What 'Euphoria' Says About Culture; Plus, the Joy of 'Margo's Got Money Troubles' and a Classic 'Widow's Bay'

Hey, you're listening to Taking it Down.

Welcome.

How are you?

Hope you're doing well.

On this week's episode, the three of us will talk about a few things in the non spoilers, including the HBO series Euphoria, the Apple Show, Margot's got money troubles, another HBO show hacks, and then we'll flip back to Apple again for Widow's Bay.

On the spoiler side of things, we're only discussing the fifth episode of Widow's Bay, but stick around for all of that.

Let's get into the show.

I'm gonna get Adam and Donovan in here.

Let's begin.

Projection.

This is my.

And you can put this on the podcast.

These are my money saving.

I. I think I could become like a.

Like.

Like a guru.

My money guru, because, like, you get one haircut a year, so that's good.

And then you know what else I've realized, though?

Like, do you know how much you're spending on toilet paper and water?

Poop at work.

Poop at work.

Invest the savings.

Always.

And time.

Invest the savings.

Or at least install a bidet.

If it's the toilet paper, I can recommend it wholeheartedly.

If you poop yourself at work, that's your employer's problem, not yours.

You can hear them.

Here they are.

It's Adam.

It's Donovan with me now.

It's great to see them every week.

And to hear they're much more intense, intelligent ideas on television, which is usually where we go with this show, almost always television.

Occasionally a streaming movie, but it's been a while.

Adam, I'm breaking my promise to Donovan by going back on Euphoria this week.

I promised them we were done, we'd shut that book and set it aside.

But you're counter to my take because you're entertained by this season.

I have to admit that I think y' all discussed this on air while.

I was gone, because your view is completely different than mine, and Donovan hasn't seen it.

I haven't.

Donovan, have you seen any of the show?

No, I've only seen a slideshow of breast.

Then you've seen the show.

You've seen the program.

No, actually, I kept it in on.

Spoilers every week, and it was just our little trip to Euphoria for a couple weeks.

And that third week, I said I only read the recap, and I was like, that does not sound appealing.

I don't think it's a good show.

Okay.

We have common ground.

Yeah.

I do think that there are very good performances in the show.

I Think I would venture to say that someone like Zendaya, who, I mean, has been praised rightfully so for years at this point, for everything that she does.

You know, when you, like, you see somebody who's doing a lot with a little.

I feel like there's some of that this season.

If you want to talk specifically about this season, I think that's one thing.

The show at large.

Obviously, there's red flags all over the place.

You know, I mean, it started as a show about teenagers with a lot of drugs, nudity, and scandal.

And it's like, what.

What is happening in America that everyone needs to watch this?

You know, I mean, obviously it's.

They're not actually teenagers who are portraying these things, but it really did feel, you know, at its best to me.

It feels like.

I know I always equate things to music.

I mean, I'm gonna do it again.

If you go in and you're just like, you know, what sounds really good on that drum kit is just, like, a little bit of reverb on the snare and you're like.

What would sound even better is if the ent.

Entire thing was the mix knob was up to 100.

You know what I mean?

Or like.

Like, say you're like, you just got Instagram and it's 2012, and you go to post a picture, and you're like, this early iPhone picture.

Not early, but earlier iPhone picture looks pretty good.

What if I up the contrast and the saturation on everything to 100?

Hey, guilty.

Yeah, that was like, my second picture.

There you go.

Mine too.

This.

It feels like a show that's just like, everything is turned up all the way all the time.

I think that sometimes that's a good thing.

I still.

I mean, I said aloud while we were watching one of the episodes.

I think there's a lot of problems with the show, both as a show and possibly as, like, an indictment on American culture.

But there's still, like, amazing cinematography in it.

There is, yes.

That's one of my points with Donovan a couple weeks ago, was that it still looks really great, and it's.

At least that part's kind of easy to watch.

The first two seasons felt of a place.

They did.

And this season feels askew.

It feels.

The comparison I made was that it was a bad Quentin Tarantino movie.

Yeah.

I mean, I was a pretty passive consumer of the first seasons.

You know, there's people who are really Die Hards about it, and I'm like, if it's on, yeah, I'll watch it and be entertained.

And, you know, it's.

