This week's episode begins with some basics on Thanksgiving (0:03) before Blaine and Donovan welcome new listeners who may be from the Bluesky app (2:44). After that, they begin the non-spoiler section for judgements on the TV shows 'Say Nothing' on FX/Hulu which presents a grounded story on the Troubles in Ireland (3:23). Then they explain why 'What We Do In The Shadows' on FX/Hulu still works after six seasons (13:59) and the aspects of HBO's 'Somebody, Somewhere' that works so well (19:42).
Blaine and Donovan then get into the spoilers with 'Say Nothing' and how it tackles the history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the first two episodes (22:01). They then shift to the specifics and spoilers of hilarity of 'What We Do In The Shadows,' where vampire life in Staten Island is more than immorality (38:23). Finally, for the most recent episodes from 'Somebody, Somewhere,' they talk about how it brings a unique style of realism (50:47).
For more, visit https://www.thealabamatake.com
00:00:00
A aloe vera tape projection.
00:00:09
My body is a wisp.
00:00:13
Joining me here, as promised, is Donovan.
00:00:16
No, Adam.
00:00:17
Adam's body is a wisp of smoke this week.
00:00:20
Adam's been very busy, so no Adam joining us.
00:00:23
He'll be back next week.
00:00:24
I should.
00:00:25
I should think we'll figure things out with Thanksgiving and
00:00:28
on the horizon.
00:00:30
By the way, happy Thanksgiving to everybody who's listening before
00:00:33
Thanksgiving.
00:00:34
If you're.
00:00:35
If you've got us pulled up on Thanksgiving morning and you've got
00:00:39
the Macy's Day Parade on mute, you're living life.
00:00:44
Are you a fan of the Macy's?
00:00:46
So, Blaine, I am a fan of the Macy's Day Parade, but I'm not going
00:00:50
to watch it.
00:00:51
Continue this thread because my town of.
00:00:55
Manchester, Connecticut does a Manchester road race every year that
00:00:59
is televised on the local Fox affiliate.
00:01:02
And people come from all over the nation to run this race because
00:01:06
if you.
00:01:07
Most people do not take it that seriously.
00:01:10
But if you win it in men's and women's, and I think there's an overall
00:01:14
category, there's like a substantial cash prize that you can
00:01:17
win.
00:01:17
So I'm locked in.
00:01:19
How many songs from Wicked are going to be in the Macy's this year?
00:01:22
Is it 500?
00:01:24
Are there 500 songs there?
00:01:25
At least 3.
00:01:30
So, my daughter.
00:01:31
This is all TV related, by the way, so we're not out of pocket yet.
00:01:34
Actually, we are.
00:01:35
I know y'all hate banter.
00:01:36
I get it.
00:01:37
But I do want to touch on a couple of things.
00:01:39
Macy's, Thanksgiving Day Parade.
00:01:41
But yes, they lip sync everything and it just drives you
00:01:45
crazy.
00:01:46
The only one who can get away with lip syncing anything on national
00:01:50
TV is a Sesame Street Muppet.
00:01:52
Well, yeah, exactly.
00:01:55
I don't want anyone else holding that bullshit.
00:01:57
Elmo gets the pass, not you.
00:01:59
I agree.
00:02:00
Also TV related.
00:02:01
In the tune of the song you're singing here is yesterday for the
00:02:05
first time Now, I was asleep.
00:02:07
I got to sleep in yesterday, but my wife and daughter watch the
00:02:12
wizard of Oz.
00:02:13
Her first viewing.
00:02:15
I was just expecting her to be startled or frightened.
00:02:18
And she was like, I loved it.
00:02:20
No, flying.
00:02:21
The flying monkeys scared me.
00:02:23
I used to crawl under the bed, right?
00:02:25
Literally terrifying.
00:02:26
Yeah.
00:02:26
No, she loved it.
00:02:27
I asked her, I said, what about the flying monkeys?
00:02:30
What'd you think?
00:02:30
And she shrugged me off and did a dance or whatever it is she
00:02:35
does these days.
00:02:38
She's made of sterner stuff than you and I, apparently.
00:02:41
Right, Last thing, last thing.
00:02:43
Housekeeping thing.
00:02:44
And I swear we'll get started if you are listening to us because
00:02:48
you found us from the Alabama take on Blue sky or taking it down
00:02:53
pod on Blue Sky.
00:02:55
Thanks.
00:02:56
Thanks for joining us.
00:02:57
Thanks for being friendly to us and saying hello.
00:03:01
We've we've got a lot of new people there keeping in touch with
00:03:05
what we're doing.
00:03:06
And if you are new, we do non spoiler talk.
00:03:09
Here it is.
00:03:10
We do not spoil anything.
00:03:11
We talk about whatever it is.
00:03:12
We're going to be talking about the shows, the movies, no spoilers.
00:03:16
And then, then we'll take a little, little 30 second break and
00:03:19
then we'll talk about everything in detail.
00:03:23
There's a new FX Hulu show which premiered on the channel and
00:03:28
then the streamer on November 14th.
00:03:31
And I swear it was commissioned by Adam Morrow.
00:03:34
Such a, such a sad time that he won't be here.
00:03:37
And this is, I was preparing for this thinking like we're really,
00:03:41
I'm really suffering from the lack of Adam here.
00:03:43
I need him.
00:03:44
It's the series say Nothing.
00:03:47
Rave reviews for the series from every critic's headline that
00:03:49
I've seen.
00:03:50
Based off a 2018 book authored by Patrick Radon Keefe and focuses
00:03:56
on the Troubles in Northern Ireland and then throughout Ireland.
00:04:00
Have you read that book?
00:04:01
I have not.
00:04:02
Me either.
00:04:03
It sounds good.
00:04:04
I think this is the other thing where I'm missing Adam is because
00:04:07
watching so listeners, we watch this show spoiler and you know,
00:04:12
they kind of keep telling you what year it is, what month it.
00:04:16
You know, they kind of keep you in with the chronology.
00:04:18
And if Adam was here, he could tell you exactly what Bono was doing
00:04:21
on any given day.
00:04:22
He'd just be like, Bono was singing that day.
00:04:25
Yeah.
00:04:26
The series is from Josh Zootmer, I think, who's really known
00:04:31
for being a writer on the 2014 reboot of RoboCop.
00:04:36
Which I have not seen.
00:04:37
I'd never really heard of any of his.
00:04:38
It makes you wonder how you go from being a writer on 2014's reboot
00:04:42
of RoboCop to, hey, here's your own show.
00:04:45
Well, 10 years did pass in the interim.
00:04:47
Maybe he killed someone.
00:04:50
Say Nothing's based on a true story about the 70s, 80s and 90s
00:04:54
war conflict between the IRA and in Ireland and the British and
00:05:00
loyalists in Northern Ireland.
00:05:02
For those who know almost nothing about the Troubles and by
00:05:06
those quotation marks, that's me.
00:05:12
This story thrust you into the middle of it.
00:05:15
It does manage to give you a little bit of context, but you're
00:05:20
going to be on your heels.
00:05:21
Did you get that Sense.
00:05:22
You know more about this.
00:05:26
I know more of the broad outlines, I think, not a lot of the
00:05:28
specifics.
00:05:29
Whereas watching.
00:05:31
And folks, this is not the kind of show, like, I looked up some
00:05:36
people because I was like, who is that?
00:05:38
Again, this is.
00:05:40
You do not have to watch this show with your phone in your hand.
00:05:42
It does a good job of explaining who everyone is.
00:05:45
This is more of like after the show, you can.
00:05:48
You can follow it up on your own.
00:05:50
It drops you right in the middle of it.
00:05:53
It really does.
00:05:54
I was so unaware of all this when I was a kid.
00:05:56
And it was happening not right under my nose, but I was alive during
00:06:00
a large part of this.
00:06:01
Yeah.
00:06:02
When I was.
00:06:03
I was 8 or 9.
00:06:05
So this would have been 1997 or 1998.
00:06:09
My family went to London because we were.
00:06:12
My dad was stationed over in Germany, so my parents took us to
00:06:15
England and London for a week.
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And like, you couldn't throw your trash away anywhere because
00:06:20
there were no trash cans because the IRA would plant bombs
00:06:23
on them.
00:06:24
So they're just like, weren't public trash cans still.
00:06:28
Wow.
00:06:28
And this was.
00:06:29
Right.
00:06:29
I mean, and this would be like thinking back to Good Friday accords
00:06:32
with what, 98.
00:06:33
So this would have been right around the end.
00:06:37
Ireland was never portrayed to us as in school, especially as some
00:06:41
sort of war torn, problematic country ever.
00:06:45
That I recall.
00:06:46
Interesting.
00:06:47
Well, from what I'm guessing complicated reasons, and from what
00:06:51
I know now.
00:06:53
So we got the Protestants, they are mostly loyalists to Great
00:06:57
Britain.
00:06:58
And they wanted to stay with the uk.
00:07:00
They wanted Northern Ireland to stay with the UK at the very least.
00:07:03
Right.
00:07:03
Northern Ireland.
00:07:04
Why is that?
00:07:05
Because that part, which I think is called Ulster, that part
00:07:11
of Ireland is settled by English colonizers who were Protestants,
00:07:17
but they've been there for several hundred years.
