Does 'Dept. Q' Transcend the Genre? Plus, 'The Phoenician Scheme,' 'Andor,' and 'Stick'

Hello and welcome to the podcast Taking It Down.

This is the working Class TV and streaming podcast for those who don't hear their own voices reflected to them in any other sort of podcast of this genre.

I'm the weekly host.

My name is Blaine.

I'm the editor in chief of the Alabama Take as well.

Pretty soon I'll be joined by Donovan.

Adam, our other co host is out this week, but he'll be back next week.

Coverage this week for us will be some brief and spoiler free thoughts on the Phoenician Scheme which is in theaters.

We usually don't do theater type things, but I just had a few questions for Donovan.

That's the new Wes Anderson film.

We'll also do some spoiler free mentions of the series stick on Apple tv plus a very short bit on andor from Disney plus it has ended its run.

And finally we'll get into the heart of our show this week which will be non spoiler and later spoiler thoughts on early episodes of the Netflix series Department Q.

We talk about the first three episodes very generally and then with some detail after a break.

So stick around.

Al, take projection.

As mentioned, here he is.

It's joining me is Donovan.

He's got a.

He had an early chance or maybe just a regular normal person chance to see the Wes Anderson film the Phoenician Scheme.

It is.

Or I did Blaine and it's a movie that dares to ask the question do you like to laugh?

Wow.

Insightful stuff.

No.

Yeah.

I've liked Anderson before, especially Rushmore and the Royal Tenen Bombs.

In fact, the Royal Tenen Bombs is one of my favorites.

It would probably be a top 10 movie for me and I enjoyed the short Netflix films he did in 2024 last year.

I guess I may be one of the few who liked Moonrise Kingdom well enough.

You know, everybody hates Moonrise Kingdom.

I actually think it's really good.

I thought it was okay.

It's one of my favorite ones.

That was kind of cute.

It's cute.

I like that it's set kind of up in New England area.

Mm.

I like the bit when the dog dies.

So that's sad.

But there's a great bit where they're like, they come up on the dog that's been killed and they're like, was he a good dog?

And the kid just looks down and he's like, who's to say it's so good.

I say that all the time.

Like who's to say?

But overall, I don't feel the excitement as much as his fan base does upon seeing trailers of his movies.

So.

And I've asked this before, what am I missing?

I always feel like I'm missing something with his movies.

I don't necessarily find them funny unless it's somebody like you who recounts it to me.

But in the theater, I'm not chuckling.

Like, I think I saw this with a room full of people who mostly liked it.

They didn't seem like mad or no one left early or whatever, but like, that theater was deathly silent.

Like, except for.

Except for me laughing.

That theater was me.

Because that's the way I feel about his films.

Except for, like I said, I think I laugh during Royal Tenenbaubs.

Maybe it's.

I'm not smart.

I don't know if that's.

That's it.

And also, I would say that this one, tonally, you know, they all have a sort of style, but it's much closer to, say, Grand Budapest Hotel, which is another one of my favorites, but than Royal Tenenbaums.

See, I didn't like Grand Budapest Hotel very much.

How can you not like it?

It's about the twin evils of fascism and communism overtaking Eastern Europe and.

And, you know, it's real sad.

And Ray Font does all he can.

He's so good.

He is great.

Like, there's a.

There's a delight in the sort of, like, particularity and precision his film.

And like the, you know, the artificiality.

Yes.

That highlights, but it makes, like, hyper real the characters, interactions.

There's a delight in that.

And I think, at least for his language, some people don't like it, but I think there's a delight in the silliness of our discourse.

Yeah.

The way we talk past, talk to talk past and talk around each other.

Interesting.

I don't know.

That's just off the top of my head.

No, I appreciate that.

That's good.

Okay.

So the Phoenician scheme.

Yeah.

Now that we got that out of the way, brief, non spoiler set of thoughts on Venetian scheme.

Just.

I know you enjoyed it, but is there anything you could add to that that wouldn't spoil anything other than, you know, you laughed.

Go for the Benicio Del Toro.

Yeah.

Stay for the Michael Cera.

Okay.

What was the headline I saw recently that said, a billionaire gets his way in the New West Anderson and he doesn't deserve it or something?

Is that the case?

So it's.

That might be spoiler stuff.

Not really.

