healthy push.

[00:08:03] So it's possible that someone could have stumbled upon it. And I think that question... And see, I'm perplexed by how U2 was the biggest band in the world and is still one of the biggest presences, I suppose, in the world. You know, you hear them on classic rock radio at this point. They sold out How Many Nights at the Sphere. They still have these high-grossing tours, all of the stuff.

[00:08:28] And I know so few people who actively seek out U2 stuff. Yeah, that's exactly... Where are we? I feel like I'm on an island here because I... We should start in the non-spoilers section saying I am one of the biggest U2 fans around. Yeah. Where are we? I don't know because I wanted the same thing. I am not a fan, but I'm also... I kind of like them.

[00:08:56] To me, it doesn't feel like they're the biggest band in the world, but I suppose they probably are. They may not be anymore. Obviously, this is... You're dealing with someone in their prime with this example. But, like, Beyonce at Coachella. When that concert film came out, I feel like everyone was aware of it. And everyone at least watched a little bit of it. And I'm not like... I live with a massive Beyonce fan, so of course I was around it.

[00:09:22] But, you know, there's these things that come out that you almost are going to interact with in some way based on how big the thing in question is. And it's just funny that, you know, U2 seems to be such a massive band, yet it's not gonna... Now he's just a 60-something-year-old man. I mean, let's just call it what it is, who did a Broadway stage thing. I don't know. I loved it. Spoiler. U2 fan likes U2 document. I'll be interested to see what you guys think.

[00:09:51] My question was, should they stumble upon it? Well, I say yeah. Yeah, I think I was trying to say, yeah, I think it's... You don't have to have an opinion on U2 anymore because they don't really come up that much. Aside from people still bitch about the fact that they gave away a record on their iPhone 11 years ago. I think, and again, I know I'm a fan, Bono speaks so, if not eloquently, which I think it's eloquent,

[00:10:18] but enthusiastically about music and art. And I think he's a fan before he's an artist in a lot of ways. And I think that if you enjoy having a renewed faith in art as a medium, specifically for change and for personal transformation and societal transformation, then it's worth watching.

[00:10:40] I would say watch it if you're interested in profoundly human moments that make for a good one-man play. I found it moving. I feel like... Well, I did enjoy it too. I should put that out there. I do think if somebody is listening and is just not much of a U2 fan or doesn't know a lot about them, before you went into this, you would want to have at least sort of an outline of the life of the band.

[00:11:08] I think you might get a little lost without that. So, like, if you're truly not a fan and you truly don't care, you might be a little lost. But if you don't mind feeling a little lost and just want to listen to a couple stories or are willing to put in a Wikipedia page's worth of work, it's an hour and a half long. We've all done worse things for an hour and a half. I think the stories are so human that he tells that none of that would really matter.

[00:11:39] Yeah. You know, the ones that stuck out the most to me were stories that he talked about his family, I think, and friends who were like family. And I think that's kind of... I mean, we all have family. I hope all of us have family. Most of us have family. Yeah. And that's kind of universal. Yeah. Well, and he did this in New York. Mm-hmm. He had a run at the Beacon.

[00:12:06] And they recreated it in some ways in a theater. And, you know, I thought instead of just doing a document of it, they maybe tried to make it feel like you would feel if you were there. Yeah. You know, like you... And when you watch a play, when you watch whatever, you don't always feel like you have the view of the stage that you do. Your mind kind of wanders into... Yeah. Close-ups and into dramatic reveal, all these things, where certain words have a resonance.

[00:12:36] And they kind of dramatized those elements. Yeah, they did. In a good way. Yeah. It's also a pretty good book if you haven't read it. If you didn't know already, Bono has a penchant for flair. Yeah, he does. I don't think it's annoying in this context at all. I do think that, like, if you're already annoyed by Bono, this is not going to change your mind. Like, if you find those aspects of how he presents himself,

[00:13:04] the enthusiasm that I think, you know, one person's enthusiasm is another person's annoying. This is not going to change your mind. So if you don't like Bono, if you don't like U2, don't waste your time. If you have somewhat of an open mind. Yeah. I fundamentally do not understand people who can't stomach Bono because they think he's a megalomaniac. Well, he touches on that too. Yeah. And he did a round of media appearances where he,

[00:13:33] like he went on Kimmel and Kimmel asked him, you're always trying to take yourself down a notch. You know, you're always pointing out your own hypocrisy. You know, you can, there's just an incredible list of rock stars, movie stars, athletes who talk slightly less and are 1,000 times the asshole that Bono is in my mind. Was it South Park? They joke, are we just like sick of him trying to do the right thing? Like what? Yeah. Why are we mad at him?