It's like an elevated Netflix show in the way that it keeps you watching because you get to that final scene and you're like, well, I was bored for not a small number of minutes there, but I have to know what's going to happen next.

Whereas on the first two seasons, I thought it had something to say.

I agree.

And I think that it wasn't always comfortable, and I see why it comes under fire from people really, from all stripes of the political spectrum.

But I would be interested to watch it now that.

Not to get political here, but one of the big questions, I think, of our time is what happened to people who voted for the first time in 2024?

You know, like that.

That turn right.

Where does that come from?

And that it's really less an investigation of election results and more like, what.

What is being fed to people?

I mean, it's like the manosphere and all that kind of bullshit.

But, like, what elements of that were being shown in a show like the early seasons of Euphoria?

You know, what's.

What's the undercurrent here?

I may be like, giving it more credit than it deserves in that, but it would be an interesting artifact of its time.

It's an interesting lens, for sure.

It's something I think about just working with younger folks.

I do.

I do think they're.

They're interesting.

They've got a different just expression of political belief or disbelief than.

Than you'd think sometimes.

Well, and it's a snapshot, too, of like, you think most of the time that, you know, the cliche is like, will you start on the left side of the spectrum and move right as you accumulate possession and family and all of these things?

But that's obviously.

I mean, I still think that that's more true than people realize right now, but there's enough outliers that it's kind of bucking the trend.

But, and I, I mean, this is interesting in the way that like.

Like last night I was flipping through, trying to look for a movie to watch, and you just pass like, say like 90s or early 2000s teen comedies, and it's like, what do they really have to say?

Nothing of their own.

But like, as a snapshot of what was selling at the time, it's like, this worked in a particular climate and they're still like, fun, you know, if you somehow.

I mean, obviously there are problems too, with all of these things, but it's like, what does.

Because euphoria wasn't if it was designed to be fun, then it's like.

It's sick fun.

You know what I mean?

More so than teen stuff of the past.

Do you remember all the heat that Game of Thrones got for the rape scene with his older son Sansa?

Sansa.

Thank you.

This season of euphoria feels like that writ large.

It feels exploitative.

Yeah.

More so than the first two seasons.

And the first two seasons got a lot of flack, but for that very same reason.

And I asked Donovan, it makes me wonder, was it not this all along?

And I was kind of dumb the first two seasons.

I feel bait and switched.

I think that if you are a fan of the show wanting to defend the early episodes, you may.

I guess you could counter that by saying, like, there's enough story there to earn.

Yes.

Those kind of scenes.

Whereas now, you know, only once this season so far have they done the classic euphoria thing of starting an episode with, let's tell you everything about this character.

And it's like a short story intro to what's happening in present day.

You know, let me catch you up on who this person is.

Yeah.

And this season just feels a lot more like, do obviously people change from high school to early 20s, but, like, do they even remember the characters that they're writing at this point?

I think it also suffers hugely from.

In combination with that almost the Arrested Development season four problem, which is the chemistry of people being in a room together is not there.

Yeah.

Because all of a sudden you're managing, like, pretty massive stars.

Yep.

You know, like, how do you get their schedules?

That's got to be an expensive proposition to.

Sure.

Shoot a scene with Zendaya and Jacob Elordi and Sydney Sweeney.

Yeah.

Issue.

Those are the same issues I had with it once I stopped it.

I had a lot of problems with Rue's character, played by Zendaya.

Her choices that she made.

They felt so dumb that I just couldn't be a fan.

In the first two episodes.

Remember, I stopped at episode two.

Yeah.

I mean, she's.

There are perplexing things like if she is clean.

And obviously I was going to think.

You would go there.

Yep.

I mean, you're dealing with someone who is an addict and has been set up to both frustrate and make you sympathetic to people going through this.

And I think they did that so well because you're like, you're watching and you can see what she should do.

Right.

But that's also like in those first two.

That's real life.

It Felt more of a struggle.

It felt more life oriented.

And then in episode one of season three, she just like casually picks up a drink and you're thinking, I know that's not your drug of choice.

What are you doing?

You know, like not acknowledging that felt like bad riding.

And I know it's a real simple one minute thing.

They do acknowledge that later on in the season.

Interesting.

Somebody asks, aren't you sober?

