Unraveling 'DTF St. Louis' and 'Shrinking' Does Its Best

When it comes to tv, there are just too many options with too much to stream.

So our podcast will help you figure out what to watch and where to watch it.

Our first half of each show has our host discussing a show or three without any spoilers whatsoever.

The value you get in the back half is where we talk about the same shows with spoilers so you can gain insight, sometimes deep, sometimes even deeper, or just compare it to your own thoughts to see if you agree.

It's a lot of fun.

Stick around.

We got some big thank yous to do because we met our fundraising goal with our website, the Alabama Take.

Visit it, see all the writings, the different podcasts.

This is taking it down.

And this week we're covering only two shows.

We're going to talk about DTF St. Louis, it's first episode on HBO and we're going to talk about the seventh episode of Shrinking on Apple TV.

Stick around.

Listen to the non spoilers if you've watched them.

Hang out after the break and hear us break down some of the specifics on what worked and what didn't.

Let me bring in Adam and Donovan to help me with the rest of the show

projection.

All right, Adam and Donovan are here with me.

I promised that at the beginning of the podcast.

God bless them for their time.

They're so kind about joining me on Sunday afternoon and since we record on Sunday afternoon, yesterday for us was the end of the fundraiser for the website and the podcast and we want to make a very, very, very special thanks to Ann Gunter.

I don't think I know you, but God bless you.

I mean, that was so kind.

The donation just put us over the hump.

In case you're listening.

If you're won, what I'm talking about.

They put us over the hump, got us to our goal and we are operational for another year.

2, 3, 4, 5, however long you want us to go.

We don't do fundraisers.

I think the last one we did was three years ago, so maybe we can stretch it to four or five.

Thanks so much everyone.

It helps Adam and Donovan too.

Keep podcasting with me.

Maybe with a Knight of the Seven or Nine.

Is it Nine Kingdoms coming on?

The slate may feel a little blank at first glance, especially if you're eager for a House of the Dragon in June.

But HBO has rolled out an even more adult series with DT of St. Louis.

First episode aired last Sunday.

If you're listening to us on release date Tuesday, you may have seen the second episode.

So we're always a week behind on These big Sunday HBO shows, We enjoy it a lot.

Mmm.

I would say a lot of the time.

We're non spoilers here, though.

You don't have to run away, even if you haven't seen it or if you've seen both episodes or just one.

First impressions with DTF St. Louis Pilot.

My feeling about this show is that it's a show that dares to ask America a question.

Are you down to fuck.

Are you down to trick your friend and fucking.

Are you down to spend time in St. Louis?

Possibly the most bold question.

A suburb of St. Louis.

I have to admit, I've never been to St. Louis, you guys.

I have never been to St. Louis either.

I have been to St. Louis several times.

Twilight, where these guys, these gentlemen live, these characters live in Twilight, which is in the outskirts of St. Louis, is a fictional suburb.

Well, shit.

Yep.

I'm not watching this show anymore.

They're just making things up.

I was looking for documentaries.

Completely ruined the illusion.

Pretty solid suburb.

Name.

Adam, what'd you think of the first episode?

Just general.

I have to admit that there was a bit of misdirection on this for me.

Yeah.

And that I knew nothing except, you know, those commercials.

And as the cast was revealed, it was just like one hit after another.

And I.

We.

Me and Natalie looked at each other and said, well, we're gonna give that a try.

Yes.

So the direction that it went in was, you know, there was humor for sure.

It had me laughing and uncomfortably laughing

and dark black humor, I would say.

Yeah.

And then the pivot that it takes, which were in non spoilers.

So I had no idea what I was getting into.

So I think that pivots in the trailer.

I think it is because I went into it.

I wasn't surprised by it because I thought.

I mean, they don't, like, lay it out, but I thought I'd seen it in the trailer.

Right.

You know, we mentioned this in January in one of our hey, here's what's coming episodes.

I can't remember what we titled it about spring.

And here we are.

Time has changed.

March has begun.

Every Bradford pear is blooming outside my window and smelling the place up.

But yes, we talked about it.

We didn't say much about it other than the cast.

And we thought cast, I'm in.

And Jason Bateman, David Harbour, and Linda Cardinelli in general.

Donovan, what did you think?

Other than it dares to ask, do

you like to fuck?

I think the whole time I was watching it, I was like, man, I wish I'd read a Philip Roth novel so that I could make a really astute observation like, well, It's Philip Roth.

St. Louis DTF St. St. Louis.

Philip Roth writes a lot about masturbation, is what I'd always heard, and male

sexuality and aging male sexuality.

But I haven't read it, so I might be wrong, but I did get the feeling.

I'm curious, like, overall, what's it gonna be like?

Do we need another exploration of old guys feeling old?

Well, I don't know.

I did.

I came away from this episode firmly convinced that Jason Bateman is our greatest actor.

Who, like, always plays a character who's like, you need to ask a follow up, like whatever you've, whatever question you've asked.

How are you doing?

Fine.

What's the man?

That's astute.

You need.

Because I don't know that I ask enough follow up questions to people.

It was funny to see.

I mean, obviously I spend.

Have spent just an insane amount of time with Jason Bateman as Michael Bluth.

And he's wonderful there and he's hilarious,

amazing, and has looked about the same age for the last 30 years, which is.

I mean, clearly he has aged now, but a little.

You remember the smartless behind the scenes?

They're on tour.

