Daemon Is The Trump of 'House of the Dragon,' The Horror of the Finale of 'Dark Matter,' and More

[00:00:00] Hello, I believe we have new listeners this week. If the socials are to be accurate, if you are a new listener, welcome. I'm the host of Taking It Down. My name's Blaine. I'm also the editor-in-chief of our host site, The Alabama Take. We can find more podcasts

[00:00:20] and plenty of writing. Taking It Down, this podcast is a TV and streaming podcast where the busy but keen TV viewer, we know that was streaming. Everything seems like it's everywhere, nowhere. We provide some thoughtful recommendations for you folks in mind before

[00:00:37] we get into any kind of analysis. So nearly every episode is a lot of will you like it, working your find it to begin, and then if you've seen the series, you can stick around

[00:00:47] for some unpacking that would probably spoil the show or the movie. Every social media sites out of hand, engagements down and if you're really living your life, none of that even matters. Your feed's a deluge of shit you don't care about seeing. Suggestions,

[00:01:07] people you really want to ignore groups you don't care about, memes that aren't funny, bots responding to shit that waste your time. It's all shit thanks to the algorithm made to keep you on the app longer and longer. Kill the algorithm, your first best bet not

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[00:02:00] shop for the Alabama Take. We go to thealabamatape.com, click on shop real simple. We got new things there including speaking of the new kill the algorithm t-shirt. Okay, what's sad news to hear

[00:02:15] that ample TV plus has canceled the big door prize which starred Christo Dowd as a history teacher at a high school and in a town where a mysterious machine shows up and spits out a card that predicts everyone's potential. Man this show was fun, it was whimsical,

[00:02:33] it had some sincere moments of wistfulness, you don't see that well balanced in a lot of shows. It's going to end with this second season that finished airing earlier this year and that's just too bad for a couple of reasons. First the show was good, it wasn't great,

[00:02:49] but it was good. The second season was really fixing some of the issues the first season had, writing some of the characters more clearly, adding some more poignancy, and it's what a shame. It's also a bummer for the second reason because Apple TV plus with all

[00:03:07] their money in the world that Amazon doesn't have, it didn't seem like it was a streaming service that was trigger happy to cancel shows that weren't doing well. Maybe you could give the show

[00:03:20] a little leash, a little breath to grow. I may not be the case even there now. I think it's my goal next week to report more on presumed innocent in this section of the podcast or maybe

[00:03:35] with a deeper look if I could talk some of the co-host into it. We'll see. If you want to watch along with me, I have now seen the first two episodes and those two episodes are absolutely

[00:03:46] stellar. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal, it airs on Apple TV plus once a week. I recommend it highly. I said recently here this show simply it just crackles with high energy and its performances

[00:04:00] and kind of smart writing. Not to say it's an action movie, it's honestly not that at all. It's kind of a courtroom type show but it's just one that's sizzling. Good stuff for the summer.

[00:04:14] Let's get the guys in here and start the podcast. I love to take projection. Yeah, this is a TV. Nope, I'm backing up. This is a TV and streaming podcast and I can tell the two of you what was on TV and streaming this most recent Thursday evening

[00:04:36] the presidential debate. Let's please not. I can't even get through the joke. I was watching USA panel and I was like which sucked but whatever. Is that soccer? Yeah. Also, this might be a controversial opinion but we built a whole ass canal and

[00:05:00] then gave it back to them. They could at least let us win a game. Hey, Jack, helps the economy. It's gonna help us. I went back to see that I forget who was playing Uruguay and I figured they were

[00:05:15] playing and I have YouTube CDs so it'll give you suggested stuff so I accidentally heard three seconds of the debate before I could click away. That's all you need. America's over. Yep, that's why we're not talking about America. We're talking about Ireland.

[00:05:33] Adam, you and I discussed some of the Netflix series, Bodkin last week where Will Forte plays a podcaster who's had some luck with one show but not so much with a couple of others that he's done. He's gotten in with two journalists from the Guardian

[00:05:45] to help him piece together or maybe even just tell the story of this mystery that's occurred 25 years ago in a small Irish town, hence the name Bodkin, right? Forte plays Gilbert and Gilbert's two companions from London are Dove.

[00:05:59] She's like a hard-nosed jaded journalist who's in some trouble at home with a whistleblower case and then they have this researcher, Emy Brideye Bushy-Tailed about her first real assignment. Let's do some closing thoughts as I finish the series now.

[00:06:16] So if anyone hasn't seen the back half of it, they may want to skip ahead to the next segment if they want. You said you wanted to know what I would think of it when I was done, right?