00:07:19
They just feel like they're British, they're Protestant loyalists.
00:07:23
They don't want to be overwhelmed by a Catholic majority.
00:07:27
They don't feel like they're not Catholic.
00:07:30
They're loyal to.
00:07:31
They're Protestant.
00:07:32
And they've been.
00:07:33
And this has been a part of their identity for hundreds of years.
00:07:37
And then there's also the whole, you know, the colonizer colonize
00:07:41
thing, where these are people that came over from the England and
00:07:45
Wales and we're talking about, you know, they're colonizing.
00:07:49
Like, you know, Edmund Spencer, right.
00:07:52
Who wrote the Faerie Queen.
00:07:53
Yes.
00:07:54
So that's a wave of colonization.
00:07:55
He's an official right for Queen Elizabeth over in Ireland,
00:07:59
as the English are colonizing.
00:08:00
So, you know, this is happening in the 15, whatever, it's
00:08:03
happened before.
00:08:04
Cromwell gets over there and does a lot of damage.
00:08:08
There's a real.
00:08:09
We don't see ourselves as you, the Catholic Irish.
00:08:12
We are Protestant loyalists and we're afraid of what will happen
00:08:17
if you become the majority.
00:08:19
What do they think would happen?
00:08:21
Like, what's the first off?
00:08:23
You'd have to live under papists.
00:08:25
They just basically thought that, I think, and I don't want to
00:08:28
put words in anyone's mouth, but what happened to the Catholic
00:08:34
community in Northern Ireland would happen to them.
00:08:37
You know, they wouldn't have a say in the government.
00:08:40
Right.
00:08:40
They'd be overwhelmed by a majority.
00:08:42
I mean, it's kind of like, I don't want to like paint with too
00:08:45
broad a brush, but there's some other situations in the world
00:08:48
where peace cannot be had because folks are afraid of joining
00:08:54
with the majority and they'll lose rights, freedom, whatever.
00:08:59
And of course they kind of flip around and do the same thing.
00:09:02
And this is tarring with an overly broad brush, but they kind
00:09:04
of do the same thing to the Catholic folks who stay in Northern
00:09:08
Ireland or, well, are living in order.
00:09:10
You know, they stayed there because they lived there.
00:09:15
Yeah.
00:09:15
The Catholics of Northern Ireland want to become a part of
00:09:18
the rest of the island of Ireland.
00:09:20
All of that is to say that it isn't quite a religious war either.
00:09:25
It's a.
00:09:26
And it is.
00:09:26
It isn't even necessarily a full blown war.
00:09:29
Right.
00:09:30
You know, if you call it.
00:09:31
War is a contested term.
00:09:33
Right.
00:09:34
So if you call something a war, there's an idea that it dignifies
00:09:37
it.
00:09:37
Right.
00:09:38
So like maybe we'll call this an insurgency, a rebellion, Terrorism
00:09:42
versus war.
00:09:44
In the show, the IRA members themselves call it a war.
00:09:47
War ennobles.
00:09:48
You know, it's something you can do and still be good.
00:09:50
You can be just.
00:09:51
There's no just insurgency, there's no just terrorism, but there
00:09:55
is just war theory.
00:09:56
Right.
00:09:56
And yeah, apparently like a lot of people put.
00:09:59
Put this as more of like an ethno nationalist conflict as opposed
00:10:02
to a straight up religious conflict.
00:10:05
So the religious part are identity markers, but it's not.
00:10:09
We're not talking the wars of religion like in the Europe in the
00:10:13
1630s.
00:10:14
The show is saying nothing.
00:10:16
What do you think is the.
00:10:19
Is the audience here people who listen.
00:10:22
To too much YouTube?
00:10:25
The Morrow House.
00:10:27
No kidding.
00:10:28
Yeah.
00:10:29
Anyone who is at all interested in this period in Irish
00:10:34
history.
00:10:35
So I guess the city of Boston is one of their targets.
00:10:42
Yeah.
00:10:42
Is it for the sort who likes historical fiction Is there room
00:10:47
here for people who lack political intrigue, too?
00:10:49
Yeah, and I think just because, like, yeah, it's historical
00:10:52
fiction, but, you know, like, a lot of these people are really
00:10:54
still alive.
00:10:55
And a lot of this happened within.
00:10:57
Maybe not by Gen Z folks listening to this, but within our
00:11:01
lifetimes.
00:11:01
Right?
00:11:03
Yeah.
00:11:04
If you're interested in the political side of things, if you're
00:11:06
interested in Irish history at all, if you relate, if you're interested
00:11:11
in Irish art or literature, and if you just like a good.
00:11:14
Story, well told, you liked a lot, right?
00:11:17
I thought it was pretty good.
00:11:18
Yeah.
00:11:19
I'd give it a couple thumbs up.
00:11:20
Three episodes in is Donovan, and there are nine total.
00:11:24
Yes, I can.
00:11:25
I see this show, though, being disregarded with audiences, even
00:11:28
though critics love it.
00:11:29
And I bet it pops up on a lot of best of list, even toward the
00:11:33
end.
00:11:34
First of all, it was dropped all at once by Hulu.
00:11:36
Yeah, I think that that almost feels like an old Netflix technique
00:11:40
at this point, doesn't it?
00:11:41
Where it just feels like a disgrace for what a show can do like
00:11:44
this.
00:11:45
Can you imagine Shogun or Fargo, last Fargo season, all at
00:11:49
once?
00:11:50
I don't think we would have been talking about him like we did.
00:11:52
No, I don't think so either.
00:11:53
Honestly.
00:11:54
Not something we haven't said before, but not going week by.
00:11:58
I prefer the week by week for a show because it helps me digest
00:12:03
it better.
00:12:04
Whereas I watched 3 and I'm already a little bit muddy on what
00:12:08
happened in episode two and three.
00:12:09
You know, they just all kind of start to blur together.
00:12:11
It's true.
00:12:12
It's just a bad policy.
00:12:15
Yeah, it is.
00:12:16
And this one especially feels like a.
00:12:18
They're sweeping it under the rug, though not on purpose.
00:12:22
I thought the show was quite good.
00:12:24
Maybe.
00:12:24
Maybe other people can watch TV more dispassionately than I can.
00:12:28
But I don't know if I would necessarily say, like, I need to
00:12:32
binge this.
00:12:33
You know, it's heavy stuff.
00:12:35
There's bad stuff.
00:12:36
There's bad stuff that happens and it's real, you know, it's not
00:12:40
made up.
00:12:40
Well, I mean, obviously it's made up, but it's based on real stuff.
00:12:44
I have my qualms so far episodes under my belt, but I have
00:12:49
to sit on them for the next section.
00:12:51
I will say that it's not as enthralling as I'd hoped, though.
00:12:57
I've only got two episodes under my belt, but I'll explain why.
00:13:00
And I think I've got a reasonable case, though.
00:13:03
You know, they can easily get turned around.
00:13:05
I'm curious to hear what that is, because I actually did find it
00:13:08
well paced and engaging.
00:13:10
All right.
00:13:10
We also want to talk about two shows that are going to be done and
00:13:14
gone by the end of the year.
00:13:16
It's Somebody Somewhere on HBO and Max and what We do in the Shadows,
00:13:22
which is also on.
00:13:23
It's presented by fx, but it's on Hulu as well.
00:13:26
Both are billed as comedies, I suppose.
00:13:28
And what we do in the shadows is 100% that somebody somewhere leans
00:13:32
more into the dramedy label we've all come to know, though.
00:13:36
Less drama and more storytelling with jokes.
00:13:39
Yeah, it's got a lot.
00:13:41
Somebody Somewhere has a lot of situations that you can probably
00:13:44
choose to see as humorous.
00:13:46
Oh, yeah.
00:13:47
And the characters themselves do or do not, to varying degrees.
00:13:52
That's right.
00:13:53
Yeah.
00:13:53
It's not set up for a joke or punchline ever.
00:13:58
We'll separate the two.
00:13:59
Let's touch on what we do in the Shadows on FX and Hulu.
00:14:02
We've.
00:14:03
We're unabashed fans of this one.
00:14:05
Started as a spin off from the Jermaine, Clema and Takahtiti film
00:14:09
of the same name.
00:14:11
It's what we do in the Shadows.
00:14:12
But this one's now in its sixth and final season.
00:14:15
I would not have assumed that it would run this long.
00:14:19
I wouldn't have assumed it would run this long or that I would
00:14:22
be looking forward to a new season coming out.
00:14:25
Oh, yeah, exactly.
00:14:26
You know, like if you told me, but you know, I'll check out the
00:14:29
first season, but I'm not expecting much.
00:14:31
That's exactly how I felt.
00:14:33
I had my doubts beginning it, considering its origins.
00:14:38
Usually reboots and spin offs aren't noted for success or quality.
00:14:41
That's the thing.
00:14:42
I quite liked the original movie.
00:14:44
Okay.
00:14:45
I thought it was funny.
00:14:46
Oh, it's funny.
00:14:46
It's.
00:14:47
You know, it's funny.
00:14:47
It's the same.
00:14:48
You know, it's basically the same vampire mockumentary, but in
00:14:52
New Zealand.
00:14:53
But I feel like these guys put a.