I mean, so it's the.

That's a spoiler Headline, you know, that.

Is a spoiler head.

And I would, I would argue with it.

Would you, Would you wave your finger at that writer?

I would.

Tut tut.

I would tut tut, sir.

But it is about Benicio Del Toro does play this billionaire who's constantly.

People are constantly trying to assassinate and he's putting into motion some grand scheme called the Phoenician scheme.

And basically, and we're not.

It's a little unclear as to what it actually is.

Okay.

And he kind of has to go around and try and pull that off while also attempting to reconnect with his daughter Liesel Mia Threapleton, who is Kate Winslet's daughter.

He's trying to connect with her.

And she is a nun or wants to become a nun.

And hilarity ensues.

Okay.

I think Grand Budapest is actually the more serious.

Even though I said they are tonally similar.

Grand Budapest I think is very serious, deathly serious about its topic matter.

This is I think like feels a little less serious.

But there also is an interest in like following a man who will do anything to get what he deserves or what he wants.

I mean for example, he has, he has nine sons and one daughter and many of the sons are adopted on the off chance they might be an Einstein.

So he's just.

Because he's just playing the odds there.

So it's like someone who will do anything.

Someone who will do anything.

Right.

He doesn't happen to make cars and send things to space.

Well, speaking of Wes Anderson, I wanted to bring up the Apple TV plus series Stick which has frequent Anderson star Owen Wilson as a Anderson star best friend.

Oh, they buddies.

Oh, they were, yeah.

Because he co wrote Rushmore and maybe.

The Royal Tenen Bond bottle rocket too, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Owen Wilson worked on that with him Texas boys.

Right?

Texas boys.

Interesting.

Yeah.

Owen Wilton is washed up golfer making an attempt to help a kid with his entry into the world of the game of golf.

It's likely the three of us will delve into this next week as a spoiler.

As a non spoiler section and spoiler section.

But just here this week, I'll say for listeners, I'm still enjoying it.

I.

I find it sometimes going in too many directions at once.

Yeah, I see that.

It does continue a few tropes which is no big deal.

That's probably the least of it since that said, Owen Wilson is still a fun actor to watch work if that's enough of a sell for you.

And Mark Marion, Marc Maron's Grumpiness doesn't hinder your viewing.

And you'll get.

I think you'll enjoy this Apple TV show.

Owen Wilson does such a good job of being a guy who.

He's kind of an asshole in a screw up.

But like not really, if that makes any sense.

Yeah, he does bad stuff, but you kind of like.

He's got a heart of gold.

You kind of like the guy.

The things Owen Wilson does in this show that are bad are day to day bad.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's not.

This is not Breaking Bad.

Yeah, he's not cooking meth or.

Right.

Yeah, this is normal stuff.

There's like a kind of like sweetness to him the whole time too.

He doesn't keep a clean house.

Who amongst us?

You know?

I mean, he.

He will.

He'll drop $100 on a bet.

You know, this is.

This is the Owen Wilson of stick.

Man's got parking tickets.

One other thing you've leapfrogged on me is andor on Disney plus, which I've yet to see at all.

Really.

Though I'm excited to get around to it.

I keep thinking tonight's the night.

It never is.

You've seen the entirety of it of the second season.

But you won't spoil anything here.

I am curious how you felt about the second season as a whole.

It asks the question, do you like to cry?

No.

It's really good in a way that I think the season works as a cohesive whole.

Disney kept dropping it in three episode chunks.

Yeah.

So I was watching sort of in chunks.

And so it is almost like you have kind of like the first one.

Like you'll have like mini story arcs.

Yeah.

Throughout the series that kind of make up a bigger whole.

And honestly I thought it was very good.

I wonder if Disney might have been trying to bury it a tiny bit with those dumps.

Because I don't think it's a complete coincidence that people were out over the weekend getting mad at the big man in the White House with signs with quotes from Andor on it.

Really?

Yeah.

Saw one with my own eyes.

What did it say?

I have friends everywhere.

Huh.

I did love the.

The only thing I've honestly watched Disney plus did me a favor and probably a lot of others a favor and put a about a 12 minute recap of season one.

And I've watched it probably twice now thinking once I finish this, I'll watch.

And then I'm like, oh, I'm tired.

Yeah, that's fair enough.