[00:06:27] I did, yeah. That's a fight. A lot of my comments last week had to intentionally be a little more reserved on how they handled story and I think I even said they may rely more on vibe than an airtight narrative construction. So, yes, I'm interested to see

[00:06:48] what you think now that you have landed the plane. Did they land the plane? Were you thrown out in turbulence? Nope. I didn't think it was great, but I did think that it's good things outweighed it's bad. It was still nothing I dreaded watching. Yeah.

[00:07:10] I thought the story was better than maybe what you thought it was. I think the story was good. I just think the mechanics of the story did not work as well as they might have with a little more pressure to get it right.

[00:07:26] Remember how we were talking about if this had been an FX show or much less an HBO show, there would have been a bit more need to be like why? Are we sure that all of these threads

[00:07:38] make sense? They did all make sense. It could have been done. It could have elevated it if they had put a little more thought into it or told the story a little bit. Maybe it's an editing thing. I don't know.

[00:07:51] Hmm. You know, I agree with you there. It's not so much that the story was liking. It's that some of the choices they made didn't have the narrative ump that probably they should have.

[00:08:05] Right. Even just little things like it's shown to be a very small town yet you can disappear pretty easily in it. Just big cliffhangers kind of left in. I wish we can get to the finale. Maybe we should say that but you know, does it all

[00:08:26] make sense? I don't know. But was it fun? Yeah, I had a good time. Yeah, it's pretty fun. The finale does talk about journalism versus podcasting. I think Dove says that Gilbert say not a journalist. He's a pornographer. Yeah,

[00:08:46] which doesn't include a couple other labels she could have used. What would you have? What are some of the other labels you would throw in there? See Gilbert would probably be okay with Storyteller and I would be okay with podcasting

[00:09:01] being documentarian. But do you think what he was doing was documenting or he was you know, what she's accusing him of is the true crime aesthetic right? Just kind of reveling in other people's traumas and pillaging out of the way places in their own

[00:09:27] problems for your own gain. Yeah, which I think pornographer is a good word for that maybe. It's designed to be titillating. The lack of a better word. She's right in her case I think for him and he comes to that realization obviously because

[00:09:49] he throws away the podcast. That's a lot of hours being thrown into the water. The reveal of what's really going on with his wife, she shows up with the divorce papers which I thought man this woman is committed to this. She can't even wait till he gets home

[00:10:08] to handle this. Gotta fly across an ocean but the reveal of how he it almost would have been better had she died from the cancer for their relationship because he portrayed so much

[00:10:24] about their life and about what she would have rather remained private. And now that they're in this space that maybe they didn't think they would be in which is the rest of their lives.

[00:10:35] She's like I can't handle you anymore. Yeah, that was one of those things that I talked about that just didn't work. Okay, but because she just shows up they divorce and that's it and

[00:10:46] you never really feel the reverberations after that. You know if he gets swept up in action and I thought in a pretty natural way so quickly after that that I mean I think it's

[00:10:59] that's a motivating part of him throwing the recorder. Yeah, to say yeah I have been I don't know that he feels remorseful. I'm sure he does feel remorseful about his relationship but he has evolved past needing to do the even though it's like destroying his livelihood

[00:11:20] in theory. I was kind of frustrated because it's like there is an interesting story to tell in a respectful way here using the footage that you had but I guess he couldn't I don't know if

[00:11:32] if there's more to that idea or if we should kind of just take the show as it presented as in like this dramatic thing is he has evolved he has learned his lesson he's throwing it away.

[00:11:46] I think they would have had a tougher time to try to figure out how to show he's changed. Yeah. I think the biggest surprise for me was how Siren was just at EDM festival.

[00:11:58] I was expecting more ample bobbing. I mean it was uh yeah kind of just a heathenistic party right? Yeah, yeah it really was probably thanks to the guy who's resurrecting it. Yeah. Oh shit, but it's always you know them arriving as they did you're supposed to think a

[00:12:21] little bit about wicker man and you know weird old Celtic or Pagan or whatever word you want to use for it. Wouldn't you have liked this if they really went down that road that tonal path?

[00:12:35] Yeah I mean it would have been maybe if they had played with it like it would have been predictable if they had been kind of leading them on a goose chase intentionally and the whole

[00:12:44] town was in on something that they weren't and I feel like they maybe played with it that expectation a bit but it could have been more fun. Yeah I was just thinking more creepy.

[00:12:54] Could have been creepier. It's a truly mediocre bit of television in the best possible way. Like very watchable but not yes not going to be a critical darling.