00:14:55
Put a real good spin on it.
00:14:57
And I think that's a testament that you can watch it if you've seen
00:15:01
the movie and if you haven't.
00:15:03
I know nothing about the original movie and I just fell right
00:15:06
in.
00:15:07
If you've seen the original movie, there are a couple Easter
00:15:09
eggs.
00:15:10
Oh, are there?
00:15:10
That's pretty much like Jermaine Clement's character from
00:15:13
the movie actually appears in an episode he's on, like the Vampiric
00:15:16
Council or something.
00:15:17
Okay.
00:15:18
But you.
00:15:18
But you don't need to know that.
00:15:19
It's just there for fun.
00:15:21
Yeah.
00:15:22
They're completely separate with.
00:15:23
Same premise of a documentary.
00:15:24
A camera crew is filming a set of vampires.
00:15:26
In this case, three of them.
00:15:29
Nandor, Laszlo, and Nadia, and an energy vampire named Colin Robinson,
00:15:35
and their roommates Gizmo.
00:15:37
And they have a human who is tasked to help them.
00:15:43
How do you present a case for this if somebody hasn't watched it
00:15:46
at this point?
00:15:47
You know, it's not.
00:15:48
It's not a spoiler because it's from the last season, but I'm
00:15:51
like, guys, do you want to watch a show where a vampire talks
00:15:55
himself into flying into space just to see if he can?
00:15:58
And then he doesn't?
00:15:59
And the subplot is that their neighbor can't get elected to Staten
00:16:03
Island's comptroller board because he has too many DUIs.
00:16:08
That's good.
00:16:09
If that doesn't make you chuckle, I can't help you.
00:16:12
I would let anyone know that, yes, the vampire thing's merely a
00:16:16
vehicle to have four protagonists be hapless buffoons.
00:16:20
Absolutely.
00:16:20
Without hating.
00:16:22
That's the key.
00:16:22
You don't ever hate them or grow tired of them because you're
00:16:26
like, well, they just don't get out.
00:16:28
They don't get it.
00:16:29
I have another layer of.
00:16:31
You know, I like all the actors, and they're all very funny,
00:16:33
but another layer for me of just personal enjoyment is Matt Barry.
00:16:36
And if you've ever seen him in any.
00:16:38
I think I love his character.
00:16:40
And it's his, like, he just has really good delivery.
00:16:43
That's fantastic.
00:16:44
They all have such great delivery.
00:16:46
They're.
00:16:47
They're pretty finely tuned with each other at this point.
00:16:49
Yeah, I kind of binged, if that's the word.
00:16:52
We.
00:16:52
I could use many of the episodes this weekend because I was
00:16:56
only.
00:16:57
I think there are seven out right now, streaming.
00:17:01
I think you're right.
00:17:01
Seven available.
00:17:02
So I had only seen one, and I kind of had to binge a few.
00:17:07
Not so much back to back, but over the course of a few days, I
00:17:11
started talking to myself in Nandor's voice, which, again, if
00:17:17
you haven't seen it, that's hilarious.
00:17:19
It's one of my favorite types of comedy is where someone is so
00:17:22
stupid that it's almost impossible to dislike them.
00:17:29
Absolutely.
00:17:31
They're very intelligent about the world they came from, but that
00:17:35
was 200 years ago.
00:17:36
I would say they're very intelligent about that world, sort
00:17:40
of.
00:17:40
They're not even about that.
00:17:43
No one has to be Dissuaded by the fact that vampires are a staple
00:17:46
of horror.
00:17:47
Right.
00:17:47
Like, that's.
00:17:48
They play very winkingly with the tropes, but it's not like.
00:17:51
It's not really for, like, horror nerds or something.
00:17:54
No, it's for laughs.
00:17:56
Yeah.
00:17:57
And you know, the stuff that they'll mention as far as being a
00:17:59
vampire, I think you'll know.
00:18:01
Oh, yeah.
00:18:02
What you have is this just hilarious examination of what being
00:18:05
internal could do if it was real.
00:18:09
These.
00:18:09
These people are out of step with reality, including news and
00:18:13
culture.
00:18:14
Second of all, it does really clever things, even within the confines
00:18:18
of the supernatural, like energy.
00:18:20
Vampires is a gimmick that just keeps on giving.
00:18:23
I would say, like, if it has a weakness, it's that they're.
00:18:28
They kind of are, like, willing to throw jokes all over the
00:18:32
place.
00:18:32
Sometimes it doesn't work, but when it lands, man, it's great.
00:18:35
I also love it when a comedy has a plot line that continues throughout
00:18:39
its run.
00:18:39
Like, Arista Development did this.
00:18:41
Yeah, it did it through to the end.
00:18:44
And, you know, shows like It's Always Sunny don't rely on a through
00:18:48
plot line as much as repeated jokes or in jokes.
00:18:51
What we do in the Shadows does both and quite well.
00:18:54
Yes.
00:18:55
In jokes, inside jokes, as well as there's a little bit of a
00:18:58
plot to.
00:19:00
Especially with Guillermo the Human.
00:19:03
So there's.
00:19:03
There's a through line when Guillermo.
00:19:05
There's.
00:19:05
I think they actually do a good job of, like, it is silly and
00:19:08
played for laughs, but there's kind of like, oh, there's some.
00:19:10
There's some humanity.
00:19:12
There's some real heart here.
00:19:13
So even though this is funny, we can kind of.
00:19:16
You know, it's kind of endearing to.
00:19:17
Very slight bit of humanity.
00:19:19
And because it's pure comedy in the sense that the jokes and inside
00:19:25
jokes happen at a pretty good clip, it's a rate that isn't over
00:19:29
the top.
00:19:30
It's not trying to be too much, but it does keep you laughing.
00:19:33
And some won't land for you, I think.
00:19:35
I think that's fair.
00:19:35
When you said that, it just had.
00:19:38
A risk of swinging broadly.
00:19:40
It's not always going to.
00:19:41
In the last show, we've praised the HBO series Somebody somewhere,
00:19:44
even as recently as a month, and it's there for you if you need
00:19:48
it.
00:19:49
I grade it high because it balances, like, the profound that
00:19:53
you find in the mundane.
00:19:55
And it still is a comedy with some especially funny scenes and
00:19:59
lines.
00:20:00
Absolutely.
00:20:01
If you started it, it's in its third and final season.
00:20:04
Not a lot to catch up on.
00:20:06
We'll get into what it does so well, but it just makes you feel
00:20:10
comfortable every time you watch it.
00:20:11
And I'm only bringing it up in the non spoiler section because just
00:20:17
to say if you have it, I think you'd like it.
00:20:20
Give it three episodes in the first season.
00:20:23
Not because it takes that long to get good, but I think it takes
00:20:27
that long to kind of see what it's doing.
00:20:29
And if you're, if you're, if you're still there at episode three,
00:20:31
I think you're good.
00:20:32
I remember episode one.
00:20:34
I just like to Vibe.
00:20:35
So I was definitely gonna come back.
00:20:37
It was good, but I think, like episode one, you're kind of like,
00:20:41
oh, this is, you know, they're gonna do the church thing for the
00:20:44
rest of the series and then not really.
00:20:46
It kind of goes off in different directions.
00:20:48
We'll pause here and give you a break before we get into spoilers,
00:20:55
and then we'll just return in the same order.
00:20:58
If you like quirky movies, you might know about the View.
00:21:00
Ask Universe.
00:21:02
Jay said you guys had a Star.
00:21:03
Wars themed wedding and you tied the.
00:21:04
Knot dressed like Stormtroopers.
00:21:06
And he says you're the bitch and you're the butch.
00:21:09
If you're a geek, you probably know about the Whedonverse.
00:21:12
Shiny.
00:21:13
Let's be bad guys.
00:21:15
If you're a podcast junkie, you better know about the Merverse.
00:21:19
Let's go to the meeting.
00:21:20
I want to get there early enough to make sure I have humans
00:21:23
sitting next to me.
00:21:24
Bigot.
00:21:26
Well, there.
00:21:26
There's a new reality in town, the Omniverse.
00:21:31
Featuring a wide variety of fiction from podcasting veteran Scott
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If you like getting your earbuds filled with tales about monsters,
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spaceships, steam powered battle tanks and epic wizards, then
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go to scottrouch.com omniverse or search for Omniverse under the
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podcast section at the iTunes store.
00:21:54
Your mind will thank you.
00:21:59
Yeah, let's go back to FX's say Nothing streaming on Hulu.
00:22:03
We'll be discussing at least the first three episodes, a little
00:22:06
of the third maybe.
00:22:08
So I talked about qualms I had with the issues.
00:22:12
While I'm interested to see what's going on, these stymied some
00:22:17
of my enjoyment.
00:22:18
They kept me at a remove.
00:22:21
The the first episode's the cause and it had a lot of do to do
00:22:25
with some of the actors.
00:22:27
I just had a slight issue of keeping up with the who, what, when
00:22:32
and where.
00:22:33
But I do know very little of this time period of Ireland and the
00:22:37
show doesn't hold your hand.
00:22:39
I agree with that.
00:22:40
Although I did not have the same experience.
00:22:43
You know, pretty quickly it's like, okay, there's.
