The Darker Approach of 'The White Lotus'; Plus, What News on 'The Pitt' Says for TV

Hey y'all.

We're taking it down the Working Class TV podcast.

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This week the topics include a continuation of the White Lotus on HBO and Max as well as just some general talk about some things in streaming.

At the top of this week's episode each Tuesday, I'm joined by co hosts Adam and Donovan.

Donovan's absent this week, but let's get into the episode and talk to Adam.

Take projection foreign hello to Adam as we start like we do each week with no spoilers, no Donovan, because he doesn't do his homework.

And if you're gonna work for production as big as and important as taking it down, it's important to so many, you know, you have to watch the fucking shows.

There's gotta be consequences to misdeeds.

He's not fired.

You touch the stove, you gotta nurse that burn for a little while.

He is in the corner with his nose facing the corner.

Facing the corner.

Let's dive right in.

I found it interesting this week that HBO came out with news.

I know we all don't watch the Pit, but it was about the Pit.

But it seems as though it is good evidence for what we constantly say on here, first of all.

Well, I'll just say a few things.

The Pit will have another season as soon as January.

It's a lightning fast these days.

And the the other things are its two episode premiere this past January was one of the five most watched debuts on Max.

That's shocking.

It's pretty big, right?

Yeah.

I do think everybody in conversation I'm with for the most part is watching it.

Yeah, it has come up organically irl, you know, out there when we're touching grass and speaking with other humans outside of our boxes.

A few folks have said, oh, have you guys seen that?

Or they'll try to reference something that I have to say.

I haven't seen it yet.

Although the way that the algorithm tends to do it ended up.

I can't remember if it was TikTok or Instagram or something.

Some scene.

I don't know enough about the show to say where they are, but I would assume the trauma ward or the ICU or whatever is preparing for an event that has happened out in the world.

That's fair.

And it completely had me hooked.

They know that people are coming.

It made me think, obviously, I trust Blaine.

We do the show together where we tend to watch what the other one enjoys.

But I wasn't into the premise, I don't think.

But as soon as I saw a little bit of it, I was.

I thought, yeah, I could watch this.

Yeah.

I think you're probably first thought, much like mine when I heard of the show in general was that medical dramas have this lovey dovey aspect where the doctors and nurses go home and pine for one another.

It does not have that at all because they never go home.

It's just one shift.

Each hour is an hour in their shift and it's chaotic and hard to keep up with and.

But just super good week to week TV is a lot of fun.

You know, I do understand not having money to subscribe to a bunch of different streaming channels, and I don't know that I'm not there myself, but you kind of want to wait for all episodes to drop and then that way you can get your first month discounted, maybe watch that series.

That's hyped.

So there is that.

I get why people stick with Netflix.

It's probably the least canceled of the streamers.

And it goes up all the time.

It does.

Netflix is chasing the pit.

Their medical show may be good.

The thing is, it's gonna hit Netflix all at once.

I doubt even if I like the Netflix show, I'll bring it up.

Over the course of three months, I've brought this show up at least once a month for three months.

There's something to be said for that.

The staying power of a weekly conversation.

Yeah.

The two shows that we have, I mean, we can say we enjoyed the most are Severance and White Lotus.

At least discussing them with each other.

Yeah.

This year so far, not the same.

If they all drop at once.

It's not.

It just takes the air out of the poor Show.

I feel so sorry for the creators now that I've really gotten waist deep into TV and thinking about tv.

It's just sad.

It's wild to me that Netflix, with its massive head start, now it feels like I can rely on them the least for quality.

Yeah.

Like I'm possibly even a bit suspect.

Me too.

Big time.

Which is why when Adolescence came out, it had four episodes.

It was getting rave reviews, big time reviews from noted critics.

And I thought, well, it's only four episodes and that's a lot of rave reviews.

I'm going to.

You know, there's probably something to that, but everything else is just so mid tier.

You know, Donovan and I talk about it quite often on here.

You and I talk about it quite often on here.

It's.

I just think HBO and Apple TV have a leg up on trusted creators.