Almost like it's so good that it kind of like it makes the stuff that was good in Star wars, like better.

Yeah.

And it may.

And it makes the stuff that's bad in Star wars seem even worse because you're like, oh man, you could have.

I think the really good trick, same as with season one of taking the world seriously without being silly, if that makes, I mean there's a little bit, of course, because you're in the Star wars universe, but you know, it's, it's.

I think that's pretty impressive.

I don't think I could make a serious Star wars movie.

The Don Draper pitch would be, what if Star wars was for adults?

Yeah, exactly.

What if Star wars aged with its initial fan base?

Yeah.

But in the like in the sense that like it's not just doing nostalgia pandering.

Right.

Where it's like, remember what it felt like to be eight again.

That's important.

I, I do think it's like, it is like in the best part of that, like, hey, this thing that you enjoyed that when you were eight, you're watching it now, you're an adult.

Here are the things that were in the background that 8 year old you might not have picked up on, but adult you can see and interact with now.

That's exactly it.

Pretty much the greatest way to do something.

It is.

This is the thing, you know, nine year old you missed or didn't notice, didn't think about thematically even.

It's somewhat rare.

I think that media does this.

Well, it puts me in mind of now it's a fairly old book series, but Ursula Le Guin's wizard of Earthsea or the Earthsea books which starts out with the wizard of Earthsea.

And then there's another one that comes out pretty frequently called the Tombs of Atuan.

And they're both great books, but they're also younger readers books.

But as she kept revisiting that world, she kept writing books that were for like a slightly older and older audience to the end, where the last two are really just for adults.

And it's that same kind of idea, like, hey, here's the stuff that I introduced it to you and we talked about it when you were a kid and now I'm coming back to you and we're gonna look at some of the same and some of the similar things that I'm gonna show you how you can interact with it as an adult.

Now.

I think it's really rare that a series spans from childhood to adult in the way that Endor kind of spans the gap.

It wasn't Harry Potter supposed to do that in a way.

And did it?

I think Harry Potter, in a way, yes.

Did it in the sense that it gets more serious.

Although I just think Le Guin did it better.

Oh, okay.

No, she's like a.

Known for her good writing.

She's very good.

Yeah.

The, the wizard of Earth Sea is all, it's all based in Taoist principles.

So if that, if that doesn't intrigue you, if you, if you like a little philosophy with your, with your fantasy.

Well, our focal point this week is the three first three episodes of the new Netflix series Department Q.

British crime thriller.

I guess it's set in Scotland.

Set in Scotland, yes.

But it's a technically a Brit made by a British.

It's a British crime thriller, I think is how it's labeled.

It seems to be a popular series per the streamer and my own in depth research of talking to Bo Hicks.

The.

The show stars Matthew Good and it has Kelly McDonald.

She doesn't play a big role, but she may or may not be familiar to listeners.

Kelly McDonald is particularly noticeable to me because I recall her immediately from Boardwalk Empire and no country for Old Men.

No country for.

As soon as I saw her, I'm like, it's Carla Jean.

Yep.

Though she's done a lot, including more on Disney, plus the Star wars show, Skeleton Crew.

Apparently she's a part of it.

Oh, is she in that?

I didn't think so.

Huh.

I think Good's mostly known for being a hunk on the final season of Downton Abbey.

I think most people.

He's done a lot of film work, but it's mostly been of the British genre.

Yeah.

Department Q is created by Scott Frank and Shandy Lakhani.

I think her name is Scott.

Frank wrote for the movie Logan and Minority Report.

He was just on staff there, but he created the Queen's Gambit for Netflix.

And this show is loosely based on a set of novels set in Denmark.

Initially, completely coincidentally, with you saying, hey, we should watch this.

Sure.

Like about a couple days before that, my friend Patrick, who is.

He's got an actual PhD in crime fiction, just said, hey, I just started.

I just finished the first of these Department Q books.

I think it's pretty good.

You should check it out.

So he said that and then you recommended.

And we watched it.

It was kind of funny.

It just everyone at the same time was like, you should check this out.

Did I recommend this or did Adam?

You did.

Because I was watching it last night.

I was thinking, why did I recommend this?

How did I come to this?

No, no.

Yeah, it was you.

Okay.

We're early in the series.

We may cover more even next week.

But with the three episodes watched.

