How People Watch TV Wrong with 'DTF St. Louis,' 'Rooster,' and 'Shrinking'

Hello.

Welcome to Taking It Down.

You know there's no podcast out there for the working class.

Made by the working class.

Well, until now with us at Taking it down, we know that there's a lot of television shows.

They're scattered, numerous options.

You work what's worth your time and your dollar.

If you're not borrowing some passwords.

No judgment here.

Then the podcast this week and every week, you'll hear if a show's good for you.

Decide if you want to give it a try.

Since we begin every episode with no spoiler thoughts on each of the shows and then in the back half, we use our thoughtful, hopefully working class unique point of view to analyze and dissect the shows.

This is for you on the bus or in the car on the way home to figure out what you'll settle in to watch before tomorrow's factory bell rings.

On this episode, we're going to briefly discuss our unplanned two weeks away.

These last two weeks.

My co host Adam will be away for a while.

And then the show's DTF St. Louis, it's penultimate episode, Rooster.

It's Midpoint on HBO and the Apple TV series shrinking with its season finale.

And we'll include our listener email in the spoiler, so hang out for that.

If you have watched DTF St. Louis, let me rope in Adam and Donovan.

Get them in here.

Let's begin a Alabama take projection.

We were gone for two weeks.

Completely unplanned.

Donovan, do you want to talk about your jail time?

Is this the space for that?

Are those documents sealed?

I'll be honest with listeners.

I had a bit of a mental health episode and went and seen a doctor and I feel like my medication's kind of on the up and up.

I probably look better to the guys, I don't know, worse, better, changed.

I think he looks great.

Great horny.

It's making them.

All right, here we are.

Adam, this is your last time it for four weeks.

I think that listeners won't hear from you because.

Drum roll.

You'll be on tour with your duo sister Ray Davies, happening in the uk.

I will be.

You said drumroll.

I got a just.

Donovan's about to say something funny, I'm.

Sure, but not really.

I've been dwelling on the fact that I can't roll my R's.

And so when you said drumroll as if to fish for somebody to do the ba da da da da da noise, I was like, he's about to say something nice about me.

But now I can't Roll my R's.

I just feel bad about myself.

As I picture Adam driving around the UK, all I hear is the Mrs. Featherbottom going, look at all the bobbies.

Me screaming, oh, I forgot that we're driving.

Said we're not in the colonies anymore.

You should say that.

Which I am frankly horrified about.

Yeah.

For some reason, one of my childhood memories involves watching TV and my mom looking at my dad and asking, do you think you could drive in England?

And my dad said, I'd have to get used to it.

But yeah, I'm going to recall this recollection of yours as a wellspring of confidence.

I mean, whenever I have to start.

Driving, Roy Duncan Jr.

Thought he could do it.

Do you know the first couple of show dates off the top of your head for English listeners?

We started on Friday in Nottingham.

This releases Tuesday.

If you're listening on Tuesday.

It's not Friday yet.

You can go see Sister Ray Davies.

Adam, Todd Bean filling in for Sister Ray Davies.

Where will you be?

We're going to be everywhere, man.

Friday though, Friday.

Oh, Nottingham.

Nottingham.

Oh, I just didn't know if you knew the venue.

It's called Billy's Bootleggers.

Oh, hell yeah.

Okay.

Quite a name that one.

Sticks in your brain.

It does, yeah.

Saturday, Coventry.

In London?

No, in Coventry.

I'm so well traveled.

I'm sorry I'm not being very helpful.

I'm leaving this in part of a.

Record store day thing.

So it's at a record store called Just Dropped In.

And those records you were posting online for those who follow Sister Ray Davies on social media, is that what you're promoting in the record store?

Those specifically or just both of them?

Both of them.

But you know, we just happen to be in the area to do this record store day.

It's like at night.

It's not like a day show.

They also do shows there, so.

Oh, cool.

But yeah, the EP comes out on Friday, which is very exciting because I've never been a part of a.

Essentially a remix EP of work that I've done.

So it's to one remix by us, two contributions from us.

So one is a remix and one is a re recording of one of the songs.

We got like 10 of our friends to all play acoustic guitar at the same time to have.

It's like live shoegaze, you know, it just kind of.

It warbles in this really cool way.

And then there's two fellows that did remixes, three songs between them for three of the other tracks.

So that's coming out on Friday.

It's cool.

That's a Sonic cathedral kind of thing though, right?

Yeah, Sonic now.

Kind of headed up the effort to put that together.

But if you are listening in the us you can order.

I'm just really.

I'm doing the whole spiel here.

Just really chilling.

Hey, man.

I think some of our listeners, maybe not all, but they can.

They can skip ahead, are interested in what we're doing.

Yeah.

If you want to hear it.

If you want to own a.

They're really cool 10 inch records.

So not a ton of those on offer.

Most of the time it's usually either the 7 inch single or the.

The full 12 inch record.

But they're really beautiful.

I had nothing to do with the art, so I feel comfortable saying that we got our copies, but yeah, you can order.

They'll ship stateside from well kept secret.

Sister Ray Davies on Bandcamp.

If you follow them on Instagram, that's probably where they're the most active.

Maybe TikTok.

Do you still do some things for TikTok?

You know, I did an experiment.

So the experiment on TikTok was I want to understand where the youth are hanging out.

Good luck.

In order not to.

I know that's already like an old man thing to say, but like, to not be too thoroughly left behind.

And I downloaded it and used it quite a bit and I was like.

To effectively use this for this band, I have to myself be addicted to TikTok.

Yeah, you do.

That's why.

Yes.

That was my theory.

Yes.

Because you can't if you're just like.

Yeah.

You know, I could always sniff it out back in the day when like somebody joined Instagram or Twitter exclusively to promote themselves.

Yeah.

You know, because they were kind of out of touch with the.

The rhythms of it.

So used it for a while.

And then I did a.

We could call it the Exit experiment.

I deleted the app.

You ever delete something that you're kind of addicted to on your phone and you find yourself swiping to.

Yes.

Where it used to be.

I didn't do that one time with TikTok.

Yeah, it was just.

Yeah, it was gone.

Me either.

I had it briefly as well.

And the elementake and taking it down.

Both still have TikTok accounts and both are regularly posted about once a week.

For taking it down us about once a week.

We promote our episode every Tuesday or Wednesday.

But I never really check it much.

I check it about that much.

Maybe once a week just to double check.

Make sure no one's messaged me.

If you want to message the Alabama take though or taking it down?

Just go through the Alabama take.

Probably the best way is to post on the website a comment.

If it's a comment you want everyone to see.

If it's something you don't want everyone to see, just email the Alabama take it Gmail.

Because I am no longer on social media.

I just so happen to catch sister Ray Davies doing recording with all the guitars and that was really cool.

I just.

He.

I guess Adam had posted it a day before I went online so it fed me that pretty early.

That's why you're asking where the shows are.

You don't know?

I don't know.

You haven't seen them.

Like when you're not on social media you really don't know things.

I'm gonna tell you all about it.

Give me the first three.

Three sold out shows.