I'm not.

I know you mentioned the algorithm, but I think you're talking about TikTok.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

I'm not sure an algorithm could have predicted the Pit for Max specifically.

Yeah.

And Netflix, they seem to be just taking the shotgun spray approach with like, let's just do as much as possible.

If we get eyeballs for a weekend, great.

I mean, that seems like their whole objective, right?

It is.

And they get the money to lure occasional decent things.

I suppose if I am picking a movie for the evening and we're going through that like, it's not something new.

It's just like, what.

What's out there kind of thing.

Netflix is not.

That's on down the list of places that I look at this point.

It is.

All of this has happened, like unconsciously.

You know, as someone who adored when Netflix started their streaming service, it's.

It's just weird.

I'm not so sure the impetus for this very podcast didn't start when you and I kept texting one another about House of Cards second season.

Now that was a long before we even considered recording anything.

We would have found that preposterous.

But yeah.

Was it around the same time?

I'd have to.

Everything's a blur.

But True Detective Season 1.

That's a good question.

Had to have been part of it too.

That's a really good question.

Maybe we can look that up.

I mean, you could tell me that House of Cards was in anywhere from 2013-16.

You got it young.

It was 13 for season one.

April 2013.

No, season two.

Season two.

Season two when I jumped in, remember, I was playing catch up.

Season two predates True Detective season one.

By one year Almost.

Almost several months.

That's right.

So we have the season two of House of Cards because I was behind and you had recommended it.

Oh, it was great.

And I.

I think that show has gotten buried for a number of reasons, but.

Well, yeah, it's one of the.

The foundational shows of like the streaming phenomenon.

Right?

Yeah.

And it was before the word algorithm was really a presence in our vocabulary.

So it was like.

But it was very algorithmic.

Right.

It was made like they decided people like David Fincher films and Kevin Spacey and like they put it all together.

Yeah.

And you put the cut points at the end of an episode to make you dive back into the next one.

It really did feel like at the time that they had, you know, say you have a strip of film that is a season of a show and you've got 10 little slots that you've got to choose where they drop.

They just picked that up and moved it slightly to the left so that they cut a little bit earlier than most shows.

Everybody who has an ample iPhone knows about the trim.

That's all they're doing.

The trim function.

Yeah, that's.

It was kind of genius.

And we were at a point where Mad Men and Breaking Bad and all that good stuff were flying high.

I think we were pretty predisposed to prestige television.

And, you know, I didn't have like an understanding of.

Because it didn't exist yet.

The hierarchy of where Netflix and HBO and Hulu and all of that would eventually when anytime Netflix won, it felt like a win kind of for like a new technology.

Right.

Like a new era of.

Not like the plucky underdog, but kind.

Of a little bit.

I was still a very annoyed back then when someone would go on Twitter, which was fine back in 2013, and like talk about episode eight in the first night.

I'm like, I worked today.

I didn't.

I watched two episodes, tops.

Yeah.

But back to the pit.

It's sort of wild to me that they're also doing 15 episodes every.

Both seasons they're planning.

Obviously the first one is doing 15 and they're going to do 15 again starting in January.

You know, streamers stick to about 8 or 10, 10 the most, usually for 30 minute shows.

I mean, you know what I'm going to rely on here?

Go ahead.

A fine quote from season one of True Detective.

Time is a flat circle.

We're back to regular TV almost, aren't we?

Yeah.

Just on streaming, making a bunch of episodes per season, except it's on hbo.

Well, that's Some of our favorite, you know, we watch Max the White Lotus every Sunday, which we're going to get into.

But we, I mean, that's just scooping it from HBO and using a streaming service.

Yeah, but it doesn't, it's not 15 episodes and it's not coming out every year.

That's a different thing.

No, that's true.

From barely old to really new, Apple TV released two debut episodes of the studio.

I don't think it was quiet this weekend.

It was like a week from when you may be hearing us.

And it's made of a list, people.

Alex Gregory, Peter Huick, Frida Perez, but most notably Seth Rogen and his working partner Evan Goldberg.