What do you think, Donovan?

Who's this for?

Who's gonna like it?

Is it worthy of their time?

What's your spoiler free sense of the series?

Three in it's a show that likes to ask the question, do you like to solve crimes?

No shit.

That's a good way of putting begs for the viewer to guess resolutions.

That's going to appeal to a wide audience.

Though my cursory review of it so far is that it is very much a crime drama.

Furthermore, a British crime genre in a way that I'm not sure that I can like qualify that statement.

But you just see it and you're like, yeah, this is somewhat familiar.

It's not doing anything.

Which this is unfair.

This is an unfair comparison because I'm about to compare it to something that's not really a crime drama.

But it's not doing anything like adolescence did where it's using aspects of the crime drama, but doing something kind of startling and unfamiliar.

I think it's very much of a piece.

That being said, for me so far, the piece is fun and intriguing.

I enjoyed watching the episodes.

I like the dynamics between two of the characters a lot.

I like one of the characters.

I like his background and his story I think is really interesting.

So I would say in these first three, it doesn't transcend, but it's a very good example of this guy is an asshole and he breaks the rules, but sometimes he gets results.

Yeah, exactly.

It's very trope heavy, but it's also got some onion like layers to a lot of these people.

I think so.

And maybe I would.

I'm not so sure that every one of the characters has some sort of peel back and you'll see more layer to them.

Every character so far has had.

Interestingly, because it kind of kind of parallels our mano and Wilson and stick has had something that's caused them to in their past that's caused them to kind of make melt down or freak out a little bit.

Right.

We'll get into this a little more in the spoiler section.

But a lot of people are gonna like this.

And I bet I'm gonna take a gamble and say that it probably gets really, really good midpoint and back half just because I've seen a lot of raving about it from books.

I adhere to often what I saw.

It gives me nothing to doubt It I think it's a good sign with the show where it gets the end.

You're like, oh man, no, it's over already.

Or you get to the end of the episode.

And I had that happen with this one.

I was like, oh man, it's over.

I want to know more.

Yeah.

And they're 55 minute episodes or so, give or take.

I had to watch myself with jotting a few notes because I was constantly just guessing.

My notes ended up just being, oh, did so and so do this.

I believe a lot of people will like that engagement of watching it.

And plus, it being on Netflix, you don't have to wait a week to figure a lot of this stuff out.

Yeah.

It really is built for binging in the sense that it will leave you with a lot of questions and you'll want to at least in the first three and you'll want to watch a little bit more to find out more of what's going on.

Although it's getting a lot of comparisons to Apple TV's series Slow Horses, which is week to week.

That's true.

That's the one Adam recommended.

It is.

Which I.

I'd like to get to as well.

I gotta jump on it.

I've seen one episode and thought it was great.

Yeah.

And never watched it for whatever reason, but have always wanted to.

And I've heard good stuff about it.

And then a recommendation from our good buddy Adam carries a lot of weight.

It does.

Adam's not with us this week.

He'll be back next week for the first three episodes.

It doesn't transcend.

But if you like this kind of show, you will probably find it very enjoyable.

If you occasionally like this kind of show, I would say watch a couple episodes because it's not.

Although it doesn't, at least in the first three, like quote unquote, as I just said, transcend.

I think that if you are somewhat iffy on this kind of show and it takes a pretty good one to make you like it, I think we got a pretty good one right here.

Let's jump into spoilers.

After a break on YouTube, it's hard to figure out what to watch because it's everything and it's nothing.

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Maybe a dumb rabbit hole and wasted too much time.

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Visit the Alabama take for more and we'll talk to you all soon.

Okay, we're now entering Spoiler section.

The only piece of TV we have for this week's part is Department Q, which we mentioned.

We've watched the first three of nine, so we're going to unpack here the details of the first three of nine.

Avoid if you wish to remain in the dark about the first three, we do recommend it if you've gotten this far.

Lot of you are going to love this, I think.

So while there's nothing new under the sun, per the saying, one could argue there's nothing new in the first episode of Department Q.

I mean, there is nothing new here.

And I don't mean it in a bad way.

It was presented to you in an excellent manner, but everything is almost a series of boxes that got checked and I get not in a bad way.

It just happens that that's what the writing did.