[00:14:03] And that he seems to be working. He's showing his work. You know what I mean? And I think a lot of people, especially with 90s U2, did not understand how much they were winking at the camera. Yeah. And so the megalomania just sets in. Now, when they put a record out and it's on your phone and you didn't ask for it, I think that that hits a lot different in 2014 than it would have hit in 2004 if they had tried it. You know?

[00:14:31] Like I think that maybe the age and cultural relevance catches up to us all. So I understand why anybody much younger than me would not be interested in this. But I also remember people hating Bruce Springsteen when I was growing up and then him having a massive, it's like all of indie rock was like agreed, no, it's okay to like Bruce. And it would not surprise me that U2 catches a revisionist history at some point and gets their fair shake.

[00:14:57] And to think we almost had Adam in that audience were it not for Lee Baines. This is true. I had tickets. Did you sell them? I had to sell them, yeah. I sold them at face value because I believe in the people. There it is. That's our ethos here. Selling it at face value to someone who's just going to scalp it. That's an honorable deed. Let's get into spoilers after a break.

[00:15:26] This is the final week that we're aiming for 500 subscribers on our YouTube channel. If you still need your help, head to youtube.com at TheAlabamaTake or hit the link in the show notes. Subscribing helps a ton and you can turn off notifications if you want. We get it. Why don't you have to ruin that, Donovan? I don't know. I can't help it.

[00:15:57] Okay, we're back for spoilers. And I hope you're here for the FX show Adults, which really wanted to be its own take on the genre typical of girls we mentioned. Or maybe even Insecure also from HBO. It might have a little of that element. Though the characters of Insecure older, wiser, and more adept, I think, of life. So here's the deal with adults. These are characters who are terrible people.

[00:16:26] That's okay for a TV show. Plenty of characters are terrible people and you still find them endearing or at least funny. I mean, this network also airs Always Sunny, right? Well, that's the biggest thing, right? But, you know, you get your Tony Soprano. You got your It's Always Sunny. The show Adults does not have any of those characters that are also endearing. Tony Soprano is not in. Oh, okay. I follow. That are also endearing. Yeah. I kept asking myself why I couldn't root for them.

[00:16:56] Fair or not or smart or not, this is the phrase that coalesced in my head. But I've found, especially like the first five to ten minutes of Just Add Water zaniness. Like, they're characters, but they're zany. Don't you like all the zany things they're getting up to? Mm-hmm. Obnoxious. Yeah, it was. I found it very obnoxious. I felt like the whole show was written to say, hello, olds. This is how the youths act. I did kind of want to know, like, the average age of, like, the writers on these shows.

[00:17:26] I'm like, am I being put on here? No, I know this. They are old Gen Z. They are on the top end. Well, that's basically just young millennial. So too old to work for Doge. They aged out. Yes. Yet this is a show about people the age of Doge. Doge. Great. But Doge. Who cares? Let me tell you, since we're in specifics here, and I think this is the first episode, who cares?

[00:17:55] One of the primary characters. There's like five, six of them. They all live together. They're all kind of squatting in this one guy's parents' house in Queens. He goes to the bank to get a check, and they ask him for his social security number. He, and he doesn't know it. Now, I live with this on a day-to-day basis as a teacher. I see it daily. You should know your address, and you should know your fucking social security number.

[00:18:24] We should not be this far gone as a society. And it's not even that cute in this scene, and definitely not in real life. Did he really not know it? No. Yeah, the joke is he starts being like, I gotta call my mom. She just knows it better than I do. It's funnier said than in the scene. I'm sure Donovan just put a little more zing on it than they did.