[00:13:09] No I mean Dove even says in the finale we're the same you and I and I was like no she said the line that is just the hallmark of a so-so show. Did you find yourself liking her more

[00:13:25] or at least being more interested in her character? Just a little bit not as much as maybe I should have. Yeah I give the show credit because the finale was really good as for not

[00:13:37] wasting any time. Yeah. It trucked up on. At rapid speed. I think that it could even be improved here and there make for a decent second season. Tricky to do but it could happen. Kind of a

[00:13:51] case of an uneven show whose rockiness doesn't bother me too much. Right. The good kind of outweighs the bad. The good was really Will Forte's portrayal, the setting, the actor and character of Sheamus. A couple of twists I really didn't see and then

[00:14:10] it was only seven episodes too. Yeah. Yeah I thought it was smart to release it when they did. Early summer, weeknight fun viewing. Yeah. Binging. I would say that the bad is that

[00:14:24] Dove needed more to do than just frown for the first half. The whistleblower story really didn't go anywhere. I suppose it went somewhere but. Well it did for her. Yeah. It was in there

[00:14:39] just to have her in trouble and to give her some bit of change. Well and it also it forced her to reckon with a post, a complete change in identity you know because I think she

[00:14:52] is supposed to be someone who her sense of self has completely wrapped up in the work that she does and now that she, I mean I'm remembering this right. She's kind of like kicked out of the game.

[00:15:08] Like she's not working for The Guardian anymore and it's probably blacklisted in some way from journalism. So she's, maybe she can write a memoir or something but that would have sounded like a punishment worse than death to her at the beginning of the series.

[00:15:27] Isn't she doing podcasting in Alberta? Yeah. Yeah. Or at least recording for notes. Right okay okay. You know it's fine. It's very middle of the road kind of show. A tweak here and there it really could have been good I think.

[00:15:43] Donovan, are you ever going to watch this program? Probably not. All right let me set off the final episode real quick. Let's say that an island of nuns that are no longer affiliated with any church they're just offshore from the village but not

[00:16:00] far just a ferry ride away. They have a thriving what like a almost like agrotourism kind of thing going on where you can stay there and do like yoga retreats and that sort of thing. Yeah people get an experience even maybe even mystical out of it.

[00:16:19] But when you get there they give you tea that's actually mushroom tea. So these nuns are drugging the people who come there not really taking advantage of them aside from you know in the way that you would take advantage of Instagram influencers financially.

[00:16:35] They're covering up the details of the town mystery when the details are revealed. A former smuggler during the troubles decides he'll just blow up the town via the tunnels that are only revealed to exist once the party starts directly on top of them. It's a lot.

[00:17:03] It is a lot. I blow up the town. I get that. When you put it like that. It's just a lot. Yes there seemed like a lot of threads there. Yeah there were but you know it never got to tangle those threads. It was fairly.

[00:17:19] You just kind of had to ride with it. Yeah you did. Okay. It's fine. I didn't hate it by any stretch of it. No definitely not. Just and I didn't dread it ever. I wanted to see what happened next usually.

[00:17:31] The like I have Blaine's measure is it is a bit of like damning with faint praise where it's like I'm guilty. Like my heart rate wasn't elevated when I sat down to what you know like I didn't. I didn't hate it. It was I didn't dread it.

[00:17:49] All right let's pick back up with House of the Dragon listeners know we're always a week behind because of recording on Sunday so we're going to be talking at length which means boiling soon into this discussion. Episode two of the second season this episode titled Raynera the Cruel.

[00:18:08] It's really an episode about the fallout of Damon's trip to Fleabottom to hire some really shitty dudes to try to kill Aiman and hey if you can't kill Aiman just kill a fucking baby. Am I right guys? You know what I mean?

[00:18:24] One-eyed Aiman who's not even in this episode much Yeah he's got like one scene with the He's being held. Yeah he's being cradled. Clearly seeing that Damon needs you know like the screening process is he needs to work with his HR department. Oh yeah. Unacceptable.

[00:18:47] I got to buy from Adam last week at House of the Dragon the series is a spectacle you want to watch but you're not incredibly impressed. Is that now is that am I right? You can answer that if you.

[00:19:00] No it's just funny that the first show you're like I didn't dread it and now you're like I don't like this show but it's a good spectacle. No I'm saying you that's what I get from you. I know I know yeah.

[00:19:10] It's just funny that we both have like a different flavor of grumpy about both of these shows. Oh that makes sense. Is that hangover from Game of Thrones too much time away in between season or too many damn

[00:19:23] yellow haired people with all of them having the same name? I don't think it's time away between seasons. I do think it's I was going to say denser but it's not denser than Game of Thrones was but it is more confusing to me. Yeah.

[00:19:39] And I think I can follow programs okay you know so it can't just be a me problem but there is some Game of Thrones hangover in that how can you trust them again after what they did? Well I can have fun. Different show runners.

[00:19:56] Yeah of course how can you trust them again even though it is you're right it's different folks but the brand has you know when you think too hard about it it's like what are they really

[00:20:07] trying to say are they just trying to entertain me with twists and turns or like what's the goal of this whole thing because it is entertaining and you know like you said we record over the weekend and I'm looking forward to watching this week's episode.