A lot of tropes, women find a police drama, you got your curmudgeonly detective, an understaffed police department, a public clamoring for crimes to be solved, a murder, the assistant who turns out to be smarter, more helpful than the characters could have imagined.

It's all there.

But the presentation is wonderful.

You know, credit to the writers for an original opening where the protagonist himself gets shot in what seems like a fatal attack.

And I'm thinking, oh shit, is this series about everything that leads up to him dying?

It's not.

I mean, we know we're in Spoiler section.

Yeah.

Credit to good here is Carl because without him, this first episode especially falls to pieces.

He has.

Yeah, he's captivating to watch because it's a grimy, drab show about grimy drab interior of a man living in grimy drab surroundings.

You know, these are the most inhospitable buildings I've ever seen.

I wanted to wash my hands after every episode.

Even the hospital he goes to.

It's like, Jesus fucking Christ, I wouldn't stay in there.

You're like, wait, do they sweep?

Yeah, exactly.

Why is the painting on the wall lead based?

Still luckily good as Carl is still somewhat charming despite being very mean to most people.

He's definitely played as kind of just all too human.

Right?

And by that I mean just like a very flawed person.

Superfluid.

He's smart enough to Know that he's flawed and he's an asshole, but that doesn't stop him from being an asshole.

And I say he's mean to most people I really like.

It's a split second in the first episode where he's visiting his partner who had also been shot in the very same opening scene, but except his partner is paralyzed.

What happened to Carl was that it only went through his neck.

That's about it.

He's back at work and what.

Yeah, it felt like a week or two, right?

I assumed it was some time.

A fair.

They said it was some fair amount of time, but.

Oh, okay.

They mentioned it wasn't a week or two.

It was.

It was a little bit.

A couple months, something like that.

I didn't.

I didn't note it except to say like, oh, it's been a little bit.

Because he.

They're mentioning it when he's go.

Because he has to go see the psychiatrist or the psychologist as the therapist as part of.

Because he was involved in the shooting.

And that's mandatory.

I think it's might even be mandatory in the States.

In most.

Most places.

It's a.

It's a slight moment, but he's visiting his partner.

They like to talk football.

And his partner's wife and kids come in and his partner is laying there basically unintentionally admitted.

He.

He doesn't want to live as a person with paralysis.

And it's a.

It's a sad moment and.

But the wife comes in with the kids.

Matthew Good plays Carl.

Very friendly to them and very nice.

And it is a split second, but you gotta watch it because he says, oh, hey, you know.

And there's this cheerful moment for where makes you realize, oh, this guy's not a complete douche.

I mean, he clearly loves and respects his partner and therefore extends that to his partner's family.

He does seem like a guy who's like.

Once you're in with him, like, he.

He might like still be like, mean to you, but like, you know, if other people get on you, then he's going to defend you.

You're my person to me.

Mean to.

Exactly mean and answer.

If there's such a thing.

Yeah, if there is such a thing.

Now, the other aspect that does reel you in.

Again, very trope heavy, but very checking some boxes here.

But the other aspect that reels you in is not just the central mystery.

It's what I said earlier.

Each of the primary characters has mysteries plural of their own that you're hoping is a viewer.

You get Some answers to.

I would say my favorite side one so far is the IT guy.

Except he's not just an IT guy.

Salim from Syria.

I've enjoyed.

So he was some sort of law enforcement sort of baby police in Syria.

Maybe army.

Yeah.

We see how competent he.

And the guy who plays him is just so good at playing like polite.

But like still waters run deep.

Polite.

Yes, sir.

Where he's like, he's smart, he's competent.

You just sense there's a lot to him that you don't know that much about.

And also just the mere fact of having a character who has left Syria and settled in England as perhaps or probably is a part of.

Scott.

Sorry, Scotland, you're right.

As that country's civil war.

I thought that was a really like.

He's a really fascinating character to come out of that background and have to interact with British people.

Yes.

People from the uk.

And he has that wonderfully in depth line where Matthew Good's Carl asks him, so where are you on the good side of the bad side in Syria?

And he says, well, when you figure out which one's which, you tell me.

He knows a lot about pressure points.

So I'm gonna have.

I think we have some guesses here.

Well, you know, that was.

This show did a nice job here where that was kind of hinted that he might be able to do such.

When Carl has his panic attack and he reaches to push.

Yes.

Salim away.

