TV's Dark Corners: 'Euphoria,' 'Beef,' 'Half Man,' and More

Hey, welcome to the new episode of Taking It down.

This is episode 278.

We are the TV and streaming podcast for the Alabama Take.

We are the only TV podcast out there for the working class, made by the working class.

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We try to help you judge what's worth your time.

That's our goal here.

On this week's episode, in the non spoiler section, we are going to talk about Euphoria, Beef, Half Man, Rooster.

And this is a garden show on Netflix.

In the spoiler section, we'll only be covering the first half of the Netflix show Beef and the seventh episode of the show Rooster on hbo.

Let me get Donovan in here and we'll start the show.

Foreign.

Welcome to Donovan, who's now with me.

It's only us.

Adam's on tour.

If you're in the UK and you want to see Adam perform with his duo, Sister Ray Davies, feel free to check him out tonight.

If you listen to the podcast on day of Release on Tuesday, April 28, head down to the Social in London to see them.

If you're a fan of Slow Drive, you will absolutely want to see Sister.

Ray Davies and I've been looking at some of the videos that they've been sharing.

My God.

Y' all walk, don't, I mean run, don't walk.

You know, they get better each video, each night.

Absolutely.

It's so cool.

That's going to be tonight at the Social in London.

Adam's our co host.

You can tell him we sent you if you are a listener in the UK and you to that Tomorrow Night show on Wednesday 29th at Elsington assembly hall is sold out.

But if you email me in time and I get to Adam in time, I see what I can do.

There's no guarantees.

I have no idea how that works overseas.

So we'll, we'll see to stand outside the venue and listen with your ear.

Bring a glass to the door.

Yeah, put the glass to the door.

No guarantees.

We'd hate for you to miss it though.

If you really sincerely wanted to see Adam and Sister Ray Davies, or even if you wanted to, you know, walk up to him, high five him, he'd probably do that.

The last chance you're going to have is on Thursday, April 30 at Alphabet and Brighton.

That one is not sold out.

Go out, enjoy yourself.

Tell Adam we sent you check on him for us.

And with that we'll begin our podcast proper.

Donovan, let's continue our experiment where I fill you in on the HBO series Euphoria.

Please.

Yes.

And it's third season, although you haven't seen it at all.

No episode at all for Doc.

Yeah.

I've been advised by my doctor to avoid all horny discourse.

So unfortunately, I am not allowed to watch this show.

I think this season could use some horny disguise discussions.

Third season, specifically second episode, is what I'm talking about.

We'll keep it in non spoilers.

I'll give you some ideas here, listeners.

And Donovan.

I think I can say this without it being a spoiler.

It might be a little bit of a spoiler for the first episode.

If you're really adverse.

Skip ahead 30 seconds or a minute.

One of the major aspects of this story in its first two seasons was that of an addict.

They're wanting to continue that story.

And this addict is very much in the 12 steps as the season begins.

And characters, for me, lose all credibility when they're supposedly in recovery for a hard drug.

And then they start drinking and smoking pot without any comment.

Just throw a comment at me.

Just say, hey, I'm California Sober.

Hey, I. I can do this.

Because it's not blank.

I get that may not be what they're in recovery for, but the weed and the drinking, if you do either without comment, I think that's kind of bad writing.

Yeah.

This is like how in this.

The episodes in the Wire where Bubs is trying to get in, like, the Steve Earl character that's like his mentor is like, no to any of it.

You know, like he's.

That's the program.

That's what you're told early.

Yeah.

Say no to all of it.

And then some people drift fast or slow toward California Sober, where they're okay with POD or they're okay with whatever, as long as they stay away from whatever it was they were addicted to.

You have to assume, right, that in real life this would be at least a thought.

So I think I agree with you there, Blaine, that it's like, come on.

Yeah.

This show.

Still slower, less interesting Tarantino movie.

So the Hateful Eight.

You know, I thought about that.

Which is a slower Tarantino movie, but still has.

It is tension and zips and zags that and dialogue that it's still interesting for the most of its runtime.

So I was actually being kind of facetious with that also.

That's the.

That's the one where Kurt Russell destroyed, in real life, an antique guitar, which I think is hilarious.

It was like, on loan from a museum or something.

Wow.

I didn't know that factoid.

Yep.

The guitar he breaks.

That was antique.

Oh, I saw that movie originally in, what was it, 16 millimeter or whatever they were showcasing it at.

Yeah.

And you had the intermission.

Separating these characters in euphoria to such extremes, it's lost all its oomph, as well as a way a viewer can take it seriously.

It's almost like a bad music video without music.

That's what it looks like.

Looks great.

You know, it's funny that you say that because, like, at some point I had seen, like, a still.

I think that you used one of the little stills that you used.

Maybe it was like, just.

I think it's just promotional thing.

But my thought was like, dang, it looks like a music video.

This is me with absolutely no knowledge, but just having seen, like, stills from the show.

It's like, I see that when writing this.

Sam Levinson, the creator and writer, must have repeatedly asked himself, what's the worst thing I could put my main character into doing?

For no narrative reason.

It's important to have goals and to challenge yourself as a writer.

Cleaning a toilet that's full of poop.

Done.

Check.

You know, especially if I can make her make the stupidest decision to get there.

X does not lead to Y in this decision.

Huh?

I mean, if.

If there's poo poo in a toilet, someone's got to clean it, Blaine.

Or that someone should have flushed initially.

That's fidelity to.