So those five made a show.

It's about a studio exec who gets promoted to the head of the studio like in the first two minutes that happens.

And you know, obviously he's going to make movies, right.

He's going to scramble to make some movies.

I went into this episode one pretty hesitant, mainly questioning is it one of those fun behind the scenes comedies about Hollywood or is it one of those pat yourself on the back pieces about Hollywood?

You know the type.

It's, it's where they're really proud of themselves and it's a lot like a song being about how hard the song itself to write.

I've.

I've seen the Oscars.

Yes.

Well, I'm here to claim that it is an absolute frenetic fun joy to watch the.

I started the episode, episode one, on the couch in the napping position in case it didn't get me, in case it was more dud than Rocket but.

Ready to drift away.

Ready to drift and turn the TV off.

But nope, it was good.

Very solid.

Rogan and Greenberg directed it and I think all the episodes.

And I just loved.

There's a lot of camera movement.

It's handheld almost to the extreme, constant swinging.

It makes for good tension, but it manages, it manages to crack wise pretty constantly.

It's just got good pacing, pretty good jokes and an insane cast.

There are big names having fun doing little parts in this.

And I recommend might be something worth discussing.

Not so sure.

I don't know, maybe it's got some neat things happening buried in the comedy.

Yeah.

And enjoyably pokes at the real theme of can you make art and money with the same thing?

That's one of.

That's one of a topic we tend to talk about every now and again.

Yeah.

I'm intrigued by a Seth Rogan led program ever as a guy who in his mid-30s.

This isn't really like a shocking opinion, but I've enjoyed the Seth Rogen career.

Yeah.

Perfect target audience for Superbad when it came out.

Oh, yeah.

And then just seeing, seeing him, like, mature through and remain like, make good.

Seems to have made good personnel decisions, you know, for his former partner to be James Franco and now to be like, I can't have anything to do with that guy.

Gotta keep moving, gotta grow up, gotta.

Whatever.

He has my attention here.

This is my take on Seth Rogen.

I am constantly tentative on watching anything with Seth Rogen, and then a lot of times I do and I end up being.

No, this is good.

Yeah, he's a funny guy.

I don't.

Why do I think he's kind of annoying?

But yet when I watch him, I'm like, no, he's not that annoying.

He's just kind of funny.

He has the potential.

The Persona could be annoying, but it ends up being funny most of the time.

Kind of lovable at times.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah.

I.

I suggest the studio for our listeners.

This is our non.

Spoiler part where maybe you get recommendations.

Yeah.

High quality.

I went and told my wife that she should watch it.

It's.

It's a broad audience kind of thing.

You'll appreciate the love for Hollywood.

It also has old Hollywood, kind of like Quentin Tarantino does to some of his movies.

Okay.

All right.

Of course, lately, we've gone week to week with the White Lotus, which aired episode six, Denials.

That's the latest one for us.

In case you're new.

We record on a Sunday afternoon, so there's a good chance you may have seen an episode more.

As for episode six, though, this one built up some tension and.

But did not feel like a place.

Setter and built up some tension and released some.

We'll get there.

You know, this is why we watch the show these last two episodes.

It's where character dynamics begin to cause some friction.

And that's why you watch it.

I think.

I think that's the biggest thing Mike White does for the White Lotus.

Yeah.

I mean, even.

We kind of talk about the way that the show will inevitably mimic itself every time, you know, and you start again on a boat and we have that great interaction that we love, where Walter Goggins is blowing cigarette smoke everywhere.

But you know that these people are going to hit the resort, separate, and then somehow end up bouncing off each other.

And this is maybe the most satisfying collision course that he's charted so far.

Could be.

I mean, they've been moving independently of each other much more in the last few seasons or parties are kind of having their own drama here.

They're mingling a lot more.

Adam, our podcast episode releases on April Fool's Day.

You have a message for anyone listening on Day of.

I think that we are the April fool for continuing to discuss this show in particular on Sunday afternoons.

Well, it hinders us for the obvious reason that most people will have watched the next one.