It was an HBO series about six, eight episodes long.

Yeah, you're right.

Yeah, we covered it.

I really enjoyed that.

But during a lot of this, like, the workout scenes and him being a local news person, all this.

Remember how vain he was in.

In the smart list.

In smart.

In real life.

In real life.

Yeah, like, he was like.

And admittedly so.

Yeah, yeah.

Self aware.

Giving the other guy like, well, I ran six miles on the treadmill this morning and I eat this.

Are you really gonna eat that, you sack of.

You know, he's like giving them hell the whole time.

And it was funny to see this, you know, when you think of, like, here's a weatherman, you know, who likes standing in front of the camera, having his billboard throughout town and all this stuff.

And it's like, oh, Jason Bateman, is.

Is he that guy?

There's probably no other living American actress who is so perfectly able to play a local news celebrity.

Like, and in spite of everything I just said this, this all sounds like I'm speaking ill of the guy.

I love, Jason Bateman.

This is great.

He's a great actor.

I was intrigued watching the first episode and had the thought, okay, this is boredom of suburbia come to life.

A lot of us are in this rut.

This is adult and I was on board.

It was a great.

Shifted gears from trapezing around a Westerosi countryside or flying a dragon.

Not through anything wrong with that.

I love those shows too.

But then I started seeing some reviews and headlines over you.

Reviews which seemed somewhat favorable, but they all came with this asterisk.

Hesitations like, this is going to be good if.

Or specific stipulations that dare.

I can't call it good yet.

Not me.

And I almost kept thinking, did we watch the same episode?

Of course.

These critics get five or six episodes of an eight episode series.

They still were saying this.

And I was thinking, I found it enthralling.

I did.

I found it like enough that, like, I'm gonna watch the next episode.

That is always curious when people are like five in.

And it's like, it's not that long or four in.

Or whatever.

It's like, it's not that long of a show.

Like, is it good or not?

Yeah.

Like, has it had four good episodes or.

Yeah.

I will say this, and I don't think it is a spoiler at all.

Don't worry, listeners.

A lot of the reviewers said that it kept the same tone and consistency through five episodes and it left them thinking, huh, Interest.

That's an interesting.

That's interesting.

It is, isn't it?

It makes me want to watch it for sure.

Yeah, but.

But they all were.

So you could hear the tone in their writing, as if to say, it's good.

Maybe, you know, they wanted to put that maybe in there.

Yeah, well, it's.

I think it's not a comfortable show to watch.

I wonder how much that factors into it.

You know what I mean?

Like, if it stays in gear, like it's.

It's weird and.

But it's also straddling kind of what I said at the top.

Like, it is funny, but also like, you know, are you rooting for the guys?

Right.

It puts you in this.

Like, it is good.

It's making you feel something.

But maybe the thing that you're feeling is not the thing that you usually enjoy television making you experience.

That's a good point.

Yeah.

This is a case where Jason Bateman just really is great for the character he's playing.

Where, at least from the first episode, I feel like there's a lot of unknown about him, but there's a lot of.

He's got a facade in a surface that makes you make certain assumptions or assume things about his character.

Right.

And will those be red herrings or not exactly.

The.

I don't think it's a spoiler.

The fact that he rides a recumbent bike is very funny to me.

I don't know why.

Immediate humor.

In fact, that's my first point in spoilers.

Every time they showed it, it made me laugh.

It didn't.

Me too.

Yeah, most of the critics enjoy the midlife drama minus other aspects of the show, which we'll wait for spoilers to talk about.

Yeah, I'm kind of glad I'm with Adam.

I watched this show alone without my wife, and I'm kind of glad.

And then my brother and sister and I have a text thread and you know, our text thread is family based.

And quite often, usually about once every three weeks, my sister will message us and say, what's some good shows to watch?

And I replied, DTF St. Louis had a great first episode, but be careful.

LOL.

And she said, yeah, it looks good and I love Jason Bateman.

I said, who doesn't, you know?

Anyway, we'll get into the be careful parts and spoilers and have a good laugh with it.

I can't wait for the spoilers.

Yeah, me either.

We have one other show in non spoilers and then we will get to spoilers.

It's funny that I'm bringing this up again, but I do feel like talking a little bit about shrinking in its most recent episode.

It's, you know, I started this season with saying shrinking has gone bad.

It's the milk in the.

In the refrigerator that's no longer that good.

Exasperation.

Date's gone.

The most recent episode, I think it's the seventh out of the third season that's airing.

It's titled Derek's Don't Die.

I thought it was a very good episode of television.

Yeah, I thought it was.

I think that's well put.

I think it's good.

I'm kind of pumping the brakes.

I'm being a little hesitant.

I should stop being so reluctant.

It was a good episode of television.

It was good because it was heavy on drama.

It was what we thought it could be, the drama series with a slight bit of comedy.

And it's the kind of comedy you don't even need to find funny in order to enjoy it.

I do think there was a shift in stakes that happened and pretty obviously that, you know, I think something I know I harp on a lot is like they kind of therapy speak their way from conflict to conflict.

And that's the central.

You're bringing up two big words.

I've gotten spoilers, stakes and therapy speak.

Okay, well, I hate to.

I'm trying not to spoil your, your spoiler segment here, but, you know, it needed something a little more tangible.

And I always feel like I have to apologize for this opinion because it's like mental health is health.

I understand that.