[00:18:47] I felt bad because I was looking at them, and I'm like, all of these actors are real people who are clearly trying their best. And they're doing, I think, a good job. I'm not looking at any of them and like, this is your fault. But man, there's just so much that was not, it just didn't land. Yeah. I don't know if it's the writing, the directing. I don't want to blame the actors. They all seemed pretty good at their job. I think the writing was, maybe weak's not even the right word. Just not doing them any favors. Yeah.

[00:19:17] I know I said this already, but there was so much for a lot of the characters where it was just like, don't you see how crazy and zany we are? Yeah. Don't you want to watch about our hijinks? In a way that Sonny kind of never does, you know? No. Sonny, and this is where I'm going to really sound like an idiot, but Sonny is completely invested in its own universe. Where it's like, these are just like, these are like, based on the mental states of these characters. This is just like a normal thing.

[00:19:47] And this, and this, this show felt like it was standing back and looking at the characters and saying, aren't they wacky? Don't you want to laugh at this? And Sonny is so good at what it does that I'm just laughing right now. Yeah. Right? Right? I think it's true, though. Oh, it's absolutely true. And it was from like season one. They definitely got better, but like re-going into season one, they're incredibly assured. Like, they really haven't changed what they're trying to do at all.

[00:20:15] The only thing they changed is D was supposed to play the straight man. Yes. And then they obviously, they added- They let that go. They obviously added Frank, which was the greatest casting, probably, in my opinion, the greatest casting move of all time. Yeah. Danny DeVito. I still, they seem, I think they also don't know how they got away with that. It's so good. Can we just talk about how much we like Sonny?

[00:20:41] Well, we're almost going to, because listen, one of the plot lines to adults is that they're so attention starved, that one of the characters jumps on the stage at an activist campaign, and the activist had been sexually assaulted. It was a campaign against sexual assault, and to be aware. And she wants to be a part of this so badly that she tries every method to get on stage.

[00:21:11] That could be a plot line from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and be killer at laughter. But here, it's just annoying because she's so attention starved. She was a character in particular that, it felt, based on the opening of the show too, it felt like they were setting her up. It's like, what's this kooky bird gonna do next? We don't know.

[00:21:38] Yeah, I kept trying to dissect why that would work somewhere else, like especially It's Always Sunny, and why it just doesn't work here. See, this is where I think it is actually good for us to watch things that we don't like as much, because it does ask us, ask us to ask ourselves questions like that. Like, it is actually kind of fascinating to think, like, why does something that's so similar work in one place and not the other? And I think we're, you know, I think we're kind of dancing around stuff.

[00:22:07] But sometimes I think there's elements that are really hard to put your finger on, and sometimes I think I just needed to be in media studies if I wanted to really be able to ask that question, answer that question. That first episode of Dolts could have been an interesting examination on sex in the modern age and what's required with consent and after the act, but everything felt so forced. It didn't feel like they really cared at all.

[00:22:36] No, they didn't care at unpacking that. They just wanted to try for a joke about where we are after the Me Too era. It could have gone two directions. That's exactly it. Yeah, it could have gone two directions. It could have gone really deep into that problem of where, what do we do? Did I do enough? You know, Samir's calling up ex-girlfriends and saying, I didn't break any boundaries, did I?

[00:23:02] It didn't go deep enough with that, or it could have just gone absolutely crazy with it for the laughs. This is kind of the reason I felt like there's nothing to write about, right? Because for exactly the reasons you articulated. I can't, there's no think piece to write about this because it's just, it doesn't really, it's not really that interested in the actual issues. No, that's it. They're not. It doesn't feel like it anyway. They're not treated like real problems, which you can still do in a comedy.

[00:23:32] Yeah. This show has to be written by very witty and smart people for it to land, to be a document for the generation it wants to convey. Yeah, and that's its purpose is to try to make a generational specific comedy. It just doesn't achieve any humor. Not really. I think it's a fascinating concept. I'm sorry, guys. Yeah, I think it's a fascinating concept that Samir is tracking down a couple of ex-girlfriends to see if he's gone too far with them.