But I mean, I feel like we're like recording a show about the Super Bowl, 4 o'clock before they kick it off.

I mean, it is what it is.

This is all of the Sunday night and you know, once at least.

Yeah, it's week to week, somebody goes back and watches the White Lotus, they can listen along.

I think we do have people who come back and listen along.

I don't.

I really do.

We always get a comment or an email about the White Lotus coverage and not the other stuff.

It's the way it's got to be.

It just is.

I am looking forward to this evening's episode.

Yeah.

And you want to kind of.

We're not really a theories show most of the time, but, you know, we'll, we'll say something and then, you know, I had the.

You had one about where you thought a gun may end up that like three hours later I was like, well, he's wrong about that.

I said one about how certain people may interact and just hours later that was blown to shreds.

The other downside to it is sometimes I forget from Sunday to Sunday because we record on Sunday afternoon.

We are at the most distant point from having watched the show.

Yeah.

Okay, let's take a break and on the other side we'll talk spoilers, I guess, about the Wyatt Lotus only.

That's about right.

So join us there.

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You've reached spoiler section for this week.

We'll go in the same order as we did at the top, which is really only the White Lotus, because we're not going to cover those other few things.

Now, the White Lotus only has two more episodes left as of our recording, which means we'll talk about episode six here.

Denials.

See episode where Saxon, Laurie, Jacqueline, all separately deal with fallout of their party night.

Lachlan walks around, carefree, kind of Piper gets into the monastery briefly.

Gay talk does something right kind of again.

Yeah.

And Rick and Frank arrive at the home of the actress in the guise of producer and director.

They are.

Oh, Gary's gonna throw a dinner party and that's gonna be real chill.

Nothing when there's already been a good Chekhov's gun and resentments are in the air and the stakes are high.

Nothing says safe haven like a rich person's dinner party.

Oh, man, that's good stuff.

Agatha Christie style.

Yeah.

Palatial estate overlooking the ocean.

What could go wrong?

Yeah, what if.

Not a theories thing, but here's a good one.

What if Gary's actually a really good guy?

You know, like he had nothing to do with his wife's murder, you know, that just.

That was just circumstantial with the gays.

Yeah, they were.

They were the one.

You know, maybe they forced him kind of into whatever he did.

Or what if he's just a sweet guy and he's, like, worried shitless because Belinda thinks he's horrible?

It really is like an olive branch.

Like, I have to show this woman that I am not a murderer.

I love that little invite scene.

Some people online think that he might be Walter Goggins.

Dad.

That may be the reveal.

And this is.

There's a few reasons, but one was cracking me up early on.

People could not understand that the Bureau of Land Management has nothing to do with acquiring tracts of land in Thailand.

They're like, well, he could have been there working for the.

The blm.

They're like, that's not at all how the POM works.

No, no.

Our regular listener from New York and fellow podcaster from seti, Bimco, Tim, came to us this week with the note.

I'll just read it.

It says, always enjoy your talks, and I don't care too much about predicting what happens in the end.

So he's with us there.

But Gary or Greg seems to guess or know that his girl slept with those Ratliff boys.

But did he guess?

If you have a nice yacht like that, wouldn't you have those little cameras everywhere?

Got to.

Yeah.

And if so he has the whole incest three way event maybe on video.

I think I replied to him and said no.

I don't know if I've replied to him and said this, but in the bedroom might be a place where there's not a camera if it becomes known at all.

This is Tim continuing.

Saxon Ratliff could end up in a violent nature.

Oh, he says anyway, I guess.

But the.

Because it's coming from me, you know, he's just devastated that this got out.

So let's get into Gary and.

And the Ratliff boys here.

Those pesky Ratliff boys.

They're just little.

They're.

They're little Rascals, aren't they?

Yeah, they're Atlas Rascals.

That's them.

I don't think that Saxon every time that his very goofy and shown to be more and more completely artificial.

Tough guy act.

Yes.

Cool guy, together guy act.

The armor has been penetrated in any way.

He just kind of crumbles.