Three.

Oh, they're sold out.

Well we can't help viewers there listeners.

Well they're not.

It's not the first three.

I. I was enjoying you trying to figure out where Coventry was.

I thought maybe we could do that again with another city that was.

What's the next city after Coventry?

Oh, Todd Morden.

Where do you think Todd Morton is?

West of London.

That's an easy guess because everything's west of London.

Yeah, I was gonna say this is.

That's not fair.

Well how about northwest London?

That's pretty good.

Yeah, that's also kind of a cop out but that's pretty good.

There are a few things south of London, but yeah.

Okay, so what's the venue there a.

Spot called the Golden Lion.

Nice.

But we're going.

We have one night off and we're going to Lindisfarne.

Hell yeah.

Which is the.

The wellspring of the record.

And we're actually gonna like stay on the island.

Which is it should.

This is an island.

You're gonna message us from there.

You gonna be able to.

Yeah, we.

Yeah.

That has cell service.

Maybe a dispatch from Lindisfarne will be necessary.

But the weeks take pictures kind of adjacent to our.

At least my folk horror love on the show.

You know there's.

Yes.

There's a causeway that goes out and then the tide comes in and you can no longer access this island.

That's exactly right.

This.

We would.

We would watch this show if it came on.

Tell you what, if Adam sends us a picture or two, we'll post it online.

There you go.

That's probably more than enough from two guys who aren't exactly wild about sharing their Personal lives, albeit Adam's is very cool.

Mine was just a hospital stay.

Thank you.

Two notable and general thoughts on TV before we hone in on those three different shows I mentioned at the top.

The Pit, still crushing it.

I know y' all get tired of me saying this, but I want us to add it because of this reason.

One of the actors in these last three episodes of the Pit.

Excuse me, two episodes.

Two or three.

One of the actors is also one of our actors from shrinking.

I won't go into detail in case anyone hasn't seen it, but he shows up as a doctor and it is so cool.

It is a good, solid performance to see this actor in a completely different role.

You can see bits of his performance from shrinking, but also so different.

That said, there's been a lot of talk online this week on how viewers should watch the Pit.

I don't know if you've seen these headlines at all.

It's an interesting discussion.

It's kind of one we have here every now and again.

We could easily have it about two thirds of our three shows today.

You know, do people watch television wrong at times?

Is there a wrong way to watch it?

And I say absolutely.

Usually the series holds your hand early, whatever you're watching, and if it doesn't, that's a good sign that anything goes.

So if you've been.

If it's guided you through 10 episodes, they're not going to do anything wild in episode 11.

I think people, I mean, have.

Have tried to do this with shrinking.

I think people have tried to do this with dtf.

No, I think it's fair on the Rooster.

I think people have done this with Rooster.

I've seen it very mildly done with, where they're trying to do some guessing, where the show is not asking for any guesswork at all.

It's like, that's not this kind of show.

You've been watching too many episodes of Lost or even maybe the Sopranos or something.

You know, people did this heavily with Mad Men and it was like, no, didn't go there.

Mad Men teased us, though.

There was a.

There was a tease element to Mad Men.

And I think occasionally shrinking teases a little, but I don't think it's as far fetched as some people think.

It's teasing you.

There was a reviewer for the A.V.

Club, but like every time they would review something, they would just speculate about, like half the review is like.

And it never happened.

Stop.

Stop speculating.

Just review the episode in front of you.

It's around the Time I quit AV Club and decided to start doing this on my own.

Yeah.

That was an era, though.

I think if you just grab Mad Men in isolation.

Yeah.

You can kind of say, like, sure, they were teasing a little bit.

But also, you should have just been down for the ride week to week.

But, you know, this was coming out of, like, the Breaking Bad era, where things were.

That's a better example.

Worth.

It was fun to.

To think.

Yeah.

To try to assemble it like a puzzle.

True Detective season one, probably the classic example of at least one man.

And then Tuscaloosa, Alabama, being driven to absolute insanity.

Week to week, it's.

It was me.

I was the man.

Law says the vintage example.

Yeah.

You know, it was funny being in the hospital and there with some other folks.

And there were two channels going almost simultaneously, I think the Mad Men Channel, it was really just AMC something.

They call it AMC Stories.

Stories.

Stories, yeah.

Yes.

Because that blue screen pops up and it's AMC Stories.

It's so.

And they can't sell enough commercial space for it, so it just stays on that screen sometimes.

It's very calming, and it'll just kind of soothe you for a second.

You think, I ain't spend time with the Mad Men channel?

No, buddy.

Well, I did the Madman channel, and I also did the Breaking Bad channel.

Now, me and the guy who were hanging out quite a lot, we'd both seen Breaking Bad, but he hadn't seen Madman.

So watching someone watch Mad Men for the first time was kind of funny.

I would catch him up on a couple of things if I thought it was just super pertinent.

But then I didn't let him.

That's a tough.

Tough to just drop in on that.

He kind of got it.

He kind of got it.

He was like, oh, okay.

So this guy, he didn't use the word pimp, but he was like, he's kind of a player.

And I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kind of.

He was like that, oh, wait, he's married.

Yeah, he's married.

And it was just.

That's kind of the pilot episode, isn't it?

No, this was late season two.

Well, I'm saying that's like the reveal at the end of the pilot episode of.

Yeah, that's the big reveal.

But if you just drop into it, it feels a little bit more soap opera dramatic than deeper drama.

It does.

Yeah.

Because you don't understand.

It's kind of.

It builds on itself so much that without that, it doesn't have the depth necessarily.

So Mad Men may have been the wrong example for me to pull from because it does tease the longer you watch.

But yes, I do think people watch Shrinking a little wrong here and there.

And I do think that they are watching Rooster a little wrong just here and there.

It's not as bad as the pit.

Why.

Why would you try to extract what's going to happen next from.

I mean, I guess Rooster.

Something kind of happens every episode.

I will tell you in spoilers what they're trying to guess.

Okay, okay.

Shrinking.

I. I think I know.

I think I could guess.

But shrinking is just like.

Like a vibes show where you're like rooting for the people generally.

You know what I mean?

Like, what's the point in trying to guess?

That's what mystifies me, man.

This is exactly the way I feel.

Haven't watched shrinking, but I can't imagine, like, watching Rooster being like, what's going to happen?

It's like, why?

Why are you watching it like that, man?

They watch everything this way is the idea I'm getting.

I have an author I really like who's famously cryptic and hard to figure out, and people will hang out on Reddit and try and figure out what he was actually talking about.

Like, I saw somebody commenting on some of these people once where it was like, they're all.

They're all science fiction nerds and they haven't read any literature, so they don't understand what's going on.

So it turns into like, oh, everything's like a weird logic puzzle.

But it's like, no, sometimes it's like he's doing it.

Something dramatic is happening.

Something, you know, as opposed.

Like, I think there's more to it than just like, I'm going to connect the dots, Charlie style, and I'm going to figure out.

I think they're confusing a bit of foreshadowing versus something that's made to unlock.

Like a puzzle.

Yeah.