To truth.

At least the second.

So second episode was slightly better.

In seasons one and two, I did defend its outlandishness, like, that kind of thing, but it felt like part of the cloth.

Here it all seems.

Seems very separate and unstitched.

Does it almost kind of seem like shock value?

Like, oh, I can't believe that they would do that.

You know what I mean?

In the same way that for another show, violence might be.

This is kind of happening gratuitously.

The first season was criticized for having young teenagers, at least in the characters were young teenagers, do such sexual scenes.

That was a criticism in the first season, but, you know, shock value.

You're just doing it.

And I did not feel that way.

I felt that it kind of was, but also for a reason.

Here.

I think it's.

Yeah, something could be provocative without purely being gratuitous or provocative.

I don't see a reason for it.

For the.

The classic.

The classic scene that I.

That when I think of a poo poo toilet is, of course, in train spotting, which the movie that convinced me never to do heroin.

But also, like, it doesn't feel gratuitous in that one because it's like, hey, more as it's like, I don't know.

So I could see it be feeling just like, okay, what's the point of this?

Because there is a point.

There's a point there in training.

I think some of this may have a payoff.

I don't know if I'll stick around for it.

I don't know.

You mean like they get a job as a plumber or something?

Exactly.

What could you do?

I'm seriously considering this scene in specific.

If you can't keep a viewer sticking around for a payoff, is it really a payoff?

Sure.

No is the answer to your question.

Yeah.

So let's move on to something that usually does have a nice payoff.

We'll move into beef on Netflix.

I say usually.

We've seen season one and we are midway in season two.

I was pretty big on season one.

Me too.

Not, not the least for the actors.

Yeah, we're very fun.

This show originally starred Steven Yun and Ali Wong as two people who were beefing over a parking lot incident.

And boy, did that rage get out of hand and do so quickly.

This season it's an anthology format series.

So that means we have a new story and new stars with Oscar Isaac as Josh, a general manager of a golf club.

And he's married to Lindsay, played by Carey Mulligan.

They have a bit of a run in with Ashley and Austin, the characters who work for Josh.

And that's.

I'll leave it at that for here.

This side of spoilers.

Do you have any thoughts on it being an anthology series?

Does that make sense to you?

Yes, makes sense to me.

I actually prefer.

Unless you really have something that's going to sustain you over multiple seasons, I'm looking at you, Mad Men.

I actually am completely fine with an anthology series that's like, let's take this somewhat thought or concept, but let's look at it from a different.

Let's not beat these characters to death because I think that's so easy to do.

So I'm fine with this, especially because this is also three years later.

I believe the first one came out in 2023 or 22 even.

So it's been, it's been a couple years.

So another thing where it's a little harder for something like, you know, House of the Dragon, where we're taking a year off between seasons versus this, which I'm completely.

I have no problem with it.

Also, I do kind of let you know, I kind of like sometimes when stuff does an anthology format because you do kind of get like, you can swap in other actors, kind of get big names for like a.

You know, it's less commitment than a whole series.

But you could get them for a season maybe.

Yeah.

Hence Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan here, I imagine.

Absolutely.

Who are doing really good work.

Absolutely.

The acting.

Yeah.

I'll say we'll get into.

More into it.

But I will say for the half that I've seen, the acting is really a fun component.

Yep.

Of this, of this series.

Eight.

Eight episodes total in this second season.

Not the 10 from the first, but eight episodes total.

You've seen four, I've seen five.

But I will hold off on anything five related in spoilers when we get there.

It's a good show.

I think that if you enjoyed season one, you might think that it dipped a little.

And I can.

I think that's a fair argument.

Just slightly though, you've got to appreciate that it's not just taking the concept and placing it onto other characters, but also taking into account the context of these characters.

So their rage and beef is going to be very different.

Contextually.

Yes.

And it's.

That's interesting to me.

That would sort of be my response now.

You know, this is the.

I'm always a little hesitant to rate especially something that's a short eight episode.

You know when it's kind of self contained because it's like the wheels could come off.

Exactly.

On the next four episodes.

So I'm not.

But as for me right now I'm.

I don't think it's a dip for.

For the difference in the situation because I basically.

Because of what you said, Blaine, it feels very different.

You cannot redo season one.

Yeah.

Nor should you try.

I agree with you.

We'll return to beef in spoilers.

It's going to be there something we need to unpack a little.

I think I've only seen Half man on hbo.

It only has one episode out.

So next week what we'll do is we'll return to it with two episodes under our belt and.

And dissect it up into.

In the spoiler section.

But here I'll bring it up briefly.

It's a follow up series from actor and creator Richard Gad.

Also stars Jamie Bell, they player.

They play a pair of somewhat estranged, somewhat brothers until one of them shows up at a wedding.

It's not for the faint of heart.

Neither was his first series.

So which was Baby Reindeer?

I didn't say what it was.

Yes, this is.

Can he do the level of writing and filming and acting as he did in Baby Reindeer?

That probably is a big question.

I would say that this one has a lot to say, but you almost have to come at it at an angle.

It's a rough watch.

I was a little disappointed in the first 30 minutes of the premiere.

These episodes are double the time of Baby reindeer.

They're about 50 minutes.

So the first 30, I thought I was a little disappointed, and I found the whole episode wholly uncomfortable to watch, but purposefully so.

Sort of a flip side of Euphoria.

Yeah.

Gad's trying to push you into corners.