[00:24:02] That's a fascinating and can be even a funny one, but it wasn't worth a dime here. No, because it all, it was all for laughs. And then he's got like, whoa, the girl who's like crazy, right? She's going to let him do whatever. And then it all kind of gets wrapped up with like, maybe it wasn't that big a deal after all, right? Like there's no, he's not even being really introspective. He just wants to have his girlfriends tell him he's not a bad guy.

[00:24:31] And you saying that is funny, but it's not funny in the show. It's not funny the way it's done. Now, if you put, if you had George Costanza doing this. Exactly. That's what you need. This is the joke that I wanted to make where they were living in a parent's house in Queens. In Queens. It never peers into the how or the why. It only wants to give you the what. And the what is, this is what society's like for someone just out of college now, which we all could have guessed.

[00:25:00] My friends in Gen Z, y'all deserve better than this. Yeah, you did. Yeah. Because this can be, I even think of, this is not about Gen Z, but like girls or like a classic movie. What I think of, you know, like the last days of disco where it's about young folks right out from college, right? Young in New York City making mistakes, figuring things out. And it's hysterical and it deeply cares about its characters.

[00:25:27] And we all deserve to have media that reflects things like that about us. So, guys, you deserve something better. Yeah. I'll end with this one. I didn't know I was a prude, but here's an example that might be. You are now. The opening scene to episode two is the young lady, Billy. She's on the toilet scrolling on her phone. That's not the bad part. Samir and Issa come in to shave his armpits for a sexual encounter who's requested it.

[00:25:57] That's not the bad part. But then Anton comes in and he wants to piss between Billy's legs, even though there's another bathroom in the house. Now, me telling you that is very funny, but it just didn't work. It screamed that the writers have no clue what's the difference between funny and forced. Yeah. And this is where it comes into forced. Like saying bad words and talking about sex doesn't automatically make something funny.

[00:26:25] If it did, Kevin Smith would be like – he'd be like Orson Welles, right? And I don't say that with any animosity for Kevin Smith. Like there was a great Roger Ebert review of one of his movies once where he's like he thinks the same funny words and talking about sex is like – is so adult and transgressive. And God bless him for it. He's like we need him out there.

[00:26:50] But it is – I mean that's – it kind of is like if you look at comics post Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns and all this kind of stuff, they could tackle more quote-unquote adult themes. And so many of them – many of them fucking suck because there's more to being something that's meant for actual adults than a swear, nudity, and gratuitous violence. All of those things are great and I love them.

[00:27:20] But – Yeah, it's like even Game of Thrones had that effect on TV. Yeah, yeah. That's a great point. Game of Thrones itself I think gave in to that. That is a great point. Yes, I absolutely agree with you. Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. I wouldn't be shocked to find out the writer's room had somebody say, You know what we haven't seen on TV? Somebody trying to pee between a girl's legs. Let's have that. Let's see if The Simpsons did that.

[00:27:50] That's true. Yeah, why – but why? They never get to the why. As a big believer in bathroom time being alone time, I'm really – despite what my cats think, I really – I'm really glad I didn't watch this episode. Yeah, we had four characters in the bathroom. That's too many. Now, if – anytime the toilet is being actively used, that's when the bathroom truly becomes alone time.

[00:28:16] Well, let's jump back into Bono, Songs of Surrender on Apple TV. You know, he admits he's navel-gazing by writing the book, but I'm more of the belief that everyone has a fascinating story or five inside of them. I mean, Winston Churchill wrote five books about the Second World War where he's basically the main character. So I think we can excuse Bono as one.

[00:28:42] You know, if you are Winston Churchill writing about World War II, I think I give you a pass to make yourself a bit of a main character in the story. If you are Bono talking about your own life and it's been quite a life, then why not make yourself the main character and be pretty interesting? That's what I mean. I agree. Yeah. For the unconvinced out there, he really is very clever and funny and self-deprecating. Oh, yes.

[00:29:11] His delivery is, I think, a little over the top sometimes in a way that I was like, oh, you're really reaching. But he's an artist, right? He's doing it for an effect. But the overall point of this thing made me think, like, I would love to go sit down, like, in that room with him and his dad and hear, just hang out. Like, hear him say anything, what is it, anything shocking, anything strange? What was the unusual or strange? Anything shocking or startling, right? That was what it was, shocking or startling.