He does, right?

Like when that early, early ish conversation with his dad.

Like can I help?

Can I.

You know, I'm worried about whatever.

Do I really need to get my phone up?

And he just seemed like a child there.

And this week when he's confronted with the truth of what happened by the girls, he runs.

He doesn't know what to.

To do.

You know, I don't know that he.

I could see self harm.

I couldn't see.

Yeah.

Becoming a shooter or something.

I think that's fair.

Saxon's got false hutzpah.

A facade.

Yeah.

So tm, by the way, our friend, it came back later and he said that he thinks it's a strange menage that tips Saxon over the edge.

Yeah, I said it last week and maybe even the week before.

This season sets up more mystery than I remember previous.

Previous seasons.

Do you remember this much?

Just all out.

Anybody could do anything.

No, I think that he left things unanswered.

In season two.

The nature of the hookups specifically between the two couples.

Was there a revenge hookup?

What happened?

But that was not on the scale that it is now.

I mean it feels like any character could be drawn, I'll say collision course again into some sort of.

And not just like they're gonna argue or they're gonna blow up at each other, but real violence is on the horizon, no matter what.

It feels dark.

And the only person that we know for sure who is not the perpetrator theoretically is Belinda's son because he's shown at the meditation the first body we.

See in episode one didn't have blood on it.

It's just floating down the river.

So questionable.

I may have to go back and rewatch.

I know we're not a theory show, but this, this particular season is really inviting it.

So my thing was that that's Tim in an overdose, but it could be Saxon in an overdose.

You talked about self harm.

Yeah.

And it's doing all of this, you know, all along I said this earlier.

So this is not going to be a.

An incest show or a.

Even with all the gunfire.

Like, is this really going to be like a mass shooting event kind of show?

Because they did that with season one.

Right.

Like there.

We know that there is a casket going.

Yeah.

But not a mass shooting.

Right, Right.

But you're expecting something and something dark does happen, but it's not.

You feel like anything could happen.

And then it kind of.

You see how it gets there in a way that's less jarring than like a really violent event like that.

Yeah.

A lot of movement in episode six, kind of positioning.

I still think this season could be one of the better ones.

Isn't it funny how we.

Because I think that every time now, after we kind of complained about the first two episodes, this is now it just has its own inertia and energy and the themes feel so big.

Yeah.

It's got a darker tone.

I think it's a little elevated, but it's hard to say.

And I'm always willing to say if I get something wrong.

I still think the.

The first episode and a half was needed a wrench taken to it tightening up some.

Which is a funny complaint.

I.

And I was with you, you know, I.

All the time that like they don't have long credits at the start of movies anymore.

So usually I'm like, let's.

Let's give things a few more beats to get the vibe going.

Yeah.

You got to strike a balance though.

You do.

And with you that I.

It could have been tightened up.

It's.

It's paying off, I think.

You know, was that stalling or stationary feeling purposely evoked in episode one and a half two?

I think so.

And I think one thing that they're setting up, they're not setting it up.

They're.

The payoff is already arriving is the, you know, the nature of wellness and peace and all of these kind of, you know, New Agey words for old religious experience or spiritual experiences.

That's what the White Lotus is offering.

You can come here to detox.

You can come here to eat fruit for breakfast and then go do yoga or whatever.

But you're paying like a pretty penny to do that.

Right.

And so maybe the pace is them arriving somewhere that promises a thing, but it's kind of like the Disney World version of it.

And now we have a lot of characters actually out in real life, whether it's Sam Rockwell talking about real work, real self work, or it's Piper.

Finally she's going to get her dose of what living in a monastery would be like.

I mean, I thought the scenes with the monk this week were fantastic.

You know, they.

I did too.

Maybe they had to hit the.

The quicksand of like the plastic version of I'm here to.

To better myself or unwind or decompress or whatever before they could get to deeper into the.

The unconscious.

And in traditional Mike White fashion, you know, people.

There are people are there seemingly to improve their inner selves, but the majority of these people are.