Yes.

Where I think DTS ask you to do that.

That's what keeps you coming back.

Did you guess this?

Did you guess that?

A little bit of it.

Of course, there's a lot going on, which I think it makes it a higher level drama and worthy of our discussion.

What hooks you in DTF to me is the human.

Yes.

Feeling that.

Like, but even that's kind of a puzzle, but not really one to be solved.

You know what I mean?

That's.

I think Adam hit the nail on the head there because, like, watching it for the plot, I'm like, I just assume I'm pro.

Not going to know what's going on, especially with the way that they've, you know, the timeline is kind of recursive.

Like, we get more and more insight.

But yeah, like, the.

It's like the real puzzle is, man.

But I think that's.

That's exactly it.

Right.

Is because, like, what makes it good is that these reveals aren't just like, just twists and turns, but it's like, oh, okay, that shines a light on this thing that this person did and that recontextual.

You know, I like that.

Especially when you have characters, main characters telling the story who could just tell you what happened.

Yes.

You know what I mean?

So, like, it's really.

I don't know.

I mean, obviously all stories are being, like, invented in some way and they're being revealed to us by their creator, but when there's, like, a character on screen with that knowledge, it's like, I just assume that they're going to do that part of the job for me.

You know what I mean?

So it's not that necessary to do the guesswork.

Yes.

Like something like Breaking Bad or True Detective where, like, we don't know what's going to happen.

That was more fun to try to guess at it.

It's like if.

If two people were honest in DTF.

This show is, like two episodes long.

Let's continue with DTF St. Louis, and I'll come back to something I'll mention.

I'll do it at the very end.

Non spoilers.

In case you're debating watching DTF St. Louis, it is on its finale.

It's already aired.

Today.

We've got famed St. Louis weatherman Clark Forest, which is becoming a obscure term.

The weatherman.

Yeah.

Famed weatherman.

You know, I thought about this as I was watching this week's episode, and he.

Not much of a spoiler that he kind of wonders aloud about the place with his job in the world, the South.

We're gonna hang on to weathermen longer than a lot of other regions, I think.

You know, this is actually something that not everybody in Connecticut, but, like, for winter, winter weather and stuff, even if they don't have their famous favorite.

There's.

There's.

Because there's.

There's one network channel for the whole state because it's not very big.

Right?

So we got one cbs, one abc, one Fox.

Okay.

And so you've got people who.

You've got people who are like, oh, I always watch wfsb.

Like, they always are accurate about the weather.

So they still have that, you know, like, if there's snow or whatever.

And.

Yeah, Blaine, they're all out of Hartford.

Do we get this far without mentioning James Mann?

Oh, I was ready.

That was my next contribution.

He had been playing Clark Forrest.

Is this a different show with James Spann's Clark Forest?

What if he had met him at.

There's a down the line conference.

Oh, yeah.

You know.

Yeah.

Of Weathermen, which they don't show any of, but that's a real missed opportunity for span.

Weather, I think.

Weatherman convention.

Yeah.

He's got to be like a rock star, right?

In Alabama.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, in the.

In the weather world.

In the weather world.

Yeah.

I bet.

One would think Band keeps people alive.

Yes.

Kept me alive.

I'm not even being flippant.

Yeah, I know it's true.

I mean, it's true.

I mean, every time, right.

You're sheltering.

You're like, hope the power stays on because James Band's gonna really tell me when I need to hit the deck.

Yeah.

Clark befriends Floyd Smernich in the weather business because Floyd's a what, interpreter.

Yeah.

Before the weather.

That's.

These are.

That's Jason Bateman and David Harbour.

Thrown into the mix is Carol Love Smirnich.

She's played by Linda Cardinelli.

The idea that kicks off so much of this is that two guys, Clark and Floyd, work together, they befriend one another, and they eventually get on a dating app.

Hence DT of St. Louis at some point.

Name of the app.

Now we're non spoilers.

Am I wrong in the last episode or two being a lot less revealing?

And is that okay?

Yeah, I mean, they're.

They're getting closer to the truth.

Right.

So they almost have to slow down because it's getting messy.

Did the penultimate episode feel a little bit more filler, like, for you, or were you okay?

Maybe the answer is yes, but I'm okay with it.

Or no.

It didn't.

It didn't.

I think we're right back to what we.

What you brought up of, like, wanting all the puzzle pieces.

And I. I think in that way maybe it was filler, but I don't think it was a filler episode of television because we learned more about the characters.

I catch you.

Yeah, that's kind of where I am with it.

Although when I finished the penultimate episode, I thought to myself, I think I could have known all.

I think I knew all of what happened, just not the specifics.

You know, I knew the outline.

I just didn't know who.

What Where I think I've said every time we've talked about this show that it feels one degree off.

Yeah.

Like, all the social interactions and everything.

And it.

To me, it continued to develop that idea of, like, how far are you willing to go with these characters?

To give them empathy in a way.

And to see.

Even to see what they're doing is admirable.

When, like, if you had taken some of the things that have happened in the last two episodes and, like, been told in episode one, I'm not sure that you would view them the same way.

A lot of our listeners, I suspect, wait until the show's probably on a streaming network almost in full or in full, as is the case with DTF St. Louis now, and they may come to this part to hear if it's for them or not.

Should I go resubscribe to hbo, Max?

Should I go add Netflix this month or not?

Penultimate episode is where we are.

Sorry, everyone, we're not quite to the finale.

Do you recommend it?

I recommend it.

I don't.

It's for a specific viewer, I think.

I don't know.

You know, you're saying, would you sign up for HBO for it?

I'm not sure if it's that hardy.

An endorsement, but pair it with Rooster.

Be a pretty good time.

Good time, right?

Yeah.

Oh, by the way, Euphoria is coming back.

Yeah.

You want to feel really weird, wait until all of Euphoria is out and just binge that one day and then binge DTF Saintless so that you can realize that life is messy from just.

Every step of the way, every point of view.

Actually, DTF has been better than I thought it would be.

So I'll give it the thumbs up and if it can ring a chuckle for me and from my wife, that's usually a pretty.

Pretty good endorsement for a show.

That there's some.

There's some broader appeal out there.

If you like things that are painted in an odd color or come out as a tonally different series than you expected.

I think this is a good one.

I mean, it's a series that isn't afraid to ask, are you down to friend?

Yeah, well, the F stands for friendship.

Right.

Let's also talk about the HBO series we just mentioned.

It airs after DTF St. Louis created.

Created and ran by the prolific Bill Lawrence, whom we'll talk about again.

It's the new Steve Carell comedy you may have seen by now, if you're a listener.

You may have seen advertisements or something like that.

It's called Rooster we mentioned it very briefly.

It stars Phil Dunster, Daniel Deadweiler, John C. McGinley and Charlie Clive as Carell's daughter.

Set in a beautiful, wonderful New England liberal arts college, town looks magnificent.

A leafy enclave.

Wow.

You nailed it.

Thanks, man.

Rooster has Carell's author, Greg Russo recently recruited to teach there.

Okay.

At this college we're talking about.