It'll make a lot of viewers squeamish, and I really cannot recommend this to a lot of listeners, but I'm gonna see it through.

That has a lot to do with the back half of the first episode.

Because it clicked.

I thought, oh, okay, I think I see what's going on here.

Oh, no.

Now I'm.

I'm very intrigued.

And it's going to be.

And the flip side of Euphoria, where last week I watched the first episode of Euphoria and the trailer for the entire season aired, and I thought, oh, it's just gonna do that.

And I'm not for it.

This one aired its trailer, and I thought, oh, wow, all of that, huh?

Okay, so I'm being vague on purpose, trying to not spoil anything.

Can I recommend it?

It depends on who you are, who amongst my friends are you?

And I can probably tell you.

I.

Think it's well done so far in one episode.

So, you know, if you like tv, if you like being.

If you like your boundaries being stretched, then half man might be for you.

I'm intrigued.

I'm intrigued to see how I feel, too, because I feel like the answer for.

For me on that question, that hypothetical is sometimes.

Yeah, you know, it depends on what you're doing.

Me, too.

I don't have a lot of big things to say about this week's seventh episode of Rooster, the Steve Carell vehicle on hbo.

It was a pleasant episode.

I won't say it was a letdown, but it was fine.

It was fine.

They're moving into the.

They're in the back half now.

So I thought there might be a couple of things that they're going to try to do in the back half, and they.

They're very much in the last few episodes here.

I did think it was the least funny of the episodes so far.

I don't.

I was going to say, I'll be completely honest I don't have.

I was thinking about this one.

I was like, I don't really have anything new to say.

Like, everything that I liked about it still applies.

Everything that it did in this episode.

You could pretty much see it do it.

Like, you could have probably guessed that,.

You know, like, I will hold off on a couple things in spoilers, so I will bring it up, but it'll be a very brief.

The new may have worn off for me on Rooster.

Now that won't happen for everyone.

I imagine many, many viewers will get to this episode and think, this is fine.

Still enjoyable and pleasant.

It was.

Enjoy.

More unpleasant for me.

I just think I have a feel for it now, so that's fine.

Lastly and non spoilers.

And.

And not something we'll rehash in spoiler section because there's not a point.

But it is still worth mentioning the Netflix series.

This is a garden show, which I managed to watch one episode with my daughter.

Her only quibble was she thought it should be called this is the Garden Show.

That's pretty good.

She did not like that it was a garden show.

Like, it hints that there are more and there probably are.

Imagine what Zach Galifianakis is doing there with that one article.

She pinpointed it.

I think she liked it.

I liked it.

I think she liked watching something with me.

I think she enjoyed that.

We both liked that the episodes are 15 minutes and when the kids came on screen, I think she really got invested.

She was like, oh, it's going to involve children, too.

I. I think you could honestly almost say the same thing for my wife.

Like, as soon as the kids were up, she was like, locked in.

Like, oh, there's cute kids.

Okay.

Yeah, there.

There's a certain humor to putting a comedian with children and having.

Having him ask especially.

Yeah, the kind of like, gentle ribbing's not the right, but kind of like gentle poking at the children and letting them poke back at you.

Yes, Very fun teasing.

Dental teasing, I guess, is what you could say.

Got big chuckles out of ugas.

We're both big, big fans of poop jokes and there are a few in the first episode.

The first.

I don't think this is spoilers.

I hope it's not because there's nothing to spoil.

I actually learned a little bit about apples.

I had sort of known some of this stuff, but the one character is like, you sort of remember this from 9th grade biology, right?

And I'm like, I do halfway remember.

So, like, getting that reminder and I have something to fact check I don't.

I know in my day you probably Learned it in 9th grade science, but you didn't see it except in a picture and that didn't quite stick with you.

Exactly, exactly.

It was fun to see.

Yeah.

And I did laugh aloud when so did my daughter.

And we've been repeating the same joke over and over all week, same two jokes about some of that stuff.

So it's kind of the opposite experience of watching beef where it's gentle, it's optimistic.

Point half man and euphoria.

Yes.

It was quite the palate cleanser, let me tell you.

I will say it's future oriented in the sense that it involves children and growing things and maybe that makes you think about what kind of future you want to make for children and growing things.

Yeah.

You say you've watched the one episode.

Are you going to watch the rest?

I think I probably will.

They're so short.

They are short.

They're good to have on in the afternoon.

That's it.

When daylight is still available and you might encourage to go outside and just enjoy some things.

It's good.

I've got my own garden that I'm neglecting, Blaine.

I can neglect the one on TV just as well.

I mean, I inherited it from the people, mostly.

Flowers.

Yeah.

Not like tomatoes.

No.

I have a small little.

They.

The.

The previous owners had an herb garden that I have not fully weeded because I'm.

Partly because I'm lazy and partly because I'm afraid I'm going to pull up an herb.

But I do like herb gardens.

They seem a little more feasible.

They're pretty hardy, too.

They've got lavender, they've got rosemary because that's just going to last.

They've got a type of basil.

I had no idea what it was until I looked it up.

And so in the.

In the summer, it just smells incredible.

I love it.

Stresses me out to eat it because I'm afraid I'm going to kill something.

But I also love weeding in there because, like, you just come out with those.

The herb scents.

Like, it just feels so good.

My advice, this is not a advertisement, but take your Google app picture.

It'll tell you what you're going to pull up or not pull up.

So that is what I often do.

Yeah, me too.

This is a garden.

Very good.