Would be very hard to improve themselves, most notably because they have a stubbornness that they don't need it or they.

Just don't want to.

I mean, the scene where Victoria, you know, they're.

They're talking about, could I live a tough life?

And she says, no.

Yeah, no, I don't think I was ever meant for that.

And I'm certainly not at this age.

I don't know if that is a.

If we lost everything, I would just kill myself.

That's certainly how her husband is taking it.

Yeah.

And he's.

It's, you know, holding a mirror up to him, him thinking, do I have what it takes?

After his conversation with the monk, which, again, I thought was beautiful.

Beautifully written.

You did.

Not to cliche or anything.

If you took it out of context and put it on like a bad background and put it on Facebook.

Yeah, it seems like pseudo spirituality.

But I still think it's a lovely idea to say you.

You know, there's an ocean and you briefly rise up from it as a drop of water and then fall back into it.

I mean, that's.

Yeah.

If you're thinking about actual Eastern spirituality, that's a fine way to.

As someone who is some years removed from his Eastern studies classes at the University of Alabama.

So I'm no expert, but that seems like a cool way to describe it.

And especially, you know, he's.

The monk is sizing up the man that's sitting in front of him, meeting him where he is.

In some ways, I've been critical of Jeremy Isaacs, who plays Tim Ratliff, mainly for his Accent, little else.

But I thought he did a really good job of conveying getting gut punched, metaphorically.

I thought he was great in this episode for that reason that, you know, the man who arrived in Thailand would not have had that conversation.

There's a brother, there's a broken man sitting there.

And I think we're supposed to think about the brokenness of the same Rockwell character while that's happening.

The idea of hitting rock bottom before you can achieve some sort of enlightenment.

A lot of people have to hit rock bottom before they'll make an attempt to improve themselves.

When it also just completely reframes.

You know, there are ideas that are so deeply ingrained in us by society, by our Western culture versus Eastern culture.

Ideas of individuality, instant gratification, all these kinds of things that, you know, he realizes that even his scope of understanding, his problem could be limited.

Yeah, that's good.

And even his.

I won't take credit for this.

I saw this online.

His instant gratification American brain leads him to suicide ideation.

Right?

Uh huh.

That's a.

You know, and even after the monk tells him, like, you return to this beautiful.

You have your moment, you fly up as this drop and then you return back, he still has another one where he contemplates violence.

You know, the death may be the right answer.

That's still like a very instant gratification kind of capitalist American way of, well, why don't I just die right now?

Instant fix.

Order it on Amazon.

It's here tomorrow.

Absolutely.

I think the question on everyone's mind though is how awesome is Fabian's performance going to be?

There's really only one thing worth theorizing about.

And you've.

You've nailed it here.

1.

I think on a scale of 1 to 10, it's got to be around that.

9.5.

It's.

We're on a.

We're on a pitchfork scale here.

Yeah, we are.

Okay.

That actor though, is in the movie is the zone of interest.

But no, the real topic probably on everyone's mind after episode six is the brothers Ratliff.

The.

The odd looks between Lachlan and Sachs's butt in the first episode pay off in a way that probably no one ever wanted.

We finally have someone who wants to be severed more than Donovan.

And that's sexy.

Is this too crass of a storyline?

No, unfortunately, I don't think so.

Although I don't think so either.

But it was the reveal this time.

It was almost more shocking watching them kiss at what they think is the Girl's insistence, the episode before, the way that he has to piece together what happened, I thought was pretty good.

And that's a very realistic thing.

Yeah.

I mean, no one's proud of those.

Like, oh, did that really happen?

Obviously it's not.

That kind of works.

Like how a dream can come to you in pieces and then by the end of the day, you kind of remember it all.

Yeah.

And it's presented like an awful dream.

It is like a nightmare.

Yeah.

One of those where you're not really in control and then, oh, my God.

These two women saw everything and participated.

Yeah.

Well, I kind of wonder if Chelsea is not just there to react.

That's a really.

I mean, she's there for more.

But Chelsea and Rick have, what, an all star pairing of a couple for their on screen reactions when they're not not even together.