But yeah, for a show, sometimes it's tough to illustrate, especially when the drama of the mental health is oftentimes about like how to function a little better a day at a time.

And you see these people grow over seasons and it's like they have demonstrated the benefit.

But an episode like this maybe is a good one to drop in every now and again to.

You know, we need our a certain level of catharsis from our fiction.

I think it can be heightened reality and it really did that well this time.

They do have problems that they work on, Sometimes they fix, sometimes they don't, and they swirl around in them for episode to episode.

But it did not feel like that at all this time.

In fact, we'll get into specifics after the break, but there were some who were like, this is what I'm going to try to do next.

I am moving on to the next phase.

And it was very clear that they weren't going to do the same thing for the next four episodes.

So we'll get into this.

Let's, let's take a break.

If you've seen the first episode of DTF St. Louis and if you've seen the seventh episode of this season of Shrinky, stick around.

We'll talk about those or use the timestamps to listen to one and not the other.

We'll take about a 30, 35 second break.

The album take is a site full of writing, full of interesting ideas, as well as several other podcasts including two new ones, Hidden Creatures and Punk Love and Compassion.

You'll enjoy both Hidden Creatures about the supernatural, the things you think you saw.

Punk Love and Compassion, hosted by Bo Wolf, where he interviews different people in the punk scene to talk about music, their experiences and really struggles with life that some of them have experienced.

It's really deep stuff.

I think you'll enjoy both.

Of course there's always taking on sports, we are a Star War and all the writings on the Alabama take.

Go find it.

Enjoy.

Subscribe Follow let's get back into our show.

Taking it Down.

Okay, we're back.

So last Saturday, if you're listening to us on Tuesdays day of release.

Thank you.

But this most recent Sunday as well, they aired the second episode of DTF St. Louis.

We've only seen the first, which is called Cornhole does anyone want to make a joke there?

And inherently funny.

Everyone's cornholing.

Everybody's laughing and riding and cornballing.

Cornballing.

Thank you.

I'm sorry.

Sorry.

Arrested Development.

We didn't really talk about it in non spoilers, but just the cornhole.

I think the show immediately sets the tone of, like, the socioeconomic thing happening in a really.

In what direction?

In, like, being comfortably socioeconomically satisfied or in the middle or not.

So I think that Jason Bateman's character has obviously done very well for himself.

Local celebrity seems to live kind of an upper.

Probably does okay.

His salary's okay, you think?

Yeah, for sure.

Oh, for sure.

Their house looks great.

It's like he could live in the shrinking neighborhood, you know what I mean?

But very much know what you mean.

The other family involved seems the Smirnicks appear to be struggling a bit more.

And you find out the origin story of how they became friends of, like, this guy has later in life decided to sign, you know, to be an interpreter.

And you're kind of like, what.

What's going on with this family?

And the fact that he rolls into the party with the cornhole set is so funny to me.

And he had corn.

He invited all his buddies over for a cornhole day.

Cornhole day.

Games of cornhole going, going at once, I think, and probably ending in some sort of cornhole fun championship.

It sounds fun to me.

I'd go.

I don't know why I don't have friends that do that.

You obviously want to have, like, a garden party if you have a nice house.

Sure.

Like.

Like Jason Bateman's character does.

To invite all of your friends over for a day of cornhole when your house is kind of shitty is like, makes you even more impressive to me.

You know, like, we're having a good time.

Just.

Yeah.

Everybody gets absolute, absolute hangout.

David Harbour does a good job of feeling like a. Portraying a dude that you're like.

Yeah.

I could see him plausibly just being like, a guy who's, like, kind of trying, kind of nice.

Mm.

But also has been that opening scene with his stepson.

Yes, I do want to go there.

Both hilarious and tragic, you know?

Yeah.

They grabbed the.

It is low hanging fruit, but I don't think, like a mo.

As a storyteller.

It is, but, like, emotionally not where he.

He said.

He looks at the paper and it said love, dad.

And he.

Yeah, he does not call himself dad because he feels like he hasn't earned it.

And you're like, oh, this is a tough way to get to know this character or these two characters.

Yeah, I felt it, man.

I felt that was one of the better scenes and one of the best written scenes.

It was, it was good.

It was kind of like, it made you like, it was, it was sincere, but it also set up what I thought was a continually kind of pretty funny joke where the kid's just like throwing rocks at the house and so.

And, and, and like, and he's throwing rocks at his own house and he like, doesn't know.

Like, it was funny.

But also like, you can tell.

Like, we had the background of like, okay, he's sincere, he's trying.

But also he's like, he has no idea how to communicate with this kid.

He's just like the constant, like, well, maybe don't do that.

He's doing such a fine job of showing us reserved anger.

Yeah.

In those things because I've been there.

I'm there five days out of the week.

I can't get that angry.

But this needs to stop.

Right?

You can tell, like, he knows that blowing his stack is the wrong move, but it's genuinely frustrating to him that he cannot communicate to this kid that he wants to do his best by that he should not throw rocks at his house.

And even the way his one liners are written is so good.

How about we not do that, buddy?

That's exactly, that's exactly what was it in my head.

We was like, how about we not do that, buddy, huh?

Which is exactly the way I phrase things when I'm like, talking to my daughter and like, how about we not do that?

Okay.

Or my big thing is I'll ask her and she will say no, and then I will say, okay, honey, that really wasn't a question.

How about we go brush our teeth?

No.