That's the premise.

You get that in the first episode.

This one, too.

Getting in the back half.

Ten episodes long.

We have seen five.

What do you think about episode five?

And maybe just the midpoint so far.

I can't stop thinking about the fact that people want to guess what's going to happen in this show.

Yeah.

Why would, why would you do that?

I mean, I, I, I know what they're, I think I know what they're gonna guess and, but we can wait till spoilers.

But I say that because this is just like a perfectly pleasant viewing experience, that it's not like potato chip kind of stuff.

I think it's mainly because I think the writing is good, but the Steve Carell is just so good.

And I know that we've said that a few times just for reference.

What is potato chip series for you?

I don't even know that I could think of one off the top of my head that scratches a whole different.

Itch, but yeah, well, let's try the Office.

Going to Corel.

Yeah, a little bit of.

I think that one, because it's on every single day, has obviously maybe transcended the genre.

But, but, yeah, like, I do.

I'm not putting a lot of thought into what's going to happen next with these characters, but they do feel better written than maybe the show could have been.

You know, there's human.

Yeah.

There's a version of the show with slightly worse writing and acting that is not even close to being on the same level.

And I'm not saying this is like blowing the doors off the art of television, but it is a very fun show and one that I.

It's not like, oh, yeah, there's a new rooster.

It's like, oh, we are going to watch the, the new rooster.

And we kind of actually save it for, you know, like, whenever the moment arises, it's not just like in passing, you throw it on.

It's like, oh, we're doing this.

You mentioned to us this week it's hard not to watch it instantly upon release.

Is that kind of what you're getting at here?

Yeah, I would love to watch it on Sunday night when it airs we end up, for some reason, it has taken over the Saturday lunch slot.

Oh, really?

With us, that can be a coveted spot.

I know that's not.

Not every household operates that way, but, yeah, it's just a good show.

And maybe it's because I like campus novels.

And even if they are not having intellectual discussions, they're in a place where all they do is kind of sit around and talk.

And I like that.

I'll say it hits in the laugh department, too.

I was thinking about this, getting ready to watch this, because there are some things that the show does that sometimes genuinely annoy me.

And I think this is kind of on the edge of.

Or kind of related to what Adam said, that there's a version of this show where it's not quite as sharp, that's.

That's really obnoxious.

And sometimes I feel like they're on the edge of that, but because they're as sharp as they are, they get away with it.

But it'll.

You know, I'm like.

At the end of the episode, I'm like, I laughed.

I felt good about it.

I love Steve.

Steve Carell.

Everyone else's.

John C. McGinley is almost worth the price of admission.

He's so funny.

He's not perfect in this role as the president.

Yeah, I agree with that.

I'd never thought of him as funny as he is here.

Blasphemy for those who love Scrubs.

I've seen a couple episodes of Scrubs, and I just never found him that funny.

It's easy to forget that he's funny in that show because he's supposed to be such a hard ass.

Yeah, he's gonna.

I think that Bill Lawrence has recruited a whole different set of riders for this show, and it works well for shrinking.

I don't know what happened.

I don't know if they changed riders, if they've gotten too complacent.

This will segue into shrinking a little as it's wrapped its third season.

It improved as the season went on.

If you're thinking about Apple TV plus, you know, am I gonna go watch the third season of Shrinking now that it's done?

I think that you gotta bear with it a little, and I didn't like that part.

A couple episodes in the early season just weren't.

They felt stagnant, and it felt as though they were very complacent with how they're going to write their characters.

They weren't going to challenge the characters or us as viewers.

Not that I have to be pushed to the extreme in every single episode of television I watch, especially for a show like that.

But you do want.

You don't want the feathers ruffled a little in order to have conflict, in order to have new experiences, in order to show you another facet of life that they haven't shown you already.

Yeah, I agree with that.

I think it was a back half heavy season of television and that I and I really enjoyed.

Maybe.

I think we can identify the turning point.

I don't know if it's been out long enough that we can mention that in the spoiler free set.

We won't because people watch the whole thing, basically.

That is around what, episode seven, give or take maybe six.

I can't remember exactly which one it was that the.

But there is an event that kind of.

Yeah, turns things a bit.

And it was like, fine before that, but it felt like it went from treading water to kicking in.

Yeah, a little more.

A little more swimming.

I mean, it may have been a. I'd have to go back and watch earlier seasons to compare, but it felt like it was.

Now I'm going from swimming to running, but back at full stride.

I try to take a series as it comes to me, but I remember that first season of shrinking and thinking that, wow, that was a missed opportunity.

Not having Jason Siegel's character of Jimmy being a lonely, broken dad, single dad at this point, who's battling addiction issues, drinking issues, while trying to raise a daughter in this lush neighborhood, I thought, man, you're missing an opportunity for some comedy.

Instead, he cleans up his act in like the first 10 minutes of episode one.

And that's the direction they wanted to go.

And that's fine.

That's how I'll judge it.

But, boy, how funny would this show have been if Jason Segel was still boozed up and coked up, doing ecstasy with strippers out by the pool, while also loving his daughter very much and trying to raise her.

Now that's comedy.

I'm sorry.

Instead, he just continues to feel bad for himself.

That's right.

Yes.

That's more like it.

Good.

Here's to feeling bad for yourself all the time.

Luckily, I'm a little over that.

I have a feeling some of our listeners will love shrinking.

I know I loved some of the episodes.

I actually did.

I know I.

It probably felt like I took a big dump on a lot of this, but I just had high expectations with the acting and the.

And the writing and what it's given to me.

I don't think it was as Good as previous seasons, but that's okay.

It still had some standout episodes later in the.

The other bit I was going to toss off earlier.

If anyone's checking in for recommendations.

I cannot stop laughing and enjoying the.

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins might be more of a potato chip kind of show, but boy, it's good.

I dole them out every couple of days.

I'm a little behind from being in the hospital, but I started doling them out every two or three days.

Give me a boost of happiness.

We've been doing the same thing.

Blaine just kind of.

And I think it is a potato.

I could blow through.

This is whatever like wavelength they're on.

I could just blow through it in, you know, an hour.

This is also.

You know, it's funny that this has been a repeat recommender because I was organically recommending, like we were just talking about TV and I was like, you know, I've been really like, have you seen Rise and Fall or Fallen.

Rise of Reggie Dinkins Just organically because it was on the top of my head because it'd make me laugh so much.

This is the one with Tracy Morgan as an ex football player.

It's got Harry Potter as his director.

So Harold, he's a grown up.

Yeah.

Excuse me, man, that's.

That's two time Tony Award winner Harold Potter to you.

Or maybe it's just one.

Well, in the show he plays an Oscar winner director who's filming Tracy Morgan as the ex football player as Reggie Dinkins.

If you laughed a little bit, even a little bit of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, you're going to love this one.

It's the same creators.

It's a breath of fresh air from our current times.

Give it a shot.

I really think you're gonna enjoy it no matter who you are.

The only episode that dipped even little was the second one.

I don't think even Donovan considered it as low as I did, but no,.