And she says, well, California sober, meaning she drinks some and smokes a little weed, but hasn't done any hard drugs yet.

She still.

Not only is she being forced to like drug mule, you know, but she.

When presented the opportunity to work at a strip club later, she like jumps on that and it's like, this is.

It doesn't take long to read the room there that like, not everyone is possibly there of completely free will.

You know, that there's some bad vibes going on here and you're around hard drugs and you're around all this.

That's like, is this really something that a successful recovery story would.

Yeah.

Which is what I thought we were getting in that season one and two.

That's no judgment on anyone going through that.

No, but it is.

You do just kind of throw your hands up and then, you know, the multiple times I have wondered aloud, are they actually just making fun of Sydney Sweeney?

The writers just act like her.

Yeah, yeah.

It's kind of.

It's weird.

There are echoes of Sam Levinson's show the Idol in season three that I didn't feel in seasons one and two.

It just feels icky.

What do you think about him?

He catches a lot of flack.

He's proven the critics.

Right.

That's what I'll say in my opinion.

In what way?

He exploits female characters for his own devices.

I agree.

But you.

I do also wonder when I reach that conclusion, it's like there's almost like a barrage effect that's intended.

Right.

Like you're so overstimulated.

Doesn't even really like begin to cover it.

You know, you're just so beaten down.

It's kind of what Tarantino does with violence.

But I think.

Exactly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You're dealing with two different levels of writer there too as well.

So I think Levinson can do a good story.

He just.

It's just the issues that come with it.

Yeah.

That's again, what I'm trying to like untangle is this.

Are parts of the story good or are the people on screen just doing a lot in a good way?

And I don't know the answer to that.

I do know that I'm all of this to say I feel like I've made this more high minded than it needs to.

No, I love it.

This is exactly the kind of conversations I like to have about tv.

But I'm entertained by it, you know, and if in a way I think maybe the, the problems of the show, the things that people say, like not like structurally but like morally, the problems of the show when you watch it and you're like, I see what they're saying, but I'm still entertained.

And then you keep thinking about yourself.

You're like, oh, a mirror is being held up to me.

What, what does that say about me that I still watch this?

That's a good point.

What episode are you on, by the way?

I am caught up as of today, as frequent listeners know, we record on Sunday afternoon.

So I will not have seen the most recent.

Is the most recent the final episode of the season.

Let's see, it's an eight episode.

Yeah.

So tonight we will see the penultimate episode.

So listeners will have heard or seen.

Yeah, good chance they've seen it.

Yeah.

Good counter.

This is the show I brought up last week.

It's Margot's got Money Troubles from Apple tv.

I finished it.

Guys.

This is a good show.

How quality is it?

It's really good.

It's solid.

And I'm not saying it takes three episodes for this show to get good, that old standard.

But the third episode really helps snap it into focus on who's going to be involved, what their roles are, how they'll be characterized.

And it was a bit of surprise, some of the characterization.

I thought that's not how I thought this was going to be played or this character is going to be seen.

David E. Kelly wrote this series.

He created it.

Well, he didn't write it, but he created it and wrote a lot of the episodes.

And when he's on his game, he writes good television.

You may remember me talking about Presumed Innocent on Apple being just a must watch.

Each week I would give it the dawn of an award of better than it should be for a remake of a movie.

Way better than it should be.

You may remember Love and Death, the Undoing.

Both of those were on hbo.

That was pretty good.

Love and Death was pretty good.

He did the first season of Big Lil Lies which was, we thought was pretty quality.

We got a little talk out of it.

His shows feel like an ABC series, a drama that's just a notch above that.

It's much better.

Some of the acting's better, some of the writing's better.

It's a little smarter.

Hovering right, right there at Prestige.

Maybe not quite.

And here with Margo's got money troubles, he's tapping into some societal woes.

I think that needs to be examined or re.

Examined.

It's as good as he's been.

Maybe.

David E. Kelly It's a fantastic series.

It.

I don't know that it's great, but it's so good, so solid.

And the line of the series, I'll tell you this one which is the idea of good writing should back it up.

Well, there's a character who's looking down the barrel of living alone and then he says there would be no one to perform sanity for.

Such a good line.

And the reading of the line is also good.