Very pleasant show for sure.

That's it.

We'll take a break here for non spoiler section on the other side.

So stick around.

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Alabama Takes we're now in spoilers, so beware if you have yet to watch Beef on Netflix.

Beef returns with Oscar Isaac playing a man under pressure.

He's the general manager of a country club where just a file to be a member costs three figures.

Am I right about that?

That seems cheap based on the people hanging out at that club.

I mean it is a club where Michael Phelps hangs out.

This is insane.

He's married to Carey Mulligan's Lindsay, who has dreams of opening a bed and breakfast.

And under his command is full time employee Ashley, played by Kaylee Spaeny.

Many will recognize her from the film Civil War.

Yes, did you see Civil War?

I saw a trailer.

Surprised you haven't seen that.

It's good.

There's that's also streaming on HBO by the way.

Civil War if anyone wants to watch it.

But.

But there's Ashley by played by Kaylee Spany.

There's Ashley's fiance Austin, played by the actor from the movies May December and Warfare.

And his name's Charles Melton.

I thought that opening shot was just proof of how skilled of territory we're getting into.

Well thought out, giving us plenty of ideas to use going forward.

And that's the ants crawling slowly on something white.

And that turns out to be something fake.

It's snow.

And then Austin steps on him as he walks through serving at the country club in a gathering to save the frogs.

And that's where we first meet Oscar Isaacs.

Josh as general manager.

So me, I thought this was a cooking show.

Very confused for the first 15 minutes.

How did that shot in its quick pan of revelers suit you?

Did you find that a great one?

I It actually kind of ties in.

Not to get hopefully too, too out of whack, but it actually ties in with something I was thinking about, which is how.

And I haven't quite figured this out, not nearly to the level of someone like David lynch, but it does a good job of incorporating the surreal or the uncanny without making it.

We're making it feel like it's.

It's just what is lurking in everyday life.

Or like there's already something surreal, uncanny and artificial about a place where you pay $600,000 to come be a member.

Well, when Josh sees himself in other people.

Yeah.

And it's only happened twice and briefly.

And it's almost to the point where it's so.

Well, the first time it happened, I re.

I had to rewind.

I thought.

Did I really see that?

Yeah.

See, that is kind of tying.

My brain was kind of tying into that where it's.

Or my thought process was kind of tied into that, where when it completely erupts in total strangeness, it's been set up by the rest of the show.

Yeah.

I think it also does a really good job of.

I do think it's really well shot.

I think that based on season one, we're not gonna see strangeness just for strangeness's sake.

I think that's where like, you get into, like when you start comparing something with David lynch, it's like, was there a point, even if it was just David lynch creating a new world, or was it just like film school?

Like, I'd rather be weird now.

And I don't get that sense with this one.

But there is a sense of unease, unreality, maybe.

When you first brought up Lynch, I thought, I don't know that I see it here.

But as soon as I remembered that Josh sees himself in Troy and then sees himself in the marriage photo instead of Lindsay, and it's so brief that.

Yeah, I thought that is absolutely David Lynch.

He will.

There are some lynchings that done that where another character was in the place of not the person who was originally playing them.

And then you get a quick jump back to the other character speaking there.

I think there's definitely some touches.

Well, at the same time, I think comparing this show to something David lynch made is.

Is not what it wants.

And not fruitful.

No, I don't think so.

But that moment.

But it kind of has the overtones.

Yeah, that's what it makes.

Anytime somebody does that.

Right.

You have to think of David lynch and, you know, I guess I think probably, you know, folks who Quibble with me too.

Even like when David lynch does it, I think some people are like, that's just weirdness for weirdness's sake.

Whereas I am usually more on Team David there.

Yes, me too.

It's early in both seasons that the tension rises and fast at the things of a soundtrack here, pulsating to a Tron like beat as Josh and Lindsay begin to fight about the fact that Josh temporarily, as he says, forgets her birthday when he agrees to go with seeming friend.

I thought he was a friend.

And then later in the episode, we find that he's basically treating Josh a lot like the help.

He's.

Yeah, absolutely.

He's one of the millionaires at the club.

And yes, Josh is not a millionaire.

We find that later.

Troy does not treat him like that, like a buddy all the time.

He's more.

Absolutely not.

He kind of shuffles the hired help around if he wants.

It's funny, amusing.

I think this show takes a second to ensure that we know that these, or at least some of these are nice drivers.

There's a moment where we have Austin and Ashley bringing the wallet back to Josh that he left at the club.

They almost hit someone leaving their posh driveway.

Yeah.

And they insist that the older gentleman go, no, go out.

It's like, no, we're not doing that again.

It's kind of a nod to that.

It's funny.

That would have sparked a dozen fights in last season.

That was a perfect example, Blaine, because, like, you get the nice wink for the last season.

At the same time, it's genuinely funny because I feel unless I. I have a completely different experience at four way stops than other people do.

Like, I think we've all been in this situation.

And then it manages to also nicely cast a light on the characters of the two younger people who are going to return.

Like, it actually shows something about them.

It does reveal something.

The one way you can make me rage as a driver, I'm usually not too, too bad.

But the one way you can make me rage every single time is if you get to the four way stop first, then I come second and you wave me through condescendingly.

It always feels so condescending.

It's funny that you say that because I have a friend who.

That's his exact pet peeve as well.

And he's like, who made you king of the road?

Yeah, I'm playing by the rules here.

You just do what you're supposed to do.

That's exactly what he's saying.