Yeah.

I'm telling you, go brush your teeth.

Surely the three of us who grew up in Alabama, bored in our adolescence at some point can, like, sure.

You don't not relate to the kid.

Oh, yeah.

I remember my mom getting pissed off at me because I was throwing dirt clods on the, on the house where the brick was.

I have broken a window with Rob's for fun.

Yes.

And you kind of.

At least I had the thought of, like, you hope that this seems like a nice family.

They're trying to work hard.

Like, hopefully 10 years from now is better than today.

And maybe this, this kid one day realizes what they were doing for him and grows, you know, or even looks back and goes, man, they were in kind of A crappy spot and we still pulled.

You know what I mean?

You're hoping all these things.

Obviously that does not come.

Yeah.

The stepson with iPad or anything.

Am I correct?

I don't think so.

You said did not show, right?

Blaine?

No.

When he's bored, he just throws rocks.

That's kind of funny.

It made me laugh.

Like it was.

It was a little.

I don't know, I assume it's setting stuff up thematically for later episodes.

But I did think it was like kind of like a good low key, like sad but also funny thing kind of running through the episode.

Absolutely.

One of the things I was dancing around in non spoilers was that critics couldn't get on board with two things happening at once.

This midlife suburban malaise, you know, Q. Arcade Fire, they.

They couldn't get on the.

On board with that.

Having a murder involved with a murder mystery, who done it.

And I'll go ahead and throw in a funny tone to a darker tale.

I found it all blended well, perfectly.

I think that today we're mainly questioning, do we need another murder mystery?

Do we need another whodunit?

Why can't we just see midlife crisis and a drama in that sense?

That's funny because in my head, I haven't really sought out reviews for this, just seen a couple of headlines.

But in my head, watching it, I would have almost expected the response to be flipped, like, okay, murder is fine, that's compelling.

But do we really need another male midlife crisis?

And it was the opposite.

That's really interesting.

That is not what I would have

guessed two figure reviews were very much into.

Wow, midlife drama.

Yeah, give me more.

But why do we have to have a. I mean, why does one of them have to die?

I agree with that.

I think you really.

Yeah, that was my read on the first episode.

I thought the.

I won't remember the actual timestamps of the action, but like the first half, two thirds really had me.

And then once it took the turn, I was kind of like, okay, interesting.

But I mean, I'm on board.

I'm going to watch week to week.

But them is like, like the misadventures of this buddy cop kind of drama.

Like they're like you're saying, navigating midlife, whatever, doldrums.

I think that would have been a fine series.

It would have been.

And that's honestly what I thought it was going to be until I saw the trailer.

But yes, the setup's basically weatherman Clark Forest played by the smirking Jason Bateman befriends schmuck and co worker Floyd Smirnich.

That's David Harbour's character.

It only takes this one episode to get some big steps.

Clark turns Floyd onto the app DTF St. Louis, where married folks hook up.

Floyd ends up dead, and Clark's having an affair with Floyd's wife, who's one of the greats, Linda Cardinelli.

She doesn't have a lot to do this episode.

Strong disagree.

I'm sorry.

I strongly disagree with that because of what you're about to say.

She didn't have a lot to do with this in this episode except wear big, puffy umpire uniforms.

I think that's.

That's doing a hell of a.

It is doing a hell of a lot, but it's not.

She didn't get to say a lot.

She didn't have a lot of scenes.

No, she didn't.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I just.

That was.

That montage was so funny.

Oh, it's killing his masculinity.

That.

That was hilarious.

And when he sees her legs and, like, starts to, like, like.

And then she's wearing the umpire top.

He sees her legs and he gets turned on.

And then she steps into frame and she's actually wearing the umpire top.

It's so big, so bulky, so unattractive.

She did a good job, too, I think.

Like, it was one of my favorite scenes where, like, Floyd walks in and he's crying and she's like, what's wrong?

Like, she's trying to get in, like, the.

The flip.

The flip.

This is the best scene.

The flip in her eyes and in her face when he's like, I thought Batman was gonna die on this page.

I thought of you, Donovan, because I knew you would find that funny because

he died.

And just like, the, like.

Oh, man.

Yeah.

Like, that was a very, like, a funny element of, like, you know, like, marriage is, for many of us, I think, a process, at least for my wife, has been like, a process of, like, becoming less impressed with the other person in your life.

He is in sincere tears, and he.

She's worried what's wrong, and he's great.

I thought Batman was gonna die.

I laughed so hard at the way he delivered the line and the way that she, like, looks at him as he's ex, explaining that he was crying about Batman.

Yeah, that was a great moment for Linda Cardinelli to.

To react to.

Yes, it was.

She's all.

She doesn't say anything.

She just, like, looks at him, you know, like, it was like.

Like, who Is this man that I have married, like, what have I done?

You know, we don't like to get into predictions.

Or at least I don't.

I don't either.

But Clark's been sleeping with Carol long before he turns Floyd onto the app.

Right.

Don't you get that sense from the first episode?

I mean, do they.

Do they meet at the first party?

Yeah.

My prediction is that they have already met.

Okay.

They're playing it down.

I think if he.

They'd already met, he wouldn't be.

Old clerk wouldn't be on the swing set quite so often.

Hmm.

Okay.

More than that.

Okay.

That's just a guess.

We will find out.

Adeline has already mentioned the scene with the stepson.

And they're in group therapy hugging it out.