[00:20:24] We'll do it when it is on the air which is not true of a lot of shows we would just catch up when we had time and this does feel like a point in the viewing but yeah I don't know that I am in with my whole heart.

[00:20:40] Episode two Red Nero the cruel bit long maybe didn't move around the map enough for me. I'm actually was thinking almost about that same thing Blaine which is that one of the things with the first season is it just there was a lot right like between like

[00:21:01] it's like every episode you know like years take place between episodes basically and they're all over so this one actually I thought it mostly focuses on I was going to call them the

[00:21:14] high towers but the greens you know in in in King's Landing and Raniera and her folks in shoot what is it Dragon's Nome and that I that was working for me because yeah it's it this I mean we're only two episodes in but like the tighter focus where

[00:21:37] it's like okay now we've gotten into like the meat of it is working for me. If you like Game of Thrones for its political intrigue like oh this is a good mirror of

[00:21:46] political intrigue well this this one was for you this episode I noticed this last week a little but noticed it even more this week I really like the actor who plays Aegon yeah he's great

[00:21:58] you know he's got this humanity to him that Joffrey nor any other Game of Thrones villains ever had you just hated those guys and that was about it this guy I don't even really hate

[00:22:08] I think he's an idiot but I also read into him as kind of like a teenager who's also the fucking king in the middle of a civil war with his half sister like I can see that on this guy's

[00:22:19] face I I think he's doing pretty good job now some of that I think is because I do happen to watch the end piece where he's a normal guy talking to the camera yeah and I'm like oh man

[00:22:30] he seems kind of cool but in this show he's a bit more Tywin Lannister than Ramsay Bolton absolutely he's not just like needlessly like I would say he's not like cruel

[00:22:43] no I don't think so right like I don't think he is like an idiot yes he's stupid yeah like he's stupid he's air he's arrogant and he's ungovernable there you don't like you know

[00:22:54] you can't imagine like at least between the two episodes like it does seem like he has like real affection for his son right and like part of it is you know in this episode right part of

[00:23:06] part of his problem is that like his son is a reflection of him but also it seems like he's he's like genuinely mourning but yeah like you said like he's he's what like 19 or something

[00:23:19] yeah younger he's ungovernable man he really played a teenage father well I thought I don't want to put it but I've seen a lot of kind of teenage fathers being a being a high school teacher

[00:23:33] and I don't know he just nails the tonality of it which leads to him ungovernable as you say let's let we need to reserve a few minutes to revel in Reese Ifins who plays Otto Hightower he's no

[00:23:48] longer Hand of the King because of a guy his this guy uh do you did you guys realize he's the same actor who plays the lizard in spider-man movies no but I don't think I saw that movie uh

[00:24:04] Spider-Man what two or three with Andrew Garza original no no no wait was it he may be right maybe he's even in it in the the toby mcguire ones but he's never he's never like actually the

[00:24:19] lizard right that might be right but you know I'm so confused with spider-man it's okay but his this actor's reaction to Alice's guilt was just so perfect we're just like you know

[00:24:32] he's like I'm not going to I don't need to forgive you or however you put it it said a lot about his character too so it's well written and well played it was he's a very easy guy to

[00:24:44] uh like he's he's the voice of reason watch in the room yeah but you also hate him because you know he's manipulated and to to see him like get crushed by the situation of his own making was

[00:24:57] very fun this week yes this episode worked for me in hindsight watching it I felt it was a little stuffy and long um but looking back I can say there's just a lot of guilt running

[00:25:09] in the episode like Christian Cole's guilty for not being on the job which he takes out on his underlings Alice's guilt feels guilt for not for not being available or having him in the

[00:25:22] bed even uh Aegon is kind of guilty feels guilty about not being a dad or protector uh Rhaenyra feels responsible for the death of a baby so but you know who's not guilty no one's feeling

[00:25:37] not even one ounce Damon and that's why he's still my favorite he really is the Donald Trump of this show do it deny it don't apologize fly off on a dragon Donald Trump style I mean he's literally

[00:25:49] never I was thinking about this because like they did a good job in the first season setting up but like it would have helped me if like like his stuff kind of gets attenuated but like this

[00:25:59] is the same guy who just like killed his wife and doesn't give a shit oh yeah with a stone right like with a rock yeah like she was inconvenient and uh you know what this was inconvenient and who

[00:26:13] cares if it was smart or good strategy or whatever he did it all we need is a gift of him doing some really bad dancing and he really is the Trump of Westeros see it's fun to watch on television

[00:26:26] but like on the HBO channel not the news channel yes yes thank you yeah listeners know I'm sure but it's you know that attitude makes him kind of like the most not moral but like

[00:26:43] principled in a way I'm not saying these principles are good but you kind of know what he's gonna do and he's a fun everyone else's wishy washy or you know he's he's gonna