[00:29:41] I'd love to sit down. He just seems kind of cool. Yeah. I don't know. His delivery of that was always so awesome. You knew exactly what he was going to say every time. It was just great. Yeah. Donovan is definitely right that he oversells some of his dramaticisms, as he does, has done on stage for years. I mean, this is just his personality. Or his, his persona, sorry, not personality, persona is what I meant to say. That's his persona.

[00:30:09] See, I think the thing is, you know, we've all been around bars and seen, seeing guys like this who, Bono would be doing this in the pub whether he was famous or not. Absolutely. You know, he'd be holding court. You know, it's almost such like an Irish thing, right? Yeah. To really be that kind of a storyteller. And I think there are many other cultures and countries where that kind of a storyteller, you're locked in, right? And it's not because they're underselling it.

[00:30:37] There are several things that people, yeah, over here in the U2 Apologist Quarter. There are several things that people forget about U2. One, that they are a very Irish band. Yeah. And two, that they, they come from punk rock, you know? Yeah. And that they, I don't think in their minds ever lost that, you know, that they're always trying to do something interesting and against the grain.

[00:31:02] And I think he still, for both of those reasons, feels like he has an outsider's perspective. Despite the fact that he has been amongst A-listers for decades. I mean, he, he has met, he's been in the Oval Office, I don't know how many times, and met all these presidents and commonly hangs with celebrities and blah, blah, blah, jet sets the world. But I still think he would view himself that way. Yeah, well, it's because they are from Ireland.

[00:31:29] It's not like they're from England or the United States, definitely. If they were, it would come off so differently. Right. And I think that they were kind of co-opted into a global band because they were so ambitious. And obviously, people resent ambition. I would highly recommend Brian Eno's diary, just as an aside. He kept a daily diary in the mid-90s, early, 94, I think.

[00:31:56] But all of his interactions with U2, when he writes about them, he says, he treats them, one, as a family. You know, when he says, I go to see U2, it's like, wives are included, children, crew. I'm going to see this group of people. And he said, they know how to live and live well. And I don't think it has anything to do with money. I believe that.

[00:32:19] And if you have somebody like Brian Eno, who is, you know, cool guy approved, saying that, I'm inclined to believe it. Shout out to Brian Eno, by the way. Put out a great couple records this week. Oh, is he a listener? I hope he is. But the aside is, nice job, Mr. Eno. Yeah. Everyone should go listen to these records.

[00:32:40] My favorite aspect of this, and I think it works so well, is that Bono chose to boil this down to the parts of his book that are the dichotomies. Especially the father and son, which is evident early. And then they used the black and white to play with that idea of two sides to the coin. I mean, such a beautiful use of light and just being filmed.

[00:33:10] It's very nice to watch. The things that resonated the most with me was probably what Blaine said. I liked how I left myself or having watched it, I was like, OK, I need to read the book because there's obviously gaps that I could fill in.

[00:33:29] But the relationship with his dad and the way he kind of kept coming back to that, it felt like in a sense that I can't quite rationalize. The two paradoxical or dichotomous things he says, one is, of course, I forgave my dad or he forgave me.

[00:33:52] And then this sense that someone who leaves you and goes away, in a sense, leaves something behind, a gift for you. You know, and there's – that's a very spiritual idea, right? You know, there's theologians, and you can even look at in mainline Christian tradition, right? It's about like Jesus, right? He goes off the scene, and then the Holy Spirit comes.

[00:34:17] And it just felt really honest that he was like, here's the way, like, I thought I'd have more time with my dad, and then he left. And here's the gifts he was able to give me, maybe. I thought that was – that's what stuck with me the most. And honestly, because he just was a guy who has a dad. We all have dads, you know? He's a guy who has a family.

[00:34:40] You know, the way that he's set up – and it was very, very striking in the book to – that they had a practice space that was 100 yards from his mother's grave, and it never occurred to him. Yeah. You know, he says that in the play as well, and she – you know, if you know the whole Bono story, and he even kind of jokes about this.