And Salim does a very similar.

I'm grabbing your arm so as you will not affect me with your push.

Yes.

And then he does the same thing later to a young punk and.

But much more damaging and in control.

Right.

Army effective.

Little rougher there.

Yeah.

I'm always reminded of Arthur Miller's writing for.

For John Proctor in the Crucible.

Whereas they're.

They're wheels within wheels and fires within fires here.

Yeah.

That seems to be what's going on here.

And I think that's probably why critics are so drawn to it as a.

As a Netflix crime drama.

Otherwise it would just be a Netflix crime drama.

So there's something good that's going to happen here.

And I don't know that you and I have full scope of it three episodes in, but what we do have is some pretty cool and interesting things which we're talking about.

I think I would completely agree with you, Blaine, especially the way you just put it where it's like, if it didn't have this stuff, it would just be a Netflix show.

Yeah.

There are so many shows that hit almost exact Same beats, same points, similar characters, even at the same moment.

Right.

Exactly.

But they're just not as good as this one.

You know, some of it is the actors are good.

The writing is giving you.

You know, it's.

It's.

It's.

It's those intangibles that.

That are setting it apart for.

For me at this moment.

I am thankful to know who Matthew Goode is.

Now.

I didn't.

Shame on me.

Maybe.

But I was like, this guy is handsome and watchable.

Where.

Where can I find more of his work?

You know?

So it's good that we got a few more episodes.

I like watching him.

He's.

He's got these intense blue eyes.

He's a handsome guy.

He.

He.

He holds depth very well, I think, on screen, where there's something else going on.

Maybe two other things.

Yeah.

But one of the things I've enjoyed about his performance so far is how much of him being a rude asshole is so clearly him putting up a brave face.

And the way that he plays someone who needs to feel in charge and in control but really kind of isn't yet.

And the way that he is using his two closest compatriots to kind of start investigating this mystery and the way that, by varying degrees, they let him or understand that he's still working with diminished capacities right now because of his trauma.

Yeah.

You can see the depth of his acting if you really hone in on when he goes back and watches the AI generated version of his shooting and he kind of puts it on a loop.

Yeah.

Watch his eyes and his reaction there.

And it's.

He's scared shitless there.

Absolutely.

But, yeah, also, what's interesting about the three episodes, although you and I don't have the full scope, is I don't know if this doesn't turn out to be a series about how men operate without women, be it by choice or situational a little bit.

Merritt's brother is without merit's.

Brother William is without merit, and his mom, Carl, is only with his son.

A little more on that later.

And.

And their tenant, who's a man.

Yes.

Which is.

That took me a few minutes.

Akram has a wife, but she's never shown.

She's only mentioned via her cooking.

Yep.

The ladies thus far are either in charge or in trouble because they were in charge.

And then we have Rose, who's sort of in the middle.

And Rose is in the middle.

And so when she becomes a more prominent character in the middle of the third episode, I started thinking, well, maybe my little Thematical theory is a little shaky right now, so let's see what this develops into.

Let's see how it unspools.

Although her conversation with her mom is a deceitful one where she doesn't admit to working, she is.

Hey, Mom, I'm actually on a.

Getting ready for a date.

Don't talk to me right now.

Bye.

Bye.

And she's instead on a computer investigating one of the drawings that William has done.

So.

Yeah, I suppose what I'm saying is that the show for me is good because of its character work and its depth there and.

And maybe not so much the mystery of Merit.

Although I did find myself writing a lot of notes thinking, this is going to lead to this, which I usually don't do with shows.

I usually just let it come to me.

This is why I'm still questioning just how good is this show going to be?

Because it had me trying to guess it.

And I would much rather a show have me so involved that I don't guess anything.

I'm just watching and engaging mentally.

Yeah.

I do think that shows that go all in on their mysteries usually tend to be.

They can even be fun while you're watching them, but in retrospect, they're a little slight.

Yeah.

Because they don't.

It's.

I mean, it's kind of like, would you ever watch this a second time?

There's going to be an exception to this that I'll bring up in a minute.

I guess I could now, but.

Yeah.

What is it?

I'm curious.

Merit's story at the beginning of episode.

Excuse me.

At the ending of episode one.

The big twist at episode one, I.

Actually kind of figured this out, and I never figured these things out, but there was.