It wasn't a big dip.

The first one's very funny.

Second one is okay, I think.

And third one's very funny.

The third one's great.

I think the second one for me, I'm reflecting on it, I think they didn't use Daniel Radcliffe as well as they could have in the second episode, but I think they kind of, they kind of recover that, that step from on there and he.

There's some.

I didn't know he was as funny as he is.

Like, he's very good at playing off Tracy Morgan.

Tracy Morgan, Yeah.

Put him in A situation where he's a little off.

Yeah, he's good.

I suppose.

This time next week we'll be talking about the new Zach Galifianaka series on Netflix where he interviews kids about gardening.

I hate.

Adam's not going to be here for this.

Could really weigh in on that.

Have you heard of this?

I have, yeah.

I watched the.

The ad.

Yeah.

I just found out about it last night.

I was like, why haven't I heard of this?

This is the first time hearing of this.

I did not even watch the ad.

I just hit add to my watch list.

He says something really nice about, like, if everybody just gardened and went outside, that the world would be a different place, probably.

I agree.

Outdoors and.

And being psychedelics.

Yeah.

Of course.

Next week we're going to throw Donovan in the deep end of the Euphoria pool.

Should be interesting to see how he reacts to my reactions.

I have seen now a commercial for Euphoria, so I think I have a pretty good grasp of what's going on.

Dig.

Yeah.

Does it start this week?

It starts.

Well, tonight starts.

So tonight I know that this is.

Bear with us, listeners.

We're getting euphoria, DTS St. Louis, and then here comes the rooster.

That's correct, sir.

Wow.

Time to resubscribe to hbo.

We're going to take a break here and on the other side, we'll talk same order of things.

DTF St. Louis, Rooster, and then shrinking.

Let's take a break.

If you ever wish to help out the Alabama Take and its podcast, including this one, you can go to thealabamatech.com click on buy me a Coffee.

That's simply a donation site for websites and podcasts like ours.

You can change the amount that you'd wish to give.

You can make it recurring, but any donation, any help is very much appreciated.

We'll put a link in the show notes for you.

Let's get back into the episode where the spoilers will begin.

Okay, we're back.

We have a listener email to begin this spoiler section.

It's about DTF St. Louis, where we're going with this.

It's from our podcasting friend, Tim Hamilton.

Tim sometimes sends us emails and talks about what we've been talking about.

Tim's the co host of Seti the Revenge Part 2, where they discuss B movies and the sequels that they probably don't deserve at all.

But to give Tim some benefit here, he sent this on March 31st.

So if you want to back up with me.

And he writes, just wanted to say I love dtf, but the way the onion keeps peeling every week.

We could find out that Clark Forest's wife is under the bed in the hotel, listen to him have sex all along, and I'd be like, sure.

That's what happened.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Tracks.

Yeah.

Yep.

I suspect that Floyd's stepson may play a part in Floyd's accidental death, but with this show, who knows?

That's exactly.

Kind of.

We're on the page.

We're on.

Yeah.

I thought that this most recent episode, Donovan hasn't seen it, and he's still gonna stick around for this because I told him I don't think that it gave us a lot that we wouldn't have already just guessed everything that it showed.

I thought to myself, yeah, that's kind of what I thought.

You had seen the title to the episode, the Denny's Plan.

The Denny's Plan.

You could have guessed what Jason Bateman's character got up to.

Yeah, yeah.

You know what?

I did kind of.

I thought he's.

He's got to find somebody to sub in for this to go full on.

Oh, sorry.

We're switching to sign language now, so you'll have to follow along.

You know, we may switch to video, honestly, because Apple is.

Apple Podcast is now allowing you to switch from video to audio just seamlessly.

It's something I may toy with.

I don't know.

We'll see.

But I just did the sign for full on.

His repetition of the way he says that over and over is every time it gets funnier.

It's very funny.

It's hilarious.

The way he plays this is so sincere that there is a hilarity to it.

There's the sincerity.

I just want to be there with you, just full on.

But no Adam, I kind of guessed.

He's got to be the one to have sent the message or the like or whatever you do on DTF's app.

And I was just thinking, well, he's not going to.

What happens if Floyd says, I want to go meet this guy?

I know I'm not gay, but.

Or bisexual, but I want to go.

Meet $500 is $500 that kind of situation you got?

It reminds me of the Norm MacDonald stand up where he talks about the dessert guy, and then it ends up with a blowjob in the bathroom.

Do you like something decadent like, listen, guy, I don't know what you're gonna get, but if this is going to end with a blowjob in the bathroom.

But, yeah, I thought, you know, if you would have told me this.

This plot for episode, what, six, Penultimate episode.

I would have said, yeah, I thought that was gonna happen.

He does go to.

Clark does go to Chicago.

Does go to Denny's in a very gay neighborhood.

This was very funny to me because this is.

I mean, you've been to this Denny's.

I've been to that neighborhood, yeah.

Many times.

Okay, that's fair.

But this is.

It's just like part of what you would.

I mean, I know downtown is like the Loop, whatever, but, like, if you spend any time in urban Chicago, you were.

I mean, like, Wrigley Field is like right there.

You know what I mean?

This is not like.

But it is common knowledge.

This is a gay neighborhood.

It's not really hard to figure out.

But for a man to hatch this plan and then be like, I need to find a guy in this neighborhood.

I'm going to go to a Denny's.

Was very funny to me.

That was such a suburban impulse.

Not gonna go to, like, get on Google and be like, where's the good bar?

Where's the wherever?

It's like, I'm gonna go to Denny's and have the most awkward conversation with my waiter that I possibly can.

Having worked one of my first two jobs in a grocery store, that.

The conversation Clark has with the waiter, that's a very real conversation.

Do you want to say anything else about that?

I've just had some weird conversations with people who are, I imagine, were just there to buy groceries and then suddenly decide, let me say really awkward things about sex and this or that.

Like offering you $900 to go full on.

Not quite, but they would hint that it's okay if I were to ask for things.

Ah.

I did find it funny in the way that the series has been funny all the way through.

It's how the very specific plan was to involve someone to get full on from Floyd in order to give him a boost of confidence.

It's not enough that the person shows up and doesn't get erect.

It's like, it would be great if you could just get a.

Get a hard on for Floyd.

Could you do that for us?

That's such a specific request.

This is one of the things.

One of a long list of things that I was getting at in the intro when I said if you had just like read a bullet point list of.

Here are the things that you'll actually feel mildly empathetic with these characters about.

And like, one is like, I just want somebody to get a boner, you know?

But like, everything that he says while shooting very poorly shooting hoops, when he tries to get Clark to shoot and he's like, I don't want to shoot.

That was.

That was really funny.

But, like, the.

The whole, like, monologue about there's no hiding a.

It's only honesty.

If.

If a dude has that reaction, you know, he can't lie.

It's.

He's just attracted to you, and that will make you feel good.

Yeah.

Are you not flattered?

The.

The second thing that it does, I think that goes really well with something it's been doing throughout the season is how it's constantly played with masculinity.

