How 'Stick' Turns a Corner and 'The Bear' Pays Off; Plus, 'Andor' and 'Your Friends & Neighbors'

Hey everybody.

You've joined taking it down the TV and streaming podcast for the Alabama take.

The title, of course of the episode is one thing, but here's the rundown of what we're going to do.

In the non spoiler section, we're going to talk about andor we're going to talk briefly about your friends and neighbors on Apple TV plus, also on Apple TV plus we'll talk about stickk and we'll move into fx, Hulu, their show, the Bear and non spoilers.

Then in the back half with a break in between, we're gonna talk stick, specifically the last two episodes and the middle part of the bear episodes four through six or three through six, I think it is.

So stick around if you've seen those episodes.

We'll do the very ending of The Bear Episode 7 through 10 next week, next Tuesday.

And of course, Adam and Donovan will be joining me.

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Every week, after a break of about 30 seconds or 45 seconds, we dig into the deeper stuff, what the series is doing, where it stumbles, if it matters.

We're talking TV without talking down no assumptions except that you're already thinking taking it down.

Real conversations about streaming and tv.

We try to keep it done up real good.

Let's begin the show.

Alabama take projection.

We're talking to I y' all are listening to Donovan and Adam, my buds, my pals, my compadres, comrades, my therapists.

You know, we promised, I think we might have promised the whole season of the Bear season four, but we got the big middle chunk done.

What happened?

Well, I'm gonna tell the guys.

I'm gonna reveal to them right now I got sucked into andor big time.

Oh yeah, it'll do that, right?

Man, I was watching it and then I was like, oh, I'm gonna plan watching those cartoons and what order and I went to Reddit And I went to this website that's sci fi.

And what order do I watch?

Which ones do I watch?

Do I watch them all?

Do I also incorporate all the movies again?

I mean, andor will make you do that?

It's so good, it raises the rest of Star wars.

And by the same light, it's so good, it makes the stuff that's bad in Star wars look really bad.

Well, of course it does that, but.

At the same time, because they show that it can be done.

But at the same time, when you watch andor through a certain light, which is, I guess just regular light, you watch it and then you think, I need to go back and watch the Phantom Menace.

Because some of that was at play, wasn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it was.

I don't know how they pulled this off, but one of the things I thought was cool about Andor was they made it like actual Star wars for adults without being like, oh, that Star wars is all silly kids stuff.

Like they incorporate everything that's happened into.

This weird non spoiler.

Let me ask you, did it drag a little for you.

When the TV critic Emily.

I think I mentioned Emily St. James for the first andor she was like, oh, it's doing arcs.

It dragged until I read some of her writing on it and it was like, it's mostly doing three episode arcs.

And as soon as I realized it was doing that, it all clicked to me.

And I actually kind of liked with this.

There were.

There were some threads that kept flowing out.

I kind of like the really sprawling nature of this season, though, where we're just getting a slice of all kind, you know.

But even, I mean, it did arcs like last season, but even, even some episodes are.

I would say it didn't drag for me, but I would say they are very meditative.

Yes, Yes, I would agree.

I was really shocked that they had so much Hank Williams Jr. As.

Strange move.

They did.

Disney clearly just bought the rights.

You know, they just want to just.

No wonder he's living in.

Up in Tuscaloosa.

Yes, that's.

That's what I. I wouldn't say bogged me down, but I found myself doing something I don't normally do where I would watch.

There was at least one night where I watched an episode and I thought, I'm watching the next one right now.

Like, this is fucking good.

When it ended, I was man, the.

Are we in spoiler territory?

We're not in spoilers, Don.

We're not spoiler territory.

So there's an episode towards the End where.

Where.

Where two characters relationship is revealed and then one of them has to make a hard choice that I'm just like a Sophie's Choice.

That was a fantastic five minutes of television right there.

It was amazing.

And it's incredible that they have such good actors doing this.

Man, Diego Luna's killing it.

I. I thought to myself at once, I was like, I'm tired of his griping and complaining.

But then I thought, he's doing such a.

Of it.

I should.

He.

He needs to be in more movies.

Yeah, I'm sure he will die Diego Luna, because he.

He's excellent.

I don't mean to be.

I'm not trying to be racist with this at all.

Of course y' all know me.

I'm not racist.

But he and Pedro Pascal in a movie would be really good as brothers or something.

As brothers.

Yeah.

Yeah, it'd be good.

I. I know that they probably aren't the same background, but have you seen Sophie's Choice, by the way?

Either of y' all never have.

Oh, have you not neither seen it nor read it?

Me?

Man, are we in spoilers now.

We're not spoilers, but, you know.

Andor dares to ask the question.

It dares to ask the question.

Do you like lasers that go pew, pew, pew?

Yeah, it does.

The craziest thing about Andor is it's a Star wars show that has a complete subplot that somehow feels completely natural about somebody's domineering mother.

Oh, yeah.

Slash.

Slash in law.

And it's.

And it's great.

I hate her.

Now it dares to ask.

I thought about this yesterday.

I was outside building a fire, you know, as one does on the 5th of July.

As one does in Alabama on the 5th of July.

Gotta get hotter, right?

Yeah.

I thought to myself, Andor does dare to ask the question.

Do you like your television to mirror your current politics?

There are some, like, really.

There's some upsetting moments.

Yeah.