There was a line that made me get it okay ahead of time because.

They said, I've got a lot of this show figured out, too, and I don't want to spend our.

This is not the kind of talk we do here much on this podcast is figuring out what happens, especially our Netflix show where everybody's watched it.

I don't care.

Yeah.

Her storyline immediately took me to Silence of the Lambs, which is one of those that I have seen seven, eight times.

You know, it's.

It's rewatchable show.

Well, that wasn't it.

Excuse me.

Absolutely.

Also movie.

Not just about the mystery.

Right.

Much more about Claire, much more about her trauma, which is a through line of this.

I think that this show has a little bit of a through line of how secrets create a certain type of Darkness.

And therefore a trauma or even the trauma creates the darkness and the secrets.

You know, Akram doesn't know these pressure points to injure someone because he's been a beach lifeguard in Syria.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'd agree with that.

Every.

You know, in a way that, like, yes, we've seen it before, but it's done very well.

Everyone has a past that is shaping their present.

That's it.

Yeah.

I did notice that.

I did figure out the time jump and I never figure out stuff like this because they mention Her Majesty's Government.

But it's very clear the show is happening now.

Oh, it's in the past.

Because the Queen is still alive.

Really?

Yeah.

I didn't catch that.

I just.

That's the only thing that.

And then at the end, obviously, it's pretty obvious that the mare and her brother thing takes place in the past, but.

Yeah.

At least for a little bit.

At least for the first episode.

For the first episode.

Yeah.

I would kept.

I figured it out.

And I don't.

It was just a hunch because they never interacted the law.

Her as a lawyer and he.

Him as a detective or anybody in his.

Yeah.

Apartment.

First episode is kind of set up of who these people are.

The second episode is hugely.

Let's get the gang Together.

Let's put.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And if you like episodes, it's get the Gang Together.

Episode two is going to scratch that itch.

Yeah.

We don't.

We don't move the mystery forward so much in episode two, but there's a lot of establishing.

Yeah.

Like let's get the gang Together.

Like you said, like, okay, who's gonna be.

Who's gonna be investigating this thing?

Right.

And we learn a little bit more about wind on a ferry and what happens when you throw someone's hat overboard.

It circles back around.

It comes right back.

Good thing he.

Probably.

Good thing he knew that or poor Oxram would have lost his favorite hat.

But there are things, you know were gonna happen.

You knew Rose was going to.

She's also in some of the promotional materials as a figure there with.

With Carl and Akram.

But you knew she was going to be a helper of some sort.

You get the sense his former partner is going to play a bigger role, although he's currently hospitalized, which I think is interesting.

Their dynamic.

Giving Carl someone with whom he is friends with in the department probably needs to happen.

Yeah.

Someone that he actually respects that obviously.

I liked how they showed that the department head, Moira, is just doing this to siphon Money away.

But it is kind of.

Because that does kind of answer the question of, like, why is this guy not fired?

Like, there's.

Every supervisor in the world would be like, desperate to get rid of this guy.

I'm not so sure that she's not the shooter.

That looks like her eyes.

I mean, she probably wants to kill him.

Yeah.

You remember her from Game of Thrones.

Yes, I do.

Yeah.

I think of that every time I see her.

One of my favorite ways of the series shows Carl's desperately trying for I don't give a fuck attitude is how he refuses to park the Ford car normally.

He keeps parking it up on the curb and it's like falling apart.

Yeah.

It's like a Ford Tempo is my best guess.

But I haven't seen those in 25 years.

And it does.

It's not even looks like a Ford Tempo.

Hardly.

There was one thing I thought was huge, though.

Yeah.

When Merritt's supervisor.

This is episode two now.

Merit supervisor comes to talk to Carl and introduces himself.

The camera changes drastically.

Much more close up.

Much more serious.

And handheld.

If I'm not mistaken, something's up there.

And I don't know if they're using that as a red herring or a hint.

I did think that Carl was leaving a voicemail to a wife or ex wife who is deceased.

Though Jasper leaving at the end of episode three because he gets a call from his mom might prove that to be unlikely.

Does it seem?

I.

I think the shooter is his own.

Is his own boss.

Myra.

What's your name?

Myra.

Yes.

And I think that the lady who's holding Merrick captive could be a man dressed as a woman.

I think there's two.

There are.