And that really goes right there with what Adam was saying, how he didn't even feel like shooting the basketball.

We could rattle off a list.

I'm gonna do a short one first.

Floyd allows a guy to kiss him.

His wife is an umpire.

He poses in a magazine that's traditionally a gay publication.

He's got this idea of, in order to be manly and good looking, I gotta lose weight.

He.

He doesn't have a car, which hinders his confidence, sort of erodes it.

He's unable to provide for his family because of that.

So there's this lack of purpose.

You know, it's.

I've actually read a piece recently from Dr. Scott Galloway at NYU.

He wrote a piece of nonfiction notes on being a man, which is not quite what you think.

He talks about how there's a certain kind of masculinity that sort of falls between toxic and being helpless.

And that's what's being lost in today's society of men that because they're feeling lost and helpless, they turn to this toxic style of masculinity.

And Floyd's sort of caught up in that, where he's like, I'm helpless.

I'm not attractive.

I can't get a guy to get full on.

For me, it's just such a good play of masculinity and what that means to us.

Now, I think all that's true, but he also has no problem being, like, a sweet guy.

Right.

He's got that part down.

It's.

It's the rest that he's missing, and it makes him feel lonesome and purposeless.

Maybe, but is it toxic masculinity to feel worse because you can't provide for your family or.

No?

I would say that's that balance that.

I'd say that's that balance that Dr. Galloway points out.

And I agree with.

I'm saying that, like the other minor parts of It.

I don't have a car.

That's okay.

You don't have to feel, you know, you'll get a car.

Maybe Clark appearing in a very bright pink shirt on a wine trip that you usually associate with the girls doing.

They're kind of tossing that in your face and saying, what do you think?

They don't give a shit.

There's out there being froze.

Don't give a fuck.

That was great.

And I do like the casting of.

Of with David harbor and Jason Bateman as their.

Because I think you're totally right.

Playing, like looking at masculinity is.

They're also kind of playing with like, almost like the David harbor he.

Like, he seems like maybe a more authentic kind of guy in a way than.

Than Jason Bateman might be.

And I think it's very cleverly.

I think their relationship is very cleverly balanced, I guess, is what I mean.

It's very atypical for two guys.

Well, then they're.

Is that an understatement?

That's an interesting point, Donovan, that they're using Jason Bateman, who I like a lot, but who you immediately buy is like kind of an image obsessed weatherman.

Like, that's not hard to do.

But then really, since he puzzled the detectives by saying I loved Floyd, you know, everything that he's done since then has been shown to be like, his motivations are pretty pure.

Yeah, that's.

I think that's part of what I meant when I said that this was better than I thought it would be because I didn't guess that we were going to have that level of feeling or complexity at the first episode.

You know, it seemed like we kind of knew, like, oh, there's a twist.

But we can kind of see which way this is going.

And they do a nice job to the point of masculinity or modern malaise, suburban loneliness, whatever.

The using.

I think it was in the penultimate episode, his stepson as kind of a mirror to his character, you know, to say, like, when you get older it'll be better.

Which also is a callback to that first episode that, like, we want you to get good grades in life.

You know what I mean?

Like, it's not as big, but the.

I don't know, it makes you.

Both of them are recontextualized immediately that, you know, he tells the kid, the kid just wants somebody to say those guys suck whenever he gets made fun of.

Like somebody to kind of lick your wounds with.

And now his stepdad has found that.

But, like, it's so complex.

It's so unbelievably complex.

That complexity, that sadness, loneliness is what makes it such a tonal jolt, because it's also very funny, as we've mentioned.

I think there's an example from the wine trip that is exactly this.

Because, you know, like, we know that Floyd is burdened by all of these things and, like, you know, it clearly weighs on him.

But there's a bit where, like, he's confiding in Clark, right?

And he's like.

He's like, I worry at night that that guy knew that I wasn't into French kissing him.

Like, in the midst of all these, like, really dark things like that, he's like, this is one of the things keeping up at night.

So the guy knew he wasn't really into it.

This show does revel in taking something you expect and turning it upside down on occasion, which is exactly what they did with Bob Dylan's Forever Young opening an episode.

Blaine, since it started, I thought, what did Blaine Duncan think of this?

I was also wondering, I just kept.

Thinking, does Jeff Kramer, Dylan's manager, that actually may be his tour manager, Jeff Rosen, Dylan's manager, does he know what they were gonna do with this song when he approved?

I'm dying to know that.

So that's all I could think about, was just asking someone, did they know?

Or did they just say, give me the check?

He could be into it.

I don't know.

That's true.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

Someone explained the entire plot of the series to Bob Dylan over the phone.

And then there was a long pause and then he said, yes, it is.

Like a very unique, almost.

I won't call it Dylan esque, but like, it's.

It's American weirdness, you know, in a way that, yep, Dylan may not be so different from Midwestern.

Weirdness is Bob Dylan's forte.

It's very Midwestern, very, very.

Just strange.

It's very on the edge of like, what the Cohen's will.

Not in the.

Exactly the same thing, but there's stuff sometimes like, if you've ever seen a serious man, you're kind of like, oh, yeah, I see some.

Some parallels here.

You know, the other parallel I couldn't help but make is I just rewatched Lodge 49 and run don't Walk to watch this show, everyone.

That was our second trip through.

But that is also a show where people just cannot get out from under the heel of capitalism.

You know, it's crushing at all times.

And I do think Carol as dislikable as she is, that moment that she had where she was talking about debt, you know, and, like, how you think, I'm gonna get a promotion, I'm gonna get a raise, like, there will be an end to this, and it never comes.

And now these are people who.

How much can they really improve their station at this point?

Is this just, like, what life is for them?

It feels those moments.

It is funny.

I mean, sometimes I have, like, the physical reaction to watching the show that, like, the despair is so strong that I did not have to.

Something like Lodge or to.

Like a Coen Brothers movie.

Yeah.

Citing that incident.

I also had a reaction to that because it's true.

It's pernicious.

Maybe it's not too big of a stretch, but it does call back to me something David lynch loved to explore.

The banality of suburban life, the dangers that surface when there's so much similarity in everything.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The P.O.

Box thing was both funny and, like, oh, this is the.

The meeting point of everyone's otter side, you know?

I was so embarrassed listening to that P.O.

Box trick.

I'm like, I've been shipping my dildos to my house like an ass.

They just.

They hit the front door with a thud.

No way.

Joseph, were you relieved that that phrase got some clarity?

I certainly was, because, man, it bothered me every time she said it.

It made me laugh every time.

I don't know why.

Just something she's like, nope, nope.

No way, Jose.

No way.

I just thought it went back to that banality of their lives.

It's just another way of emphasizing it.

What really kills me in the most recent episode, though, which we haven't unpacked because, again, I just don't think there was a ton of things that.

That zigged or zagged.

Either way, the one maybe big moment of zag was just Clark yelling, beware at work.

So weird.

Hilarious, though.

Have you ever not found yourself in that situation where you're just like, I am stuck in a mental loop right now, and I need to break it?

That was so strange.

I know.

I know what he's getting at, but it was.