00:22:45
There's Dolores, there's especially because it's a little
00:22:49
confusing because, you know, hey, guys, the overarching thing
00:22:52
about this show is that it's going to invest 3,8 a real or not
00:22:55
investigate.
00:22:56
The central drama is the real light disappearance of murder by
00:23:00
the IRA of a woman, a mother of 10, who they thought was passing
00:23:07
information to British security forces.
00:23:10
So, like, I knew that.
00:23:12
So I'm like, okay, this is probably who this is at the beginning.
00:23:15
And then it kind of jumped around and I was like, once I got
00:23:18
my feet, I felt like I knew who everyone was pretty well.
00:23:21
Yeah.
00:23:22
The opening scenes with that large family in Belfast, it was a
00:23:26
great bit of tv.
00:23:28
Yeah.
00:23:30
I didn't know what was gonna happen, but I knew it wasn't gonna
00:23:32
be good.
00:23:33
So they set the tone well.
00:23:35
Very, very arresting.
00:23:36
Yeah, it was, I thought.
00:23:38
And then you just don't really know anything else about her.
00:23:41
She's brought up in an interview later, and I mean later,
00:23:45
like the last couple of minutes.
00:23:47
So I was.
00:23:48
I was baffled, knowing very little about the history.
00:23:50
Of course.
00:23:51
The second thing that troubled me is that in the first episode,
00:23:55
none of the actors grabbed me by the throat like you kind of need
00:23:58
these unknown actors to do.
00:24:00
All were acceptable.
00:24:01
They were making passing grades.
00:24:03
But the most captivating to me in episode one was Dolores sister
00:24:09
Marion.
00:24:10
And she had so much more screen presence than the young actress
00:24:13
who was getting center stage attention.
00:24:16
That was the lady playing Dolores.
00:24:18
And then by the end, I was having issues with the older version
00:24:21
of Dolores.
00:24:22
I just found myself unable to make up my mind about her acting.
00:24:26
And the idea of using these older actors to continue the story
00:24:32
in the future to be the ones who are sitting down for this interview.
00:24:35
I understand that's what the book does.
00:24:37
That is the premise of the book.
00:24:39
It's not even a premise.
00:24:40
It's just what it is that these people involved in IRA actions
00:24:46
interviewed think even in the U.S.
00:24:49
is that correct?
00:24:50
There are university archives in the United States that have these
00:24:54
recordings.
00:24:55
Some of them are like, you know, we won't make them public till
00:24:57
whatever years and other.
00:24:59
It's, you know, once you die, this can be released.
00:25:01
That's most of them.
00:25:02
Once you.
00:25:03
They won't be released until you're dead.
00:25:04
Yeah.
00:25:05
I couldn't tell you off the top of my head.
00:25:07
Which universities, but Boston area, I believe.
00:25:10
Yeah.
00:25:11
The show, though, seems to believe that the story in the writing
00:25:15
was going to pick up the slack.
00:25:17
I just think I had.
00:25:18
I personally had an issue with caring about some of these characters,
00:25:22
some of these people as characters.
00:25:23
You know, it's still a show.
00:25:24
It's still a.
00:25:26
I think a piece of non fiction can skirt problems like this since
00:25:29
there isn't a lot of question of who someone is or what's their
00:25:33
reality.
00:25:34
You know, it's pretty much.
00:25:35
It's based in a real world.
00:25:38
So you don't really concern yourself with that.
00:25:39
You don't concern yourself with them as a character, but as
00:25:43
a TV show, you.
00:25:44
I do.
00:25:45
And I was just thinking, okay, well, you told me a lot about these.
00:25:49
These sisters especially.
00:25:51
But everyone else, I don't know that I know them that much or
00:25:54
care that much.
00:25:55
Everyone else is like the other IRA guys or.
00:25:59
Okay.
00:26:00
You know, for me, it completely worked with, like, the
00:26:03
two sisters being the N.
00:26:05
And then these guys are kind of, you know, the cool daredevils
00:26:09
in the ira, right?
00:26:10
To these girls, right, who are moving from the path to nonviolence.
00:26:14
And so that kind of worked for me where it's.
00:26:17
To me, it was like.
00:26:17
It's almost like the way they see them.
00:26:19
Right.
00:26:20
And then on the third one, I think there's.
00:26:22
We get a little deeper with one character in the third episode
00:26:26
as the girls are moving more and more into this world.
00:26:30
Their march or protest, nonviolent one in the first episode,
00:26:35
is very good tv, I think.
00:26:39
And again, it's one of those moments where you know something
00:26:41
bad's gonna happen.
00:26:41
You just don't know what.
00:26:43
Talk to me about the framing of this as an interview from older
00:26:48
Dolores and some of the other characters later.
00:26:51
You know, that's how the book came to be.
00:26:54
Does it work for you in television form when they switch
00:26:58
back to this older Dolores or this older version of Brendan or
00:27:04
whomever?
00:27:05
Yes.
00:27:06
Okay.
00:27:06
Yeah, it totally works for me, especially because.
00:27:08
And I don't even know if I can put this into words, but there's
00:27:12
something I always find kind of captivating, especially here where,
00:27:15
like, these.
00:27:16
These are the guys.
00:27:17
Like, these are the survivors, right?
00:27:19
Like, this is in some way.
00:27:21
I mean, in some ways it's not over.
00:27:22
We still have Northern Ireland, some end issues there, but,
00:27:26
like, they're on the other side of it, right?
00:27:28
And so they're looking back, you know, they're like.
00:27:30
They're looking back on this stuff that probably.
00:27:32
That felt so momentous at the time.
00:27:34
And it was.
00:27:35
I'm not saying it wasn't, but just kind of like what happens for
00:27:38
all of us as we get a little older.
00:27:40
Right.
00:27:40
Like 20 years later.
00:27:42
Your first heartbreak doesn't feel as raw.
00:27:44
And I think it's really interesting to have people trying
00:27:48
to put their lives and their history in perspective.
00:27:54
And using words to do that, I find particularly interesting because
00:27:58
that's what history is.
00:27:59
Right.
00:28:01
In many cases, we're trying to define what happened and what it
00:28:05
meant with nothing more than our words.
00:28:08
I even wondered if I would like it better as a voiceover as
00:28:11
much as that's played out.
00:28:14
Something about switch from some of this action or I'm starting
00:28:19
to get more involved with this person.
00:28:21
Or I'm starting to get.
00:28:22
To get a little bit more Marian in episode two.
00:28:25
And then suddenly I'm back in almost present day, I guess you could
00:28:28
say, as close to present day as it could be.
00:28:31
It's funny that you had that reaction, because I almost had the
00:28:33
opposite.
00:28:34
I liked what it did for the pacing.
00:28:36
You thought it chopped it up nicely?
00:28:37
I thought it chopped it up, and I felt it made it propulsive.
00:28:40
And it was a good framing device for kind of discrete scenes.
00:28:45
It is very much a framing device that I just don't think it
00:28:48
works for me yet.
00:28:49
It very well could.
00:28:51
You fascinated me with a text message.
00:28:57
Jerry Adams is a name familiar to you, right?
00:28:59
Or did you just look him up?
00:29:01
I knew who he was because I've had friends who did, like, Irish
00:29:04
studies stuff.
00:29:05
Yeah, I see.
00:29:06
Not Monopoly.
00:29:07
He's a very.
00:29:07
I mean, he's just a very prominent politician.
00:29:09
I didn't know him and obviously still didn't until you
00:29:12
messaged me and then I looked him up.
00:29:14
But he's a character in the show.
00:29:16
I do kind of wonder because, like, they have this legal disclaimer
00:29:20
at the end, right, where he's like.
00:29:21
He's always denied being involved with the IRA or being an
00:29:25
IRA member.
00:29:26
And he was.
00:29:27
You know, he was questioned in real life by the police for this.
00:29:29
Okay, well, he.
00:29:30
And he's still very much alive.
00:29:32
He's very much alive.
00:29:33
He's still very active.
00:29:34
I'm like, can they not get sued over this?
00:29:37
Not with a disclaimer, really.
00:29:39
Because I was thinking this is.
00:29:41
Well, it's not the eu, I guess, but I want, like, libel laws
00:29:45
in Europe are often stronger.
00:29:47
I don't think so.
00:29:48
I think.
00:29:48
I think that covers their bases with the.
00:29:50
I'm sure they get the lawyers involved.
00:29:52
I'm Fascinated by it.
00:29:54
I was surprised that the writers treated him as someone a
00:29:57
general audience like me was supposed to recognize.
00:30:01
Okay, did you or was I not?
00:30:03
Because they were like, that's Jerry Adams.
00:30:06
And I.
00:30:06
And I just went with it.
00:30:07
And then later that day, I guess I got the text from you, I.
00:30:12
Think that you don't have to know who he is so much as to know,
00:30:15
okay, he's a big deal in the context of this show as a young leader.
00:30:20
And then if you see the disclaimer and you get interested
00:30:22
and you Google him, you can find out a little more.
00:30:25
Now, this show is not blatant, and I think they could have been
00:30:29
here and there and not heard it.
00:30:31
But again, they've got an idiot watching this when it comes
00:30:35
to me.
00:30:36
Okay.
00:30:37
I need my hand held when it comes to this kind of thing.