David Harbour's belly is in the way.

It's cause he's holding his arms up with his guts hanging out in his shirt because his arms are up.

He's making perfect fucking sense that you don't want to go ahead and start buying the bigger clothes because then it's too late.

You're in it.

I'm with him.

I've been there.

I'm like, my pants aren't quite fitting.

I need to go for a run.

Yeah.

It's a constant buying my pants.

No, that was my first hook was David Harbour getting to do a much more dramatic piece.

And it was.

Kicks it off for him.

He hugs his stepson.

The stepson's insisting that he's called stepson and not real son.

Yes.

That connection attempt to me did something for me.

I was emotionally invested in that part.

I thought the writing there was elevated and conveying a lot in a simple three, four minute scene.

And then we do get the note where it says, love dad.

He can't say it.

He wants to.

He really does want to be a part of this family.

And you kind of feel sorry for the guy.

So much is told right there in four or five minutes.

Yeah, he's a little schlubby.

He doesn't want to be schlubby.

He.

He wants to love the kid.

The kid won't let him love him.

Just good stuff.

I thought that every critic mentions that.

The line that he says, I don't want you to have grown up.

Cs.

And they kind of make fun of it.

But that was.

I thought it was good.

I thought that was like a good.

He's like sincerely trying to express himself.

Like it's not because he's sophisticated.

Right.

He's trying to give the yes Impart the life experience when he's talking to

a child too, Right.

Like.

Yeah, yeah.

Or probably 14.

Yeah.

Well, not child, but adolescent.

To the.

I don't know.

I thought that that was so.

I mean, and he is shown later on to, like, not totally grasp the kid's age.

Right?

With the.

The game.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, that's too.

That was.

That was sad.

But the.

So maybe he's missing the mark on how to talk to the kid in that, though.

I think that's a.

That's a pretty fine thing to tell a middle school person.

Right?

Like, yeah, it was eloquent.

Yeah, I thought it was eloquent on a very.

Even for adults, the things that he says are aspirational are like, oh, yeah, those are the important things, you know?

Yeah.

On a basic level, it was eloquent to me because I don't want.

The metaphor was perfect.

I don't want you to get grown up sees.

I want you to have grown up A's and B's, which means you find success and happiness, which is not where he is quite.

He, you know, he's reached the point in life where things are so mediocre that they're starting the downhill slope.

I don't even know if it's just mediocre.

You know, there are some things that you're, you know, are hinted at, but, like, like financially, they're in a.

They're in a bad situation.

You know, like, things are.

Are maybe a little dire.

This is a completely unconnected thought.

But I liked them.

Portrayal of Floyd as someone who, like, has a lot of good intentions that are kind of, like, thwarted in some ways.

Yes.

Yeah.

I mean, they show him exercising for a reason.

Yeah.

Show him he's gotten this new job.

Right.

Like, he's clearly, like, trying.

You feel for him, you want him.

You want him to succeed, and he's the one who ends up dead.

One of the best comments on Reddit was amphetamines to forget the umpire uniform.

So obviously this episode was more explicit than the entire of heated rivalry.

Was it really?

Once we got the Indiana Jones search, was it?

I thought that's what heated rivalry basically was.

It's artfully shot, so you never see a wiener.

Oh, many wieners in this one.

Our dong talk continues from last week.

I was so pleased because David Harbour, his Floyd Smirnich character, is dead, but there is a Playgirl magazine laid out beside him.

Old one.

And the face is scratched out on this Indiana Jones lookalike who's naked and not erect Flaccid.

Thank you.

That means not erect.

It's just a good word, though.

Yeah, it is a really great, good word.

The second thing that drew me in was Jason Bateman's Clark.

You know, he can do creepy and off kilter, yet still normal.

Like, there's this nice balance he does with.

There's more to this guy, but he's also fairly normal.

Yeah.

The.

Well, you said you're gonna bring up the recumbent bike.

He's a weatherman, which denotes a certain level of nerdy.

Right.

Like, you gotta be excited to, like, dive into charts and figures.

Right.

To.

To be a decent weatherman.

And you're a guy who has bought multiple recumbent bikes in a period of just a few years.

Yeah.

So you need to.

Maybe he bought one and then upgraded because he loved it so much.

So the.

The idea that he would befriend a man who is crying over Batman is, you know, you think, like, here's a guy who's on tv, he's got a billboard, but maybe he's nerdier under the surface than you.

Yes.

Jason Bateman does so well as a guy.

Like, you're like, kind of watching him put on a performance on TV for his family and.

But, like, at the same time, you're like, you know, maybe, like, he's obviously got his own ulterior motives for things.

Yeah.

But maybe he genuinely wants someone to talk to.

Maybe he doesn't have that right now.

The whole, like, I wake up at 4am thing, which I thought was funny, that he high fives his wife on the way out.

The.

But, like, that made me laugh.

It's a good point, Donovan, that he's got the nice house and the two kids and the beautiful wife and.

But has this life that has him moving parallel to them kind of rather than with.

So when he's there, he's like, perform.

Like they're playing a game.

Right.

And he's like, I gotta go to bed.

It's almost like a performative thing that he's checking that box and then the next day he's literally on tv, which is a performance.

Whether you're acting or reading the weather, it doesn't matter.

Interesting point.

That's what.

Yeah, that's what.

And I think that's a kudos to Jason Bateman, honestly, because, like, I think his talents very naturally help him make that role seem believable.