You think to yourself, did I know this was gonna happen?

Okay, we'll move on.

This is not gonna.

Andor's not gonna be a part of the spoiler section.

I just thought I would share with the guys on my quat.

What kept me from finishing the bear, though.

I think we're all kind of at the same place Anyway.

Once you see that first graphic Jar Jar Binks sex scene in Andor, you're like nothing else.

I gotta keep watching this.

Naked.

Naked.

Fully weird.

Hey, we have an email this week.

I'll address it briefly.

We have an email from One of our regular listeners, Mr. Tim Hamilton out of New York.

He says hello all.

That's all of us.

Thanks for mentioning Friends and Neighbors as I gave it a try and I enjoyed the journey.

Look, look at us doing kind of a.

Spreading the good word.

We set out to do something and it happened.

Son of a bitch.

He said, I can only hope they do not make a season two.

I don't think it's believable that the story continues.

And I'm not in spoiler.

We're not in spoiler territory.

But I would say that if they do, there has to be a very minor shift.

I really liked Friends and Neighbors, your Friends and Neighbors on Apple tv.

Plus, I won't spoil anything.

It's.

It's got Jon Hamm in it.

We've talked about it briefly here before.

It's a fun ride.

Very interesting.

Every episode is quite good, I would say.

The ending last 15 minutes, you.

You kind of scratch your head a little bit and think maybe, maybe not.

And then Tim goes on to say, I hope that you'll now give Murderbot a try.

It's also on Apple tv.

I give it thumbs up or at least four out of five stars so far.

So thanks, Tim.

And I've got it on my watch list.

I just don't know time.

But maybe it's a 30 minute show.

All right.

Speaking of 30 minute shows and Apple TV plus we got Stick.

We're all caught up.

We're not going to spoil anything.

Do we want to say anything about Stick on Apple tv?

Plus Owen Wilson.

Mark Marin in an rv.

No.

HR department.

No, no.

Owen Wilson plays Price Cow Hill.

Love that name.

He's washed up.

Kind of threw away his talent as a golfer due to life and now he's taken up this young man named Santiago and he's trying to get him to become a professional.

Santiago's probably 16.

17.

He's got to be 17.

I think 16 or 17 because he's.

He's a junior.

He'll be a senior in the.

It's summer right now.

Yeah, they did have him driving the rv.

Yes.

So that's a spoiler blame.

Any non spoiler thoughts so far on.

On Stick it through seven episodes.

At this point, I continue enjoying laughter, shenanigans.

No, I'm just, I'm saying it's just, it's a show that you put on.

It's.

It's a comfort watch in a lot of ways.

See, I'd push back against that and I will in spoilers.

There you go.

Okay.

Yeah, Mark Marin remains a great choice for a cranky person.

Yeah, I mean, it's obvious, but here, it's honed now.

Excuse me.

It's, it's.

They've put a rope around him and used it well.

Yeah, I agree.

It's not over the top.

The kind of lovable curmudgeon guy.

Yes.

Who are we gonna get to be grumpy?

Okay.

Mark Marin.

Is Mark Marin busy?

Can we use his skills?

They do.

Is he, is he wound up about something?

Do you think they just paid him with that rv?

He just got to keep it.

That'd be great.

You could see Marc Maron at one of this, this nation's many fine national parks.

I bet he's going to get into more acting now that he's wrapping up his podcast.

Right?

That's probably what he wanted to do.

I mean, that makes sense to me.

And you know what?

If he does it as well as he's doing it here, I'll watch him.

I bet he gets better.

I think he's pretty good.

He's the kind of guy who would go to an acting coach and get better and better.

You think so?

I think so.

I think so.

Yeah.

He's not the kind of guy who says, I know it all.

Fuck you.

Not, not in that situation.

No.

Yeah, he's, he's good.

I, I, I've been liking him.

Speaking of good acting, y' all reckon what Carm and Sydney and Richie's been doing today?

You mean this day?

What are they doing right now?

They love a Sunday.

It is a Sunday.

They're off.

I'm glad Restro mentioned that they actually have off days because I kept thinking, Christ almighty, they're going to get burned out.

Well, that's the theme of the service industry, right?

A little bit.

They are even six days a week, Richie's smoking, Carmi's trying not to smoke, and I don't know what Sid is up to.

Sid's hanging out with dad.

This show should be illegal, just like Frank.

I've said this to y' all before.

The show should be illegal, much like French cinema.

It really makes me want to smoke.

It looks so cool.

And, and yesterday I shared this with, with Adam and y'.

All.

Yesterday.

Yesterday the Tour de France was on.

They shared that one of the early winners was known as the chain smoking chimp.

The.

How is it?

Like, does the Surgeon General know about this?

I want to see.

Do we even have a surgeon general anymore?

We have a faux surgeon General.

Hey, what are the top shows?

Television only that make you want to smoke Mad Men number one Madman.

Yeah, every.

It's the number one.

And then.

Oh, my God.

It makes it look so cool.

What's number two?

It's like Mad Men makes an absolutely objectively unhealthy lifestyle look amazing for at least a little bit.

So fun.

Now they have consequences, but they also.

Yeah, I was going to say at least for a little bit because you every.

They, they're.

They do hit it.

Right.

What's number two?

A lot of them do any episode or any television series that has a guy or woman who has the cigarette in the corner of their mouth and still talks.