[00:35:07] He goes through, like, rock star history of, like, dead mom, dead dad. You know, like, this is a driving force. And even, like, a song like New Year's Day, they're sitting there writing it, and the chorus is, If you walk away, walk away, I will follow. Yeah. All right, I will follow, not New Year's Day. Him talking about that, and he has a great line where he says, talking about the dead, there's more of them than there are us. Yeah. Yeah. That's such a great Bono-ism.

[00:35:37] Yeah. You know? And it's very, like, Irish, very storytelling kind of thing, the idea that, you know, not only are gifts given – you know, he's – Donovan, you were kind of talking specifically about his voice changed, I think. His voice changed, yeah. Yeah. But even his mother being dead for so long and him only knowing her until he was a 14-year-old boy and her still reappearing in his life. Yeah. You know, that she wouldn't go away.

[00:36:06] That way of phrasing that and the way that it ties – it just betrays such a beautiful understanding of life and family and psychohistory or however you want to – Yeah. I want to talk about it that, you know, this person that he lost is in some ways eternal. And again, that's why I always say even if you don't particularly like him, he has such an interesting way of putting things. Yeah.

[00:36:32] So this is what made me feel like it's not just navel-gazing. Well, first off, it was very well done, very professional. But basically what you said, Adam, made me feel like this is not just navel-gazing. Unless everybody who's ever written a memoir told a story about their month – about their life is just an inveterate navel-gazer. But instead – and kind of going with the title, right?

[00:36:56] But like there's an openness and honesty that we can see things from our own lives reflected in and take with us and reflect upon. And I really – he's either the world's greatest liar or he completely means what – you know, like he completely means what he says. I think he's completely genuine. And I think that's why it allows you to watch it as – you know, he's not just talking about his mom and dad.

[00:37:22] He's talking about investigating reality in his mind. And so it doesn't just apply to him. It applies to all of us. Yeah. Yeah. The context about his mom and that she died when he was 14 strips away the outlandishness of such things as music can be a prayer. You know, saying things like that might garner an eye roll. When you have the context that he provides, it's not.

[00:37:51] Which is so funny because to me, I grew up with music being U2. The idea of music being a prayer, I would roll my eyes at anybody who doesn't believe that. Yeah. You know? And it's just so – then I'm – I always realize when these things get talked about why I'm the odd man out on loving this band. And it doesn't hurt that Bono's a pretty good actor. Yeah.

[00:38:17] The Pavarotti scene and how he plays all the roles and then the recreation of his father's death are two examples of this dichotomy. The Pavarotti scene being hilarious and then his father's death being just profoundly sad. And I love the discussion he has with the audience about the journey of a son becoming a friend to the father and a father himself. Mm-hmm.

[00:38:47] I very much enjoyed, too – and I think this comes from him being a good actor and a good storyteller. But something else that helps me, like, really undergird the – I guess the theme of it is that there are – he has some bits in there that are somewhat famous rock star stories. Mm-hmm. But he always seems like – like, my favorite one was his dad meeting Princess Diana.

[00:39:12] But the way he does – like, he never seemed – like, it's not – I introduced my dad to Princess Diana. It's the absurdity of, like, the da's here. Mm-hmm. And he met – you know, like, he met – he met Diana and all of a sudden he's, like, a changed man. And, like, there's that – like, that humor about it. But it also is so focused on – he's focused on the relationship between him and his dad. Yes. Not, oh, I could introduce my dad to Princess Diana. What have you done? That's right.

[00:39:41] Well, I think he – if he brings anybody else specifically in this, he's also kind of bemused that this happened in his life. For sure. Yeah, absolutely. Because they always say that, you know, they had everything, the ambition, the drive, maybe the ideas, the man. Yeah. So I think that he – you know, I mean, what if you and your high school friends just worked your asses off

[00:40:06] and ended up having some chemistry before the four of you that propelled you to, you know, hit the jackpot? You know, I think – I think they had been playing with house money since they were 18 years old and are hyper-aware of it. And so, yeah, it makes those stories of, like, like you were saying, Donovan, oh, yes, come meet Pavarotti, come meet Diana, whatever. It's like this is an insane journey.