He's like, yes, yeah.

It's around this part where the director uses a move I haven't seen in cinema or TV in a while.

They attach a camera to two different things.

Things, and they don't use it again.

It's so good to open.

Not yet, anyway.

You don't want to overdo this anyway, so that makes sense.

It's a level above the shaky cam shot to show tension and some building anger.

Lindsay, when she shuts the door, you're attached to the door as it shuts.

And then later, the camera is zooming toward Lindsay and Josh and it becomes attached kind of to her shoulder.

And I thought, wow, that's notable.

It.

She.

It becomes a part of her point of view.

View.

And it's impressive that second time around, especially that it has to become part of her.

You can almost feel it attaching.

It's good.

I would say that the director whose name I literally just looked up and forgot, but has been very, very intentional, or the directors of these episodes.

It feels like it's been very intentional because there's been a lot of stuff where kind of like that Blaine, where I've been like, that's cool, but that's not flashy.

And I kind of like, cool, but not flashy is so hard to.

Well, the camera does such a good job of panning in most episodes.

There's just subtle pan, and it feels.

It makes you feel something.

I mean, the examples that you pulled up during their fight, I mean, you're feeling.

Helps with put yourself in the place of the participants.

But also the physical surroundings are also being affected by.

You use the pan to create dread.

Yes.

Where.

Especially in the fourth episode, not to jump ahead too much, but there's a moment in the hospital where Austin looks at something and you get a slow, semi slow pan to what that something would be.

And it's almost like turning your head slowly where you know, I don't want to look at this, but I've got to see what's going on.

Absolutely.

Yep.

And is it Lee Seung Jin who directed the first episode, or does he just write and create?

I thought he was.

I might be wrong.

I thought he was not the director.

I thought he was just writing and creating, but I might.

I might be off on that.

He's a brilliant writer.

I'm assuming he's very much involved reading, like some interviews and stuff.

So, yeah, I think he's.

I think it's really his baby.

The paranoia that you get here is also really great.

In the first episode, in this first episode, Ashley's paranoia in her meeting at work.

I got tickled at myself for getting so angry that it was cell phone related.

I was just thinking, doesn't anyone know cell phone etiquette?

You're in a meeting, put your phone away.

We were.

Beth and I were laughing about the same thing where it's.

And it's so perfect that it's.

And these are.

They have some things where it's a little bit exaggeratedly played up for, say, the Gen Z characters, but dang, like, how many times have you had to have a talk with a, you know, like a student or a student worker or whatever and be like, hey, the phone is fun.

We love the phone.

But when we're at work, we put the toy away, we're not on the phone.

I nearly got whiplash from Austin on the floor for a workout.

And then a bug crawls in the frame and he jumps up so quickly to give it water.

I thought he was going to squash it like everyone else.

Like, it is very good at, like, the dark comedy part of this because, like, there are things.

And while also, I think doing a good job of showcasing who Austin is, when he texts her, he's like, a bug died today.

I cried.

Or a bee died.

I cried out to be a bee.

Which might be a little bit more important than just a bug.

Very funny.

You know, Oscar Isaac, we talked about his performance in non spoilers, but he does really well at being intimidating without being mean.

I think of his role in 2014's Ex Machina, where he does menacing, but you could also interpret it as not menacing.

You know, if you squinted.

He and Carey Mulligan are so great here together.

And by great, I mean horrible people.

But, I mean, one of the things that I love this is in the first episode, too, is the way they play.

Once they see that Austin and Ashley have maybe seen them fighting, the way they play two people where the air has just gone out of the room and they're kind of fumbling around and it's great.

It's great.

And it stress you as a viewer.

It stress you the hell, man.

If this show doesn't.

If you're a married person and the show doesn't make you think about the way that you might interact with your spouse.

The two of them play and, like, they're so.

They seem to almost be what would been being like, the range of characters like Mulligan and Oscar Isaac do such a good job of the shifting of who I have to be in this certain situation or even what I want or Even how I see myself, minute by minute, second by second, hour by hour.

Sometimes Josh is Bono's friend.

Sometimes he's the guy who hasn't had sex with his wife for 11 months.

Sometimes he's the manager.

You know, I thought, that's really good.

Yeah.

These boiling points, these temperatures that are rising, are getting heat from assumptions early on, characters not asking questions.

And that is a staple of humanity.

But it's also a staple of a lot of television.

If Austin would have just asked Ashley if she's mad instead or if she's sick or.

Of course, he wouldn't have really known if she was sick unless he asked.

Ashley thinks Josh is mad, but he miscommunicates pretty badly.

Or maybe he doesn't.

They both think the fight between Josh and Lindsay is much worse than it is for at least a night.

Yeah.

They still think it's pretty bad because they've never experienced such a fight.

But they're very young at the same time.

You know, it is pretty bad fight, but for them it was not.

Yes.

Obviously, I'm not advocating the kind of fight that they're having, but we are.

I mean, very, very deliberately.

Right.

Like, we're set up with the.

The young people who don't know how to fight at all, which is almost as bad.

I was.

That's something.

I don't know how to fight very well.

Yeah.

Like, I don't.

If you don't know how to fight, you go.

You don't express yourself.

You just are all a big bundle of hurt.

Yeah.

Making everyone angry.

And I think that's the issue with, you know, we get that perfectly counterposed with.

With Ashley and Austin because they're, like, terrified.