That's.

That's number two.

You know, the X Files made it look pretty cool.

Oh, did it?

Smoking man.

I mean, he get.

I think he did get cancer, but he makes it look real.

But he, he's like the guy who knows it all right.

In the shadows.

He's got the cigarette.

I've got an off the kind of off the beaten path.

Yeah.

Suggestion here.

Dale Gribble on King of the Hill is just a man who loves to smoke and he does it consequence free.

Like it's a large part of his personality, you know, That's.

That's true.

That is true.

Unlike you two, I bet.

Again, different generations.

Just a little.

My mom and dad smoked and my dad quit.

He got flu really badly and he never took off work, but he got flu bad enough to take off work for like two or three days.

And he's like, nah, never touching him again.

And then my mom, it was funny.

My mom wasn't like a chain smoker.

She only, only smoked after dinner and she'd smoke one or two on the back porch.

I remember so clearly.

That's like an Anthony Bourdain kind of thing.

Yes.

He doesn't smoke on the show, you know, but you know, you know that they're just ripping skigs right off camera.

Well, she wasn't ripping them, but she would go to.

She would also go to the neighbor's porch who was a relative of ours, and she would sit on the porch and they might.

They might smoke about three or four in a row now and gossip.

Oh, man, I get it.

My mom kind of made smoking look cool.

That is a phrase that is rarely uttered.

I was a little too young to remember my dad, like, really smoking, but he smoked indoors, Guys.

Yeah, that's the thing.

I don't want to get caught up on this, but, like, we're all old enough to remember when you could smoke in a Wendy's like feels crazy to say that out loud.

Yeah.

You remember the restaurants used to have smoking and non smoking, like there was some sort of divider and you don't.

Want to sit too close to smoking, you know, because that's honorary smoking.

What got us here?

Well, Richie from the Bear.

Let's, let's talk about Richie in depth on the spoiler section.

We'll take a 30, 45 second break on the back half.

We're going to talk stick and spoilers and we're going to talk the bear and spoilers.

That order.

Sam.

Okay.

Yeah.

Before we get in the Bear, I've got a couple of comments to make on a last two episodes of Stick on Apple tv.

Plus, I thought it was really great, funny, entertaining to see Owen Wilson slip fully back into Eli Cash from the Royal Tenenbaums as he tells Santi that he doesn't see lying as a bad thing.

Why?

That's not a bad thing.

He's so sincere.

He comes to the conclusion for Santi to lie about his sex life to zero is the scene I'm talking about.

Yes.

Remember that one?

What this book presupposes is my favorite quote.

What if he didn't?

What if he didn't?

It harkens back to Donovan's point last week that it is a well of humor to have Owen Wilson as Price see his actions as not so bad.

Yeah.

He says, maybe I'm not the best guy to ask because I actually think sometimes a lie is not a bad thing.

You know, he says something like, like then if the, the truth's going to hurt someone's feelings or get me in trouble, did I just steer clear of it?

It's always that little addition there.

It's the, it's funny, right?

Because he's like advocating for lying, but he's being like, more honest than he should be with Santiago.

It's that balance.

It's funny.

It's funny.

It made me laugh.

Also, what made me laugh is Santi.

It did feel a little abrupt, but Santi all of a sudden coming to him for, like, ladies advice.

It did feel abrupt, right, because they were pretty mad at each other.

Or he was pretty mad the past episode.

But, you know, that's what golfing does to you.

But at the same time, who's he going to ask?

It's either Price or Mitts.

And I don't think he has any connection with Mitts.

No connection.

Maybe a little forced, but I think the setup made me laugh for he's.

He'S trying to that may be our thesis that stick is sometimes a little forced, but the ends justify the means.

Sitcom logic.

You heard it first here, folks.

The ends justify the means.

Go do it right now.

I thought it gave another example of why Santi, the young.

The youngin who plays him, honestly.

So I'm talking about the actor.

It's a good character, and it's a good actor.

He does vulnerable well enough here and elsewhere, and he also does normal, annoying teenage things.

Yes, we talked about the Last of us not that long ago.

Bella Ramsey had an episode where there was no balance.

She only did annoying teenage things.

And I thought it hindered the episode.

This guy, all throughout the series has done.

Oh, that's teenager.

Yeah.

Teenagers act like that.

And then he also does.

Teenagers are also can be vulnerable and come to you and go, I've never had sex.

What am I going to do?

Yeah, yeah, he's.

He does a good job of someone as, like, a kid with his defenses up, who's afraid to trust because he's been hurt and he wants to.

And he kind of wants to.

And also, I think he does a good job of that being kind of like, brash in a way that a teenager wants to be like, I caught, you know, big, big cool guy.

It's promising for the back half of this show because I think it works best when they aren't at odds, when Price and Sante aren't at odds, when that's not the main conflict this show cooks.

Yeah, I think I'd agree with that.

Adam's nodding for.

For listeners who can't see.

Yeah, yeah, I agree.

And I think even things like him coming to Price to kind of confide in him, like, there has to be a moment where he.

Santi, hasn't fully recognized him as, like, a father figure.

Equal, but also equal.

Like, oh, you would know what I'm going through.

Because you were also freakishly good at this thing.

A ladies man.

Well.

Cause he relates it to.