[00:26:56] just let it fly in a way he's like agon because he's also ungovernable right like agon is king which he very possibly feel that daemon very possibly feel still feels he should have been king

[00:27:11] I thought they did a very good job this episode talking flying around to different people who all had a very legitimate reason to feel slighted and not being on the throne Donovan are you hinting that daemon and agon just need to have a debate

[00:27:28] maybe around the golf let the people of flea bottom choose let the people decide you know they're gonna like the people of flea bottom would probably elect a dog or something yeah the dog needs a job now that poor dog I know that was that

[00:27:48] that was Futurama levels of heartbreaking right there oh god why'd you make me think of that episode you know what is needed in flea bottom fucking rat catchers man rats are out of control I'm not

[00:28:01] applying for that job now if they weren't before they are now you fucked that up buddy by the way just shift gears here having Sir Christian standing the doorway to see the bed

[00:28:12] taking taken down with all that blood that to me was a really nice example of conveying how someone's feeling with showing and not telling you know it's yeah I agree and it

[00:28:24] totally leads to him facing Eric Eric the same fucking name yeah and you know just doing too much scheming too soon to sneak attack dragon stone and this is going to come up in in dark

[00:28:36] dark matter too I am begging you to put tattoos on your character if they look exactly the same like number one and number two just so I know although I'm kind of kidding because that worked out

[00:28:50] super well in the fight as they were fighting I thought clearly we're going to end up with the extra muscle coming into the room and not knowing who of course to attack and boy did

[00:29:02] they just cut away any expectations that I had about how that situation was resolved that was great yeah the show still does that well I'm taking away from Blaine's point which is a good one which

[00:29:15] is that like that the grief and guilt or or even like I think I mean I do think like get daemons a little bit is just like he sees himself as like the actor capital A like he he can act and cut

[00:29:32] through the Gordian knot when others camp but everybody is being really rash and impetuous here you know Aegon is Cole obviously Daemon I you know I don't even know if he's being impetuous you know he's just gonna do what he's gonna do yeah pretty much everyone but

[00:29:50] Raniera who has been really kind of in we don't really know what her next move is going to be I don't think she does no I agree yeah she's no clue did you guys know that Sansa brings up those two

[00:30:05] twins battle and death in the first season of Game of Thrones no no I think it's mentioned in like the first season she tells the story of it wow yeah so that became the stuff of legend

[00:30:18] yeah but it didn't feel like it on the screen did it to me I mean it's kind of a cool five but I mean does any fight ever live up to the legends are probably better in story than reality

[00:30:29] that sort of thing I do I do think that is like a kind of maybe not in the TV show but through the books where George R R Martin is kind of looking at like and even like through the

[00:30:41] character of Sansa right like these people who have been raised with like these you know these ideals you know this chivalry knighthood honor etc but what happens when like that completely

[00:30:51] falls apart because no one gives a shit and this is complete complete sidebar but one of the things and I don't think this season this series going to do it either one of the things I liked in the

[00:31:04] books of Game of Thrones that what didn't really come up in the show is that everybody you know like we've got our good guys we've got our bad guys right we've got everyone that

[00:31:13] we're cheering for but the kind of the under uh under the a narrative thread running through it is that they're like winter is coming and they're doing incredibly destructive things by fighting war instead of preparing for winter and the people that suffer are the commoners

[00:31:34] and that wasn't really in the show and I kind of wish they would put that into this show they did a little bit mentioning like the small folk but I do think that that's something that

[00:31:42] like these people can can scheme and move their pieces around and all that but at the end of the day it's going to be the kingdom that suffers morphe blee bottom morphe blee bottom please I mean

[00:31:53] I think I think the show does an okay job I haven't read the books for the comparisons sake but by the end when Game of Thrones was really cooking and its initial run that was kind of

[00:32:05] the what made it intriguing to me was there's this existential threat looming and they're just completely concerned with their own little world and you occasionally see its effects on the small folk and like this week obviously you have people strung up because of the whims of

[00:32:26] a ruler and not even the whole ruling party agrees that that's what should have been done you know so it's it's like a petty argument about strategy between the powerful that has this profound

[00:32:40] effect yeah I'm hopeful that they'll continue I feel like I guess maybe my big complaint with the Game of Thrones is I think the showrunner is completely lost interest in any of that at a

[00:32:52] certain point I'm hoping this series does not because I'm still I'm enjoying that yeah and we got a sick little girl and farmers that can't take care of their whether like losing sheep

[00:33:06] and stuff to feed the goats exactly well and even the some folks tried to bring it up as a like a gotcha loophole but you talking about Sansa made me think of the the open of this season