00:30:39
Let me jump into some things I do like, though.
00:30:42
Anthony Boyle appears a few times in the first episode.
00:30:45
Not a lot, but a lot more in the second.
00:30:47
He's Jerry's friend, Brendan Hunt.
00:30:49
Now, I know him from being John Wilkes Booth in Manhunt and
00:30:54
as that disgruntled young man, Alvin in the Plot Against America.
00:30:58
Do you remember him?
00:30:59
Yeah, I do remember him.
00:31:00
Yep.
00:31:00
Of course, I had no clue he was Irish.
00:31:03
And he is good.
00:31:04
They're good at accents, aren't they?
00:31:05
Yeah.
00:31:06
Isn't there, like a New York Times piece on this?
00:31:09
Yeah, I haven't read it yet, but, yeah, that just got published.
00:31:12
It just got published the other day.
00:31:13
No, he's from Belfast itself, no less.
00:31:16
Yeah.
00:31:17
Now him.
00:31:18
Let's talk about.
00:31:19
Let's talk about Anthony Boyle for a second.
00:31:21
When he's on screen, even as John Wilkes Booth, I was just like,
00:31:24
what's he going to say?
00:31:26
What's he going to do?
00:31:28
I don't get that from some of these other actors.
00:31:30
Well, that was one of the things.
00:31:32
Sorry, I don't mean.
00:31:33
No, you didn't.
00:31:34
This is where, like, he's kind of my focal point for that idea that
00:31:38
these guys are, from the girl's point.
00:31:41
Of view, the heroes.
00:31:42
These young, kind of cool ira.
00:31:45
They're almost swashbucklers.
00:31:47
That's a great word for it.
00:31:49
He's got.
00:31:49
He's got charm, right?
00:31:51
And he does.
00:31:52
He's daring.
00:31:53
They don't see him kill anyone yet, you know, so they haven't seen
00:31:57
that part of it.
00:31:58
So Anthony Boyle's perfect for this because that's what he brings,
00:32:02
I think as.
00:32:03
Again, even as John Wilkes Booth, he was like.
00:32:06
I mean, he was a Despicable guy.
00:32:08
And they made sure to play that up.
00:32:09
But you were just interested in what he was going to do or say.
00:32:13
He had your attention, is what I mean.
00:32:15
And you can kind of get an idea too, the way.
00:32:19
And I think he.
00:32:20
Well, I think the actor is very good at this.
00:32:23
Like, wouldn't you want to have the regard of a person like
00:32:28
that, to have them look.
00:32:29
Think that you're cool?
00:32:30
Maybe not in so many words.
00:32:32
Right.
00:32:32
But, like, that's sort of a powerful force.
00:32:34
Right.
00:32:34
Like someone with that kind of charisma taking you into the inner
00:32:38
circle.
00:32:38
Oh, yeah, that's cool.
00:32:40
Right?
00:32:40
Like, that's powerful.
00:32:41
Yes.
00:32:42
You can kind of see it.
00:32:43
Right.
00:32:43
Like the attraction.
00:32:44
And I think I may be a little turned off by Dolores character,
00:32:48
the way she's characterized as this.
00:32:51
She's undeserved in her cockiness, and she may have been
00:32:55
in real life for all I know.
00:32:57
The choices that we may hear sometimes hinder it.
00:33:01
And it kind of has me bouncing to and fro from, oh, this is good,
00:33:05
too.
00:33:05
Oh, okay, let's move on from this.
00:33:08
The addition of Rory Kinnear.
00:33:10
He's in the second episode as Frank.
00:33:12
He's a British military sent in to squash the terrorist, as he
00:33:15
calls them now.
00:33:16
He was a welcome sight.
00:33:17
When I saw him on screen, I was thinking, oh, yeah, this guy,
00:33:20
he's pretty good.
00:33:21
He's gonna.
00:33:22
He.
00:33:22
He always has a little bit of a gravitas, if not in.
00:33:27
In a comedic sense.
00:33:28
In this case, he's obviously not.
00:33:30
It's not a comedy.
00:33:31
No.
00:33:32
You know, he kind of gets my attention.
00:33:34
Marion has.
00:33:36
Jerry has my attention, simply because I realized, oh, God, that
00:33:40
guy's still living in.
00:33:41
Pretty big deal.
00:33:42
Now.
00:33:42
Let me see where this is going with him.
00:33:44
I do think it's a definitely done television show.
00:33:47
I mean, you're not going to be like, you know, this is just a piece
00:33:51
of crap.
00:33:51
And I am not saying that I.
00:33:53
In fact, I can't wait to watch out more and get more of this history
00:33:57
and digested.
00:33:59
And I'm.
00:34:00
When it.
00:34:00
When it cooks, it cooks, man.
00:34:02
I.
00:34:02
Let me give you an example.
00:34:04
That overhead shot of Brendan trying to escape the gunman in the
00:34:08
street and going into, I would say house, but I guess it's more
00:34:12
apartment to apartment.
00:34:13
That had some real excitement to it.
00:34:15
Even though that was very good.
00:34:17
Yeah.
00:34:17
And I mean, it had excitement even though, you know, he survives
00:34:20
because you've seen his older self give some interviews.
00:34:23
Yes.
00:34:24
He dives in a window, grabs a gun.
00:34:26
There's car and the image of cars smoking in this desolate street
00:34:30
from being bombed.
00:34:31
I'm just like, this is what I want.
00:34:35
This is what the show could do for me and really get me involved.
00:34:40
Yeah.
00:34:41
I think for me, the show had a lot of great bits like that, the
00:34:46
riots, right.
00:34:47
Where they're building barricades, just things like that.
00:34:49
But also worked for me where it wasn't.
00:34:53
We'll just let the action overpower it and it's all rah, rah.
00:34:56
We're not gonna let you.
00:34:56
We're not gonna give you time to think about it.
00:34:59
And that's probably for the best, I think.
00:35:01
So.
00:35:01
I think some of the things I'm complaining.
00:35:04
I think that's a fair.
00:35:05
Some of the things I'm complaining about would be a little
00:35:08
silly to maybe pump up a little more.
00:35:11
Yeah.
00:35:11
I think they do a good job of.
00:35:13
At least in the episodes that I've seen.
00:35:15
Steering it from.
00:35:17
There are moments that are thrilling, but it's not a mere thriller.
00:35:21
Right.
00:35:22
Especially because, you know, literally thousands of people, including
00:35:25
in this specific case, of this specific show, one.
00:35:28
One specific woman, you know, died as a result of this conflict.
00:35:31
So, yeah, when it goes to the mom of Tien in her apartment, it
00:35:37
does get back to her and her kids.
00:35:40
Very, very tense, very.
00:35:42
You're on the edge of your seat, even though there isn't necessarily
00:35:45
a lot of action because something's gonna happen.
00:35:48
Yeah.
00:35:49
Anything you want to add about the third episode?
00:35:51
And you may completely disagree with me after seeing it,
00:35:54
but it deepens their involvement, especially in a particular
00:35:57
way with the ira.
00:35:59
And it tests what Dollars and Marion are.
00:36:04
You know, part of it is like they're.
00:36:05
They're getting more, you know, they're getting progressively
00:36:09
bigger responsibilities.
00:36:10
Right.
00:36:10
They're driving cars between the.
00:36:12
You know, they're not a huge spoiler.
00:36:14
Right.
00:36:15
But one of the things they have to do is they're gonna.
00:36:16
They're.
00:36:16
They're bringing explosives up from Ireland, from the Republic of
00:36:21
Ireland into Northern Ireland.
00:36:23
And so that.
00:36:24
That they go deeper with the activities of the ira.
00:36:27
But I also in the other activities of the IRA in a murkier
00:36:31
way.
00:36:31
Right.
00:36:32
I think it's.
00:36:33
It's a testament to the.
00:36:35
To the series and probably the book where it's not.
00:36:37
They're not trying to make any one side.
00:36:40
Right.
00:36:40
Or a heroic.
00:36:41
No, I think unless you're looking through the eyes of those
00:36:44
two, you know, 15, 16 year old girls.
00:36:46
Yeah.
00:36:46
I'd agree with, like.
00:36:48
I mean, it is a story about the Iraq they almost like.
00:36:52
I think they do a good job of portraying it through the eyes of
00:36:54
those 16 year old girls.
00:36:56
And I think this would make it a different show, but there were
00:36:58
Protestant paramilitaries too.
00:37:00
Killing people.
00:37:01
Just like, you know.
00:37:02
Which is brought up.
00:37:02
Yeah, yeah, which is brought up, but not really, you know, but
00:37:05
so it's like they're not like overbalancing the scales or anything,
00:37:08
I guess is what I mean.
00:37:09
It's a show about the IRA and that's what they're gonna focus on
00:37:12
without necessarily glorifying them.
00:37:15
But they also kind of don't show that there's, you know, it wasn't
00:37:17
just the Iraq.
00:37:18
Maybe it's a case of me watching too much tv, but maybe it's
00:37:22
the interview her.
00:37:23
The interviewer himself I find distracting.
00:37:26
I'm like, who is this guy?
00:37:28
Why is he on the TV screen right now?
00:37:30
They could be.
00:37:31
They could have just had older Brenda talking or older dollar is
00:37:36
talking, you know.