I feel that the miscommunication makes so much sense because they're walking on eggshells because they've never fought and they don't know how to fight, and they don't even realize they're walking on eggshells.

Yes.

Josh and Lindsay are the opposite of not knowing how to fight.

They're the other spectrum end of not knowing how to fight.

They know you get the sense that.

And again, I thought this was done very well by the actors.

But these are points being raised during this fight are not new to either person.

You know?

Yeah.

Like, these are not things that have never been said before.

Talking about how the show is made and what they end up doing as choices.

There's a shot in the third episode where Josh and Lindsey go to a bed and breakfast to compare and contrast what they have in mind.

And I'm bringing this up not because I think it's in isolation.

It's because it works so well to convey what the characters are going through and what we should think about them.

But she is sitting by the pool in this hue of blue light, and he is right there in the same shot.

And I swear to you, it looks like they were shot in two different locations of Beast together, which is exactly what you're supposed to think about them right there.

Absolutely.

They were both on their phones.

I think that's a big part of the show, that it could be that the phones are disconnecting us, making us unable to fight in Ashley and Austin's case.

And then it cuts to a scene where Josh is writing in the most elegant penmanship.

I laughed out loud.

I didn't like you knew what he was doing, but it still made me laugh.

There have been several, like, laugh out loud moments.

Oh, yeah.

The third episode really had some levity.

Doctor trying his damnedest to hit a golf ball.

That made me chuckle a little.

Can I.

Can I say this is kind of.

He's.

He hasn't been in it too much, but I was so happy to see Song Kang Ho frequent Bong Joon Ho collaborator.

I. I loved it.

I love him.

He kind of plays a bumbling fool.

He can just do anything he wants to do, I think.

I think he's that good of an actor.

And yeah, it's like, there's a bit where especially like, not just the shaking golf club, but, like, he's having a fight with his wife.

Another fight comes up, and he's like, fine, I'll just go to prison, but I'm gonna eat all this food before I go to prison.

Start shoving food in his mouth.

I'm sorry, but him trying to hit the golf ball and not even make contact was funny.

The bit.

It's not like, not just him, like, he's completely messed up.

He's hitting it all over, but the way, like, he's doing.

And then behind him on the cart, they're like, good job.

You're doing great.

You're getting better.

So funny.

Thank you, everyone running the show for really paying attention to who's in your cast, because that was.

It was a delight to see him.

And he's great.

Of course he's great and everything.

He's great in this role.

He is.

And I think it's a good choice to make Josh and Lindsey not the 1% I thought they were at first.

They're well removed.

Despite looking well to do and keeping up with the Joneses.

At first glance, there's a lot more of us who live like Ashley and Austin than Josh and Lindsay.

But we need to see that they are a semi rich couple, or at least a couple in debt who are scraping by just as much as Austin and Ashley is.

Are at times, I was going to.

Say almost exactly the same thing, Blaine, where they're sort of foils to each other.

And there is I think like a really.

I would say that this, this show has a fairly grim picture of how we've put our society together at this point in time.

But also I completely agree with you, Blaine, in that it seemingly.

Right, like Ashley and Austin are completely lower class and Lindsay and Josh are, you know, at least, at least the bourgeoisie.

Right.

But they're both, they're both in debt.

They can both be fired at the drop of a head.

They have no job security.

Right.

Like they're both under the very rich, the very wealthy.

And Josh is even treated with the same kind of dismissiveness that he can be.

Treat Ashley with, you know, because they're both just employees.

They are both dependent on somebody else.

You know, they, they have no security, I guess is what I'm trying to get at under, under capitalism.

Really.

And I think, I think that's very deliberate.

Yeah.

At times intense.

Look at how money works in marriages and couples.

You know, I just, I think there's something really good and honest and relatable about shows talking about the perniciousness of debt.

Yeah.

You know, and honestly I thought, I did think it was interesting as a factor in this show at.

Right after DTF St. Louis, I think did a really good job centering that and centering it in a marriage in a way that money troubles are now affecting both of these, these couples.

What a son of the times that we have two pieces of television that are back to back about that.

I mean, you know, based on the, based on the, the data we're seeing out there, you know, Americans are increasingly falling into debt.

We're using credit cards for basic necessity.

You know, all this kind of stuff, we're just, we're piling it on.

So clearly, clearly there's something in the.

Water, health care playing a role in both.

It's.

That's just a sad thing.

Again, we heard this with Breaking Bad, but you couldn't set this in England or Canada.

Right.

She would have gotten surgery.

You might not have that kind of anger.

It's, you know, and I, I think that maybe I'm wrong but that specifically the Expense and brokenness of the healthcare system.

Uh huh.

Feels very deliberate here because who, who you know, like people.

I've heard sometimes heard people say things like okay, well why should I pay for someone else's health?

You know, if they're just going to drink Pepsis all day and then get diabetes, why should I help?

But you know, every single one of us under the current health insurance system, if we continue to have insurance later into our life, we will eventually our health will deteriorate to the point where we will.

Someone else will be paying for our health.

Right.

If you think that you're not a part of or affected by the system, you don't understand the system.

Yeah, there's some really good jokes in there too.

Like Austin kind of starts dropping some buzzwords about late stage capitalism.

Yes.

And there's a bit where he and Ashley are again failing to communicate and he's like, it's Josh's fault, He's like.

For breaking the healthcare system.

That's a good one.

It's really funny.

It's really sad, but it's really funny too.

Hey.

Ashley's confusion about a deductible with health insurance is.