That's why I have two cats.

Exactly.

You gotta have somebody to talk to.

I've been singing to mine all morning.

Exactly.

EL Fanning could be at her best.

I. I sincerely think that of what I've seen of her, I know I'm not necessarily a.

A connoisseur of her work, but that's a high bar.

It is kind of a high bar.

Seeing how she's done the great and we really liked what she did there.

Thought she was excellent in that.

Here she's playing with so much heart.

A balance of serious.

Of course, if you know the story, she does it without being flippant or scrunching up her eyebrows at the plot too much.

She was so good in sentimental value.

I don't know if you guys ever saw that.

I don't think I did.

Fantastic.

Wow.

The whole new level for her.

So I'm.

Yeah, I'm eager to watch this because she was great in that.

It's a quick watch.

Most episodes, 35 minutes, six episodes total.

I think I'm right on the number there.

Nick Offerman, though.

Gentlemen, if you don't watch, if you don't watch for anything, watch for Nick Offerman and Nell Fanning.

But watch for Nick.

He is fulfilling that notion.

You know, we often say here is, oh, I can't wait to see what he does next.

And then you kind of forget that you said that.

It hit me in the middle of this.

I thought, I've seen Nick Offerman in devs.

I've seen him in.

But when I was in Parks and Rec and you think, oh, this show's ending.

I hope I see Nick Offerman in a bunch of stuff.

This is why I said it.

And this is the fulfillment of that.

Wish I think I have settled in my own mind that Nick Offerman is a capital G, capital A good actor.

After we watched Death by Lightning, where he takes a role that could be.

It could be a throwaway, really forgettable and makes it probably, possibly the best one in the series.

Yeah.

His biggest role that we've seen was in Devs, I think.

And he's in Devs, Right.

Death by Lightning could be a toss away.

I thought he was crazy great.

He really was.

And here he is.

You talk about that.

Capital G, capital A. Yeah.

Rarely do you add him to a scene and make it worse, which is probably another hallmark of good acting.

You know, he has a small role in an episode of Deadwood where you see him in all his glory, I'll put it that way.

Thunderous glory.

He.

He makes his mark.

Seven Kingdom style, huh?

Indeed he does.

Although not.

Not quite there.

So I can't recommend Margot's got money troubles enough.

And Nick Hoffman plays a retired wrestler,.

The role he was born to play.

I mean, need I say more?

Right.

All right, enjoy it, folks.

Let us know what you think.

Did you guys want to talk any about Hacks or did you want to finish Hacks and then come back?

I haven't watched a lick of it.

Okay, so if Adam has anything to say.

So Hacks is on HBO and it's its fourth and I believe, last season.

I think so.

I think that's right.

That's how they're advertising it.

All 10 episodes are on the streamer now and this is non spoilers.

So if you.

This is the half hour show with Jean Smart as Deborah Vance.

She's a struggling and older comedian who's having to team up with this young entitled comedy writer named Ava, played by Hannah in Binder.

And if you want to say anything at all so far about this fourth season, I'll open the floor because Adam has seen it and I haven't and Donovan has seen the first three seasons.

Yeah, I mean, I think your synopsis there is like, for the first half of season one, we've come along.

I don't get too deep into it.

Yeah, I mean, it's one of those that.

And I mean this as a compliment, it knows exactly what kind of show it is and it executes it.

My question is, is it funny funny or is it dramedy funny funny funny?

I'll agree with that.

Okay, that's promising.

It's funny.

Everybody gets made fun of a little bit, you know, Is that a fair assessment, Donovan?

I mean, there's a Lot of like absolutely generational and socioeconomic humor where everybody's getting a little.

There's.

And they don't, they don't play it up as much.

Of course, I haven't seen the four seasons.

They don't play it up quite as much in the end.

But like there's a bit where like Deborah Vance is like recovering from sickness and she's like, I'm invulnerable.

I'm descended from pilgrims.

And Hannah, you know, Hannah Einmeier's character, Ava goes like descendant from colonizers.

Are we proud of that?

It's just, it's just perfect.

Like they're both just like, just cannot believe each other.

It's.

It's really funny.

It's good.

And they're.

They're both so good and clearly have.

They are.

Adam, are you about halfway through the last season?