00:37:37
No, no interview.
00:37:39
Sure.
00:37:39
You've seen Banner Brothers, right?
00:37:41
Yeah, most of it.
00:37:43
Because they kind of do that, you know, with the end of the show.
00:37:46
Right.
00:37:46
They let the older folks talk, but they're not being interviewed
00:37:49
or the actual veterans talk.
00:37:50
Not the older folks, I think is a book that works incredibly well.
00:37:54
I bet that is a very good book.
00:37:57
Very interesting book.
00:37:59
I just for me personally, I don't know that it's working.
00:38:03
The puzzle piece by click into place.
00:38:05
Okay.
00:38:05
I'm going to continue to watch it.
00:38:06
It's going to be a good show.
00:38:08
Me too.
00:38:09
Thumbs up for me.
00:38:10
Although not always a fun ride.
00:38:12
Not that it's not good, but it's, you know, political violence
00:38:16
is not entirely unknown in many parts of the world.
00:38:20
It gives you a lot to think about.
00:38:21
Right.
00:38:22
Well, from Ireland we'll now discuss some chaps who likely made
00:38:25
a stop in Ireland on their way to Staten Island.
00:38:28
It's the bumbling and hilarious vampires of what we do
00:38:31
in the shadows.
00:38:32
We're going to be talking about almost all the ones that are
00:38:36
pretty much all the ones that are now streaming, which would be
00:38:39
actually they release on Sunday this year.
00:38:41
Yes, it is.
00:38:42
How weird.
00:38:43
Used to be Thursdays weird, but that's fine.
00:38:46
So by the time you hear this, there's actually an extra one out
00:38:49
there.
00:38:49
We're gonna talk about the first seven I set up at the top.
00:38:52
That one of my favorite types of comedies is sure to make me laugh,
00:38:55
is when you give me a character who may be too ignorant
00:38:57
for his own good.
00:38:58
And the image of Nandor trying to clean up an entire pot of spilled
00:39:03
coffee with unrolled paper towel.
00:39:07
Just the roll of paper towels.
00:39:09
He doesn't even bother to tear one off.
00:39:12
That image sticks with you.
00:39:13
He's vacuuming desks.
00:39:15
Donovan, can I admit something here, please?
00:39:18
I have vacuumed our kitchen island.
00:39:23
You could go.
00:39:23
And you could go to work for Nandor.
00:39:25
So, Nandor.
00:39:26
And again.
00:39:26
So if you're listening and you haven't watched, then.
00:39:29
Well, these vampires do silly things like go get jobs as janitors.
00:39:33
And the idea that they had no clue they had neighbors on the other
00:39:37
side of the house until season six, that is just funny.
00:39:41
I love it.
00:39:42
That particular episode we'll get into.
00:39:44
It's episode six.
00:39:46
It's called Lazlo's Father.
00:39:47
One of my probably least favorite episodes in a while.
00:39:50
That was probably the weakest one for me.
00:39:52
Yeah, it's kind of weak.
00:39:53
But this season, you know, it's not afraid to ask the big questions.
00:39:57
Questions like, why would I build a new jerk off machine when
00:40:01
I have a perfectly good jerk off machine I built a hundred years
00:40:04
ago, which is.
00:40:07
Powered by a live raccoon turning a wheel?
00:40:15
You know, it's not only that they're idiots, they get some funny
00:40:18
lines dotted with self awareness on occasion and some intelligence
00:40:22
on occasion.
00:40:23
The continual reference to the greenhouse as being a place for Lazlo
00:40:27
to wank off is just genius.
00:40:31
And it gives us this visual, that visual gag of that raccoon propelling
00:40:35
the old invention of a jerk off machine.
00:40:39
So here are two very tiny worries we can talk about.
00:40:43
Sure.
00:40:44
About this season.
00:40:45
It's the last one.
00:40:46
We've yet to mention any.
00:40:49
The show's yet to mention any reconciliation or attempts at Guillermo
00:40:54
becoming a vampire.
00:40:55
I thought he had achieved that.
00:40:57
He did.
00:40:57
Did I forget?
00:40:58
But then he.
00:40:59
He relinquished it.
00:41:01
How so remind me.
00:41:02
Did I.
00:41:03
He gave it up.
00:41:04
Remember when Nandor wanted to kill him?
00:41:07
Yes.
00:41:07
And then after that, there was other stuff, and Guillermo was like,
00:41:11
actually, I don't.
00:41:11
I don't.
00:41:12
This.
00:41:12
I don't love being a vampire.
00:41:13
It's.
00:41:14
It's.
00:41:14
It's.
00:41:15
It's not what I thought it would be.
00:41:16
I'm gonna.
00:41:17
I'm gonna say, no, I'm gonna not be a vampire.
00:41:19
I'm not gonna be the familiar anymore.
00:41:21
How did he get rid of that?
00:41:23
Because he was kind of half vampire for himself.
00:41:25
I don't remember.
00:41:26
Yes.
00:41:27
Something silly.
00:41:28
Okay.
00:41:29
I was really worried that we weren't going to see the dumb Staten
00:41:32
island bro.
00:41:33
Neighbor.
00:41:34
Sean.
00:41:34
This guy's got to make a final appearance.
00:41:36
And then, lo and behold, he goes for the job interview at the
00:41:41
railroad, which is completely fake.
00:41:44
It is completely built by Colin Robinson and Laszlo too, because
00:41:48
they don't want to hurt his feelings, as they're covered.
00:41:51
That they work at the railroad.
00:41:54
That's all they've ever told him is that they look at the.
00:41:56
And they can't hypnotize him anymore because he would be.
00:41:58
His brain just can't take any.
00:42:00
He was dumb anyway.
00:42:03
Just edit out me chuckling like this, wheezing with laughter.
00:42:07
I got good news for you.
00:42:08
And the one that you haven't seen yet.
00:42:10
March Madness is also a Shawnee episode.
00:42:12
Or as Lazlo calls him, Shawnee.
00:42:16
Why does he call him that?
00:42:17
So he's Shawnee, but he just says Shawnee.
00:42:20
Weird.
00:42:22
My good time boy.
00:42:26
I don't think this season is as strong as it's been, but it is
00:42:30
still so good.
00:42:31
There's just stuff in here that.
00:42:33
Yeah, and I think I'd agree with that.
00:42:35
It's not.
00:42:36
These are not like the best episodes ever.
00:42:38
But there's stuff that just keeps me laughing.
00:42:40
Like when they go.
00:42:41
Nandor has to go to New Hampshire because he's making a vampire
00:42:45
army and they chase after him or an army, I mean, and them going
00:42:49
into Apocalypse now with Colin Robinson becoming the Dennis Hopper.
00:42:54
Colin Robinson as the devoted.
00:42:56
As the Dennis Hopper character.
00:42:58
He's coming private.
00:42:59
He's got like.
00:43:01
No, he's the photo.
00:43:01
He's the photojournalist from Apocalypse Now.
00:43:04
Oh, that's right.
00:43:05
He's the Dennis Hopper.
00:43:06
Yeah, well, Nandor calls him a prop.
00:43:07
Oh, yeah.
00:43:08
But at the end he's like, whoa.
00:43:10
You don't just like, see, Nandor man killed me.
00:43:15
Like, that's so funny to me.
00:43:17
He's so into it.
00:43:18
He's doing the push ups with the hand clasp.
00:43:21
And none of the other vampires are hilarious.
00:43:23
When he crawls under the strings for the, you know, the army
00:43:28
crawl, he does it much faster than Lazlo and Nadia.
00:43:32
And you would expect it to be the opposite of that.
00:43:35
I'm so appreciative of Nadia's work at Cannon Capital.
00:43:40
We talked about Nandor's, but her work there is just so funny how
00:43:45
she just is belittling to these tech bros or not tech bros.
00:43:49
Excuse me, but Wall street pros.
00:43:51
Finance bros.
00:43:52
Finance bros.
00:43:52
Thank you.
00:43:53
Yeah.
00:43:54
It's just such a good gag how she's like, she wants to go out and
00:43:58
be an independent woman, even though Lazlo expressly forbid her
00:44:02
yeah, she's got, like, the 80s hairdo and clothes on.
00:44:07
The working girl.
00:44:08
The working girl theme.
00:44:10
It's so funny.
00:44:11
So good.
00:44:13
Of the three, she.
00:44:14
She probably is the smartest.
00:44:16
She's the most competent when she wants to be.
00:44:19
Right.
00:44:19
And she can kind of pull some strings, but yet she never lets them
00:44:23
know or doesn't let them know as much.
00:44:25
She kind of winks at the camera.
00:44:26
And the idea that it's a documentary being filmed gives such
00:44:31
good moments for Guillermo to look at the camera.
00:44:35
Like, oh, me.
00:44:37
You know, these guys are so stupid.
00:44:39
And it's like, I just love how, like, they continue with, like,
00:44:42
Guillermo's in a really weird, unhealthy relationship with them
00:44:46
where he can't, like, really.
00:44:47
He can't, like, really get rid of them, but also, he kind of doesn't
00:44:50
want to.
00:44:51
Exactly.
00:44:52
He lives in their shed now rather than under the stairs.
00:44:56
That's so good.
00:44:57
It's not any better, really, because he has no bathroom.