Well, you were a highly successful pro golfer.

You had to.

He's like, well, we're not exactly rock stars.

But, yeah, I love that.

And I think that's an important development.

Like, they need to both be mentor, mentee, and, like, a level of respect that he.

I think I agree with what you guys are saying that he plays the actor playing Santi, does it so well because he's at once brash.

I remember before I'd even seen an episode, Blaine, you said that he, as an actor is maybe supposed to be more annoying than he's actually able to.

Come off kind of.

Yes, there's something like that happening.

Yeah, I can see that.

But yeah, just that.

That development of like.

Like you see the puppy dog feelings kind of swing back and forth.

And he does such a good job doing that.

I was surprised how well I like the actor because teenage actors tend to either they kind of just rub me a little bit of the wrong way.

His name is Peter Dadger.

I guess it's not Dagger, it's Dadger.

He's been in almost Nothing Insidious, the Red Door.

That's about it.

Maybe that people would know.

He's a very handsome young man.

By the way, he does need a haircut.

I like it.

I like that Dylan style of.

I don't give a about my hair because that's very teenage.

It's just gotta lower just a little bit.

It's a little sideshow body.

Coming from a guy who has shoulder length hair, that's a brave statement.

I know.

It's rich.

Well, you know Adams doesn't go up.

No, well, it.

Adams goes down.

Well, mostly down.

Just goes in all directions.

So.

What I saw in episode six, though, is a show that either could be improving or setting up a solid second season after you already know these characters.

That's what I saw with Mitts kissing Elena.

You know, it's like all this stuff we kind of saw coming.

And now that it's over, we can get to some meat and potatoes here.

Yeah.

All the setups over.

Yeah.

Price interrogates his grief to a degree and then we'll get into episode seven in a second.

It's almost like the show addressed our concerns.

And then episode six ends with Santi getting angry at Price and zero for blowing it up for.

For hit for Price paying her.

You know, we kind of sort of expected the blow up there.

It did happen in episode six.

We saw it coming.

It's not surprising.

He wanted her to like him just because of who he is, not because of money.

And he thought it might be money related.

This was such a paper thin blow up though.

It was.

You knew they would be happy together again soon.

Yeah.

But I mean even the logic.

I think even a 17 year old should have a little more ability to, you know, like, if you're gonna ask somebody to like come on the road, you.

You probably do have to.

It doesn't matter how they feel.

It's like you gotta dangle the carrot out there.

You know what I mean?

Well, to me, this was the realistic teenage thing.

I know you called it paper thin and I Do agree that it's pretty thin, but a teenager, their feelings are on high alert.

That's true.

A little more black and white, then.

A little more Blaine Duncan.

I think this could have all been avoided had I sort of alluded to this earlier.

There been some sort of HR department, maybe some mandatory training around relationships with co workers.

They don't have an HR department.

I'm not sure they can afford it.

And therein lies the comedy.

Let's get into episode seven with Dreams Never Remembered.

It's the most recent.

I found that.

How long did your wife sob during this episode?

My wife doesn't watch this episode.

She doesn't watch the show with me.

Well, might not after this one.

Let's talk about this cold open, which is what you're referencing.

I appreciate that it wasn't a dream, but it was a series of possibilities he could have had with his son, had his son lived.

And it was so poignant for it gave the right amount of poignancy for this series anymore and it loses its comedic element.

It wasn't exactly sad as a whole, but it worked.

As a demonstration of how Price, his mind probably works most days.

You know, he does not talk about it, so we have to see it.

He's on.

He's actually at a playground, just.

Just gazing into the sky, as it turns out.

But he's thinking about what would he be like as a teenager.

What would it be like to send him to college.

And guys, the.

The pew pew scene when.

When the son would have been six or seven, that's exactly what my daughter and I do.

And it hurt.

Who hurt you?

Owen Wilson hurt you?

He hurt me.

He does pretty good, doesn't he?

In this one?

I. I did.

I felt like.

Like he was almost better than he needed to be for this scene.

For this.

I could.

I'm not sure that I could put like it into words necessarily, but especially at the end when he's imagining maybe his son going to college and he's just like, did you ever think what will happen if you're not here?

It's like, what will it do to your mother?

What will it do to me?

And I don't know.

You know, I'm not.

He's not like the world's greatest actor, but there felt like some real pain.

There was some real pain in there.

I thought it works extremely well as connective tissue to Price.

Talking to Santi in the airport later and he says, hey, I'm enjoying the hang.

As it turns out, this was a golf thing.

But I Actually, like hanging out with you.

Yeah.

The kind of.

I mean, it's kind of what you see coming, right?

It's like, oh, they both give each other something that they need, but, you know, it works.

It's fine.

Yeah.

First of all, Price doesn't bring it up.

He might not ever bring it up again.

What's his mind look like?

I think that worked.

And it also allows him to go to Santi at the end and go, you know what?

We're kind of buddies now.

Yeah.

With that degree of honesty is somewhat lacking from his character.

In other.

It reminds me.

This is.

I had a complete.

This is a complete side note.

But, like, watching this think.

I feel like Owen Wilson's character could be summed up with.

Not exactly, but they're one of the quotes from my favorite movies where one character says to the other.

Or one of my favorite movies.

I've always thought of you as a person of some integrity, except with your dealings with women.