Yeah, something like that.

Probably still maintaining.

Yeah.

I think it's one where.

Because it's like, how much story is there to tell?

You know what I mean?

Even when there are stakes, they're not like it's someone making their way through the entertainment industry and like you're rooting for people and there are stories that develop but it needs to end.

You know what I mean?

They've told like a really great arc.

Yeah, that was my question is it does feel like time to end at season four.

Is that the right move?

We'll see how they land the plane.

Yeah.

You know, but it.

I do think it is time for the airport draws near.

Gotcha.

We'll reserve some judgment for next week then for hacks.

Just a brief check in on it.

Our last series and the only one that's going to carry over to the spoilers is on Apple tv.

Back to Apple TV with the series Widow's Bay.

It's Matthew Reese as the mayor of a New England town with some issues.

Really think Adam's going to love this one.

It seems built for me.

Well, we forgot to mention last week that the series also features Jeff Hiller as a character from somebody somewhere.

He kind of.

I don't love that you have to take a boat there to this island instead of driving across a caway.

But that's literally my only complaint at this point.

A 45 minute boat ride or a 45 mile, 45 mile boat ride.

Probably be a long boat ride.

Yeah, it wouldn't be.

Wouldn't it?

These last two episodes, four and five have been stellar.

I believe this is.

This fifth episode was one of my favorites thus far for more than a couple of reasons.

And surprisingly, like doing it's not like revolutionizing horror or anything, but doing like genuinely creepy stuff while also like making me genuinely laugh, like way more than once.

It's hard.

I can't think of one that's managed to balance that as well as it does.

And I've mentioned here in this space that I don't think it's LOL funny quiet.

It's to me, just to me.

But I see how it easily is and it does make me chuckle on occasion.

There are some bits that I I think are LOL funny and I think it's even in this last episode like they made me laugh out.

Literally laugh out loud.

We'll get into that on spoilers.

I think it's shaping into a series about storytelling grounded in folk horror with with those dashes of humor.

And I think nearly anyone would enjoy this if you haven't started watching it.

If you're here with us.

Here with us in non spoilers, it's for you too.

I'm.

I'm here to tell you who this show is for.

This show is for anyone who lost their virginity at the Historical Society.

Guilty.

This is great.

Now, Donovan has two categories for describing who this is for.

Do you like to laugh?

Did you lose your virginity at the Historic Society, Donovan?

I think it was Jen Chaney's recap this week that said, this show is for anyone who dares to ask the question she stole your bit, dude.

Ah, that's she owes me money.

Exactly.

We should have copyrighted that.

I think that's where we're going to end with our non spoiler section.

Thanks for listening.

On the other side, Widow's Bay, the fifth episode.

If you've watched it, you'll want to hear what we think.

I'm sure many interviews can ramble.

Or maybe the host asks the same questions you've all heard answered.

Not with Short Takes.

Not only does Short Takes have the guests you want to know more about, but but also the summer series manages to go in depth with just four questions.

Back again this summer, Short Takes will air new episodes each Friday on the YouTube channel.

For the Alabama Take.

Click the link in the Show Notes to subscribe to the YouTube channel and you'll know exactly when each episode of Short Takes premieres.

Here we are, Apple tv.

We're going to continue to talk about Widow's Bay, the folk horror and comedy blend of aesthetic series.

I contend it's more it's more folk horror than comedy, but it does have some really good moments of humor Especially in hindsight, I think.

And this week had more than last week's episode.

This week's appropriate title episode is what to expect on your trip.

To start I mentioned is excellent.

It's obviously not an easy episode to do.

I've seen a lot of the acid or mushroom trip entries on TV get stupid or unrealistic, which you're thinking, how can you do an acid or mushroom trip unrealistic?

You can.

You can overdo it.

This.

That's funny that you say that, because that was my dread starting.

This is like.

This is going to be the acid trip slash, like dream sequence where it's like, okay, all this weird stuff's going to happen, but, you know, it doesn't really matter.

Mad Men did it pretty well.

This.

The madman one was pretty.

Pretty good.

This one does it quite well.

Toyed with the notion of being unable to ground yourself in any truth, especially when you can't even recall your own story or journey.

And that is a lot of what a mushroom trip feels like.