[00:33:20] at the wall where the Starks are are seeing what's beyond the wall as like a serious threat and then you go to 200 years right past between this and and people online were trying to say well

[00:33:34] how the Starks understood then that this is like a real thing it's not like the stuff of legend and everybody pointed out well 200 years is plenty of time for something to shift from concrete real problem into some mythical thing yeah mm-hmm which would be illustrated by that

[00:33:55] fight as well like the details of that this the twin duel could become quite dramatic in 200 years one way I don't think that the show's doing a good job of bringing in the commoner was the subplot of Reynara and Damon's old mistress I was miserable with that plot

[00:34:19] point it could be the actress she maybe she's bringing very little to a show or maybe it's the characters having nothing good written for that she's just having a hard time elevating anything

[00:34:32] I'm just bored by that one final note I'll make so the two guys who are Shipman Adam and Alan their last name is Hall which means in that area that's their name for a bastard child

[00:34:50] mm-hmm we see the newly introduced Adam digging for clams and a dragon flies and you get a really prolonged shot of him watching the dragon so that could spell that he is a he's got potential

[00:35:07] to be a dragon rider and that dragon that's flying is the first gay husband of Reynara so it's kind of without a rider right now so it could be a hint that he could use the dragon

[00:35:24] and could be on the dragon this I'm glad you brought that up because that subplot has just dropped out of my brain because nothing's really happening with it yeah apparently those two guys

[00:35:35] might be the sons of the Ceasene I mean I wondered if something like that was going on but I completely forgot about it so let's see what they do with it I mean we've been waiting on more to

[00:35:48] happen with Alan for sure but that everything that you just said reiterates what you asked me at the top like is it just too complicated and yeah because my brain was like like a slot machine

[00:36:02] was spinning and just not getting any purchase on remembering any of those plot lines yeah well coming up I'm intrigued by Sir Christian as the hand of the king how bad will it be

[00:36:18] could be bad I'm interested I do think that they are we talked a little bit about this with the first episode the the ages of the the actors are all so close together versus the

[00:36:34] initial run of Game of Thrones you clearly had the younger set of folks your joffreys and sances and that generation the middle generation would net and then one older and this people are in power at

[00:36:47] all different levels and are playing with that and the youth youthful temperament mostly for ill has taken over so I think that's it's a good setup for like the the keys of the kingdom have

[00:37:00] gone to the wrong people too soon yeah yeah that's something to pay attention to play with for the show and with that we'll take a break we're going to speak in generalities about the first episode

[00:37:30] of the bear it's back and then maybe next week we'll start unpacking a few of the episodes episode one's called tomorrow first off I think this is a hard one to spoil which is good

[00:37:44] uh so my feelings about this is I could see how people might not like it or it might not be expecting it I kind of like that I think it worked because it's you know it's coming right on the heels of

[00:38:01] like it's literally the tomorrow as of uh as in tomorrow after the this this the season finale of season two I like that they went with something different instead of like here's more kitchen

[00:38:14] shouting or outside kitchen shouting it's kind of more dare I say introspective for for our main character oh yeah maybe maybe so so it it it worked for me also I want to be mean like a chef

[00:38:31] it felt like a response to the chaos chaos of the first couple of seasons calm and minimalist at times I don't want to say it was like a big break or anything but it was like to me it it it worked

[00:38:49] as a shift in the same way that um you know getting the feast of the seven fishes or whatever that episode at that point in season two did yeah it felt meditative and I mean that in a very

[00:39:03] a pretty literal sense like when you sit down to meditate how your mind will jump from one moment to another out of chronological order getting Terrence Malick to direct this episode was

[00:39:14] you know I think a big swing but I'm intrigued it's good because I mean like I don't think it's spoiling to say just like Leigh and said it's meditative it is really calm his mind jumping

[00:39:30] around to many things and I think that one of the things that I'm by and large the show does pretty well is remind us that there's yes everybody's kitchen shouting there's something deeper underneath

[00:39:47] it right right the restaurant is more than just a restaurant you know the food is more than just the food the dream is more than just the dream and based on on this the way it started I'm

[00:40:01] I'm intrigued yeah honestly gets it gets a thumbs up from me the thing only thing you know that the back of my head that makes me laugh is there they're really for purposes of an Emmy nomination

[00:40:14] they are really pushing the boundaries of the definition of comedy yeah I think that's about all I can say without getting too deep into what the first episode actually does and having only one episode will end the discussion until next week maybe which brings us to Dark

[00:40:34] Matter so Dark Matter's ended on Apple TV plus if you haven't seen it I've recommended it a lot throughout this late spring and now summer it's the story of a professor who works in

[00:40:45] theoretical physics or just probably just physics as far as being a professor and it turns out he made a crucial decision probably 16 years ago to marry his wife and be a professor rather than advance