And his is like, I've always thought of you as a person of some integrity, except for your dealings, mostly.

What movie is that?

Oh, the Last Days of Disco.

Okay.

I've never seen it.

It's very good.

So the scene where Santiago and his mom are in the diner, she lets him know, hey, I believe Zero liked you.

I really do believe she likes you.

I thought that was a good example of two things here.

You know, play a teen, but also play some sensitivity that doesn't come off as whiny or irksome.

That.

Again, I know I brought this up, but.

Yeah.

I also thought episode seven allowed Marin to fully come into his own here as Mitts.

Give Zero a grounded ear and, like, real advice, you know?

Yeah.

About how pristine the camping spot was.

I don't remember that.

No, I'm just.

When he.

I've derailed the conversation when the episode opened where he walks out and he goes, this is it.

It's like, RV Shangri La, right?

Yeah.

Oh, that was the episode before.

Was it?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He did give her some good advice about.

Which I think was slightly undercut.

And I'll tell you why.

Like, good advice about not eating in the bus station, which was undercut by that being the nicest bus station I've ever seen in my life.

And she still debates it, but he.

He tells her.

He kind of says, for now, you know, in his almost boomer kind of way.

What.

What generation would he be?

He's got to be Gen X, right?

Hey, I'm Gen X, man.

Don't.

Don't Put me with Marin.

But he tells her he's not a boomer.

Oh, he's the.

He's the in between there.

He says, let's just drop the the of.

Of.

Let's drop the of gender and let's drop the of the slang of your generation.

And you not understanding my generation.

Here's how it is.

And a curmudgeon can do that with some love and be effective.

And I think they allowed him to do that.

Like, he just came into his own.

I was like, oh, this is a good character.

This is a realistic character and Marin's doing a good job.

This may just be what I think is funny in the show, but I really do think that, like, the contrast between, like, the way Price deals with Gen Z and the way Mitts deals with Gen Z is.

Is continually very funny to me.

Like, Mitts being like your whole generation exhausts me.

Price being like, trauma.

TikTok has devalued that word.

But he's still trying to, like, actively have like a dialogue with the kids.

It's that, like, the contrasting approaches that remains very funny.

Me and Price asked him way early in the season, don't you.

Don't you guys get mental health break, whatever it is?

Well, who was it that said, when did grace period stop being a thing?

Because I wrote that in my notes, but I didn't contribute it to anyone.

That was Price.

He's trying to get a refund on the airport ticket he bought.

Just.

And this is jumping around, but we are in spoiler section.

But if.

If Santi actually did run out of a plane like that, there's no way he wouldn't be tackled.

Like our gun feet 20ft late.

Yeah.

You know, in Trump's America, he's being.

Beaten by airport security.

As we.

As we are recording, if we're really.

Honest, Santi would be deported in Trump's America.

Sad.

To Indiana.

Elena would not be in America.

I found this recent episode to be as good as Stick has been.

And I love the.

The hustle that Price admits only allude to at the end that, you know you're going to get in the next episode with.

With Timothy Olyphant.

And it's like, oh, yeah, now we can go.

But it took six, seven episodes to get here.

And that's okay because those six or seven episodes were Owen Wilson cracking wise.

They were all fine.

And I don't regret watching it.

You know, I think it's a fun hang I could have done.

I think you.

When you.

When you.

Blaine, when you were like, okay, they're through the setup now.

It was like, that's what I'm feeling.

And it just had not occurred to me.

But I think I could have done with like, one or two fewer episodes of setup or maybe speeding it along a little bit.

I disagree.

I'm enjoying the slow ride.

Okay.

How come?

Because Owen Wilson and Marin Kraken wise or.

Yeah, it's just.

It's not that kind of show.

Right, right.

You don't.

Rushing towards.

What is the drama?

Like, what could they manufacture?

Well, we know what they're rushing toward.

We're rushing toward a showdown between Timothy Olyphant and Santiago, and then later, probably next season, a showdown between Price and Timothy Olivan or Santiago.

Both.

I feel like we're off on our prediction that Price is going to have to choose to coach or play.

You think so?

It's not happening this season, is it?

I mean, like, season two or three.

Yeah, I think it's possible.

By the end of this one, though.

I think for me, it was less like, I want the plot to speed up and more like, I wish that they had established these.

I wish they had been in these interesting relationships a little bit earlier in the show because I don't care.

Like you said, there's nothing to rush to.

It's the journey, not the destination with this show.

Yep, absolutely.

I still.

And they.

They talk about it in universe too.

Like, they all don't know each other really.

Like, there's isolated, there's a mother son relationship, there's two old friends, but collectively.

And then you add zero into the mix.

It's like, y'.

All.

If they were too chummy, too fast, without any hiccups, it would.

I think we would have more of that of a complaint about that than we would about a slower pace.

You know, that's a great.

I think that's a great point.

Right.

Like, so often for myself, I find myself like, I didn't like this yet.

You know, it's like you're.

When it's summer, you complain about being hot.

When it's winter, you complain about being cold.

Right.

Like, I don't identify with that, but, yeah.

I start fires on Jalathia.

Thank you.

I feeling a little chilly in the 101 degrees.

Like kindling.

What does the show want to do?

Does it do it?

And was it worth it?

And I think we're all okay with stick.

Yeah, I'm gonna keep watching it.

It is.