I just thought it did a really good job by not showing us really, until maybe at the very end his subjective experience or.

Or a ton of his subjective experience, but just giving little bits of his subjectivity as he kind of goes in and flickers in and out.

And that's what it's like, especially in hindsight.

If listeners care, I'll tell a little of my own first mushroom experience.

It Everything was bright.

Not like I had to squint my eyes, but it's.

Everything had a certain hue to it.

There was a very fuzziness around the edges of every thing you looked at.

Like a dream sequence in.

In television, it looked a lot like that.

And I kept repeating things to myself.

And in this instance.

So my first one, it was a line from Strawberry Fields Forever, which was appropriate bidding.

It was a.

The line of nothing is as it seems.

Or you have to remind yourself quite often, oh, this is the drug and not my insanity.

And I think Mayor Tom could have used somebody patting him on the knee and saying, it's the drug.

It's not your.

But he didn't have that.

They needed not to let him out in this episode.

That was a big failure.

No.

And by the way, kudos to the sound design of this episode.

I happened to watch this one with headphones on an iPad.

It's what I do commonly later at night when everyone's asleep.

And they accentuated Tom's soundscape to perfection.

That's what it sounds like.

Everything is enhanced in 3D in hi Fi with a mushroom trip.

There are a lot of echoes.

So when you say something, it will echo, it will reverberate.

It was pitch perfect for what Tom was going through here.

That's.

That's as close as you could probably get filming a mushroom trip.

The sound was where they nailed it.

You know, the island is dealing with echoes of the past in order to figure out what's true or not.

So there was a nice little motif of that, but it's real that that happens.

And now I'll go ahead and throw out one more while we're on that topic.

Another aspect I got right about the mushroom experience is this desire to have somebody with you to remind you you're okay.

You need that.

The biggest thing I remember is that I wanted someone to acknowledge that that thing was funny.

So I'd be looking around to go, is it okay to laugh?

Can I laugh right now?

And if you had someone else who was also tripping or at least on your wavelength to kind of nod and grin and say, yeah, that was funny,.

Then you feel so much at ease.

That's kind of funny.

Like that set element of, you know, like, we often figure out how we feel about things based on how other people feel about things.

You know, it's kind of a.

Kind of a loop.

It is a loop, and you want that loop.

Comedian Chris Fleming is in this episode and steals the show.

I didn't know him, but here he was so funny.

And I talked about how this show is at full on comedy.

When he was on screen, it kind of was.

He's a former classmate of Patricia, and that makes perfect sense.

The fact that he come.

She comes in, sits down, and he says.

She says, hey, you're Todd.

Todd o' Connell or whatever his name was.

And he says, hey, Patricia.

Yeah.

And he's kicked back on that couch.

The way he's laying on this couch while everybody's so tensed up and he's just twisting and turning on the couch back and forth.

Hilarious, man.

There's a bit where she's like, you become a drug dealer.

And he's like, I'm a shaman.

Yes.

Like, is that cocaine?

Yes.

That was perfect.

That was a great exchange.

That may have been the funniest part.

Of this series so far.

When he corrects her that he's a shaman and then he sells cocaine.

But is that cocaine?

Yes.

Even, you know, I'll just talk about stuff I appreciated with him.

It was all very funny.

Even.

Even to the level of, like, they had a good visual gag.

As Tom is tripping out.

And he's like, don't look in mirrors.

Slams the door shut.

There's a mirror right there.

Full length mirror that you can't avoid.

It's so good.

He was hilarious.

His delivery was really good, too.

So I hope to see again we do our phrase, I hope to see him in something else.

I'd never.

I'd literally never seen him.

Yeah, me either.

You hadn't either, right?

I haven't.

And then I found out more about him after the show this episode ended.

But his line reading of the week was he was talking about the.

You know, you'll end up finding more about everything that's going on, and a lot of times it'll be through drawings.

And he describes the drawings as the kind of sacred geometry.

You don't just riff.

And then he hands him a picture of a friend who did this.

And it was just of the hand.

Outline you do in kindergarten.

It's like basically a hand turkey.

Yeah, that was so funny.

And then Tom does one later, apparently, because he has it on him.

Although, like, I do think that there's, like, a little bit of, like, smarts to this.