I thought it was a little odd that we don't see much of his wife.

Well, she's not hot.

She's no, I'm kidding.

I'm kidding.

I'm kidding.

Blaine.

I'm kidding.

I agree with you, actually, because, I mean, obviously, at least as we're being for my setup, if this is a quote unquote, kind of like love triangle, presumably she's not a part of it.

Not a part of the tribe.

No, it makes.

Yeah, it does make sense for an episode one.

Yeah.

You know, she was definitely just a background character, though.

I meant to mention this, Adam.

Talk about the goofy game that Floyd tries to play with his stepson and wife.

I saw a critic think that Clark recommended that game because he knew it was so stupid.

It would bring Floyd down a notch in the eyes of his wife.

And that's good.

I'll need to see more episodes to know if that's true or not.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think Donovan and I are intrigued by the mystery.

Adam, are you intrigued by the mystery or you just think you can do without?

I am in on the mystery.

I just think it could, you know, like you said, it could do without.

It feels like putting some gasoline on a fire that didn't really need it.

This isn't thematically or anything, but another thing that makes me okay with the mystery is I didn't hate spending time with those cops.

Like, they were making me laugh.

This was gonna be my follow up is like, we're bringing in two characters that could be pretty interesting.

That was my next segue.

Yes.

The two cops.

That was satisfying.

I never felt with them, like, oh, you're taking me away from what I actually care about.

They.

They were.

I felt their interactions were interesting.

They made me laugh a couple times.

There was the Indiana Jones porn.

Such a generational gap between them.

There is even stuff like it's.

It is like, it's sad and sweet, but, like, as the old detectives, like, sincerely.

He had to cut.

He couldn't be himself.

He had to come to the pool house at four in the morning with his Playgirl magazine.

Just the delivery of it was making me laugh, even though there's nothing really funny about it.

Surprisingly empathetic moments.

Exactly, exactly.

It's got a lot to do with it.

Being played by Richard Jenkins, who's so good.

He is.

Yeah.

He's good.

I think a lot of people have some problems with the jumping back and forth in time because it's been done so much.

Mm.

That makes sense to me.

That's the only.

There's the only point I'll concede.

The rest of it, I think, is really good.

Now that we're into the investigators, we got Richard Jenkins playing detective Homer.

Enjoy Sunday as Jody Plum.

Being much younger than Jenkins, his detective Homer.

And it's a lot more than just the odd couple trying to solve a crime.

It's.

These are very different people of very different generations.

And it's almost as sinister a relationship as Floyd and Clark's.

But instead, Homer and Plum just don't agree on some things yet.

He's pretty flexible to her help.

Yeah, he is.

But he tries to take credit for it.

Did you notice?

He's like.

Like he's in the office and he's.

He.

He uses one of her ideas and never, you know, it's almost like I came up with it sort of thing.

Well, he also went on the news to arrest, you know, so that was bad.

Yeah, that was great.

I mean, he should have never done it, obviously.

And the.

The complete throwaway joke of the.

The, like, deputies being like, let's go, let's go, let's go.

It's like, guys, shut up.

That was good.

This isn't getting Osama bin Laden.

Yeah, it made me laugh.

The recumbent bike is so good.

It's just such a match of an undercurrent of mediocrity, of.

There's just a hint there of life is starting to.

Man can't even sit up on a bicycle anymore.

There are small details where Clark purposefully moves his kids swing set in order to get a better look at the neighbor.

That shot of him, his head poking

off from behind the tree, that was hilarious.

It feels more than just, oh, this guy's kind of creepy.

It almost feels dangerous on some level.

But that could be a red herring.

I don't think that.

Blaine, I think I agree with you and that there's the sense of danger.

I don't think it was.

It's like that necessarily, explicitly, like, oh, he's going to hurt somebody.

Not at all.

Just.

Just in the sense that, like, okay, there's this danger.

And like, okay, how is he, like, using and observing women?

Like, and.

And like, what.

What is he doing?

Like, he's doing something that he really shouldn't be doing.

It's not a good thing to spy on people.

And I think there's that kind of like the danger of the.

The male gaze.

Yeah, that's what I got out of it.

That's so much more well put than I said.

You know, David harbor has had some recent woes in his personal life, and I noticed a lot of message boards wanted to talk about this more so than the Actual show.

That's too bad.

I mean, that it is too bad.

She.

He already.

He already had a whole album made out of it.

Right.

Like, it doesn't affect the show for me.

Same here.

People online wanted to make it a bigger deal than I think it ever was for me.

I'm here to judge a television series, not an actor's private life.

But apparently he cheated on Lily Allen.

She made a whole album about it and even wore a dress full of receipts that were receipts of gifts he had bought to another women.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, impressive levels of pettiness.

I mean, it matches.

It matches up with the show quite well.

Sadly, I don't care.

Anyway, that brings me to the point that it's incredibly appealing to me on a plot level that Floyd comes off as a guy, you know, he's gained a few pounds.

He keeps planning to shake these few pounds.

He's trying to find happiness.

He's middle aged and thrilled.

He's found a brand new friend.

Now, to me, that was the one that hit home is where you're middle aged and you're like, God damn, I got a new buddy.

Who knew that could have even happened at age.

Whatever.

And now he's got me on this wacky apple.

Yeah.

And then he turns him on pretty quickly to this cheating app at the Outback.

I was.