It's so funny.

I do make notes so I will remember certain things.

And I wrote that Amy Lou would.

Who is Chelsea?

She just deserves plenty of praise.

She is the perfect actress to react to all this that's happening around her, and there's plenty of it.

And she, you know, when the season started, you kind of wonder, is this like.

Like a fem fatal kind of thing?

Is she.

This is like a doomed couple that are gonna go down on the ship together or whatever is gonna happen with these gunshots.

But she's kind of been the moral center of the show.

Yeah.

She's cool, man.

As a character.

It's a cool character.

I do hope we get some, if not all, of Rick's backstory.

How does he get insanely wealthy?

What did he and Frank once do for Frank to owe him certain kinds of favors?

This and that.

Yeah.

Of course, the big obvious answer to some of that would be that he's a hired killer, but that seems bombastic.

It does, but I mean, they're living a life where even though he's reformed, his friend still gives him a pistol.

Yeah.

And he has no problem.

I mean, he played it pretty damn cool getting off that boat and walking past those giant armed security guards with a gun in his belt.

Like you said, it'd be worth watching that first episode in bits and pieces to see what floats on down the river to episode six.

Yeah.

That whole scene, the setup of them getting in there and faking, like, their Hollywood or whatever they are.

The other scene that reminded me of this was guy talk in the room trying to find the pistol.

You know, that feeling of like, somebody's gonna come back, they're gonna be discovered at any time where you kind of have to.

If you're caught up in the show, you're like, it's just a show, you know, that sort of thing always makes me anxious.

Oh, yeah, it's good stuff.

But that them going in and especially we see shortly after that, you know, they show like, on the next episode, he's got the gun out.

The gun's coming out at some point in this house.

It's one of my favorite tropes of TV and movies where you have someone acting like someone else.

The dramatic irony of, you know, they're putting up a front, trying to be someone completely different.

Fake name, faked job, all of that.

I love those kinds of things.

Doesn't stress you out?

Oh, yeah.

That's why I like them.

I like a little tension in my television, for sure.

Fair enough.

It has been theorized maybe.

What if he is actually a producer?

Yeah.

What if that's where his money came from?

What if he really was in Hollywood?

We saw that last season, right.

With the.

The three generation grandfather.

Dad, it.

Was it Michael Imperioli?

Was it Michael Imperioli a movie producer?

I think so.

I think so.

Yeah.

So maybe Mike White wouldn't dip in that well twice.

But hey, that would be a funny bait and switch that we're all thinking, at minimum, he's doing something shady, doing some this and that to get the money.

And turns out the shady thing is he's been working in the entertainment industry.

Yeah.

You know, it's easy to see kind of the upper level drug dealer catering to businessmen sort of.

Drug dealer, sure.

Yeah.

That seems realistic too.

Or it seems to fit his character.

The three girlfriends, we haven't mentioned them.

They get more engrossing this week, I think, this conflict of styles of bitchiness.

You know, you got Kate gonna go tell Lori that Jaclyn slept with Valentine.

Valentine.

And she probably does that.

She claims she does.

It just.

I don't know.

Her claim she makes is that she didn't want it to go back to get back out, you know, to Jacqueline.

But that's exactly what happens.

And, you know, she kind of wants that to happen.

She kicks back and watches.

I kind of wondered how much I can believe what she says when she tells Laurie.

It just seems like, here's the thing that happened last night.

She's wanting to stir the pot, you're saying?

I kind of think that she naively told Laurie, I don't know, that she thought that she was gonna stir the pot as much as she did.

Oh, okay.

Well, she's taking it all in, just like us.

She is the observer between the three, even.

I mean, they set that up the episode before where she tapers off the drinking and has sobered up enough to be like, y'all gotta get out of our pool.

It's time to go.

Laurie reacts quite brashly to the whole thing, which is funny to see Harry Coon get a bit more off the rails.

Yeah.

She's a good actress.

But of the three, you would have suspected that Kate would stop drinking fairly early in the night.

That fits her character as well.

I think.