There are two.

I think one's a man and one's a woman.

One is definitely a man, you know, and we're to take that.

But I think the.

The woman speaking into the microphone for the most of the part, you just see the mouth.

I think that's.

I would not be surprised if that turns out to be a man dressed as woman for whatever reason.

Yeah.

I almost never speculate.

Three games.

Me either.

I'm terrible at guessing.

Me too.

It's just not as much fun for me.

I just let.

I'm like, let me.

Let me.

Yeah.

Regular listeners now we're way more into how the show's put together, what it might be saying on a deeper level.

Things like that.

One thing I think it kind of does almost to a fault, which is again, surprising to me why it's getting so much Attention is they write it to where everyone around Carl either says something pretty stupid or leaves some pertinent thing out to where he is being a smart ass is understandable.

Uh huh.

Even Akram, who's one of the smartest guys on the show, probably says something.

I don't remember.

It's in episode three when they're on the ferry.

I do remember that.

And he says there are two things and he just tells him one thing.

And of course, if you're Carl, you're gonna say, what the fuck's the other thing?

Right?

That was the second.

That's right, yeah.

That was a good scene.

It's a good setup though.

Carl is a sympathetic guy though.

And I think his being the, the focal point and putting some characters around him that you are also interested in, like Acrom and Rose.

His cockiness is hiding deep trauma.

It's deeper than just being shot.

It's good because like, I do think that the.

Sometimes the trope of the person who's like, you know, he's a raging asshole to everyone around him, but he gets results.

Like I think we see that society, like how that's bad.

Like society soc.

Right.

Like, oh, he does, he does bad things, but he supposedly gets results like that.

That's kind of a bad.

I get that it's a bad.

And I think that's especially for men too.

Right.

It's sort of a something that lets men get away with being horrible to people around them.

So all that being said, I felt like that doesn't just sink into it because they do such a good job of a drip first off.

They show him being actually nice, which is good.

But yeah, they make it very, very clear that this is, this is a deep well of trauma.

And like you said, not just from being shot.

Did you like how the series addressed what every viewer might have thought, at least quickly and barely with his therapist when he says, you're very pretty, you know, because in the back of your mind you're thinking, these are two attractive actors.

Are they going to date whoever's punishing Merritt, you know, putting her captive and she's obviously on, on a ship.

She's either on a ship or underground because it's not rocking.

Okay, you think she's on a ship?

Maybe she is.

Well, they kept saying she.

She totally disappeared.

And I'm thinking, well, she never left the ship, the ferry.

That's not big enough.

It's not big enough, is it?

That?

Yeah.

Okay, but whoever's punishing her, it's heavily hinted that it could be her past that she's had a.

She was a.

A bit of a brat as a teen.

She maybe had a neglectful hand.

And what's happened to her brother that causes him to be nonverbal these days?

Yeah.

Something is haunting her.

Literally.

I mean, is that her mom?

That's got her?

Surely that.

That's wild.

And then episode three ends with the.

The initials L.H.

what did you do?

Peels off a sticker and finds that.

And Merit sees and.

Which, of course, alludes to something I thought was the initial thing at the end of episode one, which is the.

There's more than one person being held captive.

As far as the timeline, I don't know, but I thought that there would be probably two or three girls.

I thought we had a Silence of the Lamb situation where he could very well have two or three people captive at the same time.

I see.

Yeah.

It seems more like this is specifically about Merit, I think, making it unlikely that she's just like, a type.

And then this is like, no, she did something, and this person is punishing her for that.

And it might be related to William.

And they won't tell her what she did.

She's got to figure it out.

What happens when she figures it out?

What do they.

Who knows?

Maybe they stop.

Maybe they stop playing that song.

Yeah.

I don't dislike crime thrillers, but me either.

I'm not gonna just sit and watch Law and Order.

Right.

You know?

Right.

Same here.

This is the end of our episode this week.

We appreciate you listening this far for Adam and Donovan.

Adam will be back next week.

I'm Blaine.

And we hope that you're not trapped in a tank being forced to listen to us.

Whoa, man.

That's, like, against the Geneva Convention.

Oh, that's torture.

You play Taking it down to prisoners.

You play that loop of.

You play that loop of Rooster and Sally.

That's right.

You're violating their human rights right there.

Thanks, everyone.