[00:40:56] a career as a scientist well wouldn't you know it just like it's always happens that version of him that did not get married appears that's your fascinating premise right there we'll discuss

[00:41:09] the entirety of the show very soon so if you want to wait until you're finished with the show you can always come back to this so did the finale do it for you did it hit

[00:41:19] you know I don't think it was my favorite episode of the series it felt like the penultimate one that was the one where it's like oh no yeah of course this would be happening with the all of the all

[00:41:31] of the jason's being there this one kind of feels like okay we're setting out for next season right like how do we get this mess it did feel like a setup for next season just the the sense of like

[00:41:44] how are we gonna get out of this mess oh here's the new here's what we're gonna do here's how we're gonna completely divorce from that you know I'm watching that maybe I don't know if everyone felt

[00:41:55] this but I'm like I'm watching it and I'm like okay so like the jason that that ends up with Daniella and Charlie right like that's the one we've known that's the one we're kind

[00:42:05] of rooting for that's the protagonist but like how is he in any meaningful sense more real and have more of a claim to this place than any of the other jason's so the uh the like we just came to say goodbye

[00:42:21] scene that did work for me because I'm like all these people like like we're just we just pulled it just it's just so happens right that this is the jason that we're rooting for because the

[00:42:32] rest of them are basically the same person they went through different experiences in the box and we only saw this particular jason's which is why we're rooting for yeah exactly so just like

[00:42:46] philosophically you know it goes back to like which me is the real me right even to the point of like you know something super dramatic but like if if if this theory is correct right like

[00:43:01] I'm the me that has never murdered anyone there's a me out there that did murder someone but how could he not if every decision that's going to be made is going to be made

[00:43:13] is he evil did he have any choice that you know just rattling around my brain as I watch it so I do think it does a good job of kind of making you think of that which is part of the maybe

[00:43:24] not fun but like intrigue for me I guess yeah I really liked the finale I thought it was good yeah oh I did too um I don't think it's so just personally for me I thought that the penultimate

[00:43:38] one it was a little higher there and then the finale is kind of like okay we're winding out uh the threads here but it did work for me and one one tiny pickle uh when I'm watching this past

[00:43:54] 9 p.m uh showrunners I am begging you do not give your character the same name as uh the little letter that's a name that starts with the same letter as the actor because I just kept calling

[00:44:08] him Joel for an hour every time I'm like you know his name's Jason right I'm like I know I thought you're about to say showrunners please don't play coldplay records

[00:44:21] in your finale they can make their own decisions past 9 p.m past 9 p.m let's spoil or at least get into the details now here's my initial question and I was just so fascinated by it so I sort of

[00:44:39] mean this seriously yeah what would you not find it pretty hard to inflict violence on yourself when you just see yourself face to face eye to eye you know we all kind of abuse ourselves

[00:44:51] we over indulge in drink or candy or drugs or you know but we're just so far removed from the eye to eye contact could you do that so this is actually a weirdly something I was kind of thinking

[00:45:04] about too first off for the the Jason that does get beat up I think I think at this point many of the jasins would have no problem but so and this might sound like a this is not like a scientific

[00:45:19] answer but like I've always kind of wondered like would you recognize yourself if you saw yourself because like we don't spend but we are the people that see our faces the least

[00:45:32] and even when you're in a mirror you know it's not the same as like I'm standing talking to myself so I just wonder if like oh yeah I know this person looks like me but like that remove is enough

[00:45:46] to where I'd be like yeah I could beat him with a night stick no problem I just wonder if seeing pain in my own eyes would not be a deterrent of being more you know being

[00:46:02] a deterrent of violence or being more gentle see this is why I'm thinking like I don't know because for most of us the moments that we have suffered intense pain greed loss physical emotional etc

[00:46:19] we're not standing in front of a mirror so we don't actually know what that looks like like like do we have that why you know or do we have that recognition that like well this is me

[00:46:29] yeah I don't know or it may disgust you to see yourself in that much pain that's true that's true in the like you know like you walk into target and you look up at the camera you're like

[00:46:40] oh my god do I look like you know yeah I'll punch that guy I thought that dark matter has really deftly moved from thriller to love kiss high five often and one tone I have forgotten to mention is

[00:46:57] and it's not one it's really played thoroughly but I think it did here and I think it did it well was the horror aspect it's it's kind of been horror here and there in in the terms of

[00:47:10] more of apocalyptic sort of horror with the various timelines but this time in the mansion especially in the framing there's a beautiful shot where he you're looking from outside this mansion that they've escaped to and he's sitting off center of the screen and the camera's

[00:47:28] appearing from outside and awaiting different versions of himself he's sitting there with the fire poker I found that just fraught with tension very reminiscent of that movie the strangers yeah which I like yeah yeah yeah I see that original one yeah was that was that Nicole Kidman