Yeah, it was.

It was good.

Yeah.

I. I love that.

It also tied back into the opening credits because I asked, I think you maybe even offline, where I was like, what is he.

Why is he doing karate?

There you go.

We finally found out.

I think the opening to this, by the way, and it.

It usually takes, like.

I think the most recent episode was, like, 11 minutes in before they rolled the credits or something like that.

Yeah, you're right.

That opening shot with that song and him kind of backlit and he's like motioning along the green screen.

That's a great opening.

It is a great opening because it's weird.

Yeah.

Fits it.

Let's wrap here with DTF St. Louis.

We still didn't get the reveal of what Carol was convicted of doing.

Does it matter?

Is that the big thing?

We need to figure out how all this comes together.

She broke into a Jamba Juice.

Because she wanted some money bag.

Geez.

Blame her.

Don't know.

We're not going to speculate but that's.

I just think as a plot point it was odd not to have that come up in the timeline.

I guess we were in.

Agreed.

And there was a run of episodes where like I won't try to say which ones they were because I'm forgetting but like where you left thinking, oh, it was someone else every time.

Like like Clark and then her and then.

And then like now a few completely total uncertainty.

And she wasn't even really in the penultimate episode.

All that much relative to her involvement in earlier ones.

So I feel like that's going to balance out.

Moving on to more light hearted fare.

Other HBO show.

We'll discuss today's Rooster the Steve Career Carell Show.

I think he's as good as he was in the office.

If not a little bit more mature, better has a depth to it.

Probably that's needed here.

He does such a good job being a guy cutting up a good front I think is what he did, you know.

And it kind of breaks through sometimes.

And he's still good at like he'll say and do things that it's like indeed.

That was awkward.

But that's the point, right?

Like that's who he is.

Exactly.

And it makes him relatable.

Even if you're not incredibly awkward yourself.

You felt it very sympathetic character.

There were a few things that that did you know that he'll do that made me laugh.

Like when he wears his old minor league hockey team jersey to the.

And he's just.

And he's like, oh, like he figures out the mascot after.

What were they like the Chiefs or something?

It was something like that.

He had to turn it inside out.

Yeah.

I love that they're bringing back the hockey coach.

I thought he was a familiar actor and seeing him up close made me realize I've seen him in a couple things and he is funny.

So Carell, his Greg Russo is going to be helping coach.

I think that's a good move.

That's a good riding move.

I mean, you got to get Steve Carell on skates if you can.

This is a recurring theme in his career.

I saw a bit of flight being taken by the Elizabeth Strauss character, Greg's ex wife.

Did you see her as some malevolent force?

She shines a light sort of on not Rooster.

Sorry, I got to pull up the cast.

Archie.

How I could forget that?

I think she kind of shines a lot.

She's sort of his Archie.

Right.

And she.

I don't think she was, like, malevolent.

Maybe she's not going to do the best thing.

But I thought there's not malevolence here because there's.

She's at least able to say, like, you know what?

I am selfish.

Like, I did do what I wanted to do because I wanted to do it.

And I don't think Archie is anywhere close to that.

Does that make her a better person that she knows that and did it anyway?

You know, I don't know if it makes her a better person, but I.

Think that, like, does self awareness get you a gold star there?

I don't.

I don't think it gets you.

Like, I think when you hurt people, you still hurt them whether you knew it was wrong or not.

But I do think that maybe there's been enough life to be like, okay, I can be this person, and I.

Can acknowledge that maybe if, you know, not to put yourself in situations where you might hurt someone again, that would be different.

But in a way, she is kind of playing a similar character to what she did in White Lotus season one, you know, where she becomes pretty unlikable.

And I don't know if there's some hostility towards the signposter there for, like, oh, you're just kind of like a cold, corporate kind of, I'm gonna take what I want kind of person who definitely runs against all of the heartwarming academia that's been happening so far.

That's a good point.

I think that may have answered my question.

Yeah, malevolent might be too harsh of a term.

Whereas she's definitely supposed to be the opposite of Greg.

Well, she immediately hurts Greg, and she makes the poor president uneasy, and we see his.

I mean, when is that guy's confidence down?

Because it's shot to hell in this episode.

That's a good point.

Yeah.

Her daughter seems to have completely forgiven her.

Which is funny that she goes to her for advice despite knowing not only did she break the family up, but she did exactly what she needs advice about.

Which they acknowledge in the show.

But it's still a funny thing.

Archie is still likable.

I will say.

I know that he's supposed to be a bad guy to a degree for the series and a bad person if he were real.

But you still can't help but chuckle and kind of laugh along with his stupidity.

Or maybe at his stupidity, maybe not with.

But it's like they even make that physical when John McGinley's like, what kind of workouts do you do?

And he's like, I don't work out.

And he still looks like that.

And it's like, oh, that's kind of his whole thing.

Yes.

Can play against anyone here in the sauna.

They pair him up with Archie.

I loved it.

That was shined funny when he threw him out for just being like, I eat whatever I want.

He's like, get out.

Yeah.

And, you know, he's still gonna talk to the guy in the next episode.

You know, it's not like I'm.

I'm not seriously holding this against you, but I'm also a little pissed off.

You still need to leave right now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, first off, I think, unless the show takes a really dark turn, I think that every character is, you know, so far is like, okay, yeah.

Like, even the bad ones are like.

It's too.

Like you said, it's to a degree.

And also the fact that.

That Phil Dunster is.

Is very good at playing, like an egotistic person.

And we get to see that person get beat with a ladle by Steve Carell.

Yeah.

Like, that kind of helps even.

It kind of helps even it out there.

The low effort of looking good does not hinder Archie's characterization.

It's perfect.

The thing with this show, which is what shrinking got wrong often, I thought, is that the characters are likable, even those with the huge flaws.

That's something they haven't managed to do.

In shrinking, I don't think the closest to a true villain that this show has had so far is, I believe, Rani, the student who.

That's the only person who.

And even in the last episode, she told the professor, I didn't hate your class today.

Ah, yes, the antagonistic student.

Yeah.

And then, of course.

And then, of course, what's his face?

The dean who's in the hospital.

He was kind of a.

But he's not.

He's hardly in it.

Yeah.

Oddly enough.

Let's go to the students.

Do they make or break the show for you?

Because for me, Greg's interaction with them might be some of my favorite moments.

I think it's great.

They've done a good job with the students that they put in his class too.

I appreciate that the whole show is not just, like, thing about how, like, the kids are too woke.

Right?

Like, yeah, Greg is sincerely trying to meet young people where they are.

And sometimes.

And, like, I feel like it did so good by not even acknowledging, like, not even glancing.

And that's the direction we're gonna go.

And it's like, so we get to see Greg trying to figure out, like, both of the characters were horses.

Like, okay, that makes so much more sense, right?

Like, he's genuinely engaging with these kids, even.

That was such a good bait and switch with the president too, because kind of the first episode, he rumbles a little bit like that, and then that's not it at all.

It was so smart, and it makes their interaction so much more fun.