It is.

Sometimes tonally, it can be a little bit.

I feel like the writing is weaker than the acting.

Does that make sense?

Yes, for sure.

And that's okay for now.

That's fine.

The acting is good, which kind of elevates it.

You know, it makes it fun.

I don't know that they make this show if not for Ted Lasso.

Yeah.

And some other like comfort food Apple shows or maybe they do, but it's not.

And I'm not saying because it's a sports one to one or anything like that.

It's just a very certain brand of like warm hug from a friend most of the time.

And obviously there's real trauma going on too.

But I just think this has become like a.

Like if, If Apple TV has their arsenal of pitches that they're going to throw at us, this.

This is one of them.

I think so, yeah.

I'm totally fine with that, by the way.

Not everything has to be genre redefining and exceptional.

Whatever.

So this is a fine show.

Yeah.

It's kind of like what we said with Department Q.

It was not, as it turns out, it was not trying to redefine the genre.

It was trying to do the best it can within that genre.

And it.

Right.

Yeah.

I didn't open the floor for you guys to talk about that cold open where he said you guys are without children.

Did.

What kind of effect did it have on you?

Well, my wife sobbed openly.

Yeah.

And it probably did too.

It probably didn't help that I spent a good chunk of time Yesterday babysitting my 5 month old niece because, you.

Know, it is cute, by the way.

She's adorable.

But it is cutest babies.

I mean, it's very poignant, underlying.

And I think they did.

I mean, it wasn't like the genius, but it was, it was good that they underlined what he said he missed by showing that.

Right.

And he didn't miss the.

He just missed yelling at his kid.

You know, he missed.

Turn that music down.

Yeah, exactly.

You know, and that was.

It's.

It's sad.

He missed what could have been.

Right.

His.

He's happy, his wife's happy and he got to be.

He got to know how the story continues with his son in steadways instead of it being cut off.

And he doesn't know you after that because he's gone.

Adam, did Mr. Morrow ever ask you to turn the music down?

No, not that I recall.

He's a gentle soul.

Yeah.

That takes us into this big mental chunk of the bear.

So last week I think we had only discuss three episodes at the most.

This week we're Going to discuss episodes four through six, maybe a little seven, but not much.

You guys know what the bear is?

There's no setup here.

We'll start with the episode titled Worms.

It was the Sydney episode.

It was there to, I thought, to show that Shapiro can be a virtue signal sort of guy.

Sydney's Signe's confused, but she's probably willing to go work at his restaurant for its newness and its lack of stress.

But it seems, you know, Sydney hasn't called her dad back and she hasn't read the updated agreement.

She's not sure.

I just thought it was kind of cool to see her world.

We haven't seen it, but it also felt like something that maybe didn't need a whole episode.

But, hey, you're committed.

Let's just show the whole episode to Sidney.

I could not disagree more with that.

Okay.

I loved it.

It finished and Natalie settled out.

What I was thinking, that's one of the better episodes that they've done.

But I will say I have tended to gravitate towards these character investigation episodes quite a bit.

I love those episodes over the show's run.

I mean, I think there are a lot of the best episodes are those where we spend time.

And I think seeing her, you know, you listed all of the things that she is non committal to at the moment, really.

The partner's agreement, this offer to go to a new restaurant, not answering the phone for her dad, which is a little out of character for her.

Right.

Based on previous seasons, they seem to have a pretty good relationship.

Especially when you're contrasting that with what Marcus is going through.

So her.

I mean, I think it's like she's shutting down in some ways, or at least like, so in her own head, out to see about, like, and not.

I don't think it's a depressive thing.

I think it's like a stress decision.

Decision anxiety.

Yeah, that.

That's how I read it.

Is she.

She's anxious?

Not like, you know, like.

Like pathologically, but like, when you're anxious, sometimes you're like, I can't even think about this right now.

I'll paraphrase the.

The Kierkegaard of anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.

Yeah.

You know, I think that we're shown that she's really good in that.

I mean, they have to sometimes quantify for us how good these people are at what they do so that we understand in universe that they're very powerful, for lack of a better term.

Like with her and the pasta, how quick she does it.

It's like her upside is so limitless.

She's got this guy trying to get her to come work and all this stuff.

So, yeah, she's.

How do you handle all of that potential?

I think that's what she's grappling with.

And just seeing her in, like, a friend's friendly environment doing something no one else on the set or in the restaurant is sitting for hours to have their hair braided.

You know what I mean?

This is a different cultural that.

Yes.

We get a ton of the big family dinner.

We get a wedding later.

We don't get to see her cultural experience, and now we do.

And I thought it was great.

And I thought the interactions with the.

With the young woman, the little girl, were just.

That was great.

When she was in babysitter mode.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it ended up being so.

It went from very relatable at the start where she, you know, I'm almost never around kids and I, you know, it's like, do I talk to you like a little adult?

Do I. Yeah.

Kind of off.

Off script here when I'm in that situation.

But no, I thought that was.

That was great.

And to get to.

I realize I'm talking a lot, but the.

Please do her cooking a heartfelt meal for people that she loved and even kind of teaching along the way.

Yeah.

Was so nice.

After just the pure.

I mean, I think that they love what they do at the restaurant, but it's a different form of that.

I do think the tool of having her not answer her dad's call or only saying hello briefly is effective to show she can't deal right now.