Okay.

Because some of the.

Maybe I'm stupid.

Maybe.

Maybe I'm like, stupid attributing smarts to it.

But first off, it made me laugh a lot.

But then I was thinking about.

I was like, some of the oldest paintings we have in caves are just outlines of human hands on the walls.

So I'm like, okay, maybe there was.

Something going on there that they were tripping.

But, Well, I can't speak for my ancestors.

They were not ones trip.

But there's also this acknowledgment of the paintings.

And Tom says, if I'll paint you.

What's going on?

If you'll just give me a brush.

And then the concentration on the paintings.

And as it turns out, those paintings of Richard Warren, the first mayor, he had a very fancier name.

It wasn't just mayor.

I don't remember.

Yeah, I can't remember.

I. I know exactly you're talking about.

I can't remember anyone.

But Richard Warren is actually a painting of Hamish Linkletter, this same guy of Midnight Mass.

And so you got to think he's going to be.

We're going to have a flashback of his character.

And we may have already had it at the beginning.

The cold open seems to hint that some of the founders, maybe him, encountered this strong mushroom to avoid starvation.

And that could account for some strangeness.

I don't know.

What if we don't even have a flashback, I'm open to any possibility.

Yeah, dude could still be around.

It's so true.

Right?

So Hamish Linkland are probably gonna appear in an episode.

You'd have to think big, big, big fan here.

It's funny.

Like, clearly somebody making this show knows what they were doing, since we were explicitly, like, kind of like midnight mass.

And then here we.

And then here we go.

It's like, okay, this is in the hands of professionals.

They acknowledge it.

I acknowledge.

I love it.

No, I love it.

Yeah, it's great.

And the mushroom trip episode, the acid trip episode, It's a cliche at this point, but it fits here.

And here's why.

So much of what's going on is either strange things happening or the perception of strange things happening.

And that's what a mushroom or acid trip turns into.

How much of this is my perception and how much is it actually happening?

I know that wave in the bathroom floor is from the acid, but what about that person laughing outside the door?

You know, it's that.

It's that kind of thing.

And what do you make of Evan, Tom's son?

He needs to get off the island.

You think?

Can he?

I don't know.

It seems like we have any.

Like, it wasn't.

I don't think, like a shocking revelation, but.

Well, more shocking.

That doesn't seem like his wife did die in child.

I had assumed she went off the island and died in childbirth.

It seems like she went off the island, went blind and crazy.

Then question mark.

Yeah.

Surely not still alive, but again, we don't know.

I read Jane Eyre.

There you go.

I talked about the line of the week from Chris Fleming's character.

I do think the line of the week overall was from Sheriff Beecher.

When he replies to Evan, he says, can I call.

Can I say you?

And he says, no, the.

You cannot.

Loved it.

Evan needed that.

He knows Evan needed it.

And he grins.

Sheriff's really an understanding fellow.

And, yeah, it was like, the actor who.

I'm also not familiar with him as much, but Kingston Rumi Southwick, when he's like, plays the.

Like, he's leaning in and like, let me level with you here, Sheriff.

Like, just his body language is hilarious.

Like, we got us a couple girls back there.

It was hilarious.

Yeah.

I can't stand the way he treats his dad, but at the same time, he gets these scenes where.

And you're thinking, oh, yeah, he is just a teenage kid.

You know that.

Actually, I think there was something.

Yeah.

I mean, obviously, he treats his dad poorly, but, like, not in a way that I don't.

I don't think he's, like, a villain or anything.

There was actually a bit towards the end where, like, there he.

He starts yelling at his dad.

It's like.

Yeah, like teenagers.

Like, you know, it just builds and builds and.

And, like, we know that he's afraid that Tom.

Sorry, Tom.

Is afraid.

Tom doesn't want to control.

Tom is not interested in controlling him because he's mayor.

Yeah.

Tom is.

Is afraid for him.

Yes.

But he doesn't under.

But.

But Evan doesn't understand that.

And I was like, that's so perfect.

Where, like, we see this idea that's been building and building and building, and it's wrong, but, like, the.

Like, the pain and the frustration is so real.

Yeah.

Like, they really handled that well.