And why deductible would exist inside of a health care system.

That's me.

I mean she makes.

I've had to wrap my head around deductible.

Even though I worked in a billing office at one time in my life and I did this exact kind of thing and I still don't understand why that word's used.

And, and I mean it is the ironic question right then what's health insurance for?

I have pretty good health insurance now.

When I had to, I have it through my employer.

Thankfully when I had to buy my own, it was like this is for emergencies.

Like if I get a cold or whatever, like I'm gonna get Dayquil.

I, my, my co. Pay, my deductible are hot.

You know what, what is it for?

Just got a bill in the mail this week for uh huh.

For a bit of an ambulance ride and it was.

Would have liked for it to been lower.

So what do you make of Josh seeing himself in others and in that picture of.

Which is also in others with this.

Picture of his wife.

Didn't that happen to Lindsay as well?

Or am I misremembering that?

Tell me when.

I think it was the second episode but I couldn't pinpoint it.

Okay.

Maybe I would have to go back and figure it out or watch it.

And the answer is, to be completely honest with you, I don't know, I don't know what it's supposed to be telling us.

Okay.

So to me, I kind of took it as they want to hear that they're loved and care for.

Like, they love and care for themselves.

I could see that.

Or, you know, there is an aspect of, like, wouldn't we all kind of like, just like a perfect clone of ourselves that agrees with us in everything we say.

Right.

But that's not.

You know, then.

Then you don't have a relationship.

You're just talking to yourself.

Right.

I. I thought that ramping it up, you know, and they did get a little on the nose, but kind of ramping this stuff up in the hospital was like, oh, okay, we.

We're all in hell.

They're in hell.

Yes.

Then they pulled out the Bosch imagery, and I was like, okay, I got it.

All right.

Like, the ER visit was shot like a nightmare.

I may be going out on a limb here to guess that she was not at the pit.

They would have taken care of her at least once she got back there.

I get that the pit's waiting room is slammed.

This is.

I have a friend who had appendicitis, had to have her appendix removed and was in.

Had gone to the hospital and was.

Had delayed treatment because the nurses thought she was trying to get drugs.

And finally the.

The friend.

My friend described her pain and what she was feeling in a certain way that the nurse, like, rolled their eyes and was like, okay, well, now I have to look at you, you know, again, because I thought she was.

Yeah.

And then it turned out she.

She was having appendicitis.

She.

And she's fine.

She recovered.

Yeah.

But it could have been very serious.

How funny that it made you think of that.

When I also was reminded of taking a friend to the ER and sitting with them the whole time because of appendicitis and having it removed.

It just made me think of, like, these.

Like, there's some exaggeration and some grotesque here, but it's not that far away from.

From the real life, from the real situation.

Yeah.

If you are, quote unquote, nobody, and.

You go to a hospital, the exaggeration comes from the hellishness of the stranger staring at you, the cracked glass on the security guards.

Oh, yeah.

Everything's a little like.

You use the word nightmares.

That's exactly the word I would use.

Yeah.

It's a hellscape.

You wonder if Ashley's intelligence is going to play a factor in her scheme.

And I think that's starting to unfold.

I think so she's.

Josh and Lindsay just claim she's dumb.

She's not completely dumb, but she lacks a certain.

She's naive.

Yes.

Certainly.

She's not sophisticated.

Whereas Austin.

I think.

I suspect Austin might actually be dumb.

It's funny because they're both.

But they're both very naive.

They both don't have.

Thank you.

That's true.

They're both naive, and they both don't have any experience with the world they're operating in.

Whereas, you know, Lindsay and Josh, by counterpoint, think that they are very smart, yet they are, you know, in classic fashion.

Right.

They're completely underdone by Austin, wondering how much they're charging for mist and seeing if he can lower their mist, you.

Know, but yet it still helps him to shine a light on it.

I think they're doing a really good job of playing.

You're an English teacher.

I'm probably using this word incorrectly, but if I remember it like the two couples being kind of foils for each other.

Right.

Like the.

Yeah.

The similarities and the differences between them.

Yeah.

There's a lesson here that unless you are in the 1%, we're a lot more alike than you might think.

That's.

That's the.

I think that there is a thing.

There's a thought about class solidarity here.

And I think that part of the.

Part of the tragedy is that all.

None of the couples realize that they should be on the same team, so to speak.

Yeah.

That they're.

They're all have nots compared to some degree.

It's with the people at that club.

They are all have nots compared with them.

There are moments where Josh and Lindsay almost get along with Austin and Ashley or they almost befriend.

They could have befriended them.

The fifth episode gets in this a little bit more.

Writer creator Lee Seung Jin does a great job at finding ways that the enemies can almost get along for periods at a time.

Almost.

It put me in mind of the.

I think it was F. Scott Fitzgerald who said something like, you know, one of the problems with America is every.

Oh, no, no, no.

It was Steinbeck.

Every.

Every poor person thinks that they're just a temporarily embarrassed millionaire.

And I think that's Josh and Lindsay.

To a T. Absolutely.

And that's.

And that's part of.

And that's fueling this issue.

And it's.

And it's.

There's a breakdown in solidarity where there maybe should be a little more solidarity.

I agree with that.

And Josh and Lindsay are very much Scott and Zelda from What I've read.

Absolutely.

How great is Carey Mulligan?

I know we talked a lot about Oscar Isaac, but, like, how great is Carey Mulligan?

And, like, she.

She seems.