[00:40:31] Look at the circumstance that's brought my very Irish dad into close contact with the royal family. Another high point was the quote where he said poverty is not natural. It's man-made. To me, that was him walking the walk after talking the talker. Did I do that in reversal order? I quite liked his dad's – where he took that from his dad too, right?

[00:40:55] Like, if there was – I can't remember exactly what it was, but saying if there was an injustice – if there was no injustice, we would not need charity. That was good too. The Christian thinker Athanasius – no, Christostom, sorry. Not Athanasius.

[00:41:15] John Christostom at one point advanced the idea that no rich person can give charity to a poor person because by giving what you have to the poor, you're giving them what was already theirs that you took from them. And I feel like that's kind of where this is coming from, right? Like, we shouldn't need charity because it's already everyone's and you took it. Yeah.

[00:41:42] Well, as we wind down, did you have a favorite rendition of one of the U2 staples done differently than here? I will try to earn some cred back from the Apologist Corner here and say that the companion record that they put out reimagining these songs, I hated. He tweaked some lyrics that maybe worked okay in a performance like this and would have worked in that space that did not work for me outside of it.

[00:42:09] But I think the I will follow moment where he is yelling at his invisible bandmates about like, we can do it. We can do it. You're good enough. All that. Especially combined with what he says later about like people think U2 is a – you know, I run U2. It's like, no, this is a four-part democracy. Where each person thinks they're the leader. Right. That was the good part. So good.

[00:42:35] But that – I mean, that almost – it was an odd moment to kind of make me choke up a little bit. But the idea of those four guys being in a room and being like, we can do this and kind of just making it happen was – I'm so moved by their story because it is like the ultimate punk rock success moment. Well, probably just because it's a great song. I did like the way they did, you know, Pride. That was great too.

[00:43:05] That also kind of showed me up a little bit. Yeah, because he kind of – like he doesn't – it's not super slowed down, but it's a little slowed down. A little bit. Just enough to really – it's a good song, you know? It really makes you – it's good. Open your heart, man. The context that they – he gave for With or Without You. Yeah. And that was like one of the most rip your heart out kind of moments.

[00:43:29] And, you know, I even remember thinking while I watched it, like, you know, you can tell a father-son story. You can tell kind of a coming-of-age story about you and your bandmates, whatever. But to be this vulnerable about your marriage that is still ongoing. Yeah. Like, you didn't have to do this. You know what I mean? But to be that – like, be like, this is part of who I am. That's – Yeah. That was really something. I thought that was really cool.

[00:43:54] Well, I did not know this, that how – when he talked about how his wife had worked on this with him. I'm like, that's – this is also a collaborative. You know, it's not just Bono, right? It's everything he does seems to be a collaboration. I think he's – he constantly wants to be the least important – not least important, but he wants smarter people around. I think he would defer to his wife's worldview often as the better human.

[00:44:21] And even, like, the details of they moved out of their family houses and in with each other, you know? Yeah. It's not particularly rock star to have, like, lifelong relationships like that. To be faithful to the wife that you married at 21, I think it was, something like that. Yeah. When you met her at 15, so you've really been with one person for – Well, they never wanted the age to come back and scoop her up. That's right. That was a funny detail. That was a good detail.

[00:44:48] I think Beautiful Day was my favorite, though Desire is a close second. Those two were my favorite. I found it moving. I think there's something in here for more than just the YouTube fans. Yeah, it made me – and I always had it on my to-do, but honestly, it made me want to read more because there were stories that he told that I wanted – I just wanted to know more. The book is pretty good.

[00:45:14] The book is good, and he did a good job of taking things from it to make the show. Yeah. If listeners would like more, if you watch the performance of – they play Slain Castle days after his dad passed away. That's cool.

[00:45:33] And you can – if you watch the performance of Kite, which was about – partially about that relationship, you can see tears streaming down his face, which is very – I've always found very moving. There you go. This is the end of our episode. Hope you enjoyed it. If you have a bonus four hours, I will take you through the YouTube discography. Just send an email, and he'll get you there. Just to you. Well, I'll get it to you.

[00:46:01] Like, I will do this for each individual person that writes in. Oh, yeah. That's what I'm saying. Send an email. All right. We will talk to everyone later. We'll talk to you, everyone, later.