And even, like, part of it is acid trip Tom, but part of him even trying to figure out what he's gonna say and just being.

Saying, like, I think one day you're gonna feel really guilty about saying that to me.

Oh, wow.

And then going upstairs.

Wow.

Yeah.

That was a good moment.

You're right.

I'd forgotten about it.

This again.

This show, every.

Every week, this is getting.

This is winning the better than it has to be award.

Because, you know, if you tell me this premise, this could have.

You know, the premise for this show, this could have been like an episode of Scooby Doo had somebody wanted it to be.

And I'm profoundly grateful.

It's not, you know, if you would.

Have told me the premise, I would have still been on board because it's right up my alley.

But you're right.

It is better than things that are often like this.

Yeah.

It's better than it needs to be, especially with the comedy aspects.

I think a lot of times, like, horror comedy, you can kind of.

People are comfortable skimping on the horror in favor of the comedy.

Yeah, that's true.

Jumping around a little here.

Richard Warren was a real person on the Mayflower.

Oh, yeah, that's true.

I didn't know that.

So I don't know if they'll try to fold that in or if that's just a nice Easter egg for people who know their history.

To me, it's about the stories we tell and the stories we believe, and if we start buying into those stories.

Which fits with Evan getting the story of his mom dying in childbirth not being the truth, probably.

Yeah.

And I think it, like, a good contradiction that has just made more sense as it goes through is, like, Tom, the Mayor.

You know, there's the rational guy who doesn't believe anything weird is happening here.

But then we could also see him flip to the other guy who, who gave into the sort of irrational mind and fears really quickly, like in the first episode where he's like, there's something in the fog.

And then of course there's nothing there.

And now.

And.

And not that it was.

It was not a shocking revelation.

I think everyone could have been like, this is tied up in his wife.

But now finally seeing something really weird happen to his wife when she left the island.

Not just like something unexplainably weird.

Yeah.

This makes all of a sudden a thousand percent more.

He's such the, like, Matthew Reese is doing such a good job of like, you know, the person you are at 12pm and the person you are at 12am those can be very different people.

What a good point.

You know what?

I am very engaged with this Boogeyman plotline.

I love how it's stretched over about two or three episodes now.

I'm curious.

I'm hoping it's not a dud.

I'm curious as to what is going to happen.

And part of that, now that I'm curious is what's going to happen is because Kate o' Flynn's Patricia has really won me over.

She's.

She's gone from like being kind of like a funny character to like a funny.

But also.

I want to know more about character.

Yeah, I agree with that.

Tom and Wick exchange places in a way in this episode.

Tom becomes, via the mushroom trip, the insane person and Wick becomes the guy tracking down actual facts and figure, piecing a few things together.

Yes.

Using rationality as opposed to instinct.

Maybe that's the way to say it.

Instinct or insight.

He's.

He's connecting dots more than Tom, you know, through this episode.

His is.

Is one big thing of unconnected dots because he just keeps appearing places to himself where he has no idea what's going on.

I'll just say there was one thing this is just.

I thought was spooky.

And I liked the bit where he's.

He's.

He's going to address all the people and then it goes to him just sitting alone in a room.

And he's written on the board, when I turn around, everyone closed their eyes.

It was weird.

It was eerie.

It felt weird.

We still don't know why the Reverend hung himself.

We still don't know much about the.

As much about the Boogeyman plot line as we do other plot lines.

We don't know what the bells mean yet.

Right.

It's still enough meat on the bones to wrap up the season.

Five more episodes.

We're at the halfway point.

It's promising.

Really good.

So, like, if I had to gauge it so far, it's really good.

Yeah, I'd agree.

You know, and I think that with just.

With that font for the.

For the widow's bay and the opener, it tells you exactly what it's going to do.

And you know what?

It's pretty much done.

And then it does it.

Yeah.

Well, that's it.

That's the end of our week.

I'm appreciative of Donovan and Adam's ton.

Thank you for listening.

For Adam and Donovan, I'm Blaine.

And look, don't open the door to the boogeyman's house.

Do not do that, no matter how many girls you're trying to.

Well, if it's less than five girls, do not open the door to the boogeyman's house.

Yeah, you gotta figure the return on investment on that one.

Yeah, exactly.

Have a nice week, everyone.