Quite.

Yeah, totally.

Now when she's like, in the middle of prep and not answering.

I get it, but it's.

There's a pattern.

You know, it.

It felt very real to me in the sense that, like, obviously she loves her dad and her dad loves her, and I just felt like there was a sense that she's like, I can't handle someone honestly asking me, like, how are you doing right now?

I've been there.

With episode five Replicants, I saw this show be able to tell a multitude of stories now in the shortest amount of time from the monologue to begin, the Al Anon meeting to Harm visiting the Frank Lloyd Wright house with no dialogue, to Tina testing her cooking on her husband, and then Tina coming to Carm and telling him, you the shit.

You got nothing to prove.

I mean, that was a gut punch after four seasons.

I know a lot of people thought season three dipped A little.

But I kind of see how season three maybe was needed to do season four.

I've been thinking that too, especially with the, like, a lot of stuff kind of broke in the third season.

So I guess what I mean by breaks is.

Is strains and tensions, right?

Like, there's a break in Claire and Carm's relationship.

There's.

There's breaks between, like, now Sydney kind of feels like she has something that she's keeping from people, right?

Like, there's breaks in, you know, Marcus's mother passes away, and so, like, a bunch of stuff breaks.

And I think you got it exactly right.

Where season three sets all that up so that Tina can be like, hey, you.

The.

And I think there's an element of.

Or.

What seems interesting about the season so far is instead of being like, they get the bad review and everything's awful, and, like.

And Carm falls apart, they're actually zagging.

And it's like, instead of falling apart, we're trying to face what's.

You know, like, we're turning towards it and facing it.

And I think season three contrasted.

Are you telling me season three is the Empire Strikes Back and season.

And season four is Return of the Jedi?

Somewhat.

Blaine, you watched the Americans, didn't you?

I sure did.

So the.

The penultimate season, a lot of people didn't, like, because they felt like it was frustrating.

And I actually thought that that was the point of it.

You're supposed to be frustrated because they're frustrated because they're in an increasingly untenable situation.

And I think people were feeling frustrated with season three, but it's like, you're supposed to feel frustrated.

They're frustrated.

We haven't even mentioned Lucas Return.

Did you cheer?

Did you.

Did you fist bump?

My.

My favorite guy to see is.

Is Marcus's roommate because I feel like a little corner of the Joe Paris cinematic universe lives on whenever he shows up.

And he's doing real estate, right?

Is this.

He's doing real.

I told you guys.

A side hustle.

Yes.

I told you guys there'd be another real estate moment.

Marcus is selling his mom's house.

That's super sad, y'.

All.

That was very sad.

But.

But at the same time, they balance it with his roommate being a side hustle real estate agent.

And it was funny, you know, that.

Was such a nice way, that conversation about being around real estate transactions.

Yeah.

You're like.

I had never thought of, like, having such a binary view of that, you know, to, like, they're either aspirational times or Something has gone wrong.

Right.

Like it's one of the two.

And that was such a good conversation.

I thought, oh, man.

I forgot to say this about the Sidney's episode.

But I was extremely impressed with like, the dialogue and how well it hung together.

And then it gets to the end and it's like, I shouldn't be surprised, but Ayo Edebiri wrote the episode.

Oh, yeah.

I'm like, oh, that's why she.

I think it was Chris.

I think it was not her.

And I'm not sure it was Chris Thor.

But she wrote it.

And I'm like, that's why she nailed all the dialogue.

Yeah.

She knew exactly came up with what the characters would say.

Yeah.

I thought that was great.

We're still in Replicants.

These episodes have some odd names.

I always thought.

Replicants.

I always think of Blade Runner.

Yes.

So weird.

Sydney is all but ignoring her poor loving father until he has the heart attack here.

And everyone's look of familial and genuine care to the baby when Sugar comes to visit.

All of that seems connected to me.

And this was, this was very realistic to me in that you also, you would not let Neil Fack hold your baby ever.

Fuck no.

And he is desperate to smell the baby.

The, the repeated joke.

Like, I, I, I think it's a little one note for some people, but I continue loving the way the facts are like this, like healthy, goofy masculinity and like, like Neil is such a beloved guy and in no way in hell they ever let him near a baby.

Because, like the balance.

The joke is very still, very funny to me.

That joke gets very tired to me.

I'm in the other, see.

Yeah, I know.

Other.

To me, it's the way that they talk to him.

And like all, I mean, I know that like family nicknames, this is how it works.

You're getting.

Maybe I'm, I'm too cold for this.

I don't know.

What, what do you think would be the realistic thing?

Like they would just drop it occasionally or I guess.

What'd you say?

I said the baby.

Drop the baby.

There were moments like when he, when he came in and just like, it's like almost like he was like smelling like a, like something on the stove, you know, and he leaned into the.

He's worked in a restaurant.

Yeah, that was funny.

But yeah, the way that they talk to him.

And this happens later.

Donovan.

There's a hot chocolate moment.

Hot chocolate.

Yeah.

I'm like, what is this?

It's almost like when you watch all of the office.

And Kevin starts as, like, a functional adult.

And by the end, it's like, how is this guy allowed to drive?

You know, like, there's moments where starts.

There's Parks and Rex.

Moments like that, too.

Yeah.

Is this.

Is this man allowed to ride the subway alone?