I think there's a lot of heart with Greg and his students, and it's good comedy.

He's like their pal.

He's their pal.

Tommy especially, who is almost another child of Greg's at this point.

He makes me smile, and he's not the type of character I would have thought would make me happy to watch the show.

I do think that there's an element here, maybe that young people would find appealing too.

Like, I have been, I am the student.

What would that be like?

And then for me, as an adult, it's, I am Greg.

But what would it be like to relive some college stuff?

Though Greg never went to college, so he's doing it the first time around.

He went straight to the minor leagues.

Tommy's the student who's doing it all wrong and maybe even for the wrong reasons.

But you can't help but like him.

I'm talking, I'm speaking as a teacher, as the professor.

I told you not to use AI but yet at the same time, you like the guy.

I've been there a few times.

Learn how to lie, Tommy.

Yeah, that.

That was.

That made me laugh.

Good balance.

I think of.

Of characters.

And this takes me to what I was told you I was going to mention.

The.

The thing that people are just scratching to figure out.

Some people are who's Tommy's dad and mom?

Now that he's admitted, he's there on campus because his mom works, they're trying to figure out if Crystal's his mom and Greg slept with her.

That's pretty good.

I don't mind that.

That would be if if that happens, that would be funny.

Or that the honky coach is his dad.

Ah, that'd be less funny.

Don't know.

Can you have some drunk dad coming.

Home and saying, he's just on Mick Ultras now?

That's a good sign.

I did Annie.

I think her name is Momolo.

Who plays the Christy.

Crystal.

Crystal, sorry.

Yeah.

The.

When she shows Greg that photocopy and she looks him in the eye and is like, it's just a form that you'll behave better when you're on campus.

And she has him initial on two random places on this.

That is comedy, not a Volvo.

One of the better moments, you know, we got the student who only calls him G. You always have that guy in class.

I think it's good stuff.

And that Xerox copy of herself of her boobs, where.

That's about as funny as you can make it.

Hey, he's a bad boy.

How does Kirill react to something like that?

That's where your money is.

Absolutely.

Lastly, we're going to talk about this season as a whole of the Apple TV series Shrinking.

Jason Siegel.

Harrison Ford almost playing father and son, but not quite.

It makes me immediately ask Adam, where does this show go without Harrison Ford?

Is he going anywhere?

They put him in Connecticut.

Donovan lives in Connecticut, and we see him once a week.

Would they have Internet still?

Which they implemented in this last episode.

Gabby called the white person capital and.

Then asked how many people it took the setup as zoom, which was great.

4.

4 Was the answer.

Yeah.

Harrison Ford still.

Still got it.

Wow, he really delivered these last three or four episodes.

On the flip side, I cannot find a redeeming scene with Summer.

Why does this character exist?

Again, can we not write her a little more appealing?

Teenage silliness.

Right?

But she looks 26.

I mean, come.

Well, yeah.

I mean, they're both supposed to be 18, and it's.

Yeah.

She's just unrealistically likable as a father.

Given that speech at the airport, I would have killed her.

I would have shoved her down by her face.

Well, I mean, you've got, what, 10 years to learn to let go?

I do think that Brian's character got a lot funnier with the baby.

I'm surprised I didn't see coming.

Usually when you throw a baby in the mix, the characters get less interesting.

He's funnier.

It's really.

Which he probably did a lot.

I just maybe didn't notice as much.

But it really made him put a mirror in front of himself.

Say, God, I'm Selfish.

Yeah.

In the same way, the event that I was of course, hinting at in the non spoiler section is you give a man a heart attack, it turns the whole program around.

With Derek.

Yeah.

Yeah, right.

But in the.

In the same way, maybe the.

The kid kind of clarified what it feels like.

Everybody's more on a set of tracks than they were before as characters.

And I don't mean like, they all have direction in life, but, like, they all have traction in a story.

Yeah.

There's.

There's new friction.

Right.

And that makes them all more interesting.

Except for Summer.

Even Liz got a little more interesting toward the back half.

Her episode with Derek in the hospital turned her around a little bit, at least halfway.

I like her.

I know that you weren't.

She was maybe a little weak in the front half, but.

Yeah, she's just a little harsh there in the front half.

I thought over.

Overwritten.

I thought the season ended up being okay.

Quite middling.

I think I got a docket those first two or three episodes.

I think I agree.

But then, you know, there was a point maybe in that, the doldrums early on where if you had tried to sell me on Harrison Ford and Jason Siegel having this.

This heart to heart at the end, I would think, are they gonna really earn it?

You know what I mean?

And I think they did.

I think that ended up being a pretty effective.

I'll borrow your phrase there.

Friction in the penultimate episode and then resolution in the final.

They play well off each other, too.

That helps.

Did you.

Did you buy that ending?

Yeah, I thought it was okay when he.

He sees him for.

He says, oh, let's meet for breakfast.

That.

Yeah.

Did that do anything for you?

Yeah, it's just fine.

Full on.

Well, he probably got full on with Sophie being there.

That's true.

You knew they weren't going to let go of her unless it was contractual.

Decent enough.

Season picked up a lot like you said, with Derek's heart attack.

It put so many of these people on a page that they needed to be on where they've got something to deal with other than what they were dealing with last season.

Yeah.

They're all in a different place.

And, you know, I thought stuff like Gabby and Derek getting engaged, that was the proposal, was very much in keeping with the show's vibe, I guess.

But that was kind of like, oh, okay, this is a fun scene, whatever.

Yeah.

But that.

The moment when they say out loud that Jimmy's gonna be left alone, you know, that, like, everybody's kind of Jetting off at the same time in this.

Yeah, I felt that.

Yeah, that was.

That was well done.

I kind of didn't expect to have that moment of like, you know, he.

We've kind of like laughed at their very upper middle class, upper class kind of community that they have going on.

But still, if a lively place is suddenly quiet, that's tough.

You'll want to say posh community soon.

Posh.

I was translating for you all before I said that.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

I just think Jason Siegel does the dramatic scenes way better than he does trying to deliver a joke.

I mentioned this earlier.

A couple episodes ago, maybe last episode.

Although his Harrison Ford impression is pretty good and funny.

It is pretty good.

Before I let you go, Adam and everyone else, what did you think about that Gibson.

Jeff Daniels was playing?

I mean, that's part of the show, right?

Is that we can kind of laugh at the fact that everybody has like.

Don't they have like a Steinway piano, too, and, like Gibson guitars?

Yes.

And nobody's just half assing it out there.

Yeah, it's like that.

It's almost like that Gibson, Dylan.

Hold on.

The front of Nashville Skyline.

It's one of those really nice ones.

Great guitar.

Yeah, it is.

Sounds good, too.

That's it for us.

I'm appreciative of Adam and Donovan's time as well as yours.

Always am.

We'll bid adieu to Adam for a few weeks.

Catch him over in the uk.

Sister Ray Davies.

When you see that on a poster in your neighborhood, know to get yourself a ticket before they sell out.

I'm Blaine, and for Adam and Donovan, we hope that you and your friends be out to be in each other full on.

Full on.