That was such a funny detail.

It's like, you want to go to Outback Steakhouse tonight?

Oh, that's a perfect detail.

It was great when they.

The scene where they're in the waiting area and they're talking about it and like the buzzer thing goes off.

I haven't.

I gotta admit to y', all, I have not been to a restaurant where someone gave me a buzzer in some while.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Very much like a, oh, church is over and we're gonna go to the wherever kind of life.

I thought that, like, that there was gonna be a meet up with some women there or something.

That.

That was like the point of that.

And like the buzzer going off was like the.

We're really doing this kind of signal.

Huh.

But it was funny that they ended up just sitting there and talking about

they were just setting up the app.

I'll end with this unless you guys want to add any more.

I really love how it was shot.

I think they may have used a darker lens for this entire episode.

Even.

Even the outside, even the sunshiny outside,

it felt a little overcast, which I think worked thematically.

I think it's sometimes that you do stuff like that and it's just stupid.

But I love in, like, TVs and movies where they do, like, something that, like, just, like, subconsciously affects your reading of it.

Oh, no, we've said it.

It's so cool.

We've said.

I have said here before.

Many, many times.

If you do.

I love things that are just done on purpose.

Sometimes they don't work.

But I love it when you were like, I am purposely choosing this lens because this is a dark, suburban tale.

Completely off the topic.

But I guess when he was alive, Roger Ebert would sometimes go to film festivals and, like, one of the things that he would do is he would, like, go through with an audience, like, scene by scene.

I've heard of this.

Yeah.

And, like, just like.

And, like, look like this person.

Like, he.

And he.

Of course, he knew the language of movies well enough, but I guess apparently, too, he was also, like, he would genuinely ask questions.

Like, I think one of the questions he was asking his audience was like, why do we find it?

Why are we laughing in Pulp Fiction when she gets the adrenaline shot to her heart and comes back up?

Because people usually laugh and then they broke down the whole scene to try and figure it out.

Sounds awesome.

Or when Travolta accidentally shoots the guy's brains right out of the back.

Yeah, I laughed out loud.

I can remember being in the theater for Pulp Fiction, and it was me and four friends, and we were the only five people who laughed out.

All right, well, no clue.

I'd talk about shrinking as much this season after that first episode.

But this roller coaster from bad to good to okay.

And then this excellent episode of television, which is great.

It's called Derek's Don't Die.

If you haven't seen it, this is something you might want to miss out on.

Worked in very, very many ways.

The first of which is, I think that they wrote an episode that put Liz in her place, or at least her have to show an emotion beyond desire for control or slight fear of not being in control even.

She had a true moment with her son, which made him way more endearing, I thought.

And she had a truthful and touching scene with Derek right before his heart surgery.

It just made her human.

Humanized her finally.

And she wasn't a caricature that she's almost been since season one.

Probably her character was a bit.

One note for long stretches, but even when she accidentally insults her son and the.

The rift begins.

I thought that was good.

You weren't on board with that.

Yeah, you did.

You mentioned it.

Yeah, it Definitely gave her more to do this time.

I mean, this is.

Aside from the inciting incident that happens before the show starts, there hasn't really been, like, a life or death thing outside of the Parkinson's diagnosis.

It was a curveball because husband Derek.

Derek.

1.

Having to do heart surgery or having had heart surgery, that was a curveball.

I didn't know that would be the plot.

Yeah, the.

The way that he finds out with the home health person saying, yeah, we'll get back to you.

And then she.

I. I was thinking at the time, it's funny that they're having this very personal argument in front of this poor woman who's just there to do a EKG or whatever.

Right.

Which may betray some of the class stuff that we've talked about before.

How so?

You wouldn't call her like a maid or something like that.

She's a medical.

But it's the idea of, like, we're gonna have this argument in front of this stranger, like, she's not even there.

You know what I mean?

That you say whatever you want in front of the cab driver or whatever.

Yeah.

It felt a little weird to me.

And so I'm thinking about that, and then all of a sudden she says, you have to go to the hospital right now.

Yeah, Yeah, I see your point.

That's just our ongoing class struggle with shrinking.

Sometimes you just don't care about that.

And this episode made sure to put that to the side.

I thought their son Matthew became a real person by no longer being a man child and having to check on his mother and being apologetic.

Bring her.

Or ask to bring her food or check in on her as she was in the waiting room.

That was.

Even though I didn't.

I've never liked that character.

I thought, oh, that's a very real thing, and it's very nice.

Well.

And found the initiative to, like, go kind of get the info out of the hospital staff.

It was good character development.

Yeah.

Brian had a storyline worth seeing and thinking about where he was forced to call his homophobe father.

But, you know, Jimmy forces him to call his father with the news of having a grandchild, and the story goes the exact opposite of what Brian expects.

I like that.

That was good.

I think that's how family dynamics often work.

You're scared as to tell them something.

You do tell them, and they hug it out.

Good families tend to do that.

I think it goes way better than you expect.

I don't know.

They had to get that silly with, you know, Jimmy making him call.

I Don't think that was necessarily a joke that worked.

But I thought the.

The guy who plays the dad and I don't know the actor's name, I thought that he.

He played it well, where it was more joy than homophobia.

Just immediate joy.

Yeah.

He was so happy to be a granddad.

And I was like, that's sweet.

Yeah, I want.

Sometimes I want sweet on tv.

Absolutely.