00:45:00
Right.
00:45:01
He has a bucket.
00:45:02
Right.
00:45:03
Which he's not pooping yet, by the way.
00:45:05
He wants to be clear about that.
00:45:06
He saves that for work.
00:45:07
And doesn't Colin Robinson call him out on pooping at work?
00:45:11
Yes.
00:45:11
There's no way.
00:45:12
So when this show first started, I was like, give me more
00:45:15
and more Colin Robinson.
00:45:16
But now I'm just like, any of them.
00:45:18
Just give it to me.
00:45:20
They're so funny.
00:45:21
We did have a good I like Colin Robinson and Laszlo episodes.
00:45:26
So the one where Colin Robinson is creating a monster after
00:45:30
Laszlo's.
00:45:32
After Lazlo's gotten frustrated with it, that's pretty
00:45:35
good, too.
00:45:36
Oh, yeah, the monster becoming a recurring character.
00:45:39
Actually, it started as a gag that Lazlo was Frankensteining as
00:45:42
a hobby, if you'll forgive me verbing that one.
00:45:46
But then he and Colin turns it into a walking, talking animated
00:45:49
corpse who is the president of the railroad company.
00:45:53
And hire Sean.
00:45:55
He likes the cut of his jib, you see.
00:45:57
What do you think about the monster?
00:45:58
Is that.
00:45:59
Is that working for you?
00:46:00
It's making me laugh because it's so dumb.
00:46:03
I think it's a Frankenstein joke.
00:46:05
Right?
00:46:05
Like, it is a Frankenstein joke.
00:46:06
It makes me laugh.
00:46:07
And like.
00:46:08
Yeah.
00:46:08
When he was like.
00:46:09
They're like, oh, well, he can be the president of the railroad.
00:46:11
Right, Right.
00:46:12
Like, that was good.
00:46:13
That made me see if he can carry on conversation.
00:46:15
Yeah, exactly.
00:46:17
I thought the monster being kind of a character was just a little
00:46:21
silly, but it's not.
00:46:22
It's not that bad.
00:46:23
He's in the background mostly Lazlo's father does notice him.
00:46:27
He does.
00:46:29
Even the weakest episode of the season, which was Lazlo's father.
00:46:32
I saw the title of this, and I was like, oh, yes, this is going
00:46:34
to be magnificent.
00:46:36
Weakest episode of the season.
00:46:38
But it still gives you.
00:46:39
That's okay.
00:46:40
But there's some chuckles in it, definitely.
00:46:42
That's the thing.
00:46:43
That's the thing.
00:46:43
A bad episode of what we do in the Shadows still gives you some
00:46:46
laughs.
00:46:47
And this one, to me, was Laszlo's ghost of a father was trying
00:46:51
to fuck Guillermo, and Guillermo was looking at the camera
00:46:54
like, the hell is wrong with these people?
00:46:58
He gave one of his best side eyes to the camera in.
00:47:02
In that episode.
00:47:02
And that actor is so good, and he's fantastic in his role as Guillermo.
00:47:07
It's really all I've seen him in.
00:47:09
But I've seen him in that and a GEICO commercial.
00:47:13
Oh, man.
00:47:14
Really?
00:47:14
How funny.
00:47:15
So good.
00:47:16
Such a good show.
00:47:17
Tell me about March Madness now.
00:47:18
You think they stole my idea?
00:47:20
I think they stole your idea.
00:47:21
So I have this running joke on.
00:47:23
It's my personal back in the day Twitter account.
00:47:27
And then I think I moved it to threads this year.
00:47:31
I don't know.
00:47:32
But that March Madness, it's.
00:47:35
It's a very easy joke to make.
00:47:36
That March Madness is like a disease, mental disorder.
00:47:40
It's the madness of March.
00:47:42
Is that what they do in this episode?
00:47:44
Kind of.
00:47:45
Because they hear Sean screaming, Screaming at basketball.
00:47:49
Screaming and flailing around and losing control of his body in
00:47:52
the basement watching a basketball game, and they think he
00:47:56
has a demon.
00:47:57
He's possessed by a demon.
00:47:58
And then Charmaine's like, oh, it's just March Madness.
00:48:01
And they're like, throughout history, humans have thought that
00:48:04
demons were but madness.
00:48:06
So they have to, like.
00:48:07
They have to exorcise him.
00:48:09
Oh, man, that is so good.
00:48:11
In the B plot, Guillermo's trying to become, trying to figure
00:48:15
out his work identity at Canon.
00:48:17
At Canon.
00:48:18
And unfortunately for him, the Work Funny Guy has already been taken
00:48:21
by Nadja, who pretends that a banana is a telephone, and that's
00:48:26
her only joke.
00:48:30
It's hilarious.
00:48:32
The Canon plotline, like I said, this is a show that does.
00:48:35
It doesn't just use a plot for an episode.
00:48:37
It continues it often.
00:48:39
The Canon Capital plot line, I love.
00:48:42
I think Tim.
00:48:43
Tim Heidecker.
00:48:44
Yeah.
00:48:45
Super funny.
00:48:46
I mean, he's perfect for these kinds of bro boss, you hate kind
00:48:52
of thing, but he's just.
00:48:54
He's killing it here.
00:48:55
He's perfect for that kind of thing.
00:48:56
And he fires Nandor or wants Nandor fired, and he gets pissed
00:49:02
if they bring the wrong kinds of prescription medicine to him that
00:49:05
he's probably getting illegally because they work at night.
00:49:09
I saw a theory floated that some of those guys might be vampires,
00:49:12
but I guess they're not at this point.
00:49:14
We know that.
00:49:14
Not.
00:49:15
Not yet.
00:49:15
Yeah, not yet.
00:49:18
So where does it end?
00:49:20
You think it's just going to wrap as Staten island status quo?
00:49:24
I think so, honestly.
00:49:25
You don't think.
00:49:26
What's his name, Jerry the vampire's gonna get them out of Staten
00:49:29
island if.
00:49:30
He gets them onto their next dumb thing?
00:49:32
That would be fine with me.
00:49:33
I would.
00:49:34
I would just be.
00:49:35
I would be upset if anyone actually accomplished anything.
00:49:38
I could very well see them just moving to Queens.
00:49:42
Yeah, that's as far as they get.
00:49:43
Yes, that's right.
00:49:44
Like, the conquest of Queens begins.
00:49:46
Yes.
00:49:47
Oh, I'm gonna miss this show.
00:49:49
But I can't wait to see all of these people do something, you know,
00:49:53
especially Matt Barry, like you said, who's already in a few
00:49:55
things that I have never seen, but you have.
00:49:58
Mm.
00:49:59
How good is he?
00:50:00
He's funny.
00:50:01
He's basically this.
00:50:02
You know, he's just got that same kind of delivery.
00:50:05
Doesn't do a lot of serious roles.
00:50:07
Okay.
00:50:07
I've seen GIFs of him, like, singing as, like, a rock star.
00:50:11
Yeah.
00:50:12
Okay.
00:50:13
Well, he actually, like.
00:50:14
That's his.
00:50:14
That's his other job.
00:50:16
He does.
00:50:16
He does.
00:50:17
He literally does sing.
00:50:18
Right.
00:50:19
He does music, and a lot of it is, like, he'll do kind of, like
00:50:22
folky British out.
00:50:23
He's very good at, like.
00:50:24
That's right.
00:50:26
Like, doing, like, genre pastiche stuff.
00:50:28
And he's actually pretty good.
00:50:29
Like, it's actually good.
00:50:31
Like, I would say, like, his best albums are, like, worth.
00:50:33
Worth a listen.
00:50:34
Well, that's him doing the only different version of the theme
00:50:38
song.
00:50:39
Yeah.
00:50:40
In the Nandor's Army.
00:50:41
Yeah.
00:50:42
Episode.
00:50:42
Okay.
00:50:43
That's what I was thinking.
00:50:44
Sounded like him.
00:50:45
Well, we'll wrap very briefly with the last, what, two episodes
00:50:49
or so of HBO series Somebody Somewhere.
00:50:51
Yep.
00:50:51
Two episodes.
00:50:52
Looks as though it's inching toward a piece of happiness for some
00:50:56
of our characters, Samantha and the rest.
00:50:59
Somebody Somewhere does a lovely blend of melancholy and hope.
00:51:03
You know, you don't end the episode thinking, God, I'm depressed.
00:51:07
But you also don't end the episode thinking, ain't life grand?
00:51:11
It's this tinge of melancholy with, I feel good now.
00:51:16
I like what it has kind of done this season so far.
00:51:20
I think it did in the other seasons.
00:51:22
But talking about how, okay, like, Joel and Brad are together
00:51:26
and moved in together, and that's good.
00:51:28
Right?
00:51:29
But like, for every good thing, there's all.
00:51:31
It's not all one thing.
00:51:32
Right.
00:51:33
Like now Joel is like, I'm not used to sharing everything with a
00:51:36
person and now I live in someone else's, you know, And I think
00:51:39
it does a really good job of that.
00:51:41
In other shows.
00:51:43
This is what makes it so distinct.
00:51:45
In other shows, that would be a blow up or played for a huge laugh
00:51:49
or both.
00:51:51
You'd be worried about their relationship.