She's so good at acting.

She comes across as a profoundly unpleasant person.

But you can also, like, there's scenes where you're like, I get it.

Like, I get it.

You know, like, you're like, that's why people like her.

That's why.

Yes, she's horrible in this as far as the character is, but she, the actress is wonderful.

He is.

He is, too, in his own way.

But.

Oh, yeah, we'll have a lot more to say about Beef.

We'll wrap it next week, four more episodes, and we will tell you our ideas.

That will unpack it all as a whole next week.

But there will be a lot to chew on.

Oh, nice.

That takes us to Rooster.

I only have a few brief things I want to say about the 7th.

I. I think, folks, if you stuck it out to the spoiler section for Brewster, you already know whether or not you like this show.

But I just wanted to say some specifics here.

The girl who interrupts to say a negative thing to Greg in class, she is very much a real student.

That's a real student archetype.

I think that McGinley, that made me laugh.

Yeah, it did.

Me, too, because that's real.

McGinley very much encapsulates a university president or someone in high standing in academia.

To my experience, his leaving Dylan with Onward is so on par to someone of that stature who's intelligent and in charge.

He's very much like that, except he's not a completely horrible human being, which I believe, you know, many university presidents are.

They're managing.

They're managing.

It's.

It all comes down.

There's so much money involved.

It's not about the education.

It's about money.

So I.

He's the charming.

He can very much be a Josh.

Very much.

He.

Something about the way he pronounces special door makes me.

Makes me.

He's just like, it's our special door, Craig.

Oh, yeah.

Hey, McGinley really brings that one, too.

He's.

He's got his.

He's got his little.

He's got his little walk into Craig's office.

I also think it's really cool that how it's written.

President is a lonely guy.

He's looking for another buddy.

Yeah, it's really what it boils down to.

The male.

See, that's what makes you.

That's what Makes you like him.

Yeah.

Because a real president could be surrounded by sycophants if they wanted.

And he, like, in real life, you.

Know, I thought the episode would be a little funnier as far as the fallout between Greg and Tommy.

Thought we'd see more.

Yeah, it was a little.

I decided not to.

You fucked my mom.

That was about the extent of it, you know, really.

It was more of the possibilities of the ladies getting pushed aside.

One, did.

Two, did not.

Sunny and Dylan get a win from men in their lives?

If you want to count Sunny's as a win by Archie seemingly committing to her.

Oh, you mean caring about her.

For caring about her.

Thirty minutes, thanks to her dad, Fred, who comes in.

Katie gets left out in the cold, though, by Archie.

He's got to pick one.

Archie the author.

Tobin wannabe Archie.

He truly is the villain of this series, isn't he?

Because neither of these women are in this situation.

And back and forth of feeling.

But, like, get.

Like, if he wasn't giving something to Katie, she wouldn't feel extra hurt from him.

Same thing with Sonny.

Right.

Like, if he.

Yeah.

Like, they're both kind of.

He's kind of stringing them both along.

Yeah.

Thoughts on Jim o' Hare returning to TV as Sonny's dad?

I like.

I mean, it's nice to see him.

He's good.

He's kind of good in that.

I really.

He was.

And I think they.

They maybe could have played it a little better, but there was, like, some good tension with, like, what's he gonna say once Sonny leaves?

You know, we've got.

We've got, you know, we got Jerry Girgets here, the nicest guy in Pawnee.

That's gonna.

What's gonna happen.

And it was kind of like that, but then.

Yeah.

Yeah, we'll see.

I did love how Jim o', Hara, as Sonny's dad, allowed that the writing didn't have to face down any sort of ethnicity issues for casting.

It shouldn't.

You know, he's.

It's perfectly fine to have him as her dad, but it also allowed them to deepen that she would want a baby.

Yeah, she was definitely.

I thought that was a nice touch.

That was.

That was well done.

Adopted.

And of course, Fred's a fan of the Rooster series.

Makes perfect.

I would expect nothing less from Fred.

He.

The Freds of the world love Rooster.

The Freds and the Tommies of the world, they just.

Yeah, they do.

They're all in.

Sure.

My final point is that Rory Scovel proves he only needs 2 minutes of screen time in order to be a winning presence.

His delivery of, oh, that's not jelly.

That's actually blood.

He's been.

At the first episode, I was like, I'm not sure if I love.

Like, they were like, the first interaction between him and Steve Carell.

I was like, might be a little much.

Not sure about this.

Boy, was I proven wrong, because every.

Every other scene he's been in this season, he stole the show.

He did in just a limited amount of time this week.

Like, as he said at a previous episode, like, you know, gun range is really the best place to lose your gun.

It makes sense.

I keep losing it.

That makes me laugh.

That made me laugh.

Or there's even just a little bit where I didn't bring it up earlier, but I think it's the second episode where Katie's like, it's a good thing there wasn't a gun in here.

He's like, well, I actually left one on the desk.

Just the way.

Just the way he responds.

Did you ever get around to watching some of his Netflix special?

I haven't yet, but I'm going to.

I'm telling you, the first.

First come out eight minutes after the little intro bit that hall comedians do for their specials after.

Yeah, yeah, of course it's going.

It'll blow your mind at how funny it is.

That's it for us.

I'm appreciative of you listening as well as your time as well as Donovan and Adam's time when he's here.

Of course.

I'm Blaine, and, you know, we hope that your spouse doesn't take a golf club to you too.

Too often.

Too often.

Have a nice week.