Again, in the same way that you.

You kind of need somebody to have a heart attack every now and again on TV for the sake of the story, like, yeah, why not also give us some sweetness.

Yeah.

Even Jimmy felt toned down where maybe other than that scene.

And when he is toned down, he's funnier.

Jason Siegel's much funnier when they give.

When they write him in a lower tone, in a lower register, when he says funny things.

It works.

It's not played for laughs.

He and Liz having that moment, and Jimmy kind of takes her to task for holding shit over him, but felt both real and plot moving.

Quit talking about that.

You raised my daughter for a year.

We've done this.

Yeah.

And that's kind of what you.

I have been saying for six episodes.

And of course, there's Harrison's Ford character.

Here he was another father with an opposite direction reaction than expected when Meg, his daughter, tells him, hey, I've been holding out on this, but you need to know I'm separated with my husband.

And rather than saying, thank God, I hate that guy, he says, I don't want either of you unhappy.

And I don't know.

It was just sweet, man.

Yeah.

Felt like some real life stuff.

It did.

It was a kind of a weepy episode.

I did weep at the possibility of Derek being sick or dead even before what episodes in you're a Derek guy.

I. I shot a tear.

It wasn't a lot.

I did shed a tear.

And then Derek Two's line of his dad, Derek senior, went to live on the farm.

Yeah.

He's on a farm.

He's not dead.

Derek's don't die.

Yeah.

I thought that was kind of.

I hate to keep using the word sweet.

I thought that was kind of sweet.

Yeah.

It's a joke that works on shrinking when given to the right actor in the middle of more high stakes moments.

And it's like you said, the stakes were higher this week.

I mean, Sean gets an interview to be a chef, but it gives them an opportunity to throw in the image of him hugging his dad.

So we got these motifs and themes and it's just good writing.

This Time.

Yeah.

It's almost like they had a whole crew of riders in the room that were not there in episodes one through six.

I mean, it does maybe feel more like a traditional sitcom or like there was some filler early this season.

They padded out some of the storylines and all of a sudden it's like, I mean, I hate to say almost every time we talk about shrinking, some comparison to Scrubs, but, you know, I

think it's a fine comparison.

You have to make it with, with Bill Lawrence of like suddenly they throw the heat and you're, you're like, oh, okay.

Yeah.

Bill Lawrence.

Premiering a new television show tonight.

Rooster on hbo.

When does this guy sleep?

Yeah.

Hey, he's raking in the money.

Good for him.

Rooster with Steve Carell.

It might even be something we talk about next week.

I. I do.

Before I end our shrinking discussion, do you want to talk about Maya, the patient of Gabby's?

I got a bad feeling about Maya.

I do too.

I don't know if that's a bit of misdirection maybe there that we're.

We're already thinking about life and death when the call gets made.

Yeah.

You know, but she has not seemed to be in a good place.

So.

Here's the thing about shrinking.

They don't do major deaths or.

It's not that kind of show, is it?

I've wondered about.

Here I go again in Scrubs.

Occasionally a patient dies.

Right.

Like they get a bad result.

Oh.

And there's some where it's like, it is really heart wrenching.

More than more than a few where it is.

And it.

You see the fallout on the characters and usually it's a multi episode arc of like, how do you come back from that?

And it's been a lot of what we've seen, obviously, aside from Jimmy possibly encouraging someone to attempt murder early on in the show.

It's been kind of just like they're just firing some stuff off, helping people.

They've really been patting themselves on the

back a lot lately.

There are stakes to what they do.

And will the show establish those in a dramatic way?

All the viewers online keep asking how they're going to handle the Parkinson's plot line.

It's surely to end in Harrison Ford's death.

Is that going to be the last episode here with Maya?

Gabby asked her.

I thought it was a well written piece.

I thought she delivers it perfectly.

Do we need to talk now or wait until our next session and you feel like talk now, talk now, talk now.

And it just felt like A capital T. Truth I've both known and experienced in therapy.

It's like you said at the top, the therapy talk felt very realistic and not as perfunctory.

Yeah.

Like this is someone in a serious situation.

It's not just, like, encouraging someone to do public speaking or something, you know, other things that are, like, important.

But now suddenly you have someone who's.

I mean, we're concerned that the worst has happened, you know?

Yeah.

She's.

She's drinking wine.

She's.

Has admitted feeling alone.

She's doom scrolling on Instagram and seeing friends having fun.

It's.

It's a real moment.

Is television supposed to show us real life or are we just supposed to live it and understand?

And I. I don't know.

I like my TV to show me real life and allow me to think and comment on it.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think both shows we covered this week did that on in some way.

Yeah.

Neither of them I could classify as escapism.

We're not in a jousting tournament in Westeros.

Right, Right.

Which is great.

Again, I do want to say I love that.

I don't know.

Next week, I suspect we got to talk about DTF St. Louis.

Just to see where that second episode goes, we might talk about Rooster.

I'm intrigued by Rooster.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a Bill Lawrence show, and it could very well, you know, have those great episodes like Bill Lawrence does with Ted Lasso and sometimes shrinking.

Or does he have too much on his plate?

We'll see.

But that is it for us.

I'm so appreciative, and I love these guys.

It's Adam and Donovan's time as well as yours, so thank you all.

I'm Blaine.

And for Adam and Donovan.

And we hope that you remember that Derek's just don't die.

It ain't gonna happen.

Talk to you all next.