00:51:53
You would think, oh, man, they're gonna get angry and fight
00:51:56
and it's gonna get ugly.
00:51:58
Or it's just gonna be this big old LOL moment.
00:52:02
But instead it's just a calm thing where Brad says, what?
00:52:05
You know, what do you want?
00:52:06
And Joel says, I want to load the dishwasher.
00:52:09
Yeah.
00:52:09
And it's fair.
00:52:10
I can give you that.
00:52:12
What else you want?
00:52:12
I want to put pictures on the fridge.
00:52:14
Okay.
00:52:15
I've never done that.
00:52:15
Let's do that.
00:52:16
Yeah.
00:52:17
And it's just so kind.
00:52:19
It's very good.
00:52:20
I thought it was very good.
00:52:21
And then when they go to church, even Brad's.
00:52:23
It's the only time Brad has ever gotten angry.
00:52:25
He's such a sweet, gentle soul.
00:52:28
But he yells at him.
00:52:28
But he's got the road rage.
00:52:30
He's got road rage as a passenger.
00:52:32
And he yells.
00:52:32
And even that is just awkwardly not that mean.
00:52:36
Right.
00:52:38
He's like, you now.
00:52:39
That could have hurt someone.
00:52:40
And then he just.
00:52:41
That's it.
00:52:42
He kind of doesn't have anything to say.
00:52:43
He just rolls the window down.
00:52:45
Has to roll the window up.
00:52:46
Well, he's a.
00:52:46
He's a teacher.
00:52:47
Yes.
00:52:48
They.
00:52:48
Maybe they know when to stop.
00:52:49
Yes.
00:52:51
Before some of these characters can get any happiness,
00:52:53
they have to get rid of an std.
00:52:55
I was like, oh, man, we're back in classic territory.
00:52:58
Somebody somewhere in territory here because Trish and
00:53:02
the actor who plays her is so good because, you know, she's like
00:53:05
a little bit different.
00:53:06
Like, she and Sam obviously love each other, but they have trouble
00:53:09
communicating relating sometimes.
00:53:12
So to ask Sam to do something that Trish is really not comfortable
00:53:16
with, such as diagnose her infection.
00:53:20
Diagnose her infection by appearing at her crotch as she's
00:53:23
sitting on the toilet.
00:53:24
Yeah.
00:53:25
That's good stuff.
00:53:26
I thought it was good.
00:53:27
It made me laugh.
00:53:28
I did too.
00:53:29
And there's a realism to that.
00:53:31
I think that probably you've called your brother in and going,
00:53:34
look at this.
00:53:34
Oh, God, do I need to go to a doctor?
00:53:37
Like, who else can I ask?
00:53:38
Yeah, who else are you gonna ask?
00:53:39
And middle of the night, you're not going to a doctor.
00:53:41
That's right.
00:53:42
The lady who plays Trisha, the wonderful line about her ex husband
00:53:47
waving his dirty dick around town.
00:53:50
That was good, too.
00:53:52
Like in Sam's laughing and I'm kind of laughing.
00:53:54
It's like.
00:53:54
You're kind of laughing too.
00:53:56
Because it's like.
00:53:56
It is funny.
00:53:57
Just like Sam.
00:53:58
You're like, I shouldn't laugh too loud at this.
00:54:00
But her losing her mind in the shower is pretty funny.
00:54:04
She kicks her underwear out and it hits Sam on the foot, which
00:54:08
kind of sort of grosses around.
00:54:10
Perfect.
00:54:11
Not a uti.
00:54:12
And, well, you know, you go to the.
00:54:15
You go to the urgent care the next morning.
00:54:17
Yeah.
00:54:18
Again, the end game here.
00:54:20
Maybe that Sam goes out on a date with the.
00:54:23
The guy from Iceland.
00:54:24
We'll see.
00:54:25
I don't know if there's perfect happiness awaiting all of
00:54:27
our characters.
00:54:28
No, no, maybe not.
00:54:29
We'll see.
00:54:30
See if she gets to go out with Iceland.
00:54:32
Yeah.
00:54:33
And that's all they call him Iceland because they can't pronounce
00:54:35
his name.
00:54:36
I can't pronounce the actor's name.
00:54:38
The Miller sisters, though, are closer through this bit of hardship,
00:54:44
including a divorce and the death of their sister, which starts
00:54:48
the whole series way back in season one.
00:54:51
And their parents are still alive on the show.
00:54:54
Yeah, they're just in Texas.
00:54:55
They're just in Texas and apparently much happier.
00:54:58
So they apparently.
00:54:59
The mom is out of the nursing home kind of hospital she was in.
00:55:02
Recovery center.
00:55:03
Rehab center.
00:55:04
Recovery center.
00:55:05
Interesting choice here to do that because they, you know, mom
00:55:09
was kind of a bit of a plot line in season two where they would
00:55:14
have to go visit her, take care of her, double check on her.
00:55:17
And it gave us the opportunity to see this dynamic of how troubled
00:55:22
their mom can be in relation to them and how that affected them
00:55:27
growing up.
00:55:28
And then in between seasons two and three, they just make that
00:55:32
decision to say, let's just let her go hang out in Texas with
00:55:35
their dad.
00:55:37
Yeah.
00:55:37
On one side, I'm like, you could have given me a little more
00:55:40
than that.
00:55:41
But also, I kind of respect their willingness to not get hung
00:55:46
up, to let go with the big stuff rather than the particulars.
00:55:50
Does that make sense?
00:55:51
Yeah.
00:55:52
All of the huge things that the very, very huge things that could
00:55:57
happen seem to be happening off screen.
00:56:00
Like, that's not way this show tends to handle things.
00:56:04
It's the smaller moments.
00:56:06
I like that.
00:56:07
For example, right?
00:56:08
Like, we see the relationship of the two sisters with their mother
00:56:12
in season two, but we have that obstacle sort of removed, and
00:56:16
we again have them on to, like, maybe this is kind of better,
00:56:20
or, you know, Trish's event planning business is taking off,
00:56:23
and Sam is helping her, and this is all good, but there's still
00:56:26
the same, you know, trouble with communication, and they're different
00:56:30
people.
00:56:30
And, you know, sometimes they open up and sometimes they retreat
00:56:33
and, you know, just instead of sticking with that, instead of, like,
00:56:37
having it all be solved by, like, well, mom's out now.
00:56:40
It's real without being boring.
00:56:42
Yeah, it's good.
00:56:42
It's very real without being bored.
00:56:44
Very reflective.
00:56:46
You'll get some chuckles, too.
00:56:47
You get some chuckles, and I think you do end up kind of maybe
00:56:50
even reflecting on your stuff just a little.
00:56:53
It's a good opportunity.
00:56:54
For sure.
00:56:55
For sure.
00:56:56
If this season ends without me crying, I will be shocked.
00:57:01
In a good way.
00:57:03
I love life kind of boy, sure.
00:57:06
And with that, we'll end.
00:57:07
Let's all love life.
00:57:09
And again, happy Thanksgiving.
00:57:11
If you've listened to us before Thanksgiving, maybe it was
00:57:13
good or maybe it is good.
00:57:15
It's going good.
00:57:16
Are you cooking right now?
00:57:17
Are you.
00:57:18
Do you get a chance to cook anything?
00:57:20
Nah, no one wants me to cook anything.
00:57:22
You know, I help out with stuff.
00:57:24
But you do help.
00:57:24
I don't like.
00:57:25
Now, your wife is borderline shelf.
00:57:28
Yeah, she's very good.
00:57:29
She's very good.
00:57:30
I've seen her.
00:57:30
I've seen pictures of her.
00:57:32
I just, like, cut vegetables.
00:57:34
That's my level of helping, you know, and, like, stir things
00:57:38
and that kind, you know, like, measure out.
00:57:40
But I'm not really in charge of it.
00:57:43
I'm the dessert guy.
00:57:44
Okay.
00:57:45
I've made dessert to family gatherings.
00:57:49
I can make a killer cheesecake.
00:57:53
You're a valuable person to know.
00:57:54
Well, you know, there, I've got about three in my back pocket
00:57:58
I could do.
00:57:59
I could do a.
00:58:00
I could do a Reese cup cheesecake.
00:58:01
I can do an oreo one, and I can also do a white chocolate blueberry.
00:58:06
Okay, Those are all pretty solid.
00:58:08
They're pretty killer.
00:58:09
So thanks, everybody, for joining us on your Thanksgiving week.
00:58:13
We should be back next week.
00:58:15
Might want to keep up with us on social media, just to double check.
00:58:18
I don't think anything Thanksgiving is going to get in our
00:58:21
way to.
00:58:23
To record.
00:58:24
And honestly, the week might even open up for us to watch a little
00:58:27
television.
00:58:28
So you never know.
00:58:29
You just don't know, old chap.
00:58:34
I'm.
00:58:35
I'm sorry, my darling.
00:58:36
This is all entirely my fault.
00:58:38
I am nandle sorry, guys.
00:58:42
For Adam and for Donovan, I'm blame.
00:58:44
We will probably talk to you next week.
00:58:47
Thank you again.
00:58:48
Follow us online and we'll talk to y'all a little back and forth.
00:58:52
Take care, everyone.
00:58:53
Bye.
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