So she doesn't get too wild.

Yeah, well, I mean, she's.

They're married.

Well, I guess two are married.

Two of them have kids.

You know, this is.

This is someone's mom who lives like an Austin, Texas, Republican, suburban life.

Yeah.

Soccer mom kind of life.

Maybe upper crust.

Yeah, Upper crust.

So.

Yeah.

But still, you know, you would expect the.

The church going woman to pump the brakes on the Thailand adventure.

Yeah.

Natasha Rothwell plays Belinda.

She does well here to give that hesitation of being badly burned before.

Here.

It's her sleepover pal.

And he does the same thing.

Season one, where he's like, no, we'll go into business together.

You know, I know you.

That never came to fulfillment for you.

So you and I will do this.

And she does not give a yes at all.

And really hesitant there.

She's been burned before.

Yeah.

Bad.

Yeah.

She.

It reverberates.

It was funny to see her son finally arrive after she lost track of time, so to speak.

Yeah.

And she's in bed with the guy.

Yeah.

And it, you know, their relationship has already been shown to.

Maybe she was a single mom.

Whatever the case, they're very close.

Almost graduated from mother child to now they're kind of buddies.

And that'll be a fun thing to see play out.

You know, hopefully he gets more screen time in the next two episodes.

Gotta know if he's going up the hill to Gary's.

Oh, man.

Surely they have to, because I want to see that.

The scene where he is.

Gary's looking at Greg is looking Belinda.

He's kind of seems like he's sizing up the kid.

Say that again.

Remember the.

There's parallel scenes a couple episodes ago where Belinda is researching Greg.

That's right.

And Greg is researching Belinda and is like on the son's Instagram maybe and like, kind of doing a deep.

Maybe it was hers.

But he's doing a deep dive on the whole fam.

Putting in a little homework.

Unlike our Guy Donovan, who just will not finish an assignment.

Well, what'd you think of Piper?

Where do you think the monastery thing's going?

Cause this is where.

Importantly, as both Ratliff Rascals independently recall what's happened, Saxon has to be reminded.

But his brother, during a peaceful moment of meditation, as he's letting thoughts come and go.

There it is.

I don't have a lot to say about her particular storyline at the moment.

I think.

Or in this episode.

It was one of the least interesting to me.

Although her dad, like you mentioned, that was pretty fascinating to see him get this stuff.

Maybe he had never heard before or he has never heard in a situation where he was listening.

Now, that was good to me.

Her.

I don't think that.

I don't think Piper really got me thinking much.

She probably will this week.

I think using her as this, you know, I can't tell if they're setting her up to just be like the rest of her family, that she's kind of a tourist in this monastery world and is looking for.

You know, she tells the monk, your books meant so much to me.

These people don't understand me.

Just kind of like a classic.

Mm.

Mom and dad don't get it.

Yeah.

And I don't know how can you tell if there's actual, like, enlightenment going on there or if it's just like, this is the band aid that I put on a problem.

I'm eventually gonna realize that I'm just like them and her mom.

I think it asks interesting questions, like how.

What is our capacity for change?

How much can we adopt other mindsets that.

Her mom doesn't say it like this, but points out like you already have a framework for answering the questions that you're asking.

Yeah.

You know, you're raised in church.

You.

We figured this out.

Why are you.

Is this like a shiny object to you?

Because it's unfamiliar, but you're going to be the same person once you grasp it.

Yeah.

Bookends one of our earlier points that these are hard people to change.

Going into a resort designed help you find some sort of fix or enlightenment.

It's good stuff.

It is.

I like that.

That's a extra little thing we haven't seen quite.

Quite this thoroughly with the other two seasons.

And then throw in a darker tone.

Yeah.

It's a really good season so far.

I think.

I think we've reached the end.

And the next episode, which could be early or it could be a standard Tuesday episode, will certainly cover Adolescents on Netflix.

We appreciate y'all listening.

I'm Blaine.

And for Adam and Donovan.

He'll be back.

We hope GayTalk's not your security guard.

Thanks for listening.