Like, what episodes?

How does he get to work?

How did he buy that tie?

Yeah, and it's.

They make him.

They just, like, make him an infant, and it.

It gets old.

I bet he got that tie from his dad's closet.

That's my guess.

But it takes us to episode six, Sophie the DaBaby, where this was one of the most oddly staged scenes from the show, where Neil reveals he's invited Francine to the wedding.

It's so weird, and the dialogue's so weird where he and Sugar are talking, and he's kind of hiding behind the.

The wall, and he says, I'm a good boy or something.

Or I'm a boy.

This is what I'm talking about.

I did not like that either.

It gets really weird out of character for the show almost for about three minutes.

What Donovan was saying about the, like, the masculinity, but the wholesome version of it.

I don't mind that it's.

This what you're talking about now.

That joke is kind of funny, but they're just.

Yeah.

It's like these.

These are grown humans.

I've got to admit, one of the funniest moments was Tiny made me laugh out loud.

But when Neil is trying to smell the baby.

That's not the funny part.

It's when Sugar walks in and Ted jumps to a marker and writes and tries to write something, and he says, oh, they wanted me to write that on there.

I thought that.

That, to me, is comedy.

We get some really fast edits between the.

The staff, and it makes us all feel like poor Luca, which is to say confused on who's who and what's what.

Who's that?

What?

I'm.

I'm glad that they finally addressed that with the newcomers.

Yes.

The new workers.

Like, do I call you this?

Who are you related to Hal here?

Yeah.

Because Luca may seem like overkill, but he does get to ask Ted what he does they.

Or he asks, I guess, Marcus.

And Marcus says, you know, I'm not sure.

And I think this is the.

Also the episode where some key human moments occur.

You get the quote, parents are human, too.

That one will gut punch you if you're a parent.

And then I think Tina says, yeah, there's always a clock.

And if that's not resonant to you, you're.

You're still under 20.

Sydney's dad's a special guy, and I think he's fairly realistic.

I think that there are dads out there that are just like this.

But to see her upset over him, especially knowing that she's disregarded him so much lately because of her anxiety and decision making.

It's an emotional moment.

Another one.

Well, and I think we're also supposed to, you know, she answers the phone and her background this whole time has been her with her mom when she was small.

And we know that the ghost of her mom is what's there in that relationship, you know, So I think.

And they showed that several times, you know, throughout the season.

Just so well done to build up to that moment of, you know, and he ends up, of course, being a great dad about, well, you're busy, you know, I forbid you to move back home.

All this kind of stuff.

So touching.

But still, it was really poignant to see her.

I mean, like, it's not like she had a light bulb moment, but acting out of the understanding that she'd taken her dad for granted in a way that she wouldn't do with her mother because her mother has passed away.

And so obviously all that time is precious now, but she's taking her dad for granted in a way that she should know isn't guaranteed.

Right, right.

That's.

I think that's what I was getting.

At is like, yeah, no, I thought that was great.

You wouldn't think this is a lesson that she has to learn, but.

Yeah.

Yet here we are.

Yeah, I thought that was really good.

I found her acting at the very first, for, like, the first 30 seconds in the hospital scene when she's starting to get overwhelmed by her emotions.

I thought it to be overkill, a little overdone.

And then the actress gets perfectly calibrated to what that would be.

And I dropped my reservations about her being unable to nail the scene.

And she does with Molly Parker, I think is her name, the other actress who plays Claire.

It's, you know, it's kind of odd to realize exactly how much the series isn't the psychology of getting a restaurant right, but doing a good job of parenting and parents and their relationships with kids.

And then the episode ends with Oasis song Stay Young.

So Adam was in full tears at this point.

Another strong musical season here.

I mean, we had an episode with just talk, talk going full volume that also had most of the time playing under a phone conversation.

Oh, Nat.

Nah.

Yeah.

You're scratching me where I itch.

Fantastic.

I think.

Did you guys.

I know one of the things that people had a gripe with in seasons past is that Claire is.

Was a bit of a one dimensional.

She was more about Carmi than she was about being an independent character.

It seems like they're trying to flesh her out a bit more this time.

Mm.

Do you guys think that they're pulling that off?

Is she, like, contributing to the.

The ensemble a bit more?

Not fully, but I mean, obviously she's.

A bit at a bit of a remove.

Yeah.

That's the thing.

We have enough characters who are getting fully fleshed out that having her be a mirror for Carm is okay.

Kind of.

And I get the complaint.

Yeah.

I think that for this, I mean, yes, they are doing more and giving her more to do, but I do think that, like, at least for me as a viewer, like, my relationship with that character is because of Carm's relationship or kind of like my caring is somewhat contingent on that.

Yeah.

Which, you know, is.

Can be the.

What happens sometimes when we, you know, watch things with protagonists we identify with, you know, through.

Yeah, that's how storytelling works.

Yeah, exactly.

Right.

I have always had a hard time getting away from pulling for the protagonist or seeing things only from the protagonist point of view.

Let's leave with this one.

And you guys may know more because you've watched one more episode, but we have the mysterious phone call from Shapiro that Carm answers and it happens.

30 seconds of screen time and that's all I know.

Which brings us to the end of our episode.

For Adam and Donovan, I'm Blaine and we hope that Neil Fax never tries to smell you.

Thanks for listening.