[00:47:46] it was um Liv Tyler Liv tight yeah that's right yeah there is something like um I'll agree with that just because there's like kind of in the back of my head when he does run out I'm like wait for

[00:48:01] your night vision to adjust buddy because there is something there is something kind of scary like can be scary about like you're in your house all the lights are on you can't see out but they can

[00:48:12] see in it plays that note again where he shuts the door to the inside after he's realized there are versions of him out there he shuts the door and he hears his own voice say hey yeah

[00:48:23] he turns around that was good I mean I thought it did some things really great there's a obvious overall theme maybe too obvious but you're stuck with the choices you make or or maybe even the

[00:48:36] fluidity of life is that there will always be choices uh and maybe that's what death is is we we're out of choices no more choices but I just I really liked the ending here I thought that

[00:48:49] there was really only a couple ways to do it and do it right now don't ask me what the others were because I'm no writer but yeah I'm for it yeah I don't want to make it sound like I was

[00:49:00] damning with faint praise like I was on board for and like I said the like all the Joel's being there knowing like of course this is what that what's gonna happen that really worked for me to I see I dammit I did it again all the Joel's Joel's

[00:49:16] oh I see I didn't even correct you yeah Joel all the Jason's that worked for me right because like I mean what I don't know I'm just like what a sacrifice right for all of them

[00:49:29] my other question like and this so my other question though so they're good they're going hopefully they're gonna find somewhere new we'll see what happens with season two what is our world going to do with its surplus Jason's there's like 300 of them

[00:49:46] just like I need a I need a note I need a series that covers what happens with them this would be a big issue if it were me because I'm so selfish I would never give up the

[00:49:59] I would never turn over the leash to another version of me but no no no it's mine yeah really good show I brought up a lot of great questions but still maintained

[00:50:10] excitement as of a thriller and a little bit of sci-fi I just yeah and I went on things I appreciated about the show is that I felt like it was it was pretty smart pretty smartly written

[00:50:20] right and you know there there were things too were like you know like as they're going through alternate realities they're over the course of this show sometimes it'd be like where

[00:50:30] does their money come from but I appreciate you know what I appreciate though is like when a show is smart and and answers big questions and then sometimes it's with other things it's like you

[00:50:41] know what the answer is not interesting just go with it like I'm not gonna spend you know we're not gonna waste a scene where they like apply for a credit card in every reality they go to

[00:50:52] or you know you know what I mean like I appreciated that this is not a misstep it's the only thing I would have yeah I just thought if you wanted to call it a misstep I don't know that

[00:51:03] I would disagree but I don't know that we needed to see Ryan and Amanda again I felt forgive my point but that door seemed closed I assume it's setting something up

[00:51:18] it could be but and maybe that season two can that's my so that was my assumption is that it's setting something up for season two because otherwise it doesn't really make sense it felt

[00:51:30] like a setup yeah and it was did not take up any screen time so no I wouldn't call it a misstep that was the other okay it was right at the end right so I'm like ah this has bearing on

[00:51:44] and I could be if they never show up again you know I that was completely wrong but uh yeah and it kind of seemed set up that this was gonna happen because the both Chicago's you could see

[00:52:00] the northern lights and that was the only one where you could uh when he left Ryan there and then at a point where Amanda would be there in Chicago so I was we were like in the back of my head I was

[00:52:10] like they're there in the same world oh okay you know what this made me do though I still had to wait too much energy for that light at night after watching this I ended up watching like the first

[00:52:21] half of it comes at night uh I still don't watch that it's on max currently on max on my list big fan of dark matter I'm looking forward to a second season you know really you think there

[00:52:35] will be one I hope so it seemed like there's a setup for one I'm hoping I'm hoping there's a second season and uh because I think this is the for for for Apple this is their best uh sci-fi show that's

[00:52:49] not named Severance yeah I don't know curious to see if if uh Joel Edgerton is as interested in doing television ongoing what else does he have going on paychecks of paycheck that's very true but you

[00:53:06] know shows tend to take up more time probably that's true although I bet they're um this is me guessing I bet they're a steadier paycheck again this is me yeah that's true uh one less little note so

[00:53:18] unimportant but I just thought of it the young man who plays Charlie seemed to get better in this episode maybe it's the director mm-hmm yeah maybe it's the direction I just getting good

[00:53:32] direction I just find him extremely unconvincing no teenager is that nice to his parents yeah the more realistic one was uh the more realistic one was in the other was max yeah when I was like

[00:53:44] yeah this this makes sense no I'm kidding Charlie's obviously just a really good kid all right folks for Adam and Donovan I'm Blaine we deeply apologize for everything you just heard

[00:53:56] we'll be making it right we'll make it right next week hey visit the shop on the old memo take and we'll talk to you all in a week goodbye